"Can you believe it, dad? He orders our class around like we are his puppets." Ci An said angrily while standing in front of a man.
This man had short gray hair. The shape of his chin was a little square. He was wearing a tight white robe. His eyes were hooded. His height was around 6 feet (1.83 m). He was Ci An's father and his name was Cu Gil. He was also an elder of the clan.
"What happened now? You always complain to me about this leader of your class. Don't you have anything else to do?" Cu Gil said.
"Do you know what he said to me? If you hear it, you will also know why I am angry." Ci An looked at her father and said with clenched teeth.
"What did he say?" Cu Gil replied casually.
"He said that he wants a Blue Gem from us."
When Cu Gil heard this, his hooded eyes narrowed. It was unknown what he was thinking, but it could be seen that he had gotten serious after hearing Ci An.
"Are you sure he said exactly what you're telling me?" Cu An said with a serious expression.
"Yes, father. He said exactly the same thing. I am not changing a single word." Ci An repeated the same thing.
When Cu Gil heard this, he turned around and looked outside the room towards the courtyard. This residence was a Siheyuan¹ design with Washitsu² rooms. The doors of the rooms were Fusuma³ doors.
After a while, Cu Gil asked,
"So, what did you say?"
"I rejected him, of course. How could I agree to something like this?" Ci An answered proudly.
"And what did he say?"
"He said that I should ask you for the Blue Gem, but if you don't agree, I should arrange for you to meet him."
"Ci An, do you know what a leader is? If he wants to meet someone from your family, you must try everything you can to arrange a meeting with the one he wants to meet. After all, he didn't ask you to do something that can harm the clan or someone's life. Nor did he ask for something out of your range. Thus, you have to obey his order." Cu Gil stopped for a moment and said,
"And, if it is in your range, and you still don't complete the task given to you, then he can punish you, and from what you told me, I am sure that he will. It does not matter what the reason is, even if I am an elder." Elder Cu said.
An organization would not accept any excuses. Thus, as long as the task was within the range of a person and was still not completed, then the leader of the organization would surely punish the person
When he said this, Ci An was not surprised. After all, could she forget the day when Yang Zhai had punished her and Hong Mi in front of the whole class?
"Sigh…, tell him that I am ready to meet him. I will be waiting in the Moon Bull inn after two days." Cu Gil heaved a sigh and said.
"Huh…," when Ci An heard her father, she was surprised. She knew her father clearly.
She had thought that her father would reject her right away.
…..
Yang Zhai was cultivating in his room. The Strength Ka was floating above him and was exuding a gentle glow over Yang Zhai's entire body.
His body was becoming stronger every day because of the Strength Ka. The strength of his essence water was also becoming stronger.
"I can feel that in one day I will be able to advance to the Mid Stage. If this keeps up, I will only take one month or so to advance to the Rank 1 peak stage." Yang Zhai was able to cultivate more because his body had become stronger than before. And the strength of his essence water was also increasing. As such, he was becoming stronger than he had anticipated.
And then, this Ka was a Rank 2 Ka and Yang Zhai was only a Rank 1; therefore, this Ka was more beneficial to him than it would be to a Rank 2 cultivator.
And it would be unreal to the others if Yang Zhai advanced to the Rank 1 Peak stage in just a month.
Forget about the peak stage, even only advancing to Mid Stage would require a person almost a month. And advancing to a third stage with Yang Zhai's essence water limit in a month without any help would be a miracle. Even if he does get help, he should only be able to advance a sub-rank.
Thus, if he advanced to Peak Stage in a month, it would be more disadvantageous to him than benefiting him, as it would arouse the elders' doubts.
And here is where the use of the Blue Gem comes. Yang Zhai needed this Blue Gem; Otherwise, he would have to put a stop to his cultivation for a time. And that was something that would be disadvantageous to him, and Yang Zhai would not do something like this. As for the Blue Gem, he was confident that he would be able to obtain it from Elder Cu.
After that, Yang Zhai pulled out the Wooden Fists Ka. This Ka looked like it was withering. Yang Zhai was not surprised. It was because this Ka was hungry. Like every human being, Kas also required food. And just like humans would stop eating after they were full, Kas would also stop after they were full. Every Ka had a limit to which they could fill up their stomach.
A rank 1 Ka could eat up until they would be able to last for two months. But if a Ka only ate that could last them for three days, then after that they would start to starve. But cultivators would always refrain from making a Ka eat until it was full. Because if a Ka eats until it is full, then there is a chance of it becoming lazy; meaning, its ability would weaken. Therefore, it was better if a Ka had only eaten until it was fifty percent full, and 30 percent was even better. And it was even better if a Ka was given its food every day, instead of making it store the food in its stomach.
But there would be times when a person would not be able to obtain the food for a Ka; therefore, cultivators would rather be careful and make a Ka store the food in its stomach for many days, weeks, or even years.
Yang Zhai activated the Bloody Storage Ka and pulled out three pieces of wood. They looked like normal wood, but these pieces were from Iron Wood trees. All three pieces were six inches thick and ten inches in length. A Wooden Fists's Ka's food was Iron Wood. This wood was extremely hard, like an iron. These three pieces of Iron Wood were food for three weeks for the Wooden Fists Ka and could last for three weeks.
Yang Zhai places the pieces on the bed in front of the Wooden Fists Ka. After a minute, all three pieces disappeared because the pieces were already absorbed by Wooden Fists Ka. Wooden Fists Ka began to gain its vitality back.
As for the Bloody-Storage Ka, Yang Zhai was not worried about it. Because Bloody Storage Ka required the blood of a human and Yang Zhai would give a little of his blood to it from time to time.
As for the Dug Worm Ka, it was even better. Earth Path Kas could eat anything and everything, but the condition was that the food given to an Earth Path Ka must be Rank 1 or above. As the Dug Worm Ka was an earth path Ka, Yang Zhai had made it eat the Ice-Fire trees when he was collecting the Ice Fire cubes.
As For the Second Life Ka, Yang Zhai was not worried for now because it could still last for two weeks or so. Subsequently, it would also begin to lose its vitality. The food of the Second Life Ka was any part of a human's body. But Yang Zhai did not have any of these for now. And Yang Zhai was not so foolish as to give his own limb or a piece of flesh from his body to the Second Life Ka as food.
If there was no other choice, then he could always choose another disciple.
*****/*****
1- Siheyuan: A siheyuan (Chinese: 四合院; pinyin: sìhéyuàn is a historical type of residence that was commonly found throughout China, most famously in Beijing and rural Shanxi.
2- Washitsu: A washitsu, meaning "Japanese-style room", and frequently called a "tatami room" in English, is a Japanese room with traditional tatami flooring. Washitsus also usually have sliding doors, rather than hinged doors between rooms.
3-Fusuma: In Japanese architecture, fusumas are vertical rectangular panels that can slide from side to side to redefine spaces within a room, or act as doors.