What is perfection?
Perfection was when a thing had reached its whole and when there is no flaw.
When a person reaches the Perfect stage, their Essence water reaches a hundred percent, leaving no lack behind, and there is nothing left to be improved after it.
In the perfection stage, every flaw and defect that is of the same rank is healed and removed. If a Rank 1 cultivator has a flaw in the body or soul that is caused by a rank 1 method, then that flaw is removed or healed. However, if a person loses a part of their body, such as their limb or flesh, then that part would not be restored even at the Perfect stage.
When a person advances from the Rank 1 peak stage to the Rank 2 early stage, then during the advancement, an extreme reaction is caused and resonates with the world or nature. And when this happens, the people around the area know that someone's advancing. However, there are two types of cultivators who are saved from this reaction and resonance, those two are cultivators with physiques and cultivators with Perfect or Over stage. This was true for all the Ranks.
After reaching this stage, no other stage existed.
What is over?
Over was when a thing crosses its limits, reaching heights that are unknown to the limits.
In the ancient texts that Yang Zhai had obtained, it was written that the Perfect or Over stage is the crossing of a limit that is set on cultivation.
According to the ancient text, it was considered in ancient times that a Perfect or Over stage is not of this world but crossing the limits of this world. In the texts, it was said that the peak stage was the peak reachable by this world and was its peak, but the Over stage was above this world.
Like a mountain had its peak and above it existed the sky. Mountain could be considered this world and the sky could be considered crossing the world's limits, a higher and a new height.
On peak stage, only four red lines appear in a cultivator's essence water, but on perfect or over stage, a fifth red line appears, crossing the limits possible by this world, making a cultivator's foundation perfect.
These were the reasons that made Yang Zhai interested.
However, there was something else that Yang Zhai had also read in the text and that was that when a cultivator advances from the Perfect or Over stage to the next Rank, their Essence water again drops to their prior limit, such as if Yang Zhai advances from the Perfect stage to the next Rank, his essence water would drop from the hundred percent to the fifty-nine percent again. Even then, his foundation would still remain strong.
Yang Zhai wanted to reach this stage before the Ma clan guests arrive.
But how to reach the Over stage? After all, if a person could advance just by cultivating normally, then wouldn't all the cultivators be able to advance to the Over stage? After all, there were cultivators who could not advance to the next rank their whole life, so, they cultivated at peak stage their whole life.
"In the Ancient Texts, it was written that there are two ways to reach the Perfect or Over stage: First is through the righteous path and the second through the demonic path." Yang Zhai muttered to himself.
"If I remember correctly, in the righteous path, a cultivator needs to absorb the Essence water regularly for a whole month in rank 1 and the time increases as the rank increases, with only three hours of break in a day because taking a break longer than three hours would make the efforts return to the zero. Not just that, the cultivation place also needed to be filled with spiritual energy."
It was extremely difficult to do that because a person needed to sleep as well as take care of the other things in life, it was only possible in seclusion with enough materials. Could a Rank 1 cultivator cultivate for a whole month with only three hours of break a day? After all, rank 1 cultivators were mostly kids, and then there was the limit of cultivation places with enough spiritual energy.
And during this process, a person needed to multitask. After all, Essence water also had to be restored. And a person could not absorb the spiritual energy from the outside world, except for the sun, which is created at rank 2. To cultivate non-stop for 21 hours a day needed a cultivator to absorb the spiritual energy from the Essence stones consistently, just like Yang Zhai does during the cultivation.
Multitasking was not an easy task. To multitask, a person needed to divert their attention to different things at the same time, and that was not easy to do. Yang Zhai could do it because he was experienced. He could cultivate as well as absorb the spiritual energy from the Essence stones at the same time.
And during this seclusion, a person needed a strong mind and will to endure everything. Such as sleeping less, enduring loneliness, strict time adherence,¹, and boredom: could a kid endure all this?
"Then, the second way to reach the Perfect stage is through the demonic path. In this, a person could absorb another cultivator's cultivation and foundation. But, the condition is that I need to absorb the cultivation of the same Rank cultivator as me. It can neither be of lower rank nor higher rank. A lower-rank cultivator's cultivation and foundation cannot help a cultivator reach the Over stage, and a higher-rank cultivator's cultivation would destroy my cultivation and aperture because of the high level of impurities and higher foundation." Yang Zhai was lost in thoughts of how to reach the Perfect stage.
Reaching the Perfect stage with the help of the demonic path was easier than the righteous path, but it was also called a demonic method for a reason.
If he absorbed someone else's cultivation, then there would also be impurities that would come along with the cultivation. After all, a cultivator's Essence water and foundation were thoroughly different from the other cultivators, not even a single cultivator could have the same Essence water and foundation as the other cultivator.
"From the Earth's concept, it is like DNA or fingerprints. No cultivator's cultivation can match someone else's cultivation. Thus, even two cultivators of the same path have different cultivation DNA, such as two fire cultivators would also possess different cultivation DNA. So, when I absorb someone else's cultivation, because of being two different cultivations combining together, impurities would also be produced, a corrupted foundation that would give a cultivator corrupted aura, meaning demonic aura." Yang Zhai was calm and kept on considering what choice to make.
So, if Yang Zhai absorbed someone else's cultivation, others would know from his aura that he was a demonic cultivator, which was not beneficial to him right now.
"But I have something that can help me get through this problem." Yang Zhai smiled.
…..
The next morning,
"Brother Ha Kun, can I speak with you?" Yang Zhai went to Ha Kun's side and asked.
Right now, they were in the academy. The classes had just ended and Yang Zhai directly went to Ha Kun before he could leave the class.
"What is it, brother Yang? You can ask me anything you want, you don't need my permission." Ha Kun smiled at Yang Zhai and said.
"I wanted to discuss something with you. We should probably go somewhere else." Yang Zhai also smiled and said.
"Why not, but where?" Ha Kun inquired.
"There is a tavern around the corner of the next street, it has nice food, we can talk there." Yang Zhai asked. The tavern he was referring to was not the Moon Bull inn, it was a different tavern.
"Sure, let's go." Ha Kun agreed.
"No, no, not right now. Come to the tavern at night, I have something to do right now. But since you already know about the tavern, let's meet there at night. However, remember one thing, the thing that I need to tell you about is a huge secret; therefore, I want you to keep it a secret, don't tell anyone about it. But I can tell you that it's about the inheritance that Chin Mae had found." Yang Zhai said slowly.
"What, are you serious?" Ha Kun was shocked to hear Yang Zhai.
"Yeah, I am serious, so, I hope you know the value and keep it a secret. But remember, if I discover that you told anyone about it, I will make sure you regret it." Yang Zhai made sure to instill a little fear in Ha Kun to make him stay quiet. He also mentioned inheritance giving birth to greed in Ha Kun's heart. A greedy person would always want to obtain as much as possible.
After he said this, he went to some other kids and talked to them about some other matters to not let them grow suspicious of Yang Zhai and to not leave any evidence behind.
After all, this time, Yang Zhai was sure that the clan would not sit idle after what he was going to do, he had to be even more cautious and prudent with his actions. Therefore, he wanted to deal with it before the guests from the Ma clan arrived. After they arrive, everyone's focus in the clan would be on the guests, this way, their attention would be diverted from this matter that Yang Zhai was going to carry out now.
*****/*****
1-Strict time adherence: Punctuality or being punctual.
(Author's Note: I used DNA to make it easier for you to understand, there is no DNA concept or anything like this known in this world.)