Ha Kun's face was slowly turning pale. His body was losing strength and his body movement was becoming less.
A bulk of different colored wisps was emerging from Ha Kun's black vortex continuously and entering Yang Zhai's black vortex.
The wisps entered the Blue Gem and were being purified into pure cultivation without having any impurities. After this, Yang Zhai would absorb the purified cultivation into his aperture. He didn't even absorb a single wisp of cultivation that was not cleansed of impurities.
Yang Zhai's aperture began to shake as an earthquake had come. His aperture was changing its colors continuously. The four red lines in his essence water began to swim at a breathtaking speed. But the Aurora at the bottom of his essence water didn't even move slightly and stayed there as if nothing happened.
After seeing his aperture change its colors continuously and shake so violently, Yang Zhai was not shocked. If he did not know about this process from the ancient text, then he would have thought that something had gone wrong, but he already knew that this was going to happen.
A change started to happen, and the four red lines moved from the essence water into the aperture wall. The four red lines entered the transparent mirror-like aperture wall and began to move in the wall. They moved slowly at first and their speed kept on increasing. After a while, the speed increased to the point that the aperture wall looked like it was red, the four lines' speed was astonishing.
His aperture wall started to give off a red glow. A red color dominated over the other colors and painted the whole aperture red with a red glow.
Yang Zhai knew that the time had arrived, so he looked at some of the Rank 1 plants that he had brought with him. He picked them from the ground one by one and threw them into his black vortex. The plants entered his aperture and disappeared.
The reason his aperture managed to absorb these plants, even though they were not completely made of spiritual energy, was because during the process of advancing from rank 1 peak stage to rank 1 Over-Stage, the aperture would move beyond its previous limits.
It would break its boundaries and try to absorb as much essence as possible. It would absorb so much that even the things it absorbed essence from would completely disappear; otherwise, it would throw the remains out into the black vortex. After all, it also needed energy to remove flaws, advance essence water limit, and create healing effects to cure any injuries or flaws caused by unnatural means.
As at rank 1 over stage, the aperture breaks the peak.
Yang Zhai then looked at his aperture. He saw that his essence water was plummeting quickly again. He took out two essence stones and began to absorb the spiritual energy from them. This process took him two hours.
Yang Zhai was fully covered in sweat. His essence water limit had increased to a hundred percent, and everything in his aperture had returned to normal. His aperture wall, however, had turned red and was filled with essence water. There were five red lines in his Essence water now, they had also returned to normal.
His essence water was transparent, like water. However, if Yang Zhai had not purified Ha Kun's cultivation before absorbing it, then his essence water would have turned red as well, or it could be said that it would not have remained essence water but essence blood.
Yang Zhai then looked at his hands and discovered that his eyesight had been restored. He could see clearly now. It was because, at the Rank 1 Perfect stage, every flaw or lack caused by the rank 1 method would be healed. If he had reached the rank 2 Perfect stage, then flaws of rank 2 and below that would be healed. And as his near blindness was caused by a rank 1 material, the blinding powder, it was healed. It was called the Perfect stage for a reason, and then his essence water had also reached the limit of a hundred percent.
Yang Zhai looked at Ha Kun. Ha Kun was lying on the ground without any movement. There were two dried lines of blood extending from his eyes to his ears. These lines could still be seen after he was burned. Yang Zhai burned him to get a satisfactory result and without any problems, but he did not burn him completely. And his nails were bloody from scratching the ground because of pain.
Yang Zhai stood up and went closer to Ha Kun. He examined his body and discovered that he had died. Yang Zhai had expected it to happen.
Ha Kun died not because of his cultivation extraction, but because of the pain. His body was still fleshy and all. Yang Zhai took out the Second Life Ka, it looked weak because of starvation. He then placed the Ka in front of Ha Kun's body.
The Second Life Ka began to eat Ha Kun's flesh. After two minutes, Yang Zhai stored the Second Life Ka in his aperture. He then looked at Ha Kun's body and saw that only the bones with some flesh remained.
Yang Zhai stored Ha Kun's remains in the Bloody Storage Ka and sat down. He then looked in his aperture. The Blue Gem was floating in the air silently. It was because Yang Zhai was about to refine his Rank 1 Over Stage Essence Water aura to rank 1 Mid stage aura.
After a while, he exited the burrow after clearing all the evidence. He had already modified his aura to the mid stage aura. It would have been a problem if someone had sensed his peak stage aura, let alone Over Stage aura.
It took Yang Zhai around an hour to return to his house. It was already dawn. Yang Zhai knocked on the main door of the house.
Aunt Wei opened the door and saw that it was Yang Zhai.
"Yang Zhai, why are you out at this hour of the morning? Did you go out somewhere last night?" Aunt Wei was confused and asked Yang Zhai.
"No, aunt, I went out to relax my muscles. The competition left quite a toll on my body and my mind. Thus, I wanted to get some fresh air. I would also advise you to get some fresh air now and then, it is quite effective in relaxing our bodies." Yang Zhai smiled like an innocent child and replied.
Nobody would be able to tell that he was lying. His tone, his demeanor, his expression, and everything about him became like a child. He, from nowhere, looked like someone who had just taken someone's life.
He did not feel shame or anything to act like a child. So, what if he was experienced? To him, his pride did not matter as long as he could get what he wanted. Pride could not help in this world. As long as a person was strong enough, everything in front of him was useless.
"It's good that you went out to get some fresh air. But, you should get enough sleep as well to keep your body in shape. Anyway, come inside, you should eat your morning meal with us today, you did not have a morning meal¹ with us for almost two weeks." Aunt Wei smiled back and replied.
As Yang Zhai was busy in the previous month —had to cultivate, meet people in the mornings, and deal with many other things— he could not have the morning meal with his aunt and uncle.
"Ok," Yang Zhai said only a single word and followed his aunt to the dining table. There he saw his uncle and Hyun Hae already sitting at the dining table.
The room was illuminated by four shining stones that were placed in the four corners of the room. Aunt Wei sat on the next chair to uncle Wei. Whilst Yang Zhai was about to sit next to his aunt, he heard Hyun Hae,
"Brother Yang, come, sit next to me. I wanted to tell you many things." She placed her left hand on the chair next to her and asked.
"Ok," Yang Zhai did not reject it and agreed. He sat on the chair next to Hyun Hae.
"Brother Yang, do you know that I have already reached Rank 2." Hyun Hae said with a smile and looked at Yang Zhai.
"Whatttttt!" Yang Zhai acted like he was shocked. His voice was loud and spread throughout the whole room with ease. Of course, Yang Zhai was already aware of this from his previous life. He just acted like a normal person would act in a situation like this to not arouse any suspicions.
Hyun Hae smiled after seeing Yang Zhai's reaction.
"What! When did this happen? Why are you telling us right now?" Aunt Wei asked Hyun Hae. She was also surprised after hearing her.
"Because I wanted to tell brother Yang before telling anyone else, but I could not meet him for the past whole week, he was always busy, so I did not disturb him. Today, I got the chance to tell him." Hyun Hae replied.
"Whatttt! You had reached rank 2 a week ago? Cough… cough…," Uncle Wei was shocked after hearing Hyun Hae. He could not believe that she was telling them after a whole week. But he realized that he was too loud, so he coughed out of embarrassment.
"Congratulations on reaching Rank 2" Yang Zhai congratulated Hyun Hae. He was not at all interested in this talk. What did it have to do with him if Hyun Hee reached Rank 2? He wanted to go back into his room and get some sleep to give his body some rest.
Even if she reached Rank 3, he would not be bothered at all. To him, he just had to become stronger and that's all. He already knew that Hyun Hae had reached rank 2 and he had information on her from his previous life, so he did not need to collect any information on her. These things would not benefit him, but he had to make sure to not arouse any suspicions. Yang Zhai was not an impatient person. He could stay here all day if it was necessary.
*****/*****
1-Morning meal(breakfast): In Greek literature, there are numerous mentions of Ariston, a meal taken not long after sunrise. The Iliad notes this meal about a labor-weary woodsman eager for a light repast to start his day, preparing it even as he is aching with exhaustion. The opening prose of the 16th book of the Odyssey mentions breakfast as the meal being prepared in the morning before attending to one's chores. Eventually, Ariston was moved to around noon, and a new morning meal was introduced.
2-Odyssey and Iliad are one of the best-written epic poems of literature. They were written by Homer in Ancient Greek.