Yang Zhai opened and knocked on the gate of his house. He waited for a while, after which the door was opened by his aunt Wei.
"Oh, it's you, Yang Zhai, how great. Tell me, how are you?" Aunt Wei greeted Yang Zhai with an excited expression.
"Aunt Wei, how are you? I really missed you and uncle." Yang Zhai turned to his original innocent look again.
He acted innocent like a kid in front of his aunt and uncle because they had seen him grow and knew his personality that was possessed by the original owner of this body. After that, he could not change his personality all of a sudden in front of them.
Hyun Hae and Lie Yi were kids, so they did not suspect anything. Therefore, he acted strictly with them. But, his aunt and uncle were not kids, they would have immediately suspected if he had acted aloof and high all of a sudden. In this way, he was just an innocent kid in front of his aunt and uncle.
"Who is it?" Uncle Wei's voice came from inside the house.
"Wait a minute?" Aunt Wei replied and then looked at Yang Zhai.
"Come inside,"
Yang Zhai entered the house and followed aunt Wei. He then saw uncle Wei, Lie Yi, and Hyun Hae sitting at the dining table. Of course, they were not eating anything.
"Oh, it's you, Yang Zhai. How was your journey? I heard that you won the second round without any problem." Uncle Wei also greeted Yang Zhai.
"Brother Yang, you are back!!!! Great, I really missed you. Lie Yi is really boring. You missed him too, right, Lie Yi." However, Hyun Hae greeted Yang Zhai excitedly. Her happiness could be seen on her face.
"Yeah, yeah, welcome back."Lie Yi rolled his eyes to the side. His welcome was just hollow and dull. It looked like his happy days were over again.
"I should go to my room, I am really tired from all the traveling that I have done today." Yang Zhai was not interested in these greetings. He wanted to go and deal with his own matters.
They were just used to keep the relationships in a good shape: otherwise, they had no use. After all, a good relationship was not bound by greeting.
"You are right, you should be resting right now. We can talk tomorrow."
Yang Zhai came to his room. He stretched his body and then cultivated until midnight. Even though the Strength Ka could still strengthen his essence water, it would take some time for it to show effects.
At rank 1 and rank 2, he could advance so quickly because the Strength Ka was the same or higher rank than his cultivation rank, and it could be considered a qualitative Ka for the same or lower rank cultivator compared to the Strength Ka's rank. However, for rank 3, using a rank 2 Ka was like a quantitative Ka. He would have to slowly make his essence water strong. But, it could still increase his physical strength.
After cultivating, Yang Zhai slept.
In the morning, Yang Zhai had just opened the door when he heard a knock on the door.
Yang Zhai opened the door and saw Eun Woo standing right in front of him.
"Hi there, did you sleep well? So, shall we start?" Eun Woo got right to the topic after greeting Yang Zhai.
"Nope, not right now."
"Why?"
"First, I need to buy something. Do you want to tag along?"
"Well, I guess I have nothing else to do. So, let's go." Eun Woo said and thought: In this way, I can also complete my duty of protecting him as well as learn something new.
Yang Zhai entered the same shop where he had seen the Night Owl.
"Sister, I want to buy that Night Owl."
"It would be one hundred and fifty mid-grade essence stones, sir."
"Here, one hundred and fifty mid-grade essence stones."
"Wait a minute, sir, let me count." The shopkeeper began to count the essence stones.
"Uh, Yang Zhai, how did you get so many essence stones?"
Eun Woo was shocked to see Yang Zhai pull out so many essence stones so easily. She was not at the competition location, so she did not know about the life bet that Si Yu had placed.
"Elder, it's like this." Yang Zhai just mixed up the story of Si Yu's bet and spoke half-truth and half lie. In this way, he would not be considered a liar even if Eun Woo finds the truth.
"Oh, so you borrowed half of the essence stones from your friend. I am impressed that he believes in you so much that he even bet his life."
"And why do you need this owl? If I remember correctly, your fighting style does not require you to enslave beasts to fight for you, right?"
"No, it's nothing, I just want to increase the power of my body. I have a Ka that can absorb a little bit of a beast's strength." Yang Zhai made up an appropriate reason, which he could use later to explain the disappearance of the Night Owl.
"Wow!! You can absorb a beast's strength?! Even if it's just a little bit of an amount, this ability is really shocking. What Ka are you using for this?"
Eun Woo was still shocked to know that he could absorb a tiny bit of a beast's strength with the help of a Ka. If she knew that Yang Zhai could actually absorb the whole ability and power of a beast, then nobody knew how she would have reacted.
"What will happen when you absorb their strength?"
"They will die and will shrivel away because of their strength being absorbed. Even though I can only absorb a tiny bit of their strength, their other leftover strength would be wasted into the air."
Yang Zhai was telling her all of this because he wanted her to tell the seventh and eighth elders about this as well.
I need to absorb the Night Owl's ability, and as they are following me everywhere, I can't avoid them. So, I need to give them a false reason to not let them discover my secrets, and to make them believe in this reason, nobody can be more suitable than Eun Woo: Yang Zhai looked at Eun Woo and thought.
He knew that Eun Woo would inform the other two elders about what Yang Zhai told her. The reason was simple, and that was when the Night Owl disappeared, the other two would grow suspicious as to why would Yang Zhai spend so many essence stones and then kill the Night Owl.
This would make them suspect that something was wrong with Yang Zhai. However, when Eun Woo sees them suspecting him wrongly, she would surely defend him by telling them what Yang Zhai told her.
This is just how she is: Yang Zhai thought
!*****!*****!