"Not good!"
The reason he was not creating a second shield from the beginning was because if a second shield appeared, the condition of one line at a time would increase to two. This would've put him at an extreme disadvantage.
The reason was that he would have to split his focus. He could multitask, but that was because he was in control. But here, he would have to focus on sending the shields in different directions constantly. Even though he could, it would still split his focus, so it was better to defend against just one line.
However, this happened even without forming a second shield.
He didn't have enough time to do anything, so he looked inside the aperture and ordered something.
A small seal, holding the Aurora in it, exited the aperture at extreme speed. Its speed was shocking, it managed to reach the area—where Yang Zhai wanted it— quickly.
This seal was of higher rank, so Yang Zhai wasn't afraid of it breaking. Yang Zhai didn't want to get Aurora involved in this process, this was the reason that he even sacrificed something so valuable as the Blue Gem. However, he didn't have any choice left.
The line struck the barrier around the Aurora heavily. He stopped the other line with the shield that he had formed.
The process began. From time to time, two lines would strike together.
Just when the fifteenth line was released, Yang Zhai controlled the lines himself and ordered them to spread. These lines spread into a circle formation far from the sun, covering the sun inside.
As the last bit of Yellow Sun turned black, it began to give off rays, invisible rays, to be exact. However, these rays couldn't exit the circle. Even though there was a lot of distance between each line, the rays could still not go outside the circle.
Why had he been not controlling them from the beginning and was facing such a dangerous situation? Well…
The moment he took control of the lines, the aperture released the essence water into the void. Essence water was already being used by the aperture to form a line. The moment the rays of the black sun released, the aperture was starting to dry and wither.
The aperture began to form a line to enter it. As the green smog was forming, the Black Sun rays struck it. Now, the green smog was shaking constantly, however, it didn't stop forming. It was constantly being refined by both the aperture and the black sun.
After a while, a green line formed. The aperture ran towards it and was about to enter: however… Yang Zhai forcefully controlled the green line and moved it away. The aperture was traveling towards it constantly, but the line kept on moving away. The aperture could only enter the newly formed line. Yang Zhai forcefully controlled the aperture to stay put.
Such as Yang Zhai could only store the abilities of the beasts in the lines when their foundation had not strengthened. This was the reason he could not store any ability in the red line now. The same was the case for the aperture.
For it to enter any line, it needed to form another line to enter it.
Yang Zhai was feeling pain, a lot of pain. His veins were almost popping. His eyes were red, and he was barely holding himself from screaming. His orifices of the face were bleeding. His arm veins even popped, and blood splashed on his face, but fortunately, his major veins didn't burst.
Yang Zhai hurriedly grabbed the Black Gem he just obtained and threw it into the vortex. The Black Gem reached the aperture and burst. The black aura was released and enveloped the whole aperture.
"Sigh," Yang Zhai let out a sigh of relief. The pain was killing him. It wasn't that he couldn't endure it; rather, his body wasn't.
If he didn't find the Black Gem here, then he would have no choice but to let the aperture enter the green line. This way, he would lose another opportunity for no reason. Like the red lines, his green lines would have become useless to him. After all, how could he store any ability in the green line if he already had his aperture in it?
However, if he forcefully stopped the aperture, he might have lost his aperture as well as a lot of blood. If worse, he could even die. He needed a Black Sun, made out of aperture as a material to refine the Aurora. As a result, he would have no choice left but to store away the aperture and find a method later on to turn it into a black sun.
That's why he wanted this inheritance at all costs. If he didn't, he would lose the green lines as well as an opportunity to refine his aperture into a black sun.
The black aura had already enveloped the aperture. However, it didn't mean that his aperture had turned into a black sun. This black gem had the ability to let the aperture absorb the purified rays of the black sun for a few minutes and give it the ability to endure the rays of the black sun in the future as well.
It could not only be used for the aperture but also for many other things, such as any plant or some other material. However, Yang Zhai used it for the aperture even though its rank was very high, so high that Yang Zhai suspected it had no rank.
After a few minutes, the black aura disappeared, and the aperture turned black from the outside. However, it had not become a black sun yet. It would constantly absorb the rays of the black sun in the future and would slowly become a black sun. Yang Zhai just needed to wait for that day now.
Yang Zhai orders the green line to join the circle formation with the other lines.
To advance from rank 3 to rank 4 had three stages: the black sun formation, the void barrier formation, and the green line formation. The void barrier was the circle formed by the lines.
Now, the sun's rays couldn't go out and hurt Yang Zhai.
Also, it was worth noticing that the power of the black sun could be used infinitely, but the amount of the purified sun rays was limited. He could only use the rays that were purified by the lines. After that, if he used the sun's rays, then his body would start to take damage. And the black sun rays were more dangerous than the techniques, far more.
Everything related to the black sun was known as the void power.
Other cultivators would let the aperture go into the newly created green line. Even Yang Zhai would have done so if he didn't find the Black Gem here just as mentioned by the man in his previous life.
As for the Black Gem, Yang Zhai had heard of its legends, even the world knew its legends.
Black Gem, said to be able to withstand the Black Sun's power, never appeared in history, even in ancient times.
Now that the void arrangement had been established, he could use the power of the black sun which was purified by the lines. However, for that, he would need to wait and let the rays accumulate and be purified.
Yang Zhai stood up and looked at his hands. He felt powered. His body's ability to hold strength had increased from 16 bulls to 37 bulls strength. His own strength increased from 12 to 15 bulls' strength. After advancing to rank 3, a person gets the ability to hold 7 bulls' strength naturally. Whereas, at rank 4, this ability increases by the strength equivalent to that of 21 bulls, and the cultivator's strength increases by the strength equivalent to that of 3 bulls combined.
However, this doesn't mean that anyone can use Kas to increase the strength of their bodies. Without a good foundation, a building will always fall no matter what. Such as, for me to keep increasing my body strength, I would need to keep on practicing. I can't just use Kas to increase my strength.
After returning to the past, I trained with my body constantly, building a good foundation. Not just that, I even practiced on Brown Dacite so much in just one day that I made up for my lack of cultivation body training by strengthening my bones. Even now, I would need to start practicing if I want to increase my strength.
In body cultivation, four things are very important: good foundation, constant body strengthening, constant strength increase, and tear and healing, meaning a lot of pain. Otherwise, my body would simply give up on me.
Elder Jen Wung is too weak in body cultivation compared to me. No matter what, Jen Wung's body can for sure hold the strength of 28 bulls' at least.
All of these were Yang Zhai's thoughts.
"And training can fill up all of these four things. It can strengthen my foundation and body, increase my strength as well as make my body able to endure more pain. After all, to keep my body and strength connected, I need a bridge and the foundation is that bridge." muttered Yang Zhai.
He had already advanced to rank 4 early stage. He stood up and went closer to the stone crock again. This crock not only had the Black Gem, but also a ring. It was a simple blue ring, too ordinary. Yang Zhai picked it up and looked at it,
"Oh, I never heard of this in my previous life. What does it do?"
Yang Zhai began to examine the ring. While Yang Zhai was looking, smoke began to come out of the ring. Yang Zhai did not run or do anything. He knew that nothing here was dangerous: after all, the man who entered the inheritance in his previous life came out alive.
After a few seconds, two snakes appear and begin to slither on his two arms each.
One was red, with black stripes. The other one was light golden with black stripes.
"Greetings master, we are the snakes of truth. I am called Varan and the one on your left is called Vareena. You can call me Vara and her Reen as our old master used to do," the red snake with black stripes spoke. One seemed to be male, and the other one female.
"Oh, you can speak. That's a surprise. Anyway, what are you? I mean what is this ring? And how come this ring is activated by itself?"
"This ring is an amalgamation master. It's of rank 10 to be exact. This ring is called the ring of truth. As for how this activated itself? Master, this ring is not like ordinary amalgamations that need to be refined and recognized," this time, the light golden snake with black stripes begins to speak, or Reen.
"We cannot be refined and only recognize our master after our old master dies. As our old master is already dead, we could recognize you as our master. So, you can just summon us by just calling our names. Also, both of us have the ability to travel anywhere we want as long as you or we know about that place. We can convey your message to anyone."
"We can also look at what you want and tell you about what you want to know. Such as, if a battle is happening somewhere and we know the location, we can go, find out what's happening, and then return to inform you."
"However, there is a limit: we can sense that you are weak, so you cannot summon our human forms yet. Not only that but also, we won't be able to stay out for long in your weak state. Also, even though we could keep coming out again and again, we would need to rest from time to time as you can't provide us with energy yet."
"Our previous master also told us to inform the one who obtains this ring that we can't take control of our own master as many other amalgamations can do, so you can rest assured," said Reen.
Really? Even though they said this, I cannot believe them at all. Many amalgamations can try to take control of their masters. I don't know them or the owner of this inheritance, so I should still be cautious of them: thought Yang Zhai.
However, their abilities are extraordinary, and I can't deny this fact. Not to mention that its rank is 10. So I can't just let them go to waste as well
"Very well, go back and wait." Yang Zhai orders and the snakes return to ring
He wore this ring on his left hand's fourth finger¹.
Yang Zhai looked at the vase now.
"Here it is!" Yang Zhai muttered after looking inside the vase.
…..
1 For the ones who don't get it, it's the ring finger.