The deer let out a deep bellow.
A wind spear pierced its head and it fell. Jun Haru sighed.
Yang Zhai hurriedly approached the deer and picked it up. After that, he left the area.
Right after he left, a group of deers arrived from where the bellow was heard. They didn't stop at that. They hunted four to five deer that they could find walking alone.
"This should last us for a few days. Let's collect a few fruits."
Yang Zhai nodded and stored the deer in his storage bracelet.
Right now, his storage bracelet was mostly filled with food, a few knives, and 20 or so low-grade essence stones.
Yang Zhai was mostly making the other four kill these animals. He was making them feel more comfortable towards blood and killing. Nobody here had ever killed someone except for him.
Many days have passed and they are already far from the Bai Village.
"Let's rest for today."
Yang Zhai came to a stop in front of a cave. This cave was not too deep and only extended sixteen feet inside.
Yang Zhai removed the clothes from his torso and began to examine his body. Everyone sat randomly and far from each other.
He was the most injured among everyone here. His chest had a huge burn mark on it. His whole body was also completely covered in burn marks. For the past few days, they didn't stop and only ran.
Everyone was shocked to see this. They had also been noticing Yang Zhai's injuries for the previous few days but didn't ask him about them as their only focus was on fleeing.
"This much distance should be good enough. Si Yu and Li Na, start cultivating and try to focus your thoughts completely on healing, not advancing. You should know that your physiques are better suited for healing and revitalizing."
"This is also the reason that your cultivation speed also increases when you cultivate together. The reason I had been making you cultivate separately for the previous months was also because of this."
"You aren't able to control your physiques yet and end up affecting the surrounding area. Now that we are already out of the clan, you can focus on this and try to control your physiques efficiently. All of you sit close to each other."
"Really?!!!"
Yang Zhai instructed them. When they were in the clan, Yang Zhai feared that someone would find out about them, so he kept them far from each other. Now, he didn't need to fear this. They were also in the middle of a forest, on a mountain.
Both Si Yu and Li Na were shocked. As they were used to this power from a young age, they weren't too aware of this. Even being together was more than enough for their physiques to resonate with each other and affect the surroundings. So, they thought that this was normal.
Even their uncle didn't tell them about this. They were still kids and not too knowledgeable about the world.
They were excited to hear Yang Zhai and began to cultivate to see the effects themselves.
"Wow!!!"
Li Na muttered with enthusiasm and looked at Yang Zhai as if asking for praise.
"Brother Fen!! Our cultivation speed indeed increased and also,"
"No need to say more than this."
Si Yu was about to say something but was stopped by Yang Zhai.
"Remember, the first and foremost rule of this world is to never reveal your secrets to others. The advantages and the disadvantages of your physiques are crucial, so keep them to yourself. You two as well, no matter what happens in the future, never reveal what you have to others, even if the person is the one you love more than yourself."
Yang Zhai instructed not just Si Yu and Li Na, but also Jun Haru and Mah Qi. He had long-term plans for all of these. If one of them ends up betraying them, the whole group's secrets would be revealed: thus, he stopped them.
The human heart is a complex thing. Even though I am going to mold them into what I want, I don't want to end up linking this whole group into a chain. If one link breaks, the whole chain would end up breaking. It's fine if each of these links is connected to me directly: Yang Zhai contemplated.
Yang Zhai was sure he could go up against anything as long as he had the means to. However, this wasn't the case for the other four.
Yang Zhai wanted them to trust each other, but not end up revealing everything.
This was the first time Li Na and Si Yu felt the benefits of their physiques. Because they had been cultivating separately for the previous months, they couldn't enjoy the benefits of their physiques and had become accustomed to normal cultivation. Even then, their cultivation speed was quite fast compared to that of average cultivators.
Impressive, it's indeed revitalizing my body and also healing my injuries: Mah Qi thought.
After a few minutes,
"You two, what did I tell you? Focus on healing us, not on cultivation."
Yang Zhai woke the two from their cultivation. The effects were less than Yang Zhai wanted. These two ended up focusing on cultivating instead of healing him as they felt the delight of fast cultivation.
"I am not satisfied with the effects, focus on healing."
"Right, we will do so immediately."
Both of them began to do as Yang Zhai told them to.
"How's it now?" Si Yu asked.
"Did you even try? I see no change."
"Huh? But we are only thinking of healing you."
"I see, you are only thinking, not focusing. Try to feel your whole body, like you do when you circulate your essence water throughout your body to eliminate the negative effects of the techniques. When you do that, try to feel a connection with each other. After that, you might be able to sense us as well."
Yang Zhai instructed after thinking for a while.
"Brother Fen, we did just as you told us to, but we are able to sense each other let alone you." Li Na said.
"For now, just focus on sensing your own body. Everything takes time."
Even though there is not much benefit right now, these two will definitely grow to be great. Their physiques are even new to me. I wonder how they managed to obtain physiques that are connected. They are not even from the same mother: Thought Yang Zhai.
He could feel that his body was being healed, albeit not by much.
"Brother Fen, how did your body accumulate so many injuries?" Li Na asked with worry.
It had already been a few hours. Mah Qi's injuries were already healed, but Yang Zhai's injuries showed no signs of healing.
It seemed like Yang Zhai's injuries were quite deep.
Yang Zhai didn't answer and focused on his body.
He didn't cultivate for the previous days. His main focus was on connecting the lines he had. If he didn't do so, his lines might break their connection at some point and end up being scattered throughout the void. This would create a hole in the Void formation, causing the unpurified Sun rays to be released into Yang Zhai's body.
This was something every cultivator had to do after advancing to rank 4. This would take at least a month. To connect these lines, he constantly had to pass the rays from one line to the other line in order.
He first had to pass the rays to the red lines, then to the orange lines, and so on. Every line was a certain distance away from each other. The more lines he creates in the future, the shorter this distance will become, which would strengthen the formation and increase his ability to contain more purified rays.
These lines were not ordinary. They had the ability to endure the power of the Black Sun and even purify them.
After I connect these lines, I would need to create more lines to advance. There are two ways to cultivate after advancing to rank 4. One is to continue creating lines with the help of the aperture. The second is to create new lines with the help of the Black Sun.
Yang Zhai was deeply contemplating his future cultivation plans.
These days, almost everyone uses the aperture to continue forward. Even I did that in my previous life. However, cultivating Black Sun lines offers a significant advantage in terms of enhancing the abilities of beasts. So I definitely need to cultivate with the help of the Black Sun.
However, even the Black Sun cultivation has a condition. If a person cultivates with Black Sun, they would need to develop four stars before combining them into a line. But, if a cultivator wants to obtain Perfect Stage, they would need to create five stars instead of four, consuming a lot of time.
This would not just strengthen the lines, but also give me an additional line. The fifth line, also known as a Line of Perfection, is said to contain an unimaginable power. If I manage to activate all five lines together, the advantage I obtain would be overwhelming. However, activating five lines together is too difficult.
/!*****!*****!/
Author's note: Line of Perfection here doesn't only mean the lines of rank 4 and above, but also below that, e.g., Rank 1, 2, and 3 are also included. Every fifth line is called the Line of Perfection as it is achieved after reaching perfection.