Chapter 15. New Cultivation Art

The strange thing was, an Aetherium stone was described in the books to have bluish-white color. This one was pitch black. Another odd thing was he had never seen Hei Gong use this stone when he was cultivating. Perhaps it was broken? Maybe that's why it was colored black?

Curious, he took out the Aetherium stone and set it on the ground. Nothing happened. Perhaps it truly was a broken one, Amon thought. He touched the stone and tried to inject aether into it. He had read in some cases, there were Aetherium stones that had seals that needed an activation to be used.

When Amon's aether entered the stone, it suddenly released an eery black light. The black light resembled a thick fog that swerved around. As it did, a large amount of aether started to gather around the stone.

It was working! Amon thought in delight. With this, his cultivation speed should increase. From what he had heard, even noble children didn't have access to such a tool. Only important clan members of a large clan would have the chance to possess an Aetherium stone.

Odd, he thought again. This black Aetherium stone did not appear to be broken. Why did Hei Gong not use it?

After some thought, he put all the essential things into the black Space Ring. The Aer stones, black Aetherium stone, 101 primal poison tome, the exotic plants and ingredients, various metallic materials. For weapons, he only took 2 swords, 1 axe, 2 spears, the shield, and 17 throwing knives, while the remaining he left in Hei Gong's ring.

As for the art books. He made some selections. He did not intend to study all the martial arts since they seemed to be of a similarly low level to the ones he was already practicing at the moment. If he tried to learn too many arts, he would instead lose focus and become mediocre in all. He thought it would be better to focus on the ones he had learned and practiced them to at least the master level. But out of the seven martial art books, he still took two though, it was the arts for throwing weapons and bow. He had always been best with range weapons, considering his past life experience with firearms. So he put those two martial art books into the black space ring and left the remaining five in Hei Gong's ring.

For the arcane art books, he could not study them yet. Hei Gong once said that one needed to reach the Transformation stage of the Human realm to study Arcane arts, though there were cases where some talented youths managed to learn some at the Strength stage. He put all three arcane art books into the black Space Ring.

As for the cultivation art books, he looked at the three. All was a better cultivation art than his Energy Funneling art. After comparing the three, he decided on one that was called Drown Heart Pulsating Art. The other two he put back into Hei Gong's ring.

He also left 10 Aer stones inside Hei Gong's ring. Afterward, he put Hei Gong's ring on his finger. He then used a small rope to tie the black space ring into a necklace and wear it over his neck. He slipped the black space ring into the inside of his clothes, keeping it from being seen by others.

For Hei Pho's ring, he put inside it the Demon Body creation method tome and the two demon seeds. He went to the backyard outside of the Hei mansion. He searched for a secluded spot and then started digging. Once he dug a deep enough hole, he tossed Hei Pho's ring inside, he then covered it with earth. No one other than him would know there was a space ring underneath here.

He had no foreseeable usage for the demon body tome, so he decided to bury it in secret. If somehow he was to be found with the tome, he would be in big trouble. He was not to go through all the troubles of massacring the Hei clan to keep his secret only to be found out later because he carried the forbidden art tome around.

After sorting out the goods he had plundered, he went back to the dining hall that was still filled with the gruesome scene. He looked around before deciding on the corpse of a teenage girl, she was Hei Xilia's cousin. He lifted the body. With his Mortal stage cultivation, he could easily lift an adult human body despite his small frame.

He carried the body to the outside and buried it as well, but far away from where he had buried the Demon Body creation method tome.

Once he completed this last task, all he needed to do was wait. He went back to his bedroom to wait out the night. He took out the Drown Heart Pulsating Art and started reading it. He had chosen this art amongst the other two because this was the only art that could still be used after reaching the Martial realm. While the other two were the same as the Energy Funneling Art, they were only good for the Human realm. They would lose effectiveness once one stepped into the Martial realm.

The method depicted for this Drown Heart Pulsating Art was more complex compared to the Energy Funneling Art. But with his wit and tenacity, he slowly figured out the art. He started practicing it and put the art into applications.

The art caused the absorbed aether to congregate near his chest before they were pushed down to the area below his navel, where his Energy Core was located. This created a feeling where his heart was submerged, thus the art's name. The converged Aether was pushed into the Energy Space with each beat of the heart. This art separated the process of collecting and transferring to Energy Space, so they could be operated at the same time, allowing a continuous flow of aether into the energy space. The amount of absorbed aether was almost twice the efficiency of Energy Funneling Art, which absorb and transfer in cycles.

After getting used to the art, he took out the Black Aetherium Stone and set it as he had done before. The air inside his room soon became thick with aether. When he used his cultivation art, the amount and speed of the aether he absorbed were even greater.

He estimated that with this new art and Black Aetherium Stone, it might only take him another half a year to reach the intermediate Mortal stage. He continued his cultivation for the rest of the night.

*

There was a particular reason why Amon had chosen that day for the last dinner for Hei Xilia, when in fact she still had another week left in the Hei clan's mansion before she was sent away. The reason was that the next day would be the day that Madam Lin did her regular visit.

Imagined her surprise when she arrived at the gruesome scene where the entire clan had died around a dinner table.

"What sort of devilry had transpired here?!" She exclaimed. "Guards!"

Several people dashed in upon her shout. Lin Guo was amongst them. His eyes went wide when he also witnessed the scene. "Search the perimeter!" He ordered the others, who spread out to different corners of the mansions. He himself went into the dining hall and started examining the corpses.

"They were poisoned," Lin Guo informed Madam Lin, who had come nearer and was staring at Hei Pho's corpse.

"Poisoned?"

"This one was poisoned and stabbed," Lin Guo said as he scrutinized Hei Gong's body. "The wound was too messy, it seemed to be caused by several types of sharp weapons."

Amon had gone and used several of the weapons he had gotten from Hei Gong and inflicted additional post-mortem wounds to cover the actual dagger wound. The Swan dagger was, after all, originally Madam Lin's weapon. There was a risk that she could recognize the wound made by this dagger.

As the two were scrutinizing the crime scene, one of the bodyguards who went out to search the mansion came back with a little kid following him.

"Reporting, madam. I found this kid hiding underneath a bed in a bedroom."

Madam Lin looked over and recognized the kid as Amon. "Hei Mo!" She called out, "what had happened here?"

Amon came over with as sad a face he could muster, he said to Madam Lin, "it's the Wei clan. They poisoned our food. Everyone was dying, grandpa tried to force the poison out with his cultivation, but several people appeared with the young master of the Wei clan. They attacked grandpa and stabbed him multiple times until he stopped moving."

"The Wei clan? Why did they bother themselves with a backwater clan such as yours?" Lin Guo uttered with disdain.

"Lin Guo, show some respect to the departed," madam Lin reprimanded.

"I'm sorry, madam," Lin Guo said, bowing his head. Though his cultivation was higher, madam Lin's position was higher than his.