Instant And Continuous

Ha Kun reluctantly followed Yang Zhai. He had no choice but to follow him. He could not return back alone at this hour in time. Furthermore, he had come with Yang Zhai because he had thought that the place where the inheritance was located would not be far away from the village, but he did not think that it was located here. At first, he kept on following Yang Zhai thinking that they were already close, and he didn't want to give up, but they arrived here. He would not have hesitated if the place of the inheritance was on the surface, but it was located underground.

They walked for five minutes before reaching an underground cave. The stone's light illuminated the surroundings around the two; however, it was not enough to light up the entire cave.

"Where is the inheritance, brother?" Ha Kun looked around and asked. He could not see anything that resembled an inheritance place.

After saying this, he looked back. What he saw was that a fire was floating in Yang Zhai's right hand. His gaze fell on Yang Zhai's face. The fire was reflected in Yang Zhai's eyes, and his face was expressionless. The shining stone that Yang Zhai had before could not be seen anywhere. Yang Zhai moved his right hand forward and pointed his palm at Ha Kun. After that, the fire in Yang Zhai's hand blasted forth toward Ha Kun and struck him. The fire didn't stop and kept on being released from Yang Zhai's hand.

There existed two types of techniques:One was the instant technique and the second was called the continuous technique. 

In the instant technique, when a cultivator activates a technique, that technique leaves the cultivator's body and gets separated from them. Such as the rank 1 earth path technique that elder Wang had taught his disciples on the second day of the academy, which creates a dust ball that leaves the cultivator to attack its target. 

The second type was the continuous type, this type of technique is continuously released by the cultivator and does not detach itself from the cultivator. Such as the fire path technique that Yang Zhai had activated just now, which was continuously being released from his hand.

However, the instant technique had the benefit that it could last for a longer time after it gets released into the air, like The Dark Day technique that Yang Zhai had activated in the final round of the class competition whilst the continuous technique can only stay as long as the cultivator keeps the technique activated, such as the fire that was being released from Yang Zhai's hand, it would only remain as long as he didn't stop putting in his Essence water or until his Essence water ends.

Continuous techniques were like a flood being released from a dam, it would keep on flowing out until the dam's door was closed or the water inside the dam had ended. On the other hand, the instant techniques were like the water that had already been released from the dam and couldn't return back, this water would last until it was used.

Yang Zhai attacked Ha Kun without any warning. Ha Kun was taken aback by the sudden attack and could not dodge it in time. He also couldn't react to this situation as he did not have a lot of experience. This was the first time he had encountered such a situation and did not know what to do. And in nervousness, Ha Kun could not think of anything to begin with.¹

"Aahhhhhhhhhh…," Ha Kin screamed with all his might because of the pain.

The fire struck Ha Kun and started to spread. His clothes were being burned and even his body was catching the fire. It was one thing if the fire was an instant technique, but Yang Zhai had activated the continuous technique this time. The fire was being released from Yang Zhai's right hand continuously.

"Aahhhha…" Ha Kun's screams resounded in the cave. 

But Yang Zhai was not at all affected by seeing Ha Kun being burned, he remained calm. This situation was extremely terrifying. During the night, in a cave of silence, a scream resounded through the walls of the cave and a kid stood there without any expression on his face, watching someone being burned in front of him. 

If someone saw this, they would faint from just the mere sight of Yang Zhai's calmness and the scream of the silence, completely two opposite situations. One was silent whilst the other was screaming.

"A silent lake like stainless

Displaying the sky of painless

The ripples of the agony

Are the feelings of the stars

A stone that aggrieved lake of tyranny

Was thrown by the stars"

Yang Zhai watched for a few seconds and when he felt that it was enough, he activated another continuous technique. This time, the dust started to appear from Yang Zhai's hand and fell on Ha Kun. This dust was was soft and warm. Because of the dust, the fire was starting to lessen on Ha Kun's body.

Yang Zhai could have easily put off the fire with the help of a water technique, but he didn't do it and activated an earth rank technique instead. It was because he was aware that if he had put the water on Ha Kun, then the pain might become unbearable for Ha Kun and it might take his life. Because throwing water on a burning person would give that person the trauma of extreme pain. And it was not feasible for Yang Zhai if Ha Kun died. He needed to absorb his cultivation and for that, Ha Kun had to stay alive. Thus, he used dust instead.

"Ahaaa…ahaaa" Ha Kun was still screaming from the pain, but it had lessened a bit.

Yang Zhai then sat down on the ground a little away from Ha Kun, around one meter or so.

Absorbing someone else's cultivation was extremely easy, even easier than one thought. Yang Zhai looked at Ha Kun and then at his left hand, after that, he looked at the walls of the cave: however, he could not see the walls because of his almost blind state.

To absorb someone else's cultivation, he had to open the gate to his aperture. And to open the gate was an easy task. He just had to do the same thing he had done when he had first awakened his aperture, he needed to absorb the spiritual qi from the outside world. When he does that, a black vortex will appear around his abdomen, which would be the gate to his aperture. 

However, this gate could only send spiritual energy related things, meaning Essence stones, spiritual energy, Blue Gem, someone's cultivation, and things like this. It was worth noticing that all these things were made of spiritual energy or would convert into spiritual energy. Such as the Essence stones would disappear after all of the spiritual energy was absorbed from them. Blue Gem would also turn into cultivation after being used and would help a cultivator advance by a stage². Other things that were not made of spiritual energy could enter the black vortex, but would not be able to enter the aperture, and taking them out of the vortex was impossible.

Therefore, opening the aperture gate in front of the others was extremely dangerous, not just dangerous, it could be said to be an extremely sensitive moment for the cultivator, so sensitive that even a mortal could kill a Rank 5 cultivator at this moment.

And why was that? It was because if someone manages to throw something in the black vortex, then the cultivator's life would be in extreme danger. Such as if someone throws a stone in the black vortex and as the stone was not made of spiritual energy, it would not be able to enter the aperture. And taking out the thing that is thrown into the black vortex was almost impossible or at least there was no method known until now that could take out the things thrown into the black vortex, except for the things that were made of spiritual energy.

If the stone thrown into the vortex was not absorbed by the aperture and could also be not taken out, then where would the stone go? It would stay in the black vortex until the vortex closes. After the vortex closes, the stone would appear in a person's body, usually, the stone would appear around the abdomen but if someone's luck was bad, then the stone could also appear in the brain or the heart. 

And if this transpires, what would happen? It was obvious that the abdomen would be badly injured. And if this stone appears in the brain, then the result would be nothing but death.

And this was just a stone, what would happen if something else is thrown in the black vortex, like a sword? There was no need to guess.

This was the reason that this moment was considered extremely sensitive for a cultivator.

*****/*****

1-To begin with: First of all, most importantly or used to introduce the first of several points.

2-Ranks are different realms or domains from 1 to 13. Stages are the parts of different realms or ranks, they are early, mid, third, and peak. (Over or Perfect stages are not known to the world)