Chapter 14, Incense

Yang Kai practised until the sun set, only then did he stop. Even after this period of time, not only was he not fatigued, he even felt more alive. Ever since he merged with that Golden Skeleton, his strength seemed to skyrocket. Walking twenty miles today didn't even tire him out; even with the added weight of the sack of rice he did not show the slightest trace of being fatigued.

It was only when he was cultivating his tempered body, that he would truly feel pressure. Thinking about that morning's practise, Yang Kai couldn't help but shudder. That pressure was like the heaven and earth were crushing him, absolutely horrifying.

But with strain/pressure come development. Without extreme pressure, how could you possibly advance?

Only then, would a person's true potential show. And only then would your strength grow, step by step, each time breaking past your limits.

Though currently, even after throwing large amounts of punches and kicks out, Yang Kai has yet to feel any fatigue. He doesn't feel strained, how can he force out his potential and improve?

This made things difficult and made him depressed. That skeleton also gave him extreme recovery, making the basic skills of the school useless. Did that mean that he could only practise for half an hour each day at sunrise?

Daylight had around twelve full hours, and yet he could only practise for half an hour. What would he do the rest of the time? Sleep? That was obviously impossible! Yang Kai immediately rejected the idea.

While he absentmindedly cooked, Yang Kai thought about how he should train to exhaustion. If anyone else knew of this, they would have laughed to death.

Other practitioners may have wanted to take it easier, but Yang Kai wanted to push himself to the limit.

In the end, he still couldn't think of any good methods. Though the main reason was Yang Kai needed elixirs to help boost his training. There were also other methods, but in the end, all of these had one thing in common, they required money.

In High Heaven Pavilion, contribution points were the currency. Alas, Yang Kai was poor and only had a measly twelve points.

After the rice finished cooking, he wolfed down a few bowls. Although there were no side dishes, and he could only eat plain rice, Yang Kai was very satisfied. That was the only meal in the past few days, which made him full.

After dinner, he couldn't go train, so he went to take a bath. After that he lay down and went to bed. Continuing his practise, there would be no result, so he might as well try to solve that problem. Consider the solutions, to hasten the work speed.

After thinking for a while, he suddenly remembered; the black book.

One of the pages had something inside, so Yang Kai figured that the other pages would be the same. So if he had enough strength, he could unseal each page.

The first page contained the Golden Skeleton, which was also the cause of his current predicament.

While the second dealt with the methods to cultivate the tempered body with Golden skeleton.

However the third page remained blank. He had already tried to decipher it, but Yang Kai concluded he wasn't strong enough yet.

With the first and second pages unlocked, Yang Kai could start to study them. But after good half day he still couldn't figure them out. Until he accidentally turned to the third page and went into a trance.

[Eh?] Yang Kai frowned as he started to read the third page.

Almost instantly, countless gold words started to appear on the page and jumped into his mind. Then a small whirlpool started to appear in the centre of the page. From it, arose an antique incense burner.

This turn of events left Yang Kai in shock, but quickly he started to rejoice.

[That's right! didn't I break through into the fourth stage this morning? Last night I was still in the third stage, but today I'm in the fourth stage! So that's why I couldn't access the third page before.]

Although it was only one level, it had still hindered his ability to comprehend the third page.

After he thought about this, Yang Kai couldn't help but feel regret. If this morning he had discovered this, then he wouldn't need to waste time now thinking about it.

Calming his beating heart, Yang Kai held the incense burner and carefully inspected it.

This burner wasn't large in size, and was a common item used by people. But it was half sealed, with a lid on the mouth and a few holes. It was also antique and of outstanding quality, but it wasn't attention grabbing at all.

He took a sniff, but after noticing there was no odour, he slowly lowered it.

[What is it made of?] Even after a while, Yang Kai still didn't know but could only go on the information imprinted in his mind.

After a short pause, Yang Kai opened his eyes with a strange look in them.

According to the information in his mind, this incense burner could aid him during training. The burner itself has no special properties, however if you were to gather herbs and burn them in it, the fragrance released would aid you during training.

Different herbs were needed for different stages.

Unfortunately, Yang Kai had some doubts. The plants needed to aid him at his current level were the Three Leaved Destruction/Chaos Spirit Flower and the Dead Jedi Tree Grass.

According to his understanding, the values of these two herbs were not high but they were very hard to find. They also possessed small amounts of toxins. Inhaled over a short period of time, and these toxins will cause lasting damage to the body.

[Would these two herbs really be effective?]

These herbs were definitely available in the Contribution Hall, but with Old Man Meng's personality, he would definitely charge high prices for them. And with only a few points in his possession, how could he spend them like that?

There was only one option left. He would have to venture into the Black Wind Mountains to look for them himself. Yang Kai had already hunted in there before, so was quite familiar with its geography and perhaps the herbs were there.

[I shall head off to the mountains tomorrow!] With his problems currently solved, Yang Kai slowly drifted to sleep. But before he fell asleep, he checked the fourth page so as to not repeat this morning's embarrassing action. Unfortunately nothing appeared; it seemed that Tempered Body Fourth Stage was not sufficient for this page.

The next morning, Yang Kai got up early.

Yesterday's practise had already had such a large impact on his cultivation, so naturally he would make full use of the short time he had to cultivate. Not to mention, he was not the kind to laze about.

While immersing himself in the purple eastern air/gas, that slow but with the might of heaven and earth infused, Tempered Body Record Fist's might gradually unfolded.

While he was a stage stronger than yesterday, Yang Kai still didn't make much progress on the fist. You could only perform it twenty times and when he touched his back, torturous pain responded. His back, hip and bones all ached, they felt like smashed beans.

Inhaling a mouthful of purple gas, his bodily senses as energy became clearer. His meridians all opened up and began to expel the impurities within his body.