Decisive

"Yang Zhai, tell me, have you ever met elder Jil Lu before last night?" Eun Woo asked Yang Zhai.

Both of them were standing outside elder Cu Gil's residence. 

"No, why?" Yang Zhai said and thought: So, she is already suspecting me.

"I thought you hated elder Jil Lu. Forget it, what happened happened, and nothing can be done now. Let's go back to your house." Eun Woo shook her head. 

It is true that elder Cu Gil's daughter was killed by elder Jil Lu. So, even if Yang Zhai mistakenly or deliberately revealed everything, he didn't lie. And I was also not happy with lying to elder Cu Gil about her daughter to begin with. In a way, a father knows the real reason for his daughter's death: Eun Woo shook her head and thought. 

She realised the seriousness of this matter. Yang Zhai had done something that might end up in a bigger conflict in the clan than anyone could expect. There was a chance that one out of elder Cu Gil and elder Jil Lu might die because of this.

Yang Zhai and Eun Woo came to Yang Zhai's house.  

"Brother Yang, who is she?" Hyun Hae looked at Eun Woo and asked.

"She is elder Eun Woo. You should greet her properly."

"Oh, greetings, elder " Hyun Hae greeted Eun Woo as Yang Zhai instructed her.

However, Lie Yu just ignored her and looked to the side.

Yang Zhai didn't bother and entered his own room. 

"So, tell me about the technique that you promised me last night." 

"That technique is called Red Poison. It has the ability to rot away anything that comes in its way." Yang Zhai began to explain the basics.

After that, he stopped and gave Eun Woo a paper.

"Elder, here, study this first. I will explain after you learn it. I also need to do something."

Eun Woo grabbed the paper and looked at it. 

Every technique had different ways to be explained and written down on paper. The paper that Yang Zhai gave had strange markings drawn on it. These markings might seem random to the people of earth: however, in the cultivation world, these markings could be considered a language or a code. It could also be said to be a formula.

Every technique had complicated formulas and many more complexities. Such as, to activate a technique, a formula needed to be complete. Thereafter, their arrangements came, then came the manipulation of changing the essence water according to these arrangements. 

This is just like chemical formulas from the earth. Or, how every different part of a machine needs to be arranged in proper order for it to work. If anything goes wrong in this process, then an explosion might occur, causing negative and adverse effects, similar to how combining wrong chemicals can cause an explosion: Yang Zhai pondered.

Therefore, a technique pattern is more complicated than one can imagine. It is here where the insights come. Similarly to how an idea suddenly comes into the mind of a scientist or someone else. These were the insights.

Not just this, but these instincts would become knowledge in hard form after a person works on them, making it new knowledge for other people. This was how the knowledge would keep on accumulating. This was also how the paths were developed. Every path contains a lot of knowledge, and to reach the peak of a path, every little bit of knowledge needs to be learned.

And from the earth's point of view, these different paths can be considered the same as the branches of knowledge from the earth, such as science, math, physics, biology, and more: Yang Zhai was meditating.

And to learn these different kinds of knowledge, many types of education institutions are built. When a child starts learning from the basics, they are entering into the world of knowledge, or cultivation. Then, there comes when a person masters a certain branch of knowledge. From the low knowledge to the highest knowledge. The same goes for the cultivation world. There exists an early stage, mid-stage, third stage, peak stage, perfect stage, and over stage knowledge of a path: Yang Zhai contemplated and looked at the paper. 

The paper he gave to Eun Woo contained a technique developed from the knowledge he had learned from the poison path, only the basics of the Red Poison.

This was the reason people would only and mostly develop into only a single path. Because attaining knowledge of a path required time and focus. Just as the earth would require a person to choose a single branch of knowledge to move forward and become master of that branch.

Now that I think about it, earth and this world are —in a way— the same: He was lost in thoughts.

And from these paths were developed new technique formulas. Such as everything on earth was developed from the branches of knowledge.  

These technique formulas were just like a machine. A machine could only hold the amount of current or power it was meant to hold: otherwise, it would explode if the power was increased. These techniques were the same as the machines: they could only hold the power that the formula was meant to. Huh, but its time limit could be increased, and the power could also be increased a little, but not beyond the limits. 

This was the reason Eun Woo was interested in the Red Poison. It had the ability to hold a power that could damage even rank 4 cultivators. How could it break the limits? Could it hold more power?

Right now, Eun Woo was holding half the formula of the Red Poison, only the basics though.

Learning a technique was not so simple as to just read it or see it, not at all. A person first needed to understand the logic behind the technique. How and why every part of a technique was used. Just like a chemical formula had its logic behind it. 

Just like how a beginner would not be able to understand the basics behind a formula as long as he didn't study the components used to create a chemical formula and how they were linked together to cause a reaction. The technique formula was the same.

A technique was not so simple as to just see someone use it and then copy it. A technique needed to be understood completely.

Yang Zhai grabbed the Night Owl's wings. Then, he turned around and grabbed its beak with one hand. Subsequently, he tore one wing of the Night Owl.

Night Owl wanted to scream, but could not because its beak was shut tight by Yang Zhai's hand. Then, he broke one of its claws.

Eun Woo noticed the Night Owl's grunts.

What's happening: Eun Woo felt strange that Yang Zhai had suddenly turned his back towards her, and the grunts of the Night Owl started exactly at the same moment.

What's happening?: Eun Woo notices drops of blood falling on the ground and stands up and begins to walk toward Yang Zhai.

She grabbed Yang Zhai's left shoulder and turned him around to see.

"Ah…," Eun Woo uttered and took a step back after looking at the sight.

Drops of blood were falling down Yang Zhai's hands, it was dripping down from the gaps between his fingers. His face also had a line of blood on it because a blood drop had also flown on his face and then slid down his cheek.

On the other hand, Yang Zhai's one hand was grabbing the Night Owl from its beak. He was holding the Night Owl from its beak. Its right claw fingers had rotted away. Not just this, but its left wind had also been torn from the middle. It was also rotting away from the torn place.

"What, what is this?" She looked at the Night Owl and questioned Yang Zhai.

"This, nothing. I just used the Ka to absorb its power, but I noticed that it began to bleed and could not endure the power of the Ka. So, to stop the bleeding, I used a small amount of the Red Poison to stop it. I will absorb the power later on, when it heals, and I am free." Yang Zhai explained in simple words and threw the Night Owl into one of the corners of his room.

He could not absorb the Night Owl's power in front of Eun Woo. So, he rendered the Night Owl helpless to do anything for now and could absorb its ability when there was no one around.

When he threw the Night Owl to the side, it began to scream because of the pain. 

Eun Woo looked at it and Yang Zhai and felt goosebumps.

As I thought, he is dangerous. I can't even imagine that a kind-hearted kid like him could be so ruthless. Last night, he also did not hesitate to use Red Poison on himself. If I was him, I don't know if I would have used Red Poison on myself. He is really decisive with his actions and does not hesitate to act on them: Eun Woo pondered when she saw the sight.

It was not a big deal that a Night Owl was injured like this to her. But, the way Yang Zhai acts is strange. He was sometimes someone that even Eun Woo felt was terrifying. His decisiveness was not normal.

"But this is the cultivation world. The sooner a person learns to take firm decisions, the better for them. In a way, it's good that he acts on his decision without hesitating." Eun Woo muttered. 

She felt happy that Yang Zhai used the Red Poison to stop the Night Owl's bleeding as soon as he felt that he needed to do so and stopped absorbing the Night Owl's power. Otherwise, the feeling of getting stronger was something that nobody could reject. 

!*****!*****!