World of Cultivation - Volume 02 - A Problematic Youth, page 20
Suddenly, the snaking fire thread speeded up. The black gauze hat wearing customer felt the white fire was like lightning, circling around, the head reaching the tail!
A Three-Turn fire formation suddenly formed!
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Translator Ramblings:
Anyone want to do the conversion to second-grade jingshi? Zuo Mo is obviously starting to learn things from Pu Yao.
Chapter 107: Seeing Shixiong Again
With the Three-Turn fire formation forming, the temperature of the room became cold.
Even the hat-wearing customer couldn’t help but move back a step. The coldness exuded from the roiling fire formation seeped into the bones.
Three-Turn fire formation was not a complex seal formation. It could increase the power of fire seeds, regardless of if it was cold or hot fire. Each extra turn would double the power. The most Zuo Mo could complete right now was three turns. Four times the power for him was completely enough.
His eyes focused, all of Zuo Mo’s consciousness was awakened. Even though he had a yao core now, and his spiritual control had increased, but the difficulty of a Three-Turn fire was still high for him. Using his consciousness to carefully control the Stalagmite fire, he felt the ling power inside his body disappear at an alarming speed and the exhaustion that accompanied it.
Zuo Mo suppressed it, carefully controlling his consciousness.
With a light hiss, the Cold Magnet fell down in four pieces.
Zuo Mo released a breath. Two hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi. Speaking of it, a person’s limits was a very scary thing. Not long ago, his yearly income was just a few dozen second-grade jingshi. In the turn of an eye, his one-time income was two hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi. Just based on income, Zuo Mo definitely had entered the levels of high-earners in Dong Fu, but he had never felt that he was wealthy. Quite the opposite. He found that he seemed to have sunk into a strange cycle of lacking money more and more! He obviously was earning increasingly more jingshi but he was eternally penniless. It was better even now, he had shoulder huge debts.
However, he quickly released it. These days, what things were free? He had already gotten a cheap bargain. If there wasn’t Pu Yao, he might not have these debts, but he would not have [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation], no yin fire bead, no Stalagmite fire. He might not even have successfully entered zhuji.
“Success.” Zuo Mo handed the four pieces of cold magnet to the customer.
The hat-wearing person took the cold magnet and praised, “Brother Zuo’s control of fire is truly amazing!” He then crisply paid two hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi.
“You are too complimentary.” The majority of Zuo Mo’s attention was on the two hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi, and he responded absentmindedly.
“Is Brother Zuo going to register for the sword test conference?” The other seemed to want to have a discussion with Zuo Mo.
“No.” Zuo Mo didn’t have the time to talk with the other. The Three-Turn fire formation had almost cleaned out all of his ling energy just now. Even though the mo matrix was continuously strengthening his body, he still felt uncomfortable.
After getting the mo matrix, [Vajra Profound Sutra] had improved the fastest. In a short period of time, Zuo Mo had reached the third level of [Vajra Profound Sutra]. When he channeled it, even the flesh under his skin started to have dots of gold. This was the “Golden Flesh Clothing”.
[Vajra Profound Sutra] was not a quick scripture. According to what was written, people usually had to practice for five or six years in order to reach the third level of “Golden Flesh Clothing.” The fourth level, “Red Lotus Flowing Gold” needed ten years. After reaching “Golden Clothing of Flesh”, the defense strength rose. The entire body would be like a piece of gold, very hard to cut with a normal flying sword.
Zuo Mo’s body was much stronger than before. But for some strange reason, his physique was still thin and weak. Adding on his trademark zombie face, he was easy to recognize.
The ling power that the Three-Turn fire formation had taken was too much. He desperately needed to recover now. Seeing the other did not seem to want to leave, he had to raise his head, “Do you have something else?”
“Haha, I’ll come find Brother Zuo in a few days.” The other laughed before leaving.
Zuo Mo was too lazy to pay attention, closing his eyes to start [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation]. A while later, his mind had recovered. At the side, Li Ying Feng saw his state and hurriedly yelled, “Next one.”
Other than jingshi, Zuo Mo gained many other things. The requirements of each customer were different. The things he needed to process and make were different. On average, he would have to process around ten strange things each day. Some were ling grasses, some were ores, someone had even taken out a Snow Bear yao gallbladder.
Just ling grasses, he had processed no less than a few hundred types these few days. His experience had grown and it would be great help for him in dan-making. He celebrated making the decision before. If he was in the sect, he wouldn’t have seen so many ling grasses, much less the rarer specimens.
It was a pity that the Stalagmite fire was a cold fire, and could not process many things. Most of the materials he encountered were yin and cold.
“What? You can’t make it? If you can’t make it, why are you opening shop?” A man was holding a third-grade fire jade, swearing.
“I have a cold fire. It is not suited for fire and yang materials.” Zuo Mo said calmly.
“Damn, you wasted my time, you have to pay me for my losses… …”
The other’s voice suddenly stopped. He looked at Zuo Mo with a face full of terror, frozen to his spot, not daring to move.
Zuo Mo serenely took back his sword essence, “I’m sorry. Why don’t we both pardon each other?” It was not the first time something like this had happened. Zuo Mo was more experienced now.
The man didn’t say anything before leaving, crestfallen.
Time was important!
Zuo Mo could deeply feel the importance of time. An inch of light was an inch of gold, there was nothing more true than this!
Fragrant Fall leaves, Lotus Texture branch, Lapis Lapuzi Light stone, Eternal River stone… …
After a whole day, Zuo Mo worked until his mind was numb. He finally couldn’t persist anymore, yelling, “Everyone, come tomorrow.”
According to the line, Li Ying Feng gave each person a wooden card carved with a number. The lineup tomorrow would start according to the number on the card. Zuo Mo released a breath. He really made a profit today. A gigantic order worth two hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi, it was a whole day worth of work.
As usual, he gave Li Ying Feng a third-grade jingshi. This was for the sect since he was borrowing the shop from the sect. After seven or eight days, he would be able to clear this enormous debt. That made him feel much better.
Just going to rest, Zuo Mo heard a call from behind him, “Shidi!”
Zuo Mo stopped in his steps. Turning, he saw Wei Sheng Shixiong standing outside the doorway to the store.
“Shixiong!” Zuo Mo happily ran out. Wei Sheng seemed a totally different person than when he had bid farewell last time. Even though he was still wearing a short worn tunic like before, but the sharp sword essence that swarmed restlessly around his body last time had completely disappeared. Wei Sheng Shixiong’s appearance was average in the first place. With this attire, he didn’t have any presence. His entire person seemed like an extremely normal low-level xiuzhe.
From this, it could be seen that Wei Sheng Shixiong’s cultivation had increased greatly!
Very quickly, Zuo Mo became even more shocked. Wei Sheng Shixiong had broken through to ningmai! His consciousness was extremely sensitive and he had fought with Chang Heng who had been on the verge of ningmai, causing him to instantly detect it.
How… … how was this possible?
When Shixiong had gone into the sword cave, now he had successfully entered ningmai!
Zuo Mo had thought that his own progression could be considered monstrous and that had been because Pu Yao was there. But Shixiong, when Zuo Mo had gone to the sword cave with Pu Yao before, he hadn’t found anything special about it.
Shixiong was a true genius!
Zuo Mo had heard all kinds of praises these days and became alert now. He only had happiness in his heart. He felt that Shixiong’s achievement was extremely natural. If a person like Shixiong was buried and unknown, then it would be strange.
“When did Shixiong come out?” Zuo Mo asked dumbly. He suddenly thought of something, “Shixiong, I entered zhuji!”
Li Ying Feng heard the noise and ran out. Seeing Wei Sheng, a happy expression came onto her face, “Shixiong!”
Wei Sheng first greeted Li Ying Feng before his eyes landed on Zuo Mo and forthrightly laughed, “Let’s go drink! Us brothers will drink until we are drunk!”
The night was like water, dots of starlight scattering.
Wei Sheng and Zuo Mo were sitting on the rooftop, the wind blowing as they gulped down alcohol.
“This isn’t bad! Where did Shidi get this?” Wei Sheng could help but take a few more mouthfuls.
Zuo Mo was already slightly tipsy, “He he, this is Wang Shao’s alcohol. Wang Shao wanted to buy Golden Crow pills. Since Shixiong came, how can there be no alcohol? I went to get some from him.”
“Ha ha! This is nice, nice!” Wei Sheng leaned back and swallowed.
In the yard underneath, Li Ying Feng kept on shaking her head. Wei Sheng Shixiong who was usually so calm, and Zuo Mo Shidi who usually was so wooden and indifferent, once they drank alcohol, they seemed to be completely different people.
“Shixiong managed to be in time for the sword test conference. There’s so many people this year. I saw many strong people these days.” Zuo Mo slanted his eyes and drunkenly said, “However, Shixiong needs to beat them all, beat them into the ground!”
Looking at the charmingly pleasant Zuo Mo, Wei Sheng roared with laughter, “Yes! Beat all of them!”
Zuo Mo snickered and swallowed some more alcohol. Holding the jar, he suddenly became silent.
Detecting Zuo Mo’s abnormality, Wei Sheng asked concernedly, “Shidi has something on your mind?”
“Shixiong, what do you think people live for?” Zuo Mo asked after a beat.
“What do people live for?” Wei Sheng automatically straightened his spine, his eyes looking into the distance, “I do not know what other people live for. My thoughts are very simple. I want to see what this sword, when it reaches the extreme, looks like.”
“Sword at the extreme?” Zuo Mo muttered. His eyes also looked into the distance. Sitting on the rooftop, they could see the night scenery of Dong Fu, the distant lights, and the barely perceptible calls. He shook his head, “Before, I wanted to live better so I studied ling farming. But now, I want to become strong.”
“Become strong?” Wei Sheng turned his head and said in surprise, “Why?”
There was bitterness in Zuo Mo’s voice, “To find what I have lost and cannot forget.” He didn’t tell Shixiong that his features had been changed and his mind erased. If Shixiong knew, he would be furious. There was no need to make Shixiong also unhappy over his own personal matters.
Wei Sheng comforted him, “Don’t rush, Shidi. You will eventually remember your past.” Everyone in Wu Kong Sword Sect knew that Zuo Mo had amnesia. Wei Sheng assumed that Zuo Mo was depressed over that today.
“Ha ha. Yes, what would come will always come! Today, it is the reunion of us brothers. I really shouldn’t say such depressing things! Let’s keep drinking!” Zuo Mo raised the alcohol jar and swallowed.
“Haha!” Wei Sheng also gave a wide smile and raise the alcohol jar, “Drink!”
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Translator Ramblings: Wei Sheng and Zuo Mo get drunk. Wei Sheng is now a whole stage above Zuo Mo. Zuo Mo keeps working away at his debts. Zuo Mo is a sad drunk.
Chapter 108: Two Paths
Wei Sheng Shixiong left Dong Fu early in the morning.
Zuo Mo resumed his furious life of making jingshi.
“It really exceeded my expectations. You actually managed to repay all of it in such a short amount of time.” Pu Yao said with slight regret.
Zuo Mo felt his entire body was light. The enormous debt had given him great pressure these past days. He asked about another problem, “Pu, has there been any new developments about storing ling power?”
Pu Yao shrugged, “Nope.”
The rate that Zuo Mo absorbed ling energy was multiple times after than before, but strangely, if the ling energy that was absorbed was not quickly used, they would gradually dissipate, and could not be stored inside. For any xiuzhe, the amount of ling power represented their cultivation. If they didn’t have ling power, basically, they could not cast more than seventy percent of all spells. The higher the spell, the more ling power it required.
He was very suspicious it was caused by the mo matrix that Pu Yao had carved into his body. He could clearly feel the difference of progression in his cultivation after the mo matrix was carved. He was extremely worried.
“Pu Yao, if I cannot store ling power, it’s hard for my cultivation to increase. If my cultivation cannot increase… …” He wanted Pu Yao to recognize that this was a serious problem.
Pu Yao was unconcerned, “What does that have to do with me? I delivered the product.”
“You renyao!” Zuo Mo instantly exploded due to Pu Yao’s terrible attitude and started swearing, “Lying to me about this mo matrix and yao seed. Now, you put out this disgusting demeanor of not caring! In the future, don’t think about getting one piece of jingshi from ye!”
“I can take it myself.” Pu Yao was not angry and giggled.
Zuo Mo smiled angrily, “From today, ye won’t take one jingshi, only items, jade scrolls! Go take it! Ye will see where you take it from!”
“Oh.” Pu Yao rubbed his chin as he talked to himself, “That is a problem.”
Zuo Mo smiled coldly as he looked at Pu Yao, wanting to chop this androgynous guy into meat dross! This dross! False profit! Greedy, dishonest, amoral, evil pervert!
Pu Yao innocently spread his hands, “I hadn’t thought this would happen either. Things like formations, they are too complex for us yaomo. However, there isn’t anything that cannot be solved in this world. I can help give you ideas. Hee hee, it can be free this time!”
Zuo Mo suppressed the impulse to tear apart this guy, asking, “Keep going.”
“Look, since the growth of your ling power is slow now, you can work from two different areas.” Pu Yao’s thin lips bent into a curve, “One is to work at the root. Your body is like a complete formation. If one attribute has changed, then it is definitely that a part of the formation has changed. You only need to find the cause of the change to be able to correct the formation and the cause will be resolved easily.”
“How can I find it?” Zuo Mo had to admit that what Pu Yao said was very reasonable.
“I can’t help you there. In any case, you have to work through seal formations. You xiuzhe are much better than us yaomo at formations.” Pu Yao said, shaking his head.
After all this, he just spoke useless words! The rage inside suddenly shot up!
“Rather than wasting your time complaining about things that have already happened, it would be better to start studying early.” Pu Yao snickered.
These words instantly extinguished Zuo Mo’s rage. Pu Yao was right. Since it was like this already, then complaining about something that had already happened was just wasting time. He raised his head, “And the other area?”
“Oh, that one’s much easier. Since your cultivation is growing slowly now, why don’t you increase your control over ling power?” Smugness flashed through Pu Yao’s eyes, “If you can precisely control every strand of ling power, the same amount of ling power, you can use it to cast more spells. Don’t envy other people for having more jingshi, you just have to use each jingshi on the edge of the blade.”
“Precise control?” Zuo Mo instantly understood. When he had been in lianqi, this had been a question that he would frequently ponder because he needed to cast [Little Art of Cloud and Rain] for many ling fields. Just like Pu Yao had said, he needed to use every single drop of ling power effectively. However, after he entered zhuji, his life had quickly become wealthy and he had gradually lost sight of this problem.
“Right! Like the processing and purification you have done these days. You need to be sparse in using ling power. Something that can be done with one strand of ling power, you should not use two. When you can precisely control every strand of ling power, you will find that you only need a tiny bit of ling power to cast a spell that you used to need lots of ling power to do.” Pu Yao added, “Most wealthy tycoons, when they started, they were like this too.”
The previous length of words, Zuo Mo had uncontrollably been enhancedenchanged. Pu Yao’s figure suddenly seemed much larger. But with the words he added after, he instantly shrunk back.
Puh! This scum!
As the victim, Zuo Mo was seething with righteous fury. His mind, however, kept on pondering what Pu Yao had said.
Li Ying Feng found that Zuo Mo Shidi’s situation these past days was not normal. The speed he worked clearly had slowed down, and after each job, he would sit there in a daze. He was like a completely different person than before. Was it that he had made enough jingshi? She couldn’t help but think. Shidi should take a rest. These few days, no one was clearer than her just how much jingshi Shidi had earned.
Even now, she almost couldn’t believe that this wooden and cold Shidi had such a terrifying ability to make jingshi. The jingshi he had made by himself was worth five months of the gross income for the store she was managing. This was an extremely shocking number. If Shidi was in ningmai, she wouldn’t find it so strange. But he was only zhuji. She had never heard of a zhuji disciple that could earn so much.
