by Fang Xiang
In terms of spoils of victory this time, their biggest one was these five slave transporting boats. The Outer Hall had transported five boats of xiu slaves. They had already sold four boatloads of slaves so there was one boatload of xiu slaves left. Naturally, Ma Fan and the others wouldn’t leave the other four boats behind. Luckily, the boats could be shrunk when they were not in use. The miniaturized slave transporting boats were about three chi large, and was very exquisite.
Ma Fan and the others found it extremely puzzling that the slaves hadn’t run away on the ships. What they didn’t know was that the camp was very close to Nan Sheng Village so the Outer Hall didn’t worry at all that the xiu slaves would dare to run. The camp was usually guarded very loosely. The people who were supposed to be guarding the slaves today had coincidentally gone to Nan Sheng Village to have fun, and had not escaped the calamity.
It was the first time many of the people had stepped onto a slave transporting boat. All of them were very curious and looked around. Some of the people who had experience on the boats moved of their own initiative to steer the big boat.
The slave transporting boat slowly floated into the sky. Many people sighed with amazement at the fifty zhang boat.
Everyone snickered and steered the ship into the distance with spirit.
Translator Ramblings: Ma Fan and the others pull off their plan successfully. More background on the bigger world.
For a person who asked about the meaning of Zuo Mo’s name. It is written as 左莫. The “mo” is not the same one as the mo in yaomo. Zuo is Left, unorthodox or East. It is not that rare but Mo can actually be a surname as well. By itself, mo can mean “nothing,” “do not,” or “negative.” Also, it is a modern form of a character 漠 which means vast (as in desert), cool and indifferent. So there are many meanings but the simplest one is nothing. Zuo Mo has a surname of East or Left, and his actual name is nothing. I actually prefer it as a form of the more complex character so it means vast instead. So if we twist and do not use the common definitions, we can make it an Eastern Vastness.
Chapter 262: Unprofitable Business
On the mountaintop, He Xiang looked at the ruined Nan Sheng Village, paused for a moment, and then broke down sobbing.
———
Zuo Mo looked with slight fear at the female xiu nearby. She seemed to have resumed her past state of motionlessness. After yesterday’s battle, the female xiu was much more sinister from every angle in his eyes.
This made him slightly insecure.
He would treasure his life and stay far from female xiu. Especially strong females that knew evil spells.
He had discussed with Pu Yao for a while yesterday and hadn’t concluded anything. He still needed to work so after resting for a night, so he continued to build formation battle watchtowers.
After such a battle, the captives in the camp were as obedient as they could be. However, the issue that arose was that no one dared to go within three zhang of Zuo Mo.
Zuo Mo originally had a question to ask Yuan Jiang. But when he walked two steps towards the other, he saw Yuan Jiang’s face paled and his legs were trembling. Zuo Mo suddenly remembered that some of the enemies had been scared to death by the strong girl, and his steps instantly stopped. Yuan Jiang was a rare kind of genius. If he was scared to death, it would be so unprofitable. He could only stop moving.
He thought of the strong girl that wouldn’t leave him alone. Wasn’t he now the plague that no one would approach?
Zuo Mo’s mood immediately became terrible. He waved his hand for Yuan Jiang to leave. Watching as Yuan Jiang ran away faster than a rabbit as though he was pardoned from death, his mood became increasingly terrible. However, when he recalled Pu Yao’s dark expression, and undisguised rage, his mood instantly became better.
As expected, happiness was always built upon other people’s pain. Zuo Mo snickered and went back to building the city.
———
Just as Zuo Mo had seen, Pu Yao’s mood was extremely terrible. He felt great failure at the appearance of the female xiu. He didn’t know her history, nor the scripture she used, didn’t know how her power really was, didn’t know … … anything.
Yet he also had no solution. If this was still the time when his strength had not been damaged, if he was unhappy, he could just pinch and make the person explode. But now his soul was extremely damaged. He had to act carefully and could only rely on Zuo Mo. Zuo Mo was the place he had put his soul in, and was now under threat from the female xiu. How could Pu Yao feel safe like this?
Also, he could not understand the female xiu. This point caused the insecurity inside to grow. If something occurred, he could do nothing. His strength had reached the lowest point in his life. The female xiu’s strength wasn’t just ridiculously strong, but extremely strange.
“It seems that we need to temporarily cooperate,” Pu Yao gritted out to the gravestone. “This woman is too dangerous!”
The gravestone didn’t make a sound.
Pu Yao smirked coldly. “Aren’t you afraid that something will happen to him? Other than him, do you have any other choice?”
The gravestone suddenly became as smooth and clear as a mirror, a figure blurrily appearing.
Pu Ya smiled.
———
After the first formation battle watchtower, Zuo Mo’s construction speed increased dramatically. This was due to him acclimating to the new changes of his body. Zuo Mo gave the move he had randomly created that day the name of “Diving From Heaven.” Accidentally performing “Diving From Heaven” had made him realize many aspects of his new body.
The most evident was the consciousness. His consciousness had not developed very much over time as though it was stuck at a certain barrier. In the sky that day, when he had accidentally stirred the flames in the turbulent air, he had comprehended and instantly broke through in that moment.
The improvement in his consciousness was enormous. This also caused his speed in building formation battle watchtowers to dramatically increase.
The most difficult part of the formation battle watchtower was carving the formation. After his consciousness improved, it became easier to carve formations. Adding on that he had the experience of making one tower, his construction speed made people gape. Yuan Jiang who was watching from a distance increasingly felt that Boss was a monster.
One female and one male monster.
The demand of resources suddenly increased. Ji Wei and Sun Bao instantly were so busy they were dizzy.
Zuo Mo furiously built at a rate of one formation battle watchtower every two days. Tower after tower rose up. Zuo Mo used almost all of the empty ground to build formation battle watchtowers.
Zuo Mo had a strong feeling that the potential of his body was slowly being uncovered.
All kinds of heavy labor would squeeze out every bit of strength in his body; controlling the fire paper would consume every drop of his ling power; carving formations exhausted his spiritual power.
He suddenly felt some anticipation. When this city was finished, what would he become?
The anticipation and yearning of the xiuzhe in the camp increased every day. Such a strong city, adding such a dense patch of formation battle watchtowers, they thought that no one could destroy this.
Just as Zuo Mo was happily busy, Ma Fan and the others arrived at the camp with the enormous slave transporting boats.
Looking at the black batch of xiu slaves, Zuo Mo was at a complete loss for words. The one thousand and more captives that Gongsun Cha had sent back had already gave him a headache. Just after he had managed to settle them down, Ma Fan and the others had brought to him one thousand and more of xiu slaves, and just lianqi xiu slaves … …
Zuo Mo was exceptionally angry, pointing at the xiu slaves in front of him and asking expressionlessly, “What do I do with them?”
Ma Fan, Xie Shan, and the others were very careful. They also felt that their spoils this time were somewhat absurd. Xie Shan piled a smil
e on his face. “Xiu slaves can be used to mine.”
“Mining? I don’t believe they can do as well as Lil’ Pagoda,” Zuo Mo said with a black face. Lil’ Pagoda and Zuo Mo were connected in mind. Hearing Zuo Mo praise it, it whooshed out of somewhere and smugly twisted its slightly chubby body. However, when it saw Zuo Mo’s pot black face, its figure froze and then it fled.
Many incidents had told him when his daddy wasn’t in a good mood, nothing good would come out of appearing in front of him.
Ma Fan carefully gave a smile as he said, “Boss, you don’t know how poor the Outer Hall is, so poor that they only have xiu slaves. We didn’t have any solution. If we came back with empty hands, that doesn’t fit in with what you usually teach us.”
“Yes, yes!” Lei Peng hurriedly agreed as he furiously nodded his head.
Zuo Mo smiled coldly. “Not bad, not bad! You guys really remember my words well.”
“Of course!” Lei Peng beat loudly on his hairy chest. Xie Shan and Ma Fan exchanged a look and obediently close their mouths. The two of them looked with sympathy at Lei Peng.
“Then you can support them.” Zuo Mo glanced at Lei Peng. “You forgot the other phrase I said. We don’t do unprofitable business. Oh, I will take it from your rewards.”
Lei Peng gave a sky-shaking howl and grabbed onto Zuo Mo’s leg. “Boss! I was wrong! I really was wrong!”
The anger in Zuo Mo’s heart erupted as he kicked Lei Peng out twenty zhang away and swore, “You also know you are wrong! Ha! Do you know how much jingshi you people spend every day? Five pieces! Seven hundred people, three thousand and five hundred pieces of third grade jingshi every day! Do you really think ge is a tycoon? Ge is so poor right now ge almost can’t eat!”
Everyone was scared by the acrimony in Zuo Mo’s words that they were shaking. They found he was right as they thought about it. They would consume large amounts of jingshi when they cultivated every day. All of the expenses were provided by Boss. They had never thought about it before. Now that Boss calculated it, they jumped in fright. Many people suddenly felt guilty. As long as it was jingshi for cultivation, Boss was always open and had never shorted them.
“Ha! Now you guys have taken back this many xiu slaves, you just want ge to go bankrupt!” Zuo Mo’s anger had not eased. Nothing could infuriate him more than going bankrupt!
“Boss, we’ll go steal jingshi for you!” Lei Peng rolled and climbed over to express his determination.
“Right, Boss, we can’t let you lose!”
“We’ll rob them blind!”
The crowd of people instantly started howling. Their killing intent scared the one thousand xiu slaves into paling.
“Then what to do with the xiu slaves? Sell them?” Ma Fan carefully asked.
“Sell to whom?” The anger in Zuo Mo’s heart had decreased greatly as he snorted coldly, “Wouldn’t that be telling other people what you guys did Nan Sheng Village?”
Everyone stared at each other, and instantly found it was a problem.
“Should we kill them?” Xie Shan hesitantly asked. The expressions of many of the surrounding people were not natural.
Once the words came out, the xiu slaves that were nearest instantly paled and knelt down with a bang, furiously kowtowing and begging, “Daren! We can work! We’re willing to do any work! Daren, we only ask for something to eat … …”
“Get up! Get Up!” Zuo Mo instantly had a headache. He had never seen anything like this before.
Those xiu slaves didn’t dare to get up, all of them kneeling down in a wave as they furiously kow-towed, “Daren … …”
The already impatient Zuo Mo suddenly raged, “All of you, shut up and get the motherf***ing up! I’ll kill anyone who kneels!”
These words were very effective at silencing everyone.
Zuo Mo didn’t speak another word, turning and leaving.
Ma Fan and the others that remained behind looked at each other with frowns on their faces. Those people who had suggested to take the xiu slaves with them were full of regret but at this time, no one was in the mood to talk.
———
Zuo Mo found a formation battle watchtower in a dejected mood, and laid down. He might have many people under his command, but in reality, he still was a youth who hadn’t seen much.
Wu Kong Sword Sect also had xiu slaves. He had some sympathy for xiu slaves. They were a group of pitiful people.
But life was not easy. His sympathy wasn’t going to be used on xiu slaves he didn’t know or related to. This group of xiu slaves were a great burden, but he couldn’t do something like massacre all the xiu slaves.
Usually, he was used to facing these things from an objective perspective. Who could have thought that something like this would one day occur to him?
Little Mountain Jie was full of danger. Their goal was to quickly leave. Where did he have the energy to take care of this group of helpless xiu slaves? What Zuo Mo needed right now was xiuzhe with offensive power, and not xiu slaves that could not fight.
These xiu slaves also needed to consume ling grains or jingshi. Even though it wouldn’t be a huge amount, but due to the large numbers, it wouldn’t be a small amount. The already heavy burden would grow bigger.
Why had he encountered such a terrible matter?
Zuo Mo laid down with anger and no strength. Looking at the exquisite formations on the ceiling, he fell into a daze.
Suddenly, Pu Yao’s voice suddenly sounded in his mind, “I have a solution.”
Translator Ramblings: Poor Man Fan and Xie Shan. They sincerely want to be good and useful, and they try so hard. Now they’ve “failed” twice in a row.
Zuo Mo finally shows some of the pressure he is under. The jingshi has to come from somewhere, and people in Little Mountain Jie are not that rich. The stuff they get from conquering other people are not enough, especially since they have to pay the forgers for the city building materials and also Gongsun Cha’s army who probably needs more ling power as they expend it in fighting.
To continue on names, let’s talk about Wei Sheng. It is written as “韦胜”. Wei is a very old surname, part of the Hundred Names. It also means tanned leather. Sheng has multiple means. The first is “victory” or “to win.” It is also “surpass,” “superb” and many other synonyms along those lines. It’s a pretty simple name. Though nothing is as simple as Pu, which is just a rush or a vine, and one of the words in the Chinese name of dandelion. Plant based name for a species that came from plants … … very easy to create names this way.
Chapter 263: Zuo Mo’s Determination
Hearing Pu Yao’s words, Zuo Mo’s mind became alert. He pretend to accidentally glance at the female xiu before secretly entering the sea of consciousness.
“What solution?” Zuo Mo asked straightforwardly. However, when he saw Pu Yao, he stilled. Pu Yao wasn’t sitting on the gravestone like he usually did but sitting in front of it.
Weren’t these two at odds?
Suspicion flashed across Zuo Mo’s heart, but his attention was quickly attracted by Pu Yao’s words.
“I know what you are worried about.” Pu Yao’s thin lips curved in an enchanting smile.
Zuo Mo was slightly distracted by a nonsensical question in his mind. Why was everyone around him so evil and feminine? Even Gongsun Cha seemed to be progressing towards abnormal now. The strong girl that had appeared was also very evil.
Pu Yao seemed very confident. “It is a pity to waste jingshi on their body.”
Zuo Mo rolled his eyes upon hearing this. “Just say the solution, don’t waste words.”
“Hee hee.” Pu yao wasn’t moved, his bloody pupil narrowing slightly. “Why don’t you consider making them cultivate mo?”
“Cultivate mo?” Zuo Mo instantly froze.
“Exactly, cultivate mo,” Pu Yao smiled. “The ling energy of Little Mountain Jie is corroded, but that doesn’t affect mo cultivation. This group of xiu slaves have just entered lianqi, and their cultivation is roug
h. It would not be difficult for them to switch to mo cultivation. Also, cultivating mo does not require ling energy, and you do not need to use up jingshi.”
Zuo Mo’s interest was stirred by Pu Yao’s suggestion. He asked with curiosity, “How to cultivate mo?”
“There are mo skills,” Pu Yao said in a matter of fact tone.
Hearing this, Zuo Mo was furious. He jumped off the ground, pointing at Pu Yao’s nose and swearing, “Ha, you do have mo skills! What did you say in the past to ge? You said you didn’t have mo skills, making ge practice [Sky Wave Fist Scripture]! Now you run out and say you have mo skills, you were fooling ge!”
Pu Yao was speechless.
The matter of cultivating mo was quickly finalized. Pu Yao took out a set of mo skill called [Hardship Guard].
“The previous version of [Hardship Guard] was a mo skill called [Hardship Abyss]. It was first created by a heart-addicted monkey. He was born very weak and untalented. He could not cultivate the [Heart Addiction] mo skill of his clan. After many troubles, he personally created [Hardship Abyss], and in the end, cultivated to the rank of mo general. Later, this mo skill landed in the hands of a king. He changed the [Hardship Abyss] and bestowed it to one of his personal guards. This mo skill therefore changed its name to [Hardship Guard].
Pu Yao proudly introduced.
“The greatest specialty of this mo skill is that it is suitable for mo that do not have outstanding talents. Oh, this group of xiu slaves is very well suited. Hmph, hmph, in any mo jie, this mo skill is high level stuff. It can sell for a good price. These xiu slaves really picked up a bargain.”
After Zuo Mo finished reading [Hardship Guard], he jumped in fright. Unless one had great endurance they couldn’t cultivate this mo skill, much less to a high level. Mo skills were based on hard work and persistence. The person that made this mo skill really was perverse!
He had originally been thinking if he could cultivate it. After reading it, Zuo Mo decided to give up. This wasn’t something anyone could cultivate.