by Fang Xiang
However, it was possible to see that the person who had designed these puppets had put in a great deal of thought. These puppets were designed for mining. The bottom half of their bodies were jointed in sections like a snake. That would allow them to adjust to all kinds of uneven terrain. The top half was shaped traditionally like a person, but there were four arms instead of two.
The puppets lined up neatly, each puppet carrying on its back a cloth bag that was larger than their bodies.
Bao Yi lost some of his disdain. These puppets may look ugly, but they were very strong and were pretty good puppets.
He watched as these puppets came in, and put down the cloth bags on their backs. Bao Yi quickly found a little mountain pile up in front of him.
“This … … Pagoda ye, what is all this?” Bao Yi carefully asked.
Lil’ Pagoda bent its chubby body and acted as it was talking.
Bao Yi swallowed and wiped the sweat on his forehead. He asked uncertainly, “Is it to let me see?” Every time he faced Lil’ Pagoda and the other two, it was as though he was facing an enemy. He regretted not learning how to play charades when he was young.
Lil’ Pagoda nodded.
Bao Yi released a breath. He hadn’t guessed incorrectly. He hurriedly ran over and opened the cloth bags.
The blinding light of jingshi reflected on his dumbstruck face and filled the room with light.
Lil’ Pagoda ran in front of Silly Bird to ask for praise. Silly Bird used her wings to brush Lil’ Pagoda. Lil’ Pagoda instantly became happy, and hurried flying to the front to led the way. This guy was very clever. They had become familiar after coming here a few times. With Lil’ Black on top, Silly Bird walked its proud stride and floated off as she brushed past the stunned Bao Yi.
———
Shu Long was the highest ranked supervisor of the Guard Camp. He was an old xiu slave. Differing from the many people who had just been captured, he had already passed through five owners. This caused him to hold great authority among this group of xiu slaves.
He scanned the camp. Everyone was furiously cultivating. He couldn’t help but give a satisfied expression. He was full of gratitude towards his present owner. Only xiu slaves that had passed through many owners would deeply appreciate how much the present situation was like paradise.
He had actually received favor from Master to command the Guard Camp. He was full of excitement and terror. He was happy that he could help Master, but terrified that he would ruin the matter.
What he hadn’t expected was that Boss didn’t get them to go work, but had them cultivate. Cultivation was very good. Even though he didn’t know much, but he knew that cultivation was value. However, he couldn’t help but worry. Master’s action was benevolent, but in the eyes of other people, he was a wastrel. Who would let xiu slaves cultivate?
He had never heard of something so absurd.
But since Master had ordered it, he could only do his best to help Master. Sometimes, he couldn’t help but fantasize that some experts would be produced out of the Guard Camp and serve Master. It would be worth it even if he died.
Master had kept them, and allowed them to cultivate. All of Guard Camp were holding their breath. What Shu Long was most afraid of were the new slaves. New xiu slaves only had hatred in their minds. In their eyes, all xiuzhe were enemies.
He had also once walked that road.
“Shu Long, get them to come one by one. I need to inspect their progress.” A thought came from the necklace on his neck. His mind became alert. Cultivating was so strange. This necklace of his should probably be a talisman.
“Yes!” he hurriedly responded, and rang the large drum.
———
In the sea of consciousness, Pu Yao interestedly played with the necklace. The little toys that Zuo Mo forged had some usefulness.
Making a troop that cultivated mo, how interesting would something like that be!
* * *
Translation Ramblings: Xiu slaves are worth less than their transportation boats which isn’t so strange if you think back to how much a free lianqi xiuzhe‘s wages are and how expensive talismans are. Clear Sky Sect probably just had to pay the merchant/business for the boats, not the slaves.
Lil’ Pagoda is growing fat … … Bao Yi treats Lil’ Pagoda like it is a calamity. On another note,if Zuo Mo had to have a patron god, it would probably also be the god of wealth a.k.a the god of jingshi. The puppets are pretty good in design though I’m curious if it would be better in therms of stability for them to have multiple legs like an insect or to be like a snake like their present form.
Chapter 265: Silly Bird’s Shocking Change!
Silly Bird swallowed down a piece of grey mud.
This was a ball of grey mud that Lil’ Pagoda had just spat out. Lil’ Black had no interest in the grey mud. Silly Bird was the only one that liked it. The three of them had a great relationship, especially as Silly Bird occupied the position of leader with a proud and matter of fact attitude. The other two little ones were very obedient towards Silly bird.
So whenever Lil’ Pagoda had the chance, it would skip to give the grey mud it spat out to Silly Bird. Zuo Mo had been very busy recently, where would he find the time to take care of them? If he knew how much of the grey mud Silly Bird had swallowed, his heart would definitely bleed.
That was so much jingshi!
Silly Bird didn’t have any intentions of being frugal and swallowed the grey mud as though it was her right. The talismans that were collected were of much higher grade than before. Previously, the majority had been second-grade, but now it was third-grade. The storage were filled with a large amount of third-grade talismans. Since they couldn’t find buyers for them, and the xiuzhe couldn’t use them, all of them had entered Lil’ Pagoda’s stomach.
Just by looking at Lil’ Pagoda’s fattened figure, it was possible to see how good its recent days had been.
Silly Bird had also received benefits along with Lil’ Pagoda.
What was unexpected was that Silly Bird suddenly had a painful expression, all the feathers on its body were shaking. A faint whirlwind started to appear around its body, and spin continuously around her.
Lil’ Pagoda and Lil’ Black instantly became nervous.
Some grey energy threads suddenly appeared under Silly Bird’s wings. As though they were alive, these grey threads of energy climbed and wormed their way up her wings. Her pain seemed to increase as her body shook more fiercely. The grey energy quickly spread over her body at a rate visible to the naked eye.
In an extremely short period of time, the grey energy had spread along her long slender neck until it reached her eyes.
“Honk!”
A sound filled with pain caused Lil’ Pagoda and Lil’ Black to freeze on the spot in fright.
Pew.
An extremely small sound as though something had been lit.
Silly Bird’s entire body was wrapped in an extremely thick layer of grey mist. Looking at her from afar, she seemed like a roiling cloud of mist. Threads of grey energy spread out from the cloud, and entered the whirlwind that was swirling around her body, pulling out thin grey threads in circles.
The grey thread circles increased in number until there appeared to be an invisible silkworm spinning silk. The dense layer of grey thread continued to dance around Silly Bird and gradually formed a grey silk cocoon. At the very center of the grey cocoon was a ball of mist that continued to spew grey smoke.
“Honk!”
The painful sound seemed to come from the bottom of the heart. Bao Yi, who had been disturbed, changed expression. Lil’ Pagoda and Lil’ Black were so scared they lost their minds.
The grey cocoon suddenly flew into the air, leaving behind a grey shadow, as it disappeared into the horizon.
———
Zuo Mo, who had been working on the city’s construction, suddenly changed his expression. “Damn it!” His legs pushed off as he flew into the air.
“I’ll
sort you all out when I get back!”
Zuo Mo’s furious voice passed back. Everyone at the ground looked at each other in ignorance.
After a while, Xie Shan tried to ask Gongsun Cha, “Boss, should we send someone to follow?”
Gongsun Cha glanced at the people that were yearning to go. “Do you guys want to slack off? Don’t even think about it. All of you, stay alert. Every one of you added together wouldn’t be a match for that woman.”
The other people instantly faltered. They remembered that the female xiu who always followed Boss was a terrifying existence!
———
Zuo Mo hurriedly followed in pursuit. Silly Bird that was wrapped in the grey energy flew extremely fast. He used all his power and could barely manage to keep up. He was both furious and panicked. Little brat, when ge catches up to you, just wait!
Lil’ Pagoda was connected to him. In an instant, he had known what had happened.
The more he thought, the angrier he got. Ge was working hard and was so tired, and you guys made trouble, you guys don’t want to live!
His mind prepared the series of tortures that would occur once he caught Silly Bird. It may have been due to the stimulus from his rage, his speed increased by another faction. The Thunder Flowing Light Wings were pressed to their limits. He was like a bolt of lightning!
No matter how fast he flew, the female xiu managed to follow without any effort. But at this point, Zuo Mo didn’t have the attention to spare.
His mind only had one thought, faster! Faster! Even faster!
All of his mind was engrossed in operating the Thunder Flowing Light Wings. After building the city, from the [Yin Fiend Hard Lightning] to the thirty six hard lightning formation battle watchtowers, without noticing it, his understanding of lightning had reached another level. Flowing Light was a kind of lightning. Very quickly, he comprehended it and grasped the trick to it.
The light of the Thunder Flowing Light Wings exploded. The Wings disappeared. They became a ball of lightning that wrapped around Zuo Mo. His speed increased yet again!
Boom!
As the lightning flashed across the sky, it gave off a heart-shaking vibration. The sound was small but it passed into the distance.
However, after chasing for several hours, Zuo Mo still lost Silly Bird. No matter how much he accelerated, he could only watch as the grey shadow distanced itself from him and gradually disappeared.
“Do you know where she went?” Zuo Mo stopped abruptly and asked the female xiu.
The female xiu stood to one side silently as though she hadn’t heard anything.
“Which direction? Tell me!” Zuo Mo awkwardly added on hand motions, his voice extremely panicked.
The female xiu was like a statue and did not speak.
“Speak!” Zuo Mo suddenly raged!
The female xiu was not affected, and did not move.
Looking at the female xiu silently gazing at himself, the furious Zuo Mo suddenly calmed down, the anger in his eyes disappearing bit by bit.
“Sorry, I lost my temper just now!” Zuo Mo sincerely gave an apology. Even though he knew the other could not hear it, he had lost control of his temper. Calm, he needed to be calm!
“Pu Yao, do you know which direction she went?” Zuo Mo entered the sea of consciousness to ask Pu Yao.
“Just now, it was to the east,” Pu Yao said with helplessness. “My strength has been greatly used up, the range of my consciousness is much smaller than in the past.”
“Towards the east!” Zuo Mo did not hesitate to keep on flying towards the east.
That damned Silly Bird! When ge catches you, ge will pluck you clean. How will you fly then? Zuo Mo thought hatefully .
He continued to channel ling power to maintain the Thunder Flowing Light Wings as he flew across the sky. Fortunately, his body had strengthened greatly in the past while. Of his body, consciousness, and ling power, the improvement of his ling power was not as visible as his body, but the recent progress was not ordinary.
His ling power had reached twenty five jing, only five jing away from the second stratum. What Zuo Mo didn’t know was how shocked the world would be if he spoke of such a crazy progression speed!
In each stratum, preliminary growth would always be rapid, but the rate would become slow as they got closer to the peak of the stratum. Five jing of cultivation didn’t seem like much. However, many people would expend three years, five years, or even longer on these five jing. Zuo Mo knew that while his cultivation growth rate had slowed, but the decrease was much smaller than normal xiuzhe.
He didn’t know if it was caused by the mo physique or something else.
At this time, he didn’t have the attention to spare. He gathered his ling power and flew with all his power towards the east.
Flying without rise until sunset, there was still nothing to be found. He looked in all directions, there were no traces. Zuo Mo’s expression became dark, and couldn’t control himself from swearing, “Damn it!”
However, his ling power was now completely used up. He had no energy to keep flying and could only land.
Taking out a few pieces of jingshi, he made a Primary Replenishing Formation before meditating to recover his ling power.
After reconstructing the mo physique, the previous formations on his body had been destroyed. However, this mo physique could automatically filter the impurities in the ling power. Zuo Mo patiently processed the ling power he absorbed. Even though the ling power that was absorbed did not have impurities, they were purer if he processed them and easier to control.
After two hours, Zuo Mo opened his eyes again, a light flashing in the dark.
Just as he stood up, the jingshi on the ground exploded into ball of dust.
“This is troublesome,” Zuo Mo flew into the sky, and muttered with a grimace after looking around.
The night was dark, and the coldness seeped into the bones. The cloud layer was very low, dark without any light. Zuo Mo decided to fly up. After a moment, he struggled out of the cloud layer.
The last bit of clouds were thrown behind him, the vast sky appearing in front.
All of the stars were so bright, densely covering the entire sky. From the ground, the cloud layer looked endless. Under the starlight, it was like a black ocean.
Between this cloud ocean and the stars, he was the only person!
He had never seen such a beautiful scene before. He was entranced for a while.
A moment later, he woke up. Looking at the female xiu that was silently floating beside him, his mood became slightly better. He said to her with a smile, “Silly Bird is somewhat dumb, but silly birds usually have silly luck, she shouldn’t be in trouble this time.”
He knew that the female xiu could not hear. Speaking this was just to comfort himself.
Suddenly, a few dots of light appeared in the sky.
Zuo Mo was instantly alerted and turned his head around .
It was a sword light! Zuo Mo was not unfamiliar with sword lights. These were the lights that were usually created when sword xiu flew on their flying swords.
These sword lights came extremely quickly. Almost in the blink of an eye, they went from the size of a sesame seed to a mung bean. Zuo Mo could barely make out that there were four people coming, three male and one female, all of them sword xiu.
Zuo Mo’s mind secretly became alert. These four people were not ordinary. Their speed as they flew on the sword was almost the same as when he would be using the Thunder Flowing Light Wings with all his power.
However, he didn’t avoid them but moved forward. He wanted to ask the four people if they had seen Silly Bird.
The four of them came very quickly. Zuo Mo vibrated his ling power and shouted out, “Please wait!”
The four sword lights stopped at a place fifty zhang from Zuo Mo. All four of them looked warily at Zuo Mo. One of them opened, “Why has Sire stopped us?” His tone was slightly unfriendly.
“Sorry sorry!” Zuo Mo raised his ha
nds and smiled with friendliness. “This one’s steed was suddenly alarmed. This one has chased for a long time, but has lost it. Stopping everyone is just to ask if you have encountered a grey misty cloud?”
The expressions of the four eased. One of them said, “We did just see a grey shadow pass by, but it was to fast, we couldn’t make it out.”
Zuo Mo’s mind became alert. “Do you know which direction?”
“That way,” the person said as he pointed behind him.
Zuo Mo hurriedly gave his thanks, rose and flew in the direction the person pointed at.
“Shixiong, you are…?” the female xiu asked with puzzlement. They hadn’t seen any grey shadow along the way.
“Hee hee,” the person laughed darkly. “We can’t capture that benefit, but we can’t let the person named Huang and the others to get it so easily. Otherwise, when we go back to Clear Sky Sect, our branch wouldn’t even have any room.”
“This person’s cultivation doesn’t seem to be high. I saw that he is only ningmai first stratum,” another person said confusedly.
“Ha ha, we can silently follow behind. You will know when it is time,” This person said confidently. “Maybe we can even take advantage of the chaos, and get some benefits.”
* * *
Translator Ramblings: Aah, Zuo Mo’s pets come back to remind us of their presence. WanderingGummiOfDoom thinks Silly Bird flew off because Zuo Mo told her to go fly the last time she was leveling up. That’s very plausible and if that’s the case, then all of this is Zuo Mo’s fault.
Also, Zuo Mo is clearly not thinking with a clear mind and Pu Yao admits his increasing weakness.
Chapter 266: A Little Harvest
After flying for about an hour, there were still no signs. Zuo Mo calmed down. He knew that panicking was not useful. Based on Silly Bird’s fierce flying, she probably wouldn’t stop anytime soon. As long as the direction was right, he would find her.
The grey mud that Lil’ Pagoda spat out was a smorgasbord of substances outside the five elements. He didn’t know what change would come after Silly Bird had eaten so much. It would be good if nothing happened to her. He was very worried. Silly Bird was the first ling beast he had owned, and he had a deep attachment to her. Even though she was very proud and had terrible habits, like showing off and not looking at people properly, but when he thought about the first time he was wounded, and Silly Bird had done her best to carry him back, his heart still was moved.