by Fang Xiang
Black Water was a frequently used third-grade material, but that did not mean that it was so cheap.
The Crow Fiend Mo Killing Formation caused everyone to feel terror, but when the spectators saw Zuo Mo continuously sprinkle down one thousand and five hundred catties of Black Water, they almost went insane, and felt great pain!
Their eyes were so jealous they were entirely red.
More than a thousand catties of Black Water … …
Was there anyone that was so wasteful?
Looking at the black energy decreasing, the expressions of pain on Shu Long and the other’s faces decreased greatly, Zuo Mo felt slightly reassured. He suddenly recalled that he had four semi-spheres of Moon Eye, he hurriedly asked Pu Yao, “Are Moon Eyes useful?”
Pu Yao was slightly surprised. “Moon Eyes are very expensive.”
“So it means they are effective?” asked Zuo Mo.
“Oh, it’s effective.”
Just as Pu Yao’s words landed, Zuo Mo took out the four semi-spheres of Moon Eye.
“Moon Eye!” The spectators did not lack for those that recognized it who then exclaimed.
“Black Water! Moon Eye! He must have killed a Moon Eye Black Water Beast! Very strong!”
“That thing is very expensive … … what does he want to do?”
Zuo Mo put the Moon Eyes into the center of his palms and then scrubbed hard. Instantly, the Moon Eyes turned to a pile of white powder.
All the exclamations suddenly stopped. They looked with abject shock at Zuo Mo’s hands.
Zuo Mo gently channeled ling power into his palms. The Moon Eye power instantly turned to a ball of white smoke and covered Guard Camp.
———
“This master of Golden Crow City definitely is of uncommon origin.” The middle-aged person’s expression was admiring. “I don’t know which sect he is a disciple off. This person is very generous and has high aims. Daren may want get acquainted with him.”
The large male also had admiration. To say of nothing else, it wasn’t so easy to be so generous to one’s subordinates. He was confident in the judgment of the middle-aged person. Without a doubt, the master of Golden Crow City definitely was the heir to an ancient and hidden sect. Such a vicious formation, such powerful subordinates, these were things only disciples of those large sects would have. What made him so certain was the one thousand and five hundred catties of Black Water, and the four semi-spheres of Moon Eye that Zuo Mo had taken out.
He was too familiar with these motions!
Just this mannerism wasn’t something a small sect could afford to give. Thinking about himself and his group of people throwing down the thousand jing to get a beauty to smile,[i] it was embarrassing compared to this person today!
So embarrassing!
The large male made the decision that he would definitely request a meeting with the Lord of Golden Crow City when this battle finished.
———
Shu Long and the others knew the value of Black Water and Moon Eye. Mist rose in their eyes. The black energy almost lost control. They had always been ordered about, beaten, and sworn at. No one had ever spent so much on them.
Never before … …
The voice of the daren inside the necklace sounded again. “Gather your minds, return to the city immediately, move slowly.”
Shu Long suppressed the excitement inside. He didn’t say anything, reaching out with a hand to make a motion towards the others. They slowly moved towards Golden Crow City. The city gates of Golden Crow City were wide open. Compared to the crispness and nimbleness when they jumped down from the walls of the city, they were as slow as turtles at this time and had no presence.
But no one dared to underestimate them. When their eyes landed on Guard Camp, they would unconsciously hold a hint of terror.
It was this troop that looked as slow as puppets, it was these bumpkins mocked for wearing clumsy and heavy black armor, that had just destroyed a troop of one thousand xiuzhe!
When Guard Camp entered the city, they went directly back to their camp to process the killing essence, Black Water, and Moon Eyes.
Zuo Mo wasn’t in the mood to face the others, and had the formation battle watchtowers keep up their guard.
He ran to the residence of Guard Camp and saw the armor-wearing xiu slaves standing like wooden posts shrouded in black energy. He worriedly asked Pu Yao, “What happened today? Is there a problem? Right, what formation did they use?”
“Crow Fiend Mo Killing Formation, a type of slightly obscure formation,” Pu Yao said. “It is the most appropriate to use with [Hardship Guard]. This battle formation was something it got after killing a mo general.”
“It?” Zuo Mo was slightly puzzled.
“That stele,” Pu Yao said irritably.
“Oh.” Zuo Mo didn’t understand but noted it down. It seemed the gravestone was as extraordinary as he had expected to be able to kill a mo general. He continued to ask, “What happened today?”
“The first skill of Crow Fiend Mo Killing Formation is called Little Mo Kill, that’s what you saw today,” Pu Yao said. “Even though it doesn’t have much technique, the time they have spent cultivating is too short and it was too hard for them to use.”
“Then what are they doing now?”
Pu Yao was slightly discontent. Originally, he had been planning to show off in front of Zuo Mo, but hadn’t expected that the other had to come and rescued him. This made him feel as uncomfortable as though he had swallowed a fly.
Seeing Zuo Mo stare at him, he could only twist his mouth and say, “They have received good fortune due to this calamity. The killing essence has corroded their body. To other people, it is fatal, but for them, it is a good chance to make a breakthrough. Since you have Black Water, and used the Moon Eyes, if they still can’t break through, they are pigs!”
Zuo Mo’s heart was instantly reassured. He smirked. “I don’t dare to say if they are pigs. I say, Old Pu, you have to be more reliable in the future. You said you wanted to manage Guard Camp alone, okay, I immediate consented. But look, after this long, you only practiced a dumb[ii] formation and a self-mutilation skill. Please, you are a Sky Yao, you need to take out something acceptable! A person can’t be so miserly, no, no, a Sky Yao can’t be so miserly. You even needed ge to run over for a rescue! Do you think Black Water and Moon Eyes doesn’t cost jingshi? Honored Sky Yao, it is very expensive!
Finishing, he didn’t looked at Pu Yao’s white and green face, turned, and left the sea of consciousness.
Once he came out of the sea of consciousness, Zuo Mo couldn’t stop himself from roaring with laughter. When he thought of Pu Yao’s green and white ugly expression, he felt his body was unspeakably comfortable.
After two thousand and five hundred people had fallen outside Golden Crow City, Hong Jun Xuan who saw it all with his own eyes had to tuck up his tail no matter how arrogant he was.
He definitely could not accept leaving pitifully like this, but he didn’t dare to mount another frontal attack. He Xiang and the others had all been killed in this battle. He had paled just from watching. Where could he get the bravery? Out of helplessness, he could only set down camp, and slowly brainstorm.
The night came quickly. Golden Crow City that usually was filled with light was pitch black today. But the camp of the Outer Hall was lit up like it was day. They were afraid of a sneak attack from Golden Crow City. The xiuzhe that were watching from afar were waiting for the day to arrive. It seemed like nothing would happen tonight.
Time quickly flowed until midnight.
Suddenly, the city gate of Golden Crow City was pushed open a sliver. Lil’ Pagoda sneakily peeked out with half of its body, saw that no one was there, before walking out without any worry. Behind it, a row of copper puppets tip-toed as they streamed out. Each cooper puppet had a cloth bag on its back
Lil’ Pagoda slowly flew at the front, occasionally looking around. The copper puppets leapt towards the corpses below with a nimbl
eness and speed completely opposite its clumsy bodies.
Their movements were uncoordinated as they tore down the talismans, and ling armor from the bodies of the corpses, and then put them into the cloth bag on their backs. At the beginning, their movements were extremely raw, but then they slowly became smooth.
Very quickly, the cloth bag on a puppet’s back was full. At this time, a grey shadow flashed past its back and flew away with the bag. The copper puppet slowly took out a second cloth bag and continued to work.
On the morning of the next day when everyone looked at Golden Crow City, they were stunned.
The corpses that had been scattered on the mountain were now completely bare.
This … … this … …
Looking at the bare corpses on the mountain, everyone completely lost their abilities to speak. When Hong Jun Xuan saw this scene, he didn’t know what to say.
So vicious … …
In Golden Crow City, Bao Yi completely sank into mania as he looked at the mountain of talismans. An exhilarated blush floated on his face, he forgot exhaustion as he started to sort the talismans.
Lil’ Pagoda was at the side, continuously throwing talismans into its mouth. Before, Bao Yi had quite an opinion about Lil’ Pagoda swallowing talismans, but he was abnormally cooperative today. He even took out a large pile of talismans and put them in front of Lil’ Pagoda.
When Zuo Mo saw results of Bao Yi’s inventory, it was like someone whacked him on the head. He felt extremely dizzy.
Rich! They really struck it rich this time!
* * *
[i] So the actual phrase in Chinese (千金博美人一笑) roughly translates to “a thousand gold to gain a beauty’s smile.” The idiom comes from the story of King You of Zhuo who had a queen with the surname Bo that did not smile. He said that he would pay a thousand gold to the person that made her smile. Of course he did a lot of other things that ended up with him deposed. Gold (jin) is changed to jing so it becomes a thousand jing for the smile of a beauty.
[ii] ] Dumb (傻) and kill (杀) are different tones that are very close to each other and have the same pinyin but pronounced differently. So Zuo Mo mangles the killing formation into a dumb formation.
* * *
Translator Ramblings: No cliffy at all! Silly Bird and the rest pay for their keep, well, some of it. The Scalping Corpse Freak makes a reappearance.
There is very little to go on but there’s enough information for me to think Huang Zhuo Guang was a better leader than Hong Jun Xuan is being right now. Hong Jun Xuan is really cautious with his life.
Chapter 294: The Return of Lil’ Miss
The spoils from two thousand and five hundred people was astounding.
Other than large amounts of normal third-grade talismans, there were also twelve fourth-grade talismans. The elders had been very rich. Of course, that Cloud Formation Silk naturally wouldn’t have been lost. The number of materials and jingshi were also very astounding. The spoils this time filled all of the date seed ship.
This was an astonishing amount of wealth.
So when Zuo Mo saw the inventory list Bao Yi gave him, he was turned dumb by such enormous wealth. However, upon further thought, he felt it was normal. The Outer Hall xiuzhe were wealthier than the average xiuzhe to start with, and since it was two thousand and five hundred people at once, the amount could be imagined.
In the next few days, Zuo Mo was immersed in great happiness.
———
Hong Jun Xuan did not dare to act rashly. He had personally saw the Guard Camp destroy one thousand people with the flick of a finger. He was especially wary of the deathly black energy that could ignore ling shields.
He sank into a situation where he could not retreat.
“What good ideas do you have?” He Jun Xuan’s eyes were bloodshot and his voice hoarse.
The other shidi looked at each other. After a while, a shidi said, “There’s so many xiuzhe behind Golden Crow City. Why doesn’t Shixiong recruit them? I saw that the state of those heavy armor xiuzhe wasn’t so well after the battle. Golden Crow City may not be as strong as we imagine. If we can recruit more people, our chances of victory would increase.”
Hong Jun Xuan shook his head. “If we win and order them to submit to us, none of them would disobey. But now that victory is undecided, they will only watch. They would only obey if Master came.”
Everyone sank into silence again.
They had been hoping to get some achievements this time. Looking at it now, there was no hope left. It was a disappointment that they would not get any achievements, but it was much better than losing their life. The strength of Golden Crow City was beyond their imagination. Unless Master personally came, they didn’t feel that any faction in Little Mountain Jie would be able to conquer this little city.
Hong Jun Xuan knew what the shidi were all thinking, but he didn’t have a solution at this time. It was a great misstep to have come this time. The authority that he had managed to accumulate would probably be lost this time.
But he was a decisive person. He understood the only solution now was to ask for aid from Master.
Before Master came, if he could preserve the power of the present Outer Hall, even if he did not earn any great accomplishments, he would be noted for his work. After thinking it through, he instantly made his response. “Let’s stay on the defensive. I’ll trouble one shidi to go make a trip and send a letter to Master for me.”
Several shidi instantly jumped out. They all wanted to leave this nightmarish place faster.
Seventh Shidi happily put away the jade scroll that Hong Jun Xuan handed over, and made his farewells. He quickly flew into the air and left on his sword. The other shidi were all discontent, but they didn’t have any way around it. Seventh Shidi flew the fastest among them all.
Just as everyone was grumbling, a sword light flew at astounding speed towards the camp.
“Hm, why has Seventh Shidi come back?” one of the people remarked in puzzlement.
They saw Seventh Shidi land in the camp with a terrified expression. The moment he stepped on the ground, he stumbled, his face full of panic. “Second Shixiong! Second Shixiong! Not good! People are coming over … …”
Boom, the camp instantly became a mess. All of the Clear Sky Sect disciples had expressions of anger. Had Clear Sky Sect really become a softy for anyone to squeeze? Any random person could run and shit over their heads? Hong Jun Xuan, who had lost at Golden Crow City, instantly became angry!
“Hmph! They really dare to rebel against the heavens! After this Golden Crow City, they all think that they are Golden Crow City!”
The Clear Sky Sect disciples hurriedly agreed. With a rumble, everyone rose into the sky.
———
After resting from battle for a few days, the xiuzhe in the surroundings had become slightly bored. Seeing the Outer Hall fly into the sky once again, they instantly became alert.
Were they going to continue to attack Golden Crow City?
Many people secretly shook their heads. Many of them had been thinking, out of boredom, these days on how to attack Golden Crow City, but they found that this little Golden Crow City wasn’t something they could swallow. Only two of Golden Crow City’s cards had been revealed, and they destroyed two thousand and five hundred people from the Outer Hall. Who knew how many more tricks did they have up their sleeves?
To say of nothing else, just the city walls that exuded a faint solar aura was already extraordinary. These people had all went inside Golden Crow City to buy Black Processing Meditation mats. The dense and dizzying formations that could be seen everywhere in Golden Crow City made many xiuzhe that thought they were skilled in formations feel embarrassed.
If there wasn’t a jindan expert, such a strong city could only be taken using lives.
However, the direction the Outer Hall was facing … … seemed to be opposite to Golden Crow City.
Everyone watched in astonishment. What was the Outer Hall
doing? They saw a seven hundred or so troop appear in their view and understood. The news that the cadet halls of the Outer Hall had been attacked had long spread throughout Little Mountain Jie. Many people speculated this unusually mysterious and strong troop was very likely to be a force from Golden Crow City!
The six divisions of Vermillion Bird Camp silently floated in the air as they faced the Outer Hall.
“Such an elite force!” A bright light suddenly exploded in the eyes of the middle-aged person who couldn’t help but exclaim.
“How so? Their numbers seem too few,” said the large male as he looked with shock at the middle-aged person. It was extremely rare to hear this person praise others usually. He hadn’t expected that Golden Crow City, and now this troop, would receive such high praise in the last few days.
“The only weakness is that there is not enough people!” The middle-aged person said, “Daren, look closely at this troop. The shape of this troop is not as strictly organized as the armor-wearing xiuzhe from two days ago, but in reality, it only appears loose on the outside, but is tight on the inside. This is a quality that would only appear on troops that are experienced at battle. Facing so many enemies, they are not the least bit panicked or rushed. This means that they are confident.”
“If this kind of troop is in our sect, what could it rank?” the large male asked in curiosity.
“It should enter the top ten,” the middle-aged person said gravely.
The large male suddenly changed expression. He finally started to look seriously at this troop that was only seven to eight hundred people. The top ten troops in his sect were all famous in their jie. His dream was to possess a troop that could enter the top ten, but up until now, he was very far from his goal.
People who had keen eyes were not few. The biggest feeling that Vermillion Bird Camp gave everyone was a pressure that blew straight at them.