World of Cultivation - Volume 03 - Seeking Survival On A Desolate Island

by Fang Xiang

  “Seven Star Sword Boots, intermediate fourth-grade, the Seven Star Step Method is wondrous, unable to be predicted. As long as you are wearing it, you can easily avoid all kinds of attacks, your steps traceless, the best item for short-range movement. Other than that, it has a Seven Star Sword Formation, if you step in a Seven Stars pattern, the formation would take form automatically, making your attacks undefendable. Each pair is only seventy four fourth-grade jingshi.”

  “Buy!” Zuo Mo’s eyes were bright, as he unhesitatingly nodded. “Four pairs!”

  Hong Yang completely got into the rhythm, despite having never been as excited as he was now. “Same Heart Necklace. This is a rare upper fourth-grade talisman. It can be called great craftsmanship. It is able to let your mind connect to six others. The best aid to melee fighting! One hundred and fifty pieces of fourth-grade jingshi!”

  Zuo Mo’s eyes could not move away. He instantly nodded. “Buy!”

  This was truly a good thing!

  He instantly got the three golden armor guards to come over. He put on the Same Heart Necklace, and cast the corresponding spell. He instantly felt three clear intangible connections. His mind moved, and one of the golden armor guards suddenly went forward three steps.

  Zuo Mo was overjoyed. With this necklace, his offensive strength was elevated.

  “This is Snake Pupil Belt … …”

  The battle was not finished … …

  ———

  When Hong Yang went back to his residence, he was still somewhat dazed. What he had experienced today had been like a dream. Zuo Mo had almost cleared out all the talismans in his ring. He had never encountered a customer as rich as this one, it was too scary!

  Thinking about the little pile of mini boxes in his ring, the feeling of surrealism became even stronger.

  This time, he really made a profit!

  ———

  Zuo Mo saw the golden armor guards armed to the teeth, and grinned. All fourth-grade talismans that dazzled a person’s eyes. The present golden armor guards could be described by one phrase only — — deadly weapons!

  Gongsun Cha and Chun Yu Cheng were dumbstruck. Was this xiuzhe? It was three display racks for talismans!

  Any place that a talisman could be hung on the body of the golden armor guard, Zuo Mo did not leave it empty.

  Hands holding the crimson fire broadsword, bodies covered in golden armor, feet encased in Seven Star Sword Boots, hands wearing Ten Thousand Appearances Gloves, waist tied with the Snake Pupil Belt, and Thunder Flowing Light Wings on the back!

  Red, green, gold, silver, with Zuo Mo’s terrible sense of beauty, there naturally was no beauty here. Everyone’s first thought when they would see this was only be — — nouveau riche! So rich!

  It was like those rich country bumpkins plating their teeth in gold, wanting everyone to know.

  Even Gongsun Cha and Chun Yu Cheng felt disdain. But other than that, it evoked deep fright. The thick killing intent spilling from the three golden armor guards made one have to directly look and judge the terrifying power contained under this ugly grandeur!

  Gongsun Cha and Chun Yu Cheng also received many talismans, mostly for life-saving and escaping. The two of them did not have any fighting power at all. If they had offensive talismans, they wouldn’t even be able to use a fraction of its power. However, the husbandry and butchery jade scrolls and life-saving talismans made the two smile. Especially Gongsun Cha. After he received the white medal, it was hard to progress as jade scrolls were hard to find.

  Other than talismans, Zuo Mo had bought large amounts of materials from Hong Yang, especially some fourth-grade materials.

  However, this furious shopping spree had emptied him of Golden Crow Fire.

  But Zuo Mo did not care. He could gather Golden Crow Fire at any time. It wasn’t difficult for him. With this batch of talismans, to say of nothing else, their offensive power had multiplied. He had the confidence to face anyone under jindan.

  However, what he felt demotivated by was the golden armor guards seemed born to fight. Compared to himself, they did not seem to need to practice to easily use the talismans to reach their full potentials. Zuo Mo gaped.

  Deeply struck, Zuo Mo could only slowly adjust. Like the Seven Star Sword Boots, if he needed to activate the sword formation, he needed to do seven steps after the other in the correct locations.

  ———

  When the fully armored golden armor guards appeared on the Desolate Wood Reef the next day, they caused a small disturbance. Any xiuzhe that saw them couldn’t help but have a stunned expression.

  Hong Yang didn’t dare to stay long, leaving the next day.

  Pu Yao coldly looked at the gradually shrinking black water lake. The black water lake was only a quarter of the size it had been originally. Those human-like monsters were continuously transporting black water from the lake to the altar.

  The old-fashioned and crude altar was now completely black without any glow.

  “Almost there,” Pu Yao muttered. He blew out black air. Those human-like monsters once again landed in the lake water.

  After that, he waved his sleeve. Large amounts of materials were added to the lake water, many of them ones that Zuo Mo had bought from Hong Yang. The black lake water started to bubble, like a boiling pot of porridge.

  Pu yao’s right palm opened slightly, a red-black flame appeared at the center of his pal,

  Hiss!

  His hand did not move, but the red-black flame suddenly turned into a fire dragon and charged at the altar.

  The red-black fire flamed as it surrounded the altar, the flames flickering and enchanting.

  Pu Yao inhaled deeply, his hands reaching out.

  His hands changed movements. His slightly closed bloody eye suddenly widened, commanding lightly, “Rise!”

  The altar that was shrouded in fire rose at command and started to fly towards the black lake, only slowly landing as it reached the center of the lake. As it carried the flames that were so red they were almost black, it floated at the center of the lake.

  Pu Yao’s expression was solemn, his eyes focused, not daring to slip, as his hands changed shape again.

  It was like the fire was poured on oil, spreading across the surface of the black water. In a blink, the entire black water lake was shrouded in flame.

  Pu Yao finally released a breath. He reached out his hand, the black water lake dramatically shrinking until it became palm sized. Then the mini lake flew into his hand, the surrounding flame silently burning.

  After being forged for many more months, the Nether Pool could form!

  A deep exhaustion came from his body. Pu Yao felt unspeakably tired and sighed lightly inside. The present him was so weak.

  ———

  Zuo Mo’s excitement had not faded. He had never bought so many talismans before, and so many fourth-grade talismans!

  The feeling of being so rich was so good!

  “Not bad, you are at ningmai.” Pu Yao suddenly appeared, He seemed slightly exhausted. “Then let’s continue with the earth energy.”

  Zuo Mo felt as though a bucket of cold water was poured on his head.

  Drawing out earth energy! He finally understood what was extreme grief born of extreme joy … …

  It was alright though; this had benefits for him, so Zuo Mo comforted himself in this way.

  Pu Yao’s actions were unusually fast. In a blink, the earth energy inside Zuo Mo’s body was cleanly swept away. Zuo Mo dropped to the ground, paralyzed, his body occasionally convulsing. Pu Yao glanced at Zuo Mo on the ground. His face showed pleasured, before he disappeared.

  Zuo Mo’s mind was blank.

  It was four hours later when his numb mind finally recovered.

  Why, why was the feeling this time was stronger than before?

  Was it a side effect of breaking through to ningmai?

  Before, he had assumed that he had gradually adjusted to the pain of earth energy being forcibly drawn out, he hadn
’t thought the pain would suddenly increase. Without any preparation, Zuo Mo instantly became a tragedy.

  ———

  A female stared at the large river in front of her. Behind her was a silent and solemn, well-organized troop.

  “Have you found out?”

  “Yes!” A middle-aged man said respectfully, “The location of Stars in Daytime is Sky Moon Jie. It was not long ago, about a year ago.”

  “One year ago … …” The female sighed lightly. “I’m very curious which daren it is.”

  The middle-aged man’s eyes were filled with a fanatical heat. “A daren that could escape from the Yao Forging Tower, it definitely is a daren that managed to survive the Thousand Year Great War!”

  “Thousand Year Great War … … a long time ago.”

  “Miss!”

  “Nothing, I’m just reflecting.” The female smiled. “Our generation is very lucky.”

  “Yes!” The middle-aged man couldn’t help but be excited.

  “Have there been any suspicious targets?” The female asked.

  “Not yet.” The middle-aged male gave a realistic plan. “We have already found the jie rivers to Sky Moon Jie. We only need to lock the jie rivers, and we will have plentiful time to slowly investigate.”

  “Alright, it is a stupid method.”

  “Yes! Our previous infiltrators were impeded by others, so … …”

  “Nothing, stupid methods are more effective sometimes.” The female waved her hand.

  “Yes.”

  Glancing at the jie river, the female said, “Depart.”

  “Yes!”

  * * *

  Translator Ramblings:

  Daren is the general term used to refer to officials and people of status and power. I’m going to use it a lot because “Honorable Personage,” or “Sir” are not enough to cover the meanings. Going “Greetings to panjandrum/VIP” is also quite awkward.

  Zuo Mo throws around his money and has terrible sense about appearances.

  Time-travel and dimensional-travel are very common plot devices. It erases a character’s mistakes, give them foresight and knowledge, and usually sets them up to win when they lost in their previous life if the character is born back in time. There is also being reborn in another person’s body. In dimensional travel, knowledge from one’s modern life becomes an aid if they are reborn in historical times, and they have a small edge if they are born in a different world. Sometimes the rebirth element is almost unnecessary except for the author to easily relate something in the modern world to the setting of the novel without having to explain or show how something works or happens.

  In novels where the character ends back at a certain point in their life, it is to change a major event that may be their fault. The struggles that character encounters are almost always solved through advance knowledge and the author seems to be unable to think of a plausible solution. If a character ends up in another person’s body, it becomes an opportunity for the author to compare how their characters contrast in dealing with situations. The great majority of the time, the new owner of the body does much better.

  Chapter 202: Territory Intrusion

  Zuo Mo played with the beast service card in his hand, as a multi-colored butterfly flew around him. Chun Yu Cheng named this multi-colored butterfly Rainbow Mark Butterfly, it was the most outstanding ling beast he had ever raised up until now.

  Zuo Mo could feel an extremely weak presence come from the Rainbow Mark Butterfly. The thoughts were very weak, and there were many images that were indistinct. This was a characteristic unique to low level ling beasts. The higher the grade of the ling beast, the more intelligent it would be. High level ling beasts were not much different than xiuzhe.

  This Rainbow Mark Butterfly was only third-grade, and its intelligence just forming. Naturally, there would be many messages that Zuo Mo could not understand.

  However, it could accurately understand Zuo Mo’s orders and was very obedient. The beast pool had been constructed to make jingshi. He had never thought that he wouldn’t lack for jingshi now. So the batch of ling butterflies had been turned from a business product into for their own use.

  The Rainbow Mark Butterfly was the most outstanding of the three ling butterflies. It had three spells: Rainbow Pupils, Illusion Poison, Poison Change.

  He ordered the Rainbow Mark Butterfly to cast the Rainbow Pupils. The Rainbow Mark Butterly lightly fluttered its wings, a rainbow light landed on Zuo Mo’s body. His eyes were suddenly covered in a layer of faint five-colored light. Zuo Mo felt the world in front of him change.

  Everything he saw was grey-white.

  The silently masticating Rainbow Mark Butterfly communicated before Zuo Mo understood. The so-called Rainbow Pupil was to detect poison. It could detect the danger of poisonous items.

  Zuo Mo did not cultivate poison so the spell was not very useful for him. The only place he could use it was in dan-making.

  Compared to Rainbow Pupil, Illusion Poison was much more interesting. Illusion Poison was to use poison to create illusion. Zuo Mo was very interested. He instantly thought of the uses for this spell. If he secretly fortified a few places of his formation with illusion poison, then no one would detect it.

  However, the spell most important to Zuo Mo was the third spell – poison change! Rather than calling it a spell, poison change was more like a talent. According to Chun Yu Cheng’s explanation, if he kept on feeding the Rainbow Mark Butterfly poison, especially high-grade poison, when it reached a certain level, it could cause the Rainbow Mark Butterfly to transform and enter a higher grade.

  As the grade increased, the intelligence of a ling beast would increase, and there was a possibility of the addition of a spell. It was a pity that Zuo Mo did not have any interest in poison, much less high-grade poison.

  Suddenly, Zuo Mo smacked his forehead. How did he forget that? Didn’t his Inky Black Lava White Fire have a deadly poison? That was the poison obtained by processing a fourth-grade Inky Black Lotus Seed.

  The grade of the Inky Black Lotus Fire was too low. Zuo Mo had decided to use the Golden Crow Fire as the primary one. It was perfect for him to split the fire apart. The poison for the Rainbow Mark Butterfly, the fire for Lil’ Pagoda. Even though the grade of the Inky Black Lava White Fire was not high, but it was still a fire seed, and quite pure.

  But before that, Zuo Mo still needed to do one thing: forge the Blue Ice sword. The Blue Icicle Crystal could only be forged with a cold fire. The grade of the Golden Crow Fire was higher, but the attribute was not correct.

  The Blue Icicle Crystal sword billet was about half a chi long, its body shaped like a prism. When the light reflected on the facets of the prism, it was very beautiful.

  ———

  Three days later, the Blue Ice Sword took form!

  The entire body was like a blue icicle, the tip of the sword extremely sharp. The body of the sword was made out of countless facets. As it floated in the air, a mist naturally formed around the sword.

  Zuo Mo’s mind moved. Pew, the Blue Ice Sword entered the ground, only leaving behind a sword shaped hole. There was a circle of clear ice cracks around the hole. It could be seen just how cold it was.

  Zuo Mo’s forging skill was not high and the Blue Ice Crystal was just lower fourth-grade. The grade of the Inky Black Lava White Fire was also too low. He had barely managed to forge a fourth-grade flying sword.

  He didn’t care that much. The five essence sword set emphasized the cooperation between the different qualities of the flying swords.

  Taking apart the Inky Black Lava White Fire, however, had taken Zuo Mo quite a bit of effort. The poison from the Inky Black Lotus had long ago merged into the flame. Zuo Mo did not have the strength at his cultivation level to take it apart. However, he thought of a clever solution, let Lil’ Pagoda deconstruct it.

  The present Lil’ Pagoda only needed a bit to break through to fourth-grade, its control greatly increased. It could control how to decompose w
hat was put into it.

  The Inky Black Lava White Fire was quickly taken apart. The Inky Black Lotus poison was separated out. What surprised Zuo Mo was that this ball of Inky Black Lotus poison was an invisible substance. When he used ling power to carefully surround this deadly poison, he was instantly alarmed. His ling power was quickly consumed.

  As expected from a fourth-grade Inky Black Lotus’ poison!

  This discovery made him hesitate. Could the Rainbow Mark Butterfly tolerate such a strong poison? But quickly, he could feel the Rainbow Mark Butterfly’s anticipation and joy. The Rainbow Mark Butterfly lightly flapped its multi-colored wings, and a circle of light surrounded the poison.

  The ring of light continuously shrunk until it disappeared.

  Zuo Mo was slightly disappointed. A line of black had appeared on the wings of the Rainbow Mark Butterfly, but there was no other change. Lil’ Pagoda absorbed the fire seed, but there were no signs of another breakthrough.

  Alright, he could not be too greedy, Zuo Mo mumbled.

  He started to absorb the Golden Crow Fire.

  ———

  The atmosphere of the Desolate Wood Reef was nervous and fretful. Everyone’s face was slightly heavy. A few days ago, several xiuzhe had escaped from the jie river.

  They had encountered a group of very strong xiuzhe. That group killed everyone they saw. Many xiuzhe didn’t even have the time to flee before they were killed.

  Instantly, the Desolate Wood Reef became tense. These injured xiuzhe had no strength to fly over the Endless Ocean, and could only stay on the Desolate Wood Reef. Those xiuzhe that had originally planned to travel to Little Mountain Jie through the jie river didn’t dare to move recklessly, and waited to see what would happen.

  The number of xiuzhe on the Desolate Wood Reef increased, but no one dared to cause a disturbance. Other than the intimidation of the three golden armor guards, they also understood, if there really was a powerful enemy, the formation on the island was their strongest defense.