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

by Fang Xiang

  The story will be a whole less realistic. Mu Xi has clearly trained for her position through school, and she is an officer. The rest are trained soldiers sent on this special mission so they probably are not regular foot soldiers. Remember that the xiuzhe are fleeing Sky Moon Jie and the ones that are passing through Zuo Mo’s island aren’t the big sects but the lower classes. They have no organization that they belong to so not one of them would stay to fight. That is what causes this instant defeat in this chapter.

  Chapter 204: Improvement

  The date seed ship submerged at a fast rateIn a blink, it had reached ten li under the surface. Through the windows on the ship, the outside was pitch black. The surroundings were silent, the noise from the outside was completely blocked

  Everyone finally relaxed. The yao army used one attack to destroy any of the hopes they had left.

  Silly Bird shook the water off. She looked liked a chicken in soup broth, with all of the drooping features. Even the proud Silly Bird was scared half to death by the hard lightning that had come from the sky and became much more docile. When Zuo Mo had come out of seclusion, he had taken Silly Bird and the others with him.

  Chun Yu Cheng collapsed on the ground, heaving. By comparison, Gongsun Cha was much more composed but there was still a hint of fear lingering in his eyes.

  Of everyone, the only ones that could truly maintain their calm were the three Golden Armour Guards. As usual, they held their swords and stood like statues.

  Zuo Mo had recovered from the nervousness. Seeing everyone was complete and whole, his mood became much better. Just having escaped death, no one in the ship had any interest in talking, all of them catching their breaths and calming their minds.

  After a while, Zuo Mo found his mind had relaxed greatly and stood up, and began inspecting the date seed ship.

  During his seclusion, even though he had figured out how to activate the date seed ship, but he hadn’t studied it. Right now, the date seed ship was their life-saving talisman, he didn’t dare to leave it up to chance.

  He walked around the cabin of the ship, closely inspecting it. Chun Yu Cheng and Gongsun Cha saw his actions and perceptively chose not to speak.

  This was … …

  Zuo Mo carefully inspected the formations carved on the date seed ship and was very shocked!

  A jingshi talisman!

  The date seed ship was a fourth-grade talisman, and it was even a rare jingshi talisman!

  Jingshi talismans were talismans that could use jingshi as a source of power.Those were usually large-sized talismans. The Thousand Wing Boat that Zuo Mo had seen in Dong Fu was a classical example of a jingshi talisman. Historically, only large sect would forge jingshi talismans. The materials that were needed were not something a normal xiuzhe could afford.

  There were some jingshi talismans for single-person use but not many. Compared to the ling power inside jingshi, the ling power inside xiuzhe was much purer and easier to control.

  This date seed ship was a jingshi talisman. It could carry one hundred xiuzhe, able to fly either in air or in the water.

  Zuo Mo’s interest was stirred up.

  This was the first time he had seen a jingshi talisman. He instantly started to study the formations on the ship. Jingshi talismans were talismans where formations were used most purely. Xiuzhe only had to make some simple commands, and it could work on its own.

  ———

  In a short period of time, he found the locations to put in jingshi. The cabin was empty, and did not even have tables or chairs. The place to insert the jingshi was on the ceiling.

  The ceiling of the cabin had a depiction of the Big Dipper, the seven stars connected. Each star was the place to put in jingshi.

  Zuo Mo took out seven third-grade jingshi from his ring to insert in the positions of the Big Dipper. When he shoved the last piece of jingshi in, everyone felt the cabin light up, a date coloured red light emanated from the ship.

  “Wow, jingshi talisman?” Gongsun Cha was surprised.

  “En, a jingshi talisman that I got from Nan Ming Zi.” Zuo Mo stared at the formations on the ship, calculating inside without turning his head to answer.

  Through the consciousness leaf hand, he could clearly see the seals running through the ship. The more he saw, the more admiration he had. Before this, he had never seen a jingshi talisman before, so he never had seen jingshi talisman formations before.

  The formations were like a gigantic mesh going through the entire date seed ship like they were the channels of the ship. Ling power flowed out from the seven jingshi into the channels and activated the formation.

  He quickly found the differences between the date seed ship and the talismans he had studied before. The ling power that came out of the jingshi was very steady. Normal talismans consumed the ling power of xiuzhe, the ling power would have a variety of changes and would not be so steady.

  There were advantages and disadvantages to both methods.

  Jingshi talismans did not consume the ling power of the xiuzhe. As long as there was jingshi, it could keep working. The disadvantage was that its uses were set, and it was less flexible to adjusting to sudden changes.

  Normal talismans were the exact opposite. Due to consuming the ling power of the xiuzhe, it could not compare in how long jingshi talismans could be used. However, they could do many things and were very good at adjusting to sudden changes.

  Zuo Mo’s heart suddenly moved. If the two advantages could be put together, that would be great!

  Once the idea popped up into his head, it could not be erased.

  After studying for a while, he started to actually ponder if the flash of inspiration he had was realistic or not.

  The space inside the date seed ship was enough for him to set up large amounts of formations. The smaller the space was, the harder it was to set up formations. Forging experts could set down multiple formations in a flying sword the size of a finger.

  Zuo Mo was far from reaching that level. Space was very important for him. The bigger the ship was, the easier it was for him to make modifications.

  There were a total of three formations on the date seed ship. One was a space formation, one was a ling shield formation, the last was a water movement formation.

  Zuo Mo paid more attention to the ling shield formation. It’s defensive ability was average. He decided to change the [Micro Light Formation] to a [Seven Bright Micro Light Formation]. Zuo Mo only needed to put seven [Bright Light Formation] into the [Micro Light Formation] and the defensive power of the shield would increase by at least fifty percent.

  This technique of interlocking child formations was something he had comprehended from the [Skyring Moon Chime Formation]

  The structure of the [Bright Light Formation] was simple and easy to carve, so Zuo Mo quickly finished the [Seven Bright Micro Light Formation]. The ling shield over the ship gradually changed, the light becoming more intense and the shield thicker than it had been before.

  Zuo Mo nodded in satisfaction. It seems his skill in making formations had improved once again. Before, this wouldn’t have been so simple.

  Strengthening the ling shield mean that the consumption of ling power would increase correspondingly. However, Zuo Mo did not worry about this. Right now, he lacked for everything except jingshi.

  Ge has lots of jingshi!

  He suddenly hit his head. Right, how did he forget his greatest advantage!

  Chun Yu Cheng and Gongsun Cha were frightened by Zuo Mo’s action. The two exchanged looks of puzzlement.

  Jingshi! Right now, he had piles of jingshi!

  Before, he had been thinking of carving an offensive formation on the ship that could be controlled by a person. That way, they didn’t need to leave the ship, but they could fight against their enemies.

  When Zuo Mo realized his advantage, he suddenly reacted; he had made a mistake.

  Since it was hard to control jingshi talismans precisely, rather than think of ways to increase the contr
ol over it, it was better to give the talisman a formation that did not need to be controlled, like a [Cloud Lightning Net]. He only needed it to protect the ship. As to increasing the maneuverability of the jingshi talisman, he could slowly study it.

  The high consumption of the [Cloud Electrical Lightning Net] was nothing for Zuo Mo who wanted to keep his life.

  The more he thought, the cleverer he found the idea. Even though there were still big gaps, but it was the most realistic plan at present.

  No matter what, his little life came first.

  He took out a large pile of materials and started to carve formations inside the cabin.

  “What is Shixiong doing?” Chun Yu Cheng asked.

  Gongsun Cha looked over, “I don’t understand, but he seems to be setting up formations.”

  “We should run, not setting up formations now!” Chun Yu Cheng said hurriedly.

  “I don’t know,” Gongsun Cha was also puzzled. He could see what Shixiong was generally doing. Even though he didn’t know why Shixiong was putting up formations now, but he believed in Shixiong‘s judgement. Currently, the only thing he was so shocked by was the fact that Shixiong seemed to be playing with the Jingshi Talisman. Could Shixiong could modify jingshi talismans?

  He knew was much harder to modify talismans than to remake them.

  After a talisman was successfully forged, it was one complete entity and had reached an equilibrium. Modifying was equivalent to first breaking the equilibrium and then setting a new equilibrium.

  Had Shxiong‘s skills with formations reached such a level?

  The Golden Armour Guards stood silently. Silly Bird had recovered from the fright, raising her bird head and stepping her unique bird walk.

  Zuo Mo was very careful. [Bright Light Formation] was only an enhancing formation, and did not have much effect on the equilibrium of the talisman. However [Cloud Lightning Net] was a third-grade formation. It was very strong and needed large amounts of ling power. Zuo Mo needed to add a few more channels to conduct ling power to satisfy the [Cloud Lightning Net]

  The [Cloud Lightning Net] was not difficult for Zuo Mo. The difficulty laid in setting the seals to channel the ling power.

  The formations on the date seed boat before had been very complete. In order to add more seals to increase ling power pathways, he needed to change the entire structure.

  This was the most difficult part. If he wasn’t careful, he could most likely cause the ling power pathways to intersect and then collapse.

  Zuo Mo was very clear about this, so he continuously modelled it in his head before proceeding.

  ———

  Four hours later, he finally thought it through and started to move.

  What he did first was increase the number of jingshi. The ling power expenditure of [Cloud Lightning Net] was very large. Seven pieces of jingshi was not enough to satisfy its needs. Zuo Mo added another twenty one pieces of jingshi.

  On the ceiling of the ship cabin, twenty eight stars shone.

  To save his life, Zuo Mo did not care how much jingshi he had to spend.

  Right after, he started to set up the [Cloud Lightning Net] and added more ling power channelling seals.

  This modification took twelve hours. When he finished, he was exhausted.

  However, he finally finished!

  Hiss hiss!

  Sounds came from the date red ling shield. Immediately after, countless fine lines of miniature lightning appeared on the surface of the ling shield, swimming like little snakes.

  Fine lightning appeared at astounding speed and gathered. In the blink of an eye, a net appeared on the ling shield.

  A net constructed of arm-thick lightning!

  It was like a silver net had covered all of the date seed ship.

  The lightning net slightly trembled, the sound slowly weakening until the hisses had disappeared.

  What was wondrous was that, even though they were in the water, the lightning net on the ling shield showed no signs of dissipating, but was as dense as any other object, silently covering the ling shield.

  The presence of the date seed ship instantly changed.

  * * *

  Translator Ramblings:

  A jingshi talisman for a jingshi grubbing zombie. I think the foreshadowing for Zuo Mo needing an escape off an island was pretty obvious compared to what Fang Xiang has done to lay foundations for previous fights and incidents. Nan Ming Zi came right after Zuo Mo landed on the island, and gave Zuo Mo his ship. Zuo Mo is surrounded by the ocean, and how to travel on the ocean .. … a ship.

  You guys actually asked [in comments] about the golden armor guards but not Silly Bird! The pets should not be forgotten.

  Chapter 205: War Chess

  “Where are we heading?” Chun Yu Cheng asked uncertainly.

  “Jie river.”

  Gongsun Cha’s face was relaxed, half-lying on the bottom of the cabin, relaxed and idle.

  “How do you know?” Chun Yu Cheng looked worriedly at Zuo Mo Shixiong who was still working on the date seed ship. Shixiong had been working for several hours and showed no signs of stopping.

  “Ha. Shixiong might look careful and conservative, but if he’s pressured, he’s vicious and decisive.” Gongsun Cha said unconcernedly.

  “What happens if Little Mountain Jie has been taken by the yaomo?” Chun Yu Cheng’s face was slightly pale. The strong offensive power of the yao army had almost destroyed his soul.

  “No way about it. It’s all up to luck.” Gongsun Cha stretched out his waist, and laid down completely.

  With a hiss, a silver light suddenly flashed outside the ship.

  Just having laid down, Gongsun Cha instantly sat up, eyes looking outside. When he saw the lightning outside the ling shield, he first stilled, and then had joy on his face. Chun Yu Cheng who was in a fragile state of mind was half-scared to death by the noise.

  “How’s the power of that thing?” Gongsun Cha pointed outside the ship, and asked Zuo Mo who had finally stopped and walked over.

  “Better than nothing.” Zuo Mo sat down in exhaustion. “My skill in formations isn’t enough. This lightning net doesn’t have any dead ends but it is way too loose. Don’t have high hopes about the power.”

  Gongsun Cha nodded, and then asked, “How far have we travelled?”

  “This boat goes one hundred li every two hours, how long has it been?”

  “Twelve hours.”

  “Then it’s six hundred li,” Zuo Mo said. “Seems no one has chased after us.”

  “I wonder what this yao army is looking for. This is an unexpected calamity.” Chun Yu Cheng sighed.

  Zuo Mo naturally could not say the yao army was searching for him, but seeing Chun Yu Cheng’s worried expression, he knew this docile person had been frightened too deeply today, and hurried to comfort him.

  The two shidi had two completely different personalities. Chun Yu Cheng was docile, and somewhat lacking in courage, only interested in animals. Gongsun Cha was the exact opposite. He was cunning and daring, calm when there was trouble, and had a devious and dark character. He didn’t have much interest in butchering.

  “Follow the flow.” Gongsun Cha inserted and then raised his delicate face, his eyes shining, “Shixiong, there’s nothing to do now. Why don’t you get them to practice their cooperation?”

  Zuo Mo understood that Gongsun Cha meant the three golden armor guards.

  “Cooperation?”

  Gongsun Cha’s words reminded him. The blow that the yao army had given them was too strong. The troops that were so organized they were almost insane, so neat that it seemed almost impossible, and that lightning attack that they couldn’t even hold their heads up against. Zuo Mo felt that he wouldn’t forget it in his life. The shock and panic of the xiuzhe was the perfect definition of the word “rabble.”

  Every time he thought of it, he felt coldness seep uncontrollably from his heart.

  The yao army gave all the xiuzhe on the Desolate Wood Reef a lesson. />
  Even the stupidest person could see the difference between the two, and could feel the difference in power. Zuo Mo suddenly had a feeling, that the era of individual power was nearing its end.

  However, he quickly threw the problem to the back of his mind. A big problem like an era ending, it wasn’t something a little ningmai like him could relate to. But he agreed greatly with Gongsun Cha’s suggestion.

  However, while he agreed, how to accomplish it was the true problem, “I don’t know how.”

  “We can slowly try,” Gongsun Cha’s decisive tone made Zuo Mo look at him. He grinned. “It’s better than losing our lives.”

  For some reason, Zuo Mo felt Gongsun Shidi’s delicate face was like the raised head of a snake, vicious and cold.

  But when he turned his eyes towards Gongsun, Shidi’s smile was so sunny and timid that Zuo Mo felt he was mistaken.

  “Okay!” He nodded.

  Before having seen the yao army, Zuo Mo might have found it extraneous, but right now he didn’t hesitate.

  This was useful! Very useful!

  For him, starting from a blank slate wasn’t a new experience. Before, as long as he could make jingshi, he would work with all his effort! Now, Zuo Mo discovered that his little life was more important. His belief suddenly turned, anything that could save his little life, he would definitely put everything in!

  The two crowded together and started to discuss.

  Both were greenhorns, the mood was vibrant, but quickly, the discussion reached a standoff. Words had no proof, especially when the two had divergent views, no one could persuade the other. At this time, Gongsun Cha did not care Zuo Mo was his shixiong. His face was flushed as he argued, his expression ferocious, he no longer looked like a weak and bashful young master.