by Fang Xiang
Why were the sects so powerful? Wasn’t it because they held the great majority of resources? And spells, that was the most important kind of resource that the sects possessed!
The monopoly sects had over spells was one of the foundations that they used to monopolize in reality. Due to this, in these thousands of years, all the sects and factions maintained this unusual and unspoken agreement.
This guy’s conduct intruded onto the profits of all the sects and factions around Xu Ling City!
He really was crazy!
Tian Zhong Zhou shook his head. But looking at the scene in front of him, for some unknown reason, all he felt it was pity.
* * *
Translator Ramblings: Zuo Mo is accidentally … … breaking unspoken norms. I’m not sure of the exact chapter but way back in the beginning, there had been a paragraph on how the “training classes” offered in Dong Fu were not actually very good and just gateways to entering a sect. Well, here’s more on how sects keeps knowledge under barriers.
Chapter 457: Devious
Tian Xiao Wei drunkenly walked on the streets as he was returning from drinking ling wine.
Ever since three years ago when he tasted ling wine for the first time, he was enchanted with the taste of ling wine. Every time after he received his wages, he would run to Heavenly Restaurant to have a few cups. He could not afford very good ling wine, and could only drink second-grade ling wine.
He didn’t have much interest in cultivation and had been stuck on the second stratum of zhuji for five or so years without any movement.
The night wind blew on his face, the intoxication rose and he was dazed.
Suddenly, two people appeared and walked towards him. Seeing him, they warmly gave their greetings, “Little Brother Wei!”
Tian Xiao Wei felt they were unfamiliar but he still pretended to know them and responded, “Where are you two going?”
“Planning to go drink wine. How about it, Little Brother Wei, go with us!” The other was very enthusiastic. The two people circled him and pulled his arm.
Tian Xiao Wei suddenly felt slight wariness. He wanted to break free but found to his shock that his body could not move!
He wanted to speak but no matter how hard he tried, his mouth could not produce any noise.
His eyes revealed the terror he felt.
He was pinned on both sides by the two and great force was applied to his arms,, and forced to walk outside the city.
———
“They are seeking death!” When Tian Yong Qing finished hearing Tian Zhong Zhou’s report, he said with a smirk, “These short-sighted people are not a problem.”
Tian Heng Bo’s expression was not so good, “I spoke with Xu Zheng Wei. He didn’t say it explicitly but these people do not plan on selling Turtle Island, even trading won’t work! I just want to see how they think they can oppose our Tian Family! Bastards! They are shameless!”
“Oppose our Tian Family, they need to have the ability,” another elder said with a smile, “Ye brother’s battalion rose forty-something ranks, that is really frightening.”
Speaking of this, the members of the Tian family all had smiles on their faces.
Among the sound tablets of Cloud Sea Jie, there was a program called Battalion Review. They would regularly review and rank the famous battalions of Cloud Sea Jie and held great authority. The Tian Ye Battalion had risen quickly, and successfully entered the top two hundred, ranked one hundred and ninety two. Due to this, public opinion of the Tian Family’s strength had also risen rapidly and they had become the second largest power in Xu Ling City next to Xu Ling Sect.
A powerful battalion was the representation of a faction’s power!
However, compared to individual rankings, battalion ranks were much steadier. So when Tian Ye Battalion had suddenly rose quickly, it attracted the attention of many people. The Tian Family instantly felt the change in attitudes of the surrounding factions when they became the second most powerful faction of Xu Ling City.
At this time, the Turtle Island people were such an eyesore in the eyes of the Tian Family!
“We must have Turtle Island!” A cold light flashed through Tian Yong Qing’s eyes. “This is too important for our Tian Family! No matter which method we use, we need to have Turtle Island in our hands!”
Everyone stopped breathing to wait for his next words.
“The Turtle Island Cultivation classes has almost forced all other cultivation classes out of business. Ha, an outsider has stolen everyone’s business, this is not allowed on the business market!”
“Investigate which families have been damaged the most. We need to let the outsider see our power! Hmph, an outsider, what waves do they think they can make?”
Tian Yong Qing smiled coldly.
———
Ma Fan carefully laid his stomach against the ground, the presence of his body was concealed. He didn’t dare to even breathe.
He was memorizing the surrounding geography and formations.
No one would have expected for him to hide here for three whole days. In these three days, he became very familiar with this area. This was a storehouse for the Tian Family. Just as Zuo Mo’s cultivation classes were gaining popularity, he had secretly started an investigation of the Tian Family.
Ma Fan and the others had been there when Daren had been ambushed last time and felt great responsibility.
After that, Ma Fan and the others received a mission to secretly investigate the Tian Family. Shu Long had given them a jade scroll with a variety of concealment and scouting techniques. This was like giving wings to the tigers, the seasoned veterans of Sky Peak Platoon.
They quickly collected information and determined the general situation of the Tian Family.
Want to play in the dark, let’s see who is more devious!
Ma Fan muttered inside, he didn’t know who was direction the mission this time. In the beginning, everyone thought it was Lil’ Miss but they quickly found the style was completely different. Lil’ Miss was good at being a battle general, but scheming like this from the shadows was not something Lil’ Miss could play with. Was it Daren? But it didn’t seem like it. Daren was sometimes wretched but he liked being straightforward much more.
Then who was it?
Such an evil plan, even an old-timer like Ma Fan couldn’t help but feel his scalp prickle when he carried it out!
Devious!
It was truly too devious!
Ma Fan refocused. His gaze landed on the storehouse opposite him and paused to calculate the time.
After a while, the door to the storehouse opened and two xiuzhe laughed and chatted as they walked out.
When these people were far away, Ma Fan suddenly moved. Like an arrow, Ma Fan flew out against the ground. Beside him, his fellows moved at the same time.
Having scouted the warehouse for the last several days, Ma Fan and the others knew that no one would guard the storehouse at this time.
Charging to a place about ten zhang from the storehouse, the procession suddenly stopped. Then Ma Fan took out a jade medal and hung it on his waist.
The formation lit up, and so did the jade medal on Ma Fan’s waist.
The doors to the storehouse opened.
The interior of the storehouse entered their eyes. Mountains of ling plant farming talismans that were so numerous Ma Fan and the others inhaled sharply. They knew that the Tian Family were renewing a batch of ling plant farming talismans soon but when they saw the talismans with their own eyes, they couldn’t help but feel shocked at the great power of the Tian Family.
There were tens of thousands of ling plant farming talismans!
Even though these were only second-grade low level talismans, when this many were piled up, it was still shocking to see.
However, other than this batch of talismans, there were pitifully few other items in the storehouse.
Ma Fan and the others did not hesitate. They all took out little jade bottles and then pour
ed it onto the pile of ling plant farming talismans. Several drops of multicolored medicinal fluid were dripped onto this pile of talismans.
Several balls of thin rainbow mist silently expanded, gradually dispersing until they were invisible.
Ma Fan and the others put away the jade bottles, and then took away the most valuable items. The storehouse instantly became a mess.
After finishing this, the group quickly disappeared.
———
“What?” Tian Heng Bo was furious. Like a ferocious man-eating tiger, he stared at the storekeepers who had their heads bowed.
The storekeepers all shook with ashen faces.
“Nice! All of you!” Tian Heng Bo said darkly, “People walked right in and took everything! Sixteen storehouses, a whole sixteen storehouses were robbed! If people didn’t know, they would think our Tian Family was a charity! You parcel of pigs!”
Tian Yong Qing’s expression was also ugly. He had never thought that people would dare to rob the Tian Family’s storehouses!
And to rob sixteen of them in one go!
Suppressing the fire in his heart, Tian Yong Qing asked in a dark voice, “What happened? Speak in detail!”
The storekeepers took turns to explain. The more he heard, the colder Tian Yong Qing’s heart was. The Tian Family had sixteen storehouses in Xu Ling City and they were all robbed at the same time! This showed that the other wasn’t just very familiar with the Tian Family, they were also very powerful. In order to rob sixteen storehouses at the same time, they needed a significant number of xiuzhe to act at the same time.
He also learned from these storekeepers that none of them had detected it and only discovered the theft after the fact!
This caused Tian Yong Qing to feel cold!
Tian Yong Qing asked about some of the details but still could not make any heads or tails of it. The other had not left any traces behind.
Sixteen storehouses robbed, the Tian Family had suffered heavy losses. Other than the low-grade ling plant farming talismans that had not been moved, any other talismans that were worth something had been taken away! These storehouses had held vast amounts of the ling plants and grains that the Tian Family had produced. Even though they were not valuable or rare specimens, but the amount was so large the loss was great!
In a rough estimate, the Tian Family’s losses this time was valued at minimum ten pieces of fifth-grade jingshi!
“Motherf***er! If ye find out who did it! See if ye won’t skin them!” Tian Heng Bo gritted out.
Tian Yong Qing also felt pain. The losses they suffered this time was definitely the most serious losses of the past years. In the past, these storehouses had not held valuable items so they had not put great attention on them. Additionally, Xu Ling City’s security had always been good and nothing like this had happened before!
“Send someone to investigate secretly who is selling large amounts of ling grasses and grains recently!” Tian Yong Qing resumed his calm. “These things are not jingshi and it is such a large amount, the sale of it is not easy to conceal! Don’t search in just our Xu Ling City, send people to look at the surrounding cities.”
Tian Heng Bo’s eyes lit up. “Big Brother is right! Sixteen storehouses’ worth of ling plants and grains is not so easy to sell off!”
“Do not announce it if you find them!” Tian Yong Qing’s voice was dark. “It is not so easy to swallow our Tian Family’s things!”
Tian Heng Bo ran off with the orders.
Tian Yong Qing looked at the storekeepers and his expression returned to indifference. “Do not lose the remaining ling plant farming talismans! The sowing season will start soon and these talismans will be used. If something else happens, I do not need to state the result.”
The storekeepers had white faces and nodded frantically.
Tian Yong Qing knew the strength of the storekeepers would not be enough so he picked up a pen and wrote on the paper. Putting down the pen, his right hand lightly rubbed and the paper became a paper crane that flew up and disappeared quickly.
“There will soon be people coming to help you guard the storehouses,” Tian Yong Qing said as he raised his head. “Move the talismans in the stores back to the family base. Pass this order down and do not delay this!”
“Yes yes yes!” The storekeepers hurriedly nodded.
The good fortune among the misfortune, the other had disregarded the ling plant farming talismans. Otherwise, it would really be troublesome! It had taken them some effort to buy these ling plant farming talismans. The seed sowing was going to start in a few days, and if these ling plant farming talismans had been stolen, it would be very hard to buy such a number of ling plant farming talismans so quickly!
Thinking about recent events, Tian Yong Qing’s head started to hurt.
Before one wave ended, another began!
Chapter 458: Action
“You went out robbing?” Zuo Mo looked at the little mountain of ling plants and grains and felt dizzy.
“Rob?” Pu Yao snorted. “Is just this little bit of stuff is worth robbing?”
Zuo Mo might have had some wealth before but when had he ever seen so much ling grasses and grains? His eyes were bright as he walked around the little mountain, his lips trembling, “How much jingshi would this be!”
Pu Yao was speechless. He suddenly found this slightly embarrassing. His student, the student of an honored Sky Yao was like this! Just this little bit was enough to make the other speechless, so embarrassing! It was very embarrassing! If people knew that his student was so weak … …
Even Pu Yao who had skin as thick as city walls felt his face burn.
“From the Tian Family?” Zuo Mo’s reaction was not slow. He suddenly looked with enthusiasm at Pu Yao, “Let’s go on a trip again!”
Amidst Wei’s roaring laughter, Pu Yao turned and left with a black face.
Having gotten a great sum of wealth, Zuo Mo felt very good and was not angry. The direction of the cultivation classes was also very good, each cultivation class growing from fifty people per class to two hundred. Adding on that the classes overflowed with students who listened, they were so popular that even Zuo Mo found it hard to believe.
What caused Zuo Mo to feel a headache was that the number was still growing at a rapid rate but the number of teachers was limited. Cheng Shidi had come over to complain to him multiple times that his normal cultivation and livestock raising was affected by the high numbers.
There was only Cheng Shidi for the animal husbandry classes, and for sword cultivation, no one could help with Xie Shan and Eldest Shixiong’s classes. The same was true for Zong Ru and Yi Zheng’s cultivation class as they were the only two dhyana xiu on the island. It was also the same for his ling plant farming class, there was only him.
Seeing so many pleading and hunger, oh no, so many jingshi that was lining up outside the door but could not enter his wallet, that feeling … …
Really wasn’t good!
What to do?
Zuo Mo rubbed his chin and started to think.
———
The shocking amount of ling grasses and grains caused all of Golden Crow Camp to turn out in smiles. Nothing was liked more by the Golden Crow group other than a large supply of raw materials. Most of them were skilled in forging and were not experts in dan-making or cooking but so what? Each of them had Golden Crow Fire, and there were jade scrolls among their collection. As long as they had the materials, they could naturally practice their skills. Even more, although their fire-manipulation techniques could not be said to be masterful, they were still very practiced.
Many people were interested in learning another processing method.
Zuo Mo did not care about their failures since they had gotten these things for free.
Also, if even half of these ling grasses could be processed in ling dan then the profit would also be astounding.
However, not everyone was happy. The two masters Sun Bao and Ji Wei had furrowed their brows at th
is moment. Compared to the heartless joy of the young people, the two of them had more pressure.
They knew the state of the island very well. That day, when Daren gathered everyone together to discuss how to make jingshi, they understood their precarious state. In order to use the abundant ling fields on the island, that required ling plant farming talismans. Plant farming talismans were not difficult to make, and the two masters were familiar with the talismans on the market. But if what was used were the ling plant farming talismans from the market, the ling fields on the island would not be completely used.
There was only one way if they wanted to use all the ling fields on the island.
That was to forge enough outstanding ling plant farming talismans, to forge talismans that could replace ling plant farmers!
In simple words, the two masters looked down on the ling plant farming talismans on the market!
———
“After twenty more days, these mo weapons will gradually take form,” Shu Long’s steady voice echoed in the cave. The cave they had dug was not large. Presently, all of Guard Camp had moved into this deep cave called the Yin Spirit Cave. This cave was extremely heavy with yin energy which be came denser the deeper they dug, and was very beneficial for the cultivation of Shu Long and the others.
A Wen looked eagerly at the mo weapons floating in the pool and asked, “Long ge, do you think that the power of the mo weapons is really that great?”
“Wouldn’t you know when it is time?” Shu Long said with a smile. He was very soft towards A Wen.
“Daren really bled this time!” A Wen said in shock, “Just the materials cost ten pieces of fifth-grade jingshi! It’s amazing!”
The surface of the inky black pool did not ripple, and if one smelled from a distance, there was the scent of medicine. This was a pool that Shu Long had set up according to the directions of the mysterious daren. As to the effects, he did not have any confidence. When he thought about the jingshi that passed through his hands, he felt a thread of warmth. He was no longer that xiu slave that didn’t understand the value of jingshi any longer. Ten pieces of fifth-grade jingshi, if that was used to buy xiu slaves, it would be a vast number.