by Fang Xiang
When the wide river surface that was tens of li in expanse were filled with this kind of ice crystal, countless rays of lights reflected and was dazzling.
Zuo Mo raised his hand and an ice crystal flew into Zuo Mo's hand. Strangely, once the ice crystal left the river, it quickly melted into a thread of cloud mist that disappeared into the air.
Wei Sheng and Zong Ru had never seen this before and tried to grab the ice crystals as well.
Wei Sheng made a light sound of surprise. "Such heavy coldness!"
Kang De said with a smile, "The cloud mist would condense into a flow of water and gather in the cloud river. Every decade, a cold flow would come. When the coldness invaded the cloud river, it would form the Cloud Crystal Mist Flow. The little ball of cloud mist inside these ice crystals are the purest of cloud essence and is something great for forging! Every time the Cloud Crystal Mist Flow appears, there would be troops of xiuzhe that come here to harvest the cloud essence! We are very fortunate to encounter this!"
Zuo Mo found that many xiuzhe had appeared on the shores of the river. Each person's face was full of joy as they used all the talismans they had to gather cloud essence.
Kang De took out a jade bottle and started to carefully gather cloud essence.
Zuo Mo snickered and said, "We cannot enter a treasure mountain and leave empty-handed!"
Finishing saying this, hundreds of jade bottles and boxes appeared in front of him.
Wei Sheng and Zong Ru also started to harvest.
If cloud essence was forged into flying swords, the flying sword would become more nimble and quick. Wei Sheng threw the black sword into the air. The black sword hummed lightly and then suddenly produced a strong suction. Like a whale, it sucked in ice crystals. When the ice crystals left the river, they quickly melted and then the thread of cloud essence was sucked into the black sword before it could dissipate.
Zong Ru activated his Attainment Golden Body. When the enormous golden figure appeared, a faint and authoritative dhyana presence spread. A blurry bottle suddenly appeared in one of the hands of the mountainous golden body. The mouth of the bottle was pointed towards the river and countless ice crystals flowed into the bottle like birds returning to their nest.
In comparison to the other two, Zuo Mo was lacking. Even though his efficiency was high and he filled up all of his jade boxes and bottles, he still was not satisfied.
His eyes turned and then he suddenly thought of the [Yin Fire Bead Chapter]. Didn't this cloud essence belong to the yin? He then tried to cast the spell of the yin bead and motioned at the cloud river.
Bam!
Hundreds of ice crystals in the river suddenly exploded. The threads of cloud essence were like a barrage of rain that shot into Zuo Mo's hands and gathered into a thumb-sized bead. This bead was round and glowing as though it was carved out of crystal. What was most marvelous was that there was a faint cloudy mist floating around it that made it very beautiful.
Zuo Mo saw that this method was workable and he laughed. He became even more motivated.
Lil' Pagoda laboriously flapped its eaves to absorb cloud essence. In Zuo Mo's eyes, the xiuzhe that had forged Lil' Pagoda's was creative, but his method had been very primitive and crude. The reason that Lil' Pagoda was able to reach this level was completely through relying on piles of talismans and rare materials.
Gold, wood, water, fire, earth were the five levels of the pagoda. Zuo Mo had put the sixth-grade Jade Hook Tree on the wood level and Zuo Mo's unique Great Day Banded Flame was on the fire level. The gold level was filled with vast amounts of gold crystal sand. Now they had coincidentally encountered the Cloud Crystal Mist Flow. It was definitely a one in a thousand opportunity.
As the cloud essence continuously flowed into Lil' Pagoda's body, its dim water level slowly lit up and then exuded faint cloud mist.
The xiuzhe on the river shores were disturbed by the noise going on over at Zuo Mo's side and gave respectful and awed looks.
———
"Attainment Golden Body!" Ding Zhen's eyes suddenly became bright. The figure behind Zong Ru's back was blurry but it was the dignified golden body. His shock overtook his ability to speak and he was silent for a while.
"Shishu, what is the Attainment Golden Body?" Ming Jing was astounded. What could cause Shishi to lose his composure?
The other two people also stopped what they were doing.
"I hadn't expected that it was the Attainment Golden Body!" Ding Zhen forced a calm smile, "It is a wondrous dhyana scripture. Ever since the thousand year battle, it had disappeared. I had thought it was lost and it is unexpected that a branch has survived. No wonder this boy was able to attain wish power. The successor of [Attainment Golden Body] is as extraordinary as one would expect!"
The three disciples showed expressions of understanding. So this was a lost dhyana scripture.
Ming Zhu who had been silent suddenly spoke, "The other two are also very strong."
Hearing this, Ding Zhen stilled. Of the three disciples, Ming Zhu was the most stoic but he was usually correct in his words. Ding Zhen's gaze finally moved away from the Attainment Golden Body. When it landed on Wei Sheng's black sword, his pupils expanded.
"Such heavy fiendish energy! Such heavy killing intent! There is actually such a vicious weapon in the world!"
When he looked at Wei Sheng, he found that the other's gaze was clear without any maliciousness and his actions were honest. It was possible to see that the killing intent of the sword had not influenced his mind. He couldn't help but praise, "Such a determined and strong-minded man!"
His gaze moved to Zuo Mo.
He made a sound of surprise and his expression became bewildered. "Strange, there's something strange!"
He said to himself, "He clearly is not in the stage of jindan, so how was he able to reach this place? His hand technique is also very strange, I cannot understand it."
He kept on shaking his head.
When his gaze turned to Lil' Pagoda, his eyes lit up but then he said regretfully, "It is a pity."
The three disciples were confused by his words.
Ding Zhen did not explain and just said, "These three are of extraordinary origins. We need to be extremely careful in our journey this time and not get in conflict with them."
Seeing the unconcerned faces of the three disciples, Ding Zhen's brow furrowed. But when he thought about how they would have him, a yuanying, supporting them, he couldn't help but laugh. He was too cautious.
He did not continue to persuade them and said with a smile, "You may want to harvest some more. It would be difficult to encounter such pure cloud essence in the future. It is a very good gift to give to your shixiong and shidi when you return to your sect."
This time, even Ming Zhu took out a jade bottle and started harvesting.
———
Of the three, Zong Ru was the first to finish. The bottle became even more defined. It had grown longer and there was a blood red lotus on the surface of the bottle that flickered. The bottle was shrouded in cloud mist as it slowly faded into the golden body.
Zong Ru's palms came together as he stood up and bowed towards the cloud river.
Zuo Mo had also formed hundreds of cloud beads. He had used up all of the ling power inside his body. He stopped, threw a few ling dan into his mouth and sat down cross-legged to recover his ling power.
Lil' Pagoda seemed to be over stuffed as he swayed back into A Gui's arms and laid down with its tummy facing up.
The black sword's absorption of the cloud mist had not decreased.
Wei Sheng stared attentively at the black sword and found to his surprise that the shape of the black sword was slowly changing.
The body of the sword became even narrower, and caused the sword to look longer in comparison. Compared to its previous vicious appearance, it seemed nimbler and more spirited. Despite appearances its length was actually shortening. The long sword which had been the length of a person was now about the same le
ngth to Wei Sheng's ribs. The ruler-straight sword was still simple and unadorned, it had a deep black luster that did not give off any light.
The present black sword was still a size larger than normal flying swords but was much more delicate in appearance than in the past. It was as though an ancient wild beast had hidden away its thick claws and teeth to silently settle down.
There wasn't any aura of viciousness or fiendish energy, no killing intent, but for some unknown reason, Wei Sheng's heart was full of a faint joy.
It took two whole hours before the black sword stopped absorbing cloud essence.
The black sword suddenly disappeared and then reappeared in Wei Sheng's hand.
Wei Sheng gripped the hilt of the sword which was the perfect thickness and length for his hand. A smile blossomed on his face.
Kang De had finished before Zong Ru did. He had not expected to encounter the Cloud Crystal Mist Flow and had not prepared. However, he was not greedy and was very satisfied with the surprise.
"Daren, after crossing this cloud river and walking for two more days, we will enter the grounds of harvesting water cloud embryos … …"
Before Kang De finished speaking, his voice suddenly choked off. Almost at the same time, Zuo Mo and the others looked at the cloud river.
A blue light suddenly flew out of the cloud river, covered in layers of ice crystals, and struck a xiuzhe. The xiuzhe hit was instantly frozen into a statue of ice. He didn't even had the time to scream before he dropped into the cloud river and disappeared!
"Ice Breath Beast!" Kang De's face turned ashen and his voice trembled.
The xiuzhe who were harvesting by the river shore instantly started to panic. Each of them had ashen faces as they turned and tried to escape.
Dozens of blue energies flew out of the river. The xiuzhe that were struck instantly turned to ice sculptures. Even the expressions of their faces were preserved as though they were alive.
This time, even Zuo Mo's group changed expression!
These dozens of xiuzhe were all jindan but were able to withstand one blow of this blue light!
What was even harder to believe was that the ones that were hit were the xiuzhe who had turned in order to escape!
Zuo Mo's heart shook. Such high intelligence!
Suddenly, someone exclaimed in shock, "Heavens! The cloud river is growing!"
As he had said, the layers of ice crystals were growing upwards. They quickly reached the same level as the rivers of the shore and they were still rising!
At this time, several bolts of blue light suddenly shot at Zuo Mo's group!
Face ashen, Kang De's soul almost left his body!
Translator Ramblings: The course to the water embryo is never a smooth one.
Chapter 526: Clear Cloud Python
Kang De was closest to Wei Sheng. Wei Sheng's two thick eyebrows shifted. The slender and straight black sword appeared in his hand, drawing an arc and then a horizontal slash.
A faint black ripple spread.
When the blue light hit the black ripple, it disappeared without a trace.
Zong Ru's eyes were still half-lidded. His expression had not changed but at some time in the brief moment since the start of the attack, his right hand had formed a seal.
Dong!
The Attainment Golden Body suddenly formed behind him, one hand raised high as though it was holding something up. In this instant, a dignified dhyana presence rippled outward and spread with the Attainment Golden Body as the center! Zuo Mo, A Gui and the others were enclosed within it.
When the blue lights came into contact with this intangible ripple, they exploded in the air beautifully like fireworks.
From beginning to end, Zuo Mo had not needed to act.
He stared at the roiling cloud river as though he was thinking of something.
Unlike Zuo Mo's group which remained uninjured, the fatalities and wounds of the other xiuzhe were extremely high. The blue light that the ice breath beasts exhaled was very domineering and normal ling armor could not black it.
If they were hit, they definitely would turn into ice statues.
The xiuzhe that could stop the attack either had great treasures or were very powerful. Zuo Mo's gaze landed on the four Xuan Kong Temple xiuzhe. They were the most-attention catching group.
None of the four moved.
The domineering blue lights seemed to be stopped by an invisible wall ten zhang away from them.
Zuo Mo was intimidated.
The other's move was revealed they were more skilled than their group. He was now one hundred percent sure that the leading dhyana xiu was a yuanying! Those that were not yuanying were not able to resist like this.
———
Ding Zhen's expression was unchanged but his heart had become slightly clouded. The abnormal change of the cloud river was abnormal.
"It is the ice breath beasts." Ming Jing's expression was not well as he continued, "Fifth-grade cloud beasts, their most powerful move is an ice breath attack. Ling armor below fifth-grade cannot stop it."
"Did they appear previously in this place?" Ding Zhen asked.
"Never," Ming Jing shook his head and responded, "At most third-grade cloud beasts would appear here. Even fourth-grade beasts were extremely rare, much less fifth-grade!"
The expressions of the other two disciples were not well. For them, fifth-grade cloud beasts were targets they had to face seriously. If the beast had the advantage and the benefit of the geography, they would have turned and fled without shishu's help.
Fortunately Shishu was present. For a yuanying xiuzhe, fifth-grade cloud beasts were easily dealt with.
"Shishu, should we save them?" Ming Jing looked at the terrible state on the shores. There was a hint of pity in his eyes as he spoke.
"We have more important things to do, do not stray," Ding Zhen looked towards the other side of the shore and said in a deep voice.
"Shishu, we are to cross the river?" Ming Jing probed. Even though he knew that they had an important mission, there was the cloud crystal mist flow that had appeared out of season and the ice breath beasts that should not have appeared in the cloud river. Everything implied that something was unusual here.
"En, stay behind me," Ding Zhen said faintly. He swept across Zuo Mo's group and then turned his eyes away.
Ding Zhen stepped out like usual and stepped onto the cloud river. Step by step, he walked as though he was on solid ground, steady and unhurried. The three disciples walked behind him and stepped exactly where he had.
The moment Ding Zhen stepped onto the cloud river, the cloud river suddenly started to boil. Countless cold blue lights shot out of the cloud river and rained down on the quartet.
Ding Zhen's expression was normal and did not change as though he did not see them.
The storm of blue lights created countless fragments of energy as they hit the invisible wall. Ding Zhen and the others were not affected, and seemed to stroll towards the other shore.
———
The xiuzhe who saw this all inhaled in shock.
"So powerful!" Zuo Mo swallowed. "This guy definitely is not the average yuanying!"
Admiration floated onto Wei Sheng's face. The power that Ding Zhen displayed far surpassed their own. However, the admiration was quickly replaced by motivation. He unconsciously gripped the black sword in his hand.
The black sword that had completely changed in appearance after swallowing great amounts of cloud essence seemed to feel Wei Sheng's battle spirit and lightly vibrated in Wei Sheng's palm.
Wei Sheng felt the slight tremor from the black sword, and lovingly caressed the sword that had become long and narrow.
Kang De had been rescued from the jaws of death. An experienced person, his ashen face gradually became normal again. "Daren is wise. The ice breath beasts are fifth-grade ling beasts. The ice breath they exhale is glacially cold. Normal ling armor cannot withstand it."
His gaze landed on the ice statues on the shore and
couldn't help but feel some grief.
As they spoke, the ice crystals spilled out as the cloud river rose.
"Daren, let's return!" Kang De gathered his courage and urged. His voice was full of terror, "This subordinate has made a living for more than a decade in the cloud sea and has never seen … …"
Suddenly some of the xiuzhe which had fled successfully stumbled back with terrified faces.
"The Clear Cloud Python! Save us … …"
Kang De stopped. In this instant, his gaze became stunned.
An enormous snake's head suddenly shot out of the cloud mist and swallowed the xiuzhe who spoke in one gulp! The snake's head was enormous like a mountain that was hundreds of zhang tall. In front of it, xiuzhe were as minuscule as ants in comparison. It was made from the cloud mist, its two eyes grey-white and empty. Just this enormous snake head was enough to scatter some people's minds.
Now even Zuo Mo and the others could not keep their calm. Their expressions changed drastically!
Just the snake's head was so terrifying, so how large would the body of the snake be?
What was even more terrifying was the presence exuded by this enormous figure was almost enough to make them suffocate.
In this instant, Zuo Mo knew that they were not on the same level. Without hesitation, he grabbed A Gui and sprinted towards the cloud river.
"Let's go!"
Wei Sheng and Zong Ru were in sync with Zuo Mo. At the border of life and death, Wei Sheng grabbed Kang De who was trembling. Zong Ru started to move at the same time. Like arrows flying out of the bow, they shot towards the river. Silly Bird who always seemed to most unconcerned had the fastest reaction. With almost abnormal speed, she flew to the front of the group.
Compared with the titanic beast behind them, the ice breath beasts in the river were adorable like pets.
Blue lights flew like rain out of the river and shot at Zuo Mo and the others.
At this time, no one kept anything back. Even Zuo Mo seemed to go crazy, endless yao arts flying off his fingertips.
He dared to guarantee that he had reached a peak state in casting yao arts!
He didn't dare to keep anything back and he didn't even have the time to think as instinct took over his body.