by Fang Xiang
He just wanted to find a place and calm down.
Without another word, he grabbed A Gui and jumped away. He had heard Ceng Lian'er and Ceng Yi's conversation. He didn't need to worry that Ka Zhuo would get in trouble.
"En?" Ceng Yi raised his head and was slightly surprised. The power that Zuo Mo showed was out of his expectations.
"Let them go." Ceng Lian'er spoke.
"I'll listen to Lian'er! Listen to Lian'er!" Ceng Yi said affectionately and took his gaze away.
———
"What do these people want to do? What do they mean by standing there?" a bandit asked in puzzlement.
"Haha! They aren't able to run! So they are trying to fight back! Just one word from Boss One-eye, and look at this. Not just one hundred people, even if they are one thousand, they will be defeated."
"You are right, we are using a sword to kill a chicken! I heard the people from Mountain Dragon Corps retelling about their strength and thought there would be a lot of people. One hundred, it isn't even enough to pick our teeth with!"
"Stop wasting words, just one hundred people, how do we divide them up? We have to be first! There is only one space as a reward!"
"You are right!"
A bunch of bandits charged at the mountain. Their actions caused a chain response. Seeing this, the other bandits unhesitatingly charged.
One hundred people in a formation on the mountain couldn't compare to the three thousand bandits.
The bandits that charged were like a tsunami, covering the ground and the sky!
The suppressed fighting spirit in Shu Long's eyes lost all of its restrains and started to burn.
"Open!"
Black smoke suddenly sprouted out of the one hundred and eight totem pillars.
The black smoke grew with the wind and in a flash, it covered the entire mountain peak like a enormous black cloud.
The rushing bandits charged into the black cloud.
Boom boom boom!
The roiling black smoke was expelled from the totem pillars. They seemed to change constantly as though they were alive. Suddenly, the black smoke around one totem pillar condensed and formed the shape of a person.
A figure made from black smoke appeared above the totem pillar.
[Mo Grinding Disk]!
If a mo golden battle general saw this combat formation, he would exclaim in shock. [Mo Grinding Disk] was one of the strongest battle formations used to wear down the enemy. It was like a terrifying grinding disk. A battalion that was trapped in it was like a piece of meat thrown into the grinder and would be ground into meat paste.
There had been innumerable xiuzhe that had died in the [Mo Grinding Disk] in the past. But after that thousand year war, the [Mo Grinding Disk] had been lost and the technique never appeared after.
Yet at this time, one of the strongest battle formations, [Mo Grinding Disk], appeared on this little mountain, and there was only one hundred people.
"Kill!"
Inside the thick black smoke, Shu Long's shout echoed in the air like thunder.
The battle formation shifted loudly and spun like a grindstone.
———
Zuo Mo looked silently at A Gui. A Gui sat beside him with a wooden expression.
When he saw A Gui's wooden expression, Zuo Mo's heart hurt. The shen power inside A Gui's body was too strange, and Zuo Mo couldn't find traces any of A Gui's thoughts and memories. Her mind was completely empty.
Zuo Mo remembered that A Gui had seemed most alive when she had been wounded and had no shen power.
Shen power!
That intimidating coldness and voice caused Zuo Mo's heart to hurt.
"Pu, Wei, what solutions do you have?" Zuo Mo asked.
Pu Yao and Wei were both silent. Zuo Mo knew that this was a hard problem for them. Pu Yao and Wei knew a lot about yao and mo cultivation, but they didn't know much more than he did about shen power.
"It would be good if A Gui could speak," Zuo Mo murmured to himself. If A Gui could speak, then she could tell him everything.
Zuo Mo knew this was a delusion.
He forced himself to calm down and think back to every detail in those fragments. He instantly had many discoveries.
A Gui called him "Young Master." This appellation implied many things. He probably did not have an ordinary birth. A Gui had carried him and fled for their lives. There had also been those fragments filled with blood and slaughter. His family had probably encountered trouble.
Who did it? Why?
Where had A Gui's shen power come from? Who had erased his memories and changed his features?
Countless riddles came at him and almost pressed Zuo Mo to the point of suffocation.
Calm! He had to be calm!
Zuo Mo bit down hard on his lips and tried to maintain his calm. But his bulging tendons exposed the storm inside. A Gui's shen power was the greatest obstacle. This shen power was extremely weird and Zuo Mo could not extract it.
At this time, Pu Yao suddenly said, "Do you remember the Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass that I once mentioned to you?"
Zuo Mo stilled and thought for a while with creased brows before he nodded. "I remember, you said the Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass can help me recover the fragments of my memory."
"Yes. A Gui's memories have been damaged, her soul is wounded, and I suspect that the wounds in her soul are related to the shen power that she cultivates. But if you want to know all this, you do not only have A Gui's memories to repair," Pu Yao said.
Zuo Mo reacted quickly and his eyes lit up. "Yes! There is no need to start with A Gui, we can start with me!"
The more he thought, the more excited Zuo Mo was. "Yes, yes! I should have also experienced those same vents, and there would be shadows left in my mind. If I can recover my memories, I can know all this! I will know what shen power A Gui cultivates, I can think of a way to heal A Gui … …"
He had closed himself in trying to find a way through A Gui. He had completely forgotten that he should also know!
Thinking back to the time that the sect leader had picked him up at Wu Kong Mountain, it was about the same time that was indicated in the memory fragments were sealed in the Five Element Glass Bead.
"Can the Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass really recover my memories?" Zuo Mo asked urgently.
Wei spoke and proved that Pu Yao was not boasting. "This is a grass that grows in the mo realm. As long as there is one piece of the memory, it can completely reflect and trace back your entire memory. You have so many memory fragments now. If we can find Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass, you should be able to get all of your previous memories!"
"Where is Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass?"
Pu Yao and Wei exchanged a look. Both hesitated.
"Where is it?" Zuo Mo exploded.
Wei slowly opened. "Supposedly, there is Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass in Nether Spring Jie of the Ming Realm."
"Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass … … Nether Spring Jie!" Zuo Mo murmured, his gaze determined.
Editor brag: Totally want to point out I got half of ZM's past right back in chapter 255. Woot woot!
Translator Ramblings: If you read back, Pu had suggested the silkgrass as a solution but they didn't know the location. I also have to admire WanderingGummi’s self-control. He hasn’t asked me for any spoilers yet.
Chapter 555: An Unusual Breakthrough
"What did you say?" shouted the one-eyed wolf mo as he suddenly jumped out of his seat wearing an expression of shock.
"Boss! They all died! All of them! No one survived!" His subordinate's face was ashen and bloodless. He had been flailing and stumbling when he charged in and still appeared weak in the knees.
"All dead? Be clearer! How did they all die?" the one-eyed wolf mo quickly recovered his calm and asked calmly.
"The people from all seven groups died! More than three thousand people! Not one … left alive!" the subordinate stammered. His eyes were thick with terror as though there w
as something chasing him. He was filled with hopelessness. He said tremblingly, "They … … they, on Black Dragon Peak, they killed everyone!"
"Impossible!" The one-eyed mo wolf was filled with disbelief as he shook his head. "More than three thousand people, how many people do they have? One hundred! One hundred killing three thousand, do you think they are killing chickens?"
"Boss! It's the truth!" The subordinate was almost crying, "You can go to Black Dragon Peak and see! It's corpses everywhere, from the peak to the base of the mountain, all corpses!"
The one-eyed mo wolf suddenly froze. Hearing the subordinate speak like this, he finally believed it! Black Dragon Peak was not far from their base, his subordinate wouldn't easily make a mistake like this, and definitely would not lie to him about a matter like this.
How was it possible? That was three thousand people!
How could one hundred people kill three thousand people, and not one survive?
The one-eyed wolf mo's extremities felt cold, his throat dry. "Did you find any of their corpses?"
"N-no!"
Coldness rose up in the one-eyed wolf mo. How many years had it been, he had become so unfamiliar with the feeling of terror! Yet it was this unfamiliar terror that came like the tide and almost swallowed him.
They had kicked a metal board!
And it was a metal board that was the hardest there could be!
One hundred people were enough to massacre three thousand people, those were the elites of an extraordinary battalion! In the one-eyed wolf mo's career of raiding, he had never seen nor heard of such a powerful battalion.
If it hadn't happened to him, he would definitely not believe it. Right now, he only felt terror. Such a terrifying battalion was something only those enormous factions could possess.
Was this the personal battalion of a mo marshal?
The one-eyed wolf mo tried to maintain his calm but his legs uncontrollably trembled.
Any mo marshal in the entire Hundred Savage was the warlord of an area, marshal was a title that meant power. There were no mo marshals that lived alone except the ones that existed in legend.
He might be able to dominate Eminent Mountain Jie, but in the eyes of those mo marshals, he was a small character who could be killed at any time like an ant. Which mo marshal didn't have many powerful generals, and jie masters under them?
The one-eyed wolf mo looked vicious and arrogant but he was very smart. He never provoked any factions. He could not afford to.
The power represented by a mo marshal… it was an existence he could not afford to provoke!
Damn it! How had he done something so stupid?
The one-eyed wolf mo was full of regret. The only good news was that the other didn't seem to have sustained any serious injuries or fatalities. He was familiar with the mentality of those personages. For those personages, their time was unusually the most precious. As long as there wasn't great trouble, they were not willing to waste time on ants.
"Where are they?" the one-eyed wolf mo asked in a trembling voice.
"Go-gone!" the subordinate stammered out, "no-no one dared to block them."
The one-eyed wolf mo released a breath. "They are gone, good! Good!"
It was good if these kind of death gods were gone!
Shu Long and the others who only desired to keep travelling did not pay attention to the other bandits. The other bandits were frightened out of their wits. Which one of them dared to continue and harass the caravan? The news that a battalion of one hundred people killed three thousand bandits quickly spread.
Many people expressed their disbelief when they heard the news.
This news only exploded when the mirage of the hellish state of Black Dragon Peak was spread.
Everyone speculated to which faction this terrifying battalion belonged to. One hundred killing three thousand, this amazing result caused the reputation of this mysterious battalion to rise. Because they did not know the name of this battalion, many mo called this the Butcher Battalion.
Shu Long and the others only tried to travel faster. They didn't know that the battle of Black Dragon Peak had attracted the attention of many factions!
However, even if they knew, they would not have cared.
Because they received Zuo Mo's order, to reach Shattered Stone Jie at the fastest speed!
———
Zuo Mo furiously absorbed shen power from his hand.
The threads of shen power continuously merged into his flesh and blood.
After the breakthrough, Zuo Mo seemed to have broken all the chains holding him back and his cultivation increased at amazing speeds.
It was strange to speak of: Zuo Mo's ling power had finished core formation, his consciousness had formed the yin spirit, but it was his mo physique that was lacking. Zuo Mo could not understand this. Of the three powers, the mo physique was the one he was most familiar and most skilled with. Rationally, the first breakthrough should have been his mo physique.
But Zuo Mo was not in a hurry.
At this time, he was in a stage where his power was steadily increasing. Every time he drew shen power from his palm, he could feel a clear improvement. Zuo Mo did not have the time to cultivate any of the three powers and processed shen power. The palm of his right hand was akin to a bomb that could explode at any moment.
The vast shen power in it was truly enchanting!
Zuo Mo didn't waste one iota of time and threw himself into furious cultivation.
In this time, he had investigated Nether Spring Jie.
Just like the xiuzhe world was called Four Realms, the mo world had another name, the Dark of Hundred Savage. It was divided into two realms, one was Hundred Savage Realm, the other was the Dark Realm. Nether Spring Jie was located at the deepest regions of the Dark Realm, no one knew much about the Dark Realm. They only knew that that was the darkest and most chaotic place of all of Dark of Hundred Savage.
It wasn't easy to even reach that place. One had to pass through the territories of many great factions. The journey would be filled with danger and bandits. In the Dark Realm, there were vicious and savage mo that even those large factions were wary off.
This branch of mo was infamous. They were born as berserkers. They were cruel, bloodthirsty and without any emotion.
Zuo Mo knew if he wanted to eliminate A Gui's shen power, if he wanted to know everything, if he wanted to find the Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass, he had to become even more powerful!
By himself, his power was not enough, he needed helpers. He decided to wait for Shu Long's group at Shattered Stone Jie. He used all his time to cultivate day and night. He had never been as motivated as he was now!
A Gui was sitting silently beside him.
Just like normal, Zuo Mo started to cultivate, but he quickly detected an unusual shift inside his body.
The Sun Crystal Seed was spinning rapidly, the flames shifting in layers. The Greenvine Mystical Water released faint light that was warm yet cool. What surprised Zuo Mo was the even the Soul Setting Divine Light had become restless like a rainbow fish that swam nimbly without stopping inside his body.
All the signs signaled that something unusual was happening.
Was he having a breakthrough?
Zuo Mo knew, if this was the time, it would require him to be even calmer and maintain a clear mind.
He slowly channeled shen power. The shen power merged into his flesh and blood, turning to the three powers, and then turning back to shen power. It repeated this in an endless cycle.
The mo matrix on his body slowly lit up. The faint gold mo matrix was complex. The mo matrix brightened and dimmed as though it was breathing, but each time it flashed, the intensity of the brightness would increase.
When the golden mo matrix reached a peak brightness, the blinding golden light was piercing.
At this time, the Sun Crystal Seed suddenly released a flood of scorching flame. It was like burning lava that covered the shen power eating at his body. The Green
vine Mystical Water's presence also increased, and the moisture sank into Zuo Mo's blood and flesh. The blood and flesh that had just been burnt by the Sun Crystal Seed was instantly restored like nothing had happened.
The mo matrix on Zuo Mo's body instantly had new changes.
The golden mo matrix seemed to come alive and move along Zuo Mo's body, transforming!
Gradually, the mo matrix that was extremely packed started to divide into many areas. The mo matrix gathered in these areas, and as it's movement grew slower, ten clear marks formed.
Suddenly, the Sun Crystal Seed inside Zuo Mo's body brightened and released golden light from his chest!
An astounding scene happened.
The ten marks, that were formed by the mo matrix shrinking, had started to move along Zuo Mo's body as though there was an invisible line pulling them. The largest golden mo matrix moved to the center of Zuo Mo's chest as though it was attracted by a magnet.
The light of the Sun Crystal Seed merged with this largest mo matrix. The mo matrix seemed to turn into golden liquid and flowed along Zuo Mo's chest as though a pen was slowly drawing out lines.
At the same time, the other nine mo matrixes lit up.
The blinding mo matrixes connected, and changed. They each became rounder, and the ten pieces of the mo matrix became ten perfect circles like ten small suns!
Ten suns were situated at different parts of Zuo Mo's body!
The ten suns suddenly gave off great light, the dark night so bright it seemed like day, and the stars in the sky losing their light.
At this time, the swimming Soul Setting Divine Light ferociously burrowed into the Sun mo matrix at Zuo Mo's chest. Then, like a needle, it rapidly passed through the other suns!
Ruler-straight lines spread through the ten suns and connected each sun to the other nine. In a blink, there were criss-crossing golden lines on Zuo Mo's body that connected all ten suns.
Only now did the mo matrix's light seem to be used up.
Zuo Mo opened his eyes. His eyes had turned a faint gold, and it was possible to discern criss-crossing golden lines inside his eyes. There was a golden Sun mo matrix on his forehead that appeared extremely domineering.