by Fang Xiang
A big battle was coming up, but he was not panicked, instead he acted calm and casual. When each person saw Boss was so composed, the nervous atmosphere instantly relaxed to the highest degree. Everyone’s enthusiasm quickly grew.
As long as Boss was here, they didn’t have to worry about anything.
Zuo Mo flew to the formation battle watchtower.
The thirty-six formation battle watchtowers had become the busiest places. The Eastern and Western Camps were nervously training before the battle. They were all clear they were the main force in the battle to defend the city this time.
Each person was rubbing their hands and furiously trained. If they performed well, they may even be promoted to Vermillion Bird Camp. That was the place that everyone in the Eastern and Western Camps yearned to go into. This battle was their best chance.
Zuo Mo exchanged a greeting with the commanders of the Eastern and Western Camps, and flew to the highest level.
He had come this time to look at the Lightning Sonic Walnuts that had been nurtured in the formation battle watchtowers.
* * *
Translator Ramblings: We’re getting closer and closer … … this is like the Sword Test Conference, Fang Xiang needs to put down preparations before the fight.
Some more people have arrived to look at the spectacle and even more people have come for the Stars in Daytime. Zuo Mo, do you know how much jingshi is being spent to search for you?
Chapter 285: Comprehensions Gained From Forging
Sonic Lightning Walnuts, fourth-grade, hard, righteous, and breaks evil.
Before this, Zuo Mo didn’t have many fourth-grade materials on his hands, and did not understand much about fourth-grade materials. The amount of jade scrolls and old records that talked about fourth-grade materials were pitifully flew in places like Sky Moon Jie and Little Mountain Jie.
Fourth-grade materials were so valuable that normal people rarely were able to even see them. Only sects with some power could use them for practice and gain experience. Wu Kong Sword Sect clearly didn’t number among these sects. Zuo Mo had memorized many jade scrolls, but there were just a few phrases that related to fourth-grade materials, and most of them were vague.
As the amount of fourth-grade materials on his hands increased, he gradually learned some things.
The biggest difference between fourth and third-grade materials were in their formations. The natural formations on fourth-grade materials were of higher-level, more complete and complex, than that of third-grade materials.
Zuo Mo didn’t know if the predecessors of xiuzhe had learned formations from materials, and only sighed at the wonders of creation.
The forging skill level of a xiuzhe could be said to be a measure of the degree the xiuzhe could activate the natural formations of the material. The formation techniques of fourth-grade talismans had a close connection with the natural formations of materials used.
After being nurtured by hard lightning in this period of time, the Sonic Lightning Walnuts looked like rotten silver, its surface carved with pits and grooves. It was heavy in his hand, even with its volume having shrunk. However, it was covered in the light of dense blue lightning so to hold it Zuo Mo had to use his ling power to cover his palm.
When he inspected it, he instantly felt the lightning element inside. Zuo Mo gaped.
This Sonic Lightning Walnut was something good, but it was very dangerous. If he wasn’t careful when forging it could explode and easily harm him.
He recalled Pu Yao had suggested he use the method for yin fire beads to forge the Sonic Lightning Walnuts. However, he had been so busy previously he hadn’t thought about it. After some thought, he seemed to understand. Pu Yao would never do anything meaningless but what he suggested didn’t always work.
There were many methods listed in the [Yin Fire Bead Chapter] to forge yin fire beads. Zuo Mo was always astonished by the variety of yin fire beads. Due to being unable to find a yin fiend ground, he couldn’t make yin fire beads so he had thrown the jade scroll to the side.
Now that his knowledge was far better than before, he had a completely new experience when he reread the jade scroll.
Gradually, a sliver of understanding formed.
The most important part of the yin fire bead creation methods was a place he hadn’t noticed before, it must be forged with yin fire. Yin beads had an attribute of yin so the forging fire had to be yin as well. The Stalagmite fire Zuo Mo had before was yin.
Technically, when the attributes were the same, the two should feed off each other and gradually merge into one entity. The most wondrous part of the [Yin Fire Bead Chapter] was that it could let the two stay in a kind of semi-merged state, the most explosive state.
Zuo Mo was intoxicated with such a wondrous transformation. He didn’t know how the elder who had created the yin fire bead had thought of such a wondrous spell.
If he was to use the yin fire bead method to forge Sonic Lightning Walnuts, then he needed to use purely yang fire. It was perfect for Zuo Mo. The Golden Crow Fire on his hands was one of the best of pure yang fires.
However, he needed a help. Sonic Lightning Walnuts were fourth-grade, and were much higher grade than the yin beads he had created in the past.
Zuo Mo’s mind suddenly moved. He thought of Lil’ Fire and Lil’ Pagoda.
Lil’ Fire was a fire yao, and Lil’ Pagoda had all five elements in one body, and could control fire.
He was connected mentally to Lil’ Paogda. When his mind moved, Lil’ Pagoda knew. In a short while, Lil’ Pagoda led Lil’ Fire to fly to the formation battle watchtowers. Silly Bird also followed with Lil’ Black.
When Lil’ Fire flew into the formation battle watchtower, it floated around in the air like a fire-red ball, playing happily by itself. Lil’ Pagoda was at the side silently listening to Zuo Mo talk.
Zuo Mo took out more than ten mini boxes from his ring. These were the Golden Crow Fires that he had especially held on to. The rest had all been sold. Golden Crow Fire was not difficult for him to gather, but he didn’t have the time right now.
Lil’ Fire who had been flipping in the air sudden froze. When it saw the mini boxes, it instantly gave happy chirping sounds. It turned into a fire wisp and leapt at the mini boxes. There was a smell of flame that came from inside it and was a fatal attraction for Lil’ Fire.
Zuo Mo didn’t stop it, and saw it swallow all the mini boxes in one gulp.
He instantly gaped, his hand frozen in the air.
After a while, he recovered. The first thought in his mind was, this was another glutton!
Lil’ Pagoda wasn’t angry, and skipped around Lil’ Fire.
The round body of Lil’ Fire instantly became even rounder like a red bubble. Suddenly, a fingernail-sized gold star appeared on its forehead.
However, upon closer inspection, Zuo Mo couldn’t tell if it was Lil’ Fire’s forehead. This guy was way too round.
He stared at Lil’ Fire for a while. Nothing seemed to happen to Lil’ Fire.
Lil’ Fire continued to cheerfully chirp and play with Lil’ Pagoda in the air. Lil’ Pagoda would use the tip of the pagoda to poke Lil’ Fire, and Lil’ Fire would nudge Lil’ Pagoda with its round body. The two little ones clearly were having fun, causing Lil’ Black’s antennae to wave in the air as it watched from the side, wanting to join in.
Zuo Mo stared tightly at Lil’ Fire.
There still wasn’t a change … …
After playing for a while, Lil’ Fire noticed Zuo Mo staring at it, and gave a cheerful chirp. It flew into Zuo Mo’s embrace, and snuggled around.
Zuo Mo reached to grab this guy. The round body was really like a bubble, warm and soft.
However, Zuo Mo clearly was not moved by its fawning. Reaching to grab Lil’ Fire, he dangled it in front of his eyes, and squeezed Lil’ Fire into all kinds of shapes, gritting through his teeth, “Little brat, you swallowed that much Golden Crow Fire, but there’s no change? Do you know how many jingshi that was? You ate so much jin
gshi with one gulp … …”
Lil’ Pagoda’s body shook and it silently started to float away. Lil’ Black that had been wanting to join in the fun suddenly stopped moving its antennae. The calmest one was Silly Bird.
Zuo Mo’s rage could not be stopped. He had originally planned on giving Lil’ Pagoda and Lil’ Fire one each, and hadn’t expected this guy to clean him out with one gulp, and not even leaving the boxes behind.
“Can you breathe fire?” Zuo Mo said, full of killing intent. “No? You don’t know how to breathe fire? You dare to not know? Do you know how much jingshi … …”
Lil’ Fire hurriedly spat out a little wisp of flame on his hands.
“Hm! You do know how to breathe fire!” Zuo Mo’s face instantly became curious, and he put Lil’ Fire in front of him. He inspected it carefully, speaking to himself. “You don’t have any orifices, where did you breathe it out?”
Lil’ Fire’s fleshy body instantly froze.
Lil’ Pagoda instantly raised its eaves to cover its face. The entire pagoda was bright red like a cooked shrimp.
After studying for a while, Zuo Mo still didn’t have any results. He decided to not waste any more time. He really was grasping at straws when he had hoped this crowd of gluttons could be of help.
He should never have any illusions about these gluttons … …
Zuo Mo’s heart was bleeding. So much jingshi was gone … …
The four quickly left for the mine as though they were being pardoned.
Zuo Mo decided to do it by himself. However, he didn’t dare to experiment on the formation battle watchtower. If he wasn’t careful, the entire tower would be bombed into dust. He picked a third-grade lucky cloud from the stores, sat on it and slowly floated into the sky.
The lucky cloud was extremely soft like cotton. Basically no one except hedonists used it. Compared to ling beasts and flying swords, it’s flying speed was too slow. However, there were some high-grade lucky clouds that were extremely fast, like the famous Flying Nimbus. Among fifth-grade steeds, its speed was in the top ten. The lucky cloud might be slow, but there was a benefit. It did not need to be controlled to stay afloat.
This ball of lucky cloud was the size of his palm. When it was thrown out, it instantly grew to about ten zhang in radius. It could hold many people so the female xiu stood at a distance not far from him. Zuo Mo ignored the dense populace of xiuzhe that were camping on the mountains. With the formation battle watchtowers and the female xiu present, he didn’t have to worry about people interrupting his forging.
He took out the Sonic Lightning Walnut, spat out the Golden Crow Fire, and started to forge.
The most important part of the yin fire bead forging was to freeze the state of the yin bead and the yin fire in the instant before they merged.
In front of Zuo Mo, a thread of Golden Crow Fire enveloped the Sonic Lightning Walnut.
After two whole hours, the Golden Crow Fire finally removed the layer of hard lightning on the exterior of the walnut and revealed the true seed of the Sonic Lightning Walnut. After another hour, the creased surface of the silver walnut started to show signs of melting. The silver liquid flowed slowly along the patterns of the walnut.
The thick lightning element made Zuo Mo’s heart beat rapidly as though he was on thin ice.
Fourth-grade materials were as extraordinary as expected!
Zuo Mo’s mind was deeply immersed in this forging process, but it was also a rare chance for him to learn. Both the Golden Crow Fire and the Sonic Lightning Walnut were rare fourth-grade materials.
When the two merged, they gave rise to many changes, most of which he had never seen before.
The natural formations on the Sonic Lightning Walnut were continuously broken in the forging process and reformed like pieces of wooden blocks forming new pictures. Some were formations, some were nonsense patterns. Forging needed the xiuzhe to choose and experience the changes in the formations.
Different xiuzhe would gain experience through different changes, to comprehend different things, but the underlying nature was the same.
Without this kind of experience, no matter how deep their cultivation was, how abundant the ling power inside their body was, one still could not breakthrough to other stages and would still be small and weak.
Zuo Mo was immersed in this mystical world. The feeling of walking on thin ice slowly disappeared, and he forgot himself.
The flickering of the Golden Crow Fire in front of him suddenly slowed as though a wild stallion had been tamed.
The Sonic Lightning Walnut also changed rapidly. The walnut patterns that had covered the surface disappeared. It was entirely smooth like a perfect silver ball. Threads of Golden Crow Fire burrowed into the silver ball and beautiful golden patterns started to float into the surface of the silver ball.
The number of gold patterns increased like a golden vine furiously growing along the surface of the Sonic Lightning Walnut.
Zuo Mo suddenly opened his eyes, the Sonic Lightning Walnut falling into his palm.
The golden patterns on it were complex like flowers that covered the surface of the silver ball. It seemed like a normal silver ball without any of its presence exposed.
* * *
Translator Ramblings: The Outer Hall is … … on their way. Very confident and unhurried. They have the advantage of numbers and the backing of the most powerful local person.
I’m not going to touch what happened with Lil’ Fire but I do pity it for having ended up as Zuo Mo’s pet in this chapter.
Chapter 286: Arrival!
Rong Wei watched the troop disappear into the horizon, her heart was filled with shock that she could not voice.
After personally watching the entire battle, this troop of six or seven hundred people had left a deep impression on her. The knife-sharp charges had caused her to momentarily think of turning and fleeing
There was no challenge in the entire battle. It ended in an extremely short amount of time. This troop was like a keen blade that dismembered the enemy in moments. Yes, other than dismembering, she could not think of any other descriptor that could express the scene she saw.
Their opponent had been a troop of a thousand people.
The compound guards next to Rong Wei stared in disbelief with gaping mouths at the empty sky. The scene just now had given them too much of a blow. The unstoppable and keen charges pierced their hearts like a bolt of lightning!
The thousand man troop had seemed to be made out of paper-mache. With one clash, they had shattered into pieces. Rong Wei had never thought that when the howls and sharp presences of sword energies gathered together, that it could be so spectacular, so soul-stealing. Even they, the spectators, felt their scalps prickle, their limbs cold. What must it like to be the troop that was facing such a terrifying scene directly?
No one laughed at the troop that was defeated.
How could there be such a strong troop in Little Mountain Jie.
Even in Sky Water Jie, there were only one or two troops that were said to be at such a level.
“Head, there are people following behind us,” Xie Shan said to Gongsun Cha in a low voice.
Many of the people in the troop had noticed a troop of people following behind them. However, they were not worried, just slightly curious. After fighting for so long, people who saw them fight all fled with the wind. It was the first time they saw someone who followed them like this.
Gongsun Cha looked back. “Oh, go ask.”
Xie Shan admonished himself for being chatty. Wasn’t that finding more work to do for himself? However, since Lil’ Miss commanded it, he could only fly towards that troop.
Truthfully, Rong Wei’s heart was also very insecure. If the other unreasonably charged over to kill without any cause, they could only flee. However, she noticed that the other side didn’t seem to be obsessed with killing, and hadn’t pursued their enemies who had fled.
She was really too curious about this troop. She was very learne
d, and naturally could see the bones of an army in this troop. She knew very well that building an army was not a simple battle. The members had to be picked with thought, there had to be skilled members, and there were enormous expenses … …
There were many sects in Sky Water Jie, but only two had an army.
She had followed the Marquis for many years, and knew the Marquis had had the notion for a long time. However, he struggled with the problem of manpower. The only people that had the abilities to build an army were battle generals, but only large sects had the abilities to groom battle generals.
The compound guards under her command looked like the elite, but if they were compared, the difference was instantly visible. Rong Wei’s eyes were not ordinary. She could see the average power of the troop’s xiuzhe wasn’t as high as the compound guards under her command.
But if the equal numbers of people were fighting, the ones to die first would be the compound guards. She actually wanted to see if she could hire this battle general, or hire this entire troop.
But she knew that it was a fantasy. It clearly had been some time since this troop had formed. A sect that didn’t have some power wouldn’t be able to support them, but since they had been raised, then the sect supporting them definitely had power.
The possibility of hiring them was minuscule.
One reason that she had given the ordered to follow was curiosity. The other reason was that she was clear that such a strong troop definitely was a significant power in Little Mountain Jie.
Even if she could not recruit them, it wasn’t a bad choice to partner up with them.
Hadn’t she been puzzled regarding the question of ‘how they were to investigate Stars in Daytime? If she partnered up with such a strong faction, it would be much easier to accomplish.
But the compound guards did not know Rong Wei’s thoughts. Each of them were shaking in their boots, preparing to take Rong Wei and flee at any second.
Suddenly, someone from the troop up ahead flew towards them.
The compound guards instantly became nervous.
Rong Wei’s heart settled down. What she was most worried about was the other would kill without asking any questions. Since the other had sent someone over, then it meant she had the room to speak.
