World of Cultivation - Volume 01 - Money Grubbing Madman

by Fang Xiang

  He suddenly posed, tilting his head and muttering to himself, “Flame Exploding Seal, where did I hear it……”

  Before his voice landed, he saw a pink Little Thousand Crane flying over from the corner of his eyes.

  He scratched his head. It came again? How did the other find him? This was the part that made him the most curious. He had never heard of a Thousand Paper Crane having such abilities. Unless it was those people that were really powerful. But the powerful people, who would use something as washed-out as Little Thousand Cranes?

  Wait, she said she would draw a flame exploding seal this time……

  Zuo Mo’s pupils widened and he unhesitatingly lifted his feet and started running.

  Boom!

  A sound of explosion came from behind him. A strong pressure wave forced Zuo Mo into a tumble, eating the dirt.

  Zuo Mo dazed. As a beginner xiuzhe that was only knowledgeable at farming, things like explosions definitely shouldn’t appear in his life.

  Struggling to sit up from the dirt, he looked at the large hole that had been exploded behind him, his expression dazed.

  From the side, another pink Little Thousand Crane flew in front of him and was elegantly unfolded. But in Zuo Mo’s eyes there wasn’t any elegance, but only the grace that was filled with an empress’ favor.

  The special quality of an empress’ favor was that it didn’t care whether you were willing or not.

  “Ha ha, ye, in ten minutes, I want to draw a flaming explosion chain seal.”

  Zuo Mo’s mind blanked and he jumped up from the ground like his ass was on fire. He grabbed the pink paper floating in front of him and ran in the direction of his residence.

  Ten minutes!

  Damned woman!

  When the familiar yard appeared in his view, his lungs were burning, his throat smoking. Zuo Mo almost cried. Like the wind, he rushed into the yard. Like the wind, he rushed into the room. Like the wind, he found the cinnabar and weasel bristle brush.

  “What do you really want?”

  There wasn’t any of the ease and boldness of last time. It was so bitter like a weak woman that had a brute rush into her room in the middle of the night.

  With the fastest speed, he folded the pink paper and with faster speed, he filled it with ling power and patted his chest in trepidation as he watched it disappear into the horizon.

  Zuo Mo felt he was really unlucky. Why had he been so idle as to pick up the paper crane? Why did he reply?

  Imagining that a flock of paper cranes flying down from the sky followed by boom, boom, boom! With him as the center, within three miles, nothing would remain.

  Zuo Mo’s mind felt numb.

  A short while later, a pink Little Thousand Crane flew in from the window.

  “Haha, I just want to chat with ye. Life and philosophy, how interesting!”

  Zuo Mo crisply raised a white flag, “I surrender!”

  The other disregarded it, “Haha, what’s ye’s dream?”

  “Earn jingshi.” Zuo Mo helplessly wrote down, full of humiliation.

  “Can jingshi be earned?”

  “In any case, I can’t shit it out.” Zuo Mo was just going to throw the broken pot.

  ……

  Before Zuo Mo became numb, he finally understood. The other was only a woman that was raised in deep protection, extremely bored, lonely, unfulfilled, thought of lives as grass, and was abnormally powerful. It was this “abnormally powerful” that easily slayed any intentions of Zuo Mo to resist.

  A matter worth celebrating was that this woman had the habit of eating. For the first time, Zuo Mo was grateful for this habit that was gradually disappearing from the world. It rescued this poor lamb that he was.

  Temporarily dispatching the woman, Zuo Mo took a breath. From the high nervousness at the beginning to the complete numbness at the end, Zuo Mo managed to completely experience the process of a soul being wounded.

  This event had made him feel no more terror towards the ling grains that had injured Guo Shixiong. The experiences this afternoon made him believe, that in this world, there couldn’t be anything scarier than this terrifying woman.

  He decided to try to rescue his fifty mu of ling grains.

  He didn’t want to leave the sect.

  Chapter 15: Little Yao

  The night came and Wu Kong Mountain was tranquil.

  Being far from Dong Fu, the mountain was sparsely populated and mountain life was very dull. When night arrived, the outer sect disciples would usually gather together to chat and entertain themselves. The inner sect disciples would spend the majority of time cultivating. From another perspective, the pressure that inner sect disciples faced wasn’t any less than the outer sect disciples. They needed to keep cultivating so they could qualify to participate in the Yao Hunt.

  It was commonly known that if in any sword sect, there weren’t any members participating in the Yao Hunt one every ten years, then this indicated the sect was in decline and would soon disappear.

  This was a trait of sword sects. They would often rise very quickly, but at the same time, their fall would be even faster. The number of sword sects with long histories could be counted on two hands. All of them were enormous entities.

  These matters weren’t related to Zuo Mo. He had no connections to the Yao Hunt.

  In the night, he walked along on the mountain path. After generations of care, the wild beasts on Wu Kong Mountains were extinct so Zuo Mo didn’t need to worry for his safety.

  Reminiscing on his life from when he opened his eyes until now, the scenes of life flashed through his mind. His eyes became more resolute, his steps faster.

  The sect didn’t treat him especially well. However, he was used to the life here. It was somewhat hard, but it was safe.

  The only knot in his heart was regarding his origins. That dream that always appeared, the face that never had expression. It seemed to be telling him something. But until now, he didn’t have any clues.

  Other than this knot, he was very satisfied with his present life. Yet, he was currently facing the possibility of exile from the sect.

  Maybe one day, he would leave here. But not right now.

  There was also one other reason that made him so determined. There was an impulse moving restlessly in his heart. He didn’t understand why but after his two previous encounters, the craving for battle seemed to have been activated in his bones.

  Zuo Mo didn’t know if this would count as “battle”, but in his heart, this kind of confrontation didn’t make him scared but he actually desired it.

  With his eighth level of lianqi, the night was just like day, and his vision wasn’t affected.

  He quickly reached his fifty mu of ling fields.

  The speed of withering was occurring extremely fast. It was more serious than when he had left this afternoon. Another large patch of ling grains was showing signs of withering.

  Walking to the nearest stalk of ling grains and smelling the fishy odor, he suddenly thought about the scene of Guo Lu Shixiong choking up blood and fainting. He hesitated. This hesitation lasted but a moment before fading from his eyes, replaced with a burning light!

  An aged gold energy flashed a dazzling gold in the dark,like a ball of fairies.

  Zuo Mo took a deep breath. His right hand holding the aged gold energy, he placed it on the stem of the ling grain in front of him.

  Boom!

  It was as though he was suddenly pulled into another world.

  Countless black seeds, like dandelion seeds, floated in the void, forming a black sea. This black sea swayed gently. Each time it moved, it released a vast energy.

  Each of the seeds was small and weak, but Zuo Mo could not muster the resolve to rebel against the energy that this piece of black sea exuded.

  He blankly faced this large black sea, not knowing what to do. The aged gold energy that was usually roiling and violent retreated behind him for the first time.

  ———

  At the same
moment in Old Black’s ling fields, there stood three people.

  Among the three, one had a square face and a long beard, his expression stern and authoritative. The other was an old man thin but solid like steel, ice in his eyes, his sword essence imposing. The last was a round person, a smile eternally on his face with great cheer.

  If a disciple was here, they would jump in fright.

  The authoritative one was the head of the sect, Pei Yuan Ran. The thin, steel-like one was Xin Yan Shishu. The smiling fat one was Yan Le. Of the eldest generation of Wu Kong Sword Sect, three of the four were present. If this news spread, then a large commotion would occur in the sect.

  “Does the two shidi recognize what this is?” Pei Yuan Ran asked in a deep voice. This time, the strange disease came about so suspiciously without any forewarning and it was ferocious. In just a few days, almost half of the ling fields were damaged.

  This meant that the ling grain harvest this year would be significantly damaged, the loss more than half. For a small sect like Wu Kong Sword Sect, this kind of loss was enough to affect their operations.

  So when the news reached them, the leader of the sect and the other elders that had never concerned themselves with the ling fields quickly came to look.

  The situation was even worse than they had imagined. All three of them were in a terrible mood.

  Xin Yan shook his head, “Never seen it, but it can eat ling, so it should be yao. Kill!” The last word was full of murderous intent, bitingly cold!

  “Second Shixiong is right.” Even Yan Le, the one known to always be agreeable, had a dark expression, “But yao has never stepped onto Wu Kong Mountain before. How did this small yao come to our Wu Kong Mountain?”

  “This matter is fishy.” Pei Yuan Ran mused, a hint of worry in his expression, “Since three thousand years ago, when the two races of yao and mo retreated, nothing has ever been heard about yaomo appearing in the present territory of the Sword Rivers. But yao has appeared here in our sect, it really is a puzzle.”

  “Shixiong shouldn’t worry, just kill it.” Xin Yan frigidly replied, “Not just a little yao that hasn’t matured. But even those big yao, humph, those that died under my sword, there were many!”

  Yan Le gave a reminiscing expression, smiling and adding, “Thinking about that year when the three of us hunted yao. Second Shixiong’s [Ice Dragon[i] Sword] intimidated all the yaomo, and made them quake!”

  [tl: [i] = 螭: it is actually a dragon that doesn’t have any horns. An immature dragon. ]

  The other two also showed expressions of fond reminiscence.

  “Let’s sort out this little yao first. Such a good moon, let’s go back and boil tea. It would be an experience,” Pei Yuan Ran smiled as he made his suggestion.

  Yan Le smiled and clapped, “That’s good. Second Shixiong, we’ll cover you.”

  Xin Yan didn’t decline. The ice in his eyes flashed and he summoned his flying sword.

  A snowy white crystal sword appeared in the sky. The clean clarity of the body made the moon seem dull. Soaring in the night sky, it intimated. This was Xin Yan’s famous [Ice Dragon Sword].

  “Go!” A clear shout echoed in the surroundings.

  The body of the Ice Dragon Sword trembled slightly and turned into a pure white icy dragon. The two eyes flashed viciously. Giving a low bellow, it changed into a flashing light and raced for the ling fields!

  When the light was just about to attack the ling fields, something unexpected happened.

  A gust of black smoke came out of each stalk of withered ling grain. Those extremely thin black wisps of smoke grew in the wind. In a few blinks of the eye, the ling fields were covered in a layer of inky black smoke. Even the finger of a hand couldn’t be seen in front of the eyes.

  The three of Pei Yuan Ran were covered in smoke but were not the least bit panicked.

  But they didn’t know that not far away, there was an outer sect disciple that was also covered in the black smoke.

  ———

  Zuo Mo was startled awake by Xin Yan’s shout. But at this time, he found that he couldn’t even remove his consciousness away from this world.

  All he could see was still the countess black dandelion seeds flying everywhere!

  The clear shout disturbed the peace of the sea. The black dandelion seeds started to surge like waves in a storm.

  Fury, contempt, helplessness, and sorrow……

  Many different emotions flowed into Zuo Mo’s heart. He was like a puppet, full of countless emotions that didn’t belong to him. These emotions were limitless and restless, raging through Zuo Mo’s consciousness.

  But Zuo Mo’s own consciousness was clearer than ever.

  What was more tragic than having even his consciousness being controlled?

  Something seemed to have been touched in his heart. An unprecedented loathing and hatred suddenly rose!

  Damn it!

  Zuo Mo’s body was shaking. Every joint in the entire body shook. The shaking became even stronger, the scene was unsettling.

  In the sea of consciousness, he furiously struggled, and furiously shouted!

  “Get out!”

  A furious shout tore out, like the roar of thunder, and echoed in this borderless black sea.

  The raging emotions in his heart suddenly disappeared with his shout. He still could feel the different feelings transferring from the black sea but the emotions didn’t take over his consciousness.

  Immediately afterwards, he saw something he would never forget.

  A pure white sword streaked through the sky and struck the ground!

  Just one sword!

  The black sea he thought was vast and limitless was cleaved in two! He could not comprehend the vastness and strength of this sword. Zuo Mo was shocked still. His own sea of consciousness, at this moment, was frozen by this grand sword.

  He felt an instinctual terror which dominated every corner of his mind.

  Everything seemed to slow down. After the sword strike which had seemed to destroy the heavens, countless small sword essences, like a school of sharks began chaseing those black dandelion seeds. Everywhere they passed, nothing was left.

  The black sea gave out the feeling of panic and terror ……

  Zuo Mo smiled. When the black sea controlled his emotions, it had infuriated him.

  The battle ended very quickly. A second blow didn’t materialize. This one blow was enough to erase the entire black sea. The ling grains returned to normal, except they were heavily damaged and would need time to recover. The control of Zuo Mo’s consciousness returned to him and he left the ling grain. He couldn’t help but wipe off the cold sweat on his forehead.

  The danger this night totally surpassed his imagination. Thinking about it now, he couldn’t help but still be fearful.

  He laid on the ground, his entire body soft and soaked in sweat. The night wind blew and he shuddered.

  He walked soullessly back to his own little yard.

  What were those black dandelion seeds inside the ling grains? That sword strike that appeared out of nowhere, whose was it?

  That one strike, the shock it gave him was really too strong! Bone-achingly cold, and murderous intent that overflowed, the meaning of the sword was branded in his mind. He suddenly understood why so many people would chose to cultivate the sword. To chase after power, wasn’t it was the natural tendency of people?

  Even more, it was such strong and terrifying power!

  The fifty mu of ling grains were finally saved. Even though this year’s harvest would dramatically decrease, but he should still earn enough for this year’s rent.

  At this point, he heaved a sigh of relief. Sitting down, he started to inspect his own consciousness. He had never gone through something like this experience tonight. He was very worried this would affect him negatively.

  As he started his mediation, his face suddenly changed!

  In his sea of consciousness, there floated one black dandelion seed!

  C
hapter 16: Sword Essence

  Notes: I think I’m going with the sea of consciousness because the Chinese term is 识海. I could do spiritual sea but for some reason, it feels awkward to me.

  * * *

  “Don’t forget!”

  ……

  “Even if you die, you mustn’t forget!”

  ……

  The strange yet familiar voice echoed like a nightmare.

  Just like usual, Zuo Mo was startled awake from his dream. He grimaced as he sat up. Rationally, if he had the same dream this many time, he should be numb against it. But each time he woke up, he would find his body soaked in sweat. Even he felt that it was unimaginable.

  The stars in the sky were brightly lit, the starlight falling down. Wu Kong Mountains was peaceful and quiet.

  That dangerous scene from last night flashed before his eyes. He suddenly remembered that black dandelion seed in his sea of consciousness. He quickly went to inspect. It was still floating in his consciousness. There wasn’t any movement. He released a breath. No matter what method he used, it didn’t have any effect on this black dandelion seed.

  He was somewhat worried. From a glance, it could be seen that this black dandelion seed wasn’t something good. Now that it suddenly ran into his sea of consciousness, it definitely wasn’t a good thing.

  Should he wait a while and then go take a look at the doctor?

  He mused inside. Waking up in the middle of the night, he didn’t have a hint of drowsiness. After thinking for a while, the matter of the black dandelion seed was thrown to one side. In this situation where he couldn’t think of any solutions, excessive worry was superfluous.

  Limited by his cultivation, his sea of consciousness wasn’t large. Other than that black dandelion seed, it was empty.

  As he kept on thinking, he thought about that sword essence that flew over the heavens. The shock that that sword essence gave him was too large, deeply ingraining itself in his head.

  He had never learned any sword scriptures but that didn’t mean he didn’t understand anything. In the outer sect disciples, there were many that practised sword scriptures. Because Wu Kong Sword Sect was a sword sect. Like Wei Sheng Shixiong, he mainly cultivated the sword, and had once been Luo Li Shixiong’s sword servant.