by Fang Xiang
Those that travelled to Bloody Sky Metropolis Jie, they always needed to bring large amounts of jingshi and ling grains. Jingshi was used to replenish the normal usage of ling energy, but due to the fact that the ling energy in jingshi was extremely strong, relying only on jingshi could easily cause the cultivation to collapse. While the ling energy in the ling grains were not as potent as it was in jingshi, but it was gentle and could help xiuzhe stabilize their cultivation.
The disciples in some large sects would use ling grains everyday to increase the speed of cultivation.
But for a small sect like Wu Kong Sword Sect, they would only provide a certain amount each month. And it was only low grade ling grains. But even just first grade ling grains, Zuo Mo had never eaten any before.
Zuo Mo was presently studying the jade sticks that Elder Wei Nan had left. Even though Elder Wei Nan’s cultivation had been limited but many of the roads he had walked were worthy for Zuo Mo to use as reference, such as farming. Elder Wei Nan had been a ling plant farmer, and had learned how to make dan. How similar was that to Zuo Mo? Zuo Mo hadn’t thought to touch the obscure scriptures yet. How to earn jingshi, it was what he needed to think about right now.
What was easiest to earn jingshi with in lianqi? What to plant?
Finally getting twenty mu of third grade ling fields, Zuo Mo naturally wanted to organize it well. Right now, he had no money, completely wrung dry by Pu Yao. The allowance from the sect each month wasn’t an insignificant amount but for him, it was just a drop in the bucket.
Things like ling veins couldn’t be converted directly to jingshi. But even if it was possible to sell it, Zuo Mo definitely wouldn’t sell it. To surrender long term benefits for short term gains, how would such a shrewd person like him do such a stupid thing?
Thinking of ways to earn jingshi was one of the most important matters of Wei Nan. Actually, for every single xiuzhe, jinshi was a problem that couldn’t be avoided. The amount of jingshi earned directly influenced the speed of cultivation.
Talismans, jade sticks, materials……
What didn’t require jingshi?
Even though Zuo Mo was now an inner sect disciple and the sect would put effort into nurturing him and give him conveniences in each area, but it was limited.
But compared to Zuo Mo’s circumstances, Wei Nan’s past circumstances were much more difficult. The paths that he had explored were extremely worth of reference to Zuo Mo.
Sitting on the grey beaked goose that the sect had given him, Zuo Mo took big and small pouches as he sat idly on the goose’s back. These things, all of them were what others had given him which he couldn’t use. He planned on turning all of it into jingshi. Even though it really wouldn’t be a lot, but right now he had no other way. Hoping that Pu Yao could spit out some jingshi, that was impossible.
Pu Yao always sat with his eyes closed on the gravestone every day. He seemed to be meditating. Did he need to cultivate too? Zuo Mo was very curious.
Right now, he wouldn’t actively interact. Pu Yao’s mood was fickle, ruthless and crazy. Yet his power was extremely deep. This kind of person, you never knew what his next step would be, you never could guess what he was thinking inside, you also never would know what his true aims were.
Zuo Mo felt that Pu Yao was a true devil. He would give you enticements that made your soul shake, and just when you are enjoying it to the limit, you would fall to the lowest level of hell.
The torments Pu Yao gave him, Zuo Mo had hated, had raged, had felt hopeless. But when Master had said that his features had been changed and his mind erased, these emotions that had trouble him dissipated like smoke.
Because he needed power!
Because he needed answers!
These petty torments, what was it really?
He clearly remembered the unfamiliarity he felt when he first woke up two years ago. In these two years, the voice that appeared in his dreams tormented him countless times. He had been afraid, terrified, hesitant, uncertain. He had thought of trying to find answers but had no clues. There was nothing he could do. So he muddled his way through the days and was never happy.
Right now, he was awake.
He only had one thought. He needed to find the answer. Who! Who did all this!
Unable to be forgiven!
On the back of the grey beaked goose, Zuo Mo looked at Dong Fu appearing through the clouds. He tightened his fist.
Dong Fu was the same as usual, people streaming. Zuo Mo headed straight for the free market and found Fu Jin.
Fu Jing’s eyes were extremely sharp. Seeing the spring sprout jade medal on Zuo Mo’s waist, his entire person blanked. After a while, he recovered. Even though shock still remained in his eyes, but he piled a smile on his face: “Congradulations Little Mo Ge, Little Mo Ge! Tsk tsk, such a young ling plant farmer, Little Mo Ge is definitely extraordinary! Come in, come in!”
Zuo Mo didn’t waste pleasantries. With a bang, he threw the large bag at Fu Jin: “Sell these things for me.”
“What things?” Fu Jin asked as his hands rapidly opened the cloth bag. With just one sweep, he could generally determine the value of these things. There were many items but they weren’t valuable. It was actually normal. The lianqi outer sect disciples, they couldn’t give anything valuable.
His brain moved rapidly and quoted a generous price: “Fifty pieces of second grade jinshi. How about it?”
Zuo Mo knew the market. These things definitely wasn’t worth fifty pieces of second grade jingshi. He shook his head: “Too much, thirty pieces is good.”
“Alright.” Fu Jin briskly handed over the jingshi and put away the items. With a smile, he said: “Now that Little Mo Ge has flourished, don’t forget to support this little brother!”
The two chatted a bit more. Zuo Mo listened very carefully. Don’t estimate the kind of small business people like Fu Jin. Their intuition was extremely sensitive. Any movements in the market couldn’t be concealed from their eyes. Between the words, Fu Jin was extremely worries. Recently, the price of the ling grains was continuously rising. This was the first time it had occurred in the recent years. Each year, people would go to Bloody Sky Metropolis to hunt yao, but the price of ling grains had never been as exaggerated as this. Connecting it to the recent rumors about Bloody Sky Metropolis, it made people worried.
According to Fu Jin, it wasn’t just Tian Yue Jie. The price of ling grains in all the other jie were continuously rising. All of this clearly showed that the conflict in Bloody Sky Metropolis was become even more intense.
Was the yaomo starting the counter attack?
After hearing Fu Jin’s words, Zuo Mo’s heart became slightly heavier. For low level xiuzhe, the greatest danger was turmoil If a great war like the one three thousand years ago started, low level xiuzhe was the cannon fodder that would die the quickest.
“Ho, it’s really a small world, fate lets enemies meet.” A strange voice interrupted Zuo Mo’s musing.
He raised his head and a headache started.
The two people in front of him, one of them was the Dong Qi Sword Sect disciple whose flying sword had been cracked by him the last time. The person at the side was very unfamiliar. It probably was his shixiong. His presence was even greater.
Fu Jin was extremely perceptive. Seeing the situation, he instantly felt bitter inside but pushed a smile on his face: “Sirs, come come come. Everyone sit down and drink some tea……”
Pah!
The voice instantly stopped. Fu Jin was thrown flying like a sandbag.
“Trash! Is there space for you to talk here?” The other took away his hand and said icily.
Zuo Mo hadn’t thought the other would start punching right away. He hadn’t managed to react in time. He hurriedly ran over to support Fu Jin. Looking at the hand mark on the face and the blood spilling from the corner of Fu Jing’s mouth, Zuo Mo’s eyes became dark. He carefully helped Fu Jin up and then slowly turned around.
“Who was so stupid and let their dog
out?” Zuo Mo stared at the one that had moved, his finger caressing the gold sword ring.
That guy’s face instantly became flushed. In a rage: “You f—……”
The voice suddenly stopped.
一A sword energy, carrying a faint cloud of frost energy, pointed straight at his forehead!
Chapter 37: Two Blows!
The two xiuzhe from Dong Qi Sword Sect clearly hadn’t thought that Zuo Mo dared to move first!
Especially the one that had moved first. In his perspective, if two ningmai hadn’t suddenly appeared in that previous encounter, Zuo Mo would have been easily dealt with. This lianqi trash, he dared to actively provoke the two?
The sword energy almost reached the Dong Qi disciple’s forehead, the faint cold energy made him abruptly wake up. He instinctively pushed out his flying sword but suddenly remembered that his flying sword had been ruined by this guy in front of him! He didn’t manage to dodge in time and got brushed by the faint mist surrounding the sword energy.
Hiss!
A bloody wound the width of a finger appeared on his forehead. The Dong Qi disciple managed to steady himself, his eyes full of hatred as he stared viciously at Zuo Mo, wanting to cut Zuo Mo to pieces.
This damned guy in front of him. He was clearly only in the stage of lianqi but every time they met, he himself would become extremely sorry. Reaching up to touch the wound on his forehead, he saw the blood on his finger. His viciousness rose and he roared angrily: “You want death! If I don’t kill you today……”
Taking advantage of the time he took to speak, Zuo Mo sent out another blow!
The thin sword energy contained a faint mist as it headed for the other’s open mouth. This sword energy was even stronger than the one before, the white mist shrouding it even thicker. If one listened carefully, they could almost hear a stream of tinkling as the icicles crashed.
The pupils of the Dong Qi disciple that had been spectating from the side suddenly shrunk.
Zuo Mo had been clever in his timing to send out the sword energy, the speed even faster than before. The other’s flying sword had been ruined by Zuo Mo. He had actually come today with his shixiong to help him pick a new flying sword. He hadn’t thought he would meet his enemy. When he detected the sword energy, he suddenly realized that it wasn’t just his flying sword that had been ruined, but he didn’t have any other defensive talisman on his body.
Usually, he amused himself by bullying others and neglected his cultivation. Seeing the sword energy coming near, in his panic, he completely didn’t know what to do.
“Pah!”
The misty sword energy accurately landed on the other’s mouth. The blood instantly flew, two teeth landing on the ground. This string of attacks completely stupefied him. He covered his mouth, looking in disbelief at the two teeth on the ground.
Zuo Mo kept his guard up. Compared to the excitement of the battle last time, he was extremely calm this time.
The only thing he could rely on was the gold sword ring. But the gold sword ring could only store three sword energies. Zuo Mo only had the last sword energy remaining. It was his last and only attack. If the other was only one person, he would unhesitatingly add it on. But he was very clear that the two people’s strength were above him yet he could not just stand by and see Fu Jin be humiliated because of him.
The worst case would be getting beaten up viciously. He already prepared to endure it. He wouldn’t release this last sword energy easily. He wanted to make it a vicious one!
They won’t end well!
Zuo Mo thought viciously.
“Ah!” The other gave a shocking howl, his features twisted and his eyes sprouting fire: “I……”
The voice once again stopped abruptly.
It seemed that an invisible hand was chocking his neck. His entire body slowly rose, leaving the ground. Compared to roaring a second ago, he was now like a fish out of the water, eyes bulging, speaking but unable to make any noise.
Zuo Mo was astounded, his eyes couldn’t help looking towards the side.
A young person dressed in white slowly moved in their direction. He didn’t even look at the Dong Qi disciple hanging in the air: “Dong Fu does not allow fighting, don’t you all know?”
The other Dong Qi disciple furrowed his btows. He suddenly raised a hand. A sword energy shot out of his fingertip, stopped and twisted, like drawing a plum branch. The disciple that had been fighting with Zuo Mo landed with a plop, face deep purple and unconscious.
“Sir, you are too biased. Both sides were fighting yet you only blame one person. It isn’t fair.”
The white-clad youth stared at the other: “Dong Qi Zong Ming Yan?”
“A little humble name. Didn’t think that Sir would have heard it. Honored, honoured.” Zong Ming Yan raised his hands in a greeting, his expression still cold.
“Elder Zuo Mei Tian’s disciple, it naturally rings in my ears.” The white-clad youth said noncommittally.
Zong Ming Yan raised an eyebrow: “Sir is?”
“Yu Bai.” The white-clade young person gave two characters.
“Oh.” Zong Ming Yan responded faintly but his voice then turned sharp: “So it is the honoured disciple of Elder Tian Song Zi. However, can Brother Yu tell me, why only punish my sect’s disciples? Does Brother Yu discriminate against my Dong Qi disciples?”
Yu Bai smiled. He pointed with a finger at the jade medal at Zuo Mo’s waist.
Only now did Zong Ming Yan notice the spring sprout jade stick at Zuo Mo’s waist. He blanked for a second before nodding his head,: “Ling plant farmer, I understand.”
Giving a deep look to Zuo Mo, he turned to leave.
Yu Bai imperceptibly furrowed his brow: “Is Sir not taking your shidi with you?”
Zong Ming Yan didn’t even turn his head, heading forward, leaving behind a sentence.
“A piece of trash that can’t even win over a lianqi ling plant farmer, what’s the use?”
Yu Bai shook his head and didn’t speak. He casually sent out a stream of white light that entered the sky.
Flying sword messages!
Compared to little thousand cranes, flying sword messages were much faster! As expected, in a short while, two xiuzhe flew over and landed, bowing to Yu Bai.
Yu Bai pointed to the unconscious Dong Qi disciple on the ground, stating: “This person broke the prohibitions of Dong Fu, and is now exiled from Dong Fu.”
“Yes.” The two bowed to Yu Bai and lifted the person with them as they flew away.
“If I didn’t see it wrong, you are the disciple of Wu Kong Sword Sect’s Elder Xin Yan.” Yu Bai turned his face and said warmly to Zuo Mo.
Zuo Mo shook his head: “My master is Shi Feng Rong.”
The time that the other two had fought had been very short but no matter if it was ling energy or the manipulation of spells, they were hundreds of times better than Zuo Mo. And both of them had vast and intimidating presences. Zong Ming Yan was cold and sharp, Yu Bai confident and carefree. They were all outstanding. However, Zuo Mo didn’t feel very comfortable. No matter if it was Zong Ming Yan or Yu Bai, their bodies would unconsciously give an aura of being high up. Zuo Mo disliked the aura very much. Unconsciously, he didn’t want to have deeper relations with Yu Bai.
“Elder Shi Feng Rong?” Yu Bai was slightly surprised at this answer. When the two had started to fight, he had already noticed. He hadn’t detected anything in the first sword energy but had been shocked that a ling plant farmer could send out a sword energy. When he noticed the gold sword ring on Zuo Mo’s hand did he understand.
At that time, he had prepared to wade in. Tian Yue Jie was a classical minor jie primarily composed of sword cultivators. Xiuzhe like ling plant famers were a very rare resource. Not just Dong Fu, but in almost all the primary towns of Tian Yue Jie, there were prohibitions that protected production cultivators like ling plant farmers.
But just at that moment, Zuo Mo sent out the second sword energy.
Yu Bai
’s eyes were very skilled and saw it clearly.
The first sword energy only had a little sword energy, not enough to be of significance. But the sword essence in the second sword energy was very similar to Wu Kong Sword Sect’s [Ice Dragon Sword] Xin Yan’s sword essence.
Wu Kong Sword Sect’s sudden rise had attracted everyone’s eyes. And as the true ruler of Dong Fu, Tian Song Zi naturally would pay more attention. Yu Bai was the core disciple of Tian Song Zi and he knew much more about Wu Kong Sword Sect than normal people.
The apparition when Wei Sheng entered zhuji had alerted Tian Song Zi. That night, Yu Bai had accompanied his master to investigate. He had personally seen with his own eyes that sword energy that rose into the heavens at Wei Sheng’s zhuji and had never been so shocked. And the scene when Xin Yan’s sword had turned into a dragon made his mouth wide and unable to forget.
His talents were exceptional and the scope of his eyes far surpassed others in his generation. In the area around Dong Fu, the people who could rank with him could be counted on the fingers. But in one night, two successive blows, it created a great interest in him to the low key sect of Wu Kong Sword Sect.
He couldn’t help closely examining Zuo Mo.
From the beginning, the expression on Zuo Mo’s face had never changed. Yu Bai didn’t mind that. He had met countless unique individuals. Those that had strength always had some unique qualities. What made him shocked was Zuo Mo’s age and cultivation. It wasn’t high, but low.
It was very hard to estimate the age of cultivators but a general decision could be made from the eyes, the manner of speech and conduct. The age of the Wu Kong Sword Sect disciple definitely wasn’t high. Such an age, it was common to see a cultivation of lianqi.
