World of Cultivation - Volume 01 - Money Grubbing Madman

by Fang Xiang

  So young, such low cultivation, yet he could comprehend sword essence. This made Yu Bai very surprised.

  The sword essence carried in the second sword energy had been in a fledgling stage. The white mist surrounding the sword energy easily confused others. That wasn’t mist that was caused by the coldness of the sword energy. In reality, it was composed of large numbers of even smaller sword essences. These scattered sword essences were far from complete like Xin Yan’s sword essence but this lianqi disciple was able to control them in a certain range.

  That wasn’t easy to do!

  Yu Bai almost couldn’t believe it. He always had been confident in his own talents, but seeing this zombie-like disciple, he felt that he didn’t know what to say. When he first comprehended sword essence, he had been in the middle stages of zhuji. He had sat quietly in his master’s sword stove for more than thirty days before he had some understandings.

  Even more, the jade medal of a ling plant farmer wasn’t easy to get!

  Yu Bai had grown up in Dong Fu and knew very well of the difficulty.

  Another strong entity had come out of Wu Kong Sword Sect! Even if his cultivation right now wasn’t high, but his future was limitless.

  Wu Kong Sword Sect, already mysterious in Yu Bai’s mind, became even more mysterious.

  “Give my greetings to Elder Shi Feng Rong.” Yu Bai warmly gave a bow. Noticing the alertness in Zuo Mo’s eyes, he was a proud person, and his desire to form a relationship instantly faded: “Dong Fu might protect ling plant farmers, but you have to be careful and not have bad relationships with others.”

  Finishing, he raised his hands and floated away.

  Zuo Mo’s heart instantly landed back. He had already prepared to be injured and hadn’t thought he would be safe. Even he found it wondrous.

  Fu Jin wasn’t seriously harmed and firmly refused the jingshi that Zuo Mo handed over. This crisis changed the relationship between the two. Zuo Mo didn’t like Yu Bai but was very happy to interact with Fu Jin.

  Everyone was little people!

  Fu Jin was the local snakehead here. He was clear to what each place was selling. In two hours, he managed to help Zuo Mo buy everything he needed.

  It was a giant bag of a variety of seeds of ling herbs and grasses. Thirty pieces of jingshi were completely spent by Zuo Mo.

  Taking the things he brought, he bid farewell to Fu Jin and sat on the grey beaked goose straight back to Wu Kong Mountain.

  He had decided that he definitely wouldn’t leave the mountain before he entered zhuji. He was still scared about what happened today. He and Dong Qi Sword Sect were now at odds. If he encounted Dong Qi disciples again, it wouldn’t end well for him. To have such good luck as today every time, that was a dream.

  Dong Fu wasn’t some safe place!

  Chapter 38: Fragrant Ginger Yard

  Zuo Mo needed to carefully plan out the twenty mu of ling fields. He had very little money in his hands and couldn’t buy many of the ling herb seeds. Following the conclusions that Elder Wei Nan had made from his experiences, what he picked were species that had a high quality-price ratio. To guarantee his profits, Zuo Mo had attentively researched the present market before taking all his bags with him to the mountain.

  But he couldn’t start seeding it immediately.

  Up until now, he only had experience planting ling grains. Any kind of ling plant had different needs and concerns. Thankfully, Elder Wei Nan had detailed descriptions in the jade sticks and he didn’t need to experiment for himself.

  Studying the jade sticks, labouring over [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation]. Other than that, he needed to care for the ling fields in Cold Mist Valley. He was extremely busy every day, his feet almost not touching the ground.

  When he had studied pretty much all the jade sticks, he started to prepare the initial work. Luckily, they were all somewhat common ling herbs and grasses and didn’t need anything rare or expensive. Otherwise, he could only just stare at it.

  “I’m very poor, I’m very poor, I’m very poor poor poor poor poor poor……”

  Humming a tune, Zuo Mo directed the mud turning earthworm to plough the ling fields and seeded out the ling herbs and grasses he had brought.

  After a few days, some sprouts had appeared in the twenty mu. The tender greens carried Zuo Mo’s hopes.

  Zuo Mo could finally slow down. Even he almost couldn’t stand the amount of labor these past days. After planting down all the seeds, the labor required was instantly halved. He finally had the time to cultivate. This was why sword xiu never liked cultivating any kind of livelihood spell. Practicing any spell required large amounts of time and energy. For sword cultivators, they only focused on the sword. This was enough for them to have unrivaled attack strength.

  This was also why, in all the xiuzhe, in one-on-one, sword xiu had the greatest power.

  Of course, the actual situation would be complicated. There were many factors that could affect the fight between two xiuzhe. It was all tangled and complicated, like cultivation, talismans, seal formations, scriptures etc.

  Zuo Mo didn’t need to think about these things. At least, before he entered zhuji, he didn’t need to consider it. For him, what was most important at present was zhuji. After that was the five basic five elements spells. This would directly influences how much he would earn.

  He gave up [Ten Principle Scripture]. To try to rely on that to enter zhuji, it was a dream. [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation] became his only choice. He cultivated it as though it was a ling energy scripture. After zhuji, the sect would pass on new scriptures. By then, he would have more choices.

  This period of time was extremely busy, so busy he forgot the existence of Pu Yao. It was only now that he suddenly remembered Pu Yao and decided to take a look in his consciousness.

  Entering the sea of consciousness, he stared with wide eyes and mouth.

  Compared to before, the area of his consciousness was several times its previous size. This wasn’t surprising to him because his spiritual power had increased greatly. He had already found that whenever his spiritual power increased, the size of his sea of consciousness would increase as well.

  What shocked him was a river –– at some unknown time, a new addition of a river had appeared in his consciousness.

  A silvery shining river. The surface wasn’t broad but it was abnormally straight. It followed the median line of the consciousness and divided the consciousness in two. When Zuo Mo came near, he was surprised to find that it wasn’t water in the river, but countless large and small icicles. The light reflected through the icicles and created the silvery light. And when the countless icicles reflected the light at the same time, the bright light was enough to make the consciousness brighter. They slowly moved up and down like the movement of the tide. Layers of silver light flashed past like a secluded and deeply asleep ice dragon.

  On the two shores were concentrated red flames. These red flames were like a red water plant that grew beside the rivers.

  In the sky above his head, that star was even brighter. Neither the roaring flames nor the shining ice river could block its light.

  In the sea of flames, on the edge of the river, under the star, a gravestone was shrouded in black clouds and Pu Yao sat silently on it, listening to the sound tablet.

  Zuo Mo was completely stunned by the scene.

  The sea of consciousness was very calm, only the sound of the sound tablet drifting. The dark red flames danced, like the most seductive dancers twisting their waists. The slowly flowing ice river was like a sword, cold and awe-inspiring. The star was mysterious and profound. All of this created an extremely harmonious picture, and gave him a peerless shock!

  A beat later, Zuo Mo’s mind refocused.

  He still wasn’t clear what the sea of flames and the star was, but this ice river was like the tidal icicle sword essence that he had comprehended! About this point, he was very certain. Because from what he saw, flowing in the river wasn’t i
cicles but countless sword essences! This ice river would have formed exactly in this period of time. He felt that there was some faint connection but no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t catch it.

  The flames and the star had appeared very early. They must be related to [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation]. The time that the star appeared was when he had completed one breath. Did it represent one breath? What about the red flames?

  He wanted to ask Pu Yao but he also knew that Pu Yao definitely wouldn’t answer.

  Oh, of course, if there was jingshi, that was a whole different matter.

  Zuo Mo didn’t disturb Pu Yao and left the consciousness.

  When Zuo Mo disappeared from the consciousness, Pu Yao opened his eye. In his blood red eye was panic.

  Even though he was at the ninth level of lianqi but there was still a distance before reaching zhuji. The amount of ling energy needed for lianqi ninth level was much greater than the previous levels. Zuo Mo wasn’t impatient. With the help of a high grade ling vein, if he still couldn’t enter zhuji, he didn’t need to cultivate anymore.

  He could feel that the increase in his ling energy was very fast.

  The fire dragon grass had been moved into Zuo Mo’s own fields. The sunlight in West Wind Valley was abundant and more suitable to the growth of the fire dragon grass.

  Just like normal, Zuo Mo stood in front of the fire dragon grass. He cycled his ling energy, his two hands moving quickly. It was [Art of Crimson Flame]. After practising finger movements in the water, the nimbleness of his pair of hands were much stronger than before. The [Art of Crimson Flame], with its simpler hand movements, was much easier for him to cast.

  A thin faint gold light dropped from the sky, passed though Zuo Mo’s hands and was guided onto the fire dragon grass.

  [Art of Crimson Flame] could concentrate the essence of pure yang. It was very beneficial to plants that were yang.

  Zuo Mo didn’t move, appearing like a stone person.

  The crucial factors of [Art of Crimson Flame] were endurance and a peaceful mind. This wasn’t a problem for Zuo Mo. After receiving the jade medal, he found that he had walked an indirect road. If he had picked [Art of Crimson Flame] in the beginning, he would have gotten the jade medal earlier. However, there wasn’t a deficiency that was for nothing. Since he could do [Art of Flora], the most difficult of the five spells, the other spells were easily achieved.

  Time passed little by little.

  The strand of pale gold light that came from the sky turned slightly darker. A layer of light gold appeared on Zuo Mo’s hands as though gold was plated onto them.

  The leaves of the fire dragon grass became even brighter and fresher, vitality pouring from the entire plant.

  After persisting for an hour, he finally stopped. His two hands moved and that thin gold strand instantly disappeared.

  He inspected the fire dragon grass and was very satisfied. [Art of Crimson Flame] was extremely good for yang plants.

  All plants were divided into yin or yang. Zuo Mo also divided his own ling fields into two. The parts with more sunlight, he used to plant yang plants. The parts that were shadier and had more moisture, he used to grow yin plants.

  Zuo Mo prepared to cast [Art of Earth Energy]. Each day, he would cast a variety of spells on these plants. This was a duty that he had to complete every day. He didn’t know if it was that he had used it too much but [Art of Crimson Flame] and [Art of Earth Energy] quickly entered the third level without any of the difficulty that came with the breakthroughs of the other three spells.

  Afterwards, he had thought and then understood. Most of the credit had to go to [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation]. His spirit was much stronger than before. And no matter if it was the calm mind of [Art of Crimson Flame] or the communication and perception of [Art of Earth Energy], it was all tightly linked to the spirit.

  Suddenly a purple light landed beside his hand from the sky.

  A purple flying sword the length of his middle finger suddenly appeared next to his hand.

  Flying sword message?

  Zuo Mo turned to look around. Seeing that no one else was around, he then was certain it was for him. He carefully reached for the flying sword. The moment his finger touched the flying sword, a voice sounded inside his mind.

  “Come to Fragrant Ginger Yard at three.”

  It was his master Shi Feng Rong’s voice.

  Zuo Mo’s heart calmed down. Previously, he had been tortured to death by that pink paper crane and he had finally received a break. The pitiful Zuo Mo, his nerves had become very fragile and suspicious of these kinds of things.

  These last few days, his master hadn’t sought him out. It must have been given him time to get settled.

  Zuo Mo was very excited. Master’s proficiency in the area of dan-making was very deep, and according to Li Ying Feng Shijie, the dan that Master made, it was always easy to sell. In the previous times that Master had spent travelling outside, the income of the sect had been significantly impacted.

  And according to the experiences of Elder Wei Nan recorded in the jade stick, making dan was a faster way to make jingshi than farming.

  Exactly at three, Zuo Mo arrived at Fragrant Ginger Yard.

  This was the first time he had come to Fragrant Ginger Yard. Entering the gate, he saw many female disciples at work. Some were drying ling herbs, some were sorting, others had ling energy on their hands as they ground up ling herbs. In this large yard, there were more than forty female disciples at work.

  Seeing Zuo Mo, all these female disciples all stopped what they were doing.

  “Shixiong!”

  “Shixiong!”

  ……

  They all bowed in greeting and surreptitiously examined this shixiong. The news that Fourth Shigu had received a male disciple had spread through Fragrant Ginger Yard very early on. This crowd of female disciples already had a good handle on Zuo Mo’s background. What made them feel comforted was that Zuo Mo had once helped the female disciples at the Eastern Peak that were responsible for the animals and wasn’t one to harass others. They were all outer sect female disciples, and couldn’t really count as Shi Feng Rong’s disciples. Compared to Zuo Mo, their status was very far off and didn’t dare offend him.

  Zuo Mo frantically gave a bow in return.

  Seeing Zuo Mo’s embarrassed state, laughter sounded among the female disciples.

  The front female disciple instantly turned her head, looking in dissatisfaction at the female disciples who were laughing. The laughter instantly stopped.

  “Come in.”

  Master’s voice came from the inner yard, coincidentally releasing Zuo Mo from his predicament. He fled away.

  Chapter 39: Starting Making Dan

  “From today onwards, you will learn how to make dan with me. The job this month is very simple. Five Fasting Pills, doesn’t matter what grade they are. Give them to me by the end of the month,” Shi Feng Rong coldly said, “I have prepared ten portions of ingredients for you. If there isn’t enough, buy more yourself. The method to make fasting pills is in the study. You can read all the jade sticks in the study. Those that are over your cultivation, you won’t be able to see. Everything is in the room in the west wing. In the future, that would be your dan making room. Alright, you can go.”

  Finishing, Shi Feng Rong turned and entered her dan making room. With a bang, the dan room was shut tightly.

  Zuo Mo dumbly stood.

  This… … this was called learning dan-making with his master?

  He turned to look at the surroundings. Empty. Not a single person.

  Zuo Mo grimaced. Why did he only ever encounter these kind of people? It was like this when he learned things from Pu Yao, there were never any explanations. And this master was even more extreme. Not just throwing him to the side, she also stipulated how much he had to make.

  When Zuo Mo went into the study, he stared dumbly.

  How to find the recipe?

  In t
he study, there floated hundreds of jade sticks in different shapes and colors. They were like a group of mischievous children, drifting to and fro in the study. There was an energy whirlpool of various colors around each jade stick. It was these whirlpools that carried the jade sticks in flight.

  “Fasting pill!” After musing for a long moment, Zuo Mo shouted helplessly.

  The jade sticks unconcernedly floated about, not responding.

  That way wasn’t right! But there wasn’t anything else in the room. Zuo Mo scratched hard at his head, he was at his wits’ end.

  Maybe he needed to use his consciousness?

  After hesitating for a while, he reached out with his consciousness. When his consciousness touched the energy whirlpool around a jade stick, something instantly flooded into his head.

  “Energy diagrams of ling herbs. Authored by Dong Ming sanren [i]of Little Link Jie. Includes more than four hundred ling herb energy diagrams……”

  Zuo Mo’s mind instantly jumped, his consciousness going to touch all the other jade sticks. The information from each jade stick was released inside his mind. Very quickly, he found inside one jade stick the method to make fasting pills. This jade stick had, in total, the recipe for three different basic dan.

  Fasting pill was the most basic dan. Its use was very simple, to satisfy hunger. Using it would guarantee a long time without hunger. It counted as a type of useful dan. His consciousness locked onto this jade stick and the jade stick automatically flew in front of him. Picking up the jade stick, he poured ling energy in and the recipe to make fasting pills was revealed in his mind.

  And then, the pitiful Zuo Mo could only stare dumbly again!

  “Monarch Pachyma leaves, subject yellow stone, three by three flowing fire, cauldron energy sinking to bottom……”

  Zuo Mo recognized every character. However, if he put the characters together, it was like he was in a thick mist, completely lost.

  Calm, he had to be calm!