World of Cultivation - Volume 03 - Seeking Survival On A Desolate Island

by Fang Xiang

  Most importantly, the three formations that he had analyzed and separated out did not look anything like a mo matrix. No one would connect it to a mo matrix. In these days where yaomo were roaming about, this point was especially important.

  After making the Black Processing Meditation Mats, Zuo Mo instantly felt the pressure decrease. He hadn’t found how to use the three micro formations right now. He already had the mo matrix on his body. He didn’t need the three formations.

  He decided to cultivate his spiritual power.

  According to Pu Yao, the road he was on was Star Spiritual cultivation. To Zuo Mo, Star Spiritual cultivation was slightly novel. Pu Yao’s suggestion was to first strengthen the ten stars, and he had given the related methods. Zuo Mo only had to absorb star power, then feed it back to the stars in his sea of consciousness to enlarge his source.

  It was coincidentally night now. He walked out of the room, and raised his head to look at the sky dotted with stars. He split his legs apart, forward and back, his body like a coiled snake raising its head, his mouth slightly open, his hands pushing on the air by the side, making an extremely strange and awkward pose.

  His mind empty, the consciousness leaf hand spread its five fingers and faced the far stars like a sunflower.

  His breathing slowly disappeared. A thread of star light fell off the star above Zuo Mo’s head. It was like a silver mist, thread after thread swallowed in Zuo Mo’s mouth.

  Zuo Mo felt his mind have a mysterious connection with the star above his head. A vast and ancient presence, from a deep and unknown place, crossing countless eras, and came to him. For some reason, his heart felt moved.

  A faint silver mist burrowed into Zuo Mo’s mouth, and effortlessly entered his channels. The ling power in his channels were as quiet as a virgin, not having any enmity against the star power that had been absorbed into his body. These threads of star power made one circuit around the channels inside his body, and then entered the space between Zuo Mo’s brows like a sparrow returning to its nest.

  In the void above the sea of consciousness, thread after thread of silver mist entered a dim star.

  ———

  Pu Yao looked at the star above his head and then took away his gaze. He opened his hand. On his palm, there was a puddle of black water. In the center of the black water, there was a miniature altar floating.

  Nether Pool!

  “Finally formed!” Pu Yao said to himself, “Hopefully this will work.”

  Finishing, he threw the puddle of black water towards the ground. The hand sized Nether Pool expanded in a blink to a black pond about one and a half mu large. On the altar floating in the center, an enchanting black flame jumped.

  Pu Yao flew onto the altar. The black fire surrounded him and burned silently. The black water in the Nether Pool roiled as if there were countless serpents restlessly swimming under the surface.

  Pu Yao closed his bloody pupil, his expression solemn. He suddenly shouted, “Rise!”

  The altar under Pu Yao’s feet suddenly had an astounding power to attract, all the black water in the pool flooding towards the altar. The black water quickly flooded the altar, reaching up to Pu Yao’s feet. Pu Yao did not move, allowing the black water to creep up over his feet.

  In a blink, the black water was above Pu Yao’s head.

  An enormous ball of black water stood on the altar. The scene seemed extremely unbalanced. Compared to the black water ball, the altar was pitifully small, making one worried that the enormous black water ball would crush the altar into pieces.

  Yet this crude altar was as steady as rock.

  The black water covering Pu Yao flowed restlessly and sped up.

  ———

  An hour later, the speed the black water ball was spinning at was at an astounding level. The hissing of high spinning speed was not sharp, but still frightening.

  Having finished his cultivation, Zuo Mo noticed the abnormality in his sea of consciousness. When he saw the scene in front of him, he was very shocked.

  What was Pu Yao doing?

  The spinning of the black water ball was still increasing. Zuo Mo sensitively noticed that as the spinning increased, the black water ball started to show signs of instability.

  “What does this guy want to do?” Zuo Mo muttered, not daring to move his eyes away.

  The spinning speed of the black water ball was still increasing. The signs of instability were increasing. The spherical black water ball was majorly distorted.

  It seemed the situation wasn’t good! Zuo Mo was slightly worried.

  Just as the black water ball seemed to be on the verge of collapse, light suddenly shone on the altar, and a heavy presence that was filled with vitality cover the sea of consciousness.

  Wait a moment!

  Zuo Mo’s eyes widened. He was too familiar with this presence!

  Earth energy! This was earth energy!

  Having been slightly worried, Zuo Mo instantly felt discontent. So this guy had stored the earth energy he had drawn out in the altar. Thinking about the pain he had endured when the earth energy had been drawn out, he gritted his teeth.

  Other than anger, he became even more curious.

  What was Pu Yao doing?

  Clearly, the “yao method” that Pu Yao was conducting was something he had aimed for a long time ago. No matter if it was the Nether Pool, or the earth energy that the other had drawn out, Pu Yao had prepared for a long time. There were many methods in the world, especially the methods of yaomo. Zuo Mo was too lazy to guess. He definitely would not guess it.

  He decided to sit and wait for Pu Yao to finish.

  With the help of the earth energy, the high speed spinning black water ball quickly stabilized. The stable black water ball started to increase speed again.

  The altar continuously provided earth energy. Zuo Mo’s eyes became even more unfriendly. How much earth energy had the guy drawn out of him!

  Suddenly, Zuo Mo raised his head and made a sound of surprise.

  The ever accelerating black water ball suddenly started to change. With speed visible to the naked eye, it quickly became clear. In the span of a few blinks, the black water ball became a peerlessly clear water ball. He could clearly see Pu Yao inside the water ball.

  Through the high speed water, Zuo Mo saw Pu Yao and instantly jumped in fright.

  Pu Yao’s entire body was as black as ink, the skin exposed to the outside looked as though it had been dyed black. The two red crystals on his earlobes became even more alluring in contrast to the deep black. Zuo Mo almost did not recognize Pu Yao. He started to become nervous – pain made its way onto Pu Yao’s face.

  Pu Yao had never shown this kind of expression before!

  What was this guy doing? Did something happen? Zuo Mo thought uncertainly.

  Earth energy continuously burrowed from the altar into the water ball and then into Pu Yao’s body. The earth energy seemed to be able to lessen Pu Yao’s pain. Pu Yao’s expression slowly steadied.

  The black on his body started to fade. The speed of the water ball slowly slowed.

  When the black completely faded, the water ball also stopped.

  Through the round ball of water, a handsome and enchanting male stood.

  He opened the narrow right eye that was not covered by his hair.

  * * *

  Translator Ramblings: Zuo Mo learns from nature. Pu Yao makes an appearance after some time away. Zuo Mo finally realizes that Pu Yao’s been scheming against him for a long time.

  Chapter 222: Lil’ Pagoda’s Levelling Up

  Pu Yao stepped out of and off the altar, the water ball collapsing behind him.

  His expression was not too good.

  “What did you do?” Zuo Mo probed.

  “None of your business!” Pu Yao’s expression was dark, his tone unfriendly.

  Seeing the sign, Zuo Mo knew that he couldn’t get anything out of Pu Yao and went on his own business. Ge was busy.

  He started to mak
e puppets for the Stone Door Beach that would soon enter his hands. He had deep confidence in Gongsun Shidi who was a battle crazy maniac. He didn’t know exactly where the confidence came from. When he thought about it, Gongsun Shidi was just a beginner, but Zuo Mo’s confidence in his did not lessen because of this.

  “Was this the a psychological shadow from having lost in War Chess several times,” Zuo Mo muttered in his heart.

  There were many ways to make puppets. The most commonly seen and crude method was to use paper and bamboo to make puppets. High level used things like corpses. After death, corpses would be buried in the ground. Yin and corrosive energies would permeate for long times, and birth some qualities. But in the eyes of large sects, they still avoided using corpses. However, that was not difficult or hard to find. They only needed a suitable corpse, forge it for a bit, and the power would be significant.

  Most of the corpses used would rarely be human since no one wanted their own corpses to be ruined after death. They were mostly animal corpses.

  However, Zuo Mo didn’t have the territory needed to find so many animal corpses. The corpse method was not suited to him. He decided to make the simplest paper puppet, with bamboo as the skeleton, the paper as the body. Paper puppets could not be greatly relied upon, but they should manage in mining.

  Zuo Mo decided to make one to try first.

  He took out a second-grade Rain Consort Bamboo and second-grade yellow paper. After a while, he finally folded out a paper person. This was the first time he had done this, so his skill was crude, and the paper figure looked very awkward. Zuo Mo did not care. He took up the cinnabar brush, and patiently painted characters on the paper person.

  After a while, the body of the paper person was covered in squiggly characters. Zuo Mo put down his pen in satisfaction.

  Bending down and pushing it in front of his face, he opened his mouth and blew a breath full of ling energy onto the paper person. The cinnabar seals suddenly lit up. The paper person creaked as it moved, and swayed as it struggled to stand up.

  The paper person was about one chi high. As it walked, the creak of the paper and bamboo was endless. Zuo Mo’s mind moved. The paper person awkwardly raised both of its hands, making him worry that it would scatter into pieces at any moment.

  Woosh!

  A belt of palm-sized yellow paper suddenly flew out of the arm of the paper person. Different than the awkwardness of the paper person, the yellow paper that flew out was very nimble, accurately grasping a fist-sized rock. The paper belt shrunk back with the rock and flew in front of the paper person.

  Interesting!

  Zuo Mo looked at the paper puppet and found it more interesting. He controlled the paper puppet to do all kinds of movements. After a while, the paper person plopped to the floor, and would not get up no matter how Zuo Mo urged it. Zuo Mo hurriedly inspected the paper person and found the ling energy of the paper person had been used up.

  This couldn’t work. If they stopped after just this little bit, the paper puppets didn’t have any value at all. He needed a way to increase the ling power of the paper puppets. Zuo Mo stared at the paper puppet in front of him, thinking inside.

  What he used were all low level materials. They could not store much ling power. This was a problem with all low level puppets.

  Zuo Mo suddenly thought of the jingshi talismans. His eyes lit up. Jingshi talismans used jingshi as the source of ling power and could be used in the long term! After thinking it through, he felt that this characteristic of jingshi talismans fit his needs.

  He wasn’t going to depend on these paper puppets to fight or kill. They were only doing some hard labor. A steady source of ling power would completely fulfill their needs.

  After thinking it through, he instantly made modifications. Inside the body of the paper puppet, he used thin bamboo to weave a cage that jingshi could be held and then added new characters along the bamboo skeleton.

  The newly modified paper puppet was full of energy. After playing around for several hours, it showed no signs of exhaustion.

  However, Zuo Mo quickly found a new problem. The paper puppet did not know exhaustion, but after so many hours, Zuo Mo was tired from commanding it. The new problem was very important. These paper puppets were going to be used in mining. He couldn’t always stay in the mine and direct them. That wouldn’t be as efficient as him mining by himself.

  To get the paper puppets to mine by themselves and not need his control. If he could do this, even if the efficiency was low, he would be able to offload the heavy duty of mining. In any case, he could fold some more paper people!

  But quickly, Zuo Mo realized that this problem was beyond his abilities. To make the puppet able to perceive, that mean that the puppet needed to have intelligence. There were many ways to create intelligence, but no matter which one, it wasn’t something a ningmai could do.

  Did this idea have to be discarded?

  Zuo Mo furrowed his brows and though. There were more and more for him to do. It would be best if he could split himself in two. Split in two … …

  Like a bolt of lightning, he suddenly thought

  – Lil’ Pagoda

  Something to replace him and connected to his mind, that was Lil’ Pagoda! Lil’ Pagoda was even able to control a formation as complex and large as the [Skyring Moon Chime Formation], a dozen or so puppets would be a piece of cake.

  Right right! Lil’ Pagoda would be perfect as the supervisor. Zuo Mo instantly felt confidence.

  Hm, where was Lil’ Pagoda?

  Scanning the surroundings, he didn’t find the shadow of Lil’ Pagoda. His mind moved, wanting to communicate with Lil’ Pagoda, but found that the connection between him and Lil’ Pagoda seemed to be blocked by an invisible force.

  Zuo Mo jumped in fright and started to search.

  He quickly found Lil’ Pagoda in the corner of the room. Lil’ Pagoda was silently floating in the air, surrounded by an invisible pressure.

  Silly Bird proudly walked its bird walk around Lil’ Pagoda in circles, occasionally revealing its concern. Lil’ Black had climbed onto the ceiling, the two antennae on its head continuously waving.

  Seeing Silly Bird and Lil’ Black guarding Lil’ Pagoda, Zuo Mo’s heart felt very warmed.

  However, the warmth was quickly smashed to pieces by the roll of eyes that Silly Bird had thrown over. Silly Bird took back its gaze, raised up her bird head, and continued to calmly strut its walk. Compared to the rebelliousness of Silly Bird, Lil’ Black was much warmer and obedient, climbing down from the ceiling, climbing up Zuo Mo’s pants until it reached Zuo Mo’s palm. The two antennae on its head waving and fawning.

  “So good!” Zuo Mo purposefully took out a lingdan and put it in front of Lil’ Black. Lil’ Black started to happily chomp.

  Silly Bird responded with a roll of the eyes filled with scorn and disdain, completely unmoved.

  Zuo Mo was very irritated. At this time, a five colored light suddenly appeared on Lil’ Pagoda’s body.

  Lil’ Pagoda was leveling up!

  The displeasure in Zuo Mo’s heart instantly was thrown away, his eyes unblinking. Silly Bird also stopped walking and stared at Lil’ Pagoda, the concern in her eyes completely undisguised.

  Lil’ Pagoda was Zuo Mo’s soul-tethered talisman. In the recent past, Zuo Mo had fed it large amounts of talismans and flying swords. Zuo Mo was not surprised it was leveling up. Zuo Mo knew pitifully little about soul-tethered talismans, and the grades of normal talismans were useless for Lil’ Pagoda.

  In any case, he only needed to know that Lil’ Pagoda was becoming stronger, Zuo Mo comforted himself.

  Lil’ Pagoda had five levels, and the light released by each level was different. The five colored lights merged and cycled. Inside the five colored lights, Lil’ Pagoda spun, the lights becoming even brighter. In a while, Lil’ Pagoda was covered in the blinding five colored light, and was unable to be seen.

  The five balls of colored light dimmed and brightened
like it was breathing. Reflecting off Zuo Mo’s face, it was possible to see the nervousness in his eyes.

  This leveling up, what change would happen to Lil’ Pagoda?

  After several cycles, the five colored ball steadied. Zuo Mo closed his eyes. He could barely make out that Lil’ Pagoda was changing.

  The steady ball of light slowly dimmed until all the light was gone.

  Lil’ Pagoda’s body had become even rounder, the tip of the power almost a ball now. The eaves were even wider and smooth, giving people the feeling of chubbiness. The little gourds under the eaves were bigger, and rounder.

  Zuo Mo gaped.

  These days, did pagodas also get fat?

  Lil’ Pagoda shook its body, the chubby five levels of eaves opening and closing like five little hands that were also waving. It didn’t seem to have woken up, somewhat dizzy. However, it quickly found Silly Bird guarding it at the side.

  The eaves of the five levels opened, and Lil’ Pagoda shook the five colored chubby gourds on its body as it skipped over to Silly Bird. Then it spat out a grey bead.

  Silly Bird skillfully picked up the grey bead and swallowed it.

  A tragic and pain filled voice suddenly shook the skies!

  “You people! I say, this is why has it been so long since this stuff had come out, you guys secretly ate it!”

  Zuo Mo furiously pointed and swore. He felt his heart was being carved with a knife! Heavens! The grey bead that Lil’ Pagoda had spat out a material that was not in the five elements!

  With Silly Bird’s swallow, Zuo Mo felt the sky and earth turn, he seemed to see a flood made out of countless jingshi enter Silly Bird’s mouth like a whale swallowing water!

  Pain! Pain of the flesh!

  Lil’ Black, who had been chewing happily, froze, the antennae that had been waving freezing in the air. It slowly retreated, step by step, as slow as a turtle. When it found that Zuo Mo did not seem to notice it, it shot away from Zuo Mo’s body like a black light and disappeared.

  Zuo Mo instantly understood, and gritted out, “Lil’ Black, so you were involved too!”