Chapter One Hundred and Two – Couldn’t Understand
Zuo Mo slowly woke up. His face was pasted to the ground, dirt in his mouth. He felt slightly secure once he realized he was in his little yard.
When he inspected his body, his heart finally relaxed. The situation was better than he had expected. Even though his injuries were serious, especially in his channels, but it was much better than he had imagined. What he was most afraid of was damaging his basic vitality. That was a fatal wound that even jindan xiuzhe could not save him from.
Still alright, alright… …
He struggled up from the dirt floor. He was used to the soreness of his entire body. Thinking about it now, he always ended up causing his own sorry state. If it happened multiple times, then one would get used to it. Even something like enduring pain was like that.
However, when he saw the grey-beaked goose splattered like mud lying nearby, he was very shocked. He hurriedly stumbled over. It definitely was this female bird’s labor that he could come back. If he didn’t have it, he would have been very badly off! Coming to the grey-beaked goose, he carefully inspected her before his heart settled down. This female bird was just exhausted. Zuo Mo was very moved.
Running to the stone room, and taking out the stone milk that he treasured so much, he dropped three drops to the grey-beaked goose.
“Silly Bird, Silly Bird, ge is pretty good to you!” Zuo Mo said to himself.
For xiuzhe, using stone milk by itself didn’t have much of a beneficial effect, but for ling beasts, this was a natural treasure. Other than Zuo Mo, no one would feed three drops of stone milk to a second-grade grey-beaked goose. From the perspective of jingshi, three drops of stone milk was much more valuable than a second-grade grey-beaked goose. However, this person and bird had great camaraderie. Even though this female bird had once taunted him, but ge is generous, and won’t hold a grudge with you silly bird, Zuo Mo thought.
The effect of the stone milk was, as expected, extremely clear.
Just seconds later, the grey-beaked goose stood up again, but … …
Looking at the grey-beaked goose, like a person, her wings tucked behind her back, puffing up her chest, walking the steps, Zuo Mo was dumbstruck. But it didn’t manage to maintain it for very long before it became fretful, jumping about in the yard, jumping up and down. Zuo Mo gaped with wide eyes. But after a while, even jumping would not satisfy it. That pair of wings started to endlessly make strange movements. It looked like a convulsing strange bird dancing.
It was really too horrible to look at, no sense of beauty at all… …
Zuo Mo could only give this cruel review.
After thinking slightly, he understood what had happened. He had given too much stone milk to the grey-beaked goose. The potential of the grey-beaked goose was very average, and was not able to tolerate such a large amount of stone milk. Too much of the medicinal power was unable to be absorbed and caused it to act so crazily.
Suddenly, Zuo Mo paled. This silly bird was running towards the ling fields!
“Stop!” Zuo Mo couldn’t resist and swore, “If you ruin my fields, I’ll break your legs!”
Frightened by Zuo Mo, the grey-beaked goose rushed to a stop and its head plunged into the ground, head down and tail up. It was still slightly frightened of Zuo Mo. When it swayed as it pulled its head out of the ground. Zuo Mo saw the situation was bad and yelled,“Are you dumb? Go fly into the sky!”
The grey-beaked goose used its wings to hit its head, its face giving an expression of realization. Then it shook its head drunkenly, flapping its wings and staggered as it shot into the air.
Zuo Mo patted his chest in fear. These days, even birds were this strong!
Having managed to stabilize the silly bird, Zuo Mo dragged his half-crippled body into the stone room. Once he crawled in, he entered meditation.
He spent much longer in meditation than before, a full twenty hours before he woke up. Even though he hadn’t been wounded too severely, but the wounds in the channels inside his body were not insignificant. The damaging power of the impure ling energy was extremely serious. At that time, he really had been crazy. For jingshi, to not even care for his life? However, thinking back to it, he felt that it wasn’t right. Why had he been so reckless? He couldn’t pin down a reason.
That last attack, there were many places for him to savor.
He and Chang Heng were not on the same level of power. It could be seen from the fact the other had forced him to the precipice with one move. Thinking about it now, Zuo Mo still felt fear. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about Chang Heng’s level of power, but he hadn’t thought he would have struggle so much to stand up under just one of Chang Heng’s moves. It really was a miracle that he was only wounded this little.
He wasn’t dejected. From level of cultivation, there was too much of a difference. Chang Heng was at the peak of zhuji, someone heading for ningmai. Zuo Mo was only the fourth level of zhuji.
However, he was now at the fifth level. Just now, after a meditation of twenty hours, he had accidentally entered the fifth level. This wasn’t all of the gains from the battle. That was why Zuo Mo wasn’t leaving after he woke up, but sitting, savoring the entire battle.
The battle had been extremely short, just one move, yet the changes involved were not simple. Quite the opposite, there were many changes that Zuo Mo had never even thought about before. He had even done something as damaging to himself as sucking ling energy into his body to just barely make it through one of the other’s moves. There were too many actions of Chang Heng that were worth learning from. The precision of ling energy usage, the attack on the consciousness, the usage of presence and pressure… …
This meditation was another ten hours.
When he truly finished, he felt that he was extremely hungry. Running to the stores, he found some ling grains. Not caring about his cooking skill, he personally made a ling grain meal. The terrible cooking skills caused the taste of the meal to be rather bad. Zuo Mo did swallow up every bit of it. The ling energy contained in the ling grains was extremely useful.
After filling his hunger, he started to inspect his spoils of war.
When he put all the trophies out, he instantly became excited.
[Moonwater Black Turtle Armor], [Seal Soldier], one third-grade belt, and a pair of third-grade vambraces.
He was familiar with the attributes of Moonwater Black Turtle armor. The seal soldier could be used only one more time. That was something to use to save his life at a crucial time. Zuo Mo naturally wouldn’t be so dumb as to try it out. After memorizing the spell, he carefully put away the seal soldier.
The important ones were the belt and the vambraces. Zuo Mo had to admit that he had slipped up on the belt. The gold glittering belt only had one formation: Martial Bearing. Zuo Mo thought this was a formation that had no use at all. Its purpose was to make the presence of the wearer more outstanding, and look stronger and magnificent.
In other word, this was a decorative formation. Zuo Mo wanted to spit blood. He felt that it could be understandable that women would wear talismans of this type, but a guy, wearing a belt carved with [Martial Bearing] formation in broad daylight, they were too much of a showoff. The belt was made up of soft Gold Sky silk. The quality was outstanding. Such good material carved with a formation that had no real use, what a waste!
Zuo Mo was extremely frustrated. Why did he pick such a useless item?
However, what could be celebrated was that the vambraces did not disappoint him. There were two formations on it: [Thirty Thousand Catty] and [Nimble Fingers]. [Thirty Thousand Catty] was able to greatly increase his power. In the eyes of other xiuzhe, especially sword xiu, this might be a useless formation, but Zuo Mo liked it very much.
Wasn’t it just perfect to match with [Vajra Profound Sutra]?
Thinking about having a pair of dark gold hands with the power of a thousand catties, unable to be destroyed, easily breaking down other people’s flying sword, Zuo Mo’s heart jumped in excitement. Of course, this was just a fantasy. No one would let their flying sword get caught by another person’s hand. However, as a trap, this was still one that people could not defend against.
[Nimble Fingers] was a formation that was widely used. Its attribute was to increase the nimbleness of fingers. However, this was not that useful for Zuo Mo. In low-level xiuzhe, his finger motions was already very strong. The increase it would give him was almost nothing. [Nimble Fingers] was more effective the less familiar a xiuzhe was with finger motions. Those that were familiar, there wasn’t much of an effect.
Okay, people shouldn’t be too greedy. Zuo Mo muttered inside. He needed to go to Dong Fu right now, and sell a talisman to gather up the jingshi needed to clear his debts. The belt probably couldn’t sell for much jingshi. If it really wasn’t enough, he had to sell this pair of vambraces as well. He was slightly reluctant. Vambraces that had [Nimble Fingers] on it were easy to buy. What he was reluctant to sell was the [Thirty Thousand Catty] formation.
But he was poor, Zuo Mo had no way around it.
The grey-beaked goose had flown away, so Zuo Mo could only flip out his flying paper crane.
“Lil’ Yellow, Lil’Yellow, it’s time for you to perform!”
Sitting on the paper crane, Zuo Mo swayed and staggered his way to Dong Fu. The outer sect disciples of Wu Kong Sword Sect, when they saw Zuo Mo riding a paper crane, first paused, and then their faces were full of admiration as they bowed to Zuo Mo.
“Did you hear? Shixiong went alone to challenge Ling Ying Sect! One against five and managed to beat all of them! All of Dong Fu has heard it!”
On the paper crane, Zuo Mo’s body froze and he started to sweat. This rumor… …
“Yes, yes! Such a stunning incident, how could I not have? I heard that there was a ten zhang tall spider, whose gigantic mouth could swallow a bull whole, Zuo Shixiong used only one move to beat it until it begged for mercy… …”
Sitting on the paper crane, Zuo Mo almost dropped off. It was more like he had almost begged for mercy… …
“So strong! Look at Zuo Shixiong, such a powerful person, and is riding a first-grade paper crane. What is called living frugally? What is inscrutable? This is!”
“Yes yes!”
Zuo Mo finally couldn’t bear it any longer and fled.
—–
An extremely well attired middle aged person was repeatedly examining a soft gold belt, expression excited and heated.
“Good thing! Really a good thing! Tsk tsk, look, this weaving, seventy two joyful crane technique, isn’t something any master can knit out. Look at the style, the two words, extremely noble! Very classic form, won’t go out of style for at least fifty years. Soft gold silk is a good material. Gold yet not blinding, bright but not crass. Only this kind of fine material can display it to the best advantage. If it something lesser, it would be too cheap, and the comfort would be less. Someone who can buy something like this, who would buy it if it wasn’t comfortable? See this lucky knot, skilled. Using lucky knots to lock the edge, I’ve never seen something like it. This time, I’ve really broadened my visions. This [Martial Bearing] formation has had great care in it. This position, it perfectly covers the entire body. Wearing it, if you don’t look elegant and grand, it must be the base material is terrible… …”
Zuo Mo dazedly came out of the store, the hundred treasures pouch at his waist full and bulging. He felt like he was in a dream.
A soft gold belt carved with a martial bearing formation was actually the most expensive of all these talismans.
These days, was it him that was crazy, or them that was crazy… …
He couldn’t understand, couldn’t understand!
Translator Ramblings: Zuo Mo doesn’t understand what vanity is. The [Thirty Thousand Catty] is really nicer as [Thousand Jun], one jun being thirty catties. It usually describes the great magnitude of the power which is unable to be blocked.