Edit: Sorry to those who received an alert about chapter fifteen. I got the chapter number mixed up.
This is a more relaxing chapter. I reread the novel today and the beginning parts are some of my favorite. Lots of comedy, lots of work and trying to navigate through life. Everything is also so simple and easy to translate right now.
Chapter Fourteen Strange Disease
Hand touching the ling grain, a hint of gold suddenly floated onto Guo Lu shixiong’s face.
Just this was enough to make Zuo Mo feel admiration. Guo Lu shixiong’s comprehension of [Art of Aged Gold] was much deeper than him. Even though he was at the second level but in actual usage and level of comprehension, he was much weaker than Guo Lu shixiong.
Yet something unexpected happened!
Guo Lu shixiong’s expression changed and he spat out a mouthful of blood, falling to the ground. The disciples spectating instantly paled and rushed forward heading for Guo Lu shixiong.
They only saw that Guo Lu shixiong’s face was as white as paper, barely breathing and unconscious.
Some shixiong who were on good relations with Guo Lu shixiong hurriedly held him up and ran up the mountain. Old Black stayed still in his original place and then started to wail, the sound so mournful listeners also became sad.
The crowd gradually dissipated, each person’s face filled with worry.
Zuo Mo moved his feet, walking into the ling fields. Nearing a stalk of ling grain, he closely examined it. He didn’t dare to touch it with his hand. The scene just now, it really made him extremely afraid of these ling grains.
A fishy odor entered his nose. Zuo Mo couldn’t help but frown. In his two years of farming, he had never smelt something like this. Inside, he really wanted to find out what was really inside this ling grains. He suddenly thought about the first time he encountered pests. That brutal and dangerous aura was still fresh on his mind. It was only when he had used [Art of Aged Gold] on his five mu of ling grains that first time that he encountered a similar situation.
When Guo Lu shixiong suddenly spat blood, the first though in his head was, was it that inside these ling grains, there were similar yet stronger presences?
But the lesson of Guo Lu shixiong told him to not rashly try.
Looking at Old Black, he sighed inside. A problem that even Guo shixiong couldn’t solve, he had the desire but not the strength.
Even when he got back to his small yard, that scene was still playing in his mind. The seriousness of the problem increased dramatically due to Guo Lu shixiong throwing up blood. It was certain that the sect would respond. But the only one knowledgeable in the sect about farming, fourth shigu Shi Feng Rong had left to wander half a year ago and still hadn’t recovered. Hao Min shijie who was responsible for the medicine fields had left with Luo Li shixiong.
Hao Min shijie was going to be out of luck, but Zuo Mo didn’t have much joy.
He had a feeling that the strange disease would spread. When he entered the ling fields he had detected that the withering of the ling grains were clearly different. From that, it could be seen that there was a progress in which the ling grains in the field were infected.
The situation was exactly what he had predicted. In the following days, another two shixiong’s ling grains became infected with this kind of strange disease.
The higher ups of the sect still hadn’t set out any measures. Guo Lu shixiong was still unconscious.
A layer of dark clouds covered Wu Kong Sword Sect.
There were still about two months before the time to harvest the ling grains. Everyone could only pray that the ling grains in their own fields would escape and endure to harvest.
However, prayers didn’t do anything. This year, the number of outer sect disciples who received not a seed quickly increased to ten people
Zuo Mo’s luck seemed to have been used up. He became one of the ten people. The five mu in the yard was still good, but some withered ling grains started to appear in the fifty mu he rented from the sect.
His heart suddenly became nervous!
At no time had he ever though he would leave the sect. Farming wasn’t an easy job but he still lived well. From when he opened his eyes two years ago, he had lived at Wu Kong Mountain. This was like his home.
But if he couldn’t completely pay the rent for the ling fields this year, he would be exiled out of the sect.
This was something he could not accept! Even more, if he left the yard, where would he go to find even the smallest section of ling vein?
Nothing was harder to accept than seeing the ling grains in the fields wither stalk by stalk. Nothing other than being unable to stop the spread made people feel despair. The harsh fishy odor waved off the fields. The rich fields became a pit of mud.
The sect was swarming with victims. The number of outer sect disciple that weres infected by the strange disease increased to twenty five people. The remainder were also in danger.
The ling grains were almost entirely dry. Only at the spot nearest the ground could a hint of green be seen. If they couldn’t find a way, when the vitality of this ling grains were completely gone, it would be too late.
Just as Zuo Mo was at his wit’s end, suddenly a pink Little Thousand Crane appeared in front of his eyes.
“Damned woman! Making a bother at this time!” Zuo Mo saw this paper crane and couldn’t help starting to swear.
He didn’t have any intentions of picking the crane, sneering and musing to himself: “Humph, ge won’t pay attention to you, go play by yourself.”
After the sound landed, the Little Thousand Crane suddenly opened on its own.
“Ye, where are you waiting for me?”
A sweet and adorable voice wormed into his ears. It was like licking a mouthful of honey, or gently tickled at the heart. A person who was less resolute would have softened to the bones.
Zuo Mo stared with an open mouth at this pink paper that opened up on its own in front of him. On it was written exactly what the voice said.
Automatically unfolding, automatically speaking, automatically finding people ……
The tiny pink Little Thousand Crane showed so many wonders that let Zuo Mo’s weak soul received an unprecedented battering.
He suddenly had a premonition. He might have provoked big trouble.
“Fine fine, it’s not good to argue with a woman. Ge won’t play with you!” He said to himself righteously.
“Wanting to use beauty to tempt me? Humph humph!” Zuo Mo sneered: “You’re still tender. Not just a magic voice, but even if it was a peerless naked woman, ge can still calmly, heart as fixed as pine.”
In the ling fields, there was only the sound of Zuo Mo’s duck like voice singing: “I was originally a mirror, yet dust fell upon me, ya yi ya……”
Before his voice stopped, another pink Little Thousand Crane flew in front of him from the sky.
The exquisite pink Little Thousand Crane moved like stripping off clothing, the motions elegant as it automatically unfolded.
“Haha, ye, if you don’t reply, the next Little Thousand Crane, I’ll draw a Flame Exploding Seal.”
“Am I afraid?” Zuo Mo wasn’t scared: “Am I one that will lower his head due to power……”
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 an ability. 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’ favour.
The specialty of an empress’ favour 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 easy and boldness of last time. It was so bitter like a weak woman that had a brute rush into her rooms in the middle of the night.
With the fastest speed, he folded the pink paper and with faster speed, he filled it with ling energy and patted his chest in trepidation as he watched it disappear into the horizon.
Zuo Mo felt he was really unlucky. Why did he be so idle as to pick up the paper crane? Why did he reply?
Thinking about the crowd of paper cranes flying down from the sky and then boom boom boom! With him as the center, within three miles, nothing would remain.
Zuo Mo’s head 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, 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 yet was abnormally powerful. And it was this “abnormally powerful” that easily slayed any intentions of Zuo Mo to rebel.
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 even made him not feel any more terror towards the ling grains that made Guo shixiong throw up blood. The experiences this afternoon made him believe, that in this world, there couldn’t be anything more scary than this terrifying woman.
He decided to try to rescue his fifty mu of ling grains.
He didn’t want to leave this place.