Chapter One Hundred and Fifty Two – Stardust
The explosions around Zuo Mo became even dense. With the naked eye, it was possible to see the air continuously exploding, and producing small whirlpools
Wu Ling Sanren was skilled in formations, because of this his consciousness was strong. Yet he found when his consciousness was one zhang away from Zuo Mo, it seemed to have touched a wall that he could not penetrate. He made a sound of surprise. He was in the stage of jindan. Zuo Mo was just in zhuji. Theoretically, Zuo Mo’s consciousness was not something that could resist his own. But the present situation was he was blocked. This kind of situation usually happened only when both sides were similar in power.
He quickly calmed down from his surprise. He guessed that Zuo Mo’s consciousness was undergoing a transformation. The explosions around Zuo Mo made him even more certain of his prediction.
Compared to ling power, xiuzhe understood much less about the spirit. Even jindan xiuzhe like Wu Ling Sanren wouldn’t dare to say they had a good understanding of the spirit. On the market, there were countless jade scrolls on cultivating ling power, but the number of jade scrolls for cultivating spiritual power were pitifully small, and they were not in demand. It was the most unpopular of the unpopular.
In all the xiuzhe, most of those skilled in the spirit were formation xiu, but even formation xiu still primarily used ling power. It was like the Dhyana. They called themselves the greatest at body cultivation, but in reality, they still cultivated ling power primarily.
Wu Ling Sanren might be skilled in formations, but he wasn’t a formation xiu, but a sword xiu.
In such a backwater little jie like Sky Moon Jie dominated by sword xiu, how was it possible to find good scriptures for cultivating the spirit?
Wu Ling Sanren’s spirit scripture was a small branch of his sect’s scripture. Due to that, he became interested in formations, and cultivated it for a while. But, that was just his hobby. A sword xiu could only have one job, that was, to cultivate the sword!
Wu Ling Sanren did not know what was really happening in Zuo Mo’s spirit.
Wei Fei, who had been alarmed by Wu Ling Sanren’s sound, looked at Zuo Mo once before he took away his gaze. He was also a jindan and naturally could see that a transformation was taking place in Zuo Mo’s consciousness. But in his view, the spirit was not the true path. So what if one’s spirit was powerful?
Wu Ling Sanren thought for a while. Not being able to come to any answers, he turned his eyes back to Wei Sheng and Gu Rong Ping.
———
Zuo Mo felt his consciousness silently start to change as the starlight penetrated, but what change was it? Looking at the starlight continuously produced by the stars slowly spread out in his consciousness, he had a feeling that this transformation would continue for a time.
The speed that the starlight spread was very slow. If it needed to spread through all of the area that the consciousness occupied, the time needed was not short.
His gaze leaving the consciousness, he started to ponder the “consciousness-splitting” that Pu Yao told him. In front of him, the consciousness was so clear. This was the first time that he had seen his consciousness. He didn’t know if this was an illusion, or his own delusion. He felt it was hard to decipher so he didn’t think about it.
Because the consciousness was so close he could almost touch it, he naturally thought about “consciousness splitting.”
Pu Yao did not tell him how to separate the consciousness. Zuo Mo looked at the surroundings. All around him was the consciousness, like the endless grey matter. The sea of consciousness was enveloped at the very center of the consciousness. The stars floated on the outside of the consciousness. It was so large, yet shapeless and intangible. Zuo Mo didn’t know what to do.
He tried to communicate with the surrounding consciousness like he usually did.
The moment he thought, the grey consciousness around him started to flood towards him. A short while later, there was a ball of consciousness on his hand. Zuo Mo was joyful. It was this easy?
But before he could be happy for a while, the ball of consciousness on his hand disappeared. As expected, it wouldn’t be so simple. He wasn’t demotivated. He was not surprised at the result. Since the first time he heard the words “consciousness splitting,” he felt it wouldn’t be so simple.
After that, he tried all kinds of experiments and concluded many things.
It was true that he could control the consciousness here, and it was very easy to control. But the consciousness was like sand. It could easily be squeezed into a ball in the hand, but once he let go, it would collapse into a pile. Once Zuo Mo’s thought moved away, the consciousness would return to its original state.
Zuo Mo felt that it was not correct. In his understanding, the consciousness that was separated should have a certain initiative of its own. Otherwise, what would be the difference compared to him separating his consciousness into separate parts? The consciousness was shapeless and intangible, and so it could be manipulated into any shape.
When he was using the [Great Li Fire Formation] to fight against Zong Ming Yan, Zuo Mo had used a similar technique. At the time, he needed to control [Dragon Tying Formation], [Li Fire Formation], [Three-Turn Formation], and [Great Li Fire Formation] at the same time. In order to control all four formations, Zuo Mo’s skill with the consciousness had reached an extremely detailed level.
At that time, his consciousness had been like an octopus with four tentacles which he used to control the four formations at the same time.
From a technical viewpoint, that wasn’t truly controlling them simultaneously because there was an order to the formations. It could be more appropriate to say it was cooperation. It was just that the gap between the times that the four formations were used that it looked as though it had proceeded at the same time.
Controlling four formations at the same time, that was Zuo Mo’s limit. It wasn’t multitasking with the mind, but making four continuous steps seamlessly.
“Consciousness splitting” was truly multitasking. It could do many things at the same time. If that was true, then other than the consciousness, what also had to split apart was the mind!
Zuo Mo sunk into thought. The consciousness might be shapeless and intangible but it was like ling power, yet it could be separated. The mind was the thoughts of a person, how to split that?
That was not possible!
Zuo Mo understood his own pathway was definitely wrong.
He suddenly thought about the yao seed in his body. The moment the thought appeared in his mind, the scenery around him changed again!
The sea of consciousness was quickly pulled closer. In the blink of an eye, he appeared in the sea of consciousness. Pu Yao was nearby. Zuo Mo saw Pu Yao suddenly open his eye, and scan the surroundings. Then a puzzled expression appeared on his face.
Zuo Mo didn’t have the time to call Pu Yao before his body passed through the flames and was pulled under below the sea of consciousness.
And then, he saw the yao seed!
Only now did he know that the yao seed was actually hidden away in his sea of consciousness, and in the very center at that.
Zuo Mo suddenly started to admire Pu Yao. To be able to bury an item like this into the deepest part of the sea of consciousness, Pu Yao was quite powerful.
He had always assumed that the sea of consciousness was a small island, but now, he found it was actually a sphere. The place he usually went to was the surface of the sphere, and the inside of the sphere was empty. The yao seed was in the very center, approximately the size of a walnut. Around it, there were many narrow tubes similar to channels or vines. Zuo Mo couldn’t name them. These slim tubes connected the yao seed to the surface of the sea of consciousness.
The yao seed had been added later. Then these thin tubes should also have been added later. After he had obtained the yao seed, his control of the consciousness had grown dramatically. Zuo Mo guessed that it was caused by these things.
Looking at the yao seed covered with vine-like tubes, he fell into a daze.
His heart suddenly moved. If he copied the structure of the yao seed, could he stabilize the consciousness, rather than have it move like sand.
The more he thought, the more he felt it was possible. Thinking hard about it, he discovered the consciousness, though shapeless and intangible, did not dissipate because of the existence of the sea of consciousness. The yao seed allowed him to control the consciousness every more closely to his wishes.
Seeing a ray of light, Zuo Mo quickly found himself facing another question.
Then what could he use in place of the sea of consciousness, and what about the yao seed?
He didn’t have Pu Yao’s abilities. It was clearly impossible for him to take things in from the outside world. Only things already present could be used here. Looking at the yao seed in front of him, he couldn’t help but think that if this yao seed was really like a vine, it would be wonderful if it could bear fruit. That way, he wouldn’t be lacking for objects to use.
This absurd thought just flashed humorously though his mind.
He felt that his thinking should have been incorrect but he needed to find a solution. He started to wander through the sea of consciousness, searching for items that could be the core. It was strange. He could clearly see Pu Yao, but the two of them seemed to be in completely different worlds. No matter how hard he shouted, even passing in front of the other, Pu Yao did not feel it at all.
After trying a few times, he gave up on this useless action, and started to search for things that could replace the yao seed.
Yet, after he went through all of the sea of consciousness, he didn’t find anything.
Was this thinking wrong? He unconsciously floated back into the consciousness, feeling the sense of familiarity passed through the consciousness, he furrowed his brows as he thought.
Just at this time, a speck of glittering star light like silver sand slowly floated passed his eyes.
His eyes suddenly stopped.
That bit of starlight actually had gathered a thin layer of consciousness, as though it had a thin grey shield!
Glee suddenly came into Zuo Mo’s eyes!
Starlight! Right, how could he have forgotten starlight?
He carefully reached out with his hand to grab that speck of starlight. The speck had no weight in his hand, but he could feel even the thin layer of consciousness around the starlight even more clearly. This layer of consciousness was slightly denser than the consciousness of any other place.
Ha! This was it!
Zuo Mo decided to call this star dust. Because when he looked at it closely, it wasn’t a ball of light, but something tangible, like sand.
Having found the miraculous use of stardust, Zuo Mo started to squat next to the four stars to gather stardust.
The speed the four stars sprayed out stardust was not fast. After a long time, Zuo Mo only gathered a small handful.
He decided to first try using the amount of star dust he had.
The stardust was as loose as sand. If he wanted to use them as the inner core, he needed to forge them into one object.
Forging was not unfamiliar to Zuo Mo. Right now, he could be considered half an expert in controlling fire. He quickly became depressed through because he could not summon the Stalagmite fire. Without fire, wasn’t it a dream to forge them together?
Fire … …
His gaze couldn’t help but land on the sea of consciousness. That was a large patch of fire! Maybe he could use those crimson fires, Zuo Mo thought uncertainly.
But at this time, he didn’t have a better choice so he could only try.
Yet what he didn’t expect was, when the thought just appeared, a strand of fire left the sea of flames, and flew in front of him!
It was so smooth Zuo Mo was awestruck. He had never been able to control the flames in the sea of consciousness before.
But after thinking for a while, he couldn’t think of a cause. In any case, its effectiveness would be known once he tried.
Daringly, he took control of this strand of deep crimson fire, and started to forge the stardust in his hands.
The deep red flame, carrying a fraction of black, covered the stardust, twisting about like a belly-dancer!
Translator Ramblings: Well, now we know what the sea of consciousness actually looks like. The thing I always wonder is if everyone’s sea of consciousness looks the same. Zuo Mo’s sea of consciousness only formed when Pu Yao came in and created the island.