Chapter One Hundred and Fifty Eight Seclusion
Zuo Mo did not impulsively decide to enter into seclusion training.
The wounds on his body were mostly healed. The only thing left was rest. He needed to calm down and organize what he had gained and lost this time. This Sword Test Conference, what he had encountered was much more than he had originally imagined. Only now did he have the time to think about it.
There were many things he wanted to ask Pu Yao, like splitting his consciousness. But when he had first opened his eyes after the conference, he found that Pu Yao was in the middle of meditation. No matter how he shouted and tried to get Pu to respond, it was useless. He could only work it out himself.
There were too many things that he needed to think deeply about.
Another important reason that he decided to enter seclusion was the news that Li Ying Feng had about the secret realm. Zuo Mo knew what a secret realm was. Because he knew it was a rare opportunity, he decided to enter seclusion!
There would be many opportunities inside the secret realm. If he was lucky and found some rare materials, he would really make a profit. But it would be wrong to think of the secret realm as his own ling fields. Tian Song Zi was allowing everyone to explore the secret realm and this suggested that this secret realm was still unexplored because if it had already been explored and all the rare materials had been taken awaythen there would be no meaning to letting people explore it again.
In the secret realm, other than the opportunities, what was more prominent was the danger. Secret realms were usually guarded by yao beasts. The more rare and valuable the item, the stronger the guardian yao beast was.
Other than yao beasts, what was harder to defend against was the hearts of people. Direct benefits meant direct conflicts of interest. Different from the competition of the Great Pine Pavilion, there would not be judges, no one calling a stop to fights. The fighting would be even more straightforward and bare. If someone killed for treasure, Zuo Mo wouldn’t be surprised.
The world was like this! But it would be too stupid not to attend due to this risk.
To be able to gain something, other than being lucky, it required strength.
He might have been ranked third but he knew his own strength. Luck was a major factor in his third place ranking. The formations that he was skilled in were not suited for fighting. He guessed that the sect leader would have the three disciples from their sect to move together at that time. Undoubtedly, the three pronged trident of Wu Kong Sword Sect would form the strongest team. After them, it would probably be the team of Yu Bai and Nan Men Yang.
However, Zuo Mo didn’t want to drag the others down. Other xiuzhe may avoid them due to their strength, but those yao beasts wouldn’t recognize them.
There were too many comprehensions from this Sword Test Conference that he needed to organize. He also needed a to do a thorough examination of his Five Colored Pagoda.
Pu Yao was always unreliable at the most crucial times, Zuo Mo thought irritably.
———
Wu Kong Hall.
“He’s in seclusion?” Pei Yuan Ran said.
Other than Xin Yan who was still cold and unaffected, the other two appeared to have a headache.
Yan Le rubbed his forehead and said, “He does need to seclude himself and ponder the experiences he received this time.”
“Ponder what?” Shi Feng Rong was furious when it was mentioned. She clearly remembered the mockery from the audience. “Ponder his formations? Or ponder how to make jingshi?” When she remembered how Zuo Mo had asked when the prizes were being awarded when he heard he was third, anger poured out of her heart.
Why did she have such a greedy disciple who didn’t like the sword?
She couldn’t help but peek at the cold Second Shixiong, the anger in her heart growing even stronger. She knew that Second Shixiong was really angry this time.
This little ruffian, he made Second Shixiong angry! Shi Feng Rong raged. She decided to find a chance to sort out this lawless guy.
“No matter. Let him enter seclusion.” Xin Yan suddenly opened to the surprise of everyone else. They had grown together from childhood and knew each other very well. It just wasn’t Shi Feng Rong who saw he was angry.
Seeing Zuo Mo continuing to delve further into formations and not study what was right, Xin Yan did not stop him. According to their thinking, Xin Yan should personally have gone and grabbed Zuo Mo, severely punishing him and then guide him onto the proper path.
Wu Kong Hall was a patch of silence. Everyone was shocked at Xin Yan’s attitude.
In the silence, Xin Yan’s cold and pressuring voice echoed.
“I will make him understand why sword xiu can unite and lead the world of cultivation!”
“Wu Kong Formation Sect! He can’t go … …”
The murderous and dark voice made the other three shudder. Sympathy came onto their faces.
———
Zuo Mo didn’t know at this time just how decisive Xin Yan Shibo’s resolution was. He quickly received his prize. Just like he had imagined, this jade scroll came into his hands without a problem. His choice surprised many people. The Sword Test Conference might have finished but the events of the Sword Test Conference still made waves in Dong Fu.
There were praises, and mockery. Zuo Mo’s choice was the most unexpected choice in the top ten.
Whatever this Scalping Zombie did always surprised people.
Zuo Mo was not concerned with this. With the jade scroll in his possess, he had no more cares, perfect for seclusion.
He burrowed into the stone room, and entered meditation.
Inspecting the situation inside his body, he found his state was bad. The wounds he received this time were much more severe than he had imagined. Under Master’s care, the channels in his body had basically healed, but compared to him at his peak, they had shrunk.
Zuo Mo decided to nurture of his channels.
It was not difficult to nurture channels. It was only using ling power to slowly permeate the channels and re-awaking the vitality inside. However, it was a detailed job and especially demanded patience.
Luckily, Zuo Mo was not in a rush. Slowly nurturing the channels, he took the chance and examined his own body in detail.
The ling power would be absorbed by the mo matrix automatically when it came close to him. The mo matrix would automatically take in ling power. What Zuo Mo marveled at was that the mo matrix, other than automatically taking in ling energy, it was like a filter and automatically purified the power.
Tempering ling power was a step that was unavoidable in cultivation. Ling power that was not purified was not only unable to be used, but could also harm the body.
But with the marvelous mo matrix, Zuo Mo did not need to spend time on purification.
The problem of storing ling power was still unresolved. The ling power would be absorbed through the mo matrix into the body, circulate through the channels, and dissipate inside the body. The greatest storage place inside his body for ling power was his dantian. Compared to the ling power that was absorbed into his body, it could only be considered a small pond.
The remaining ling power was unable to be stored. They flowed along the channels and dissipated into the body.
Normal xiuzhe needed to spend long periods of time to absorb ling power, tempering it over and over to purify it. It would take a long time to fill the dantian.
But Zuo Mo felt the problem was not this.
If a xiuzhe was a container, and the amount of things this container could hold became smaller, then it definitely was a problem with the container. In other words, something was likely wrong with the dantian. His thoughts were very clear.
As expected, when he focused his attention on his dantian, he finally understood why his cultivation would increase so slowly.
The dantian was like a pool, and the ling power the water inside the pool. However, this pool was marvelous in that, as the water rose, the walls of the pool would also rise. That way, the ling power stored inside the body would increase. However, the problem was with the mo matrix. He didn’t know what that a**hole, Pu Yao, was thinking! One region of the mo matrix coincidentally passed through his dantian.
It was like there were two holes in the wall of a pool and once the water inside the pool rose above the height of the holes, the water would be lost. His ling power was spilling out through the holes. These two holes were not small, so even though there was water constantly added to the pool, the height of water inside the pool would not rise.
Zuo Mo couldn’t help but grimace.
He really had tasted the bitterness of low cultivation in the Sword Test Conference. His cultivation was not enough, it meant that he had no strength to face someone else in the open. Tricks may be hard for people to deal with, but if he used them it too many times, it wouldn’t work.
Damn it!
Even though he knew what the problem was, he didn’t know what to do.
Changing the dantian wasn’t something a person like him who was just in zhuji could accomplish.
Without any other solution, he could only open his eyes.
He could only slowly work on the problem of cultivation. It was useless to rush. He could only comfort himself with the fact that finally knew what the problem was, now he only had to slowly think of a solution.
Compared to the pause in his ling power, his consciousness had rising quickly and without his knowledge, he had broken through to Fifth Breath. In the void above his sea of consciousness, there was another star.
In reality, before the Sword Test Conference, Zuo Mo didn’t have many good feelings about the [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation]. It may have been able to increase ling power, but its primary effect was strengthening the consciousness. For Zuo Mo, the consciousness had been far less important than ling power. Even more, it was strong in cultivating his consciousness, but there was no way to use his consciousness. In a person as pragmatic as Zuo Mo’s eyes, it was useless.
But now, Zuo Mo placed much more importance on [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation] than any other scripture or spell.
That strange and indescribable state, the ethereal star dust, the feeling as though it was a part of his body …. …
Zuo Mo looked at the Five Colored Pagoda in his hand. A feeling rose as though it was connected to his blood. The little pagoda was like a part of his body, intimate and familiar.
The other reason he entered seclusion was for the Five Colored Pagoda. In the fight during that last great clash, he had been severely wounded, and the Five Colored Pagoda had also received severe damage. He had Master to help heal him, but only he could work on the damage of the Five Colored Pagoda.
The Five Colored Pagoda was dim and dull, and had cracks over the body. If it wasn’t for the feeling of connectedness that existed between them, Zuo Mo would be suspicious that this wasn’t his Five Colored Pagoda.
Feeling the weakness passed on by the Five Colored Pagoda, Zuo Mo couldn’t help but reach out and caress the Five Colored Pagoda.
He closed his eyes, his mind sinking into the Five Colored Pagoda.
Entering the Five Colored Pagoda, he jumped in fright.
Inside the Five Colored Pagoda, the five balls of five element essence were all dim, so faint that they appeared to be able to vanish at any moment.
The ball of consciousness weakly floated in the middle of the five balls of elemental essence without any of the liveliness of before. If the Five Colored Pagoda had been the beginnings of a five element world before, then this five element world was now on the edge of disintegration!
Zuo Mo’s expression was terrible. The situation was worse than he had imagined!
Translator Ramblings: I feel this chapter is the true analysis of Zuo Mo’s fight. He’s not being humble, he’s very realistic. Nothing is worth more than his life. At the same time, Pu Yao is not the internet or Zuo Mo’s personal assistant. It’s probably better that Zuo Mo is able to stand on his own without Pu Yao’s constant help.
