Chapter One Hundred and Seventy Eight – Void Pass
“Just one drop of blood. You are not willing to even pay this insignificant price?” Pu Yao said, his brow furrowing in discontent.
“Insignificant?” Zuo Mo’s voice was full of displeasure, “Taking blood from me is insignificant?”
He then said decisively, “This is not negotiable. Jingshi and talismans, how can they compare with my little life?”
Pu Yao propped his chin and thought momentarily before he said, “How about this? I won’t take your vital blood, but you have to give me the earth energy you get everyday.”
“Earth energy?” Zuo Mo was still for a moment but he replied quickly. In his mind, he instantly connected it to the feeling of connectedness to the earth when he had been fighting with the Blue Spiked Crocodile.
There was a problem!
Pu Yao was very cunning. This was his goal.
“What is earth energy?” He asked, knowing the result.
But Pu Yao was a yao thousands of years old. Even though Zuo Mo tried to conceal it, the intelligent Pu Yao could find hints from the slight changes in his eyes. Pu Yao smiled, not disguising it, “Mo have always thought that the Great Earth is the mother of all things. The power of the Great Earth is stronger than anything else. When they cultivate, they always attend to their communication to the earth. You just have broken through to the first level of body cultivation. This level is called Mountain Physique. The level of Mountain Physique, you can now communicate with the Great Earth. As long as your feet are on the ground, you will have endless strength.”
Zuo Mo listened carefully.
“Of course, that crowd of idiot mo doesn’t understand anything profound. This method is simple and straightforward, very easy to start. Mo also descend from wild beasts. Compared to xiuzhe, they naturally are more connected with the earth. It is easy for them to start this method. But you, it is very unexpected to me that you have such talent in body cultivation.”
“Earth energy is the power that comes from the earth?” Zuo Mo asked in response.
“Oh, it’s not incorrect if you understand it that way,” Pu Yao nodded.
“If I give the earth energy to you, that means my Mountain Physique would not progress?” Zuo Mo continued. He wasn’t stupid.
“Right,” Pu Yao continued to nod, calmly admitting it.
“No!” Zuo Mo shook his head.
Pu Yao was puzzled, “Why not? The Mountain Physique might be said to have the power of ten thousand elephants but usually, it is very stupid. It is not even as effective as your sword formation. It’s is far from the [Great Thousand Leaf Hands] and [Little Thousand Leaf Hands]. There’s also so much jingshi, why don’t you agree?”
Zuo Mo smirked, “I don’t even know the power of the the [Great Thousand Leaf Hands] and [Little Thousand Leaf Hands] yet, but I’ve personally experience the power of the Mountain Physique. It is a very simple choice.”
Hearing this, Pu Yao was speechless. He had neglected the practicality of Zuo Mo. However, to a Sky Yao that was thousands of years old, what problem would this pose? He quickly thought of a solution, “If that’s the case, this is very simple. The [Great Thousand Leaf Hands] is split into seven chapters. You are only able to cultivate one chapter. Of the [Little Thousand Leaf Hands], you are only able to practice three moves. I’ll let you see half of the chapter of [Great Thousand Leaf Hands], and teach you a move of [Little Thousand Leaf Hands] for free.”
“Definitely free, no additional conditions,” Pu Yao promised.
“Okay, then give it,” Zuo Mo said unconcernedly. In his heart, he had already decided, that this time he would get one over Pu Yao. Freely learning half a chapter of [Great Thousand Leaf Hands], and one move of [Little Thousand Leaf Hands], then he would tell Pu Yao he still wouldn’t agree, ha ha … …
Thinking how frustrated Pu Yao would be, he felt very good.
Pu Yao didn’t waste words, throwing the first half chapter of [Great Thousand Leaf Hands] to Zuo Mo.
Zuo Mo naturally did not refuse. As he daydreamed about Pu Yao’s upcoming rage, he read the half chapter of [Great Thousand Leaf Hands].
After a few short words, and Zuo Mo’s indifference flew away.
He sunk into the text.
Compared to the cryptic nature of [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation], the half chapter of [Great Thousand Leaf Hands] was easy to understand, like a genius asking and responding to their own questions.
It headed straight for the main topic right at the start, first describing how to control power.
Mo used their body as a tool, continuously tempering it and their power turning inside. With their action, they could destroy mountains and upturn oceans. Xiuzhe primarily practiced ling power, ling power stored within their bodies would be guided by their channels and was easy to use. Spiritual power was invisible, spread outside the body, controlled by the mind, but the difficulty to use it was high. Even though yao were born knowing how to use their spiritual power but there were different proficiency levels. High level yao could control the world with just a thought.
After that was a mountain of questions regarding the consciousness.
Zuo Mo’s mind was deeply enchanted. Many of the questions in here were problems that had dogged him for a long time which he could not solve.
His gaze unconsciously went down.
This author replied to each of the questions, their language was extremely simple to understand. Zuo Mo felt as though a mist had been lifted.
The last conclusion it had was the consciousness was like a ball of mist, lacking a skeleton which caused it to become difficult to control. Mo primarily cultivated their body, their entire skeleton, flesh, blood, and skin were pathways, easy to control.
What spiritual power lacked was exactly this kind of pathways. They were naturally spread out. Only some high level Yao had yao seeds that could naturally function as base pathways. That was also why they were so powerful. The yao did not lack for geniuses. They might not have had highly regarded bloodlines but they could create new paths.
This [Great Thousand Leaf Hands] originated as one of these new paths.
Like vine creating a net, one leaf per section, the leaf like a hand, five finger-like segments able to do tens of thousands of changes.
Zuo Mo was drunk. He had never heard of this method before. It was very novel. Zuo Mo was not a yao. Pu Yao had embedded a Yao seed and caused his control to increase but that was nothing compared to the [Great Thousand Leaf Hands]. It was on a completely different level.
If he could successfully learn the [Great Thousand Leaf Hands], any formation would be able to reach its greatest potential in his hands!
Other than that, it was also useful for forging and dan-making.
Just as Zuo Mo hurried to keep reading, he suddenly stopped, the chapter half was finished!
It was like an itch that being scratched in that sweet spot and then the other suddenly stopped. He felt unspeakably uncomfortable. Damn it! Why did it stop there!
Zuo Mo, who had been waiting to see Pu Yao frustrated, deeply felt what frustration was!
No, he needed to control himself, he couldn’t let Pu Yao win!
Zuo Mo reluctantly took away his eyes, closing them to rest for a while. He slowly calmed down. Zuo Mo’s mind became clear as he calmed. This was what Pu Yao always did. If he really made the transaction, then there probably were countless traps waiting for him ahead.
Calm, calm … …
He said it repeatedly to himself inside, furiously telling himself to not fall for Pu Yao’s trick. This kind of self brainwashing finally had some effect. He decided to learn the first move of [Little Thousand Leaf Hands] before he decided.
Hearing this, Pu Yao refreshingly nodded,”Okay, I’ll teach you the first move.”
“[Little Thousand Leaf Hands] has thirty-six moves in total. The first move is one of the two most shallow and fundamental moves. Many of the other moves will be connected somewhat with these two moves. You have to be familiar with this one.”
Seeing Pu Yao act as though he was going to personally teach it, Zuo Mo’s mind became alert.
Pu Yao always boasted to the sky, but Zuo Mo had never seen him personally move. He instantly became excited now that the other was going to demonstrate his abilities.
“[Great Thousand Leaf Hands] and [Little Thousand Leaf Hands] were created by an ancient Sky Yao, the aim was to go against nature,” Pu Yao’s voice was full of respect, “When a yao is born, the achievements it can accomplish are mostly set. A yao seed is formed naturally and is the source of a yao’s power. This Sky Yao was born as the most normal of the little yao and became a Sky Yao in the end. You don’t really understand the yao. What the yao do is flow along with their natural order. It was only when that Sky Yao appeared that people discovered it was possible to go against this natural order. From then on, yao cultivation was split into with nature and against nature. You are learning that elder’s moves today, do not mar that Sky Yao Elder’s name.”
Pu Yao’s voice was stern and serious. Zuo Mo gaped inside and was full of anticipation. From Pu Yao’s explanation, it seemed that these two sets of methods had a great history!
“Watch carefully.”
As Pu Yao stopped talking, he raised his right hand. His right hand was long and snowy white, perfect in form, the bright red nails slightly curved and as sharp as a knife.
He pointed with his index finger, the long crimson fingernail lightly sketching in the air.
The movements were ethereal and gentle, flowing and pleasurable to the eye.
The places that the blade like fingernail passed, a streak of blood curved and squiggled. In a blink, a profound bloody character took form in the air.
Zuo Mo’s pupils suddenly shrunk!
He suddenly found that, starting from when Pu Yao’s finger had started to draw. Zuo Mo’s own consciousness had gone slightly out of control, as though Pu Yao’s finger held a strange magnetism. He jumped in fright, and hurriedly controlled his mind!
Even though he was trying to control his consciousness, the majority of his attention was used to watch Pu Yao.
Pu Yao’s spiritual power flooded the bloody character. The character seal suddenly became full and glistening as though it was alive.
Zuo Mo felt as though he was suddenly jerked into an extremely strange world.
There was no noise, no change. It was like time had completely stopped. Zuo Mo felt that that his heartbeat had stopped, his blood stopped flowing, his muscles and hair stopped moving!
An unknown amount of time later, this strange state flew away as though it was a dream.
Zuo Mo finally felt shock. In a daze, he heard Pu Yao’s slow and deep voice.
“The first move is called [Void Pass]. It does not halt time, it just maintains the laws that everything originally has, but at the same moment, it refuses all new laws, so you feel as though time has stopped. The two concepts are completely different. It only refuses change. The stronger your spirit is, the greater your control over your consciousness will be, and the larger the area you can control. However, if it is a strong change in the laws, you may not be able to stop it and the technique would break.”
“Do not try to use it on other xiuzhe, unless the difference in cultivation is very great.”
“Then what’s the use?” Zuo Mo heard himself ask instinctively.
“Hue hue, you can use it on talismans. The ling power on talismans usually is constantly flowing. The effect of interfering with that is very outstanding.”
———
Zuo Mo had received such a great blow that he seemed to have lost his soul in the following days. Pu Yao did not hurry him, looking very confident.
The fifth day, he finally thought it through and came to the sea of consciousness.
Like normal, Pu Yao sat on the gravestone. His back to Zuo Mo, he still knew that Zuo Mo had come, a smug smile at the corner of his mouth.
Zuo Mo’s eyes were clear. Just as he prepared to speak, he saw the gravestone under Pu Yao out of the corner of his eyes, and suddenly stopped.
Translator Ramblings: Like any normal person Zuo Mo has the reasoning life > jingshi.
Back to the issue of time. Max lifespan of normal dacheng xiuzhe is 1000 years. Yaomo live longer in general. However, no one is really “immortal,” so these great people Pu Yao mentioned have all died a long time ago.
Pu Yao also is a wonderful negotiator in this chapter. If you search up negotiation tactics on google, you’ll see what I mean.