Chapter One Hundred and Ninety Nine – Beast Service Card
When Zuo Mo hurried to the beast pool, but when he saw the glowing Chun Yu Cheng, his stopped in his tracks.
“Didn’t you say he fainted?” Zuo Mo turned around and saw Gongsun Cha’s stunned face.
“He clearly … …”
Chun Yu Cheng became even more exuberant when he saw Zuo Mo and came charging over, “Shixiong Shixiong! Success! We’re successful!”
Zuo Mo didn’t know what was going on. “Success? What success?”
“Ling butterflies!” Chun Yu Cheng spread his hands. There were three jade cards in his hands
Beast Service Cards!
Zuo Mo’s eyes lit up, and unconsciously raised his voice. “Really? Let me see!”
Beast Service Card, a piece of four cun long and one and a half cun jade board. There were lucky clouds at the four corners. At the very center, a butterfly was motionless. Holding it in his hand, Zuo Mo flipped it over several times.
“So this is a beast service card!” Gongsun Cha threw his previous inquiry to the back of his mind and crowded over.
Zuo Mo did not scorn Gongsun Cha’s excitement. It was the first time he had seen a beast service card as well. The earth-plowing earthworm and other ling beasts that he used before were too low in grade, and didn’t have the qualifications to use beast service cards. Only high grade ling beasts would need beast service cards.
To store a ling beast into the card was to process and then make it submit to the owner, so the beast would follow the owner’s orders. The beast service card was also the residence of the ling beast.
“What’s the grade of the three ling butterflies?” Zuo Mo still flipped and caressed the card.
The patterns on the three beast service cards were similar but all had their own characteristics. One of the cards had multicolored patterns, one was entirely blue, the last grey-white.
Chun Yu Cheng was full of pride. “The multicolored is the peak of third-grade, the rest are high third-grade.”
Facing the expectant eyes of the other two, he took the three beast service cards and introduced, “The ling butterfly that is multicolored has three spells, Rainbow Pupils, Illusion Poison, and Poison Change. I’ve never heard of the three spells before so I do not know what the effects are. Shixiong will need to investigate it yourself. Third-grade ling beasts that can use three spells naturally are the best of third-grade. But these three spells are really weird. The Dong Fu Poisonous Moth is only second-grade, why would this ling butterfly be primarily poisonous… …”
As he spoke, Chun Yu Cheng slowly wandered off the beaten path of conversation yet again.
Zuo Mo and Gongsun Cha helplessly exchanged a look. It wasn’t the first time they had encountered this kind of situation. Chun Yu Cheng was a maniac about raising animals, so at any time, he could digress on a topic.
Zuo Mo lightly coughed.
Chun Yu Cheng seemed to wake from his dream, bashfully scratching his forehead, “Oh, let’s continue. This blue butterfly has two spells, but both are water element spells. It looks like it isn’t any different from Rain Mark Butterfly, but it definitely isn’t a Rain Mark Butterfly. So strange … …”
Seeing he was going to wander off again, Gongsun Cha hurriedly reminded, “The last one?”
“Oh,” Chun Yu Cheng was pulled back, “This grey butterfly is also very unique. It only has one spell, Ling Eye. This grey butterfly is most suitable for Gongsun Shidi. Ling Eyes can detect the density of ling energy. If it is used to dismember beasts, it is a great aid!”
Gongsun Cha did not hesitate in taking the grey butterfly’s beast service card from his hands, “This one is mine.”
Zuo Mo naturally chose the multi-colored beast service card. For things that he did not understand, he always followed the most basic rationale – choose the most expensive one.
Chun Yu Cheng did not have much interest in the remaining beast service card. “We should sell this one. High third-grade, it can sell for a pretty good price.”
Zuo Mo thought, and then shook his head. “Shidi, take it. The situation is not good now, if you have it, Shidi can have a measure of self-protection.”
“Exactly!” Gongsun Cha agreed.
“Okay,” Chun Yu Cheng nodded, “But my cultivation is low. If I want to process this beast service card, it would take a lot of time.”
“It’s worth it no matter how long you spend,” Zuo Mo said.
“Then the beast pool, we’re not using it anymore?” Chun Yu Cheng understood what Zuo Mo meant.
“No,” Zuo Mo shook his head. “Let’s destroy it so it won’t land on other people’s hands.”
Chun Yu Cheng and Gongsun Cha became silent, the mood instantly becoming heavy.
Seeing the two seem very dejected, especially Chun Yu Cheng, Zuo Mo comforted, “It’s fine. When we find a new place to rest, we can build a new one.”
Chun Yu Cheng finally looked more expectant.
Gongsun Cha suddenly said, “I just heard a shout before. Did Shixiong break into ningmai?”
“That was me,” Zuo Mo nodded.
The two instantly became lighter, the depression on their hearts sweeping away.
Chun Yu Cheng smiled and said, “That’s great! Shixiong is in ningmai, now I can sleep peacefully at night!” He was full of confidence in Zuo Mo.
Gongsun Cha did not speak, but there was a light in his eyes, the smile on his face unspeakably devious, “Our income isn’t bad recently. At least fifty or sixty people everyday, at max one hundred people. Each person is charged one hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi. Overall, the daily income is ten to twenty pieces of fourth-grade jingshi.”
“Ten to twenty pieces of fourth-grade jingshi … …” Zuo Mo sucked in a breath. All of his discomfort and dejection were instantly swept away. This terrifying number made his little heart beat rapidly.
A short time ago, one piece of fourth-grade jingshi was an enormous sum for him.
As expected, it was easy to get rich in troubled times!
Even bandit leaders like Zhang Hao only carried about ten or so pieces of fourth-grade jingshi on his body. That was Zuo Mo’s daily income now!
An enormous feeling of good fortune surrounded Zuo Mo. He felt he had never been so rich before!
Jingshi increase a person’s courage. Zuo Mo’s confidence shot up. So what if there was yaomo? These days, there were no monsters that could not be smashed to death with jingshi!
“Hee hee, according to my estimates, this is just the beginning. After a while, the migration will reach a peak. A conservative estimate would be five hundred xiuzhe passing through each day.” Gongsun Cha’s refined and delicate face smiled softly and darkly, making Chun Yun Cheng’s body feel cold.
“Five hundred … …” Zuo Mo felt so many jingshi were flying in front of his eyes, his heart was flying.
One person was one hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi, five hundred people, that was one hundred pieces of fourth-grade jingshi … …
No matter what the price of commodities had grown to now, one hundred pieces of fourth-grade jingshi was definitely a number with great purchasing power.
“However, this jingshi isn’t that easy to make,” Gongsun Cha slowly said.
Zuo Mo’s heated head instantly cleared, “What? People dare to plot against us?” When he said this, his voice was full of killing intent.
“Groups with many members may not be willing to pay,” Gongsun Cha said shortly.
Zuo Mo recovered from the blow of jingshi. That was right. If a group had many people, they would definitely not be willing to pay the toll. One hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi was fine for ningmai, but it was not an insignificant sum for zhuji xiuzhe.
A single person would be afraid of the formation on the island and the golden armor guards, but if there were many people, the situation would not be easy to control.
For jingshi, Zuo Mo had more enthusiasm than anyone, his brains calculating faster than anyone else.
“That’s easy. We can hire some ningmai sword xiu. One hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi a day. This price, we can hire many ningmai sword xiu.” Zuo Mo smirked, “I’m in ningmai now. I can expand the formation.”
“Who won’t give the jingshi, ge will destroy their souls!” Zuo Mo said hatefully.
Gongsun Cha’s eyes were bright while Chun Yu Cheng’s face was full of shock.
———
Hong Yang saw the little island coming up and released a breath inside. It wasn’t just him, the ten guards behind him also released a breath. Long flights were exhausting. There was a little island up head. They could finally rest for a while.
“That should be the Desolate Wood Reef. We can use the area to rest and recover. After two days, we will pass the jie river,” he ordered.
The ten guards protected him as they flew towards the Desolate Wood Reef.
Hong Yang was the storekeeper of a large merchant business who had been sent to Sky Moon Jie. He had recently received an order from the merchant house for him to take all of the store’s jingshi and important talismans to leave Sky Moon Jie and enter Little Mountain Jie.
When he received this order, he had almost assumed that someone was pretending to send a false order. Only when he personally went to confirm it did he know what was happening. So he took the ten strongest guards of the shop, and made a low-key escape to Little Mountain Jie.
As the procession flew near Desolate Wood Reef, they unconsciously slowed their speed.
In the sky above the Desolate Wood Reef, a golden sun hung high, countless golden threads falling down. Many rings of light were strung on the golden strings, occasionally chiming.
Before nearing, Hong Yang felt the domineering and pressuring presence from the formation.
Such a powerful formation!
He was shocked. He wasn’t a country bumpkin. To be able to manage the merchant business of one jie, his eyes were undoubtedly skilled.
“Ah!” One of the guards gasped in shock.
“What is it?” He couldn’t help ask.
“This formation seems a bit like the formation that the Sword Test Conference’s Zuo Mo used,” The guard pondered for a long time before saying, “But above Zuo Mo’s formation was a moon, this formation has a sun.”
“Zuo Mo … …” Hong Yang chewed on this name. One of the most accomplished disciples of Wu Kong Sword Sect, he naturally knew about him. But his information channels were wide. He also knew that Wu Kong Sword Sect had already moved to Bright Wave Jie. A core disciple like Zuo Mo definitely wouldn’t remain in Sky Moon Jie.
However, it was better to be careful. He was carrying large amounts of jingshi and talismans on his body and naturally had to be careful. Even more, the presence of the formation could not lie. No matter who was it that set up the formation, a person able to set up such a large formation wasn’t a simple person.
“This one’s group would like to borrow space to rest for a few days,” he shouted.
“Welcome, thank you for your patronage, each person one hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi,” A soft voice passed out of the formation.
One person one hundred piece of third-grade jingshi … …
This was extortion! This definitely was extortion!
The ten guards instantly became angry. One hundred pieces of third-grade jingshi was enough to buy a pretty good third-grade talisman! The leader of the guards even had his flying sword in his hand.
Hong Yang still kept his calm. This price was very high, but it wasn’t as though he could not accept it. The other was not afraid to call a high price, they definitely had something they relied on.
“Alright!” Hong Yang did not hesitate in nodding.
The other did not seem to be afraid that he would go back on his word. The big formation moved, and revealed a passage.
“I’ll go first,” The leader of the guards did not forget his duty, and walked at the very front. He had the highest cultivation of all the guards. Of the ten guards, three were ningmai, the other seven were the peak of zhuji.
All of them acted as though they were facing a great enemy, their expressions nervous as they carefully proceeded into the passage.
Translation Ramblings: Zuo Mo is really profiteering from the threat of the yaomo. Wu Kong Sword Sect cannot imagine just how much money they have missed out on.
I always wonder how people get the time to learn about all these items and materials when they spend all of their time cultivating and in seclusion. It’s like there is an encyclopedia all these people get that we readers never get to see.
There was this post on reddit about parents in Chinese novels and I have to comment because it is something that is very interesting. Chinese xuanhuan and all kinds of fantasy generally have either absent/dead parents or good parents that support their son unconditionally. The core/inner family remains intact in memory or are all alive. The mother or father may be missing but the son will go on a trip and the parents will reunite. The dead/absent parents usually have been killed for enemies or are hiding to keep their enemies away from their child. Sibling conflict is rare withe the main character helping out his siblings who seem to do nothing but take what their elder/younger sibling give them without any thoughts/feelings of their own.There is very rarely any divorce, unfaithfulness, or rape occurring between parents of the main character.
On the other hand, if you read more female-protagonist Chinese stories, there is a huge variety. Parents, usually the father, might be cheating on the wife, abusive, full of hate. The female protagonist can either be the love child or the one from the marriage. Absent parents due to lack of responsibility is common, and in historical novels, there is child-selling, abandoning the child due to their sex, using the child as a pawn to gain power or influence etc etc. With “compound-conflicts,” you also get parents switching children at birth, abusive/selfish grandparents, and sibling conflicts being its own messy matter with struggles between the children of the legitimate wife and the concubines and even between sisters and brothers. There is a wider range of personalities, and perfect families are relatively less common.
All the disciples Zuo Mo took along to Desolate Wood Reef were relatively new ones. I guess there is some confusion with my discussion on the last chapter. Essentially, Zuo Mo, Gongsun Cha and Chun Yu Cheng are this little groups that is staying on the reef. The other disciples have left with other sects that passed through, or are planning on leaving. Zuo Mo is switching from being a sect disciple to an independent (roaming xiu) and the other two are following him.