Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty Five – Breakthrough in Body Cultivation
Before Zuo Mo had formed his abinna, Gongsun Cha had already taken Stone Door Beach. The high efficiency made Zuo Mo gape in awe.
The losses this time were smaller than the previous, and the xiuzhe captured were more numerous than last time as well.
Included in this group was the head of the group, Xie Shan. When he saw the Three Section Wave Killing Charge that Gongsun Cha had formed, he understood that the strength of the two sides were not on the same level. Even though there was not a large difference in terms of numbers, his rationality urged him to choose surrender.
After he had surrendered and learned that the other had attacked them just for the Rotten Metal Silver mine of Stone Door Beach, he was so depressed he almost spat blood. If he knew beforehand, he wouldn’t have hesitated in giving it to them. In the present Little Mountain Jie, who wanted a mine?
If there were no puppets or xiu slaves, the cost to mining could not be imagined. Xie Shan could not understand, no matter how hard he thought why this group of people would want the mine. However, while he could not understand the other side’s intentions, he could clearly see the difference in power.
The xiuzhe that had survived until now all had keen eyes, and a person that could lead a group couldn’t just rely on his ningmai third stratum cultivation. Xie Shan naturally had his own unique characteristics. He could see that the group was well trained, not a group of wandering and loose soldiers, and definitely had a deep background.
However, when he was told that jinzhi was going to be put into him, he was dumbstruck. When he saw Zuo Mo, he was dumbstruck again.
A guy of ningmai first stratum … …
Zuo Mo was well-versed in how to set down jinzhi. It only took a little while for jinzhi to be put into the bodies of this group of people. Naturally, jinzhi were not infallible. If someone’s cultivation reached jindan, the jinzhi would become ineffective.
In this group, the one with the highest hope of becoming jindan was Xie Shan. However, it was just a possibility. The difficulty of breaking into jindan was much higher than entering ningmai. After entering ningmai, ling power would start a constant increase. Reaching the level of third stratum was mostly dependent on an accumulation of ling power, but to breakthrough from ningmai to jindan, it also required comprehension.
Zuo Mo did not worry in the slightest. Of course, the most important reason was that worrying was useless.
The new camp was set at Stone Door Beach. Chun Yu Cheng’s beast pool was also moved over. When the three Golden Armor Guards appeared in Xie Shan’s vision, Xie Shan finally accepted his fate. The cultivation of the Golden Armor Guards did not seem as high as his, but the aura of danger that surrounded their entire body made his heart shudder. When he saw the date seed ship, the last bit of resistance in his mind dissipated.
Not anyone could possess a jingshi talisman.
In this period of time, other than body cultivation, Zuo Mo had done something else. He had carved the three formations from the [Copper Rhinoceros Mo Matrix] onto the three Golden Armor Guards. With these three formations, the Golden Armor Guards would continuously absorb ling power, and then temper their bodies. Even though Pu Yao had not explicitly stated the origins of the Golden Armor Guards, but Zuo Mo had guessed it. After he had asked Pu Yao, he was informed that the reason these three Golden Armor Guards were so strong was due to having used such quality materials such as ancient dragon bone and Nether water.
It was not possible to buy ancient dragon bone when one wanted too, and all of the Nether water had been used up in the previous matter. It was temporarily impossible to make new Golden Armor Guards. Zuo Mo tried to think of ways to increase the strength of the Golden Armor Guards. Even more, where else could he find such good experiment subjects like the Golden Armor Guards? Zuo Mo didn’t need to worry at all about making a mistake when he carved the formations.
In Zuo Mo’s view, the reason that the Golden Armor Guards could not increase in strength was that they could not keep cultivating like xiuzhe could. There were no real differences between Golden Armor Guards and the puppets, they both manipulated the power they already possessed. The three formations that he carved onto the Golden Armor Guards could continuously temper their bodies. With the continuous influx of ling power, theoretically, there was a possibility that the three Golden Armor Guards could improve.
This was only a theoretical speculation.
After moving to Stone Door Beach, the most important matter was to make Black Processing Meditation mats. Zuo Mo made one hundred paper puppets and threw them into the mining pit. The mine already showed signs of excavation. Rotten Metal Silver was not a valuable material, and was easy to sell. To any sect, this mine was a steady source of income.
Lil’ Pagoda was set in command of using the paper puppets to mine. The difficulty of mining the ore was extremely low at this location which was why paper puppets could be used. If it was a much more complex and dangerous mine, it would require higher level puppets.
Quickly, Rotten Metal Silver ore was continuously delivered to Zuo Mo’s hands. Zuo Mo used the Golden Crow Fire to process the ore. Rotten Metal Silver was extremely malleable and had a metallic sheen. It would naturally form with unique holes that made it look like rotten pieces of metal.
With the Rotten Metal Silver, Zuo Mo immediately made large quantities of the Black Processing Meditation mats. When the people under him personally experienced the benefits of the Black Processing Meditation mats, everyone held their mats with a death grip, afraid someone would steal it. Everyone understood what this Black Processing Meditation mat meant. As long as they had a Black Processing Meditation mat, they did not have to fight anymore with other people for ling grains, and did not have to worry that their cultivation would collapse one day due to lack of ling grains and die.
The enthusiasm of the troop towards training suddenly increased. With the Black Processing Meditation mat, they could cultivate like they did before to increase their cultivation. For any cultivator, there was nothing that could move them more than this fact.
In such a harsh environment, without any pressure from Gongsun Cha, everyone trained with their life. The Black Processing Meditation mat allowed them to see the hope of leveling up. They were also completely won over by Gongsun Cha’s battle tactics after two battles.
No one wanted to die. Able to see hope, anyone was willing to put in their all.
———
Earth energy continuously moved from the ground into Zuo Mo’s body. The infection of the ling veins did not cause the earth energy to also thin, but instead had made the earth energy even more dense, and full of vitality. This kind of transformation was unexpected to Zuo Mo. However, he understood after thinking it over.Now that ling energy was decreasing, Little Mountain Jie was developing in the direction of Bloody Sky Metropolis Jie. This kind of environment was much more suited to yaomo.
The increase in earth energy most likely was only one of reasons. Denser earth energy was more suited to mo to cultivate their bodies.
Zuo Mo’s body had been continuously tempered and washed by the earth energy. In the last few days, he had gone over every part of his body, not even missing his hair and nails. Nurtured by earth energy, he did not look as thin and weak as he had previously. His figure became much broader, his he could feel the enormous strength contained in his body as he moved.
This was purely the strength of his body of flesh. He had tried with the flying sword. If he did not use ling power, the flying sword was unable to slice open his skin. Not just so, his bones and flesh were also tempered. Without using ling power, he could easily punch granite to pieces.
He didn’t even exclude the skin on his face. Pu Yao had suggested that he did not temper his face, because it would increase the difficulty of regaining his original features. However, Zuo Mo still persisted in tempering his face. In the present situation, the first priority was surviving before anything else.
Zuo Mo could feel that every muscle and bone in his body had reached the limit that he could reach at the moment.
He instantly understood that he was on the cusp of a breakthrough.
He calmed down his mind, slowly absorbing earth energy. His body was extremely well adjusted to earth energy. Earth energy could easily pass through every part of his body. He felt the pleasure from his bones and flesh soaking in the earth energy, the earth energy flowing past his blood and flesh, making the blood and flesh tremble, and produce a tingly and itchy feeling.
The tingly and itchy feeling increased like there was countless ants climbing in his body. Zuo Mo forced himself to not move. He tried to relax his body to absorb earth energy. His consciousness slowly sank into his body.
His consciousness was much purer than previously. The size of the leaf hand had not changed, but the leaf hand was much denser than before. At the center of the palm of the leaf hand, some patterns had appeared that looked like the lines of a human palm.
Every tiny change of his body, under his consciousness, became clear like they never had been before.
The earth energy became increasingly dense, the amount of earth energy in Zuo Mo’s body reaching an astonishing level. Even the channels which were full of ling power felt the pressure from the earth energy. However, the ling power in the channels would not so easily retreat. Seeing the earth energy and ling power about to conflict inside his body, Zuo Mo’s heart rose.
He hadn’t expected the earth energy to leave the channels of their own initiative. The attention of the earth energy went back to his blood, bones, and flesh.
The plentiful earth energy started to slowly charge at Zuo Mo’s blood, flesh, tendons and bones. Zuo Mo uncontrollably started to tremble. If the charge before had been like the itch of ants, then it was like there was a saw slowly sawing his body.
He didn’t dare to move. He knew that this was the earth energy helping him reconstruct his body. If he could endure this moment of enormous pain, the benefits he would receive would be incomparable!
Under the charge of earth energy, each muscle in his body slowly moved. The slightly slack muscles became even tighter and firm, and the connections of the muscles, under the stimulation of the earth energy, started to furiously grow. It was like the root of a tree that continuously grew and burrowed deep into the ground.
Growth, what it changed wasn’t just his muscles, even his bones were continuously compressed. The bones became even thinner, but they were multiple times stronger.
Zuo Mo shook like dice, the enormous pain causing his eyes to redden but he did not make a sound.
The earth energy moved and occupied his eyes. His vision became a blur, unable to see anything distinctly.
These days, after Pu Yao’s teachings, he had a much deeper understanding about body cultivation. He knew the long that he resisted, the more benefits he would get.
The pain rolled like waves. His body was soaked in sweat, a puddle at his feet. He didn’t know how long it had been, his mind was blank.
There seemed to be a voice far away talking to him.
But his mind was unmoving. He didn’t heart one word. That voice, it seemed to sound somewhat like the voice that appeared in his dreams.
After an unknown period of time, his wandering and uncomprehending mind slowly recovered.
The scene in front of him slowly became clear.
The bone-aching pain had disappeared like the pain just now had never existed. His body felt as though it was soaking in hot water, the pleasure coming from the deepest part of his body making Zuo Mo want to groan.
But the sweat all over his body told him that the hell like pain had not been a delusion.
Zuo Mo suppressed the urge to sink back into the pleasure, instinctively raising his palm.
When he saw his palm, he was dumbstruck.
Translator Ramblings: Gongsun Cha is an efficient henchman. Zuo Mo gets another breakthrough. Pu Yao didn’t really lie, but his promise of more Golden Armor Guards is obviously an empty one since he cannot really fulfill it right now.
Xie Shan is the closest person we’ve seen to a jindan who isn’t a jindan. Keep in mind that most of these people are middle-aged since they find Zuo Mo very young. If we go way back to the Sword Test Conference, the competitors were all in ningmai except Zuo Mo. However, they would most likely have all been in first stratum. The average power of the people he is encountering has been steadily increasing. He’s moved up three stages in ling power which makes this a long read to his power-up. However, this makes each of his breakthroughs much more valuable.
