Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty Nine – Formation Breakthrough
When Lil’ Pagoda led Zuo Mo into a storeroom, he was dumbstruck.
Inside the storeroom, the piles of Rotten Metal Silver were like mountains. Other than the Rotten Metal Silver ore, there was a little pile of ore of various colors.
“Where did this come from?” Zuo Mo pointed at the little pile and asked Lil’ Pagoda.
Lil’ Black shot and climbed up to his hands, furiously waving its pair of antennae. Zuo Mo instantly understood. So it was Lil Black. He complimented, “Lil’ Black is very smart!” He put a lingdan on his palm. Lil’ Black used its forelimbs to grab the lingdan and cheerfully climbed away.
Lil’ Pagoda was connected in mind with Zuo Mo. He could feel Lil’ Pagoda’s intentions of wanting credit. As he saw its round and chubby body swing and tremble, he instantly grinned.
Feeling Zuo Mo’s happiness, Lil’ Pagoda was even more smug, twirling around Zuo Mo, shaking its body so the gourds on the eaves rang.
Silly Bird was full of pride, but her eyes were staring greedily at the lingdan that Lil’ Black was pinching. Gulp, the throat visibly swallowed. Zuo Mo coincidentally caught it, and instantly roared with laughter, pointing at Silly Bird and mocking, “You glutton!”
Zuo Mo was not angry, and threw two lingdan at it. Silly Bird easily picked them up in her beak, shook the feathers on her body, and, without a trace of shame, proudly left.
After he finished laughing, Zuo Mo looked at the mountainous piles of ore and felt a dilemma.
After making the Black Processing Meditation mats, his need for Rotten Metal Silver had instantly decreased. However, if he didn’t use the large amount of ore that was piled up here, then it was such a waste. The grade of the Rotten Metal Silver was not high, but it was a frequently used material. But if it was to be smelted and purified, it wouldn’t take just a while to finish with such a large pile. It was not worth it to spend the time.
Zuo Mo quickly thought of a solution to roughly process the ore.
He would make billets of Rotten Metal Silver, and then forge them again when it was time for them to used. Metal billets would not take as much space as raw ore. Zuo Mo had to consider the amount of space his dimensional ring had. The other reason was that he could use formations to do rough forging which saved time.
Zuo Mo had never seen formations used specifically for forging, but it did not stop him from making such a decision.
As his comprehension of formations deepened, Zuo Mo’s confidence increased. It was undoubtedly an extremely interesting matter to do something that had never been seen before. He decided to make a large formation that could forge all of the Rotten Metal Silver ore into billets.
Rotten Metal Silver was a third-grade material, and it was not hard to smelt. It did not require Golden Crow Fire. Zuo Mo did not plan on using Golden Crow Fire. Golden Crow Fire might be pure, but there was not enough, especially to smelt so much ore at once.
The fire formation Zuo Mo chose was of course not a low level formation like Li Fire Formation, but a fourth-grade fire formation called [Jade Flame Formation]. [Jade Flame Formation] could produce green flames that were more than enough to smelt the Rotten Metal Silver ore.
However, it was the first time Zuo Mo was working with so much ore. He needed to carefully consider how to set it up.
———
Pu Yao and Gongsun Cha were fiercely fighting in War Chess.
To let this person and yao play War Chess anywhere, Zuo Mo remade the War Chess again. The excuse was to make it a leveling kind of game. Then he threw it to Gongsun Cha. Gongsun Cha guessed it, but was happy to play stupid. In any case, he just wanted to play War Chess with the mysterious person.
Without anything to do, Pu Yao was naturally willing, especially when he saw how smug Zuo Mo was recently, he became very discontent. His [Golden-Wing Great Roc Matrix] did not produce the effect he predicted. Pu Yao vented all his displeasure onto Gongsun Cha.
The pitiful Gongsun Cha, having just managed to make an acceptable three section wave killing charge and just as he reached the level of being able to use ten soldiers to kill five of Pu Yao’s soldiers, Pu Yao, without a second word, directly put out a new killing move – the interlocking wall style defense formation that was specially made to defeat the three second wave killing charge.
Consequently, Gongsun Cha was defeated by Pu Yao so badly he couldn’t find which way was north.
Gongsun Cha was so abused that he wanted to die. He gritted his teeth with red eyes as he started the game again.
Feeling that he had not vented the displeasure inside, Pu Yao did not hesitate in accepting.
Twelve matches, Pu Yao used twelve different tactics. Each time, Gongsun Cha’s forces were completely obliterated, not one soldier remaining.
———
Even if Gongsun Cha was extremely hardy, and did not falter, he had been killed to the point that his face became green. When he returned to the camp, Gongsun Cha’s black face, and the terrifying pressure and coldness exuded by him made everyone shudder, their little hearts jumping rapidly.
Gongsun Cha slightly raised his head. On his handsome face, there was a small dark smile.
The camp instantly became deathly silent.
At night, Gongsun Cha found Zuo Mo. “There was someone spying on us today, he was killed.” He looked full of energy, without any of the displeasure and darkness he had during the day.
“Did you find who it was?” Zuo Mo stopped what he was doing.
“A subordinate of someone called Venerable Chi. Xie Shan recognized him,” Gongsun Cha said unconcernedly. “Supposedly, he has about one hundred people.”
“They have intentions towards us?” Zuo Mo felt slightly surprised. It was the first time he had encountered someone that had tried to find trouble with them of their own accord.
“Maybe they feel that we pose a threat,” Gongsun Cha pondered as he rubbed his chin.
“Why don’t we fight?” Zuo Mo probed. He was very surprised. Gongsun Cha was a battle maniac, but speaking up until now, he still hadn’t mentioned fighting.
“The group has progressed very quickly recently. It’s best to wait a while longer,” Gongsun Cha explained. They had enough jingshi at the moment, and did not need to rush.
Zuo Mo also understood. After the formations had been carved, the equilibrium of their bodies had been broken, the growth of ling power had increased. This situation would continue for a while longer until they reached a new equilibrium.
He suddenly thought of a wonderful idea. “I have a way for them to quickly increase strength.”
Gongsun Cha hurriedly asked, “What way?”
“But there is a possibility of injury.” Zuo Mo hesitated.
“That isn’t a problem!” Gongsun Cha said in a normal tone of voice.
———
Everyone smelt something different when Boss came to the camp again. Even though everyone was training hard, but secretly, they were all paying close attention to Boss and Lil’ Miss.
Thinking about the inhuman treatment they had received yesterday afternoon … …
Even Ma Fan, the core who usually received the best treatment, couldn’t help but shake.
A nightmarish memory!
They saw Boss start to work at a corner of the camp. Pieces of materials appeared in Boss’ hands and then quickly turned to streaks of light that entered the ground.
So he was making a formation. Their hearts landed. Everyone knew that Boss was skilled in formations.
Maybe Boss felt the camp was not safe enough after the spy had come yesterday!
However, many people felt that Boss’ caution was unwarranted. These recent days, they had detected their improvement. After two consecutive victories, two victories where they were fewer in number than the enemy, their confidence had exploded. The effect of the three formations were too evident. Many people wanted someone to come to their doors so they could try it out.
Zuo Mo worked for half a day before finally standing up in satisfaction.
He took out his five essence sword set. The five flying swords of different colors spun restlessly in front of him. Looking at the five flying swords, he felt something that he didn’t know how to describe. After the five essence sword set had been completed, he had never used them in battle. Now, he was using them to make a formation.
He was using the five essence sword set to make a formation as he suddenly recalled the sword essence formation when Gongsun Cha said the group was in a period of increasing strength.
The sword essence formation of the sect had many transformations, and had been incredibly effective to the growth of his strength, especially his understanding of sword essence.
The group of people under his command were growing their ling power. If he could give them some pressure, it was beneficial for their progress. When Zuo Mo discovered that only five people of the one hundred or so had comprehended sword essence, it strengthened his thinking.
It had not been hard for Zuo Mo to comprehend sword essence. At Wu Kong Sword Sect, both Wei Sheng Shixiong and Luo Li Shixiong had comprehended sword essence. In the Sword Test Conference, the majority of competitors had comprehended sword essence which had caused Zuo Mo to unconsciously feel that it was not a very difficult matter to comprehend sword essence.
How could one not comprehend sword essence?
With the five essence sword set as the core, and adding on some necessary formations, it was the weaker version of the sword essence formation.
Other than adding pressure to the people, it could also help them comprehend sword essence. Sword essence was shapeless, everyone’s sword essence was different. Many things could only be understood and could not be passed on in speech. It was better to throw them into a place full of sword essence. Even if he could not guarantee that they could definitely comprehend sword essence, but it could greatly increase the possibility they could comprehend sword essence.
As to injuries, Gongsun Cha who thought of life like grass didn’t care, how could this bunch that lived so dangerously care?
The entire formation took up seven or eight mu. When the formation took form, sword essence dominated, and killing intent was dense. In the sky above the formation, a black cloud formed, thunder and lightning occasionally occurring. People’s hearts shook.
When they saw Gongsun Cha’s faint smile, their hearts sank.
———
Zuo Mo had gained great inspiration from the creation of the sword formation. When he finished, he ran to the storeroom to start to set up the formation to smelt the ore. He didn’t move the ore, using the storeroom as the dan cauldron and started to set up formations.
Many of the rules and restrictions now flew away. He felt free and unrestrained. Spells and materials flowed from his hands, flying into the walls of the storeroom as though they had eyes.
He was completely in a trance, his mind open. Every detail of the formation continuously floated up into his mind. It seemed that just as a thought would appear, the spell on his hands would finish!
The change of his ten fingers became increasingly faster, like moving clouds and flowing water. On the walls in the surroundings, profound character patterns spread out with amazing speed.
In just two hours, the walls, ceiling, and floor of the storeroom was covered completely with characters.
The big formation was finished!
Zuo Mo dazedly stood motionlessly at his spot. His mind was still in that free and unrestrained state. That feeling was just too wonderful!
A beat later, he gradually came back. When he swept across the complicated characters patterns on the wall, his heart instantly felt full!
However, he quickly came out of this intoxication, shaking his head and smiling. Then he swept the pile of other ores into his ring. After that, he took out three pieces of fourth-grade jingshi and put them into the center of the formation.
He didn’t even inspect the formation. He was extremely confident that this formation had no mistakes!
Translator Ramblings: Some of you are really good at predicting at what Zuo Mo does with his stuff. I have to admit I was always a step behind and got surprised many times in the story, I’m not very good at predicting what goes on at all.
Pu Yao continues to “abuse” Gongsun Cha who is the way to vent his frustration so Gongsun Cha gets better at commanding. Then Gongsun Cha vents on everyone else and everyone trains harder so everyone wins, especially Zuo Mo who caused all this in the first place by irritating Pu Yao.
I can’t remember the exact number but less than five percent of the people in the last chapter had sword essence. They are all ningmai, and a lot of them probably have higher cultivation than Zuo Mo does. I know Zuo Mo kept on saying how he was a little character and such before, but in this group, he really had a privileged time with Wu Kong Sword Sect. Despite Zuo Mo, Luo Li, and Wei Sheng comprehending sword essence early on and the variety of people from the Sword Test Conference, sword essence isn’t grass and the majority of people now do not have it. This is just for ningmai and below though. Sword essence isn’t essential to progress and become a jindan. It’s just the harsh environment of Little Mountain Jie which means that if you know how to fight, you probably won’t survive. Gongsun Cha lucked out in staying with Zuo Mo.
There was an interesting comment on how Gongsun Cha and Zuo Mo would deal with the spy. Mjp thought that Xie Shan had the right idea to capture and interrogate which Zuo Mo would appreciate while Lil’ Miss would want the kill. If it was Zuo Mo alone that faced this matter, he may do a live capture, or kill just so he can scalp the person. However, Zuo Mo, as it will be shown in future developments and as he said before, is not an expert in strategy as Gongsun Cha is. He would actually leave the decision to Gongsun Cha on the basis he trusts Gongsun Cha will make a better decision. Zuo Mo is the guy with the main vision, Gongsun Cha is the one that will accomplish what Zuo Mo envisions.