Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety Three – Great Unexpected Wealth
Shu Long bit down hard. The black energy was burning against his body like fire. He knew what the black energy was, it was killing essence. The [Crow Fiend Mo Killing Formation] could condense killing essence to wound the enemy, but the killing essence was like a double edged blade. To wound the enemy, it had to first wound them.
Channeling [Hardship Guard] to his limit, the black energy was slowly being absorbed. His body uncontrollably trembled all over.
Pain and struggle was the best nutrients or this mo skill.
Different than what others saw, using Little Mo Kill was barely achievable for the present Guard Camp. In the usual practice, the success rate of Little Mo Kill was not high. But today, no platoon had failed in activating their Little Mo Kill!
But … …
Shu Long felt threads of black energy burrow into his body like worms and burning every part of his skin! He didn’t dare to move. He was afraid that if he made the slightest movement, he would suddenly lose control.
He was not the only one. All the other camp guards were nailed to the ground like wooden posts. They were covered all over in black energy. They gritted his teeth and bore it, furiously channeling their mo skill.
“Return to the city immediately.”
Inside the necklace, Pu Yao’s voice was not shouting like he was previously, but with a rare kind of solemnity.
Shu Long could not speak. He bit down harder, the black energy on his body increasingly dense. The black energy seemed to show signs of turning to flame. He couldn’t even move his feet to walk. The black energy increasingly grew heavier in all of Guard Camp.
Zuo Mo also saw the wrongness. Theoretically, the black energy should have dissipated by now, but the black energy inside the large formation was becoming increasingly heavy. If this continued, Guard Camp would be consumed by these brutal and sharp killing essences.
“Black Water! Quick!” Pu Yao’s voice suddenly sounded inside Zuo Mo’s head.
Zuo Mo first stilled, and then his expression instantly changed. He flew outside the city, and sprinkled down Black Water. At this time, he couldn’t care about how valuable Black Water was. He was afraid that the amount wasn’t enough, and just rained down all the Black Water he possessed on Guard Camp.
Each drop of Black Water was heavy as lead. With cracking sounds, some landed on the ground, and smashed out a small hole, dust spraying out.
But when it hit the bodies of the camp guards, it was like landing in sand, instantly entering their body and disappearing without a trace.
Previously, the Moon Eye Black Water Beast Zuo Mo and the others had killed was three thousand catties heavy. Zuo Mo had taken as much as one thousand and five hundred catties of Black Water. All of that one thousand and five hundred catties of Black Water was raining down on the bodies of the Guard Camp.
Black Water was a frequently used third-grade material, but that did not mean that it was so cheap.
The Crow Fiend Mo Killing Formation caused everyone to feel terror, but when the spectators saw Zuo Mo continuously sprinkle down one thousand and five hundred catties of Black Water, they almost went insane, and felt great pain!
Their eyes were so jealous they were entirely red.
More than a thousand catties of Black Water … …
Was there anyone that was so wasteful?
Looking at the black energy decreasing, the expressions of pain on Shu Long and the other’s faces decreased greatly, Zuo Mo felt slightly reassured. He suddenly recalled that he had four semi-spheres of Moon Eye, he hurriedly asked Pu Yao, “Are Moon Eyes useful?”
Pu Yao was slightly surprised. “Moon Eyes are very expensive.”
“So it means they are effective?” asked Zuo Mo.
“Oh, it’s effective.”
Just as Pu Yao’s words landed, Zuo Mo took out the four semi-spheres of Moon Eye.
“Moon Eye!” The spectators did not lack for those that recognized it who then exclaimed.
“Black Water! Moon Eye! He must have killed a Moon Eye Black Water Beast! Very strong!”
“That thing is very expensive … … what does he want to do?”
Zuo Mo put the Moon Eyes into the center of his palms and then scrubbed hard. Instantly, the Moon Eyes turned to a pile of white powder.
All the exclamations suddenly stopped. They looked with abject shock at Zuo Mo’s hands.
Zuo Mo gently channeled ling power into his palms. The Moon Eye power instantly turned to a ball of white smoke and covered Guard Camp.
———
“This master of Golden Crow City definitely is of uncommon origin.” The middle-aged person’s expression was admiring. “I don’t know which sect he is a disciple off. This person is very generous and has high aims. Daren may want get acquainted with him.”
The large male also had admiration. To say of nothing else, it wasn’t so easy to be so generous to one’s subordinates. He was confident in the judgment of the middle-aged person. Without a doubt, the master of Golden Crow City definitely was the heir to an ancient and hidden sect. Such a vicious formation, such powerful subordinates, these were things only disciples of those large sects would have. What made him so certain was the one thousand and five hundred catties of Black Water, and the four semi-spheres of Moon Eye that Zuo Mo had taken out.
He was too familiar with these motions!
Just this mannerism wasn’t something a small sect could afford to give. Thinking about himself and his group of people throwing down the thousand jing to get a beauty to smile,[i] it was embarrassing compared to this person today!
So embarrassing!
The large male made the decision that he would definitely request a meeting with the Lord of Golden Crow City when this battle finished.
———
Shu Long and the others knew the value of Black Water and Moon Eye. Mist rose in their eyes. The black energy almost lost control. They had always been ordered about, beaten, and sworn at. No one had ever spent so much on them.
Never before … …
The voice of the daren inside the necklace sounded again. “Gather your minds, return to the city immediately, move slowly.”
Shu Long suppressed the excitement inside. He didn’t say anything, reaching out with a hand to make a motion towards the others. They slowly moved towards Golden Crow City. The city gates of Golden Crow City were wide open. Compared to the crispness and nimbleness when they jumped down from the walls of the city, they were as slow as turtles at this time and had no presence.
But no one dared to underestimate them. When their eyes landed on Guard Camp, they would unconsciously hold a hint of terror.
It was this troop that looked as slow as puppets, it was these bumpkins mocked for wearing clumsy and heavy black armor, that had just destroyed a troop of one thousand xiuzhe!
When Guard Camp entered the city, they went directly back to their camp to process the killing essence, Black Water, and Moon Eyes.
Zuo Mo wasn’t in the mood to face the others, and had the formation battle watchtowers keep up their guard.
He ran to the residence of Guard Camp and saw the armor-wearing xiu slaves standing like wooden posts shrouded in black energy. He worriedly asked Pu Yao, “What happened today? Is there a problem? Right, what formation did they use?”
“Crow Fiend Mo Killing Formation, a type of slightly obscure formation,” Pu Yao said. “It is the most appropriate to use with [Hardship Guard]. This battle formation was something it got after killing a mo general.”
“It?” Zuo Mo was slightly puzzled.
“That stele,” Pu Yao said irritably.
“Oh.” Zuo Mo didn’t understand but noted it down. It seemed the gravestone was as extraordinary as he had expected to be able to kill a mo general. He continued to ask, “What happened today?”
“The first skill of Crow Fiend Mo Killing Formation is called Little Mo Kill, that’s what you saw today,” Pu Yao said. “Even though it doesn’t have much technique, the time they have spent cultivating is too short and it was too hard for them to use.”
“Then what are they doing now?”
Pu Yao was slightly discontent. Originally, he had been planning to show off in front of Zuo Mo, but hadn’t expected that the other had to come and rescued him. This made him feel as uncomfortable as though he had swallowed a fly.
Seeing Zuo Mo stare at him, he could only twist his mouth and say, “They have received good fortune due to this calamity. The killing essence has corroded their body. To other people, it is fatal, but for them, it is a good chance to make a breakthrough. Since you have Black Water, and used the Moon Eyes, if they still can’t break through, they are pigs!”
Zuo Mo’s heart was instantly reassured. He smirked. “I don’t dare to say if they are pigs. I say, Old Pu, you have to be more reliable in the future. You said you wanted to manage Guard Camp alone, okay, I immediate consented. But look, after this long, you only practiced a dumb[ii] formation and a self-mutilation skill. Please, you are a Sky Yao, you need to take out something acceptable! A person can’t be so miserly, no, no, a Sky Yao can’t be so miserly. You even needed ge to run over for a rescue! Do you think Black Water and Moon Eyes doesn’t cost jingshi? Honored Sky Yao, it is very expensive!
Finishing, he didn’t looked at Pu Yao’s white and green face, turned, and left the sea of consciousness.
Once he came out of the sea of consciousness, Zuo Mo couldn’t stop himself from roaring with laughter. When he thought of Pu Yao’s green and white ugly expression, he felt his body was unspeakably comfortable.
After two thousand and five hundred people had fallen outside Golden Crow City, Hong Jun Xuan who saw it all with his own eyes had to tuck up his tail no matter how arrogant he was.
He definitely could not accept leaving pitifully like this, but he didn’t dare to mount another frontal attack. He Xiang and the others had all been killed in this battle. He had paled just from watching. Where could he get the bravery? Out of helplessness, he could only set down camp, and slowly brainstorm.
The night came quickly. Golden Crow City that usually was filled with light was pitch black today. But the camp of the Outer Hall was lit up like it was day. They were afraid of a sneak attack from Golden Crow City. The xiuzhe that were watching from afar were waiting for the day to arrive. It seemed like nothing would happen tonight.
Time quickly flowed until midnight.
Suddenly, the city gate of Golden Crow City was pushed open a sliver. Lil’ Pagoda sneakily peeked out with half of its body, saw that no one was there, before walking out without any worry. Behind it, a row of copper puppets tip-toed as they streamed out. Each cooper puppet had a cloth bag on its back
Lil’ Pagoda slowly flew at the front, occasionally looking around. The copper puppets leapt towards the corpses below with a nimbleness and speed completely opposite its clumsy bodies.
Their movements were uncoordinated as they tore down the talismans, and ling armor from the bodies of the corpses, and then put them into the cloth bag on their backs. At the beginning, their movements were extremely raw, but then they slowly became smooth.
Very quickly, the cloth bag on a puppet’s back was full. At this time, a grey shadow flashed past its back and flew away with the bag. The copper puppet slowly took out a second cloth bag and continued to work.
On the morning of the next day when everyone looked at Golden Crow City, they were stunned.
The corpses that had been scattered on the mountain were now completely bare.
This … … this … …
Looking at the bare corpses on the mountain, everyone completely lost their abilities to speak. When Hong Jun Xuan saw this scene, he didn’t know what to say.
So vicious … …
In Golden Crow City, Bao Yi completely sank into mania as he looked at the mountain of talismans. An exhilarated blush floated on his face, he forgot exhaustion as he started to sort the talismans.
Lil’ Pagoda was at the side, continuously throwing talismans into its mouth. Before, Bao Yi had quite an opinion about Lil’ Pagoda swallowing talismans, but he was abnormally cooperative today. He even took out a large pile of talismans and put them in front of Lil’ Pagoda.
When Zuo Mo saw results of Bao Yi’s inventory, it was like someone whacked him on the head. He felt extremely dizzy.
Rich! They really struck it rich this time!
[i] So the actual phrase in Chinese (千金博美人一笑) roughly translates to “a thousand gold to gain a beauty’s smile.” The idiom comes from the story of King You of Zhuo who had a queen with the surname Bo that did not smile. He said that he would pay a thousand gold to the person that made her smile. Of course he did a lot of other things that ended up with him deposed. Gold (jin) is changed to jing so it becomes a thousand jing for the smile of a beauty.
[ii] ] Dumb (傻) and kill (杀) are different tones that are very close to each other and have the same pinyin but pronounced differently. So Zuo Mo mangles the killing formation into a dumb formation.
Translator Ramblings: No cliffy at all! Silly Bird and the rest pay for their keep, well, some of it. The Scalping Corpse Freak makes a reappearance.
There is very little to go on but there’s enough information for me to think Huang Zhuo Guang was a better leader than Hong Jun Xuan is being right now. Hong Jun Xuan is really cautious with his life.