Chapter Six Hundred and Fifty Eight – The Black Smoke Yao’s Memory Piecing Art
The establishment of the Tangzi Battalion went smoothly.
Miao Jun knew what needed to be done and clearly had experience in this area. Many people noticed this and, were curious about his past. Miao Jun’s skill wasn’t just theoretical, he was experienced, the kind of experiences that could not be obtained by just studying to be a battle general.
Pu Yao had specialized lie-detecting yao arts and quickly identified the spies mixed within the crowd, techniques that broadened Zuo Mo’s experiences.
The Tangzi Battalion quickly formed its basic combat structure. The ones that had joined were mostly from small families and had some ability. Following Miao Jun’s suggestions, Tang Fei did not recruit a large number of people but picked only the most outstanding.
Compared with the other battalions, the Tangzi Battalion could only be said to be a small battalion of about eight hundred people.
These eight hundred people were picked out from approximately a hundred thousand people.
In terms of average individual power, they were much stronger than Ceng Lian’er’s Celestial Planet Guards. Xiao Mo Ge’s present reputation was much more attractive to the experts than Ceng Yi’s.
What shocked Zuo Mo even more was that more than twenty general level mo had come to join him as well.
This caused Zuo Mo to feel a bout of pride. Ge is now a major figure that could recruit general levels!
There were seven battle generals among the twenty general levels and all of them were silver battle generals. This made Zuo Mo overjoyed. Right now, he did not lack for gold battle generals. Gongsun Cha, Bie Han, Miao Jun, and A Zha Ge, all of them could act by themselves. Gongsun Cha and Bie Han were top battle generals.
But in a whole battalion, other than a powerful main commander, the intermediate level commanders were also very important. Especially when the battalions grew larger, more and more outstanding intermediate level battle generals were needed. Yet Zuo Mo lacked these intermediate level battle generals.
When the additional manpower was accepted into the combat structure, Zuo Mo’s power would undoubtedly go up another level.
The stringent criteria for recruitment quickly spread between people.
The people who had been watching were surprised.
Who did this guy think he was? Even those marshal levels most likely couldn’t compare to him! The people who had not passed the selection started to mock and furiously slandered Xiao Mo Ge. They all thought that they had strength, and it would be easy to be selected. However, they had been eliminated and they were filled with discontent.
Xiao Mo Ge was so full of himself and so proud … …
Zuo Mo did not pay attention to this. Since he had given the Tang Fei and Miao Jun permission to create the battalion, he did not interfere. He would never question the employed, and never employ the questionable [1]. Every commander’s style was different, their way of fighting and their way of cultivation. The systematic teamwork that was required would be directed by Gongsun Cha.
Zuo Mo focused his time on his cultivation. He was progressing rapidly. He had benefited greatly from that hard battle against Marshal Yu. He needed a long time to digest these things. But once he did, his power would skyrocket.
Luo Li and Ceng Lian’er were also in the same state.
The purple energy inside A Gui’s body was growing daily at an astounding rate. It seemed as though that battle had suddenly opened a door in A Gui’s body. Purple energy flooded out and right now, there was three times more purple energy inside A Gui’s body compared to before!
A Gui had become even stronger but Zuo Mo’s worries increased.
This strange shen power was a double-edged sword, harming the enemy meant harming oneself. However, Zuo Mo wasn’t able to do anything. He could only suppress the urgency inside and focused even more on his cultivation. Maybe when he became stronger he could find the key to resolving the purple energy inside A Gui’s body.
His greatest improvement had come from the Ten Crow Celestial Domain.
He had seen every detail of the completed Ten Crow Celestial Domain. Many areas that had been unclear before were now engraved in his mind so his improvement naturally sped up. Right now, he was just one step away from the completed state of the Ten Crow Celestial Domain. Other than his comprehension of the Ten Crow Celestial Domain, there was the great degree of maturation in his mo physique.
The strange fragments of energy that had been formed from the creation and destruction of the Anti Dragon Claw’s and Sun Shen Crystal’s powers were the most primal power. They had strengthened Zuo Mo in all areas. Mo physique, spiritual consciousness, ling power, even his shen power, all of them had increased greatly.
This was the most wondrous power that Zuo Mo had ever seen but when he thought of it, he found that it really was lucky. Both the Sun Crystal Seed and the Anti Dragon Claw were ultimate treasures of the world. Obtaining one would mean a person had great luck. Having obtained two at once, even Zuo Mo sighed in shock at his own luck.
The mo matrix that had formed with the Anti Dragon Claw had become dim as the Anti Dragon Claw became silent and seemed to have gone into hibernation.
Zuo Mo was slightly disappointed by the slumber of the Anti Dragon Claw. He had originally thought that he could carry this weapon around and dominate in all directions. Now his wish had gone up in smoke. However, it was good that he didn’t need to carry such an enormous thing on his back. In Zuo Mo’s sense of beauty, that thing was really ugly!
The Three Thousand Threads of Worry did not change and now became the strongest weapon that Zuo Mo had.
Zuo Mo felt that he really didn’t have enough time. There were all types of cultivation he could work on, but each one would take up a large amount of time.
Just as Zuo Mo wanted to cut himself in half to get more work done, the black smoke yao ran over while appearing secretive.
“What is it?” Zuo Mo looked at the other’s cunning face and muttered inside, did this guy do something bad again?
Then he felt slightly puzzled. Zuo Mo would feel it was normal if it was the orange-haired yao doing this. But in his mind, the black smoke yao was usually calm, steady, and well behaved!
“Boss, let me show you something.” The black smoke yao lowered his voice and looked around.
Had this guy really stolen something?
Zuo Mo felt even more puzzled. He took what the black smoke yao handed over. It was a little paper card with some words written on it. Zuo Mo looked with bewilderment at the black smoke yao and then skimmed through.
When he saw the first phrase, he was stunned where he stood.
There wasn’t much content on the paper card and he quickly finished reading it. Zuo Mo finally came out of his daze. Two spots of red made their way onto his cheeks. This expression would only occur in one circumstance –Xiao Mo Ge had struck it rich!
“The stele’s text?” Zuo Mo forced himself to be calm but his voice still went off-tune.
“En.” The black smoke yao lowered his volume and said carefully, “Boss, you know that I am weak. In order to stop Lin Qian and to create an opportunity for Big Orange and the others, I charged for the stele.”
“Then you remembered it?” Zuo Mo’s voice was excited.
“It is not so simple.” The black smoke yao grimaced. “I have a rare skill that not many know of, I have an eidetic memory. However, I only had a cursory glance as Lin Qian reacted too quickly.”
“I recalled this event a while ago, and then I noticed I could recall some of the text on the stele. But it was all very blurry and I had to use [Memory Piecing Art] to slowly piece it together.”
“Memory piercing art?” Zuo Mo was slightly shocked. He had never heard of this yao art before.
Pu Yao suddenly spoke, “It is a type of support yao art. It can replay past events in the mind like a puzzle coming together. It has the benefit of improving memory. When one reaches a high level, they will gain an eidetic memory and can browse their memories at any time. However, this kind of yao art is easy to learn but hard to master. It doesn’t have any big uses. Only those old researchers would spend energy on things like this.”
Zuo Mo was very shocked. So there were yao arts like this.
The black smoke yao was slightly embarrassed. “My talent is average. In order to help my cultivation, I cultivated the [Memory Piecing Art]. My eidetic memory only came about after I started cultivating this.”
“But the time has been short and I only got a short glance at the stele’s text. My impression is very fuzzy but I still decided to try with the memory piecing art. This is the content that I have pieced together using the memory piecing art. It is not very complete and I’m not sure if the content is accurate.”
When he talked about this, the black smoke yao was slightly embarrassed. He had gathered his courage for a long time before he had come to find Zuo Mo. He knew that the stele text was important but what he had pieced together was incomplete, and he didn’t even dare to say that it was accurate.
In cultivation methods, the difference of one character could cause a great misunderstanding. He didn’t know if this thing he had was accurate and therefore have any value.
“Boss, just take a look, don’t cultivate it!” When the black smoke yao finished saying this, he felt his face flush. Before Zuo Mo could speak, he had run away.
Zuo Mo laughed. This black smoke yao seemed calm usually but he was truly adorable.
His gaze landed quickly on the little card in his hand.
“There are some mistakes but the general parts seem correct.” Pu Yao’s voice was filled with excitement. “So that is how it is! So that is how it is!”
In comparison, Wei was much calmer. “Not bad!”
The two quickly picked out the mistakes on the paper. Of the two, one was an old yao that was thousands of years old, the other came from an ancient tribe, and their knowledge was not something that Zuo Mo could rival.
As expected, Zuo Mo found that the places in the content where he had felt that it was rough were now much clearer.
Shi Zi Ming had not tried to shroud this in mystery.
The few phrases caused Zuo Mo to see a whole new world.
Almost unconsciously, the shen power in Zuo Mo’s body started to move!
This time, there was no delay. When his thought formed, his shen power would follow.
A strange feeling formed!
His spiritual consciousness spread from the dantian in his head, while the dantian in his abdomen was unusually active. Threads of ling power spread happily from his abdomen and flowed endlessly along his channels. The power grew like branches from the main channels and innervated every inch of blood and flesh.
Ling power, spiritual consciousness, and mo physique formed a complex and gigantic system.
A phrase from the paper card flowed across Zuo Mo’s mind and he suddenly had an epiphany.
He finally understood what the key to the loss of shen power was!
The origin of spiritual consciousness was the head. The power was formed from the inside, from the soul and then released. The mo physique was the exact opposite. Power originated from the physical body and the power went from the outside to the inside. Ling power was the bridge between the two. It was formed in the dantian and spread throughout the body by the channels. It permeated the blood and flesh, but also into the soul.
When this system became clear in Zuo Mo’s mind, his body suddenly shook.
The three powers began circulated unconsciously. They joined together but they were also clearly divided.
As they continued to circulate, shen power formed.
Zuo Mo’s body reached a state of harmony. Each power went about their own duties but they were of one mind, one existence. He felt he was stronger than he had ever been!
His body was like the universe!
Full of life, and immortal!
A strange emotion filled his mind.
It was not the strength of his power, but the harmony of his body and soul was powerful as one!
Editor’s notes:
[1] I think this is a reference to famous work, I want to say it is a line spoken by CaoCao in “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”.
Also, does anyone think that A Gui’s purple energy grows with how strong Zuo Mo gets? He powers up, she gets worse. Clearly a connection.
Translator Ramblings: Yes, you were all correct, how could that knowledge get lost?