Chapter Six Hundred and Ninety – The Gravestone Oath
“They really are trash!” Anger flashed through the eyes of the middle-aged person. “They have lost the face of the Ji Family! If he wasn’t my son, humph!”
The last word was spat out murderously. The temperature in the room suddenly dropped.
Ji Heng, the present patriarch of the Ji Family. He was not the eldest son of his family but his marshal level power had allowed him to become the patriarch without any opposition. In the decades that he had been the patriarch, the power of Horizontal Jie’s Ji Family had expanded quickly.
“Young Master has five general level guards. This person having defeated them in a flash is not weak.” The one who spoke was a middle-aged man with a goatee. He was Ji Xi, a member of the Ji Family’s branch family. However, he had the position of chief steward and was deeply trusted by Ji Heng.
“Have A Heng go and pick up that trash. Every time he goes out, he embarrasses us! After he returns, throw him into the Deep Mo Hole,” Ji Heng said coolly.
Ji Xi’s heart shook. The Deep Mo Hole was the cruelest training ground the Ji Family had. It was filled with demonic monsters and it had been many years since someone dared to go down. Being sent there had now become a form of punishment in the clan. Those that had committed great wrongs were thrown in there. If they were able to come out of there alive, they were spared their death sentence.
“Young Master is slightly proud, but he has not committed any major mistakes … …” Ji Xi couldn’t help but urge. He knew that if Young Master was thrown into the Deep Mo Hole, he wouldn’t be able to come out alive with his power.
Ji Heng smiled coldly, his white teeth cruel. “If he cannot climb out, he is not qualified to be my son.”
Ji Xi was silent. He knew that Master had already made his decision and any further attempts at persuading him was futile.
Ji Heng did not look at Ji Xi and said to himself. “As to that person who acted against us, have A Heng take care of him.”
Ji Xi nodded to indicated his understanding. He changed the topic. “Master, we haven’t heard any news from the people we sent to the Mo Shen Temple. They most likely have all died.”
A shadow flashed through Ji Heng’s eyes. He sneered coldly and said, “The Mo Shen Temple does have some skill to have formed shen power. Is there any news of Xiao Mo Ge?”
The Mo Shen Temple gave him great pressure. Marshal level had only days ago been the greatest power in the mo territories but now they were not.
The Mo Shen Temple was now the strongest existence!
“No.” Ji Xi shook his head. “He seems to have suddenly disappeared. According to our investigation, the elder corps of Xuan Kong Temple came to capture Xiao Mo Ge. Three of the elders died in the hands of Xiao Mo Ge’s group. The Mo Shen Temple’s people appeared along the way. Strangely, Mo Shen Temple and Xiao Mo Ge did not have a conflict.”
Ji Heng had a thoughtful expression. A moment later, he raised his head. “Pay attention to Xiao Mo Ge. His shen power is not as powerful as the Mo Shen Temple but he does not have a shen temple, he should be cultivating it some other way.”
“Yes!” Ji Xi responded and then left the room.
Ji Heng sank into deep thought. Moments later, he suddenly rose, left the room, and flew into the air.
———
A short while later, he came to a well-concealed valley. The surroundings were heavily guarded.
He was very familiar with this place. Entering the mountain valley, there was a shen temple.
While the shen temple was still incomplete, but there was a sacrificial altar and the main temple. It could be seen that the shen temple hadn’t been constructed recently. It was at least a decade old. He slowly walked to the center of the sacrificial altar and spread his arms. A strange feeling rose.
No one knew that ten years ago, he had started to study shen power.
But ten years had passed, and progress had been slow. Shen power was a sensitive matter. Out of consideration for secrecy, he had never publicized the shen temple.
The sudden appearance of the Mo Shen Temple was a great blow for him.
So belief was the most important thing!
A hint of decisiveness flashed across his eyes.
———
As he continued to cultivate, Zuo Mo’s spell skill level rose rapidlly. His ling power was the weakest of the three powers. Every improvement in that would directly increase Zuo Mo’s skill at controlling shen power.
According to Pu Yao’s new categorization method, his mo physique skill level barely reached first-class, his yao arts were second-class, and his spell skill level, even after his furious cultivation spree, had just reached third-class.
Pu Yao judged that Zuo Mo’s shen power control was third-class. The most important cause was that his skill with spells was dragging him down.
There was someone to compare to. That rhinoceros mo god. Pu Yao’s judgement of him was earth level in power, first-class in technique!
It could be seen just how great the difference between them was. It wasn’t just the difference in shen power, even the difference in technique was great.
However, Zuo Mo was not dispirited. He was filled with fighting spirit.
The shen power inside his body was growing everyday, and his technique was growing better by the day. His right hand could endlessly provide him with shen power as though he had a natural shen crystal inside his body. This was an advantage that no one else had.
As for techniques, Pu Yao had already made a list for him. If he could master those frightening spells, he believed that he could conquer shen power.
In Pu Yao’s model, if Zuo Mo’s shen power methodology could reach first-class, and his shen power level reached intermediate mortal level, or if his methodology was second-class and his shen power was late mortal level, he would be able to match a marshal level without the Little Mo Treasure Cup.
Zuo Mo did not have any interest in marshal level.
But he was enchanted with the study of shen power methodology. It would allow him to more easily discover the mysteries of shen power and could help him understand the underlying principles of shen power.
For other people, fighting was the most important.
But for Zuo Mo, what he needed to discover was the essence of shen power.
If he could understand the principles of shen power then he would have a way to resolve the Undying Shen Punishment.
When a certain technique was practiced to a very high level, its power could allow you to hold an advantageous position in battle. This was the common saying “one novel move to make a living.” Once one had several of these moves, the chances of victory would greatly increase.
But if you wanted to discover the roots of power, you needed to understand as many methods of use as possible. Each method represented utilization of a certain quality of that power.
The more qualities of the power you mastered, the closer you were to the true essence of the power.
This path he chose was the more difficult path.
Also, the practice of methodology was something that one could not take a short-cut with. It was completely a labor of effort. One had to tirelessly practice it over and over until it became instinct.
Only then would this method, or rather, this quality of power became something that you understood at a fundamental level rather than just cursory understanding.
This was what Zuo Mo was pursuing. His right hand that could continuously form shen power enabled him to invest more time into the dull and vast practice of methods.
Zuo Mo had finished using the shen crystal. He made a general estimate. The shen power contained in the shen crystal was about twenty days worth of shen power produced by Zuo Mo’s right hand. This amount was significant.
Undoubtedly, if he could possess enough shen crystals, it would greatly increase the progress of his shen power cultivation.
There was still a while before reaching Hundred Energy Jie. He decided to temporarily put this matter aside until he reached there.
He had carefully recorded what he had experienced in during his study. Then he passed these reflections back to Cloud Sea Jie through Pu Yao. These reflections would be organized and then added to the Pu Wei Library.
Zuo Mo did not hide anything on how to cultivate shen power. He did not have the time to go back to Cloud Sea Jie so he could only use this method to make a minor contribution to Cloud Sea Jie.
But Zuo Mo had never thought that this action, one he felt minor, would directly push Cloud Sea Jie into the era of shen power.
Pu Wei Library had a strict entrance policy. Those that were able to enter at the present were those that had followed him for a long time. Zuo Mo’s subordinates had a nearly blind trust in him. The cultivation reflections among the great number of jade scrolls were always the most welcome content.
In the present Cloud Sea Jie, cultivating three powers at the same time was a new fad.
Due to their isolated location, they did not have much information coming in from the outside world. However, their trust in Zuo Mo allowed them to unhesitatingly choose to cultivate the three powers.
Zuo Mo did not know of all this.
In the sea of consciousness, the three were in discussion.
“Progress is too slow.” Pu Yao frowned. He was not satisfied with Zuo Mo’s progress. “Based on this speed, it would take at least five years for your spells to reach first-class alone! You also have to elevate your yao arts to first-class.”
Zuo Mo also didn’t know what to do. His talent on spells was the weakest of the three powers. He had diligently followed Pu Yao’s cultivation plan but Pu Yao was still dissatisfied with his rate of progress. The difficulty of moving from third-class to second-class was far great difficulty, and moving from second to first class was multiple times more difficult than that.
Pu Yao also didn’t have a solution. Zuo Mo was hardworking almost beyond Pu Yao’s imagination, but his lack of skill and talent in spells was almost beyond Pu Yao’s imagination. Zuo Mo was, however, unusually outstanding in the mo skills and yao arts.
Damn it, spells were about to become Zuo Mo’s shortcoming!
Pu Yao’s expression was slightly ugly. If Zuo Mo’s spell skill level really wasted too much time, then it meant that the path that he had modeled had a fatal weakness.
At this time, Wei suddenly spoke, “Maybe you can try the Gravestone Oath.”
“Gravestone Oath?” Zuo Mo stilled. “What is that?”
He hadn’t thought that Pu Yao who usually looked down on Wei and had repeated objected to this to say, “Maybe you can try it.”
Zuo Mo looked in confusion at the duo.
Wei slowly spoke, “The Gravestone Oath is a method of using the Gravestone Armor.”
“Gravestone Armor?” Zuo Mo’s expression was blank. He could not connect the topic at hand to the Gravestone Armor.
“The use of the Gravestone Armor is actually a kind of self-sacrifice. In essence, it is a trade. Sacrifice oneself in trade for power to protect.” Wei’s expression was solemn and carried an indescribable devoutness.
Zuo Mo jumped in fright. “You are saying for me to turn into the Gravestone Armor?”
“It can be said to be something like that, but also not.” Wei said calmly, “In the past, in order to obtain the power for me to protect my tribe, I chose to make the greatest sacrifice in order to gain the greatest amount of power. But you do not need this kind of power. Similarly, you do not have make such a large sacrifice. This is the rule of the gravestone.”
Zuo Mo seemed to understand slightly.
“The Gravestone Oath is frequently used by the inheritors of the Gravestone Armor. In order to pursue greater cultivation, they would frequently swear certain directed oaths.”
Zuo Mo inquired, “You mean that I need to accept your inheritance?”
Translator Ramblings: Going away on a trip starting tomorrow. Nothing will be impacted except that I will have less time to look at comments and reply.