Chapter Seven Hundred and Twenty Two – Progress
Deep underground.
Wei Sheng’s eyes were tightly closed and his face was as white as paper. Suddenly, a thread of blood came out of the body of the God-Killing Blood Sword. The blood flow quickly increased. With the streams of blood coming off the sword, it appeared as though it was just pulled out of a pool of blood. The viscous blood seemed to be alive as it inched along the sword, climbing onto Wei Sheng’s sword hand, and up onto his arm.
Blood continued to come out of the God-Killing Blood Sword, and then visibly seeped into Wei Sheng’s body. Colour began returning to Wei Sheng’s white face .
In the earth, Wei Sheng did not give off any presence.
———
There were thousands of parts piled up in mountains around Zuo Mo, each one a different shape and design. He didn’t rest, eat, or drink for five whole days; one part after another forming in his hand and then being thrown onto the mountainous pile next to him.
Even with Zuo Mo’s strong mo physique, his body showed clear signs of weariness and exhaustion. However, the sun shen fire in front of him was unusually steady and didn’t tremble at all. Zuo Mo’s astounding forging skill was perfectly displayed.
Another part was finished. He stopped and shoved a handful of lingdan into his mouth. He carefully felt ling power surge into his dried channels. The sun seed was best for recovering shen power but Zuo Mo couldn’t bear to use them. But he had a huge pile of lingdan in his ring, and he could waste them as he wished. With every sun seed used of his finite supply, there would be one less.
Taking the time while his ling power was recovering, he examined the [King’s Forbidden Firmament] again.
The jinzhi that Golden Crow Camp had designed naturally leaned more towards seal formations and the [King’s Forbidden Firmament] was not an exception. While it used mo matrices, it was still mostly seal scripts. The seal scripts made up seven-tenths and the mo matrices three tenths of the jinzhi.
Zuo Mo’s spell level had been exercised greatly by the astounding number of things forged and adding on the aid of the gravestone oath, Zuo Mo’s weakest skill, spells, had improved rapidly. Right now, it had reached the second-class and was the same as his yao arts.
After his greatest shortcoming was amended, his power had quickly increased.
According to Pu’s system, Zuo Mo’s present shen power level was intermediate earth level, and his shen technique was second-class. However, it was far behind the Rhinoceros Mo God. The Rhinoceros Mo God’s shen power level was late earth level, and his shen technique was first class.
If he didn’t have the Little Mo Treasure Cup, Zuo Mo could not even hope to match the Rhinoceros Mo God.
But after his shen technique reached second-class, Zuo Mo’s forging speed became even faster. His control of Sun shen fire reached an astounding level. This meant that he would almost never make mistakes.
The quality of the parts that he forged using shen power far surpassed the level that Golden Crow Camp had required in their design.
All together, there were eighteen thousand parts.
Each part was a work of art, the perfect merging of mo matrices and seal scripts giving off an unique beauty. Zuo Mo found after forging these parts that the effect of shen power in forging was even more outstanding. Shen power and shen fire could almost completely purify the impurities in materials, and inscribe mo matrices and seal scripts into the material. This kind of inscription was completely different from ling power and was closer to a natural growth.
Other than the astounding rate of shen power expenditure, Zuo Mo was overjoyed at its effects.
Zuo Mo used a new forging method for all the core parts, he called it the shen forging method.
Of the eighteen thousand parts, he forged eighty one using the shen forging method. What was another happy surprise to Zuo Mo was that he found the shen forging method could greatly increase the skill of shen techniques.
The skill level of shen techniques was determined by the control level of shen power.
Previously, Zuo Mo was only able to increase his shen technique power through increasing his three powers. With the shen forging method, he could use it to increase his shen technique and control for multiplied effects.
However, Zuo Mo had tested. Not all materials could be used with the shen forging method.
Materials under sixth-grade would turn to ash when the shen forging method was used.
Zuo Mo found several kinds of patterns from the gold leaf that were close to mo matrices and seal scripts. He called them shen glyphs. He had used one on the [Angel Device Raiment] and it had been the simplest one. Zuo Mo had now mastered two shen glyphs. Other than the one he had used on the [Angel Device Raiment], he had one other shen glyph.
Materials that could support shen glyphs had to be at least eighth-grade!
The reason for ‘at least’ was because Zuo Mo had tried with a seventh-grade material and then watched as it turned into a pile of ash. He had some eighth-grade materials but he didn’t bear to use it to experiment.
Only now did Zuo Mo feel shocked by the grade of the mo weapon rudiments he had created with the Weapon Layer Craftsmanship. They were able to tolerate shen glyphs, didn’t mean they were at least eighth-grade?
This caused Zuo Mo to be filled with interest about the Weapon Layering Craftsmanship.
While general-level mo weapons were expensive, but as long it was a mo weapon, it could be bought. But eighth-grade materials were not things that could be bought with mobei.
It definitely was a profitable business to use general level mo weapons to convert to eighth-grade materials!
Little Mo Ge suppressed his urges to do business. He felt the recovering shen power turn into the three powers and then slowly into shen power. He once again went back to forging.
Ten whole days.
When the last part was finished, Zuo Mo looked at the mountain of parts in front of him with a feeling of accomplishment.
Eighteen thousand parts!
He had finished in ten days!
While he had finished all the required parts, he did not set up the jinzhi immediately. He shoved a great number of lingdan into his mouth and entered meditation.
Only he would dare to use so many lingdan at onces. If it was a xiuzhe, their ling channels would rupture and explode. Zuo Mo’s mo physique was powerful, and his channels were much stronger than other xiuzhe. His ling power could also turn into other powers and reduce the stress on his channels.
Three days later, he opened his eyes again. The faint great day matrices appeared on his eyes with an indescribable aura.
All of the power in his body, and his tired mind had recovered to peak condition!
Standing up, he waved his hand lightly and the mountain of parts in front of him disappeared into the air.
———
Yi An was very happen when Grandmaster summoned him immediately after leaving seclusion. This showed that Grandmaster trusted him, but when he learned that Grandmaster had not forged earth mo weapons, Yi An was slightly disappointed. If Grandmaster forged earth mo weapons, he could pick two for free. However, he was more relieved. As long as there were no more earth mo weapons, the situation which was already so tense that a spark could ignite it would not be further exacerbated.
Yi An felt fear at the dangerous situation of Bu Zhou City.
But Grandmaster’s next words caused him to pale and almost jump up.
“Grandmaster! Please do not! The present Bu Zhou City is a barrel of dynamite, it might explode at any movement! If you leave the city now, if … …”
Yi An wanted to persuade Zuo Mo away.
Zuo Mo knew his worry and comforted, “It’s fine, we will be careful and no one will know. You are familiar with the region, do you know any place nearby that has a river, mountain, and earth fire?”
Yi An’s expression was frantic as he opened his mouth to speak. Zuo Mo saw his expression and waved his hand to stop the other. He said, “Don’t persuade me otherwise, I also know it is not safe outside. However, if something happens, can you keep me safe?”
“This is relatively safe … …” Yi An said.
“Relatively safe?” Zuo Mo smirked coldly. “If the a marshal comes, is it still safe? If it is two marshals, is it still safe? Three? There are at least five marshals in the city!”
Yi An broke out in a cold sweat and couldn’t think of any counterarguments.
Zuo Mo waved his hand and said gently, “This cannot be blamed on you. I have to consider the worst case situation. Is there any place nearby that satisfies my needs?”
Yi An did not argue further. Since Grandmaster knew, then he definitely had some move that Yi An didn’t know. He thought for a moment and then his eyes lit up. He said, “About seven hundred li northwest of Bu Zhou City, there is a place called the Grave Ghost Mound. It has a river, mountain, and earth fire. However, that place is heavy with yin energy and ghost fiends frequently appear. It is also not a populous place.”
Zuo Mo heard this and didn’t hesitate. “Then we’ll go to the Grave Ghost Mound!”
Yi An gritted his teeth and nodded. “Grandmaster, please wait for a moment.”
A short while later, the elite guards of Rare Artifacts Hall finished gathering. Zuo Mo’s gaze swept the seventy guards in front of him and nodded inwardly. Rare Artifact Hall was really an old faction with a long history. Just these seventy people represented a considerable amount of power.
Especially that guard leader with the indifferent expression, he was marshal level!
Zuo Mo could not imagine a marshal willing to act as a guard leader for a business. No wonder Rare Artifacts Hall was so confident. They had such an expert, and naturally did not fear.
Zuo Mo’s gaze swept around. A Gui, Ceng Lian’er, and Bean Sprout were all here, and only Qinghua Xue was missing.
What was that woman doing?
Zuo Mo was puzzled and was about to ask Pu Yao when his vision blurred and Qinghua Xue appeared and bowed. “Sorry for the wait!”
The moment that Qinghua Xue appeared, the guard leader’s expression changed, and his pupils contracted!
Zuo Mo examined Qinghua Xue. His expression did not change but he was shocked inside.
“Pu, what did you do to her?” Zuo Mo immediately asked Pu Yao in secret. He remembered that Pu Yao had Qinghua Xue go to the Ten Finger Prison and most likely had passed something to her.
However, the increase in her power was so great it was slightly terrifying!
Pu Yao was lazy. “Nothing major, I coincidentally had a completed [Blue Flower] on my hands so I gave it to her.”
“Just that?” Zuo Mo didn’t believe it.
Pu Yao said amusedly, “The Blue Flower Family are a bunch of idiots and wasted such a good seed. Her calmness is shocking, and she is the calmest person I have ever seen. She is born to cultivate the [Blue Flower]. Her accumulation is so great you cannot imagine it. However, she didn’t have the following parts of the art so she was stuck at her previous level. Can you imagine it, the previous her compared to when she was thirteen hasn’t changed much. The Blue Flower Family has no eyes! However, if she was not so calm, after being stuck for so many years, she would have exploded a long time ago.”
“That … … that is too exaggerated.”
Looking at Qinghua Xue, Zuo Mo was still amazed.
There was such a freak in the world … …
Translator Ramblings: Pu Yao finds another lost soul to join his group.