Chapter Eighty – A Transformation On the Gravestone
Five days of rest passed in the blink of an eye.
Waiting for Xin Yan Shibo’s harsh training, Zuo Mo accidentally found out that Shibo had left on other matters and his training would be temporarily halted. Without anything else to do Zuo Mo could only go to find Master, but strangely, she was also absent. He quickly discovered that the sect leader was not present, and neither was Yan Le shibo.
What had happened?
Of course, Zuo Mo didn’t know that Pu Yao’s exceptionally strong display completely shocked Sky Moon Jie. One encounter, five jindan masters, one dead, one wounded, and three fled. Such terrifying strength, it was shocking to hear about. Jindan level xiuzhe, in Sky Moon Jie they were high level masters that could be ranked and counted, but they were so weak against that person. This incident also was connected to many sensitive matters. Bright Wave Jie quickly responded. Almost all the high level xiuzhe in Sky Moon Jie cooperated fully, and Wu Kong Sword Sect naturally couldn’t stay out of it.
Even without Xin Yan Shibo’s supervision, Zuo Mo didn’t dare to relax. If he didn’t practice [Vajra Profound Sutra], the one who would suffer would be him.
He decided to stay in the Little West Wind Yard and focus on cultivating.
Pu Yao was still a statue, motionless. The flames in the sea of consciousness were still very weak, as though they would extinguish at any time.
Only a few days later did Zuo Mo, from the sound tablet, learn that Dong Fu had almost been flipped on its head, and learn what Pu Yao really did. When he heard of the dark red flame, he knew undoubtedly that it was Pu Yao. This guy didn’t even inform him before taking control of his body! Zuo Mo felt hatred. And Pu Yao’s glorious victory of one against five made his jaw drop.
Stars in Daylight, a strong and mysterious fire xiu, the long-lost yin bead… …
A string of complex incidents made Sky Moon Jie abnormally lively.
But these didn’t have much to do with Zuo Mo now. Right now, he didn’t dare to run out. If someone accidentally found out… … he shuddered at this thought. He docilely stayed in the little yard, working hard on [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation] and [Vajra Profound Sutra]. Compared to profound and cryptic [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation], [Vajra Profound Sutra] progressed much more quickly. Zuo Mo could clearly feel his body was much stronger than before, even though he still looked thin and weak on the surface.
There wasn’t any movement from the dan embryo in the ling spring. Master’s ban hadn’t been raised so he could not go to the dan room of Fragrant Ginger Yard to make dan.
But, all things considered, it was actually good. He could sort out and reflect on everything that happened recently. He hadn’t had the time to look at the jade scroll that Li Ying Feng Shijie had given him before about jinzhi. He could take the time now to study it. The jinzhi in West Wind Valley needed to be constructed again. Otherwise, if the rock cave was accidentally discovered, it would be a huge blow to him.
To learn jinzhi, that required learning formations. Formations was something every cultivator had to learn. Forging, dan-making, seal writing etc etc. All of those were related to formations. The disciples of the large sects would start learning formations in lianqi in order to form a strong foundation for their road of cultivation. But for small sects, it was basically very hard to accomplish this, Wu Kong Sword Sect included.
After experimenting for a few days, Zuo Mo raised the jinzhi again.
After he just finished constructing the jinzhi, he saw a pink paper crane flying out of the sky.
“Ye, I’ve been very bored recently.”
“You need to find something to do.”
“But I don’t know what to find to do. What does ye do every day?”
“Cultivate.”
“Cultivating every day, how boring must that be. Other than cultivation? What else does ye do every day?”
Other than cultivation? Zuo Mo was stuck. Other than cultivating, what else did he do? He thought for a second and then wrote “Make dan.”
“Ye is so boring.”
Zuo Mo suddenly was slightly irritated. Barely restraining the irritation, he wrote three words “Yes, very boring.”
After a while, there finally wasn’t any paper crane that was flying over. Zuo Mo released a breath. It seemed the other person had been adequately blown away by his bland response. He returned to the stone room and started his boring cultivation.
In the rock room, Zuo Mo opened his eyes. His progress in [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation] was extremely slow recently. It still seemed very far away from reaching third breath.
He entered the sea of consciousness, wanting to check on Pu Yao. Pu Yao was still motionless like a statue. Zuo Mo didn’t know what to do. His own strength was extremely small. He wanted to help but had no method of helping.
He was preparing to leave when he suddenly stopped in his steps.
He abruptly turned and stared in disbelief at the gravestone under Pu Yao – there were words on the gravestone!
There were words on the gravestone, before, he could only barely make it out, but never had he seen it clearly. But this time, he saw it clearly! He hurriedly went closer, inspecting the words on the gravestone. But after a few seconds, he was struck dumb.
What was written on the gravestone was none other than [Vajra Profound Sutra]. After practicing [Vajra Profound Sutra] these recent days, he was extremely familiar with the entire scripture. After reading a few lines, he realized what it was.
Why would [Vajra Profound Sutra] be on this?
Zuo Mo found it very strange. If it had been some cryptic and profound scripture carved on here, he wouldn’t be shocked. [Vajra Profound Sutra] wasn’t some high level scripture. Zuo Mo himself guessed that it would be third grade. Such a mysterious gravestone having [Vajra Profound Sutra] on it really was a strange and puzzling thing.
Pushing down on the curiosity inside, he read it down character by character.
Quickly, he discovered something. This [Vajra Profound Sutra] was slightly different from the [Vajra Profound Sutra] that he was practicing right now. Some places, there were additions, some places, some things were changed.
Was this the true [Vajra Profound Sutra]?
Zuo Mo couldn’t understand. [Vajra Profound Sutra] wasn’t a high level scripture. Even if it was modified, it couldn’t possibly become a high level scripture.
As he thought, Zuo Mo smiled self-mockingly. He was really too greedy. For a long time, the gravestone had been mysterious in Zuo Mo’s eyes. He had unconsciously assumed that if this gravestone was connected to a scripture, it would certainly be a strong and profound scripture. So when he saw [Vajra Profound Sutra] on it, he was shocked.
Thinking about it, he decided to memorize the [Vajra Profound Sutra] on the gravestone.
When he finished memorizing the text, a scene that made him gape in shock occurred. The characters on the gravestone suddenly disappeared. The black clouds that had dissipated quietly gathered again and once again shrouded the gravestone.
Was it… … this gravestone was telling him that he was practicing [Vajra Profound Sutra] wrong? He shook his head hard and threw such the strange notion to the back of his head. In any case, it was normal for anything related to Pu Yao to be strange.
Leaving the sea of consciousness, it was like Zuo Mo was enchanted as he started to study the two different [Vajra Profound Sutra].
The gravestone version of [Vajra Profound Sutra] was only different in five places from his previous version. Just five places. These five places, he studied for a long time, and made a very startling conclusion. The difference in these five sentences, it let this [Vajra Profound Sutra] walk onto two different roads.
Other than shock, Zuo Mo felt it was expected. If there wasn’t a difference, he would actually find it strange.
But after a deeper examination, Zuo Mo was shocked once again.
Because he found, the gravestone version of [Vajra Profound Sutra] wasn’t as good as the [Vajra Profound Sutra] that he was practicing!
Zuo Mo was slightly unable to accept this conclusion.
Pu Yao was an antique, but what he gave, like [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation], it could be seen it was a high level thing. The gravestone that appeared together with him, how can it give a [Vajra Profound Sutra] that wasn’t good as the normal version?
Zuo Mo didn’t believe it. He continued his examination.
There wasn’t much complex content in [Vajra Profound Sutra]. The main focus of the entire text was to cultivate the body. The method of the [Vajra Profound Sutra] Zuo Mo practiced wasn’t complicated. It was using the ling energy inside the body to temper the body. And the gravestone version of [Vajra Profound Sutra] was using the ling energy that was in the world to nurture the body.
Undoubtedly, the [Vajra Profound Sutra] that Zuo Mo was practicing was much more effective. Even in the rock room with the ling vein, the ling energy in the air was far from being able to compare to the pure ling energy in Zuo Mo’s body. Even more, strengthening was much more effective than nurturing. And the strength of the body that was produced by tempering was much better than a body that was nurtured.
What was this!
Zuo Mo felt that this was a joke. Was the gravestone joking with him? As he thought, he felt it was more and more likely. Otherwise, how would there be such a coincidence? He had just practiced [Vajra Profound Sutra] and then the gravestone showed [Vajra Profound Sutra]? Was it that Pu Yao wasn’t as seriously wounded as he thought and was toying with him? Or Pu Yao was lying under the gravestone already? With Pu Yao’s sense of humor, Zuo Mo wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t do anything strange and preposterous.
Zuo Mo threw the gravestone version of [Vajra Profound Sutra] to one side. Such an ineffective method, it was wasting time.
But the change in the gravestone aroused Zuo Mo’s attention. Every day, he would go into the sea of consciousness multiple times to see if the gravestone had any new changes.
What he felt regretful about was, after that, the gravestone didn’t change.
A quiet gravestone, a quiet Pu Yao… …
Zuo Mo was slightly disappointed, but still persisted in practicing every day.
But every time he would practice [Vajra Profound Sutra], he would always unconsciously think about the five places that were different. Those five unfamiliar sentences were like a ghost haunting him, appearing in Zuo Mo’s mind. Quite a few times, he had almost practiced the gravestone version but managed to stop himself.
Time was valuable. He couldn’t deliberately waste it, Zuo Mo thought.
Practicing [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation] finally showed hope for Zuo Mo. He had almost completely disregarded the furious increase in his cultivation in the recent days. Looking at the slightly more vigorous flames in his consciousness, his mind lightened.
It seemed he hadn’t guessed wrong! He believed, as long as he persisted in practicing [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation], there would be a day that Pu Yao would wake up!
In the recent days, all the elders of the sect were absent. Zuo Mo received a rare time of idleness. Each day, he cultivated and worked hard, time full and free.
After a few days, the lingdan in the ling spring would be complete. Zuo Mo now had a deep experience of how slow the water method was.
Suddenly, he heard someone yelling loudly outside the valley: “Zuo Shixiong, Zuo Shixiong!”
The voice was extremely frantic. Zuo Mo felt it was slightly unfamiliar. It should be one of the outer sect disciples.
His body flashed and he appeared at the mouth of the valley.
The heads of the outer sect disciples were pouring with sweat as they panted, expressions frantic. Seeing Zuo Mo, they instantly had a joyous expression.
“Shixiong! People have come to the sect to make a disturbance, and they wounded a few of the shidi!”
Translator Ramblings: Let’s have a period of reflection here. Zuo Mo did a lot in the last 80 chapters. He became a ling plant farmer, entered zhuji and is now an inner sect disciple. He’s made a lot of money with a dan that he managed to create himself. He learned dan-making, learned how to fight with a sword, managed to comprehend sword essence and learned about his past. He defeated Luo Li and established himself in the inner sect. The most important thing is that his income is several hundred times what it was at the beginning of the story.
Pu came in, “helped” Zuo Mo and is now unavailable. The situation in Bloody Sky Metropolis Jie is escalating and people are searching for the wounded yaomo.
That’s not too slow of a story for eighty chapters, right?