Chapter Eighty Four – For Jingshi
Looking at the dark gold skin covering his entire body, Zuo Mo couldn’t help but give a pinch.
As expected, the mechanism of the gravestone version of [Vajra Profound Sutra] and the [Vajra Profound Sutra] that he had practiced before were completely different. With the previous version of [Vajra Profound Sutra], his skin had glowed with a bright gold shine. Right now, his skin was dark gold. The bright gold skin had been as hard as steel when pinched while the dark gold skin was like a metallic leather, softness within the hardness.
The [Ling Gathering Formation] on the jade pendant had been of great benefit to Zuo Mo. It caused the density of ling energy in the surroundings to increase significantly, and was very beneficial for practicing the gravestone version of [Vajra Profound Sutra].
Feeling the difference between the two, Zuo Mo decided to practice the gravestone version of [Vajra Profound Sutra] for a longer length of time before examining the differences. He had a feeling that the mysterious gravestone wasn’t so simple.
In his sea of consciousness, Pu Yao was still motionless. The gravestone was also deadly silent, and the flames were weak.
However, what kept most of Zuo Mo’s attention recently was the lingdan in the ling spring which was almost completely formed. This Moisture Dan was the first time Zuo Mo had tried dan-making using the water method. Naturally, he was slightly nervous. Luckily, nothing unexpected had happened during the process. The moisture dan was successfully made.
He carefully examined the moisture dan. The lingdan was like a pink pearl, extremely adorable. This moisture dan, it was the lingdan of countless woman’s dreams. Zuo Mo had asked about the price. A first grade moisture dan like the one in his hand, one of them was worth one third grade jingshi.
This price far surpassed many normal first grade lingdan.
However, this time wasn’t the best opportunity to sell the moisture dan. He was still afraid when he thought about what occurred with the yin bead. He guessed that this fear wouldn’t be disappearing anytime soon. It was hard for this terror to be shaken off. Considering how loud the incident in Dong Fu had been, he was worried that some people would have tracked the purchases he had made. It would be very dangerous to sell the moisture dan right now.
His own strength was still very weak.
In any case, making the moisture dan was practice. Dan-making was a topic of study that required large amounts of practical experience.
The sound tablet was continuously broadcasting the news of Sky Moon Jie. The incident of Dong Fu had ended. There was news that the xiuzhe from Bright Wave Jie were gradually leaving because they had investigated for a while and hadn’t found any traces. In this recent period, several fierce conflicts had occurred in the surroundings of Dong Fu, and the mortality rate had been extremely high. After those sudden conflicts, the chaos of Dong Fu finally calmed down. Zuo Mo couldn’t help thinking that there was something going on behind the scenes.
However, it was clearly not something a zhuji cultivator like him could understand.
Listening to the sound tablet, other than it being a habit, he paid close attention to the changes in the prices of goods. Recently, the price of all kinds of ling grasses and herbs on the market had been constantly increasing. This had caused the price of all lingdan to increase as well.
Before, Zuo Mo certainly would have been very happy. This was the time that ling plant farmers could show their value.
As a ling plant farmer, his advantages in the area of ling plant farming was extremely visible, especially after he entered zhuji. Right now, as one person, the ling fields that he could take care of were more than the total of twenty outer sect disciples. Additionally, the two were not even on the same level when it came to output. On the other hand, he could pursue more attention-intensive farming and plant ling plants of higher grades.
However, the reality was, no matter in which area, he was stuck in a very awkward position.
First was the ling fields. Wu Kong Sword Sect did not have many low grade ling fields and had basically been divided by the outer sect disciples. If Zuo Mo wanted to rent them, it required squeezing out many outer sect disciples. Having deeply experienced the harsh life of an outer sect disciple, Zuo Mo was naturally unwilling to do that.
And all the ling fields of slightly higher grades, the sect had given to Fragrant Ginger Yard. Could Zuo Mo try to take ling fields from the hands of his master?
Twenty mu of third grade ling fields. In the past, Zuo Mo would have felt that it was a lot, but right now, he felt that there wasn’t enough. Yet there were just these many ling fields in the sect. There was no way around it. Wu Kong Sword Sect wasn’t a sect that was famous for its farming. Pei Yuan Ran and the others had never thought that the sect would have a ling plant farmer.
Zuo Mo saw enormous profit in the ever-increasing prices of all materials in the market. It was all jingshi!
But “a clever wife would be tripped by no rice”. Without ling fields, he didn’t have anything. His skills could not be used.
He needed to find some ling fields, Zuo Mo decided.
For some unknown reason, he kept on having a feeling of doom. It might have been that Pu Yao had once said “a war is starting”, or maybe he was thinking too much. Pu Yao, that old antique, it wasn’t the first time he had spoken nonsense. Out of caution, he still decided to try to increase his cultivation.
Before, due to the existence of the ling vein in the rock room, Zuo Mo had never thought of using other methods of increasing his cultivation. He had even sold the ling grains that the sect gave him each month for jingshi. He had also never thought of making lingdan that would be of benefit for his cultivation. He would always choose lingdan that was the easiest to sell and had the greatest profit margins.
Coming back to it, he hadn’t learned dan-making long ago. This question was quite difficult for him. When he had the free time, he needed to study it, Zuo Mo thought.
He was struggling with a problem, jingshi. He desperately needed jingshi!
On one hand, he hoped to help Pu Yao. On the other hand, what was more painful than watching a good business opportunity slip away in front of his eyes? This was like staring at a neatly ordered army of jingshi boldly march past him.
Master’s ban still rang in his ears. However, Zuo Mo still bore up against the pressure and went to Fragrant Ginger Yard. He disregarded the astonished gazes of Xu Qing and the other female disciples. At least, Zuo Mo didn’t show any timidness on the surface. Right now, he was the first ranked person in Fragrant Ginger Yard other than Master. Naturally, no one dared to stop him.
He would accept being punished!
Zuo Mo’s eyes were teary as he started to make golden crow pills.
Right now, his cultivation had increased, and adding on the [Streaming Fire Core Manipulation Formation], his efficiency at making golden crow pill was astonishing!
When Zuo Mo, eyes full of enlarged blood vessels, took a large batch of golden crow pills and found Li Ying Feng, Li Ying Feng was dumbstruck. She hesitated for a beat and asked, “Shidi, weren’t you banned from dan-making by Shigu?”
Zuo Mo had a grimace as he said, “I lack jingshi!”
Realization appeared on Li Ying Feng’s face. She didn’t ask any further, nodding her head and said, “This batch of golden crow pills will sell easily. I can give you a down payment of jingshi to you first.”
“Many thanks, Shijie!” Zuo Mo was very grateful.
Li Ying Feng smiled, “But when Shigu comes back, you won’t be able to escape being punished.”
Zuo Mo spread his hands helplessly, “There’s no way around it!” After thinking for a second, he decided to remind Shijie, “Shijie could try to buy some raw materials about now.”
Li Ying Feng looked in shock at Zuo Mo and then suddenly smiled, “Didn’t think that Shidi is also concerned about business. En, Shidi, don’t worry too much. The sect has already hoarded enough materials. Especially dan-making materials. Master had started hoarding a long time ago.”
Zuo Mo was relieved. That seemed correct. A problem that even he could see, someone as clever as Yan Le Shibo, how could he not see it?
Zuo Mo’s heart was steadied by the sect’s proactive approach.
He was paid twenty pieces of third grade jingshi from Li Ying Feng. Taking this enormous sum of wealth, Zuo Mo didn’t feel very happy. He only felt that time was even tighter. The market prices had risen again! This was undoubtedly a strong signal.
Give it to Pu Yao? Zuo Mo gritted his teeth. Okay. But then, he paused. How would he give it to Pu Yao?
Usually, Pu Yao would do it himself, and rob him of jingshi. Zuo Mo didn’t have any way to take jingshi into his consciousness.
Pu Yao, it’s not that ge doesn’t want you to use it… …
Zuo Mo, mind at peace, put away the jingshi. After some thought, he decided to rent a ling garden.
Due to the climate of Sky Moon Jie, it was very suited for farming so there were many ling gardens. But many of the ling gardens, especially those with ling fields above third grade, they always lacked people to farm them. For ling fields of third grade and above, it needed somewhat professional xiuzhe to farm them. Otherwise, it was too much of a waste of resources. Normal xiuzhe were not able to pay the huge rent. Sky Moon Jie was primarily sword xiu, and the number of ling plant farmers were pitiful so there were many empty ling gardens.
The owner of the ling garden in front of him was chattering on, “Don’t worry, I won’t cheat you. This ling garden isn’t big but the ling energy is dense and it is all third grade ling fields. The air is very humid and sun exposure is appropriate. It is suited to farming all kinds of ling grasses and herbs. It would be a pity to just farm ling grains.”
“How much for a year?” Zuo Mo asked straightforwardly.
“Fifteen pieces of third grade jingshi.” The other answered resolutely.
“Accepted!” Zuo Mo, whose wallet had just bulged, responded briskly. He was trying to steal time right now.
Two hundred mu of third grade ling fields, it was enough for him to work with! Now that the ling fields had been rented, it was a question of what to plant. Since it was two hundred mu of ling fields, he couldn’t pay as much attention and care as he did for the ling fields of West Wind Valley. Luckily, this ling garden was not far from Wu Kong Sword Sect.
He needed time… …
Zuo Mo’s eyes were entirely red and extremely motivated.
In the end, Zuo Mo picked a ling grass called Fiery Red Flower that was used very commonly in many healing lingdan. It also grew extremely quickly. The turnover was very quick and easy to sell, it was just perfect.
Zuo Mo planted a whole one hundred and eighty mu of fiery red flowers!
The remaining twenty mu, he planted three kinds of slightly rare ling herbs. This twenty mu was to increase his cultivation speed.
Speaking of how to speed up increasing cultivation, there were many methods, but the majority was related to jingshi. Of the ways, the best was to just take in the ling energy inside jingshi. This could dramatically increase the speed of cultivation. However, it require special methods to resolve the domineering nature of the ling energy of the jingshi. In comparison, Zuo Mo felt that it was more practical to find a way in dan-making.
Most of what he could make presently were first and second grade lingdan. His success rate with first grade lingdan was relatively high. It was hard to say about the success rate of second grade lingdan.
There were very little low level lingdan that could directly increase cultivation. As the ling grasses and herbs in low level lingdan were also low grade, their effects were very limited. Zuo Mo had been able to find a few that he needed in the records room of Fragrant Ginger Yard, like the [Bone Tempering Dan] to change the flesh, the [Evil Removing Dan] for removing impurities of the body. The effects of these obscure lingdan were not major, and the effects were all those that were not prioritized by sword xiu.
Zuo Mo didn’t have any room to choose.
[Bone Tempering Dan] and [Evil Removing Dan] didn’t have great effects, but he thought that if it was used together with [Vajra Profound Sutra], it would have some effect. The other than that what he placed importance on was [Spirit Increasing Dan]. Its effect was also obscure. It could increase the consciousness of xiuzhe. Zuo Mo decided to use it in combination with [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation]. He didn’t know if it would help.
These obscure lingdan, there wasn’t any place that sold it in Dong Fu.
It was a pity that couldn’t find lingdan that could directly increase the speed of cultivation. Upon further thought, he found it normal. If those lingdan were easily made, one could just eat dan all day… …
However, Zuo Mo depressedly found that the three lingdan he had put so much effort into picking, had three kinds of rare ingredients that he couldn’t buy.
Luckily, he managed to buy the seeds and had planted down twenty mu.
Translator Ramblings: Guess what’s up? The cast! Click the link or go to the top of the page, click the red three horizontal lines button on the right and find it there under the novel name.
Bit of a relaxing chapter. I like translating these the most. Zuo Mo gets back to farming!