World of Cultivation - Volume 02 - A Problematic Youth Page 2

  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 wound
ed yaomo.

  That’s not too slow of a story for eighty chapters, right?

  Chapter 81: Ling Ying Sect

  When Zuo Mo rushed to the entrance of the mountain, he found the situation was much more serious than he had initially thought.

  Two distinct groups of people surrounded the mountain gate. Zuo Mo’s gaze swept across the crowd of people that caused the disturbance. The ones who aroused Zuo Mo’s attention was one female and two males. The clothing and composure of those three were clearly different than the people behind them. When Zuo Mo saw Old Black had been wounded, the anger in his heart shot up.

  In a stride, his body flashed and he appeared next to Old Black.

  Blood was seeping out of the corners of Old Black’s mouth, his expression was withered. When he saw Zuo Mo, joy made its way across his face.

  “What happened?” Zuo Mo asked in a heavy voice.

  The spirits of the Wu Kong Sword Sect’s disciples rose when Zuo Mo appeared.

  “Oh, finally, there’s one that is willing to stand up,” One of the two males among the trio who was wearing a grandiose blue ling armor said in a strange tone, “I had assumed that the inner sect disciples of Wu Kong Sword Sect, are a group of turtles. Hey, kid, give us your name. Where’s Wei Sheng, why hasn’t he come out?”

  Zuo Mo didn’t pay attention to him, only looking at Old Black.

  Old Black’s face was full of bitterness, “They said they wanted to find Wei Sheng Shixiong to spar, but how can Wei Sheng come out? So they started making a ruckus. They said if Wei Sheng Shixiong isn’t going to come out, they would ruin the ling fields here. Think about it, how could I let them ruin my ling fields?”

  Zuo Mo took out a medicine pill from his clothesand shoved it to Old Black. He was a pupil of Shi Feng Rong, at the very least, he didn’t lack medicine. The surrounding disciples all had admiring expressions. Putting Old Black into the care of the outer sect disciples behind him, Zuo Mo turned around.

  “So it’s a zombie face. Hey, you’re that Zuo Mo,” The male wearing the blue ling armor arrogantly wave a finger and said, “I heard that you are skilled at making dan. You won’t be enough, go find Wei Sheng. The first genius of Dong Fu, hiding? He really isn’t anything. Isn’t there also someone that was called something like Luo Li?”

  “Which sect are you from? Zuo Mo calmly asked.

  “Hee hee, we are from the Ling Ying Sect,” The one who answered was the only female among the three. She wore pink peach blossom armor. Her body was extremely graceful, sweet and youthful, lights flashing in her eyes. Almost all of the gazes of Wu Kong Sword Sect’s outer sect disciples were greedily locked on her. She wasn’t embarrassed, instead she was covered in smiles.

  Zuo Mo had heard of the Ling Ying sect before, it was the wealthiest sect in Dong Fu. The sect had numerous enterprises, and the disciples they admitted were mostly those of wealthy families. Unlike Wu Kong Sword Sect, they had an astounding number of disciples. Just the number of zhuji disciples in Ling Ying Sect was over eighty people. This number threw Wu Kong Sword Sect far behind them. They were first among Dong Fu. However, the reputation of the zhuji disciples of Ling Ying Sect were extremely bad. What they liked to do the most was causing trouble. Many of them had a strong family background and would cause trouble in other sects yet the other sects could only bear it.

  They formed groups and made trouble everywhere. Because they consumed ling medicines from childhood, the progression of their cultivation was much faster than normal disciples. And because they were covered in talismans, if fighting occurred and they threw it down, how could normal disciples win? And if the other was stronger than them, then they would attack at once. After a while, lower level xiuzhe would walk around them.

  But they were also smart and would never provoke those truly strong people such as Yu Bai.

  They had heard that a strong person had come out of Wu Kong Sword sect called Wei Sheng. He had been labeled by many as a once in a hundred years genius. They naturally wouldn’t dare to cause trouble at large sects such as Dong Fu Hall and Dong Qi Sword Sect. But this Wu Kong Sword Sect, they had never heard of it before. A small sect like this, they weren’t afraid at all. Due to the fact that Dong Fu had been very lively this recent while, the elders of all the sects had almost all left. Such a good chance, how could they give it up?

  Before coming, they had especially done research. In this generation of Wu Kong Sword Sect disciples, the most famous was two people. The first was Wei Sheng, the second was Zuo Mo, who was skilled in dan-making. But no one had ever seen how strong Wei Sheng was. This made them even more certain that Wei Sheng only had an inflated reputation. As to Zuo Mo, a dan-maker, what waves could he make? Other than that, there was someone called Luo Li, but he was supposedly average.

  There were three people, the one wearing the blue ling armor was called Yan Ming Zi. The other wearing an eye-catching bright red ling armor was called Hu Shan. The name of the female wearing the pink peach blossom ling armor was called Tao Zhu Er.

  “Oh,” Zuo Mo expressionlessly responded. He then turned to ask Old Black, “Who wounded you?”

  “Haha, there’s no need to ask, ye did it,” Yan Ming Zi said disdainfully, “You should go get Wei Sheng to come out. You only make dan, ye is almost embarrassed… …”

  The voice suddenly stopped.

  Yan Ming Zi stared with slight shock at Zuo Mo. In his eyes, this little zombie in front of him seemed to suddenly change into a completely different person. That feeling… … it was like a sword that was now unsheathed… …

  It wasn’t the first time that Yan Ming Zi fought and caused trouble. He was very experienced.

  He dropped his mirthful expression, and said somewhat seriously, “Hadn’t thought that I would not see clearly. You are actually a master!” The other two were also surprised. The presence Zuo Mo exuded definitely didn’t seem like a cultivator who was obsessed with dan-making would have. But the two weren’t very worried. They had hung out on the streets for this long and the number of hard bones they had encountered couldn’t be counted. Many people were more powerful than them, but weren’t they all defeated in the end? Even more, this little zombie had lower cultivation than them.

  Zuo Mo didn’t waste words and raised his ice crystal sword.

  “Ha! You are really poor!” Yan Ming Zi roared with laughter and said with a smug face, “Take a look at ye’s flying sword!”

  The sword was three feet, shaped like an elongated water droplet. The body of the sword was like the surface of a pond, dark and the bottom unfathomable. Occasionally, a streak of light would flash past and display the extravagance.

  “The sword’s name is Water Drop, third-grade, and the highest quality of water element flying sword,” He examined Zuo Mo and shook his head, “Everything on your body isn’t even worth a fraction of this flying sword,”

  Zuo Mo completely lost the desire to converse with the other. Without another word, he attacked first.

  [Flowing Water] of [Li Water Sword Scripture]!

  An invisible ripple spread out in front of Zuo Mo. The ice crystal sword seemed to disappear and then appeared out of nowhere in front of Yan Ming Zi.

  Yan Ming Zi only seemed to see a blur before the other’s flying sword suddenly was in front of him. The sword essence contained in the tip of the sword was so sharp he almost couldn’t keep his eyes open. He jumped in fright. He hurriedly manipulated his flying sword to parry. The other’s flying sword seemed abnormal slippery and with a smooth curve, it nimbly avoided his flying sword and came straight at him.

  Yan Ming Zi was in a panic but his battle experience was much richer. He knew that the other’s flying sword wasn’t as good as his and decided to go for a frontal encounter.

  Zuo Mo snorted coldly. It might have been that he had interacted for too long with Pu Yao that his snort was very similar. He knew what the other was thinking. However, the quality of his ice crystal sword was far lesser than the other. If the two hit, the one who w
ould suffer would be him. He only had this flying sword. If it was damaged here, the sect definitely wouldn’t give him another one for free.

  But Zuo Mo’s skill with [Li Water Sword Scripture] was far better than in the past. The teachings of Xin Yan Shibo had covered many of his shortcomings. The [Li Water Sword Scripture] that he casted now was smooth and flowing, almost traceless.

  The sword scripture that the other used was also abnormally special but it was clear that the other hadn’t focused on practicing it. He wasn’t able to capture the essence of many of the details. Based on the details, the other’s sword scripture was slightly above [Li Water Sword Scripture]. Zuo Mo couldn’t help but shake his head. Such a good sword scripture, but the other didn’t know to treasure it. He was also extremely tempted by the other’s flying sword. In comparison, his ice crystal sword was extremely cheap. In reality, what Zuo Mo minded the most was the other’s water drop sword was just perfect for [Li Water Sword Scripture].

  His ice crystal sword was appropriate for Xin Yan Shibo’s sword essence but wasn’t suited for [Li Water Sword Scripture]. Zuo Mo had been thinking for a long time about obtaining a flying sword suited for [Li Water Sword Scripture].

  His heart moved and he couldn’t help but have an idea.

  The ice crystal sword became even harder to follow. His sword moves still followed the path of entangling and intricacies. But in all of this, there was a slight hint of explosiveness, and was full of murderous intent. This little bit of explosiveness caused Yan Ming Zi to feel the pressure had increased greatly. This dissonant feeling made him extremely uncomfortable!

  Hu Shan and Tao Zhu Er’s faces were full of surprise. Yan Ming Zi was in a disadvantageous position.

  They had to reexamine Zuo Mo.

  “This Zuo Mo is pretty strong,” Tao Zhu Er’s voice held surprise, “Different than the rumors. Didn’t they say he was skilled in dan-making?”

  “The information on Wu Kong Sword Sect is already very pitifully little. How could we have researched that clearly?” Hu Shan said unconcernedly. Even though he was surprised, but he was only just surprised.