World of Cultivation

Chapter One Hundred and Ninety One – The First Battle of the Yin Fire Bead

Zhang Hao was sliced in two by the ice dragon sword essence.

Zuo Mo couldn’t suppress his injuries anymore and spat out another mouthful of blood!

That amazing ice dragon sword essence had not been cast by him directly, but through him using countless sword energies to construct it. The copycat sword essence was not very pure but the power was not something Zuo Mo could reach himself. The sword energies of Wu Kong Flag came from jindan experts and were extraordinary.

Already on the last of his strength Zhang Hao did not muster a response to the sword strike.

Zuo Mo wiped the blood from his mouth. His body was deathly tired. Using the sword formation while injured was his limit.

He grinned, a bit of madness flashed through his eyes.

So what if he was ningmai? Fight with ge, ge‘ll kill you!

Glancing at the corpse on the ground, Zuo Mo thought for a moment and then took it into his ring. This guy probably had a lot of good things. However, it wasn’t time to view his spoils, Zuo Mo thought regretfully.

He must first resolve the ball of light!

Zhang Hao’s sword energy and the [Yang Fiendish Hard Lightning] had merged into a ball of light. He really did not understand it. However, he didn’t have the time to ponder it. If this thing exploded, all of Desolate Wood Reef would probably be flattened.

The ball of light was like a miniature sun. Zuo Mo could clearly sense the terrifying ling power contained inside.

His little heart jerked and beat rapidly. He hurriedly asked, “Pu, what to do with this?”

“Run!” Pu Yao’s response did not contain anything unnecessary. He sighed helplessly, “I’m too weak now, and can’t even deal with a little thing like this,” He sounded very reflective.

Even Pu Yao couldn’t deal with it … …

Zuo Mo’s heart froze, his mouth volleying, “Aren’t you a Sky Yao?”

Pu Yao smirked, “It’s not there are no ways, there just aren’t any you could use.”

Zuo Mo paused. Did he really have to run?

But on this vast expanse of ocean, where could he run? Even if he had just killed Zhang Hao, the other side still had four more ningmai. He definitely would not be able to escape.

No, there had to be a way … … There definitely had to be a way!

Zuo Mo said to himself.

The “miniature sun” shook slightly. Even the ripples it gave off was frightening. The close he went, the more Zuo Mo’s heart shook.

Inside was a brutal ling power that could explode at any time!

Such a waste of ling power! Zuo Mo wanted to criticize Zhang Hao’s wastefulness. This absurd thought suddenly turned to a stroke of lightning.

Ling power!

This light ball contained ling power and hard lightning!

Wasn’t this an enormous jingshi? Except this jingshi was slightly dangerous … …

He opened his eyes as he had an daring idea.

The trembling of the “miniature sun” seemed to increase. It was becoming less stable.

Zuo Mo’s heart shook. The time did not allow him to think more. The idea he just had was bold but at least he could see hope.

Different materials appeared on his hands, his speed at maximum. He wanted to have a few extra pairs of hands as he furiously set up formations.

———

The expressions of the Black Wind Bandits were both shocked and suspicious. They all stopped moving.

The Head’s presence had completely disappeared!

After that earth-shaking impact, Head’s presence had completely disappeared.

Had the Head been killed?

This absurd idea was like a poisonous viper that slowly corroded their remaining courage.

The big formation still existed. If the Head had won, the formation definitely would have broken. Head’s presence had disappeared, but the big formation was still present … …

Realizing that Zhang Hao was in trouble, every person’s first response was to go give aid. Yet, knowing that Zhang Hao had been killed in battle, their first response was flee!

———

In the blink of an eye, Zuo Mo had finished setting up a formation.

What he set up was a Four-Turn fire formation, one that used the light ball as a replacement for jingshi. This idea was incredibly daring. The light ball was extremely unstable and could explode at any time. From any perspective, this idea was preposterous.

It might have been the stimulation of danger that caused Zuo Mo’s thoughts to be usually clear.

He swept the fire formation quickly. No mistakes! He released a breath and then his eyes became serious. Reaching out with his right hand, he started to draw in space.

The second move of [Little Thousand Leaf Hands], [Leaf Birth]!

In empty space, a green character of light took form. Immediately, the character shattered and the green pieces of broken light merged into the fire formation.

The green pieces of light were like seeds which rapidly germinated and grew.

In the blink of an eye, the fire formation was crowded with patches of green leaves. What was miraculous was that the unstable ball of light seemed to become more stable, not giving off the feeling of danger any longer.

Zuo Mo finally released a breath!

The fire formation started to turn.

The restless ling power from the light ball was absorbed by the leaves, and turned to an endless and continuous steady flow of ling power.

Zuo Mo wiped the sweat off his head. He had been extremely nervous just now. If he had made the smallest mistake, this close to the ball of light, not even ashes would remain of him. Even Pu Yao hadn’t dared to disturb him then.

It was the first time he used [Little Thousand Leaf Hands] with formations. From the present result, it seemed he had succeeded!

After learning [Void Pass], Zuo Mo had learned [Leaf Birth]. In Zuo Mo’s mind, [Leaf Birth] had been an extremely useless spell. Its only effect was to regulate chaotic flows of ling power.

If he could regulate the ling power of his opponent then it meant he could resolve the other’s attack. It was a pity that this [Leaf Birth] could only be used on the ling power existing in the world and did not belong to anything. The ling power of the light ball came from Zhang Hao, but Zhang Hao was dead so this connection had disappeared, making it orphaned ling power. Zuo Mo’s [Yang Fiendish Hard Lightning] was just taking and using ling power that existed in the environment.

Zuo Mo had never expected that the most useless move of the three moves of [Little Thousand Leaf Hands] would save his life!

Killing a strong enemy, staying alive after a tribulation, the joy of success, and the fear … …

Several emotions were tied together, the feeling was indescribable.

The bright red lines of fire crossed in the air. While heat rolled away from it, Zuo Mo’s heart suddenly moved and he had another idea.

Why didn’t he use the opportunity to temper the Buddha Sound Hoop? The BuddhaSound Hoop was almost complete. If it could be successfully tempered, then power of the big formation would definitely increase.

Looking at the bright orange moon, it might have been killing Zhang Hao or merging [Little Thousand Leaf Hands] with formations, but his confidence had grown. Beckoning with his hand, the Buddha Sound Hoop flew into the fire formation.

The bright red fire was like a furious wild beast continuously gnawing on the copper hoop.

Zuo Mo glanced at it and shook his head. The grade of the flame that was in the fire formation was too low. The grade of the Buddha Sound Hoop was not low and it was hard to temper.

He suddenly thought of the Golden Crow Fire he possessed and face palmed. He was too dumb to have forgotten about such a good thing!

The Golden Crow Fire was the finest of fourth-grade flames and it had a very beneficial quality of being able to easily merge to other flames. The price of Golden Crow Fire wasn’t low, but Zuo Mo knew how to create it and naturally would not be frugal.

He threw nine mini boxes into the formation.

As expected, the power of the fire formation increased with the addition of nine wisps of Golden Crow Fire. A hint of pure gold appeared in the red fire. The Buddha Sound Hoop which had been still finally showed signs of finishing tempering.

The rest required time.

Zuo Mo looked closely for a while and made sure they wouldn’t be any problems before he turned to leave.

He shoved a large handful of lingdan into his mouth. The ling power inside his body shook. However, Zuo Mo still could feel the weakness from the heavy damage to his body under the fullness of his ling power. It was not wise to use medicinal power to suppress wounds. However, the battle was far from finished. He knew it was harmful to his body but still did it.

———

Lil’ Pagoda was very skilled at controlling the [Skyring Moon Chime Formation]. However, those in the formation were not average people.

Up until now, the greatest damage that Lil’ Pagoda had done to the other side was the series of attacks it had done when Zhang Hao and Zuo Mo had clashed. Other than that, it had not achieved any results. None of the remaining four ningmai had been injured.

Zuo Mo was connected to Lil’ Pagoda and so he knew the situation inside the formation.

He set his target on Zuo Han. With the guidance of Lil’ Pagoda, he could easily find Zuo Han’s position.

Zuo Han’s figure was concealed inside a rainbow cloud of poison. When the [Micro Void Arrow] hit the poisonous mist, it did not have any effect.

Zuo Mo wasn’t stupid enough to touch the poisonous mist. If he accidentally touched it, relying on the second-grade detoxification dan he had made was akin to seeking death.

However, in the eyes of Zuo Mo who had just killed Zhang Hao, the power of this guy who used poison was much lower than Zhang Hao.

Silently sneaking near Zuo Han, a yin fire bead appeared in Zuo Mo’s hand.

He usually did not dare to use the yin fire bead. This thing was incredibly powerful, but if it was exposed, the trouble it would bring would be far beyond what he could deal with. But right now, he didn’t have to worry about this problem. The entire Desolate Wood Reef was concealed by the Skyring Moon Chime Formation. People outside could not see a thing, and people inside were separated by illusory formations.

It was definitely a good chance to use the yin fire bead.

Originally, he had planned to use it in Zhang Hao. But Zhang Hao had detected him coming closer so the first battle of this yin fire bead landed on Zuo Han.

Zuo Han was completely ignorant that Zuo Mo had already come close to him. His heart was insecure.

The other people were still doubtful but he was almost certain that the Head was already dead. In the middle of the wilderness, he felt the surroundings were cold. Even with the protection of the poison mist, he couldn’t feel a hint of warmth.

The only thing that reassured him was the orange moon in the sky had become much dimmer. The formation probably couldn’t not be maintained for much longer.

Up until now, he had not encountered one other person.

His expression changed. It came again!

Ding ding ding!

Three invisible sound arrows entered the poisonous mist. Just like the previous times, he lightly channeled ling power. The poisonous mist flowed strangely and the three sound arrows disappeared.

The other was always very sudden in sending sound arrows. However, his poisonous mist was the perfect counter of straightforward spells.

Ding ding ding!

A storm of sound arrows shot at him without warning!

Zuo Han was very calm. The poisonous mist slowly flowed around him. The sound arrows that entered the mist seemed to have sunk into quicksand, rapidly disappearing.

A small cold smile suddenly floated into his dark face. It was useless!

Suddenly, he detected a small object had hit his poisonous mist. It wasn’t a sound arrow.

His expression abruptly changed. He instantly reacted. The storm of sound arrows had been to provide a cover for this little object!

Damn it!

The outside layer of the poisonous mist was dyed a bone white.

Coldness followed the white color as it spread with astonishing speed. Terrified, Zuo Han didn’t have the time to even make a response. The coldness blew through his body like the wind. He froze to his spot, his body a frozen and eerie white statue, frightened expression shown to all.

Translator Ramblings: Everything is jingshi to Zuo Mo, even large unstable balls of energy. To the commenters that wanted the yin fire bead, here you go!

The sect is a major entity in many Chinese wuxia and fantasy novels. Many times, the sect is this gigantic force in the area, and there are many branches in the sect that compete against each other. Then there are events such as missions, annual fighting tournaments, and competitions against different sects.Master-disciple relationship are akin to parent-child relationships. Also common are mysterious pasts of the masters and inheritance of disagreements by the next generation.

Wu Kong Sword Sect is pretty typical as Fang Xiang has written it, and all the infighting does occur on a minimal level. Fang Xiang’s tournament and sect events seems more like a tribute to these commonly-used events, but he’s off on his own thing. It’s also quite rare nowadays in popular novels for the main character to tie or lose fights and tournaments like Zuo Mo has done, but Zuo Mo can’t lose all his fights since that means he won’t progress.

Shi Feng Rong isn’t the typical master. First, she’s female, which is very rare for a master as she is not a part of Zuo Mo’s harem (he doesn’t have one), or his main love interest. Teacher-student flirtation is very common in many stories, but not in this one.

Shi Feng Rong also differs from the traditional role in that she does not offer great amounts of resources, ie. money or precious treasures, or pass extremely rare skills to Zuo Mo. Wu Kong Sword Sect appears more like a business rather than how a traditional sect works. Shi Feng Rong is Zuo Mo’s manager in upper management when Zuo Mo moved up from low-level laborer to skilled laborer.

Shi Feng Rong is a complete contrast to Pu Yao, and despite how little she taught, she was instrumental in getting Zuo Mo started with the Golden Crow Pill and his path to wealth.