World of Cultivation

This chapter has been brought to you by me, and WanderingGummiOfDoom.

Chapter Seven Hundred and Sixty Eight – A Fatal Temptation

The captive’s mind was stunned but he quickly realized his situation. The people around him had unfriendly expressions and the murderous presences they gave off caused his heart to instinctively tremble. Relating them to the terrifying experts he had fought against before his unconsciousness, he knew that he had been caught this time.

“I am Lao De Guang.”

Zuo Mo and the others exchanged a look. No one heard of this name before.

“Don’t use this kind of name to fool people. How can someone with your skills be unknown?” Zuo Mo looked sardonically at Lao De Guang.

Lao De Guang knew that there was no chance today, and briskly confessed, “Other people call me the Shadowless Ghost Hand.”

“Shadowless Ghost Hand!” The eyes of the steward next to Zuo Mo widened, his expression changing as he shouted. He saw Zuo Mo turn around and hurriedly explained, “The Shadowless Ghost Hand is a famous thief around the Nine Great Dhyana Sect territories. They say that he has never failed. The Nine Great Dhyana Sects has a great bounty but no one was able to catch him. We captured a big fish this time!”

Lao De Guang listened to the narration of the steward and a proud expression rose.

Zuo Mo saw the expression on his face and smiled. “Oh? I didn’t see it, you are a famous character!”

Lao De Guang’s expression stilled. Thinking about his captive situation, the pride on his face immediately disappeared.

“What is this?” Zuo Mo picked up the bronze hoop remnant that had been returned to him and waved it. “Do not try to fool us. The Thunder Sound Temple seems to be searching for this. If we give this thing and you to them, other than the bounty, we might get even more benefits from Thunder Sound Temple.”

Lao De Guang’s expression tensed. He thought about how his fate would be worse than death if he was handed to Thunder Sound Temple. The other’s unfriendly gaze was vicious and experienced. He quickly stopped his other plans, and obediently answered, “Yes, Thunder Sound Temple is searching for this. This is a token for an ancient ruin.”

“A token for an ancient ruin?” Zuo Mo narrowed his eyes. Everyone familiar with him knew that this expression was when he was interested.

Since he had confessed, Lao De Guang decided to do it to the end. “Yes! An ancient ruin was found in the Nine Great Dhyana Sects but the ruin is shrouded in a strange power field. It is impossible to enter without the token. There are thirteen tokens in total, all of them remnants of shen devices. Not long after the ruins were discovered, divination masters identified the time that the ruin will open, it is in one month.”

“Thirteen tokens? How come there are so many tokens?” Zuo Mo smiled ambiguously at Lao De Guang.

For some unknown reason, Zuo Mo’s smile caused Lao De Guang’s bones to shiver. He forced himself to remain calm. “I do not know. These shen device remnants were found around the ruin, thirteen total. The Nine Great Dhyana Sects each have one, and the remaining four are in the hands of unknown people.”

“A token for an ancient ruin is enough to make the Thunder Sound Temple so desperate? I don’t believe it.” Zuo Mo shook his head.

Lao De Guang immediately panicked. “Some of the information on the ancient ruin has been uncovered. It has other things but there is a treasure that no one is able to refuse. That is why the Thunder Sound Temple is so desperate.”

“What treasure?” Zuo Mo smiled enchantingly.

Treasure … … oh, this word make one so excited!”

Lao De Guang had a solemn expression. “A completely preserved ancient shen device nucleus!”

Zuo Mo’s eyes suddenly lit up, the smile on his face completely disappearing. He asked in a deep voice, “What did you say?”

Lao De Guang’s face turned ashen pale. He finally knew why this person made him feel an indescribable danger. This person’s power was greater than he had imagined. He was like a deep and unfathomable lake!

The strong pressure and feeling of suffocation rushed at him like a ferocious lion that touched his face. He could even see the threads of blood lingering on the fangs and claws.

“It is a completely preserved ancient shen device nucleus.” Lao De Guang’s voice trembled. “While I don’t know how it was preserved, this is certain.”

He instinctively swallowed and forced out, “Each token can only take five people inside. Other than the Nine Great Dhyana Sects who each have a token, four of the tokens have disappeared. They most likely are in the hands of the Nine Great Dhyana Sect. One more token means they can take in five more people. The hopes of getting the treasure is greater.”

“Why can only five people be taken in?’ Zuo Mo asked in a cold voice.

“I don’t know. Supposedly, it is an ancient jinzhi. Everyone is saying this.” Lao De Guang shook his head. He was afraid of angering Zuo Mo and hurriedly said, “But this is likely reliable. Otherwise, those large sects would not be so desperately searching for extra tokens. Thunder Sound Temple took this token from someone else, it has passed through the hands of seven owners, they are all dead … …”

He suddenly realized what he was saying, his face turning a few shades whiter. He hurriedly elaborated, “I’m not talking about you … …”

Zuo Mo did not care. From the words that Lao De Guang said, he knew that the other was not speaking lies. Originally, he did not intend to interfere in this matter. Others might be curious in ancient ruins but Zuo Mo had experienced many already.

However, a completely preserved ancient shen device nucleus caused his little heart to jump.

Shen device raiment, the top and best of the world right now!

[City Destroyer] and [Arsonist] had almost bankrupted Mo Cloud Sea, especially when those top ranked materials were all used up. These materials could not be bought with jingshi. Even if Mo Cloud Sea was rich right now, they did not have other avenues to get so many top materials.

Also, most of the top materials were used to forge shen device nuclei. The shen device nuclei made using the Weapon Layering Craftsmanship could be called shen device nuclei but they was still a impassable chasm between those and the true shen device nuclei.

Due to this, no matter how many creative and novel ideas Zuo Mo and the Golden Crow Camp had, they could not forge new shen device raiments. Zuo Mo, the leader of Mo Cloud Sea, didn’t even have a shen device raiment. Little Mo Ge was displeased by this.

Searching for top materials almost became a long-term mission of Mo Cloud Sea. The rewards were high, but the progress at present was still far from the goal.

Little Mo Ge’s shen device raiment naturally was also far away.

Hearing that there was a complete shen device raiment in the ruin, Zuo Mo’s mind immediately became lively. This shen device raiment was a fatal temptation for Zuo Mo.

Even more advantageous was that one token could only take along five people. This meant that those that were able to enter the ruin must be the high level personnel of every faction.

In terms of high level power, Little Mo Ge was full of confidence when he looked at the people around him!

Zuo Mo turned to look at the other people. Everyone had excited expressions. It was clear that everyone knew the value of the shen device nucleus. Just this shen device nucleus would mean that they had not made a wasted trip.

“Where is the ruin?” Zuo Mo asked.

“Territory controlled by the Lotus Sutra Temple, it is called Calm Brightness Jie,” Lao De Guang said obediently.

Zuo Mo turned around. The steward understood and hurriedly said, “The Lotus Sutra Temple does have a Calm brightness Jie. If we go there, we need to hurry. If Thunder Sound Temple closes the transportation information, it will be troublesome.”

“Close the transportation formation?” Zuo Mo frowned.

The steward explained, “If we go to Lotus Sutra Temple now, we have to pass through a transportation formation. If that transportation formation is closed, we can get there through other paths but it will take far longer than a month, unless … …”

Zuo Mo directly asked, “Unless what?”

“Unless we go the Black Sea Flight Route!” When he said this, the steward had a terrified expression.

Zuo Mo stilled. He noticed out of the corner of his eyes that Lao De Guang also had a similar expression of terror.

“Is there something dangerous about that place?” Zuo Mo asked curiously.

The steward unconsciously showed his terror on his face as though he thought of some scary memory. He said in almost a dream-like fashion, “About a decade ago, I went through the Black Sea Flight Route. At that time, Thunder Sound Temple was in conflict with other sects and closed the transportation formation. Our ship had the Hundred Leaf Heart Cloud that we needed to deliver within a month. No matter what, it only blooms for a month. On the thirty first day, it will wither and have no value at all. In order to buy this Hundred Leaf Heart Cloud, the group had spent almost half of our assets. Our journey had to succeed. Seeing the transportation formation closed, we could only choose the Black Sea Flight Route.”

“And then?” Ceng Lian’Er asked curiously.

The steward smiled tragically, “At the start, the fleet had more than two hundred people. There were only nineteen alive at the end.”

Everyone was astounded. No one had expected that less than a tenth had survived.

“We knew that the Black Sea Flight Route is too dangerous but that business was a matter of life and death for the group. Boss spent a great amount to invite a fanxu experts to guard us.”

The steward’s flat narration caused everyone’s heart to beat rapidly.

“Were even fanxu experts unable to protect you?” Ceng Lian’Er could not resist speaking again. Fanxu was akin to the marshal level of the mo. With a marshal’s protection, the fatality rate was still so astounding, the dangers could be imagined.

“That fanxu expert did not come out alive,” the steward gritted his teeth. His face twisted. The terrifying memories came at him again. His face was ashen pale and his body trembled.

Now, no one was able to maintain their calm, their expressions changing.

A place that could kill fanxu experts was also a great threat to them as well.

Zuo Mo’s eyes lit up. “Speed up! Reach the transportation formation at top speed!”

No one dared to slack off and sped up. The entire group accelerated.

After flying for multiple days, when they reached the transportation formation, the formation was being guarded by battalions. The formation was also dark. It was clearly closed.

Thunder Sound Temple had predicted that they would go on this path and had prepared.

Everyone’s face became ugly!

Damn it!

Translator Ramblings: Zuo Mo is poor, he needs more money.