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

Chapter Four Hundred and Twenty One – An Insane Idea

Zuo Mo didn’t know how to describe his mood at this moment.

It really was … … really was … …

It wasn’t sad, but there wasn’t much joy. Zuo Mo quickly sorted out his mood. Since it had happened, no amount of thinking could change the reality of his situation.

Feeling the powers in his body that had been amalgamated into one ball, he was slightly curious. Were ancient cultivators also like this? Then how did they channel these powers?

Thinking, Zuo Mo decided to find and ask the strange corpse. That would be better than thinking aimlessly like this.

———

Zuo Mo’s initial actions seemed slightly strange, but everyone’s worries had slowly lessened. Everyone’s attention quickly turned to that terrifying sandstorm. Without exception, their faces would change when they spoke of it.

The one issue that was everyone agreed on was that the defensive abilities of the slave transporting boats was not sufficient to weather the sandstorms. It had to be said that they had only just stepped into the central part of the ancient battlefield. How many dangers were waiting up ahead for them?

Everyone felt pessimistic about the prospect of carefree travel.

Of the slave transporting boats, the one in the best state was The Golden Crow, the boat that the Golden Crow Camp was on. As none of members of Golden Crow Camp had offensive capabilities, they had instead put all their efforts into reinforcing their slave transporting boat. The other slave transporting boats held combat personnel. They usually invested their time on cultivation so the defenses of their slave transporting boats were very fragile in comparison.

If the strange corpse had not acted to stabilized the situation, the results would be terrible to see.

The entire Golden Crow Camp started to move. If everyone had been filled with joy before, everyone had serious expressions now. A tense mood spread.

No one knew when the next sandstorm would come!

The only thing worth celebrating was that there was endless materials here! Golden Crystal sand! A supply of fifth-grade Golden Crystal sand that was endless and could not be used up!

“I have an idea,” Sun Bao suddenly said as he stared at the endless dunes.

Ji Wei asked curiously, “What idea?” Their minds were in sync. Ji Wei knew if Sun Bao spoke now, it would not be baseless.

Sun Bao suddenly turned around, his eyes burning, “Let’s use Golden Crystal sand to forge a slave transporting boat!”

“Use Golden Crystal sand to forge a boat?” Ji Wei exclaimed. “Heavens! That is insane!”

“Yes! Use Golden Crystal sand to forge a treasure s.h.i.+p! Use Golden Crystal sand for the entire boat!” Sun Bao was like a fanatic. He waved his arms and said loudly, “A Ji! Look at this place! It is all Golden Crystal sand! If we leave, we might never encounter a chance like this ever again!”

Ji Wei looked at the endless dunes. His heart was moved. He was excited as well!

Sun Bao was right. If they missed the chance in front of them, they might never encounter one like this again! No matter how much Golden Crystal sand they took with them this time, they could never be so wasteful as to use Golden Crystal sand to forge a big boat that could hold everyone!

“But it is hard for us to even process it … …”

Sun Bao said without hesitating, “Then we use the Crimson Fiend Cauldron! Do you remember how we forged the Crimson Fiend Cauldron last time? It’s just more work this time!”

Seeing the two masters were excitedly shouting with red faces, more and more Golden Crow Camp members came over.

When they understood what the two masters were saying, they were dumbstruck!

But after a short silence, the surrounding people exploded!

“Do it! This is such a good chance … …”

“Oh! Heavens! I’m excited just thinking about it! A Golden Crystal sand treasure s.h.i.+p!”

“Insane! We’re all insane! But this really is great!”

Everyone sank into extreme excitement and frenzy! Sun Bao’s idea was enough to cause any production xiuzhe to feel excitement.

———

“Do you understand?” the strange corpse asked.

In front of him, there was a ruler-straight pit that stretched ten li into the distance. The pit was multiple zhang wide and the inner walls were as smooth as crystal. That was a spectacle of the Golden Crystal sand being melted.

And all of this was caused with just a pointing of the finger by the strange corpse.

Everyone was deeply shocked! Zuo Mo was the only exception. He could not disguise his disappointment.

He said dejectedly, “I understand the general concept.”

The strange corpse was very strong offensively, so strong that the other only needed to point to turn Zuo Mo to dust. But Zuo Mo’s disappointment still uncontrollably showed.

The strange corpse was strong, but that was only due to the difference in cultivation stages. A monster that had lived for tens of thousands of years, his acc.u.mulation of power was terrifying. But that terrifying pointing attack did not have much to show in terms of technique.

This was a very primitive attack method, all of that power was simply compressed and then released. In terms of technique, it could not compare to the modern methods. No matter if it was xiuzhe or yaomo, they had developed their own cultivation methods. They all had their specialties and their focus was different, forming systems on their own. There was a huge variety of techniques. Even the mo physique that was the least technical of the three was multiple times more exquisite than  the strange corpse’s attacking method.

Zuo Mo grimaced.

Thinking about it, this was actually the result that was most rational. Cultivation methods had developed over several tens of thousands of years. After the development of one generation and another, it was logical that the techniques were more powerful than in the past. If it wasn’t for  the great war several thousand years ago that a disrupted this trend the current methods wouldn’t be less than the previous generations.

It seemed that he had to search for a method on his own.

The strange corpse was extraordinarily intelligent. After a moment of thought, he understood what Zuo Mo had meant. He said with a nod, “Your techniques are extremely complex and varied, far surpa.s.sing us.” He then asked in puzzlement. “There is only one reason that required these techniques have become so complex, ling energy has become rare. Is the ling energy outside very thin right now?”

“Was the ling energy of your time very dense?” Zuo Mo asked curiously.

“In our time, we never had to consider ling energy. All beings naturally knew how to absorb ling energy, this is an innate ability,” the strange corpse said.

“As expected.” Zuo Mo knew the answer and was not very shocked. Resources would run out in the eventually. After tens of thousands of years of use, even the most plentiful resource would not have much left.

The strange corpse said, “I understand. No wonder I feel you are all weak. So ling energy has become rare.” He murmured. “Yes, it has been so long.”

He suddenly raised his head. “How many races are there now?”

“Races?” Zuo Mo’s face was puzzled.

The strange corpse’s grey eyes stared at Zuo Mo. “There has to be living beings that don’t look the same as you.”

Zuo Mo said a.s.suredly, “You mean the yaomo?”

“Yaomo?”

“Yao races are mostly born from the essences of flora, and mo from wild beasts. We are human.”

The strange corpse was silent for a moment and then said, “So that’s how it is.”

Zuo Mo did not know what the strange corpse’s “so that’s how it is” meant. He asked curiously, “Did you have yaomo in your time?”

The ancient era was too distant from the present, and there were pitifully few records about the ancient era. Everyone was very curious.

The strange corpse shook his head and said, “In our time, there were only beings, there were not many differences in appearances. All beings could change their appearances at will. The human race is one of those beings, but there was nothing different about them, and they were very weak.”

“Weak?” Zuo Mo’s eyes widened in disbelief.

The human species was weak, how was that possible? The number of jie humans now inhabited was almost the equal to the yao and mo combined. In terms of powerful people, the number of xiuzhe also far surpa.s.sed yaomo.

In b.l.o.o.d.y Sky Metropolis Jie, the xiuzhe had hunted yao for thousands of years! For thousands of years, yaomo were prey of humans. No wonder Zuo Mo thought he had heard it incorrectly that the humans had been weak in ancient eras.

“The yaomo you speak of had more outstanding talent back then. The beings of many tribes possessed many powerful abilities when they were born. If they just cultivated slightly, they would be powerful. But us humans did not have similar talent in this area, and were always suppressed.”

The strange corpse’s faint tone seemed to be describing something that was very normal.

Zuo Mo and the others had dazed expressions. The shock that this information gave them far surpa.s.sed the strange corpse’s finger pointing attack.

“Then w-why is the human species so strong now?” Zuo Mo asked in a stammer.

“If I have guessed correctly, it is caused by the change in ling energy. The other beings had powerful abilities, but when ling power became rare, their talents would also be weakened. he human species who did not rely on innate abilities did not lose as much as other beings. Time will change everything.”

The strange corpse’s grey eyes were empty, but his words were filled with wisdom.

Zuo Mo’s expression was dazed but he knew that what the strange corpse said was probably the closest to the truth.

“Daren! Daren!”

Zuo Mo seemed to wake up. He looked at Sun Bao who was running over and made a sound of acknowledgement, “En?”

Sun Bao said tentatively, “We’ve decided to forge a big s.h.i.+p!”

“Oh, forge a big s.h.i.+p, then do it,” Zuo Mo unconsciously replied. He had not completely woken up.

Sun Bao gritted his teeth. “We plan on forging a Golden Crystal sand treasure s.h.i.+p!”

“Golden Crystal sand treasure s.h.i.+p … …” Zuo Mo made a sound. He suddenly reacted. “Wait … … what did you say?”

“We are planning to use Golden Crystal sand to make a large s.h.i.+p! A treasure s.h.i.+p that can hold everyone!” Sun Bao raised his head, his eyes flas.h.i.+ng with heat.

Zuo Mo opened his mouth and looked dazedly at Sun Bao.

“Daren, the journey we face is fraught with danger. Our slave transporting boats cannot hold up. There is also an unlimited supply of Golden Crystal sand here! It is a chance from heaven! Why don’t we use it to forge a large s.h.i.+p?” Sun Bao wasn’t afraid.

A moment later, Zuo Mo refocused, and his eyes lit up with excitement.

Exactly!

If they could use Golden Crystal sand to forge a big s.h.i.+p, as Zuo Mo thought, he felt his blood boil. The Golden Crystal sand that was sold by the grain on the outside, and he could use it to forge a big s.h.i.+p!

It really was an insane idea!

Zuo Mo’s eyes became even brighter. He said viciously, “Forge! Why don’t we forge! We’ll forge it as big as we can!”

With his agreement all of Golden Crow Camp instantly sank into mania.

Translator Ramblings: So much history in this chapter. First a huge drop in knowledge after the corpse’s time for everyone (and probably a lot of extinctions for other races), then a blow to the yaomo (who survived the extinction) when the ling energy levels fell, then another loss in knowledge when they lost the more recent war.