This chapter has been brought to you by me, WanderingGummiOfDoom, and Brian.
Chapter Two Hundred and Nine Ma Fan
“Where are we?” Chun Yu Cheng curiously poked his head out of the s.h.i.+p. After travelling for more than three months underwater, the three felt very suffocated.
“Little Mountain Jie,” Zuo Mo said uncertainly. None of them had ever been to Little Mountain Jie and had never paid any attention to information about Little Mountain Jie.
The fresh air made the trio’s chests instantly become refreshed and expand. They all poked their heads out of the cabin to greedily suck in the air.
On both sides of the river were endless series of mountain peaks.
But quickly, the three completely shut up. They looked dazedly at the mountain peaks at the two sides.
Smashed rocks and broken trees laid everywhere. Occasionally, there were corpses and pieces of clothing. The mountains which had originally been green were now barren.
“It can’t be this bad … …” Chun Yu Cheng’s voice drifted out as if it was sleep-talking.
Gongsun Cha was the first to respond. His face was not very good, lowering his head and saying to himself, “War has begun.”
Zuo Mo only looked, not knowing what to say. This area must have experienced fierce fighting. Thinking about the yao troops above the Desolate Wood Reef, Zuo Mo didn’t need to guess to know who had accomplished such destruction. His heart couldn’t help but feel fear. If he hadn’t escaped in time, this would have also been his outcome.
“Let’s be careful. The road probably won’t be safe.”
Zuo Mo and Gongsun Cha exchanged a look, and saw the worry in each other’s eyes.
The date seed s.h.i.+p flew into the sky and floated in mid-air.
“Where should we go?” Gongsun Cha asked a very realistic question.
“We can only take one step and look one step.” Zuo Mo’s face was expressionless, but his voice was full of helplessness, “We aren’t familiar with Little Mountain Jie, so let’s first find someone to ask where the other jie rivers of Little Mountain Jie are.
“Are there even still people in Little Mountain Jie?”
Gongsun Cha’s words made Zuo Mo’s breathing uncontrollably stop. He turned around, and saw a matter-of-fact expression on Gongsun Cha’s soft face. For some reason, a cold chill seeped into his heart.
His first response was, he definitely could not bully Gongsun s.h.i.+di in the future.
This guy was definitely vicious and devious.
But Zuo Mo clearly wasn’t a nice person either. “Then our days are at an end. Just wait for others to come back to clean us up.”
Gongsun Cha giggled, and didn’t speak. Holding up his chin, he was thinking of something.
Luckily, Gongsun Cha’s words were not proven right. On the third day, they encountered living xiuzhe. But when they saw the messy battlefield, Zuo Mo could only say, “Let’s wait.” The date seed s.h.i.+p shrunk back into the clouds, and secretly gazed at the fighting below.
The two groups of xiuzhe were fighting, talismans and flying swords all over the air.
Most of the people had a cultivation of ningmai, only a rare few in zhuji. Chun Yu Cheng only looked for a little while before turning to think about his husbandry. He wasn’t interested in fighting and killing. Zuo Mo and Gongsun Cha were so bored they were yawning.
“Why don’t we do another round of War Chess.” Gongsun Cha asked.
Zuo Mo swept him with a look and shook his head. “No, business first.”
Gongsun Cha had become their strongest offensive force now.
In the three months, this militant had improved with astounding speed, becoming more vicious and experienced in the art of commanding. The number of ling beasts that had been ruined could not be counted. In his hands, the three Golden Armored Guards could be called specters of war. Of course, Zuo Mo’s wallet had also become fuller.
Having seen the strong yao army, having seen the strong ling beasts under the water like the Moon Eye Blackwater Beast, especially after seeing the grand performances of the three golden armor guards under Gongsun s.h.i.+di’s command, the fight in front of them could not stir their interest.
Thinking it over Zuo Mo still decided to not wait, “Go get them to stop.”
“Alright,” Gongsun Cha clearly didn’t have any interest in opponents of this level. The two seemed to have completely forgot one of them was ningmai and the other zhuji while the two groups down there were mostly ningmai.
The three golden armor guards that had been holding their swords moved, and disappeared from Gongsun Cha’s side.
———
Ma Fan carefully maintained his distance from the others. Fifty zhang to one hundred zhang was his best attack range. In this range of distance, his sword scripture could reach its maximum power.
Compared to the great majority, his luck was pretty good, and he had found the remains of a sword scripture. This sword scripture did not have a name, and the contents were nearly all lost; but the remains were enough for him to survive until now.
It really was troublesome!
He carefully controlled his rhythm, occasionally glancing out of the corner of his eye at his fellows. Luckily, this group’s situation wasn’t bad. His heart relaxed slightly. Before this, he had always been alone. When he had encountered the yao army pa.s.sing by, seeing that battle that had no meaning, he understood that it was not possible for one person to survive in these troubled times.
He had joined this little group. but how many times had he fought after joining this group? He didn’t quite remember. After the yao army left, Little Mountain Jie’s society had collapsed, and turned to chaos.
Out of nowhere, he saw three golden lights out of the corner of his eye!
There was an ambus.h.!.+ His heart shocked, he didn’t hesitate in turning and running. His feet moved continuously, and his entire person was covered in a pile of fake and real illusions.
The illusory movement method that he relied on to save his life!
The opponent sixty zhang away from him had suddenly lost his opponent, his face full of shock, not understanding the situation.
The three golden lights were like three sharp arrows that pierced straight into the people fighting.
Pia pia pia!
The rapid blows sounded out like rain hitting a banana leaf. The sounds rang in Ma Fan’s ears as he ran furiously, his scalp p.r.i.c.kled.
It was troublesome now!
He was still quite confident in his speed. The sword scripture that he cultivated might have been incomplete, but the strongest parts were the illusory movement method and the three sword moves. The illusory sword method had saved his life a few times already. He rejoiced inside that he had luckily saved some energy before. Otherwise, he would meet his death today.
Just as he was thinking, the thundering crashes suddenly stopped.
A strong feeling of danger appeared. Uh-oh!
Hiss-crack!
A golden figure appeared in front of him out of thin air, the speed so quick that he didn’t even manage to see the person’s features.
Troublesome!
His feet changed direction and ran in another direction!
Hiss-crack!
Another golden figure appeared in front of him.
Trouble … …
At the same time, a hiss-crack sounded behind him!
“I surrender!” He raised both of his hands.
However, the other clearly did not pay attention to him. His neck hurt, his vision darkened, and then he was unconscious.
———
When he opened his eyes again, he released a breath. He hadn’t died. However, when he completely opened his eyes, his heart went back up again – a gold fighter!
He suddenly remembered what had happened before he was unconscious.
This was really troublesome now!
He finally managed to see what the golden people looked like. Their entire body was covered in golden scale armor. Under the sun, the dense golden scales rippled with golden light. The eyes under the golden scale armor were cold and murderous. Ma Fen did not doubt that if he dared to make a wrong move, the golden scale warriors would use that exaggeratedly large flame red broadsword to slice off his head.
Wait, Heavens!
His eyes blanked for an extremely short moment.
Flames surrounded the exaggerated red broadsword. The golden scaled warriors had thrust the sword into the ground. The soil around the tip of the sword slowly became black. Fourth-grade! This was a fourth-grade broadsword!
Ma Fan had worked alone for so long. From this experience, he had developed a great understanding of the market for these kinds of things. Naturally had his own methods for judging talismans.
This broadsword was not ordinary. This was not what shocked him . Even if there was the addition of the golden scaled armor that looked to have high defense power, he wouldn’t feel shocked.
What shocked him was what was on the three … …
No wonder they could catch up to him. The Thunder Flowing Light Wings, one of the most famous fourth-grade flying talismans that could be brought on the market. It had appeared countless times in his dreams. If he had the Thunder Flowing Light Wings, if they were added to his illusory movement method. Oh, he had the confidence he could escape from any xiuzhe under jindan!
His eyes flashed across the hands resting on the hilt of the sword. A light blue pair of gloves embroidered with a little elephant. Ten Thousand Appearances Gloves! The best love of body xiu. If you had those, you could tear animals apart with your bare hands. His thoughts wandered. A moment later, he remembered the crashes that had come behind him before he had become unconscious.
To have been smashed by a guy wearing Ten Thousand Appearances Gloves … …
He shook and woke up.
But when his eyes flashed across the snake pupil that was so cold and emotionless on the belt that the golden scaled warriors were wearing, his body uncontrollably tensed again!
Snake Pupil Belt!
His eyes unconsciously landed on the pair of feet closest to him. The slightly delicate boots were slightly strange being paired with the glittering golden armor. But, when Ma Fan’s gaze landed on the little sword on the shoes and the Big Dipper surrounding it, he only had one thought in his head
––It really was troublesome now!
“Don’t just look. Just sit up.”
A very young voice came from behind him. He hurriedly rolled up.
He saw an expressionless face. It really was expressionless. The entire face seemed to be paralyzed. He had never seen such a strange face before. The thin body, with this wooden face, it looked like a zombie. However, this “zombie” was covered in valuable talismans. Ma Fan instantly woke up. He had heard before that many elders would have all kinds of strange habits and preferences.
But the young xiuzhe next to the “zombie” was quite delicate, a slight smile on his face. He looked very friendly.
“What are you called?” The zombie opened.
“Ma Fan.”
“As in troublesome?”
Having expected the other’s response, Ma Fan hurriedly explained, “Ma as in sesame, fan for ordinary.”
“Oh,” The zombie slightly paused. “Why are you guys fighting?”
Zuo Mo pretended to be profound.
“Elder, they want to steal our ling grains.” Ma Fan didn’t dare to conceal.
“Ling grains?” Zuo Mo was very surprised. He had made his living from farming ling grains for several years but had never heard people fighting over ling grains.
“Yes.” Ma Fan perceptively detected the disbelief in Zuo Mo’s voice and explained, “Elder may not know. After the yao army pa.s.sed through, for some reason, the ling energy in the jie has gradually decreased. Not only has cultivation has become difficult to progress, but after a period of time, our stages may actually go down.”
Zuo Mo hurriedly channeled his ling power and found that it was as Ma Fan had said. The surrounding ling energy was very thin. He had the mo matrix which would automatically take in ling energy from the surroundings which was why did he had not detected it. Also, Gongsun Cha was obsessed with War Chess and Chun Yu Cheng with his animals, the Golden Armor Guards did not need to cultivate, so their procession had not discovered the change in the ling energy.
Zuo Mo suddenly shuddered in shock.
Translator Ramblings: Ma Fan (??) is very similar to the Chinese term for trouble. Fang Xiang seemed really fond of this pun in this chapter.
Little Mountain Jie is a small jie and so is Sky Moon. There are intermediate sized jie and large ones like b.l.o.o.d.y Sky Metropolis Jie. Zuo Mo is on a whole new map but he is still in the beginner stage. Some also call this part of the story one of the best parts … … not my personal favorite … …
I really marvel at how short World of Cultivation really is compared to a lot of the stories going on at the moment. Some stories might take 1-5 years depending on how fast a person writes. In terms of sheer productivity, Chinese web-novel writers are pretty crazy, especially those who do it part-time. There are hundreds of people churning out novels more than hundreds of thousands of characters every year, but part of it are writing differences. Chinese authors narrate and describe using more adjectives and idioms than English writers. Something that means shocked can be a four-character term and all of this adds up. In this story, I’m going to get sick of translating how soft, feminine, shy and bashful Gongsun Cha’s face is.