He had gone to Dong Fu, and bought a lot of things. His gaze landed on the hundred treasures pouch. Right, and then after that? He had gone to the free market... ...

Zuo Mo’s pupils suddenly shrunk. He remembered!

Yin beads! It was yin beads... ... those horrifyingly strong xiuzhe... ...

Zuo Mo reflexively touched himself. Even though his entire body was in pain, he was completely unharmed and wasn’t lacking any arms or legs. He was still alive! He remembered he had suddenly fainted. What happened after that? How did he return to the Little West Wind Yard?

He didn’t know. Did someone rescue him? This was the first idea that appeared in his head.

Even though he didn’t know much, but he wasn’t dumb. The forest of signs in the free market was enough to make him realize the value of the yin bead was much larger than he had imagined. Those people would have no reason to let him free. He hurried to flip through his hundred treasures pouch. When he saw the yin beads were still there, he was even more confused. He took a count and found that there were two less.

Whichever way he looked at it, it seemed strange.

He suddenly realized he could ask Pu Yao. That guy definitely would know what had happened.

When Zuo Mo entered the sea of consciousness, he was instantly shocked. The furiously dancing sea of flames of the past was now withered, the flames extremely weak like the embers left after a fire and could extinguish at any time. The two stars were unchanged, hanging like diamonds in the void. The sword river didn’t change either, same as usual, half of it icicles moving, half of it burning with water flames.

Why would it be like this?

Restraining the terror in his heart, Zuo Mo started to sprint in the direction that Pu Yao was usually at. He had a strong feeling inside that something major had definitely happened!

When he reached the stele and saw Pu Yao on top of the stele, he was dumbstruck. Pu Yao’s face was without any color. He was like a statue as he sat, legs coiled, on the stele, motionless. Black clouds moved around his body.

“Pu!” Zuo Mo tried to control the terror inside and called out.

Pu Yao didn’t respond. He was like a stone statue carved out of white marble.

Zuo Mo called a few more time. Pu Yao didn’t seem to hear it.

Something definitely had happened!

Zuo Mo forced himself to calm down. He carefully thought back to what happened that day. Yin beads. And then he connected it to Pu Yao’s present state. What happened that day, it was obvious... ...

In the eyes of high level xiuzhe, low level xiuzhe was like grass. When he had saw Xue Yun, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to resolve it and that was why he decided to go all in. People would kill for even a low level talisman, how about the mysterious yin bead? Most of the yin beads he had were still present. That meant that those people hadn’t got them.

Had it really been Pu Yao who saved him?

Zuo Mo almost couldn’t believe it. Would Pu Yao be that kind? Yet this guess seemed to be the most reasonable one.

As to Pu Yao’s sorry state right now, Zuo Mo wasn’t certain. Was he wounded?

It seemed that it was quite serious... ...

Even that time Pu Yao had been wounded by Xin Yan Shibo, he hadn’t been this weak. Looking dazedly at Pu Yao, who was completely lifeless, Zuo Mo suddenly thought, would Pu Yao just die like this? But for some unknown reason, he pushed down the idea. This thought made him feel slightly terrified. Terrified that Pu Yao would disappear like this? Wasn’t that what he had been hoping all this time?

Looking at the lifeless Pu Yao, Zuo Mo’s eyes became murky.

He closed his eyes. A beat later, he opened them again.

Ge wouldn’t owe anyone!

He was only paying back the other for saving his life, Zuo Mo told himself.

For some unknown reason, when he made this decision, the terror inside suddenly stopped.

Raising his head to glance at the statue-like Pu Yao, Zuo Mo took a deep breath. He started to think back to every detail of his interactions with Pu Yao, hoping to find a way to help him.

The first thing he thought about was [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation]. Pu Yao had been constantly tempting or forcing him to practice [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation]. Zuo Mo remembered very clearly, it had been when he had broken through to one breath that the flame sea in his consciousness had become vigorous. Looking at the weak flames that were so weak now that it seemed as though they would extinguish at any time, Zuo Mo felt these crimson flames should have a very close relationship with Pu Yao.

The second was jingshi. Pu Yao always needed a lot of jingshi. The great majority of Zuo Mo’s jingshi would end up in Pu Yao’s hands. Zuo Mo had always been slightly amazed by the great appetite Pu Yao had towards jingshi. Even though Zuo Mo didn’t know where Pu Yao spent the jingshi but it was clear that jingshi was very important to Pu Yao. Maybe it helped Pu Yao somehow.

And then it was yin energy. Zuo Mo could still see the picture of Pu Yao furiously taking in yin energy on that trip to the sword cave. Zuo Mo felt that, for Pu Yao, yin energy was something enriching and should help him.

After a long time, Zuo Mo concluded these three points. In these three, the most difficult was yin energy. To take in yin energy, that needed going into the sword cave. When Pu Yao was conscious, entering the sword cave was just a matter of jingshi. But relying just on Zuo Mo, the difficulty of entering the sword cave was very high, and basically hopeless. Up until now, only Wei Sheng Shixiong had been allowed by the sect into the sword cave. For everyone else, even though Zuo Mo had comprehended the Li water sword essence and showed his talent, the elders in the sect didn’t even mention it.

Zuo Mo put his attention on the first two points. In his perspective, those two were more practical.

He decided to go to the rock room to meditate and practice [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation]. Just as he was preparing to leave, he saw from the mirror that he hadn’t changed his appearance back. He hurriedly washed away the disguise on his face. If someone came in right now, that would be bad.

It had been a very long time since Zuo Mo had been so focused when he was practicing [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation]. Even though he still persisted in practicing it everyday, but he didn’t put much thought into it. Now that he really paid attention, he instantly found many places he was unclear about but had dismissed usually. He couldn’t help but feel guilty and reflect on himself. It was like he had gone back to the time before he had broken through to one breath as he furiously started to study this cryptic and dull scripture.

People were always like this. When they needed time, they would find that time was abnormally slippery. If one wasn’t careful, it would slip away.

Coming out of his meditation state, the sky was already dark. Zuo Mo went to take a look at the sea of consciousness. The flames were still very weak and didn’t seem to have visibly changed. It seemed that it needed a long-term effort, he thought inside.

Leaving the consciousness, he started to sort out the ling herbs that he had bought in Dong Fu. These raw materials had been for him to experiment with the water method and to earn some jingshi. He hadn’t thought that they would be useful so early. Before, Zuo Mo had only wanted to experiment with making dan using the water method. But he was now abnormally serious. In his speculations, jingshi was one of the most important. He didn’t know what help jingshi gave Pu Yao but it was one of the few things he could do.

Zuo Mo couldn’t help but grimace. It seemed that in his life, making jingshi was an eternal problem!

Throwing away that thought, he started to follow the instructions on Elder Wei Nan’s jade scrolls and prepare the ingredients.

The water method and the fire method were as different as the earth and sky. It was the first time Zuo Mo had come into contact with many of these things. But luckily, he had some dan-making experience now. Before, the experience of making so many golden crow pills had also given him a lot of experience. The language that Elder Wei Nan’s jade scroll was written in was straight and clear, without any flourishes. It wasn’t hard for Zuo Mo to understand.

This was also why Zuo Mo would always feel his mind expand and be entrance when he browsed Elder Wei Nan’s jade scrolls, yet when he read [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation], it was like his intestines were turned inside out and he felt that death would be welcome.

Zuo Mo studied the basic steps in the water method many times. Even though he wasn’t totally familiar, he wasn’t unfamiliar with it. The uniqueness of the water method laid in that it required making a “dan embryo”. The lingdan would be raised in the dan embryo. The process was like people during pregnancy, extremely miraculous.

The most important step of the water method was to use spells and ling energy as channels, all kinds of materials and ling grasses as the flesh in order to form a dan embryo. It would not just directly decide whether a dan would form, but any little difference could cause the dan that would be formed to be completely different.

This was one of the important reasons that the water method wasn’t as popular as the fire method. It was even hard to grasp the patterns and trends involved.

For Zuo Mo, this was undoubted a new challenge. Luckily, his present cultivation was much higher than Elder Wei Nan when he had first tried the water method. The writings of Elder Wei Nan was extremely detailed. Many important parts, he had repeated and narrated it over. And Zuo Mo had one advantage that Elder Wei Nan didn’t have. Zuo Mo had spiritual power. His consciousness, not just Elder Wei Nan, but the shixiong in the sect wouldn’t be as strong as him. The benefits of using his consciousness had been crucial when he had been using the fire method.

Taking the ling grasses and herbs he had prepared, he went next to the ling spring in the rock room. The ling spring was extremely cold and was near the ling vein. After so many years, the ling energy in the spring was extremely dense. Along the way, Zuo Mo inspected the ice cloud grass that was being grown in it. Seeing that its growth was very good, he put it to the side.

Focusing, Zuo Mo’s hands was like snowflakes flying in the air.

Some strangely shaped character seals that glowed slightly flew out of his hands and entered the ling spring. When those glowing character seals entered the ling spring, it was like there was a natural attraction between them and they slowly crowded together.

Zuo Mo stared with wide eyes unblinkingly, the speed of his hands not slowing down.

As Zuo Mo’s finger motions changed, the glowing character seals in the ling spring slowly moved. Like putting together puzzle pieces, the character seals slowly combined together.

Two whole hours, and Zuo Mo was soaked in sweat, mist coming off his body. His eyes didn’t dare to move away. With the finger motions that kept on changing, Zuo Mo’s fingers were extremely sore. But he could only grit his teeth and bear it. If he was the slightest bit lacking in attention, it meant that all his effort would be wasted.

When the last glowing character seal went in, a steady “embryo frame” took form. A light blue light suddenly appeared and flashed around the surface of the seal characters!

Zuo Mo didn’t dare to hesitate. Without any time to wipe away the sweat, he used a specialized spell to add in the pre-prepared materials.

A while later, a light blue spherical dan embryo quietly floated in the ling spring.

Translator Ramblings: When the novel was published, the first part was called “Jingshi Maniac” and the first volume was cut off the chapter before. The next volume, starting with this chapter, is called “A Problematic Youth”. The volumes get progressively longer so even though there are seven volumes, we aren’t even 10% through the story.

The book cover is from amazon.cn. They are selling the series on there. Pretty pictures... ... but they discontinued the manhua.