The armoured black worm ran very quickly. Zuo Mo was gleeful as he followed.

If Lil’ Black was running so cheerfully, then the island definitely had ling veins or some great treasure. He had originally assumed that the Desolate Wood Reef was a barren island. Looking at it now, it seemed to hold some surprises.

The place they had arrived at was a dense forest, and in the middle, there was a lake filled with black-coloured water. Lil’ Black seemed to be extremely afraid of the black water lake and rapidly passed it by. Zuo Mo examined the black water lake in slight surprise. The lake was not very large, about ten mu or so. The water of the pond was as black as ink. It was a dead place, no grass growing beside it and contained only large patches of pale white rock.

Corrupted land!

For some reason, these two words naturally floated to the top of Zuo Mo’s mind. The black water lake looked like it was dead. There were no animal tracks along the shores. It seemed to exude unluckiness. He remembered the jade scroll that the Heart Lake Sword Sect disciple had given him mentioned this lake. The black water lake was very dangerous, and it was recommended to stay away.

He didn’t have time to study the lake right now. He sped up to keep in step with Lil’ Black.

Among the woods, Lil’ Black was like a gust of wind, only a black shadow could be seen. If Zuo Mo did not have a mental connection with Lil’ Black, he would have lost track of it a long time ago.

Detecting that Lil’ Black’s speed had increased a fraction, Zuo Mo hurriedly sped up as well.

Lil’ Black suddenly crept inside a crack in a nearby clearing. Zuo Mo grimaced when he saw this two-finger wide crack. Yet his Water Drop sword in his hand did not hesitate, turning into a stream of light and twisting rapidly in the air as a blue shadow before it suddenly drilled downward!

Boom!

Broken rock scattered and a hole wide enough to allow Zuo Mo to enter appeared in front of him.

Zuo Mo waved his hand, and the Water Drop sword flew back into his hand. Bending down, he entered the hole and the tunnel widened in front of him. This place was a natural cave. Not far away, the black gold worm was waiting for Zuo Mo. Seeing Zuo Mo, it made a sound, turned and ran. Zuo Mo refocused and hurriedly followed.

The darkness did not affect Lil’ Black at all and Zuo Mo’s consciousness was strong enough to allow everything to be perceived by his mind.

Advancing inside the tunnel, Zuo Mo was able to feel that he was continuously moving deeper underground. Along the way, his flying sword had been used to break open quite a few blockages. Up until now, he hadn’t found any traces of other people. This made him even more excited.

———

After walking for more than an hour, when he walked by another corner, Zuo Mo was stunned by scene in front of him.

Large swathes of completely red lava flowed, slowly bubbling. His vision was completely filled with its red glow. The cavern was like a world of crimson, changing and twisting with each wave of heat. The air was stained with the smell of sulfur.

The lake of boiling lava was about three mu in size, rocks from the surrounding areas were constantly falling and disappearing into it. But after a while, the lava at the borders would cool, forming rock again and mending the holes.

Hmm? His gaze landed on the black gold worm. At some unknown time, Lil’ Black had crawled on top of a red coloured rock and started to nibble.

Zuo Mo’s pupils suddenly shrunk and he was overjoyed.

Crimson Fire Rock!

He couldn’t stop himself from approaching and picking up a red-coloured rock from the ground. The volcanic red rock was not jade yet similar to jade. It was a very strong and pure shade of red, hot to the touch like scorching hot metal. If Zuo Mo hadn’t wrapped ling power around his hand, his hand would have been cooked to the bone.

The rock contained extremely rich fire element power!

Fourth-grade Crimson Fire Rock!

At this time, he wanted to laugh. Who would’ve thought that this isolated island would have such a treasure! A circle of Crimson Red Rock grew around the rim of the lava lake.

All this Crimson Fire Rock alone was enough to make his trip to the Desolate Wood Reef worth it!

Without another word, he started to collect the Crimson Fire rock, not leaving even one piece. The Crimson Fire rock was arranged in a particular pattern. All of them grew in the area closest to the lava, forming a belt around the lava lake. These Crimson Fire rocks had been tempered over countless months and years, and the impurities inside had been melted away so they were very pure.

In the sixty or so pieces of Crimson Fire rock, most were third-grade. The number of fourth-grade Crimson Fire rock reached six pieces.

This was an astounding amount of wealth!

Zuo Mo was very satisfied. He was dizzy from receiving such a windfall of wealth. To reward Lil’ Black, he even took out a piece of fourth-grade Crimson Fire rock for it to chew on.

Lil’ Black instantly abandoned the third-grade Crimson Fire rock that he had half eaten and leapt towards the fourth-grade Crimson Fire rock as though its butt was on fire. This piece of Crimson Fire rock was not big, just slightly larger than his thumb. Lil’ Black ate it like it was a cracker, crunch crunch. A fourth-grade Crimson Fire rock was gone just like that.

Finished eating, Lil’ Black suddenly became bright red all over like it was being heated, lying there motionlessly.

Zuo Mo was alarmed. The connection between him and Lil’ Black was broken!

He carefully held Lil’ Black on his hand. Lil’ Black seemed like a piece of Crimson Fire rock at this moment, it’s temperature abnormally high. He carefully observed for a while using his consciousness. Finally, after making sure that the black gold worm hadn’t died, he instantly sighed in relief. After staying in the formation for half a year, Silly Bird and Lil’ Black were not just steed and ling worm to Zuo Mo, but more like his friends.

Zuo Mo guessed that Lil’ Black had consumed too much fire element power today, causing “indigestion.”

“You glutton!” He muttered as he put Lil’ Black into his ring.

After cleaning up the Crimson Fire rock, Zuo Mo finally calmed down. He reassessed this underground lava lake. Even standing on the shore, he could feel the rich fire element power.

This place was a treasure!

Zuo Mo had already started to ponder how he could use the lava lake.

His consciousness made a few rounds around the lake and did not find anything strange.

He had originally intended to find ling veins and hadn’t expected an earth fire lava lake. This was outside of his plans. However, even if it was unexpected, this lava lake was still of great use.

Zuo Mo stood at his spot, thinking for a moment before starting to act.

All kinds of materials appeared on his hands. The stores of the sect had been opened for his trip to the Desolate Wood Reef. He naturally wasn’t polite, and swept through until Master couldn’t bare it anymore. Compared to before, the resources were on completely different levels. There were all kinds of high level materials in the stores that dazzled Zuo Mo’s eyes.

Zuo Mo might be lazy in general, but he would never slack off on anything related to his life.

A flip of the hand, and a two-handled hornless dragon copper cauldron appeared. The hornless dragon pattern on the cauldron was a faint red, it’s coiled body carved to appear like flames.

Zuo Mo gently threw it and the copper cauldron appeared steadily at a place on the shore.

He flipped his hand again. It was another copper cauldron exactly the same as the last one.

Another toss, the cauldron was planted at another spot.

In one go, Zuo Mo had tossed out seven two-handled hornless dragon copper cauldrons which all landed at places equi-distant to the lava lake.

The seven two-handled hornless dragon copper cauldrons were fine items in the third-grade. When Zuo Mo had taken all seven while shopping at the sect stores, the face of the disciple in-charge turned green instantly.

Zuo Mo’s eyes became serious. His hands blooming, he started to walk along the lake, talismans and materials flying from his hands.

———

Two hours later, he wiped the sweat off his forehead. A spectacular display of all kinds of materials were placed along the edges of the lava lake!

He released a breath, his hands moving like lightning. He activated spells that created streams of light which entered the materials.

The entire process continued for six whole hours. When the last spell was finished, it was like Zuo Mo had lost all energy. He sat down on his butt, his entire body soaked in sweat.

He forced down the deathly exhaustion in his body, folded his legs and quickly entered meditation.

A few hours later, he opened his eyes, fully recovered.

“It can only be like this now.” Seeing the formation he had just finished, he wasn’t very satisfied.

The lava lake contained extremely rich fire element energy and a thread of earth fire. It was a wonderful natural cauldron. No matter if it was dan-making, or forging, it was a necessity so he did not spare the expense in using the seven third-grade two-handle hornless dragon copper cauldrons to set up a four-turn formation!

The fire element power reached an astounding height. The energy alone would be enough to accomplish half the work whether it was used for dan-making or forging!

The formation would naturally move on its own. The seven copper cauldrons were like seven whirlpools, furiously absorbing the fire element power from the lava lake. After four turns, it turned to a thread of fire that flew into the air above the lava lake. When the seven threads of fire intersected in the air, a serene blue flame bloomed in the air.

Zuo Mo finally had a satisfied expression. The formation was not perfect, but the flame was already very good.

He took out a thin copper hoop from the ring which was covered in all kinds of seals.

Raising his hand, he threw the copper hoop into the flame.

The flame suddenly grew, enveloping the copper ring. The copper ring was abnormally silent inside the fire.

Zuo Mo put around seven layers of jinzhi around the shores of the lava lake before he stopped.

He looked at the copper ring suspended in the flame. The original yellow-red flame now revealed an extremely thin thread of red. Zuo Mo showed some anticipation on his face before he left.

Coming out of the cave, Zuo Mo carefully laid out some jinzhi over the mouth to prevent others from entering.

———

The disciples of Wu Kong Sword Sect had worked on their construction projects for quite a few days before they finished the tasks set out in their jade scrolls. Zuo Mo did not explain very much, but everyone still reliably finished their tasks. What Zuo Mo had picked were all production xiuzhe, and they were mostly docile.

However, everyone was very curious what Shixiong planned on doing.

When the shixiong that had disappeared for a few days reappeared, everyone went to crowd around him and reported their progress.

Zuo Mo focused and scanned everyone’s tasks before he had a satisfied expression.

“Everyone, thanks for your hard work!” Zuo Mo clapped his hand. “Everyone gets a bottle of Energy Dan, rest for a few days.”

Even though they didn’t know what Shixiong was doing, everyone felt satisfied with gaining a bottle of Energy Dan. After receiving the reward, they all went to rest.

At this very moment, a sword light suddenly flashed on the horizon.

The sword light was extremely quick. The person seemed to have spotted the Desolate Wood Reef. The light’s direction changed and headed towards the Desolate Wood Reef

Zuo Mo and his compatriots instantly became nervous.

Translator Ramblings: So we’re heading into a stretch of chapters I’d like to call “Typing on a phone while on a bus.” All weird mistakes are probably me with autocorrect. Tell me if you find them. The more you find at the same time, the more motivated I am to change them.

The table of contents has been updated and so has the cast. Also, should Zuo Mo’s pets be added to the cast list?

The hornless dragon is Chi, one of the nine sons of the Long (dragon) in mythology. Chi supposedly contains vast amounts of water in its stomach so the head of a Chi is usually carved on building at drain pipes and water exhaust.