Zuo Mo’s finger left Lian’er’s brow and her black eyes silently opened. She swept across the soundings, and when she saw A Gui, she paused slightly. When she saw A Gui’s bare feet, she had an expression of realization.

She had actually seen the scene inside Zuo Mo’s mind. She was also slightly shocked.

Was it ... ...

“Father!” Her voice was soft and serene.

“Lian’er! You’re alright! You are really alright! This is great!” Ceng Yi was extremely excited, and in his eyes, Zuo Mo was akin to empty air.

“He saved me,” Ceng Lian’er said serenely.

“Oh oh oh, I will definitely reward him well! He can have whatever he wants!” Ceng Yi nodded repeatedly. He could not suppress the joy on his face but his gaze did not bear to leave his daughter.

The fat one and the thin one silently sneaked away. No one paid attention.

———

Zuo Mo opened his eyes and the first thing he did was search for A Gui.

When he saw A Gui standing silently at the side a phrase floated up in his mind, “Young Master, don’t be afraid, I’ll definitely find you”. He couldn’t help but reach out and rub A Gui’s hair.

“A Gui, you found me.”

He wanted to smile, but his tears flowed down uncontrollably.

He thought about how A Gui had been covered in wounds when he had found her. She definitely had been searching for him! He thought about when they were trapped in the Nine Turn Sky Soil Disk, when she had faced the last attack of the Clear Sky Old Forefather, when they had been in the desert walking against the sand and wind as she had carried him, and her panting figure when she carried him through the woods in his memory.

His vision blurred, and A Gui’s figure also became blurred. This blurred figure and the young and blurry figure in his fragmented memories merged together.

Did you leave me the Five Element Glass Bead?

What happened? A Gui, who wounded you so?

A Gui took a deep breath. He grabbed A Gui’s hand and his expression recovered but there was something else unusual in his gaze.

The release of the seal on the Five Element Glass Bead meant that he had broken through into jindan.

Recalling that silver white shen power, he suddenly turned towards Ceng Lian’er. That woman! His pupils contracted, and Ceng Yi!

“What just happened?” Zuo Mo asked Pu Yao and Wei.

Wei said, “It should be power resonance, a very rare occurrence. It means that the degree of compatibility between your powers is very strong, and are of different orientation.”

Zuo Mo knew what power resonance was. This usually occurred when two kinds of powers in perfectly opposite came into contact and was an extremely rare event. The two powers would respond to each other, and this kind of intercourse would greatly aid in the increase of power. No wonder the silver shen power the other had given back didn’t cause him any trouble and helped him make a breakthrough.

But he cultivated shen power. The only power that could resonant with his shen power was shen power. This meant the other had to also cultivate shen power!

And it was shen power of the completely opposite orientation!

“Careful, this woman is dangerous,” Pu Yao warned Zuo Mo.

Without needing Pu Yao’s reminder, Zuo Mo knew the other was dangerous. Up until now, Zuo Mo had only met three people of this era that cultivated shen power. One was he, another was A Gui, and the last was this Ceng Lian’er.

He could not get the measure of this woman.

But he didn’t need to, Zuo Mo thought.

After the breakthrough, his thoughts of making trouble for Ceng Yi had temporarily faded and the other had helped in his breakthrough.

What completely occupied Zuo Mo’s mind at the moment was A Gui. The memory fragments sealed in the Five Element Glass Bead had caused him great shock.

He just wanted to find a place and calm down.

Without another word, he grabbed A Gui and jumped away. He had heard Ceng Lian’er and Ceng Yi’s conversation. He didn’t need to worry that Ka Zhuo would get in trouble.

“En?” Ceng Yi raised his head and was slightly surprised. The power that Zuo Mo showed was out of his expectations.

“Let them go.” Ceng Lian’er spoke.

“I’ll listen to Lian’er! Listen to Lian’er!” Ceng Yi said affectionately and took his gaze away.

———

“What do these people want to do? What do they mean by standing there?” a bandit asked in puzzlement.

“Haha! They aren’t able to run! So they are trying to fight back! Just one word from Boss One-eye, and look at this. Not just one hundred people, even if they are one thousand, they will be defeated.”

“You are right, we are using a sword to kill a chicken! I heard the people from Mountain Dragon Corps retelling about their strength and thought there would be a lot of people. One hundred, it isn’t even enough to pick our teeth with!”

“Stop wasting words, just one hundred people, how do we divide them up? We have to be first! There is only one space as a reward!”

“You are right!”

A bunch of bandits charged at the mountain. Their actions caused a chain response. Seeing this, the other bandits unhesitatingly charged.

One hundred people in a formation on the mountain couldn’t compare to the three thousand bandits.

The bandits that charged were like a tsunami, covering the ground and the sky!

The suppressed fighting spirit in Shu Long’s eyes lost all of its restrains and started to burn.

“Open!”

Black smoke suddenly sprouted out of the one hundred and eight totem pillars.

The black smoke grew with the wind and in a flash, it covered the entire mountain peak like a enormous black cloud.

The rushing bandits charged into the black cloud.

Boom boom boom!

The roiling black smoke was expelled from the totem pillars. They seemed to change constantly as though they were alive. Suddenly, the black smoke around one totem pillar condensed and formed the shape of a person.

A figure made from black smoke appeared above the totem pillar.

[Mo Grinding Disk]!

If a mo golden battle general saw this combat formation, he would exclaim in shock. [Mo Grinding Disk] was one of the strongest battle formations used to wear down the enemy. It was like a terrifying grinding disk. A battalion that was trapped in it was like a piece of meat thrown into the grinder and would be ground into meat paste.

There had been innumerable xiuzhe that had died in the [Mo Grinding Disk] in the past. But after that thousand year war, the [Mo Grinding Disk] had been lost and the technique never appeared after.

Yet at this time, one of the strongest battle formations, [Mo Grinding Disk], appeared on this little mountain, and there was only one hundred people.

“Kill!”

Inside the thick black smoke, Shu Long’s shout echoed in the air like thunder.

The battle formation shifted loudly and spun like a grindstone.

———

Zuo Mo looked silently at A Gui. A Gui sat beside him with a wooden expression.

When he saw A Gui’s wooden expression, Zuo Mo’s heart hurt. The shen power inside A Gui’s body was too strange, and Zuo Mo couldn’t find traces any of A Gui’s thoughts and memories. Her mind was completely empty.

Zuo Mo remembered that A Gui had seemed most alive when she had been wounded and had no shen power.

Shen power!

That intimidating coldness and voice caused Zuo Mo’s heart to hurt.

“Pu, Wei, what solutions do you have?” Zuo Mo asked.

Pu Yao and Wei were both silent. Zuo Mo knew that this was a hard problem for them. Pu Yao and Wei knew a lot about yao and mo cultivation, but they didn’t know much more than he did about shen power.

“It would be good if A Gui could speak,” Zuo Mo murmured to himself. If A Gui could speak, then she could tell him everything.

Zuo Mo knew this was a delusion.

He forced himself to calm down and think back to every detail in those fragments. He instantly had many discoveries.

A Gui called him “Young Master.” This appellation implied many things. He probably did not have an ordinary birth. A Gui had carried him and fled for their lives. There had also been those fragments filled with blood and slaughter. His family had probably encountered trouble.

Who did it? Why?

Where had A Gui’s shen power come from? Who had erased his memories and changed his features?

Countless riddles came at him and almost pressed Zuo Mo to the point of suffocation.

Calm! He had to be calm!

Zuo Mo bit down hard on his lips and tried to maintain his calm. But his bulging tendons exposed the storm inside. A Gui’s shen power was the greatest obstacle. This shen power was extremely weird and Zuo Mo could not extract it.

At this time, Pu Yao suddenly said, “Do you remember the Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass that I once mentioned to you?”

Zuo Mo stilled and thought for a while with creased brows before he nodded. “I remember, you said the Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass can help me recover the fragments of my memory.”

“Yes. A Gui’s memories have been damaged, her soul is wounded, and I suspect that the wounds in her soul are related to the shen power that she cultivates. But if you want to know all this, you do not only have A Gui’s memories to repair,” Pu Yao said.

Zuo Mo reacted quickly and his eyes lit up. “Yes! There is no need to start with A Gui, we can start with me!”

The more he thought, the more excited Zuo Mo was. “Yes, yes! I should have also experienced those same vents, and there would be shadows left in my mind. If I can recover my memories, I can know all this! I will know what shen power A Gui cultivates, I can think of a way to heal A Gui ... ...”

He had closed himself in trying to find a way through A Gui. He had completely forgotten that he should also know!

Thinking back to the time that the sect leader had picked him up at Wu Kong Mountain, it was about the same time that was indicated in the memory fragments were sealed in the Five Element Glass Bead.

“Can the Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass really recover my memories?” Zuo Mo asked urgently.

Wei spoke and proved that Pu Yao was not boasting. “This is a grass that grows in the mo realm. As long as there is one piece of the memory, it can completely reflect and trace back your entire memory. You have so many memory fragments now. If we can find Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass, you should be able to get all of your previous memories!”

“Where is Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass?”

Pu Yao and Wei exchanged a look. Both hesitated.

“Where is it?” Zuo Mo exploded.

Wei slowly opened. “Supposedly, there is Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass in Nether Spring Jie of the Ming Realm.”

“Reverse Shadow Spirit Silkgrass ... ... Nether Spring Jie!” Zuo Mo murmured, his gaze determined.

Editor brag: Totally want to point out I got half of ZM’s past right back in chapter 255. Woot woot!

Translator Ramblings: If you read back, Pu had suggested the silkgrass as a solution but they didn’t know the location. I also have to admire WanderingGummi’s self-control. He hasn’t asked me for any spoilers yet.