Chapter 727: Seem to Have Known Each Other
Translator: Timothy_ Editor: GlobeGlotter
After hearing his words, everyone was shocked. If what Elder Zhang said was true, then someone was definitely setting them up. No wonder Qi Youxin could resist the pain of losing his son and not fight Xia Chongyan to death.
"He managed to injure Vice Sect Leader Xia, kill Elder Ming and frame the wrong person. Then, he took Wei Wu to Hang Shui City and left casually. This person- This person-" an elder said in shock.
Everyone knew what he meant. He was saying that this guy was absurdly strong. Only masters above great heaven middle stage could do that. Moreover, this person had efficiently left all these tricks and misleading clues, which meant that he hadn't gotten heavily injured in the end.
"And," Ling Wushui said slowly, "I found another suspicious point that helped me confirm that he was the one who harmed Elder Ming. Also, this clue leads to thinking that this person might have come from the outside world!"
"What!!!???" everyone almost stood up in shock. They knew what the "outside" meant. The magical continent was said to be a world separated from the main earth by ancient beings with unimaginable power. But that was just a legend.
Due to countless years having passed, the cultivation world could only cultivate ancient martial arts. But even so, it was still shocking what one could do when having reached the extreme of ancient martial arts. Only people from the smaller world could go out, and those from the outside couldn't come in. Ling Wushui's words meant that now that people from the outside world could come in and even kill great heaven masters.
"Elder Ling, it's not that we don't believe you, but this is too shocking." Another middle-aged man stood up.
To them, it was a rather big thing because it was said that the technology from outside was advanced - one bomb could blow up an entire city. No matter how strong their ancient martial arts were, they couldn't beat that sort of bomb.
Ling Wushui waved his hand, "That is just my guess. Because when Elder Ming died and left the message 'Forgery' behind, that man left it to draw suspicion on Forgery Hall. However, he didn't know that in the magical continent the word 'Forgery' has two extra dots - so he didn't add them.
According to what we know, in China, in the outside world, they don't write the two dots when they write the character 'Forgery'. Thus, I suspect he's from the outside. Of course, there's also the possibility that someone in here is accustomed to the writing style from outside, but that's not very likely. No matter what, Elder Ming wouldn't have written that."
Qi Youxin saw everyone look at him and he nodded, "That's right, I just found out about that a few days ago, the word was very blurry. I told Elder Ling yesterday, but even so, Xia Chongyan is still suspicious. He could've done this on purpose."
Everyone could tell that Qi Youxin was a lot more reasonable. At least he knew that this probably didn't have anything to do with Forgery Hall. Yet, he couldn't find a target for revenge, so that's why he's clinging onto Xia Chongyan.
"That big-bearded man's gold checks all came from the Magical Merchant Association, so we asked Zihua Goddess. Apparently, he brought a large stack of gold bricks to trade for those gold checks. But where did he get that many gold bricks from? How did he bring them inside Hang Shui City?" Zhang Changwen asked.
"Did the Magical Merchant Association not investigate this?"
"The Magical Merchant Association only does business with people. They never investigate the customer. I've already asked Zihua Goddess about this," Zhang Changwen immediately said.
Xia Chongyan was still silent, but Wan Houde said, "This person injured our Vice Sect Leader and killed Wei Wu. No matter who he is or where he comes from, we won't let him go."
A middle-aged woman from Du Tian Sect sneered, "So what if you won't let him go? Do you know who he is? Furthermore, he can kill a great heaven master, which means that he's at great heaven too. Even if you meet him, what will you do about it? And he's a great heaven master at a very young age, that's quite formidable."
Seeing that Wan Houde was about to rage, Ling Wushui waved his hand, "Other than All Heaven Sect's Du-Qianbei, who reached great heaven at the age of 45, there has been no other person in the magical continent who could reach great heaven before that age. I'm not sure if that person is great heaven for sure, Elder Ming died from a sneak attack. From this we can confirm that if he is at great heaven, he's at most as strong as Elder Ming."
TL Note: Du Tian: all heaven
Ling Wushui was implying that if the culprit was only at Elder Ming's level, he had no concerns.
"Elder Jie Xian, has your Elder Jie Xun come back yet?" Ling Wushui suddenly asked something irrelevant.
Jie Xian shook her head, "Not only did Jie Xun not come back yet, but a core disciple also didn't come back."
"Martial Sister Jie Xian, I got news that in the mortal land someone from your sect used your sect's hidden sects' order to capture a young man called Ye Mo. First, she searched by identity, which wasn't effective, then she drew an image. I have an image of Ye Mo here, everyone can take one," Zhang Changwen said.
Then, he said, "Perhaps when Martial Sister Jie Xian goes back to your sect, Daoist Jie Xun will be back too. Maybe Jie Xun knows about why the core disciple of Kun Qian Sect, Qi Yulin, disappeared. So if Jie Xun comes back, please inform me."
"What?" Jie Xian was clearly shocked by this news. She didn't even know the missing elder from her sect had came back, and someone else knew. If Jie Xun had returned, why didn't she go back to her sect as soon as possible? Why use a hidden sects' order in a mortal city?"
"Daoist Jie Xian, did your other two disciples come back?" another elder from Kun Qian Sect asked.
Jie Xian's face looked unhappy. They hadn't even told her Jie Xun had appeared yesterday and now they were questioning her. She said coldly, "Your Kun Qian Sect's Elders don't need to care about our disciples."
Zhang Changwen knew that if this continued, they might start fighting. He wanted to use this meeting to pressure Jie Xian into saying why Jie Xun had used the hidden sects' order and how had she come back. However, from her expression, it seemed she really didn't know Jie Xun was back.
The meeting dispersed with general unhappiness.
…
After Liu Lei won the fight, an Elder immediately took him in as a disciple. The pressure on cultivation of inner sect members was very high. They had to use most of their time on board to cultivate, so he didn't have time to find Ye Mo and he didn't go look for him either.
Even though Ye Mo knew that Jie Xun wasn't on the ship, he didn't go out much. He knew that he should keep a low profile.
A few days passed quickly. Ye Mo didn't know that because he had stayed in his room all day, he had saved himself a lot of trouble.
When the ship reached the shore, all the disciples rejoiced. No one liked living on the sea all the time.
Under the leadership of the sect elders, the disciples got off the ship quickly. Ye Mo and Mu Xiaoyun also left the dock with Ice Lake's people.
Yun Ziyi bid farewell to the sect elders. She had her own business, so she didn't have to go back.
"Ziyi, wait," an elder stopped Yun Ziyi. He gave an image to her, "This person is very important. Your merchant association is all over the place, try to find him."
"Oh." Yun Ziyi took the painting and looked at it. Immediately, she realized something looked familiar.
Chapter 728: Entering Ice Lake
Translator: Timothy_ Editor: GlobeGlotter
"What's wrong, Ziyi?" the elder asked when he saw Yun Ziyi in a daze.
"Oh nothing, I just feel that the person on the painting is young, has a nice temperament, and he is quite handsome too."
The elder was surprised and laughed, "Goddess Zihua actually called this man handsome, he would be overjoyed if he knew. But really, this man is very important, and he might be related to something significant, so report back to the sect as soon as you get news of him. Well then, we'll be going now."
"Yes, Elder Kou," Yun Ziyi answered.
"Miss?" Xiao Ling said something, but Yun Ziyi waved her hand, "Let's go back to the association, we've been out for too long this time."
Although her tone was calm, Yun Ziyi wasn't calm on the inside at all. She finally remembered - this man reminded her a lot of Mo Ying! She looked at Ye Mo's face for a long time, and if his face weren't ruined…
Was it really him? If it was, why would the elder be looking for someone like him? Although Yun Ziyi couldn't ask the elder directly why they were looking for this person, she could find out through other means.
…
The first impression Ye Mo had after stepping foot onto the hidden sects' land was that the mountains were all joined together and that the spirit chi there was much denser than in other places. Although it wasn't at an extremely superb level, it was much better than in the cities outside.
Ye Mo and Mu Xiaoyun followed after a chariot for almost four days before entering a mountain range. They rarely met any people on the way, but Ye Mo still found a few places where a pretty big number of people lived. Ji Yilan said that these small towns were mostly there to serve the hidden sects.
Although many people were taken in as outer sect members, they were rarely ever able to reach a high level and so could only eventually fade out of the hidden sects to become people who work for the hidden sects. Some left the hidden sects and gradually formed small settlements like that.
"This is Ice Lake." Ji Yilan pointed at the mountain range ahead.
Ye Mo was surprised - he thought that since the sect was called Ice Lake, there should be a lake, but there wasn't even a small ravine to be seen.
Ji Yilan smiled as though knowing what Ye Mo was thinking and said, "You must be wondering why there isn't a lake here when we're called Ice Lake? Guessing from the name, one would be only half correct."
Ji Yilan seemed a lot happier after coming back to Ice Lake, even though Ji Yilan always covered her face. Ye Mo knew why she did that, because when he looked at her with his spirit sense, he could see that she was very pretty, but there was a flaw to her looks.
Without it, she would be on par with Mu Xiaoyun, but this flaw extended from her face to her chin and ruined her entire face.
"There is indeed a lake in Ice Lake, but it's inside our sect. We got our name from that lake. The lake water is very cold, it's even colder than ice, but it actually never forms ice," Ji Yilan explained with pride.
Ye Mo could feel there was much more spirit chi being emitted there than on the outside and started to like the place.
After another two hours of travelling, a large green meadow appeared before their eyes. In the centre of the grassland was a big lake.
This lake was too pretty! Even though there was no wind, there were slight ripples on the lake's surface, and it was much bigger than for example the Luo Yue Lake. Ye Mo scanned his spirit sense in and found that his spirit sense couldn't even reach the bottom.
After Ye Mo and co. went further in, the inner and outer sect members were separated. Ice Lake wasn't small, having a couple hundred disciples, but most were outer sect disciples. There didn't seem to be a lot of inner sect disciples, much less core disciples.
Mu Xiaoyun was a core disciple, so she could enter the core sector to cultivate if she wanted, but she just didn't want to leave Ye Mo. There was nothing Ji Yilan could do about it. No matter how talented Mu Xiaoyun was, she couldn't take irrelevant people into the core sector.
And so, the two would be living at the outer sect area. Mu Xiaoyun chose a quiet and far off place.
Although Mu Xiaoyun was talented, she couldn't take on Ice Lake's cultivation method before they dealt with her and Ye Mo's relationship.
…
Ice Lake didn't have any way to deal with Mu Xiaoyun's stubbornness. They were waiting for Mu Xiaoyun to change her mind while also desperately thinking of other ways.
A few days later, Ice Lake even had a meeting about it, and all the core members came. Other than the super master Grandma Feng, there were also still a few earth level masters in the sect.
A middle-aged woman who was of similar age to Miao Lian said, "Grandma, I think Mu Xiaoyun is simply a kind soul. I've seen that Mo Ying too, so why don't we-"
She then made a slicing motion with her hand. She was one of Ice Lake's earth level elders.
"Definitely not, Elder Luo you don't understand Mu Xiaoyun's character. If we do that, the only thing left for us to do will be to kill her too. She is extremely loyal to her husband, and there's no way to change that. I'm thinking we might as well accept that Mo Ying as a core member as we-" she was interrupted by grandma who waved her hand.
Miao Lian stood up and said slowly, "Yilan is right, Mu Xiaoyun's character is like that indeed. Mu Xiaoyun will be very useful to us during the sect tournament in a few years. As Yilan needs to fully take over Ice Lake, she needs someone like Xiaoyun to help her."
"Elder, why don't we go talk to that Mo Ying, I don't think he's an unreasonable person. I'm sure he will understand," Ji Yilan said.
Elder Feng nodded and sighed, "Let's do that. I heard that that Mo Ying is in solitary training right now, so you can have a talk with him afterwards. I feel myself getting more and more sick. If we can't quickly gain some back-up power, our third grade status will be in danger, sigh-"
"A talentless person is in solitary training? What a joke!" Elder Luo sneered.
…
Meanwhile Ye Mo wasn't in solitary training for cultivation but for making pills. He only had one Earth Spirit Fruit, so in order to prevent himself from failing, he made many other pills before making the essence increasing pill with the Earth Spirit Fruit.
After ten days of warming up, he felt he ready to make the essence increasing pill, so he took out the Earth Spirit Fruit, Ming Jie Grass, Man Tian Star, and Double Leaf Mushroom.
Although the essence increasing pill was two levels higher than the chi increasing pill, Ye Mo still managed to make it successfully after all of his preparation. He acquired 12 pills in the end.
The maximum yield of a concoction was supposed to be 24, but Ye Mo was very happy to have made 12.
Ye Mo told Mu Xiaoyun about it and started to break through to stage six. When he reached stage six, he would go out to find some ancient ruins and get a cultivation method for Mu Xiaoyun.
The essence increasing pill turned into spirit chi as soon as it entered his mouth and started charging at his meridians. Ye Mo had been at stage five for a long time, so he easily reached stage six soon after.
Ye Mo felt his power had increased quite a bit, and if he met that nun, Jie Xun, again, she wouldn't be able to get away from him.
Ye Mo felt his spirit sense had also gotten a lot stronger, so he once again sent his spirit sense into the golden dot.
Chapter 729: Can’t Let Go
Translator: Timothy_ Editor: GlobeGlotter
Ye Mo was just testing his luck but this time, his spirit sense wasn't pushed back by the golden dot. It was indeed because his spirit sense had been too weak that he hadn't been able to go in before.
But after Ye Mo's spirit sense went in, it took just an instant before all of his chi and spirit sense got sucked up by the golden dot like the last time. Ye Mo cursed. He tried to take back his spirit sense, but it disappeared into nothing like last time.
When Ye Mo thought he was going to faint again, he saw a grey world. A strong gust of information was implanted into his head.
Ye Mo heard a light sound in his brain. However then, his consciousness was pushed out of the golden dot.
Even though, Ye Mo rejoiced - he had guessed right. It really was a world. Ye Mo now knew that a grey world was inside the golden dot.
He only needed to recover the lost essence chi and spirit sense. It was all because he was too weak. If his power reached a certain extent, this wouldn't happen.
Ye Mo took out the spirit chi to recover, but he suddenly dazed. The information that entered his brain had gathered now.
"The world was formed from chaos, matter exists forever. Strengthen life and nourish the spirit, so mind and spirit reach the truth. Contemplate the spirit harness the liquid, the gate of fortune." The opening stanza had been clearly imprinted in Ye Mo's head.
As that finished, the words "Primordial Fortune Chant" got stuck into Ye Mo's brain.
Ye Mo stood up in shock. Was it a cultivation method chant? He understood those words. It was an extremely high level cultivation method, he had never even heard of it.
Although he was a cultivator, he was just a very low level cultivator on Luo Yue Continent. His cultivation method was also average.
Ye Mo looked at the cultivation chant and knew it was countless times stronger than before. Even without foundation establishment state, he could condense his spirit chi into spirit essence.
What shook Ye Mo was that it was a no-element cultivation method. Ye Mo had never seen one before, but he had heard these ones were extremely precious. Long time ago on Luo Yue Continent, a no-element cultivation method appeared. Due to that cultivation method, countless sects were annihilated and countless masters were gone. Eventually, the cultivation method disappeared and things finally calmed down.
He actually had gotten something like this. If people on Luo Yue Continent found out, he would be dead for sure.
However, the only pity was that the information stopped at foundation establishment state.
"Perhaps because my power is too low, I can't access the rest of the information." Ye Mo sat down slowly again. It all had happened too suddenly. He had to think about his future path of cultivation.
When Ye Mo read the entire cultivation method again, he calmed down. It could be said that it was the most suitable cultivation method for him because he had an eight-element mixed spirit root. But there were also some disadvantages - the resources the cultivation method required were absurd. It was almost impossible to reach a certain level with the resources on that realm's earth.
Secondly, he would have to give up his current power. This was very hard for Ye Mo - at least for now, he didn't want to do it. He had finally reached stage 6. If he abandoned all his power, then even with the cultivation method, he might never have the resources to get back to stage 6.
Thirdly, this cultivation method stopped at foundation establishment state. Ye Mo didn't know if he could accomplish the latter parts. Even if he could, he would have to reach a certain level to be able to get it.
What if he could reach it?
Eventually, Ye Mo decided not to cultivate the Primordial Fortune Chant. He needed the power to protect himself. If he couldn't find large amounts of resources, he would rather never cultivate Primordial Fortune Chant.
But Ye Mo knew that he could teach it to Mu Xiaoyun. She didn't have a cultivation method and this one suited her too.
Although it was a resource-wasting cultivation method, Ye Mo was simply happy to find a cultivation method for Mu Xiaoyun.
Seeing him come out, Mu Xiaoyun greeted him joyfully. She was a bit worried since Ye Mo had been in there for long.
"Xiaoyun, did Ji Yilan come to talk to you again?" Ye Mo scanned with his spirit sense and knew that Ji Yilan had just left.
Mu Xiaoyun nodded, "Yes, she has came to see me a few times, but I haven't agreed with her. I told her I want to stay with my husband. However, today she came to find you. I told her you were in solitary training, so she said she would come again tomorrow."
"Xiaoyun, I found a cultivation method for you. I will teach you and you can cultivate first. I'm going out, you can wait for me to come back."
Mu Xiaoyun immediately began to worry. She grabbed Ye Mo's hand and said, "Ye Babe, are you leaving? I'm going with you."
Ye Mo hugged her and said softly, "You're very safe here. We need resources for cultivation. Without them, we can only stay like this for the rest of our lives. Your power is still weak and I'm going to a dangerous place. I told you, the main reason I came here was to find cultivation resources."
"Ye babe, doesn't it feel good living like this together and getting old together? Why do we cultivate? I am very happy now." Mu Xiaoyun really didn't want to leave Ye Mo.
Ye Mo rubbed her hair caringly and said after a long while, "Xiaoyun, I also want to grow old with you, that's also a kind of happiness. But I love you guys too much, a few decades of life isn't enough. I want to stay with you guys forever. And, even if we want to live a peaceful life, others won't let us. Without cultivation, I would've been killed long ago."
"Ye Babe, sorry, but- but I really don't want to leave your side." Mu Xiaoyun knew that Ye Mo was adamant on leaving. Her husband was right, without power they would have been dead long ago. She could only look down and slowly sob.
"Xiaoyun, I'll teach you the cultivation method. It's called Primordial Fortune Chan-" Ye Mo hadn't even finished when his mouth was blocked by Mu Xiaoyun's. Her husband was going to leave her, she felt she couldn't let go. This was the first time she took the initiative to do it.
It was the first time Ye Mo saw Mu Xiaoyun act like this. No matter what he had to tell her, it could wait at a moment like this. The clothes were gradually taken off. When Mu Xiaoyun hugged Ye Mo's sturdy body, she then realized what she was doing. It was daylight! She completely blushed.
She couldn't control the impulses in her heart when facing with her husband's departure. It was terror of losing everything again.
Before being with Ye Mo, Mu Xiaoyun had never been this happy.
Ye Mo wiped her tears. He was even considering taking her with him, but he couldn't assure his own safety in the Wu Wen Mountain - much less Mu Xiaoyun's.
…
"Xiaoyun, trust me, I'm just going to find herbs. Wait for me here. I will take you with me when I come back." When the storm settled, it was already the afternoon. Yet, Ye Mo still had to comfort Mu Xiaoyun in his arms.