This chapter has been brought to you by me, and WanderingGummiOfDoom.
Chapter Eight Hundred and Fifty Nine – Lan Bing
In these tense times, any political shifts would be quickly magnified. The secret struggle between the Yin Tomb Guards and the Northern Plains Ice Mansion seemed motionless but there were countless eyes obsterving from the shadows.
Tuoba Yu could not be considered a top expert in the Nether Realm, he might not even be called a top-tier expert. However, he was a strong fighter, and one of the best of the Yin Tomb Guards. Many people had heard of his name.
But such a famed fighter, leading five hundred riders, was defeated in one move by an unknown youth.
Qing Xiao quickly became famous.
Anyone with some knowledge understood just how powerful this youth was to have defeated Tuoba Yu and his five hundred head on!
The mo were the most skilled at using other people's power as their own. With the shen power of five hundred people gathered on Tuoba Yu, Tuoba Yu was comparable to a true first class expert.
But Tuoba Yu was still defeated.
What level was someone that could defeat a first class expert? With one move?
This youth that had suddenly appeared was young but had such great power. How could people not be astonished?
The white-haired youth dragging the coffins, the grand gold chariot, a powerful youth with a strange green vine … …
This pair seemed to give off a mysterious aura no matter what aspect you looked at.
Both Zuo Mo and Qing Xiao did not think much of this battle.
For them, an enemy of Tuoba Yu's level was not enough to disturb them.
Zuo Mo focused his time on repairing his body. That Nether Ghost Yin Heavy Wood was extremely effective and Zuo Mo began to search for similar materials. Old Man Wu had abilities in this area. If it was something Zuo Mo ordered, he would always complete the order in outstanding fashion. According to the information he gathered, the borders of the Nether Realm had all been locked down. This was an order that all four Nether Lords had sent down together.
Before the successor to the king was chosen, the lockdown would not be lifted.
Zuo Mo could be patient. Since he was unable to communicate with Mo Cloud Sea in the near future, he would first think of ways to recover his shen power. If his shen power recovered, the lockdown would not be a big problem to him.
The effects of Qing Xiao defeating Tuoba Yu were slightly unexpected to Zuo Mo.
Nothing further had to be said of the Wu Clan. Old Man Wu knew very well that if it wasn't for Daren, the Wu Clan would have been killed off. He was even more faithful now. This battle also intimidated the other factions of Wu Ge City. Qing Xiao's great fighting ability caused them to become even more wary.
When they heard that Zuo Mo needed high level materials, all of the families sent some materials.
Soon, the materials that were sent were piled into a small mountain.
However, there was only one of these materials that was of use to Zuo Mo. It was also not high in quality. But even the smallest mosquito was still meat. Zuo Mo used it.
It equalled five days of recovery.
Zuo Mo knew how to conduct business. He would give back shen equipment to those that sent him materials. For him, forging shen equipment did not waste any of his energy. All of the shen equipment were suited to channeling nether shen power and were not of low level.
Clever people were everywhere.
Ge Peng had gone along wit the crowd and sent some materials. The Ge Family was only a small faction here, and only had some small properties. Ge Peng had not wanted to send anything but seeing everyone else do it, he thought he should send something as well. He had seen that battle with his own eyes. Qing Xiao's great power struck him with fear.
Ge Peng received a gift in return. This surprised him. It seemed that the elder was an amiable person.
Ge Peng did not care. Usually, gifts sent in return were to represent the other's friendliness and of little value. The gift itself would not be worth much. Ge Peng's heart came to rest. Having given out gifts today, at least, it meant that the city master and others would not make trouble for them.
Only after he returned home, finishing dinner, he was bored. Only then did he remember the gift he had received earlier in the day.
He casually opened the box and was stunned.
A grand shen equipment was lying silently in the box.
Ge Peng dazedly picked up the shen equipment.
When it entered his hand a cold feeling came from the shen equipment. Ge Peng was in the business, and his eyes were experienced. Icy Blue Nether Stone that had exquisitely carved flower patterns. These were blue nether glyphs that would only appear when Blue Nether Stone was perfectly forged. The pulped gold that was woven through were hair-thin. Everyone knew how hard it was to forge pulped gold. How great was the skill was needed to forge such thin strands?
There were three nether glyphs on the shen equipment.
Good thing!
This skill was a great deal higher than the present mainstream shen equipment. It was a rare masterwork.
Almost at first glance, Ge Peng judged that the value of this shen equipment far surpassed the materials he had given out today. If the shen equipment wasn't being held in his hands, Ge Peng would not believe his own eyes.
His business was not large and it was extremely rare to encounter something as fine as this.
They would use such valuable shen equipment as a reciprocal gift?
Ge Peng suspected that the servant had given him the wrong box.
During the night, he tossed and turned as he thought if he should return the shen equipment or not. He did not sleep the entire night. The next morning, he decided to travel towards the mansion of the city master with red eyes.
Yet on the way there, the news he received stunned him. Everyone had received a shen equipment!
How was it possible? This was Ge Peng's first reaction.
How much money was this!? This was Ge Peng's second reaction.
Soon, the clever Ge Peng reacted. A daring idea rose in his mind. The white-haired elder was a forger!
He suddenly realized that this might be a chance.
He turned and sprinted towards his home with excitement. He had a high level nether material like the Nether Ghost Yin Heavy Wood in his home!
He was not the only one that realized this.
Zuo Mo's fishing method was effective.
After throwing out the shen equipment, the amount of materials that were sent to him increased drastically and there was a clear rise in grade of the gifts he received. Zuo Mo was not frugal with the shen equipment. The higher the grade of material, the higher the grade of shen equipment he gave back.
However, not every nether material fulfilled Zuo Mo's requirements. Other people did not know what Zuo Mo really needed. There was only a rare few among the majority of materials similar to the Nether Ghost Yin Heavey Wood that had a thread of vitality.
Zuo Mo searched through the haystack to finally find two that could be used.
One of them was a bone, the other a rotten piece of wood. Both of them contained a thread of vitality. Zuo Mo put them into the medicinal pool. They equalled fifteen days of effort. He had stayed in Wu Ge City for ten days, and didn't waste even one day. He used them all to cultivate. He could get fifty days of effort by using nether materials with the medicinal poo. In other words, in these ten days, he had obtained two months of recovery.
His body needed about three years to recover. That was thirty six months. He had completed one-eighteenth. He could clearly feel the recovery of his body.
Zuo Mo immediately realized the best way to recover as fast as possible was to get materials like the Nether Ghost Yin Heavy Wood.
He used all of the other materials to forge shen equipment. His forging skill was great, and he almost didn't spend anything in forging shen equipment. He also used a very small amount of materials.
But there were also problems. Zuo Mo found that the concentration of nether energy near Wu Ge City had decreased drastically. He had created this problem by himself. The shen formations on the chariot constantly took in the nether energy and ling power from the air to turn into shen power.
This was just the shen formations. If Zuo Mo's body recovered, he could suck all of the ling power and nether energy, including all vitality, in a breath.
That was god-level!
The amount of power near Wu Ge City greatly decreasing meant that Zuo Mo's recovery speed would slow down. There was no earth fire near Wu Ge City. Otherwise, Zuo Mo could absorb fire essence to turn into shen power.
Did he have to change locations already?
Zuo Mo frowned. Heh had been planning to use the Black Nether Ore to trade for a batch of materials from the Yin Tomb Guards.
Suddenly, Old Man Wu hurriedly came in with an excited face. "Daren!"
"What is it?" Zuo Mo asked without raising his head.
"An envoy from Hai Xin Bing Daren asks for an audience!" Old Man Wu hurriedly said.
"Oh." Zuo Mo had coincidentally finished forging the shen equipment in his hand. He raised his head and said, "Then have him come in."
Hai Xin Bing's envoy was a female. The female's appearance was normal but her figure beautiful, and her presence was clear and ethereal. She bowed towards Zuo Mo. "This lowly female Lan Bing greets Daren!"
She had a smile on her face that had a strange approachability. "The Nether Lord heard that our mansion had been disrespectful to Elder regarding the matter of the Black Nether Mine. We are greatly apologetic. These three Nether Ghost Yin Heavy Wood are part of the Nether Lord's collection. She heard that Elder needs them and ordered this attendant to deliver them as fast as possible to express our intentions."
She opened the metal box next to her.
Three pieces of Nether Ghost Yin Heavy Wood were in there.
Zuo Mo's eyes immediately lit up. He could clearly feel that each piece of Nether Ghost Yin Heavy Wood had an extremely pure strand of vitality!
One piece of Nether Ghost Yin Heavy Wood equalled one month of effort!
Three pieces were equivalent to three months!
Good things!
Hai Xin Bing… as expected of a Nether Lord, was so grand with her opening move. For other people, even on piece of Nether Ghost Yin Heavy Wood was so hard to obtain. She easily took out three pieces! One had to know that not every Nether Ghost Yin Heavy Wood could form a thread of vitality. Vitality formed from nether energy was an extremely rare event to start with.
Yet, all three pieces of Nether Ghost Yin Heavy Wood had formed a thread of vitality. They were of great use to Zuo Mo.
Bing Lan noticed the change in Zuo Mo's expression and gave a small smile.
As expected … …
Zuo Mo nodded. "Thank Nether Lord Hai Xin Bing for me." He waved his hand and the three pieces of Nether Ghost Yin Heavy Wood flew into his embrace.
"If the Nether Lord knows that Elder likes these items, she would be overjoyed," Bing Lan said with a smile and then changed the topic, "I heard that Elder is skilled in forging shen equipment. Could Elder broaden Junior's vision?"
Zuo Mo knew the real reason for Lan Bing's visit had come.
Editor's note: Zuo Mo used lure. It was super effective!
Translator Ramblings: When Pu Yao and Wei were around, Zuo Mo had to go search for the things. Now that they are absent, things just come to Zuo Mo.