Chapter 261 From Today Onward, We Are Partners
A translucent blue-colored crystal stone shot out from the spring water and floated before Li Ziqi.
“Teacher!”
Li Ziqi caught it and pa.s.sed it to Sun Mo.
“Your filial piety isn’t bad. But will he be able to understand it?”
The Wind King mocked. Due to being sealed for too long, the Wind King’s mentality was a little perverse. The Wind King Divine Movement Art was written in the ancient language of the nine provinces because he wanted to make things difficult for Sun Mo, as well as lower his position in Li Ziqi’s heart. Li Ziqi ignored the Wind King.
“I will remember this!”
Sun Mo made a mental note in his heart about the Wind King. “System, are there any books about the ancient language for sale?”
It had been a long time since Sun Mo looked through the merchant store. He also had no idea if there was any new merchandise up for sale.
“Yes, there’s an expert-grade book. It costs 5,000 favorable impression points!”
As the system explained, it opened up the merchant store. A golden book floated into the air, and it was written in the ancient language of the nine provinces.
Note: This is the earliest form of language in the Middle-Earth Continent. The language has long since vanished. After learning it, it would be of help only for archaeology purposes. There are no other uses for this.
“Then why do you set such a high price for it?”
Sun Mo felt a little pain in his heart. (Do you think it’s easy for me to earn favorable impression points?)
“Knowledge is priceless. It naturally would cost a sky-high price.”
The system countered, being witty with its words.
Sun Mo rolled his eyes. Those old monks in temples loved to use such methods and obscure words to prank the visitors.
Once they stopped paying attention, the donations they made to the temple would be gone.
“I’ll buy it!”
Sun Mo had no choice. If he didn’t learn it, he could only depend on the Wind King to decode it for him. To a teacher, it couldn’t be considered a great humiliation, but it was embarra.s.sing nonetheless.
Ding!
“Congratulations on your successful purchase. The item has been sold, we welcome your next visit!”
“Use it now!”
Sun Mo instructed.
The book was crushed and transformed into a beam of golden light that entered his mind.
Mysterious symbols immediately branded themselves into Sun Mo’s memories. It was like he had mastery over this language the moment he was born.
Ding!
“Congratulations on obtaining the ancient language of the nine provinces. Proficiency level: expert-grade!”
Seeing Sun Mo remain silent, the Wind King laughed complacently. “You can’t understand it? It’s fine, I can teach you guys. After all, you guys are ants and cannot be considered to be in the wrong.”
“There’s no need for you to worry!”
Sun Mo took the crystal board and rapidly browsed through it. As expected of a peerless-grade saint-tier cultivation art, although Sun Mo already had expert-grade proficiency in the ancient language, he still couldn’t understand some parts.
“System, I want to purchase one time emblem to enhance my proficiency in the ancient language.”
Sun Mo spent his favorable impression points again.
Who was afraid of who? At most, he would just give more lectures. The current Sun Mo was already not a newbie. Just his grandmaster-grade art of spiritual beast control was sufficient to make the students of the entire school rush madly to his lectures.
Spent, used, upgraded!
Ding!
“Congratulations, your proficiency in the ancient language of the nine provinces has risen to the grandmaster-grade. Please continue to work hard!”
This time around, when Sun Mo looked at the words on the crystal board again, he gained a new understanding of them. “Oi, just tell us if you can’t understand it. Stop wasting everyone’s time!”
The Wind King urged.
“Ziqi, recite the Wind King Divine Art earlier again.”
Sun Mo was worried that Li Ziqi might have forgotten a portion of it. If they cultivated using an incomplete cultivation art, it was easier for problems to arise.
The little sunny egg immediately did as she was told.
The Wind King didn’t stop her because he wanted to observe Li Ziqi a little more. If she couldn’t do so, he would kill these ants. The transaction agreement between them could then be treated as non-existent.
However, the truth had proven that Li Ziqi was truly outstanding, so outstanding that the Wind King felt his scalp turning numb. But when he ‘gazed’ at Sun Mo again, he was filled with unhappiness.
“Oi, who permitted you to act like a great teacher here?”
The Wind King was very angry. (Do you think that by showing a pretense of great concentration, you would be able to swindle me? If you really understand the ancient language of the nine provinces, I will give you another saint-tier cultivation art!)
“The Wind King Divine Art is used in conjunction with the Wind King Bow. After learning it, the condensed arrows would exhibit a different killing effect. For example, tracking, explosion, or firing six arrows at once!”
“What?”
All the words that the Wind King wanted to speak were swallowed back in his stomach. Sun Mo had just listed out the essential points of the Wind King Divine Art. Unless one had a deep understanding of the cultivation art, it was impossible for them to say that.
“Naturally, other bows can be used with this cultivation art, but the level of might would be weaker!”
Sun Mo shrugged.
When he was still a student, although he wasn’t a top scholar, his results were superior to many people. In addition, back then for the sake of increasing his listening ability, he would make himself listen to words from english magnetic tapes while he was eating or going to the toilet. He practiced to the extent where he reached the standard of achieving simultaneous translation from both languages with no problem.
“Teacher is so impressive!”
The three little girls were shocked. Their teacher was truly the greatest. “Oi, oi. Shouldn’t you guys marvel at how strong the Wind King Divine Art is? Why are you all admiring your teacher? Hmph, you think that I, the Wind King, don’t want face?”
The Wind King felt very vexed in his heart. However, he rejoiced a moment later. (Luckily, I didn’t say that I will give you a saint-tier cultivation art if you know the ancient language out loud. If not, I will surely be angered to the point that I cough up blood.)
Swis.h.!.+
Another crystal stone board flew out from the spring water and floated before Sun Mo. Since Sun Mo had obtained the Wind King Divine Art, the Wind King might as well just give the manual to him directly. This way, it could display its generosity.
“If you have the time, you can come to the Wind King Hall. I will teach you about ancient knowledge.” The Wind King then warned, “But you are not permitted to tell other people about my matters. If not, once I discovered it, all of you will have to die.”
“Mn!”
Li Ziqi knew that the following days would be very busy.
“Alright, I’m tired now. You guys can leave.”
The Wind King issued the guest-expulsion order.
The group of four then retreated out of the great altar all the way until they reached the great hall. Only then did the sensation of death that was pressuring them vanished.
“Cough, cough!”
Sun Mo coughed up blood.
“Teacher!”
The three girls immediately stretched their hands out to support him. “I’m fine!”
Sun Mo sat on the ground, feeling a little fatigued.
Upon seeing this, Lu Zhiruo immediately squatted by the side. “Teacher, you should lean against me!”
As she spoke, the papaya girl still stretched her hand out and patted her chest, showing an expression that indicated ‘you don’t have to be afraid, just lean on me, I’m very st.u.r.dy.’
“No need.”
Seeing the papaya girl’s large b.r.e.a.s.t.s performing a ‘wave’ due to her hand patting them, Sun Mo immediately rejected.
“Teacher, it’s fine. I have more flesh and won’t make you feel any discomfort.”
Lu Zhiruo stretched out her hand to grab Sun Mo, pulling him to her side.
Seeing the innocent eyes of the papaya girl that was also filled with concern, Sun Mo wasn’t able to persuade her and could only comply. But right now, there was a pressing issue that needed to be solved.
That eight-gate cloud was following them. It didn’t show any intention of leaving even when they arrived here.
“What do you want?”
Sun Mo asked. The eight-gate cloud moved a bit and s.h.i.+fted left and right.
Was this the language spoken by the clouds? In any case, Sun Mo didn’t understand. “Teacher, it says that it wants to see that huge muscular guy!” Lu Zhiruo explained. “You can understand what it was saying?” Li Ziqi was curious.
“Nope.”
Lu Zhiruo shook her head. “I’m guessing its intentions, but there’s an 80-90% chance that I’m right!”
With regard to this point, the papaya girl was very confident.
Sun Mo and the other two were speechless. They could only cla.s.sify such ability as something innately born.
“Come over!”
Sun Mo waved his hand.
The eight-gate cloud hesitated a little but still floated over. It had monitored Sun Mo from the hot spring area. In addition to what happened today, it believed that Sun Mo was kind and had no hostility toward it. Hence, there was no need for it to be too vigilant.
If not, it would have been forcefully subdued earlier.
It then cast a glance at the spirit qi roaming dragon at the side. That was also a species that wouldn’t get close to humans easily. But now, it was curled up on the big-breasted girl’s head and was as obedient as a puppy. Sun Mo touched the cloud. This would be the first time he gave a different species a ma.s.sage. He also didn’t know where to press, but in any case, he would just use the ancient ma.s.saging technique. Very soon, spirit qi poured forth in torrents as the muscular genie appeared.
Swish
The eight-gate cloud was ‘bent’ in different shapes.
The genie’s hands were moving about, and it had an excited expression on his face. It had never given a ma.s.sage to such a species before, hence, it was very excited. A while later, both of them settled in their roles.
The genie kneaded the cloud’s body, sometimes squeezing it into an ‘S’ shape, sometimes into a ‘B’ shape.
IIII
Sun Mo wanted to ridicule the genie, but the genie most probably didn’t do it intentionally, right?
Hua!
A few minutes later, the genie vanished, yet the eight-gate cloud wasn’t satisfied. It flew over and knocked into Sun Mo’s body. However, because its body was soft and fluffy, there was no attacking power at all.
“Teacher is heavily injured and has consumed a large amount of his spirit qi. If you two weren’t linked by fate, he wouldn’t have used the Ancient Dragon Capturing Hands to give you a ma.s.sage.” Li Ziqi immediately spoke to Lu Zhiruo, “Translate my words to it!” The papaya girl mumbled some unintelligible words while moving her hands and feet. In any case, Sun Mo couldn’t understand what she was trying to convey.
The little cloud calmed down. Indeed, this human seemed to be on the verge of dying. If he died, it wouldn’t be able to play with him anymore. (But what should I do if he leaves?)
“My teacher is a grandmaster-grade spirit beast controller. He knows a language-contract. After both parties are bound, they can easily understand each other. Do you want to accept this contract?”
Li Ziqi asked. Swish
After hearing Lu Zhiruo’s translation, the silver cloud directly ran away. (My heavens, the human is actually a powerful spirit beast controller?)
(Spirit beast controllers are my natural enemies!)
(If other people were to catch me, I could still flee. But if I was caught by these spirit controllers and bound by some strange contract, my life would end.) “Oh no, it’s fleeing because it’s scared.”
Ying Baiwu rolled her eyes.
“Don’t worry, it will return.”
Li Ziqi then glanced at the loach.
As expected, the silver cloud didn’t fly too far. A few minutes later, it stretched its head out and peered into the great hall before deciding to fly over.
“It says sure!”
Lu Zhiruo translated.
Sun Mo took out a dagger and made a small cut on his palm. Fresh blood flowed out, but it didn’t fall to the ground. The blood floated in the air instead and transformed into a mysterious diagram in the shape of a rune.
Pak!
The rune then shone on the eight-gate cloud.
A sense of intimacy suddenly arose in Sun Mo’s mind. When he looked at the cloud again, he could already understand the meaning of its actions.
“How should I address you in the future? Should I call you metallock? (Jin Suo)*”
Sun Mo mumbled but soon shook his head. “No, it will cause others to think of Bingbing*!”
“Who the h.e.l.l is Bingbing? What is her relations.h.i.+p with teacher? From the sound of the name, it sounds like a female.”
It was as though Li Ziqi felt the presence of a natural enemy. Her ears p.r.i.c.ked up as she paid full attention. Her deduction ability was activated.
[1] The eight-gate cloud’s full name is eight-gate metallock cloud.
[2] Metal lock can be literally translated into Jin Suo (€). Jin Suo is a character in a famous chinese drama named ‘My Fair Princess’, and Fan Bingbing is the actress that portrayed Jin Suo.