This chapter has been brought to you by me, and WanderingGummiOfDoom.
Chapter Two Hundred and Twelve Ge Is Pragmatic
Pu Yao felt this was extremely amusing.
Truthfully, he had been in Zuo Mo’s sea of consciousness for this long, and there hadn’t been one thing that was amusing as what was happening right now. In the thousands of years he lived, he had not encountered something more amusing than this.
A zhuji xiuzhe who had never studied anything in the area, oh, he was also a butcher, had started to study how to become a battle general. He had never heard of something like this, even during the great war from thousands of years ago.
He was very familiar with battle generals. In the camp of xiuzhe, without almost any exception, there were two ways that battle generals were trained. The first was a battle general that was specifically nurtured by large sects; and the other were battle generals that underwent countless battles and had gradually comprehended the skills.
The majority were from the first method. In that thousand year war, almost seventy percent of the famous battle generals in the xiuzhe camp had been from the large sects. They learned all kinds of knowledge from when they were young. Even the spells they learned were specialized to command in battle.
The second kind was the other thirty percent. In reality, if one considered all battle generals and not only the famous generals, the difference would be larger. Not having been taught from birth and having to climb up step by step from the lowest level, battle generals formed by the second method were all geniuses. The price they paid were much higher than the first kind.
It looked as though that Gongsun Cha had great hope to become one of those. Yet reality was always cruel. Being of low status and wanting to become a battle general, these individuals had to meet one condition: having great individual power. Disregarding the talent to command, the battle generals that were the second kind had talent in cultivation that was comparable to any other xiuzhe.
The reason was very simple. If they had no strength, they would not survive through battle. If they couldn’t survive, how could they climb up? Wanting to become a battle general but being of low status, they had to repeatedly climb over mountains of corpses, in order to acc.u.mulate fame and experience. Then there would be compliance to his orders.
No one in little groups of seven or eight would be willing to put their lives in the hands of an individual that could die anytime, much less larger troops.
This was also why Pu Yao thought that Gongsun Cha hadn’t had a chance. Gongsun Cha was only a butcher, a zhuji butcher. Pu Yao could easily see that Gongsun Cha’s talent in cultivation was very average. Even if he had many lingdan and talismans, he wouldn’t accomplish too much in cultivation.
But Pu Yao did not immediately dismiss his ability to become a battle general, even if he had to learn on his own. The most important reason was Zuo Mo’s support.
His talent wasn’t in question. If Gongsun Cha had been in a large sect from birth, and he ultimately became a battle general, Pu Yao would not find it strange. After playing war chess for so many days, Gongsun Cha had improved quickly.
What really surprised him was that Zuo Mo trusted Gongsun Cha so much!
Even Pu Yao had to admit that Zuo Mo’s eyes were wondrously accurate. In his mind, Zuo Mo’s talent wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t the best. However, over these two years, even with the stumbling and tripping, Pu Yao found to his shock that Zuo Mo’s progress was far outside of his predictions.
Part of it was that he had been involved, but the speed of improvement of core disciples from large sects would would rarely reach Zuo Mo’s level, and they would receive more aid than Zuo Mo.
But Zuo Mo’s physical talent really could not be called great. This was what Pu Yao marveled at.
As he kept on thinking about it, Pu Yao felt that it was all caused by Zuo Mo’s viewpoint.
Zuo Mo’s viewpoint and mentality were very strange, and very different from normal people. No matter if it was cultivation, battle, or interpersonal relations.h.i.+ps. It was easy for others to see him as the cla.s.sical utilitarian. Clever, greedy, and money-grubbing, but he would sometimes do something that Pu Yao would find stupid and irrational. Yet these idiotic actions would usually produce good results.
Originally, Pu Yao did not have a good opinion of Gongsun Cha’s prospects, but considering Zuo Mo, he was suddenly filled with interest and antic.i.p.ation.
It was so amusing!
———
Compared to Pu Yao’s att.i.tude of idling and watching from the sidelines, Zuo Mo was so busy his feet never touched the ground. He had been nagged by Chun Yu Cheng to the point that he had to build a beast pool. They wouldn’t stay for very long in Little Mountain Jie, but it wouldn’t be too short. If they used the time well, they could produce a few batches of ling beasts. Chun Yu Cheng had been studying for a long time on the date seed s.h.i.+p, and he had many ideas. However, without the beast pool, all ideas were nothing.
“s.h.i.+xiong, build a beast pool!” Chun Yu Cheng’s words were like a ghost haunting Zuo Mo’s ears constantly.
After repeated requests , Zuo Mo complied.
His wealth was large. A beast pool was expensive, but not too expensive. However, the work was not easy. No one could help him, especially when Chun s.h.i.+di had a pile of ideas he wanted to suggest. To realize these ideas, he needed to modify the beast pool.
The modifications meant that the work he had to do increased dramatically, it meant that he needed to reconstruct it. Even more, Chun Yu Cheng s.h.i.+di’s ideas would occasionally change. Each time Zuo Mo wanted to slack off, Chun Yu Cheng’s haunting voice would float to him again.
“s.h.i.+xiong, just change a bit, just change a bit … …”
When the beast pool was finished, it was like there was a pin in Zuo Mo’s behind, he ran away as far as possible.
When a obedient person started to torture other people, it would make them feel hopeless.
Chun Yu Cheng s.h.i.+di began to work on the beast pool, Gongsun s.h.i.+di was working on the group of xiuzhe, and Zuo Mo started to work on himself.
His studies into formations needed a large amount of time. He also added another job for himself. He found the ling vein, and gathered some of the Black Line mushrooms that ate ling. He was very interested in them.
Other than that, cultivation was something that could not be missed. His consciousness had shrunk dramatically after setting down the jinzhi. Thinking about the tactic of battle by relying on numbers, he deeply felt that increasing his consciousness was his most important priority at the moment.
[Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation] became something he needed to do everyday.
After his consciousness manifested, his sea of consciousness transformed. The enchanting flames in the sea of consciousness had disappeared. The number of stars in the sky had increased to ten. The sword river still was the same. He had not increased his sword essence.
Looking at the stars in the sea of consciousness, Zuo Mo suddenly recalled the time that he forged Lil’ PaG.o.da, and the stardust that the stars had produced which continuously permeated his consciousness.
In the void above his consciousness, the ten stars hung. Other than the one star that was somewhat bright, the rest were dim. Thinking about the speed that the stars sprayed out stardust, Zuo Mo felt it would take years for the stardust to permeate all of his consciousness.
“That is Star Source.” Pu Yao sat on the gravestone and raised his head to look at the ten stars above his head.
“What is Star Source?” This question had always been buried in Zuo Mo’s mind. Seeing that Pu Yao seemed to have intentions of explaining today, he played along and asked.
“Star Source is the origin of the spiritual power,” Pu Yao slowly said. “You can also think of them as the crystals formed from ling power. Don’t you xiuzhe like to talk about how many jing of ling power?”
“Ten star spiritual power?” Zuo Mo asked in response.
“Or you can see them as the springs that birth spiritual power. Ten stars mean that you have ten springs that can produce spiritual power.”
“One time, I saw that these stars could spray out silver star dust. What is that?” Zuo Mo couldn’t help but ask in curiosity.
“What did you say?” Pu Yao suddenly opened his b.l.o.o.d.y pupil, his spine straightening, changing from his lazy att.i.tude.
Zuo Mo feel slightly terrified under Pu Yao’s b.l.o.o.d.y gaze. Inside, he wondered if the other had started to go crazy again.
“Is something wrong?” Zuo Mo weakly asked.
After a beat, he saw Pu Yao say dazedly, “The second consciousness … …”
He forcefully shook his head as he refocused. He looked deeply at Zuo Mo. “The stardust that you saw is a purer form of spiritual power. We usually call it spirit dust. These ten stars, bright and dull are different. The brightest star can produce the most star spirit dust, the speed that it produces spiritual power is the fastest.”
Zuo Mo didn’t really understand. Pu Yao didn’t attend to him, and kept on talking.
“What yao cultivate are the laws of the world. All objects in the world all contain the laws of the world, all objects in the world can cultivate their spirit. Stars are just one of them. The path of the stars is profound and cryptic. There are very few yao that walk the path of star spirit cultivation.”
Hearing this, Zuo Mo suddenly had a slightly bad premonition. “What spirit cultivation are you?”
“What I chose is Sky Fire Spirit Cultivation.” Pu Yao smiled, his teeth showing.
Zuo Mo interjected, “Then why am I star spiritual cultivation?”
“Because what you cultivate is [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation],” Pu Yao snickered. “I hadn’t thought that this [Embryonic Breathing Spiritual Cultivation] is actually a star spirit cultivation. I was fooled by the name.” He muttered in a small voice, “I had expected it was trash, hadn’t thought that it was actually high level, such a loss … …”
An fire suddenly shot up from Zuo Mo’s heart. He was enraged, pointing at Pu Yao’s nose as he swore. “You trash, you gave something you hadn’t tested for ye to cultivate! You actually wanted to use trash to con ye, ye isn’t finished with you … …”
“Don’t be like this!” Pu Yao wasn’t angry, and said, chuckling, “In any case, you didn’t lose. Look, you even managed to cultivate to ten stars. In two years, you’ve gotten to manifestation. This speed is very fast!”
“You you you … …” Zuo Mo pointed, hearing Pu Yao’s heartless words became so angry his finger trembled.
“Do you want to know how to cultivate next?” Seeing the situation, Pu Yao crisply turned to temptation.
“Yes,” Zuo Mo did not hesitate in answering, all his anger flying away.
Pu Yao was not shocked in the slightest by Zuo Mo’s one hundred and eighty degree turn in att.i.tude. This guy was very pragmatic.
“That’s right.” Pu Yao smiled. “I can tell you, and I can give you even more help. But I have a small request.”
“Say it!” Zuo Mo was very familiar with Pu Yao’s conduct as well.
“I want the golden core of the jindan of Clear Sky Sect.”
Zuo Mo was dumbstruck. When he managed to respond, he instantly jumped up. “Are you crazy? Jindan! Go get it yourself if you want it! Run to a little ningmai like myself to say you want the golden core of a jindan, humph humph, the other can turn me to dust with one slap.”
Finis.h.i.+ng, he turned and left, waving his hand. “If you want to play, play by yourself, ge won’t play with you.”
Pu Yao’s expression was calm, and not angry, “Add a fifth-grade sword scripture.”
Zuo Mo pretended not to hear, and continued to walk forward.
“Add a fifth-grade movement method.”
Zuo Mo was not moved at all, his steps not changing.
“I’ll make seven more golden armor guards for you.”
Zuo Mo decided to ignore him.
“And another move of [Little Thousand Leaf Hands].”
Zuo Mo instantly stopped his body, and turned to walk towards Pu Yao.
“What to do?”
Translator Ramblings: Pu Yao reflects on Gongsun Cha and Zuo Mo. Chun Yu Cheng is not included since he hasn’t shown much yet and that isn’t Pu’s area of specialty. But Pu Yao is also selectively blind about his own role in Gongsun Cha’s development even as he acknowledges influencing Zuo Mo’s development. “Wild” battle generals had to acc.u.mulate knowledge and experience through fighting which eliminates all but the most talented so they can out-compete those that were trained by sects and did not have to fight so hard. Gongsun Cha is getting abused daily by a wise and experienced yao battle general. That is a lot of experience that most people won’t get on a very high level. It’s akin to getting a chess grandmaster to play with all his power daily against a child. Zuo Mo’s support using jinzhi is enough at this point to force compliance from the ranks which means that Gongsun Cha’s learning environment right now is better than any sect since he has motivation through his desire to survive this place.
Pu Yao and Zuo Mo also know each other very well now. Zuo Mo is getting better at negotiating with Pu.