Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty Four – Pu Yao’s Teaching
Pu Yao said it easily, but an abhinna was not so easily formed. After being modified by earth energy, Zuo Mo’s body could contain more earth energy. Zuo Mo spent all of his time absorbing earth energy. When the earth energy entered his body, it would turn into hundreds of thin streams that spread throughout every part of Zuo Mo’s body.
Zuo Mo felt his strength was very full, and the mountain peak diagram on his palms were becoming increasingly clear.
According to Pu Yao, his body cultivation could be considered to have finally crossed the threshold. As he absorbed earth energy, Zuo Mo savored the difference between body and sword cultivation. Compared to those complex and profound sword scriptures, body cultivation was much easier. He only needed to continuously guide the earth energy to every part of his body and continuously temper it. Body cultivation was a test of his patience more than anything else.
Zuo Mo guided the earth energy into the blood and bones, which previously had had earth energy drawn out from before by Pu Yao. After multiple rounds of tempering, Zuo Mo was very familiar with his body, and it did not require any effort. There was some earth energy that could not be absorbed and swam between his blood and flesh. He was not rushed. Tempering was a labor of time, and it could not be hurried. The blood, bone, flesh, and tendons of his body seemed to breathe. When the amount of earth energy they absorbed reached a certain level, they would become full.
Zuo Mo’s knees slightly bent, his two palms were covered in a dark blue light. He continuously used his two palms to hit his body. With each blow his body would lightly shudder as though he was struck by electricity, becoming numb and itchy.
Each blow would cause much of the earth energy to shatter into smaller dust-sized particles. Pia pia pia, Zuo Mo continued for two hours before he stopped. The earth energies that he had taken in today were all absorbed in.
He stood up. His body, rather than being tired, was in unspeakable ecstasy. He knew that as long as he persisted, his body would become even harder and stronger, becoming as difficult to damage as a talisman.
He suddenly seemed to like body cultivation. The offensive strength of body cultivation and dhyana xiu could not compare to sword xiu, but tempering the body bit by bit continuously built his confidence. Every pore in his body felt stronger every day, and continuously made him even hardier.
Many dhyana xiu would not use a talisman in their entire lifetime because they would use all their time on tempering their own bodies. Their bodies were not the least bit lacking compared to strong talismans. The bodies of dhyana xiu after their death were the best for corpse forging, but no one dared to do so. Xiuzhe who had dared to do so had all been killed without exception by dhyana xiu.
“Mo is the best at body cultivation. The [Vajra Profound Sutra] that you cultivate might be low level, but it isn’t bad to use when building your foundation,” Pu Yao said coldly. Whenever he mentioned something related to the gravestone, he never had a good tone. “From the core, humans are not suited to body cultivation.”
“Because we do not have mo matrixes?” Zuo Mo reacted quickly.
“Exactly. With the mo matrix, the efficiency of body cultivation is multiplied. As for body cultivation, ling power is not the best choice. Ling power is most skilled in transformations. The Dhyana bunch were all people who didn’t have any sword scriptures at the time, and had no choice but to mimic the mo in body cultivation, and only achieved half the effectiveness.”
Pu Yao was full of scorn in his words about the dhyana xiu. He continued icily, “Mo understand body cultivation, but there is a world of difference there. Those slightly better body cultivation mo arts all have strict inheritance rules. Hmph, hmph, the inheritance of yaomo is much stricter than xiuzhe.”
“How do yaomo inherit?” Zuo Mo was full of interest and asked in curiosity.
“The best inheritances in the mo jies are mostly in the hands of mo above the level of general. They are warlords, ruling over large numbers of lower level mo in their territories. In any of the mo jie, inheritances represent strength. In order to learn an inheritance, one has to continuously give their loyalty to their master. In the future, if you encounter a mo army, you have to be careful.”
“Why? Are they even stronger than the yao army?” Zuo Mo was slightly shocked. In his experience, the yao army he had seen that day was so strong that he didn’t even any thoughts of resisting.
“The yao army obeys commands as one, but in terms of obedience, no army can compare to the mo armies. The military laws of the mo armies are so strict that no one is above them. Any mo general will have hundreds of subordinates that are willing to die for him. Brave, not afraid of death, and fanatical obedience. As long as the mo general is not too dumb, any troop would have a headache when faced against them.”
“They aren’t afraid of death?” Zuo Mo didn’t understand. He found it hard to comprehend this kind of loyalty. It was not that he did not believe in this kind of loyalty, but he felt that this kind of loyalty would only appear on a few select people. If a whole troop was not afraid of death, then it was too scary!
“Because of mo skill inheritances. Any kind of high level mo skill inheritances will have its own unique intelligence awakening technique that can bestow thought. What you people might say is that mo are born from intelligence beasts. In reality, to be able to be called mo, there is one condition, that their intelligence has been awakened. Behind every mo is their clan. But to become mo, their intelligence must be awakened. Only beasts that have their intelligence awakened can cultivate mo skills. If they die, their clan would benefit, and will receive more opportunities to awaken the intelligences of more mo. These are the rules that any mo general in any mo jie would abide by.”
“Why don’t people awaken some more?” Zuo Mo asked.
“Awakening a mo intelligence comes at a price,” Pu Yao looked at Zuo Mo, and said, “There are those that are naturally born intelligent, but the number is very low. Those mo are very talented in cultivation.”
“But then, doesn’t it mean that they forever have to be subordinates?”
“They aren’t stupid.” Pu Yao smiled icily and said, “Joining the army, there is a chance to receive low level mo skill inheritances. The military achievements they accumulate can be used to trade for better inheritances. Even though it cannot be the top mo skills, but the inheritances they receive can be given to their clan members. If they can comprehend the technique to awaken the intelligence on their own, their clan will start to walk on the road to prosperity. As though whether the clan can become a Family, it depends on their fortune.”
“How do yao have inheritances?” Zuo Mo was even more curious.
“The clans of yao are even more complex than that of xiuzhe and mo. Over there, it is very easy to learn low level knowledge.” Pu Yao had a reminiscent expression. “Our reproduction is not as difficult as the mo. Newborn yao would be educated in their clans. When they reach a certain age, they will all be arranged to enter a yao art house, and learn higher level yao arts there. The best that graduate from the yao art houses would have chances to follow more powerful yao and learn even higher level yao arts.”
Zuo Mo gaped as he listened. He had always assumed that the world of yaomo was full of chaos and killing. But listening to Pu Yao, it seemed that they were even more peaceful than the xiuzhe jie.
Seemingly having guessed Zuo Mo’s thoughts, Pu Yao smiled coldly. “Don’t think of it as so beautiful. Machinations in the shadows are never lacking anywhere you go.” When he got to there, Pu Yao seemed to have thought of some displeasing matter, his face slightly ugly.
Zuo Mo twisted his mouth. Pu Yao was too ungenerous. It had been thousands of years, but this guy was still holding a grudge. In the future, he could not offend the other. The guy really held grudges.
Pu Yao’s introduction completely changed Zuo Mo’s impression of yaomo.
“Your strength is not powerful, and you’ve learned many things. Even though it is a bit chaotic, but it’s not as though there are no benefits.” Pu Yao continued, “The [Vajra Profound Sutra] it gave you is rough, but it’s truly a mo skill. As for ling power, no matter if it is spells or manipulation, or control, you are not less than any other xiuzhe. There’s nothing that needs to be said about spiritual power. Star spiritual cultivation, Great and Little Thousand Leaf Hands, they are all the best of yao arts.”
“Also, you are skilled in formations. This is especially important,” Pu Yao discussed like one learned in many areas of knowledge, “No matter if it is xiu spells, yao arts, or mo skills, at the core their essence is the laws of the world. If you do not understand formations and practice all three kinds, you will end up with a terrible mixture. Three kinds of power, they have changed and transformed over the long months and years, and now walk on different paths. However, formations are something that can connect all three together.”
When he got to there, Pu Yao became careful. “I do not know what you will become in the future because there has never been a precedent. The formations of xiuzhe were the first to develop and the most complete, but xiuzhe do not know much of yaomo so I’ve never heard of anyone having a breakthrough in this area.”
“Why?” Zuo Mo found it very strange that xiuzhe would disregard this. They had fought against yaomo for so many years, but why would xiuzhe still know so little about yaomo?
Pu Yao wanted to rolled his eyes and mock Zuo Mo for his ignorance about history, but upon further thought, he managed to resist it, and patiently explained, “Jingshi and talismans are more effective. As long as there are enough materials, the strength of a xiuzhe would quickly grow. No matter if it is a mo skill or a yao art, even though it can be aided by external forces, but they’re very limited and far slower than using jingshi and talismans. Also, mo skills and yao arts are not suited for ling power. The more they are practiced, the more heterogeneous it becomes. Why are sword xiu strong? Because they only cultivate ling power, only cultivate the sword. They only need more jingshi, better materials, stronger talismans and flying swords! In reality, the path of xiuzhe is to steal, increasingly professional theft.”
Zuo Mo didn’t know how to reply. Upon further thought, while he felt that Pu Yao’s words were slightly ugly, but they held some truth.
“However,” Pu Yao’s tone turned and became full of scorn as he said, “by taking advantage of outside sources in the long term, they comprehend less. Even though I do not know what the situation is like at present, but if I have not guessed incorrectly, the true experts of the xiuzhe are probably fewer in number than thousands of years ago. Ha ha!”
Tilting his head, Zuo Mo didn’t know. Sky Moon Jie was a small place, he didn’t know anything about the outside world. He unconcernedly shrugged his shoulders. “Never mind them, let’s first take care of ourselves.”
Pu Yao snickered and didn’t speak.
After Pu Yao’s guidance, Zuo Mo felt his own thoughts were clear and distinct. He had a general understanding of his future cultivation. Ling power, body, and consciousness, they represented the three separate areas of xiu spells, mo skills, and yao arts. The three were connected together by a single bridge, formations.
His confidence had increased from when he had analyzed and identified the three formations from the [Copper Rhinoceros Mo Matrix].
At this time, he suddenly found some points that he had disregarded before. For example, the growth of his consciousness was enormously beneficial for control of ling power. Didn’t his own fine control of ling power come from his spiritual power, which was far above those of the same cultivation as him?
He suddenly had a feeling that his own ling power would most likely change after his body cultivation improved.
He couldn’t help but be full of anticipation!
Translator Ramblings: More of Pu, some yaomo history and society, and Zuo Mo getting educated in what the world really is like. Zuo Mo is coming from a very well protected place of his own ignorance and the small piece of life he was exposed to. Losing memory is almost a better way of getting exposition and world-building than having someone time-travel where the author can just match and use modern-day terms. In summary, Zuo Mo has the best body cultivation similar to that of a mo, the best spiritual teachings that a yao can get, but his knowledge and education that a xiuzhe could have sucks by comparison. It’s just a little bit ironic.