Chapter Seven Hundred and Thirty Seven – Entering the City
He didn’t know how much time had passed. Maybe it was just a moment, or it had been a very long time.
When Zuo Mo opened his eyes, something seemed to silently slide down his face. Many things had been shoved into his mind, so many that he needed to time to organize them. But his blurry gaze only looked at the figure that stood silently as she guarding him.
His blurry vision gradually cleared as though he returned from a dream to reality. Zuo Mo’s emotions gradually steadied.
He suddenly reached out and rubbed A Gui’s hair.
Gazing at A Gui’s wooden face, Zuo Mo’s gaze was warm but determined. A smile spread on his lips as he said lightly, “Gui Gui, now it is Young Master’s turn to protect you!”
Zuo Mo stood up. His presence became even deeper. Most of the memory fragments that he had recovered were sad, cold, and filled with helplessness yet the present Zuo Mo was far from that gentle and helpless little boy.
He had been tempered in countless battles and tests of life and death, he was the man that built Mo Cloud Sea with his own power!
The pain, sadness, and hopelessness in his memories caused him to mature even more.
He would still feel terror but he would not retreat. He would stand up straight and dare to advance even if was seas of flame or mountains of blade up ahead. He would still feel lost, but he would not lose himself to it. He would reach out his hands to explore, even if his hands would be torn bloody by the thorns in the mist. He would still be just as greedy, but he knew what was most precious and worthy of protection. He would never give up protecting, even if he needed to pay with his life.
He started to understand his fate.
There were still many questions. He needed to organize all of these memories. It probably would take a few more attempts to regain all of his memories. And he would have to find some of the parts he lost from A Gui. Zuo Mo remembered the old man said that it would be very beneficial for A Gui to consume the Reverse Shadow Soul Silkgrass.
That old man definitely had a great connections with his family.
However, this was not the time to take care of these matters.
The riddle of his birth was unexpectedly enormous, so large that he needed to time to dig.
———
Yi An was panicked.
Zuo Mo had told him to organize an auction and he had immediately started. He was familiar with doing this and the beginning had been smooth. In order to raise the status of the [Angel Device Raiment], he spread the information that the [Angel Device Raiment] was a pseudo-shen device.
A weapon that was the closest to a shen device.
This immediately caused a great commotion in the mo territories. Under the unspoken agreement of the major factions the news that the [Angel Device Raiment] was a pseudo-shen weapon had not spread. Yi An broke this, and people finally realized why those major personages that rarely showed themselves were so interested in this single matter.
Shen device!
This was such a distant and unfamiliar term. Even if many people were not unfamiliar with shen power now, no one had mentioned shen devices before.
No one knew what a shen device was like. Its era was so ancient that it was difficult to find any records of it. On the other hand, all of the sky mo weapons were recorded in detail. While people would not see them, they would still know something about them.
The [Angel Device Raiment] caused the already frenzied Bu Zhou City to boil over.
All the factions and experts that had not intended to participate could not stop themselves. They knew even better than normal people the arrival of the shen power era could not be stopped.
At this time, the [Angel Device Raiment] was peerless in value.
For those experts that were laboring to explore shen power, the [Angel Device Raiment] could give them inspiration and act as an example. It would be of great help for them to comprehend shen power. For those factions that already possessed shen power, they hoped to reverse engineer the method to forge shen devices through studying the [Angel Device Raiment.]
Shen power was great in power, and not something that talismans or mo weapons could tolerate.
Shen devices would be the future direction that forging would develop in.
Yi An was very satisfied with the effects of his arrangements. Watching as the entire mo territories became mad due to the [Angel Device Raiment], he was filled with a sense of accomplishment. The most famed time of Rare Artifacts Hall started from when they met Daren.
Yet, as the popularity of the [Angel Device Raiment] increased, and Daren was still missing, Yi An’s sense of panic increased.
Even the yao elders had to control themselves because there were too many experts from many factions here. It had reached a terrifying level. The yao elders cultivated shen power but a marshal level mo was still a threat to them. If a marshal had an earth mo weapon, and if they were careless this threat was enough to be fatal.
Almost half of all the experts in the mo territories had rushed here. No matter how prideful Ming Yue Ye was, she would not think that they could match this enormous gathering of experts.
It was the opposite. They needed to be on their guard constantly. If someone manipulated the situation from the shadows, and these mo experts attacked them, then they would be in a dangerous situation. Even the most arrogant elder restrained themselves when they saw the increasing number of marshals around them.
Yet the gathering of so many experts by itself was filled with danger.
One conflict, one spar could likely cause a large scale melee fight. The situation would become something unable to be control. That result was something no one could tolerate.
However, Daren had not shown himself. Yi An could clearly feel that the experts that had travelled a long way to be here were rapidly losing their patience.
The situation was worsening, and if Daren didn’t come out … …
Thinking about the situation that could appear, his scalp prickled.
When Yi An saw Zuo Mo, he immediately became overcome with excitement. “Daren … … Daren … …”
“Have you arranged the auction?” Zuo Mo thought of what he had arranged before he left.
Yi An nodded repeatedly and reported the recent situation in detail. He also spoke of his worries.
Zuo Mo smiled and praised, “You did good, I think we will be able to sell it for a high price.”
Yi An grimaced. Daren was still able to smile at this time … …
Zuo Mo thought and then said, “If this is the case, then let’s wait a while more.”
“Wait even more?” Yi An’s expression became even more bitter.
Zuo Mo smiled, and didn’t waste words. He took out a pile of materials from his ring and started to forge right in front of Yi An.
Yi An perceptively closed his mouth.
The flames pulsed in Zuo Mo’s hand as though they were alive. The materials that were added to the flames continuously melted into metal liquid of various colors as they flowed.
Zuo Mo’s gaze was calm. The blurry and fragmented shadows that flashed across his mind started to become clear.
Other than A Gui, what he remembered the most clearly were those jinzhi of different styles and types, and learning from his father’s legacy.
Time seemed to return to those days from many years ago.
A square city the size of his palm formed in his hand.
Yi An’s mouth was wide as he stared in shock at the city that took form in Zuo Mo’s hand. The little city was exquisite. The buildings were connected, and there were small copper bells on the towers that rose up, and it was possible to see each distinct brick on the city wall.
“This is as close I can get.” Zuo Mo sighed with a thread of regret in his eyes.
He had created this based on his memories of the place he had lived in during his childhood.
From the jade scrolls that his father had left him, he had learned that his father had built the city. He had not understood when he was small, but when he thought back now, he found to his shock that the jinzhi, seal scripts, and content of his father’s jade scrolls were profound and hard to understand even now.
His father’s jade scroll had every jinzhi in the city labeled clearly. That was one of the pastimes of his childhood. He would follow his father’s markings and find secret rooms that were hidden and not known by others. Then he would break the jinzhi and there would be many things that his father had left behind. Those were the toys of his childhood.
But even if he had gotten back the memories related to those jinzhi, he was still unable to forge a city that was exactly the same as that in his memory.
However, this was already enough to use.
Zuo Mo focused his mind, and threw the city lightly into the air.
The bright seal scripts that had been floating in the sky above the Grave Ghost Mound suddenly rippled. Then they flew like moths to a flames towards the little green city in the air.
The millions of bright lights flew simultaneously towards the palm-sized city. The scene was spectacular.
The streaks of light were like rain, bright and glorious!
The experts that had been standing outside the Grave Ghost Mound were disturbed and numerous people flew into the air.
The palm-sized green city was like a bottomless pit that sucked in the lights in the sky.
In the span of a few dozen breaths, all of the multi-colored lights within fifty li vanished. Only the little city was left floating in the sky. Multi-colored mist floated like a nebula round it, beautiful and mysterious.
The crowd shifted.
Suddenly, the city expanded at an astounding rate.
This change attracted everyone’s attention. Each of them stared with wide eyes in fear of missing a single detail.
When the city was more than one li in size, and was still growing, the restless crowd started to become silent.
Five li … … ten li … …
A green city that was fifty li in diameter appeared in front of the crowd. The crowd was silent. They had seen talismans before, and they had seen jinzhi before. A city that was fifty li was only the smallest of cities. But when it appeared in front of everyone in such a spectacular fashion, people couldn’t help but be amazed.
The green city was shrouded in a rainbow mist that glittered prettily.
It slowly descended and landed on the ground of the Grave Ghost Mound.
Astounding yin energy was continuously absorbed by the city from the underground. Water started to appear in the rivers and lakes of the city. The water that was formed from yin energy flowed as it filled the river and lakes of the city.
At the central hall of the city, Zuo Mo pushed open the door.
Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar scene in front of him, countless scenes flashed through his mind. An emotion hard to describe rose. He instinctively reached out to rub A Gui’s hair.
A feeling of hardness under his hand caused him to still and turned to look at A Gui.
The bone armor from the underground sacrificial altar had made its way onto A Gui at some unknown time. The bone armor seemed to have been made specifically for A Gui. It fit her tightly and showed off her perfect stature. The bone armor that was like a layer of grey crystal covered A Gui well, and added hints of mystery.
Zuo Mo smiled and rubbed A Gui’s helmet. The Black Gold Seal Soldier was hiding. He had sneaked out to fill his stomach, and he was now afraid that Zuo Mo was going to punish him. Ceng Lian’er, Qinghua Xue, and Yi An gaped at the scene in front of him.
The deepness in Zuo Mo’s eyes was put away. He recovered his usual smugness as his voice spread out.
“Everyone, welcome to the King’s Forbidden City!”
Translator Ramblings: Don’t expect a high point like yesterday. That took too much buildup.