This chapter has been brought to you by me, WanderingGummiOfDoom, and Brian.

Chapter Two Hundred and Thirteen Ma Fan Reaching Target

Ma Fan felt very troubled.

No matter if it was his ningmai second stratum cultivation or the nameless scripture he cultivated, they made  him one of  the top practitioners in this group. But to someone as afraid of trouble as he was, this prestige wasn’t a good thing.

He became one of the important prospects to be “nurtured”.

The requirements for his training far surpassed everyone else’s. Everyone looked at him with gazes full of sympathy.

That’s right, it really was sympathy.

The training for everyone was extremely strict, so the training regime of an important prospect, Ma Fan’s, could only be imagined. However, other than sympathy, they did not feel any joy at his misfortunes. They didn’t even have the power to save themselves. Everyone in the camp put all their strength into furiously training. If they did not complete their training, their outcome would be extremely tragic.

On the first day several people did not obey. But now when everyone saw the somewhat feminine, delicate, and shy youth, they could not control the deep terror that came out of their heart. The terrified screams that meant a fate worse than death haunted their ears. The inhuman state of the people who didn’t listen frequently haunted their thoughts. Whenever they thought of it, these people that were used to seeing storms of blood couldn’t help but tremble.

Devious, vicious, and cold-blooded, he thought  of a life like grass … …

These words were not enough to describe this seemingly harmless and beautiful youth in front of them. Even the most rebellious person was docile and obedient in front of him.

This handsome youth might be strict, but if you could successfully finish your training nothing would happen. He would never try to punish you for unsubstantiated reasons. He didn’t take your talismans or scriptures. After discovering this point, everyone competed to be first, afraid of being slow, and having to taste that terrible torture that was worse than death.

Ma Fan felt his life was hopeless. Each day was endless training.

Heavens!

How can this be completed?

It hadn’t been long since he had broken through to the second stratum of ningmai. The ling power in his body was around fifteen jing. The content of his training focused on only one thing, one of his sword moves. That’s right, just the one move. Of the three sword moves that he knew, the strongest was the [Illusory Shadowless Sword of Destruction]. The power of this move was very high. Most important was that it did not cause ling power ripples when it was cast. Without a sound or wind, it never attracted the eye, but it was surprisingly powerful.

In reality, after learning it, he had only used it in combat two or three times before now.

He usually was afraid of trouble, and rarely engaged in combat. If he saw the situation was not right, he would quickly use the illusory movement method to escape.

His training content was just this move. However, it wasn’t so simple. Gongsun Cha had two demands. The first was that he could use this killing move when he was using the illusory movement method. The second was that he had to be able to cast this move three times or more in the span of fifteen minutes. And in one hour, he had to be able to use this move seven or more times.

When he first received the training regime, it was normal for his face to be ugly.

With his present cultivation, if he cast [Illusory Shadowless Sword of Destruction], he couldn’t do it when he was in motion, and could only cast it four times. After casting it, he needed to rest for a while before casting again. This clearly short of  Gongsun Cha’s demands.

Ma Fan didn’t know how Gongsun Cha had thought of such a fatal demand. Wasn’t it just asking for his life?

He had once gathered his courage to request Gongsun Cha to change it. What he received was Gongsun Cha’s light words, “Cultivate well, for putting your life on the line is better than losing it.”

When Ma Fan heard this, and his heart instantly became cold. With no other solution, he could only train with his life on the line. From the time he had started his cultivation, he had never cultivated so hard before.

Using the illusory movement method at the same time as the [Illusory Shadowless Sword of Destruction], this was something that he had never thought of before. With no sect, to be able to become a ningmai second stratum, Ma Fan’s talent in cultivation was not low, and his intelligence was not bad. Of course even he could see that if he could use his movement method and sword move at the same time, the power of the move would increase greatly.

But with his personality of avoiding trouble, if he thought of this in the past, he would have gave up after trying a few times.

But now, the blade hung above his neck. If he retreated slightly, his little life would be gone. There was no room to change his current trajectory. He could only push forward.

His ling power was so expended that he almost spat blood, his body was sore and soft that it felt like his skeleton was coming apart. For the sake of his little life, he must cultivate! Cultivate! Cultivate! He had cultivated to the point that he wanted to throw up when he saw a flying sword … …

He actually succeeded!

A flickering figure fluttered uncertainly in the air, and without warning, several explosions suddenly occurred in the air!

Boom!

The ground fifty zhang away from him seemed to have been struck by something invisible, suddenly exploding open, sending dirt flying. The people who had been training near by were alarmed, and put out their ling shields. Pia pia pia, the flying dirt hit the ling shields like rain. Those with weaker cultivation even felt their ling shields shake.

Everyone was shocked!

When they looked at the ground, they saw seven deep holes in a row, each hole that was two zhang deep!

Crashing down through the air, yet still so powerful, if this was someone’s body … …

Their eyes as they looked at Ma Fan instantly changed. This guy definitely had been holding back before! However, some with nimbler minds had happy expressions. Right now, everyone was on the same rope, Ma Fan getting stronger was good for all of them. At least, the probability of keeping their lives was now higher.

 

———

 

Gongsun Cha also had a surprised expression .He hadn’t thought that Ma fan would be the first to achieve his demands. In his plan, Ma Fan was the primary attacker, or rather, it was better to say he was the ambusher. With the unpredictable illusory movement method, and the undetectable but powerful [Illusory Shadowless Sword of Destruction] that could kill with one blow, wasn’t he born for ambushing?

It was a pity that while the illusory body movement method was hard to follow, but it was easy for people to guard against, lowering the abruptness of an ambush. If there was a movement method that could completely conceal him, then Ma Fan’s power would be even greater.

Gongsun Cha felt he needed to think thoroughly about how to use Ma Fan to his greatest potential. He may look confident and calm in front of these xiuzhe, but in reality, his mind had been tense from the beginning.

He was a beginner, and had not been trained. Zuo Shixiong trusted him, so Shixiong certainly wouldn’t blame him for making mistakes in the beginning. However, though Gongsun Cha might look soft, he was actually very proud. Would he permit himself to make mistakes at such an important time?

All of his days were spent on these xiuzhe. He had long stopped his own cultivation.

He disliked failure!

 

———

 

Ma Fan looked in disbelief at the seven deep holes in front of him on the ground, his mind blank.

He did it … … he really did it … …

Was this really something he had done?

Dazedly landing on the ground, his mind was wandering. He had never thought that he could really do it!

He gritted his teeth and persisted in training because he was forced to; but when he really met the goals which he never could have possibly conceived of before, a different emotion filled his heart.

Looking at the flying sword in his hand, a seed called confidence gradually sprouted in his heart.

 

———

 

“Right now, do not create new stars. You cannot bite off more than you can chew. You should spend more time to temper these ten stars, so they will be as bright as your brightest star. The stars are the source of your spiritual power, and the brighter they are, the more spiritual power they produce, especially stardust. The brighter the star, the more pure the star dust they spray out. This alone will be more beneficial to you.”

In meditation, Zuo Mo’s mind had retreated to his sea of consciousness. He sat cross legged facing the stars, a ethereal strand of star light dropping from one of the stars and entering Zuo Mo’s forehead.

As Zuo Mo breathed, the star light brightened and dimmed pleasantly.

Bathing in the star light, Zuo Mo channeled the spell and communicated with the star. Communicating with the star was the first step in tempering it. After this, Zuo Mo needed to find a star home, take in star power, and then use it to nurture the stars in his consciousness to increase the Star Source.

This time, Pu Yao’s teachings were extremely detailed, answering all his questions patiently. He also didn’t drag his heels on what he had promised Zuo Mo, and paid upfront.

After communicating with the star in his sea of consciousness, Zuo Mo stopped his cultivation. Absorbing star power had to be done at night. He spent some time on reading through the good things he had gotten from Pu Yao before he started to think.

The stage of jindan was a stage that every xiuzhe dreamed about that time. At that time, the ling power of the xiuzhe would form into a golden core, hence the name. The golden core was the best parts of the ling power of a xiuzhe. Even the source of their life was inside it. A xiuzhe that lost their golden core would die. In other words, to obtain the golden core of a jindan, one had to kill them.

Kill a jindan!

That really was a crazy idea!

But behind this crazy idea, Zuo Mo had his own considerations. He would definitely have a battle with Clear Sky Sect. This jindan was an enemy he would have to meet. Zuo Mo didn’t have any thought of being so lucky as to avoid it.

To pass through the jie river, they had to defeat this jindan. That was the lowest goal. Right now, it was just increasing from defeating a jindan to killing a jindan. It sounded shocking, but in reality, there wasn’t much of an increase.

After a jindan was defeated, they would definitely flee. It was better to kill them. If the other escaped, they would never face him directly again. It wouldn’t be difficult for the jindan to wait in the shadows to kill him. If the other went to invite a few of his jindan friends, then this little Zuo Mo would definitely die.

Taking a few hundred people to scheme against a jindan, Zuo Mo felt that he had a slightly probability of victory. But if it was two jindan, Zuo Mo guessed he wouldn’t even be able to escape.

Thinking about it now, no matter if he agreed to Pu Yao’s demands or not, he definitely could not let Clear Sky Sect’s jindan live.

Zuo Mo’s heart was scared. It was lucky that he had agreed to Pu Yao’s request. Otherwise, if he had let the other go after the battle, he would have caused himself many problems.

After thinking it through, the rock in Zuo Mo’s heart instantly landed. People were like this. If they heard the great reputation of the other, it was easy to be intimidated and scared. However, once they understood that there was no other path, even against a god, they would take off a few pieces of flesh.

The effect that Zuo Mo’s personal power could have in this battle was pitifully small. It wasn’t even as high as the three golden armor guards.

Luckily, he was never a person that relied on brute power to eat.

He had a daring idea.

Translator Ramblings: Ma Fan’s sword technique is so long, four long words plus a preposition. Might be the longest name so far in the story.

Zuo Mo is starting to plan. This is great motivation for him. Also, the girl that sent the paper cranes is not showing up anytime soon. Think long long into the future but she will come back.

I’ve also discovered that I misspelled twelve in the previous chapter … … I guess you guys don’t read chapter titles?