Chapter 520: Advance
Translated by Crystal from the Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Once the Black and white impermanence were gone, those who fled the White Bone Town came running back.
Different to everyone’s expectations, the White Bone Town did not become a wasteland, however, one-third of the buildings were demolished though. Good thing was that they were already in shambles so all they needed to do was rebuild them with wood.
The owner was pleasantly surprised at the undisturbed inn, he thought that it would be his inn that got the most damaged. At that time, many saw the man in white and the man in black walking along this street, but in reality, much to their surprise, it was this street that was the least harmed.
“Owner Wang, your inn is so lucky to actually escape unharmed.”
On the opposite of the inn was another inn. Although it had only been half destroyed, it was impossible to renovate it and the owners would have to rebuild. The two inns contrasted strikingly.
Owner Yang sighed in despair at his own inn and would occasionally turn towards Owner Wang’s inn. How was he so lucky?
Owner Wang had a cheerful smile on, it was great that he didn’t have to rebuild his inn, otherwise it would’ve been a huge investment.
But after he heard what owner Yang had said, he had a sudden flash of genius and subconsciously looked at the second floor window. He remembered that the guests in that room had not left, connecting that with the oddity of the man in black and man in white suddenly leaving White Bone Town, he had a brave/wild assumption.
Could it be that the man was the one who had chased the two away?
With a stomach full of questions, owner Wang left owner Yang and hurriedly ran up to the second floor. The door was still closed shut, and he wasn’t sure if the people inside left or not.
Owner Wang knocked on the door to sound things out, “Hello, anyone?”
“What?” From the room came a calm voice.
Owner Wang violently took a breath in, now he was sure and quickly answered, “I’m just here to ask if you wanted any drinks? In our wine cellar we have a hundred year old Shaoxing wine.”
t/n: Shaoxing wine is one of the most famous varieties of huangjiu( yellow wine), or traditional Chinese wines, fermented from rice. It originates from the region of Shaoxing, in the Zhejiang province of eastern China. It is widely used as both a beverage and a cooking wine in Chinese cuisine
After a moment of silence, he asked, “Is there tea?”
Owner Wang was taken back for a second before answering, “A few.”
“Then bring me the high-grade wines and teas.”
“Sure, I’ll be right back.”
It was the first time he had met a guest who liked tea, but luckily, he also liked tea so in his room was one catty of a really treasured tea of his. Even now he had not drank it once.
Remembering that he was eighty to ninety percent sure the guest was the one who had chased away the man in black and man in white, he made his mind and took out half a catty of tea leaves. Not only that, he also brought along his high-grade purple tea set with him.
Before he even knocked, the man let him in.
When owner Wang opened the door and stepped inside, he saw the man sitting by the table. He even personally brewed the tea for the man and brought his two jars of hundred year Shaoxing wine.
“You can leave now.” Ling Xiao shooed with his hand.
Before the owner left, he secretly took a glance inside and saw a faint silhouette of a person sitting cross legged on the bed, unmoving behind the screen.
It seemed to be the young man he came with, and probably the reason why he hadn’t left the inn.
On the second day, rumors and gossips of what happened last time at the White Bone Town were everywhere. Everyone was discussing as to why they had returned, but some, the more observant ones, found inklings of the truth.
For example, why did they suddenly leave? Why was owner Wang’s street, the one that should have been the most damaged, unharmed at all? Was there a connection between the two?
Hearing everyone’s discussion, the only one in the know, owner Wang, didn’t join in the conversation. Before, he was the one who loved to gossip the most.
“Owner Wang, do you know something?”
His neighbors were knowledgeable about what kind of person he was and seeing that he was just smiling, a female shopkeeper suddenly changed the topic to him.
Seeing that everyone’s gaze was focused on him, owner Wang replied with ease, “About that, all I can say is that there really is a superior expert within our town. Not only that, you guys should lower your voices, if it becomes a bother to that superior expert then there will be severe consequences.”
The hint in his sentences were obvious.
Owner Wang was not someone who exaggerated so most of them believed him while a few were skeptical.
However, it didn’t take long for the gossip of an elite to spread.
On the second floor room, nothing that had happened the day before bothered You XiaoMo at all. He very successfully turned the Life Crystal’s power into his own. His power increased by leaps and bounds, jumping from middle-grade to peak high-grade. Now he was trying to break through the barrier from level ten to rainbow grade one.
The speed in which the vortex in his mind turned slowed as the luminous fragments reached their peak. By now, the dark purple crystal in the center of the vortex had been condensed to the size of an swan egg.
From level ten to rainbow grade one was a process of metamorphosis, the difficulty at least doubled from the usual process. It was a huge obstacle standing in the way of many talented mages, thus he needed more energy.
You XiaoMo remebered that Dan Qing had said in his lecture that becoming a rainbow grade one mage wasn’t simply a process of metamorphasis, it was a process of rebirth. From death to rebirth, it was like a phoenix rising from the ashes, once again burning an everlasting fire.
Leveling up was a similar concept. Everything has its limits, if one wanted to break that limit, then they must reconstruct their image and change the current situation.
Dan Qing’s voice flashed across his mind and You XiaoMo instantly knew what was happening.
Beyond the sea of consciousness, Ling Xiao suddenly saw the corner of his mouth curl into a smile. It looked like he found the trick and seeing that the Life crystal in his palm still had two-thirds of its energy, it looked like he didn’t have to worry for now.
You XiaoMo started to absorb the energy from the Life Crystal at an even quicker pace, then channeling that energy to the crystal in the center of the vortex, condensing the size of that crystal from a swan’s egg to a chicken’s egg, to a bird’s egg…
He began to feel drained and lost his strength, all that was left was a fingertip sized crystal. Without restraint, he continued to pour energy into the crystal until there was barely any left when finally the crystal could no longer contain it and started to make a humming sound. It wasn’t long after when the crystal exploded with a bang and it’s dusts disappeared into the vortex.
Now, the once slowly spinning vortex suddenly quickened, becoming faster and faster, sparking as if a cog was hitting the floor.
The vortex became smaller and smaller until it condensed into a dot, then an extremely bright light erupted. If it wasn’t happening within You XiaoMo’s sea of consciousness, it would have been bright enough to turn someone blind.
Once You XiaoMo could ‘see’ the stuff within his sea of consciousness, the vortex and the crystal had disappeared. All that was left were seven calmly floating flames, all emitting a different color. The flames were only the size of a fingernail and they were a bit dim.
However, You XiaoMo was thrilled, he had finally broken through and became an official grade one rainbow mage. He had thought that a level eleven demon beast’s Life Crystal could help him do it, he didn’t think it would actually come true.
When You XiaoMo opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Ling Xiao standing in front of him. Before his brain could react, his body leaped over, hugging his waist and screaming in joy.
“I made it, I made it, I can finally start refining rainbow pills!”
Ling Xiao was knocked back a step by him and was infected with his joy too but the words that came out was, “I can see with my eyes, you don’t have to tell me twice.”
You XiaoMo wasn’t bothered, he was in such a good mood.
Ling Xiao asked thoughtfully, “I heard that a rainbow leveled mage breaks through a lot of a mage’s limitations, like what?”
You XiaoMo nodded with a stupid laugh, “Like flying, a high level mage needs help from other things to fly but a rainbow level mage doesn’t. They can use their own powers to fly, but it’s going to take a lot of soul power so if they used an aid, not only is it saving soul power, they can increase their speed.”
He hadn’t tested them out yet, all of these he heard from Dan Qing’s lecture.
But, to him, he didn’t have to worry about the consumption of power. Anyways, the point was that he didn’t need Ling Xiao to fly anymore.
After he finished being excited, You XiaoMo heard the construction noise from below. After he opened the window, he realized that all of the houses in front of him fell and were in the middle of rebuilding. “What happened outside?”
Ling Xiao gave a basic explanation.
You XiaoMo’s mouth gaped open, “Good thing you chased them away.”
When cultivating, the worst was to be disturbed. If it was light, it was a Qi deviation, if it was harsh, one could die on the spot. Especially for critical moments like his, one cannot stop, otherwise his crystal in the sea of consciousness might be heavily damaged, if that happened, it would be difficult to breakthrough again.
Ling Xiao packed up the wine and tea he received from the inn owner and the two proceeded downstairs to check out. Then, they left White Bone Town.
The owner guessed that they were probably going to the Weeping Ghost Shore and this time he didn’t say anything. With the man’s power, even if they found the Weeping Ghost Shore, they could probably make it out alive but…
“Honorable guests, this is a map of the Ghost Tomb Mountain Ranges, it’ll probably come in handy.”
The owner voluntarily gifted them the map, normally one would have to buy it with spirit gems and not for cheap either. Almost everyone who wished to go into the Ghost Tomb Mountain Ranges would need one, otherwise, it was easy to get lost and go somewhere dangerous.
You XiaoMo took the map and thought of the wine and tea he had received earlier. He wasn’t knowledgeable about wine but he knew a bit about tea. That half a catty was truly extraordinary and so he pulled out a pill from his pocket to hand over.
“Seeing your sincerity, I’ll give you this magic pill, it can give you an extra life.”
Pleasantly surprised, the owner took the magic pill. For people like him that lived in these dangerous areas, what they needed the most was safety. Sometimes one could come by a magic pill that increased levels but ones that could save one’s life were rare. It wasn’t something that could be bought, even if one had the money.
That just solidified the owners belief that these two weren’t ordinary. Half a catty of high-grade tea, two jars of specially brewed Shaoxing wine and a map was not given unjustly.
Bidding their farewells, the two left the White Bone Town and headed to the Ghost Tomb Mountain Ranges.
It was known as an Ancient Battlefield, buried within it were hundreds of thousands of greater demon beast’s corpses. Their resentment came together like a dense fog, as if an evil spirit coming for all lives, if one didn’t have enough strength, they wouldn’t be able to get in.
By now, You XiaoMo was a top tier mage, even without Ling Xiao, he could easily and freely travel through the fog. With the breakthrough, his soul power had a qualitative change.
The milky white soul power seemed to reflect a rainbow colored shine. At first glance there didn’t seem to be a change, unless if one looked long enough. But because he had just recently leveled up, the effects were not apparent.
Although the Ghost Tomb Mountain Range was considered a mountain range, it was already in ruins, with mountain plates shifting and breaking, sinking in to become huge valleys. The ground had split and concaved into a huge chasm. Mountain peaks had collapsed and some were even flattened to become fields and swamps. Basically, it wasn’t watchable anymore.
You XiaoMo laid out the map and clearfully went over it again.
Other than the names of places, the owner had also marked out where it was dangerous.
He saw that in the depth of the mountain range was indeed the Weeping Ghost Shore and what was interesting was that surrounding it, the owner had used a red pen to mark out it’s danger.
No wonder many people’s expression changed just by the mere mentioning of its name. By the looks of things, they where a bunch of daredevils, having their headquarters purposefully set in such a dangerous location. Easy to defend but hard to attack.
You XiaoMo put the map away and said, “The Weeping Ghost Shore was southwest of the Ghost Tomb Mountain Range. Supposedly the southwest was where most of the action occurred in the Ancient Battlefields and most of the deaths too. A lot of powerful evil spirits wandered around there, it isn’t too far away, should we use a Dimensional talisman?”
“No.” Ling Xiao out right rejected his idea.
“Why?” You XiaoMo questioned. They had a lot of Dimensional talismans, to the point where they wouldn’t ever run out. They were like the other Sacred Realm practitioners who had to make Dimensional talismans for many people, like Fu CangQiong, with his many disciples.
“This was the Ancient Battlefield, in ancient times, many greater demon beast fought here, causing the dimension around the Ghost Tomb Mountain Range to be highly unstable. Some places even had a collapse of dimensions.”
You XiaoMo was disappointed, at the end of the day, they still had to walk.
