Chapter Four Hundred and Ninety Six – Shen Technique

Zuo Mo did not immediately enter the Sun Shen Temple

It would rare for him to rashly do something even when there was a pile of talismans and jingshi in front of him. In his view, the most unprofitable business in the world would be to lose his little life.

He needed time to digest the thought imprint that big Brother Qing Lin had left him and the strange shen power in his body. With the three powers having disappeared, shen power became the only power that he could rely on. If he entered the temple with a muddled head, he was sure that even his bones wouldn’t survive. The Sun Shen Temple was not a peaceful garden. It was the exact opposite, and full of danger. Even if he had the thought imprint that Big Brother Qing Lin left him, it could not guarantee his safety.

Zuo Mo focused his attention on the shen power and quickly had a new discovery.

There was a faint layer of “essence” around his body. It was like a mist that shrouded around Zuo Mo. Zuo Mo couldn’t help but think of the space shield that ling beasts had. This thing seemed slightly like the space shield. Starting from fourth-grade, the yao beasts would have a space shield around their body. This was a sign that the yao beast had left behind the lowest grades.

Had he become something similar to yao beasts?

Zuo Mo muttered inside.

The “essence” that was around Zuo Mo was not under Zuo Mo’s control. No matter how Zuo Mo tried to control them, they were unaffected. However, they were not useless. Zuo Mo could clearly feel every change in the surroundings.

This was not the same as the perception granted through the use of consciousness. In the area that the consciousness covered, Zuo Mo could detect the flow of energy, such as ling power and the mo physique. But everything within the range of this “space shield,” even if it was a speck of dust, would register into Zuo Mo’s mind.

Zuo Mo sensitively detected the difference between the two and he had a feeling that he could possibly control this “space shield”!

This feeling caused him to become extremely excited.

The “space shield” was a bonus to his new shen power and the surprises that shen power gave Zuo Mo were even greater.

Power!

Absolute power!

The power of shen power far surpassed any of the three powers!

Zuo Mo was still unable to use shen power, but even so, the magnitude of strength that the shen power had caused Zuo Mo to become excited! When he casually punched the round wall, there was no loud bang, no flying rocks or dirt, Zuo Mo’s right fist seemed to become deeply embedded in the rock like a knife entering tofu!

He pulled out his fist and a deep fist-sized hole was left in the rock.

One zhang!

One complete zhang deep!

If one could cut open the rock, they would find a straight and deep hole that was the diameter of a fist that extended one zhang deep.

Zuo Mo inhaled sharply and then could not disguise the joy on his face!

This punch looked normal but it had an unusual profoundness. The depth of one zhang was enough to show how powerful this one punch was, enough to rival flying swords. The ruler-straight deep hole that went from start to finish meant that the force of this punch was concentrated at one point and had not dissipated at all!

Zuo Mo knew just how frightening this was!

Even with the Great Day mo physique, he was unable to do this.

He look at his hands and then paused.

White, smooth, slender, the palms seemed feminine, were these his palms? No way! Zuo Mo was slightly stunned. He remembered very well that his palms in the past had seemed to be forged from metal and shone with a metallic sheen.

These hands were too feminine! It wasn’t just that the skin had changed, but his entire hand was a size smaller than before.

Zuo Mo was slightly discontent.

In comparison, he liked his previous hands that were seemed broad, full of power and masculine.

Had the shen power also changed his appearance?

Thinking about this, Zuo Mo shook and hurriedly took out a gold crystal broadsword from the ring. Using the mirror-smooth surface, he looked at himself.

He first sighed in relief but then his brow creased.

His features had not changed greatly but his figure was much thinner than before. In the past, his body had been balanced but it gave people the feeling of power due to cultivating the Great Day mo physique. Right now, that powerful presence had disappeared, and he was slightly … … delicate!

Yes, delicate!

Zuo Mo’s mood instantly turned bad. Ge hates little white faces the most!

Actually, from the perspective of appearances, Zuo Mo only became more refined. This did not make him look uglier and gave him a gentlemanly presence.

Of course, that was only before Zuo Mo spoke.

He was a qualified ruffian, an exceptional gangster, but definitely not a well behaved youth.

No matter how discontent Zuo Mo was, he could not control the changes of his body. Did the great ones of the ancient era like this style?

Zuo Mo discontently asked the great ones of the Sun Shen Temple but he decided to not waste time on this painful question.

So feminine!

There were countless talismans waiting in the shen temple for him!

Zuo Mo instantly threw the question of his appearance to the back of his mind, focused and started to explore his shen power.

With this search, he found another unusual occurrence—the Soul Setting Divine Light had burrowed into the shen power.

Zuo Mo was slightly shocked but he wasn’t too nervous. The Soul Setting Divine Light had just been a thread and was pitifully small. It was the same as shen power, and did not listen to his commands.

These two were of the same streak!

Once he decided to study something, Zuo Mo would usually quickly enter a focused state.

He used all the methods he knew of to experiment with shen power and gradually understood some of the peculiarities. For example, he found if he absorbed ling power, the ling power would be rapidly swallowed by the shen power. If he cultivated the mo physique, it would be the same result. The shen power would actively absorb power from his body. This was also why his present body looked slightly thin.

What was most exciting was that he found he could control ling power.

Zuo Mo found the explanation from the [Greenvine] technique. [Greenvine] was the cultivation technique of the Greenvine Tribe and completely opposite to the Sun Tribe. However, it also cultivated shen power so some basic techniques were not very different.

The control of shen power was extremely complex. Even with basic techniques, it had stringent demands of body, essence and consciousness.

After studying a few basic techniques, a strange feeling grew. Body, essence, consciousness … … wasn’t that the techniques to control the three powers?

Zuo Mo suddenly realized.

He didn’t know what shen power was, but shen power was definitely the product of his three powers being merged together. So naturally, how it would be controlled would be using the control techniques of the three powers at the same time.

Thinking this through, Zuo Mo was very motivated.

However, he quickly found the difficulty in doing this was very high. In other words, he had to channel his mo skills, spells, and yao arts at the same time, and the three had to reach a perfect balance melding together before he could control shen power.

It was too difficult!

In just moments, Zuo Mo was soaked in sweat. Without the support of the mo physique, he had returned to his previous weak little body, and his endurance could not be said to be good.

According to the demands on [Greenvine], Zuo Mo clumsily twisted his body like a drunkard, his steps stumbling strangely as he stammered.

“Green vines luminous flower, serene moon a crescent, mountains tall waters clear, harmonious and still … … ordered and regular … …”

His eyes were wide as he tried to draw out a strange shape in his mind that was similar to yao arts.

Before he could finish drawing it out, his legs softened. Zuo Mo was unable to control himself and landed on his behind on the ground.

Pant pant pant!

Zuo Mo furiously gasped, his eyes wide.

After resting for a full half-hour, he finally recovered and his eyes became light again.

He finally knew why the use of shen power disappeared!

Such a complex and hard-to-learn thing, it would be strange if it wasn’t eliminated. He really could not imagine how those ancient great ones had managed to produce something this complex.

He did not doubt that the appearance and rise of the three powers was mostly because the people could not cultivate shen power so they divided shen power into three parts. Since they could not cultivate all of it, they would lower the difficulty and only cultivate one of them.

Yet what made him want to cry was that the three powers in his body had all become shen power and the shen power automatically consumed other powers. This meant that even if he started cultivating the three powers again, he could not produce any results.

Damn it!

Zuo Mo’s face was black. The shen technique he had just practiced was called [Green Flower] and was one of the basic moves in [Greenvine]. Supposedly, children around age ten were able to cultivate it.

Ten years old … …

Zuo Mo gritted his teeth and he flipped through the [Greenvine] technique to search for easier content.

Every type of shen technique would contain content in three areas, divination dance, command, and heavenly sacrifice.

Divination dance was an extremely unique language based on limb movements. Not understanding it Zuo Mo viewed it as dancing around madly.

Command meant orders, curses and acts.

Heavenly sacrifice was to communicate with the world.

Only when the three were in perfect sync could a shen technique be cast.

At long last, his efforts did not fail him. In the last subordinate record, Zuo Mo found the simplest shen technique—[Light Finger].

Zuo Mo chose it for a very simple reason, because its divination dance only required dancing of the fingers. There was nothing else more suited for Zuo Mo because he had not forgotten his practiced finger motions.

As expected, Zuo Mo who had the foundation of finger motions could quickly finish the entire divination dance smoothly. Of course, it really was simple, and only had three movements.

This caused Zuo Mo’s confidence to grow.

The command was very simple, only one word.

The hardest was the heavenly sacrifice. Zuo Mo took two whole hours to familiarize himself.

Yet Zuo Mo quickly found that even if he was familiar with all three parts, it was not so simple for them to work together. Losing one or the other would occasionally occur, and the three were unable to reach a perfect meld.

Zuo Mo was not demotivated. Failure was common to him.

He repeatedly practiced.

His sweat flowed down his forehead and his neck. His terrible endurance made him feel the exhaustion he had not felt for a long time but he gritted his teeth and persisted.

His fingers moved rapidly and then pointed at the rock nearby as he shouted, “Break!”

His eyes widened and the heavenly sacrifice was finished in an instant!

The shen power in his body suddenly moved.

Bam!

A muffled sound. Zuo Mo stilled.

Success? Had he succeeded?

When his gaze moved towards the place that had just made the sound, his eyes widened and he was stunned where he stood.

A rock hole with a diameter of one zhang was in front of him.

Zuo Mo unconsciously walked towards the rock hole. The mouth was even bigger than he was tall and dazed him. The walls of the hole was smooth as though they were carved with a knife. The inside was completely dark and Zuo Mo walked in as though he was possessed.

One zhang, two zhang, three zhang … …

Twenty zhang, the hole was twenty zhang deep!

Translator Ramblings: I’m not sure if Fang Xiang did it deliberately but he described Zuo Mo crawling over the wall like a vine in a previous chapter and then Zuo Mo ends up meeting someone from the Greenvine Tribe in his dreams right after … …

Zuo Mo, you have to work for your power … … dance like a madman, dance like your jingshi depends on it.

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