Translator: Timothy_ Editor: mjn0898
“There’s an ancient ruin on the Great Zhou mountain?” Ye Mo asked after a while.
The monkey-mouthed foundation establishment state cultivator was dazed for a moment and said uncertainly, “So, friend, you’re not here for the ruin. Well there’s indeed a ruin in there….”
“Monkey Jian, you’re scamming people again.” A tall handsome male cultivator walked up to Ye Mo and saluted with his fists. “Friend, it’s your first time at the Mang Mountain right? Don’t trust Monkey Jian, this guy’s tricking you. How can there be so many ruins?”
Monkey Jian saw this foundation establishment state cultivator and his face immediately changed. He turned to leave without even saying anything to Ye Mo.
Ye Mo studied this handsome male cultivator, he was also foundation establishment state but was at the peak stage. He seemed cheerful and genuine, but Ye Mo had the feeling that his words weren’t as truthful as Monkey Jian.
“This is your first time here at the Mang Mountain town right? I’m Duan Yitai, I’ve been here for some time. That guy you just saw is Monkey Jian, he scams foreign cultivators. You don’t need to believe him friend.” Duan Yitai smiled seemingly very genuine.
Ye Mo saluted with his fists and asked, “Then may I ask brother Duan if there really is an ancient ruin on the Great Zhou mountain?”
Duan Yitai smiled. “Monkey Jian isn’t completely lying to you about this, everyone knows about the ancient ruin on the mountain, but that isn’t the case now. It was ten years ago, large amounts of ancient ruins were revealed. Many cultivators came to search them. More and more cultivators came eventually forming a small market. Mang Mountain Town was built at that time.”
“In that case then how is Monkey Jian scamming?” Ye Mo asked in confusion.
Duan Yitai shook his head. “It’s because the ruin isn’t real. Six years ago, those people searching for the ruin eventually found a large lava pond. Almost all cultivators thought that was the entrance to the ruin, but in the end the lava pond exploded and none of the cultivators survived. There were said to be tens of thousands of casualties. Even now, you can still find some magic artifact shards at the outskirts of the lava pond. Some lucky cultivators might even get a golden core state master’s storage ring.”
Ye Mo frowned, thinking that Xin Zhida ‘s grandpa was also tricked into coming here and died to the lava pond.
Duan Yitai explained, “After the lava pond exploded, many masters came to check it out – there was even a truth realisation state cultivator – but they dind’t find anything. In the beginning, people came looking for storage rings, but as time went on, there were less and less people.”
So that was it – Ye Mo finally realized why the town was built so well but the population was so low. The spirit chi here was arid and it really didn’t seem like a place the herb king spirit range was at.
Ye Mo was sure that Duan Yitai didn’t lie to him about this as he could ask other people at any time about this.
Just when Ye Mo wanted to leave, Duan Yitai stopped him and said, “Although the ancient ruin is fake, there’re quite some good things not far away from here.
“This isn’t a place to talk, please come with me.”
Ye Mo was a nascent soul state level five cultivator and wasn’t going to be afraid of Duan Yitai, so he followed without question.
Duan Yitai was very happy with Ye Mo’s attitude. The two didn’t go very far before coming to a luxurious small building. There was a decent spirit gathering formation outside.
Going inside, Ye Mo realized that it was a spirit rest tower. Many cultivators were resting here and chatting. A few foundation establishment states were discussing about the pill king tournament loudly. Ye Mo and Duan Yitai walked up slowly and listened.
“Brother Hong, is that pill king Ye really that strong?” a middle aged man female cultivator with a knife scar on her face asked upon hearing that skinny old man talk.
The old man looked at the female cultivator in contempt and raised his voice, “He’s not just strong, just when everyone thought he was a level seven spirit pill master and didn’t have a rare flame, he beat all the pill kings in the first and second round and got first. On the 12 pill king steps, he took out the rare flame Purple Flower Fire and fought his way up. No pill king could compare with him, not even a Half Immortal pill king.”
“How come I’ve heard that there was a pill king called Jiu Qian? He seems to be on par with that pill king Ye,” another cultivator said.
The old man’s face was very excited. “Yea, that Jiu Qian is also a tough guy. He acted as a level nine spirit pill master but was actually a level six pill king. He even took out heaven flame One Purple Flare at the tenth pill king step…”
Many cultivators exclaimed hearing this.
“But at this time, that level seven pill king Ye Mo reached out his hand and also released a flame, do you know what flame it is?” the old man asked.
“What flame is it?” a few cultivators subconsciously asked.
“Hehe, also a heaven flame called Mist Lotus Heart Fire. Its color was deeper than the One Purple Flare. In the end, pill king Ye concocted heaven grade level seven pills with Mist Lotus Heart Fire, but Jiu Qian failed.”
“Brother Hong, how do you know it so well?” another cultivator asked.
The old said proudly, “Because I saw the pill king tournament. When I was close to pill king Ye, it was only 10 meters.”
Suddenly, the knife scarred female cultivator asked shakily, “Brother Hong, did you say that pill king Ye is Ye Mo? He’s really Ye Mo?”
The old man said in contempt, “He’s called Ye Mo for sure, he changed his name to Luo Xiaomo and then admitted he was Ye Mo. He also has a city called Mo Yue City, why would I lie? There were many people who went to see the tournament, if you don’t believe me you can ask around.”
The female cultivator became very excited and said shakily, “Big brother Hong, can you give me a painting of pill king Ye? I’ll give you spirit stones.”
Ye Mo scanned that female cultivator with his spirit sense, he didn’t think that an irrelevant pill king would cause her to be that excited.
Ye Mo watched her closely and realized that he had indeed never seen her before. He didn’t know why she was so excited after hearing his name, but suddenly, Duan Yitai said to Ye Mo, “Friend, we’re here.”
He opened the room and Ye Mo saw there were two cultivators there already, both foundation establishment state. One was actually a monk, the other of middle build, with short hair and black cultivator robes.
Duan Yitai brought Ye Mo in and said, “These two are Lu Xiu and Li Jilei.” Then he said to the two, “The person who came with me is…”
Ye Mo saluted with his fists and said, “I’m Ning Xiaoma, greetings.”
Duan Yitai waited for Ye Mo to sit down before saying, “Since everyone knows each other now, I’ll be straightforward. Brother Ning, there’s a swamp in the outskirts of the Great Zhou Mountain called Zhou River Swamp. Have you heard of it brother Ning?”
Ye Mo shook his head.
“Brother Li, you can tell him, you found it,” Duan Yitai said to that blue robed short haired cultivator.
Li Jilei nodded. “Half a month ago, I went to Great Zhou Mountain with a few friends to look for magic artifact shards, but I smelled this aroma. I was sure that it was herb aroma. Just smelling it cleared my spirit, I feel it’s at least a level seven or above spirit herb.”
“At the time, we were all very excited and charged to the source of the aroma. However, we found it to be inside the Zhou River Swamp. When we went inside, we startled a level five spirit beast. Before we did anything, the spirit beast was enraged and two of my friends died in the swamp. Only I survived.”
Then, Li Jilei subconsciously glanced at Ye Mo and saw that he was listening intently, so he said with some excitement, “I went back and invited a few more friends over, but I never smelled that aroma again. My frends thought I was lying to them so they all left, but I stayed. After a few more hours, I smelled that aroma again and it was different than the herb smell last time. This time, it only lasted about 8 minutes.”
At this moment, Duan Yitai intervened, “After we heard what brother Li said, we felt it’s an ancient herb garden. It’s very ancient and has many types of spirit herbs.”
Li Jilei nodded again. “That’s right, we went and checked a few days later and gathered that there would be herb aroma at midday only.”
Ye Mo suddenly asked, “So you want me to go with you guys to find that spirit herb garden?”