Chapter 83: Ancient World Marsh
The Ancient World Marsh is in the southeast area of the continent. Originally it was an undeveloped wilderness, the surrounding thousands of kilometers were all marshland. All kinds of monsters and poisonous plants were spread out all across it. Dense clouds darkened the skies of the marsh and not a single ray of sunlight shone upon it all year round. Yet, the traces of various cultivators regularly appeared in this kind of place, collecting herbs for alchemy or capturing monsters to control or refine. For cultivators, the Ancient World Marsh is undoubtedly a god gifted natural treasure house. It truly is endless and inexhaustible, those with good luck might even encounter an unexpected surprise.
Although, the Ancient World Marsh is truly too vast. So many people are like a drop in the ocean, even when there are rare encounters things often remain peaceful.
The inside of the marsh is filled with miasma that lingers all year round. It has already settled in for over 10000 years of time, severely disturbing the spiritual energy flow here. It is a hundred times more complicated than the Black Cloud Underground Palace suppressing the Netherworld Blood River underground.
Don’t mention foundation establishment stage and aurous core stage cultivators, even if a nascent soul stage old monster came in it would still be very difficult for him to discover the tracks of others.
It’s precisely because of this that Lin Feng dares to swagger on into the marsh.
Afterall, strictly speaking the Ancient World Marsh belongs to the Great Zhou Dynasty’s territory.
Lin Feng just took out the House of the Marquis of Xuanji’s second steward and then is now barging into their backyard. Without the Ancient World Marsh’s special topography, he can just wait to be hunted down.
But this kind of complex topography has undoubtedly also greatly increased Lin Feng’s difficulty of finding the galactic sand. Blindly looking for it is no different from from looking for a needle in the sea. (TL: Chinese version of looking for needle in a haystack, the Chinese have it much harder,)
“The system only mentioned that the Ancient World Marsh produces galactic sand, but it didn’t have the specific location. How should I look for it?” Lin Feng controlled the Black Cloud Flag and descended from the sky.
What entered the eyes was all swamp and quagmire. Some pulsed with bubbles while some looked ordinary, but they were actually even more dangerous. Unsuspecting people who set their foot down don’t need to think of coming back up anymore.
Lin Feng carefully distinguished the area and landed on a relatively dry piece of land. He stared at the thousand kilometer marshland before him and also couldn’t help but feel a bit worried.
Wang Lin’s expression was also down, he asked: “Master, how should we search for the galactic sand?”
“I also want to know.” Lin Feng laughed helplessly in his heart, but on the surface he didn’t reveal any signs. He said calm and composed “Searching for the galactic sand is but a small matter. What’s more important about this trip is to train you well.”
Lin Feng turned his head looking at Wang Lin. He said slowly: “You should also know that your bone root and talent are not outstanding.”
Wang Lin lowered his head. His master’s words have already shown consideration for his pride. He also knows that his bone root is far more than not outstanding, it’s practically terrible, even worse than a regular person.
That’s why since entering under Lin Feng’s teaching, Wang Lin has always been training with great diligence. Under the help of the Netherworld Bead he has had a certain degree of success, but compared to the speed of Xiao Yan and the other two who virtually have a new look everyday, his improvement is virtually small enough to be negligible.
Being apprentice-brothers with these three monsters, Wang Lin’s pressure is even great than when he was in the Mount Heng School. Even with his unwavering mind, his confidence was dealt a big blow. He could only work even harder.
Lin Feng said: “It is precisely because of this that I want you to receive even more polishing and training.”
“You have very good potential. You are a good piece of jade, but you need even more polishing than the average person to be able to let you glow with amazing splendor. Maybe all of this polishing will make you suffer a lot.” Lin Feng said word by word: “I believe that you will ultimately succeed.”
Wang Lin’s heart warmed and he nodded his head: “I will definitely work hard, I will not disappoint Master’s expectations.”
Lin Feng nodded his head in contentment. He pointed at the endless marshland before them: “This Ancient World Marsh is your first training location. No doubt looking for galactic sand here is beset with difficulties, but you must remember that galactic sand is just an incidental goal. The key is that you must learn from the experience and hone yourself.”
“Your other three apprentice-brothers have been with me for a long time already. They have the ability to protect themselves so I let them out to train. At the moment your strength is insufficient, so this time I am following beside you to protect you.” Lin Feng continued saying: “Training is not getting yourself killed. If there really is danger I will naturally come forward, but other matters, including searching for galactic sand all have to be dealt with by yourself. Only like this can their be a training effect.”
“Do you understand?”
Wang Lin bowed saying: “I understand, rest assured Master.”
Successfully bamboozling Wang Lin, Lin Feng’s faces revealed a pleased smile.
The Wang Lin of now may be far from amounting to anything and searching for galactic sand in this vast marshland mainly still depends on Lin Feng himself, but he believes that Wang Lin’s blessing of 8 will also be great help.
At the very least it won’t let him return empty handed, right?
Not to mention his words just now were not just for show. Compared to the other three Wang Lin is limited by his bone root of only 5. The initial stage of his cultivation will be extremely difficult. Even though he has a will of 10 to support himself, as his master Lin Feng also has to regularly encourage him.
This is beneficial to deepening the relationship between the master and disciple and at the same time building up his glorious image in his disciple’s heart.
Thus, the method of searching became Wang Lin carefully scouting out the path in front step by step while Lin Feng followed behind pretending to be profound.
But Lin Feng wasn’t completely idle either. The spiritual energy in the marshland may be chaotic, but he can still vaguely sense it in close distances.
“Hm? This mana fluctuation… A foundation establishment stage cultivator?” While walking, Lin Feng suddenly sensed a strong mana fluctuation right nearby him.
After having seen nascent soul stage old monsters and aurous core stage cultivators, foundation establishment stage cultivators can no longer attract Lin Feng’ attention. Even though compared to them, Lin Feng who is currently only at the great circle of perfection of the qi disciple stage is still greatly behind in terms of mana and it is the difference between the river and the sea.
But with Lin Feng’s current strength, the majority of foundation establishment stage cultivators really aren’t anything to him. Unless the person also possesses a powerful magic item or trump card.
“Besides one foundation establishment stage cultivator there are also a couple of qi disciple stages.”
Quietly sensing for a moment, Lin Feng had a good idea in his heart. He secretly transmitted his voice to Wang Lin: “Little Lin, another few hundred meters forward and you will encounter a foundation establishment stage cultivator and a couple of qi disciple stage cultivators. I will not appear, if something happens you deal with it yourself.”
“Communicating and interacting with others is also a form of training.”
Hearing this Wang Lin nodded his head.
Lin Feng slowed down his speed and became increasingly further from Wang Lin. Miasma is heavy in the marsh and heavily affects the vision. If Lin Feng doesn’t use his mana, with the concealment of the system there isn’t anyone who can discover him from far away.
Both sides have already gotten very close. The fog spread apart revealing the figures of four people.
The one who attracted Lin Feng’s attention first was definitely the linen-robed middle-aged man amongst them, because he is the foundation establishment stage cultivator that Lin Feng sensed before.
This person is tall and skinny, he’s practically like a bamboo pole propping up the linen robe.
In addition there are also two youths wearing tight uniforms and they both have qi disciple stage cultivation level. Them two and that linen-robed middle aged man are gathered around a fine-clothed youth.
The fine-clothed youth may only have qi disciple stage cultivation level, but he is clearly the leader of the group. Looking at his demeanor, Lin Feng knows that this kid is a legendary X second generation. That linen-robed middle-aged man should be sent by his family to protect him. (TL: The Chinese call the children of someone with a special characteristic the X second generation. So a rich kid would be a rich second generation, the child of a government official is a government official second generation and you get the point. Of course, this is just direct translation. Although this term is more commonly used as a derogatory term describing kids who abuse their status or their parent’s power.)
Right now the fine-clothed youth had a stumped expression: “If I’d known earlier that the Ancient World Marsh is so boring I wouldn’t have come in.”
One of the followers behind him smiled kissing up to him: “Young Master, the reason we came in this time is mainly to earn merits.”
The fine-clothed youth said impatiently: “I know, do I need you to tell me? 3000 elite Shenwu Soldiers coming in to capture rebels. So many people to split merits but there are only so many rebels. How much can I get?”
“3000 Shenwu Soldiers, capturing rebels?” Lin Feng who was hidden far away heard their conversation and a thought appeared in his mind: “Looks like there were people resisting against the Great Zhou Dynasty’s rule, and after they failed they escaped into the Ancient World Marsh, hoping to use the natural defense of the marsh to evade their pursuers.
The linen-robed middle-aged man’s skinny face revealed a light smile: “Young Master Xue, there may be a lot of people who have entered this time, but the Ancient World Marsh’s terrain is inherently limited. The number of people who can benefit are after all the minority.”
Towards the linen-robed middle-aged man, the fine-clothed youth Xue Chao still maintained a degree of respect. He nodded his head: “Mister Ma speaks the truth.” (TL: The Ma of this guy’s name is the same character for linen.)
Mister Ma continued saying: “Moreover there are also their families and children who followed those rebels into the Ancient World Marsh this time. These people are very easy to capture, they’re virtually free merits.”
Xue Chao felt reinvigorated: “Exactly so.”
They were using mana to transmit their voices the whole time, but they didn’t know that everything was heard by Lin Feng who was at the side. Only after finishing their chat did they have the interest to go in front of Wang Lin and get a look of him.
Wang Lin brought his fists together: “My name is Wang Lin, greetings seniors.”
“Qi disciple level 2 only?” Xue Chao rolled his eyes and turned his head not even looking at Wang Lin. Mister Ma who was as skinny as a bamboo pole also didn’t have the interest to speak. One of the youths in a tight uniform smiled asking: “You dare to enter into the Ancient World Marsh with your mere cultivation level of qi disciple level 2, you’ve got big balls.”
Wang Lin answered with grace: “I came here to train under my master’s orders. I am looking for something called galactic sand. Have any of you heard of this item before? If you can tell my I will be deeply grateful.”
Just finishing speaking, Wang Lin noticed in astoundment that the expressions of the four people across from him all changed. Their eyes stared straight at him.
The tight-uniformed youth who questioned him before continued asking: “You’re looking for galactic sand?”
Seeing this, Lin Feng who was in the shadows slightly furrowed his brows. Wang Lin also felt that something was a bit off. He carefully responded: “That’s right.”
Hearing this, that fine-clothed youth Xue Chao waved his hand.
“Take this person down first!”