The Attack of the Wastrel

Hey guys, great news!  Two more top-performing sneak peek Chinese novels licensed from Zongheng have left VIP-only and are available for you to read, each with fifty chapters and a 2/day schedule!  These novels are Yama Rising, translated by Minotauruz (who did the great translation of Demoness' Art of Vengeance) and Star Odyssey, translated by OMA who did Warlock of the Magus World and City of Sin!  Both are veteran and highly capable translators, and I'm excited to bring this to y'all.

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“It’s…gone?” Seeing the Fenlan Painting turn into a scroll and falling into Gu Lingzhi’s hands, Fang Yue swallowed and asked. He could not believe that such a big problem had been resolved so easily.

“Not yet.” Gu Lingzhi’s gaze brushed over him, her face slightly pale.

The Fenlan Painting could trap organisms that were lower in cultivation level than the user but there was a limit to the number it could hold. She had sucked in so many Bat Beasts in a single use and it was weighing on her. She could not hold onto them for very long. She gritted her teeth and said, “I have only sealed them for the time being. I still need you guys to kill them batch by batch.”

Wei Lingshu immediately caught on, “Rest assured, as long as the number is not too much, we can deal with it.”

Gu Lingzhi nodded and released a small number of Bat Beasts. Tens of Bat Beasts, which had just been in the beautiful flowery landscape of the Fenlan Painting a few moments ago were suddenly thrown out into the pitch black darkness of the Heavenly Lands. They were slightly disoriented. Everyone did not give the Bat Beasts time to focus and immediately charge upon them using various weapons to take them down.

Without the pressure of numbers, they very quickly wiped out the tens of Bat Beasts and were ready for the next batch to be released.

Even with the help of the Fenlan Painting, they still used over two hours to kill off all the Bat Beasts. Once they made sure there were no more Bat Beasts in the Fenlan Painting, all of them fell to the ground in exhaustion.

It had only been one day since they came in and it was already so exhausting. Must their time here be so thrilling?

Although all of them were uncertain about their journey, no one from the Spirit City had any intention of turning back. As long as they were not engulfed by the Insect Beasts, they would not give up. The amount of spiritual energy left to use in the Spirit City was…limited.

After the interruption by the Bat Beasts, no one wanted to rest anymore. Using his compass to determine the direction, Wei Lingshu then led everyone forward.

The rest of the journey passed surprisingly smoothly. Maybe their initial bad luck had run out, but in the next few days they hardly came across any beasts. After three more rests, they had reached the centre of the Heavenly Lands.

“Leader Wei, are you sure it’s here?” Gu Lingzhi looked at the electric sphere in front of her that was formed by numerous blue-black lightning and thought that Wei Lingshu had found the wrong place.

This must be a joke. Just one lightning strike was enough to get injured. With so many lightning bolts in the air, getting struck would mean literal death. Even the Anti-lightning Robe would not be enough with the amount of lightning bolts in the sky. The flashes turned the space above it blue. Even a fly would not be able to fly over it, much less a human.

“I am sure.” As Wei Lingshu saw the gigantic electric sphere made up of numerous blue-black lightning bolts, he was extremely excited. “Didn’t the two of you want to know what the Martial Artists in the Spirit City use to train? This is the Spiritual Origin!”

“Spiritual Origin?” Gu Lingzhi followed his gaze and looked at the electric sphere, “This electricity?”

Wei Lingshu nodded heavily, “That’s them! By looking at the spiritual energy in the Lost Lands, if the tribe leader did not send someone every ten years to collect some of these Spiritual Origins, I am afraid that the Spirit City would not even have any spiritual energy at all.”

Explaining things to Gu Lingzhi in a few simple sentences, Wei Lingshu excitedly took a step forward. His entire body stood, bathing in blue light.

The numerous electric bolts formed a gigantic sphere, creating a crisp and clear environment around it. There was absolutely no black fog within three feet of the electric sphere.

Looking at Wei Lingshu, Gu Lingzhi observed how he brought his right hand over the Storage Ring on his left hand and a black bottle appeared in his hands. Turning back to the two of them, Wei Lingshu smiled, “The space isolated by the electric sphere is similar to the Lost Lands and we can use spiritual energy here.”

He then walked over and placed the black bottle into Rong Yuan’s hands, “This is something that we made specially to collect the Spiritual Origins. It can collect the electric here without shattering. After altering it slightly when we get back, it turns into spiritual energy that people can use for cultivation.”

Looking at the intricate black bottle in his hands, Rong Yuan raised his brows, “Leader Wei, you handed this over to me so easily, aren’t you afraid that I would kill all of you upon receiving such a treasure? I can easily tell everyone else that all of you were killed by beasts.”

“You won’t.” Wei Lingshu was calm, “Both of you are smart people.” And smart people will not do stupid things.

Since they dared to ask a Demigod to join them on the journey, it meant that they were confident of controlling him. At the very least, they will not be taken advantage of.

“I admit to this.” Rong Yuan was completely at ease as he took it as a compliment. He examined the bottle in his hands, “How do I use this? It can’t be that I just directly fill it right?”

After he said this, he saw the awkward expression on Wei Lingshu’s face. Wei Lingshu looked to be in a dilemma as he nodded his head, “As of now, we have not thought of a better way to collect Spiritual Origin and can only collect it strand by strand.”

They really were going to collect it directly! Rong Yuan’s eyes twitched as he had a bad feeling about this. Alas, he saw Wei Lingshu speak slowly, “The Spiritual Origin is made up of a mess of spiritual energy lacking spiritual knowledge. To prevent ourselves from touching it and injuring our consciousness, we have always made a net using our spiritual energy and catch the Spiritual Origin, strand by strand into the bottle. The higher your cultivation and the better control you have over your spiritual energy, the faster you will be able to collect Spiritual Origin. Dear two elders, we will have to trouble you from here on.”

Rong Yuan remained silent as his gaze turned silently to the others who had already started collecting the Spiritual Origins.

He saw as they rubbed their fists and created different net shapes to catch the Spiritual Origin. The Spiritual Origin seemed to have a mind on its own and as soon as it sensed spiritual energy near it, it would start to dance crazily in the air. Even the people catching it were jumping around chaotically.

Rong Yuan was dumbfounded. They wanted him, the Third Prince of the Xia Kingdom, one of the highest ranked members in the Alliance, to jump around like a lady trying to catch butterflies? 

Without waiting for him to reject, Wei Lingshu had already turned around to start catching Spiritual Origin. Gu Lingzhi patted his shoulder, attempting to console him before she joined the ‘butterfly’ catching…no…the Spiritual Origin catching.

Standing at the edge of the black fog, Rong Yuan’s face remained blank. After Gu Lingzhi had caught one Spiritual Origin strand, she saw that he still had not moved and her mouth turned up in a mischievous smile, “Why aren’t you coming in? Could it be that you are scared that you would not be able to catch as many as the others? Even so, I don’t think Leader Wei will blame you.”

Rong Yuan threw her a bitter look, “Who’s scared of him?”

She clearly knew why he did not want to enter and yet she intentionally tried to agitate him. Did she really want to see him embarrassed?

“If that is not the case, then come in. Leader Wei said earlier that we can only stay here for up to three days. Any longer and we will be affected by the energy of the Spiritual Origin. When we leave, we will easily get affected by the strands of Spiritual Origin in the black fog and we will stand to lose more than we gain.”

Under Gu Lingzhi’s urging, Rong Yuan finally moved his legs and stepped into the area around the electric sphere. In one step, he crossed from the darkness into the sky blue light. Mimicking others, he made a net using his spiritual energy and guided it to a solo strand of Spiritual Origin.

Although the Spiritual Origin did not have spiritual knowledge, it was sensitive to danger. The moment that Rong Yuan threw the net, it suddenly shot away. Its skinny body danced in front of Rong Yuan’s face. Rong Yuan’s face darkened. It was the first time in his entire life that he had actually tried to ‘catch butterflies’ and he had failed?

“Hahahahahaha…” Gu Lingzhi could not help but burst into laughter as she saw the rotten look on Rong Yuan’s face. It was the first time she felt that the Lost Lands was not that bad after all.

“How dare you laugh at me?!” Rong Yuan glared at her. However, the loving look in his eyes made the supposedly fierce glare seem teasing.

Lin Mengyan was standing nearest to them and had a clear view of the entire scene of Gu Lingzhi making fun of Rong Yuan. When the day came and she had successfully earned Leader Wei’s heart, they would display their affection all day! 

With the addition of Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan, they collected the Spiritual Origin strands a lot faster this year as compared to the previous year. In just one and a half days, they had completely filled all the black bottles that they had brought. With such a fast speed, it made Wei Lingshu, who had been there a few times, could not help but look at the two of them with admiration.

Catching the Spiritual Origin strands were not very difficult, but it was very picky with regard to the control and use of spiritual energy. If one was not able to control their spiritual energy well, not only would they waste their spiritual energy, they might also injure those around them. But the two of them controlled their spiritual energy down to the smallest detail. The instruments that they created to catch the Spiritual Origin, the net, whip and rattan were all direct and efficient and there was not a single bit of spiritual energy that got dispelled inaccurately.

Every strand of Spiritual Origin that they set their eyes upon, did not escape.

Additionally, if he did not count wrongly, the spiritual energy that the two of them used to catch the Spiritual Origin strands were much less than everyone else. It was not common to meet people that had such delicate control of their spiritual energy.

He had a premonition that the Lost Lands were about to experience a big change. What he did not know was that the place that was going to experience the big change was nowhere other than their Spirit City. But this was all in the future. Now, they all wore satisfied looks as they started to head back. After they left, the electric sphere made up of Spiritual Origin had a huge shift. It was as if it was breathing as it shrunk a few times before it returned back to normal.

Their journey back went much more smoothly than their journey here. They managed to rest twice before they met a few stray beasts. Before their attackers could even bare their teeth, they had already dealt with them. When the group got to the place where they had been attacked by the Bat Beasts, they once again chose to rest there.

Behaving as if he owned the place, Rong Yuan once again retrieved materials out of his Storage Ring and built a tent for him and Gu Lingzhi under everyone’s indignant gazes. Once the tent was built, he grabbed Gu Lingzhi and brought her in.

With a good night’s rest, they were re-energised and felt extremely alert as they continued to head back. When they finally walked out of the black fog and once again stepped into the boundaries of the Heavenly Lands, Wei Lingshu knocked his head as he turned back to look at the black fog behind him, “Why does it feel unusually easy this time?”

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