Chapter 479: Testing the Physique

"Testing?" Cheng Feng leaned back, the chair back emitting a soft sound, "Your Highness, this test of yours, won't it test me out of existence?"

Wang Ji ignored his glibness, set down her teacup, stood up, and walked toward the depths of the warm pavilion.

Only then did Cheng Feng notice that there was more than met the eye behind the sandalwood screen—Wang Ji reached out and pressed a spot on the wall, and a hidden door slid open silently, revealing stone steps leading downward. The sides of the stone steps were inlaid with night-luminescent pearls, their cold light eerie, making the stairs look like they led to some underground palace.

"Follow." Wang Ji did not look back.

Cheng Feng took a deep breath and stood up to follow. As he passed by the screen, his peripheral vision caught a black shadow standing quietly there; he could not make out its features, but that cold, gloomy aura was a few degrees thicker than before.

Cheng Feng pretended not to see it and followed Wang Ji down the steps.

The stone steps were not long; he reached the bottom in about thirty steps.

Below was a square stone chamber, about two zhang across. The four walls were carved with dense, intricate runes, and in the center of the floor was embedded a piece of ink-colored jade the size of a millstone. The jade surface was as smooth as a mirror, with dark light faintly flowing across it.

"Put your hand on it." Wang Ji stood beside the jade and nudged her chin toward the ink jade.

Cheng Feng walked up and reached out to press his hand onto the jade surface. The touch was ice-cold, like touching a block of iron in the dead of winter, and that chill burrowed into his bones through his palm. Just as he was about to speak, the jade suddenly lit up.

A trace of golden light emerged from the depths of the ink color, as if something inside the jade had been awakened, and then that golden light spread along the edges of his palm, covering the entire jade surface in the blink of an eye.

The golden light grew increasingly intense, and the runes on the four walls of the stone chamber lit up one after another as if ignited. A low, humming sound surged from all directions, shaking Cheng Feng's chest until it felt stifled.

He wanted to pull his hand back, but discovered his palm seemed to be stuck to the jade, unable to be withdrawn no matter what.

"Don't move." Wang Ji's voice sounded from behind, carrying a rare note of gravity, "The Lingyin Jade is sensing the origin of your physique; forcing an interruption will damage your meridians."

Cheng Feng gritted his teeth and steadied his stance. The golden light became increasingly blinding; he felt as if something were being dragged out from the depths of his bone marrow, surging toward his palm along his meridians.

That feeling was not painful, but extremely strange, as if someone were using an invisible comb to groom every inch of his tendons, bones, and blood vessels from the inside out.

This process lasted for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea.

The golden light suddenly receded; all the radiance retreated like a receding tide, and the stone chamber plunged back into the eerie, cold light of the night-luminescent pearls.

Cheng Feng's palm snapped away from the jade. He staggered back two steps and looked down at his hand—a shallow black pattern had appeared on his palm, shaped like a scale, and it was slowly fading beneath his skin.

"Snake Scale Mark." A hint of a smile appeared in Wang Ji's voice, "The feedback from the Lingyin Jade cannot be wrong; your physique is the Flood Snake Physique, belonging to the water element."

???

Why does my Panmian show it as Flood Dragon Body?

Cheng Feng clenched his fist; the chill in his palm had dissipated, replaced by a warm, tingling sensation, as if something were lying dormant beneath his skin.

"Is that the end of the test?"

"Not yet." Wang Ji walked to the other side of the stone chamber, took a palm-sized bronze mirror from the wall, and handed it to Cheng Feng, "Take a look."

Cheng Feng took the bronze mirror, looked down, and nearly threw it away.

Reflected in the mirror were not the familiar features he knew, but half a face covered in dark cyan scales.

Those scales started from the corner of his left eye and spread along his cheekbone down to his jaw, their edges glowing with a faint black light, identical in color to the pattern on his palm.

What was even more dire was that the pupil of his left eye had turned into a slit, like a snake and yet like a dragon, staring coldly at himself outside the mirror.

"This is the residual effect of the Lingyin Jade activating the Flood Snake bloodline within you; it will fade after the time it takes to burn a stick of incense."

Wang Ji took the bronze mirror back from his hand, her tone as flat as if she were saying the weather was nice today,

"This proves your Flood Snake Physique is not some half-baked, defective product; the bloodline fusion rate is very high. That giant python must have been intercepted by you at the critical moment of its transformation into a flood dragon; its entire essence and blood became your gain, which is equivalent to you swallowing the foundation of a quasi-flood dragon."

"The Great Zhou Record of Strange Physiques also has records of this: a strange Flood Snake, with scales covering its entire body, possesses extremely strong defense and high flexibility; among the physiques of Martial Artists who temper their bodies, it counts as a Grade B-plus talent."

Cheng Feng touched the scales on his face; they felt hard and smooth, like real scales.

He suddenly recalled the feeling when he consumed the python's flesh and blood in Qingxi County—his whole body felt as if it were burning, and the pain made him roll on the ground, nearly biting his own tongue off.

Later, that scorching heat merged into his limbs and bones, his strength surged overnight, and practicing his Body Tempering Technique became twice as effective with half the effort.

He had always thought it was just good luck; now he knew it was an opportunity bought with his life.

If it weren't for the Flower Blooming and Withering, he probably would have exploded.

"Your Highness," Cheng Feng lowered his hand, his face returning to that roguish expression, "Now that you've gotten to the bottom of my secrets, shouldn't you fulfill your promise?"