Chapter 277: Tiger Crouches, Dragon Coils

"Hate Heaven for having no rings?"

That thought flashed and was immediately dismissed, yet the five fingers Li Yuan had extended suddenly clenched tight.

With this clench, a wild wind erupted inside the room, as if the entire airflow of the house was gripped in his palm, emitting a muffled thunderous roar.

The whole small courtyard emitted a hum in response.

"Tomorrow I'll have to repair Sister Fang's house..."

The wild wind scattered the furnishings inside the room; Li Yuan lay on the ground, his smile uncontrollable at the corner of his mouth:

"Good, good, good! It was not in vain for this Daoist Priest to expend such great effort!"

He only felt as if a volcano that had accumulated energy for tens of millions of years was about to erupt within his body.

That was the Split-Sea Black Whale Hammer.

Since obtaining the Command of Weapons Talisman, Li Yuan had commanded countless weapons, yet he had never perceived the enhancement of the weapons he commanded so clearly.

Even though he had not actively triggered it, a violent change unprecedented in his body had already occurred.

His perception and spiritual power seemed to have surged immensely, allowing him to perceive his own changes with incomparable clarity.

Beneath his skin, it seemed as if countless small snakes were writhing, entangling, and killing each other; the sound of tendons and bones grinding grew increasingly violent, until later, it even produced the sound of clashing metal.

Skin, great tendons, bones, and even blood vessels and muscle fibers trembled and vibrated incessantly, like raw iron hammered a hundred times into steel.

"Talent!"

Li Yuan murmured in his heart.

The four effects of the first layer of command of the Split-Sea Black Whale Hammer, including the Power of Moving Stars, were, in a sense, all talents!

He still could not understand what kind of positioning an eleventh-rank talent represented, but he felt this was at least the highest grade 'Unmatched Through the Ages' in the quality assessment of the Life-Nurturing Furnace.

Every single one was Unmatched Through the Ages!

Crack, crack, crack~

Li Yuan's whole body tensed; this was his great tendons stretching, transforming toward the talent enhanced by the Black Whale Hammer.

Combining fifty-one forms and also cultivating various external hardening methods, Li Yuan's great tendons were already extremely tough; even the bowstring of a hundred-stone strong bow might not compare to them.

But at this moment, as the great tendons transformed, it was like a small snake transforming into a flood dragon; with a slight stretch, Li Yuan felt as if the skin all over his body was about to be torn apart.

Undergoing the same change were his bones; he seemed to hear the sound of clashing metal. His bones were growing, and a numbness and pain like a tide surged through his whole body.

"Pain, it is truly painful."

Li Yuan gritted his teeth. He heard only a few 'snap' sounds; once again, teeth fell out. Moreover, the skin on his face and body was also peeling off, looking extremely terrifying.

Zing~

Great tendons vibrated like a bow; bones ground against each other like swords clashing.

Li Yuan rolled over and sat up, spitting out broken teeth from his mouth. He felt his skin becoming even tighter and firmer, like wearing iron armor; this meant the Iron Shirt technique had reached Great Perfection!

At the same time, he lightly pressed his double fists against his chest, producing a deep bell sound; the Golden Bell Shield had also reached Great Perfection!

These two mid-grade external hardening methods, one taking the Tiger form and the other the Golden Bell form, after reaching Great Perfection, simultaneously altered his bone structure, crossing the threshold of fifty-two and reaching straight to fifty-three.

However, this transformation, which would have been extremely violent in the past, was not very obvious at this moment, completely overshadowed by the talent transformation enhanced by the Black Whale Hammer.

"This feeling, this feeling..."

The transformation of bones and great tendons was violent, yet Li Yuan felt this pain counted for nothing; in his eyes, the world seemed to have changed.

The room with doors and windows tightly closed and no oil lamp under the night sky appeared as bright as day to him; wherever his gaze passed, even the hairs on the corpse of an insect that had been dead for an unknown time within the cracks of the wall bricks were seen clearly.

"Twenty-three insect corpses inside the room, a total of six hundred and seventy-two hairs..."

Li Yuan murmured to himself.

He felt his thinking had become active beyond comparison compared to before; not only the hairs on the insect corpses inside the room, but he could even deduce their struggles before death from the slightest traces!

"Is this the talent of the Unmatched Through the Ages grade?"

Li Yuan slowly stood up, shook off the dead skin all over his body, took out a large handful of pills and swallowed them, including one Jin Shendan and one Jade Body Pill.

His current transformation was due to the enhancement of the Black Whale Hammer being truly too high, causing changes in his tendons and bones, but this change also required pill support, not arising from nothing.

Hoo!

The medicinal power surged; he relaxed his tendons and bones. Various standing postures flowed naturally from the Bai Yuan Stance to the Dragon Zen Stance and the Hun Tian Stance.

He had practiced these standing postures countless times, long ago turning them into muscle memory, but at this moment, he could clearly perceive the lack of coordination in all standing postures and all techniques, including the Dragon Zen Stance and the Hun Tian Stance!

This was not that there was any problem with these martial arts standing postures, but rather a slight mismatch in compatibility with himself.

He had sensed this mismatch to some extent before, but it had long become muscle memory; it was difficult for him to correct it, and he did not even know how to correct it.

He had some foundation in martial arts, but wanting to perfect dozens of Wu Gong, even covering mid-grade secret transmissions and supreme arts, was naturally impossible.

But now, having practiced less than two rounds before and after, he had already corrected all habits and adjusted all standing postures to a state extremely compatible with himself.

Hoo~

In the narrow room, Li Yuan slowly extended his stances, from standing postures to fists and palms, from footwork and lightness skills to sword techniques and hammer techniques, unfolding all the Wu Gong he had learned.

He immersed himself in the enhancement of the Split-Sea Black Whale Hammer, forgetting the violent pain in his body.

Taking pills, practicing martial arts, over and over again.

When the transformation subsided, Li Yuan opened his eyes and exhaled a mouthful of turbid air that blew open the wooden door like a wild wind; at his ear, he heard an extremely high-pitched dragon roar.

That dragon roar came from the mountain gate.

Li Yuan walked out slowly. Under the night sky, he saw smoke gathering; at the ancestral stone plaque, clouds surged, and a pale dragon, seeming to exist and not exist, slowly appeared, roaring loudly.

Then came a ferocious and high-pitched tiger roar!

"Forgot about this..."

Li Yuan was slightly startled in his heart; he did not expect that even several li away, that plaque could still sense him!

However, this did not seem to be a bad thing. Supreme arts were naturally all the more the better for him, especially that Pure Yang Ancestor, who was a proper Daoist Priest.

……

Before nightfall, Dragon Chant Peak.

The wind and snow were urgent; on the mountain path, Wang Shan Xuan Ying walked briskly. Passing the Dragon Stele, he glanced at it once, then quickened his pace and departed.

In Chu Shan Xuan Kong's courtyard, it was quite lively; many disciples of the Dragon Chant Hall were busy, either sweeping snow or hanging lanterns.

Gao Gao Wanyong supervised with his hands behind his back, occasionally scolding a few times. Seeing Wang Shan Xuan Ying rushing over, he sneered:

"Did he agree?"

"Reporting to Senior Brother Gao, he agreed."

Wang Shan Xuan Ying kept his head down, his expression wooden.

"Hmm."

Gao Gao Wanyong was not surprised; he merely glanced at him with a hint of mockery, then waved his hand to let him go down.

The Chu residence had no shortage of usable people, yet he insisted on sending this indecisive one, ensuring he pleased neither side.

"Junior Brother takes his leave."

Wang Shan Xuan Ying felt bitterness in his heart.

The bottleneck of a Grandmaster is as hard as climbing to the sky; once a breakthrough fails, one either dies or is injured. He truly did not expect Chu Shan Xuan Kong to have recovered from his injuries so quickly.

Just as he had casually accepted a mission to suppress newly entered disciples, he happened to encounter Li Yuan, the fifth most talented person in the Dragon-Tiger Temple in two hundred years.

Outside the courtyard gate, Wang Shan Xuan Ying remained silent in his heart. According to the records in the Library Tower, those who survive a failed breakthrough are almost certainly Grandmasters.

Weighing both options, he could only choose this side...

'This time, it should be correct, right?'

"Dog-like thing!"

Inside the courtyard, Gao Gao Wanyong felt even more contemptuous, but he no longer paid attention to Wang Shan Xuan Ying and walked briskly toward the rear courtyard.

The Chu residence occupied a large area; the rear courtyard even had geothermal hot springs. Despite the heavy wind and snow, it was like spring here, with flowers and plants.

When Gao Gao Wanyong arrived quickly, Chu Shan Xuan Kong, wearing a dark green gown, was sitting quietly drinking tea among the plants, with several maids attending him.

"Master, that young man agreed."

Gao Gao Wanyong bowed to report, his peripheral vision sweeping over, feeling a certain awe in his heart.

At this moment, Chu Shan Xuan Kong's beard and hair were gray, his face full of wrinkles, looking like someone about to pass away, yet his complexion was ruddy, his breath peaceful, and in terms of spirit, much better than before.

"That young man is smooth; even if he holds resentment against this old man in his heart, he will not show it."

Chu Shan Xuan Kong held his teacup, mist drifting before his eyes:

"What about the others?"

"Disciples who entered in the past two years, as long as they are in the sect or the city, have all agreed; they dare not not come. But there are still many not in Hengshan City; this is unavoidable."

Gao Gao Wanyong answered respectfully and handed over the list of personnel:

"Including Li Yuan, there are sixty-three inner disciples, and over three hundred outer and menial disciples combined..."

"Less than half?"

Chu Shan Xuan Kong frowned slightly, his eyes cold.

Gao Gao Wanyong felt a chill in his heart; he always felt that after his master's failed breakthrough, he had become unpredictable, and at times, it made him somewhat fearful:

"When they return, this disciple will invite them immediately."

"Hmm... withdraw."

After looking deeply at Gao Gao Wanyong, Chu Shan Xuan Kong lifted his teacup. After the latter left, he dismissed the several maids as well.

"Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing has spirit and chooses its master; those without fate, even great Grandmasters, cannot see it... What is fate? Bone structure, talent, or luck?"

Chu Shan Xuan Kong spoke to himself in his heart, then slowly closed his eyes. In the depths of his eyes, bloodlight seemed to surge, and the Thousand-Eyed Bodhisattva appeared to be sitting in his heart.

"I..."

Chu Shan Xuan Kong was about to communicate when suddenly his heart trembled.

He suddenly raised his head, his gaze sharp, and saw clouds gathering at the mountain gate, with Bai Hu perched on the cloud tops and a green dragon coiling in the clouds.

"Ao!"

"Roar!"

The tiger's roar and dragon's chant followed, echoing through the night, reverberating inside and outside the Dragon-Tiger Temple.

"Tiger perched, dragon coiled?!"

Chu Shan Xuan Kong's pupils contracted, and his expression changed abruptly.

The ancestral stone plaque has stood outside the mountain gate for over two thousand years; the Dragon-Tiger Temple has prospered for a hundred generations; how many disciples have passed under the stone plaque? Millions, at least.

But those who have seen the green dragon shadow appear are still few; those who have seen both the tiger perched and the dragon coiled appear simultaneously, to his knowledge, in over two thousand years, there have been only two people.

And those two were both masters of restoration whose Wu Gong directly rivaled the Dragon Seal and the Pure Yang Ancestor.

"Who is this again?!"

Chu Shan Xuan Kong suddenly stood up, then suddenly stopped. He pressed his hand to his chest, closed his eyes slightly, and the deity sitting in his heart suddenly opened its blood-red eyes.

"Ao!"

As the tiger's roar and dragon's chant echoed, outer disciples on patrol rushed to the mountain gate, and countless others were alerted.

In Hengshan City, the outer and inner gates of the Dragon-Tiger Temple, not only in the Dragon Chant Hall, Hun Tian Hall, and Bai Shou Weishentang, many people walked out of their houses.

Seeing the clear shadows of the green dragon and Bai Hu in the night, everyone's expression changed.

"Dragon coiled, tiger perched?!"

Somewhere in Hengshan City, Fang Chao raised his eyebrows; his heart stirred, and he appeared without a trace on the highest wine tower in the city.

He naturally knew what this scene meant.

"Tiger perched, dragon coiled; this means the lingering wills of those two old immortals inside the stone plaque believe this person has the foundation of a Earthly Immortal!"

Fang Chao's gaze grew slightly cold; from across more than half the city district, he had already locked onto the Dragon-Tiger Temple's mountain gate, sweeping his vision across the passing disciples from afar.

"In the dead of night, it can't be that new disciples are entering the sect, can it?"

His heart turned slightly cold; he suspected this person was most likely the one the Sect Leader Bu Suanzhong had divined—the master of the Profound Whale Hammer residing at Dragon-Tiger Temple, 'Li Li Yuanba'.

"Such a huge commotion; luckily I wasn't in the Inner Gate controlling the Profound Whale Hammer that splits the sea..."

Seeing figures rushing toward him one after another, Li Yuan's heart instantly grew alert; he suppressed his aura and drifted back to Huishan.

With such a huge stir, Daoist Li certainly did not wish to be the center of attention.

Who knows if that great expert of the Xieshen Sect hiding in the city might also be watching from the shadows?

"Hoo!"

The sounds of dragon roars and tiger growls echoed.

Li Yuan glanced back and saw a streak of white light plummeting toward the mountain gate like a meteor; no matter how he looked at it, that light seemed to be his cheap master.

"Good heavens, even the Old Dragon Head has been stirred?"

Li Yuan was somewhat shocked; he felt that the simultaneous appearance of dragon and tiger seemed even more significant than he had anticipated?

"It can't be Neng Shi Shen Gong, can it?"