Chapter 382: Listening to Sound in the Night Rain

"To be safe, let's wait a bit."

In the shadows, Ying Xin grabbed Ying Hu's arm.

Ying Hu frowned slightly: "If we wait for those two old ghosts to make a move, the guards will probably be even tighter."

"Those two old ghosts don't have that big a nerve."

Ying Xin was very cautious:

"Wait until the rain gets heavier. Dragon Tiger Temple is heavily guarded—even if Long Long Yingchan isn't here, there are still at least four Grandmasters stationed here, and that Long Xi Xiang..."

The scene of being casually slain last time still made his heart tremble; without those two old ghosts in front, even if Long Long Yingchan went down the mountain, he wouldn't dare act rashly.

"Long Xi Xiang..."

Ying Hu's brows were tightly knit; even with some backing, he didn't want to face a Grandmaster head-on.

Dragon Shadow Guards neither live nor die, but being slain once—that kind of pain is even more intense than truly dying once; he had no desire to experience it.

"Circle around the mountain, go in with the rain curtain, find the Marquis first, then wait for those two old ghosts to make a move, and after that, seize the chance to take the Marquis away!"

The two exchanged a few whispers, then slipped through the shadows toward the Dragon Tiger mountains.

On Dragon Gate's main peak, in a small courtyard, Brother Zhongli Wang Luan, cooling off under the eaves, reached out to catch raindrops trickling down from the cliff:

"This rain is really coming down hard."

"Shi Quan Gao is well-intentioned—"

Inside the room, Chu Hun Tian Zhu shot him an annoyed look. Being detained and being in closed-door cultivation were not the same thing; cooped up this long, he felt like he was going crazy,

"This rain is different."

Brother Zhongli Wang Luan shook his head.

"What's different about it?"

Chu Hun Tian Zhu walked out of the room; the rain curtain drew near from afar—the only difference was that it was a bit heavier than the previous few rains.

"This morning, surely you heard Ling You cry?"

Brother Zhongli Wang Luan was very patient; after all, this martial nephew of his was still worth shaping, and with some polishing, could be put to use.

"Ling Eagle?"

Chu Hun Tian Zhu had no mind to listen to birds, but after thinking for a moment, he recalled indeed hearing an unusual eagle's cry that morning.

"That was the Ling Eagle King."

"Mm?"

Chu Hun Tian Zhu's heart jolted.

Ling eagles are birds that every sect must keep; common ones can deliver letters, spirit eagles can be ridden, and they are very valuable.

Dragon Tiger Temple keeps a large flock, but there is only one Ling Eagle King.

"The Dragon Dao Master has gone down the mountain?"

Chu Hun Tian Zhu caught on.

Brother Zhongli Wang Luan didn't answer either, just gazed at the night's thunderstorm:

"Counting the time, it should be about right?"

Crack!

Lightning tore through the night curtain, snaking like dragons and serpents, sparking arcs of light.

Before long, thunder rolled, heavy rain poured down, sweeping away the day's heat; among the mountains, vapor rose, the mist hazy.

In the small courtyard, Li Li Yuanzhong practiced his stance work, sinews and bones grinding, emitting sounds like clinking gold and jade.

The rain grew heavier, yet the Daoist robe on his body remained dry and neat; the gale and downpour seemed to have nothing to do with him at all—when wind blew by, it only stirred his robe.

Beneath the robe, his skin was crimson; propelled by the medicinal power of the Dragon Tiger Great Pill, he felt like a piece of raw iron being forged in raging fire, becoming compact and solid.

"Ao~"

Li Li Yuanzhong kept his eyes closed, and in a daze felt as if a dragon's roar had exploded.

One roar, then another.

Rising one after another, before his eyes, it seemed as if nine fire dragons appeared, shaking their heads and lashing their tails, roaring in fury.

Hoo-hoo~

Li Li Yuanzhong's breathing grew rapid; he felt as if a volcano inside his body was about to erupt, waves of scalding heat flow, and as it spread, he felt as if he had been ignited from the inside out.

"Hah!"

Li Li Yuanzhong opened his eyes and saw vapor swirling all around; the rain blown in by the wind seemed to have been evaporated by the high temperature, a terrifying sight.

"Long Kun!"

Clenching his five fingers, Li Li Yuanzhong sank his waist and sat his hips; Shan Xuan Jing true qi surged up and covered his body like layers of iron armor, tightly locking in that scalding heat flow.

The scalding heat flow was tightly locked in.

"Ao!"

The dragon's roar grew increasingly violent.

Li Li Yuanzhong clenched his jaw tightly, enduring the tingling sting of his sinews and bones rapidly transforming; after days of learning to control it, the mastery of the Crimson Blood Patterned Dragon Armor had reached the most critical juncture.

"They're all spirit forms!"

Li Li Yuanzhong breathed heavily, fire spurting from his nose and mouth.

This eighth-tier armor's alteration of his root bone was far more violent than he had anticipated.

The six forms are flood dragons; what was patterned on this armor was no ordinary flood dragon, but a spirit flood dragon—this time, fifty-four kinds of spirit forms!

"If the Crimson Blood Patterned Dragon Armor is this violent, then the Illusory Dragon Armor..."

At the critical juncture of root bone alteration, this thought inevitably rose in Li Li Yuanzhong's mind.

Immediately after, with a loud boom, the Shan Xuan Jing true qi covering his body's surface was actually pushed outward and swelled by the heat flow surging from within.

Swelling, contracting, swelling, contracting......

After nine consecutive times, Li Yuan's body shuddered, his true qi completely scattered, and a torrential downpour instantly came pouring back in, drenching him all over.

"Hoo!"

Li Yuan seemed not to notice. He spat out a mouthful of turbid breath, sat cross-legged right there in the rain, his aura steaming, holding the rainwater at bay.

Eyes closed, he felt as if there were a star chart within his body—thirty-six qi channels woven together, with specks of starlight flickering among them.

The brightest was the dantian; after that, the acupoints of both feet and both palms. The Yu Xuanjing true qi circulated around these five points as its center.

But at this moment, under Li Yuan's "gaze," one star after another lit up between his viscera.

"Eleven acupoints!"

At a thought from Li Yuan, the true qi within his body moved accordingly, drawing all eleven of those acupoints into the qi channels as well.

"The Divine Viscera Scripture is far better than the Divine Feet and Divine Arms Scriptures—one of them is worth five!"

With eleven more acupoints appearing all at once, Li Yuan felt the true qi that had originally been quite abundant within him immediately bottom out, but then his stomach trembled as the Long Hu Longhu Dadan gushed out more medicinal power.

Soon, his true qi was full again, and as it circulated, it even seemed to make a "gurgling water sound."

"The total amount of true qi is nearly triple what it was before!"

Li Yuan's heart jolted.

He had originally had four acupoints, and with the addition of Yang Jian Tian Yi's Nine Refinements, compared to when his true qi had first formed, it was already several times more abundant. Now, tripling that on top of this foundation......

"If I fully master the Bai Shen Fa, won't my true qi be dozens or even a hundred times more than those of the same rank?!"

Li Yuan felt a bit of dread.

Under the Bai Shen Zheng Fa, there are thirteen similar Gong Fa.

"That's not right either. Qi Ta Shen Gong also have similar methods. The Dragon Elephant Vajra Heaven also has true qi tempering arts......"

Li Yuan digested this for quite a while.

The benefits of the Divine Viscera Scripture reaching Great Completion were greater than changing fifty-four spirit shapes in one go. The increase in total true qi brought benefits in every aspect.

In a fight, having ten percent more true qi was already a huge advantage. With ten times more, he couldn't imagine how he'd lose.

Furthermore, it was of tremendous help in shaping true qi, refining the viscera, refining the marrow and exchanging blood, and even in penetrating yin and yang and condensing a spirit image.

"These benefits are too great!"

In the curtain of rain, Li Yuan slowly stood up, stretched his sinews and bones slightly, and could clearly sense the steady, powerful beating of his internal viscera.

This was the Great Completion of Viscera Refining.

"Three joys arriving at once."

Dispersing his true qi, Li Yuan took advantage of the heavens' gift to enjoy a thorough rainwater bath, then returned to the room fully satisfied.

Inside the room, Li Yuan lit an oil lamp.

The little tiger cub had slipped out during the day, but the little mouse that hadn't been seen for quite a few days had returned, and was now in the corner holding a single Purple Jade Spirit Rice grain, eating it in big bites.

"You sure know how to pick the best."

Li Yuan beckoned, and the little mouse had already hopped onto the table, letting him pet it.

Purple Jade Spirit Rice is one of the three top-grade spirit rice varieties of Longhu Temple, reserved only for the Sect Master and Dao Masters. He had previously traded a batch from Old Longtou, and occasionally cooked up a few grains.

Seeing the little mouse eating so sweetly, Li Yuan ate two grains as well, paired with a pot of Hundred Grass Brew. After eating and drinking his fill, he took off his shoes and leaned against the head of the bed.

Feeling the transformation of his bone structure alteration and the Great Completion of the Divine Viscera Scripture, his thoughts drifted, and at the same time he listened for sounds.

For Li Yuan, the most immediate benefit of stacking talent to the world-shaking level was multitasking—his martial arts efficiency had improved a great deal.

For instance, right now he was still maintaining the visualization art, his true qi circulating, while also cultivating Yang Jian Tian Yi's Nine Refinements.

Hum~

On the gray Dingxin Dingxin Shitai, the Listening Wood Slip glowed with a faint light, wisps of incense drifting down, in exchange for streams of listening sounds from unknown origins:

"The little mouse that learned from the Soldier Master's family has been running around the mountains for over a year. It seems a bit worried, desperately wanting to find treasures, but Longhu Temple has dominated this mountain for over two thousand years—how could there still be unclaimed treasures......

At the head of the bed, Li Yuan opened his eyes, glanced at the little mouse nibbling Purple Jade Spirit Rice on the table, and his expression shifted slightly.

That bronze tower master's elixirs have shady origins.

Muttering to himself, streams of listening sounds rang out one after another:

"It is said that many of the upper nobility in Ducheng are pursuing the imperial bloodline, but those coveting the imperial bloodline are not limited to them—the Xieshen Sect is also coveting it. For this, over the past thousand years, who knows how many extremely beautiful women have been offered up..."

"They succeeded."

"Hmm?"

Li Yuan was somewhat surprised.

The high officials and nobles of Ducheng chasing the imperial bloodline was one thing—he could understand that—but the Xieshen Sect was also chasing this?

Could the Xieshen Sect be thinking of reaching for imperial power, pushing one of their own onto the throne as Emperor?

Li Yuan felt it was rather strange, and noted this listening sound in his heart.

Ever since gaining the blessing of photographic memory, his listening efficiency had improved greatly—no need to record everything in the listening notebook anymore.

In a small city outside Heizhou, a disciple of the Dragon Pavilion was eating at a tavern: a storyteller was telling tales: he spoke of Zhenwu, who had achieved Great Completion of Blood Exchange at twenty-one, slaying an old Grandmaster in reverse......

Someone clicked their tongue in regret, feeling that Ku Toutuo's defeat was due to Zhenwu Wang's heart being on the right side......"

"The gates of Yiqi Mountain Manor were blocked by an old woman. Grandmaster Feng Yuanqing True Person didn't dare face her, slipped away through the back mountain, and is currently on the way to Mount Hengshan......

"In an unknown location, a person calling themselves Shura is storming an extremely dangerous giant tower. The danger comes not only from within the tower, but also from outside....

The listening sounds were very chaotic, useful and useless mixed together. Li Yuan listened while sorting them into categories—this was one of his few pastimes~.

"Grandmaster Feng Yuanqing True Person was actually blocked at his door to the point of not daring to face her?"

Li Yuan picked and chose. He recorded every piece of gossip about Grandmasters—who knew when it might come in handy.

"Speaking of which, I still have one chance to listen to the Heavenly Sound......

Li Yuan was pondering, just about to use up this chance, when he suddenly sensed something amiss. He opened his eyes, and through the back wall, he saw a piercing red light.