Chapter 488: Dragon Demon Hand's Letter

Before the Sound-Palm Register advanced, Lei Ting was somewhat eager, but when the advancement came, he grew intensely tense.

Boom!

Almost at the instant the Sound-Palm Register advanced and that thunderous roar exploded, Lei Ting's divine soul likewise left his body.

Though this thunderous roar did indeed explode simultaneously in the depths of his divine soul, compared to within his body, it was naturally much better.

But even so, Lei Ting only felt as if his divine soul had been shattered by Lei Ting, the searing pain flooding over him like a tide.

"It hurts!"

After quite a while, Lei Ting finally recovered, feeling his spirit had scattered into a clump, and had no choice but to return to his body.

And the pain transmitted from within his body made his eyes once more swim with golden stars.

"Tribulation Crossing, every single time it comes like this…"

This pain was fiercer than the last time, hurting so much that a surge of fury rose in Lei Ting's heart; he focused his spirit to sense.

That thunderous roar seemed still to echo in the depths of his soul, like the whisper of an ancient god; hearing it but once made one's spirit tremble violently.

"What on earth is this sound?"

Lei Ting gritted his teeth and endured, focusing his spirit to sense; outside the grey stone platform, darkness churned like a tide, gazing upon it made one's heart palpitate, as if falling into an abyss.

After a good while, Lei Ting finally shook off this searing pain and began to sense the Sound-Palm Register after its advancement.

【Seven-Tier Sound-Palm Register】

【Can Hear the Heavenly Sound: once every six months (available)】

【Opened: Sound-Hearing Register (Seven-Tier)】

【Not Opened: Finger-Sound Register (Seven-Tier)】

【Consume seven-tier rare treasures two hundred times to advance to eight-tier】

【Number of Heavenly Sound hearings: two】

After the Sound-Palm Register advanced to six-tier, the interval for hearing the Heavenly Sound became six months; his previous interval time was also counted in.

The number of Heavenly Sound hearings had accumulated to two.

"Seems there are still some other changes…"

On the grey stone platform, Lei Ting looked all around, gazing into the abyss-like darkness; in his perception, this darkness was similar to that You Jing, yet also somewhat different.

"As long as it's not the You Jing, that's good."

Regarding the You Jing, Daoist Lei was still quite wary.

If, as that Zhou Ying had said, after the death of every Rudao Sect master, their divine realms would all return to the You Jing, that was undoubtedly an extremely terrifying matter.

Without the support of incense offerings, a divine realm would turn into a ghostly land.

If the Weapon-Palm Space were truly within the You Jing, then he wouldn't be able to sleep soundly.

"The You Jing… and this Xing Tongyou Corridor."

Looking at the arched door still at the edge of the stone platform, Lei Ting moved the incense burner and continued to block it up.

The horror of the You Jing, he had already come to understand; on the path of the Mysterious Whale, even the road that had been cleared by the Mysterious Whale Gate still had ghostly beasts, so it was hard to say what terrors lurked within this corridor.

At the very least, before he could walk by shaping true qi into form, he was unwilling to set foot in it.

"Block it up, safer that way."

After patrolling the Weapon-Palm Space, Lei Ting finally calmed his heart and began to sense the changes after the Sound-Palm Register's advancement.

Hum~

At a thought from Lei Ting, wisps of incense offerings had already been invested into the Sound-Hearing Wooden Register and the Finger-Sound Register, and the Sound-Hearing Register accordingly appeared.

"Eh?"

Lei Ting focused his spirit to look at the wooden register, and immediately noticed the difference.

"On a night of Lei Yu, in the Dinglong Mountains, after a disturbance, the famed constable Jin Jin Zhu Feng's face turned green, his heart filled with regret… (Eight-Tier Sound-Hearing)"

"Eight-Tier Sound-Hearing?"

This was clearly the change after the Sound-Palm Register's advancement; Lei Ting was somewhat astonished, but after pondering briefly, he already understood:

"After the Sound-Palm Register advanced to seven-tier, the lowest tier of sound heard is seven-tier; I used one-tier incense offerings, so what I get is at least eight-tier Sound-Hearing?"

Hum~

Musing to himself, Lei Ting listened repeatedly, and quickly confirmed his own Ji De Xiang Fa.

Two-tier incense offerings yield nine-tier Sound-Hearing, three-tier yields ten-tier Sound-Hearing, and so on…

"Spending a wisp of six-tier incense offerings can get me at least a thirteen-tier Sound-Hearing? This is rather straightforward…"

After trying many times, Lei Ting understood in his heart:

"No wonder the condition for the Sound-Palm Register's advancement became consuming seven-tier rare treasures two hundred times…"

Compared to before, when one had to confirm the Ling Yin Pin's tier through information, this change was naturally far more straightforward; Lei Ting was naturally satisfied with it.

Next, he tried many times.

The randomness of Sound-Hearing remained, but the lower limit was the tier of the Sound-Palm Register plus the tier of the incense offerings used.

The upper limit, however, was entirely random.

……

A sleepless night; when Lei Ting opened his eyes again, the sky was already bright; within the Ba Fang Mi Jing, day and night were synchronized with the outside world.

"Hah!"

Lei Ting stretched his muscles and bones, feeling in his heart both joy at the Sound-Palm Register's advancement and a touch of Longhu Longhu Dandan's melancholy.

With the Weapon-Palm Register at nine-tier and the Sound-Palm Register at seven-tier, to advance further, the difficulty was so great that even the current him found it immensely headache-inducing.

Most likely, in the short term, he would not be able to advance again.

And as for the third register, at present, it also seemed hopelessly distant.

"'North Sea Azure Dragon,' 'Qianshan Qianshan Qilin,' 'Lei Guang Kui Niu' — spirit beasts of this caliber, how could one possibly find them?"

Xu Tui was practicing his stake-posture Wu Gong, the lingering scent of burning spirit incense still in his nose and mouth, Li Yuan's thoughts drifting, when suddenly his movements stalled.

He saw Han Han Chuijun push the door and enter.

"Qi deviation?"

Watching Li Yuan shudder all over and nearly leap up, Han Han Chuijun was startled, but before he could ask, Li Yuan had already gathered his thoughts.

"What is this?"

Looking at the grinning Li Yuan, Han Han Chuijun frowned — had this kid been overtraining and gone mad?

"No, this disciple just suddenly thought of something you once said, elder."

Li Yuan grinned, in a wonderful mood.

"What words?"

Han Han Chuijun was somewhat curious; he rarely saw this kid so animated.

"I recall you said that Body Transformation is the beginning of the no-longer-human, and when Blood Exchange is perfected, a martial artist's physique becomes wholly inhuman — depending on the Wu Gong they cultivate, they can even take the form of fierce beasts or spirit beasts?"

Li Yuan's eyes were bright; when his thoughts had drifted earlier and he caught sight of Old Han, this passage had suddenly come to mind, and he felt as if a great weight had lifted.

'North Sea Azure Dragon,' 'Qianshan Qianshan Qilin,' 'Lei Guang Kui Niu' — divine beasts of this caliber are hard to find, but martial artists who have transformed into the forms of divine beasts — surely such people exist in the present age!

Take Jin Jin Shengwu, for instance — he recalled that old gentleman; his transformed form was the Red-Eyed Divine Rooster, a legendary divine beast!

"Those words, though not quite proper, are, more or less, correct."

Han Han Chuijun gave a slight cough: "However, the spirit beasts a Blood Exchange-perfected martial artist transforms into only possess the form; only by entering the Dao can they also possess the spirit…"

"You're absolutely right, elder!"

Li Yuan, in high spirits, dragged Old Han into a discussion of the differences between spirit beasts transformed from martial artists and true spirit beasts.

Han Han Chuijun had no interest in the topic, but still discussed it with him for a while; in the end, Li Yuan sought out Wang Wang Wenyuan.

"You, want to enter the Library?"

Wang Wang Wenyuan was practicing stake-posture in the courtyard; hearing Li Yuan's purpose, he couldn't help but be taken aback:

"If you want to enter, then enter — why come looking for this old man?"

"Uh…"

Li Yuan was somewhat sheepish:

"This junior wishes to borrow your token for a use…"

The Library of Star-Plucking Tower also had an inner and outer division, but this distinction was in fact meaningless — any assassin who came to the main altar could come and go.

It was Li Yuan himself who couldn't enter.

The reason was simple: the number of times one could enter and exit the Library came from the number of missions completed by assassins under the organization.

And on this count, Master Li…

"…You've been in Star-Plucking Tower for five or six years now, and you haven't taken a single mission?"

Wang Wang Wenyuan's face was full of disbelief; he almost thought he'd misheard: "You, you…"

"…"

Li Yuan had no words; he reckoned that since the founding of Star-Plucking Tower, there probably hadn't been an assassin as 'kind-hearted' as himself.

"…Fair enough. Given your status and position, most mission bounties hold little allure for you."

Wang Wang Wenyuan caught on; his expression was somewhat complicated, but he had to admit this kid's path had indeed been far too smooth.

It had to do with that letter of his, but in the final analysis, it was his talent.

"This junior will certainly take on more missions in the future."

Li Yuan gave a slight cough, gazing longingly at the token in his hand.

"Enough."

Wang Wang Wenyuan wanted to say something, then decided there was no need; with a flick of his wrist he tossed the token to the kid, and couldn't help feeling a touch wistful.

Not to mention others — even he himself couldn't help but give this kid some benefits.

……

Inside the Library.

After searching for quite a while, Li Yuan actually found a record of something similar.

"Heaven gives birth to all things; humans and beasts, at their root, share an extremely great similarity…"

Before the bookshelf, Li Yuan was flipping through a yellowed spirit-beast hide; what was recorded on it was this writer's own experiments.

"Humans share an extremely high similarity with apes and monkeys, but through experimentation I discovered that humans also share tremendous similarity with cats, dogs, cattle, horses, and even mosquitoes, insects, chickens, and ducks…"

As he read, Li Yuan's expression grew strange — was there really someone in this world researching genes?!

"Good lord…"

Suppressing this strong sense of incongruity, Li Yuan continued reading; what followed was a great deal of experimental comparison, and between the lines one could see that this writer had dissected large numbers of spirit beasts — and even martial artists of various levels.

Many of the terms made even Master Li feel somewhat uncomfortable, forcing him to flip ahead several pages.

"…Through the transformation of skin, bones, organs, meridians, and blood, humans and spirit beasts can converge without limit…"

"Thus, Body Transformation is the beginning of the no-longer-human; when Blood Exchange is perfected, one can take beast-form…"

This was the conclusion.

"A true art of transformation — just don't know if the patriarch would acknowledge it…"

Li Yuan muttered to himself, continuing to flip further; what followed were this person's examples, which made his eyelids twitch wildly as he read.

"This old man once slew a pair of Azure Dragon Kings and took in their young; comparing with a He Yi Jing martial artist who had transformed into the Azure Dragon form, I reached the conclusion that a He Yi Jing martial artist who takes the form of an Azure Dragon is virtually indistinguishable from a true Azure Dragon!"

"Perhaps, in subtle details even I cannot reach, there are still differences? This requires further comparison…"

Dissecting Azure Dragon Kings — and dissecting a Grand Master!

Li Yuan watched, eyes wide with astonishment, and he flipped straight to the end. Seeing the name of the person who had left behind this ancient tome, he felt a sudden sense of clarity.

The signature read: Dragon Demon Daoist.

"No wonder he's called a demon…"

Setting down the ancient scroll, Li Yuan felt his teeth ache, yet in his heart he couldn't help but gain a few more measures of confidence.

Something left behind by a Grand Grandmaster of the Supreme rank was still very credible—at the very least, more reliable than seeking out a spirit beast on the level of the 'North Sea Azure Dragon.'

"Martial artists who can alter the form of divine beasts…"

Inside the library tower, Li Yuan fell into thought, pondering how to find these fierce individuals and borrow some blood from them.