Chapter 557: The Third Register

Bang!

Li Yuan raised his hand and blasted the cave entrance shut, making sure not a sliver of light could get in, then straightened his robes and began preparing the ritual.

The Heaven-Bestowing Register ritual was something he had long since mastered; what he needed to prepare for was the tremendous roar that came every time.

"Compared to the first time, my ritual is now quite complete."

He lit the spirit incense, set out the altar, took the spirit pill by mouth, and only after Li Yuan had finished his preparations did he pour out the five-sacrifice blood he had gathered, according to the ritual's directional positions.

In the darkness, the blood of five top-grade spirit beasts gave off a strange glow; the smell was heavy, the stench of blood laced with a fragrance like that of plants.

Blood of spirit beasts at this level could serve as the main ingredient for many spirit pills, and even swallowing it raw had an effect akin to taking a pill.

"Now it really does have the flavor of a blood sacrifice."

Sensing the blood-reek filling the cave, Li Yuan's thoughts wandered, but he quickly dismissed the notion — it would be far too disrespectful to the Patriarch.

"In all the Great Fortune I can't find higher-grade spirit beast blood; if this attempt fails, I pray the Patriarch will bless me!"

Letting out a long breath to suppress the agitation in his heart, Li Yuan paced in the four directions, reciting aloud and in his mind at once:

"Disciple Li Yuan, having read a hundred scriptures, has gained wisdom. Neither greedy nor wrathful, neither killing nor bearing hatred, all precepts unbroken, mind clear and luminous."

Over ten years, Daoist Li had grown considerably; reciting this prayer again, his heart was now calm as still water.

A moment later, he bowed and made obeisance:

"Disciple Li Yuan beseeches Heaven to bestow the Register!"

His sleeves sweeping the ground, Daoist Li could not help a touch of nervousness — though he guessed this time would likely succeed, what if by some chance the Patriarch gave no response?

Fortunately, after several breaths, that familiar tremendous roar arrived right on schedule.

Boom!

Even prepared as he was, Li Yuan's vision still went black; this roar was fiercer and more violent than ever, and in his daze he seemed to hear countless murmuring voices.

All manner of colors wove together in his mind — indescribably bizarre and wondrous.

"Roar!"

Within the cave, light blazed forth.

The five-sacrifice blood spilled on the ground burned and boiled, transforming into one after another shadowy, half-real giant beasts that roared and raged as they surged skyward.

After several instants, Li Yuan came back to himself from the daze, wiped the fresh blood spurting from his seven orifices, and without a thought for anything else, sat cross-legged on the spot.

From his experience, this tremendous roar was only the prelude — the true thunderous boom had yet to arrive…

"Soul departs the body!"

The instant the thought turned in Li Yuan's mind, that even more enormous boom had already followed.

The moment the tremendous roar exploded, Li Yuan lost all perception of the outside world; the sound wave crushed his five senses, as if he himself had burst apart from the inside out.

Even with all his preparations and repeated experience, he still could not help but let out a stifled groan; his departed soul scattered like green smoke, and it took a good while before it gathered back into shape.

He looked down — his seated body had already toppled to the ground, the seven orifices of his mouth and nose as if chiseled through, blood flowing in pillars.

"Good heavens!"

Li Yuan hurriedly returned to his body; the searing pain made him unable to stop groaning and pounding the ground, the medicinal power of the Longhu Longhu Dadan draining away violently.

Compared to before, this tremendous roar was louder by who knew how many times — so much so that it had genuinely injured him.

"Fortunately, it worked."

Sitting cross-legged, circulating true qi and medicinal power, after a long while Li Yuan finally caught his breath, feeling for the moment as exhausted as if he were dead.

The pressure this tremendous roar brought him was far more terrifying than climbing Bafang Mountain had been before; he even had the illusion of having walked once through the boundary between life and death.

"Still didn't prepare enough. This roar really could shake a person to death."

Gasping in great gulps, Li Yuan was still shaken; it took a good while before he pulled free of the fright, and bearing the enormous exhaustion, he entered the Weapon-Sovereign Space.

Whooo…

In the calm Weapon-Sovereign Space, colors wove together; at the edge of the Dingxin Dingxin Shitai, lightless darkness boiled and churned, like ripples left by that tremendous roar.

The instant he entered this place, he had already seen a dark-yellow wooden platform newly appeared at the edge of the Dingxin Dingxin Shitai.

"This is…"

Li Yuan focused his perception.

【Third Register Bestowal: Calamity-Sovereign Register】

【Li Yuan: Tenth-Order Weapon Sovereign, Seventh-Order Sound Sovereign, First-Order Calamity Sovereign】

【Tenth-Order Weapon-Sovereign Register】

【Controllable Weapons: 10】

【Unlocked: Divine Fire Weapon-Fusion Furnace (Tenth Order), Divine Fire Weapon-Forging Platform (Tenth Order), Xing Xing Tongyou Corridor】

【Seventh-Order Sound-Sovereign Register】

【Audible Heavenly Tones: 1 (once per half-year)】

【Unlocked: Sound-Listening Register (Seventh Order), Sound-Pointing Talisman (Seventh Order)】

"Calamity-Sovereign Register?"

Li Yuan approached that wooden platform, frowning inwardly: "Calamity? Tribulation?"

When the previous two bestowals succeeded, he had been able to obtain some information about the new register, but this time there was none.

"Is there none, or was it because that tremendous roar just now was too violent, and I missed it in my daze?"

Li Yuan focused his perception.

【First-Order Calamity-Sovereign Register】

【Plunderable Heavenly Fortunes: 1 (once per century)】

【Unlocked: Human-Calamity Platform (First Order)】

【Calamity Objects three hundred times (First Order); the Calamity-Sovereign Register may advance to Second Order】

"Plunder Heaven? Human Plunder Platform?

Li Yuan froze, unable to understand for a moment. He switched his bone ornament and palm-control combination, and relying on the bone ornament's boost to perception, focused once more to sense.

Perhaps it was because his perception had risen, or perhaps because he was closer, this time, when he focused, he seemed to "hear" the "voice" coming from within the wooden platform.

"The Great Dao is fifty, Heaven unfolds forty-nine, one escapes, scattering into the boundless…"

What the hell?

Li Yuan was a bit dumbfounded.

The phrase "The Great Dao is fifty, Heaven unfolds forty-nine, one escapes" was of course not unfamiliar to him, but its meaning was a matter of opinion.

The question was, what did this phrase have to do with the Palm Plunder Register?

"The Way of Heaven diminishes the excess to supplement the deficient; the Way of Man diminishes the deficient to supplement the excess."

And that's it?

Before the wooden platform, Li Yuan was speechless: "…Mystifying upon mystifying, truly the style of the ancestors…"

"Can't you make it a bit simpler and easier to understand?"

Li Yuan frowned and pondered for a moment, feeling completely at a loss. How could a half-baked rogue Daoist Priest like him possibly comprehend the understanding of Heaven's Dao left behind by Daoist sages?

After some thought, he could only temporarily set aside his pondering and walk toward the wooden platform.

The instant he stepped onto the wooden platform, Li Yuan once more sensed some information regarding the Palm Plunder Register and this wooden platform.

"…The Way of Man, diminishing the excess to supplement the deficient…consume rare treasures and willpower to activate the 'Human Plunder Rod,' to fish for creation from the boundless…"

Feeling the information from the Human Plunder Platform, Li Yuan's heart gradually cleared, and his expression turned strange:

"Isn't this just fucking fishing?!"

On the wooden platform, Li Yuan was a bit thrown off. All those mystifying words before, and in the end this wooden platform is just for fishing?

"No, it's not fishing. Fishing needs bait; this one only needs casting the rod."

Li Yuan carefully sensed and analyzed the fragmented information from the Human Plunder Platform:

"…Draw creation from the boundless. This creation, whether it has an owner or not, can be fished up once anchored?"

This…

Standing frozen for a long while, Li Yuan finally understood

the 'plunder' of this Palm Plunder Register:

"It's not the plunder of calamity. It's the plunder of robbery!"

Amazing!

After digesting the information, Li Yuan felt a bit dazed. Even a fishing platform had to be wrapped in a bunch of mystifying words.

This register really does have everything…

Li Yuan looked at the groove on the Human Plunder Platform, where a white wooden stick lay horizontally, looking utterly unremarkable at first glance.

"Cast one rod first to try?"

As Li Yuan's mind moved, wisps of incense fire of varying colors drifted over. The information contained in the Palm Plunder Register was too sparse; to familiarize himself with its use, he still had to figure it out himself.

"Incense fire below first-rank can't activate it…then start from first-rank."

A wisp of incense fire sank into the Human Plunder Platform, and without Li Yuan needing to control it, the white wooden rod had already risen into midair, casting a faint, tenuous line into the unfathomable darkness.

"It's really fishing."

Li Yuan clicked his tongue inwardly. He focused his perception, but that wisp of thin line fell into the darkness and he didn't know where it went.

A moment later, the white wooden rod trembled again, the cast line rapidly reeled back, and in the blink of an eye, it had been retrieved.

An empty rod?

Seeing that there was nothing on the hook at the end of the line, Li Yuan wasn't too disappointed. He had fished before too; empty rods were common.

Soon, he had already cast forty-three empty rods.

"One rod takes anywhere from a minute to over ten minutes…no pattern has been found so far, or perhaps there simply isn't one…"

"Empty again?"

"Fifth-rank incense fire is also empty…"

After fifty empty rods in a row, Li Yuan even suspected his luck was too poor. He hurriedly equipped several weapons that could boost fortune, and tossed a few incense burners related to misfortune into the mountain cave.

Thus, on the fifty-sixth cast, Li Yuan heard a "splash," like the sound of a fish being pulled from the water.

"Finally got something!"

Li Yuan's spirit lifted: "This rod of mine used fourth-rank incense fire, let's see what I can fish up…"

He valued greatly his third register.

Hum~

Soon, the line retracted, and a longsword without a sheath hung on the hook.

【Plunder Item: Minor Six Harmonies Saber (Second-rank)】

Li Yuan's eye twitched. Not to mention the fifty-plus rods before, just this one rod alone had used fourth-rank incense fire.

"This is too much of a loss."

He took off the longsword and looked at it. Li Yuan felt quite disappointed, but still patiently continued casting rods. He understood the principle that a single instance doesn't make a rule.

Splash~

Splash!

After changing his palm-control, Li Yuan's catch rate skyrocketed, and when lucky, he caught three rods in a row.

Soon, Li Yuan had cast over three hundred rods.

"The randomness of what's fished up is very large; this is related to the grade of the Palm Plunder Register. So far nothing below first-rank has been seen… but high-rank incense fire doesn't seem to have much effect on the grade of plundered items either?"

"Then what's the point of high-rank incense fire? Distance? Or something else… after the Palm Plunder Register advances to second-rank, will first-rank incense fire no longer be usable?"

"Fishing like this is quite time-consuming, but the good thing is I can split my attention several ways."

"The hookup rate really does have something to do with luck."

Apart from the daily bone-structure alteration, he had even set aside his stance practice, immersing himself with single-minded focus into "plunder-tallying."

By the ninth day, when he set down the fishing rod, the Palm Plunder Register had already advanced to the third tier.