Chapter 605: Listening for Sounds and a Discovery

The wind and snow were still fierce, but the cliff's edge had returned to quiet.

The Dragon Dao Master hurried off with the Bafang Temple token in hand; Long Xi Xiang and Nie Xianshan, brows tightly furrowed, exchanged a few words and likewise departed one by one.

"The Cloud Demons descend, and jade and stone burn together."

Li Yuan recalled the warning that Chi He Lian had divined earlier with the Daoist art 'Immortal Points the Way':

"Does this count as a match?"

Rubbing his brow lightly, Li Yuan was not all that surprised.

In fact, when he learned that Wan Wan Zhuliu had begun the 'Incense Fire Blood-Quenching' ritual, willing to spend his own lifespan to burn away all the impure blood and reshape his foundation, he had already anticipated this.

Wan Wan Zhuliu, who had reached the summit of Bafang Mountain, theoretically also had the qualification to leave this realm, and was very likely able to make contact with the Cloud Demon race.

This point was clear to both Pang Pang Wenlong and the Dragon Dao Master.

The reason Pang Pang Wenlong had already contacted several major Daoist sects yet had not made a move for so long was, in short, fear that the imperial court would be driven to desperate measures.

"Still, luring out Wan Wan Zhuliu is not so simple either…"

Just thinking about it put Daoist Master Li in the foulest of moods; it took him quite a while to settle down, and he focused his spirit to sense the intricate divine patterns flowing beneath this blizzard.

"Harvesting this wonder is itself a technical job."

Beneath a blizzard covering a thousand li, the divine patterns were so intricate that Li Yuan felt like sighing at the sight.

Harvesting wonders, combining divine patterns, condensing the divine realm, cultivating the spirit image—after entering the Dao, the path of cultivation was obscure and arduous; without the transmission of predecessors, it was more than merely difficult at every step.

Just how great the advantage enjoyed by disciples of ancient sects, whose halls enshrined deities and whose lineages had never been broken for untold tens of thousands of years, could well be imagined.

"No wonder Huang Huang Longzi looked as if he had me cornered and couldn't refuse. To the cultivators of the many life-stars under Tian Shi Yuan's jurisdiction, the Poison Dragon Academy is nothing short of a holy land."

At the edge of Dragon Mountain Cliff, Li Yuan sat cross-legged for a long while, hesitating to begin harvesting the wonder.

Huang Huang Longzi's words had still stirred ripples in his heart; Daoist Master Li, who always prioritized caution, harbored a natural wariness toward 'a single misstep.'

"Hoo!"

After a long while, Li Yuan closed his eyes; true Qi and blood within him churned, condensing into mist, within which the shadows of a hundred beasts shifted and intertwined.

He was cultivating the Dragon Demon Heart Scripture.

"Transforming form into blood is a long, slow grind…"

Li Yuan looked inward at himself; with over a hundred forms already transformed into his flesh and blood, the sheer vigor of his qi and blood was nothing short of terrifying, the sound of his blood flowing like crashing waves bursting from his body and melting away great swathes of wind and snow.

"My current physique and qi-blood, without the reinforcement of Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing, are beyond what even a great Grandmaster can match. The Dragon Demon Daoist was truly a peerless talent—it's believable, yet the Heart Scripture contains no transmission regarding divine patterns or wonders."

Li Yuan divided his attention many ways; while pondering the Dragon Demon Heart Scripture in his heart, he was also surveying the various acupoints within his body.

Similar to the Dragon Demon Heart Scripture, his cultivation of the Bai Shen Fa had also reached a stage where only slow, grinding work could yield gradual progress.

And apart from these two divine arts, the Kun Peng True Form Diagram, which he pondered most, was also limited by the lack of divine patterns and could not be cultivated…

"In a certain sense, this counts as a bottleneck, doesn't it? Unless I set aside my inner misgivings and, following the methods left by the patriarchs in the temple, harvest those wonders and divine patterns that have nothing to do with the Kun Peng True Form Diagram."

Li Yuan's thoughts churned; he was very clear about his current predicament and the way to resolve the predicament before his eyes, but he himself was unwilling.

"Divine patterns don't just need to be harvested—they also need to be nourished by divine intent. If I greedily choose whatever's at hand and then abandon it later…" "One wrong step will waste a hundred years… Bafang Temple offers no hope for now, and with my current realm I have no way to approach the Zang Guan Mi Jing either. The best choice is still to head to Tian Shi Yuan."

"Whether I enter one of the Five Great Grotto-Heavens, or use that 'Sect Token' obtained from reaching the summit of Bafang Temple to enter another sect… only after I cultivate to the Divine Palace realm will I have the qualification to explore the Zang Guan Mi Jing!"

"Divine patterns rated as superior by the Origin God Race…"

……

Letting the stray thoughts in his heart surge, Li Yuan divided his attention many ways, simultaneously cultivating the Dragon Demon Heart Scripture and the Bai Shen Fa, until night fell and the wind and snow ceased, only then did he rise and return to the small courtyard.

With matters weighing on his mind, he ate a hasty meal and went back to his room.

Hum~

Reclining against the head of the bed, Li Yuan kept his eyes half-closed.

"I don't trust Huang Huang Longzi, and I don't trust Chi He Lian or that spirit turtle either; the little mother dragon knows too little…"

"I still need to listen for sounds more."

At a thought from Li Yuan, brilliant light burst forth from the gray stone platform; streams of incense fire of every color reflected each other and vied to pour into the Sound-Listening Wooden Tablet.

In an instant, all manner of sounds were already ringing in his ears and heart.

As he examined them one by one—

"Jianghu rumors say that the Wudadao Sect led by Dragon Tiger Temple, along with great jianghu sects like the Xinyi Sect, appear to be secretly colluding, intending to oppose the imperial court… some are terrified and worried, others are ecstatic… (Ninth-grade)"

"In Purple Cloud City of the Thunder Sound Great Continent, within the Thousand-Eye Bodhisattva Temple that had been sealed by the Xinyi Sect for a long time, dazzling divine light suddenly burst forth; in the night, someone glimpsed the shadow of a Thousand-Eye Bodhisattva, and countless believers prostrated themselves in worship… (Eleventh-grade)"

"In a certain mountain wilderness of Dragon Hidden Dao, a woodcutter chopping firewood in the mountains saw a tall skeleton carrying two great cauldrons, cursing as it vanished into the forest… (Tenth-grade)"

……

With the Sound-Listening Wooden Tablet's current grade, the grade of sounds obtained from consuming incense fire was quite high; most involved Grandmasters or great Grandmasters, and occasionally one or two lines concerning Bafang Temple could be caught.

"The shadow of the Thousand-Eye Bodhisattva, a Bone Vajra…"

Li Yuan's thoughts now turned extremely fast; in the blink of an eye he sorted through several hundred sounds and extracted the key points from them:

"The minor gods of the Baishen Sect have suddenly become active again?"

Inside the room, Li Yuan flipped himself upright, his expression solemn.

Among the several hundred sounds, there were actually nine related to the minor gods of the Baishen Sect—that proportion was already very large.

One had to know that ever since Daoist Feng Yuanqing had allied with several Daoist sect masters to destroy the main altar of the Baishen Sect, those minor gods had mostly vanished without a trace; even when their temples were sealed, none dared show their heads.

"These minor gods have suddenly appeared, and apart from that Bone Vajra, they're all converging toward Jingcheng…"

Without thinking, Li Yuan knew this must be because of that Thousand-Eye old ghost: "More than seventy years ago, Old Pang was ambushed and gravely wounded by the Jiu Da Fa Masters of the Baishen Sect—are they trying that again?"

Although he didn't think Pang Pang Wenlong would fall for the same trick twice, Li Yuan still prepared to remind him tomorrow to be careful of the Baishen Sect; just as he was mulling this over, his heart suddenly jolted.

"In a certain place of You Jing, thunder roared and lightning flashed, the sound of dragon cries unceasing; it seemed someone was sweeping through strange beasts, searching for what predecessors had left behind… (Eleventh-grade)"

"A dragon shadow in You Jing? Wan Wan Zhuliu is in You Jing?"

Li Yuan's eyes snapped open, his gaze like lightning, and the room was lit up for an instant.

"Whoosh!"

The next instant, he had vanished from the bed, and by using the Rending Sea Mysterious Whale Hammer as a relay, had entered the You Jing and been transmitted into the Eight Directions Temple.

(End of this chapter)