Chapter 627: Listening-Sounds and the Outbreak of War

Kreeee—

The plume eagle let out a long cry.

Above the Dragon-Tiger mountain range, one plume eagle after another spread their wings, flanking the King of Plume Eagles at the center.

Hushan raised a flock of plume eagles, all of them spirit-birds of a kind. They fed on flesh and blood by day, swallowed spirit pills by month, and could spread their wings three zhang wide, carrying a man aloft. The King of Plume Eagles was the finest among them, with a wingspan of over six zhang.

"It's finally about to begin."

On the back of a plume eagle, Li Yuan gazed down at the sea of clouds. His eyesight was excellent; he could even faintly make out the small courtyard on Dragon Mountain—his second elder brother, his second sister-in-law, and the two little ones all standing at San Yuan Wai, watching him off on his journey.

On the sixth day after the New Year, Pang Pang Wenlong, who had been pursuing the Xieshen Sect for several months, sent word to the various sects, calling them to gather at the Imperial Capital.

Li Yuan naturally had to come along; otherwise, the pretense of "fishing" would have been all too obvious.

"I wonder what preparations Old Pang has. Hopefully he can force Wan Wan Zhuliu out."

Glancing at Chi He Lian, whose face looked rather unpleasant on the eagle's back, Li Yuan felt a measure of hidden worry—the Immortal's Guidance had not foretold anything good.

"Kree!"

The eagle's cry rang high and clear. The King of Plume Eagles beat its wings and moved, and all the plume eagles followed in unison, carrying a host of Hushan Temple elders and core disciples into the sea of clouds.

On the plume eagle Li Yuan rode, there were three people in all: besides Chi He Lian, there was also Qi Qi Benchu, this person born of an auspicious phenomenon.

"The sea of clouds churns—what a magnificent sight!"

Qi Qi Benchu gazed down at the sea of clouds, quite excited.

Over the past few years, although Hushan Temple had treated him well, the days of confinement had been stifling after all. Now, though he was still in their hands, gazing at this vast sea of clouds, the pent-up frustration in his heart could not help but disperse somewhat.

【Shan Xuan Sect Tongtian Sword (Eleventh Rank)】

Li Yuan glanced at him—or more precisely, at the Shan Xuan Sect Tongtian Sword within him, which had reached the eleventh rank. This remnant sword, with only its hilt remaining, when whole was very likely a twelfth-rank supreme spirit treasure.

【The fortune of one born of an auspicious phenomenon…】

Regarding this person born of an auspicious phenomenon, Li Yuan's curiosity outweighed his wariness.

He was very curious how an auspicious phenomenon could be born as a human. Moreover, legend had it that those born bearing the grace of creation had extraordinarily high talent and very likely possessed a strange physique.

"I wonder what hidden physique he has—a Dharma Body, a Demon Body, a Divine Body, or a Sacred Body?"

Li Yuan closed his eyes and entered meditation. He was not the Dragon Demon Daoist; curiosity was curiosity, but he had no hobby of dissection.

If it had been that Dragon Demon Daoist, he would long since have dissected this lad thoroughly.

"Hoo!"

The plume eagle beat its wings; the gale howled, yet was blocked outside by the true qi Li Yuan released.

The Dayun territory was vast, the distances between the various Daozhou extremely far. Even riding a plume eagle, one could not arrive in a short while. At first Qi Qi Benchu was still quite excited, looking this way and that, gazing down at the sea of clouds, but later he grew bored.

He looked at Chi He Lian, then at Li Yuan sitting with closed eyes in meditation—not even a single person to talk to. He could only sit down in dejection, take a deep breath, adjust his breathing, and enter meditation to visualize.

Several years ago, he had mustered his courage to ask Pang Pang Wenlong to take him as a disciple, and the latter had actually transmitted to him the Dragon Demon Heart Scripture. His cultivation was fairly diligent, and a year ago he had already entered the door.

"Hoo!"

"Breathe in!"

Li Yuan's breathing was long and faint—so quiet one could hardly hear it without listening closely.

He stilled his mind and concentrated, dividing his attention many ways: visualizing, circulating qi, polishing the acupoints within his body, contemplating the Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing Six Classics and the Kun-Peng True Form Diagram, exploring the Dun Tian Zhou, while also splitting off a portion of his mind to enter the gray Dingxin Dingxin Shitai.

Hum—

On the stone platform, various colors flickered on and off—mostly blades and weapons, a small portion incense and fire offerings—but the most eye-catching was the pale white fireball suspended above the wooden talisman.

"If a man is not burdened by form…"

Li Yuan mulled over the ritual he had obtained from that Shan Xuan Daoist in his heart, while also sorting through the listening-sounds from the wooden talisman.

Ever since obtaining this wooden talisman, he had consciously listened for sounds, without interruption for many days now. But until today, though he had spent no small amount of incense and fire, not a single one had been related to this ritual.

It was worth mentioning that since that time he had listened to the heavenly sound, in his daily listening he could also occasionally hear listening-sounds from Tian Shi Yuan.

This change had its pros and cons.

The benefit was naturally that the range of his listening-sounds had greatly expanded; the drawback was that all manner of listening-sounds had become increasingly chaotic and disordered—sounds from every corner under heaven, useful and useless alike jumbled together, requiring effort to sort through.

【…On Prison Dragon Star, a youth chanced upon a perilous place, and within it glimpsed a colossal creature, its scales cold and forbidding, its dragon whiskers lashing, its breath causing mountains to rise and fall… (Twelfth Rank)】

On Blood Phoenix Star, wails of grief would at times ring out. Blood phoenixes circled above the many cities, and within those cities, various alien races were tearing down the Blood Phoenix temples… "Our god is lost, the offerings severed…" (Twelfth Rank)

【…In the place where the stars pay homage, Tian Shi Yuan spans above the stars. No matter how vast a star or moon, beneath its radiance it is as small as a chicken's egg. The ancestral lands of countless sects and great clans are all within it.

Ancient legend has it that the myriad gods of Tian Shi Yuan, regardless of origin or race, all attained the Dao here… (Thirteenth Rank)】

【…"Entering the Dao and attaining truth"—this is the foremost clan of the Three Enclosures, the rule of the human race, acknowledged by all races… (Ninth Rank)】

【…Legend has it that the seven-rank division of talent did not originate from the various realms; its earliest origins can even be traced back to before the founding of the Origin Divine Dynasty… (Eleventh Rank)】

……

Chaotic, disordered!

All manner of listening-sounds kept echoing in his ears. Li Yuan sorted through them while frowning.

These were the highest-ranked listening-sounds he had heard in recent days.

To say they had no value—each one was of no low rank. To say they had value—their origins were utterly chaotic. Even though there were quite a few treasure-hiding places, they were beyond his reach.

"The sources of the listening-sounds must, to some degree, be related to me—perhaps a certain distance, perhaps some other reason…"

Li Yuan murmured to himself. Prison Dragon Star, Blood Phoenix Star, Tian Shi Yuan, "entering the Dao and attaining truth"… these listening-sounds were either things he had seen, things he had heard, or things he had personally experienced; they were not entirely random.

He circled the wooden talisman, his gaze never leaving that pale white divine fire. What he most wanted to hear was naturally a listening-sound related to the ritual of this fireball.

"In theory, I should be able to hear listening-sounds related to this fireball, but the randomness is still considerable—the element of luck is greater…"

"How about I try the Finger-Sound Talisman?"

The Palm-Sound Talisman had two modes of listening: random and designated. Among them, designated was further divided into four types: life, death, treasure, and departed. But because designated listening consumed far too much incense and fire, he mostly listened at random.

"If it won't work, then I'll try designated listening… but this fireball, or rather this ritual—which category does it belong to? Life and death don't apply. Treasure-sound? Barely, I suppose… or perhaps, the sound of the departed?"

Li Yuan's thoughts drifted.

Of the four ways to designate Sound-Listening, the one he used least was Sound of the Departed; sixteen times the normal expenditure really was painful.

"Give it a try."

Li Yuan's mind stirred, designating Sound-Listening, while silently reciting 'if a person is not burdened by the body,' knowing full well this wouldn't affect the Palm Sound Register, yet still hoping it might have some small effect.

Hum~

A faint Bai Guang rose on the wooden register.

!

【... Before Yan Yan Chunyang's death, unwillingness and despair... (Seventh-Tier)】

【... The mountains do not change, the wind flows on. More than seven hundred years ago, an inner disciple of Mount Longhu, seeking to enter the Dao, entered the mountains, and finally passed away in a hidden place within them, leaving behind a furnace of Nourishing Life Pills and a half-divine weapon. He hoped a later generation might find his bones... (Seventh-Tier)】

Sound of the Departed, as the name suggests, is sound that comes from the past.

In all the years the Palm Sound Register had been open, Li Yuan had naturally tried it as well, but Sound of the Departed was far more numerous than the sound of the living; most were last words left by those on the verge of death.

"The luck on these two wasn't bad."

Li Yuan nodded, recording the Sound-Listening. He had little interest in Yan Yan Chunyang's unwillingness before death, but trading thirty-two strands of First-Tier incense for a half-divine weapon was naturally not a losing deal.

But he was also well aware this was only an accident; most people, before facing death, would arrange their affairs properly, and the things left behind by those who died sudden deaths often did not survive to the present.

"A Seventh-Tier Palm Sound Register can at minimum listen to Seventh-Tier sound, but the grade of this ball of fire must be at least Fourteenth or Fifteenth-Tier, right? Normally speaking, this would require Seventh- or Eighth-Tier incense..."

If one could accurately obtain the desired Sound-Listening, that would be fine, but spending sixteen strands of Seventh-Tier or higher incense on a single try to test one's luck?

Li Yuan simply had no such thought.

Therefore, he only thought this in his mind; what he spent was still below Seventh-Tier, to be precise, below Sixth-Tier incense.

"Slowly test my luck..."

……

"A great wind is about to rise!"

In Mount Hengshan City, on a certain street, beneath the black umbrella of a fortune-telling stall, Huang Huang Longzi seemed to sense something and raised his head, watching the flock of feathered eagles disappear into the sea of clouds.

"My poor junior sister, does she really think a beginner's Immortal's Finger can point out any good path?"

Huang Huang Longzi's five fingers twitched in calculation; after a long while he opened his eyes:

"Cloud Demon descends, jade and stone both burn... tsk, stone can burn, but jade cannot!"

Whoosh!

Huang Huang Longzi, holding his umbrella, walked on, disappearing from the street.

Shallow waters cannot produce a true dragon, barren lands cannot grow strange flowers; a divine-demon-level prodigy born in such a remote, insignificant place—needless to say, must be born bearing great fortune.

Apart from the Eight Directions Temple, this is the greatest creation of this heaven and earth.

……

……

"Exhale!"

"Inhale!"

In a You Jing, Wan Wan Zhuliu embraced the Demon-Subduing Blade, sitting quietly and breathing in; an ink-black giant dragon slowly raised its head behind him, the Great Sun Mirror suspended on its dragon horns flickering with the light of incense.

At a certain moment, the ink dragon let out a low roar.

Wan Wan Zhuliu's brow furrowed slightly, he opened his eyes; in the distance a spark of fire glimmered, Wang Jin strode forward, bowed and said:

"Your Highness, a message from the secret scouts: several days ago, a flock of feathered eagles moved together above Mount Longhu Temple, flying toward the Imperial Capital; other Jianghu Sect factions have also shown unusual movements, suspected to be that Pang Pang Wenlong summoning..."

"Pang Pang Wenlong..."

Wan Wan Zhuliu's voice drifted, seeming to exist and yet not: "How many evil gods has he slain?"

"Not fully tallied, but there should be several dozen."

Wang Jin paused slightly: "Among the Jiu Da Fa Lords, several were slain by him as well; the momentum was huge, many people saw it. Your Majesty suspects this old fellow wants to hold some kind of ritual..."

"A ritual?"

Wan Wan Zhuliu was not surprised: "Nothing more than trying to force us to show ourselves."

"Then?"

Wang Jin frowned.

"Go notify Thousand Eyes."

Wan Wan Zhuliu had no intention of explaining; without any visible movement, he had already vanished from Wang Jin's sight.

The latter frowned slightly, turned, and left.

(End of chapter)