Chapter 662: Li Yuan Casts His Line

Boom—

The tremendous roar, like an explosion in the depths of his soul, gradually faded away.

This was when the benefit of advancing to He Yi Jing became apparent—two consecutive thunderous blasts, and he had endured them head-on; aside from Wang Yang boiling within his divine realm, there was no great impact.

【Eight-Tier Sound-Palm Talisman】

【Can Listen to Heavenly Sound: once every six months (available)】

【Activated: Sound-Listening Talisman (Eight-Tier)】

【Unactivated: Sound-Pointing Talisman (Eight-Tier)】

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

【Number of Heavenly Sound listenings: eight】

"Still no change…"

Li Yuan surveyed the once-again doubled and expanded massive Dingxin Dingxin Shitai, which now had a certain vastness to it.

The Human Calamity Platform remained on one edge, with the giant bronze coffin beside it.

The 'Xing Xing Tongyou' stood on the other side of the stone platform, the Sound-Listening Wooden Talisman at its center, and not far off were the Divine Fire Weapon-Fusing Furnace and the Divine Fire Weapon-Forging Platform.

After the Calamity-Palm Talisman and Sound-Palm Talisman advanced in succession, no other changes had arisen.

"After the Sound-Palm Talisman advanced, the listening range should be larger."

Li Yuan sensed the changes following the Sound-Palm Talisman's advancement.

Knowing of the existence of the Cang Xing Fa, he paid closer attention to the Sound-Palm Talisman's advancement.

He had tried many times, but whenever the listening involved cultivators who practiced the Cang Xing Fa, the Ling Yin Pin would often plummet, so that his harvest from listening over the past three months was barely better than nothing.

Because aside from himself, all disciples of Mount Mount Dongxuan, and likely most lesser grotto-heavens, had similar arts, his listening gains over these three months had been scant.

There was some improvement after the Sound-Palm Talisman advanced, but not by much.

Normally, once the Sound-Palm Talisman advanced to Eight-Tier, even with first-tier incense he could listen to ninth-tier sounds; he would only need fifth-tier incense to listen to intelligence on Dao San Jing cultivators.

But because of the Cang Xing Fa, even when he deployed seventh-tier incense, he could not necessarily catch intelligence on Dao San Jing cultivators every time.

"Post-Dao cultivators really do care too much about personal privacy…"

Li Yuan muttered inwardly, yet resolved to also practice several similar Cang Xing Fa.

Because across the myriad heavens and domains, arts skilled in divination and deducing heavenly secrets were simply everywhere—Huang Huang Longzi and Chi He Lian were by no means special cases.

"Should I advance both the Calamity-Palm Talisman and the Sound-Palm Talisman to Ten-Tier?"

Li Yuan calculated in his heart.

Through his experiments, three strands of seventh-tier incense could serve as one strand of eighth-tier incense; two hundred listenings meant six hundred strands of incense, equivalent to six Xiao Gong.

By the same logic, nine-tier would require eighteen Xiao Gong, and ten-tier would require fifty-four.

Advancing the seventh-tier Calamity-Palm Talisman to ten-tier would require three, nine, twenty-seven, and eighty-one.

"198 Xiao Gong… hmm, I still have thirty-four hundred strands of seventh-tier incense on me, so advancing wouldn't cost that much, but I still need to fuse the Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing—that's the big expense…"

Li Yuan felt deeply that his purse was thin.

Advancing the talismans altogether was only worth two hundred Xiao Gong, but the incense needed to fuse the Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing he couldn't even estimate, and his current Xu Yao Shan Gong was clearly insufficient.

Moreover, he himself had expenses too.

Raising Dao soldiers, raising spirit puppets, raising the Shan Xuan Teng She, refining arts—any of the treasure-refining techniques he had planned, which of them didn't need Shan Gong?

Running these calculations, Li Yuan suddenly felt a headache coming on.

"Purse is thin indeed."

Li Yuan still quashed the thought of advancing the Sound and Calamity talismans now, feeling that the eight-tier Sound-Palm Talisman was sufficient.

Hum—

At a thought from Li Yuan, strands of low-tier incense drifted and sank into the Sound-Listening Wooden Talisman; before long, all manner of listening sounds had filled the gray stone platform.

"How to earn Shan Gong… hmm, Primordial Fire works too."

Seated cross-legged on the Human Calamity Platform, Li Yuan listened to the sounds while casting his line, simultaneously pondering how to earn Shan Gong and Primordial Fire.

Methods to earn Shan Gong within Mount Mount Dongxuan seemed plentiful—planting spirit rice, raising spirit beasts, cultivating Dao soldiers, and the like—but first, they required capital; second, too many people were in these trades, so profits were very thin.

Seeking the hidden and exploring mysteries, exploring other dimensions, refining dharma treasures for other senior brothers—his cultivation was a bit too low for those.

"No wonder those senior brothers basically none of them stay at Mount Mount Dongxuan—earning money really isn't easy, spending is like flowing water…"

Li Yuan glanced at the Human Calamity Rod in his hand, feeling rather frustrated with it for failing to live up to expectations.

He had originally placed great hopes on it, wanting to use this Human Calamity Platform to hook something good and improve his life, which was why he had advanced it all the way to seventh-tier—yet in the end, after tallying it up, he had actually lost quite a bit.

'Fishermen have no future.'

Li Yuan sighed inwardly.

He was tempted to use the ten accumulated uses of 'Calamity Heaven,' yet worried about hooking something he shouldn't.

The last time he had hooked the Divine Burial Coffin, it had already given him a fright.

He feared that with one cast of his rod, he might hook that cheap master he had yet to meet…

"But listening to Heavenly Sound is worth a try…"

Compared to the unreliable Human Calamity Platform, Li Yuan valued the Sound-Palm Talisman more; without the guiding Divine Fire obtained from the last Heavenly Sound listening, he feared he would still be wrangling with Huang Huang Longzi to this day.

"Perhaps I could also try the Xing Xing Tongyou?"

Li Yuan glanced toward the archway at the edge, its characters flowing—once he could not read them, but now he naturally knew they were Origin Divine Script.

【Xing Xing Tongyou】

【Walkable times: 1】

【Enterable Strange Land tier: First Heaven】

"A First Heaven strange land—thank goodness I was cautious before; if I had truly thought it was the lowest tier strange land, I'd have suffered a great loss!" Catching sight of that line, Li Yuan felt a chill run down his spine.

He only learned what "First Layer Heaven" meant after joining Mount Mount Dongxuan.

The First Layer Heaven of the Ruins is the surface layer of You Jing as he originally understood it. The surface layer doesn't mean safety — with bad luck, stumbling into a strange land left behind by a Si Wu Jing cultivator isn't impossible!

"Once the White Bone Human Demons advance to the Second Layer, we can go scout it."

Li Yuan counted on his fingers — in at most ten-odd days, his twelve White Bone Human Demons would be able to advance to the Second Layer.

"Splash~"

At that moment, the Human Tribulation Rod swayed lightly. Li Yuan came back to himself and reeled in the rod — the hook was empty.

"Could it be a problem with the bait?"

Li Yuan's heart was still as water. He was already a seasoned angler, long accustomed to this sort of situation.

Yu Yu Xuanji — he cast another rod:

"Heavenly tribulation!!"

Hum~

At a thought from Li Yuan, a flash of dazzling purple light burst forth on the Human Tribulation Platform, sweeping him into the darkness — as if he himself were the bait hanging on the "hook."

……

"Whoosh!"

Darkness before his eyes, then Yu Yu Xuanji — light returned.

Li Yuan felt his five senses scramble for an instant, just like the last heavenly tribulation. He felt as if in the blink of an eye he had been flung to an extreme height.

It seemed less than a thousandth of an instant before he had already flown out of his own little grotto-heaven, soaring into the clouds, and "seen" Mount Mount Dongxuan's mountain body above the thousandth step.

But that was only a single glance — the world in his eyes had already vanished.

In its place was that "great sea fishing ground" he had once seen before — boundlessly vast!

Crash, crash!

Li Yuan heard the roar of massive waves rolling like thunder.

He focused his spirit intensely, peering into this fishing ground that had once terrified him so badly he refused to use the Human Tribulation Platform.

It was like an ocean — boundless and shoreless — with endless dark currents within, and countless "fish" and "shrimp"…

"Shan Xuan Teng She slough, Shan Xuan Teng She slough…"

The instant Li Yuan came back to himself, regardless of whether it would work, he kept muttering it in his heart, trying to influence the final landing spot of this cast of "heavenly tribulation."

He wasn't greedy — he only wanted to hook a single piece of sloughed skin from a Shan Xuan Teng She.

Whoosh!

The hook entered the sea.

In that instant, Li Yuan felt his hair stand on end. He brushed past a vast shadow, and in that flash, he glimpsed a familiar Mount Mount Dongxuan!

It was too enormous!

Li Yuan's mind went blank for an instant. Years ago, when he had cast a heavenly tribulation rod, he had brushed past the sun. And if the sun were a small fish,

then the Mount Mount Dongxuan he sensed at this moment was a continent lying across the endless Wang Yang!

So vast that even in this state, he could only see a corner of it.

"This fishing ground…"

As Mount Mount Dongxuan brushed past him and plunged into the sea, Li Yuan looked up and, faintly, saw "fishing lines" one after another — he didn't know where they came from, but they all fell into this sea.

From just that single glimpse, Li Yuan's heart turned cold.

'So many anglers…'

……

……

Wooo~

In a stretch of silence, in a dim place with only scattered starlight, a great ship shaped like a bone dragon tore through the void. It was quite fast, and left no trace wherever it passed.

"That plague-ridden Yu the Big Beard has damned well ruined me!"

On the bone dragon ship, Li Li Xuanyong urged on the Cang Xing Fa again and again, every fiber of him on high alert.

Even though the three-tiered ancient ship was filled with the three hundred White Bone Human Demons he had carefully cultivated over many years, he still felt not the slightest peace of mind.

The reason was simple — this dim, sunken place was already the deep layer of the Ruins. Since joining Mount Mount Dongxuan, this was the first time he had ever come into contact with a layer of the Ruins at this level.

"Yu the Big Beard!"

Li Li Xuanyong clutched the Human Demon Mountain — shaped like a spirit beast's skull — to his chest, gritted his teeth, and urged the bone dragon ship onward. Beneath his inner turmoil, there was also a touch of worry.

He and Yu Yu Wangxian came from the same life star, and on Mount Mount Dongxuan he had long relied on him. There was no way he could have left Mount Mount Dongxuan clutching the White Bone Human Demon Mountain.

"Don't let anything happen!"

The bone dragon ship cut through the silent place. After nearly three months of high-speed travel, he finally saw the alternate dimension Yu Yu Wangxian had directed him to.

"Bei Chen Fa Jie!"

Silently reciting the realm-breaking incantation Yu Yu Wangxian had taught him, when a wisp of ghostly light rose in the distant void, Li Li Xuanyong decisively urged the bone dragon ship into it.

Boom!

Light and dark alternated before his eyes.

Li Li Xuanyong reacted extremely fast. Clutching the Human Demon Mountain, he didn't allow himself even an instant of daze. Thus, the moment he sensed something was wrong, he steered the ship to evade.

"Where would that big beard be hiding?"

Glancing at the meteorite that had brushed past him, Li Li Xuanyong spread his divine sense and swept it over the surroundings.

That one look gave him a terrible fright.

He was currently in a stretch of starry sky, with meteorite fragments streaking past at extreme speed on all sides. Contrary to what he had expected, the moment he looked up, he sensed Yu Yu Wangxian's aura.

And then, he saw a ferocious, terrifying nine-headed giant serpent!

The giant serpent's head reared high, swaying in the starry sky like a star and moon; the meteors scattering in all directions were clearly fragments of a great star it had shattered.

It seemed to be the 'moon' of this Bei Chen Fa Jie.

And the giant serpent's body coiled around a great sun burning fiercely, while Yu Yu Wangxian was right within that great sun.

(End of this chapter)