Chapter 585 - 546: Ancient Divine Palace, The Silence of Ages
Chapter 585: Chapter 546: Ancient Divine Palace, The Silence of Ages
The Daoist Soldier, Song Feng, was formed from a Wood Attribute Five Elements Crystal Pearl.
Wood begets Wind. After Song Feng was fully refined, he could naturally perform Wind Manipulation.
Song Ciwan also discovered that if she had the time to continuously refine Song Feng, he could even directly inherit a significant portion of her own experience with the Wind Manipulation Technique.
After all, Song Ciwan possessed a Cultivation Space. Any Magic she practiced was trained for periods measured in decades, even centuries. Coupled with her exceptional comprehension, there was practically no Magic she couldn’t cultivate to a profound level.
In fact, of all the Techniques she had mastered so far, Scattering Beans into Soldiers was ironically the one she had learned most crudely and was least proficient in.
There was no way around it. There were no shortcuts for Scattering Beans into Soldiers; its progress couldn’t be accelerated just by using the time in her Cultivation Space. Only by refining them bit by bit in the real world could she obtain truly elite Daoist Soldiers.
Song Ciwan was short on time, so she had to make do for now.
Even so, the Daoist Soldier Song Feng was still able to receive a slight boost to his Wind Manipulation Technique from Song Ciwan.
This allowed him to fly smoothly, with light and agile grace.
He flew above the Nine Transformation Lotus Pool, using Wind Manipulation to hover as he bent over to pick the Lotus Seeds.
Unlike the brutish way the Bear Demon had simply ripped off the pods, Song Feng’s movements were gentle and deliberate. He only picked the Lotus Seeds, touching nothing else.
Interestingly, as long as one only picked the Lotus Seeds, the red lotuses in the Nine Transformation Lotus Pool remained elegant and tranquil.
The red lotuses bloomed one after another amidst the graceful green leaves. Some rose high above the water, blooming brilliantly. Some rested against the clear surface, their heads turned as if in shyness. Others were still budding, their faces veiled, or were half-hidden among the dark green pads...
In short, their forms were endlessly varied, each possessing its own quiet beauty.
Song Ciwan appeared to be admiring the scenery, her gaze sweeping across the Nine Transformation Lotus Pool, but one hand was tucked into her sleeve, secretly performing the Great Derivation Birth Skill in a series of unceasing calculations.
But every calculation yielded the same result: great misfortune!
Picking a few Lotus Seeds from this Nine Transformation Lotus Pool was one thing, but trying to uproot it entirely—
That would bring great misfortune!
Just as Song Feng finished picking from two lotus pods, having collected a total of eighteen Lotus Seeds, Song Ciwan suddenly spoke. "Song Feng, the sword."
Song Feng immediately took a Soft Whip from his waist. With a flick of its tip, the whip nimbly coiled around the Void Escape Sword and retrieved it.
Then, Song Feng hung the Void Escape Sword at his waist and used Wind Manipulation to fly back to Song Ciwan’s side.
Song Feng performed the entire sequence of actions with a flawless, fluid grace and incredible speed. He flew back holding the Lotus Seeds, and with a wave of her hand over his palm, Song Ciwan collected all eighteen seeds into her Heaven and Earth Scale.
Simultaneously, without breaking stride, she used the Shrinking Inches technique and turned to head into the deeper passages of the Earth Palace.
Song Feng and Silver Armor followed at Song Ciwan’s side, and the three of them vanished from the edge of the Nine Transformation Lotus Pool.
They left nothing behind but the red lotuses swaying above the pool, as if performing a graceful dance.
After walking a short distance, Song Ciwan again used Scattering Beans into Soldiers, summoning ten Three-star Daoist Soldiers.
The Three-star Daoist Soldiers scouted ahead while she transformed Song Feng and Silver Armor back into Soldier Beans, recalling them to the Vast Sea Grotto Heaven.
She had not yet mastered the Bean Sprouting into Soldiers Skill. It was difficult to simultaneously command ten Three-star Daoist Soldiers and two Four-star Daoist Soldiers.
It wasn’t that her Power was insufficient, but that her proficiency was lacking.
Naturally, Song Ciwan had to seize every possible opportunity to practice her Soldier Control Technique.
Only when she could casually wave her hand and command a hundred thousand Daoist Soldiers as extensions of her own will would she have truly mastered Scattering Beans into Soldiers!
Meanwhile, Song Ciwan silently manipulated the Heaven and Earth Scale and tried selling one of the Lotus Seeds.
’I wonder what I’ll get for selling a Lotus Seed from the Nine Transformation Lotus Pool directly?’
[You have sold a Heaven and Earth Alien Species: an Alien Nine Transformation Lotus Seed, tainted with the Divine Power of the Ancient Divine Insect Race. You have received a Five-star Level Marvel: the Enchanting Heart Drum.]
Enchanting Heart Drum: This drum can only be sounded once. When struck, it has the miraculous effect of bewitching the minds of living beings.
After inspecting the Enchanting Heart Drum, Song Ciwan was, at first, a little surprised.
’Honestly, the value of this Enchanting Heart Drum can’t compare to the Returning to the Divine Incense!’
’The corpse of an Alien Gu could be traded for Returning to the Divine Incense, but a whole Lotus Seed only gets me an Enchanting Heart Drum.’
’What does this mean?’
Soon, Song Ciwan understood. ’The Alien Gu could undergo a Transformation into an insect because it absorbed the essence blood of cultivators!’
’That’s not a good thing, and its origins are no better...’
Song Ciwan sighed to herself and stopped thinking about the Alien Gu.
As she walked through the passageway of the Earth Palace, her pace gradually began to slow.
It was for one simple reason: Song Ciwan had suddenly realized that this pitch-black corridor was far too quiet.
Pitch-black, silent, and endless—these were the impressions the corridors of the Ancient Divine Palace gave Song Ciwan.
Aside from that, the various dangers and traps that Song Ciwan had expected to encounter were nowhere to be found.
This corridor simply stretched onward, calm and uneventful. Apart from being excessively long and deep, it was... practically no different from a passageway in the Mortal World.
But for some reason, inexplicably, Song Ciwan’s heart... gave a sudden, strange lurch.
A strange sense of unease crept into her heart.
A question she couldn’t control surfaced in her mind: ’It’s so long... so very long... just how long is this corridor?’
And another: ’It’s so dark... so very dark... will there ever be light ahead?’
And one more: ’It’s so quiet, without even the sound of footsteps... so what else could possibly be here?’
That was right. There wasn’t even the sound of footsteps.
Song Ciwan continued walking, with the ten Three-star Daoist Soldiers forming a tight circle around her: five clearing the path ahead, two guarding her flanks, and three bringing up the rear.
But Song Ciwan made no sound as she walked, and neither did the ten Daoist Soldiers.
Given Song Ciwan’s exquisite footwork, it wasn’t strange that she walked without making a sound. But because of the overwhelming silence, on a Sudden Inspiration, she deliberately put more weight into her step, intending to make a noise—
But the result was—still nothing! Not a single sound!
No sound!
Song Ciwan opened her mouth to order the Daoist Soldier on her left, "Bai Yu, light the way..."
But there was no sound. Song Ciwan had clearly spoken—the words had formed on her lips—but she couldn’t hear a single thing.
For a moment, she couldn’t even tell if she was failing to make a sound, or if she simply couldn’t hear it!
Fortunately, though her words failed to carry through the corridor, her commands didn’t actually need to be spoken aloud for the Daoist Soldiers to execute them perfectly.
The Daoist Soldier on her left had the appearance of a graceful female Daoist priestess. She took out her Magical Artifact, a Bright Light Lamp.
The Daoist Soldier, Bai Yu, summoned a flame to her palm to light the Bright Light Lamp—
No, it didn’t work. She couldn’t light it!
The corridor remained as eternally dark as before.
The Bright Light Lamp could not be lit, and Bai Yu could not summon her flame.
Bai Yu was formed from a Fire Element Five Elements Crystal Pearl; her innate, instinctual talent was Fire Manipulation.
But at this very moment, Bai Yu had lost her ability to use Fire Manipulation.