Chapter 124: The Azure Dragon True Seal |
Cang Yinyue lifted her head to look at Li Musheng's retreating figure, gently biting her cherry-red lips.
Then, drawing on the connection between herself and the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword, she circulated the martial True Qi within her body, which had fully recovered at some point without her noticing, and drove the three-zhang cyan sword lying on the ground.
In the next instant, the cyan sword trembled slightly, then shrank at a visible speed and flew through the air into Cang Yinyue's hand, transforming into a jade-green longsword of ordinary size.
Cang Yinyue reached out and touched the cold blade in her hand, her gaze drifting toward the direction Li Musheng had gone. Deep in her eyes, some emotion that was difficult to put into words seemed to be quietly taking shape without her realizing it.
The next moment, she drew a deep breath, reined in her thoughts at once, and hurried after Li Musheng and the others.
...
The four of them left through the deep well in the rear courtyard, then walked out of the teahouse and followed an enormous iron chain until they arrived before the legendary Dragon Lock Well.
At that moment, Bu Chengyang's expression suddenly shifted, a flicker of something unusual crossing his face.
He turned his head almost imperceptibly and swept his gaze around the surrounding area, yet found nothing out of the ordinary.
Li Musheng then calmly gestured for Cang Yinyue to follow and descended after them.
The Dragon Lock Well was extremely deep, and the water within it was unusually icy cold.
Naturally, this had no effect whatsoever on Li Musheng and the others.
Before long, they sank swiftly to the bottom of the well, where beneath the floor of the well they discovered another well, this one sealed shut by poured molten iron.
"The core of the mechanisms should lie beneath this well within a well," Bu Chengyang transmitted his voice to Li Musheng through a thread of True Qi, saying, "Young Hero only obtained the Azure Dragon Profound Darkness Scripture a short while ago. To be safe, it might be worth waiting a few days, cultivating that divine technique to completion first, and then coming back here to channel out the Azure Dragon True Qi. It would not be too late."
Li Musheng glanced at him and shook his head.
Creating an original martial technique from scratch might take time, but for him, mastering an existing one was simply a matter of reading it through once.
At this moment, he had already silently and thoroughly absorbed and mastered the Azure Dragon Profound Darkness Scripture. While he had not yet brought it to the level of full completion and perfection, it was more than sufficient for drawing out and absorbing the Azure Dragon True Qi.
Li Musheng then reached out with a casual gesture, and the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword in Cang Yinyue's hand cleaved through the icy water and flew into his grip.
At first the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword blazed with cyan light and shuddered incessantly, trying to break free from Li Musheng's grasp, but in an instant it was casually suppressed by him.
Li Musheng landed atop the sealed well and circulated the Azure Dragon Profound Darkness Scripture.
In an instant, streaks of True Qi transformed into flowing phantom azure dragons that surged out from beneath his feet, passing straight through the thick iron and stone seal and boring downward into the ground below.
Bu Chengyang, watching from not far above, felt his expression shift once again in stunned disbelief.
"To have mastered a martial divine technique in such a short span of time... he truly is a monster."
Bu Chengyang sighed inwardly. The shocks and wonders Li Musheng had brought him today exceeded everything from the better part of his entire life combined.
Then Li Musheng focused his senses carefully for a moment, and proceeded to hurl the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword in his hand straight down into one corner of the well beneath his feet.
The Imperial Dragon Divine Sword became a streak of dazzling cyan light and slid into the molten-iron-cast floor as though cutting through tofu, vanishing into it in the blink of an eye without a trace.
Very shortly after, the Dragon Lock Well began to tremble gently, and from somewhere beneath the floor of the well came the sound of mechanical metal gears turning.
Li Musheng paid this no particular mind.
Upon arriving here and conducting his examination, he had confirmed that the mechanism core Bu Chengyang had described was indeed present, but likely owing to the passage of many years, the mechanisms here were no longer fully intact.
There were certain gaps within them. Others might have been at a loss about what to do with those gaps, but for Li Musheng they presented no obstacle at all, and he could slip through them with complete ease.
These gaps were, in fact, also the reason why some of the sealed Azure Dragon True Qi inside had been leaking out.
As a result, with almost no effort at all, Li Musheng raised his hand in another casual gesture, and the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword that had sunk into the ground beneath suddenly shot out as a streak of cyan light and returned to his hand.
By this point, the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword had already absorbed a mass of extremely concentrated Azure Dragon True Qi.
Li Musheng opened his hand slightly, and that mass of Azure Dragon True Qi was drawn into his body. Then he gave another casual wave of his hand, and the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword plunged back into the well floor and vanished once more.
Since the amount of Azure Dragon True Qi the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword could absorb in a single pass was limited, this process repeated itself roughly nine times in total before all of the Azure Dragon True Qi sealed beneath the ground was completely absorbed.
All nine portions of Azure Dragon True Qi naturally flowed into Li Musheng's body as well.
Bu Chengyang watched everything from beginning to end, and by now he had become very much like Cang Yinyue.
After witnessing Li Musheng's monstrous, overwhelming power, his heart had grown still as water, and it seemed as though whatever Li Musheng did fell entirely within the realm of things to be expected.
For instance, the fact that Li Musheng had now absorbed the enormous mass of Azure Dragon True Qi from the entire Dragon Lock Well Ward without being torn apart from within felt, to him, entirely unremarkable.
At this point, Li Musheng tossed the Imperial Dragon Divine Sword casually back into Cang Yinyue's hands.
Then he focused his full attention on circulating the Azure Dragon Profound Darkness Scripture to absorb and fuse the vast quantity of Azure Dragon True Qi within his body.
In the course of doing so, the same sensation he had felt when absorbing the Qilin Blood appeared once again.
His originally exceedingly ordinary constitution, aptitude, and bloodline all seemed to begin elevating and transforming under the infusion of the mysterious energy contained within the Azure Dragon True Qi.
Though the improvement was still extremely small, he could feel the change in himself clearly and without question.
Li Musheng felt a surge of joy. He had come to Dragon Lock Well Ward this time because of those Great Qi remnants, and obtaining this Azure Dragon True Qi had been an entirely unexpected windfall.
Yet the gains from the Azure Dragon True Qi were far greater than the key leads he had obtained, for the Tianqi Secret Treasury still did not even have the faintest outline, whereas the improvement before him was concrete and tangible.
Li Musheng circulated the Azure Dragon Profound Darkness Scripture and spent roughly the time it takes for one incense stick to burn, fully absorbing all of the Azure Dragon True Qi within his body.
After taking a brief moment to assess himself, he found that his physical constitution had improved by roughly one tenth.
While this still had no practical effect on his martial Dao strength, and he remained every bit as formidably powerful as before without the slightest discernible advancement, the change before him nevertheless gave Li Musheng a glimpse of hope.
He was confident that quantitative change gives rise to qualitative change. As long as he continued absorbing Qilin Blood and Azure Dragon True Qi without cease, the day would come when he would see with his own eyes the possibility of transcending the martial Dao.
Not bad at all.
Li Musheng nodded with considerable satisfaction. Then his mind turned inward, and he directed his awareness to his own elixir field.
After absorbing all of the Azure Dragon True Qi, a phantom seal in the form of an azure dragon had taken shape within his elixir field.
This seal he had seen recorded in the very last page of the Azure Dragon Profound Darkness Scripture.
The phantom seal was named the Azure Dragon True Seal, and was something that only appeared when the Azure Dragon Profound Darkness Scripture had been cultivated to its highest level.