Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 268: Chapter 180: The Diagram Appears (Extra for Tom2017)_2

His spiritual thought swept across Yi Lingling’s storage bag, retrieving two identical boxes—evidently, one of which was meant to deceive him.

Both boxes were opened, revealing two ancient zithers within.

One zither had obvious spiritual artifact fluctuations, but under the scrutiny of spiritual thought, it felt like a facade; instead, the other zither, which had no such fluctuations, felt rather special to him.

Li Shiming had never seen this kind of spiritual artifact before, and, although there were numerous sound wave techniques on Sky Sea Island and he had mastered both the Buddhist “Oral Lotus” and the devilish “Devil’s Sound into the Ear,” combining them into the “Devil Sound Lotus,” he had never encountered a sound wave technique-reliant spiritual zither.

His spiritual thought passed over the ancient zither without finding any noticeable markings.

“Since you suspect this zither has no connection to the Six-fingered Sound Demon’s legacy, why not hand over the zither?” Li Shiming looked puzzledly at Yi Lingling and asked.

...
“Because Yi Yichen sent someone to find me, offering double the auction price to buy this zither. At the time, I was on Tianhua Mountain where he did not dare to snatch it forcibly. Given his status, he wouldn’t have made the offer without knowing something. The power of Baoze Mountain is strong, and their information on the cultivation world far surpasses that of people like us!” Yi Lingling knew she could not hide it and replied honestly.

Li Shiming nodded slowly as a bolt of lightning appeared on his finger, traveling along the surface of the ancient zither.

Refining the ancient zither took little time—it only took ten breaths for him to refine one-tenth of the zither.

As he refined the zither, information flowed into his brain.

The zither was named ‘Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither,’ and even from its name, it was clear the Demon nature of the Six-fingered Sound Demon.

Apart from Buddhist practitioners, nearly all cultivators referred to their practice as “Dao,” with Taoists even placing the progenitors of the Dao on the same level of reverence.

The Six-fingered Sound Demon gave the ancient zither the name ‘Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither,’ denoting disregard for the Dao, and Li Shiming couldn’t understand why he would do so.

Along with the name ‘Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither,’ an Annihilation Dao Piece also entered his mind.

Li Shiming had never studied the zither, so he gently plucked the strings of the ‘Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither,’ connecting his consciousness to the IBMz15, and began learning the ancient zither playing techniques.

Yi Lingling listened to the meaningless jumble of notes, unsure of Li Shiming’s intentions, as it was clear that Li Shiming didn’t know how to play.

As she was pondering, Li Shiming had already learned the ancient zither’s playing techniques, and through the random plucking of strings just now, he had also grasped the unique sound characteristics of the ‘Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither.’

He sat down cross-legged, the ‘Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither’ resting on his legs, recalling the Annihilation Dao Piece in his mind, as a trace of Wood Thunder Spiritual Power appeared on his fingertips.

A bizarre piece of music emanated from his fingers, the Annihilation Dao Piece carrying the world’s rage and intent of destruction; it was as though he saw the world fissure, mountains crumble, oceans overturning, and life falling, becoming dry bones amidst the Annihilation Dao Piece.

Unwittingly, Li Shiming too was drawn into this mood until an alert from the IBMz15 snapped him out of it.

Looking at the ‘Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither,’ he saw a map materialize above it, with a brightened dot on it, and beside the map was a mnemonic for entering an array.

The IBMz15 recorded both the map and the mnemonic, and Li Shiming breathed a sigh of relief, ceasing the zither music.

His consciousness was connected to that of Li Yuanba, so as he woke, Li Yuanba also came to his senses.

Li Shiming felt a chill at the close call. He was only playing the zither, and the ‘Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither’ was not even fully refined, yet it was already capable of unleashing such a terrifying might, drawing him into a horrifying mood.

He had no idea what would have happened had he been sucked into that entirely destructive mood.

When he thought of Yi Lingling, he realized just how dreadful the effects of the ‘Annihilation Dao Piece’ were.

At this moment, Yi Lingling’s appearance had aged from her twenties to that of a woman over seventy, her black hair had turned to withered grass, and her life force had vanished.

Originally, Yi Lingling was not so quickly affected by the “Annihilation Melody”, but because the Soul-binding Rope suppressed her Spiritual Power Pattern, and she suffered the attack of the Soul Piercing Needle, her spirit was traumatized.

Under such circumstances, upon hearing the “Annihilation Melody”, she fell into a terrifying mindset, being pulled into a state of despair and perishing along with the world under the influence of the melody.

Li Shiming shook his head, knowing that Yi Lingling was no longer young. Her previous attempts to seduce him with her charms, hoping he would spare her, now seemed repulsive to him upon reflection.

With a flick of his finger, he released a wisp of Fire Thunder Spiritual Power, which landed on Yi Lingling’s corpse. The lifeless body, though still retaining the constitution of someone at the Foundation Establishment Stage, could not resist the Fire Thunder Spiritual Power, and in a few breaths, only a bit of ash remained on the ground.

He sat down cross-legged again. The “Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither”, though extremely eerie in use, indeed possessed considerable power.

The greatest characteristic of sound wave attacks is their broad coverage and difficulty to defend against. Unfortunately, his application of the “Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither” was still at the level of using mortal techniques, nowhere near unleashing the true power of the “Annihilation Melody”.

He did not know who the Six-fingered Sound Demon was, but he had gained a clear understanding of the power of the “Annihilation Melody”.

In the data collected by the IBMz15 on sound waves, the frequency of the “Annihilation Melody” was exceedingly peculiar, with the high and low tones constantly breaking the limits of normal sound production.

Moreover, the “Annihilation Melody” also had the effect of influencing one’s mind. Unwittingly, it could cause cultivators to fall into the state of mind crafted by the melody, thereby damaging their souls within that state until their destruction.

Of course, this was the effect achieved by both the “Annihilation Melody” and the “Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither” combined. Li Shiming could not imagine the extent to which the power of the “Annihilation Melody” could be enhanced with special techniques.

He had become somewhat interested in the legacy of the Six-fingered Sound Demon, although he had not been very interested in legacies before.

On Sky Sea Island, there were few legends about legacy sites. For a long time, Sky Sea Island had been controlled jointly by seven sects, and all powerful cultivators were sect cultivators from these sects.

Even if these cultivators left behind any cave dwellings, they would not be their main ones, and the spiritual objects left inside would be limited.

The main cave dwellings of sect cultivators would be within the sects, and only those would be safe and more abundant in Spiritual Energy.

Although he had some interest in the legacy of the Six-fingered Sound Demon, he still needed to inquire clearly about the news of the Six-fingered Sound Demon to make the most accurate judgment.

To be honest, had it not been for the formidable power of the “Annihilation Melody”, he might not have bothered with the legacy of the Six-fingered Sound Demon.

At least before joining a great sect, he would not go exploring; he now had abundant cultivation techniques and resources and did not urgently need other techniques and resources.

But the “Annihilation Melody” had piqued his curiosity. Compared with the “Annihilation Melody”, his “Devil Sound Lotus” seemed like child’s play.

Li Shiming operated the IBMz15 in his mind, comparing the map obtained from the “Earth Sound Annihilation Dao Zither” with known maps of Beishu.

He was not very familiar with Beishu, but fortunately, he had obtained maps from Golden Core Sword Cultivator Yun Xingyi as well as from the Wei’s Book Collection Room.

Data comparison of landforms, which might take cultivators in the Cultivation World years to accomplish, was completed by the IBMz15 in just a few seconds.

Li Shiming’s vision now included a map of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, marking out locations, while the IBMz15, based on previously obtained maps, provided him with the safest route.

The paths he had previously taken seemed to be through deep forests and rarely traveled places, but in fact, these routes had been explored by cultivators and confirmed to be safe.

The Ten Thousand Great Mountains were not just inhabited by humans; many other creatures also lived there, including powerful spirit beasts.

Areas marked as dangerous on several maps were confirmed to be regions with powerful spirit beasts, and passing through these areas was very risky.

Of course, in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, humans were still the dominant force, with cultivators suppressing the spirit beasts and coexisting with them.