The Old Man Steals the Immortal Diagram

The Old Man Steals the Immortal Diagram

"Senior—" Joy surged through Su Yun's heart as he hurried toward the person on the bridge.

Mist swirled around the figure on the bridge, yet he seemed frozen in place, forever maintaining the posture of running and shouting without moving at all.

Puzzled, Su Yun gradually drew closer to the figure. The mist kept dispersing, revealing more stone bridges.

Just as he had guessed, this stone bridge indeed connected to one of the Immortal Mountain Cloud Terraces.

And the figure on the bridge should have rushed down from that Immortal Mountain Cloud Terrace.

Su Yun's steps grew slower and slower as he cautiously watched the figure on the stone bridge. He called out several times, but the figure never responded, nor did he move in the slightest!

The mist around that figure gradually became clearer. It was not mist at all, but an unfurled painting wrapped around him.

The painting seemed to be formed from a curtain of light. Only the two scroll shafts floating behind the man showed that it was a painting.

The clouds surrounding him were projections of the sea of clouds around them upon the painting.

Even stranger, the man surrounded by the painting gave Su Yun a familiar feeling, as though he had seen him somewhere before.

And the closer he came, the stronger that familiarity became!

It was an old man, stooped with age, yet he gave off an extraordinarily towering and valiant impression!

"He seems to be Uncle Qu, who lived in the first house of Tianmen Town..."

Su Yun walked closer. Naturally, he was very familiar with the first household of Tianmen Town.

Six years ago, before he had gone blind, he had often run out to play. Whenever he dashed through Tianmen, he would always encounter Uncle Qu, who lived in the first house.

He was a very kind old man, always holding a chisel and hammer as he stood on the scaffold beside Tianmen, chipping away at stone with clangs and clatters. Whenever he saw Su Yun, he would always joke with him.

After the calamity broke out and Su Yun could no longer see, he would still greet Uncle Qu whenever he passed the first house in Tianmen Town.

Uncle Qu was in Tianmen Town. It was naturally impossible for him to appear here.

Yet the man on the bridge truly looked very much like Uncle Qu!

Su Yun forced himself to walk forward step by step, silently telling himself, He cannot be Uncle Qu. Uncle Qu has always stayed in Tianmen Town! This morning, Uncle Qu even greeted me...

He could not help shuddering. "The man on the bridge definitely isn't Uncle Qu!"

The person on the stone bridge came closer and closer. Su Yun's eyelids twitched wildly as he finally saw the man's face clearly.

This hunchbacked old man on the bridge truly was the Uncle Qu from his memories!

After going blind, Su Yun had worked hard to recall every detail of the people he knew, afraid that he might forget them. And this hunchbacked old man on the bridge matched every detail of Uncle Qu in his memory!

Su Yun stopped. "If the person on the bridge is Uncle Qu, then who is Uncle Qu in Tianmen Town?"

The Uncle Qu who greeted him every morning, who was so kind and affectionate toward him—who exactly was he?

Looking closely, Su Yun saw a diamond-shaped wound between Uncle Qu's brows. Through that wound, he could see the scene behind the old man's head.

It should have been a sword wound.

A sword had pierced through his skull.

Su Yun closed his eyes. When he saw the wound between Uncle Qu's brows, his own eyes abruptly began to ache, as though Sword Aura were erupting from within them.

That sound which had repeatedly haunted his nightmares rang out in his mind once again.

The sound of bells flying through the air.

It was the sword cry made by an Immortal Sword tearing through the air, countless bell chimes linked into a single line.

Six years ago, he had looked up and seen the Immortal Sword that made that sword cry, causing him to lose his sight!

"The sword that pierced Uncle Qu's skull was that great sword! But why is Uncle Qu's wound so small?"

Enduring the pain in his eyes, Su Yun opened them and murmured, "Uncle Qu, why did you die here? How long have you been dead? Was it six years ago? Then who exactly was the Uncle Qu who kept me company for six years? Was he your spirit..."

Before dying, Uncle Qu had still been running, his mouth shaped in a desperate cry. There was no way to know what he had shouted, but the five fingers of his outstretched right hand were spread wide, holding up that painting as though he intended to use it to block something.

The painting seemed to be made of a curtain of light, reflecting the scenery around it, yet there was no content within it.

It was more like an extraordinarily thin, bendable transparent mirror.

Su Yun stretched out his hand and gently touched the painting. Suddenly, ripples spread across its surface like ripples on a tranquil lake.

Su Yun hastily withdrew his hand.

Before him, the painting changed.

The clouds in the painting slowly dispersed, replaced by a vast marsh stretching hundreds of miles.

Lightning suddenly flashed and thunder rumbled within the painting. Bolts of lightning crisscrossed, and torrential rain poured down.

Su Yun stared blankly at the scene. The contents of this painting were actually changing constantly, leaving him unable to make head or tail of it.

Suddenly, the earth shook and mountains swayed within the great marsh. A knobby, scaly Divine Crocodile leaped and twisted amid countless bolts of lightning, tossing its head and sweeping its tail as it breathed out thunderclouds and lightning!

The sky was pitch-black. Only the light bursting forth when lightning erupted briefly illuminated the great marsh.

The Divine Crocodile stood upon the marsh, its tail churning up towering waves of mud. Opening its enormous maw, it seemed about to swallow the stars and constellations in the heavens!

Its abdominal cavity rose and fell. Faintly, Su Yun suddenly heard thunder at his ears like heaven collapsing and earth splitting apart!

That thunderclap was the Tribulation Thunderclap of the Crocodile Dragon transforming into a Flood Dragon. It was also the Breath-Circulation Thunderclap produced when the Crocodile Dragon breathed and circulated its breath; the Transformation Thunderclap of a crocodile becoming a Flood Dragon; and the Water Dragon's Chant of overturning rivers and seas upon transforming into a Flood Dragon!

"Could it be that this painting can reflect what I am thinking?" Su Yun was profoundly shaken.

What he had been thinking about just now was how to cultivate Crocodile Dragon's Roar and leave this place!

He had been wholly preoccupied with the cultivation method of Crocodile Dragon's Roar, pondering how to construct the image of a Crocodile Dragon within his mind and complete his visualization. Then, after touching this painting, it displayed the scene of a Divine Crocodile Undergoes Tribulation!

There had to be a reason behind this.

There must have been a reason for this mysterious painting to undergo such a change. The cause of the change in its image was most likely Su Yun's touch!

"If this painting changed according to what I thought, why is the Crocodile Dragon's Roar it displays so much more profound than what Mister Shuijing taught?" Su Yun wondered.

The latter half of Great Furnace Transformation: Qi Cultivation Chapter, Crocodile Dragon's Roar, required one to visualize a Crocodile Dragon and use that as the foundation to produce thunderclaps.

Qiu Shuijing had taken them to search for Crocodile Dragons. Su Yun had heard the thunderclaps produced by a Crocodile Dragon, but they were nowhere near as shocking as the thunderclaps made when the Crocodile Dragon in this painting transformed into a Flood Dragon!

"Mister Shuijing explained that the key to Crocodile Dragon's Roar lay mainly in the Crocodile Dragon Thunderclap. But the key revealed when the Divine Crocodile in the painting transformed into a Flood Dragon seems, seems..."

Su Yun hesitated. "It seems there is much more than what Mister Shuijing taught!"

From this painting, he saw that the key to Crocodile Dragon's Roar lay in four great thunderclaps.

Tribulation Thunderclap, Breath-Circulation Thunderclap, Transformation Thunderclap, and Water Dragon's Chant!

The key to Crocodile Dragon's Roar Su Yun comprehended from the painting contained three more kinds than what Qiu Shuijing had taught!

"Mister Shuijing naturally would not be mistaken, nor did he have any reason to conceal anything. The reason he did not mention them—could it be because he had not comprehended them either?"

Su Yun found it hard to believe. Mister Shuijing was absolutely an important figure. Whenever he encountered other people from Tianmen Town and mentioned Mister Shuijing, they all said Mister Shuijing was formidable.

Mister Shuijing carried himself with extraordinary bearing. When he taught Su Yun Great Furnace Transformation: Qi Cultivation Chapter, he had asked for nothing in return. It was impossible for him to hoard knowledge selfishly.

There was only one possibility for why he had not taught Su Yun the other three keys.

That was, Crocodile Dragon's Roar contained only the Breath-Circulation Thunderclap, and did not include the Tribulation Thunderclap, Transformation Thunderclap, or Water Dragon's Chant!

In other words, the Crocodile Dragon's Roar displayed in the painting was far more complete than the Crocodile Dragon's Roar known by Qiu Shuijing!

"Or perhaps, this painting can make up for the deficiencies in Crocodile Dragon's Roar!"

Su Yun grasped the crucial point. "If this painting can complete Crocodile Dragon's Roar, can it also complete other cultivation methods? If it can even complete other cultivation methods..."

His heart pounded wildly.

He understood why Uncle Qu had ventured deep into this place to steal the Immortal Diagram!

At that moment, the Divine Crocodile in the painting was transforming into a Flood Dragon amid heavenly tribulation. The Divine Crocodile shifted and changed, clearly displaying every move and stance of Crocodile Dragon's Roar.

Crocodile Dragon Emerges from the Abyss!

Crocodile Dragon's Roll!

Divine Crocodile's Tail Sweep!

Dragon Fights in the Field!

Crocodile Dragon on the Spine!

Dragon Roaming the Winding Marsh!

Su Yun had learned all six moves from Qiu Shuijing, but because he had never witnessed them with his own eyes, his learning had been neither fish nor fowl.

Yet within the diagram, though there were only six moves, under the Divine Crocodile's demonstration they seemed to become countless thousands of moves, without a single repetition!

Su Yun watched with his heart racing and soul swaying. The Yellow Bell floating above his head began turning again. He was breaking down each movement of the Divine Crocodile in the painting into individual steps according to the time required to complete it, deepening his memory.

"To cultivate Crocodile Dragon's Roar, Great Furnace Transformation must serve as the foundation, merging the four great thunderclaps into one within the furnace. To achieve this, the body, consciousness, and vital energy must possess exceptional coordination."

Just as Su Yun thought this, that strange sword cry suddenly sounded again. The Divine Crocodile undergoing tribulation in the painting before him was abruptly cleaved by a streak of sword light, its head separated from its body as it died an unnatural death!

Su Yun's heart jolted. That strike had come without warning, destroying the six great moves of Crocodile Dragon's Roar like rotten wood crumbling away, and slaying the Divine Crocodile.

The thunderclouds in the painting dispersed, and the great marsh vanished without a trace as well.

"This painting is blank. It can only reflect its surroundings and refract what lies in one's heart. Just now, I was not thinking about that Immortal Sword, yet the Immortal Sword appeared in the painting. Then there is only one possibility!"

Cold sweat beaded on Su Yun's forehead. He immediately looked toward the mist. "That Immortal Sword is nearby right now!"