The Bell Takes Shape

The "morning bell" Li Wangxian wanted to see had no name, but it was steeped in legend. It had originally been cast from ordinary bronze, yet hundreds of thousands of years ago, an unrivaled master had, for some unknown reason, "enlightened" the ancient bell, allowing it to endure all those years without decaying.

Thus, many stories about the bell had spread. By now, truth and fiction had long become impossible to distinguish. Perhaps only the ancient records of clans and great sects whose legacies had likewise endured for hundreds of thousands of years still contained an account of the event.

The ancient bell was nameless, and its tower stood in the center of Yang City. Anyone could visit it; there were no restrictions.

To Li Wangxian's surprise, few people had come to visit the bell tower. There were only scattered groups of two or three.

That made sense. Clearly, only newcomers to the city would choose to visit. After all, however famous the bell was, whatever stories surrounded it, none of that could change the fact that it was an ordinary bell.

Over all those years, countless renowned elders had already confirmed that it was merely an ordinary bell. The inscription on its body was nothing more than a passage from the Pure and Tranquil Scripture, with nothing particularly profound about it.

Li Wangxian moved close to the bell and examined it carefully, finding that this was indeed the case. Yet the bell had endured for hundreds of thousands of years without decaying, and the traces time had left upon it seemed to have become a different kind of Dao resonance.

Li Wangxian extended his primordial spirit power, trying to capture that trace of Dao resonance, but failed. It seemed both present and absent, as illusory and elusive as the moon in water or flowers in a mirror.

After several fruitless attempts, Li Wangxian stopped trying. Perhaps his cultivation realm was too low, or perhaps there was no Dao resonance at all, only the ordinary antique charm left by the passage of time upon a bronze bell.

Whatever the reason, he could not obtain it now.

"This bell stands three zhang and three chi tall and weighs over ten thousand jun. Its resonant toll can travel a hundred li."

Beside him, Uncle Jiang saw that he had stopped extending his divine sense and began explaining the ancient bell's various features in detail, including the thickness and dimensions of its different sections.

"There is something remarkable about its sound, too. Struck lightly, it is mellow and deep; struck heavily, it is rich and sonorous, with rolling sound waves and a brisk, elegant rhythm."

Only after truly examining the ancient bell up close and listening to Uncle Jiang's explanation did Li Wangxian understand that these many details were precisely what his bell refining had lacked.

Refining a bell differed from refining other powerful artifacts. A grand shape and appearance were not enough. Thickness, sound transmission, vibration, and many other functions had to be considered, so its structure required far more detail.

Once he understood this, Li Wangxian lingered no longer. He bought two bronze bells from a bell foundry run by mortals in the city, along with several books on bell casting, then hurried out of Yang City.

Li Wangxian and Uncle Jiang had come quickly and left just as quickly. By ordinary standards, they had been cautious enough. After all, even if they attracted the attention of someone with ulterior motives, there should not have been enough time to investigate their circumstances and gather sufficient manpower.

Yet the two of them were still far too conspicuous: a boy of four or five and an elderly servant. This was the sort of entourage enjoyed by heirs of noble clans or holy sons of great sects.

Of course, if that had truly been the case, no one would have dared touch them. But they had first altered their appearances to enter the city, not daring to show their true faces, then hurried out again as though hiding from something.

How could that not set people's imaginations running?

A loyal old servant and a young noble scion who might have fallen on hard times-what did that mean?

It meant heaps of Source, powerful scriptures, and wondrous techniques. It was a chance to strike it rich!

As for how anyone knew that Li Wangxian and Uncle Jiang had altered their appearances, one could only say that these people with ulterior motives did possess some ability. Or rather, without even that much ability, they would not last long in this line of work.

Sooner or later, disaster would strike.

Naturally, they had not witnessed Uncle Jiang and Li Wangxian changing their appearances, nor had they cultivated a heavenly eye that could see through them directly. Instead, they had used a rare Bone-Piercing Mirror to detect something amiss with their forms.

Their movements naturally drew Uncle Jiang's attention as well. Once he knew they were being watched, he would not give anyone more time to assemble additional experts, which was why the two had left in such a hurry.

The moment they left the city, Uncle Jiang acted decisively. He swept Li Wangxian up and flew away at top speed. Then, regardless of how many people might pursue them or what their cultivation levels were, after covering some distance, he brought out a Profound Jade Platform and crossed the void.

"No!"

Neither Li Wangxian nor Uncle Jiang had any inclination to heed the furious roar behind them. After emerging from the Profound Jade Platform, Uncle Jiang acted without hesitation, first bringing out a powerful artifact, then another Profound Jade Platform to cross the void again. After they left, the divine power Uncle Jiang had left behind detonated the artifact, throwing the void into turmoil.

Li Wangxian and Uncle Jiang were gone. Not long afterward, at the place where they had emerged from their first void crossing, several bedraggled cultivators escaped from the void with powerful artifacts hovering above their heads.

"So decisive. So ruthless! One powerful artifact in exchange for more than a dozen of my men's lives." A middle-aged male cultivator with a great cauldron suspended above his head muttered as he watched the turbulent void nearby.

"Boss, the void has been disrupted. We can't deduce their coordinates anymore," one of the middle-aged cultivator's subordinates reported.

"Let's go. We lost this round." The middle-aged cultivator was decisive. Losing quite a few subordinates in the void and coming away empty-handed did not send him into a humiliated rage.

Meanwhile, when Li Wangxian and Uncle Jiang emerged from the void, they were already very close to the Sun Church. Soon afterward, they returned safely.

Upon returning to the church, Uncle Jiang offered Li Wangxian no words of comfort. Even Father Li and Mother Li, who had learned what happened, said nothing, as though the two of them had never made that "perilous" escape at all.

Seeing this, Li Wangxian said little either. He merely greeted his parents calmly, then turned and returned to his cave abode to cultivate and refine his artifact.

He understood that this was the cruel world of cultivation, where the strong devouring the weak was an immutable law. And that was to say nothing of the road to becoming a Great Emperor that he was destined to walk, a road where blood and fire filled the sky.

The sooner he adapted, the less likely he would be to suffer a devastating loss because of it later. That was what Father Li and Mother Li thought, and why they hardened their hearts and deliberately treated this incident with indifference, using it to temper his will and character.

Once little Wangxian left, however, Mother Li could no longer maintain her calm expression. Her face filled with worry and heartache as she watched the direction in which he had gone.

In truth, although she had worked hard to restrain herself earlier, she had still failed to hold it together while Li Wangxian was present. Her face might not have betrayed anything, but her eyes had put on a whole "performance."

"Brother Lan..."

Seeing the heartache and worry on his wife's face, Father Li silently reached out and embraced her. "It's my failure as a father," he said reproachfully. "I don't have the strength to hold up a safe sky over my wife and child."

Hearing this, Mother Li said nothing more. She merely held her husband tightly. She knew that the pain and self-reproach in his heart were no less than her own.

After all, he had once been so confident and proud!

Sensing his wife's feelings, Father Li let out a quiet sigh and fell silent as well.

Meanwhile, Li Wangxian recalled the ancient bell he had seen that day. After opening the books on bell casting, he finally constructed a great bell in his mind's sea that satisfied him.

Its shape resembled the Yongle Great Bell, simple, ancient, and natural.

Once its structure became clear, Li Wangxian immediately engraved its design in his mind, using his divine sense to simulate over a thousand "Divine Patterns." Then he began tempering them, first giving them shape within his mind's sea.

Through unrelenting effort, the thousand-plus "Divine Patterns" melted and finally condensed into a small golden bell an inch tall, gleaming brilliantly and utterly perfect.

The instant this little golden bell was refined into existence in his mind, the more he looked at it, the more satisfied he felt. The bean-sized golden bell grew increasingly profound in his eyes, until suddenly it filled his entire mind's sea, becoming ancient and simple, yet grand and natural.

That's it. This is the one!

Li Wangxian finalized its form and imprinted it forever in his mind. Then he began forging a real "bell" of this shape within his Bitter Sea.

When he first began actually tempering the "Divine Patterns" within his Bitter Sea, he ran into difficulties. It was hard to fuse over a thousand "Divine Patterns" together. But then he unleashed his peerless primordial spirit power, nourished for years by the Yin and Yang Immortal Seed.

Soon, he slowly melted the thousand-plus "Divine Patterns" together into something resembling a fist-sized lump of divine iron, shining brilliantly.

Then Li Wangxian used his primordial spirit power as a hammer, the Yin and Yang Qi within the Immortal Seed as fire, and his own understanding of the Dao Patterns of the Sun as fuel. Through a thousand hammerings and a hundred temperings, the lump of divine iron gradually took on the shape of a bell.

Finally, after several hours of effort, the lump of divine iron within Li Wangxian's body fully transformed into a small, glittering golden bell, like a miniature sun suspended above his Bitter Sea.

"The Dao Bell has taken its initial form. Now all I need to do is slowly refine it."