畅想听

After opening the second aperture of the First Stage, the Eye Aperture, chances were that the cultivator would be able to develop an innate skill.

The lucky ones would be able to receive a skill like ‘clairvoyance’; those with poorer luck could also receive skills such as ‘long-distance vision’, ‘clarity vision’, ‘microscopic vision’, etc. They could receive all kinds of skills, and if one’s luck were to be horrendous, they might end up with nothing.

However, even if one were to be left with nothing, there was no need to feel discouraged. There were five apertures in total—Heart Aperture, Eye Aperture, Nose Aperture, Ear Aperture, Mouth Aperture. Apart from the Heart Aperture, there were still four of them left, and opening any of them entailed a chance that the cultivator would be bestowed with a skill.

Till now, generally every single cultivator would have unlocked at least one of the skills from an aperture; those with better luck might even have received two different skills.

However, two was already the maximum. No one had ever heard of anyone receiving three or more innate skills.

Song Shuhang’s luck was not considered bad. Upon opening the Eye Aperture, he received an innate skill.

Out of curiosity, he decided to try out the innate skill obtained from the Eye Aperture.

It wasn’t the legendary ‘clairvoyance’ and neither was it one of the all-too-familiar long-distance, clarity, or microscopic vision...

When he activated the skill, the whole world instantly seemed as though it stopped and then started to move in slow motion.

The faintly swaying curtain, the small debris on the ground that was being swept up by the wind, as well as the summer bugs flying outside the window. All of the above were moving in slow motion in Song Shuhang’s eyes.

The duration was only approximately a second, but to Song Shuhang, it felt like more than ten seconds.

After that, he felt as though his mental energy got depleted. His head felt an indistinct pain, and the slow motion mode was forcefully terminated...

Such an Eye Aperture innate skill could be called ‘expert sight’ or even ‘superhuman sight’, as in the eyes of experts, enemies’ movements often seem as though they are at a standstill.

The effect was pretty good—in crucial times, it could probably be used to turn the situation mid-combat around. The only catch was that it used too much mental energy as well as qi and blood.

In the early stage, once was enough to deplete his vitality; in the later stages, since he would already be an expert, the chance for him to use the innate skill was lowered. On the whole, it felt kind of useless.

It wasn’t considered good, but it wasn’t considered bad either.

That being said, to awaken an innate skill was a good fortune in itself. At least half of all cultivators were unable to awaken an innate skill when opening the Eye Aperture.

"When you opened the Eye Aperture, you managed to awaken the innate skill?" Asked Venerable White.

"Yes, I obtained an innate skill. But the consumption of mental energy is very high," Song Shuhang replied, smiling bitterly.

Venerable White smiled and said, "As long as you could activate it, it is a joyous thing. You unlocked the innate skill at the first try; you might still be able to obtain another innate skill when you open the remaining three apertures. If your mental energy is insufficient, then think of a way to increase it!

Anyway, we shall call it a day here! Take a good rest, do not practice anymore," Venerable White added.

Song Shuhang’s energy was greatly depleted; if he continued to practice, it would only cause internal injuries.

"Alright, Senior," replied Song Shuhang.

However, as they say, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak—he wouldn’t be able to practice even if he wanted to. Earlier, when he activated the ‘expert sight’, the consumption of his energy was too huge and now waves of sleepiness kept surging within him. All he wanted to do now was to look for a bed, climb into it, and sleep.

"Well then Senior, I am going to rest!" Said Song Shuhang.

He inched towards his room in extreme exhaustion. Because he was too tired out, he still had not noticed the old bronze ring on his finger.

***

After Song Shuhang left, Venerable White went to close the window shut.

Thereafter, he lightly flicked the short blue sword with his finger. As if it had its own spirit, it started floating in the air and followed behind Venerable White.

"Loose cultivator, Li Tiansu," Venerable White said softly. Since he asked for his name, it implied that he chose to accept his karma. If one day he were to meet Li Tiansu’s juniors or relatives and they needed help, based on today’s karma, he would certainly extend a helping hand.

After that, Venerable White went downstairs, near the multistoried building, and drew a few sets of runes. He also restored the damage to the formation which had been set up by ‘Medicine Master’.

"Done." Venerable White stretched his body as he thought, "What should I do next?"

Soon, his gaze fell on the air conditioner on the second floor.

‘I was finally able to convince fellow daoist Shuhang to sleep, I shall take the opportunity to disassemble the air conditioner and study it!’

Hence, Venerable White happily went to disassemble it...

***

On another side.

Cultivator Sunflower was currently located at a hotel near the Jiangnan College Town.

It took him the rest of the day and slightly past 1 AM—and quite some effort—to recover from the ‘falling on the ground’ incident.

In between, because he was worried that Song Shuhang might suddenly appear with that senior for revenge, he had to change his clothes a couple of times. He even found a couple of rooms to take a number of showers to remove his body scent; also, he even sprayed himself with a liquid that got rid of his aura. He continuously suffered until now.

‘Till now, that "Stressed by a Mountain of Books" has yet to find me. Perhaps he really took me for an ordinary passerby?’ Cultivator Sunflower thought to himself.

He sat in meditation and practiced one round, allowing his mental state to stabilize. At the same time, his mind was pondering today’s incident.

‘One thing is sure though—that ‘Stressed by a Mountain of Books’ is definitely just an ordinary newbie cultivator. If it was merely him, I could easily catch him and take the ‘Blood God Crystal’ from his hands without problem.

However, the identity of the intimidating senior cultivator next to him is unknown, and what exactly is his relationship with "Stressed by a Mountain of Books"? Would this senior actually constantly be by his side? Or would he leave after a couple of days?’

Rubbing his temples, he had already told an informant of the Limitless Demon Sect to look for the latest information pertaining to ‘Stressed by a Mountain of Books’ to see if he could find any clues or traces.

At that moment, his cell phone rang.

"Hello, is this Cultivator Sunflower? The report on ‘Stressed by a Mountain of Books’ that you needed is ready. Come to the Parmete Hotel, we will pass the report to you there," said the guy on the end of the line in a nonchalant voice.

"Got it," Cultivator Sunflower stood up, got out, and called for a taxi.

***

"Hey Brother, where are you going?" The driver was a man with a stubbled face. You could tell that he had a lot of life experience under his belt from the weary look in his eyes.

"Parmete Hotel," Cultivator Sunflower replied plainly.

"That’s pretty far," replied the driver.

"It’s ok, I have enough money," replied Cultivator Sunflower plainly once again.

"Ok then, sit tight," the driver then smiled. He stepped on the gas and the car went off at a fast speed as if it was flying.

Cultivator Sunflower, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, kept frowning, worrying about the ‘Stressed by a Mountain of Books’ issue. His entire being was giving off a gloomy vibe.

The taxi driver thought he was in a bad mood, so he asked, "Brother, feeling depressed? Wanna listen to some music and relax a little?"

Cultivator Sunflower thought about it and nodded, "Alright, turn some music on to relax a little."

He was indeed too uptight, listening to calm music could perhaps help him ease his state of mind.

It was very soon that... Cultivator Sunflower couldn’t have regretted his decision more.

Dammit, instead of turning on radio, the driver actually opened up his larynx and started singing happily.

If he wanted to sing, then so be it. With his stubbled face sort of look, it might be pretty good if he sang some meaningful ballads in a deep voice.

However, he actually sang a feminine, light-hearted and gentle song, originally sung by female artiste a long time ago, if he recalled correctly.

"Ooh~ I like it, leaning on your chest like that~

Ooh~ I like it, waking up next to you~

Ooh~ I like it, when you place your hand over my shoulders~"

Can you imagine the picture of an old stubble-faced man singing a love song ever so gently like water... such a "beautiful" sight.

On the contrary, he himself had no sense of self-awareness at all; he even thought that he sang superbly.

As he was singing, his personal preferences could be inferred from his song choices—love songs were sung one after another; without a single exception, all of them belonged to the ‘passionate and gentle as water’ genre.

Well, honestly, you can’t blame the taxi driver. Those were the songs he usually listened to—he was after all a manly man, he definitely would want to listen to gentle little girls’ voices. After listening for quite some time, of course he would be able to sing them.

Cultivator Sunflower, who was leaning against the front passenger seat, could feel his stress level increasing exponentially.

"Don’t sing anymore," he said in a deep voice. "I want some peace and quiet!"

The taxi driver smacked his lips, a regretful expression on his face.

***

At this moment, above the taxi which Cultivator Sunflower was in, a small and nimble pekingese was tailing him.

A single-lens reflex camera was hung around the neck of the pekingese. It contained the pictures of the scene where Cultivator Sunflower was talking on the phone earlier. Doudou looked at the screen of the camera and felt that his skills got better.

As a monster dog, his strength and capability were remarkable. He had a hundred ways to tail Cultivator Sunflower while at the same time avoiding detection. However, to Doudou, investigating and tailing the other party was not something that should be taken too lightly.

After that, we shall see what kind of information on Song Shuhang this ‘Cultivator Sunflower’ person could get, and what his next course of actions would be.

After taking the pictures, Doudou prepared to head home.

***

Soon, the taxi driver stopped at Parmete Hotel.

Cultivator Sunflower paid the taxi fare and rushed to get off the taxi as though he was escaping from something.

Thereafter, he arrived at an internet cafe next to Parmete Hotel to meet with the informant from the ‘Limitless Demon Sect’.

Because Su Clan’s Seven had been causing trouble to the Limitless Demon Sect recently, Limitless Demon Sect’s informants took extra precautions these days. They feared that he would track their whereabouts and then annihilate their whole branch.

Cultivator Sunflower casually looked for a computer and sat down.

After that, he took out a pack of cigarettes and went online.

About half an hour later, the guy beside him suddenly whispered softly, "This is all the information with regards to Stressed by a Mountain of Books. You have to be careful these days, do not get caught by the Spirit River Su Clan’s people. Su Clan’s Seven is practically crazy, a lot of the sect’s informants have been taken away by his people."

In between the speech, the guy flicked his finger and secretly passed a USB flash drive to Cultivator Sunflower.

Cultivator Sunflower secretly kept the USB flash drive. After half an hour, he got up and left the internet cafe. From his arrival to departure, he never once looked at the guy beside him at all.

‘If not for Spirit River Su Clan making a commotion, the information could have been sent via the internet,’ Cultivator Sunflower heaved a sigh...