Chapter 548: A billion years old… rock

　　Translator: GodBrandy Editor: Kurisu

　　As it was circulating in the area between his eyebrows, his mental energy was intermittently emitting a cool and refreshing aura.

　　Then, as the cool and refreshing aura accumulated and reached a certain degree, it changed into a dazzling bronze light emitting from Song Shuhang’s glabella.

　　At this time, Shuhang felt that the area between his eyebrows was slightly swelled and aching. The pain implied that his constitution was unable to keep up with the sudden increase of mental energy.

　　Besides, the feeling of pain would become more and more intense as time passed by.

　　Technically speaking, one could condense and materialize the originally invisible mental energy only after reaching the Third Stage.

　　The bronze-colored light implied that his mental energy had transformed and entered an embryonic stage. In this stage, the mental energy was the same as an infant, and although it was rather weak while attacking directly, it still had many wondrous uses.

　　Then, after strengthening itself along with the cultivator, the color of the mental energy would also change and become bright silver. The silver color implied that the mental energy had matured. It also meant that the cultivator had enough mental energy to practice sword riding techniques and fly in the sky.

　　After incessantly speaking inside Song Shuhang’s mind for two days and two nights, the 88,888 voices had pushed his mental energy directly to the Third Stage rank.

　　Song Shuhang had just managed to increase the strength of his constitution with much difficulty, but now, his mental energy had suddenly increased and his body was once again unable to keep up with it…

　　At this time, the level of his mental energy had far exceeded the amount his body could withstand. The disparity between the two was so big that it was impossible for Song Shuhang to close the gap by practicing a body tempering technique such as the ❮Steel Hands Technique❯.

　　“What a headache… although it’s a good thing, it’s still very troubling. I need to find another way to quickly increase the strength of my constitution,” Song Shuhang muttered to himself.

　　Apparently, no matter how much he strengthened his constitution, it was still not enough.

　　Should he follow Dharma King Creation’s example and learn a body tempering cultivation technique? At the end of the day, Dharma King Creation’s ❮Warring Buddha’s True Body❯ was rather cool. Whenever the technique was displayed, he would turn into a Super Saiyan, a bald Super Saiyan.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　After wiping the traces of blood from his face, Song Shuhang rested a bit. Afterward, he shot a look all around. He was still inside that room of full of mirrors, but the only source of light in the room, the black sphere, had disappeared.

　　After losing its only source of light, the room had, on the contrary, become brighter. Each of the mirrors was emitting light at this time.

　　“Now then, what was the deal with those 88,888 voices?” Song Shuhang rubbed his temples and tried to recall those 88,888 voices that had nearly driven him insane by continuously talking for almost two days and two nights.

　　Dammit… my head hurts too much. As soon as he tried to recall the 88,888 voices, Song Shuhang’s complexion became pale and his body lost its strength.

　　Therefore, he stretched out his hand and leaned against the nearby mirror, gasping for breath.

　　“Buzz~”

　　Suddenly, a buzzing sound was transmitted beside his ear. At the same time, he felt as though the right hand he had used to lean against the mirror had been pushed into a meat grinder. He felt a piercing pain transmit from the hand to the rest of the body and huge beads of sweat started to slide down from his forehead.

　　“What happened?” Song Shuhang took his hand back. Immediately after, he saw that hundreds of wounds had appeared on his right hand.

　　The wounds weren’t too deep, and he could easily heal them within a few minutes by relying on the current strength of his constitution… but the pain he was feeling was absolutely excruciating. It felt as though the nerves controlling his sense of pain had magnified the sensation by hundreds of times!

　　“Strange… I’m pretty sure no one attacked me just now!” Song Shuhang muttered to himself. After all, he had only used his hand to lean against the mirror, why had so many wounds suddenly appeared on his left hand?

　　Song Shuhang shot a glance at the mirror he leaned against earlier. Was it possible that there was something wrong with the mirror?

　　At this time, Song Shuhang’s picture was reflected upside down inside that mirror.

　　As he gazed at the mirror, the ‘he’ in the mirror also gazed back at him.

　　After a short moment, Song Shuhang discovered that there was something wrong with the ‘he’ in the mirror.

　　To be precise, there was something wrong with the eyes!

　　At this time, numerous runes had appeared in the eyes of the Song Shuhang reflected in the mirror. Then, after the runes completely filled his eyes, they unexpectedly came out of his eye sockets and darted ahead!

　　It’s not the ‘me’ in the mirror that has some problems… the problem lies in my eyes!

　　Immediately after, the runes in Song Shuhang’s eyes fell on the mirror and formed the indistinct picture of a ‘clock’.

　　The hands of the clock started to quickly move counter-clockwise, instantly completing hundreds of cycles.

　　Next, the runes that formed the picture of the clock scattered, leaving the mirror and returning to Song Shuhang’s eyes.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　As soon as the runes returned to his eyes, Song Shuhang unconsciously muttered, “It’s ordinary glass that was strengthened with the usage of a magical technique. It’s harder than steel… but it’s unknown when it was manufactured or who manufactured it. Fairy Chu carried it here while building the Time City. Afterward, she put all the mirrors together and cast a lighting technique on them.”

　　After saying this much, Song Shuhang paused.

　　Eh?

　　Why did I suddenly start to speak?

　　When he returned to his senses, he discovered that he was telling the story of the mirror in front of him.

　　Apparently, the mirror was made of ordinary glass and was strengthened by an expert with the usage of a magical technique. Afterward, Fairy Chu moved it here while she was building the ‘room of mirrors’.

　　In other words, the ‘room of mirrors’ is Fairy Chu’s work? Such being the case, is the luminous jellyfish also related to Fairy Chu?

　　Song Shuhang rubbed his brows to alleviate the pain he was feeling and tried to put his thoughts in order.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Did I unknowingly use a magical technique earlier? Moreover, the magical technique I used seemed to be something similar to an ‘appraisal technique’…

　　Of course, it wasn’t something as simple as an ordinary appraisal technique! Earlier, Song Shuhang saw that the runes flashing through his eyes fell on the mirror and formed the picture of a ‘clock’.

　　Such being the case, is it possible that it’s a magical technique related to time?

　　Anyway, how does it work, and how do I use it?

　　“Clang, clang, clang~”

　　Just as he was in deep thoughts, the two mirrors in front of Song Shuhang automatically opened, revealing a passage that brought out of the ‘room of mirrors’.

　　It was quite obvious that someone had been paying attention to him all this time. Then, after making sure that he had accepted the inheritance and learned the secret technique, they opened the exit for him.

　　Is it possible that it was the luminous jellyfish that opened the exit? After all, it’s very likely that it was the one that brought me here…

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Song Shuhang grasped the treasured saber Broken Tyrant and moved toward the passage with large strides. At the same time, he was wondering what the luminous jellyfish was planning to do.

　　The tunnel wasn’t very long.

　　After five minutes, Song Shuhang was already out of the tunnel. But what appeared before his eyes wasn’t the tree hollow where the luminous jellyfish was residing.

　　As soon as he got out, he found himself in one of the passageways of the lower portion of the Time City.

　　In front of him was precisely that wide hall that he and Chu Chu entered when they arrived in the lower portion of the Time City together with Fairy Chu. The wide hall was completely empty, and the only thing inside was the portrait of the ancestor of the Crystal-Clear Water Pavilion hanging on the wall.

　　Song Shuhang turned his head around and discovered that the ‘tunnel’ he came out of was nowhere to be seen.

　　If not for the fact that the area between his eyebrows was faintly swelled and aching, he would wonder if he had just been just sleepwalking all along…

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　“I should look for Chu Chu first,” Song Shuhang said after pondering for a moment.

　　The hundreds of wounds on his hand had almost healed. The only problem was the stabbing pain, which was still there.

　　Speaking of which, when the ‘Ten Thousand Mile Flying Escape Technique’ activated the last time, it suddenly dragged him away, leaving Chu Chu all alone to fight against the great formation of the 108 bronze statues. How was she doing at this time?

　　The 108 statues didn’t beat her until she started crying, right?

　　Hopefully, she is safe and sound… if she already left the Time City, even better.

　　Looking for Chu Chu wasn’t difficult. Song Shuhang only needed to follow the scent of her body to find her. After all, the nose of a cultivator of the Second Stage was really sensitive!

　　Of course, having a keen sense of smell was also a cause of worry for cultivators of the Second Stage.

　　For example, if someone were to throw at Song Shuhang a ‘stinking pill’ now that he was still unable to freely control his sense of smell, he would feel nauseated and throw everything up!

　　Thereupon, Song Shuhang followed the scent Chu Chu had left behind in the Time City and started to run through the various passageways of the Lower City.

　　At the same time, he recalled the scene of himself displaying the strange ‘appraisal technique’ earlier. Even though the technique wasn’t something as simple as an ordinary ‘appraisal technique’, Song Shuhang had decided to call it that way for the time being.

　　Anyway, when he unintentionally used the appraisal technique back then, he was recalling the content of the speech of those 88,888 voices.

　　At the same time, he unwittingly put his right hand on the mirror.

　　Afterward, he felt a stabbing pain transmit from his hand, and magical runes came out of his eyes, falling on the mirror.

　　Then, just as those runes returned to his eyes, he somehow obtained the information related to the mirror.

　　“Maybe I should give it another try?” Song Shuhang muttered to himself.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Said and done!

　　Song Shuhang tried to recall the buzzing sound that the 88,888 voices were emitting back then. However, recalling the scene was like a form of self-torture. It was a terrible experience altogether.

　　Well then, what was he going to appraise this time?

　　Song Shuhang looked all around while running.

　　Very soon, he found a suitable target. While he was passing through one of the passageways of the Lower City, he saw a place with strange rocks. The rocks there seemed very interesting.

　　Thereupon, Song Shuhang headed toward the place and picked up a fist-sized rock with his left hand, staring at it.

　　Around two breaths later, Song Shuhang felt a burning hot feeling transmit from his left hand!

　　After the searing pain, he discovered that the skin of his palm had been burned and was now charred black.

　　The scene was similar to when hundreds of wounds had suddenly appeared on his right hand. Although Song Shuhang didn’t suffer any attack, his left hand was injured!

　　Song Shuhang clenched his teeth and muttered, “As expected, the strange injuries and the sharp pain are both related to the ‘appraisal technique’. Is this the price to use the technique?”

　　Song Shuhang tried to endure the searing pain and stared at the stone.

　　Then, things went just as he had predicted.

　　Several runes appeared in his eyes and then fell on the surface of the rock, forming the picture of a ‘clock’.

　　Afterward, the hands of the clock quickly turned counter-clockwise.

　　After a hundred or so cycles, the runes returned to Song Shuhang’s eyes.

　　At the same time, they carried back some of the information related to the strange rock.

　　It’s a one billion years old rock. It’s just an ordinary rock, and its only strong point is that it’s very hard.

　　It was a very succinct description.

　　“…” Song Shuhang.

　　After all, not everything that had existed for a very long time was a treasure!

　　Rocks weren’t like ginseng, they wouldn’t become more valuable as time passed by.

　　Therefore, a billion years old ordinary rock was still an ordinary rock.

　　To obtain this (useless) piece of information, Song Shuhang had experienced that searing pain and suffered a painful injury on his left hand.

　　Song Shuhang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He threw the rock back to where he found it and kept following Chu Chu’s smell in the hope of finding her trail.

　　At the same time, he thought of another matter.

　　There was a mysterious puppet inside his size-reducing purse. If he were to appraise the puppet with the new secret technique he had learned, would he obtain some information on it?