Chapter 1722 – Golden Crow Altar

The Heavenly Fragrance Treasury was located on the forbidden grounds of the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion. After watching Mu Xueling open the treasury, Lin Yun turned to Yue Weiwei and asked, “What is this place?”

“This is where ancient musical instruments and scores are stored. Aside from that, there are many ancient divine runes, and you can consider the Heavenly Fragrance Treasury to be the asset of the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion. Senior Sister intends to nurture you, Big Brother Lin.” Yue Weiwei smiled.

“What are you two talking about?” Mu Xueling turned around.

Stowing the smile on her face, Yue Weiwei stood there seriously. But Mu Xueling merely glanced at her before saying, “You can leave, first. I’ll bring him in myself.”

“Senior Sister, bring me along as well. I also want to take a look.” Yue Weiwei said in a coy tone.

Having no way of dealing with Yue Weiwei, Mu Xueling ultimately agreed, “Come in, then.”

When the Heavenly Fragrance Treasury opened, the two followed behind Mu Xueling. Along the way, they noticed many jade tablets that were engraved into ancient monuments. The monuments were covered with runes. They might seem complicated, but they could be traced.

Every rune was an ancient saint rune, filled with ancient rhythms. Faintly, they could even hear ancient music resounding beside their ears.

“These monuments were forged with jade, and those runes are musical scores. Most ancient scores are incomplete, so we can only use saint runes to preserve the scores on the ancient monument.” Mu Xueling explained while she walked. “Aside from ancient scores, there is also some mental energy cultivation techniques.”

When they entered the next level, this was a true treasury. There weren’t many musical instruments here, but every single one was hovering in the air, emitting a white radiance. There were various musical instruments and many rare instruments in various weird shapes.

Since Mu Xueling understood them well, she casually explained to Lin Yun. Occasionally, she would even play them herself. Each musical instrument had its own unique traits, and an ancient score would be different in the hands of other musical instruments.

This wasn’t just in terms of power but the artistic concept as well. For example, if Lin Yun played the Sun and Moon with the Thunderstorm Zither, it would be hard for him to accomplish what he did with the Divine Indigo Jade Bamboo Flute at the West Garden Banquet.

Lin Yun’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he saw a familiar musical instrument. But he couldn’t recall the name of it at the moment because it was old and had no luster on the surface. Compared to other saint instruments, it looked too ordinary.

This instrument had a long vertical stick-like neck, at the top of which were two big tuning pegs, and a small resonator body at the bottom. But this instrument didn’t have any strings, and Lin Yun couldn’t recall the name of this instrument after pondering for a long time.

“This is a zither, forged with Divine Mulberry Wood. This instrument has a divine rune engraved with Golden Crow’s Divine Blood. In terms of value alone, it is higher than all the other instruments here added up. After all, Divine Mulberry Wood is extremely rare.” Mu Xueling had pity on her face when she looked at this instrument. She sighed, “But it’s a pity that this instrument is damaged, and the technique to play it is also lost. We also can’t find any musical scores for this instrument.”

“Senior Sister, it doesn’t seem to have any strings.” Yue Weiwei said.

“It’s useless even if there are strings. No one knows how to play it.” Mu Xueling replied.

“I heard of this instrument before and that the Blue Dragon Ancestral Deity forged it. Aside from him, no one knows how to use this instrument since it was lost over time.” Yue Weiwei smiled.

“It’s true that there are rumors about that.” Mu Xueling casually replied. She wasn’t interested in this instrument.

I-Isn’t this an erhu? The corner of Lin Yun’s lips twitched. He finally knew why no one could play this instrument. After all, it still required a bow to play.

Just when he was about to say something, Mu Xueling continued walking. She said, “You don’t need to care about that for the time being, and your Thunderstorm Zither is stronger than most of the musical instruments here.”

Lin Yun was alarmed when he heard that. So Mu Xueling had long recognized the Thunderstorm Zither.

When they went up to the third level, Lin Yun’s vision opened up. This was an isolated and spacious hall, and an ancient altar was at the far end of the hall. The altar had flames burning on it, and an ancient painting was hovering above the fire.

The flames were golden, emitting a dazzling radiance that looked like they were alive. The entire hall was covered in the saint aura emitted from the flames. When Lin Yun looked at it, he was nearly sent flying away. Mu Xueling helped him in the critical moment by releasing her aura to resist the force.

But compared to the golden flames, Lin Yun was more shocked by the painting. He began to wonder what material the painting was made of since it wasn’t damaged by the fire. On the contrary, it even looked sacred under the flames.

“That’s the Golden Crow Saint Flame, and this altar has a Divine Great Sun Array. It can preserve the flames for ten thousand years without extinguishing. The altar's surface was forged with Golden Crow’s Saint Blood, which has been around for ten thousand years. It’s one of the greatest secrets of the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion.” Mu Xueling said as she stopped.

“What about that painting?” Lin Yun asked.

“That painting is the reason why I brought you here. Your mental cultivation is too weak. Even though you’ve grasped the Saint Tone, your mental energy still can’t fully unleash the Saint Tone’s power.” Mu Xueling explained. “For example, just like how you grasped the Heavenly Dome Sword Intent. But if your cultivation is only at the Empyrean Realm, do you think you can fully unleash the power of your sword intent?”

Lin Yun was briefly stunned when he heard that. For some reason, he felt Mu Xueling had a hidden meaning in her words. But her gaze was calm, looking at the Golden Crow Altar.

“It’s impossible to unleash the power of the Heavenly Dome Sword Intent even in the Elysium Core Realm. Even the Dragon Pulse Realm is barely enough.” Lin Yun replied.

“Is that so?” Mu Xueling turned to look at Lin Yun, and her gaze made him feel a chill run down his spine.

“But there are some geniuses in the world who have grasped the Heavenly Dome Sword Intent in the Dragon Pulse Realm.” Mu Xueling replied. “And even grasping Saint Tone as a fifth-grade Saint Spiritualist…”

“Saint Elder, who are you talking about?” Lin Yun smiled. “My mental cultivation has reached the seventh-grade Saint Spiritualist.”

“The seventh-grade Saint Spiritualist is still lacking. There are thirteen grades as a Saint Spiritualist, and you need to be at least in the ninth grade if you want to shine on the Nirvana Banquet…” Mu Xueling continued. “As for Saint Tone, you’ll have to reach the Great Saint Tone at the very least. The current you can only barely participate.”

“The Nirvana Banquet is that terrifying?” Lin Yun exclaimed.

“You think I’ll bluff you?” Mu Xueling said indifferently. “Your half-baked music dao can only intimidate others. If you encounter a genuine expert, you won’t be able to put up any resistance.”

“What do you mean by a genuine expert?” Lin Yun asked. “Those at the West Garden Banquet aren’t considered geniuses?”

“If those people can be considered geniuses, why didn’t they join the three other musical houses but had to gather around Wind Edge Lord?” Mu Xueling replied with a question. “As for a genuine expert, don’t you have one standing beside you?”

Lin Yun turned to look at Yue Weiwei when he heard that, and Yue Weiwei replied, “I’m not an expert. Big Brother Lin is the expert.”

With a smile, Lin Yun clearly didn’t believe what Yue Weiwei said.

“Big Brother Lin is the expert. After all, Big Brother Lin cultivated music dao for less than a year. It’s unfair for Big Brother Lin to compare with those people who cultivated in music dao for decades.” Yue Weiwei said.

“No one will talk to you about fairness in the Nirvana Banquet.” Mu Xueling replied.

Lin Yun wore an awkward smile. Since Yue Weiwei said that, what Mu Xueling said was probably true. Most importantly, Mu Xueling didn’t have a reason to lie to him.

“What’s in the painting?” Lin Yun asked.

“This painting was created with Golden Crow’s Divine Blood. Since you’re fully recovered, you have reached the bare minimum of being baptized by the divine blood.” Mu Xueling said, and she continued, “If you want to increase your mental cultivation in a short time, it’s impossible without external help. This is the same for others; some have received external help since they were young, it’s just that the external help they’ve received isn’t as powerful as this painting.”

Lin Yun was inwardly shocked. He had seen some divine runes before, and they weren’t naturally formed divine ones. But he had never seen a painting created entirely with divine runes before. Just a single divine rune was already shocking enough, so how terrifying would a painting entirely made with divine runes be? He didn’t dare to imagine it and could feel his scalp tingle.

When Mu Xueling waved her hand, the painting in the Golden Crow Saint Flame opened up, and a lake appeared on the painting. The lake had nine lotuses with different colors, and the lotus petals were emitting a faint fog filled with strong devilish beauty.

“The Nine Lotus Diagram!” Yue Weiwei was shocked.

When the painting unfolded, the power contained within the divine runes slowly spread out, and the two saint runes within Lin Yun’s profound palace began to tremble. As the saint runes started devouring the aura emitted from the painting, Lin Yun could sense his mental energy growing at a visible speed.

Simultaneously, Lin Yun could sense a surge of warmth within his body. But shortly after, Lin Yun’s internal organs, blood, and skin started to ache, as if they were being ignited. Looking at the painting again, Lin Yun’s pupils were filled with shock. “How bizarre…”

“This is a painting forged with Golden Crow’s Divine Blood. Even if you do nothing, standing here can strengthen your dragon origin, soul energy, and physique.” Mu Xueling explained. “If you cultivate on the altar, the speed will increase by ten to a hundredfold. You can only depend on yourself to see how long you can last. You should be able to sense the power of the Golden Crow’s Divine Blood, but there’s no way you can bear it with your current physique.”

Lin Yun nodded and could sense that Mu Xueling wasn’t lying.

“Big Brother Lin, are you sure you want to cultivate here? I’ve heard that many people were burnt to death by this Golden Crow Altar. Look at the fog in the painting. That was manifested by all those who’ve died…” Yue Weiwei said with concern filling in her pupils.

“She’s right.” Mu Xueling replied, “Things created with divine runes are spiritual, and you can consider the nine lotuses alive. While you’re using them to cultivate, they’re also using your vitality to cultivate.”

Lin Yun’s eyes squinted when he heard that because this was the first time he had heard of something so bizarre.

“How’s your consideration?” Mu Xueling looked at Lin Yun.

“Do I have a choice?” Lin Yun replied, but his eyes were glued to the Nine Lotus Diagram.

Cultivation was like rowing a boat upstream; if you stop moving forward, you fall back. Since he was focused on music dao when he was injured, he wasted a lot of time on his martial dao. Furthermore, he also fell behind in his sword techniques without a master's teaching.

So he couldn’t accept that he couldn’t shine at the Nirvana Banquet after making such a massive effort since all of his plans would go down the drain. The reason why he wanted to go to the Nirvana Banquet wasn’t only because of the Azure Dragon’s lineage but also the Three-Lives Fruit!

If he could obtain the legendary Three-Lives Fruit, it could complement his lack of time in cultivating.