195: Chapter 195 The Power of the Bone Harp

The wind stopped, and the clouds stalled.

Above the dried-up riverbed, the chaotic sand and stones all hung suspended in mid-air.

A heart-palpitating, heavy sense of oppression rippled out from the mountain-shaking bone zither in Core Disciple Qin Wuyan's palm.

This zither was ancient and rugged in design; its body was shockingly a complete spine of a Demon King, and its nine strings, shimmering with the dark yellow, eerie light of Earth Veins, were entirely crafted from century-old Earth Vein mysterious tendons.

As soon as the zither appeared, the surrounding Heaven And Earth Spiritual Essence retreated as if encountering a monarch.

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan was dressed in white as snow, his feet treading upon the Void Realm, his long, slender fingers hovering over the strings.

His face was gentle like jade, yet deep within his gaze lay an indifference that dominated life and death.

"Zheng—"

With a light tap of his knuckles, the first note of the zither exploded.

This sound was low and thick, like a subterranean Dragon turning over, entirely devoid of the clear, melodious quality of ordinary stringed instruments.

The sound wave passed through his fingers and instantly merged into the parched earth below.

Visible, earth-yellow ripples surged towards Gu Shen's location along the veins of the rock strata with the force of a landslide and tsunami.

When the towering rock pillars along the way touched these ripples, without any external force hacking at them, they emitted dense, crisp sounds from within, like popping beans.

The hard rock texture collapsed abruptly under the high-frequency resonance, turning into puddles of fine stone powder that slid down.

Gu Shen's feet were firmly nailed into the soil, his figure like a reef standing unmoving amidst the sea.

He sealed all the pores on his body, suppressing the dark cyan liquid true essence of the Longevity Art tightly within his Dantian Qi Sea.

Facing such a Divine Ability that struck directly at the resonance frequency of material molecules, any external spiritual power shield was useless and would instead become an excellent medium for sound wave conduction.

The black flood dragon black gold armor worn close to his body shimmered with a layer of dark golden light, blocking all the incoming gale force winds three feet away.

However, that deadly infrasonic resonance pierced straight through the physical defense of the black flood dragon black gold armor, driving deep inside and slamming fiercely into the depths of Gu Shen's flesh.

"Hum!"

A muffled roar erupted inside Gu Shen's torso.

Under the pull of that specific frequency, his internal organs began to tremble violently and uncontrollably.

The blood rushing through his blood vessels seemed to be boiling, and an intense tearing sensation surged directly towards his heart meridian.

Inside the black iron buckle at his collar, Crab's standalone electronic voice urgently reached Gu Shen's ears: "My Lord, the resonance amplitude of your internal organs is approaching the load limit of carbon-based organisms. The frequency of the infrasonic waves released by the target has precisely locked onto the natural frequency of your ventricles and alveoli; the destructive power is extremely fatal!"

Gu Shen's expression was cold, his lips pressed tight, his chest slightly heaving.

"Suppress."

Within his Sea of Consciousness, his intent was like a blade.

Deep in his Dantian Qi Sea, the gray and profound Nirvana Star Core welcomed the limit of its operation since it was forged.

The deep cyan poisonous true essence no longer spewed outwards but instead retracted crazily towards the interior of the star core.

The rotation speed of the star core climbed to an incredible state, and an immensely powerful inward-collapsing gravitational field formed abruptly within Gu Shen's body.

Those violent sound waves that had snuck into his body, upon touching this gravitational field, were like clay oxen entering the sea.

The originally regular oscillation frequencies were forcibly pulled and twisted by the extremely high mass of the star core, eventually turning into countless fine, scattered kinetic energies, swallowed alive into that gray vortex.

At the same time, the Cold Jade Bone beneath his skin and flesh erupted with power.

Two hundred and six bones, like deep-sea ice, flickered with dark blue thunder patterns under the scouring of the sound waves.

Thunder is the most rigid and the most yang, governing the mechanism of life and death.

Violent Thunder-Magnetic Force fed back from the depths of his bone marrow, turning into billions of tiny electric arcs, forming a reverse-damping physical barrier on the surface of the periosteum.

The sound wave oscillations, upon striking the Cold Jade Bone, were forcibly neutralized by more than half by that Thunder-Magnetic Force.

Gu Shen stood immovable.

In mid-air, Core Disciple Qin Wuyan's movement of playing the zither paused imperceptibly for a moment.

He looked down at the rugged man below who had resisted a "Mountain-Shaking Sound" without retreating a single inch, and for the first time, a hint of gravity appeared in his eyes.

"What a pair of copper skin and iron bones. No wonder you dare to engage in the act of snatching food from a tiger's mouth in the hinterland of Mang Mountain."

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan exclaimed in admiration, his tone actually holding a bit of excitement at seeing a talented prey, "Ordinary Cultivators would have had their heart meridians shattered into mud after receiving such a note. Your Excellency is not only unharmed, but your blood and Qi have not even surged. Such Body Refining attainments, even placed within my Beast Taming Sect, would be considered top-tier."

"It is a pity, however, that what is too rigid is easily broken. Your Excellency has not yet experienced even a ten-thousandth of the mysteries of this mountain-shaking bone zither."

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan spread all ten fingers, flicking repeatedly over the nine Earth Vein mysterious tendons like a butterfly threading through flowers.

"Zheng! Zheng! Zheng!"

The zither sound became suddenly urgent, like large and small pearls falling onto a jade plate, and also like thousands of troops and horses trampling across a frozen river.

If the first sound wave just now was a probing heavy hammer, the continuous zither sounds at this moment were countless sharp knives that entered through every pore.

Multiple frequencies of infrasonic waves wove into a net of heaven and earth, completely shrouding the area of several dozen zhang where Gu Shen was located.

The earth rolled violently as if it were boiling, and the magma deep underground was even forced by this resonance to gush out along the cracks.

The Beast Taming Sect Disciples who had set up the Soft Water Yuan-Discharging Formation nearby, even though they were in the safe place of the formation's eye, also felt their blood and Qi surging, and they all hurriedly circulated their mind-calming techniques, their faces showing expressions of horror.

The frenzy of sound waves poured entirely onto Gu Shen.

The swallowing gravitational field of the [Nirvana Star Core] was pushed to its limit by this continuous attack, and a dark red halo of overloaded operation faintly appeared on the surface of the star core.

The thunder patterns on the Cold Jade Bone flickered to a blinding degree, and the intense confrontation between the human body and the sound waves was taking place inside Gu Shen.

Gu Shen's feet were already buried several feet deep into the mud, his clothes were completely shredded, and he was relying entirely on the black flood dragon black gold armor to cover his body.

"My Lord, there is large-scale capillary rupture in your internal organs! The star core gravitational field cannot filter the composite frequency infrasonic waves 100%, and the physical defense threshold has been breached!" Crab's warning voice was already carrying harsh static.

A wisp of crimson blood finally spilled from the corner of Gu Shen's lips, dripping down his jaw onto the parched mud blocks.

The foundation of a top-tier great sect in the Cultivation World and the killing treasure of a Core Disciple are definitely not things one can retreat from unscathed just by resisting hard.

Seeing Gu Shen injured, Core Disciple Qin Wuyan felt a smile of certainty rise to his lips.

"Although Your Excellency's Physical Body is strong, you are ultimately unable to cope. This song, 'Kui Cow's Lament,' will send Your Excellency on your way."

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan raised his hands high, fingers together, carrying all his true essence of the Foundation Establishment Stage, and smashed them down fiercely onto that bone zither.

"Boom—!!!"

A gray-white sound column, condensed into substance, transformed into a phantom of a Kui Cow, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, roaring out from the zither body and falling straight from the nine heavens.

Such a world-destroying blow was enough to raze a mountain peak to the ground.

Gu Shen raised his head, his gaze crossing through layers of sound waves, locking tightly onto the white-clothed youth in mid-air.

He certainly knew that if he just passively took the beating, he would sooner or later exhaust his true essence and fall here.

The only way to break the physical resonance was to destroy the medium of this sound wave conduction or to interrupt the rhythm of the person playing the zither.

"If you want to kill Chen, this zither of yours is not played loudly enough."

Gu Shen's hoarse voice went against the current in the storm.

His right hand suddenly reached towards his waist.

The thunder pattern gold-slaying blade clanged as it left its sheath!

Dark blue thunder exploded on the pitch-black blade, and the sharpness of the top-grade fierce gold, accompanied by Geng Metal Sword Qi, instantly sliced the surrounding air into nothingness.

Gu Shen bent his knees slightly, the Cold Jade Bone erupting with the greatest potential of his life.

He did not swing the blade to strike at the sound wave phantom in mid-air, but instead gripped the hilt with both hands, carrying all the deep cyan true essence spewing out from the [Nirvana Star Core], and stabbed it fiercely into the rock strata beneath his feet that was continuously conducting the resonance!

"Break!"

The blade entered the ground three feet deep.

The violently unparalleled Thunder-Magnetic Force, mixed with the deep cyan poisonous true essence, exploded abruptly underground with the blade as the center.

Earth and stones flew, and the Earth Veins were severed.

Gu Shen had actually used extremely violent physical destruction to forcibly cut off the stratigraphic conduction medium in this area.

The earth cracked open into a bottomless chasm several zhang wide, completely tearing apart the continuous sound wave resonance network.

The sound wave phantom, losing the support of the Earth Vein resonance, inevitably appeared to collapse for an instant in mid-air.

Taking this critical moment.

Gu Shen pulled out the long saber, his figure turning into a residual shadow, following that bottomless chasm, and fell straight down without any reluctance to fight.

His posture was resolute, like a lone wolf diving into an abyss, and in an instant, he was swallowed by the surging underground water veins and endless miasma below, disappearing completely.

Above in the air.

The sound wave phantom lost its target and smashed fiercely onto the edge of the empty riverbed, kicking up smoke and dust filling the sky.

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan stood upon his Flying Sword, both the sound-stabilizing spirit tuning fork and the mountain-shaking bone zither having been put away.

He looked down at the deep earth crack below, and on his usually composed face, a trace of gloom rarely appeared.

This person had been hit by several "Mountain-Shaking" zither notes; his internal organs must be severely injured.

Yet he could still see through the principle of sound wave conduction in a desperate situation and decisively sever the Earth Veins to escape; this level of intelligence and decisiveness was truly chilling.

"Senior Brother Qin, the thief has used the Earth Vein fissure to escape into the underground river. Should we send a signal to order the fellow Disciples chasing the young beast to keep an eye out and intercept him?" A deacon controlled his artifact to rise into the air and asked respectfully.

Core Disciple Qin Wuyan shook his head slightly, his gaze cold.

"No need. This person's Body Refining attainments are extremely high; he is like a trapped beast. The underground river terrain is complex; rashly intercepting him will only increase casualties in vain. Pass down the order to seal all exits on the periphery of Mang Mountain and activate the Heaven Net search. He will not be able to dodge my song, 'Kui Cow's Lament,' so easily."

His white clothes fluttering, Core Disciple Qin Wuyan turned and left.

This confrontation under the dark night came to a temporary end with Gu Shen injured and escaping, but this killing game hidden deep in Mang Mountain had only just truly begun.