Zither Emperor

Chapter 40 – The Silver Dragon Princess (III)

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Thinking to the side, her body floated approximately a hundred meters in the air. Using the main four magical disciplines of water, fire, earth, and wind, she sent attacks down at Ye Yin Zhu's figure like the howling wind and torrential rain. This, however, was something a Cyan Rank mage was absolutely unable to accomplish.

Controlling the Jade Silk with his right hand, Ye Yin Zhu's left hand lightly strummed the zither strings. Confronting a powerful enemy, his mind was now empty. The split second Lisha began her attack, he understood his counterpart's intentions. He was incapable of sending his sound blades to reach a height of a hundred meters, and his opponent was using her Cyan Rank strength to display Violet Rank power. If he continued to be passively beaten down, he wouldn't even be able to play his zither music. How could he win like this?

A milky white radiance surged up from the Divine Celestial Protection. Ye Yin Zhu's zither magic was Intermediate Level Green Rank, so he was naturally unable to resist Cyan Rank magic, let alone such a concentrated bombardment of Cyan Rank Magic. Nevertheless, at this moment, his eyes expressed a firm resolve.

The Divine Celestial Protection was one of the three defensive items he possessed and seemed very ordinary when compared to the other two items. It could, however, release varying intensities of defensive power according to how much power the user fed it with. It was also the most useful of the three items. At this moment, Ye Yin Zhu, for himself and for Zi, used something he hadn't used to protect Zither City when an army of several tens of thousands of beastmen attacked it.

His left hand momentarily left the strings of his zither and groped for that cloth bag filled with Violet Bamboo Divine Needles that had been fitted to his leg since he had been a child. His four fingers gently dug through the bag and pulled out three long needles within his hand. As he controlled Jade Silk, he inserted the three Violet Bamboo Divine Needles into his own head without the slightest hesitation.

Violet light flashed. Quietly, and yet not, Ye Yin Zhu's eyes flashed with a violet light as an expression of slight pain appeared on his face. The hand holding Jade Silk slowed slightly. He narrowly avoided Lisha's magical attack.

Because Jade Silk had transformed into a dazzling radiance as the Bamboo Defense, and Lisha's gaze was obstructed by the Cyan Rank magic, she was unable to see Ye Yin Zhu's actions.

Ye Yin Zhu very quickly repeated his action twice more. It was still the violet-colored long needles, but the region they pierced were slightly different. In the blink of an eye, only nine Violet Bamboo Divine Needles hadn't been inserted into his head. Subsequently, his expression changed as the gracefulness of his face disappeared slightly. The previous pain had also disappeared, replaced with iciness.

The jade light suddenly vanished, leaving Lisha with the impression that Ye Yin Zhu's dou qi was unable to endure and that he was going to lose.

In a flash, the Divine Celestial Protection released an immense radiance, like a gigantic sphere of white light that rapidly expanded to a diameter of three meters. The entire bombardment of Cyan Rank magic could only ripple the white sphere, absolutely unable to forcefully pierce it.

Ye Yin Zhu raised his head to look up at Lisha, who was still floating in the air. He calmly said, "That's right; with your spiritual force, my zither magic cannot be completely displayed. However, that doesn't mean there isn't an effect. It will merely be slightly influential, that's all. Please listen to my song, 《 Flocks of Geese on the Shore 》."

The Divine Celestial Protection strangely displayed a formidable defense. In a flash, shining white light surrounded the area he was seated on. A zither appeared above his knees, the Thundering Spring replaced by the Moon and Tides' Clear Brilliance. A layer of silver brilliance appeared in the depths of his eyes. His eight fingers flew altogether as the beautiful melody of 《 Flocks of Geese on the Shore 》 began to rise and fall, the sostenuto unceasing and the tune gracefully euphonious. The main key was serenely beautiful, but with the serenity was poignancy. The soft flowing music held a thought-provoking clarity and freshness.

This was the second song Lisha had heard Ye Yin Zhu play, and this song had a completely different feeling compared to 《 Devastating Allure 》. 《 Devastating Allure 》 seemed to express the feelings of her heart, while at this moment, 《 Flocks of Geese on the Shore 》 gentled her mood. Her hands that were casting magic couldn't help but slow down a bit.

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Although it was strange why the Divine Celestial Protection could obstruct her Cyan Rank magic bombardment of aerial attacks, Lisha was even more astonished at why Ye Yin Zhu wanted to play this zither song. It sounded practically as harmless as human-domesticated animals! Only, she had no choice but to admit that this zither song was just as pleasant to listen to.

This was a scene of dazzling beauty! In the air floated an absolutely gorgeous beauty with silvery hair and violet eyes. Countless rays of cyan light of all sorts of shapes flew out, while a milky white sphere, similar to an immense pile of cotton, lit up the ground and enclosed a handsome youth with a stern appearance and graceful temperament within. This completely felt like a jade controlling a hidden sealed guqin, a philosopher's heart meeting that of a saint's.¹

A sphere of deep yellow light, followed by the drifting melody of 《 Flocks of Geese on the Shore 》, made Lisha sense that something was amiss. She was aghast to discover that she was unexpectedly dropping from her hundred meter altitude, with only twenty or so meters until she was ground level. It seemed as if she couldn't control her body.

《 Flocks of Geese on the Shore 》, one of the great nine famed songs of the Zither Sect. Effect: Forbidden Sky.

Ye Yin Zhu onced played this song when he faced Nesta. Back then, Nesta's Gigantic Dragon was also rank 7, equivalent to an Indigo Rank, yet the influence of the Moon and Tides' Clear Brilliance Zither, in addition to the Gigantic Dragon's intimidation from Zi, brought out the song's effect in a split second.

Of course, Nesta's fire dragon was far from being able to compare with the fully matured, Silver Dragon Lisha. At this moment, however, the current Ye Yin Zhu was not the Ye Yin Zhu from back then. It was because his spiritual force had advanced three levels in an instant, followed by his Courageous Zither Heart transitioning from Level 2 to Level 5, which was equivalent to Intermediate Level Cyan Rank in the Rainbow Ranking. This also was on top of the benefits his cultivation of the Pure Zither Heart had brought, as well as the amplification effect of the Moon and Tides' Clear Brilliance Zither.

Although, he was unable to completely express the effects of Forbidden Sky on Lisha. As he had said, however, unable to be completely displayed didn't mean that there was no effect. Therefore, Lisha's body dropping to an altitude of only twenty meters and no longer being able to soar higher was also because of this sudden improvement in strength, which had also allowed the Divine Celestial Protection to be able to temporarily hold back an aerial attack bombardment of Cyan Rank magic.

In order to win this fight, Ye Yin Zhu had used a special ability of the Bamboo Sect called Nine Needle Great Soul Stimulation Technique. By using nine Violet Bamboo Divine Needles to target the nine different acupuncture techniques in the head and stimulate them, it caused one's spiritual force to be compressed by an aura of life and temporarily raise it to a higher level. For a short while, one's spiritual force would be promoted in strength by three levels. Of course, the Bamboo Sect used this to aid the four magic sects, but for Ye Yin Zhu, a dual cultivator of magic and martial arts, this could naturally be considered to be giving himself assistance.

At that time when Ye Li taught this ability to Ye Yin Zhu, he had told him, "Unless you run into a powerful enemy you are unable to resist, you absolutely cannot use this rashly. Although the Nine Needle Great Soul Stimulation Technique can momentarily upgrade strength, the side effects are also tremendous. Each time it's used, the individual's magic rank will decrease by one level. You must know that the higher the magic cultivation, the more difficult the advancement. To a common mage, they might not advance one level after several years of cultivation! Unless the disparity between both parties involved is tremendously great, you must absolutely not be willing to use this ability, Ye Yin Zhu."

A woman's body flashed, but Ye Yin Zhu had already shot into the air as well, the Moon and Tides' Clear Brilliance Zither returning to his space ring in a flash. Although the song 《 Flocks of Geese on the Shore 》 had already ended, the Forbidden Sky effect would continue to last for at least ten more minutes. To him, these ten minutes were the key to victory or defeat.

Looking on as Ye Yin Zhu used lightning-like speed to advance in her direction, Lisha couldn't help but be startled. At this moment, however, her magic ability had completely emerged.

Cyan light sparked, and a thick earth wall immediately rose up, blocking Ye Yin Zhu's path. Shortly after, Lisha promptly casted Sacred Protection, a light magic. A light shield brimming with holy aura completely wrapped around her body to protect her. Where her body originally was, at an altitude of twenty meters, ten replicas of her appeared suddenly—the Spatial Domain magic, Mirror Reflection Technique—and arranged themselves in a huge arc, making it difficult to determine the true body.

The Mirror Reflection Technique wasn't terrifying at all. After all, there was only one true body amongst these numerous figures. What was terrifying, however, was that when Lisha was using the Mirror Reflection Technique, every reflection unexpectedly could also use actual magic.

Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, and Light magic hid the sky and covered the earth, flooding every nook and cranny of this space like a torrent of quicksilver. It was like a destructive storm with Ye Yin Zhu as the center of this crazy devastation.

Ye Yin Zhu sprinted forward and leapt up, the bottom of his foot attempting to push off the earth wall that blocked his path. Already rushing up into the sky, he was unable to evade the tremendous and destructive storm of five different types of magic descending upon him. Taking a huge breath of air, he shouted, "EYE OF TRUTH!"

A ten-centimeter-long ray of yellow light emerged from between Ye Yin Zhu's eyebrows. The rays of light spread outward, creating an eye-like shape. A clear yet mysterious bolt of light shot out, the Spiritual magic's Specialist Fantasy-Breaking Technique—Eye of Truth. As the destructive storm crazily bombarded the released energy shield of the Divine Celestial Protection, Ye Yin Zhu relied on the Eye of Truth to momentarily lock onto Lisha's location. This magic had been within the study notes that Ferguson had gifted him.

A concentrated explosion rang out like hail baptising the earth. The sharp and clear sound of something shattering was heard. The Divine Celestial Protection's defense was finally unable to bear the enormous pressure and shattered, causing specks of white light to fade away from sight.

Yellow Bamboo Level 5 dou qi silently exploded. It wasn't Bamboo Defense, because if he had used it, Ye Yin Zhu would have inevitably been pushed back down to the ground by magic. At the moment, he had actually used Bamboo Attack.

Innumerable reflections of gigantic yellow bamboo burst forth from the Jade Silk. A blend of yellow-green light exploded in a flash and transformed into a dazzlingly beautiful radiance that violently shot out in all directions.

The Divine Celestial Protection had taken care of the majority of the magic attack, and Bamboo Attack had obstructed the majority of the remaining magic. Only a bit of the leftover magic bombardment reached Ye Yin Zhu's body, causing him to muffle a groan. His purpose had been achieved, however. Bamboo Attack indifferently attacked in all directions, including the ground. Drawing support from the opposing reaction force of Bamboo Attack's bombardment on the ground, Ye Yin Zhu's body sailed forth once more. In the blink of an eye, he was within five meters of Lisha.

"Bamboo——Wintry——Star——" Jade Silk transformed into rays of light and instantly spatially compressed into one form, revealing the Jade Silk's true form—a ten-meter-long thread of silken jade. At this moment, it was like a perfectly straight, sharp sword, and with Ye Yin Zhu's Yellow Bamboo Dou Qi concentrated within it, it morphed into a cold, jade green star. It stabbed straight at Lisha's chest.

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1. Said 'feeling' describes the rich expressive power of the guqin, saying that when a beautiful melody is played from a guqin, it causes a philosopher's mind and a saint's mind to open up without any barriers left as they listen to the melodious zither music which seems like the southern wind brimming with a desire of farewell and the omnipresent sounds of what sounds like monkeys and birds. ↩