The moment Yuan's spiritual energy touched the bell, its golden figure began to tremble, and a second later, almost as though someone had struck it with a wooden log, it released a heart-throbbing noise that swept the entire world.
DONG!
Yuan could feel his entire body trembling with the bell, and it felt like his very soul had been struck alongside the bell.
"Do you have a death wish?! If you ring the bell before you comprehend the technique, it could shatter your very soul!" Lady Xiang cried out loud after hearing the first ring.
However, there was nothing she could do about it, as once the bell rings, it would not stop until the very end, and whether Yuan's soul will survive the ordeal was entirely up to him.
"Don't worry, I have already comprehended the technique." Yuan spoke in a calm voice as the first ring continued to echo.
The sound of each ring lasted nine seconds, so he had some time until the next one.
"What in heavens' name are you talking about?! That's impossible! It took me 120 years to comprehend the technique while you've just started!" Lady Xiang didn't want to believe it— she couldn't. In fact, nobody in the Nine Heavens would believe Yuan's outrageous claims.
However, Yuan wasn't lying. Almost as though he was fated to learn the technique— or he learned the technique in advance, he'd instantly grasped the meaning behind the words on the bell at glance and comprehended the technique the following second.
It was so unbelievably easy that even Yuan doubted it at first, hence why he went ahead and rang the golden bell, as he suddenly had this uncontrollable urge to do so, which was probably affected by the technique he'd just comprehended.
With that being said, while he's comprehended the technique, he hasn't actually learned it yet.
How much of the technique he learns will entirely depend on the amount of times the bell resounds. Thus, the more the bell rings, the more he will learn the technique.
Nine seconds after the first ring, the bell rang for a second time, sounding even louder than the previous.
DONG!!!
Yuan could feel his entire body being pushed back by the noise as well as the invisible force that was pressuring his internal organs and his very soul.
Despite that, it didn't really affect Yuan too much, and the pressure on his soul was nothing more than just that. He wasn't hurt by the pressure, nor did he feel like his life was threatened by it.
Therefore, Yuan stood tall and endured the second bell for nine more seconds.
After the second ringing ended, the bell resounded for a third time— but not before the golden bell itself grew in size.
And in the blink of an eye, the golden bell nearly doubled in size.
DONG!!!
Lady Xiang swallowed nervously as an expression of disbelief was plastered all over her face.
'He's withstanding the pressure from the bell… Did he really comprehend the technique in that short of a time? How many times will the bell ring for him?'
Lady Xiang recalled her experience learning the technique and facing the bell. After spending 120 years trying to comprehend the technique, she managed to make the golden bell ring a total of 6 times out of a possible 9.
DONG!
The golden bell rang for the fourth time, and it had grown so large that it was almost as big as Yuan's God of War's Astral Art's avatar.
Yuan had closed his eyes and sat down long ago, and his understanding for the soul cultivation technique deepened with every ring.
Eventually, the loud noise sounded no different than music to his ears, and his body felt like it was being embraced by the goddess of sounds.
DONG! DONG!!!
The fifth and sixth ring resounded shortly after.
'Six! He's managed to make the golden bell ring six times!'
DONG!
In what seemed like a blink of an eye, the seventh bell rang.
At the seventh ring, the power of the noise had transcended their space and leaked to the outside world where Xu Jiaqi and the others were waiting.
"Is this… the sound of a bell?" Senior Bai turned around to look at the portal behind him.
"What are they doing inside?" He wondered out loud.
"Whatever they are doing, I have a bad feeling about this." Xu Jiaqi said with a slight frown on her face.
Dong!!!
When the eighth bell rang, Xu Jiaqi and Senior Bai felt the entire world around them tremble.
"What is happening?!" Senior Bai exclaimed.
Xu Jiaqi didn't say anything. She turned around and rushed back into the portal to see what was going on inside. Senior Bai quickly followed.
And to their absolute surprise, there was a massive golden bell inside Senior Bai's world, and it was big enough to cover the entire place.
"What in Heavens' name are we seeing?" Senior Bai uttered in a voice of disbelief.
Despite the loud noises, neither Senior Bai nor Xu Jiaqi were affected by it, as the pressure was mostly focused on Yuan, so the most they felt was their heart beating louder than usual.
'E-Eight rings…' Lady Xiang could be seen trembling in shock even from a distance.
Xu Jiaqi immediately approached her and asked, "What the hell is going on here?!"
Lady Xiang turned to look at her with wide eyes before speaking in a dazed voice, "H-He's managed to make the bell ring eight times…"
"What is that even supposed to mean?" Xu Jiaqi frowned.
"It means a new legend is about to be born!" She exclaimed with a wide smile on her face.
DONG!!!
The golden bell rang for the ninth time, causing the entire Nine Heavens to tremble, and Lady Xiang could feel her excitement reaching its climax when she heard this.
However, little did Lady Xiang know that this was just the beginning.
After the golden bell rang nine times, it suddenly rang again for the tenth time.
DONG!
Lady Xiang always believed that the golden bell could only ring a maximum of nine times, but Yuan had managed to surpass that and ring it 10 times!