Molting the Mortal Coil

While Sage didn’t want to be doing anything that Guan Zhenyan told him to do, he couldn’t help his curiosity. The man was making fun of him, but the tip might actually be helpful. All he’d lose is a little time sucking up to Tao Ba. After having the Hoplites prepare some food, he called upon the white haired boy and fawned over him for a while before posing the question.

“Great Sir. I am on a foreign world, as you no doubt remember. No one’s memory is as great as yours, but that hateful fellow Guan Zhenyan doesn’t agree. He saw me trying to learn the local language and said: ‘It’s too bad that fatty doesn’t remember what a Heart’s Tongue is!’. I told him that even if I didn’t know what it was, the Great Tao Ba surely does!”

The boy’s smiling face immediately found a frown and Sage felt a slight pressure build in the air around him, “Oh, he did, did he? Hmm, where did I put that troublemaker anyway…”

Tao Ba started to turn around to leave, and Sage immediately realized how easily his trickery could be seen through. He held up his hands, “Wait, Senior! Didn’t you say you aren’t allowed to punish or harm him? I’m the one that is making you keep him contained, right?”

The boy suddenly remembered that odd day and nodded his head, “Oh yes. Of course, I have nothing to do with what that fellow is experiencing.”

“Ahem. Of course. So, what is a Heart’s Tongue, Great One? Can you please enlighten my poor ignorant self?”

Tao Ba was quite easy to please, the flattery and praise made him lift his shoulders and puff up his chest. His nose lifted into the air and he rubbed his face like he was tracing a mustache that wasn’t there, “Why yes. I’ll tell you the history of the miraculous Heart’s Tongue. Long ago, there was a god who…”

Sage respectfully poured tea for the boy as he started to talk and show off how knowledgeable he was. In fact the story took a whole afternoon and evening to finally get to the point as the boy went on many tangents. Somehow using Guan Zhenyan to incite him turned him into a long winded scholar. I better be careful in the future.

“When the man approached the wounded lion he focused on sending his feelings to the beast. The lion stopped roaring and the man felt a voice deep in his chest. It didn’t speak with words, but he could understand them nonetheless.”

Eventually, Sage pieced it together from epic fable. It was a sort of magical language translator that could be used to speak to anything living. When the story finally finished, Sage buttered up Tao Ba some more with food and drinks before he finally asked, “That Guan Zhenyan is so treacherous. Even if I tell him that exquisite story you told me, he will probably just say you only know a story and nothing about the actual Heart’s Tongue. It’s too bad we don’t have one that we can wave in his face to prove him wrong. That would sure show him.”

Tao Ba slowly nodded his head, “That’s right! That’s exactly the sort of thing he would do! He always declares nothing counts unless there’s documentation and then he pulls out long scrolls and tells me to carefully read and sign them a dozen times. I signed one of them once and then he used it to steal a bunch of my stuff. I’ll show him!”

He stood up and started patting his robes. The garments in this world weren’t built with pockets for the most part, instead just tucking things into the front of a shirt or robe. Or they’d use a pouch or purse tied to the belt. After patting himself down, he shook his head, “I don’t have any Heart’s Tongue around, but that’s fine. You can just make one.”

Tao Ba waved his hand and a scroll appeared on the table, “There you go. Use that to shut up the smoke puffer.”

Not wanting to show his excitement, Sage continued to serve and dote upon the boy until the boy was patting his pot belly and wandering away. Only then did Sage open the scroll and find a blueprint for a magical tool. Thankfully, he had training as a Blacksmith so he knew how to read it. Surprisingly, the Heart’s Tongue was only a two star magical tool, but it was no simple thing to create. Magical devices were usually rated by the level of materials required to build them, not by their strength. For the Heart’s Tongue, it was a tool that didn’t take profound materials to create, but required a high level of skill instead. Due to the skill required and the obscureness of it, it was no wonder Sage never encountered it before. Sage had been formally promoted to a 3 star Blacksmith back at the Holy Flame Sect, but all the truly profound things were restricted to the library for 5 star and above members of a profession.

Being able to talk to people’s pets and mounts could easily dig up all sorts of fun blackmail material, so it’s no wonder they don’t want these things spreading around.

There was also another reason the Heart’s Tongue was uncommon. The magical tool ended up looking like an actual person’s tongue when it was finished. In order to use it, a person had to sever their own tongue and put the Heart’s Tongue into their mouth in its place. At the end of a painful acclimation period it would become a part of their body and replace the function of the tongue completely. The only difference being that the magical tool wouldn’t change in appearance. Depending on the materials used, a person could end up with quite a strange looking tongue, and even the most exquisitely crafted one’s still looked like a person had arrays tattooed onto their tongue.

The gruesome act was unexpected, but Sage was from a Clan of Insect Cultivators. They had lots of training to get used to doing things that would make the skin crawl. He was more worried about what to make it out of. The Heart’s Tongue was mainly a set of array formations, and could be created out of many different materials. The most commonly used being the tongue of a Demonic Beast. Sage mentally took an inventory of all the insects and beasts he had on his Inner World and in the Universe Ring before his thoughts led him somewhere closer.

I’m technically a beast, right? If it goes wrong, I can just make another one out of something else. Worst case scenario, I spend a few months in metamorphosis.

With that thought in his head, he brought a few Hoplites over to join him inside the Universe Ring and used the Human Seal to return to his true form. The huge cobra body slowly opened its mouth. One of the Hoplites did as told and reached into the mouth, grabbing the forked tongue and pulling it over the top of a large wooden block. Then another one of them lifted up a large axe.

I suppose I should thank Guan Zhenyan for helping me learn to ignore pain.

Thunk!