Chapter 69

As the energy rush settled down, Yuhao opened his eyes, only to be greeted by Snow Empress leaning down in front of him. She had her hands outstretched and was strangely holding two, five-centimetre bone fragments in her hands that radiated the same energy signature of the Scarlet King.

Seeing the confused look Yuhao was sending her, she said, "This is the spirit bone that the Scarlet King gave you apparently."

She opened up one of Yuhao's hands and let the two small bones fall into his palm. Yuhao, having no idea what this bone is supposed to be, simply raised an eyebrow at her. The Snow Empress shrugged her shoulders cluelessly as she shot him a similar look.

"Any help or advice guys?" Yuhao asked his mental companions, as he created an illusion of the bone in his mindscape to allow them all to see clearer.

"Hmm..." Daydream murmured, staring intensely and from various angles.

Amra also looked at it questioningly, "I simply don't get how this could be the spirit bone of that mutt…Unless the way you killed it caused this to happen? That could explain the strange movement of the energy."

"So, you are saying the energy that wasn't used in the creation of Yuhao's ring was used in creating a new spirit bone?" Asked Ice Empress.

Amra nodded, "Precisely. It may have not been the main reason for the energy acting like that, but simply a by-product of having nearly three hundred thousand years' worth of cultivation compressed into a relatively small section of a skull. This bone was probably the most used area by the mastiff from what was left remaining of the body."

"I guess that makes sense," Yuhao said, nodding along. "But it still doesn't answer what it is."

Coming in clutch, Shiva spoke up, "I believe I know what the name of the bone is called, and from there, I can estimate what type of bone it is. Well, starters, just from looking at it, it can be confirmed that it is an external spirit bone."

Everyone nodded at that, except for Snow Empress who was excluded from the conversation due to not being one of Yuhao's mental spirit beasts yet and had no idea what was happening. From her perspective, Yuhao was simply staring off dazedly in the distance holding the bones in his hands. She huffed after she theorised what he was doing and simply plopped herself on the slowly melting, but still icy cold grass.

Back in Yuhao's mindscape, Shiva continued, "From what I can gather from analysing the bone with a little bit of my energy, this spirit bone would be called, Three-Mastiff Auditory Control."

Understanding flashed through Yuhao's eyes, "Auditory means hearing, so its an ear bone?"

Shiva nodded, "Correct. Well, that is the most likely outcome. To tell you the truth, I have never seen an ear bone before, but that is the only logical assumption you can gather when the only two pieces of information you have about it, is the name and that it came from a skull."

Yuhao smiled at everyone, "Ok thanks again, guys. You guys are always a big help. Well better get this over with, then we can get our next companion up in this joint."

Just before he left, Yuhao gave the silent Kunou, a small rub on her head and ears, "Don't worry Kunou. We don't expect you to know as much as all the rest of these people, especially those two old farts who have been around for millions of years. Your cuteness and companionship are more than enough for us."

Kunou leaned into his hands as she shyly, but happily nodded.

With the pat over, Yuhao exited his mindscape and opened his eyes. He looked briefly around him to see what Snow Empress was doing and saw her playing with some grass next to him. Shaking his head at her somewhat childish behaviour, he moved to absorb the, hopefully correctly identified external ear spirit bone.

Same as always, Yuhao controlled his energy to infuse into and around the spirit bone before the bone was absorbed into his body. The familiar feeling of warm, fuzzy energy travelling in his body began. As expected, the energy travelled up his chest, through his throat, before splitting in half and moving to both of Yuhao's ears. The heat from the energy slowly built up, alongside a rapid increase in pressure, before finally cooling down and ending, just as Yuhao felt like his eardrums were going to burst.

Immediately, before he could even process the information he got sent, carrying the skill name and its respective effects, he felt his hearing increase in several ways. Before the uncontrolled sounds could annoy him, Yuhao used some of his energy to mute his hearing, giving him some peace and quiet while he analysed the 'information packet'.

Shiva was spot on with the spirit bone name, as it was called the Three-Mastiff Auditory Control. It was located in the external bone location called the Auditory Ossicle, which is basically just the more scientific name for a being's ear bones. The spirit bone gave two abilities, one being a passive hearing enhancement, which he is already aware of, and a second ability that basically allows him to control not only his own sounds but also give him limited control over external sound waves in his vicinity.

Focusing on the first ability, his hearing has extended to be much like a dog. Yuhao, from his knowledge as a dog owner back on Earth, knows that dogs on average hear four times further than humans, can hear higher frequency sounds, can more easily differentiate sounds from similar sounds and have a very accurate ability to pinpoint the exact location of a sound's origin.

With this spirit bone, Yuhao can now passively hear to the same degree as a dog. However, unlike a normal dog, the Three-Headed Scarlet Devil Mastiff had three heads, meaning three times the number of ears. It seems that this influence stacked onto the spirit bone, allowing Yuhao to hear twelve times further than a human.

If on Earth the average human could hear a normal conversation from twenty metres away, and on the Douluo Planet with cultivation, without actively boosting their hearing, humans can hear fifty metres away, Yuhao, could now hear up to six hundred metres away if he tried.

The second ability gives him a limited version of sound control. He could perfectly control his own sounds, which is very beneficial for stealth missions where his incorporeal status won't work. Furthermore, he could control the sounds in a limited range and with limited control around him, meaning that he could possibly use this ability in the future to trick peoples hearing. Both are skills and effects that could potentially be overlooked by his possible future enemies and give him a much-needed advantage in a battle.

Knowing all he can about the skill as he could, Yuhao decided to release his energy that is currently muting his hearing. He was very curious to see what he was working with. As soon as he released the energy, he was immediately assaulted with a plethora of sounds, all extremely loud in his ears. He subconsciously grabbed onto his ears and keeled over into the grass.

As he keeled over, Amra controlled some of Yuhao's energy to mute his ears again, "Well that was intense, huh Yuhao."

All he received in response from his host was a pained groan. Amra controlled some of Yuhao's energy to circulate in his brain to relieve some of the headache and respective pain he was feeling.

"Thanks," Yuhao said, still holding his head, however, not with the same painful grimace as before.

"No worries." Amra casually replied. "How about you try again, only this time slowly reduce the sounds being nullified by your energy.

"Mhmm, good idea…" Yuhao mumbled.

He sat up, on the grass once again. This time as he controlled his energy around his ears, he only eased off a tiny portion of the energy. As he did, once again he heard almost double the number of sounds, he normally would hear. It was mostly wind blowing through the trees and leaves falling on the grounds. However, he could hear the rustle of the Snow Empress beside him playing with the grass and small chirps of birds nearby.

After he adjusted to the increased sounds, Yuhao slowly but surely decreased the amount of energy around his ears. Each step took longer and longer as he was exposed to different and more sounds, causing him to sit on the grass for over three hours. As it neared the four-hour mark, with some advice from his spirit beasts with how they deal with noise and sounds, he was finally able to control what he is hearing and function like a 'normal' human being. At this point in time, Yuhao could feel a lot of sympathy for Superman, wherever he is, as Superman's hearing is undoubtedly a number of times better than his own.