Chapter 46: The Looks Department

Returning to the cultivation method itself, the conditions for cultivating the Three Heads and Six Arms Art were extremely harsh. It required the innate condition of identical twins or triplets.

Identical twins were already rare, let alone identical triplets. It was possible that since the cultivation method had appeared in the world, only a few people had ever successfully cultivated it.

While they were still fetuses, an evil art would be used to control the mother, feeding her all kinds of bizarre and inexplicable foods. The flesh-and-blood essence produced would then be used to nourish the fetuses in her womb.

The entire process was extremely painful. Many mothers could not endure it and ended their own lives, which also caused the fetuses to die in the womb.

In the few successful cases, after the fetuses grew into infants, the two or three babies would unconsciously devour the mother’s flesh and blood, then burst out of the body.

From that point on, an excellent foundation would be laid for cultivating this art, and two or three infants whose minds were linked would be born.

After successfully cultivating it, these two or three cultivators could choose to separate or merge at any time. When separated, their minds were connected, and their words and actions were perfectly aligned.

When merged, they could erupt with astonishing power. In the two-headed, four-armed state, their strength, speed, recovery, and other abilities would increase severalfold. As for the higher-level three-headed, six-armed state, the boost could reach several dozen times.

“What kind of underworld cultivation method is this? It’s vicious as hell.”

Though the cultivation method was good, Lu Yuan disliked the way it was cultivated. He felt it was far too sinister and harmful to the natural order, so he casually tossed the cultivation method jade slip into a corner of the stone cave.

The rewards brought by the small light orbs afterward were all relatively ordinary. Most were common cultivation methods, talismans, and pills, with the occasional second-rank treasure appearing.

In the end, only three white light orbs that were clearly larger than the others remained.

“The last three grand prizes. I hope they won’t disappoint me.”

Lu Yuan rubbed his hands together in the void and lightly touched the first white light orb with his divine sense.

The white points of light gradually vanished from top to bottom, revealing a grayish-white stone stele inside.

The stone stele was about one foot tall, around half a foot long, and less than an inch thick. Many mysterious runes were engraved on it, profound and obscure. Under Lu Yuan’s divine sense perception, they gave him a sense of losing himself.

Primordial Taiyin Restriction Stele, incomplete.

From the information he obtained from the stele inscriptions, he learned that a powerful set of restrictions was carved onto this Primordial Taiyin Restriction Stele.

After burying the stele inscription and activating the restriction, without the stele inscription owner’s permission, other cultivators would be unable to enter the area defined by the stele inscription.

Joy rose in Lu Yuan’s heart. This Primordial Taiyin Restriction was exactly what the cave abode needed most right now.

There had already been two occasions when multiple people had entered the cave abode, and the most recent time had involved even more people. On top of that, two third-rank Sword-Nurturing Gourds had flowed out from the cave abode.

It could be fully inferred that more cultivators would try to enter the cave abode without the guidance of the source paper slip, trespassing to pluck the rare spiritual herbs inside.

The two mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators who had appeared not long ago were a lesson from the past.

As the cultivation levels of the intruding cultivators became even stronger, and their experience breaking arrays became even richer, the Mist-Concealing Confusion Array’s protection over the cave abode was gradually becoming insufficient.

Two mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators had managed to enter by relying on an array disc, let alone high-stage Qi Refining or even Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The only slight regret was that this Primordial Taiyin Restriction was currently an incomplete version. At present, it could withstand any attack from Core Formation cultivators. Moreover, as time passed, the restriction’s protective power would gradually decline, and later, it would not differ much from an ordinary array.

Even so, this Primordial Taiyin Restriction was not something the Mist-Concealing Confusion Array could compare with.

To make an analogy, the cave abode without array protection was like being completely naked, free for anyone to pluck at will.

It showed the many spiritual grasses and spiritual herbs inside its body to every cultivator who came in, as if the entire cave abode revealed only one message.

“Come on, big guy. Enter the cave!”

…

A cave abode protected by the Mist-Concealing Confusion Array was different. Although the cave abode was still lying there, if a cultivator wanted to enter smoothly, they had to use every method available to strip away layer after layer of the cave abode’s protection before entering.

Of course, if they were strong enough, they could violently break through that layer of protection, drive straight in, and enter the cave abode.

A cave abode protected by the Primordial Taiyin Restriction was different again. With the restriction in place, it was like having a chastity lock fitted over it. Without the lock owner’s consent, there was no way to smoothly enter the cave abode.

Although the cave abode was still lying there, no matter what methods you exhausted, you simply could not enter and explore what was inside.

Even if you wanted to break it open by force, not only would the difficulty of breaking it increase many times over, but even if you successfully destroyed the lock, you still could not enter the cave.

“Good treasure. With this, my cave abode is mine to command. I won’t have to worry about cultivators entering the cave abode at will anymore.

“Of course, except when I want them to.”

Looking at the grayish-white stele inscription standing in the stone cave, Lu Yuan was extremely satisfied.

Then came the second-to-last white light orb.

Lu Yuan lightly touched it with his divine sense. The light orb shattered into countless points of light. The points expanded, then contracted back into a cluster.

A faintly golden bird egg floated quietly in the air of the stone cave.

The bird egg was slightly larger than a chicken egg. A golden glow faintly flickered across its surface, then quickly fell silent and sank into the eggshell.

Following the information transmitted by the bird egg, Lu Yuan placed it into the magma.

The bird egg sank into the magma and bobbed up and down. The blazing magma constantly washed over the eggshell, and the golden light on its surface flickered more and more frequently. Thin cracks quietly appeared across the eggshell.

The cracks continued to spread and lengthen. A faint sound came from inside the shell, and along with a crisp cry, a small golden-red bird shot out from the eggshell, its tail dragging blazing magma behind it.

The little bird was not large. Its single fiery-red foot was like crystal, and a pair of wings covered in brilliant golden feathers wrapped around its entire body. Its deep-red pupils curiously observed everything in the stone cave.

It flapped its golden wings as if searching for something, circling the stone cave several times. When it failed to see the close kin it had expected, it cried out anxiously.

Lu Yuan hurriedly used his divine sense to soothe it, calming the golden-red little bird’s agitation.

The little bird gradually settled down. Like a sharp arrow, it darted into the magma, pecked out the shattered eggshell piece by piece, and placed them on the stone cave floor.

Whenever a golden glow flickered across the eggshell’s surface, its sharp beak pecked swiftly at the shell, extracting the glow before it vanished and swallowing it into its belly.

After no golden glow appeared on the eggshell for a long while, the little bird’s body visibly grew a few sizes larger.

Satisfied, it flew up to the cave ceiling and kept lingering there. It seemed to sense a familiar aura. Its wings fluttered slightly, and it stopped above the stone cave, stretching its brilliant golden feathers to its beak and combing them with its little mouth.

Only then did Lu Yuan properly examine the golden-red little bird’s information.

Red-Footed Golden Crow. The bird lived up to its name: a single crimson foot and golden feathers. Among third-rank spirit beasts, it was an extremely rare species. It contained a trace of ancient Golden Crow bloodline, possessed extremely high potential, and had a great possibility of evolving.

Looking at the heroic and extraordinary golden-red little bird, Lu Yuan immediately felt fond of it.

At long last, the cave abode had someone to carry its looks. What had all the previous ones been? A bunch of demons and monsters. A Paper Figure that only knew how to giggle, a spider with a ghost face, a big-headed strange fish whose head looked mutated, and a Python-Sparrow Eel whose name sounded improper and whose appearance was just as improper…

Nothing but underworld things!

The appearance of the Red-Footed Golden Crow instantly raised the looks of all the weird entities and spirit beasts in the cave abode by several levels.

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