Chapter 81: The Man in the Cage

Lu Yuan’s impression of Treasure-Seeking Tower changed a great deal all at once.

Before, in front of the Red-Footed Golden Crow, it had simply acted like an eager bootlicker. But after the Python-Sparrow Eel advanced to the third rank, the nature of the matter changed.

Fawning over one treasure was bootlicking. Fawning over a hundred treasures made it the Tower King.

For a while after that, whenever Lu Yuan was bored, his greatest pleasure was watching Treasure-Seeking Tower tirelessly, persistently, and unflaggingly travel back and forth between the two.

It had long since lost interest in those ungraded and first-rank spiritual herbs. Only materials from third-rank demonic beasts kept it endlessly delighted.

Most of the time, it gained nothing. Occasionally, it would obtain one or two materials from the Red-Footed Golden Crow or the Python-Sparrow Eel.

Whenever that happened, Treasure-Seeking Tower would become so happy it danced with joy, swaying left and right like a house caught in an earthquake.

The rest of the time, life in the cave abode was simple and dull.

He cultivated various types of spiritual herbs, raised and teased the many spirit beasts and weird entities in the cave abode, and lived a calm, uneventful life.

Occasionally, he would release Treasure-Seeking Tower to solicit customers.

In the hidden, narrow Peach Blossom Alley, the phoenix among towers—Treasure-Seeking Tower—stood quietly to one side, looking forward to being patronized by cultivators and demonic beasts.

Strange visitors. Familiar corners…

There were still not many cultivators and demonic beasts who entered. There were more demonic beasts than cultivators, and most of them would directly remain in the cave abode. Of course, none of them met any good end.

The few that left often brought back their groups, turning what had been individual behavior into collective behavior.

As for cultivators, there were very few. Those who came once were never seen again, let alone bringing anyone else over.

That day, as night hung low, the cave abode welcomed a new guest.

It was a boy of sixteen or seventeen. His skin was dark, his body strong, his expression resolute, and his face full of weathered hardship.

In his hand, he carried a lantern the size of a head, lighting the direction ahead of him.

The lantern handle was made from the bone of some unknown demonic beast. It radiated a chilling cold. One end was tightly gripped in the boy’s right hand, while the other was tied to a thin cord woven from hair.

The thin cord was connected to a gray-white leather lampshade. Inside, a pale candle burned dimly. A foul, fishy stench spread outward from the burning candle.

As the lantern swayed, a gray-black little figure suddenly appeared on the inside of the lampshade. It clung tightly to it, constantly scratching at the shade with its hands, as if trying to escape from inside the lantern.

The dark-skinned, sturdy youth named Long Hong was long since used to this. He reached out with his left hand and fiddled with the outside of the lantern a few times. The candle inside instantly brightened slightly, and the gray-black figure in the lantern gradually became faint.

Shadows of lamplight flickered. The shadow beneath Long Hong’s feet continuously contracted and stretched, as if trying to melt into his flesh and blood.

Long Hong had no choice but to spare part of his attention for his own shadow.

This lantern was fine during the day. As long as he replaced the candle with one refined from the corpse oil of various demonic beasts, it posed no danger at other times.

But at night, the lantern became extremely strange. He had to keep watching it closely at all times to prevent the gray-black little figure inside from swapping places with him and putting him into the lantern.

Of course, the reason he took such a great risk to use the lantern at night was naturally because, at night, the lantern became mysterious and unfathomable, able to protect him well.

Before such a powerful effect, taking that little risk was worth it.

Long Hong held up the lantern and entered the peach blossom forest.

Mist filled the peach blossom forest. At night, without this eerie lantern to guide the way, one could practically not see one’s hand in front of one’s face.

As he passed through, the mist in the peach blossom forest automatically retreated to both sides with the advance of his lantern, forming a narrow path.

Long Hong followed the small path and arrived before a tall wooden house.

He vaguely saw three paper slips pasted on the wooden house’s front door. Long Hong raised the lantern higher, and the writing on the paper slips became clear.

The top one read, “Immortal Fate Tower,” while the paper slips on the left and right read, “Enter my treasure tower, and I shall grant you fortune.”

“Grant me fortune? Pretentious nonsense.”

The dim yellow lamplight covered a large area around the wooden tower, indicating that there was no danger around it.

Long Hong was young, but he was not timid. Holding up the lantern, he stepped into the wooden tower.

After he entered the wooden tower, the dim yellow lamplight swayed gently without pause. The gray-black little figure appeared from who knew where once again, clinging to the inside of the lantern and, just like the boy, raising its head to look at the top of the wooden tower.

Above Long Hong’s head, a vast expanse of radiance, as countless as the sands of the Ganges, slowly flowed and revolved according to some profound law.

Three beams of white light shot out from the river of light and instantly arrived above Long Hong’s head.

Long Hong sensed the close, peaceful message transmitted from the white light. Seeing no abnormal reaction from the lantern in his hand either, he calmly accepted the approach of the white light.

The white light fell into his hand: a section of deep-purple, jade-like bamboo, a talisman drawn with countless tiny strands of sword qi, and a jade slip glowing with a soft white radiance.

Even with the boy’s steady mind, when he saw these three things, his breathing could not help quickening.

“Myriad Sword Qi Talisman, a first-rank talisman with extremely powerful offensive force.”

“Crimson Flow Flame Art, a fire-element spell. Once it appears, cultivators with fire spiritual roots will fight over it until they break their heads.”

“Purple Bone Bamboo, a second-rank spiritual plant. An excellent material for tempering flying swords. If I refine it and fuse it into my lantern handle, its toughness will likely rise by several levels.”

The three objects left behind by the three beams of white light were each more precious and rare than the last.

Long Hong carefully put them away and raised his head to look into the air.

Three beams of white light represented three treasures. In that river of light, just how many spiritual herbs and talismans were there?

Although greed stirred in his heart, Long Hong knew his own limits. He clearly understood that the tiny distance between himself and the river of light contained an enormous gulf that was difficult to cross.

After realizing this fact, Long Hong withdrew from the wooden tower without the slightest hesitation.

As soon as he left the wooden tower, a palm-sized paper slip drifted in front of him.

Under the lamplight, a neat line of writing could be seen on the paper slip.

“You and I are bound by fate. I leave this item specially for you, and look forward to our next meeting.”

Long Hong was half-believing, half-doubting. He looked left and right, yet found no trace of anything.

After hesitating for a moment, the three treasures he had just obtained, not even warmed in his hands yet, ultimately made him choose to believe. He picked up the paper slip and placed it together with that Myriad Sword Qi Talisman.

Holding up the dim yellow lantern, he walked on as bright peach blossoms continuously drifted down, gently scattering onto the lampshade before vanishing without a trace.

“Amid the peach blossoms filling the sky, watching you leave, I find myself so sorrowful I cannot control myself…”

Watching the young Long Hong leave the cave abode, Lu Yuan felt somewhat reluctant for a moment.

For no other reason than this: he had given far too much!

So much that Lu Yuan had controlled Treasure-Seeking Tower, adjusted the level of fortune, and even left behind one of the few paper slips in limited supply.

He felt like he was being influenced more and more deeply by Treasure-Seeking Tower.

When other cultivators and demonic beasts entered the cave abode, Lu Yuan quietly observed from within.

“Come in and move by yourself!”

But when a cultivator like Long Hong entered the cave abode, Lu Yuan immediately became proactive and enthusiastic. Everything he sent out was top-grade stock from inside Treasure-Seeking Tower.

Not only that, one entry was not enough. He even left a message, intending to ask for more multiple times…

“No, no. This isn’t bootlicking. It’s just that the fortune between him and me is far too deep.”

Lu Yuan comforted himself as his divine sense turned its attention to the four white light orbs in the depths of the stone cave.

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