After Yang An followed Muckworm Child away, the heavy stone door carved with mysterious patterns closed over the cave. Only then did Mother Diviner True Person look toward Old Man Fate Crane.
"Senior, the ancient treasury beneath the Xi Yue River will open in half a year. When the time comes, I ask that you must assist this junior in opening it!"
"There is no rush for that matter. This old man has his own considerations. You are not the only one who knows of the ancient treasury; this must be discussed over the long term."
Old Man Fate Crane's expression remained calm. The crane head could not even be bothered to raise its eyes and look at Mother Diviner True Person again.
Mother Diviner understood better than anyone what entanglements lay within the matter of the ancient treasury. Yet before the division of benefits had been made clear, there was still room for negotiation.
Mother Diviner True Person smiled faintly, naturally knowing what medicine this Old Man was selling from his gourd.
For the moment, she set that topic aside and brought up the matter of the Flood Dragon Demon.
"This junior went to great lengths to find a Flood Dragon Demon at least five hundred years old. I have already ordered someone to extract its heart and demon marrow. Senior may enjoy them to his heart's content shortly."
"Fine!"
Old Man Fate Crane nodded without joy or sorrow, while the crane head's eyes immediately lit up.
Elsewhere, as Yang An followed several Muckworm Children through the dark, silent caverns, he discovered that there was another world beneath this isolated island.
The entire island was probably already riddled with holes, pierced through in every direction and scarred with a thousand wounds.
Gloomy and sinister, it was like entering an enormous nest.
After winding through the tunnels for several hundred paces, Yang An was soon brought into a stone chamber.
The several Muckworm Children withdrew respectfully, leaving Yang An alone in the stone chamber. Once a heavy stone door shut, the surroundings fell completely silent.
Had he not known this was the quiet chamber Mother Diviner True Person had arranged for him, and that he could come and go as he pleased,
Yang An really would have felt as though he had been imprisoned.
The stone chamber was exceedingly plain. In its center stood a stone platform formed as one with the ground, upon which rested an exquisite bronze-colored incense burner and a candleholder.
The tiny candle flame faintly illuminated the interior of the stone chamber.
Thin wisps of gentle green smoke rose from the incense burner, filling the chamber with a faint fragrance.
Out of caution, Yang An held his breath and lightly touched the antique incense burner and candleholder. He then touched the green smoke rising from the burner with his finger. Neither produced any reaction.
Only then did he relax.
After sitting beside the stone platform, the mouth opened by the Flesh-Buried Talisman took out the scroll it had stored earlier. By the faint candlelight, Yang An slowly unfurled it.
The fully opened scroll was not particularly large, about three inches wide and one meter long.
It recorded a method for testing one's compatibility with a cultivation technique during the Resonance Stage. After that came the cultivation methods for the early, middle, and late stages of the False Eater Realm.
The text was interspersed with mysterious diagrams. At first glance, it was exceedingly obscure, but after studying it several times, Yang An gradually came to understand it.
From another angle, since his ability could detect the complete information of this cultivation technique, it meant Old Man Fate Crane had not tampered with it. He could cultivate it without worry.
Very quickly, through his analysis, Yang An confirmed his earlier suspicions and reached two conclusions that delighted him greatly.
First, the Resonance Stage was meant to test whether a cultivation technique suited its practitioner. Its original purpose was to let cultivators experience in advance whether they could fully adapt to and bear the price of cultivating the technique.
Once someone could not adapt or endure it, forcibly entering the False Eater Realm would only increase the difficulty of cultivating the technique, perhaps even causing more serious consequences.
But Yang An possessed the ability to purify and eliminate the price of cultivating techniques. In other words, with no cultivation price remaining, the Resonance Stage held no meaning for him. He could begin cultivating directly from the False Eater Realm without any problems.
Second, it was still the same issue.
Unlike the price paid to use artifacts or techniques, the price of cultivating a cultivation technique was, in essence, the tribulations one would encounter while cultivating it.
For example, with this "Mysterious Dao Solution Method," every fusion of three Fate Dao Techniques—equivalent to passing through one major realm—required Tribulation Crossing.
That was what Old Man Fate Crane had meant: it was both the long staircase to immortality and the support one relied upon when falling into tribulation!
Those who fused three techniques saw True Illusion; those who fused six saw Cang Zhuo; those who fused nine saw Mirror Self; those who fused twelve saw Lower Kou...
Judging from the information shown in the panel, these obscure and incomprehensible terms represented different tribulations.
From this, Yang An even thought of more.
For instance, why did Old Man Fate Crane use the Lighting Method as the condition for selecting his direct disciples?
The Lighting Method caused its user to rapidly lose reason and descend into madness, while Old Man Fate Crane's criterion for selecting disciples was that the user had to retain their sanity in the firelight for a sufficiently long time.
Combined with Old Man Fate Crane's satisfaction with Yang An's earlier performance, as well as what he had said at the time,
A faint suspicion arose in Yang An's heart:
Could the tribulations required for cultivating the "Mysterious Dao Solution Method" have much to do with whether one could maintain sanity!?
If that was truly the case, every advancement into a major realm would be an enormous trial for a cultivator.
However...
This seemed to have nothing to do with him.
He could purify and eliminate the cultivation price of techniques. That meant there was no price for him to bear when cultivating this technique, and naturally, no tribulations would descend upon him.
Others had to bear a price and cross tribulations to cultivate techniques.
But he only needed to cultivate step by step, and he could break through realms without any obstruction, as easily as turning his hand over.
If word of this got out, then in this dangerous world, Yang An would absolutely be an oddity standing out like a crane among chickens—the kind that would be captured and dissected for research.
As he stroked the words on the scroll, his fingertips could not feel the slightest raised or sunken texture. The characters seemed embedded within it, smooth to the touch.
But just as he was about to purify this cultivation technique and begin cultivating it afterward, he suddenly stopped.
Recalling the doubts that had lingered in his heart all along, it seemed he could use this opportunity to conduct an experiment.
Experiment with what?
Naturally, he would test the special purification ability he possessed, to verify whether purified items only took effect for him or could likewise take effect on others.
Since arriving in this world, Yang An had only encountered two items with detailed written records.
The first was the remnant page of paper he had obtained from home, which recorded the method for practicing the Lighting Method.
The second was the scroll currently beneath his fingers, which recorded the cultivation method of the "Mysterious Dao Solution Method."
Back when he was still in Jiu Nan Town, threatened by demons and monsters with time pressing tight, Yang An had been using his purification ability for the first time. He had not had time to closely examine the words on that remnant page before purifying it.
As a result, he had no way of knowing whether the text recorded on it had changed before and after.
Now that he had obtained the False Eater Realm portion of a cultivation technique, and before purifying it, the words upon it were still in their original state. Yang An decided to give it a try.
He spent half an hour committing every word and diagram on the scroll to memory, repeatedly comparing them against the scroll to ensure he had remembered nothing incorrectly.
If, after purification, the words or diagrams on the scroll changed and the contents of the cultivation method were altered,
Then it would mean the cultivation technique recorded on the scroll itself had been purified, causing its price to be eliminated. If someone else obtained this scroll, they too could cultivate it without bearing any price.
But if, after purification, nothing whatsoever changed on the scroll and there were no alterations at all,
Then things would become interesting...
With anticipation in his heart, Yang An pondered briefly, reinforced the memories in his mind once more, and then chose purification.
His eyes were fixed tightly on the contents of the scroll, ensuring he would discover any change at the first instant, even the alteration of a single character.
The next moment, a faint warm current flashed past his fingertips where they touched the scroll, as though nothing had happened.
An information panel immediately appeared before him. The cultivation price of the "Mysterious Dao Solution Method" had become a single word: "None."
When the information panel vanished, Yang An looked again at the contents recorded on the scroll and fell into thought.
Upon the scroll, neither the text nor the diagrams had undergone any change after purification. They remained exactly as before!
To avoid making a mistake, he spent another quarter of an hour checking repeatedly before finally reaching the conclusion:
Exactly the same!
"So... it wasn't the cultivation technique that was purified? Rather..."
"I was purified?!"
Before you continue