Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

Luo Yu stopped, took a deep breath, and was about to ask to become an apprentice.

"I have no intention of taking on any apprentices," Lin Zhao said preemptively.

The garrison headquarters was quiet for a moment. Luo Yu opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Lin Zhao sighed. This set of cultivation techniques and secret arts was created by him when he was exploring his own path to Core Formation. He never thought that anyone could actually master it.

Luo Yu was perhaps the most suitable person for this technique, what a pity.

He took out two jade slips from his storage ring. One was crimson, the other cyan. The crimson one contained the Hundred Beast Spirit Body Secret Technique. The cyan one contained several secret techniques he had deduced.

"Take it." Lin Zhao handed him the two jade slips.

Luo Yu straightened up, looked at him with a puzzled expression, picked up the cyan jade slip, and pressed it against his forehead.

The moment his divine sense probed in, his fingers trembled slightly. Four spells.

Azure Scale Armor – for protection. Burning Feather Wings – for flight. Sky-Splitting Claws – for attack. Mystic Concealment Technique – for breathing, concealment, and hiding.

The spiritual body of a hundred beasts needs to be rebuilt time and time again, each time replenishing its foundation and life essence.

After Luo Yu established his foundation, he originally planned to focus on the four types of essence blood, move closer to the Four Spirits, and use these four types of essence blood as the core to control the essence blood of all beasts.

The four spells he now possesses were tailor-made for him by Lin Zhao.

Luo Yu put down the jade slip and remained silent for a moment. Then he knelt down and kowtowed three times.

Lin Zhao neither stopped him nor admitted it. He simply sat there and watched Luo Yu finish kowtowing three times and then stand up.

"These spells, combined with the previous Hundred Beasts True Technique," Luo Yu asked, "after Foundation Establishment, seem to allow us to transform into a powerful behemoth. What should we call it?"

Lin Zhao thought for a moment. "Golden Horn—no, let's call it the Golden Feathered Beast."

Although Luo Yu was somewhat puzzled, he nodded and said, "This disciple understands."

For the next hour or so, Lin Zhao guided Luo Yu's cultivation. It must be said that Luo Yu's talent in magical arts related to demonic beasts was indeed high. With the blessing of the Heavenly Heart Technique, he quickly comprehended the four secret techniques.

Lin Zhao watched, a thought unspoken in his mind—Luo Yu might really be more suited to this path than him.

When he created these techniques, he relied on his powerful deductive abilities. Luo Yu's cultivation is based on actual combat. It's really hard to say who will go further with this technique in the future.

It was already dark when Luo Yu left the main hall.

He didn't leave directly, but went around to the backyard. Ye Xiaoxiao was waiting for him there, and the two of them stood under a tree in the yard, talking for a long time.

The sound was very soft, and Lin Zhao didn't pay any attention to it.

After Ye Xiaoxiao broke through the Divine Barrier, her strength increased greatly, and joining the sect was a sure thing. Luo Yu, on the other hand, could not enter the sect, at least not now.

The sect's rules were clear: they did not accept Foundation Establishment cultivators, so the two of them were destined to be separated temporarily.

This was not Lin Zhao's intention. Luo Yu's power-generating stage was in the Foundation Establishment stage, and his Qi Refining stage was really average. He was simply unable to pass the sect's entrance examination. After he reached the Foundation Establishment stage, the sect would not accept Foundation Establishment disciples.

Unless Lin Zhao breaks through to the Core Formation stage, it might be possible to find a way to let him in—but that would be a decade or two from now.

In the backyard, Ye Xiaoxiao's eyes were a little red. Luo Yu stood in front of her, his lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he only said one sentence: "I will come to find you."

Ye Xiaoxiao nodded without saying anything.

Lin You stood at a distance, holding her sword, watching this scene with a complex expression on her face.

She felt that having a Daoist partner was really troublesome, as it would only affect her speed in drawing her sword. She decided to learn from her uncle and become an ascetic.

Lin Zhao...

-----

Nanli Dynasty, Xuanchen Valley.

Inside the sect's main hall, five Core Formation cultivators gathered. No one spoke; they sat upright in their seats, their expressions wooden, like five puppets placed on a stage.

But there was only one person sitting in the main seat.

He looked like a young man, in his early twenties, with strikingly handsome features and a naturally nonchalant smile.

The demonic soul of the Heavenly Demon Lord.

He leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping lightly on the armrest.

His gaze swept across the faces of the five Core Formation cultivators one by one, as if he were counting the figurines in his collection.

Five, no, six. There's also a Core Formation cultivator who just returned. Once we devour him, this demonic soul's cultivation level can be pushed even higher.

In fact, he was the one who started the whole thing with the Heavenly Fire Dynasty.

He was severely injured when he entered Lin Zhao's sea of ​​consciousness, and after returning, he ended up near the three great dynasties.

His first stop here was the Heavenly Fire Dynasty.

The previous Heavenly Fire True Person of the Heavenly Fire Dynasty was a female cultivator. She was young, highly talented, and had a cold personality. She had no interest in having a Daoist partner.

A Core Formation cultivator from the Nine Cauldrons Chamber of Commerce pursued her, but she rejected him.

The matter should have been over, but the Heavenly Demon Lord found the show boring and casually added something: a bit of inner demons, a trace of unwilling obsession.

Then, driven by his inner demons, that Core Formation cultivator used some means to detonate the volcano closest to the capital.

What he didn't expect was that there was a Nascent Soul Dharma Body being refined beneath the volcano.

His strike was like a pebble thrown into a powder keg, triggering a chain reaction that caused hundreds of volcanoes to erupt simultaneously, and tens of millions of people to perish in the flames.

The Heavenly Demon True Monarch's seemingly casual push caused such a massive disaster, nearly killing more than ten Core Formation cultivators, and even Nascent Soul cultivators. There's a reason why he's notorious among Nascent Soul cultivators, yet almost no one dares to provoke him.

Originally, he planned to hold a grand feast of demons here, based on the billions of lives of the three dynasties, with that Dharma body as the guide, and with the countless demonic beasts and resources of the Heavenly Fire Secret Realm as the thread—to corrupt all living beings with demons.

If the banquet goes well, it would be even better if one or two Nascent Soul cultivators were added to the feast, so that his demonic soul could successfully break through and become a demonic infant.

The True Lord Tongming and the True Lord Taixu could turn the world upside down in the Heavenly Fire Dynasty, but little did they know that in someone's eyes they were nothing more than two dishes of food.

Unfortunately, the plan was unexpectedly disrupted when he saw a portrait of Lin Zhao on the list of nearby forces.

He stared at the portrait for a long time, then decisively canceled all preparations.

The Heavenly Demon True Monarch has absolutely no desire to have anything to do with Lin Zhao right now. He doesn't know what that thing in Lin Zhao's sea of ​​consciousness is, but he knows that the further away from Lin Zhao the better.

The Heavenly Demon True Monarch shook his head, shaking off those thoughts. Things here were almost over. Once he had completely devoured the last Core Formation cultivator, he would leave this place for good.

Speaking of which, there seems to be another unlucky fellow who has been trapped in the Heavenly Fire Secret Realm—that mid-stage Core Formation cultivator from the Nine Cauldrons Merchant Guild.

He definitely couldn't leave. If he did, the matter might be traced back to him. He wasn't afraid of ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, but he was afraid that Lin Zhao would follow him.

So the Heavenly Demon Lord used a little trick to keep him trapped deep within the secret realm, as a small reward.

That person from the Nine Cauldrons Chamber of Commerce will probably be very grateful to me, I suppose...

Thinking this, he hummed a cheerful tune and walked briskly toward the Core Formation cultivator who had just returned.

But he didn't know one thing: the last Core Formation cultivator who returned had a disciple under his command.

That disciple's name is — Su Qianxue.

In other words, after he devoured that Core Formation cultivator, Su Qianxue indirectly became his disciple.

As for the relationship between Su Qianxue and Lin Zhao... only God knows.

He hummed a little tune and walked with light steps.