Long Feng entered through the main entrance.
The interior was surprisingly spacious. Several rows of small counters were arranged throughout the first floor, with disciples coming and going between them.
At each counter, there was an elder or disciple responsible for managing the treasures.
He looked around and soon found an empty counter where no other disciple was standing.
An old man was sitting behind it, lazily resting his head on one hand. No wonder why there’s no disciple upon his counter.
Long Feng walked over and placed the token Elder Xu had given him on the counter. The old man slowly raised his eyelids and glanced at the token.
His expression didn’t change much.
"Second floor."
He lazily pointed toward the stairs.
"You can choose any one treasure from the second floor."
The old man then looked at him and added, "Remember, don’t take two things. And don’t even think about going toward the third floor."
"Understood."
Nodded at him, he took back his token and walked toward the stairs.
The moment he stepped inside the second floor of treasure pavilion, his eyes immediately lit up. There were countless treasures displayed throughout the entire floor.
Weapons, armor, strange metal pieces, spiritual materials, ancient objects, and many other treasures were placed on specially constructed platforms.
Some of the weapons were surrounded by protective energy shields, clearly preventing anyone from touching them directly.
There were also several other disciples walking around the floor, carefully examining the treasures.
Long Feng glanced around and remembered what he knew about the Treasure Pavilion.
As in the cultivation world, treasures divided into different ranks. From lowest to highest, they were; Spirit Rank, Profound Rank, Earth Rank and Heaven Rank.
These four ranks corresponded to the first four floors of the Treasure Pavilion.
The higher three floors had some treasures above these ranks, but they were not something that ordinary disciples could access.
The second floor itself was also divided into several sections.
The outermost area contained low-tier Profound Rank treasures, middle area contained mid-tier treasures.
The inner area contained high-tier and at the very center of the floor were the peak Profound Rank treasures.
Since Long Feng had received permission to choose any one treasure from the entire second floor, he naturally wasn’t interested in the low-tier treasures on the outer side.
He immediately walked toward the innermost area.
As he moved deeper into the Treasure Pavilion, the quality of the treasures around him clearly increased.
Powerful weapons came into view one after another.
Some swords emitted sharp sword intent. Some strange pieces of metal radiated powerful energy fluctuations.
There were also several ancient treasures that Long Feng couldn’t even recognize.
Just as Long Feng was carefully examining the treasures around him, a familiar system notification suddenly appeared in his mind.
[Ding! A new task has been issued.]
[Task: Choose the Beast Skin containing the Myriad Beast Fusion Art from the Treasure Pavilion.]
[Task Reward: Complete version of the Myriad Beast Fusion Art.]
Long Feng’s footsteps immediately stopped.
’What the hell?’
He looked at the system notification with a strange expression.
He had come here to choose a treasure anyway, so the task itself wasn’t a problem. But what confused him was the task’s requirement.
’Beast Skin containing the Myriad Beast Fusion Art?’
How the hell was he supposed to know which item was that?
There were countless treasures inside the Treasure Pavilion. Even if he searched for an entire day, he might not be able to find the specific beast skin mentioned by the system.
Just as Long Feng was wondering about this, the system suddenly displayed a small indication in his mind.
A faint golden mark appeared in his field of vision, pointing toward a certain direction.
Long Feng followed the indication and soon arrived at a relatively secluded area in the innermost section of the second floor.
He looked ahead and found a large pile of old, brown beast skins stacked together on a platform.
Long Feng’s expression immediately became strange.
’This...’
The beast skin was covered with countless ancient texts and strange patterns. There were also images of various beasts drawn across its surface.
The writing was extremely old, and Long Feng couldn’t understand most of it.
’Is this some kind of ancient technique?’
He looked at the system notification again. The system clearly wanted him to choose this treasure, but Long Feng was reluctant.
There were so many powerful treasures around him, yet the system had specifically chosen the worst one.
Why would anyone even put this thing here?
’Forget it.’
Since the system had already given him a task, there was no point in arguing.
Long Feng reached out and picked up the beast skin. The moment he held it, he immediately realized that it was quite old.
However, despite its age, the beast skin remained surprisingly solid. It was obvious that the material used to create it came from an extremely powerful beast.
Otherwise, it would have already decayed after so many years.
Long Feng carefully looked at the ancient texts and strange beast illustrations drawn across its surface.
Unfortunately, he still couldn’t understand them.
’Whatever. The system shouldn’t be wrong.’
He put the beast skin away. Since the system had specifically instructed him to choose this item, he naturally wouldn’t take anything else.
After all, there was no need to be greedy.
It was said that the entire Treasure Pavilion was guarded by powerful elders of the sect.
Although there might not be anyone visibly standing guard in every corner, Long Feng knew that this place was definitely not unguarded.
Powerful divine senses constantly covered the entire Treasure Pavilion.
Every movement inside the building was likely being observed by someone.
Therefore, even if he had the opportunity to secretly take another treasure, Long Feng wouldn’t dare to do so.
He didn’t want to lose his life over a single treasure.
With the beast skin in his possession, Long Feng turned around and walked back toward the stairs.
He didn’t even bother looking at the other treasures anymore.
Long Feng walked toward the same counter where the old man was still sitting lazily. He placed the beast skin on the counter.
"I’ve chosen this."
The old man slowly raised his head. His eyes fell upon the beast skin.
For the first time, a strange expression appeared on his previously lazy face.
He looked at the beast skin, then he looked at Long Feng. His eyes seemed to be saying: ’Are you sure this is what you want?’
Long Feng got even more annoyed after seeing his weird expressions, but didn’t show upon his face.
The old man stared at him for a few more seconds before finally shaking his head.
Although he clearly didn’t understand why Long Feng had chosen such an ordinary-looking piece of beast skin, he didn’t ask any questions.
After all, Long Feng had the authority to choose any one treasure from the second floor.
The old man took the beast skin and registered it in the Treasure Pavilion’s records.
"Done."
He then pushed the beast skin back toward Long Feng.
Long Feng picked it up and placed it inside his storage ring.
Without wasting any more time, he turned around and left the Treasure Pavilion. He had no idea what secrets were hidden within that ancient beast skin.
But since the system had given him a task and promised to reward him with the complete version of the technique, Long Feng was already looking forward to finding out exactly what kind of ancient method was recorded on it.
After leaving the Treasure Pavilion, Long Feng quickly returned to his residence.
Even after coming out of Treasure Pavilion, the system notification he was waiting for still didn’t appear.
Long Feng couldn’t help but feel slightly angry.
This system is surely not trust in him. Only after he had returned to his own residence did the familiar voice finally ring inside his mind.
[Ding! Mission completed.]
[Reward issued: Myriad Beast Fusion Art.]
’Finally.’
Long Feng couldn’t help but sigh in relief.
He walked inside his room and sat down on his bed. At the same time, Xiao Ruo quietly came behind him.
She didn’t say anything. Instead, she gently placed her hands on his shoulders and began massaging them.
Long Feng glanced back at her.
The little maid seemed to understand her position quite well. After returning to his residence, she had remained quiet and hadn’t asked any unnecessary questions.
Long Feng didn’t stop her. Instead, his mind sank into the system.
’Let’s see what kind of technique this is.’
Soon, information about the Myriad Beast Fusion Art appeared inside his mind.
As he slowly read through its contents, Long Feng’s expression gradually became strange.
’This...’
The more he understood about the technique, the stranger his expression became.
This was undoubtedly an evil technique.
The Myriad Beast Fusion Art was a body-refinement technique that allowed a cultivator to forcibly fuse the body parts and essence of powerful beasts into a human body.
The cultivator could use the bones, blood, muscles, claws, scales, eyes, and even other special body parts of powerful beasts.
Through a special refining process, these beast parts would be fused into the cultivator’s body, allowing them to quickly increase their cultivation.
The stronger the beast, the greater the benefits.
Of course, there were also disadvantages.
The process of fusion was extremely painful, and the stronger the beast’s body part, the more difficult it was to fuse it successfully.
If the cultivator’s body wasn’t strong enough, the fusion could fail and cause serious injuries or even death.
There was also another problem.
The stronger the beast, the stronger its remaining instincts.
If the cultivator tried to fuse too many powerful beast parts, their body could gradually become unstable, and the beast’s instincts might influence their mind.
In extreme cases, the cultivator could even lose control of themselves and become more like a beast than a human.
’No wonder this is an evil technique.’
Long Feng couldn’t help but shake his head.
Such a technique would definitely not be accepted by the righteous cultivation world.
Not only did it require the body parts of fierce beasts, but the entire cultivation method was based on forcibly changing the human body through external means.
Even if someone didn’t use the technique on humans, many righteous cultivators would still consider it an unorthodox method.
But as Long Feng continued reading it, he realized that despite being an evil technique, this Myriad Beast Fusion Art was very rare and powerful.
As long as one could obtain sufficiently powerful beast materials and successfully fuse them, their physical strength could increase dramatically.
It could even allow a cultivator to obtain special abilities that ordinary body-refinement techniques could never provide.
However, the risks were equally high.
’This technique is definitely not something I can casually use.’