Since it was effective, then it was worth cutting his flesh and bleeding out again.

Miao Yi looked forward to the day when over a hundred h.e.l.l Mantises were at his beck and call, so without another word, a knife flashed out from his storage ring and as though he was bleeding someone else out, he did not feel pained in the least as he cut open another b.l.o.o.d.y opening on his palm, immediately painting every dark egg with fresh blood once more.

He used the immortal herb to again heal the wound on his palm, then held the bunch of hair strands in his hand, and invoked the secret art taught by Lao Bai to excite the dark eggs.

Once he was finished, Miao Yi brought the jade plate outside, and the ice that had formed on the hairs instantly disappeared in a wave of black smoke once again as it came in contact with sunlight.

After he placed the jade plate on the astronomical platform, Miao Yi nimbly descended and reminded Qian'Er and Xue'Er of their duties once more, before going back to his silent quarters to continue cultivating.

Besides certain important affairs, Miao Yi had entrusted Yan Xiu to handle daily matters, and had everyone reporting to Yan Xiu if they needed to. He gave Yan Xiu a great authority, almost as if he was the housekeeper for East Arrival Cave.

To Yan Xiu, who was previously disdained by everyone in Transient Light Cave, this was a treatment that was as different as heaven and earth.

Furthermore the entire East Arrival Cave knew that the Cave Master was in closed door cultivation, and wouldn't easily appear in the East Arrival Grand Hall, so if there wasn't anything important, they wouldn't go to disturb him.

In normal circ.u.mstances, as long as no one intentionally made trouble for East Arrival Cave, nothing would go wrong.

In reality everyone was cultivating by themselves, there wouldn't be a cultivator that would go around leisurely as if they had nothing better to do. If that were truly the case, then there wouldn't be a need to let mortals take care of East Arrival City.

Other than some unavoidable rotations they had to go through, like keeping watch on the mountain gate or patrolling outside and gathering intel, one could barely catch the silhouette of a cultivator in the whole East Arrival Cave. In contrast, one could see the handmaidens belonging to the various residences playing outside or cleaning up from time to time.

Qian'Er and Xue'Er, having received Yan Xiu's cultivation methods, had also entered the early steps of half-cultivation and would rarely be seen.

A cultivator's lifestyle was basically so, to mortals it was very dull and boring.

Charcoal was just like it always was, half the time it was guarding outside Miao Yi's door, lying on the ground sleeping as it whipped its tail around. It didn't need anyone looking after it; if it was hungry, it would run out and dive into the nearby lake to enjoy a great feast. Once it was full it would come back and continue sleeping. It was basically too lazy to even move, really living a life like a pig.

The two girls also familiarised themselves with Charcoal. When Miao Yi was not around, the two of them would crouch down at Charcoal's side whispering and playing with it, and helping to brush Charcoal's mane. To the side, Charcoal would respond with a sneeze, and enjoy itself with its eyes half-closed.

This routine repeated itself day after day, and the days slowly pa.s.sed.

Forty-nine days later whilst still in closed door cultivation, Miao Yi could feel the dark eggs inside his vest had seemingly undergone an abnormal change.

The Yin energy that emanated out from the dark eggs was no longer overwhelming, Miao Yi could feel that the Yin energy would no longer spread out, and was slowly receding.

This type of change was in line with Lao Bai's explanations, making Miao Yi incredibly ecstatic. He wanted to invoke his arts to examine the conditions of the dark eggs, but the arts used for examination could not break past the two boundaries of Yin and Yang that made up the outer sh.e.l.l, so he could only give up and wait slowly.

Eighty-one days later, the Yin energy of the dark eggs had almost completely receded and Miao Yi could barely feel anything, even when he kept them inside his vest.

Replacing that energy, there was a strange sensation coming from the dark eggs as though they were trying to communicate with Miao Yi. There was not one, but over a hundred of them, only these feelings seemed to be in disarray, so Miao Yi couldn't understand what they meant.

But this was enough for Miao Yi to leap in joy, if he hadn't guessed wrongly, then the things being incubated inside the dark eggs had already taken shape, and were only waiting to break out of its sh.e.l.l and be reborn!

According to Lao Bai's instructions, from this day onwards, he no longer needed to cut himself and bleed out, nor did he need to keep them on his body to protect them. Instead, they had to be placed outside all the time regardless of whether it was rain or s.h.i.+ne; night or day, they had to be be exposed to the outside and feel the world.

"Qian'Er, Xue'Er, from this day forth I will have to trouble the two of you. You will each take turns to keep guard throughout the day and make sure that it is not s.n.a.t.c.hed away by some bird; if anything happens inform me immediately!"

On the astronomical platform, Miao Yi solemnly told the two girls.

Because during this period, the dark eggs were at their weakest; it was their most precarious time. Previously, the Yin energy that emanated from them would scare off all manner of animals and beasts, but it couldn't do so now; he reckoned even a sparrow could grab them away in its beak.

The two girls naturally did not dare slip up.

After he entrusted the things to the two handmaidens to care for, Miao Yi no longer needed to come out twice every day to keep and let out the dark eggs, and could enter close door cultivation for entire days.

Right now, he had already completely refined the two small half-Orbs of Will he had stolen from Mo Shengtu and Zhang Shucheng; Those two orbs were almost equivalent to a complete one, and had taken Miao Yi around three months time to finish refining them.

When he had finished refining about half of the Orb of Will taken from Head Guard Huang, Qian'Er ran to the door of the silent quarters and called for him, "Cave Master, something has happened to the things on the astronomical platform, there are some abnormal disturbances, please come take a look!"

Miao Yi quickly revoked his arts and spit out the Orb of Will, tucking it away as he quickly came out to the astronomical platform.

Xue'Er was currently crouched down and looking at the things on the jade plate with an expression full of curiosity. Upon seeing Miao Yi arrive, she hastily stood up.

Miao Yi gave a closer look, and found that the hair strands embedded in the dark eggs had shortened considerably.

This was also in accordance with the state that Lao Bai has previously told him about, Miao Yi immediately invoked his arts and listened for any movements; he could vaguely hear a chewing sound from the dark eggs going 'sha sha'. If he hadn't invoked his arts, then it would have been difficult to catch this sound.

Since Lao Bai had already explained this to him ahead of time, Miao Yi already knew what was happening, the little fellas inside the dark eggs were eating the hair that he had stabbed into the eggs. Once they had slowly finished eating his hair, if Lao Bai's words were correct, then it would be almost time for the things inside to see the light of day once more.

"It's nothing! If anything else happens let me know again."

Miao Yi smiled while he turned around and left the astronomical platform. He entered his own quarters under the gaze of the two girls, and continued his cultivation.

One and a half months later, Miao Yi had completely finished refining the remaining half of the Orb of Will and was quietly sitting down for two days, when his closed eyelids suddenly quivered.

His source of transcendence energy, which had not seen any growth previously, suddenly grew a little larger, and the gray, murky art source that seemed like it was spinning chaotically also brightened up a notch; his control over his transcendence energy also seemed like it was instantaneously raised to another level. At this moment, Miao Yi suddenly felt like he was incredibly strong.

Abruptly, Miao Yi opened his eyes and raised his palms from his knees to the skies, a ball of water suddenly formed out from the pool in front of him and flew over to hover in front of his face.

The ball of water quickly flattened in front of his eyes to act as a mirror, he could vaguely see his own reflection in the water mirror, and saw the silhouette of a blossoming double-petaled white lotus flower in the center of his eyebrows.

His cultivation had finally broken through to White Lotus Second Grade!

The corner of his lips curved into a smile; after looking in the mirror for a while, he was merely happy for a few moments, then lightly shook his head.

A mere White Lotus Second Grade cultivation was nothing worth rejoicing about. He had only just reached the White Lotus Second Grade, and was still the lowest in cultivation of the entire East Arrival Cave. If he were to show off this cultivation outside he would still be laughed at.

"Aye! I am the esteemed East Arrival Cave Master! I can't be so ashamed……," sighed Miao Yi in melancholy.

An object akin to a powder box flashed out from his storage ring, he opened it and used his fingers to apply the Soul Concealing Paste on his forehead, hiding away the silhouette of the lotus flower.