Volume One, Chapter 13: The Three Treasured Relics
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By the time Li Hanzhou emerged from the room, the table was already laden with delicious dishes.
He had brought back quite a lot of good food that day, and Cloud Thousand-Bamboo and little Stone Fate had spent half the day preparing the feast.
Willow Eastern Peak had not seen such an abundant meal in a very long time either.
The three of them could hardly keep from drooling.
But Li Hanzhou had not yet taken his seat, so naturally they could not touch their chopsticks first.
“Go ahead and eat.”
Li Hanzhou sat down, then tore off a chicken leg and placed it in Cloud Thousand-Bamboo’s bowl.
“Uncle-Master should eat first.”
Cloud Thousand-Bamboo hurriedly picked up the chicken leg and returned it to him.
In her eyes, all this wonderful food had been obtained through her uncle-master’s hard work outside. He must have gone through great hardship, whether he had won it through gambling or acquired it by some other means. Naturally, he ought to eat first.
“All right, all right.” Li Hanzhou smiled.
Although Cloud Thousand-Bamboo was still young, she was truly sensible.
Li Hanzhou picked up the chicken leg and took a bite.
Cloud Thousand-Bamboo and Stone Fate had limited culinary skills, so the dishes they prepared were not especially tasty. Fortunately, the ingredients were good, and the food was at least edible—certainly far better than the leaves Li Hanzhou had eaten every day after first crossing into this world.
Looking at the chicken leg in his hand, now missing a bite, Li Hanzhou suddenly had an idea and took out a storage bag.
“A storage bag!”
Willow Eastern Peak’s eyes lit up when he saw it.
This was a precious item. Whenever he saw disciples from the great sects carrying such treasures, Willow Eastern Peak could not help feeling envious.
“Uncle-Master, you can refine storage bags now?” Willow Eastern Peak asked eagerly.
“Mm. You could say it was a success.”
Li Hanzhou lightly placed the chicken leg at the mouth of the bag. A stream of black smoke immediately billowed out, swallowing the chicken leg whole.
“It worked.” Li Hanzhou’s eyes brightened.
“Wait, no, Uncle-Master, hold on.”
Willow Eastern Peak quickly waved his hands.
“I’ve seen other people’s storage bags. They always emit blue smoke when storing things. Why does yours emit black smoke?”
He recalled his own Seven-Treasure Gourd, which glowed with green light, and could not help feeling that there was something wrong with the storage bag Li Hanzhou had refined.
“Your Seven-Treasure Gourd was simply an accident. This is a storage bag, and it has no offensive power. How could anything be wrong with it? It’s only a different color.” Li Hanzhou smiled. “If you don’t believe me, I’ll take the chicken leg back out and show you.”
With that, spiritual energy gathered in his palm, and his soul entered the storage bag.
He was just about to retrieve the chicken leg as proof.
However—
There was nothing there.
“Where’s my chicken leg?” Li Hanzhou froze.
His chicken leg had vanished?
Yet at that moment, a strange object appeared inside Li Hanzhou’s storage bag.
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Li Hanzhou had no memory of ever putting such a thing into his storage bag. A flash of light burst from his hand, black smoke swept over it, and a strange object shaped like a complicated lotus appeared in his palm.
It was cold to the touch and radiated a dark, ghostly aura. The components upon it were so intricately crafted that they were almost terrifying. Heavy and solemn, it was permeated by a faint killing intent.
The moment the object appeared, everyone present was stunned.
“What is this thing? Where’s my chicken leg?” Li Hanzhou stared blankly.
His chicken leg had disappeared, only to be replaced by this bizarre object.
“Uncle-Master!”
Willow Eastern Peak sprang to his feet and instinctively backed away two steps. His face was filled with terror.
“That is the Tang Sect’s deadliest weapon—the Thousand-Life Ghost Lotus! Where did you get it? There is only one in the entire Tang Sect. Rumor has it that it is one of their sect-protecting treasures. How did it end up in your hands?”
“One of the Tang Sect’s sect-protecting treasures?”
Li Hanzhou examined the object in his hand. He had no idea how it had gotten into his storage bag either.
“Uncle-Master…” Cloud Thousand-Bamboo gazed at him anxiously. “You suddenly became so rich. Did you rob the Tang Sect?”
“Junior Sister, you think far too highly of Uncle-Master.” Stone Fate shook his head in disbelief.
Li Hanzhou said nothing. He set the Thousand-Life Ghost Lotus aside, casually picked up a bowl from the table, and placed it inside the storage bag.
Sure enough, once the bowl entered the storage bag, it disappeared.
Yet in the next moment, Li Hanzhou pulled a pill furnace out of the bag.
An azure dragon coiled around the entire furnace, giving it an imposing appearance, and the air around it was filled with the fragrance of pills.
“The Azure Dragon Hundred-Flame Furnace?” Willow Eastern Peak stared in shock. “Isn’t this the pill furnace of Senior Sun Yaoxian, the Nine-Finger Divine Physician of Medicine King Valley?”
“Uncle-Master, you didn’t just rob the Tang Sect—you robbed Medicine King Valley too?” Willow Eastern Peak’s eyes widened, his face pale with fear.
Neither of those sects was someone their Longevity Temple could afford to offend.
“How strange.”
Unable to understand why his storage bag was behaving this way, Li Hanzhou reached for another dish on the table to conduct a third experiment.
Stone Fate and Cloud Thousand-Bamboo hurriedly dragged all the food in front of themselves.
“Uncle-Master, if you take anything else, we’ll go hungry,” Cloud Thousand-Bamboo said, glaring at him.
“All right, all right.”
Left with no choice, Li Hanzhou went into his room and glanced over the books on the shelf. To his surprise, there was even an illustrated book titled, The Years I Practiced Dual Cultivation with My Master’s Wife Behind My Master’s Back.
“What kind of ridiculous nonsense is this?”
Li Hanzhou spat in disgust. His predecessor truly had not spent his time on anything worthwhile.
Without hesitation, he tossed the illustrated book into the storage bag.
As usual, black smoke poured from the bag. Li Hanzhou immediately reached inside and took the item back out.
“Oh? This time it worked!”
He pulled out the illustrated book, unable to conceal his delight. His storage bag had finally returned to normal.
Then Li Hanzhou suddenly realized that something was wrong with the book.
Before he could recover from his surprise, the storage bag in his hand suddenly shattered with a resounding boom.
“My storage bag!”
Li Hanzhou’s expression changed.
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How could the storage bag have shattered?
Although it was an acquired spirit treasure, it had no limit on the number of times it could be used. Why had it broken?
“Uncle-Master, are you all right?”
Hearing the noise, the other three hurried into the room. They saw Li Hanzhou standing there in a daze, a book still clutched in his hand.
“I’m fine. The storage bag just broke for no apparent reason.”
Li Hanzhou was speechless. Could it be that the things he refined himself were simply of poor quality?
He casually tossed the book onto the table and decided to study the problem carefully and determine exactly where things had gone wrong.
“What is this?”
Curious, Willow Eastern Peak leaned over to look at the book. The instant he saw it, he could not help drawing in a sharp breath.
“The Great Celestial Phenomena Art!”
“Uncle-Master! This is the state-protecting cultivation art of the Star Luo Kingdom! Where did you get this one?”
Willow Eastern Peak nearly fainted from shock.
“The Star Luo Kingdom?” Stone Fate was startled as well. “The Star Luo Kingdom that was defeated by the Divine Tower?”
“Yes. The Star Luo Kingdom was immensely powerful. Although it lost to the Divine Tower, many of its people survived. They now remain hidden in the Cloud Wasteland. The Great Celestial Phenomena Art is their most formidable cultivation art. It is said that those who master it can summon wind and rain, wielding extraordinary power.”
Willow Eastern Peak explained the matter to him.
“It’s really that powerful?”
Li Hanzhou looked at the book. Even now, he still could not understand where this cultivation art had come from.
He experimented several more times, yet could not find any pattern at all. It was as though his belongings were randomly transforming into these objects.
And the storage bag had shattered after only three uses.
Suddenly, Li Hanzhou seemed to think of a brilliant idea.
“Since this cultivation art is so powerful, and you two have no way to practice the Longevity Temple’s arts, why not cultivate this instead? That way, our Longevity Temple will grow stronger, and your chances of ascending in the future will greatly improve!”
Willow Eastern Peak’s expression changed.
“Uncle-Master, you must not say such things. This is the Star Luo Kingdom’s cultivation art. If we practice it and someone discovers us, we will be branded remnants of the Star Luo Kingdom. The entire Divine Tower Empire may hunt us down!”
“It’s that troublesome?” Li Hanzhou asked in disappointment. He had thought the Longevity Temple’s opportunity had finally arrived.
“There are even more troublesome matters.” Willow Eastern Peak gave a helpless laugh. “The Azure Dragon Hundred-Flame Furnace, the Great Celestial Phenomena Art, and the Thousand-Life Ghost Lotus have all appeared in our Longevity Temple. If word gets out, our sect will be courting disaster. Whether it is Medicine King Valley, the Tang Sect, or the remnants of the Star Luo Kingdom hiding in the Cloud Wasteland, none of them are people we can afford to provoke! Uncle-Master, wherever you got these things, you should return them.”
Li Hanzhou looked at the objects and felt a headache coming on.
Return them?
Easy to say.
But how?
Should he refine another storage bag?
And if he put the items inside, what if something even more astonishing came out?
What if the Imperial Jade Seal of the Divine Tower Emperor appeared?
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