Longevity Clan Starts with the Patriarch's Marriage

“Is this really the precious treasure?”

Gazing at the treasure in his hands, Han Li’s expression was somewhat uncertain.

It was an item resembling a furnace, palm-sized, with all kinds of runes carved on the furnace walls, lid, base, and interior.

He recognized what it was.

A Body-Cultivating Furnace!

This was a famous magical treasure, renowned throughout the Daqian Empire. It was said to be at least an Earth-Level Supreme Magical Artifact and was the Canghai Sect’s treasured heirloom.

Qing Province’s Cang Hai Sect had Great Grandmasters from the Myriad Phenomena Realm within its ranks, making it a top-tier power in the Daqian Empire, easily ranking among the top ten.

Legend had it that the ancestor of the Canghai Sect rose to power by acquiring the Supreme Body Nourishing Furnace, eventually cultivating to the pinnacle of the Myriad Phenomena Realm and establishing the vast Canghai Sect.

The Body-Cultivating Furnace was also the Canghai Sect’s greatest reliance in becoming one of the Ten Great Sects of Daqian, with each generation’s Sect Leader being a Myriad Phenomena Realm cultivator. For five thousand years, there had been no break in succession, and their history was even older than that of the Daqian Empire.

Han Li had also heard a legend that the Body-Cultivating Furnace was nothing more than a flawed imitation.

In ancient times, there was a Supreme Life Nurturing Furnace. Although it was not an Immortal Artifact, it was indeed a divine weapon of the highest quality, with awe-inspiring power and infinite might.

There was once a powerful being who tried to imitate the Life-Prolonging Furnace and forge a supreme treasure but ultimately failed, leaving behind only two flawed artifacts, one of which was the Body-Cultivating Furnace, and the other, the Soul-Cultivating Furnace.

Although the Body-Cultivating Furnace and the Soul-Cultivating Furnace were flawed, failing to reach the level of the ancient Life-Prolonging Furnace, they were still Heaven Rank Supreme Magical Artifacts.

Though he had not thoroughly examined the Body-Cultivating Furnace in his hands, it was at most a Lower Grade Heaven Rank Magical Artifact, far from being a Supreme Grade. While it may seem only three levels lower, the difference was like a chasm between heaven and earth.

Therefore, Han Li felt that the legend was highly likely to be a rumor, with no actual Supreme Life Nurturing Furnace in existence.

“But how did this precious treasure end up here?”

Turning the small furnace over in his hands, Han Li looked towards the charred and broken corpse, recalling an intelligence report he had stumbled upon ten days ago.

Half a year earlier, the White Lotus Cult’s Mother Wusheng had fled to Qingzhou and struck the Canghai Sect while its Sect Leader was away visiting friends, intending to steal their heirloom, the Body-Cultivating Furnace.

Mother Wusheng spent significant time breaking the grand formation, infiltrated the Canghai Sect, and got hold of the Body-Cultivating Furnace. However, as she was about to escape, the Daqian Empire’s pursuers arrived.

The three forces’ commander along with two Hollow Realm Masters arrived first and engaged in a fierce battle with Mother Wusheng that shook the heavens. The three Hollow Realm Masters of the Canghai Sect also took action, seeking to annihilate Mother Wusheng and reclaim the Body-Cultivating

Furnace.

In the chaos, Mother Wusheng couldn’t withstand the pressure and had to abandon the treasure. She threw the Body-Cultivating Furnace aside and then escaped amid the confusion.

The three forces’ commander continued to pursue Mother Wusheng, but his two Hollow Realm Masters stayed behind, attempting to snatch the Body-Cultivating Furnace and continued battling the three Canghai Sect Masters.

By the time the Canghai Sect Leader and the Supervisor of Jingye Office arrived, the precious Body-Cultivating Furnace had already gone missing. No one knew where it went—perhaps it hadn’t been found yet, or perhaps it had already been found but nobody was willing to admit it.

The Canghai Sect Leader was furious. He struck out at the two Hollow Realm Masters, blaming their interference for the disappearance of the Body-Cultivating Furnace.

The Supervisor of Jingye Office intervened to prevent the killing; naturally, he wouldn’t watch two Hollow Realm Masters of the Da Qian Empire be slain.

Following an intense battle that concluded without a victor, the Supervisor of Jingye Office led the two Hollow Realm Masters to safety.

That left the Canghai Sect Leader raging helplessly on the spot, not even daring to utter harsh words. Having already attacked the Hollow Realm Masters and the Supervisor of Jingye Office of Da Qian without success, if he went any further, the Daqian Empire would annihilate the Canghai Sect with the force of thunder.

Deep in his heart, he loathed Mother Wusheng and began to hold animosity against the Daqian Empire.

If it weren’t for Mother Wusheng attacking the sect and drawing the Daqian Empire’s attention, the empire would not have had the chance to act against the Canghai Sect.

For a major sect like the Canghai Sect, the Daqian Empire had long wished to deal with them, but the right opportunity had never arisen. Tugging at one thing would affect everything, so they had to wait for the right moment.

When the Wu Sheng Old Mother threw out the Body-Cultivating Furnace, the chance they were waiting for appeared. As long as they seized the Body-Cultivating Furnace, the Canghai Sect would lose their support, and would they dare to attack Province City then?

It was with this certainty that the Sanzhou Garrison Commander ordered two Grandmasters to attempt the seizure. Even if they failed to take it, as long as the Canghai Sect did not recover the Body-Cultivating Furnace, it would still be a great achievement.

Without the Body-Cultivating Furnace, the Canghai Sect would gradually decline and pose less of a threat to the Daqian Empire. That’s why the

Supervisor of Jingye Office decided to fight a battle with the Canghai Sect Leader, allowing him to vent and prevent him from causing any trouble.

“Damn it!”

After venting his rage somewhat, the Canghai Sect Leader regained his rationality. He knew better than to continue accusing the Daqian Empire of lacking martial virtue and could only swallow the bitter pill in secret, while also sending a large number of people to search for the furnace, praying that it had not been picked up by someone else.

Without the Body-Cultivating Furnace, the Canghai Sect was just an ordinary major sect in one province, but if they could recover the furnace, then the

Canghai Sect would remain one of the top ten elite sects in the Daqian Empire.

It was rumored that after searching for a month, the Canghai Sect narrowed down their suspects to a certain sect disciple, suspecting that the Inner Sect Disciple had hidden the Body-Cultivating Furnace.

But then, the Canghai Sect found out that the disciple had taken the opportunity to flee half a month earlier. Hence, the whole sect was in an uproar, with disciples and elders alike mobilized to search for the whereabouts of that disciple, but they found no trace of him.

“Could he be that lucky one?” Han Li muttered to himself.

The conclusion was obvious; this green-robed Loose Cultivator was the fortunate one who had found the Body-Cultivating Furnace, enjoying an incredible stroke of luck which even helped him escape all the way to Leizhou; just going through two or three more prefectures would take him into Yinyang Sect territory.

Who knows, maybe picking up the Body-Cultivating Furnace had exhausted all his luck, leading him to fall into Han Li’s hands at the end.

“If I had known, I should have asked for his name first,” Han Li realized he still didn’t know the name of this great benefactor before he vanquished him.

“Sigh-

With a light sigh, Han Li now harbored yet another secret, one that absolutely must not be discovered by others, or else he would have nowhere to bury his body.

He had already decided to keep the Body-Cultivating Furnace; after all, it was a cultivation treasure. He couldn’t really throw it away, could he? As for returning it to the Canghai Sect, Han Li entertained no such thoughts.

He already had enough secrets: the Longevity Family System, the Rebirth Pill Formula, and now the Body-Cultivating Furnace. Any one of them, if exposed, could bring him lethal disaster.

Flying out of the giant pit, Han Li used his True Yuan to command the sand and soil to refill it, covering up the battlefield, and incidentally providing a burial place for this good man.

Han Li examined the area thoroughly again, erasing all traces as much as possible to avoid detection.

Afterward, Han Li headed towards the first battlefield; he still had an important task to complete.

Elsewhere, in a certain prefecture in Huozhou.

Wu Sheng Old Mother was hiding here, along with the last Dharma King of the White Lotus Cult, who now had a severed arm and looked dispirited.

Wu Sheng Old Mother herself was quite pale, urgently healing her wounds. If pursuers arrived before she had recovered some of her strength, she feared that escape would be impossible.

Thinking that the Body-Cultivating Furnace had been picked up by a lucky thief and stolen from the Canghai Sect, Wu Sheng Old Mother was also distressed.

She had stolen the Body-Cultivating Furnace to speed up her healing, as being constantly hunted would inevitably lead to trouble; the furnace’s cultivation acceleration function was actually of less use to her.

Unfortunately, trying to steal a chicken only to end up losing the rice, now she was wounded even more.

She also wanted to flee to Leizhou, but the borders of Leizhou, Qingzhou, and Huozhou were under martial law with numerous powerful beings stationed there, making it difficult to sneak in..