Ch 1: The Seven Treasure Gourd
Azure Profound Realm, Longevity Temple.
The Daoist Temple was long devoid of incense; everywhere was dilapidated. Cracks in the ground’s blue bricks were filled with weeds. This place was less a Daoist Temple and more a slum.
A desolate small courtyard in the Daoist Temple.
Li Hanzhou was staring blankly inside the room.
He never imagined things would turn out this way.
He wasn’t from the Azure Profound Realm, but from a place called Earth.
Since childhood, he had no parents, picked up by an Old Daoist Priest, living in the Daoist Temple.
The Old Daoist Priest taught him Feng Shui and Physiognomy, fortune telling and divination, drawing talismans and exorcising demons, and Daoist Heart Methods. However, to Li Hanzhou, these were mere scams, just to trick people out of money. What demons and monsters are there in this world?
And that Daoist Heart Method, the Old Daoist Priest cultivated until his death without cultivating a wisp of spiritual energy.
After the Old Daoist Priest’s death, the Daoist Temple was demolished, and Li Hanzhou had no choice but to rely on these skills to make a living.
At night, he would livestream online, giving people fortune readings and Feng Shui consultations. During the day, he ran a repair shop, fixing appliances and the like.
His life was poor but passable. Three days ago, Li Hanzhou finally received a stroke of luck; the lottery ticket he bought actually won, a full thirty million!
The money had arrived. Along with his surprise, Li Hanzhou found that the Daoist Heart Method he had cultivated for many years had actually produced a wisp of spiritual energy in his body, which made him even more overjoyed. Unexpectedly, all the luck had come on the same day!
However, with the appearance of this wisp of spiritual energy, Li Hanzhou’s vision went black. When he woke up again, he was here.
He had transmigrated!
Li Hanzhou wanted to curse the heavens for playing such a trick on him.
He had thirty million, a beautiful life was about to begin, and then he came to this ghostly place!
“Martial Uncle, Martial Uncle, are you finished yet? The Grand Profound Sacred Land’s assessment begins tomorrow. Have you made your Spirit Treasure yet?” At this moment, an anxious urging voice came from outside the door.
Li Hanzhou looked out through the crack in the door. Three people stood in the courtyard: two youths and a little girl.
“Ai, almost there, wait a little longer,” Li Hanzhou had to say evasively.
Turning around, Li Hanzhou felt a headache coming on.
This Longevity Temple, though called a Sect, had long since fallen into disrepair. The Sect Master had gone out a year ago and never returned; no one knew where he had gone. With the Sect Master gone, only Li Hanzhou, the Vice Sect Master, remained.
But the original body was a complete waste, with no cultivation talent. His cultivation level was low, not to mention his addiction to gambling. His position as Vice Sect Master was entirely because he was the Sect Master’s Junior Brother.
With the Sect Master gone, the original body had gambled away everything of value in the Longevity Temple. The Sect Disciple’s numbers dwindled from hundreds to the current four.
Now they could barely afford food.
They still owed eight hundred taels of silver in debt.
In less than seven days, it would be time to repay the debt. If they couldn’t repay it, the creditor would come to break Li Hanzhou’s hands.
A few days ago, the Grand Profound Sacred Land held a Sect Grand Competition. Sect Disciples under the Grand Profound Sacred Land’s jurisdiction, with a cultivation level of Fifth Rank, could participate. Those who ranked in the top thousand would receive a reward of one thousand taels of silver.
The Senior Disciple was not in the Sect. The Second Disciple, Liu Dongyue, had just reached Fifth Rank.
Barely meeting the qualifications, the original body had tricked Liu Dongyue into participating in the Grand Profound Sacred Land’s Sect Grand Competition. But Liu Dongyue wasn’t a fool. With his cultivation level, participating would be pointless; he might even lose his life.
Other disciples had equipment, pills, and Spirit Treasures; he was poor except for his brain. Why would he participate?
Finally, the original body promised to make Liu Dongyue a Spirit Treasure, and Liu Dongyue reluctantly agreed.
As a result, the original body unexpectedly died while making the Spirit Treasure.
Leaving behind the utterly bewildered Li Hanzhou, who had just transmigrated.
Li Hanzhou also admired the original body’s audacity. In this world, those who could make Spirit Treasures were called Spirit Treasure Masters. This required extremely strong Divine Soul Power; otherwise, insufficient Divine Soul Power, when forcibly making a Spirit Treasure, would result in the Divine Soul being drained and death.
The original body had no experience in making Spirit Treasures. He had somehow obtained a relatively common Spirit Treasure Manufacturing Guide from the market and began to operate.
Li Hanzhou, relying on his past experience repairing washing machines and electric fans, studied for two days and discovered that these Spirit Treasures were merely created with an outward form. Then, Divine Soul Power was used to inscribe runes on the Spirit Treasure. After the complete runes were written, they could be activated with True Qi.
A red gourd was now before Li Hanzhou.
Its name was Seven Treasures Gourd.
Its function was to forcibly absorb enemy weapons into the gourd.
But the power of the Magic Treasure also depended on the Divine Soul cultivation of the person who made it.
For the past three days, Li Hanzhou had tried various methods to return to Earth, but he still had no clue. At this moment, only two paths lay before him.
One was to wait for the creditor to come and break his hands.
The second was to let Liu Dongyue participate in the Grand Profound Sacred Land’s Disciple Grand Competition, win one thousand taels, and solve the debt crisis first.
“It’s death either way. Let’s try!” Li Hanzhou picked up the red gourd, then, following the instructions in the book, focused intently, and extended his finger, dipping it in cinnabar, to continue inscribing the remaining runes on the gourd.
This took two hours.
When Li Hanzhou finished writing the last rune, he finally emerged from that focused state.
“Strange,” Li Hanzhou was puzzled. The book said that when Spirit Treasure Masters made Spirit Treasures, excessive Divine Soul consumption would cause headaches or dizziness. But why did he feel nothing at all? And he had finished the Seven Treasures Gourd in only two hours?
“I’ll try it,” Li Hanzhou pointed his finger at the gourd’s body, and the trace of spiritual energy in his body directly flowed into the gourd.
In an instant, the Seven Treasures Gourd in his hand began to vibrate.
A faint green radiance emanated from the gourd.
“It’s activated?” Li Hanzhou was surprised. He had actually created a legendary Spirit Treasure?
So that meant he was a Spirit Treasure Master?
“Eh?”
“Something’s wrong.”
Li Hanzhou carefully compared the booklet on Spirit Treasure Manufacturing; the Seven Treasures Gourd page stated that upon completion, it would emit a red radiance.
But Li Hanzhou clearly remembered that his Seven Treasures Gourd had just emitted a green radiance.
What was going on?
Had he made a mistake somewhere?
Li Hanzhou carefully compared the runes he had written. Had he written a line of code incorrectly?
But after carefully comparing it three times, he found no problems.
“Martial Uncle, are you still not done?” At that moment, an urging voice came from outside again.
“What’s the rush?” Li Hanzhou opened the door and saw three anxious people outside. The one with the highest cultivation was naturally Liu Dongyue, now the Sect’s Second Senior Brother.
The younger youth was named Shi Ming, and the girl was Yun Qianzhu.
“Here,” Li Hanzhou tossed the Seven Treasures Gourd to Liu Dongyue.
Liu Dongyue caught it, his eyes lit up: “Seven Treasures Gourd!”
“It’s really a Seven Treasures Gourd!” Shi Ming and Yun Qianzhu also excitedly surrounded him.
Perhaps for disciples of some major Sects or large families, this Acquired Spirit Treasure wasn’t particularly rare. But for disciples of the Longevity Temple, it was a luxury item!
Something they couldn’t afford.
Li Hanzhou had also considered selling the Seven Treasures Gourd, but only Spirit Treasures made by famous Spirit Treasure Masters would sell. No one would recognize something made by someone without fame.
Junk Spirit Treasures were worthless.
“Second Senior Brother, try it quickly!” Shi Ming urged.
“Try what?” Liu Dongyue shook his head. “Acquired Spirit Treasures have a limited number of uses. A Spirit Treasure can only be used nine times. It’s incredibly precious. We can’t waste it here!”
“Senior Brother, I want to see too,” Yun Qianzhu approached, her big eyes looking at Liu Dongyue expectantly.
Usually, if she acted cute, her Senior Brother would relent.
But today, Liu Dongyue was firm. This Spirit Treasure was hard-earned and couldn’t be used casually.
Actually, Li Hanzhou also wanted to say, why don’t you try it? Thinking of the green light earlier, Li Hanzhou also felt that this Spirit Treasure was a bit off, but he couldn’t say exactly what was wrong.
Seeing that Liu Dongyue was unwilling to try it, the two became bored and turned to prepare dinner.
Liu Dongyue thanked Li Hanzhou, then happily returned with the gourd.
Looking at the disciples’ patched Daoist Robes, Li Hanzhou sighed. The original body’s gambling addiction had led him to sell almost everything of value. Soon the Sect would have no money to buy rice.
Before considering how to return to Earth, he needed to figure out how not to starve to death first.
Perhaps he should set up a fortune-telling stall tomorrow.
The next morning.
Liu Dongyue came to say goodbye to Li Hanzhou.
“Martial Uncle, after I leave, I hope you will take good care of my Junior Brother and Junior Sister.” Liu Dongyue paused. “Try to gamble less.”
As a junior member of the Sect, he had no right to say such things. But Liu Dongyue feared that Little Shi Ming and his Junior Sister Yun Qianzhu would suffer with Li Hanzhou, so he couldn’t help but remind him.
“Don’t worry,” Li Hanzhou was no longer the previous Li Hanzhou, and he would naturally not gamble again.
“Then, this disciple is leaving.”
“Wait, this is for you,” Li Hanzhou took out a talisman and gave it to Liu Dongyue.
Liu Dongyue took it with surprise and murmured, “Vajra Talisman?”
“Be careful when you’re out. I don’t have any money for you, but this thing, though not very useful, can serve as a lucky charm.” Yesterday, Li Hanzhou saw that there was some cinnabar left over from making the Spirit Treasure, so he drew a Vajra Talisman for Liu Dongyue to ensure his safety.
The Longevity Temple had the art of making talismans, but Li Hanzhou only had Sixth Rank cultivation. The talismans he drew were only beginner level and had no power, only serving as a thought.
However, Liu Dongyue suddenly felt that this talisman was different from any he had ever seen.
The drawing style was extraordinary and profound. More importantly, faintly, a steady power seemed to emanate from the talisman, as if it were holding down a majestic mountain, immovable!
Was it an illusion?
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