Chapter 105: The Lost Treasure of the Hanhai Immortal Sect!

“Who comes to Haoyue City with such a figure, and is he really after some fortune tied to Thousand-Gate Mountain?” A faint voice of doubt sounded, and then footsteps echoed from the nearby Secret Market. The men exchanged a glance and disappeared from where they stood.

After leaving the Secret Market, Shen Yan did not rush home. He strolled through Haoyue City for a while, checked his spiritual sense to ensure no one was following him, and found no malicious intent radiating from the Heavenly Emperor’s Divine Seal. Only then did he release the Triple-Soul Quieting Breath and return to his shop.

“Huh. Master Qian of the Hall of Treasures really has left a message.” Looking at the board by the entrance with Qian Muqing’s private seal, Shen Yan paused briefly and decided to wait a few days before addressing it.

He activated the shop’s array, swallowed a spirit pill to steady his mind, rested for a moment, and then pulled out the jade slips to study them carefully.

As for artifacts, spirit tools, and talisman treasures, Shen Yan had no urgency to learn the secret methods for making spirit tools and talisman treasures. He focused instead on the forging method of artifacts.

“I, Wanhua Zhenren, have been immersed in forging for four hundred and twenty years. Now I have no hope of breaking through to the Nascent-Soul stage; my fate is near its end. I leave this forging inheritance in my inner domain, awaiting the one with enough affinity.”
“Nature births all things and nurtures all spirits. Forging grasps the essence of heaven and earth and shapes the quintessence of heaven and earth itself. In the cultivation world today, forging is mainly governed by balancing the Five Elements. Yet I have taken a different path, pursuing a single, extreme transformation...”

After reading, Shen Yan instantly understood. The cultivator who had left the jade slips was Wanhua Zhenren, a Foundation-Establishment wandering master who had failed to break into the Nascent-Soul realm and therefore had left his inheritance behind when he took final peace.

Studying Wanhua’s slips and combining them with his own forging experience, Shen Yan immediately felt he had gained much.
The forging method Feng Jun had once left behind, as Wanhua had said, was mainly based on Five-Element balance. Now, with Wanhua’s inheritance, the two approaches complemented one another, and the questions he had once failed to understand suddenly fell into place.

“In daily forging, I forced the use of the Heavenly Emperor’s Divine Seal’s primordial purple qi to push up success rates by sheer will. Looking back, there are still many places in my technique that need improvement.”

He brought out his forging furnace cauldron and, following Wanhua’s method, kept trying to mend his usual omissions and mistakes.

A day later, faced with more than twenty inferior pieces at his side, Shen Yan frowned. “To truly merge these two forging approaches into one, my current level of technique cannot do it. I’ll need long discipline first.”
After a quiet sigh, he steadied himself and threw his whole spirit into the great work of forging.

In the Eastern Sea realm, he had once collected a huge number of spirit stones from the Luo family, yet as his cultivation improved those stones had flowed away like water.
With another fifty thousand spirit stones spent in the Secret Market, he now had just over eighty thousand left.
To other Foundation-Establishment cultivators, that was an immense fortune, but for Shen Yan it was not enough.

First, his talent in cultivation arts was not outstanding. The reason he had quickly forged superior artifacts and superior talisman seals had been the effect of the Heavenly Emperor’s Divine Seal.
Using the seal consumed primordial purple qi, so the stone supply had to replenish that loss.
Second, the spiritual materials needed for making artifacts, talisman seals, and elixirs were enormous. He had no confidence he could, before exhausting his stones, raise forging, alchemy, and talisman drawing all to the second level at once.
After careful calculation, he finally decided to sacrifice progress in alchemy and talisman drawing and focus entirely on forging.

Still, before doing so, he needed another visit to the Hall of Treasures.
He packed his belongings into his storage bag and went there, still curious why Qian Muqing had suddenly sought him out.

“Master Shen, I have met you.”
When Qian Muqing saw him arrive, a flicker of joy crossed his face and he immediately bowed.

“Do not be polite, Daoist friend. Although our acquaintance is recent, we are close enough to be frank. Did you come to me for some matter?”
Shen Yan cut straight to the point. He was immersed in forging and had no time for idle talk.

“Master Shen, I brought you here because of the report from the Eastern Sea realm you once asked me to watch.”

At that, Shen Yan, who had been somewhat casual at first, immediately grew alert.
“Speak plainly.”

“Four days ago, Haoyue City received word that several Foundation-Establishment cultivators abruptly appeared in Qian State, where the Eastern Sea and Central Land realms connect. As Haoyue City is a part of Central Land, it has territorial defense duties; so a Gao-family cultivator went out to inquire, only to be severely injured by a Nascent-Soul master hidden among those Foundation-Establishment men.”
Qian Muqing looked over at Shen Yan again and added softly,
“It is said those Eastern Sea cultivators came seeking a lost treasure of the Hanhai Immortal Sect. Even sending only one Nascent-Soul cultivator this time was already giving face to Central Land…”

Hearing that, Shen Yan immediately felt something was off. He had first thought it might be Yuan Sect and Kuisui Gate coming to pursue a grudge, but this did not match at all.
And their claimed pretext was strange—if they were hunting for a Hanhai relic, the Jade Immortal Sect and Kuisui Gate might dare to suspect a secret and scour Central Land for clues, but they would never dare to fly Hanhai’s banner.

“Could it be... that Hanhai truly lost some treasure?”
A hidden unease stirred in him. Hanhai Immortal Sect and Luofu Immortal Sect were both high mountains no longer within his reach now; if the two clashed, both cultivation worlds might burn.

“I understand.”
After a moment’s thought, Shen Yan decided caution was best and simply reached for his storage bag.
“Recently I have made progress in forging and urgently need materials for making upper-grade artifacts. Still, to be safe, prepare some materials for forging top-grade artifacts and lower-grade spirit tools as well.”

He had decided to spend whatever it took to raise his forging technique quickly, then take full use of the Heavenly Emperor’s Divine Seal to upgrade all his own artifacts to lower-grade spirit tools, and then go to the ruins of the Qinglian Sword Sect in search of Qinglian Sha, to prepare for condensing the Sha.

“Then I should congratulate you, Master.”
Qian Muqing looked closely at Shen Yan’s face. Since he seemed unconcerned by the news, Qian Muqing began to doubt his own suspicion—was this senior really from the Eastern Sea?
He opened the storage bag and froze in shock. He had not expected it to contain a full fifty thousand spirit stones.

“Master... you... you...”