Volume 1, Chapter 34: Secrets of the Innate Spiritual Treasures

"You say this is a divine weapon from the Divine Weapon Ranking?"

Li Hanzhou was taken aback as he listened to Yun Qianzhu. He had previously known it was a fine blade, but he had no idea it was a weapon featured on the Divine Weapon Ranking. No wonder the three sects had gone to such great lengths to acquire it.

"Uncle-Master, you usually only care about gambling and drinking. We have the Divine Weapon Ranking right here in our library, and you could look at it anytime, but I haven't seen it myself. I only remembered it was on the list after hearing them call the blade 'Autumn Burial'," Yun Qianzhu explained.

"That complicates things." Li Hanzhou frowned. The blade had too much notoriety. An innocent man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime; wouldn't keeping this in his hands just invite trouble? There were surely many who would come to seize it.

"It seems the Longevity Temple must rise to prominence quickly," Li Hanzhou sighed softly. Only with formidable strength or a powerful background could one protect what they owned. Otherwise, why was Xie Xun chased across the Central Plains martial arts world even after fleeing to Siberia in *The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber*, while the Heaven Sword remained stuck in the True Martial Hall, with no one daring to challenge Wudang for it? It all came down to strength.

To fully break the seal on the Longevity Temple's power, he had to break the Death Burial Feng Shui formation and find the location of the fatal point. However, besides the one he had stumbled upon by chance, he had no idea where the others were. Even though he could deduce an approximate location from maps and Feng Shui principles, he was currently tied down. This was not a task that could be completed overnight; even with an approximate location, pinning down the exact coordinates would take a vast amount of time.

"Damn that Senior Brother, I have no idea where he ran off to," Li Hanzhou thought, his mind turning to his missing senior. Should he try to divine his location? He began to perform the calculations.

"Hmm?" To his surprise, no matter how he calculated, the result was always a void. "How strange." He tried several more times, but it remained a blank. It was as if this person did not exist in this world—as if his senior, the true head of the Longevity Temple, had never existed at all.

How could that be? Both the memories of his original self and the memories of the temple disciples confirmed that such a person existed. "Strange, truly strange."

Li Hanzhou walked into the main hall of the Longevity Temple and looked up at the statue of the founder. He let out a long sigh and waved his hand, causing the hall doors to shut. He sat down, gazing quietly at the statue of the old Taoist. After a long moment, he spoke: "What exactly were you trying to do by bringing me here? Don't tell me you just wanted me to break this Death Burial Feng Shui formation? You dumped this mess on me without leaving anything useful to help, leaving me struggling at every step. Sigh."

"I know you want to uphold the orthodoxy of the Taoist school, but you see the current situation: the spiritual energy hasn't awakened, and the Feng Shui formation is not easy to break. If the Longevity Temple is to survive, I have no choice but to find another way. I hope your spirit in heaven won't blame me for acting recklessly!"

"I'm giving you a heads-up now—if we ever meet again, don't go nitpicking my methods. After all, my abilities are limited."

Having said this, Li Hanzhou stood up, offered three sticks of incense to the founder, and left the hall.

The next day, Li Hanzhou gave Yun Qianzhu and Xiao Shiming a task: to go into White Cloud City and distribute flyers. He wanted to spread the word about the Longevity Temple's wager, announcing that anyone wishing to challenge the temple disciples for the Autumn Burial blade should bring their stakes and accept the challenge at the temple. However, he would only accept teams of four.

The two youngsters were thrilled to have an excuse to go down the mountain and visit the city. Li Hanzhou even gave them two taels of silver each to spend as they pleased, and they set off gleefully. Li Hanzhou wasn't overly worried; the order in White Cloud City was decent, and although the children were young, they possessed cultivation. Ordinary petty thieves were no match for them.

Once the two were gone, Li Hanzhou entered the library. He realized that his lack of understanding of the world was a disadvantage, so he decided to study earnestly, hoping to find information about the Death Burial Feng Shui formation within the books.

He first looked up the Divine Weapon Ranking. He was shocked to find that the Autumn Burial was ranked thirty-second—a very high position indeed.

"Wait, this axe looks familiar," he murmured, frowning at the forty-third-ranked Prajna Axe. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed identical to the one they used at the temple to chop firewood.

"No way?" Li Hanzhou was stunned. "Didn't that brat Liu Dongyue say it was a consolation prize from the Taixuan Sacred Land?"

"Damn it, that rascal lied to me!" Li Hanzhou cursed. No wonder the Great Elder of the Taixuan Sacred Land had been willing to wager the *Taixuan Heart Sutra* just to get that axe; the kid had actually stolen their divine weapon!

After finishing the Divine Weapon Ranking, he moved on to the Spirit Treasure Ranking. Spirit treasures were divided into innate and acquired; the latter were crafted by treasure masters, while the former were born of heaven and earth, incredibly rare and miraculous. Some innate treasures were hidden in death traps, while others were born alongside certain individuals. Once bound to a master, they were tied to the soul; forcibly breaking the bond would cause severe damage to the spirit.

"Ranked first: The Grass of Longevity."
"Grants immortality and a lifespan equal to heaven. Ownership: Unknown."

"Something that grants immortality?" Li Hanzhou was astonished. If such a treasure existed, wouldn't countless people fight to the death for it? Who wouldn't want to live forever?

The further he read, the more amazed he became by the miraculous nature of these treasures. He then moved on to the secret Taoist techniques left behind in the temple. He became so engrossed that he completely lost track of time.

However, Li Hanzhou had no idea what a massive storm his flyers were causing in the martial arts world!

*Longevity Temple disciple Liu Dongyue, the greatest under the Transcendence realm! Waiting at the Longevity Temple for challenges from the proud geniuses of the world!*

With these two sentences, Li Hanzhou had managed to offend the entire younger generation of the martial arts world.