Shen Fan climbed the mountain to fetch water, never forgetting to cultivate along the way. Multitasking like this had already delayed the farming season.
By the time he dragged his exhausted body back to his quarters, night had long fallen. The surroundings were silent. A few of the other Miscellaneous Disciples still had lamps lit, but most had already gone to rest.
Had he not already entered the third layer of the Qi Refining Stage, with physical qualities far beyond ordinary people, he would likely have collapsed long ago.
At that moment, his desire for cultivation grew ever fiercer, and his pursuit of strength burned in his heart like a raging fire.
The instant he locked the door behind him, Shen Fan flashed over to the table.
His gaze fell upon the broken bowl on the table. Seeing that it was safe and sound, the tension in his nerves finally eased somewhat, and he let out a long breath.
Sure enough, the most dangerous place was the safest place.
Whether this broken bowl was truly a treasure would be revealed after tonight.
Shen Fan grabbed a handful of brown rice from the rice sack and placed it into the broken bowl.
Then he lay wearily on the bed, yet both hands held the broken bowl tightly as his unblinking eyes stared at it, as though he intended to see right through it.
Tonight, he had already made up his mind not to sleep. He would keep his eyes fixed on the broken bowl and see whether it could truly conjure things out of thin air.
Time quietly slipped away, second by second, beneath Shen Fan's tense and expectant gaze.
Yet the broken bowl remained completely still.
Just as Shen Fan was gradually becoming impatient, a dull thud suddenly came from Old Man Duan's room next door.
"What the hell is that Old Man Duan doing in the middle of the night?"
Suspicion rising in Shen Fan's heart, he hurriedly hid the broken bowl carefully beneath the covers, then quietly opened the door and slipped outside.
At that moment, the moon had vanished behind the clouds, and darkness shrouded everything around him.
Shen Fan reckoned it was around the third watch of the Chou hour, roughly three in the morning.
At this hour, everyone should have been deep in dreamland. How could anyone still be staying up?
Did the fields not need planting tomorrow?
Brimming with curiosity, Shen Fan crept over to Old Man Duan's window and peered inside through a crack.
The sight before him made his eyes widen instantly, and his breathing caught.
Shen Fan instinctively covered his mouth, hastily backing away two steps as he desperately restrained himself from making the slightest sound.
After calming down a little, he gathered his courage and leaned in again.
Inside the house, which was less than fifty square meters, the tables, chairs, stools, bed, stove, and every other furnishing were clearly visible.
Black smoke continuously rose from Old Man Duan's body. It curled upward in wisps, eerie beyond measure.
And lying on his bed was, unbelievably, a cold corpse.
Old Man Duan formed mysterious hand seals with both hands. The black smoke around him became strands of black thread that continually seeped into the corpse's seven orifices.
This was a spell Shen Fan had never seen before, carrying the foul aura of crooked and evil arts.
Perhaps he had reached the final stage. After finishing, Old Man Duan gently lifted the corpse from the bed and placed it into a large pit beneath it.
Shen Fan saw it clearly: a coffin had actually been buried beneath Old Man Duan's bed, and the corpse lay quietly within it.
Only after finishing everything did Old Man Duan extinguish the lamp, lie down on the bed where the dead man had just slept, and drift off to sleep.
Shen Fan returned to his own room, deeply unsettled. The terrifying scene he had just witnessed kept replaying in his mind, and he could not calm down for a long time.
When he lifted the blanket with lingering fear in his heart, the sight before him instantly flung all the terror in his mind beyond the clouds.
Inside the broken bowl, the brown rice was steadily multiplying grain by grain at a speed visible to the naked eye, as though an invisible hand were controlling it all.
This scene, like a magic trick, made Shen Fan tremble from head to toe with excitement. He muttered, "It's a treasure! It's a treasure!"
Shen Fan held up the broken bowl in both hands, his eyes locked on the changes in the brown rice until it piled up above the rim.
Then Shen Fan carefully poured the brown rice into the rice sack and casually placed the broken bowl on the stove, making it look completely natural.
But after reconsidering, Shen Fan immediately took out some more brown rice and put it inside.
He secretly pondered, It has already multiplied once. Will it keep multiplying tomorrow morning?
Lying on the bed, he stared foolishly at the broken bowl by the moonlight spilling through the window. A fascinated smile spread over his face as he muttered:
"Brown rice can multiply. How wonderful would it be if spirit rice could multiply too, or even turn into Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice! The former is merely a change in quantity, while the latter is a double change in both quantity and quality!"
As Shen Fan pondered, he studied the broken bowl's functions and effects.
The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. Unable to stop himself, he said aloud, "This is practically a Treasure Gathering Bowl! No, it should be a Treasure Gathering Bowl!"
After thinking for a moment, Shen Fan named it the "Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl."
However, another question arose in Shen Fan's heart. "Are its effects limited to this alone? Or does it possess other miraculous abilities?"
Shen Fan boldly speculated, "If it is imagined as a source with limitless energy, then copying items and enhancing their quality must consume energy. Could it also possess other effects, such as restoration and catalysis?"
"Right!"
Shen Fan's eyes lit up as he suddenly recalled something. "When Li Qingshan injured me, Zhao Erhu seemed to have taken a Qi Induction Pill from the bowl the day after I returned. That Qi Induction Pill was intact!"
Shen Fan clearly remembered that what he had brought back had obviously been crushed medicinal fragments. How had it become whole?
Now that he thought about it, it must have been the Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl's doing!
"What a way to turn trash into treasure! Yet I'm still using it to multiply brown rice here—what a waste of heaven's gifts!"
Shen Fan cursed himself, feeling as though he were begging with a golden bowl in hand, wasting such a fine treasure for nothing.
On the immortal cultivation path, where one sought only longevity, pills played an irreplaceable role.
They had a remarkable effect on improving a cultivator's strength.
The Spirit Field could clearly no longer be a place for him to remain. With such a treasure in hand, he had to make the fullest use of it.
After some thought, Shen Fan felt that Elixir Forging Peak was the most suitable place.
But only Outer Sect Disciples could enter there. As a Miscellaneous Disciple, he could only start with either the Spirit Herb Department or the Waste Elixir Chamber.
And those two places were also Shen Fan's best choices at present.
The Spirit Herb Department grew all sorts of spirit herbs. If the Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl could catalyze spirit herbs and accelerate their growth, then consuming spirit herbs to cultivate would also be a way to increase his strength.
Secondly, the Waste Elixir Chamber stored all the failed pills discarded by the inner and outer sect disciples, stewards, and elders of Elixir Forging Peak.
The Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl could turn waste into treasure, so that place was undoubtedly even more suitable than the Spirit Herb Department.
However, assignments for Miscellaneous Disciples required a recommendation from their current supervisor.
Therefore, he had to obtain Zhao Erhu's agreement and have him recommend Shen Fan to either the Spirit Herb Department or the Waste Elixir Chamber.
But that fellow had already been bought off by Li Qingshan and targeted him at every turn. Asking him for a recommendation was simply harder than climbing to the heavens.
Shen Fan racked his brains over the matter and unknowingly fell asleep.
The next day, the crowing of roosters woke all the Miscellaneous Disciples at the Spirit Field.
Shen Fan opened his eyes and immediately sprang from the bed, hurrying to the table for a closer look.
But the sight before him left him somewhat disappointed.
The half bowl of brown rice he had poured in after last night's experiment had sat through the latter half of the night, yet it had not multiplied at all.
"Looks like the Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl can only be used once a night!"
Shen Fan sighed and silently committed this trait to memory.
After washing up and eating breakfast, Shen Fan took his hoe and water bucket to his spirit field and began farming.
Before you continue