Thousand-Year Old Monster

"An ancient magical treasure?"

Zhang Sanxian chuckled softly. "Heh heh, good, very good~ So that means cultivators exist in this world?"

"Cultivators?"

The storyteller, who had always been composed and learned, wore a baffled expression for the first time. "Hero Zhang, forgive my ignorance, but what are cultivators?"

"Mm~ I understand."

The moment Zhang Sanxian heard this, he nodded in understanding, then asked, "What I mean is, are there immortals in this world?"

"I do not know."

The storyteller shook his head. "There are ghosts and monsters in this world, and many ancient texts record them. But as for immortals, there has never been the slightest trace of them."

"Fine." Zhang Sanxian nodded. "Continue. Tell me about that ancient magical treasure. Explain why you know it is called a magical treasure."

"Yes."

The storyteller's expression turned solemn as he began his account at an unhurried pace.

Perhaps it was because Zhang Sanxian had paid so generously all at once.

The storyteller thus went into remarkable detail, starting with the founding patriarch of Rain-Listening Tower.

According to him, Rain-Listening Tower—the foremost intelligence organization in the martial world, one that maintained a largely neutral stance—had existed for nine hundred and eighty years.

And the reason Rain-Listening Tower had endured for so long and remained so stable was closely tied to the ancient magical treasure the storyteller had mentioned earlier.

As he told it, nine hundred and eighty years ago, the founding patriarch of Rain-Listening Tower had originally been the young master of a maritime merchant guild.

During one voyage across the open sea, he encountered an attack by a rare sea monster.

Though this young master of the sea merchants possessed extraordinary martial skill and had reached Divine Illumination Rank at only twenty years of age, he was still grievously wounded by