Heaven-Sent Spiritual Treasures Hide Many Traps; Elusive Immortal Fortune Must Not Be Forced

After studying it for quite a while, Heng Hua finally reached out and tore away the seaweed wrapped around it, scraping off a bit of powder from the surface of the black substance.

The burly man nearly made a move. He forcibly restrained the urge and stared fixedly at Heng Hua's actions.

Money—these black powders might all be money! No, later he had to gather all this stuff up properly and not let him hide any away.

Heng Hua studied it carefully for a long while, then sniffed it before his nose. His expression immediately changed.

"Ha—I was wondering what it was!

"Isn't this just a cuttlebone? It had been wrapped in several layers of seaweed and soaked in accumulated thick ink from its cavity for a hundred years. That was why its true nature could not be seen at all.

"Take it back and soak it in purified water. Refine it with true essence beneath moonlight for seven days, and its original appearance should emerge. This thing is merely the bone of a water demon at the Foundation Establishment Realm, perhaps three to five hundred years old. At most, because cuttlebones are somewhat rare, it can fetch some money—around twenty Bright Moon Pearls.

"Of course, if you sell it as medicinal material, processed cuttlebone may be worth a little more. This should have drifted over from the waters of the Eastern Sea."

Cuttlebone could stop bleeding, secure essence, and ease pain. In the pill arts, it was commonly used to make secret medicines such as Bone-Healing Powder, Pain-Relieving Powder, and Essence-Restoring Pills.

Seeing his hands covered in black grime, Heng Hua looked disgusted and hurriedly fetched purified water to wash them.

"Cu-cuttlebone?" The burly man rushed over, roaring, "Could you have identified it wrong?"

How could this possibly be a squid bone?

"If you do not believe me, then find someone else to appraise it."

Heng Hua's heart was full of disdain. He had thought that, having just left Spirit Island with heavenly fortune upon him, he would stumble into some immortal opportunity on his very first day. Instead, it was merely a cuttlebone stained with ink.

"As for your third item, Fellow Daoist, there is no need to inspect it closely. It is just a fragment of a jade seal, nothing unusual."

In Heng Hua's judgment, this jade seal had shattered and fallen into the water several decades ago. Only recently had the burly man fished it out.

It was another useless thing.

"If you doubt my appraisal and believe this thing holds some other mystery, you may as well ask an expert to examine it again."

The burly man refused to accept this. He put away his three treasures, turned, and left. He did not continue setting up his stall, instead collecting all his things and departing directly.

Hmph—

What kind of eyes were those? The Fu Family was nothing but a pack of hypocrites, trying to belittle my treasures so they could force down the price.

Watching him storm away in a fury, Heng Hua shook his head and recorded the matter as well.

Seeing the youth's expression from the side, Nie Xing kindly advised, "Fellow Daoist, there is no need to take it to heart. There are often people like this. They always think that if they come across some strange and unusual object, it must be some thousand-year spiritual treasure or ten-thousand-year divine artifact. Do not mind it. After running headfirst into a few walls, they will understand."

Stumbling upon immortal fortune was practically legend among cultivator transactions. Out of thousands, even tens of thousands, of deals, one might not encounter even a single marvelous treasure of immortal opportunity.

"Thank you for your kind intentions, Fellow Daoist. I understand. It is just that—I worry he will foolishly run elsewhere and encounter members of the Wei Family or Cheng Family. If they see him putting on an 'I have treasures' expression, he may well be beaten to death on the spot, while those useless trinkets are snatched away by the Wei Family or Cheng Family as treasures."

Nie Xing froze, lowering his head to ponder it.

Come to think of it, that really was possible.

At that moment, Heng Hua and Nie Xing looked up.

Xiang Feng sent out a gust of spiritual wind, secretly warning the burly man to beware of the Wei Family and Cheng Family. It would be best for him to go to Windgate Island and find someone to appraise them.

Windgate Island was one of the largest islands in the east. The scale of its spirit market was said to be the greatest in the eastern region. At the same time, several Golden Core Realm cultivators were stationed there.

"Fellow Daoist truly has a fine temperament, not holding that fool's rudeness against him."

Seeing this, Nie Xing sighed even more over the Fu Family's upbringing. Sure enough, his master had not lied: the descendants of Old Master Fu Danwei's branch on Coiling Dragon Island truly were all kind and virtuous gentlemen.

Heng Hua was left speechless. Was his third brother's temperament really that good? He had even rushed to warn the man? After traveling outside all these years, how had he not been tricked blind?

Lu Xin observed the commotion from the shadows and gave an order. "Go see what exactly those items in that burly man's hands are."

Qingxi went to make arrangements and soon returned with the result.

"A piece of cuttlebone, a Ghost Snake Egg, and a piece of discarded treasure-artifact material."

"So it was exactly as that Fu Family disciple said?"

Qingxi replied, "Not the slightest difference. Young Master, the Fu Family has always been fair in its prices. They would never falsify such matters."

"Fair in their prices? The Fu Family is still a cultivation lineage. I refuse to believe they would truly do something so detrimental to themselves. They simply had not encountered a real treasure.

"If they did encounter one, would they not use the name of appraisal to disparage it, then purchase what others did not recognize at a low price? Does Third Uncle not often do precisely that?"

Lu Xin shook the folding fan in his hand. A layer of dust covered the fan that had originally glittered with treasure light, dimming its radiance.

With a gentle puff of breath, several gaps appeared in the folding fan, making it seem fragmented and on the verge of falling apart.

"Qingxi, take this fan to the Fu Family for appraisal. See how much they are willing to offer for it."

"..."

Qingxi looked hesitant, but he could not withstand Lu Xin's urging. He could only take the "broken fan" to find Heng Hua for an appraisal.

The moment he left Lu Xin's side, his concealed tracks were immediately exposed.

The gentle breeze carried news of his movements to Xiang Feng and Heng Hua.

There were others on the island?

Xiang Feng watched Qingxi approach, silently becoming alert.

Could he be the mysterious person who had dealt with the Wei Family earlier?

Heng Hua looked at Qingxi, then followed the direction from which he had come and gazed toward where Lu Xin and the others were.

However, Lu Xin carried a secret treasure, concealing the tracks of the two men. Looking from afar, Heng Hua saw only a stretch of empty reefs.

Seeing the youth glance at him one moment and look behind him the next, Qingxi secretly began to drum in his chest.

"Young Master, I have a treasure. Could you help appraise it?"

As he spoke, he handed the gray, dusty folding fan, which looked like a piece of trash, to Heng Hua.

"Senior Brother, this thing looks like nothing more than a broken fan, right?"

Liu Xu put away the goods from his stall and walked over to Nie Xing's side.

Nie Xing secretly scanned it with his divine sense and nodded. "There truly is no way to see through it. It is presumably the remains of a magical treasure? Only—"

Nie Xing vaguely felt that something was off.

This broken folding fan was somewhat different from ordinary treasure-artifact wreckage. Could it... could it be a fragment of a spirit artifact?

Most people had nearly finished their trading and were now idling about, so they gathered around Heng Hua one after another.

Heng Hua focused completely on the broken folding fan for a long while, looking at Qingxi, then looking toward the direction where Lu Xin and the other man were hidden.

Lu Xin smiled faintly. He raised his hand and was about to wave his folding fan when he suddenly remembered that the fan was gone.

His right hand curled into a fist and silently lowered to his side. He coughed lightly. "Master Nanguo, what do you think?"

Nanguo Yannian said, "You concealed the spiritual radiance of the Cloudsoaring Fan, causing the spirit object to hide its brilliance. Ordinarily, no one should be able to discover it. But this boy has good eyesight and possesses a superior appraisal art, so he will certainly notice something. The only question is whether he will expose it."

After all, this was an undamaged spirit artifact.

Not to mention the Fu Family—even throughout the entire Yanlong Waters, spirit artifacts were mostly held in the hands of Golden Core Realm cultivators.

Lu Xin silently nodded. He believed that with Fu Heng Hua's eyesight, Heng Hua would absolutely be able to see its true nature.

Would he claim it was magical-treasure wreckage and then buy it at a low price?

Heng Hua stared at the Cloudsoaring Fan before him.

With his eyesight, he naturally saw through the fan's concealed true nature.

Seeing Qingxi bring over a spirit-artifact folding fan, Heng Hua felt suspicious.

He sent his mind ape back to his room to cast a divination.

"Young Brother, have you reached a conclusion?" Seeing Heng Hua remain silent for so long, Qingxi could not help urging him.

Heng Hua cast a glance toward the distant direction where Lu Xin and the others were.

Though he could not see through the two men's tracks, under the calculations of heavenly secrets, he vaguely guessed that someone wanted to make things difficult for him.

Since that was the case, he would teach them a lesson.

"Fellow Daoist, have you ever heard of a 'Black Artifact'?"

Qingxi shook his head. "I have not."

"A Black Artifact?" Mei Zhongtian asked curiously. "I know magical treasures are divided into four ranks—treasure, spirit, immortal, and divine. What is a Black Artifact?"

The other cultivators around them all shook their heads.

They too knew only these four kinds of magical treasures. A magical artifact was refined with twelve layers of art restrictions. Once the thirteenth restriction took shape, it automatically advanced into a treasure artifact. Once the twenty-fifth restriction formed, the treasure artifact automatically rose into a spirit artifact. Once the thirty-seventh restriction formed, it became an immortal artifact.

The advancement path of the four magical-treasure ranks was perfectly clear. What was a Black Artifact?

"A Black Artifact is not a magical-treasure rank, but a collective term for a type of heretical magical treasure. I once read about it in an ancient book.

"Legend says that when the Myriad Islands of Donglai were still Divine Province, a cult called the Evil Soul Cult appeared in the cultivation world. Its cult leader used wicked arts to control cultivators from the major immortal sects and lineages, stirring up storms of blood and rain. What he relied upon was a magical treasure called the Amora Black Mother-Child Yin-Yang Divine Stele.

"The divine stele's origins were unknown. It seemed to be something formed wholly by nature. Evil-Soul Daoist carved apart the stele and refined it into black little seals. He then disguised those seals as magical treasures left behind by predecessors and scattered them through cultivators' abodes.

"When cultivators explored those abodes and obtained the little seals to refine them, a wisp of divine sense would follow the connection and automatically imprint their true names upon the stone stele."

As Heng Hua spoke, Nie Xing and the others were shocked.

Though they had never heard of Black Artifacts, they still understood basic cultivation knowledge.

If one's divine-sense true name appeared on someone else's magical treasure, did that not mean one's life and death were under another's control?

Lu Xin looked at Nanguo Yannian. "Master, have you heard of such evil objects?"

Nanguo Yannian said, "Such things did indeed exist. During the era of Divine Province, the records of every sect contained warnings about them. But after the continent's destruction, the inheritances were scattered, and few people still knew of these ancient events. I never expected..."

Heng Hua said, "The book records that Evil-Soul Daoist relied on this wicked art to ensnare many cultivators, treating them as slave puppets and attacking one cultivator mountain gate after another. In the end, he was jointly exterminated by the great powers of Donglai Divine Continent."

Qingxi countered, "Fellow Daoist believes mine is a Black Artifact? But this is not a stone seal, and its material has nothing whatsoever to do with stone."

"Black Artifact is merely a collective term. Besides the original Black Artifact, the Mother-Child Yin-Yang Divine Stele, there are also the Heavenly Demon Six-Desires Pearl, the Great Formless Divine Banner, and—

"The Evil-Heart Demon-Soul Banner."

Liu Xu suddenly interjected.

"Correct. The Blissful Elder's Evil-Heart Demon-Soul Banner is also one of them."

Everyone present was a cultivator of the Yanlong Waters. Aside from Mei Zhongtian, who had only just entered the world, everyone else, Qingxi included, turned solemn, and the atmosphere abruptly changed.

Qingxi said, "Fellow Daoist means that my magical treasure is a Black Artifact and must be destroyed immediately?"

He felt somewhat anxious, as well as slightly disappointed.

Had the Fu Family fallen to the point of swindling others out of their magical treasures? I refuse to believe you cannot see that this is a proper magical treasure.

Heng Hua nodded, then shook his head. "Fellow Daoist, do you know that apart from Black Artifacts, the cultivation world has another class called 'White Artifacts'?"

"And what are those?" Mei Zhongtian was once again the one to ask.

A magical treasure was a magical treasure. Why were there so many messy names?

"Black Artifacts use magical treasures as traps, deceiving cultivators into handing over their true names and souls. White Artifacts, meanwhile, contain the souls of predecessors hidden inside magical treasures, waiting until later cultivators refine them before attempting possession.

"Besides these two, there is also a type called 'Gray Artifacts.' When cultivators refine magical treasures, the true essence left behind by predecessors contaminates their own magical power, causing cultivation deviation or mutation. I once heard an example. A cultivator obtained a flying sword left behind by a predecessor. After refining it, the alien magical power inside the flying sword corroded his entire body, and octopus tentacles grew from his skin."

Besides Black Artifacts, the other two categories were names Heng Hua had made up on the spot. But the examples were not false.

There truly were magical treasures concealing the Primordial Spirits of predecessors, made specifically to possess later generations. There were also magical treasures that had gone wrong during their creation and could affect their holders.

And his deliberate mention of the Eight-Treasure Octopus Divine Swords was intentional as well.

Upon hearing that name, Qingxi's expression changed unpredictably.

"The Eight-Treasure Octopus Divine Swords?" Nie Xing raised his brows. "Do you mean that farce which caused such a tremendous uproar three hundred years ago?"

The Eight-Treasure Octopus Divine Swords had been refined by a sword immortal a thousand years ago.

Three hundred years ago, a cultivator found this set of flying swords in a predecessor's abode. Overjoyed, he did not inspect them and directly refined them with his heart's blood. Only afterward did he discover that the Octopus Divine Swords concealed demonic seeds.

The true nature of this set of flying swords was to allow octopus tentacles to take root within one's body, enabling the user to control eight flying swords against enemies.

Although their power was immense, over time, the user would slowly transform into a half-human, half-demon monster.

But it was already too late. The cultivator could not reverse his refinement of the flying swords. He had become their slave, eight octopus tentacles growing from his back, and even his sanity beginning to blur.

"Correct, the Eight-Treasure Octopus Divine Swords. That set of spirit-artifact flying swords is still kept in my family's possession."

Heng Hua smiled. "Three hundred years ago, that cultivator was controlled by the octopus tentacles and went mad, becoming demonized. My family stepped in to subdue him, took the flying swords away, and allowed him to recover."

"Fellow Daoist, we are discussing my magical treasure. Why bring up those old tales?" Qingxi said impatiently. "What do all those words have to do with my folding fan? Just tell me: what rank of magical treasure is this folding fan? Can it be used?"

"I am warning you that an immortal treasure obtained by chance may not be a good thing, but a disaster that takes your life. The spiritual aura of this magical treasure is restrained. It appears broken and ruined, but it is actually a completely intact spirit artifact.

"Yet this spirit artifact gives off a special strand of divine sense, which clearly means it already has an owner.

"If Fellow Daoist foolishly refines it, your soul may be seized and you may become another person's puppet. You may also be possessed by the remnant soul of some senior expert. Or the alien true essence contained within the folding fan may contaminate your own magical power."

Growing octopus tentacles would count as a fortunate outcome.

Heng Hua had read of a case in an ancient book. A male cultivator had obtained the Violet-Glow Celestial Robe from an ancient immortal's cave abode. In his joy, he put it on. Though it granted defensive power at the immortal-artifact level, the yin-attributed immortal true essence within the robe directly reversed his sex, turning him into a female cultivator.

"Black Artifacts, White Artifacts, Gray Artifacts. Methods of setting traps within magical treasures to harm fellow cultivators are everywhere. If circumstances permit, do not use magical treasures made by outsiders whenever possible—especially objects of unknown origin."

No one wanted to refine a magical treasure left by a predecessor, only to keep refining it until they became someone else's puppet and served as a treasure slave.

"Of course, that does not mean all magical treasures left by predecessors are unusable. If Black Artifacts and White Artifacts can be carefully inspected and properly purified, they may still be used."

At some point, a feather fan had appeared in Heng Hua's hand, and the temperature around them gradually began to rise.

"This magical treasure of yours, Fellow Daoist, should be a spirit artifact refined by someone who deliberately sent it into your hands as a trap. Since that is so, I will do you a favor and purify the divine sense within it for free."

Flames lit up as Heng Hua activated the Mysterious Fire Vermilion-Plume Fan.

Nanquan Divine Fire ignited the air, encircling the Cloudsoaring Fan completely.