The Journey of Immortal Cultivation

Chapter 959 - 526: Treasure Bowl (Part 2)

The chain was tightly wound, and the spikes were sharp, causing waves of pain on her skin. The witch’s face showed a look of fear, not daring to move a muscle.

"This is the silver hinge ring." Ning Xiaoxian sat down, lifted the large sea bowl on the table, and carefully examined it, "Every time you tell a lie, it will tighten once. Based on the strength of your skin and bones, just three times would be enough to completely cut off your head. Hmm, I’d advise you to cherish these three chances."

She pushed the sea bowl in front of the witch: "Now tell me, what exactly is this thing?"

There was still some reluctance in the witch’s eyes, but the silver hinge ring emitted a subtle slithering sound, and a sharp spike suddenly protruded, pricking her neck and immediately drawing a drop of blood.

Knowing that this thing could truly take her life, she hurriedly spoke up, not daring to hesitate any longer.

After hearing the name of the item on the table, even with Ning Xiaoxian’s current mental state, she couldn’t help but widen her eyes. She had no choice; the name of this item was legendary in Huaxia. It was called:

Treasure Bowl!

The legend she heard came from Zhou Renlong’s "Lantern Collection of Oddities," which in turn related to a story about the great wealthy man of the early Ming dynasty, Shen Wansan. It was said that when he was still a poor man, he bought over a hundred frogs from a fisherman and released them into a pond. The green-skinned creatures croaked incessantly throughout the night, and early the next morning, Mr. Shen, with dark circles under his eyes, went to drive them away, only to find the frogs all crouching by an earthen bowl. Shen Wansan found this strange but didn’t think much of it, using the bowl to hold water for washing hands instead.

Then one day, his wife accidentally dropped a silver hairpin into the bowl, and suddenly, "the hairpins multiplied unabated," filling the bowl. When Shen Wansan found out, he was amazed and tried it with real gold and silver, and to his surprise, it also yielded a full heap of wealth. It was with the aid of the Treasure Bowl that Shen Wansan was subsequently able to amass a fortune that towered over the land.

The legend of the Treasure Bowl became wildly popular because it was supposedly said that if you put in one tael of gold, the next day you would have a bowl full of it. Similarly, if you put in a Luminous Pearl, you would receive a bowl full of those precious pearls. A treasure sought after by all under the heavens! With it, one would have mountains of gold and seas of silver, never needing to work again, able to eat the most exquisite dishes, live in the most luxurious estates, ride the finest steeds, and hold the most dazzling beauties. If one had even a bit of ambition, perhaps this treasure could be used to assemble a powerful army to compete for the world!

However, after listening to the witch’s explanation, she realized that the previous sentiments were sheer imagination. The Treasure Bowl was merely a magic artifact with a significant limitation: it couldn’t duplicate life forms. It couldn’t replicate advanced items like human and animal bodies, not even plants, objects that once held life. Moreover, high-level magical artifacts couldn’t be replicated due to their inherent spiritual essence.

Life is the domain of the creator. Therefore, the function of the Treasure Bowl could be summarized as "gathering" various metals, jewels, Spirit Stones, and elixirs.

If that was all, the Treasure Bowl would still be an incredibly hot commodity, but unfortunately, it came with a condition for usage. To produce treasures, the user needed to infuse it with the corresponding Life Essence. For instance, if the witch wanted to replicate a Lifespan Extension Pill, she needed to provide the essence blood of eight or nine people. In this respect, generating treasure with the bowl wasn’t cost-effective since, by the recipe for a Lifespan Extension Pill, it only required the life force of forty years of a mortal life to refine, whereas the Treasure Bowl greedily demanded seven or eight times the reward to produce a single pill.

Therefore, unless it was to produce an extremely valuable item, using the Treasure Bowl might be more of a drain than a gain. Ning Xiaoxian sighed softly; indeed there was no free lunch in this world. The so-called Treasure Bowl would certainly not provide wealth without recompense. However, it remained quite useful; not to mention, metals like cloud pattern steel and thousand-woven silk were always rare commodities. Incorporating a small amount into an artifact during refinement significantly elevated the final product’s quality. If the bowl could spur the production of such precious metals, provided one could pay the high price it demanded, it could certainly serve urgent needs.

To conjure just a single Lifespan Extension Pill required the lives of many. She could hardly imagine how many lives would be needed to produce a Nine-Turned Rebirth Lotus Spirit Pill with the Treasure Bowl! Yet if cultivators knew of the existence of such an item in the world, they would probably shamelessly seize it by force, for creating a Nine-Turned Rebirth Lotus meant the hope for successfully Crossing Tribulation.

She took a deep breath: "Alright. Second question, where did you get this bowl from?"

"I stole it from my master." The witch answered quickly this time, her eyes flickering as she said, "My master is an expert from the King Jinghai Mansion!"

Ning Xiaoxian was slightly taken aback but not surprised that it had connections to the King Jinghai Mansion: "You are just a mortal, yet you had the guts to steal something from him?"

The witch smiled bitterly: "Either way, I’m a dying person; bravery is always peculiar in those on the brink of death."

Ning Xiaoxian studied her complexion carefully, somewhat understanding, and then reached out to check her pulse, releasing Divine Power throughout her body, then realizing: "I see, no wonder your face is so dark, your physique so depleted; it turns out your Life Origin has been exhausted. In less than half a month, you’ll be dead."

There was truly no such thing as "dying without illness" in this world; it’s merely that the organs deteriorate to a point where they can no longer sustain the human body’s consumption, and thus life fades away. Whether it be Fu Yunzhang’s mortal relative Ling Fengnan, or the witch in front of her, both had bodies so weakened, their life nearly at an end. (To be continued. If you enjoyed this work, please visit qidian.com to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)