Treasure Gathering Immortal Furnace

At that moment, a boy of about thirteen or fourteen years old, dressed in a coarse gray shirt and looking rather dull, walked over to the cave.

The boy seemed to be about the same age as Lu Fan back then, but Lu Fan was already seventeen years old at this moment.

The boy walked to the entrance of the cave and pulled hard on the wooden switch.

Rumble.

As the boy pulled the wooden lever, the stone door, which had been sealed for three and a half years, slowly opened.

"Cough cough! Ugh! Why does this stink so bad!" As soon as the stone door opened, an extremely pungent stench swept in from the cave, and the boy quickly covered his mouth and nose, gagging.

"Could it be that my senior brother has passed away and is stinking?" The boy waved his hand over his mouth and nose, and it took him a long time to recover from the overwhelming stench.

The boy then lit a torch, covered his mouth and nose, and then mustered his courage to go inside.

Upon entering, one sees a mound of earth rising in the corner of the cave, and the stench is emanating from it.

This is clearly a small mountain of shit!

"What's going on?!" The boy was clearly stunned.

"Phew, it's been three and a half years. I can finally breathe some fresh air again." As Lu Fan stepped out of the shadows, he felt refreshed and invigorated by the long-lost fresh air.

Upon seeing Lu Chuan emerge, the young man was so frightened that he immediately knelt on the ground: "Senior! I was ordered by my martial uncle to come here to collect the body. I was unaware that my senior brother was still in seclusion. Please forgive me!"

Lu Fan looked at the boy lying in front of him and probed him with his divine sense. He found that the other party was a low-level cultivator at the first level of Qi Refining and should have just joined the Dao Sect not long ago.

But then Lu Fan was completely bewildered. Had the sect only just realized he had been missing for three and a half years? Had they found another minor cultivator to take over the job of collecting his body?

Moreover, Lu Fan discovered that the boy possessed a mixed spiritual root of the five elements.

"Get up. What's your name?" Lu Fan walked up to the boy and asked.

As the boy saw Lu Fan approaching, he instinctively shrank back, clearly overwhelmed by Lu Fan's well-infused "body fragrance".

The young man then stood up tremblingly: "Disciple Li Niu, nickname Er Gouzi, senior can just call me Er Gou."

"Don't call me senior. My name is Lu Fan, and I'm only at the third level of Qi Refining. I'm not much higher than you," Lu Fan smiled. He had already used a Qi Concealing Jade Talisman to suppress his cultivation to the third level of Qi Refining.

"So you're Senior Brother Lu. How long have you been trapped here?" Li Niu breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Lu Fan was also at the Qi Refining stage.

"Huh? From what you're saying, you know me?" Lu Fan was taken aback.

"I've only been at the Dao Sect for three months. I heard that the previous corpse collector stole Senior Brother's storage bag and ran away. It turns out that Senior Brother Lu didn't escape; he's trapped here," Li Niu said slowly.

Upon hearing this, Lu Fan immediately became angry. What did he mean by stealing his senior brother's storage bag?

Yan Ruyu snatched the storage bag from him. What a terrible thing she did! She took the storage bag that he was supposed to hand over, but instead of letting him go out to explain, she made him suffer an injustice for nothing.

If the sect wrongly accuses him, it's a capital offense!

In the Dao Sect, if Lu Fan took the initiative to apologize to Steward Ma and said that his storage bag had been stolen, Steward Ma would probably just give him a few lashes and let it go.

But if you disappear without explanation, once you're caught, it won't just be a few lashes, it'll be a real death sentence!

"It seems I have to go and explain to Steward Ma," Lu Fan said, somewhat helplessly.

Logically speaking, Lu Fan, who possesses the miraculous pill furnace, could have left the Dao Sect and found a place to hide and cultivate slowly.

But Lu Fan couldn't do it, because the entire Dao Sect mountain was shrouded in restrictions. Without a token bestowed by a steward or elder, he would have no chance of escaping, even with his Qi Refining Level 10 cultivation.

Even digging a dog hole to get out is impossible, because the restriction has a sensing function; once a passage is dug, it will immediately attract the attention of the elders.

"Senior brother, why don't you go find Steward Ma? I'll clean this cave for you," Li Niu hurriedly bowed, displaying his obsequiousness.

Don't be fooled by Lu Fan's current performance of only being at the third level of Qi Refining. For Li Niu, this is already quite high. He probably suffered a lot of bullying when he first came to the Dao Sect.

Therefore, they treated Lu Fan with utmost respect, which was also the way the sect survived.

Because cultivation level determines status, and in the entire cultivation world, the rules are strict to an outrageous degree.

Wasn't Lu Fan the same way back then?

"Then I'll have to trouble you, junior brother," Lu Fan said, bowing slightly.

"You're too kind. Now that Senior Brother is back, Junior Brother will have someone to keep him company when collecting corpses," Li Niu smiled, then took out a hoe and, undeterred by the stench, went to help Lu Fan clean the cave.

Lu Fan then limped away, after all, he had to keep up the act and couldn't lose his crippled persona.

However, he did not go directly to Steward Ma. Instead, he found a secluded place and put his storage bag into a tree hole, since he was not strong enough to protect it at his current level.

Especially those senior brothers and sisters who often bully him, once they search his storage bag, they'll make sure to rob him of everything.

Afterwards, Lu Fan walked to a waterfall, stood under it, and took a good shower.

After all, the "body fragrance" accumulated on his body over three and a half years could stretch for miles. If he didn't wash it off properly, he would definitely get a beating if he went to the outer sect.

After washing away the dirt and "body fragrance" from his body, Lu Fan activated his spiritual energy to dry his clothes before setting off.

Walking along the forest path leading to the outer sect's deacon hall, Lu Fan was also pondering his words.

If, without wanting to offend Yan Ruyu, one were to say that the storage bag was lost, Steward Ma probably wouldn't believe it at all.

After all, he's an old monster who's lived for over a hundred years; he's not stupid.

Therefore, Lu Fan decided to tell the truth. Even if he offended Yan Ruyu, he was not afraid now. With spiritual energy protecting him, Yan Ruyu could never kill him.

When Lu Fan walked out of the forest and looked up, he saw a magnificent hall standing on a majestic mountain, surrounded by a cluster of buildings. That was the inner sect of the Dao Sect.

Halfway down the mountain from the inner gate, there is also a row of buildings, which is where the outer gate is located.

The Dao Sect is divided into an outer sect and an inner sect. The outer sect is jointly managed by three Foundation Establishment deacons and a Golden Core sect leader. The Foundation Establishment deacons are Deacon Ma, Deacon Wang, and Deacon Zhang. Lu Fan is under Deacon Ma. As for the Golden Core sect leader, Lu Fan has never met him.

The steward surnamed Wang was the female cultivator who had guided Lu Fan into the sect, but she was either in seclusion or out seeking opportunities, essentially a hands-off manager.

The inner sect consists of three peaks: Moonflower Peak, Little Spirit Peak, and Jade Peak, each with a Golden Core elder in charge.

Besides these Golden Core elders, the inner sect also has three Nascent Soul early-stage Supreme Elders. However, it is said that these three Nascent Soul Supreme Elders have not shown their faces for over a hundred years, and there are even rumors that two of them have passed away. As for the truth of this, Lu Fan has no idea, since these are things that an outer sect disciple with mixed spiritual roots cannot possibly know.

As Lu Fan limped to the outer gate, he took a deep breath and then braced himself to go inside.

Upon entering the Hall of Deacons, Lu Fan saw from a distance that Deacon Ma was disciplining a disciple kneeling on the ground with a whip, which sent a chill down his spine.