Burial Furnace

As soon as the dry firewood fell into the stove, it burst into flames with a "whoosh," the orange-red flames leaping and emitting a warm glow.

This stove can be lit without a fire.

Zhang Yuan once suspected that the furnace was a magical artifact crafted by a cultivator, but after studying it for a long time, he found no other use for it.

Apart from being able to ignite itself, it is no different from an ordinary stove.

The flames burned brightly, casting a warm light on Zhang Yuan's face.

He felt much better and felt like he could live a few more days.

however--

The door was pushed open again.

Silent and still, without footsteps or breathing.

But Zhang Yuan knew someone had come in.

He slowly turned his head and, by the firelight, saw the face of the person who had just arrived.

He was a middle-aged man, wearing a blue Taoist robe, with a stern face and indifferent eyes.

He had a long sword hanging at his waist.

It was none other than the cultivator who had taken Lin Qingxue away sixty years ago.

Sixty years have passed.

He is still so young, seemingly even younger than he was sixty years ago.

His cultivation was unfathomable; just by standing there, he gave Zhang Yuan a suffocating feeling as if a mountain was pressing down on him.

"It's you?" Zhang Yuan's eyes widened, his voice trembling with anger. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to see if you're dead yet," the man in blue said calmly, as if discussing the weather. "If you're not dead, then I'll send you on your way."

"Why?" Zhang Yuan roared, his withered hands clenched into fists. "I'm already a dying man! Can't I just die peacefully?"

"Your wife—now a rising star of the Heavenly Gate—is about to get engaged, but you are still her husband in name only," the man in blue said expressionlessly. "Therefore, you must die. Once you are dead, she will be free."

"A prodigy? Her talent is actually that good?"

"Did she want me dead?"

Zhang Yuan's voice trembled; he was surprised, shocked, and incredulous.

Lin Qingxue became a prodigy of the Heavenly Gate and was about to get engaged, but she actually wanted to kill her former husband.

Is it really that cruel?

Don't they have any feelings for each other at all?

The man in blue did not answer, but slowly drew his sword.

"I hate it so much..." Zhang Yuan knew his opponent was about to kill him, and tears welled up in his eyes. A surge of overwhelming grief and anger welled up in his heart. "Unfortunately, I have no power to take revenge..."

"May you be reborn into a better family in your next life."

After the man in blue finished speaking, he thrust out his sword.

The sword flashed like lightning, instantly piercing Zhang Yuan's heart.

Fresh blood gushed out, splashing onto the stove with a sizzling sound.

Zhang Yuan swayed, fell forward, and his head hit the edge of the stove hard, whereupon he lay motionless.

The immortal in green approached, and after confirming that he had stopped breathing and was completely dead, he sheathed his sword, turned around and left, disappearing without a trace.

Inside the wooden house, only the broken stove remained, still burning quietly.

"puff--"

The flames in the furnace seemed to be stimulated by something, and suddenly surged up, instantly engulfing Zhang Yuan's entire body!

In the blazing firelight, Zhang Yuan's consciousness was completely plunged into darkness.

"Uh, did I... get cremated in the furnace? They didn't even need a coffin? Did I prepare a coffin for nothing?"

This was the last thought that flashed through his mind.

Then, everything fell silent.

The flames are still burning.

Strangely, although the flames were intense, they did not burn down the wooden house, nor did they ignite the dry grass and firewood on the ground.

It was like a living entity, gently enveloping Zhang Yuan's corpse and seeping in little by little.

I don't know how much time passed.

Zhang Yuan suddenly opened his eyes and found himself lying on the ground. Above him was a low roof, and through the hole, he could see the dark night sky outside.

"I'm not dead?"

Zhang Yuan was stunned for a moment, then slowly sat up.

He looked down at his hands—still dry, still covered with wrinkles and age spots.

He was still that eighty-year-old man whose days were numbered.

But he did come back to life.

The wound on my chest has completely healed, without even a scar.

Moreover, he inexplicably felt a furnace appear in his dantian—it was the broken furnace passed down in his family!

The furnace slowly rotated in his dantian, and with each rotation, a wisp of warm energy emanated and merged into his body.

His long-depleted vital energy is recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"What... what's going on?"

Zhang Yuan was completely bewildered and quickly tried to communicate with the furnace.

The moment his consciousness touched the furnace wall, a message flooded into his mind.

The furnace is indeed a treasure, with an awesome name—the Immortal Transformation Furnace.

Incredible functionality:

one,

May the master's vital energy never run dry, so that he can handle any number of women with ease.

two,

It can burn everything; anything thrown into the furnace will turn to ashes.

Burning objects related to cultivation, such as the corpses of cultivators or immortals, the corpses of demonic beasts, magical artifacts, spiritual artifacts, and even immortal artifacts, has one thing in common: these objects are very difficult to decompose. After burning, they will be transformed into primordial power, with 90% of the primordial power returning to heaven and earth, and 1% being fed back to the furnace master.

As for ordinary objects, regardless of whether they are easy to rot or not, burning them will not return any original essence.

The power of origin has two uses:

1. Increase lifespan.

2. Enhance your talents.

"Holy crap... Is that old, broken family heirloom stove really a treasure? And with such incredible capabilities?"

Zhang Yuan was dumbfounded and utterly shocked.

He traveled through eighty years, lived a cowardly life for eighty years, was killed to silence him, yet he was able to come back to life and refine such a heaven-defying treasure.

Immediately, a surge of intense joy welled up within him.

He had lived for eighty years and had long since become indifferent to life and death.

But when death truly approached, he realized how unwilling he was to accept it.

He still has grudges to settle, debts to collect, and far too many things to do.

He didn't want to die a pathetic death in this dilapidated wooden hut, becoming a pile of bones that no one would care about.

"Let's see if it's true."

With a thought, Zhang Yuan sent the furnace flying out of his dantian and landing on the ground.

Looking around, his gaze fell on an iron axe in the corner.

This axe was for chopping firewood; it was just ordinary iron, and after more than ten years of use, the blade had become dull.

He grabbed the axe and threw it into the furnace without hesitation.

"boom--"

Instantly, a blazing fire erupted in the furnace!

It has a strange dark gold color, which is completely different from the orange-red color when the wood was burned before.

Flames enveloped the axe.

In the blink of an eye, the axe melted, vaporized, and vanished completely into nothingness.

Almost simultaneously, a wisp of extremely subtle, almost imperceptible primordial power drifted out from the furnace, entered Zhang Yuan's body, and merged into every cell of his body.

His long-depleted meridians suddenly felt a long-lost warmth at this moment.

The chill that seeped from the depths of my bones seemed to lessen by a tiny bit.

He inexplicably felt that he could take a few more breaths and live for a few more seconds.

"The furnace is indeed amazing; even the axe instantly turned into nothingness. And the power of origin... it really can increase lifespan and enhance talent."

Zhang Yuan was overjoyed.

However, after the initial attraction came despair.

Perhaps because he had refined the furnace, he sensed that his time was up in three days.

"Three days...only three days left..."

Zhang Yuan muttered to himself, the light in his eyes dimming slightly.

He needs more primal energy to prolong his life.

That would require burning treasures related to cultivation.

But he's just an old mortal who hasn't even touched the threshold of cultivation. Where is he supposed to get the treasures of cultivators?

He instinctively looked around and suddenly saw the jade pendant that Liu Ruxue had given him, which was now lying at his feet.

"Could this jade pendant... be a magical artifact?"

Zhang Yuan's eyes lit up instantly.

Liu Ruxue is the Holy Maiden of the Holy Maiden Sect and a genius with a Heavenly Spiritual Root. How could the jade pendant she carries with her be an ordinary object?

So he picked up the jade pendant and threw it expectantly into the stove.