Burial Furnace

"Why would you think that?" Zhang Yuan asked, taken aback.

"Because I remember now, the Heaven-Deceiving Sword is the invincible ultimate move of the ancient Sword Master Jian Wudi!" Liu Ruxue exclaimed excitedly. "This sword technique has been lost for countless years, and no one has ever been able to comprehend it. But you comprehended it, and even taught it to me. You wouldn't happen to be the Sword Master descended to earth, or perhaps the Yin-Yang Ancestor descended to earth, would you?"

Zhang Yuan was both amused and exasperated: "No, it's really not. I'm just an old man, maybe I'm a late bloomer. You saw it yourself, I only had three days left to live."

Liu Ruxue looked at him, remained silent for a moment, then nodded, her eyes filled with pride: "Yes, my man is different. Old man, I love you."

Before we knew it, it was already dawn.

The two returned to the counter and found Xie Yunshang sitting behind it, resting her chin on her hand and yawning listlessly.

Seeing the two approaching, she tossed a small cloth bag to Zhang Yuan with annoyance. The bag jingled as it was filled with coins: "This is what I earned last night, ten mid-grade spirit stones."

Zhang Yuan accepted it and said gratefully, "Thank you, Senior Sister."

Xie Yunshang snorted but didn't say anything.

Liu Ruxue tiptoed and whispered in Zhang Yuan's ear, "Old man, you should cultivate diligently and wait for me to return. I will definitely find you the Foundation Establishment Pill."

A warm feeling welled up in Zhang Yuan's heart, and he nodded: "You should be careful too."

"Don't worry." Liu Ruxue smiled sweetly, then took Xie Yunshang's hand and walked out of the crematorium.

They bought some equipment, then leaped onto the peacock's back. The peacock let out a clear cry, spread its wings, and soared into the sky, flying towards the direction of the Sunset Mountain Range.

It quickly disappeared into the horizon.

……

Liu Ruxue and Xie Yunshang left.

Zhang Yuan returned to his cultivation chamber, sat cross-legged, and took out the half of a high-grade spirit stone from his Shadowless Ring, holding it in his palm.

The spiritual energy in the spirit stone had been mostly used up during the previous days of cultivation, and the remaining part was showing signs of dissipation.

He closed his eyes, circulated the Evergreen Technique, and extracted the remaining spiritual energy from the spirit stone bit by bit, channeling it into his meridians and into his dantian.

About half an hour later, the half of the high-grade spirit stone finally exhausted its last bit of spiritual energy, turning into a pinch of fine powder that fell softly from between his fingers.

Zhang Yuan continued to cultivate using high-grade and mid-grade spirit stones.

Time slips away quietly.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Business at the crematorium was lukewarm for the past three days.

Several orders come in every day, and most of the corpses that are cremated are Qi Refining stage, with the occasional Foundation Establishment stage corpse.

Their income was only a few low-grade spirit stones or a few mid-grade spirit stones, not even enough to scrape together a single high-grade spirit stone.

This amount of spirit stones is far from enough for his cultivation.

The spirit stones he stored in the Shadowless Ring were being consumed little by little.

However, he remained calm.

Because he possesses the Immortal Transformation Furnace.

After each corpse is burned, primordial power flows into his body, prolonging his lifespan and enhancing his talents.

As long as he continues to burn corpses, he has an unlimited amount of time to cultivate.

Spirit stones can be earned back, but improvements in lifespan and talent cannot be bought with any amount of spirit stones.

That night, he sat behind the counter until late at night, but didn't make a single sale.

Just then, the door was pushed open.

It was Duan Tian who came in.

He strode to the counter and whispered, "Senior, something's happened."

"What is it?" Zhang Yuan's heart skipped a beat.

"The cremation talismans at the Spirit Talisman Pavilion have been reduced in price," Duan Tian said. "Low-grade cremation talismans are only two low-grade spirit stones; mid-grade cremation talismans are only two mid-grade spirit stones; and high-grade cremation talismans are only two high-grade spirit stones."

Zhang Yuan was stunned.

That's the same price as his crematorium.

Of course, cultivators would be willing to buy cremation talismans because they are easy to carry and can be cremated anywhere without having to bring the body to the crematorium.

No wonder there hasn't been a single customer tonight.

This is a price war!

Lingfu Pavilion is wealthy and powerful; if they lose money on cremation talismans, they can make up for it from the profits of other talismans.

But he was different; he only had the crematorium business.

If prices are lowered accordingly, profits will shrink significantly, or even result in losses.

If we don't lower our prices, we won't get any business.

This move can only be described as ruthless.

Zhang Yuan was silent for a moment, then asked, "Did anyone take advantage of the situation to buy up large quantities of cremation talismans and resell them elsewhere?"

"They have restrictions," Duan Tiandao said. "Each person can only buy a maximum of three tickets per month."

Zhang Yuan frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, stood up, and walked out.

He picked up a pen and wrote a line on the blackboard—

Starting today, a huge sale is on sale: all cremations are half price.

Duan Tian followed him out, and upon seeing the words, he gasped, "Senior, aren't you going to lose money doing this?"

"So what if I lose money?" Zhang Yuan gritted his teeth, feigning a defiant look. "I need to get my revenge."

"Senior, you're so powerful, why don't you just rush over and kill him with one slap?" Duan Tian asked, puzzled.

Zhang Yuan's lips twitched.

If I were truly a Mahayana cultivator, I would have slapped that bastard to death long ago.

He could only explain seriously, "This is business; it's about fair competition. Solving problems with force is not the way of a righteous person."

"Senior, you are truly a person of noble character, which I greatly admire." Duan Tian said with deep respect.

After taking his leave, he went straight to Qianli Tea Fragrance and spread the news with embellishments.

"Did you know? Crematorium prices have dropped! They've been cut in half! We're in for a treat!"

Upon hearing this, many cultivators were overjoyed.

"That's great! We can save a lot of spirit stones now!"

Because of the half-price offer, although there were no orders that night, the crematorium became very busy the following night.

Over the course of the night, the bodies of five Foundation Establishment cultivators and more than a dozen Qi Refining cultivators were cremated.

Although it's only half price, the sheer volume makes it a considerable income.

More importantly, the primal power from those dozen or so corpses significantly increased Zhang Yuan's lifespan and enhanced his talent.

Meanwhile, at the Spirit Talisman Pavilion, the cremation talismans were no longer selling.

"Heh, half price, let's see how long you can hold out." Zhou Lie stood in front of the Spirit Talisman Pavilion, a smug grin on his face.

He concluded that Zhang Yuan had fallen into the trap.

He deliberately lowered the price in order to force Zhang Yuan to lower the price as well.

Zhang Yuan's business is doing well, so he can't sell his cremation talismans. But if they can't be sold, there's no loss; they're just sitting in the warehouse.

Once Zhang Yuan's crematorium goes out of business and closes down, his cremation talismans can naturally be sold at their original price.

It's another daytime.

Zhang Yuan sat in the cultivation chamber, holding a mid-grade spirit stone in his hand, circulating the "Evergreen Technique" and slowly absorbing its spiritual energy.

The high-grade spirit stones have all been used up, and now only mid-grade spirit stones can be used for cultivation, so the speed is naturally much slower.

Fortunately, as his talent continued to improve, his cultivation speed also gradually increased, barely making up for the losses caused by the decline in the quality of the spirit stones.

He was immersed in this slow and steady state of cultivation, and the true essence in his dantian gradually increased.

Suddenly, he encountered an invisible barrier.

The barrier, like a transparent wall, stretched across the dantian, preventing the further increase of true essence.

Whenever the true essence tries to break through that barrier, it is bounced back by an invisible force.

This is the bottleneck at the fifth level of Qi Refining!