Immortality Starts With Investment

Luo Bingling ultimately couldn’t muster the resolve. Raised from childhood in the War God Clan, she prized chastity above all—upholding lifelong fidelity, pouring one’s soul into a single bond. Other things could bend. But this? It cut too deep to dismiss.

Her worldview fueled a deep contempt for the human race as well. The War God Clan didn’t stop at scorning humans, though. Even among the myriad races, they looked down on any race they deemed lesser.

Ye Chen, meanwhile, itched to test the Nine Transformations Heavenly Furnace’s effects. On top of that, Yao Yuezhi had delivered so potently, casting Luo Bingling’s allure into sharper relief by contrast. He had no attention left for her swirling emotions.

Just then, Yao Yuezhi arrived alongside her parents. After a few murmured thanks from them, Ye Chen said he needed rest. They led him to the Heavenly Demon Clan’s cave mansion reserved for esteemed guests.

...

In the quiet chamber, his dual pupils scanned the space, confirming no traces of surveillance. Ye Chen vanished in a flicker, entering his own cave heaven. Spiritual Qi misted thickly through the domain, and high in its vaulted sky, two new immortal artifacts now hung. One was a divine staff, its ends rimmed in purple-gold while its core gleamed inky black. It spanned hundreds of thousands of meters in length and hundreds in width—like a pillar upholding the firmament. Killing intent surged from it in waves, eclipsing the old Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod by orders of magnitude.

Ye Chen needed only to gaze upon it to sense its seamless harmony with the Secret of the Battle. Swapping the Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod for this Sea-Calming Divine Treasure had been an absolute coup. The other artifact was a profound, pitch-black divine furnace. Faint silver patterns danced across its obsidian surface, twisting like galaxies through the night.

The furnace itself towered over a hundred meters, engraved with nine divine silkworms. They evoked the silkworm’s sacred path of metamorphosis. Profound mysteries of heaven and earth pulsed from every inch. It rested on three sturdy legs, anchored in the void, where ethereal flames flickered—as though poised to cleanse all the world’s impurities. This was the Nine Transformations Heavenly Furnace.

Drawn by its singular aura, Ye Chen stepped inside with keen anticipation. The divine fire burned pure and fierce, yet it scorched him not. He settled cross-legged in the inner void and began circulating the Heavenly Emperor Scripture to cultivate.

In the blink of an eye, a full week slipped by.

Ye Chen opened his eyes slowly, a shadow of disappointment crossing them. Just as he had foreseen at the outset, the furnace’s power to refine aptitudes slid right off him. His physique had long outstripped this cultivation world’s bounds; no single immortal artifact could nudge it higher.

Raising the limits on breakthrough gains, however? That much, it could manage. A week immersed in its depths had unveiled deeper layers of the Nine Transformations Heavenly Furnace to him. Its gifts reached beyond personal evolution: it purged every impurity too. A poison’s grip? A plunge inside would burn it clean.

It excelled at forging artifacts and refining pills as well. The metamorphic essence worked miracles there, birthing purer results and loftier grades. In raw destructive force, it fell far short of the Sea-Calming Divine Treasure. Yet in its subtleties, its wonders abounded. For Ye Chen as he stood now, it promised immense value.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

...

A week passed, and the system’s gift cooldown finally lifted. Ye Chen emerged from seclusion accordingly. He had planned to gift something to Luo Bingling, to see what he could coax out of it. But word came that she had entered her own retreat.

Yao Yuezhi, too, remained deep in refining the Qiankun Cauldron. Turning it into her cave heaven’s core would demand at least a full month.

Yao Yuekong rushed over the instant he learned of Ye Chen’s release. He fawned over his brother-in-law with unusual warmth, eager to show Ye Chen around.

Ye Chen pondered briefly, then nodded. The Myriad Races Immortal City teemed with the great houses of the myriad races—essentially the concentrated essence of them all. High-multiplier female prodigies should abound. Along with myriad race-exclusive treasures of every stripe. He might just uncover something suited to him, or perhaps spot an agreeable female cultivator for a casual gift.

...

Yao Yuekong truly felt boundless gratitude toward Ye Chen, accepting him fully. But he knew his brother-in-law’s temperament all too well: a hopeless philanderer. With no women at his side now, the man must be itching.

So, once they left the Heavenly Demon Clan’s outpost, Yao Yuekong leaned in and murmured, ”Brother-in-law, first time in the Myriad Races Immortal City—how about I take you to the Charm Demon Clan’s immortal pavilion? Let me tell you, the women of the Charm Demon Clan wield endless allure, their arts beyond imagination. And they gain strength from entertaining guests. So no worries about them turning down a human like you. I carry some pull here—I’ll hook you up with the best. Word is their princess is around too; her favored guests are all peerless prodigies, and they rave about it afterward...”

Ye Chen eyed the burly man with utter disbelief. Was this any place for a brother-in-law to drag his sister’s beau? Utterly ridiculous.

Ye Chen held little interest in those zero-multiplier private rides anyway. Take Fan Qinghe’s master, for instance—without her aid in digesting his cultivation, she wouldn’t even get a nibble. As for a bona fide public coach like the Charm Demon princess? Even less appeal.

Ye Chen had never fancied turning public into private. He waved off Yao Yuekong’s suggestion and simply wandered the Myriad Races Immortal City at leisure with him.

...

Female cultivators dotted the streets in numbers, but their multipliers ran low. Likely because it was broad daylight—most serious ones stayed in cultivation, leaving only the dregs to stroll about. They passed shops too, but treasures useful to Mahayana experts proved scarce, failing to stir Ye Chen’s buying itch.

Ye Chen himself drew stares wherever he went. After all, the Heavenly Emperor’s heir arriving in the Myriad Races Immortal City wasn’t some secret. Thanks to the Emperor, the myriad races had been forced to relinquish Central Continent, herded into the frigid wilds of the Northern Domain. So even races untouched by the Emperor’s purges harbored no fondness for his heir. Cold glances raked him, some muttering slurs behind his back. A few female cultivators, peering down from the second floor of an immortal pavilion, whispered among themselves.

”This Ye Chen—word is he’s a total womanizer, loves toying with them...”

”The Heavenly Emperor was no saint back in the day. Like father, like son!”

”That Yao Yuezhi and Luo Bingling—they’re a disgrace, throwing themselves at some lowly human.”

”He looks the part of a gentleman, but he’s filthy through and through. All humans are like that...”

”I despise men like him!”

”Me too. I’d sooner die than end up with one. Can’t fathom how Luo Bingling and Yao Yuezhi stomach it.”

The women gossiped freely, their scorn for Ye Chen plain.

Ye Chen, meanwhile, listened as Yao Yuekong described the Myriad Races Immortal City’s upcoming auction. His eyes lit up. For him, auctions were pure stock-up ops—he adored these high-end gatherings! He mulled staying longer to join in. His gaze drifted casually to the second floor, and his brows arched faintly...

A system prompt chimed in his mind.

”A three-thousand-fold? Close enough—time for a casual toss.”

Ye Chen’s lips curved in a faint smile at the notification. These days, three-thousand-fold female cultivators barely registered on his radar. But they could fill a gap just fine. With that, he turned and headed up to the second floor!