Immortality Starts With Investment

”I’m accepting your gifts, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to become your dao companion…”

Hearing his fiancée’s little inequality, Ye Chen couldn’t help but grin. If any other woman had said that, most men would have blown a fuse. But with Yi Qingwu, you just had to listen to the opposite of what she said. The next moment, her pretty face flushed crimson. She glared at him furiously.

”Why are you vibrating the marks?! Don’t even think about using that to force me into submission!”

Ye Chen: ”…”

I didn’t vibrate anything?

Yi Qingwu didn’t give him a chance to explain. She gathered her long, flowing hair like cascading water and tied it up, then spoke coldly: ”I’m going into seclusion next. So even if you threaten me with a recording stone, this is the only time! If you dare push your luck again, we’ll both perish together!”

With that, she lowered her head in grim determination.

Ye Chen: ”…”

Soon enough, though, his mouth was silenced too. He couldn’t get another word out.

...

Half a day later.

The two made a quick visit to the Heavenly Intention Holy Hall. Afterward, Yi Qingwu returned to her cave abode without the slightest hesitation and began her seclusion.

Ye Chen was a little surprised. Given how dramatically she had just performed, he’d half-expected her to keep up the act for ten days or half a month at least.

Yet she left just like that. What he didn’t know was that his fiancée was simply in a hurry. She wanted to fully cultivate the Indestructible Heavenly Art as soon as possible, so she could nurture the divine embryo inside her body. Once it matured and broke free, she would become an entirely new version of herself.

That way she could refine her avatar sooner—and finally stop torturing herself like this. The mere thought of lying there in the future filled her with motivation.

Meanwhile, Ye Chen prepared to leave as well. His fiancée would be in seclusion for at least a year. There was no reason for him to wait here. Better to go check on Senior An.

When word spread that Ye Chen was departing, the entire Heavenly Intention Holy Land felt deep reluctance to see him go. The Heavenly Intention Holy Master personally escorted him.

At the mountain gate, the Holy Master clapped a hand on Ye Chen’s shoulder.

”As for the Dao companion matter, you and Qingwu can discuss it yourselves! The gifts you gave—we at Heavenly Intention Holy Land won’t interfere in the slightest. They all belong to Qingwu. But since you presented her with such extraordinarily valuable gifts, we can’t possibly send you away empty-handed.

”For generations, Heavenly Intention Holy Land has nurtured young Chongming Birds, all carrying the bloodline of the divine beast Chongming Bird. In our treasury, we still preserve some ancient azure luan feathers and golden crow feathers.

”In the coming days, I’ll instruct the elders to use heaven-grade silkworm silk spun by a Harmonious Dao Realm divine silkworm as the base thread, combined with azure luan feathers and golden crow feathers as the primary materials… along with a large quantity of young Chongming Bird plumage. They will craft, with utmost care, a quilt for you—an immortal blanket at the level of a low-grade Extreme Dao weapon…”

”…”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Ye Chen’s brow arched at the words. An Extreme Dao weapon-level blanket? Now that was something. Heavenly Intention Holy Land really knew how to reciprocate properly.

After a few more casual words, Ye Chen boarded his personal flying vessel and drifted away into the distance. But once he was seated on the ship, after chatting idly with Feng Baiyu for a while, Ye Chen suddenly stood up straight, realization dawning. He had given his fiancée so many lavish gifts. And in return, Heavenly Intention Holy Land was giving him… one blanket?

Atop an isolated peak that pierced the clouds. A woman stood there, clad in flowing white robes, her features exquisitely refined and peerlessly beautiful, as if she had stepped out of a painting of celestial perfection. Her white dress fluttered in the wind, giving the impression that she might ascend with the next gust and vanish into the heavens. Her face was breathtaking, yet her expression carried a chilling indifference.

Not coldness, not cruelty—simply utter detachment. It was as though nothing in the world could touch her, as if the collapse of the sky or the crumbling of the earth would not stir the slightest ripple in her heart. Before her lay a purple-robed Daoist, crumpled on the summit’s stone surface. Blood stained his robes, and his entire body radiated profound weakness.

Yet the holy might leaking from him made one thing unmistakable: This was a Saint. A Saint of the early Fifth Heaven.

At this moment, incredulity filled the Saint’s eyes. He had long known this era was a golden age, teeming with monstrous prodigies.

The Heavenly Emperor’s heir, Lan Nuo, and others possessed the terrifying ability to slay across realms. But he never imagined that this nameless woman before him could be so outrageously powerful. She was merely at the peak of Half-Saint.

Yet he—a Saint—had been utterly helpless against her. The moment she found him, within only a few breaths, he had been completely suppressed.

The woman spoke in flat, emotionless tones: ”Tell me the location of the secret realm discovered by Violet Radiance Holy Land.”

The purple-robed Saint’s face twisted with extreme bitterness. It felt exhilarating when prodigies leaped realms to battle. But being the one surpassed? That was pure agony.

Damn it—he had only recently broken through to the Saint realm. If given a little more time, he might one day stand as her equal. And how in the world had she learned that his sect had unearthed a Dao-Entrust Treasure in the Fourth Realm?

Such a treasure was priceless—how could they possibly…

While he hesitated, the woman slowly raised her right hand. Her slender jade finger gleamed like carved alabaster. A nearly tangible, radiant divine sword materialized in her grasp. The sword stretched instantly. Its piercing tip, capable of shredding through anything, hovered a breath away from puncturing the Violet Radiance Saint’s brow. The aura it exuded suggested it could annihilate not only the body but the nascent soul along with it.

The Saint shuddered violently, hesitation evaporating in an instant.

”The secret realm lies in the northern domain of the Fourth Realm. Here is the precise location!”

In his panic, fearing she might still be dissatisfied, he conjured a spell that formed a dao map in the air, clearly marking the spot. The woman gave a slight nod. Yet the divine sword did not pause. It drove straight through the Saint’s skull.

Saints possessed astonishing vitality—immensely difficult to kill. But with a single thrust, the man before her perished instantly.

”The Supreme Scripture states that if a semi-saint obtains a Dao-Entrust Treasure, they can embark on the path of the Great Dao toward sainthood. It is the seed of future transcendence, the single most crucial step. I am destined to stand at the pinnacle in the days to come—how could I ever submit beneath the Heavenly Dao?”

She had slain a Saint, yet her face remained expressionless, no trace of killing intent leaking outward. Only that profound, unshakable indifference.

But at that moment, a figure arrived drifting through the air, a golden wheel crowning his head like a divine halo. It was Hua Yunfei, the foremost Holy Son of Heavenly Evolution Holy Land.

Hua Yunfei gazed at her, his expression extraordinarily complicated. He had always cared deeply for this junior sister, watching over her most of the time. Whenever she fought, he had unhesitatingly stood on her side. But lately she had grown increasingly unfamiliar. With each passing day, it felt as though another piece of her original self was slipping away.

”Junior Sister, during this time, I’ve sought out a certain dharma. Try circulating it—perhaps it will help you rediscover the you of before!”

The woman halted and regarded him calmly.

”I am who I am. The me of the past was me, and the me of now is still me. I have only ever been improving. Why speak of ’rediscover’ the former self? I am heading to the Fourth Realm next to prepare for my ascension to Sainthood. Your clone has already become a Saint—there is no need for you to follow me any longer.”

Hua Yunfei’s face contorted with extreme pain. He feared that if things continued this way, Dantai Xuan would truly never return to who she once was. The helplessness of watching his junior sister slowly being replaced by someone else—it tore at him unbearably. Behind him, the divine wheel trembled. Without another word, Hua Yunfei stepped forward to block Dantai Xuan’s path.