Immortal Treasures

Immortal Treasures is an urban supernatural novel by the Qidian author Zhu. Serialization began on Qidian on June 12, 2015 under the VIP contract model and concluded on March 1, 2016, spanning roughly 673 chapters and about 2.03 million Chinese characters. Set in the modern era, the story builds on the idea that after the ancient severing of heaven and earth, spiritual energy dissipated and rare wonders and heavenly treasures from the Ten Continents, Three Isles, and hidden blessed realms were scattered across the mortal world. The protagonist, Qi Xiang, originally the owner of a small antique shop in Jinling, acquires a complete turtle shell with earthy patina from a street vendor one summer and takes it back to his home, a converted old temple, to clean it. Smoke from a coarse incense stick is absorbed by the shell, which then displays anomalous properties, setting him on the path of cultivation. From then on, he runs his antique business while identifying and collecting heavenly treasures in the antique market, using these treasures to aid his cultivation in a distinctive approach of “sustaining immortality through collecting.” At the same time, he gradually encounters cultivation factions and hidden realms scattered throughout the mortal world and uncovers the secrets behind ancient remnants. Continuing the author’s earlier approach in Picking Treasures and The Homebody Master, the book fuses antique appraisal and cultural relic knowledge with modern cultivation. The narrative is relaxed and plain, with many episodic treasure-hunting stories. It should be noted that the ending is rather rushed, and the author has said that the later handling was poor. Overall, it can be regarded as a leisurely paced, consumer-oriented power fantasy of “treasure appraisal and cultivation.”