Borrowing a sword

Chapter 97 The Heaven-Defying Medicine Cauldron

Back in the bamboo house, Han Shuangjiang realized she was just overthinking things.

The two of them often go out together, so why does his saying they're just taking a walk seem like the nature of the activity has changed?

In her early years, when she was still working at Hongxiuzhao, her going out was restricted.

Every year during the Lantern Festival, she would stay in her building and watch the lively scene on the street.

Men and women go out together to guess riddles and admire the moon.

They might also take a walk along the river and release a river lantern.

When people are just beginning to experience romantic feelings, even if they don't have someone in their heart, they will still be attracted to matters of love and romance.

—The moon rises above the willow branches, and we meet after dusk.

What's so special about the moon that I've seen since I was a child?

Ultimately, it's about who's there to admire the moon with you.

Han Shuangjiang sat down on a futon in the room, her long, slender legs crossed.

The knees pressed against the clothes, causing the fabric at the thighs and buttocks to be stretched and feel somewhat tight.

It outlines the plump and slightly fleshy upper thighs, as well as the round, full-moon-like buttocks.

She looked out the window and began to hope that she was indeed blessed with good fortune, as Chu Huaixu had said.

Compared to entering the secret realm, taking a moon-viewing walk might make her more uncomfortable and nervous.

"However, the scenery around the Taoist temple is indeed very beautiful," the girl suddenly thought.

She took a deep breath and looked away from the window.

After closing his eyes, he began to practice the "Six Imperial True Scriptures".

The cultivation speed of the Xuan Yin Body is indeed heaven-defying. She has already begun to break through to the third level of the first realm and will soon catch up with Chu Huaixu's progress.

On the other hand, the dead fox didn't take what he said to heart at all.

Because he had confidence in Han Shuangjiang, he believed that as long as they explored the area more, they would be able to enter the secret realm with 100% certainty!
Why are you taking a walk? This is obviously a team dungeon run.

At this moment, he spent more than 3,000 experience points to learn the "Mysterious Fire Burning Heaven Technique".

The reason this very basic alchemy technique was so well-suited to him was simply because it consumed a lot of spiritual energy.

Chu Huaixu's spiritual power was unremarkable and had no additional attributes; its main feature was its sheer quantity!
He placed the ingredients for the Qi Gathering Pill beside him, and with a thought, they entered the mystical space of the black bead and were placed into the medicine cauldron.

He formed hand seals and began to perform his alchemy.

As soon as the spiritual energy entered the black bead, the greedy and hungry medicine cauldron tried to absorb it.

Chu Huaixu quickly transformed it into a fire for refining medicine, which burned fiercely outside the medicine cauldron.

—Still smoking! I'll burn you!

And so began the first attempt at alchemy.

"It seems like I don't need to control the heat?" Chu Huaixu was somewhat surprised.

In medicine making, controlling the heat is very important.

Therefore, the alchemist must keep a close eye on the process and then use spells to make adjustments.

But it seems that the concept of "Tao gives birth to One" is not needed.

To be precise, the spirit of the artifact will take control of itself.

Compared to Chu Huaixu, a novice alchemist, the artifact spirit appears to be much more skilled and experienced.

It remains the same as always, constantly conveying the same message to its owner – hunger!

But even as it cried out for food, it skillfully concocted medicine on its own.

This gave Chu Huaixu the feeling that: "When I cast the 'Mysterious Fire Burning Heaven Technique,' it was like electrifying the medicine cauldron and then pressing a switch."

"Next, it will enter automatic mode?"

He never intended to upgrade this low-level alchemy technique to the maximum level in the first place, because he felt it was unnecessary.

"Upgrading is to increase the success rate."

"But the medicine cauldron comes with a 100% success rate, doesn't it?"

From this perspective, this is also the defying nature of the concept of "Tao gives birth to One".

It takes nearly two hours to refine the Qi Gathering Pill.

Chu Huaixu would initially keep an eye on things from the sidelines, but later realized that it was completely unnecessary.

"Isn't this the same as me raising an alchemist inside the black bead?"

“Every time I use the ‘Mysterious Fire Burning Heaven Technique,’ it’s essentially like giving him a slap on the back of the head and then ordering him sternly, ‘You’d better refine it for me!’”

"Then he started refining it. I didn't need to do anything. I just had to come back in two hours to collect the pills."

"Hiss—!" Chu Huaixu gasped.

He realized once again just how terrifying this medicine cauldron, which was suspected to be the Dao Ancestor's natal artifact, truly was!
Right now, we're just mass-producing level 1 elixirs, so it's not a big deal yet.

But if in the future, as one's cultivation level improves and one's ability to develop the medicine cauldron increases, then it will be unimaginable!
More importantly, this saves Chu Huaixu time, as he doesn't need to spend time refining medicine himself.

In addition, there is another important point.

Human resources are sometimes limited!

Whether it's alchemy or weapon crafting, both require a high degree of concentration and are extremely taxing on the mind.

Take Qi Gathering Pills as an example. Although it takes two hours to produce one batch, a low-level alchemist can only refine about three batches a day.

Six hours, that's 12 hours!
They've already treated themselves like beasts of burden.

Moreover, once one's spiritual energy is exhausted, one has to rely on meditation to replenish it, which also takes time.

If you calculate it this way, it's like he spends all his time, except for eating and sleeping, refining elixirs.

If the refining fails even once, it could be very disheartening.
But the medicine cauldron is different.

Chu Huaixu is like a heartless capitalist; he can't possibly treat it like a human being.

"You are a cauldron!"

In the sweltering summer, with the air conditioner running 24 hours a day, do you ever think, "The air conditioner must be getting tired too?"

Most people won't worry about the cost of air conditioning; at most, they'll worry about the electricity bill.

But no matter what, the medicine cauldron is Chu Huaixu's current natal spiritual artifact.

So he still fed it a few strands of spiritual energy, just like paying it a salary.
Even after absorbing those few strands of spiritual energy, the spirit was still there, complaining of being hungry.

This always made Chu Huaixu feel somewhat incompetent.

It's not enough to satisfy it.

Fortunately, it kept repeating its complaints that it hadn't absorbed enough while continuing to refine pills, and it never stopped.

Two hours passed in a flash.

Just as the system described, the Qi Gathering Pill was successfully refined. Ten spirit pills were produced in one batch.

Chu Huaixu held the ten elixirs in his hands and examined them carefully.

"Perfect quality!"

"Even if the Pill King were to crawl out of his grave to refine it, he probably could only achieve this much," he thought to himself.

The reason I only got 100 points is because the full score for this test paper is 100 points.

"I can easily sell it for a high price, and when the Treasure Pavilion buys it back, they won't be able to find any reason to lower the price!" Chu Huaixu thought to himself with satisfaction.

Overjoyed, he fed the medicine cauldron a few more strands of spiritual energy.

Then, Chu Huaixu took a wooden bucket and cleaned out the dregs from the cauldron.

These medicinal residues actually have some effect.

They can be used as fertilizer for spiritual herbs, feed for spiritual beasts, and for poor body-refining cultivators to take medicinal baths.

Chu Huaixu was not a stingy person. With 10 perfect-quality Qi Gathering Pills in hand, how could he possibly mistreat his little brother, Xiao Xu?

"Xiao Xu!" he called out.

"Hey! Senior Brother!" Xu Ziqing responded immediately, thinking that his senior brother had some instructions.

“I have a wooden tub by my door. Take it and pour some out for a medicinal bath. It might help a little,” he called out.

"Okay, thank you, Senior Brother!"

"Remember to wash the bucket clean when you bring it back, and just put it by the door," Chu Huaixu instructed.

"it is good."

He definitely won't be given the Qi Gathering Pill now; even Chu Huaixu himself is reluctant to take it.

Now we need to compound interest and earn more contribution points.

He's currently in debt; he hasn't even paid back the 300 points he owed Big Ice.

"It's definitely not the time for high-end consumption yet."

Once he has enough money, the three of them can take drugs together.

"For someone like Xiao Xu, with his innate healing physique, meeting me is truly his good fortune," Chu Huaixu thought to himself.

Otherwise, he would have been stuck in the breakthrough stage for a very long time.

Eastern Continent, Mirror Kingdom, Imperial Capital.

Inside the red sleeve pavilion, the storyteller, having finished his work for the day, bowed to the audience and stepped off the stage with a smile.

Dancers veiled in thin gauze began to take the stage and perform songs and dances.

As a high-end entertainment venue in the capital, the quality of the women here did not decline after the destruction of the Joyful Sect and the change of the behind-the-scenes owner.

The men in the outer hall watched the women dancing gracefully on the stage, and they liked this one and that one.

Only this storyteller kept looking in the mirror, indulging in his own fabricated beauty.

The Taoist Second Elder, who looked like a farmer, started his habitual, bored nail-biting again.

He was already tired of staying here, but his junior uncle seemed to be still telling stories.

The big man knew very well that his junior uncle really enjoyed the feeling of being the center of attention on stage.

"Junior Uncle, are you really not going back yet? It's been quite a few days already," he asked.

How boring! It would be better to go slay demons and monsters than to look at these pink skeletons.

As a master alchemist, he was concerned about his precious spiritual herbs and wondered if his disciples had taken good care of them.

"No, no, I won't go back." The storyteller frowned, his tone displeased.

He continued, "Judging by the days, Shuangjiang should have already reached the first realm. If I'm not mistaken, she must have already gone to Cangling Mountain."

"But this mountain is full of variables and tests one's character."

"【Partridge Sky】was her best choice, but I don't know if she took it off," said Junior Uncle.

He put down the mirror, looked at the Second Elder of the Daoist sect, and said, "As for that little fellow Xu Ziqing..."

"We won't even reach the first realm next month!"

"In my letter to Li Chunsong, I instructed him to treat them as ordinary disciples after bringing them up the mountain."

“Especially that kid Xu Ziqing, he perfectly fits everything said in the Dao Ancestor’s admonition. If it’s really as you say, and we give him the Xuan Tian Fetal Breathing Pill, what if something goes wrong? Are you going to take responsibility?” He glared at the big man.

Upon hearing this, the burly man shrank back.

This matter concerns a great calamity of heaven and earth, and is related to the [Origin Spirit Realm]. He dares not take on this responsibility.

The storyteller glanced at the burly man and said, “I know you are a master alchemist with many elixirs. Once he reaches the first realm and has climbed Hidden Spirit Mountain, it won’t be too late to give him the Profound Heaven Embryo Breathing Pill.”

The second elder of the Taoist sect had no choice but to nod.

Despite not being particularly intelligent, he was eager to return to the Taoist sect and began to think of various reasons, which he soon came up with.

Suddenly, the burly man cried out, "Oh no!"

"What are you doing, making such a fuss!" the storyteller said, clearly annoyed.

"Junior Uncle, I've suddenly discovered a huge variable!"

"Hmm? What variable?"

"Junior Sister!" the burly man exclaimed anxiously.

"How so?" The storyteller smiled slightly, looking completely calm and composed.

The second elder of the Daoist sect immediately explained, "Junior Uncle, you and I both know what kind of reckless and unruly Junior Sister is. She does possess the Mysterious Heavenly Breathing Pill!"

How do you know she has it?

"Uh, I gave it to you last year," the alchemy master replied.

The storyteller continued looking in the mirror, then said calmly, "Such a trivial matter, is it worth making such a fuss about? I already said in the letter that this matter is classified as top secret, and those below the seventh realm cannot know about it."

He had a smug look on his face, as if he had known everything all along.

That's exactly the kind of attitude we're looking for!
"Junior Uncle, brilliant!" The burly man was disheartened and could only offer this kind of praise.

The storyteller straightened his dragon beard and said, "I know you're in a hurry. How about this, in another month, we'll set off back to the Daoist sect."

“Xu Ziqing’s cultivation aptitude is too poor. Without external assistance, he simply does not meet the requirements for being awarded a mountain climbing token.”

"At that time, we'll need the sect leader to grant him a special pass," said Junior Uncle.

The second elder of the Daoist sect nodded: "The sect leader has specially approved that only one charred wooden plaque can be given within three years. There really haven't been any disciples worth giving it to in the past few years, so it's good to keep it and give it to Xu Ziqing. It won't break the rules."

"Junior Uncle, brilliant! Brilliant!" He began to flatter again, thinking to himself that he would just have to endure another month down the mountain.

Upon hearing this, the storyteller smiled faintly. He had arranged everything perfectly and was naturally quite pleased with himself.

(P.S.: Second update, please vote with monthly tickets~)

(End of this chapter)