Across the web, immortals and true beings, their thoughts and energy creating the heavens.

Lin Zhuo soon met the graduate student Hua Ziqin had arranged to supervise him. She was a lively young woman with bright eyes. She kept a close eye on Lin Zhuo's every move, as if she were on a great mission and dared not relax for a moment.

"My name is Lin Zhuo, Lin as in two trees, and Zhuo as in clumsy."

"Clumsy? You'd better not actually be clumsy, uh, I mean don't cause any trouble, I'll be watching you. My name is An Xu, An as in the 'roof' radical and Xu as in 'willow catkin'."

"Please point out any errors in my operation."

"Mmm, don't worry, don't worry." An Xu straightened her chest and tilted her head back upon hearing this.

Whenever Lin Zhuo operated the equipment, she would hold her breath, as if she were watching a bomb with a countdown to zero.

Fortunately, although Lin Zhuo was not very skilled, he only chose to use equipment he was familiar with, and he would ask for help whenever he needed anything, never acting on his own initiative.

An Xu gradually relaxed and began to chat with Lin Zhuo, complaining about the days in the laboratory that were comparable to being in prison. Her voice was quite soft, and her pronunciation was clear. The string of words she babbled sounded to Lin Zhuo like white noise from birds chirping.

One of them was talking and the other wasn't listening, so neither of them was bothering the other.

Lin Zhuo's first attempt at alchemy, or alchemy as you might call it, is essentially the same thing in the online world; both are disciplines about the transformation of matter.

According to Qigong masters, the primordial energy of heaven and earth can be transformed into each other. By refining and sublimating low-grade primordial energy, one can obtain high-grade primordial energy. This process is called "Nine Revolutions to Rejuvenate the Elixir." In the alchemist's view, this is equivalent to the four stages of matter turning black, white, yellow, and red.

In the realm of talismanic arts, the transformation and sublimation of matter signifies a change in the true talismanic characters, with pronunciation, form, and meaning all being reversed. From scribbles to spiritual script, from spiritual script to dragon inscriptions, and from dragon inscriptions to imperial writings, each transformation represents a leap in essence.

Lin Zhuo wanted to create materials that could hold the ghostly talismans, so he needed to use ordinary raw materials and refine them to obtain spiritual materials.

Actually, if you don't care about the quality, ordinary gold, iron, jade and stone can also help. These solid and dense objects can resist the erosion of the rune's true power for a few tens of seconds to a day or two.

However, the problem is that the harder the material, the less convenient it is to carve runes.

Lin Zhuo's knowledge level was not high enough to draw talismans at will, and the effort and time required to draw on the iron plate were completely inefficient.

Beginners in the art of talismans should stick to using spiritual materials; there's no room for compromise in this matter.

The alchemy recipes Lin Zhuo has are all contributed by veteran players in the discussion group. The required ingredients are not complicated, and the operation is not difficult. There are even posts that teach newcomers how to make pills in their home kitchens.

He was grateful to these kind and generous seniors, and equally grateful to Hua Ziqin for being willing to make an exception for him.

With the professional facilities of the materials research institute, not only has the accuracy of experiments been greatly improved, but the safety is also on a completely different level. After all, preparing spiritual materials at home could really cause an explosion.

Of course, the drawbacks are also quite obvious.

The talkative Anxu kept a close eye on Lin Zhuo, preventing him from using some alchemy rituals that did not conform to laboratory standards. As a result, he could not directly obtain the final product and could only make a semi-finished product first, and then carry out the final refining to obtain the pill after returning home.

"What are you doing?" Anxu followed Lin Zhuo around busily, her legs aching from running, and she lay panting on the lab table like a puppy, but she still didn't understand what he was doing.

Lin Zhuo simply smiled and changed the subject, "Could you help me get in line at the sintering furnace?"

The equipment he borrowed was mostly old machinery that had been relegated to obscurity, originally intended for apprentices to practice on. The brand-new equipment was already booked with work assignments months in advance, leaving no opportunity for an outsider like him to get his hands on it.

Anxu nodded in agreement and ran off to negotiate with the person.

"Why should I? I've been queuing for ages!" the young graduate student said indignantly.

"He's a relative of Director Hua."

"Please come in quickly!" the young graduate student greeted with a smile.

From evening until late at night, Lin Zhuo ruined a lot of materials. Fortunately, the research institute was well-funded and had plenty of inventory, so they didn't mind his little waste and just considered it normal experimental losses.

The result was still pleasing.

Lin Zhuo now had a bottle of grayish-brown colored powder and a stack of soft, black metallic paper, cut into palm-sized pieces, totaling two hundred and twenty sheets.

These two items are semi-finished spiritual materials. After returning home, they only need simple processing to obtain the final product.

"Alright, I've finished my work, comrade. Thank you for your help all this time," Lin Zhuo said goodbye.

"Yawn." An Xu, who had been muttering for a long time, was like an empty chatterbox, her eyes tired, unable to speak.

Lin Zhuo felt bad, "It's so late, aren't you going home to rest?"

"Get me a cup of coffee, an egg sandwich, and two pork floss buns." Anxu's eyes were blank. "I'm staying to work."

"You can't neglect your health," Lin Zhuo advised.

"There's always work to be done, but I've already wasted so much time today." An Xu yawned again. "Won't I just have to work overtime tomorrow anyway?"

I'm sorry.

"You're nice. You're willing to listen to me, even though you probably weren't really listening, but you didn't tell me to shut up either. Thank you for not finding me annoying." An Xu shrugged. She refused all of Lin Zhuo's offers of help and didn't need any compensation.

Lin Zhuo couldn't refuse this person, so he went to the vending machine and brought back coffee and a late-night snack.

An Xu went to the company cafeteria for lunch. The huge cafeteria was empty at this time, all the stalls were closed, and the lights were dim. She found her familiar old seat in the corner and sat down.

Lin Zhuo brought the food over and placed it in front of her. "I heard that taking a 15-minute nap after drinking coffee can quickly relieve fatigue."

"Is that so? But I sleep really badly and I'm very anxious." Anxu complained about the generally pessimistic mental state of graduate students. The two chatted casually until she finished the last bite of her shredded pork bread with her coffee.

"Let me help you out." Lin Zhuo said, raising his palm, and a perfectly round, shiny silver iron ball appeared.

"Where did you come from..." Before Anxu could finish speaking, the bell rang softly, and the sound waves were like a warm sea breeze. A few blinks later, she was lying flat on the dining table and fast asleep.

Lin Zhuo raised his hand and gently pressed it on the top of the young girl's head. Gentle spiritual energy slowly seeped in, and after a moment, he woke An Xu up.

"Uh... I fell asleep? Sorry, I was too sleepy. What time is it?"

"It's a little past midnight, you can still go back to work."

"Wow, you're talking like a ruthless supervisor now."

On the way back to the lab, Anxu became her usual energetic chatterbox again. She immediately believed Lin Zhuo's words; it turned out that taking a nap after drinking a cup of coffee really had a miraculous effect.

The two said goodbye at the corner of the corridor. Lin Zhuo reminded her again to try not to stay up late, but An Xu shrugged and waved goodbye.

When I got home, it was already 1:40 a.m. The entire city of Hongshui was fast asleep, and the lights in every house in the residential area were dim, with only the wind whispering in the streets.

Lin Zhuo yawned and began to eat, then circulated his internal energy to replenish his vital essence. Once he was fully recovered, he took out the semi-finished spiritual materials prepared in the laboratory and began the final step of refining them.

In the kitchen late at night, in front of the stove, a figure stands guarding the induction cooker, pouring powder into the pot, cutting open his palm to let the blood flow, and then beginning to chant strange and difficult incantations.

This is the special method required for alchemy: using the blood of a Qigong master, which is full of vital energy, as the final medicinal ingredient, supplemented by incantations and spells, to awaken the latent properties of mortal energy.

If Lin Zhuo dared to do that in the lab, he would be sent to the nearest hospital's psychiatric department for expert consultation in less than half an hour.

The colored powder, infused with essence and blood, gradually dissolved under low-temperature boiling, turning into a thick, grayish-white liquid mixed with scattered red specks, gleaming with a faint metallic luster.

Ding--

[Process inspection passed, material production successful!]

[Initiating material identification by comparing it against the built-in database...]

【Plum Blossoms Reflecting Red Ink (Superior Grade, Blue)】

[By refining the essence of metals and stones, and using the lifeblood of the living as a catalyst, this ink is as pale as frost, yet dotted with bloodstains like late-blooming plum blossoms, hence its name.]

Type: Alchemy Products/Materials

Weight: 0.3 kg

Assessment result: A reasonably well-crafted alchemical product, with slightly above-average resistance to rune erosion, which can slightly prolong the rune's effective time.

Lin Zhuo put the talisman ink into the prepared glass bottle. This bottle, as a container, could also be stored in the player's backpack, which was quite user-friendly.

After resting for a while and cleaning the pots and pans, Lin Zhuo began to refine talisman paper again before the wound closed.

The process is largely the same, but you need to prepare a pot of medicinal soup first. Add two drops of spiritual ink to boiling clean water, mix it with blood and chant a spell until the medicinal soup turns light black. Then put the metal paper into it and simmer it over low heat for three hours.

During this time, Lin Zhuo needed to observe the state of the talisman paper, judge the heat level from the changes in color and texture, and then recite different incantations to activate the properties of the material.

Reciting incantations also consumes energy. Incantations, like talismans, have corrosive power and can damage the inner energy of the person reciting them. If an ordinary person recites incantations frequently, they will age rapidly.

Lin Zhuo confirmed that he had pronounced the incantation correctly by judging the loss of his spiritual energy, because he didn't actually understand incantations and had only pieced together a half-baked version by following the pinyin marked in the forum posts.

Time slowly passed until dawn.

After a busy night, Master Lin finally reaped the rewards. However, out of 220 sets of semi-finished materials, only 163 sheets of talisman paper were qualified.

Today he truly experienced the hardships of being an alchemist.

Ding--

[Process inspection passed, material production successful!]

[Initiating material identification by comparing it against the built-in database...]

【Black Bone Red Pattern Iron Paper (Superior Grade, Blue)】

[Forged from the finest materials into a thin sheet, soaked in crimson blood to imbue it with spirit, this paper possesses a smooth, lustrous texture. When struck, it produces a faint, metallic sound. The characters remain unblemished for a thousand years; it is truly a divine paper among its kind.]

Type: Alchemy Products/Materials

Weight: 1.1 kg

Assessment result: The alchemical product is of acceptable quality, with a slight increase in the maximum number of runes it can withstand.