Lin Xuanzhi sat cross-legged, took out some equipment refining materials, and studied them one by one.
These materials were comprehensive in variety and completely different in style. Through distinct arrangements and combinations, as well as different refining methods, they could become magic treasures with unique attributes and uses.
What to refine?
Ah Hen didn’t seem to lack anything recently, but it also seemed like it was time to replace everything.
Such as hairpins, clothes, bracelets, and storage bags.
En, it seemed with his current abilities, he couldn’t make storage bags yet.
Lin Xuanzhi pondered the question and in the end, decided to craft a pill furnace for Yan Tianhen that would be used especially for refining poison pills.
When they descended the mountain, Lin Xuanzhi had already asked Qing Zhu to look around for such a pill furnace, but a good pill furnace wouldn’t be sold easily. The starting price of the pill furnace sold at the auction wasn’t something that Lin Xuanzhi could afford.
So Lin Xuanzhi acquired a lot of materials for refining pill furnaces instead.
He absolutely couldn’t refine the kind of pill furnace that he crafted earlier for Yan Tianhen again. Although the pill furnace he previously refined was very handy to the majority of alchemists, it wasn’t as fitting for Yan Tianhen, who must use a Yin furnace suitable for him.
Icy saltpeter flickering with a faint blue light, a piece of iron’s essence that had been gathering dust at the bottom of a pool for tens of thousands of years, crimson mud soaked in the filthy blood from mass graveyards, and toxins from 49 kinds of poisonous things.
To be honest, Lin Xuanzhi didn’t really like these materials filled with Yin Qi and poisonous aura, because the spiritual Qi within his body was Yang in attribute and was even pure Yang, so he would automatically reject items full of Yin Qi.
However, for Yan Tianhen’s sake, he was willing to give it a try.
After selecting the materials, Lin Xuanzhi threw the rest into his storage bag.
Lin Xuanzhi stilled his heart. It was as if he could see through these materials rotating in the air between his hands, changing shape under the forged engraving pen’s inscriptions, and absorbing the forged stones’ spiritual Qi in wisps. He could see Yan Tianhen’s sunny, lovely smile.
Nothing was more important than Ah Hen.
Lin Xuanzhi devoted his heart and soul to the task. He practically entered a state of emptiness, forgetting both himself and the world. He was even more earnest than when he practiced the sword.
He didn’t know when a sandstorm blew again outside.
He didn’t know when the thunderclouds would disappear.
There was only this pill furnace in his eyes.
Unconsciously, he felt the veins and acupoints in his entire body expand two-fold. Lin Xuanzhi was only slightly startled, but he soon threw thoughts about this inexplicable and not-so-painful improvement in cultivation to the back of his mind and continued to concentrate fully on refining.
With this pill furnace, Ah Hen would be able to personally refine poison pills instead of just discussing theories on paper.
Moreover, with this pill furnace full of Yin energy, Ah Hen need not worry about the danger of exploding furnaces anymore.
Although Lin Xuanzhi had never crafted a pill furnace specialized in refining poison pills in his last life, he once learned about the process of making poison pill furnaces during his chats with Soul Plate.
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Contrary to expectations, the more attributes one added, the easier it was to refine. If the materials needed to refine a certain poison pill just happened to match one of the toxins refined into the pill furnace, then one would get twice the result with half the effort.
Lin Xuanzhi didn’t know how many kinds of poisons craftsmen usually added to poison furnaces. In short, he used his soulfire to heat all the toxins that he could find for the time being into a gaseous state and mixed them all with the forged stones’ spiritual Qi, then stuffed into the emerging pill furnace.
Unconsciously, an unknown period of time passed. Suddenly, the soul bead in Lin Xuanzhi’s sea of consciousness unexpectedly returned to its soul plate state, perhaps because it absorbed too much dense spiritual Qi, or because Lin Xuanzhi’s soul had already reached a high enough level.
Soul Plate was so excited that it wished to pull Lin Xuanzhi into a conversation, but Lin Xuanzhi had already entered a realm of emptiness. A terrifying aura enshrouded his entire body. Even though shattered pieces of rock wreaked havoc outside, they were still twisted into pieces by the spiritual Qi surrounding him as soon as they flew within one meter of him.
In a spurt of energy, Lin Xuanzhi tried to finish everything in one go but was still hindered by some obstacles in the refining process.
However, he wasn’t alone, and he knew this.
“Why do I always find it difficult to fuse these toxins?”
Soul Bead…Ah no, it’s time to call it Soul Plate now, replied, “You can try changing the order according to their attributes? Wood begets fire, fire begets soil, soil begets gold, gold begets water, and water begets wood. You must not reverse these.”
Lin Xuanzhi gave it a try and found that it was indeed much easier.
“Which do you think looks better — wrapping this Five Poison Vine outside or directly refining it into the furnace?”
“You can preserve its original state and refine it directly onto the outer wall.”
“Good idea.”
Therefore, several patterns with Five Poison Vine decorations that looked like it protruded from the inside circled around the pill furnace’s outer wall. The color was a gorgeous red, and one could even make out small fruits the size of a pinky’s belly on it, which was truly beautiful and cute.
Lin Xuanzhi was very satisfied with his design.
Yan Tianhen would definitely like it.
Lin Xuanzhi opened his mouth again, and Soul Plate immediately cut in, “You’ve already asked me more than 30 questions. Why do you have so many questions? And it just reached the final stage. This is something you have to worry about yourself. I can’t help you.”
Lin Xuanzhi paused, then smiled. “I just want to say, did you notice that I can make magic treasures while chatting with you?”
Soul Plate, “……”
“I didn’t notice until you pointed it out.”
However, all craftsmen who reached a certain level had basically learned to multitask, the only difference being how good or how bad they were at it. Obviously, from the way Lin Xuanzhi’s hands skillfully weaved around without pause and from the effortless way he conversed, one could completely see that Lin Xuanzhi absolutely belonged to the portion of craftsmen good at multitasking.
Soul Plate was a little proud.
This was indeed his chosen successor.
Lin Xuanzhi then asked in astonishment, “When did you become like this?”
Soul Plate was a little dissatisfied and mocked in a drooping voice, “You actually just noticed this? That’s a little too much.”
Lin Xuanzhi sighed emotionally. He finally saw Soul Plate appear as a soul plate again.
Moreover, Soul Plate’s state meant that he could enter the pocket dimension inside.
Soul Plate could feel Lin Xuanzhi’s thoughts and couldn’t help crying out, “Don’t even think about it — that’s this Venerable’s territory!”
Lin Xuanzhi smiled and coaxed patiently and systematically, “Don’t be like this; although the territory is yours, I’m afraid it’s completely desolate save for some weeds and deserts. If you let me in to renovate, perhaps by this time next year, your space will already be full of spiritual plants and forged stones, and it’s not impossible to raise a few demonic beasts either.”
Soul Plate was a little tempted. His territory inside the soul plate really was full of weeds. It wasn’t obvious before when he was still a soul bead, but now that his space had opened up and expanded, he felt that the weeds were more and more of an eyesore.
If he could have some living things there, that also didn’t seem bad?
Soul Plate thought for a moment, “This Venerable needs to think about it carefully. Brat, I need to see how you’ll curry favors with me first — don’t you forget that you actually used up all of this Venerable’s forged stones hoard by refining such a stupid furnace!”
Lin Xuanzhi smiled but didn’t speak. He continued to put finishing touches on the pill furnace.
People deep in the mountains couldn’t tell whether it was day or night.
Fierce Gale Cliff was like a small, independent world. People outside knew nothing about what happened inside.
Outside Fierce Gale Cliff, Yan Tianhen had almost become an Amah Rock.
“Ah Hen, it’s time to eat.” Duan Yuyang came over and patted Yan Tianhen on the shoulder.
Yan Tianhen blankly turned towards Duan Yuyang, staring at him with a pair of bluish-black panda eyes. His entire person seemed to have gone on a mental journey traversing the great emptiness.
Duan Yuyang sighed helplessly and rubbed Yan Tianhen’s head. “Ah Hen, you can’t go on like this day after day. Nobody knows when your Dage will come out either. Do you want him to see you like this when he comes out?”
Yan Tianhen’s focus finally gathered together, and he almost jumped up in shock. Dumbstruck, he exclaimed, “Yuyang Gege? How’d you get back…you, when did you come back?”
“I just came to Profound Sky Sect today. Originally, I was going to go with your Brother Tianwen to Breaking Sword Peak to pay respects to his master. Unexpectedly, I heard about this incident, so I ran over here without stopping.”
“Then what about Yuan Tianwen?”
“He went back to see his master first. He’s been away for almost two months. He has to handle many of Breaking Sword Peak’s matters.”
As Duan Yuyang spoke, his face darkened and his eyes narrowed as he stared at Yan Tianhen. “Brat, I heard that you’re playing self-abuse? What, is it fun?”
Yan Tianhen scratched his head and replied with some embarrassment, “I didn’t abuse myself. I was just too worried and lost a bit of appetite recently.”
“You call that losing a little appetite?” Esteemed Huai Yu’s expression was as dark as the bottom of a pot. He grabbed Yan Tianhen’s back collar. “Get your ass out of here and go eat for Laozi. Don’t let your imagination run wild with all sorts of nonsense here.”
Yan Tianhen’s lips twitched and he looked slightly depressed.
Duan Yuyang looked at Esteemed Huai Yu. He’d also heard about Yan Tianhen accepting a Master before. When he saw that Esteemed Huai Yu’s concern for Yan Tianhen didn’t seem fake, he was very relieved.
Yan Tianhen touched his dried-out stomach and felt that it was indeed time for him to eat something. He stood up, “Master, Brother Yuyang, come and eat some food with me.”
Esteemed Huai Yu rolled his eyes at him. “I’ve already eaten a long time ago; you two go.”
Thus, Duan Yuyang pulled Yan Tianhen along and walked towards the nearby building together.
Wan Yitong had cooked a lot of delicious food. When he saw Duan Yuyang and Yan Tianhen, he blinked at them. “Come and try this Senior Martial Brother’s skills. This one is–“
“Duan Yuyang.” Duan Yuyang answered frankly.
Wan Yitong paused and stared at him. “So you are Duan Yuyang. I used to only know him by name, but today I can finally see him in the flesh.”
Duan Yuyang was stunned, “Am I very famous?”
This shouldn’t be? Nowadays, low-key people like him were rare.
Wan Yitong spoke meaningfully, “Yuan Tianwen’s status in our Profound Sky Sect isn’t simply ‘high’, and the number of martial brothers and sisters with a crush on him isn’t simply ‘a lot’. Besides, he also attacked Han Yuran because of you before, which caused much publicity. I’m afraid it will be difficult for Little Gentleman Duan to not be famous.”
Duan Yuyang laughed mischievously, “You’re too kind, too kind.”
Wan Yitong, “…”
He reckoned that this was also an eccentric.
When Yan Tianhen saw Duan Yuyang, he had someone to rely on for support. After eating a few bites of rice, he thought it was very delicious and ate more.
Wan Yitong touched his chin, “Little Martial Brother had already been in secluded cultivation for a month now; wonder how things are now.”
Yan Tianhen withered again and lost his appetite.
Duan Yuyang frowned, “You shouldn’t have mentioned Lin Xuanzhi.”
Wan Yitong lamented his mistake, “My fault.”
Yan Tianhen sighed, “I don’t know how Dage is doing right now.”
Wan Yitong comforted, “He should be alright, otherwise Master won’t be able to sit still. However, I don’t know how long we’ll have to wait for this secluded cultivation to end. It won’t do for you to keep watch outside every day.”
“Yeah.” Duan Yuyang also nodded, “Isn’t it nothing more than a closed-door cultivation to advance to the next stage? Yet you’re so terribly worried; your Dage will definitely laugh at you if he heard this.”
“I know,” Yan Tianhen hung his head, somewhat depressed, “but I just can’t calm down.”