Chapter 450: Chapter 450: Rich Woman
"You really have a solution?"
Alice stared at Li Wei in amazement.
She was completely surprised.
She hadn’t expected Li Wei to find a solution after just a brief look at the so-called production process for the Essence of Hundred Flowers.
After all, she had visited the stone cave where the flowers were stored more than once.
But she never figured out how the Essence of Hundred Flowers was actually produced.
She only knew the general steps, not the principles behind them.
This was because concepts like "microorganisms" and "fermentation" didn’t exist in her mind.
That was why she couldn’t understand.
Li Wei took out some of the microbial liquid he had collected and a flower to demonstrate for Alice.
He placed the flower inside a transparent glass.
Then he sprinkled on some of the clear, microbe-filled liquid.
"Look, this is the production speed under normal conditions. It takes about three days for the flowers to ferment into a crude Essence of Hundred Flowers filled with impurities."
Alice watched what he was doing, a puzzled look on her face.
She had no idea what Li Wei was doing.
Just as Alice was about to ask a question,
a ball of fire appeared in Li Wei’s palm, startling the Queen Bee so much that she scurried back several meters, away from him.
He held the flame outside the glass. Under his control, it wrapped around the cup, continuously bathing it in the light and heat of forty-two degrees.
At the ideal temperature, the speed at which the microorganisms broke down the flower increased dramatically.
Spots on the flower’s surface began to visibly spread.
This time, Alice understood. She had seen similar-looking flowers in the cavern.
"Are you saying that heating it with fire can increase the production efficiency of the Essence of Hundred Flowers?" Alice asked.
She was only seeing the surface of it.
Li Wei said, "That’s right. But the key isn’t the fire, it’s the temperature."
"Maintaining the temperature inside the cave at forty-two degrees will speed up the fermentation."
"And then there’s nutrition."
As he spoke, Li Wei took out a small piece of meat and dropped it into the glass.
The moment the meat came into contact with the microorganisms, it rapidly disappeared.
Alice’s eyes widened in surprise. She didn’t understand why the meat had vanished.
After consuming the meat, the microorganisms received a huge boost of nutrients and energy. They began to multiply and divide rapidly, their numbers exploding.
With their increased numbers, the fermentation process accelerated even further.
In just a few short minutes, the flower melted before Alice’s eyes, turning into a puddle of pale pink liquid.
Li Wei poured out the pink liquid and, after a simple purification, obtained an Essence of Hundred Flowers identical to the one from the cave.
Alice watched as Li Wei, with just a few simple actions, effortlessly created a drop of the Essence of Hundred Flowers. Her eyes went wide with disbelief.
"How did you do that?"
Alice exclaimed.
Li Wei explained the principle to her.
Alice asked, confused, "What are... microorganisms?"
Seeing this, Li Wei waved his hand dismissively. "Never mind. Just know that doing this will improve production efficiency."
He didn’t have time to explain the concept of microorganisms to Alice from scratch.
Seeing his reaction, Alice pouted, a little displeased. ’He must think I’m too stupid to understand, so he won’t even bother explaining,’ she thought.
Soon, her expression turned serious. "Alright, I’ll leave the rest to you. What do you need?"
Li Wei said, "Help me find some Magic Stones and some filter screens. The finer the mesh, the better."
Alice nodded. "Okay, I’ll have someone bring them over right away."
"I’ll go prepare the Magic Array then," Li Wei said, heading toward the cave where the flowers were stored.
After a few steps, he remembered something. "Oh, right. Prepare some more meat. While these microorganisms are good at fermenting flowers, they prefer eating meat."
Alice nodded. "Yes, I understand."
"Can it be meat from ordinary animals? Or does it have to be Demon Beast Meat?" Alice asked.
Li Wei replied, "It’s best to use Demon Beast Meat. Demon Beast Meat contains more energy."
Alice agreed, "Alright, I’ll go prepare it immediately."
Li Wei went to prepare a constant-temperature Magic Array and modify the filtration system.
Alice went to prepare the materials.
Arriving at the cave where the flowers were stored, Li Wei wasn’t skilled with Magic Arrays; he had never even learned how to set one up.
But he had his own method.
Li Wei’s method was simple and brutish.
He directly placed a few ever-burning Fireballs inside the cave.
For him, this was far easier than creating a Magic Array.
He only needed to use a bit of the Middle Level Flame Rule to achieve it.
These Fireballs would automatically draw in surrounding Fire Elements to replenish their energy, maintaining a constant temperature.
It was set slightly above forty-two degrees.
After all, by the time the heat penetrated the densely packed layers of flowers, the temperature at the bottom wouldn’t be as high as at the top.
In addition to automatically drawing in Fire Elements, Li Wei also planned to use Magic Stones to power the Fireballs.
This was why he had asked Alice to prepare Magic Stones.
Next was hollowing out the rock layer below and rebuilding the filtration system.
Relying on filtration through sand and rock crevices was too slow and inefficient.
Li Wei used red mother copper to forge a pipe system to collect the Essence of Hundred Flowers, installing a multi-layered filtration and purification device along the pipes.
By the time the Essence of Hundred Flowers flowed out of the end of the pipe, it would be the purified version Alice needed.
By the time Li Wei finished all this, Alice had already returned with the items.
"Li Wei, I brought everything you asked for. Where do you want the Magic Stones and the Demon Beast Meat?"
Li Wei climbed up from underground.
He said, "Just toss the Demon Beast Meat directly into the cave. Don’t worry, it won’t contaminate the Essence of Hundred Flowers."
"Give the Magic Stones to me."
Alice handed all the Magic Stones to Li Wei.
The Magic Stones were stored in a separate Spatial Ring.
Li Wei took the Spatial Ring, glanced inside, and revealed a look of surprise.
He hadn’t expected Alice to prepare over a thousand Magic Stones.
He was a bit speechless. "I don’t need this many."
Alice said, "Just use what you need. The rest are for you."
Li Wei’s heart stirred. He was struck by Alice’s immense generosity.
This was worth over a thousand Gold Coins.
’As expected of a city lord. A true rich lady,’ he thought.
Alice took out another Spatial Ring and began pouring Demon Beast Meat into the cave.
Seeing that the Demon Beast Meat was about to fill the entire cave, Li Wei quickly stopped her.
"Wait! Even if I told you to just toss it in, you don’t have to fill the whole cave!"
"Just a single layer on the ground is enough."
Li Wei broke out in a sweat.
’Does she have too much money and nowhere to spend it?’
’So extravagant.’
Hearing this, Alice put the excess Demon Beast Meat back.
After Li Wei finished setting up the Magic Stones, there were still over eight hundred left.
In total, he had only used a little over one hundred Magic Stones.
There were five constant-temperature Fireballs, with twenty-five Magic Stones arranged for each one.
Li Wei tried to return the remaining Magic Stones to Alice.
Alice waved her hand. "I told you, the rest are yours."
Left with no choice, Li Wei had to accept them.
He then showed Alice how to change the filter screens on the copper pipe.
"The residue from the filtration will clog the screens, so they need to be replaced periodically,"
Li Wei explained.
Alice stood by his side, watching his demonstration and nodding as she committed it to memory.
Afterward, the two of them went to the end of the copper pipe.
One by one, drops of the Essence of Hundred Flowers dripped down.
The speed was dozens of times faster than before.
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