Chapter 97: Chapter 97: The Furnace is Complete
Although last night hadn’t been one for celebrating until dawn, it had been a good night all the same.
Bai Mo had tightly shut the windows and doors, finally managing to get a good night’s sleep.
Early in the morning, feeling relatively refreshed, he greeted three elderly Cultivators who had come to his door.
They were the very veterans Xu Ruyuan had found for him, men who had previously worked for a small merchant guild.
"Alchemist Bai, we have fulfilled our commission. The harvest from this trip was quite good!"
The leading Cultivator let out a breath. He looked exhausted but forced a smile.
His face was weathered and worn, a clear sign of the hardships he’d endured on Celestial Barrier Mountain.
Bai Mo looked at them with newfound respect.
Few Cultivators could spend that much time on Celestial Barrier Mountain.
Xu Ruyuan, that old coot, could stay for half a month, but his harvests depended entirely on luck and his method of making offerings to a Flesh Tai Sui.
Bai Mo wanted to invite the men inside for some hot tea, but they unexpectedly refused.
"Alchemist Bai, you should take a look at what we’ve brought back first..."
With that, the three elderly Cultivators pushed forward the two flatbed carts they had brought with them.
Piled on top were several bundles of medicinal herbs.
Bai Mo stepped forward, gave the herbs a cursory glance, and nodded slightly.
They were indeed the ingredients for his Fire Marrow Pills, of varying quality, but good nonetheless.
"You’re true veterans. You’ve all done an incredible job."
"But from what I know, these herbs don’t grow in one place. Just how many mountains did you have to cross..."
The three elderly Cultivators exchanged a smile.
"It all comes down to experience. Alchemist Bai, you know your herbs, but perhaps you’re less familiar with the soil."
"We may not understand the principles behind it, but with our years of experience, we know which types of soil are most likely to yield herbs."
"The rest is just a matter of patience."
There aren’t many safe places on Celestial Barrier Mountain. Often, the places where herbs grow are also lairs for Demon Beasts.
To get your hands on them, you have to wait for the Demon Beast to leave to hunt or relieve itself...
Bai Mo nodded repeatedly as he listened.
Their methods shared some similarities with the cultivation of medicinal fields.
However, managing medicinal fields focused more on artificially cultivating the soil.
The techniques for observing land in the wild were less developed.
After a moment of contemplation, Bai Mo said:
"These are all rare herbs. How about this: I’ll give you eighty Spirit Stones for the lot."
Eighty was a generous price, a good way to start their future cooperation on the right foot.
Sure enough, upon hearing his offer, all three elderly Cultivators broke into smiles.
"Alchemist Bai, you’re a generous man!"
"If you need anything else in the future, just say the word. Us old bones will put our heads together and find the herbs for you."
Ever since the small merchant guild they used to work with went under, they had been rather anxious about returning to this line of work.
After all, the payment methods were different, and they were unsure of the current market rates.
Now it seemed their luck was pretty good—they had run into a decent buyer!
Bai Mo went back inside to get the Spirit Stones. By the time he returned, the three elderly Cultivators had already moved the herbs into the house with practiced speed.
Without waiting for another invitation, they took the Spirit Stones and departed.
Musing for a moment, Bai Mo crouched down and prodded the roots of the herbs, finding them still covered in a layer of soil.
’Not bad!’
’Perhaps the old Cultivators don’t know the proper methods for preserving herbs.’
’But their years of experience taught them what would satisfy a buyer the most and earn them the most money.’
’With this quantity of herbs, I have enough main ingredients for the Fire Marrow Pills for a short while!’
’If I add the other supplementary ingredients, producing another twenty Fire Marrow Pills won’t be a problem.’
Bai Mo mused.
The supplementary ingredients were easy to find. As long as he was willing to spend some Spirit Stones, he could get them from the market in no time.
The Fire Marrow Pills were profitable, but the reaction from Lanshan and the others meant Bai Mo couldn’t afford to delay his progress on replicating the Evil Exorcism Pill.
The latter wasn’t just a matter of Spirit Stones; it was about establishing his foundation in Immortal Arrival City!
’Calling my imitation of the Evil Exorcism Pill a crude knockoff wouldn’t be an exaggeration.’
’Once I get that Pill Furnace back, I can make as many as I want!’
...
A few days later, Bai Mo left his shop.
The burly man who wielded the giant hammer had almost fully recovered, with only a few lingering side effects from the Qi Blood Pill.
As Bai Mo passed by, the man was holding a long wooden pillar, checking if it was straight.
Seeing Bai Mo, the man quickly had someone else take hold of the pillar while he stepped away.
Bai Mo got straight to the point. "You can forget about the Qi Blood Pills, but we can certainly talk about a deal for Spirit Wood."
"If all goes well, my shop will soon have a large furnace, and it will consume a great deal of Spirit Wood!"
Without sufficient heat, the raw materials would just pile up in the furnace, unable to be fully refined.
Thus, Spirit Wood was practically a standard requirement for any large furnace.
The man was stunned for a moment, a flicker of disappointment crossing his face, but he quickly perked up and came to Bai Mo’s side.
"Alchemist Bai, do you have the dimensions for the large furnace? There are some special considerations for installing something like that."
"I’ll have my brothers build a foundation for it in advance!"
After the meal of Demon Beast meat a few days prior, everyone’s motivation had clearly skyrocketed.
While he was unconscious, he had vaguely heard Bai Mo promise to treat his brothers to a meal.
He never imagined Bai Mo would be so generous—there had been a good twenty pounds of prime meat in that meal!
Bai Mo discussed the specifications of the large furnace with him, taking up a fair bit of time before he finally made his way to Forging Street.
As he walked into the shop, a clerk named Ah Chong immediately strode over to greet him.
"Fellow Daoist!"
His face was glowing with excitement.
Seeing his expression, Bai Mo knew that there had been no problems with his large furnace.
"Heh, it looks like I’ll be taking the furnace home today!"
Ah Chong gave a reserved nod and led Bai Mo to the back courtyard.
"Just as you requested."
A massive Pill Furnace sat on the ground, towering over Bai Mo.
"This thing is a real beast!"
"The fire-resistant material alone weighs over five hundred pounds!"
Ah Chong said, patting the body of the furnace.
Bai Mo placed a hand on it and could feel a residual warmth from the furnace body.
"Did you test it with fire?"
Ah Chong nodded.
Just last night, they had fired it up for a test run and hadn’t found any issues.
"It’s just... we don’t know anything about the Alchemy Dao, so we have no idea if this furnace is actually capable of performing Alchemy..."
Bai Mo waved his hand dismissively.
"As long as it conducts heat properly, that’s all that matters. As for the Alchemy, that’s our job!"
Hearing Bai Mo’s confirmation, Ah Chong grew even more excited.
For this project, their master hadn’t been involved at all. Instead, they had pooled the strength of all the apprentices to forge it themselves.
It was proof that they were capable of running the shop on their own!
But then, Ah Chong remembered something.
"Fellow Daoist, to build this furnace, we did some research on the structure of common Pill Furnaces."
"Some of the old-timers mentioned that Pill Furnaces have a special internal structure to ensure the pills come out perfectly round..."
"But this furnace doesn’t seem to have a design like that!"
Bai Mo paced back and forth, sizing up his new Pill Furnace. "That’s just hearsay," he said casually. "A layman’s speculation, nothing more."
Ah Chong followed behind him, listening with great curiosity as Bai Mo explained.
"Not all Pills come out perfectly round when they’re refined."
"Many of them are hand-rolled into shape afterward. So that ’special structure’ theory doesn’t hold water."
"How a Pill takes its final shape is entirely up to the alchemist! Of course, if it forms inside the Pill Furnace, its initial quality will naturally be a bit better..."
After inspecting the Pill Furnace and finding no faults, Bai Mo turned to Ah Chong and said:
"Fire it up. I want to see how this Pill Furnace runs!"
If there were any flaws, he could point them out on the spot for them to fix. Moving a behemoth like this back and forth would be a huge pain.
It would be a strenuous task even with help from Lanshan and his crew.
