Longzang

Chapter 550 On the right track
Upon returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan took out a bottle of Gathering Yuan Pills, counted the pills inside, and then poured all twelve into his mouth. As soon as the pills entered his stomach, spiritual energy exploded, nourishing his somewhat depleted body, and his Dao power rapidly recovered.

Spiritual energy began to continuously emerge from the everyday life of ordinary people, replenishing their strength.

However, Wei Yuan's physical body was extremely powerful, and his Dao power was equivalent to the sum of dozens of ordinary Dharma forms.

Normally, two Gathering Yuan Pills would be enough to fully replenish the Dao power of a Dharma Aspect cultivator, but Wei Yuan swallowed an entire bottle, and the replenished Dao power was less than half of what he had achieved. This bottle of Gathering Yuan Pills was personally refined by Xu Henshui, and its efficacy was significantly stronger than ordinary Gathering Yuan Pills.

Wei Yuan checked his body again and found that he had run out of the energy-replenishing pills. So he went to the Creation Pill Academy where Xu Henshui was, and saw Xu Henshui inspecting a batch of newly arrived medicinal herbs.

"I still need Gathering Yuan Pills," Wei Yuan said bluntly.

Xu Henshui was taken aback and said, "I refined 108 pills in the last batch, and I gave them all to you. You've already eaten them all? It hasn't even been three days, has it?"

"I urgently need to restore my Dao power. Does Martial Uncle have any reserves here?"

Xu Henshui took out a pill box and said, "Here are some Precious Fragrance Pills that I just refined. Although they are for Yu Jing's exclusive use, it seems your body can withstand their effects. Each pill is equivalent to the Dao power of twenty ordinary Dharma Aspects. Do you want some?"

Wei Yuan was overjoyed and of course did not refuse. Then he casually asked about the refining of the Precious Fragrance Pill, and Xu Henshui replied that the most common Precious Fragrance Pill was priced at a thousand taels of immortal silver, and an ordinary alchemist could produce four or five pills in one batch. However, Xu Henshui could refine the Imperial Realm level pills when he was in the Dharma Aspect stage, and could produce seven pills in one batch. It can only be said that he is worthy of being a candidate for the future head of the Creation Temple.

The ingredients for the Precious Fragrance Pill are worth about a thousand taels of immortal silver. An ordinary alchemist can earn four thousand taels of immortal silver after refining the pill, but they can only earn three times that amount with tears in their eyes. This is the normal earning level for an alchemist. For Xu Henshui, anything less than ten times is unacceptable.

Because of asking one more question, Wei Yuan decided to start preparing to establish Qingming's own pill industry as soon as the war eased a little.

Xu Henshui still had more than twenty Baoxiang Pills left, so Wei Yuan took out a piece of Nether Iron weighing over a thousand catties to pay for the pills. This piece of Nether Iron was worth over ten thousand taels of immortal silver, and Wei Yuan ordered another one hundred Baoxiang Pills from Xu Henshui for the extra amount.

Xu Henshui was overjoyed when he saw the Nether Iron. He hurriedly took it, fearing that Wei Yuan would change his mind. He said happily, "With this Nether Iron, I can start to forge the Water and Fire Furnace."

Wei Yuan took the pills and returned to his residence. He took four Precious Fragrance Pills in a row before he felt his Dao power was fully replenished. Then he entered the Netherworld again.

Having gained experience this time, Wei Yuan summoned both the Civil and Martial Dragon Guards to work with the Dragon Eagle to heat the Nether Iron. Wei Yuan then opened the portal and summoned the two masters of the Fighting Saint Hall.

As soon as they appeared, they were immediately overwhelmed by the invisible pressure around them, their faces turning red and their bodies trembling, showing signs of kneeling down.

Fortunately, Wei Yuan promptly empowered them, counteracting the invisible pull and pressure from below, which made them feel a little better.

The two observed their surroundings, and then Long Wushuang said that the Nether Iron was beyond his capabilities, but the Nether Crystal underground could be broken by skill, without requiring too high a level of cultivation, only requiring exquisite control of Dao power, which he could handle.

Unlike Long Wushuang, Han Li seemed to have a particularly diverse range of knowledge, knowing a little about everything. He stood there, looking up at the Nether Iron, his eyes faintly displaying countless complex lines and numerous symbols of unclear meaning.

After observing for a moment, Han Lifang said, "The laws of heaven and earth are disordered here, and the pressure is extremely high. But precisely because of this, smelting metals is relatively easy. There is a well-designed furnace. Although it is impossible to smelt Nether Iron in our world, it seems possible here. We might as well give it a try."

Wei Yuan immediately searched the Human World website and indeed found more than ten different kinds of furnaces. One of them was quite slender and tall, which was the furnace Han Li had mentioned, and it also had the highest furnace temperature.

These furnaces were designed by some unknown person in the human world. Wei Yuan also checked them out and found alchemy furnaces, woodworking platforms, and other utensils that are not currently used in the human world.

With Wei Yuan's permission, Han Li and Long Wushuang led the seven Dao Foundation cultivators in the hall to build a furnace. The furnace was mainly made of earthly rocks, with a layer of finely crushed Nether Crystals lining the inside for insulation. After resting twice, the group of Dao Foundation cultivators finally completed the furnace. Han Li then presided over the construction, with Wei Yuan having Kaihui Dharma Image assist, while they simultaneously channeled true fire into the furnace.

Sure enough, deep underground, the true fire, enhanced by both the furnace array and the structure, had its temperature rise dramatically. The Nether Iron, treated by the Gold Melting Daoist Book, was almost completely melted into molten iron.

Immediately, the mortals from the Institute of Structural and Materials Mechanics provided a new support structure. Wei Yuan then made molds himself, with the inner walls of the molds still lined with Nether Crystal. He then poured the molten Nether Iron from the furnace into the molds and pressed them down to form an iron brick.

Wei Yuan first used iron bricks to build four pillars, each supporting one corner. Then he used the remaining iron bricks to pave the ground, and had Long Ying use Nanming Li Fire to heat them, thus welding them into a complete piece of ground. Finally, Wei Yuan set up an isolation array on the ground to isolate the inside from the outside, and the pressure in the entire cave was finally relieved, reduced to less than one-tenth of its original level.

The current environment is already suitable for Dao Foundation cultivators to stay for a long time, while Wei Yuan's own stay time is close to infinite.

Now Wei Yuan has finally gained a foothold at the foot of this Dark Iron Mountain and built his first small base, although this base is still only the size of a room.

After the isolation array was set up, the furnace was taken over by a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators in turns, ensuring the furnace never stopped running. Wei Yuan left an opening outside the isolation array, from which he could dig for Nether Crystals.

With his hands free, Kaihui Dharma Image took over the Scarlet Night Immortal-Slaying Sword from Wei Yuan and cut through the Nether Iron.

After Wei Yuan mined enough Nether Crystals, he began constructing the second furnace. At this time, Han Li suggested setting up a Wind and Fire Array at the foot of the Dragon Eagle, which could effectively enhance the power of the Southern Bright Fire.

Wei Yuan readily accepted the suggestion, and after setting up the formation, the dragon eagle's attack power indeed increased significantly, and the time it took to melt the Nether Iron was reduced by half.

The second furnace was quickly completed, doubling the base's expansion speed. The excess Nether Iron was collected by Wei Yuan and stored in the Human Realm, with plans to bring it back to Qingming for use.

At this point, the process of melting, cutting, smelting, casting, and building the base was complete, and the base expansion was fully on track.

Wei Yuan only returned to Qingming after his Dao power was exhausted once again. This time, they dug back hundreds of thousands of catties of Nether Iron. Yu Zhizhuo was already numb from seeing it all and immediately began designing a new furnace.

The original furnace could only smelt 100 catties of Nether Iron at a time, and it would take several hours to burn it. It could no longer handle such a large quantity of Nether Iron.

Yu Zhizhuo and Renjian Yanhuo worked together, and under pressure, their inspiration flowed like a spring, ultimately leading to the concept of the Four Symbols Furnace Array.

This formation consists of four furnaces, each positioned at a corner of the array. The array is powered by spiritual objects and Dao Foundation cultivators, providing spiritual energy and controlling the true fire within the four furnaces. However, each of the four furnaces has its own unique characteristics.

The Western furnace is associated with killing and slaughter, producing metals with a strong malevolent aura. The Eastern furnace, on the other hand, is full of vitality. The Northern furnace is a low-temperature furnace, which is actually an auxiliary furnace. All the heat from the real fire in the Northern furnace is transferred to the Vermilion Bird furnace in the South.

The core concept of the Four Symbols Furnace comes from the Yin-Yang Furnace of the Heavenly Craft Hall. This furnace consists of two furnaces, forming a single unit. The Yin furnace is the auxiliary furnace, while the Yang furnace is the main furnace for refining. The heat of the Yin furnace is transferred to the Yang furnace, which allows Yu Zhizhuo to process various Dharma-type materials when he reaches the Dao Foundation stage.

The concept of centralized energy supply was provided by the concept of human interaction. By connecting the Four Symbols Furnaces with an array and supplying energy to all four furnaces in a unified manner, the restriction that the furnace operators must be fire or metal element cultivators was broken. Any cultivator could supply energy to the array, which would then be converted into the true fire required by the Four Symbols Furnaces.

This is because the Nether Iron is so difficult to smelt. Wei Yuan dug up too much of it, pushing Yu Zhizhuo and the mortals in the world to the brink of despair, resulting in the creation of this Four Symbols Furnace.

With the emergence of the Four Symbols Furnace, Qingming gained the ability to process Imperial-level materials without even needing to employ Dharma Aspect cultivators.

(End of this chapter)