Mortal's Journey: Reborn as Xin Ruyin, she begins by possessing Qi Yun's body.

Senior Brother Yu's enthusiasm is a way of returning the favor.

Being able to meet a cultivator who can refine "high-grade magic artifacts" would undoubtedly provide him with an extra layer of security.

Qi Yunxiao quickly accepted the bamboo slip with both hands, respectfully expressed his gratitude, and then unfolded the bamboo slip to examine it carefully.

The tasks on the bamboo slips were varied and densely packed, each with its own requirements and corresponding rewards.

"For refining iron ore, you can submit 5,000 catties of refined iron every year and receive 50 spirit stones and three kinds of low-grade spirit materials."

"By separating fire crystal ore and submitting two thousand catties of fire crystals annually, one can obtain eighty spirit stones and ten fire-attribute auxiliary pills."

"For crafting the standard robes of Huangfeng Valley, two sets must be submitted each year, and you will receive eighty spirit stones and one strand of silk."

"For crafting a Green Leaf Flying Magic Weapon, submit one each month to receive five spirit stones and ten catties of spirit wood."

……

After careful consideration, Qi Yunxiao raised his head and said to Senior Brother Yu, "Senior Brother Yu, I will choose the 'Separating Fire Crystal Ore' mission."

He chose this particular task not on a whim, but because he had planned it all along.

The biggest advantage of this mission is that you don't need to leave Huangfeng Valley at all. You can simply stay in your cave and extract the fire crystals from the baskets of fire crystal ore.

Compared to missions that require venturing deep into the mountains, hunting monsters, gathering spiritual herbs, or even traveling to dangerous places, this is infinitely safer.

Fire crystal is the most common low-level fire-attribute refining material in the cultivation world. It is indispensable for refining the lowest-level magic weapons or for preparing special pill formulas.

This substance is naturally in the form of tiny granules, deeply embedded in the veins of fire crystal ore. To extract it, a complicated refining process must be carried out to completely separate the ore from the fire crystal.

Ordinary outer and inner disciples, even if they can only use fire-attribute spells, can only refine and smelt.

After all that hard work, they could only extract 60-70% of the fire crystals from the ore. The rest either remained in the waste rock and were discarded, or were destroyed during the refining process.

When the sect assigns tasks, it has already factored in this loss, and the set quota already leaves room for adjustment.

But Qi Yunxiao was different from others.

The Eight Trigrams Furnace can purify and refine materials, and its refining speed far exceeds that of ordinary people. It can also extract all the fire crystals from the ore, achieving true 100% refining.

The sect only required him to hand over a fixed amount of fire crystals; any excess would naturally go into his own pocket. How could Qi Yunxiao easily let go of such a good opportunity to openly "line his own pocket"?

For this reason, he skipped over tasks such as refining iron ore and copper ore.

Those materials are cheap, and even if you hoard some, you won't get many spirit stones in return. They are far less valuable than fire crystals.

Moreover, fire crystal ore does not contain only fire crystal as a useful substance; it also contains trace amounts of fire-elemental spirit sand, stone marrow, and other miscellaneous materials.

Most of the materials that others would discard during refining could be separated into smaller pieces by the Eight Trigrams Furnace.

Over time, these small amounts can accumulate into a considerable sum of extra income.

High value, easy to hide, and safe and secure—this mission was practically tailor-made for him.

"Junior brother, are you sure you want to choose this mission?"

Behind the counter, Senior Brother Yu, who was in charge of distributing tasks, looked up and glanced at Qi Yunxiao with some surprise.

Having worked at the Hundred Machines Hall for many years, he was intimately familiar with the difficulty levels of each task and immediately offered a helpful reminder:

"The fire crystal is embedded in the stone, small and fragile, and extracting it is extremely mentally taxing. If the technique is not right, it will be destroyed. Many disciples have accepted this task and then turned it down, or failed to complete their quota and were punished. The success rate is very low."

Qi Yunxiao understood, but remained outwardly calm, and slightly cupped his hands, saying, "Thank you for your kind reminder, Senior Brother. I understand, so I will choose the task of separating the fire crystal ore."

His tone was calm, yet it carried an unwavering resolve.

Seeing his resolute attitude, Senior Brother Yu stopped trying to persuade him.

In the world of cultivation, everyone has their own opportunities and choices. It's hard to persuade a stubborn person with kind words, and no amount of reminders from others will help.

In his view, Qi Yunxiao was probably blinded by the small profit he heard about the surplus of materials for the refining task, unaware of the difficulties involved. He would only realize the hardship when he actually started refining.

Anyway, this task is tedious and difficult to achieve results, so few people take it. Qi Yunxiao's willingness to take it on also helps him complete the task quota assigned by the sect.

Senior Brother Yu said no more, then took out a gray storage bag from behind him, placed it on the counter, and pushed it over: "This contains the fire crystal ore, valid for one year. After one year, you only need to return the storage bag, which contains two thousand catties of fire crystals. Nothing else is required."

"clear."

Qi Yunxiao reached out and picked up the storage bag. After a brief examination, he could sense the mineral aura inside, and his heart immediately calmed down.

He bowed to his senior brother Yu and said, "Thank you, senior brother. Farewell."

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and walked straight out of the Hundred Machines Hall. He then rode the Azure Leaf Magic Artifact back to his secluded cave dwelling on Xuankun Mountain.

Upon entering the cave, Qi Yunxiao closed the stone door, completely shutting out the noise from the outside world.

He raised the corner of his mouth slightly, directly put the ore from the storage bag into the Eight Trigrams Furnace, and then ignored it.

He then sat cross-legged and began his practice.

Time flies, and two years have passed in the blink of an eye, like sand slipping through our fingers.

Qi Yunxiao carried a heavy storage bag and walked out of Baiji Hall again.

The bag contained two thousand catties of fire crystals he had refined over the past year, just enough to meet the sect's quota for the mission.

In the past two years, he has taken on two missions to "separate fire crystal ore".

Relying on the miraculous ability of the Eight Trigrams Furnace to refine 100% of the minerals, he was able to secretly keep a large amount of fire crystals from the ore in each mission.

In addition to the fire-elemental spirit sand, stone marrow, and other miscellaneous materials that were overlooked by others but which he separated one by one using the Eight Trigrams Furnace, he accumulated a rather substantial fortune.

He used all of these privately collected materials to refine magical artifacts.

With the blessing of the Eight Trigrams Furnace and his increasingly skilled crafting techniques, he crafted many mid-level and even high-level magical artifacts. Then, during his spare time, he would secretly go to the market in Yellow Maple Valley to sell these artifacts one by one.

He kept almost none of the spirit stones he received, exchanging them all for various cultivation-aiding pills, working tirelessly day and night to hone his cultivation.

Not long ago, he swallowed the Foundation Establishment Pill distributed by the sect, and with the help of the pills he had accumulated over the days, he cultivated diligently day and night, and finally steadily pushed his cultivation to the peak of the twelfth level of Qi Refining, just one step away from the thirteenth level of Qi Refining.

However, this intense cultivation had almost exhausted all his savings. At this moment, after searching through all his storage bags, he only had a little over five hundred spirit stones left, which made him feel rather strapped for cash.