The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

There were a dozen or so bamboo scrolls on the shelf, in varying conditions of preservation. Some were broken and would fall apart at the slightest touch. Others could still be unfolded.

She took down a well-preserved scroll and carefully unfolded it.

Ancient script. Densely arranged.

She deciphered each word one by one.

"...At the third turning point of the fire, one must use one's mind to guide the molten metal back into the furnace...This is the key secret passed down orally and through personal instruction from my master...Disciple Su Yan respectfully records it..."

The disciple's recorded reflections.

Chen Siyao took another roll.

"...The principle of mutual generation of the five elements must be applied to the furnace; neither can be neglected. Pure yang will result in rigidity and brittleness, while pure yin will result in toughness and weakness. My master once said that a supreme treasure must possess both yin and yang energies; neither can be lacking..."

Theoretical notes on weapon crafting.

Chen Siyao carefully removed the bamboo slip, gently brushed the dust off its surface with her fingertips, and focused intently on reading the ancient characters on it.

After studying it for a moment, a look of surprise and understanding flashed in her eyes!

"These are the cultivation insights and alchemy notes of Laozi's personally taught disciples!"

She murmured softly, her heart filled with joy: "It contains many ancient and lost cultivation methods, weapon-refining techniques, the essence of alchemy, and insights into the great Dao of the heavens. It is of extremely high value."

Ye Chendong, Qin Xiaoyu, and the others mainly cultivate cultivation and weapon crafting and alchemy.

These notes were an invaluable opportunity for them, one that they could only hope to avoid taking a century of detours! They were also of some help to them!

Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Siyao's fingertips moved, and inspiration flowed.

He carefully put all the bamboo slips into his expanded Qiankun bag, stored them properly, and planned to distribute them to everyone for study and comprehension after returning home.

At the same time, she manipulated the recording crystal to record the contents of the bamboo slips, the entire view of the alchemy room, and the details of the Bagua furnace in high definition, and transmitted them back to the Blue Star Research Institute in real time for in-depth research by the entire academic community.

Yang Wanqing found Chen Hao in the square.

He was still sitting on those steps. The water in the teapot had been changed, and he held the cup in his hand, his eyes half-closed.

"master!"

Yang Wanqing ran over and braked suddenly, his sneakers scraping against the stone slab.

Chen Hao opened his eyes.

"Master, why don't you go inside and take a look? There are so many things inside."

Chen Hao, holding his cup, asked in a flat tone, "What are you looking at?"

"Look what's inside! Laozi's palace! The Eight Trigrams Furnace! Materials for alchemy! Materials for weapon forging!"

"I've been here more than once," Chen Hao said, taking a sip of tea. "What's so interesting about it?"

Yang Wanqing choked for a moment.

Correct.

The master has lived for over ten thousand years. To him, Laozi's palace is probably like a park he's visited eight hundred times.

She dropped her sales pitch and got straight to the point.

"Master, I want to forge weapons."

"Um."

"But the Eight Trigrams Furnace can't be ignited with ordinary fire. I tried, and charcoal didn't work. Yao Yao said it might need something like Samadhi True Fire."

Chen Hao's gaze shifted from the teacup to her face.

It paused for a second.

"What do you want to refine?"

"It's just a small item! I just wanted to try it out! I've never seen those materials before in Penglai, and my hands are itching to get them!"

Chen Hao did not answer immediately.

Yang Wanqing was unaware of what he was thinking. The materials in the alchemy room were the old stock of the Celestial Venerable of Morality and his disciples.

The rank is beyond Yang Wanqing's current capabilities.

With her current cultivation level and weapon-refining experience, throwing materials into the Eight Trigrams Furnace would most likely only result in one outcome: waste.

But he looked at Yang Wanqing's face, which was full of expectation.

Forget it.

Let the apprentice try it if she wants. Let the materials burn if they're not hers anyway.

He stood up. "Let's go."

Yang Wanqing happily followed.

Upon entering the alchemy room, Chen Hao glanced at the three materials that Yang Wanqing had laid out on the ground.

Dark red metal ingot, Crimson Abyss Iron.

Silvery-white fragments, stardust.

The sealed liquid is probably some kind of spiritual liquid used to assist in quenching.

He did not comment on the choice of materials.

Chen Siyao was walking over from the shelf, holding a scroll of bamboo slips in her hand. When she saw Chen Hao come in, she put the scroll away.

"Brother, I found some insightful information inside. It's a collection of notes on alchemy and weapon crafting recorded by a disciple of Laozi."

"Um."

"Can I take these? I'd like to take them back for reference; they might be helpful to Ying Wenjie and Ye Chendong."

Chen Hao's answer was casual. "Everything here is unclaimed now. Just take it."

This sentence...

Crystal faithfully relayed this message back to the live stream.

The live chat exploded instantly.

"Unclaimed items?? They can take things from so many palaces in the Thirty-Three Heavens??"

"Isn't this like striking it rich?!"

"Take any one of these items back to Earth, and it would be enough for someone to study for a lifetime!"

"I'm so envious my heart aches."

"Anything here could give you a head start in this mysterious resurgence."

"I also want to take one thing. Just one thing is fine."

"Upstairs, first—you need to get to Jupiter."

"It's 700 million kilometers away, why don't you swim there?"

Chen Siyao ignored the comments. After confirming her brother's meaning, she collected the remaining bamboo scrolls that could be preserved.

Yang Wanqing had already pulled Chen Hao's arm and walked towards the stove.

"Master, master, this is it. Could you help me start a fire?"

Chen Hao stood in front of the Eight Trigrams Furnace and looked up at it.

A furnace four meters tall. Eight sides engraved with trigrams. A tool used by the Daoist deity Morality and Law ten thousand years ago.

He casually placed the teacup on the table next to him.

Raise your right hand.

Palms facing up.

Three colors of flames condensed in Chen Hao's palm.

Red. White. Blue.

The three colors intertwined, swirled, and compressed into a fireball the size of a fist.

There was no heat leakage, but Yang Wanqing, standing three meters away, could feel the spiritual energy in the air fluctuating rapidly.

Chen Siyao took two steps back.

It wasn't fear, but rather the high concentration of spiritual energy around the flame that made her senses feel bloated.

Chen Hao did not hesitate.

With a flick of his hand, the three-colored fireball detached from his palm, floated towards the fire inlet at the bottom of the Eight Trigrams Furnace, and went inside.

one second.

two seconds.

Then the entire Bagua Furnace... lit up.

The trigram patterns on the eight walls of the furnace glowed simultaneously. The reddish-orange light shone through the gaps in the patterns, flowing along the lines, like blood being re-infused into a body that had been sleeping for ten thousand years.

The dragon-shaped relief on the furnace top opened its eyes, and the red light lasted for three seconds before dimming. It was probably some kind of activation indicator.

The temperature has risen.

It wasn't a slow rise. The temperature of the entire furnace jumped to an extremely high value the instant the furnace walls lit up.

The air within a three-meter radius began to distort and deform.

Yang Wanqing was pushed back a step by the heatwave. "It's so hot..."

Chen Hao raised his right hand, and a barrier was erected between Yang Wanqing and the furnace.