Demonic Demoness Training Project

"This is all I have, and I really can't afford it. How about this, I'll come back and buy your boat after I've earned enough money in a few days."

Although Lu Li had no intention of buying a boat, he didn't completely rule it out, leaving some room for maneuver. After all, the other party was practically a local strongman, and if he offended them, he might face trouble in the next few days.

However, upon hearing Lu Li's words, the boat merchant's face stiffened, and the other gold prospectors behind him secretly sneered.

"This kid looks like he's here for the first time. He's heard people say that you can make a lot of money by panning for gold here, but he doesn't know that this is a skill."

"Ha, he's going to buy a boat in a few days? Him? I've been in this business for twenty years, and I've almost been unable to pay the boat rental these past two months. Does he really think making money is so easy, and that spirit mines are everywhere?"

"When they can no longer afford to pay the boat rent, they'll probably behave themselves."

Lu Li heard all of this, but he didn't say anything. Instead, the ship dealer continued to promote his ship.

"Here's what we'll do: for one and a half spirit stones, I'll also give you an extra set of gold panning tools. Let me tell you, these are first-grade tools, produced by the Qingyang Palace. If you leave them out there, they're worth at least two spirit stones."

Before Lu could speak, Old Duan's voice rang in his mind.

"Hahaha, this ignorant thing has never seen the world. He can't even lie properly. He thinks he can buy a first-class puppet with two spirit stones."

Although Lu Li already possessed the Qi-Melting Cauldron, he still needed to purchase the basic gold-mining mechanism, whether for his own use or to conceal his identity. Therefore, he deliberately feigned a troubled expression and continued to speak carelessly:

“I can rent them all. It’s not that I don’t want to buy them, it’s just that I really only have this one spirit stone left. My mother saved it for me to get married.”

"Alright, alright. The rent for the gold mining facility is thirty coins a day, and the deposit is three thousand coins. The minimum rental period is ten days, so it's three thousand five hundred coins in total. Here you go."

As he spoke, the ship dealer's face fell instantly, and he became impatient again. Clearly, he didn't think Lu Li could break even, much less that Lu Li would come to buy his ship in a couple of days.

"What are you looking at? If you don't believe me, ask them. Our boat rentals are for a minimum of ten days. There's no reason to rent for just one day."

"alright."

Lu Li gritted his teeth. Three thousand five hundred coins was still within his acceptable range. He handed the spirit stones to the other party, who then gave him the corresponding amount of silver and copper coins in change.

Lu Li counted the money in front of everyone and found it to be correct before taking the silver and boarding the boat. Just then, an old man waved to him. The old man looked to be in his forties or fifties, with pale skin covered in wrinkles, like a dried corpse that had been soaking in water for a long time. He looked rather frightening.

"Hey buddy, wait a minute, wanna share a boat? You're not familiar with gold panning, you have no experience."

"No need, I want to try it myself first."

Lu Li's main reliance in gold panning is the Heqi Cauldron, which must not be seen by others to avoid causing any unforeseen complications.

“Look over there, each boat has at least two people, one to scoop and the other to sift. Besides, there are specific places to pan for gold and specific times to go into the water. I think this is your first time here, I can teach you all of this.”

"No need. I actually worked in this line of work with my father before, so I'm not exactly a complete newbie."

Lu Li spoke loudly. She had sailed boats before, but this was her first time panning for gold. Although she didn't know how effective the Qi-Mixing Cauldron was, it was definitely much better than the mechanisms in the mortal world.

He said this in advance so that if he suddenly became rich in the next few days, these people would be mentally prepared and avoid arousing suspicion.

After saying that, he prepared to leave by rowing the boat. The awning boat slowly moved along the shore, and the man chased after it while shouting.

"Young man, slow down, wait for me. Let's split it 40/60, no, 30/70, or even 20/80 if necessary. Let me finish."

Without looking back, Lu Li sailed the awning boat into the relatively turbulent waters, its speed increasing until it finally left the man far behind, just as he had refused Mu Ya's funeral services back then.

Finally, Lu Li vaguely heard someone behind him mutter a few curses at him, but he couldn't hear them clearly because they were too far away.

"Pah, just you wait and see. I'm giving you good advice but you won't listen. I'd like to see what kind of mess you can make."

Lu Li ignored what others were saying, and touched the loose silver coins he had just received in his bag. With these, it would be easier to make change when paying in the future. He didn't trust anyone except the money he actually held in his hand.

The current beneath him grew increasingly turbulent, and the boat began to rock violently. Lu Li was alone, and the turbulent current made him feel somewhat powerless.

It was already evening, but the people on the river still showed no sign of going back. They were all racing against time under the setting sun, repeating the same things they had done during the day.

The sun will set, but the spiritual ore flowing in the water will not wait for anyone. Only a few boats have smoke rising from their chimneys, as always has been.

Chapter 13 How can you cultivate immortality without money?

"It's just a few spirit stones, and I can hardly stand watching you all being so stingy. Tsk tsk tsk, you're still as cautious as ever."

"I still understand the principle of not flaunting wealth."

"Cherish this feeling. When you have enough control over the Qi-Gathering Cauldron to drain the spiritual minerals from an entire body of water, you will understand that reasoning with these mortals is a waste of time."

"I'm far from that point yet; at least for now, I'm just a mortal."

“Mortal? You probably don’t know the power of the Aikido. You are much stronger than them.”

"Well."

"You've gained power comparable to a cultivator, aren't you even a little excited? Back then, my disciple had just acquired a first-level puppet and couldn't resist going to spar with his fellow disciples."

"He got beaten up?"

"How could that be? The Qi-Gathering Cauldron is incredibly expensive, and its effects are top-notch among first-stage mechanical artifacts. Back then, he was unmatched among his peers. Why can't you try being a little more arrogant?"

"A tree that stands out in the forest will surely be felled by the wind."

After saying this, Lu Li rowed his boat away from the crowd. He found a secluded spot on the river and, seeing that no one was paying attention, began to secretly activate the Qi-Gathering Cauldron.

Immediately afterwards, ripples spread out from Lu Li, and the air currents sank into the water, creating ripples.

Lu Li's divine sense is limited, and he can't even do internal vision, but with the blessing of the Qi-Gathering Cauldron, these ripples and waves are like an extension of his divine sense, allowing him to perceive the situation in the water.

As dusk deepened, fishing lights gradually rose on the river. Lu Li was far from the crowds, so the surroundings seemed especially dark. On the vast river, his figure appeared somewhat lonely.

However, his eyes were bright and piercing. From his perspective, what lay beneath his feet seemed not to be river water but a dazzling Milky Way. The golden sands scattered in the river water all transformed into a sky full of stars, which were clearly visible.

At this moment, Lu Li felt a surge of emotion. This was the first time in his life that he had witnessed such a breathtaking sight.

Aikido kettle, what a wonderful aikido kettle!

The world seen through the eyes of a cultivator is so wonderful!

Cultivating immortality is not only for achieving longevity, but also for experiencing the magnificent scenery from higher places.

If you look closely, you'll find that there are differences between these stars; their brightness and color vary, and some areas are more densely distributed.

Lu Li quickly figured out the reason: the brightness of the stars most likely represented the size of the spirit ore particles, the color represented different types of spirit ore, and the density of their distribution represented the amount of spirit ore.

It is obvious that the waters where gold prospectors congregate generally have a high content of spiritual minerals. These people, with years of experience, know where to go into the water to pan for gold most efficiently.

However, experience is just experience; nothing beats the speed of a full-map scan.

There are still many unknown corners in the Liubao River, places that contain huge amounts of spiritual minerals, which have been accumulated for decades or even centuries without anyone paying attention.

"Just a little bit of oil that seeps out between the fingers is so terrifying. It's really hard to imagine how rich the Qingyang and Baiyue sects are."

Lu Li felt an itch to write a poem, lamenting his lack of talent and inability to express his resentment towards the rich.

Seeing this, Lu Li pushed off with a bamboo pole, and the boat slowly moved towards the direction with the densest starlight.

After arriving above the rich spiritual ore deposit, he glanced around with his small eyes to make sure no one was around and no one was trying to steal his spiritual ore. Only then did he sit down cross-legged and start activating the Qi-Harmony Cauldron again.

There is a rock at the bottom of this riverbed. When the river flows through this area, it is slowed down by the rock, causing granular spiritual minerals to settle here.

Lu Li took a deep breath and exhaled it again under the effect of the Qi-Mixing Cauldron. This breath did not enter the water, but instead merged directly with the water, gradually sinking to the bottom and stirring up the sand and spirit ore at the bottom of the water.

"Ok?"

Lu Li was somewhat surprised by this scene. He thought that his breath would displace the water. He still had some impression of the water-dissipation and air-gathering method he learned in high school.

Lu Li couldn't help but ask, "Why didn't this energy displace the water?"

Master Duan explained, “The lungs belong to the metal element. The breath you exhale through the Qi-Gathering Cauldron is called Gang Qi, which can control metal. How can it be the same as ordinary breath?”

"Such a thing has happened."

"There's a lot you don't know."

Under the influence of this air, the sand and gravel mixed with silt were blown up, slowly rising to the surface of the rushing water, and then, driven by Lu Li, falling into the wooden barrels on the boat, turning into a black, mushy lump of mud.

This mud is mainly composed of silt. Although it contains spiritual minerals, the types are mixed and it is difficult to use them to smelt mechanical components. It needs to undergo further processing to separate the spiritual minerals before it can be used for refining artifacts.

The price varies drastically depending on the purity of the spirit ore.

Take cold iron as an example. The stamping workshop where Lu Li works usually uses cold iron ore with 80% purity, which costs about 250 to 300 coins per catty.

If it undergoes special smelting and forging processes to raise its purity to 85%, the price will rise to 500 wen per jin.

If the purity can reach 90%, the price will double, reaching 1,000 coins per catty.

According to the Stamping Manual, if the purity can reach 97% or higher, it transcends the category of materials used in mortal mechanisms and can be used to refine a first-stage mechanical artifact, causing its price to soar to half a spirit stone per pound.

Of course, the stamping workshop where Lu Li worked mainly produced mortal mechanical components. Even if there were high-purity cold iron ore, it wouldn't be entrusted to him, a mere apprentice.

If the normal gold panning process were followed, a mortal mechanism called the "Gold Sinking Screen" would be used to sift out the spiritual ore from the silt.

Lu Li placed the silt on the gold-sinking sieve, rinsing it with water while starting the sieve. The silt was indeed washed away, but the various mixed spirit ores were still mixed together and difficult to separate.

"If judged by the standards of gold prospectors, this level of spirit ore is good enough to sell. Disciples often come to this area to buy ore at low prices."

"Oh? Sect disciples also value these miscellaneous ores?"

"As you know, not all disciples are rolling in money. There are also differences between disciples. The purchase price of miscellaneous ore is extremely low, ranging from three to twenty coins per pound, depending on its composition."

"If they need to gather spiritual materials to craft mechanisms, and those mechanisms don't require high purity of spiritual ore, then buying mixed ore from Liubao River is the most economical method. In addition, the sect also has artifacts for separating spiritual ore, but the purity of the separated ore is limited, and each rental requires paying spiritual stones."

"Why does everything require spirit stones...?"

"Nonsense, if you don't have a few spirit stones, what kind of immortal cultivation are you going to achieve?"

Chapter 14 Differential Centrifugation

Judging from Duan Lao's tone, it seemed like it was only natural that one didn't need to cultivate immortality if they didn't have money.

Lu Li felt that something was not quite right. The fantasy novels he had read in his previous life were not written like this.

Shaking his head, Lu Li cleared his mind. If he wanted to sell mixed ores at a higher price, the best way was undoubtedly to separate the various types of mixed ores.

Under his control, the Qi flowed, and the mixed ore dried rapidly. As the speed changed, the color of the mixed ore actually began to change.

To be precise, a reddish-brown spirit ore was separated from the original mixed ore under the influence of the protective energy.

Picking up a handful of ochre-red spirit ore and examining it closely by the campfire, Lu Li quickly recognized it as spirit guide copper. He had seen this kind of basic spirit ore before, as he worked in the stamping workshop.

"I knew it..."

Lu Li nodded slightly.

What is being used now is the differential centrifugation method from the previous life. The mixed minerals exist in the form of granules. Since different spiritual minerals have different densities, and the particles of the same type of spiritual mineral are of equal size, they are separated by centrifugal force.

Among this batch of mixed ores, the copper particles were the largest, so they were separated first.

Old Duan was quite surprised by this. It wasn't that she hadn't thought of this method, because the centrifugal ore separator in Qingyang Palace used this principle.

What surprised her was that, given Lu Li's vision, knowledge, and mastery of the art of puppetry, how could he have come up with such a method?

Her original idea was that since Lu Li was at a loss, she could take the opportunity to give him some pointers, let this disrespectful and arrogant junior see her abilities, and it would be much easier to discipline him in the future.

Unexpectedly, Lu Li figured out a solution without her even needing to point it out.

Could it be... that this kid is a genius?

After all, the wooden crow can only measure a person's physical constitution, spiritual roots, and divine sense, but it cannot measure a person's comprehension and knowledge.

Lu Li continued to operate the Qi-Harmonizing Cauldron, accelerating the circulation of the Qi, and successively separating five kinds of spiritual ores: Xuan Iron, Qing Lead, Gray Silver, Kongming Stone, and Liuguang Sand.

Of course, this batch of mixed ore contains far more than six types of spirit ore. With his control over it, Lu Li could only separate out these six types in the first round, and each portion of spirit ore still contained mixed ore.

Lu Li was quite satisfied with the result.

While further separation of these six types of spirit ore could yield even purer spirit ore, Lu Li felt it was unnecessary.

Firstly, doing this would waste a lot of time, and he might as well use that time to collect more miscellaneous minerals and start over.

Secondly, if the purity is lower, he can make up an excuse when selling it. If it's too pure, it will arouse suspicion and cause trouble.

Add a little impurity to prevent the disciples from not knowing that Lu Li is selling mixed ore.

The whole process took half an hour. Lu Li weighed the six kinds of spirit ores one by one, calculated their respective recycling prices, and came up with an astonishing figure.

A spirit stone!

According to Lu Li's conservative estimate, all these spirit ores combined could be sold for at least one spirit stone, which was his annual salary at the stamping workshop.

Having earned a year's worth of money in just half an hour, Lu Li couldn't help but feel excited.

Lu Li initially refused the loan, because he didn't think he could forge this first-stage mechanical artifact within a month; his financial resources and abilities simply didn't allow it.

For him to gather two hundred spirit stones in a short period of time on his own is nothing short of a pipe dream.

However, at the time he only saw the pressure of debt and the risk of forfeiting collateral, but he overlooked one point: the instrument obtained through the loan was itself a leverage, a leverage that could generate interest on interest.