Chapter 15: Learning Alchemy (Part 1)

  After waiting for half a day, there was still no news from Wang Bo, and Shi Sheng couldn't help but feel a little helpless.

  Bang! A soft echo!

  "Huh?" Shi Sheng narrowed his eyes, sensing a muffled sound coming from the back room. Although the voice was very faint, Shi Sheng's current senses far surpassed those of ordinary people, and he still managed to hear the sound.

  Before the stone was born, a faint fragrance wafted out, but it didn't seem like the enticing aroma of food, rather a clear and mellow scent that invigorated the spirit, cleared the mind, and left an indescribable feeling of comfort!

  Just as Shí Shēng was getting into a trance, there was a faint creaking sound, and the back door opened with a slight noise. Wáng Bó walked out of the room with a smile on his face. Seeing Shí Shēng, he first looked stunned, then nodded slightly.

  "What trouble have you encountered again?" Wang Bo looked in a good mood, sitting on the chair behind the wooden table opposite Shi Sheng, taking up his tea cup and sipping it.

  "I thought Wang Bo wasn't here, and nothing was wrong, just came to exchange some silver!" As he spoke, Shi Sheng placed more than 20 talismans he had refined on the table.

  Wang Bo just swept it casually, and suddenly his eyes flashed: "What? Twenty-five talismans, you actually successfully refined twenty-one talismans?" Wang Bo took the talisman in his hand to examine it, and his face couldn't hide a shocked expression.

  The first time Sheng refined the talisman, Wang Bo felt that Sheng was just lucky. Originally, these twenty or so talismans were not something Sheng would have dared to try easily, after all, the price was right there.

  Slowly and carefully refining, but not a true ascension cultivator, more than 20 talismans are enough for Shi Sheng to use for half a year. Moreover, according to Wang Bo's idea, this beginner's first refinement of the talisman, can successfully refine ten, reaching nearly half success rate is already rare.

  It was unexpected that Shi Sheng had achieved a success rate of over 90%, and it was completed in just a few days. This is not something that a newcomer can do, let alone a dedicated talisman master.

  "Ah, still four failed, but next time I'll strive for all to be successfully refined!" Shi Sheng said with some boastfulness, while Wang Bo just rolled his eyes.

  "Do you think that just because you can refine talismans, you'll succeed every time? Even I, when refining higher-level talismans, have a failure rate. What's more, I'm curious - how did you manage to refine it in such a short period of time? Did you not eat or drink for the past few days, and didn't sleep?" Wang Bo looked at Shi Sheng's eyes, which still had some bloodshot remnants, and asked thoughtfully.

  "Haven't you been suffocated by Wang Bo's debt? You can't be slow about it!" Shi Sheng smiled.

  "I see you're worried that someone will cause trouble, huh? Day and night, refining talismans to increase your spiritual power, you're indeed working hard, heh! Each talisman is worth over five taels, deducting the cost, I'll give you fifty copper coins for these, consider it a bonus!" Wang Bo said with a smile, while secretly admiring Shi Sheng's perseverance, truly living up to his name.

  "What? This is a spirit symbol, and it's worth fifty cents each? Even doing odd jobs for a day can earn several copper coins!" Shi Sheng felt that he had encountered Zhou Bo Pi, and thought that Wang Bo was really too black-hearted, and couldn't help but curse in his heart.

  "These are all for treating illnesses of the poor, sometimes you can't even make 50 cents. I'm already giving you a high price, if you take it out to sell, there's no place to sell it, who would get sick just to use your talisman?"

  "Besides, ordinary people can't afford to pay so much silver. If not, you might as well sell it to the patient yourself!" Wang Bo shrugged his shoulders, completely unfazed by Shi Sheng's fiery gaze.

  After a long silence, Shi Sheng's face turned bright red, and finally, like a deflated balloon, Wang Bo was right. If he didn't sell to Wang Bo, where could he find so many patients? Besides, ordinary poor people really couldn't afford it.

  "Wang Bo, that's still short of one talisman, how can it be worth only fifty cents!" Shi Sheng frowned and said, this is twenty-one pieces, not just a string of cash to settle the matter.

  "Haha, consider it interest then! Next time I'm in a good mood, I won't collect it!" Wang Bo showed off his signature gentle smile again, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Shi Sheng, who was furious.

  "Alright, I admit it. Take another hundred sheets of talisman paper and refine more talismans. I'll pay back the silver coins I owe you as soon as possible." Shi Sheng didn't lose heart either. Twenty talismans for one guan of money was equivalent to one tael of silver. If he worked hard, it wasn't impossible to pay back all the silver coins within two years.

  "Do you think I'm producing talismans? I don't have that many at the moment, but I still have fifty sheets left, take them all!" As he spoke, Wang Bo handed a bundle of talismans to Shi Sheng.

  "Good!" Shi Sheng put away the talisman paper, seemingly remembering something, and asked: "Wang Bo, earlier a fragrance wafted out of the house, what was it? I feel it has some benefits for my cultivation, calming my mind and soothing my spirit. Can you let me smell more?"

  "Oh?" Wang Bo furrowed his brow, a hint of hesitation flashing in his eyes, but after a moment, he raised his head and stared intently at Shi Sheng for a long time.

  "Do you want to learn alchemy?" Wang Bo asked with a serious face.

  "Refine the elixir?" Shi Sheng was taken aback at first, but then a fiery color flashed in his eyes as he instantly thought of the immortal pills from TV shows that could grant eternal youth when consumed.

  "Wang Bo, could this elixir possibly grant eternal youth? Preserve one's looks forever? Or perhaps greatly increase one's abilities after consumption?" Shi Sheng asked with some anticipation.

  "Haha, you're thinking too much, what kind of elixir is that? It's just some medicine to cure illnesses and save people!" Wang Bo chuckled and stroked his beard with one hand.

  Upon hearing this, Shi Sheng's interest was lacking: "It doesn't make any sense, I might as well focus on studying and refining talismans."

  "The value of Dan medicine is high!" Wang Bo smiled slowly.

  "How high is it?" Shi Sheng asked casually.

  "A dan medicine for one or two silver coins, pure profit!" Wang Bo said almost word by word.

  Shi Sheng's eyes lit up, and he placed twenty talismans on top of a dan medicine. This was indeed a good way to make money. After thinking about it for a moment, Shi Sheng nodded his head.

  "Alright, Wang Bo, I'll learn to refine elixirs, as long as it makes money, I'll learn!" Shi Sheng is now lacking in nothing but money, as long as it's not dangerous, illegal or crosses the bottom line, Shi Sheng can accept it.

  "Alright, follow me. I want to see if you have a talent for alchemy like you do for talismans!" With that, Wang Bo led Shi Sheng to the back room with a hint of expectation.

  A room that wasn't too big, with only a bed and nothing else, but Wang didn't stop at all, taking Shi Sheng through the bedroom to the last half-enclosed room.

  The room was not very large, about the size of a zhang, with a small stove in it. On top of the stove sat a small, blue-green cauldron, about two feet high, with a lid on top that had a pattern of dragons and phoenixes carved into it. The cauldron itself was surrounded by some carvings of flowers, birds, fish, and insects.

  "Antiques, absolute antiques!" Shi Sheng sighed secretly in his heart, and came to the small cauldron, looking at it and touching it. He felt that the small cauldron was icy to the touch, and at a glance, it was not made of ordinary materials, and emitted a subtle fluctuation.

  "Have you ever seen a spiritual instrument like this before?" Wang Bo looked at Shi Sheng with an envious gaze, and couldn't help but ask in puzzlement, not knowing that Shi Sheng had taken it for a priceless antique.

  "Huh? That's not it, I just think that small cauldron of Wang Bo is no ordinary object, so I'm admiring it!" Shi Sheng chuckled and then pretended to be nonchalant.

  "Haha, that's not bad. This is a spiritual instrument, a medicine cauldron, which is essential for Doctor Fu to refine special dan medicine. If you use an ordinary medicine cauldron to refine dan medicine, it will greatly reduce the medicinal properties of the dan medicine and the success rate won't be high either!" Wang Bo said with a smile.

  "So this is a spiritual artifact!" Shi Sheng said thoughtfully, but still felt that having a defensive spiritual artifact would be more reliable.

  "First take a few herbs, we'll start refining the elixir!" Wang Bo said, pressing one hand on an ordinary spot on the wall with a creak.

  A strange scene appeared, the wall in front of him suddenly trembled slightly, and then it opened to both sides like a big gate, a strong fragrance rushed towards him.

  "Is there a medicine garden inside the secret room?" Shi Sheng's eyes lit up, and after seeing the hidden door, he saw that it was densely planted with medicinal materials. The aroma was refreshing, but unfortunately, none of them were recognizable to Shi Sheng.

  "These are all the family properties I have, some valuable medicinal materials!" Wang Bo said with a smile.

  Some were surprised to look at it for a while, but Shi Sheng, who was meticulous and agile in his thoughts, had a subtle doubt. Since the medicine garden was so precious, he and Wang Bo were not close relatives, how could they be completely unguarded against him?

  Although Shi Sheng looks like a child on the surface, his thoughts are not naive at all. He doesn't think that their friendship has reached a point where there are no secrets between them. If he had such a secret, Shi Sheng feels that he would definitely not tell Wang Bo.

  Although he had some doubts, Shi Sheng knew to be cautious and immediately put on a serious face, no longer paying attention to the medicinal materials. He slowly opened his mouth and said, "Wang Bo, when do we start refining the elixir?"

  Seeing this, Wang Bo nodded slightly and secretly praised Shi Sheng's calmness. He smiled and said, "Wait a moment!" After that, Wang Bo went to the medicine garden to pick some medicinal materials, then closed the secret room of the medicine garden.

  Wang Bo divided each medicinal material into two portions, lit the stove, and placed a small green cauldron on it. The cauldron slowly heated up, finally turning slightly red, but strangely, Shi Sheng felt that there was no temperature around the small cauldron, and when he touched it with his hand, the outside of the cauldron wasn't hot either.

  "Lingqi Yao Ding is indeed a good thing!" Shisheng exclaimed.

  "Kid, I've divided the medicine into two portions, one for each of us. This is the simplest 'Golden Creation Pill', specifically used to treat all kinds of external injuries. After taking it, the wound can heal in the shortest time possible and reduce scarring."

  Later, I will refine and explain it to you. You not only need to carefully watch each step and the order of adding medicinal materials, but also pay attention to the fire temperature." Wang Bo said seriously.

  "Needless to infuse spiritual energy?" Shi Sheng asked.

  "This is just an ordinary pill, not a magic elixir, so you don't need to use your inner energy to assist it. Just observe carefully and when the time comes for you to refine it, don't expect success. I mainly want to see how far you can reach, what level of fire control you can attain, and whether or not you have a natural talent for alchemy." Wang Bo smiled slightly.

  After a moment of contemplation, Shi Sheng's expression turned solemn as he said, "Don't worry, Wang Bo, I will study carefully!" Wang Bo nodded and slowly placed a medicinal herb into the cauldron. Shi Sheng watched intently with rapt attention. (End of this chapter, next chapter is even more exciting!)

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