The pressure of 43 spiritual stones

  After Ye Chen activated the Alchemy Pavilion of the Immortal Mansion, he stayed in the Xiancheng Inn for half a month, pouring his own magical powers into the mansion to maintain its alchemy operation and refine spiritual instruments.

  Ye Chen had just reached the first layer of Qi Refining, and the spiritual power within his body was still very weak.

  Fortunately, it was the lowest grade of spiritual instrument that was being refined, and the consumption of magical power was not too great. He could slowly recover his magical power by meditating and absorbing the external spiritual energy.

  Xiao Qing was in the Xian Fu Lian Qi Ge, refining the primary spiritual artifact, the Xuan Tie Dao. She melted the fine sand of the Xuan Tie ore and refined it according to the diagram of the Xuan Tie Dao.

  Xiao Qing's technique was not very skilled at first, and it took more than six hours to refine a single Xuan Tie knife. After becoming slightly more proficient, the time was shortened to four or five hours, and sometimes even less than three hours.

  It's just that the spiritual power Ye Chen supplemented to the immortal mansion was too slow, limiting the speed of the immortal mansion's artifact refinement. At most, one day could only refine a single spirit artifact, and all the spiritual power would be exhausted. Ye Chen had to slowly meditate to recover.

  "What a pity! The success rate is too low, less than one percent. Now almost all of what's being produced are defective products!"

  Ye Chen bitterly smiled, feeling very helpless.

  In the first ten days, Xiao Qing forged ten swords in one breath, but they all ended up being defective spirit swords with cracks. To be considered qualified, a spirit sword must not have any cracks at all.

  One failure after another almost drove Xiao Qing mad. As a spiritual artifact, it was extremely intelligent and wouldn't accept such consecutive failures. However, it was getting closer to success, with the number of cracks on the Ling Knife decreasing from dozens to just a few.

  Ye Chen had Xiao Qing take these scrap materials back to the furnace for decomposition and re-refine the Ling Blade.

  For this, he also consumed one of his spiritual stones, making him feel a sharp pain.

  On the twelfth day of refining, Xiao Qing finally refined a qualified Xuan Iron Knife without any cracks.

  Yan Ye was surprised that on the fifteenth day, Xiao Qing successfully refined another Xuan Iron Knife, and his success rate began to rise significantly.

  Ye Chen's spirits lifted, with these two xuan iron knives, he would be able to hand over a satisfactory result to Wang Fangzhong.

  "The success rate of refining the Xuan Iron Sword has increased to around 30%, with three successes out of ten attempts, barely breaking even! ...However, to earn more spirit stones, a longer period of equipment refinement is still needed."

  Ye Chen carefully calculated his gains and couldn't help but shake his head secretly.

  "This profession of Refining Equipment is really tough, requiring a lot of investment in the early stages. It's unlikely to see any results soon. To earn Spirit Stones, it'll take at least three to five months. And as for having a relatively stable income, that's probably something that will happen after a year."

  "Immersed in refining equipment, half a month passed in the blink of an eye, but the cultivation of the primordial spirit had almost no progress."

  "If things go on like this, when can I improve my cultivation? Can't waste any more time!"

  "Frankly, being a refiner is just a means to earn spirit stones. Whatever method can earn spirit stones will be used! Everything is for the sake of cultivating immortality!"

  "In my immortal mansion, there are four usable buildings: the Alchemy Pavilion, the Elixir Pavilion, the Medicine Garden and the Beast Enclosure. Apart from alchemy, I'll take a look at the other three paths - cultivating spiritual herbs, refining elixirs and so on - to see if I can quickly earn more spirit stones to buy spiritual herbs to boost my cultivation!"

  Ye Chen had a sense of urgency in his heart.

  In the ten years at Beiling Academy, this sense of urgency accompanied him every day. At Beiling Academy, being weak meant being at the bottom, and even if he was met with contemptuous glances and cold ridicule from others, he didn't dare to retort a single sentence.

  Although he has now become a first-level cultivator in the Qi Refining stage, his status is only comparable to that of a martial artist. However, among the many cultivators in Xian City, he still ranks at the bottom in terms of strength and cannot afford to clash with any other stronger cultivators, or else the consequences would be unthinkable.

  On that day, Ye Chen was unwilling to waste any more time and left the small inn, bringing with him the two xuan iron knives he had already refined, heading towards Wang Fang's equipment refinement workshop.

  During this time, Yan Han and Wei Xun Yu had already moved to other inns closer to their workplaces, sharing with other male and female martial artists to save on rent. The three of them were busy working and making money every day, and even in their free time, they were busy practicing, without much time to gather together and chat.

  Ye Chen did not have the idea of sharing a provincial house with other martial artists, and instead lived alone in the cheapest wing room.

  Ye Chen arrived at the small workshop for refining equipment in the south of the city, and handed two Xuan Iron knives to Master Wang, "Master Wang, take a look at these two spiritual knives, are they qualified?"

  "Already refined so quickly?!"

  Wang Fang took the two Xuan Tie knives in surprise, carefully examining the two-foot-long blade. The knife's surface was cold and shiny, reflecting people's shadows, with its sharp edges exposed. There were no cracks on the knife's body.

  After finishing, Wang Fangzhu was shocked and looked up at Ye Chen, exclaiming in a low voice, "You refined two qualified spirit knives from those ten pieces of mineral materials! How is this possible!"

  Wang Fangzhu was a master craftsman and was extremely familiar with the industry of refining equipment.

  Just entering the alchemy industry, the cultivator is called an alchemy child, almost nothing is understood and needs to follow the master to learn. Every refining must fail, the early stage requires a large amount of financial investment, purchasing raw materials, used to improve alchemy experience. This period is the investment period, with almost no returns.

  The young apprentice of the alchemy equipment followed his master for a period of time, known as an alchemy apprentice, assisting his master. Although the alchemy apprentice can also refine equipment, the success rate is very low. During this period, the investment was still large and the income was small.

  Only by advancing to become a Refiner can one refine equipment independently and make a living from it.

  Wang Fangzhou spent more than a few decades mastering the craft of refining equipment, eventually becoming a Refining Master and maintaining this ancestral refining workshop.

  In Wang Fangzhu's estimation, Ye Chen is still a furnace boy, not even an apprentice, and with ten sets of materials, he will definitely exhaust them all without refining a single qualified spiritual instrument.

  This way, Ye Chen owed a debt of ten pieces of spiritual stone and had to spend more time paying it back. In the end, he signed five-year, ten-year or even longer contracts with him in his small workshop, desperately refining equipment to make money to pay off debts.

  But Wang Fang looked at the two spiritual knives in his hand and knew that his hopes had been dashed.

  "Master Wang, are these two spiritual knives of good quality?! If they're fine, then the goods from our previous order have been cleared and I've completed my task."

  Ye Chen smiled and said.

  "Not bad! These two Xuan Tie knives are fine, let's consider our previous order settled!"

  Wang's look of regret flashed and disappeared, but he didn't lose out on this deal either. He smiled freely and said, "Brother Ye seems to have a talent for refining equipment! Maybe one day you'll become a famous master refiner! From now on, let's sign orders based on the refining list. You can come to my store to get the materials needed for refining, whether it's paid or on credit. After refining, put the spiritual equipment in my store for sale and we'll split the account. Do you want me to give you the next batch of mineral materials?

  "No rush, I've been refining equipment for over half a month, let's take a break for a few days. The sky is getting late, I'll go to the night market stalls in Xian City and take a look at the bustle of Xian City, see if there are any good things to buy." Wang Fangzhong bid farewell!

  Ye Chen smiled and said, "There's no hurry to follow Wang Fangzhu to sign a refining equipment order."

  "Alright, the night market in Xian City is quite lively, have a good rest and enjoy yourself, Ye!"