Volume 1: My Territory, I Am in Charge Chapter 15: Fasting (2)

  The sky had already darkened, and there were no more entertaining programs in this place. Zhao Che could only maintain his good habit of going to bed early and getting up early. He slept in the inner chamber, while Jian Xi slept in the outer room, ready to serve at any time. Before going to sleep, Jian Xi went to the main hall to check the incense candles, and according to Zhao Che's instructions, sent a brazier to the two small yellow gates. After he entered the house, the lights in the inner chamber were extinguished, and the king had already fallen asleep. He tidied up his clothes on the soft couch, lay down, and soon began snoring loudly, for he was exhausted today.

  In the inner chamber, Zhao didn't lie down. He sat cross-legged with his eyes slightly closed, inhaling and exhaling. As he exhaled, his true energy flowed from the Mud Pellet Palace down through the Heavenly Gate, Magpie Bridge, Heavy Tower, and split into two at the shoulders, flowing along the inside of the shoulders to the palms and fingers, then from the fingertips back up the outside of the arms to the Heaven's Pole, converging there. It flowed down the Ren Channel to the Lower Dan Tian, then along the Belt Channel around the body in a circle. From the left and right rings, it flowed down the outside of the legs through the Yongquan Hole, opening the Yongquan Hole to expel sick energy and turbid energy. As he inhaled, he drew in the spiritual energy from the earth through the Yongquan, flowing up to the big toe of the foot, then along the inside of the leg, converging at the ***, passing through the Lower Magpie Bridge, Tailuan, and Life Gate, pressing against the spine, Jade Pillow, and flowing up to the Mud Pellet, pausing slightly. At this time, he felt the Mud Pellet open, and true energy entered. Thus, one cycle was completed, and it repeated continuously.

  About an hour later, Zhao Ke slowly withdrew his work, using his mind to gather the true energy at a point in the lower dantian. This set of exercises was taught by a fellow practitioner who was proficient in Baguazhang during his previous life, and he only learned the basic exercises for nourishing his body and a set of postures.

  This set of internal skills can nourish the body, solidify the internal organs, regulate the flow of qi and blood, and cultivate the spirit. With gradual progress, it can increase one's power. It also includes a set of auxiliary exercises that are said to allow one to see tiny objects with their eyes, even at night, and hear faint sounds around them with their ears. Now is a good time to use this method to strengthen his physique. Today's events made him feel frustrated. In ancient times, if he couldn't open up his skills or wield a sword or spear, not only would he be unable to achieve great things, but even survival would be threatened. He must train his body well, at least to prepare for the arrival of the "chaotic era".

  Jian Xi slept very soundly that night, and the king actually treated him like a close relative, allowing him to gain some comfort in the palace where human relationships were thin. When he woke up, he found himself covered with the king's quilt, and the charcoal in the brazier was bright red, apparently lit by the king during the night. Jian Xi secretly blamed himself for sleeping too soundly, hastily got out of bed, and saw that there was no one left in the inner room. He hurried out the door and saw the king practicing the horse-riding stance that Meng Tao had taught him yesterday in the courtyard.

  Xian Xi blocked the little yellow gate that was about to be swept, not allowing them to disturb Wang Ye's practice. He quietly guarded one side. Zhao Che made an effort to maintain the correct posture, his muscles bulging and trembling all over, his legs shaking like a sieve, a layer of hot air covering his head. He really wanted to stand up straight and move around, but he knew that this pass was something he had to get through, until one incense stick's worth of work, when his physical strength reached its limit, Zhao Che finally stopped practicing and stood up.

  "Second Master, don't overexert yourself, take it easy, your body is still weak!" Seeing Xi saw Zhao Che collect his energy and hastily went forward to support him, using a silk handkerchief to wipe the sweat for him as he said this with concern.

  "It's nothing to be happy about, everything has a price to pay, just grit your teeth and get through it!" Zhao Yan said with a smile, moving his sore legs.

  The days of fasting were very lonely, after washing up Zhao Zhe incensed again, sat in the main hall for a while, wandered around the yard twice out of boredom, and then sat on the stone bench under the tree to stare blankly.

  "Second Master, let's go take a look at Qingyun's Dan room and see if there's anything fun," Jian Xi whispered as he approached. With nothing better to do, Zhao Che followed Jian Xi to the Dan room in the back hall without any hesitation. He had been to the backyard many times, but he had never entered the Dan room before. It was a forbidden place that Qingyun did not allow anyone to approach, and it was still full of mystery for him. Now that Qingyun was gone, it was a good opportunity to take a look.

  Xian Xi walked ahead, carefully pushed the door open with a creak, and the room was dark and unclear what was inside. Fortunately, Xian Xi had flint on her body, ignited the candles in the room, and Zhao Di finally saw the interior of the Dan house. The house was about 3 zhang long and 1.6 zhang wide, with walls that were smooth and airtight inside and out, and the doors and windows were facing due east and south, extremely tightly closed without leaking a single ray of light.

  In the center of the Danfang, there is a platform about eight inches high and over two feet wide, with a stove below and a dan furnace on top. Surrounding it are piles of charcoal and various jars and tools for refining dan. In the corner, a soft couch and a low table are placed, with several books scattered about in disarray - this is where one rests. Refining dan requires a long time, and it's said that even those with high attainment only produce dan once a year. After consuming the refined dan medicine, one can directly ascend to immortality.

  Zhao Yi didn't believe in these legends, and in this sealed dan room, he refined the elixir, smoke-filled and fire-lit, day and night without rest. If he got silicosis or carbon monoxide poisoning, or made a fuss about chronic fatigue syndrome, it would be said that the Buddha was protecting him - no, it should be Taishang Laojun who was protecting him. He picked up a book at random and flipped through it, and found it was Qingyun's notes on refining the elixir, which detailed his experiences each time he refined the elixir. This must be first-hand material! Such an important thing was abandoned, it seemed that Qingyun had indeed escaped in a hurry!

  "Achoo!" A loud sneeze suddenly startled Zhao Yi, who quickly turned his head around. He saw Xixi holding a jar and constantly sneezing, with snot and tears streaming down her face. A pungent smell was emanating from the jar.

  Zhao Zhan knew that these alchemists in modern history were called 'pioneers of chemistry', they dared to put anything into the crucible, didn't know what kind of strange things they would concoct, and then dared to eat them, and then 'ascended to heaven'. Seeing this, he knew that Xi had been deceived, so he quickly snatched the jar from his hand, covered it with a lid, opened the doors and windows, and let the air circulate to dispel the strange smell in the room!

  "Damn it, that bastard Qingyun has run away and harmed people. If I catch him, I'll pull down his pants and spank his butt!" Xixi cursed while sniffing her nose.

  "Haha, who told you to mess around? Looks like you're in trouble this time!"

  "Second Master, I was thinking of checking if he had any good elixirs that could help us live to a hundred years old. Who knew this jar contained something so pungent!" Xiqi wiped her face, saying with some exasperation.

  The strange smell in the room dissipated, and Zhao Chu saw the notebook that had been thrown to the ground in his haste earlier. His heart skipped a beat as he quickly picked it up. With Qing Yun gone, his source of red phosphorus was cut off. If the notebook contained the method for refining it, then he would no longer have to worry about not being able to get it. Thinking this, Zhao Chu felt a surge of excitement. He hastily flipped open the notebook and carefully searched through page after page.

  This notebook is obviously not organized, and the writing is very messy. Everything in it is written in vernacular language. Although he can recite the periodic table of chemical elements fluently, Qingyun doesn't know about this. After spending half a day's effort, Zhao found these few sentences: Qingbai stone, white sand and carbon powder are mixed together, put into the dan furnace, seal the furnace and heat it until the tripod turns red, to obtain dark red fine powder, which can be obtained by hammering and blasting.

  "It's this one, but what is Qingbai Stone? White sand and carbon powder are easy to understand from the literal meaning, but there are too many stones that are cyan and white in color, I don't know which one it is?" Although he found it, his heart also cooled down a bit, could it be that he was so unlucky that he had to catch Qingyun Old Dao again? Zhao Che felt somewhat regretful.

  "Second Master, what's wrong?" Seeing Xi looked at Zhao Che's face changing several times, sometimes happy and sometimes worried, and asked with concern.

  "This old fellow didn't even indicate what kind of stone it was, writing it down is equivalent to not writing at all!" Zhao Ye scolded angrily while slapping his notebook.

  "Haha, Second Master, you're the foolish one this time! Earlier when you were reading, I went to Qingyun's warehouse next door and took a look. It was filled with all sorts of stones, but they all had names written on them!" Xi laughed and teased him, he still hadn't learned from his mistake earlier.

  "Hurry up and take me to see!" Zhao Ye pulled Xian Xi along as they walked, and when he found the cyan stone in the warehouse, he couldn't help but smile wryly. Wasn't this the phosphate ore used to make fertilizer in his previous life? The white sand was a bit off, it wasn't white sand but rather quartz sand.

  "See Xi, why don't we both refine our elixirs?" Zhao Chan asked with a smile, having found what he was looking for and in high spirits.

  "Second Master, you can still refine the elixir? Great!" After seeing Zhao Che's pistol and being impressed by his skills, he developed a blind trust in him, thinking that the prince had indeed learned how to refine the elixir from books and was eager to try it out.

  Two people said to do it, and they ground the stone and charcoal into powder, put them in a crucible according to the proportion, covered with a lid and sealed with mud, placed on the dan furnace, ignited the charcoal fire, after the crucible turned red, Zhao Yi pulled Xian Xi to hide outside the house, he also couldn't tell if this thing would explode or not.

  Two people with high enthusiasm, at this time both forgot the cold and hunger, until dusk, charcoal burned out, slowly extinguished, the crucible cooled down, then gently scraped off the seal mud, opened the lid, Zhao Ke carefully used a bamboo strip to pick out a few dark red crystals, carefully took them outside, and smashed them with a hammer, a flash of firelight, a loud explosion, his heart that had been suspended for half a day finally fell to the ground.

  "Second Master, was it a success?" Xi Xiao asked cautiously.

  "Haha, we did it! This is exactly what we wanted. But this thing can't be eaten or touched, otherwise it'll blow us all to kingdom come!" Zhao Chu's mouth was twisted with excitement as he said this.

  This time, Zhao's harvest from 'refining the elixir' was huge, he obtained nearly a catty of red phosphorus, which would be enough for him to use for a long time. He carefully poured the red phosphorus into a jar, added clear water, sealed it tightly and buried it in a cool corner, this way it could prevent oxidation and reduce the risk of explosion.