Chapter 797: Repairing the Pillfire Furnace
Lin Tian picked up the unconscious carp, then used scissors to cut open the fish’s belly, pulling out all the innards and throwing them into the trash. Finally, he rinsed the fish body under clean water and placed it on the chopping board.
"So that’s how you kill a fish..." Yan Xinrou and Xu Ning’an stood together, eyes wide open like two curious children.
"Mom, you don’t know how to kill a fish...How did you make the crucian carp soup before?" Lin Tian asked.
"I had the fishmonger do it, then brought it back. Silly!"
"..." Lin Tian could no longer remember how many times his mother-in-law had admonished him today.
For the rest of the time, Lin Tian didn’t do anything and stood behind Yan Xinrou, teaching her to cook. Otherwise, with her cooking skills, without a bit of Spiritual Qi, it would really be hard to swallow.
A meal of four dishes and one soup took the three of them an hour and a half. Because of Lin Tian’s involvement, it was a feast for the senses. But if credit is to be given, it naturally goes to Yan Xinrou.
During the meal, Lin Tian mentioned that he would be practicing alchemy inside the house. When Wu Yong brought over the Alchemy Furnace, the Dan Fire Furnace, and the herbs in the afternoon, Lin Tian took these items and some dry wood directly to a room on the third floor.
The two women were seeing such a grand setup for medicine brewing for the first time, and their curiosity made them want to watch. But when they smelled that strange odor, they quickly fled the house as if escaping.
Lin Tian initially wanted to perform alchemy on the rooftop since the open space could be beneficial to alchemy.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the scorching summer but a snowy winter. The rooftop was now blanketed with a thick layer of snow, and with the biting north wind, it would be hard to even start a fire.
In the vast room, other than the Alchemy Furnace and similar things, Lin Tian cleared out everything, leaving it empty.
Lin Tian found a basin about the size of a basketball, filled it to eighty percent. Then he took out the spirit bee egg, directly throwing it into a small bowl, and used a whisk to mix the shell, egg white, and yolk altogether.
After doing this, he poured the spirit bee egg into the basin of clean water and introduced Spiritual Qi. Suddenly, the room filled with a sweet aroma, making one want to take a few more breaths.
Then, Lin Tian turned his attention to the Dan Fire Furnace beside him.
This Dan Fire Furnace was completely different from what Lin Tian had seen on the auction list before.
The entire exterior of the Dan Fire Furnace was covered in a layer of copper rust, looking like a worn-out furnace, fully deserving of the description "scrap metal."
Yet, Lin Tian spent a large sum of money to buy this furnace.
Though it looked broken, it was still usable. To outsiders, it seemed to have low cost-effectiveness, and some even thought the person who bought it was either brain-damaged or on the verge of it.
The Dan Fire Furnace’s only historical purpose was for making fire. Apart from good fire control, it didn’t seem to have any other uses.
But to Lin Tian, he had hardly ever gotten such a bargain!
Everything in the world has its reason for existence, let alone something passed down from ancient times. If it were valueless, it would have disappeared in the river of history long ago.
In reality, this Dan Fire Furnace had arrays carved within it that contained Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, serving only one purpose: for making fire. But its greatest feature was controlling the flame and preheating the Alchemy Furnace.
Fire control has always been the most important and delicate part of a pill’s quality. Many alchemists, due to poor fire control, wasted an entire batch of pills.
As for preheating the Alchemy Furnace, it helps achieve an even initial temperature, reducing the chance of an explosion, and enhancing the quality of the pills.
There’s also a critical point: the flame generated by this furnace, even without direct contact with the herbs, would still directly affect the quality of the pills.
Quality is the most crucial criterion for evaluating a pill.
And for those who thought Lin Tian was foolish, Lin Tian could only say they didn’t recognize a treasure.
People today can’t match the ancients!
Lin Tian carefully placed the Dan Fire Furnace into the basin of water mixed with spirit bee egg, then used a brush to gently scrub the surface.
Deng, deng, deng...
This was the sound of copper rust falling, with a humming noise emanating from the Dan Fire Furnace.
Hearing this sound, Lin Tian couldn’t contain his joy, and exulted with delight.
This spirit bee egg was indeed magical, an artifact for repairing damaged ancient items!
This Dan Fire Furnace, having weathered the ravages of time, had an array inside that was already dilapidated, unable to perform half of its original capabilities.
And this spirit bee egg was the essence gathered by bees collecting Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, capable of repairing such arrays.
Of course, Lin Tian’s work was more than just using a brush.
Repairing the Dan Fire Furnace was an arduous task in terms of Spiritual Qi. In no time, all of Lin Tian’s Spiritual Qi in his Sea of Qi was depleted, repairing only a tenth of the array.
Luckily, he had cleared five of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, with Spiritual Qi recovery speed incomparable to the past. His Sea of Qi was quickly filled again.
With the Spiritual Qi, he started the repair work once more.
Soon, Lin Tian found it wasn’t nearly as simple as he imagined. The array etched within the Dan Fire Furnace had long been lost, and even Lin Tian didn’t know how the original array was inscribed.
He could only rely on the furnace’s array pathways to conduct a general repair.
It took Lin Tian three days just to repair the array.
Three days, neither too long nor too short, but enough to nearly make Lin Tian lose hair from stress.
Repairing the array was a demanding, exhausting, and laborious task.
The array was too complex, requiring several generations of effort for in-depth research. Relying solely on Lin Tian, although there were clues to follow, in the end, he only repaired it about seventy to eighty percent.
Though the repair rate was not high, Lin Tian was extremely satisfied and felt he had not lost out.
After the Dan Fire Furnace was almost fully restored, its outer layer of copper rust automatically fell off, revealing its true appearance. It was unassuming and looked more like an ancient chamber pot.
Lin Tian then took the Dan Fire Furnace out of the water. The medicinal effects of the spirit bee egg hadn’t fully dissipated, and it carried a faint fragrance, although the basin’s bottom was filled with copper rust, making it look like murky water.
This murky water, Lin Tian directly poured over the Alchemy Furnace!
Tsss...
It sounded like hot metal submerged in water, emitting a quenching sound.
This Alchemy Furnace had been used for many years, and although it wasn’t worn out yet, cleaning it with this basin of "murky water" had undeniably beneficial effects.