In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
During this time, Li Yu made a trip to Beishan Town. He first swept through the town, purchasing a large quantity of auxiliary herbs for the Beauty-Preserving Pill, and then found a blacksmith’s shop to order a large pot fitted with needles.
At first, the blacksmith thought Li Yu was joking and was about to shoo him away, but when Li Yu tossed him a tael of silver, the man immediately beamed and guaranteed the order would be completed on time.
Finally, Li Yu visited the courier agency responsible for transporting silver from the money shop. They informed him that the caravan would not arrive for another month.
Afterward, Li Yu returned to his cave dwelling.
Behind the main hall, Li Yu used his Spirit Sword to carve out a new room and cut stones to create a bathing pool. He filled the pool using the Water-Gathering Spell, then heated the water with a Fireball Spell.
Li Yu enjoyed a comfortable soak in the bath. Once finished, he changed into a brand-new white robe he had taken from his Storage Bag.
Smoothing out the creases in his new clothes at the entrance of the alchemy room, Li Yu stepped inside and began his work.
Time flew like an arrow, and in the blink of an eye, a month passed.
Li Yu emerged from the alchemy room with his hair standing on end like a bird’s nest, his entire body charred black, and his face drawn with exhaustion. He glanced at what had once been a pristine white robe and gave a wry smile.
Walking to the side of the bathing pool, he cast a few fireballs into it and then collapsed into the water, falling into a deep sleep.
It is unknown how many hours passed. Li Yu changed into fresh clothes and sat on a stone stool in the main hall.
He took a porcelain bottle out of his Storage Bag; it contained the fruits of his labor over the past month: five Beauty-Preserving Pills.
In that month, Li Yu had used up all his primary medicinal ingredients, attempting seven batches of pills, only for the final batch to succeed.
Looking at the porcelain bottle, Li Yu felt a sense of panic. Alchemy was far too difficult. Even with the "insights" at his disposal, refining the most basic entry-level spirit pill had been such a struggle. His future, if he had to rely on alchemy alone, looked bleak!
What Li Yu did not know was that if a master had been by his side, they would have been overjoyed; to produce pills on one's first attempt after only seven tries was considered quite impressive.
Cultivating an alchemist requires, first and foremost, a massive consumption of spirit herbs and materials, and secondly, a natural aptitude for alchemy. Families and sects only choose to invest in those with the most talent.
Putting away the porcelain bottle, Li Yu went to his room to find the Little Armadillo, tucked it into his inner pocket, summoned his Spirit Sword, and left the cave dwelling.
Half a day later, Li Yu arrived at the courier agency in Beishan Town.
He produced the voucher issued by the Ning'an City money shop and withdrew ten thousand taels of silver, leaving the remaining forty thousand taels in the agency's care.
After paying the storage fees, Li Yu instructed the agency to send the porcelain bottle to Mingyue Pavilion and wrote a letter to Liang Jie, asking her to convert all the proceeds from the Beauty-Preserving Pills into silver and have the money shop transport it over.
Fearing the courier agency might harbor ill intentions and be tempted by the wealth, Li Yu punched a large tree by the entrance, shattering it into pieces...
The staff at the agency immediately assured him that the transport would be perfectly safe.
Li Yu then visited the blacksmith shop to collect his iron pot. The smith patted his chest, boasting that the pot was so sturdily made it would last a lifetime. Li Yu remained noncommittal, and to the blacksmith's astonishment, he lifted the pot with one hand and walked out of the shop.
Carrying the giant iron pot in one hand and leading a horse-drawn carriage loaded with ten thousand taels of silver with the other, Li Yu returned toward the mountains amidst the gasps of the townspeople.
To avoid being too shocking, after leaving Beishan Town, Li Yu released the horse. Carrying the carriage container filled with ten thousand taels of silver in one hand and the needle-studded pot in the other, he activated his Wind-Riding Spell and hurried back to his cave.
Several masked men tailing Li Yu watched his flying figure and sighed, "May the heavens protect us!"
Li Yu was well aware that people were following him, but they were mere mortals; he had no interest in even lifting a finger against them.
Half a day later, Li Yu returned to the mountain peak where his cave was located. At the very summit, he set down the giant iron pot and the carriage.
He summoned his Spirit Sword and cleared away the surrounding trees. Looking at the bare peak, Li Yu felt satisfied.
He built a stove out of stone to accommodate the giant pot, placed the pot on top, and chopped the wood he had just cleared to serve as fuel. Finally, he placed a hundred taels of silver into the pot.
Li Yu looked at the arm-thick iron needles on the pot and his mouth twitched.
Leaving the Little Armadillo and the Storage Bag in the cave, Li Yu returned to the pot.
Suppressing his anxiety, he flicked a few fireballs to ignite the fire, then, following the instructions in the "Silver Mud Refining Method," tossed a few pieces of borax into the pot to help the silver melt rapidly.
He channeled his spiritual energy to protect the iron pot, ensuring it wouldn't burst from the intense heat. Once the pot glowed red, Li Yu executed the "Thunder-Inducing Spell," which he had already mastered.
He guided his spiritual energy according to the specific acupoints and meridians mentioned in the spell, funneling it to the Shangyang acupoint on his index finger, and pointed toward the sky.
"Crack!" A bolt of lightning struck from the clear blue sky, slamming into the iron needles with a thunderous "BOOM!"
Thick blue smoke billowed instantly. The residual lightning scattered beneath his feet, making Li Yu's entire body go numb. Instead of fear, he felt joy. He immediately channeled his spiritual energy into the pot as instructed by the refining method.
As the smoke cleared, the silver in the pot had melted into a pool of liquid. Tiny "starlight" specks floated on the surface of the silver. Li Yu immediately used his spiritual energy to collect these specks into a jade box; these were the "Silver Mud." One hundred taels of silver only yielded a few specks of "Silver Mud."
Li Yu pressed on with one continuous effort, not returning to the cave until a day later, his body completely numb.
As soon as he reached the cave, he collapsed onto the floor, taking a full half-hour to recover before he could sit up.
Once he was upright, he shouted aloud:
"Wang Wei, you truly did not deceive me!"
In his heart, he praised Wang Wei once again.
The effect of this "Heavenly Thunder Hooks Earthly Fire" method far exceeded Li Yu's expectations. Under the impact of the violent energy, the Silver Mud was extracted from the silver in an instant. Traditional iron-wood refining required four hours for a hundred taels, meaning ten thousand taels would take over a month. But with the "Heavenly Thunder Hooks Earthly Fire" method—including the time to add fuel, load the silver, and induce the lightning—a hundred taels only took a quarter of an hour. The speed was increased thirty-fold, and ten thousand taels of silver yielded a full two-tenths of a tael of Silver Mud.
The "Golden House" mentioned in the book was far larger than he had imagined! Li Yu licked his dry lips in excitement.
As long as he had a steady supply of silver, he could extract massive amounts of Silver Mud.
The world of cultivation was opening its arms wide, welcoming Li Yu to come in and stir up a storm.
After cleaning up, Li Yu had a wonderful sleep.
The next day, he headed to Beishan Town without delay. He withdrew another twenty thousand taels of silver from the courier agency. This time, he didn't even bother with a horse; he hauled the carts himself, and once outside the town, he lifted the containers with both hands and headed back to his mountain peak.
Three days later, Li Yu appeared in the town again, using the same method to withdraw the remaining silver.
Three days after that, in his cave, Li Yu held the Little Armadillo in one hand and stroked its back shell with the other.
"Elang, you won't have to go hungry ever again." Li Yu sent the message through his Spiritual Sense, and the Little Armadillo immediately replied, "Great!"
Li Yu had now refined all the silver into Silver Mud. The original fifty thousand taels would have taken five months to refine by conventional means, but using the "Heavenly Thunder Hooks Earthly Fire" method, Li Yu had done it in just one week.
He had obtained a total of one tael of Silver Mud. One tenth of a tael sold for fifty Spirit Stones, so one full tael was worth five hundred.
Once Liang Jie sold all the Beauty-Preserving Pills, he would have fifty thousand taels of silver, and after spending another week refining and recovering, he would have another five hundred Spirit Stones.
As long as Li Yu kept refining Beauty-Preserving Pills, having Liang Jie exchange them for silver, and then refining that silver into Silver Mud, he could sustain the cycle.
If everything went smoothly—accounting for the time for the courier agency to transport the silver, the time to refine the pills, the time to extract the mud, the time to recover from lightning strikes, and the time to go to the Cultivator Market to buy herbs—Li Yu could earn five hundred Spirit Stones every three-month cycle.
For an Early Qi Refining loose cultivator, this was nothing short of a heaven-sent immortal opportunity.