23 Rusty Cauldron

Jiang Chen "I am offended."

Mo Qingcheng "Hmm you will have plenty of time for that but now get me to a cloth store."

Jiang Chen has no other option but to do that he can't offend wife for sake of honor of his robes. He can make peace with it that that robe's honor has nothing to do with his other robes.

It took him whole evening to get what Mo Qingcheng wanted. Others mistook Jiang Chen was buying things for Shangguan Ning'er well that encouraged Jiang Chen even more and he brought things for Mo Qingcheng and Shangguan Sisters.

Jiang Chen "You wanted fresh herbal plants right?"

Mo Qingcheng "Your natal place is very good place to raise them here heavenly energy is as dense as Northern Grand and we have huge place.It would be foolish for us not to put them to use."

Jiang Chen "What you said made sense but isn't acquiring them more difficult than getting regular herbs."

Mo Qingcheng "That is not a big trouble it is just you have to find a right place to find."

Jiang Chen "Where is that?"

Mo Qingcheng "Pill hall."

Jiang Chen "Isn't it just a place where pills are sold will they have herbs and things too."

Mo Qingcheng "They will have all kinds of basic herbs in their nursery we can get them when we pay the price."

Jiang Chen "Oh! Will they sell me?"

Mo Qingcheng "No. You have to be an alchemist to make a transaction there."

Jiang Chen "Are you planning to make an appearance?"

Mo Qingcheng "No. I will grab too much attention and Pill hall is the place my pursuers will sure make visit to."

Jiang Chen "Then how are we going to get them?"

Mo Qingcheng "Hmm it is not that difficult you know .Your control of fire is already very good."

Jiang Chen "What? That can't be true . Wife I have too much in my plate already I can't stuff more than I can chew."

Mo Qingcheng "I trust it will not bring trouble for you .Just learning a couple of pills wont be a trouble for you .I am not asking you to dedicate your time take alchemy as your path."

Mo Qingcheng "Just few pill formulas are all you need to learns .I will teach you Clearing Pill ,Fire Pill, Healing Pill and Blood Pill for now."

Jiang Chen "Wife the last two words of your statement are making me feel dizzy.Why is that?"

Mo Qingcheng "Well you have to work hard for your wife you know. When she can't come out of house."

Jiang Chen "You called yourself wife just now ."

Mo Qingcheng "Hmm I did right. So go to nearest blacksmith store and get yourself a cauldron."

Jiang Chen "Sure what wife says husband follows."

Jiang Chen reached out to the nearest store well it belonged to Jiang family.One of their servants was handling the stuff here. He was shocked to see Jiang Chen coming to store.

Manager "Young Master you are here?"

Jiang Chen "I wanted to buy something."

Manager "Young master just need to say the word we would have sent it to your courtyard."

Jiang Chen "There was no need for formalities uncle. I came out to take stroll and make few purchases.I came here directly."

Manager "What does young master need?"

Jiang Chen " An alchemist cauldron."

Manager was surprised to hear this.

Manager "Are you trying the path of alchemist too Young master."

Jiang Chen "Not explicitly .I thought learning few emergency pills will be helpful."

Manager "Oh! It is young master who is speaking so I don't doubt it. If it was anyone others I would have strictly advised them not to do that."

Jiang Chen just smiled.

Manager "What type of cauldron do you want young master and what grade?"

Jiang Chen "Aren't they all same?"

Manager was startled hearing this.

Mo Qingcheng "Of course they are not same idiot. Different people prefer different type of cauldrons. The quality of the pill differs with different type of cauldrons too."

Jiang Chen "Which on should I choose?"

Manager "No they aren't same young master. Few alchemist prefer open cauldron and few prefer closed ones. When alchemist use open cauldrons they get better sense of pill making process and they can make changes based on the observation. Closed type cauldrons are for those who have better spiritual sense and control of fire there they don't have any visual link on the process they have to rely blindly not exactly blindly their spiritual senses to make adjustments."

Jiang Chen "Then isn't open type cauldron better for making pills then?"

Manager just smiled "Young master when pill refining is taking place in atmosphere there are chances for atmospheric impurities to be absorbed in pills also since cauldron is open there would be losses in heat and fire as well so there would be more consumption of fire energy in these cauldrons." explained patiently.

Jiang Chen "Oh! So there is this much depth in this."

Manager "Young master there are even more principles but that terms we can not understand only an experienced alchemist can explain."

Jiang Chen "So what is about closed cauldrons?"

Manager "They have only one disadvantage that is without spiritual sense one can't see what is happening inside cauldron but everything else far exceeds other type."

Jiang Chen "Then who will prefer ope type cauldrons with such disadvantage?"

Manager "Ha ha Young master only one in 100 cauldrons sold is a closed type cauldron. Many people are not able to bridge gap of spiritual sense and alchemy."

Mo Qingcheng "Jiang Chen what he said is true even I became a closed cauldron alchemist recently only. Almost every great alchemist is closed cauldron alchemist."

Jiang Chen "Then which one should I buy?"

Mo Qingcheng "Closed one."

Jiang Chen "What ? Only one in hundred is a closed cauldron alchemist right?"

Mo Qingcheng "Your Heavenly God's eye will bypass the need of spiritual sense for you. You are perfectly eligible for closed cauldron.."

Jiang Chen "Uncle I want to look at both types of cauldrons first to make a decision."

Manager "Sure."

Manager politely took him to one of the rooms of purchases and there he brought all cauldrons ."

Jiang Chen was surprised to find of twenty some cauldrons present there was only a single closed cauldron there.

Jiang Chen "Why do we have this many cauldrons here ?All the fire attribute cultivators are from Jiang family only and minor fire attribute cultivators who choose alchemy right."

Manager "True young master. But Patriarchs cauldrons are very famous in surrounding city. So we get few orders from outside the city as well as few visitors who wanted to pursue path of alchemy."

Manager "In entire river province only our Jiang family produces cauldrons."

Jiang Chen "Oh! I didn't knew that. Father taught me how to make cauldrons I was in misconception that every blacksmith know how to make them."

Manager laughed out "That is not the case young master. Only patriarch knows how to make cauldrons before him only old patriarch knew it.It was no surprise you know about it."

Jiang Chen then observed each cauldron and found out how perfect they are. They are not as simple as making bowls they are special metro logical formulas for each and they should resist high temperatures because few pills even use beast cores. Then there also limited type of materials suitable to form the inner layer of cauldrons which has special properties to not corrode while pill making and make a defective pills.

Jiang Chen's eyes then fell on the only closed cauldron in the lot.

Jiang Chen "Wife it look very rusty do you think it is right choice."

Mo Qingcheng "You will understand once you open it."

When Jiang Chen opened the cauldron he was surprised seeing the sight inside. It looked like a brand new one inside there was not even a speck of dust inside and there was dense heavenly energy inside it.

Jiang Chen "You knew about it how?"

Mo Qingcheng "That is specialty of cauldrons. Heavenly energy always gathers densely inside the cauldrons. Your families craftsmanship is also too good. It is better than my old cauldron."

Jiang Chen "Uncle I want this cauldron."

Manager was shocked hearing this.

Manager "Young master I suggest you run a test run first to see whether you can use it or not."

Jiang Chen " I don't know any alchemist formulas now."

Manager "There was no need for it. " he took out a beast core from his pouch

Manager "Young master just use your fire attribute energy on this core and extract its essence into this bottle." Manager explained the process briefly.

Mo Qingcheng "Jiang Chen you should do this carefully. Remember there are two layers in demonic cores even more for high leveled beasts. When you start refining it don't be in rush outer layer is just a crystal formed .When you melt it down you will see the true core of demonic beasts that is purer essence. When you are refining outer layer need high temperatures to refine it and then the temperature needed to refine true core is lesser if you use more than required temperature it will either blast away or melt down too sooner that you can't extract it totally. You need to be highly accurate in controlling your fire."

Mo Qingcheng "Then to extract the true essence you should use your heavenly energy to shield the essence from surrounding heat and isolate it from surroundings. So be careful you should be patient in the process."

Jiang Chen "How will I know when outer layer is broken?"