Chapter 139, Small Alchemy Workshop

Translator: StarReader

 

Su Chen purchased an alchemy jade slip, along with three low-grade pill refining formulas, and sought out a few seeds of Spiritual Dew Grass, Spirit Mushroom Grass, and Clear Wind Spirit Grass, among other spirit ingredients, to take back and attempt to cultivate.

 

Now, the only thing lacking was a Pill Refining Workshop, with a pill furnace and open space, to avoid disturbance, as alchemy required such a place.

 

Su Chen intended to find somewhere in Immortal City Zhaoge that would allow him to refine pills.

 

He located Master Lu, who was familiar with Immortal City Zhaoge and possessed numerous connections.

 

Master Lu, upon hearing Su Chen wished to learn alchemy, was quite startled and astonished.

 

“The alchemy profession has an exceedingly high entry. Immortal City Zhaoge is home to eight hundred immortal cultivation families, yet only the ten great clans and dozens of wealthy clans are capable of raising pill-refining artisans, alchemists. They alone can afford to specially cultivate a few alchemists to pursue this profession.

 

“Each batch of pills requires the consumption of dozens, even hundreds, of spirit stones’ worth of ingredients. A failed furnace of pills results in a direct loss. Ordinary cultivators cannot withstand such expenditure.

 

“Those smaller immortal cultivation families lack the financial foundation, and the risk is too high. Most dare not enter this profession. It is more common to operate a spirit field farm, cultivate spirit grain, and accumulate wealth. As for rogue cultivators, it’s even more unthinkable; all their savings would not even fill this hole.

 

“Brother Su, you were a rice merchant; wasn’t the business quite successful? You earned quite a few spirit stones, too.”

 

Master Lu advised hurriedly.

 

“Master Lu, I simply wish to learn. I would not go to refine pills without sufficient confidence.”

 

Su Chen smiled.

 

He was certainly aware of the high risk inherent in alchemy, where money flowed like water, far greater than the risk of cultivating spirit fields.

 

He simply didn’t want to spend his life toiling over spirit grain, a rice merchant who earned a spirit stone for every two grains.

 

He possessed Spirit Mountain, where he could cultivate herbs. With this advantage, he had to learn a more advanced craft. It didn’t matter whether he could refine a Marrow Cleansing Pill or not; even if he failed, learning alchemy itself would be a worthwhile investment.

 

“If you just want to be an apprentice in a Pill Refining Workshop, assisting the alchemists and earning a few spirit stones each month, there’s not much risk, provided you don’t refine pills yourself. I know an old friend of mine from a minor cultivation clan. He runs a small Pill Refining Workshop. I’ll take you to have a look!”

 

Master Lu assumed that Su Chen simply wanted to learn a skill that would earn him money and that he wasn’t interested in refining pills himself. He thought for a moment, and a path occurred to him.

 

Cultivation clans and powerful families also had large Pill Refining Workshops, but they only recruited from within the family and did not accept outsiders.

 

Only small Pill Refining Workshops, which occasionally lacked manpower, would recruit a few apprentices to help out.

 

Lu and Su Chen were heading into a small alleyway within Immortal City Zhaoge.

 

The alleyway, lined with houses with green brick and glazed tile roofs, contained a small Pill Refining Workshop, but it had ceased operations.

 

It was seen that the middle-aged workshop owner of this Pill Refining Workshop had a look of sorrow on his face, had dismissed several apprentices and laborers, and had closed the Pill Refining Workshop.

 

Anyone who looked at it would know that this small Pill Refining Workshop could not operate and had gone bankrupt.

 

“Li, brother, what happened to you…”

 

Lu exclaimed in surprise.

 

He knew that this Shopkeeper Li had once apprenticed under an old alchemist and returned after ten years of learning, intending to start his own business and build a Pill Refining Workshop in the alchemy industry.

 

This small Pill Refining Workshop had only been open for half a year, but it was now collapsing and could not operate.

 

“Sigh, Brother Lu, my alchemy still isn’t perfected. It’s really impossible to operate. I’d rather close it and lease out the workshop. I’d rather change to a small business. I should have listened to your advice ten years ago and not learned alchemy. Now the family’s savings are depleted, and there are only a few acres of spirit field, which can barely support me for a year or two so as not to be short of food.”

 

The alchemist Li, his face etched with worry, seeing Master Lu, couldn’t help but sigh.

 

He was the patriarch of his small cultivation family.

 

They, across three generations of immortal cultivation, had accumulated some capital. For the long-term prospects of the family, they learned alchemy, intending to gamble on their future.

 

He was too confident, having achieved a slight degree of success in alchemy, and opened a Pill Refining Workshop, wanting to lead his small family towards a more prosperous and powerful plan.

 

Opening this small Pill Refining Workshop cost them a thousand or two blocks of spirit stone. Over the past half-year, losses had been severe; the success rate of forming pills was too low; they invested fifteen hundred stones, and they couldn’t even recoup their capital.

 

“Brother Li, save up some more spirit stones, and try again in a few years! After all, your family is three generations of cultivators, and there is still hope for a revival.”

 

Master Lu sighed and offered some comfort.

 

Immortal City Zhaoge had eight hundred cultivation families. To meet the condition of a cultivation family, it must produce cultivators within three generations. If a generation ceased, they would be stripped of the title of cultivation family.

 

Small cultivation families are only slightly better off than those rogue cultivators.

 

But if a generation produced a prodigal scion, or if they were careless in their management, they would decline and their families would easily dissolve.

 

Every year, dozens of small cultivation families withdrew from the ranks of the eight hundred cultivation families.

 

Of course, many new cultivation families emerged.

 

Su Chen felt a profound sense of sympathy.

 

He looked at this small Pill Refining Workshop; the courtyard was small, but the detached building was quiet.

 

A pill furnace, firewood room, well, and other facilities were all readily available.

 

This courtyard also contained a miniature array, capable of shielding the area from external influences. To prevent Divine Sense from outside from peering in or interfering.

 

And this place, within Zhaoge City, was considerably safer than outside; less likely to be disturbed or suffer an accident during alchemy.

 

“Shopkeeper Li, how much is the rent for this Pill Refining Workshop?”

 

Su Chen asked directly.

 

“One spirit stone a day, thirty for the month; it’s not expensive. Though the workshop is small, it’s still quite suitable for use as a storage space or for business ventures.”

 

Shopkeeper Li glanced at Su Chen, noting he was a new arrival among the rogue cultivators.

 

He certainly wouldn’t believe that Su Chen intended to practice alchemy; he assumed Su Chen wanted to rent the space for business, for stockpiling goods. The price of one spirit stone a day was equivalent to renting a room in an inn within Immortal City Zhaoge.

 

Renting out the pill refining workshop would earn him thirty spirit stones a month, enough to help with his household expenses.

 

“Alright! I’ll rent this workshop!”

 

Su Chen replied immediately.

 

After paying the rent, Shopkeeper Li handed over the key to the door, granting the workshop to Su Chen for his use.

 

“Brother Su, the matter is concluded. Say something if you need any help; I’ll go attend to other things now.”

 

Master Lu didn’t dwell on it and departed.

 

He knew that the Pill Refining Workshop had closed down; Su Chen certainly wouldn’t learn any alchemy. Renting it as a storage space, or running a business, was perfectly acceptable.

 

He also knew that Su Chen had been doing quite well with the spirit grain trade these past six months and that he could almost always afford to eat spirit grain every day, even selling some spiritual herbs.

 

Su Chen rented this small alchemy workshop and closed the door to avoid disturbance. A miniature array to shield against external prying required only a spirit stone to be placed on the array disk to activate.

 

He took out a Bean Soldier.

 

A White Lotus thug materialized, cleaning this small courtyard, chopping wood, making fire, clearing furnace slag, fetching water, and performing various odd jobs.

 

Alchemy required a considerable amount of inferior first-grade spirit wood.

 

Woodcutter Wu often felled spirit wood deep in the mountains and then sent the spirit wood to Immortal City Zhaoge, selling it to various workshops. But he had not been in Zhaoge for very long, lacking established clientele. Not being a man of many words, he found selling spirit wood quite vexing each time.

 

Su Chen directly purchased the spirit wood that Woodcutter Wu had chopped.

 

Woodcutter Wu no longer needed to worry about selling spirit wood, chopping the spirit wood, and sending it over to this alchemy workshop.

 

Su Chen had a White Lotus thug to handle odd jobs, so he didn’t need to personally perform trivial matters.

 

He only needed to concentrate on the heat, carefully opening the furnace, and refining the spirit pill.

 

Starting with the lowest grade, the inferior first-grade Spirit Dew Pill.

 

To study alchemy, one naturally first needed a supply of spiritual herbs.

 

The market price of Spirit Dew Grass was three spirit stones per plant. Cultivating Spirit Dew Grass oneself, however, was quite inexpensive, costing only one spirit stone per plant.

 

Refining an inferior first-grade pill such as the Spirit Dew Pill was also what cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage used to practice refining pills, and it was sold in the market for ten spirit stones.

 

The Spirit Dew Grass was something Su Chen cultivated himself, at a negligible cost. Failing a batch resulted in a loss of a few spirit stones, which he didn’t particularly mind. Ten batches needed only one to be successfully refined to recoup the initial investment.

 

For other alchemists, such a low success rate would have long resulted in financial ruin, daring them not to continue.

 

Due to the low cost, Su Chen could tolerate a failure rate exceeding three times the norm.

 

As his alchemy experience grew, the success rate slowly increased, and the refinement of genuine pills became more frequent. Even with a mere twenty percent success rate, he could still earn profits exceeding one hundred percent.

 

This enormous cost advantage was unattainable by other alchemists.

 

…

 

Shopkeeper Li rented the Pill Refining Workshop to Su Chen, believing him to be using it for storage, so he rarely interfered.

 

On one occasion, passing by the Pill Refining Workshop, he unexpectedly discovered smoke rising from the small courtyard, with flickering flames, seemingly indicating the opening of a furnace.

 

A small isolation array was activated within the Pill Refining Workshop, preventing the use of Divine Sense to investigate. Though he saw the firelight, he could not see anything more.

 

“This boy, is he actually refining pills?”

 

Shopkeeper Li glanced at it, visibly startled.

 

Soon, he wore an expression of deep sympathy and pity.

 

These days, new rogue cultivators truly lacked awareness of their limits.

 

His small immortal cultivation family’s years of alchemic apprentices had all lost fortunes, causing the Pill Refining Workshop to decline and almost losing any chance of recovery.

 

Su Chen, a newly arrived rogue cultivator, actually dared to attempt alchemy!

 

It was likely he was only able to stay a month or two before being forced to leave, defeated and covered in dust.

 

Shopkeeper Li wouldn’t comment on it, though.

 

The rent was a substantial thirty spirit stones a month.

 

This small Pill Refining Workshop was difficult to rent out; established clans and powerful families already possessed their own large-scale Pill Refining Workshops. Other, smaller cultivation families were unlikely to be interested in renting his workshop, only able to utilize it as storage space.

 

“Let’s see how long you can last!”

 

Shopkeeper Li shook his head and left.

 

And with that, half a year passed.

 

He came each month to collect the rent from Su Chen.

 

He frequently observed that Su Chen’s face was indeed coated in dust, a result of the soot from refining pills. Sometimes, the process would fail catastrophically, scorching his clothes and covering him in dust.

 

Shopkeeper Li felt a growing curiosity. After waiting for so long, he hadn’t seen Su Chen leave, defeated and covered in dust. He wondered what exactly Su Chen was doing within.