The cauldron, which was three feet tall, didn’t have any unique carvings. It was just a simple and unadorned item cauldron.
Every alchemy stone chamber in the Alchemy Temple had a similar cauldron. Even the Divine-grade alchemy stone chamber had one.
These were the basic item cauldrons that the Alchemy Temple provided. They were nothing more than beginner-grade spiritual items. However, it was more than sufficient for a mortal-grade alchemy stone chamber, as these chambers were meant for Foundation Establishment Plane cultivators to use.
If the Golden Core Sage were to perform his alchemy, he would’ve used his own cauldron. The same would go for Nascent Zhenjun.
That was why cauldrons above spiritual item level were needed in Earth-grade and Divine-grade alchemy stone chambers. And just like other cauldrons, item cauldrons were expensive as well.
If an item alchemist was to possess a good quality item cauldron, then they would’ve treated it as their treasure and would never show it to other people without any reason.
For the Alchemy Temple to provide so many beginner-grade spiritual items showed how established they were. These weren’t your everyday items. Even the cheapest one would’ve cost a fortune.
Chen Jingzhai didn’t need a high-quality item cauldron. Instead, the beginner one suited his needs even more.
He sat down on the stone stool next to the fire and took his storage bag out. Only ten sets of ingredients and a jade slip could be found in the small bag. The slip consisted of the fundamentals of item alchemy. It demonstrated how to heat the cauldron, combine ingredients, form a shape, and quenching to produce the final product.
As item alchemy had many more complex steps, it was natural that these weren’t taught to everyone. The only reason it was called the fundamental was that it roughly consisted of the steps of item alchemy.
Most cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Plan would be able to use the fundamentals to create items, and the chance of something going wrong was slim. There was even a chance that they could create spiritual items if their ingredients were of high quality.
Chen Jingzhai used his divine mind to memorize the content of the jade slip instantly. Then, after knowing all the steps by heart, he recalled the steps of pill alchemy.
The Pill Extraction and Purification Scripture introduced how to create three different pill cauldrons. However, according to the flaw, by combining the three techniques, he could produce another type of cauldron. It meant that he had now mastered four different techniques for creating a pill cauldron.
Despite that, the one he wanted to create, and the one that suited him the most, was the hardest one out of all four. It was known as the White Crane Cloud Tree Celestial Cauldron.
The cauldron had three levels of restrictions, the White Crane Cauldron, the Celestial Cauldron, and the Cloud Tree Cauldron. After forming the three restrictions, he would be able to use those cauldrons and the bug found in the scripture.
Initially, he was only able to produce a small number of high-quality pills through the techniques in the Pill Extraction and Purification Scripture. However, he could use the power of the cauldron to increase productivity. He could even use the cauldron to swiftly increase his experience to become a pill alchemist faster.
There was no way Chen Jingzhai was going to miss the chance. So he started to rid his mind of extra thoughts. However, instead of jumping straight into the item alchemy process, he simulated it in his mind first.
After ensuring that everything was perfect, he waved his arm and sent a wave of spiritual power toward the fire. Then, with the help of spiritual power, the tame fire burst into bigger flames. It was as if the flames had formed the shape of a water lily and were heating the bronze item cauldron from below.
The first step of item alchemy was heating the cauldron. Pre-heating served the purpose of letting the heat spread throughout the interior of the cauldron. He would then need to activate the magic restriction inside the cauldron. He began to prepare the ingredients as he waited.
Since it was Chen Jingzhai’s first time creating an item, he ensured that he didn’t get distracted.
As he pre-heated the cauldron, he was highly focused on the changes in the fire. First, he ensured that the heat had spread throughout the entire cauldron. Then, after a while, he began to put the ingredients into the cauldron according to the steps he had memorized. Twelve ingredients were needed to create the White Crane Cloud Tree Celestial Cauldron; one Grade 2 ingredient and 11 Grade 1 ingredients. As long as he could create a spiritual item cauldron, he could consider it a success.
After putting all the ingredients into the cauldron, some started to soften, while a few had already melted into their liquid forms.
The third step was to form the shape. It was one of the more crucial moments, and Chen Jingzhai still could not manage to succeed even after spending an hour on it.
The first set of ingredients that he had used failed at the shaping stage, and all of them were combined to form a useless piece of metal.
Chen Jingzhai frowned and continued to let the useless metal chunk heat up inside the cauldron as he thought about what went wrong. He waited until the metal chunk formed into a rod before taking it out and throwing it to one side.
Not ready to give up just yet, he threw in the second set of ingredients.
Shaping, the third step of item alchemy, might seem simple, but the requirement on the alchemist’s divine mind was high. Unlike swords or other weapons, a pill cauldron had a curve, and the curve needed to be perfect.
Not only that, but the White Crane Cloud Tree Celestial Cauldron also had a pair of crane mouths as handles, a cloud carving, and legs that looked like three roots. All three parts needed to be perfect as well. It was a challenging task for Chen Jingzhai, who had just started item alchemy for the first time, to perfect.
Fortunately, he was able to recover his divine mind quickly and was much more tenacious than other cultivators.
After another failure, Chen Jingzhai finally succeeded in the shaping process on the third try.
The following steps were to polish and quench the cauldron before putting the restrictions on it. Each and every one of the remaining steps needed him to be extra careful. One small mistake and the whole thing could be ruined.
His third try failed during the quenching process as the metal cracked. Finally, the quench was a success on the fourth try, but he made a mistake when he was putting the restrictions.
The fifth was another failure as well.
He then took a rest and used that chance to extend the time he could use the alchemy stone chamber. Then, as he recovered his spiritual power, he started to look back at all of his failures.
The sixth try was a failure once again.
He did not give up and was finally able to create a working cauldron. Unfortunately, the cauldron was only at the magic item grade, and none of the three restrictions were activated.
He then noticed there was no coordination between the three restrictions. Owing to that, the seventh try was a failure, but he was able to proceed smoothly until the end.
The eighth attempt failed due to the restrictions once more.
Since there were only two tries left, Chen Jingzhai decided to pause there while he recalled the content of the scripture and focused on the three layers of restrictions.
He kept simulating in his head while including all the failures he had experienced up until then.
He finally realized that the problem could have happened when he carved the restrictions onto the cauldron.
“The order was wrong,” he concluded. “I created the White Crane restriction first before proceeding with the Celestial and Cloud Tree restrictions. It should’ve been the other way around because the Cloud Tree restriction serves as the legs of the cauldron. Then, I could connect the Celestial restriction to the Cloud Tree restriction as it sits above the legs. The final step should be the White Crane restriction.”
Chen Jingzhai grinned as he finally solved the mystery. After that, he didn’t even hesitate to begin the ninth try.
He heated the cauldron once again, added the ingredients, and began to form the shape. But, unlike all other previous tries, the moment he had formed the legs, he immediately carved the Cloud Tree restriction on it.
He split the shaping process into three parts instead of forming the whole cauldron at once before carving the restrictions. He would form the shape of a part and carve the respective restriction before repeating the same process with another part.
After repeating the process two more times, he combined the three different parts. The three different restrictions were finally able to form a perfect unison.
Chen Jingzhai couldn’t help but show a satisfied grin on his face when he saw that.
He then finished the final step, which was to polish the cauldron once again. The completed product was the size of a human’s head when it was still in the cauldron. However, when it flew out of the cauldron, it had doubled in size, and it had a shine to it. It circled the room twice before stopping in front of Chen Jingzhai.
He had finally successfully created the White Crane Celestial Cloud Tree Cauldron.
Chen Jingzhai grabbed the cauldron as a smile of success appeared on his face.
