All cultivators possessed some degree of knowledge of pellet refinement, item refinement, and arrays.
The Taixu Sect Chieftain was a pellet refinist and not a low-ranked one at that, having been able to brew grade-six pellets. As such, since he knew the pellet recipe of the Soul Mold Pellets, he promptly walked up and picked out the ingredients needed.
“That thing that looks a dog’s tail is a soul medicine too?”
“What?”
“That’s the scarlet dragon herb that grows at places of concentrated Yang Qi?”
“What’s the name of this thing that looks like Sichuan Pepper?”
Meanwhile, Jiang He would ask about anything he did know, and afterwards could more or less name the eighteen medicinal ingredients needed for the Soul Mold Pellets.
Of course, cooking the Soul Mold Pellets was not an easy job. One would require a catalyst called the Spirit Rime Herb to regulate Ying and Yang aspects as well as medicinal effects of the other medicinal ingredients.
Moreover, there was a complete procedure for preparing the Soul Mold Pellet written on the pellet recipe, explaining in detail which medicinal ingredients should be melted, and the temperature of the fire to melt it… of course, as the Celsius system had yet to be invented in ancient times and Jiang He did not understand the calculation units.
“Whatever, if I don’t get it, I don’t get it. This is a pellet refinement method I invented myself, which revolves around simplicity. Complex stuff like that does not fit me.”
Jiang He thought then and smiled. “Alright, I’m going to start preparing the pellets.”
The Taixu Sect Chieftain was beside himself in apprehensiveness, even whispering, “Lord Jiang He, why don’t we prepare some low-grade pellets as practice first? The discipline of pellet refinement is quite profound and does not afford mistakes.”
“What?”
Displeased, Jiang He shot the Taixu Sect Chieftain a glare and coolly asked, “Are you teaching me pellet refining now?”
“No, no….”
The Taixu Sect Chieftain sweated over his forehead and quickly tried to change the topic. “By the way, since you had not refined pellets before, you probably wouldn’t have a pellet cauldron, would you, Lord Jiang He?”
A small seven-inch tall pellet cauldron appeared over his palm then, and he said, “To tell the truth, I know a thing or two about pellet refinement as well. My master had rewarded me with this Purple Blazing Sun Cauldron when I first reach rank-four as a pellet refinist. It’s a mediocre-grade sage item and draws upon earthen flames to ignite purple fire after it is activated. If you don’t have any pellet cauldrons, Lord Jiang He, you may use this.”
Jiang He then exclaimed in surprise, “Does pellet refining needs pellet cauldrons?”
The Taixu Sect Chieftain was dumbstruck.
Having lost all hope, he put away the Purple Blazing Sun Cauldron and backed off over twenty meters away without a word.
On the other hand, Jiang He took out a cooking pot and anchored it up in the air with his mystic energy. Then, he took out the golden cleaver that he planted and then threw all eighteen medicinal ingredients together, his cleaver leaving afterimages as it swished and grinded all the medicinal ingredients into powder.
The Taixu Sect Chieftain wanted to say something but stopped, eventually resorting holding his hand over his eyes because he could not bear to look.
The value of those eighteen medicinal ingredients put together was equal to five superior-grade sage items!
Nonetheless, Jiang He nodded contentedly and could not resist praising himself, saying, “I haven’t cooked for a long time, but my chopping skills has strengthened instead.”
After the ingredients were cut, the next procedure was to melt them.
The ingredients must not be burned directly since the temperatures would not be reached instantly. Instead, it would char the medicinal ingredients, which was why Jiang He had to use his fire-type powers to melt it.
Whoosh.
A jet of flames shot out from his palm and the medicinal ingredients in the cooking pot burned up instantly…
And were then reduced to ashes.
Jiang He did a double take.
Why was this a little different from what he had imagined?
Weren’t these ingredients supposed to turn liquid instantly?
He turned to find the Taixu Sect Chieftain staring at the ashes in the cooking pot with agony and promptly smiled to set his mind at ease. “Don’t worry, Brother. This is the first time I’m cooking pellets, so a little surprise is reasonable.”
Taking out two bottles of Origin Fluid from his System Backpack, he then poured everything inside, before directing his fires to add heat to the pot. When the Origin Fluid in the wok boiled, he took out a sage-grade staff and started stirring.
As he stirred the Origin Fluid and the scraps of the medicinal ingredients, Jiang He smiled and asked, “By the way, what flavor of Soul Mold Pellets would you prefer? Butter? Chocolate? Mint? Or perhaps matcha… oh!”
“I forgot to prepare those flavoring ahead of time, but whatever. We won’t add that today, so let’s make you an original flavored Soul Mold Pellet.”
That stuff, however, was clearly beyond the Taixu Sect Chieftain’s knowledge…
Moreover, he had already lost heart towards Jiang He.
It would actually be weird if he could cook up actual pellets by doing that!
Nonetheless, Jiang He was soon done stirring the ashes of the medicinal ingredients and making it even—the mixture was now an extremely disgusting pitch-black color and was steaming with a stinking odor, and even the fresh aroma of the Origin Fluid was supplanted.
“It stinks so much?”
“How horrible would it be when it’s cooked as a pellet?”
“Well, I did forget to prepare the flavoring so I would have to compromise. As the saying goes, good medicine is bitter, so we’ll just have to deal with it.”
Jiang He muttered, and took out the ‘molds’ which he had prepared beforehand.
He had three of these.
One was spherical, the standard shape of medicinal pellets.
The other was a squared shape for ice creams, while for the last one, Jiang He had taken inspiration from the Beijing Old Popsicles… and it was shaped like a popsicle.
Jiang He then took a look at the mixture and did the math mentally.
“Ten Soul Mold Pellets from one portion of medicinal ingredients?”
“The spherical mold and the ice cream mold are a little too small, and there would be more than ten pellets in the mixture…”
As such, he had to choose the popsicle shape.
Carefully pouring the medicinal mixture into the mold, Jiang He only noticed afterwards that he had not prepared sticks for the popsicles… but that was not a problem, since he just had to run inside his farm and pluck off ten spikes from the Cloudscraper Vine.
But as he pressed the spikes into the medicinal mixture, Jiang He realized another problem…
He did not know any frost techniques, and so had to ask for outside help.
Wang Hou walked up and said, “I have learned Frosting Palms, so allow me.”
As he walked up and looked at the mold, the corner of his lips twitched violently.
How was this pellet refinement?
Wasn’t it just preparing popsicles?
It was no wonder why Jiang He would ask about the flavor just now, about the butter, mint, matcha, and whatnot…
Nonetheless, he extended his palm and released an icy True Qi from it. The medicinal mixture froze into ice at once, and turned into… ten popsicles.
“Impressive.”
Jiang He praised, “Minister Wang, please give me the manual for this palm technique after you’re done. I should learn it, or it would be too troublesome to ask for help whenever I cook pellets.”
“As long as you’re pleased.”
Wang Hou said. “I still have other matters to see to, so I’ll be going. Remember to keep your phone switched on and I’ll contact you right away if there’s any developments with the Sky Demons.”
He darted away, leaving an afterimage.
On the other hand, Jiang he took out the ten popsicles and passed them all to the Taixu Sect Chieftain… but because the ingredients had been burned to ashes, all ten popsicles were pitched black and extremely ugly.
He was unable to decide if he should laugh or cry, but just as he was about to say something, his expression stiffened and he stared at the popsicles in disbelief.
His divine mind extending, he carefully felt it out… and became even more astonished.
His hands started to shake as he stammered, “No way… impossible… the attributes of this stuff are actually identical to Soul Mold Pellets?”
“Of course. I was cooking Soul Mold Pellets, although the appearance is just a little different. Why would it not be identical?” Jiang He barked.
Still doubtful even then, the Taixu Sect Chieftain took a bite, and was left beside him in shock and could not help exclaiming, “Lord Jiang He! Did you really develop that pellet refinement method yourself? That… that method actually cooks up the Soul Mold Pellets?!”
What are you even saying?
Who do you think you are belittling here?
Slightly upset at that, Jiang He said indignantly, “I’ve even handed the Soul Mold Pellets to you. What is there to doubt? Alright, stop making a fuss—I’m going to start crafting items.”
Ignoring the others, Jiang He promptly took out a water bucket, and once again put in salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and other condiments to prepare a quenching mixture. After that, he took out the crafting materials and melted them, ready to fashion into hand-carried thunderbolts.
Still, things did not go as he wished…
Perhaps because his hands were not as masterful, Jiang He ended up making a large pile of hand grenades.
Sizzle!
He splashed the quenching fluid on the new items, and infused them with mystics after he was done.
Jiang He wrote the words ‘mystic infusion’ on it as well, before adding the word ‘explosion’ on it after some thought…
He mused to himself repeatedly after that, before adding the word ‘huge’ in front of the word ‘explosion’.
“Huge explosion…”
Jiang He muttered quietly, “I just hope this these things wouldn’t disappoint me.
After that, he stuffed the heavenly thunderbolts he captured before and stuffed them into each of the 108 hand grenades.
Meanwhile, the Taixu Sect Chieftain, Elder Mo, and the Thunder Talisman Daoist were confused by what Jiang He was doing. They traded glances, assuming that Jiang He was creating some powerful concealed weapon.
Jiang He, however, could not be bothered to offer them an explanation.
It was now already past three hours and the armor he planted in his farm was already ‘ripe’. Jiang He entered to find it now exceedingly cool even as it stood above the ground, and could not help exclaiming in surprise, “Tut, tut. It seems that I, Jiang He, am quite talented in item crafting—this is the first time I’ve refined an item and I’ve managed to produce such a flawless armor.”
He hence ‘plucked’ the armor…
[Ding!]
[+500,000 Farm Points.]
A System Notification jingled in his head.
It was a premium-grade sage armor!
He hence stepped out of his farm and nonchalantly threw the armor at the Taixu Sect Chieftain and said, “That’s the armor I promise you. It’s done, so just invoke it with a drop of blood. By the way, it has no name, so remember to name it… anyway, I have more business to see to, so I won’t be joining your chat.”
Jiang He returned inside his farm then and started to plant his self-made hand-grenades.
He was holding high hopes inwardly.
“I did spend quite a fortune on these hand grenades, even stuffing many heavenly thunderbolts of retribution inside. I hope that I could be surprised a little after I planted them.”
He then looked up at the skies and could not help breathing a long sigh…
The Sky Demon legion consisted of almost a hundred Mahayana champions, hundreds of Sufferance champions, as well as innumerable Convergence and Yuan Spirit champions…
Surely he couldn’t kill them one by one, could he?
When the time comes, he just had to fight the immortals. After all, wouldn’t the combination of the Violet Sky Thunder Talisman and the Heavenly Thunderbolt Hand Grenade be enough to handle the small fry?
And to improve the power of the Heavenly Thunderbolt Hand Grenade, Jiang He steeled himself and redeemed 108 large packs of Living Soil, adding a pack each to the grenades he planted.
“One large pack of these Living Soil of the Nine Heavens costs three million, and 108 packs… costs 324 million!”
Feeling the pain, Jiang He gritted his teeth as he said, “What the hell… I can only hope that this stuff is powerful enough. Wouldn’t it be a complete loss if it cannot even blow up a Mahayana champion?”
