Chapter 16: Refinement

The so-called laboratory was a small room of only about ten-odd square meters; its walls were not metal but rough rock, and the floor was covered with a simple layer of rune-inscribed tiles.

In the center of the room stood a makeshift workbench, above which hung a mana-energy lamp, while the corner was piled with some commonly used basic equipment—small crucibles, bellows, water troughs, and the like.

Most crucially, basic runes were inscribed at the four corners of the room and on the doorframe.

"Is this a simple isolation and anti-scrying formation?"

After locking the door, Gao Jie Ming felt the faint energy fluctuation brought about by the activation of the formation.

A formation of this level might not withstand a powerful scrying attempt by a high-rank wizard, but anyone trying to breach its shielding would trigger a disturbance, making it sufficient as a warning system.

Everything inside the entire laboratory appeared quite crude and basic; one could say that apart from this internal protective formation and the isolation formation, it was good for nothing else.

However, after a careful inspection, Gao Jie Ming also discovered a pleasant surprise: "There's actually an independent Mana Network terminal in the laboratory?"

In one corner of the laboratory sat a machine identical to the Mana Network connectors found in the Mission Hall.

Familiar with the process, Gao Jie Ming activated the machine with his own badge and discovered that its content was even richer than that in the Mission Hall; besides various routine missions, the different laboratories also bought and sold needed supplies and products among themselves.

"They even offer free delivery services for basic supply transactions; this is much better than the Mission Hall."

Although the Mission Hall also offered similar basic supply trading services, it did not provide delivery, forcing buyers to collect their purchases themselves.

For high-end resources, this might be acceptable, but for certain routine supplies, the purchasing power of contribution points in this regard was terrifyingly strong.

Moreover, Gao Jie Ming also discovered that, aided by the missions and purchase requests posted by the various laboratories, something resembling the "forums" of his previous life was beginning to emerge here.

Unfortunately, in this world, the value of knowledge far surpassed all other things; most discussions merely scratched the surface, so despite developing for a long time, the "forum" remained only in its infancy.

Even so, the scattered information revealed in these discussions yielded substantial gains for Gao Jie Ming.

The paid knowledge purchase system is perfected to an astonishing degree; even something like a knowledge network pales in comparison...

After indulging in the Mana Network for a while, Gao Jie Ming finally came to his senses: "Good heavens, I haven't been online for so long that I'm getting a bit excited. So, it seems the most important functions of these low-level laboratories, besides ensuring privacy, must be the ability to go online at any time..."

Upon reaching this conclusion, Gao Jie Ming fell silent as he looked at the terminal machine connected to the Mana Network before him: "What is this? A private internet cafe booth? The network fees are exorbitant!"

After venting his internal complaints for a while, Gao Jie Ming stopped wasting time and began his main objective for the day.

Taking out the piece of gold he had shaped countless times through alchemy from his toolbox, he did not use the crucible provided by the laboratory but instead pulled a stone out of his personal toolkit.

According to the knowledge in the Great Dao Library, refining Mithril at the first layer of Qi Refining required the aid of tools.

The simplest among these was a specially crafted furnace-cauldron; its unique internal structure could concentrate firepower to assist in refinement.

Gao Jie Ming took out his alchemy plate, placed the stone upon it, and before long, the entire stone transformed into a small cauldron the size of a rice cooker.

"This shaping technique feels so smooth; indeed, only after releasing the internal circulation can one perform better," Gao Jie Ming sighed in his heart.

He placed the piece of gold into the stone furnace he had molded, focused his spiritual sense, and simultaneously mobilized the hard-won true essence within his body.

"The Geng Metal Refinement Method... this is a basic metal purification technique from the Great Dao Library. Its principle involves using the high-purity infiltration of true essence and the subtle guidance of spiritual sense to strip impurities from the metal and extract its core essence. Unfortunately, with my current cultivation base, I can only refine a small amount, and the requirements for the material's properties are high; fortunately, gold has stable properties, so it is barely usable."

Activating the laboratory's heating formation, a ball of flame spontaneously appeared on the workbench.

Placing the stone cauldron upon it, Gao Jie Ming slowly transferred his true essence into the piece of gold.

As the true essence entered the interior of the gold, it acted like the highest-grade solvent, quickly penetrating between every molecule of the gold. Simultaneously, his spiritual sense, precise as a scalpel, sensed the innermost "gold nature" within the gold and those mixed "mortal natures."

This process consumed true essence enormously; Gao Jie Ming felt the pitiful amount of true essence in his body draining away like a floodgate opening, bringing waves of obvious weakness.

His complexion began to turn pale, and fine beads of sweat seeped onto his forehead.

Fortunately, he had now learned a meditation technique, allowing him to absorb elemental power from the outside world and convert it into true essence to replenish himself.

Gritting his teeth, Gao Jie Ming continued to maintain the output of his true essence and the subtle guidance of his spiritual sense. At the same time, following the methods of the Geng Metal Refinement Technique, he utilized the simple equipment in the laboratory for assistance.

Every step required extreme focus and control; he could feel the "mortal natures" inside the gold resisting and separating under the guidance of the true essence and external forces. They turned into invisible fine dust, precipitating from the surface of the gold and being incinerated by the high temperature within the stone furnace.

As time ticked by second by second, Gao Jie Ming's true essence was nearly exhausted, and the weakness in his body reached its peak.

He felt somewhat dizzy, and the faint humming sound emitted by the isolation rune formation seemed to grow increasingly distant.

Finally!

Just before his true essence completely dried up, all impurities within the gold were thoroughly stripped away.

The gold, originally the size of a fist in the furnace, had now become a tiny golden chunk only the size of a fingertip, shimmering with a restrained luster.

Success!

Leaning weakly against the workbench, Gao Jie Ming gasped for breath.

With no time to inspect his results, Gao Jie Ming sat cross-legged on the ground to meditate, fully activating the power of the Truth Runes in his spiritual sea to attract elemental power from the outside world, converting it into true essence to replenish his body's consumption.

More than half an hour later, once his condition had mostly recovered, Gao Jie Ming stood up and used tweezers to carefully pick the small golden chunk out of the stone cauldron.

It felt ice-cold to the touch yet impossibly heavy.

It was no longer mundane gold but a substance imbued with an indescribable concept of eternity and stability.

After appraising it based on the knowledge from the Great Dao Library, Gao Jie Ming confirmed that this was "Mithril," a metal essence that could only be refined in the cultivation world using special methods!

Excitedly, Gao Jie Ming looked at the fingertip-sized piece of Mithril in his hand; this should be the first time since arriving in this world that he had come into contact with a transcendent material.