Chapter 2598

Ye Chen said he was reluctantly accepting it, and Hong Changqing felt his blood was about to drain out.

This medicine cauldron was passed down by the Patriarch Zhenzhen Dao, and for several hundred to over a thousand years, dozens of Patriarchs of Zhenzhen Dao have used this cauldron to refine pills, which absolutely counts as the sect's treasure of Zhenzhen Dao.

Seeing this sect's treasure, passed down for over a thousand years, being swindled away by Ye Chen, Hong Changqing felt he would have no face to meet the ancestors of Zhenzhen Dao even after death.

But now he has no room to maneuver, this thing is already in Ye Chen's hands, he can't beat him, can't argue with him, can't scold him, and in front of Ye Chen he is completely overwhelmed.

So, Hong Changqing's current thought is, if he can save his life tonight at this Jishitang, then it counts as the Patriarchs' blessing, even if their graves are smoking, and he no longer has the heart to demand the return of this medicine cauldron.

Thus, he could only force a smile and respectfully say: "Master Ye, please accept it, this medicine cauldron will be yours from now on..."

Ye Chen nodded, while untying the cloth bag to reveal the ancient bronze tripod cauldron inside, and at the same time glanced at Hong Changqing and said: "You promised it yourself, I'm not cheating you, am I?"

Hong Changqing held back tears and repeatedly said: "No cheating, no cheating..."

Ye Chen asked again: "You did this willingly, right?"

Hong Changqing nodded while letting his tears be flung to the ground by his head, constantly muttering: "Willingly, willingly..."

Ye Chen nodded satisfactorily: "As long as it's voluntary, that's fine."

Saying that, he took the three-legged medicine cauldron out of the cloth bag.

As the three-legged medicine cauldron was taken out, a faint medicinal aroma wafted over.

Ye Chen examined the medicine cauldron before him and couldn't help but lament that its craftsmanship was indeed extremely exquisite, the vessel form grand and ancient, the lines smooth and moist, making one feel pleased to look at it, every part so well-proportioned.

Moreover, the entire body is oily and glossy, extremely smooth, and feels very smooth to the touch, I don't know if it's due to the good material or if these Patriarchs of Zhenzhen Dao have polished it well.

However, Ye Chen didn't think this medicine cauldron had anything special about it, after all he has seen many antiques, if one were to say ancient bronzes, compared to this medicine cauldron, those that are more grand and exquisite are too numerous to count, those bronzes called national treasures, which one isn't one in ten thousand?

Just as Ye Chen thought this was probably just an ancient commemorative item, he subconsciously poured in some spiritual energy to test it, and this test was no problem, only feeling the cauldron buzz and vibrate in his hand!

However, the people around him did not notice this change in the medicine cauldron.

Immediately after, Ye Chen realized that inside this medicine cauldron, there was actually an extremely complex formation, like his Piercing Soul Blade and Thunderclap Order, all formations stored in magical artifacts, activated by spiritual energy to achieve the formation's effect.

Ye Chen didn't know what formation was inside this medicine cauldron, but felt its rotation speed was astonishingly fast, very much like it was specially used to condense some material.

Combined with the fact that this thing looks like a medicine cauldron for alchemy, he immediately concluded: this should be a magical artifact specially used to refine pills with spiritual energy!

At this moment, Ye Chen's heart suddenly surged with excitement.

Before, when he refined pills, he directly used spiritual energy to condense the medicinal ingredients, and the reason he didn't use any objects was because ordinary objects' strength could not bear the temperature of long-term pill refinement with spiritual energy.

Moreover, according to the records in the 《Nine Profound Heaven Scripture》, although medicine cauldrons have no attack power, in magical artifacts they are considered difficult to make, and this level of magical artifact medicine cauldron, its internal formation, under the support of spiritual energy, can allow the medicinal efficacy of the ingredients to be better refined, even achieving sublimation.

In other words, if Ye Chen used only spiritual energy to refine the materials of the Rejuvenation Pill, the result would be an ordinary Rejuvenation Pill, but if he put the medicinal ingredients into this kind of medicine cauldron for refinement, the result would be a Rejuvenation Pill plus.

The efficacy of the Rejuvenation Pill plus is certainly stronger than that of the Rejuvenation Pill, but how much stronger depends on the rank of this medicine cauldron itself.

Pill refinement, in some aspects, is very similar to iron smelting.

If only using spiritual energy to refine pills, it's like ancient people smelting iron, although using high-heat charcoal with bellows, they could barely reach the temperature needed for iron smelting, but due to insufficient temperature, the iron smelted, compared to modern chemical industry's high-temperature blast furnaces, is still far inferior.

And this medicine cauldron is equivalent to the blast furnace in modern iron smelting!

The same iron ore, if refined by the most primitive method, can at most produce some swords and blades, but if smelted from a modern blast furnace, the steel can be used to make aircraft cannons, even aircraft carriers.

Moreover, refining pills by hand can only produce low-grade pills, once reaching medium-high grade, one must have a medicine cauldron to refine them, so this thing is of great significance to Ye Chen's future development!

At this moment, Ye Chen was naturally overjoyed. Reading book seep

However, he was also curious, this Hong Changqing is merely a martial Dao cultivator, has no spiritual energy at all, how does he use this medicine cauldron to refine pills?

Thinking of this, Ye Chen couldn't help but ask: "Heavenly Master Hong, I'm curious to ask you, what do you usually use this thing for?"

Hong Changqing's pair of eyes stared fixedly at the medicine cauldron, full of reluctance and pain, muttering: "I usually use this medicine cauldron to decoct some herbal soups, or entry-level pills."

Ye Chen asked again: "Do you know how to use it properly, or let me ask more directly, how do you usually use this medicine cauldron?"

Hong Changqing explained: "Just add some charcoal fire at the bottom of the medicine cauldron, then put the medicinal ingredients and water inside, and simmer with a slow fire... actually it's the same principle as using a sand pot to decoct Chinese medicine..."

"Charcoal fire?" Ye Chen was stunned, idly flipped over the three-legged medicine cauldron, and indeed saw the blackened traces from charcoal fire at the bottom, and looking at it, it has been smoked by charcoal fire not just for years or decades, but possibly even hundreds of years.

Ye Chen couldn't help but think in his heart: "Damn, these foolish Daoists of Zhenzhen Dao, actually using charcoal fire to burn a magical artifact, truly a waste of heavenly bounty!"

Thinking of this, Ye Chen asked again: "Could it be that the Patriarchs of your Zhenzhen Dao all used this medicine cauldron with charcoal fire to refine pills?"

"Yes." Hong Changqing subconsciously said: "The medicine cauldron is naturally used this way, if the medicinal ingredients are not added with water and fired, how else could they be refined into pills? Could it be using the Samadhi True Fire said in myths?"

Ye Chen couldn't help but laugh helplessly.

It seems this Zhenzhen Dao also obtained this medicine cauldron by chance, and fundamentally doesn't know how to use it properly.

From this one can also see that the over-thousand-year history of Zhenzhen Dao, so many generations of inheritors, none have mastered spiritual energy, thinking about it, it's indeed somewhat sad.

But Ye Chen couldn't help but wonder in his heart: "Since so many people in Zhenzhen Dao don't know the actual use of this medicine cauldron, why do they enshrine it as the sect's treasure?"

Thinking of this, Ye Chen deliberately asked Hong Changqing: "Like your medicine cauldron, what's the difference between it and the sand pot used by common people to decoct medicine? You say it looks good, but in bronzeware it's not absolutely top-notch, you say it has other cultural relic value, but there's not even an inscription on it, even if it's ancient, it wouldn't sell for a high price, why do you still treat it as the sect's treasure? Is there some secret here unknown to outsiders?"

"This..." Hong Changqing originally didn't want to say, because this is after all a sect-secret not to be transmitted.

But he thought: "To hell with it, the cauldron is gone anyway, what's the point of sect-secrets... I'd rather get to the bottom with this Ye surname bastard, maybe I can even get some preferential treatment from him..."

Thinking of this, he immediately blurted out: "Master Ye, the miraculous aspect of this medicine cauldron is not in simply decocting medicine! Rather, when you take the same prescription, same medicinal ingredients, same dosage, and decoct them together in it and other vessels, the medicine decocted from it, in terms of efficacy, is stronger than that from other vessels by a notch!"

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