Chapter 755

Sister Hong Yan and Xiao Hong were both leaving the country for the first time; under the night sky, the fox and the girl clung to the pot's rim, shouting wildly outward.

Sister Hong Yan felt deeply annoyed and urged Pan Yun: "Quickly open the formation—I want to feel the wind!"

Pan Yun: "Xiao Hong is so light, a gust of wind would blow her away—go find her?"

Sister Hong Yan settled for less: "Then lower the pot's rim a bit—this pot is too deep; I need to reach my waist."

Pan Yun: "Calm down—can't you see everyone's tired? Aren't we preparing to rest?"

Sister Hong Yan looked down: the interior of the pot was vast; Pan Yun had even activated the spatial formation of the Three Treasures Cauldron, making the space even larger.

Tao Yanbai and Seeing Miao Zhen occupied one corner, laying out pillows and quilts, yawning as they prepared to sleep.

Beside them, Xue Shao had set up a small desk, upon which sat a lamp with a yellow talisman as its wick, burning steadily with a whooshing sound.

He arranged the Four Treasures of the Study and was slowly grinding an inkstick.

Seeing Sister Hong Yan look over, he raised his head with a faint smile, glanced at the ink pool, judged it sufficient, then spread out a sheet of white paper, lifted his brush, and gave Pan Yun a slight nod: "Continue."

Then Pan Yun began reciting, and he recorded.

Sister Hong Yan opened her mouth wide and muttered: "You're all insane~~"

Seeing Miao Zhen, eyes closed, was cultivating sleepiness while listening; she had a rough idea in mind—her junior uncle had brought them to Japan mostly for silver refining.

Indeed, upon arriving at Da Sen Village and entering the mountains, they saw thick smoke rolling; everyone wore masks, yet still could not mask the foul stench in the air.

Pan Yun said: "First, we must find ways to reduce pollution; second, improve silver extraction rates—this waste is unacceptable."

Seeing Miao Zhen: "How is Japan's local silver refining technique?"

Wang Cong said: "I've inquired before— theirs is worse than ours in Great Ming; they can extract less than forty percent of the silver from ore, while we at least manage fifty to sixty percent."

Pan Yun handed them the two books Xue Shao had recorded: "Look—these books say you can pre-roast the silver ore at around eight hundred degrees to remove sulfur and increase its reactivity."

Miao He: "Eight hundred degrees?"

Pan Yun: "That's refining fire—but the specifics still require our own experiments to master."

Miao He was familiar with this—since childhood, she had tended stoves for her uncle and master, and she knew the temperatures for alchemy differed from those for artifact forging.

There were civil fire, martial fire, refining fire, dormant fire, red fire, white fire, and more.

Due to the complexity of textual records, the same fire type had multiple names.

To master her fire-tending duties, Miao He had once consulted ancient texts.

She also knew that Daoist Priest talisman fire could vary in temperature—from scorching hot to instantly reducing matter to ash—depending on one's cultivation and technique, like lightning.

Miao He rolled up her sleeves: "To pre-roast and desulfurize, we'll need a separate furnace—does the book recommend one?"

Pan Yun: "There is one—Horsehoof Refining Furnace."

Beside them, Xue Shao had already flipped the book to the page detailing the Horsehoof Refining Furnace.

The group gathered to study it.

In the following time, they pored over the two books, while Pan Yun also searched the Spirit Realm for related records, copying them herself, then handing the task to Xue Shao when she grew tired.

Xue Shao didn't ask—where had she gotten these things? Why did it seem like she had to read something once to remember it, to truly comprehend it?

Regardless, their knowledge kept growing, their design schematics multiplying and becoming increasingly complex.

Seeing Miao Zhen thought: since we're now pre-roasting to remove sulfur, we can no longer use the old ash-blowing method—we must improve it too. So Pan Yun searched for all kinds of ash-blowing methods; as soon as she found one, Seeing Miao Zhen had already sketched a diagram, imagining separating the desulfurized ore into two grades: high-grade ore refined finely into silver, and lower-grade ore sent to another furnace to be re-smelted with lead.

To better distinguish the grades, Seeing Miao Zhen also believed the ore should be roasted once more for sorting.

"Based on current silver content from mining, this would halve the amount of ore sent for lead re-smelting—and halve the pollution."

Pan Yun had also found in the Spirit Realm a solution to pollution: her eyes brightened: "Add another furnace before and after the lead re-smelting furnace—before it, add saltpeter and borax…"

Xue Shao: "Won't this be too complicated? Won't it demand too much labor? We still need to crush the ore."

Pan Yun rubbed her chin: "That's indeed a problem."

Beside them, Wang Cong opened his mouth but held back.

Pan Yun glared at him: "Speak if you have something to say."

Wang Cong: "Junior Uncle, do you remember the washing machine you went to great lengths to create?"

Pan Yun: "... You mean?"

"Its original version could serve as a crusher; the intermediate version could serve as a sifter."

Pan Yun fell silent for a long while: "Then what was the point of all my effort to remove its power?"

Wang Cong whispered: "At least it's being used now—the washing machine… nobody bought it."

Even a genius like him couldn't sell it; the three he had craftsmen build still sit stacked in the warehouse of Guangxin Prefecture.

Pan Yun had already shed her complex emotions and thought rapidly: "If we're using it for crushing and sifting, we'll need different materials."

Wang Cong had already thought of it: "Like a furnace—fire-bake it from clay."

Pan Yun: "But this 'furnace' must be oval and rotatable…"

Pan Yun instantly sketched the schematics for a crusher and a sifter in her mind.

The group immediately got busy, needing no laborers—they mixed clay and built it themselves.

They selected another nearby location to construct a new silver refinery.

Xue Shao assisted everyone; after several days, he finally understood all the principles, and realized the crusher and sifter's power came from formations and talismans.

Xue Shao stared blankly at the talismans Pan Yun had drawn.

Pan Yun occasionally looked up at him and asked: "What are you daydreaming about?"

Xue Shao slowly folded the talisman and said solemnly: "I finally understand why the Celestial Master's Mansion strictly forbids Daoists from widely spreading mysterious arts among the common folk—even occasional leaks are severely punished."

Pan Yun smiled: "Because few in the world have the talent, time, or ability to cultivate; if the people all rush to imitate, agriculture, commerce, and industry will collapse, shaking the nation's fate."

"No," Xue Shao said: "If such powerful tools are destined never to be used by ordinary people, they should never have been realized at all—otherwise, all wealth will concentrate in the hands of a few, and before the people even begin to emulate Daoism, the world will descend into chaos."

Pan Yun froze, lost in thought.

Pan Xiaohei lifted his cat head and meowed: "Is this enlightenment? Did you think only you had discovered the use of talismans, while everyone else for millennia never touched them?"

Pan Yun set down the talisman brush and looked at the talisman beneath it. "So everyone just secretly uses it themselves and never lets it leak out…"

Xue Shao glanced at Pan Xiaohei, who had spoken, and said to Pan Yun, "Can you switch to a different power source?" (End of chapter)