Chapter 73

Deep underground, the Fire Department was located dozens of feet below the surface, with a palace built above it.

Outside the palace, a layer of magical light enveloped it, with colorful runes appearing and disappearing, dazzling Chu He’s eyes: there were Bing Fire runes, Geng Metal runes... He didn’t know how many rune arrays were set up in this protective magic array.

Before approaching the palace, Zhang He used a token to emit an identification light, allowing the magic array to open the entrance. Only then did Chu He understand the function of the token given to him by Zhang He yesterday: it had a passage function, and he had left it unused in his storage ring, thinking it was useless.

Zhang He explained that the passage permissions of the tokens varied. His token could only be used by one person; if he brought another person, the magic array would attack. He emphasized that Chu He should remember this.

The tokens of the clerks, on the other hand, allowed one additional person to enter, but no more.

After passing through the array entrance and walking through a dozen feet of corridor, they had to use the token to emit two or three more layers of magical light.

At the palace entrance, two disciples of the Xiantian realm were guarding. They bowed and greeted Zhang He when they saw him.

After introducing Chu He to them, they entered the palace.

Even before entering, a strong medicinal fragrance hit their noses. The light fragrance of Qingling Grass, the pungent smell of Jiuhuang, and the tea-like aroma of Yiyang leaves... all mixed into a unique scent.

When Chu He saw everything clearly, he couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement.

The palace was very tall, over a dozen feet high. Inside, there were rows of tall sandalwood racks, each layer equipped with a rune array, holding various herbs. Some disciples were busy among them.

As they walked, Zhang He explained to Chu He: this was the storage area for the Fire Department’s herbs. Each sandalwood rack had a different rune array, each with its own function and specificity, capable of maintaining or enhancing the quality of the herbs.

Near the end of the palace, a cave entrance appeared, leading down a white jade staircase about ten feet wide, with disciples frequently coming and going.

The further they descended the jade staircase, the more intense the scorching heat and the smell of sulfur became. This was not much different from the fire vein Chu He had explored before, indicating that the fire vein underground was much stronger.

At the end of the jade staircase was a wide, downward-sloping corridor, with night pearls embedded in the ceiling, emitting a faint white light. Although the night pearls emitted white light, there was a faint red glow in the corridor, a sign of abundant fire spirit energy.

On both sides of the corridor were stone rooms with stone doors sealed and rune array restrictions. There were about twenty such rooms carved into the rock layers, and at the end of the corridor, there were more steps leading down, the conditions below unknown.

Zhang He, acting as a guide, explained the situation of the Fire Department in detail: the Fire Department was divided into two levels, each with about twenty alchemy rooms.

The fire power on the upper level was suitable for refining eighth and ninth-grade pills, while the lower level was suitable for sixth and seventh-grade pills.

Clearly, with Chu He’s cultivation, he could only stay on the upper level, and even then, only in the rooms near the white jade staircase.

Zhang He gave Chu He the key token for Room 26, which was one of the first two rooms. These were the two rooms with the weakest fire power, and the further down the slope, the stronger the fire power available in the alchemy rooms.

Zhang He encouraged Chu He, thinking he might be a bit upset. He had high hopes for this junior disciple and hoped he would quickly become a skilled alchemist.

Although he had his own alchemy room, the tasks were not light. New disciples like Chu He had to deliver three hundred high-grade Qi-enriching pills daily. After completing the task, the user of the alchemy room could use the fire to refine their own pills.

Chu He secretly calculated: if he was skilled, he could produce twenty to thirty pills per furnace. With the help of the fire, the burden of using spirit energy would be much lighter, and it would take about an hour each time. To refine three hundred pills, it would take about nine to ten hours. With increased proficiency, this time might decrease.

In other words, if the user of the alchemy room didn’t rest, they could use the room for about two hours. In that time, they could produce fifty to sixty high-grade Qi-enriching pills, which, when sold back to the Qingmu Hall, would earn about five to six hundred low-grade spirit stones. This didn’t seem like a very generous reward.

Thinking of this, Chu He’s mind drifted to the sweatshops of his previous life, and the comparison seemed quite apt.

The task of producing three hundred high-grade Qi-enriching pills was an additional condition for using Rooms 26 to 9, which could also be converted into one hundred low-grade Yuan-enriching pills. Rooms 8 to 1 were for middle-grade Yuan-enriching pills.

After listening to Zhang He’s instructions, Chu He was eager to start refining the high-grade Qi-enriching pills.

Seeing his eagerness, Zhang He decided to stay and offer guidance.

When they opened the door to the stone room, an even hotter air rushed in, giving the illusion of singed hair and beard.

Inside, the space was several feet in diameter, with ventilation to prevent stuffiness.

The stone room was very simple, with empty walls. In the center, a circle of strange green wood was laid out, covered in dense wood-element runes. Even without spirit energy, the rune nodes were lively, indicating a connected rune array.

In the center of the wood circle was a small circle of dark red stones, imprinted with fire-element runes, forming a fire outlet.

At first glance, it looked like a large circle enclosing a smaller circle, which in turn enclosed another circle.

On top of the fire outlet was a round-bellied, three-legged iron tripod. The shallow red fire occasionally spurted from the fire outlet, being absorbed by the rune array at the bottom of the tripod.

Zhang He explained in detail again.

The green wood was Cui Wood, which grew deep in the Northern Sea, rich in Qingwood energy, making it suitable for supporting wood-element rune arrays.

The dark red stones were Flame Stones, which, when enhanced by the rune array, could release fire energy when needed and store it when not in use.

The concentric circles utilized the principle of wood generating fire, layering and converting to instantly increase the fire power and maintain it for a period.

The fire power generated by the earth fire and the middle-grade Xuan Iron Tripod was sufficient to refine low-grade Yuan-enriching pills. With the accompanying wood-fire linked rune array, a skilled alchemist could even attempt to refine middle-grade Yuan-enriching pills without needing to switch to another alchemy room.

Through the communication array in the stone room, a disciple soon delivered ten sets of materials.

Although the disciple left immediately after delivering the materials, Chu He could clearly see the envy in his eyes.

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