Refinement

The so-called laboratory was a small room of barely a dozen square meters. The walls were not metal, but rough stone, and the floor was covered with a simple runic surface.

A rudimentary workbench stood in the center of the room, with a magic-powered lamp hanging above it. Some basic equipment was piled in the corner—small crucibles, bellows, water troughs, and the like.

Most importantly, basic runes had been inscribed at the four corners of the room and around the doorframe.

"So this is a simple array for blocking detection?"

After locking the door, Benjamin sensed the faint energy fluctuations produced as the array activated.

An array of this level might not withstand a powerful investigation by a high-ranking wizard, but anyone trying to break through its concealment would cause a disturbance. It was more than sufficient as a warning system.

Everything in the laboratory looked exceedingly crude and basic. Other than its Protective Array and the isolation array, it was practically useless.

However, after inspecting it carefully, Benjamin found a pleasant surprise. "There's actually an independent Magic Network Terminal in the laboratory?"

In one corner of the laboratory stood a machine identical to the ones used to connect to the Magic Network in the mission hall.

Using his badge to activate the machine with practiced ease, Benjamin found that its contents were even more extensive than those in the mission hall. Aside from the usual missions, different laboratories could purchase or sell the supplies and products they needed from one another.

"Even basic supply purchases come with free delivery. This is so much better than the mission hall."

Although the mission hall offered the same service for buying and selling basic supplies, it did not provide delivery. Buyers had to collect their purchases themselves.

That was one thing for high-end resources, but for certain everyday supplies, points had frightening purchasing power.

Benjamin also discovered that, through the missions and purchase requests posted between laboratories, something resembling a "forum" from his previous life had already begun to emerge.

Unfortunately, knowledge in this world was worth far more than anything else. Most discussions only scratched the surface, so despite its long development, the "forum" was still merely in its infancy.

Even so, the scattered information revealed in those discussions benefited Benjamin greatly.

"The paid system for purchasing knowledge is ridiculously well-developed. Even academic databases from my old world can't compare..."

It was only after immersing himself in the Magic Network for a while that Benjamin came back to his senses. "Good lord, I've been offline for so long that I got a little carried away. So the most important function of this low-level laboratory, aside from ensuring privacy, is probably that it lets you get online whenever you want..."

Having reached that conclusion, Benjamin fell silent as he looked at the terminal connected to the Magic Network. What is this supposed to be? A private internet café booth? The fee is way too expensive!

After grumbling inwardly for a while, Benjamin stopped wasting time and began his main task for the day.

He took out the piece of gold he had reshaped countless times with Alchemy from his toolbox. Rather than using the crucible provided by the laboratory, he pulled out a stone from his portable toolbox as well.

According to the knowledge in the Great Dao Library, someone at the first layer of Qi Refining needed the aid of tools to refine Adamantine.

The simplest option was a specially made furnace cauldron. Its unique internal structure could concentrate the firepower and assist with refinement.

Benjamin took out the Alchemy Disk and placed the stone on it. Before long, the entire stone had transformed into a small cauldron about the size of a rice cooker.

"This reshaping feels so smooth. As expected, I can perform much better after releasing the Inner circulation," Benjamin thought.

He placed the gold into the stone furnace he had molded, focused his mental power, and simultaneously mobilized the hard-earned True Essence within his body.

"The Geng Metal Refinement Method... This is a basic metal purification technique from the Great Dao Library. Its principle is to strip impurities from metal and refine its core essence through the high-purity penetration of True Essence and the precise guidance of spiritual sense. Unfortunately, with my cultivation, I can only refine a small amount, and the material requirements are strict. Fortunately, gold is stable enough to barely work."

He activated the laboratory's heating array, and a ball of flame appeared out of thin air atop the workbench.

Setting the stone cauldron over it, Benjamin gradually fed True Essence into the gold.

As the True Essence entered the gold, it was like the finest solvent, quickly seeping between every molecule. At the same time, his spiritual sense was as precise as a scalpel, sensing the gold's most fundamental "metallic nature" and its mixed, impure "mortal nature."

The process consumed an enormous amount of True Essence. Benjamin felt the pitiful amount within him draining away like floodwaters through an opened sluice gate, bringing wave after wave of pronounced weakness.

His face began to pale, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Fortunately, he had already learned the Meditation Method and could draw elemental power from the outside world, converting it into True Essence to replenish himself.

Benjamin gritted his teeth and continued maintaining the output of True Essence and the precise guidance of his spiritual sense. At the same time, he followed the Geng Metal Refinement Method and used the laboratory's simple equipment to assist the process.

Every step required absolute focus and control. He could feel the "mortal nature" within the gold resisting and being stripped away under the guidance of True Essence and external force. It turned into dust too fine for the naked eye, precipitating from the gold's surface before being burned away by the high heat within the stone furnace.

Second by second, time passed. Benjamin's True Essence was nearly exhausted, and the weakness in his body reached its peak.

The world spun around him, and even the faint hum of the isolation runes seemed to be drifting farther and farther away.

Finally!

Just before his True Essence was completely depleted, every impurity within the gold was stripped away.

The fist-sized lump of gold in the furnace had become a tiny golden piece no larger than his fingertip, gleaming with a restrained luster.

Success!

Benjamin leaned weakly against the workbench, gasping for breath.

Before he could inspect his achievement, Benjamin sat cross-legged on the floor to meditate. The power of the Truth Rune in his Spirit Sea surged at full force, drawing in elemental power from the outside world and transforming it into True Essence to replenish his exhausted body.

More than half an hour later, when he had mostly recovered, Benjamin finally stood and carefully used tweezers to remove the tiny golden piece from the stone cauldron.

It felt icy cold in his hand, yet unimaginably heavy.

It was no longer ordinary gold, but a substance containing an indescribable concept of eternity and stability.

After identifying it according to the knowledge in the Great Dao Library, Benjamin confirmed that this was Adamantine, a metal essence that could only be refined in the Cultivation World through special methods!

Benjamin looked excitedly at the fingertip-sized piece of Adamantine in his hand. This was probably the first extraordinary material he had encountered since coming to this world.