How Can You Cultivate Immortality Without Money?

"Over a few measly spirit stones, and you're haggling like this—I can barely stand to watch. Tsk, tsk, tsk. You're as cautious as ever."

"I still understand the principle of not flaunting one's wealth."

"Cherish this feeling while you can. The day your control over the Qi-Combining Cauldron is enough to drain the spirit ore from this entire stretch of water, you'll understand that reasoning with these mortals is a waste of time."

"I'm still far from that day. At least for now, I'm only a mortal."

"A mortal? You clearly have no idea what the Qi-Combining Cauldron is capable of. You're far stronger than they are."

"Mm."

"Having gained power comparable to that of a cultivator, aren't you even a little excited? Back then, the moment my disciple got hold of a first-turn puppet device, he couldn't wait to challenge his fellow disciples."

"Did he get beaten flat?"

"How could that be? The Qi-Combining Cauldron was costly to make, and even among first-turn puppet devices, its effects were top-tier. Back then, he was unmatched among his peers. Why can't you try being a little wilder?"

"The tree that rises above the forest will be destroyed by the wind."

With those words, Lu Li pushed his boat away from the crowd. He found a seldom-traveled channel, and after confirming that no one was paying attention, secretly activated the Qi-Combining Cauldron.

Then, centered on Lu Li, ring after ring of ripples spread outward. Waves of qi sank into the surface, stirring up layer upon layer of undulations.

Lu Li's divine sense was limited; he could not even look within himself. Yet with the Qi-Combining Cauldron's enhancement, those ripples and undulations seemed like extensions of his divine sense, allowing him to perceive what lay beneath the water.

Dusk was deepening now, and fishing lights gradually appeared across the river. Lu Li had left the crowds behind, making the darkness around him all the more profound. Against the vast, desolate river, his silhouette looked somewhat lonely.

Yet his eyes shone brightly. From his perspective, what lay beneath his feet was not river water, but a dazzling galaxy. The golden sand scattered through the water had turned into stars filling the heavens, all visible at a glance.

At that moment, a faint tremor stirred in Lu Li's heart. This was the first time in either life that he had seen such a breathtaking sight.

The Qi-Combining Cauldron—what an incredible Qi-Combining Cauldron!

The world through a cultivator's eyes was this wondrous!

Cultivating immortality was not merely for longevity, but also to behold the magnificent vistas from on high.

A closer look revealed that these stars differed from one another. Their brightness and hues varied, while some areas were packed more densely than others.

Lu Li quickly grasped the reason. The brightness of the stars most likely represented the size of the spirit ore particles, their colors represented different types of spirit ore, and their density represented the amount of spirit ore present.

Clearly, the waters where the gold panners clustered generally contained more spirit ore. Relying on years of experience, they knew where to enter the water to pan for gold most efficiently.

But experience was only experience. How could it compare with Lu Li's full-map scan?

There were still many unknown corners of the Treasure Flow River. Those places held enormous quantities of spirit ore, left untouched after accumulating for decades, even centuries.

"Just the scraps of grease dripping through their fingers are already this terrifying. It's truly hard to imagine how wealthy the Green Sun and White Moon Sects must be."

The thought made Lu Li's heart itch. He only hated that his learning was too shallow to compose a poem and express his resentment toward the rich.

With that, Lu Li raised his bamboo pole and slowly guided the boat toward the area where the starlight was densest.

After arriving above the spirit ore deposit, he cast his little beady eyes around, once again confirming that no one was nearby and no one would come steal his spirit ore. Only then did he sit cross-legged and reactivate the Qi-Combining Cauldron.

At the bottom of this stretch of river lay a rock. When the water flowed past it, the rock slowed the current, causing granular spirit ore to settle there.

Lu Li took a deep breath, then exhaled again under the Qi-Combining Cauldron's effect. This stream of breath entered the water, yet instead of displacing it, it merged directly with the water itself. It gradually sank to the riverbed, sweeping up the sand and spirit ore below.

"Hmm?"

Lu Li was somewhat surprised by this. He had thought his breath would push the water aside. He still vaguely remembered the water-displacement method of collecting gas from high school classes.

Lu Li could not help asking, "Why didn't this qi push the water away?"

Elder Duan explained, "The lungs belong to metal. The qi you exhale through the Qi-Combining Cauldron is called gang qi. It can command metal through qi—how could it possibly be equated with ordinary breath?"

"So that's how it is."

"There's plenty more you don't know."

Carried by that stream of qi, the sand mixed with silt was blown up. Defying the rushing current, it slowly rose to the surface and, under Lu Li's guidance, fell into a wooden bucket aboard the boat, turning into a pitch-black lump of sludge.

This sludge consisted mostly of silt. Though it contained spirit ore, the varieties were mixed and impure, making it difficult to use for smelting mechanical components. It needed further processing to separate out the spirit ores before it could be used in artifact forging.

And depending on the purity of the spirit ore, the prices could differ as vastly as heaven and earth.

Take cold iron, for instance. The Stamping Workshop where Lu Li worked normally used cold iron ore at eighty percent purity, priced at roughly two hundred and fifty to three hundred copper coins per jin.

If it underwent special smelting and forging processes to raise its purity to eighty-five percent, its price would rise to five hundred copper coins per jin.

If its purity could reach ninety percent, the price would double outright, reaching one thousand copper coins per jin.

According to the Stamping Art, if its purity reached ninety-seven percent or above, it would surpass the category of mortal-path mechanical materials and could be used to refine a first-turn puppet device. Its price would soar to half a spirit stone per jin.

Of course, the Stamping Workshop where Lu Li worked primarily produced mortal-path mechanical components. Even if they truly had high-purity cold iron ore, they would not hand it over to a lowly apprentice like him to handle.

Following the usual gold-panning process, the next step would be to use a mortal-path mechanism called the Gold-Sinking Sieve to filter the spirit ore out of the silt.

Lu Li placed the silt atop the Gold-Sinking Sieve, rinsing it with water as he activated the device. The silt was indeed washed away, but all kinds of mixed spirit ore remained jumbled together, difficult to separate.

"By the gold panners' standards, spirit ore at this level can already be sold. Disciples often come around here to buy ore at low prices."

"Oh? Sect disciples are interested in this mixed ore too?"

"You know, not every disciple has money wrapped around their waist. There are differences even among disciples. Mixed ore is bought at extremely low prices—depending on its composition, around three to twenty copper coins per jin.

"If they need to gather spirit materials to refine mechanisms, and those mechanisms do not demand high spirit ore purity, then buying mixed ore at the Treasure Flow River is the most economical method. Besides, the sect has puppet devices that can separate spirit ore as well, but the purity they produce is limited, and every rental costs spirit stones."

"Why does everything require spirit stones...?"

"Obviously. If you don't have a few spirit stones in hand, what the hell are you cultivating immortality for?"