Now, Chechi Kingdom began building the Elixir Chamber.
The chosen site lay northwest of the Imperial Palace, in the Qian position.
Ao Tu specifically instructed them not to be extravagant, so the Elixir Chamber was simply built, with just three halls arranged in the pattern of the Three Powers: a main hall, living quarters, and an alchemy chamber.
Skilled craftsmen set to work, using mostly timber and stone, with few bricks or tiles. In little more than a month, construction was complete.
Inside the Elixir Chamber, Ao Tu used fire to blend a thousand jin of copper, a hundred jin of silver, and ten jin of gold together, shaping them into an Alchemy Furnace.
Then Ao Tu inscribed several Dharma Seals on the Alchemy Furnace's inner walls: the basic Eight Trigrams of Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui, along with four more for controlling the heat and consolidating medicine into pills—gathering, combining, separating, and dispersing.
Ao Tu did not know how to refine artifacts, but his magical power was profound and his cultivation realm high. An Alchemy Furnace forcibly shaped with magical power alone would suffice.
Soon, the Alchemy Furnace was finished. It stood three chi and three cun tall, with flowing golden patterns, and looked quite impressive. Limited by its materials and Ao Tu's own skill, however, it could at most be considered a magic artifact.
With the Alchemy Furnace finished, it was time to begin refining pills.
Ao Tu put out word that he would take on eight disciples to assist with pill refinement.
For a time, countless people flocked to the news.
There were Daoists, commoners, sons of wealthy merchants, grandsons of dukes and marquises, imperial relatives, princes and princesses, and even monks.
Why were there monks as well?
That required going back a