Chapter Fourteen: Various Tests

Staying quietly in his chamber, with the freshly sorted herbs before him, Li Mu finally entered the spiritual sea.

He was determined to make a real effort this time.

First, he attempted synthesis.

He threw a section of Blackbone Branch and a stalk of Clearwind Grass into the Spirit Tower.

“Synthesize.”

“These materials cannot be synthesized.”

Li Mu frowned deeply and tossed in a Spirit Essence Fruit as well.

“Too many materials for synthesis; unable to proceed.”

This was indeed somewhat peculiar; it seemed only two types could be combined.

Li Mu pondered for a moment, then retrieved everything, and instead threw in the gold he had produced earlier together with a Five-Colored Stone.

At last, the prompt he had been hoping for sounded: “Please select the material to retain after synthesis.”

“Five-Colored Stone.”

There was no need to hesitate; Li Mu gave the order directly.

A flash of golden light, the tower’s value decreased by two points, and a pale yellow stone dropped down.

What was this—Five-Colored Ore?

Li Mu picked up the stone curiously and activated his cultivation technique, beginning to absorb spiritual energy.

As time passed, his expression grew increasingly sour.

With a snap, he tossed the stone aside.

He more or less understood the meaning of synthesis now, but he had wasted a top-grade Five-Colored Stone.

Synthesis merged the attributes of one material into another, creating a new substance.

The original Five-Colored Stone, after taking on the properties of gold, could no longer filter spiritual energy from the air and had instead become a stone incapable of storing spiritual power.

It was neither gold nor a Five-Colored Stone—completely ruined.

“A grave mistake,” Li Mu realized. “I should have kept the gold and merged the properties of the Five-Colored Stone into the gold.”

Determined to correct his error, he looked around, but there was no more gold—only that mirror remained.

Li Mu threw the mirror and the Five-Colored Stone into the Spirit Tower and selected to synthesize once more.

He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice: “Keep the mirror.”

The resulting mirror had a subtle luster. Holding it, Li Mu sensed the surrounding spiritual energy, and a smile blossomed on his face.

Indeed, the mirror had absorbed the properties of the Five-Colored Stone and now could filter spiritual power.

After experimenting further, Li Mu concluded he should buy more ordinary items and then synthesize them into top-grade Five-Colored Stones. This way, even when cultivating outside, he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone discovering his secret.

If only he could make transparent gloves with this ability, the effect would be even better—but the Spirit Tower seemed only capable of synthesizing minerals, just as it couldn’t combine herbs before.

But that didn’t matter.

Could this synthesis ability be used for artifact refinement? The mere thought filled Li Mu with delight—imagine merging Ice Crystal Ore into extremely tough Spiritual Iron to instantly create Ice Crystal Spirit Iron. What if rare, high-grade materials could be combined two by two? That would produce substances any artifact refiner would dream of possessing.

Was it really possible? Perhaps it wouldn’t be so easy with top-tier materials. Still, he was certain: synthesis was perfectly suited for artifact forging.

After some trials, Li Mu set aside this idea for now and turned his attention to fusion.

But what he most needed to study at the moment was pill-making.

Without much thought, Li Mu casually stuffed several herbs into the tower—about seven types in total.

“Seven first-grade materials detected. Consumes one tower value. Outcome unknown. Proceed with fusion?”

“Fuse.”

The tower’s mouth opened, and a pitch-black lump fell out.

Li Mu quickly picked it up, and an extraordinarily foul odor assaulted his nose. He sneezed violently.

The spirit tower’s prompt sounded: “Materials incompatible. Fusion resulted in useless residue. Please change materials.”

Li Mu had expected such a result, but when it really happened, he found it quite disappointing.

“Could it be that simply tossing in random herbs would yield a pill?”

Li Mu cursed under his breath and threw in even more herbs from those in front of him.

“Nine first-grade materials detected. Consumes one tower value. Outcome unknown. Proceed with fusion?”

“Fuse.”

Achoo!

Another sneeze, even louder than before.

Li Ying, who was nearby, heard the commotion and hurried over.

“Big brother, what are you doing? I want to play too.”

As she spoke, Li Ying caught a whiff of the pungent smell and immediately sneezed, tears streaming down her face.

Rubbing her little nose, she frowned, tapped Li Mu twice, and skipped away.

Forcing himself to endure the stench, Li Mu stuffed the two lumps of waste into his storage pouch. Only then did the smell in the room slowly dissipate.

Should he keep trying? Was it all just luck?

Li Mu was still not resigned. This time, he stuffed over twenty different herbs inside.

“Twenty-three first-grade herbs detected. Consumes three tower value. Outcome unknown. Proceed with fusion?”

“Fuse.”

“Materials incompatible. Fusion resulted in useless residue. Please change materials.”

The tower’s mouth opened, and out came yet another lump of waste, dark and unsightly.

Li Mu didn’t even want to look at it and simply tossed it straight into the storage pouch.

Fusion, fusion, fusion.

Very soon, the tower’s value was exhausted, and he was left with nothing for his efforts.

“If I don’t understand pharmacology, it really won’t work. Should I first go learn alchemy properly?” Li Mu muttered to himself as he inserted a lower-grade spirit crystal into the Spirit Tower.

After a moment’s silence, he decided to continue experimenting.

Alchemy was not an easy path. In the world of cultivation, it was one of the most difficult skills to master, demanding time, effort, and wealth—none of which Li Mu possessed anymore. Most importantly, he simply didn’t have the time.

A few attempts with some seventy-odd herbs—there had to be a chance of fusing a pill.

He braced himself for another five or six experiments.

“Materials incompatible. Fusion resulted in useless residue. Please change materials.”

The prompt kept sounding, more waste kept coming out, but Li Mu didn’t even glance at them, just mechanically tossed them into the storage pouch.

Time trickled by, but no miraculous intervention came.

He had seven points of tower value left, but not a single lower-grade spirit crystal. The only thing that remained unchanged was the great pile of unused herbs before him, a veritable hill.

“It really can’t be done,” Li Mu shook his head and withdrew from the spiritual sea.

Even for a cultivator, such repeated failures left him exhausted; he collapsed numbly onto his bed.

Upon reflection, even if he could refine a dozen good pills from seventy types of materials, how could he easily find the right combinations? Even after countless attempts, it was incredibly difficult to discover a good match. The odds were truly minuscule.

Smaller, even, than the chance of a bird pooping on his head.

Li Mu tapped his forehead. “I thought this was a good way to earn spirit crystals, but it seems not. Spirit crystals, oh spirit crystals, how can I get more?”

Spirit crystals were the foundation of everything—there would never be enough. He had only three medium-grade ones left, just enough to keep him cultivating for a short while.

As for selling more Five-Colored Stones, that was out of the question. Such rare materials were already a stroke of luck to obtain once; if he produced a second batch, there would surely be people coming after him.