"Master Yu, if there is a cultivator who is really recognized by the spirit of the Taichu Treasure Cauldron, will the Taichu Sect give the Taichu Treasure Cauldron away?" Li Shiming asked curiously.
This Taichu Treasure Tripod is named after Taichu of the Taichu Sect, which shows that the Taichu Sect attaches great importance to it.
"Amitabha, the Taichu Sect has used this precious tripod to hold countless gatherings of alchemy masters for more than three thousand years, and no alchemy master has ever successfully recognized it as his master!" Master Guangnian of the Lotus Temple said.
Although Master Guangnian is a monk, he is probably a master of alchemy and rarely participates in the intrigues among monks. Therefore, he maintains his true nature and speaks very directly. Li Shiming could not hear any malice towards the Taichu Sect in his words.
"Master Guangnian, this is not right. The Taichu Treasure Cauldron is right here. You have tried many times. If you really wanted it to recognize its master, you would have sent it away long ago!" Master Yu disagreed and retorted.
In fact, he also knew that the sect placed the Taichu Treasure Cauldron here, and almost every gathering of alchemy masters would be held here. Every time, it would attract many alchemy masters to come here on their own initiative. This was the function of the Taichu Treasure Cauldron.
You have to know that alchemy masters are very busy and they don't have time to spare. Even if an alchemy master from a large sect sends an invitation, it is difficult to organize multiple alchemy masters to attend at once.
But it’s different with the Taichu Treasure Cauldron, a top-level alchemy furnace that is enough to attract alchemy masters.
Master Yu knew even more clearly that the Taichu Treasure Cauldron had not been recognized by its owner for more than three thousand years. It had also been in the Taichu Sect for more than a thousand years and had not been recognized by its owner either.
This kind of magic weapon with a spirit, if it fails to recognize its master for a long time, the spirit will always be consumed and unable to replenish spiritual energy from the master. The spirit will slowly weaken until it dies.
So after the Taichu Sect discovered that the spirit of the Taichu Tripod was too strange and could not recognize its master, they released it and publicly stated that they would give the Taichu Tripod away as long as there was an alchemy master who could make it recognize its master.
"The spirit of the Taichu Treasure Cauldron is too stubborn. I can't influence it even with my Buddhist teachings!" Master Guangnian said helplessly, shaking his head.
"Master Li, why don't you try it!" Master Yu said to Li Shiming with a smile.
"Yes, Master Li, give it a try. If he can really recognize his master, he will make Master Yu heartbroken!" Master Guangnian also said with a smile.
"I would like to see the Taichu Treasure Cauldron!" Li Shiming also became curious and nodded.
He came to the Taichu Cauldron. The two alchemy masters beside the Taichu Cauldron saw him coming and took the initiative to make way for him.
If they really wanted to be able to refine and recognize the master, these two alchemy masters would have been able to do it long ago.
Li Shiming released his spiritual consciousness and came into contact with the Taichu Treasure Cauldron. To his surprise, he was able to connect with the spirit of the device very smoothly.
The spirit of the weapon did not have any other communication, but only asked a question about alchemy.
This question was very difficult, but Li Shiming had the help of his life-saving magic weapon, IBMz15, so he answered it easily.
The spirit of the weapon did not stop asking questions and asked a second question, the difficulty of which increased again.
Li Shiming quickly got the answer from IBMz15, and he passed the answer to the spirit of the weapon through his spiritual consciousness.
The spirit of the weapon asked one question after another, covering almost every process of alchemy. The difficulty was so great that if it weren't for the IBM z15, the amount of calculation and the scope of knowledge covered would not be something a normal alchemy master could answer.
Even if he could answer, he would need a lot of time to think, but the time given by the spirit of the weapon was very short.
"What level can Master Li reach?" Master Guangnian asked with a smile.
It is rare to have a new alchemy master join the gathering, and he is tested by the spirit of the Taichu Treasure Cauldron.
All the alchemy masters here have also undergone the test of the spirit of the weapon, and their progress varies.
Although the test of weapon spirit cannot truly judge the level of an alchemy master, an alchemy master who can answer more questions and pass more levels will naturally have good actual alchemy ability.
Most importantly, every alchemy master here unanimously believes that the more levels an alchemy master passes, the greater the potential of his alchemy ability and the more room for improvement in his alchemy level.
"Ten levels at most!" Master Jiang Hong replied calmly.
He knew Li Shiming very well, as it was he who introduced Li Shiming to the Wanshou Sect.
Although he was jealous of Li Shiming's alchemy skills, Li Shiming was too young and came from a group of independent cultivators.
Even though Li Shiming had inherited the alchemy tradition from the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect, he had been in possession of it for too short a period of time, had been exposed to too little top-notch alchemy knowledge, and his corresponding foundation was too weak.
Even the ten levels were proposed by Master Jiang Hong because he thought highly of Li Shiming.
"It seems that Master Jiang is not optimistic about Master Li!" Master Yu's eyes flashed and he said with a faint smile. He continued, "I think Master Li can pass the fifteenth level!"
He discovered that Master Jiang Hong was not as good to Li Shiming as rumored. Instead, he was hostile to him. Rumor has it that Master Li was introduced to the sect by Master Jiang Hong.
Nine alchemy masters stood aside, looking at Li Shiming and discussing the matter of the weapon spirit.
Suddenly, they all stopped discussing and looked at Li Shiming and the Taichu Baoding.
The surface of the Taichu Treasure Cauldron was glowing, and Li Shiming's spiritual consciousness entered into the interior of the Taichu Treasure Cauldron, which had never happened before.
"It's only been a short time. How many questions did the spirit of the weapon give Master Li?" Master Guangnian asked in disbelief.
Of course, he was not unaware of how much time had passed. As a venerable, he was extremely sensitive to time.
He was just surprised that Li Shiming's communication with the weapon spirit was too short. Normally, in such a long time, the weapon spirit would only ask a dozen questions at most.
"I wonder how many questions there are in total? Could it be that Master Li has really recognized the Taichu Treasure Cauldron as its master?" This was the exclamation of another alchemy master.
No cultivator knew how many questions the spirit of the Taichu Treasure Cauldron asked in total, but the alchemy master who knew the most could not answer any more than thirty-six questions.
But how could Li Shiming answer thirty-six questions in such a short time, let alone make the spirit of the weapon recognize its master?
"Master Yu, is it that the spirit of the weapon is letting you down?" Master Jiang Hong asked Master Yu.
Master Yu was also stunned. He had originally just recognized Li Shiming's alchemy skills and brought him in for discussion.
Who would have thought that Li Shiming would directly claim the Taichu Treasure Cauldron that attracted the alchemy master of the Taichu Sect as his master, and he has not come to his senses until now.
As for the weapon spirit letting him off, that is simply impossible. The weapon spirit is very strict and has an extremely strange temper. No matter which alchemy master, he will never have a different attitude.
The questions posed by the spirit of the weapon are constantly increasing, and they need to be answered within a certain period of time. If one cannot answer them, it will be considered a failure.
Every alchemy master can only accept the test of the spirit of the weapon again every ten years.
At this time, Li Shiming was communicating with the spirit of the weapon through consciousness. He was using his knowledge to convince the spirit of the weapon.
No matter what questions the spirit of the weapon raises, no matter how difficult the questions are, in front of the natal magic weapon IBMz15, these questions can be answered in a few seconds.
After being convinced, the weapon spirit took the initiative to open itself up, allowing Li Shiming's consciousness to imprint Li Shiming's spiritual mark in the weapon spirit's body.
After Li Shiming and the weapon spirit recognized each other as its master, a huge amount of information came from the weapon spirit, which was all the alchemy knowledge stored by the weapon spirit.
The spirit of the Taichu Treasure Cauldron is very peculiar. After the Taichu Treasure Cauldron was first refined, due to its extremely high quality, it was helpful in improving the quality of alchemy, so it was used jointly by the three top alchemy masters of the Taichu Sect at that time.
The three alchemy masters used the Taichu Treasure Cauldron for nearly a thousand years, and many other alchemy masters continued to use it afterwards.
During this period, the weapon spirit continued to absorb the alchemy knowledge of these alchemy masters, and the weapon spirit continued to grow, until one day, the weapon spirit grew to a theoretical level that exceeded that of its master.
After the death of this owner, other alchemy masters wanted to refine the Taichu Cauldron, but they did not get the approval of the spirit of the artifact.
The weapon spirit doesn't want its master to have a lower theoretical level than itself, so it is very stubborn.
Although the weapon spirit no longer has a master, its learning progress has not stopped. It continues to consolidate the knowledge it has learned, and its reserves of alchemy knowledge are still growing.
The more this happens, the lower the possibility of passing the test of the spirit of the weapon.
If it had not met Li Shiming, the Taichu Treasure Cauldron would not be able to recognize its master even after thousands of years, until the energy of the spirit inside the Taichu Treasure Cauldron was completely consumed and the spirit disappeared.
Li Shiming waved his hand, and the huge Taichu Treasure Cauldron flashed with light and turned into a small alchemy furnace that fell into his palm.
"Congratulations, Master Li, for obtaining this precious tripod!" Master Guangnian laughed and clasped his hands together.
The other alchemy masters had different expressions, but they all expressed their congratulations. No matter what, Li Shiming successfully claimed to be the master of the Taichu Treasure Cauldron, which showed that in terms of alchemy theory, Li Shiming was absolutely the strongest.
Master Jiang Hong looked a little embarrassed. He had said that Li Shiming could only pass ten levels at most, but he didn't expect to be slapped in the face so quickly.
"Master Yu, I have refined the Taichu Treasure Cauldron. There shouldn't be any problem, right?" After returning the gifts to the alchemy masters, Li Shiming asked Master Yu again.
"Master Li, don't worry. The story of the Taichu Tripod has been passed down for thousands of years. The Taichu Sect will only congratulate Master Li on successfully recognizing the Taichu Tripod as its master. The Taichu Tripod now belongs to Master Li!" Master Yu would not raise any objections.
If he really said something unwillingly, Taichu Sect would lose face.
"Master Li, I wonder how many questions there are about spirit weapons?" Master Guangnian asked at this time.
When he raised this question, all the alchemy masters looked at Li Shiming. They were also concerned about this issue.
They all want to know how close they are to passing the test.
"There are a total of one hundred questions!" Li Shiming thought for a while and answered.
The nine alchemy masters all took a deep breath. One hundred questions were all answered in such a short time.
What left them speechless was that the most common answer among them was only twenty items, and the highest number of items passed in history was thirty-six, which meant that there was no end in sight for passing.
The way they looked at Li Shiming was different. Is the gap between them and Li Shiming in alchemy theory so huge?
In the following time, Li Shiming became the protagonist of the party, and every alchemy master was communicating with him.
In particular, Master Jiang Hong and Master Xie Lang, although both were alchemy masters of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect, kept asking Li Shiming various questions, hoping to make Li Shiming unable to answer and embarrass himself.
Li Shiming kept answering the questions from the alchemy masters with a smile. His answers were just to the point and did not involve any knowledge that was too profound.
Unlike communicating with the spirit of the weapon, if he really wanted to fully answer the questions of the alchemy masters, it would be equivalent to revealing part of his alchemy heritage.
Where does the weapon spirit's vast knowledge of alchemy come from? In addition to the alchemy knowledge possessed by the original owners, it also obtains knowledge from the answers of alchemy masters through repeated questioning.
In order to answer the questions of the spirit of the weapon, the alchemy masters used all their means, and some of the secret methods of alchemy were revealed when answering the questions.
Even so, Li Shiming's answer let all the alchemy masters know how high his level of alchemy theory is.
After the party, Li Shiming took the Taichu Treasure Cauldron back to the temporary cave.
Sitting in the room with the Taichu Treasure Cauldron in front of him, he injected the Red Sun Spirit Fire into the Taichu Treasure Cauldron.
He was just about to try out the feeling of using the Taichu Baoding, a top-level fourth-grade alchemy furnace, to refine the elixir, but he discovered that the spirit of the cauldron was sending him a message wanting to control the Red Sun Spirit Fire.
After a slight hesitation, he gave the control of the Red Sun Spirit Fire to the weapon spirit.
Originally, he was thinking of using the Taichu Treasure Cauldron to refine a furnace of fourth-grade elixirs. He had quite a few fourth-grade elixir materials in his hands. Normally, as long as he refined one furnace of fourth-grade elixirs, the fourth-grade elixirs he refined would be enough to pay for the three batches of fourth-grade elixir materials that should be delivered.
He used some of the extra fourth-grade elixir materials to refine them in his free time, and most of them were stored in the mustard seed ring.
The weapon spirit expressed the idea of wanting to try alchemy. Although he was wealthy, he did not want to use the materials of the fourth-grade elixir for the weapon spirit to practice.
He took out a set of ingredients for a third-grade elixir, and without even having to pass the corresponding recipe to the weapon spirit, the weapon spirit happily began to refine the elixir.
This should be the first time that the weapon spirit has made an elixir on its own, but the weapon spirit's control over the spiritual fire is very precise, almost equivalent to that of a veteran master alchemist.
Come to think of it, the weapon spirit has followed many alchemy masters, and it is also a weapon spirit that assists in alchemy. Maybe it has never made alchemy on its own, but it is extremely familiar with it.
Li Shiming's spiritual consciousness observed the alchemy process of the spirit. He found that the spirit of the Taichu Treasure Cauldron was extremely intelligent and there were almost no mistakes in the alchemy process.
Soon, a furnace of third-grade elixirs came out of the furnace. Since no elixir-dividing techniques such as the 'Hundred-One-Dividing-Elixir Technique' were used, this furnace of third-grade elixirs was only full of elixirs and not double full elixirs.
However, the quality of this batch of third-grade elixirs has reached the level of third-grade advanced elixirs, which has far exceeded Li Shiming's expectations.