Li Bai was shocked at his father's sudden fainting and immediately called a servant.
.....
After a while, Li Bai went to his room with Jin He following him. Jin He's stomach grumbled.
"...Master, I'm hungry."
That's right! Li Bai had a sudden realization. Jin He has been stuck in the ring for thousands of years, of course, once she exited, she would feel the need to do tons of things.
"Servant!"
A servant came to Li Bai's room quickly. She was on site so it was fast.
"What is it, young master?"
"Please assist Jin He here."
The servant raised her eyebrow. Who is this Jin He?
"Jin He!"
Jin He walked towards Li Bai after getting called and the servant saw her.
"What is it, master?"
"This girl will be your servant for the day."
The servant was surprised. Is this beauty Jin He? She was a little confused about why this beauty was inside Li Bai's room.
"Please take care of me."
Jin He bowed in front of the servant and the servant got embarrassed.
"Eh... there's no need for that."
.....
Jin He left with the servant and Li Bai was left alone in his room. He also found the items he bought at the auction on a wheelbarrow inside his room.
"Why is it inside...?"
Li Bai brushed the thought off and began storing the items in his Silverstone storage ring. He left the Zodiac Pot in his room for studying.
He then went into the ring to sort everything, from most valuable to least valuable. The most valuable among the items inside the ring, other than his old treasures inside the white room, was the Argium light armor, with engraved scriptures on it.
Argium was an extremely rare metal found in the pits of lava. However, it is considerably similar to some of the most common metals, looking the same in both shape and color, so many people are oblivious to the existence of it. In fact, Li Bai bought the "silver" light armor for only 500 gold. Argium, of course, is far superior to silver in terms of strength and durability.
Li Bai didn't like how this light armor was made, but there was Argium inside the armor, so he bought it. He planned to extract the Argium only, and dispose of the rest. He knew blacksmithing after all, despite not being an Ox mark.
He sorted the rest of the items, then exited the ring to study the Zodiac Pot.
When he appeared in his room, his sister Li Bao was there, fiddling around with the Zodiac Pot. She already knew how to make one pill, so she tried to make another. Li Bai saw Li Bao trying to boil water on the Zodiac Pot and freaked out!
"Bao jie-jie, you can't use that valuable item like that!"
Li Bai immediately put out the fire and started pouring out the water that Li Bao was boiling.
Li Bao was confused. Normally, a cauldron is used like that...
"But that item is a cauldron, right?"
"Yes, but... it has special uses, so I would prefer it if you don't treat it like a normal cauldron. Here, use this instead."
Li Bai gave his sister the Fools' Gold. When Li Bai started to pursue the way of medicine making, he read that the more inputs, the better. Of course, the number of inputs didn't matter to him, he could control it easily even without an input. But he could only go so far without one input. He looked for cauldrons with a high number of inputs but ended up disappointed, and he decided to make one himself. The most that Li Bai had heard of was six, so he strived to make something better. Finally, he made it. The Fools' Gold was a pot that had ten inputs of energy.
He then put an illusion formation around it, so anyone would think that it was only a measly one input cauldron, except if one was an expert close to breaking through to the Heavenly Mark realm.
He also set-up a special lock to it, so that only the "chosen ones" could use it. Without unlocking the lock, the pot would always fail. Unfortunately, he forgot to choose the "chosen ones" and the pot ended up unused for centuries.
He was lucky that the only ones present in the earlier stages of the first auction were a few clan representatives, and none were of Fifth Level Mark, or else he would have spent a lot of money and time fighting the bids.
Li Bao had become interested in medicine making when she made the medicine for Li Bai's legs. She read all of the basic things about medicine making. It seemed like even though everyone had information on how to become a pill maker, a strong enough soul was extremely rare. On the other hand, elixir making and powder making were much easier.
She also read about the different types of cauldrons to be used.
One was the automatic cauldron, which did not require any precise control, and just made the medicine maker wait. A consequence of this was that all this could make was only low-level low-quality elixirs or powders, it couldn't even make pills. Therefore, this type of cauldron was only used to mass produce.
Another was the controlled cauldron, which basically relied on the pure skill of the medicine maker for it to work. There was a criterion on whether the controlled cauldron was good or not, and whether it was easy to use or not. One input meant that this cauldron was relatively easy to use but almost impossible to make high-level high-quality medicine with. The higher the input, the harder to use. This type was mostly used by extremely dedicated pill makers.
When she saw the Fools' Gold in the one input form, she was kind of disappointed. But, one input would at least mean that it would be easy for her, right?
"Oh, wait a minute."
Li Bai snatched the Fools' Gold back and started destroying the engraved scriptures. The illusion formation was deactivated. He also unlocked the cauldron. He then gave it back to his sister.
"Here, I unlocked it for you."
Li Bao saw the 'unlocked' version of the Fools' Gold and stared at it with a dumbfounded expression. Ten... ten inputs?! She clearly remembered this cauldron from the auction, it was the first item that Li Bai bought. With only one input, she was confused why her genius brother would buy this ever since she read about medicine making. But now, she saw its true form and realized why.
Even so, how did Li Bai know that it had ten inputs just by a glance at it? Did he have that good of a discerning eye? Is that a technique she has never heard of before, the "Discerning Eye Technique"? Nonetheless, she was overwhelmed by the number of inputs and asked her brother to give her something easier to use.
"Bai didi, a cauldron with ten inputs is too much for me. Give me something else, come on."
"Have you used it?"
"But..."
"Just try to use it."
The reason why Li Bai was forcing his sister to use this high-level cauldron was that he made it so that the user could make pills specifically with relative ease, compared to even the two input cauldrons. However, he didn't really test it since anyone he used would be the same difficulty - easy.
.....
Li Bai, after the constant pestering of his sister, still hasn't given in. Li Bao was the first to give up and walk away. She slowly opened the door and went outside carrying the Fools' Gold.
"Finally, the time is here... time for the Zodiac Pot!"
