Chapter 1 Taibai Volcano

Taibai Volcano, or rather, the Taibai Volcanic Group, in addition to the large volcanic crater where the Heavenly Pool of Taibai Mountain used to be, also has a hundred or so small volcanoes scattered like stars, forming a continuous snow-covered hot spring volcanic zone.

The Taibai Fortress is built on the main road leading to the large volcanic crater, with a secret direct passage inside the mountain leading directly to the vicinity of the lava pool.

"Good heavens, the spiritual power is almost materialized."

Just by getting a little closer, Su Zhou felt an almost endless heat coming from the volcanic crater—listening carefully, he could hear the sound of the fire spirit power rising and rejoicing.

Fortunately, although this volcano is active, it is still far from erupting. At least, with Su Zhou's extraordinary spiritual affinity and perception, he can be sure that the Taibai Volcanic Group will not erupt in the next few decades. At most, the current situation is dangerous but not critical.

"But no matter what, to dare to run to the volcanic crater to forge divine weapons, that courage is truly remarkable."

Although Su Zhou commented like this, he was still taken aback when Zhou Buyi led him into the forging base inside the Taibai mountain.

What appeared before him was not a simple workbench as he had imagined, but a complete set of extremely precise steam forging center!

——Chī!!

It could be seen that, under the golden-red light of the nearby lava lake, as the busy craftsmen manipulated it, huge steel machinery was operating with sharp, gushing steam, continuously diverting molten iron and gathering it in a large central pool. The almost boiling fire spirit power here was almost condensed into a visible form. The light, like scarlet gauze, floated above the pool of molten iron like the aurora.

Located in the very center of this pool of molten iron was a dazzling, golden-red crystalline metal, like molten iron, placed on a tungsten-gold high platform engraved with Dao patterns. At this time, it was continuously absorbing the high heat from the lava lake and the surrounding molten iron, condensing the essence of the five metals and the earth's fiery aura into itself.

"It's already at the level of steam machinery? And this is the Earth Vein Flame Iron?"

Although Su Zhou knew that the technology of this world might not be as ancient as he had imagined when Mo Ganxiu took out the 'Vermillion Bird Box' to burn the demonic weapon, after all, purely according to time, the An Dynasty was almost entering modern times—but he really didn't expect that the style of this world was steampunk wuxia!

"Brother Su hasn't seen this 'True Qi Furnace' before? That's right, you lived in the Kunlun Mountains before." Zhou Buyi saw Su Zhou's surprise, and explained with a smile: "Although the An Dynasty's Demon Emperor is tyrannical, the eras of Emperor Xiao and Emperor Xuan were prosperous. This 'True Qi Furnace' was created jointly by my Daoist predecessors and craftsman masters. Originally, they wanted to create a more efficient alchemy furnace, but they found that as long as it was driven by various spiritual object crystals, it could exert power far greater than human strength!"

"It's just a pity that this true qi machine, which runs on a mixture of heaven and earth vitality and steam, requires internal energy martial artists to operate and use, so it cannot be used daily by the common people."

At this time, seeing the arrival of Su Zhou and Zhou Buyi, a tall man with bronze skin and knotted muscles walked out from the core control of this true qi furnace. The muscles on his wrists and shoulders were unusually bulging, and the blue-purple blood vessels and meridians were swollen and twisted, with hot blood flowing within.

This person's internal strength cultivation was about the same as Zhou Buyi, having broken through the second stage of the acquired realm, but it could be seen that the intensity of the two sides' tempering of their physical bodies was incomparable.

After arriving in front of the two, this tall man did not speak, but instead used internal energy to vibrate the air from his abdomen, forming a voice: "Little Zhou? New Grandmaster?"

"Grand Craftsman is born unable to speak, so he communicates with abdominal speech, which may be relatively brief." Zhou Buyi explained to Su Zhou, and then introduced Su Zhou's intention and purpose.

Su Zhou also naturally took out his cross spear, as well as the Yin energy crystal that had been stored for a long time and had not been used.

"Reforging, this spear? No, problem. Oh, spirit crystal!"

At first, when he saw the Wooden Centipede Cross Spear, the Grand Craftsman's expression was quite dismissive, as if he had seen too much and was not interested, but when he saw the Yin energy crystal, his eyes lit up: "Purity, extremely high! Too bad, not formed."

He could see that this Yin energy crystal could advance to become an Earth Vein Core, but had not yet become its final form.

"Really, want to use?"

The Grand Craftsman raised his head and looked puzzled, and Su Zhou naturally nodded: "Of course!"

Although the Grand Craftsman's words were not fluent, he didn't need to say much as the second party. After waiting for Su Zhou, the first party, to clarify his needs, he only said "Good." and "Today, busy, tomorrow, come again." Then he turned around and continued to operate those true qi machines.

Returning to the fortress camp, the rebels originally intended to arrange a residence for Su Zhou, but after Su Zhou looked at the excessively simple and even leaky wooden house, he shook his head, opened his backpack, and pitched a tent next to it himself.

He tried to trade some local specialties with some of the gems, spices, and other modern gadgets he had brought with him, and the result was quite gratifying, obtaining a lot of specialties from this Taibai Mountain area: five old mountain ginsengs soaked in spiritual energy.

"Although these mountain ginsengs have not yet become spiritual plants, they do contain a lot of spiritual energy. If placed on Earth, they would be considered half a treasure of heaven and earth. Eating them can strengthen the body and invigorate the spirit. The spiritual energy of the five combined can even be compared to a real spiritual plant. I wonder how much money it would cost to buy them."

"As a result, in this Godwood world, although they are rare, they are not considered precious. Looking at the appearance of those martial artists, they actually think they have made a profit—everyone gets what they need, a win-win."

Su Zhou was in his tent, weighing the clean, spiritual energy-infused, strange mountain ginseng in his hand, feeling quite content, but Yala reminded him: "Actually, it's not just for this reason. The existence of the Banyan of Immortality will affect the plants of the entire world. Although this ginseng has spiritual energy, its wood energy is too heavy and its impurities are too numerous. Eating too much will speed up the conversion of dependents. Locals probably wouldn't dare to eat this stuff unless it's an emergency."

"But you're different. You're my dependent, so you're not afraid of this erosion and impurities—perfect, try the 'Refining Essence into Qi' that I taught you."

Refining Essence into Qi, one of the three universal skills taught by Yala. Unlike the other two skills that can be used in combat, Su Zhou, who has a naturally amazing appetite, has never encountered a time when he really needed to use it until now.

As for now, it's just right!

Sitting cross-legged in his tent, Su Zhou closed his eyes and began to use 'Condensing Qi in the Body' to fine-tune the spiritual energy structure in his body, concentrating a large amount of spiritual power in his digestive organs such as the stomach and intestines. Under layers of subtle stimulation, even though he had just eaten a dozen servings of food, he felt a sudden sense of hunger surging from the deepest part of his body!

*Kacha!*

Without hesitation, Su Zhou directly grabbed a mountain ginseng from beside him and took a bite—at first it tasted extremely bitter, but soon a sweet and moist taste permeated his five senses, and a pure spiritual energy rushed straight to his forehead from his eyes, ears, nose, and orifices!

*Kacha kacha*, continuously opening his mouth, in less than two seconds, the entire mountain ginseng, the size of a child's arm, was swallowed into his stomach!

*Hong*—And at the moment when this spiritual energy-containing food entered his digestive organs, Su Zhou felt a spiritual power containing powerful wood energy burst out from his stomach, and then spread throughout his body along the spiritual energy structure he had fine-tuned earlier. It was like being soaked in a hot spring, and a warm, hot feeling suddenly spread throughout his body, causing the temperature inside the entire tent to rise.

"The body is being strengthened—from the most minute parts!"

Su Zhou could feel that every cell in his body, every muscle fiber, was hungrily calling out for nourishment, and after receiving the nourishment of that warm spiritual energy, they also became stronger and more vital at a rate visible to the naked eye.

After circulating for several seconds and several cycles, the spiritual energy dissipated. Although the spiritual energy content of the old ginseng was not great, far inferior to the Wood Centipede Crystal and the Twilight True Devil Crystal, it was superior in its large quantity.

*Kacha kacha!* Su Zhou directly took two more big bites, and then continued to calm down and use his own fire-attribute spiritual power to directly smash the wood energy in the ginseng and convert it into ordinary spiritual energy that he could use. Even if there was a slight amount of wood energy that settled, it was wiped out by Su Zhou's own physique.

Yin and Yang interconvert, the five elements rotate, the four phenomena alternate, the eight directions shift—this method of refining essence into qi, although its name is extremely simple, is essentially all-encompassing, almost capable of decomposing, digesting, and devouring all spiritual machines, a 'technique of eating heaven and earth'!

If ordinary people directly swallowed spiritual medicines and spiritual plants, they would be lucky to get one or two tenths of the effect, half of the effect would be normal, and the greater possibility would be to kill themselves with excessive nourishment, or to become possessed due to the excessive medicinal power.

To absorb them safely, they need to be converted and processed into pills, magic medicines, or spiritual foods, which are gentler and have higher absorption efficiency.

But refining essence into qi is different. Although it is inferior to high-level pills and magic medicines, which can increase the original ten tenths of the effect to twelve tenths or even double it through various techniques and auxiliary materials, it can still be compared to medium-level pills, with a conversion rate of seven or eight tenths.

And in terms of absorption efficiency, compared to the various spiritual medicines that need to be refined for a long time, 'refining essence into qi' has an absolute advantage.

It's just that Su Zhou's strength is not high now, and the scope of refining essence into qi cannot yet surpass ordinary spiritual objects and spiritual plants. If he goes a step further, he might even be able to eat spirit stones and spirit iron.

"Great! The resources of another world are indeed abundant. The unexpected harvest of just this resource is already so rich!"

A dozen seconds later, Su Zhou opened his eyes, his gaze bright and energetic. The hunger in his body had temporarily disappeared, and the spiritual power contained within had increased a lot, at least to the extent of hundreds of wraith fragments!

This progress in cultivation was already what he would need to spend more than ten days to advance and stabilize on Earth!