Chapter 88: Incense Making

A fish and a deer sparred back and forth in the water vat, while Chen Yu remained in the inner courtyard, holding an earthenware bowl to his lips.

He had cooked a portion of the mutated grain. Since Brother Chicken had shown no adverse effects, he decided not to wait any longer. The four crops each possessed distinct characteristics; aside from the viscous residue at the center, they varied in shape and size.

Among them, the autumn-knife wheat was particularly unique.

Instead of being ground into flour, a few grains had been boiled directly. The wheat grains, large enough to serve as hidden projectiles, lay limp in the bowl. Scalded by boiling water and left to steep for a full half-hour, they were finally thoroughly cooked.

Plucking a grain with his chopsticks, Chen Yu fed it to his mouth. Beside his hand lay an open record ledger. As he chewed and savored the taste, he concentrated on perceiving whether it had any specialized effects on his body.

After chewing, he swallowed, and it slid down into his stomach.

Ever since his momentary epiphany while observing the lightning the day before, changes had occurred within his Muddy Pill Palace. The two spiritual vortexes had merged into one, with an added trace of silvery hue. Through multiple trials, he confirmed that the now compact and exquisite vortex had enhanced its efficacy in refining spiritual power.

This applied both to newly generated spiritual power and to that which, through day-in and day-out refinement, had reached a point of almost zero growth, relying solely on spiritual energy for amplification.

Consequently, parts of the Muddy Pill Palace had become vacant.

With his strengthened spiritual power, internal visualization became much easier. Chen Yu wielded his spiritual sense to reflect his entire physique, focusing his attention primarily on his spleen and stomach.

On the other hand, as the autumn-knife wheat entered his stomach, the transformed gastric juices were potent enough to break down foods that ordinary people found difficult to digest. Not only was the process fast, but even certain common, ordinary toxins could be broken down along with it, converting them into nutrients.

The autumn-knife wheat was no exception. A single grain vanished without a trace in an instant, failing to stir up the slightest ripple in his stomach, remaining completely tranquil.

"No effect?"

Scanning up and down, he inspected his flesh and blood, including every single organ. Yet, in the end, he withdrew his spiritual sense with a furrowed brow. Looking at the remaining portion in the bowl, without overthinking it, he shoveled a large mouthful into his mouth.

A moment later, Chen Yu opened his eyes again. His locked brows did not relax; instead, they drew even tighter.

This shouldn't be... The spiritual essence had successfully catalyzed it. This was the first time he had been unable to discover or pinpoint a specific function.

Could it really be that, apart from growing larger in size, it was no different from before? At this thought, he realized he couldn't say it was entirely devoid of difference—at the very least, the taste surpassed many others.

Well, better than nothing.

Staring at a slender wheat grain easily ten times larger than the rest of the millet, Chen Yu let out a breath. Looking at it from another perspective, this type of spiritual plant at least yielded a considerable harvest. He remembered that when an equal number of seeds were sown, the autumn-knife wheat had produced forty to fifty catties, whereas the others had only yielded three to five catties—a stark contrast.

"In that case, it can be cultivated as a staple grain."

He figured that with the spiritual liquid added, maturing a single batch would be enough to last for a long time. There would no longer be any need to worry about a shortage of grain on the mountain. He could even leave that half-mu of mountain plot unplanted and idle.

Shaking his head, he pushed aside further thoughts for now. How to arrange things in the future remained uncertain; only after thoroughly confirming that the autumn-knife wheat had indeed grown only in size under the catalysis of spiritual essence would he dwell on such matters.

As for the agricultural plots, he might as well keep them planted.

In his mind, spiritual essence served primarily as a trigger for inducing mutations and catalyzing new spiritual plants. Using it for repetitive cultivation and harvesting felt like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Besides, his supply of spiritual essence was truly limited; this small patch in the medicinal garden had consumed an entire grain. If he were to expand it, requiring the continuous use of spiritual liquid to force maturation and repeated tilling, his spiritual essence would certainly fail to keep pace.

In comparison, spiritual liquid was smoother to use for large-scale cultivation; the two fulfilled different roles.

In the courtyard, Chen Yu paused briefly, searching through every part of his body once more, yet still failing to find any changes. He then shifted his attention to the next item.

Out of four types of grain, he refused to believe that every single one would be like this.

"This spring millet consumed two portions of spiritual essence for catalysis. If even it turns out like the autumn-knife wheat..."

Then he would have to be much more cautious when using spiritual essence to catalyze food crops in the future.

...

In the afternoon, a gentle breeze brushed his face.

The world, washed clean by the rain, appeared even more pristine. Breathing in the fragrance of grass and trees drifting through the air, Chen Yu held a stone pestle in one hand and grasped two bulging little bags in the other.

Walking over to the stone table, he placed the washed, water-drained stone pestle aside to dry in the sun. At the same time, he untied the small bags and laid a wooden board on the table.

Holding the corner of the bags, he emptied their contents onto the left and right sides of the wooden board respectively.

*Rustle, rustle—*

Amber-colored powder poured down, slowly piling into two sharp, small mounds.

Under the sunlight, the powder particles were fine, with a rich and pure color.

A bracing fragrance tugged at the tip of his nose. Chen Yu lowered his head to gaze at it for a moment, then turned around to retrieve a wooden bucket from the kitchen. The bucket was well-filled, with bottles and jars clinking and sloshing inside.

Tucked under his waist was a handful of newly harvested herbs and grasses, along with two bundles of hay and a small tripod cauldron.

The latter differed from the one used for refining pills; it was four-footed and square, with a winnowing basket inserted into the mouth of the cauldron—resembling a sieve in shape, but made of bronze. In this world, it was frequently used by Taoist practitioners for utensils requiring a gentle fire.

Some pill furnaces also featured this, but White Crane Temple did not champion the practice of alchemy cauldrons. Consequently, the tripod used for concocting medicines actually served more to brew herbal decoctions and formulas. Certain alchemy utensils known and utilized only by Taoists who delved deeply into alchemy arts had not even been acquired by him.

However, he was not refining pills today; he was making incense.

The incense-making tradition had been passed down for a long time. In both his past and present lives, it held a pivotal position in Taoist studies.

In his previous life, Chen Yu had heard that some incense sticks and candles were actually crafted according to alchemical methods, designed to produce a light aroma that nurtured the spirit and mind rather than merely pleasing the nose.

This life was much the same. As for those incense sticks in the temple burned alongside dark-barked wax, they could not even be considered graded.

The incense and candles worshipped daily by major forces like the True Sun Temple were not only complex in their manufacturing procedures, but also used supreme raw materials blended with herbs and spices; a single stick could be worth dozens or even hundreds of taels of silver.

Chen Yu lacked the heritage required to craft high-grade blended incense according to the methods recorded in ancient texts; he could not even gather the ingredients alone. Yet he did not belittle himself, for the materials he used were things others could not obtain or even hope to see in a lifetime.

"Rather than using the powder of miscellaneous fumigation grass to stimulate the spirit like a stimulant, it is better to use it for making incense."

Revitalizing the spirit was extremely rare, especially when paired with the spiritual vortex to better refine the brain. However, the effect was truly too violent, and he could barely handle it.

Thus, after much deliberation, he recalled the records he had seen in *The Medical Records of Qiaoguluang* concerning diluting medicinal potency and neutralizing toxicity.

Miscellaneous fumigation grass was non-toxic, but once diluted, its uses could be brought into play more thoroughly. This was also described in *The Profound and Tranquil Hundred Herbs Record*, and furthermore, *The Wind-Simple Scattered Pills* even mentioned a special scattered pill known as [Returning Spirit Incense].

Having perused quite a few texts, he realized that rolling pills might render the medicinal potency more concentrated and fierce, so he intended to give it a try by preparing the miscellaneous fumigation grass in the form of incense.

"Two portions, for the sake of comparison."

One portion was ground and dried in advance, while the other had been recently roasted and processed with other herbs.

One would serve as a single-item incense, and the other as a blended incense.