Wandering Gods of Day and Night-Chapter 1168 - 447: Alchemy Experiment

He chuckled and then said to Lady Hong Guan, "Mr. Lu is quite a character."

"What’s so special about the Master?"

"What’s special is that even with a fish head on his shoulders, he’s still charmingly elegant to the extreme."

When Zhou Xuan said this, Lady Hong Guan immediately thought of Lu Xingzhou’s fish head and burst into laughter, "The way you describe him, I find the Master even more adorable now."

Everyone bantered and joked, making the atmosphere incredibly lively.

At this moment, Alchemist Bai Lu handed over a drawing.

"Sir, the drawing is ready."

Zhou Xuan took the drawing, and upon closely examining it, he saw an enormous pill furnace, complete with cross-sections, vertical sections, and top views, all clearly detailed. Even the specific lengths of each section were meticulously marked, emphasizing precision.

"Well, Lao Bai Lu, I thought you were an unreliable old wanderer. I didn’t expect you to be such a diligent scholar?"

Zhou Xuan praised him, somewhat suspicious that this old man might have studied CAD and was a pro at technical drawing.

"Thank you for the compliment, Sir. Please take a look and see if there’s anything amiss?"

"What’s with these winding grooves?" Zhou Xuan pointed at the slots on the drawing and asked.

"You can actually understand this?" Alchemist Bai Lu squinted his eyes.

Zhou Xuan: "..."

You thought all along I couldn’t understand drawings? I actually studied industrial drafting.

"You motherfucker, if you thought I couldn’t understand, why did you ask me to spot the issues?" Zhou Xuan said irritably. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"I was just being polite; I didn’t really expect you to understand my drawing." Alchemist Bai Lu said straightforwardly.

Lady Hong Guan, unsure what could be so difficult about a drawing, glanced at the paper and was immediately overwhelmed by the multitude of numbers,

They seemed like swarms of chaotic mosquitoes buzzing in her head, stirring everything up senselessly.

"I’ve seen something I shouldn’t have; it’s messed up my head." Lady Hong Guan quickly rubbed her eyes, as if trying to rub those numbers out of her mind.

The painter also took a look and immediately thought, Sir, you really are a jack of all trades, to understand such a drawing; are you even human?

Alchemist Bai Lu then explained to Zhou Xuan, "Sir, these grooves are fire channels, used to guide the heavenly fire into the fire eyes. There are a total of twenty-seven lines, varying in length,

When constructing the furnace, it’s crucial not to make any mistakes. Otherwise, the furnace won’t be able to produce elixirs, and it might even explode."

Zhou Xuan nodded, then pointed at the drawing and asked, "And what about these raised lines? They aren’t purely decorative, are they?"

"The pill furnace is a utilitarian item. Any design that isn’t for utility is a waste inside the furnace, and I wouldn’t draw purely ornamental items."

Mr. Bai Lu added, "These are called ’Fire Separation Rings’. Inside the furnace, they mainly create layers within the fire channels,

The layers of fire need to be sufficiently numerous and dense to meet the needs of the variously sized starry fire eyes in this pill furnace."

"Oh..."

After this analysis, Zhou Xuan gained some knowledge. Who would’ve thought such a small pill furnace had so many designs.

"Then what’s with the patterns at the very bottom of this furnace?"

"The heavenly fire, when entering the furnace, is inherently unstable, fluctuating wildly. It needs to burn along these patterns until the fire stabilizes before any alchemy can be done."

"It’s just like cooking; if the flame is inconsistent, the dish will end up either undercooked or overdone, completely screwing up your timing."

Zhou Xuan nodded again and discussed the other structures on the drawing with Alchemist Bai Lu,

Their conversation was serious, but to the others, it sounded like they were listening to the Heavenly Book.

"Old Hua, you’re a scholar too; what are they talking about? Sounds like gibberish to me."

Li Changxun asked the painter.

"I used to think I was a scholar, but now... I’m just a lousy painter. You ask me, and I don’t know either."

The painter said with a bitter smile.

Finally, after a round of discussion between Zhou Xuan and Alchemist Bai Lu, they clarified all the settings within the pill furnace and confirmed the dimensions of the various elements,

Alchemist Bai Lu couldn’t help but sigh and said, "If my past disciples had been as smart as Sir here, understanding these drawings at a glance, my alchemy wouldn’t have been so arduous."

"Stop with the flattery; let’s build the furnace and prepare to make elixirs."

Zhou Xuan handed the drawings to Sister Cui and said, "Sister Cui, follow these plans to make a pill furnace. All the dimensions are clearly marked."

Sister Cui only glanced at the drawings and immediately showed a troubled expression, saying, "Brother Xuan, to be honest, I grew up reading the Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism, and I’m completely clueless about these mechanisms and construction sciences.

I can’t understand these drawings at all."

"It’s okay, I’ll teach you."

Zhou Xuan said to Sister Cui, "See here, this is a cross-section. What is a cross-section?"

He grabbed a teapot, sliced it with Bone Teeth, then held up the two halves, pointing at the cut surface, "This here is called a cross-section."

"..." Sister Cui’s expression grew even more strained.

Zhou Xuan was undeterred and continued with his "teaching demonstration," slicing up dozens of kettles, but Sister Cui was like a sieve with holes penetrating through one another... completely clueless!

"We’ve got a problem; the master tasked with making the furnace can’t understand the drawings."

Zhou Xuan finally realized the true difficulty in making the pill furnace — Sister Cui didn’t even grasp the most basic concepts like cross-sections or top views, let alone the various complex settings within the furnace like "Fire Separation Rings," "patterns," "fire channels," etc.,

Which meandered like the tangled electric wires in slums, very difficult for outsiders to untangle.

"How can we make Sister Cui understand?"

Zhou Xuan immediately felt troubled. There’s no way he could teach the entire "Industrial Drawing" course to Sister Cui lesson by lesson, right?