Story 3 - Spiritual Vines and a Smokey Pill Cauldron (11)

Story 3 - Spiritual Vines and a Smokey Pill Cauldron (11)

I expected to see interior smoke stains on the lid, but on the bottom? Was his past owner working on a damn anti-gravity pill? Maybe they went up into space to concoct?

Wait! Was Old Smokey actually a space-exploring Pill Cauldron?!

Amusing, but highly unlikely.

Whatever. It was time to get shit done.

I brought out the precious-precious sanding and polishing tool. I used a spirit stone to power it and carefully, but still quickly, cleared away the stains and residue that the poor spring water couldn’t get to in a mere twenty minutes.

As I ran the tool over each inch, caked-on smoke turned into polished gold... Well, technically it was a spirit-energy-infused auriferous metal called Golden Impenetrable Adamantine Steel. One of the best, Heaven rank spiritual metals a smith could use for low to mid-ranked spirit cauldrons.

By the time every bit of the surface was clean, a full half-hour had passed and Old Smokey practically glowed. Now that the caked-on smoke was gone, the elegant vine filigree on the sides and lid clearly stood out. It really had been a very cute beginner cauldron at one point.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop to enjoy my hard work. I had to achieve my second shortcut — patching.nove(l)bi(n.)com

There was about an hour left, and I needed to use it to fix the most disturbing of the micro-fractures.

Earlier, in the small bucket of scrap pieces where the tools were hidden, I’d discovered a chunk of Golden Impenetrable Adamantine Steel. I grabbed the extra steel and placed it in a spiritual ladle (a tool made to hold molten spiritual metal). Then I tossed the thing in the white-hot and blinding furnace.

While that worked on melting I began heating the cauldron by converting a small portion of my Qi to have a fire-aspect and then flowing it over the cauldron in a specific mysterious pattern.

This essentially created another of those secret crafter’s formations. It would heat the item, turn it malleable and force it to mostly hold its original shape during the repair process. Unfortunately, this drained my available spiritual energy by a small but significant portion.

He pulled out a towel from the looted bag I gave him a few weeks back, then he poured water on it. “How did it go?”

As I started to reply he began to wipe my face clean. “It went well. There are a few insignificant microfractures but it will hold as long as I don’t fuck up.”

“The chances of that—“

I held out my hand to stop him and he cut off, also moving his towel away from my forehead. “For low-level pills like these, even using mostly ancient techniques, the chances that I’ll cause an explosion without outside interference is beyond null.”

He blinked and wiped clean my hands that were still in his face. My cheeks burned.

I’d just let a kid help me get cleaned up as if I were the damn kid... or, as he likely thought of me, the damn daft old senior.

Whatever, I was technically injured anyway, so getting a little help was fine. Little Spring was a very thoughtful child. I ruffled his hair.

Smiling madly, I asked, “How do I look? Am I presentable? Do I appear to be the beautiful immortal I am?”

He kindly patted my shoulder. “Fairy Lin. I think you should go get changed and fix your hair.”

Huh? I glanced down at my ruined outfit...

Ah... it might be my imagination but I was pretty sure the costume I wore belonged to a victim of an ancient structure fire.

Right. White mortal silk —unlike the armor quality robes I wore in my last life— did not make a great forging uniform. Especially when grinding off smoke residue. Well, shit.