Divine Transcendence

"Well... After careful study yesterday, I found that this incense is indeed special. The materials used in it are far more than I imagined, and it seems to contain some mineral powder. As for what exactly it is, I can’t figure it out for the time being," Wu Sang sighed.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Ming, although he had anticipated it, still slightly furrowed his brows.

"Hehe, don’t worry, my friend. My family has been making incense for generations. With my thirty years of experience, I will eventually figure out its formula as long as I put in some effort. Today, I will teach you the basic process of making incense. This will also cost you," Wu Sang said, rubbing his hands together. He had noticed Yuan Ming’s change in expression and gave an awkward smile.

"Of course, the family’s unique skills are also an intangible wealth. How much silver should I pay?" Yuan Ming nodded.

Wu Sang asked for ten silver coins. After paying, one started lecturing and the other listened attentively.

Wu Sang, with his family’s craft, indeed had unique insights into incense making. Although he seemed a bit casual, when it came to making incense, he was like a different person. Not only was he eloquent, but his explanations were also clear and easy to understand.

Yuan Ming, with his extraordinary memory, made rapid progress. In just two days, he had a general understanding of the incense-making craft passed down by the Wu Sang family.

The process of making incense involves sun drying, steaming, boiling, blasting, frying, grilling, baking, grinding, and finally pressing into shape. Each step requires mastering certain skills. The materials used are different, and these steps also vary. It indeed takes years of learning to master.

But Yuan Ming, as a cultivator, could do many things that ordinary people couldn’t. He easily mastered the steps of making incense.

The Jiuli Temple was thriving with incense, and it had its own incense workshop. All kinds of incense materials were available for purchase, which greatly facilitated him.

After a few days of trial, Yuan Ming made his first stick of incense, which included several possible materials guessed by Wu Sang. As for the other parts, he added them according to his own ideas.

This stick of incense was earthy yellow in color, and its scent was similar to that of the black incense, but its shape was very different.

In his room, Yuan Ming summoned an incense burner and inserted the yellow incense, trying to light it.

The bright yellow flame enveloped the yellow incense, and smoke rose from the incense head, but the incense burner showed no reaction, which was no different from the previous attempts.

Yuan Ming didn’t hold any hope for this, so he pulled out the yellow incense and threw it into the copper basin next to him, continuing to try new formulas.

Half a day later, he made a new stick of incense, which was light yellow in color. He tried to light it again, but still failed.

In a room of the incense workshop, Wu Sang carefully poured a kind of red powder into a small bowl, which was filled with half a bowl of transparent glue.

He then threw a gray powder into it, followed by a third material.

In a moment, the transparent glue turned gray-black.

Wu Sang nodded thoughtfully, took a burning candle from his bosom, and let the flame lightly touch the glue.

The gray-black glue immediately ignited, giving off a blue flame.

Wu Sang took out a small bag from his bosom, which contained a small section of black incense, which was Yuan Ming’s black incense.

He held the black incense with tongs and brought it close to the flame in the bowl.

The blue flame gave off strands of purple, and a faint spicy fragrance filled the air.

"This black incense seems to contain something similar to spicy stone, but it seems a bit different..." Wu Sang withdrew the tongs along with the remaining black incense, a hint of hesitation flashing across his face.

He picked up a book from the side and added a note to it.

The book recorded six materials, four of which were only rough guesses. The other two, including the spicy stone, were somewhat uncertain despite his confidence.

"Damn it! This black incense is as hard as iron, and its ingredients are so strange. I don’t know where that kid got it from!" Wu Sang grumbled unwillingly. To this day, he had no complete confidence in the composition of the black incense, which was something that would never have happened in the past.

For the first time in his life, he doubted his ability to make incense, and he couldn’t help but regret his initial boast.

"Never mind, let’s try these six materials first!" After pacing back and forth in the room for a few rounds, Wu Sang quickly made up his mind.

In his experience of dealing with incense materials for many years, there should be about twelve kinds of materials used to make this strange black incense. If he could figure out half of them, he could start trying to imitate it.

Now, no matter what, he had made a preliminary judgment. How could he know if he could succeed without trying? Maybe he would really succeed?

But before he started, he had to inform Yuan Ming.

Wu Sang got up and came to the outside of Yuan Ming’s residence.

"Friend Yuan, I have some ideas about that black incense..." He pushed open the door and said.

Halfway through his sentence, his voice suddenly stopped.

Inside the room, Yuan Ming was holding a slightly red stick of incense, gently fumigating it over a candle, doing the final shaping step.

"Is this incense made by you?" Wu Sang’s mouth was slightly open.

With his keen eyes, he naturally saw that the slightly red incense in Yuan Ming’s hand was quite perfect. The craftsmanship was not inferior to his own.

"Hehe, after reading the books and receiving guidance from a master, I have become a bit familiar with incense making in the past few days," Yuan Ming said with a slight smile.

Wu Sang was flattered and didn’t know what to say.

When his eyes glanced at the copper basin next to Yuan Ming, he saw four or five sticks of incense lying inside. Some were broken, but their fineness was not much different from the one in Yuan Ming’s hand.

Wu Sang’s eyes widened involuntarily. Yuan Ming had already made so many incenses, which meant that this man was extraordinarily intelligent.

You should know that although he was not as hardworking as his parents, he also started from a young age and spent a full ten years to achieve a little success. After another twenty years, he achieved today’s achievements.The art of incense making, though seemingly simple, is a craft that truly requires time and dedication to master. Yet, this young man, not even twenty years old, had grasped it in just a few days?

This was the second blow he had received in recent days, aside from being unable to decipher the composition of the black incense.

"Mr. Wu Sang, what are you thinking about?" Yuan Ming’s voice once again pulled Wu Sang out of his reverie.

"Cough, no... nothing. Regarding the black incense, I have some leads on six of the ingredients. I’m fairly confident about two of them. Based on my experience, we can start trying to recreate it, so I thought I should let you know."

Wu Sang coughed lightly, handing Yuan Ming a piece of paper with the ingredients recorded on it.

"Mr. Wu Sang, your understanding of incense is truly extraordinary. However, I think I should handle the replication. You continue to research the composition of the black incense, and strive to make more progress." Yuan Ming said, his face lighting up as he took out a small bag of coins and handed it to Wu Sang.

"That’s fine. With your current incense-making skills, there shouldn’t be any problem with the replication. This way, I can focus on identifying the components of the black incense." Wu Sang weighed the bag of coins in his hand, and despite his lack of confidence in further investigation, he agreed.

"Then I’ll leave it to you, Mr. Wu Sang!" Yuan Ming said.

Wu Sang didn’t linger. He told Yuan Ming about his guesses regarding the six ingredients and his understanding of the black incense. He also left some of each of the six ingredients before bidding farewell.

That night, Yuan Ming used the two most likely ingredients and the four speculative ones to make a new stick of incense, but it ended in failure.

Yuan Ming was not discouraged and continued to try.

In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.

Yuan Ming’s room was filled with the rich aroma of incense. The table was cluttered with discarded incense sticks, at least a hundred of them.

At this moment, he was fully focused on making a new stick of incense.

Despite some progress in identifying the components of the black incense, Wu Sang had not been able to confirm any of them with absolute certainty. However, his years of experience in incense making had allowed him to source several rare, high-grade incense materials, bringing the scent of the replicated incense closer to that of the black incense.

This gave Yuan Ming a glimmer of hope.

The new incense was quickly completed. It was black in color and indistinguishable from the black incense in both appearance and scent.

Yuan Ming took out the incense burner, swiftly inserted the new incense, and eagerly lit it with a candle.

A red light appeared on the new incense, and the pattern of The Great Ultimate on the incense burner shone brightly in response.

Yuan Ming’s heart fluttered, but his expression remained calm as he stared intently at the red light at the top of the new incense.

The red light flickered once, then immediately dimmed and disappeared, like a shooting star.

Yuan Ming sighed, a hint of disappointment flashing in his eyes.

Despite all this time, none of the incense sticks he had made could trigger a change in The Great Ultimate pattern.

He had tried more than twenty different high-grade materials based on Wu Sang’s hints and his own experience, nearly exhausting all the incense-making materials in the temple, but there was still no progress.

However, as a cultivator, Yuan Ming had gained some insight from another perspective.

He speculated that the materials for the black incense might not be ordinary, and the materials here were all common. It would be impossible to make the same incense in a short time.

If he could confirm one or two of the black incense’s ingredients, perhaps there would be progress.

"What could it be?" Yuan Ming furrowed his brows, deep in thought.

The mysterious incense burner was obtained by chance in the Southern Border, so the materials for the black incense should also be from the Southern Border.

"The Southern Border is vast. This place is in the northern part of the Southern Border, close to the Great Jin. The southern part of the Southern Border is much larger than the north. Should I visit other tribes in the southern part in the future?" A thought suddenly popped into Yuan Ming’s mind, but he quickly shook his head.

There are millions of materials in the world. Was he supposed to try them one by one?

The black incense was so powerful when lit, its materials must be extraordinary. He couldn’t possibly ask a master craftsman to help analyze the composition, as that would risk exposing the secret of the incense.

After pondering for a long time, Yuan Ming took out the black incense again. Instead of placing it in the incense burner, he put it in front of him and began to examine it carefully.

He focused his mind and stared intently at the black incense, his spiritual sense enveloping it, not wanting to miss any detail.

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