At the Outer Affair Hall, Rinne listened as Talia went through her list of ingredients.

Out of the 24 spiritual plants she needed, only 18 were currently in stock. Talia explained that the missing ones were rare and very difficult to gather, even in the sect’s territory. It was a similar story with the spiritual beast ingredients: only some grade-1 cores, blood, and meat were available.

Rinne couldn't help but be disappointed, but at least these ingredients were confirmed to exist.

All she had to do next was raise the funds needed to buy them. For the missing items, she could turn to the Mission Hall and set up tasks for other disciples to gather them later, though she’d need to prepare suitable rewards for that in the future. But that could wait for later.

Rinne turned her attention to what was available.

As expected, the prices were quite expensive, even with her 200 spirit stones, she could only afford a few lower-priced items. In addition, she also hesitated, thinking perhaps she had made a mistake. She had told Talia about her supposed debt, so going on a sudden shopping spree might raise questions she didn't need.

Rinne took a moment to rethink her approach.

"Then, I will buy the seeds of those 18 plants."

Since the ready-made spiritual plants were costly, Rinne decided that seeds would be a more affordable choice.

There were many techniques for promoting plant growth, and one of the most powerful was the Spring Rain Blossom Technique, which created a spiritual rain that sped up growth.

Among her gathered memories was one from a skilled Spiritual Planter named Tharmus Musgrath, who had mastered this technique to perfection, earning him the title of Spiritual Rain Master. With this skill, seeds could mature and be harvested within just two months.

But there was also a more extreme approach, one Rinne only considered as a backup: the Spring Bloom Strain Technique. This frowned-upon method could force plants to grow nearly ten times faster, though at a heavy cost. The quality of the plant’s medicinal properties would diminish, and the plant itself would wither soon after reaching maturity.

However, combining both techniques could yield a rapid yet functional solution.

The Spring Rain Blossom Technique would encourage quick but stable growth, while the Spring Bloom Strain would push it to its limits, making seeds germinate within seconds, mature in ten days, and be ready for harvest by the twelfth. Although Rinne didn’t yet have the cultivation level needed to perform either technique, she knew they could be replicated with formations.

As for the reduced medicinal quality? That didn’t concern her.

Once converted to a solution, quantity could make up for quality.

"I also need a few more items."

Along with the seeds, Rinne included several additional items in her purchase: a bottle of blood from a 1st-grade spiritual beast known as the Snow Rabbit, ten cores from 1st-grade spiritual beasts, and fifty sheets of talisman paper.

Hearing Rinne's words, Talia checked the list once again, mentally calculating.

"All the seeds cost 20 spirit stones, and these costs 8 spirit stones."

Rinne quickly reached for her pouch and counted out the stones, handing them over. Talia accepted the spirit stones and began packing the items.

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As Talia handed over the items, she glanced at the talisman paper and raised an eyebrow.

“Do you practice talisman making?”

Rinne nodded, keeping her response simple, “Still learning.”

Talia gave a nod, a hint of encouragement in her expression.

“Good luck with it. If your talismans are any good, I’ll give you a fair price for them.”

Rinne gave a slight smile under her mask.

Although of course, it was impossible to see her expression behind the mask.

“Thank you. I’ll be sure to bring them to you when they're ready.”

With the items packed and the spirit stones exchanged, Rinne tucked everything carefully into her bag, nodding briefly to Talia before turning to leave the building.

♠♠♠

Outside the Outer Affairs Hall, Rinne didn't head home right away.

Instead, she made her way over to the sect’s junkyard, a short walk from the building. It was a sprawling area filled with discarded items: broken swords, shattered artifacts, household scraps, alchemic waste, and occasionally, human corpses. Rinne even spotted a complete alchemy cauldron missing one of its legs.

image [https://images-ng.pixai.art/images/orig/dd7fbc61-477e-40a5-a070-f5f689d132a9]

Though most of the items here were damaged, the old saying proved true: one person’s trash was another’s treasure. This was a perfect spot to collect things at no cost since nobody cared what was taken, as these were due to be disposed of in bulk every few years.

“Time for treasure hunting,”

Rinne murmured, stepping carefully among the piles of frozen waste.

The chill in the air worked in her favor, as the cold kept everything from rotting and producing unpleasant odors. She stepped over various frozen piles and began selecting items of potential use—broken swords, scraps of iron, and anything else she could melt down later. Her spatial bag had limited room, so she had to be selective.

She planned to forge her own spiritual weapon from these materials instead of spending her spirit stones to buy one. Collecting higher-end items would be impractical for now, as they’d require exotic fire to melt, which she couldn’t yet handle.

Once she had filled half of her spatial bag, Rinne looked around at the remaining piles but decided she had enough. Still, she was pleased with her haul, particularly the broken cauldron, which, despite its missing one of its legs, was a valuable find.

“Okay, this should be enough for now.”

With her collection done, she turned and left the junkyard. The remaining space in her bag would be saved for herbs and berries she planned to gather on her way back.

♠♠♠

Some time later.

Once Rinne reached her atelier, the first thing she did was switch out her old stone cauldron for the new one she’d picked up from the junkyard.

Although it was missing one of its legs, that didn’t bother her, here in her atelier, she could create an illusion of a missing leg, or even make the cauldron float if she wanted.

“It’s time for me to upgrade my cauldron,”

She said to herself, carefully cleaning it before adding her improvements.

Unlike the rough, hand-carved formation she’d made on the stone cauldron, the newly made Cauldron Assist Formation Mk.II would be engraved by her Array Automatic Creation Formation, using the precise, micro sculpting technology.

This new formation was far beyond the first one she had created, packed with helpful features to make refining ingredients easier. The only thing Rinne needed to do was to supply a steady flow of spiritual energy, although the formation could also pull in energy from the air around it if she wanted to save her own strength.

The best part was, she didn’t even need to light a fire anymore, as the formation itself could manage basic heating. Of course, it couldn't imitate exotic flames, but for ordinary alchemical work, this was enough.

But the real power of this cauldron wasn’t just the heating, it had a memory function that recorded each refining step. With a bit of adjustment, it could replicate any previous process perfectly.

Normally, controlling the properties of each plant or mineral was a constant challenge since every ingredient varied slightly in quality. This required most alchemists to focus intensely with their spiritual sense to adjust as they worked. But with this cauldron’s automatic detection feature, she could process ingredients in a consistent way every time.

It was simply an alchemy cauldron for fools!

“With this, I won’t have to work so hard on alchemy anymore!”

Rinne felt more than satisfied with her new arrangement.