Chapter 925: Jury Rigged Solution
Whenever a [Tempering Spirit Amber Pearl] appears in the market, it is usually swept up by the agents of organizations that would make both branches of the Zhen Clan look like nothing more than an after-school program.
Even if these aether elixirs could only ever be taken by one person, that simply meant that the consumer could go on to become a pillar for whatever organization managed to get their hands one.
However, in the case of the [Giant Tempering Spirit Amber Pearl] that Zhen Liu and his family managed to find in the middle of the [Monkey Temple] wandering ruins, the traditional method of absorbtion would be considered absolutely wasteful.
Why?
Because, based on historical records, unless one is able to absorb all of the power of a [Giant Tempering Spirit Amber Pearl] in a single sitting, then up to ninety percent of it would simply dissolve back into atmospheric aether.
That stated, there are ways to make sure this doesn’t happen.
Over the centuries, few factions have managed to get their hands on the giant variant of these naturally occurring elixirs of power and have recorded the ways they managed to leverage this resource of power in more ways than one.
That or they figured out how to absorb more than that initial ten percent.
Some factions employ the usage of other aether medicine and elixirs on top of the [Giant Tempering Spirit Amber Pearl] to try and have the consumer be able to absorb more of it, but the efficacy of such actions only raise the total amount of absorbed aether to about thirty percent higher than the consumer’s capacity. Meaning, if someone had the capability to absorb twenty percent of the pearl in one go, the medicine would help them bump it up to fifty percent.
Other factions have learned to establish elaborate aether arrays that are able to convert the pearl-shaped elixir into a source of power that could help a cultivator increase their base over time. Granted this particular route will eventually lead to the dissolution of said pearl and array after a certain number of uses, but nobody knows what that exact figure is due to differences in cultivation ability and factional wars that lead to the devastation of such knowledge bases.
There were also some factions that had come up with more…creative ways to leverage this power source. These methods ranged from turning manmade hot springs into artificially created Tempering Spirit Pools, to having high tiered bovine or whale aether beasts partially digest the [Giant Tempering Spirit Amber Pearl] into smaller bezoar that are slightly less effective but also act as a detoxing agent.
Every method conceived to take advantage of [Giant Tempering Spirit Amber Pearls] have their own drawbacks, benefits and have been thoroughly tested by those who have long since have become either wormfood or ascended into a higher plane of existence, literally.
However, it should be noted that the penultimate way to leverage the power of the [Giant Tempering Spirit Pearl] is to combine several of these disparate methods into one cohesive technique.
Of course, such a thing could never happen in history due to the factions that came up with these techniques having animosity towards each other at worst, or simply lived in different time periods that didn’t overlap at best.
If one were to combine these methods though, the resulting gestalt would be much greater than the parts of the whole.
After all, coal is just a rock unless you know how to use it.
________________________________________
‘Logso, Pathos, be honest. Is this actually the best way to leverage the [Giant Tempering Spirit Pearl] for my family, or are you two, more specifically Pathos, fucking with me.’
=We’re sure, milord. After combing through a little over twenty millenia worth of sect knowledge, journals, second-hand accounts and a couple dozen textbooks, we have concluded that this is the best way to make use of the [Giant Tempering Spirit Amber Pearl] was by combining the array created by the Silver Lotus Pagoda, the circulation principle established by the Flowing Water Healers and the engineering of William Feetham of your world. Do not doubt my math, milord.=
‘See I get that, but why couldn’t we…I don’t know, build it in a more spacious manner? It looks like claustrophobic.’
=Ah…call it a prototype.=
‘Fine…’
________________________________________
“Xiao Liu…what the fuck am I staring at?,” Patriarch Zhen Shi asked his grandson who was looking a bit like a madman at the moment.
“It’s called a ‘shower booth’. Think of it as a small scale waterfall or rainstorm in a glass room.”
“Okay… where’s the [Giant Tempering Spirit Amber Pearl] at?”
“In the artificial underground reservoir that the primates and I dug up right beneath this booth.”
“Ah…”
A few days had passed since the Zhen Clan’s grand adventure into the [Monkey Temple] wandering ruins, and a lot had changed since then.
Shortly after the Zhen Clan had returned with the [Giant Tempering Spirit Pearl], the four aether treasures they were aiming for in the first place, a captured dragon-blooded monkey with very weird abilities and a troop of surprisingly disciplined aether primates, Patriarch Zhen Shi and Hermit Zhong Wei managed to regain consciousness.
Technically they were put in a sleep-like state that drained them of their aether, but it was similar enough to be comatose…mostly.
Anyways, once the two old fellows regained consciousness and learned what gains the rest of the clan managed to secure, they freaked out in a good way.
After all, just one of these treasures would’ve been enough for the Zhen Clan to benefit greatly, all four and then some was enough for them and the entirety of Stone Claw to skyrocket to new heights.
Regardless, just having these treasures on hand wouldn’t be useful for anybody, so for the next week or so after the expedition to the wandering ruins had ended, the Zhen Clan went to work solidifying their gains.
Between the [Talisman Monument of Curing Rain], the [Eternal Spring Calabash Tree], the [Oasis Teapot] and the [Fountain of Furious Crimson Water], only one of these was needed to turn the Zhen Clan’s underground lake cavern into a proper teleportation point connected to the main branch.
The [Eternal Spring Calabash Tree] ended up being used, due to the other three treasures being used for other reasons.
The [Talisman Monument of Curing Rain] was installed in the Zhen Clan’s arena as a means of providing first-aid for injured trainees. That and it allowed for some variation in the combat environments, ranging from light mist to torrential rains.
The primates that Zhen Hai brought along with him also appreciated the continuous usage of their monument and the newer variety of opponents they could spar against.
The [Fountain of Furious Crimson Water] was…actually not installed yet, due to its change in not only appearance but it’s overall function. The Zhen Clan elders figured that they would wait until after further studying the treasure before figuring out what to do with it, the most popular opinion as of late was to present it to [Temple of Nowhere] as a gift.
They had access to a seemingly endless library, they could probably figure out something to do with it.
As for the [Oasis Teapot], Zhen Liu had requested access to it because he was tasked with something that none of his cousins or elders could do: figure out a way to maximize the gains of the [Giant Tempering Spirit Pearl].
“So…do you know if this shower thing of yours works, or…”
“Don’t know, couldn’t test it until it was done.”
“Ah.”
“And I don’t have any channels to test with.”
“Right.”
If the [Tempering Spirit Pond] contained only a single, regular sized pearl elixir, Patriarch Zhen Shi would’ve simply instructed his grandchildren to make do with the waters of the pond while bestowing the pearl itself to one of his sons, the clan elders.
The scions were already growing at a rapid pace as is, and they had plenty of time to go and find treasures and elixirs that were more potent on them than thks singular pearl.
However, because the [Tempering Spirit Pond] in question came with a giant ass pearl, Patriarch Zhen Shi had to change his plans.
Which is why he asked his weirdly knowledgeable grandson to come up with a solution.
He just wasn’t expecting whatever this was.
Standing before him and his grandson was something that looked like an outhouse made of stone, with weird metal pipes lining the outside and with what appeared to be a colander looming overhead.
If it was anyone but his grandson showing him this weird construct, he would’ve called him crazy and have the guards take them away.
But since it was grandson’s invention…he might as well humor it.
“So…how does it work?”
“There’s a lot of mumbojumbo to explain here, but to dumb it down, just turn on the faucet by twisting that dial, stand underneath it and let the water flow over ya.”
“That’s it?”
“Theoretically. Also, don’t worry about the design, this is a prototype. I’ll make it look prettier later.”
“Ah.”
