The old deacon bent down and carefully lifted the ancient cauldron from the pile.
Despite its unimpressive appearance, it was surprisingly heavy.
He grunted softly before placing it on the ground.
"My lord, would you like us to send it to the front desk for you?"
"No need."
Lin Feng waved his hand.
"I'll take it myself."
He then reached into his disguise robe and pulled out a few stacks of white notes with the sketch of the current emperor of the empire at the front and the majestic imperial palace sketched at the back of the notes, with the denomination of twenty written in ancient characters. He stretched out his hand and handed them over to the steward.
"Haha, deal complete then."
The steward collected the notes, storing them away and not bothering to check if they were fake because on either side of the note bore the imperial seal, and any fakes could be traced to their source very quickly. Such a crime was punishable by the destruction of the clan, so few would do such a death-seeking thing.
After nodding, Lin Feng took the cauldron, turned around, and walked towards the exit of the floor. The steward and the sales attendant followed behind respectfully, as though he was a god of wealth.
"Steward, sending me off here is enough."
At the entrance to the second floor, Lin Feng stopped the both of them from escorting him further, fearing he would draw attention to himself and make the disguise and concealment preparations useless.
Hearing his words, both of them stopped in their tracks and said no more, watching him descend the floor towards the main hall.
"Sir, Steward, are you sure we can sell that cauldron? Could it be there is something special about it?"
Watching Lin Feng go further until he was out of earshot, the sales girl could no longer suppress her curiosity and asked.
"Haha, Xiao Mi, you have done very well in finally getting rid of that scrap metal."
The steward laughed as he stroked his beard.
"As for whether there is something special about it, how could there be? After all, the president himself, before placing all these cauldrons into the scraps to be melted, searched each thoroughly with his spiritual sense. And he is a mighty tier-four peak alchemist with a powerful soul. If he couldn't find anything there, there is nothing to find."
"Besides, that particular cauldron was brought from a declining alchemist family in another empire who were running because of debt after being schemed against by the enemy."
"And the cauldron was so useless that even if it were melted down to the last scrap, it could barely yield precious ores worth fifty silver taels. The president only approved the purchase after pitying the family who brought it in."
"And I seem to remember that family..."
"Hiss! Wasn't it annihilated to the last member after being cornered eventually by their enemy?"
The steward, alongside the sales attendant, couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air at his words.
He shook his head and waved her away.
"Alright, it's just how the world of cultivation is. The weak are always on the chopping block of the strong at will. Alright, get back to work."
He signaled her while walking back to his office.
She cupped her hands and bowed, sending the steward off, then went back to attend to the next customer.
Lin Feng, meanwhile, although he was a bit far away from both of them, used the system perception to observe the expressions of both of them and also listen in to their conversation, ready to run in case they figured something was wrong with the cauldron while he was pretending to look around for his next purchase.
But hearing them condemn it as worthless scrap, he couldn't help but curl his lips into a mocking smile, thinking how they had mistaken a treasure for trash.
But his smile froze in the next second.
Hearing how they had annihilated an entire family, killing all its members, a chill couldn't help but rise from the top of his toes to the top of his head.
He was greatly shaken, though his expression outwardly was still neutral.
The joy of picking up a treasure was greatly dampened, though he was satisfied knowing that the cauldron no longer had any owners, cutting off a potential hidden danger.
He quickly completed the purchase of the other elixir materials he needed for the pill, no longer in the mood to keep staying outside as a renewed sense of urgency hit him after hearing a whole family had been exterminated.
Then, he walked out of the Alchemist Association Pavilion and deliberately walked into a crowded area, walking in the wrong direction through several alleys to shake off any tails.
After half a stick of incense, he walked out from another inconspicuous alley, his disguise completely gone and placed in the system storage alongside the cauldron.
His whole aura around him changed, making it almost impossible to tell who he was.
He quickly made his way to the Lin family estate, barely greeting the servants who bowed to him as he crossed through.
He quickly entered his courtyard, put up an "In Seclusion" sign in front of his door, and shut it.
He sat on the floor of his room, closing his eyes and taking time to calm his still rapidly beating heart after the horror he had heard.
After a couple of minutes, he slowly opened his eyes.
After putting all the distracting thoughts out of his mind, he took out the cauldron and placed it on the floor.
And in truth, the furnace did look very shabby, with dents and rust everywhere, with two straight legs and a third leg with half broken off, making it crooked and giving the feeling that it could not maintain its balance and would explode if one tried to refine pills.
He couldn't help but sigh, understanding why they thought it wouldn't even yield fifty taels worth of ore.
He began to observe it all over, but unfortunately, since he left the Association, he had not felt the fluctuation he felt when he first saw it.
He began to try things.
He first bit his finger, drawing blood, and sprayed the blood from his fingers onto it to claim ownership, but not even a subtle hint of fluctuation was made by it.
Frustrated, he then tried injecting it with spiritual Qi, but still no movement.
He once again tried using the system's perception to carefully sense every inch of the inside, but unfortunately, besides viewing the inside, which was even worse off than the outside, there was no further movement.
Helpless, he could only stop.
But then he remembered he had a system.
His hope rekindled, and he asked,
"System, can you tell me what this cauldron is?" he asked hopefully.
But after a few breaths and the system did not reply, his heart couldn't help but sink, thinking that maybe he was just imagining things at the Association and he had really wasted his money on scrap.
'No, I refuse to believe it,' he thought inwardly.
"System, can you tell me how to open this thing?" he asked with greater agitation.
But still no reply.
"SYSTEM!"
He practically roared.
[DING! HERE, HOST.]
"Then why won't you answer me? How do I open this?"
[DING! THE ALL HEAVENS SUPPORT SYSTEM IS A SUPPORT SYSTEM, NOT A WISH-FULFILMENT SYSTEM.]
[THE SYSTEM WILL ONLY PROVIDE SUPPORT TO THE HOST IN OTHER MATTERS, BUT IN MATTERS OF CATASTROPHIC CONSEQUENCE OR OF POTENTIALLY DESTINY-ALTERING MATTERS, THE SYSTEM WILL NOT INTERFERE.]
[THE SYSTEM ALSO HOPES THE HOST CAN BE MORE RESOURCEFUL AND NOT ALWAYS RELY ON THE SYSTEM FOR A QUICK FIX.]
Hearing the system's words, it hit him like a train.
'Yes, he has been too reliant on the system, which is not good. Along the long journey of cultivation, relying on external things too much would not end well.'
He took a deep breath, reining in all these turbulent emotions, and kept trying to figure it out as he grasped a key point from the system:
"DURING CATASTROPHIC CONSEQUENCE OR OF POTENTIALLY DESTINY-ALTERING MATTERS, THE SYSTEM WILL NOT INTERFERE."
Which meant this furnace was a potential destiny-altering artifact or an artifact of catastrophic consequence, further convincing him he wasn't imagining things.
But after a few hours of trying various methods, he still couldn't crack it.
'Could it be my methods are wrong, or my strength is too weak?' he wondered.
No longer able to suppress his anger, he struck the cauldron with Qi, sending it flying.
He sobered up quickly and rushed towards it, fearing that he might have damaged it.
But as soon as he touched it—
The thing began to glow and tremble.
First softly.
Then—
Increasing violently.
As if it were about to explode.
His face turned pale in fright.