Chapter 134: Incense Making

"Well... after I studied it carefully yesterday, I found that this incense is indeed a bit special. The materials used in it should be far more than I thought. There seems to be some mineral powder in it. As for what it is, I can't tell for a while." Wu Sang sighed.

Yuan Ming heard this, although he had expected it, he still frowned slightly.

"Hehe, don't worry, my Wu Sang family has been making incense for generations. With my thirty years of experience in making incense, as long as I spend a little more time to continue researching, I can always find out its formula. Today I will teach you the basic process of making incense. This also costs money." Wu Sang naturally saw the change in Yuan Ming's expression, smiled awkwardly, rubbed his hands and said.

"Of course, family heirlooms are also intangible wealth. How much silver do you want?" Yuan Ming nodded.

Wu Sang asked for ten silver coins, paid the money, and one started to talk while the other listened attentively.

Wusang is indeed a family-inherited skill, and he has unique insights in incense making. Although he seems a little scattered, he is like a different person when it comes to incense making. He is not only eloquent, but also very clear and easy to understand.

Yuan Ming's memory is different from that of ordinary people, and his learning progress is quite fast. Within two days, he has roughly understood the incense making process inherited by the Wusang family.

Incense making includes drying, steaming, boiling, roasting, frying, roasting, baking, grinding, and finally pressing into shape. Each step requires certain skills. The materials used are different, and these steps are also different. It really takes years of study to master.

But as a cultivator, Yuan Ming can do many things that ordinary people cannot do, and he easily mastered the steps of incense making.

Jiuli Temple is very popular, and it has its own incense making workshop. All kinds of incense making raw materials are available, and you can pay for it, which gives him great convenience.

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

This incense stick was earthy yellow, and its smell was similar to that of black incense, but its appearance was very different.

In the wing room, Yuan Ming summoned the incense burner, inserted the yellow incense, and tried to light it.

The bright yellow flame wrapped around the yellow incense, and the incense head emitted green smoke, but the incense burner had no reaction, which was no different from the result of the previous attempt.

Yuan Ming had no hope for this, so he pulled out the yellow incense and threw it into the copper basin next to him, and continued to try a new formula.

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

…

In a room in the incense workshop, Wu Sang carefully poured a red powder into a small bowl, which contained half a bowl of transparent mucus.

He threw another portion of gray powder into it, and then the third portion of the material.

In a moment, the transparent mucus turned gray and black.

Wu Sang nodded thoughtfully, took the burning candle next to him, and let the flame touch the mucus gently.

Boom!

The gray-black mucus immediately burned, and a blue flame rose.

Wu Sang took out a small bag from his arms, and inside it was a small section of black incense, which was Yuan Ming's black incense.

He clamped the black incense with a clip and put it close to the flame of the bowl.

The blue flames showed a hint of purple, and a faint spicy aroma appeared in the air.

"This black incense should contain materials similar to the spice stone, but it seems a little different..." Wu Sang took back the clip and the remaining black incense, and a hint of hesitation flashed across his face.

He took a notebook next to him and added a note on it.

There were six materials recorded in the notebook, four of which were just rough guesses, and the other two, including the spice stone, were somewhat certain, but he felt a little unsure.

"What the hell! This black incense is as hard as iron, and the ingredients are so strange. I wonder where that guy got it from!" Wu Sang complained unwillingly. To this day, he is not completely sure about the ingredients of black incense. This would never happen in the past.

For the first time in his life, he doubted his ability to make incense, and he couldn't help but regret the boast he made at the beginning.

"No matter what, let's try these six ingredients first!" Wu Sang paced back and forth in the house for several circles and quickly made up his mind.

Based on his long-term experience in dealing with spices, there should be about twelve materials to make this strange black incense. If half of them can be found, we can start trying to imitate it.

Now, no matter what, there is a preliminary judgment. How can we know if it can be successful if we don't try it? Maybe it will be successful?

But before taking action, he has to go and talk to Yuan Ming first.

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

"Friend Yuan, I already have the black incense..." He pushed open the door and said.

Halfway through his words, his voice suddenly fell silent.

Inside the house, Yuan Ming was holding a bunch of slightly red incense sticks, fumigating them slightly over the candlelight, and doing the final shaping step.

"Did you make this incense?" Wu Sang opened his mouth slightly.

With his eyesight, he could naturally see that the slightly red incense stick Yuan Ming was holding at the moment was quite perfect, and the craftsmanship was not much inferior to his.

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

Wu Sang was very happy to hear this and didn't know what to say.

As a result, when he glanced at the copper basin next to Yuan Ming again, he saw four or five incense sticks lying in it, some of which were broken, but the fineness was almost the same as the one in Yuan Ming's hand.

Wu Sang's eyes couldn't help but widen. Yuan Ming had already made so many incense, which meant that this person was extremely intelligent.

You must know that although I am not as hardworking as my parents, it still took me ten years of hard work to achieve success since I was young, and it took another twenty years to achieve what I have achieved today.

Although the process of making incense seems simple, it is actually a technical job that takes time to study. But in just a few days, it was mastered by this boy under twenty years old?

This is the second frontal blow he has received in recent days, apart from being unable to figure out the ingredients of black incense.

"Mr. Wu Sang, what are you thinking about?" Yuan Ming's voice came again, pulling Wu Sang out of his daze.

"Ahem, no...it's nothing. Among the materials for that black fragrance, six types have been revealed, and two of them are relatively certain. Based on my experience, I can start trying to make them, so let me tell you." Wu Sang coughed lightly, handed Yuan Ming a piece of paper recording the ingredients, and said.

"Mr. Wu Sang's understanding of spices is indeed extraordinary, but it is better to leave the imitation to me. You can continue to study the ingredients of black incense and strive to make more progress." Yuan Ming was overjoyed and took out a small bag of coins and handed it to him. to each other.

"That's fine. With your current incense making skills, little friend, there is probably no problem in imitating it. This way I can concentrate on finding out the ingredients of the black incense." Wu Sang weighed the money bag and put it away happily. I didn’t feel confident for further investigation, so I still had to bite the bullet and answer.

"Then please leave it to Mr. Wusang!" Yuan Ming said.

Wu Sang didn't stay long. He told Yuan Ming his guesses about the six materials and what he learned about Heixiang in the process. He also left some of the six materials before leaving.

That night, Yuan Ming used these two more likely materials and four more speculative materials to make a new incense stick, but still failed.

Yuan Ming was not discouraged and continued to try.

Less than half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Yuan Ming's room was filled with the strong smell of spices, and the table beside him was littered with discarded incense sticks, at least hundreds of them.

At this moment, he was concentrating on making a new incense stick.

After this period of exploration, Wu Sang has made some progress in the black fragrance materials and proposed four more possible materials than before, but he is only confident about two of them, and the other two are still just guesses.

There is still no material that is completely certain.

However, Wu Sang has been immersed in making incense for many years. In view of the appearance, smell and appearance of black incense, he has tried every means to find several rare and high-grade spices, so that the incense he refines is getting closer and closer to black incense.

This also gave Yuan Ming a lot of hope.

The new incense was completed quickly and appeared jet black in color. No matter in appearance or smell, it was no different from the black incense.

Yuan Ming took out the incense burner, quickly inserted new incense, and couldn't wait to light it with candlelight.

The new incense lights up with a little red light, and the Tai Chi pattern on the incense burner shines with light.

Yuan Ming's heart trembled, but his expression remained calm, staring closely at the red light on the top of the new incense.

The red light flashed once, then dimmed and disappeared immediately, like a meteor flashing.

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

After all this time, the incense stick he made was still unable to induce changes in the Tai Chi pattern.

Based on Wu Sang's tips and his own experience, he has continuously changed no less than twenty or thirty kinds of high-end materials. He has tried almost all the incense-making materials in the temple, but still has not made any progress.

However, as a cultivator of immortality, Yuan Ming also realized it from another angle.

He guessed that the materials used in the black incense may not be ordinary things, but the materials here are ordinary common things. It would be impossible to make the same incense in a short time.

If one or two of Heixiang's materials could be identified, there might be progress.

"What could it be?" Yuan Ming frowned, thinking hard.

The mysterious incense burner was accidentally obtained in southern Xinjiang, and the material for the black incense should also be from southern Xinjiang.

"The Southern Territory is vast. This is the Northern Territory of the Southern Territory, which is close to the Jin Dynasty. The Southern Territory of the Southern Territory is infinitely larger than the Northern Territory. Should we go to visit other tribes in the Southern Territory in the future?" Yuan Ming's mind suddenly popped up. A thought, and then he shook his head.

There are thousands of kinds of substances in the world. Is it impossible to try them all?

This black incense has such power after being ignited. The material must be extraordinary. You can't ask a master who is proficient in weapon refining to help analyze the ingredients. In this way, the secret of the incense may not be kept.

Yuan Ming thought about it for a long time and then took out the black incense stick. However, he did not insert it into the incense burner. Instead, he put it in front of him and looked at it carefully.

He was calm, his eyes fixed on Heixiang, and his consciousness enveloped Heixiang, not wanting to let go of any detail.