** Chapter 17: Anticipation **

“But… it’s incredible. Why can pure gold be refined into Essence Gold? Its density is high, but its mass is nearly half what it was. Where did the rest of the substance and mass go? What *are* those impurities?”

The process of refining Essence Gold was very “cultivation-like” but neither “scientific” nor “wizardly.”

Jie Ming examined the cauldron, confirming no residue remained.

Using the lab’s magic network terminal, he checked the waste gas and material output. Though some “impurities” had turned to black smoke, the total mass still didn’t account for what was lost in refining.

“What a… curious phenomenon.”

In the cultivation world, he might not have cared as much, but in the wizard world, where material structures resembled his past life’s—built from fundamental particles—gold should theoretically remain gold, even at peak purity. Refining it into Essence Gold shouldn’t be possible.

Now wasn’t the time for such questions, though. If he were only verifying the refining method, Jie Ming wouldn’t have gone to such lengths.

The lab rental had already consumed most of his points. Now, he needed to use this Essence Gold to break even—or better, profit—for startup funds.

Thanks to the wizard world’s reverence for knowledge, as long as he didn’t sell raw materials outright, no one would dare probe into his methods or principles.

As for monetization, he’d planned to take it slow, but his earlier “internet” session revealed a promising “market.”

At the lab’s magic network terminal, he input commands to access the academy’s internal network.

Using his mental energy, he searched for materials related to “stability,” “isolation,” “anti-magic,” and “anti-detection.”

Results popped up instantly.

The academy’s database listed various isolation materials, used widely in lab protection, sensitive area shielding, precious item storage, and even specialized equipment crafting.

To Jie Ming’s delight, these materials were not only expensive but, in a sense, semi-consumable.

The data showed that while basic isolation materials were cheap, advanced ones were exorbitantly priced, with some rare materials requiring astronomical points to exchange!

Due to the chaotic experiments in the wizard system, materials resistant to energy and mental erosion were in high demand. Frequent accidents made them consumable, with massive market needs.

“Haha… hahaha…” Jie Ming couldn’t help laughing inwardly.

His Essence Gold, stable against nearly all energy, was a high-grade isolation material compared to the database’s offerings.

As for costs, excluding the hard-to-quantify knowledge from other systems, it boiled down to gold consumption, lab rental, and labor.

Lab rental was unavoidable, costing at least five points each time, but it was within his plans. Labor costs were negligible. As for gold…

Jie Ming checked the price of buying gold on the magic network, and his face twitched: “One point for a cubic meter of non-transcendent metal… holy hell!”

Gold, though precious to commoners, fell within the non-transcendent metal category for wizards.

“So… this is what it feels like to master core technology? It’s intoxicating!”

After his excitement, Jie Ming began planning.

He didn’t need to refine large amounts of Essence Gold—that would drain too much true essence and draw unwanted attention as an isolation material.

Instead, he’d refine a small amount and use alchemy to “plate” it onto a common metal base, granting strong isolation properties.

This Essence Gold coating would use minimal true gold while avoiding overly exceptional effects.

No more hesitation. Jie Ming spent his last points to buy a cubic meter of white iron.

A common metal with average properties but high malleability, it was ideal for alloy bases.

When the lab door was knocked, Jie Ming opened it to find a silver-white golem carrying a massive iron block.

Directing the golem to place the white iron in the lab’s center, Jie Ming watched it meld back into the corridor’s silver walls.

White iron, true to its name, had a whitish hue.

Jie Ming placed his alchemy disk upside-down on the block, closed his eyes, and channeled the truth runes in his mental sea.

Over half a month since his first class, he’d constructed a second truth rune.

As an alchemy apprentice, this rune’s core pattern represented the “fusion” concept in alchemy—the main reason he acted today.

His plan was simple: use white iron as the base material, shape most of it into standard iron sheets, and fuse Essence Gold as a thin coating via alchemy.

Selling was even simpler. The lab’s magic network terminal allowed product listings, and interested wizards could buy directly, with proceeds credited to Jie Ming’s account.

Before selling, the products needed academy testing to confirm their properties and isolation levels.

But that wasn’t his concern. He handed the products and test samples to the golem outside, leaving the rest to the process.

Checking the time, only minutes remained before his lab rental ended.

He destroyed the stone cauldron, erased all traces, and restored the low-tier lab to its original state.

Stepping out of the lab, despite physical exhaustion from extensive alchemy, Jie Ming’s spirit was electrified.

“My initial hunch was right. With the Great Dao Book Pavilion’s knowledge on artifact forging, talismans, and arrays… once I find the right materials and methods in this world, I’ll become the wealthiest alchemist in the wizard world!”

He could almost see countless points and rare resources beckoning him.