Immortality: Starting with the Fruit of Taiyin

"Inferior bloodline... but it's enough."

"Since it's all about transforming the source, bloodline isn't that important."

Wang Xuan thought to himself that he had also seen information about the bloodline of demonic beasts in the books distributed by the sect.

Strictly speaking, demonic beasts refer to beings with bloodlines of at least low grade, while so-called inferior bloodlines are actually like mortals among humans whose highest spiritual root strength is around 6-10 points.

In the cultivation world, there are no people without spiritual roots, but those with spiritual roots of 1-5 points cannot sense spiritual energy at all, and those with 6-10 points are almost unable to cultivate.

Even if one forces cultivation, reaching the third level of Qi Refining is the end of one's life. Therefore, apart from the Demonic Sect investing in large-scale breeding to serve as the lowest-level 'blood slaves' and 'corpse slaves,' other sects and families tacitly agree that inferior spiritual roots cannot cultivate and will not invest any resources in them.

Conversely, the same applies to inferior bloodlines among demonic beasts. They can barely reach the early stage of the first tier, and then become a dish for the spirit chef, with no possibility of further progress.

However, Wang Xuan didn't care much about this, because although the strength of bloodline does affect the strength of monsters of the same level and the purity of their blood essence, from the perspective of providing the source, the difference between the two is not that obvious.

When the strength is the same, the value of a drop of low-grade bloodline demon beast essence is more than twice that of a low-grade one, but in the perception of the Dao Fruit, the former is only a few percent stronger than the latter.

Therefore, from the perspective of cost-effectiveness, Wang Xuan naturally chose the most economical way to "recharge".

"Demon cores and golden cores are too far removed from my reach... Let's see how effective you are first."

Taking a deep breath and without further hesitation, Wang Xuan picked up the jade bottle and poured the essence blood onto his hand.

Upon receiving the essence blood, the mixed and violent energy within immediately spread out in his palm, even containing a trace of the dying malice of a demonic beast.

If there is a corresponding body-refining technique, now is the best time to cultivate it.

However, Wang Xuan is not currently practicing body tempering, and even if he were to, he would not choose such a crude method as beast blood body tempering.

Sitting cross-legged in meditation, I focused my inner awareness. Driven by my will, the tattered moon in my sea of ​​consciousness trembled slightly.

The next moment, the life essence of the blood essence in Wang Xuan's palm vanished into thin air, as if it had never existed.

At the same time, a ball of primordial power appeared out of nowhere in his sea of ​​consciousness... Upon careful sensing, this power was roughly equivalent to the three months of cultivation he had previously consumed.

"So little?"

His expression changed slightly; the essence blood of a beast equivalent to the first level of Qi Refining only contained this little bit of its original source.

Although he was somewhat prepared, Wang Xuan was still a little disappointed.

He had previously wondered, since the driving force sought by the Dao Fruit was not spiritual energy, but the 'origin' of living beings, what was the difference between the magical power he had painstakingly cultivated and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth? Perhaps it was because it was mixed with the essence, energy and spirit of a cultivator.

Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and essence blood—these are all things closely related to the vital energy and spirit of a living being, and cannot be easily damaged. Even if the latter can be restored, repeated damage will harm the foundation and affect lifespan.

In this situation, considering that a cultivator's golden core and nascent soul will quickly dissipate upon death, it is evident that a being's essence, energy, and spirit may begin to shatter at the moment of death.

The longer it dies, the more it loses. Eventually, with the passage of time, it will return to the world and become ownerless spiritual energy again... In addition, the [Taiyin Jade Scroll] that Wang Xuan cultivates is a technique that is sublimated from the Dao Fruit, so the connection between the two is naturally stronger.

Therefore, this bottle of blood, which is concentrated with the essence of a monster's entire body and has been refined through the bloodline of miscellaneous items, is only equivalent to his three months of arduous cultivation during the early stages of Qi refinement.

"There's no need to worry about it too much."

"Overall, it's neither too much nor too little."

Wang Xuan put the empty bottle down and did some calculations.

"If I combine all this essence and blood, even half of it will be enough for me to comprehend the [Introduction to Alchemy] to the next stage, enabling me to refine the three types of first-tier pills described above with a success rate of over 50%, and guaranteeing that each batch will produce one or two genuine pills."

"Or... I could extract a low-grade first-tier portion from the [White Sun Elixir Book]. Using all of this essence blood would be enough for me to grasp the basics and study it a couple more times, slightly increasing my chances of success."

After setting the jade bottle down, Wang Xuan was now faced with two choices.

However, he didn't hesitate for long before choosing the latter option.

"The book 'Introduction to Alchemy' is so widely circulated that various interpretations and experiences are everywhere, and it's not difficult to obtain Han's version."

"Many rogue alchemists may not know much else, but they are masters at refining the ungraded elixir of Bigu Dan from the 'Introduction to Alchemy.' After all, this kind of elixir does not require a cauldron at all, and the essence of grains can be used as medicine."

"So if I want to stabilize this relationship and continuously exchange the pills I've refined and the 'insights' I've written for the blood essence of demon beasts, I have to let them see the value."

"Moreover, the complete alchemy manual contains an entire system, far surpassing the former, which is the way to last... It's just a pity that precisely because it has a complete system, even if I were to dissect it, I could only dissect it piece by piece, and I couldn't study a particular type of elixir in detail."

The "White Yang Elixir Book" is a complete second-tier mid-grade elixir lineage. Under normal circumstances, only first-tier high-grade elixir masters in the Nanhua Sect are qualified to borrow it.

Its contents are all-encompassing, with thirteen categories and sixty-nine kinds of pills, seventeen kinds of medicinal liquids, nine kinds of medicinal ointments, and three kinds of incense-making methods for the first-grade low-grade alone.

If given a choice, Wang Xuan would naturally want to set aside some formulas he wouldn't need and even directly study the first-grade high-quality pill, the "Spirit Ascension Pill," which helps low-grade spiritual roots break through the bottleneck of the mid-stage Qi Refining stage.

However, a complete system is progressive and interconnected. When explaining a method of alchemy, several types of pills are often explained together. It goes straight to the essence and tells the alchemist why it should be done this way, what kind of effect different methods would have on different pills, and what the reasons are.

In this situation, Wang Xuan could at most divide the [Baiyang Dan Shu] into six stages: first-order low-grade, first-order middle-grade, first-order high-grade, first-order complete, second-order low-grade, and complete Dan Shu. He could not comprehend a single type of elixir.

Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

According to his estimation, if the amount of origin consumed in fully comprehending a book containing a hundred pill formulas is 'one', then the total amount of origin consumed in comprehending a hundred independent pill formulas in sequence is likely to be 'ten'.

This is a conservative estimate; the higher the level, the greater the gap is likely to be.

Otherwise, Wang Xuan wouldn't be someone who doesn't know how to adapt; he would have already found another way.