CHAPTER 196: CHAPTER 192: BEGINNING ALCHEMY

"This Fury Talent is really exhausting my Vitality, after reaching Level 6 Fury, it costs at least 3,500 points of Vitality each time, it’s terrifying."

"And the most effective way to replenish Vitality is to take Spirit Pills, and the most cost-effective way to get Spirit Pills is to refine them yourself, so it comes back to this again."

"However, now is not the time for alchemy."

"I need to wait for the Eighth-Grade Spirit Fruits to ripen, and also need to raise the level of my Ice and Fire Spirit Roots."

"If you want to learn the Human Race’s alchemy, you can’t ignore the Ice and Fire Spirit Root."

Wang Wu had his own plans; he needed to proceed step by step.

At the moment, he closed the attribute bar, dispelling all sorts of distractions from his mind, focusing on converting Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi into Red Flame and Cold Ice Spiritual Qi to begin cultivating the Ice and Fire Dual Spirit Roots. This was destined to be a long process, with a very slow cultivation speed, not dictated by his will.

As an Ancient Giant Bear, he must bear the disadvantages brought by his bloodline since he enjoyed its advantages.

That is, the cultivation is ten times slower than the Human Race’s Spirit Roots.

Even with Passive Frost Level 3, Passive Burning Level 3, and the cultivation bonus brought by his current Level 11 Spirit Essence, it only slightly increases the speed, making it roughly nine times slower than human cultivation.

Where a human cultivator practices for a month, he takes nine months.

However, he must improve this; what the Human Race can do, he cannot fall behind.

This is a strategic advantage, and if he doesn’t take it, he is destined to be constrained in the future.

Therefore, no matter how tough or difficult it is, he must push forward and seize this strategic advantage.

Time passed, and a month went by in the blink of an eye.

Every day, Wang Wu either harvested the ripe berries or continued cultivating the Ice and Fire Dual Spirit Roots in a state of Passive Concealment.

The Little Tree Spirit sent by Lv Dongyang came every day, but left empty-handed each time. The only thing it noticed was that the ripe berries were picked daily.

They endured each other for a month until the Little Tree Spirit finally stopped coming.

Nevertheless, Wang Wu remained vigilant, continuing to cultivate the Ice and Fire Dual Spirit Roots to be in the best state for any unexpected incidents.

Outside, winter had ended, and Wang Wu had been in this Cultivation Realm for five years.

With spring’s arrival, life began to flourish again, and every day bright sunlight fell, but Spirit Essence was scarce, with too many demons in the Sky Pit Region. Even in the absence of a Great Demon, obtaining Spirit Essence was difficult.

As such, Wang Wu noticed the demons in Celestial Pit City would take their elders and young ones on a grand spring outing, traveling afar to seize Spirit Essence and absorb Spiritual Qi.

Notably, no demons ventured into the Black Forest for logging during spring, summer, or autumn; doing so was suicidal.

Wang Wu did not venture out, remaining hidden in his cave, patiently waiting for the two Eighth-Grade Spirit Fruit Trees to mature.

With a Level 11 Spirit Essence, he could basically determine the earliest maturity date for these Eighth-Grade Spirit Fruits, which would be at least another eight months.

However, he was not in a hurry as he desired the Spirit Fruits at their best state.

Thus, he continued cultivating the Ice and Fire Dual Spirit Roots month by month, from spring to summer to autumn, rarely stepping outside.

During this period, the Little Tree Spirit returned a few times but dared not linger, quickly leaving upon seeing the ripe berries were still being picked daily.

By this point, if Lv Dongyang didn’t understand what was happening, he would indeed be very foolish.

Wang Wu portrayed himself as a rogue demon mastering the Enchanting Heart Demon Technique, wielding Demon King-level Poison and possessing excellent concealment abilities, with virtually nothing to lose.

If you don’t provoke me, I won’t provoke you. But if you dare to provoke me, I’ve nothing to lose, and we’ll fight to the end.

Especially since you can’t see through my concealment, you have no idea how much damage I would cause in retaliation.

After all, it’s possible to be a thief for a thousand days, but not possible to guard against one for a thousand days in return.

As a Human Race spy, Lv Dongyang couldn’t and need not take that risk.

Now it seemed this persona was quite effective.

Wang Wu could finally settle down and focus on his endeavors.

So, when autumn ended, winter arrived, and the Eighth-Grade Spirit Fruits finally ripened, Wang Wu had successfully cultivated the Ice and Fire Dual Spirit Roots to (7/10).

Honestly, it was incredibly difficult; nearly a year passed to increase by just two points.

For a human cultivator, even with ordinary qualifications, a year would suffice to reach Intermediate Spirit Root.

The good news was that the storage limit for Ice Spiritual Qi and Red Flame Spiritual Qi had successfully exceeded 800.

In essence, the cultivation of the Ice and Fire Dual Spirit Roots was about increasing the limit, the blue bar—without enough blue bar, nothing works.

"It’s about time to try alchemy."

At this moment, Wang Wu exited his state of Passive Concealment since alchemy required using a Pill Furnace, making enough commotion that staying hidden would be pointless.

First, he went to the Spirit Field and picked the ripe Eighth-Grade Spirit Fruits, one by one.

From the first Spirit Fruit Tree, he picked a total of twelve Eighth-Grade natural Spirit Fruits and seven Ninth-Grade natural Spirit Fruits.

The second spirit fruit tree yielded a total of eleven Eighth-Grade natural spirit fruits and nine Ninth-Grade natural spirit fruits.

After picking them, there were no more spirit fruits on the tree. It might need to bloom next spring before bearing fruit again, and it would take two more years for them to mature, so it’s once every three years.

"What a good thing this is!"

Wang Wu couldn’t help but praise.

After placing most of the Eighth-Grade spirit fruits into the storage pouch, he left only one outside. This object looked about the size of a regular apple, presenting a reddish color reminiscent of sunset, but it wasn’t a dull dark red; rather, it was a lively red. Even in a dim room, one could see a layer of golden spiritual light floating above it.

In Wang Wu’s perception, especially with Level 17 Danger Perception and Level 11 Spirit Essence perception, this was not just a simple spirit fruit. Instead, it was a very pure cluster of spiritual energy, golden with a hint of crimson, encapsulated within a hard outer skin.

He could even judge at a glance how much spiritual energy was contained within.

Quite a lot, a single one could hold 5,000 points of spiritual energy, better than the Eighth-Grade spirit fish Wang Wu had consumed before.

Of course, it’s not just about the variety or quality, but a more comprehensive, scientific assessment.

One could say that if Wang Wu were to eat this Eighth-Grade spirit fruit right now, being able to gain 2,000 points of spiritual energy would already be impressive.

The remaining 3,000 points of spiritual energy would partially convert into satiety and vitality, while the rest would be wasted.

That is to say, if Wang Wu were to have that Eighth-Grade spirit fish now, he could also calculate that its internal spiritual energy would be over 4,000 points.

Therefore, the key is how to effectively absorb it.

And this highlights the importance of alchemy.

To put it in an Earthling’s terms, it’s called energy efficiency.

With Wang Wu’s incredible ancient bloodline and Level 15 self-healing, the energy utilization rate from the Eighth-Grade spirit fruit is less than 50%. So, it’s clear why scientific technology is the strongest productivity force.

At this moment, Wang Wu compared the Ninth-Grade spirit fruit and found its total internal spiritual energy value was around 2,000 points, which was quite good.

After all, a fast-growing Ninth-Grade berry only held a value of 20 points of spiritual energy each.

Thinking for a moment, he put away the Eighth-Grade spirit fruit. He once contemplated secretly learning alchemy, but ever since he attained Level 11 Spirit Essence, he felt he could entirely explore alchemy on his own.

Forget all the mysterious and chaotic stuff, just get straight to the heart of the matter.

Alchemy is about enhancing energy efficiency.

This sentence encapsulates it all.

Even if an immortal came, they’d have to agree with this.

Right, the basic principles must be addressed.

At this moment, Wang Wu’s eyes fell on the Eighth-Grade pill furnace. It didn’t look like he had imagined or like the things he read about in Earth’s novels. It wasn’t a round furnace or a furnace-like thing but more like the steel smelting blast furnaces found in factories. Although Wang Wu had never seen a real blast furnace, this pill furnace was quite complex.

From his perspective, it included a fuel combustion area, a feeding area, a smoke outlet area, a high-temperature baking maintenance area, and other unknown areas.

Notably, the pill furnace came with specific alchemy steps for two commonly used pill formulas, along with the required materials, which was quite considerate.

After some research, Wang Wu turned and left, heading to the storage room to fetch the dismantled Ninth-Grade pill furnace set from She Dada’s family, taking it apart piece by piece, and ultimately selecting two hemispheres. They were small, and when combined, they could just fit an apple.

If he was not mistaken, this was actually the core reactor of this seemingly complicated pill furnace.

Of course, this doesn’t mean the pill furnace system provided by human race cultivators has issues. In fact, this is indeed most suitable for the Demon Race to practice alchemy.

Because not every demon cultivates with a Fire Spirit Root, and not every demon with a Fire Spirit Root has enough Red Flame Spiritual Qi for alchemy.

Fortunately, Wang Wu met both these conditions.

Moreover, he had the Heart of the Earth, capable of converting Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi into Red Flame Spiritual Qi anytime, anywhere.

Besides, he had other ideas.

Does alchemy necessarily require using Red Flame Spiritual Qi?

Can’t Ice Spiritual Qi be used for alchemy?

Returning to the basic question, alchemy is about enhancing energy efficiency. Based on this core principle, anything is possible.

At this moment, Wang Wu carefully placed the Ninth-Grade spirit fruit into one hemisphere, then covered it with the other hemisphere. With a gentle twist, there was a click as the mechanism locked, fitting seamlessly, with excellent workmanship.

In this regard, one can always trust that what the human race produces must be excellent.

Next, Wang Wu recalled the scene when he forged the Profound Iron Shield, naturally holding this small sphere with the palms of his claws, requiring no preheating or buffering. Left claw with Red Flame, right claw with Ice, releasing the spiritual energy in a synchronous, equal, and frequency-matched manner with no slightest variance.

This was Wang Wu’s unique method. Although it seemed slow in the past year, in reality, he was accelerating twice as fast because his Ice and Fire Spirit Root could cultivate simultaneously.

Over time, this mutual resonance was no longer a weak balance but became a strong, stable, revolutionary friendship forming a grand balance.

Ice and fire, these two forces, in his case, had essentially become one force.