Chapter 37: New Path To Bloodline Evolution

The contents of the spatial ring were soon revealed.

Low-Grade Origin Stones × 200

Tier-2 Low-Grade Blood Awakening Pills × 3

Needless to say, the 200 Low-Grade Origin Stones were valuable.

Origin Stones were the hard currency of Bloodline Fighters, and an additional 200 was by no means a small gain.

What surprised Ryan, however, were the three Blood Awakening Pills.

He hadn’t expected Wesley Sterling to carry them.

It seemed Wesley had been just as eager to awaken a Bloodline.

A Blood Awakening Pill was a Tier-2 Low-Grade medicinal pill that could slightly increase a person’s chances of awakening a Bloodline.

Its purpose was somewhat similar to that of the Tier-2 Top-Grade Burning Blood Pill, but the difference in their effects was enormous.

The Burning Blood Pill could significantly increase the probability of awakening a Bloodline, whereas the Blood Awakening Pill’s effect was much weaker.

Ryan couldn’t help but feel somewhat emotional.

No wonder so many Bloodline Fighters resort to robbing and killing.

It’s simply too easy to get rich this way.

Unfortunately, these three Blood Awakening Pills were only Tier-2 Low Grade.

Their effects were far too weak.

Once someone failed to awaken their Bloodline after taking one, repeatedly consuming the same type of pill could easily lead to medicinal resistance, causing subsequent doses to become increasingly ineffective.

As a result, Low-Grade Blood Awakening Pills weren’t particularly valuable.

Each was worth only a little over twenty Low-Grade Origin Stones.

Their value was roughly comparable to that of a Tier-1 Top-Grade medicinal pill, but their demand was considerably lower.

"These Low-Grade pills are nothing special."

Ryan shook his head and turned his attention to the spatial ring in his hand.

"But this spatial ring is really useful. It’ll make storing things much more convenient from now on."

With that, he unceremoniously removed his old one-cubic-meter spatial ring.

He transferred everything useful inside into the new ring before slipping the 1,000-cubic-meter spatial ring onto his finger.

With such an enormous storage space, he wouldn’t have to worry about running out of room anytime soon.

Once he finished organizing everything, Ryan’s expression gradually became serious.

He carefully took out four small jade bottles sealed with wooden stoppers.

These were the treasures he had purchased at great expense from the Winters Trading Company.

He had spent a total of 1,200 Low-Grade Origin Stones on them, an average of 300 Low-Grade Origin Stones per bottle.

Without the Winters Token and its 8.8% discount, he wouldn’t have been able to afford all four.

Originally, Ryan had planned to spend that money on combat artifacts or powerful secret techniques that could directly increase his fighting ability.

But the moment he saw the Bloodline Essence, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind.

He immediately changed his plans.

Each of the four jade bottles contained a single drop of D-Grade Ordinary Bloodline Essence.

And Ryan had suddenly remembered another function of the Boundless Creation Furnace that he had yet to make use of.

As long as a drop of Bloodline Essence was sealed within a Boundless Creation Slot, he could wield an additional Bloodline ability.

For Ryan, this was undoubtedly one of the most cost-effective ways to increase his strength at the moment.

Originally, he had only intended to purchase a single drop.

After all, 300 Low-Grade Origin Stones per drop was far from cheap.

The remaining Origin Stones could have been used to purchase combat artifacts or secret techniques.

But then Ryan’s thoughts changed.

What if I buy several drops and try using Advanced Creation on them first?

If it works, I can seal the resulting Bloodline Essence within a Boundless Creation Slot and wield it.

That could potentially give me a much more powerful Bloodline ability.

He wasn’t certain whether Bloodline Essence could undergo Advanced Creation.

But it was worth trying.

Even if the experiment failed, the worst that could happen was losing some Origin Stones.

Ryan could afford that risk.

There was one unexpected problem, however.

When he went searching for Bloodline Essence, Ryan discovered that the Winters Trading Company’s supply was extremely limited.

After checking several major trading firms, he had managed to find only these four drops.

It seemed that Bloodline Essence was an extremely rare and highly sought-after resource among Bloodline Fighters.

By the time Ryan purchased these four drops, there was barely any left in the various stores.

Because of its scarcity, Ryan hadn’t been able to carefully select the Bloodline Essences he wanted.

He could only buy whatever was available.

As a result, the four drops he obtained were remarkably diverse, representing nearly every major type of Bloodline Essence currently available on the market.

Ryan stared at the four jade bottles in his hands.

A faint smile gradually appeared on his face.

"Let’s see what the Boundless Creation Furnace can do with these."

---

Ryan recalled the descriptions of the four Bloodline Essences he had purchased.

The Bloodline Essences contained in the four jade bottles were:

[D-Grade Ordinary Bloodline Essence: Cloud Body

Type: Enhancement Type

Passive: Makes the body as soft as a cloud and as light as a swallow, increasing movement speed.

Active, Force Dissipation: Reduces all incoming damage by 20%.]

[D-Grade Ordinary Bloodline Essence: White Lotus Cold Fire

Type: Transformation Type

Passive: None.

Active: Continuously converts Origin Energy into White Lotus Cold Fire. The flame is Yin and cold in nature. Once it touches an enemy, it clings like a parasite and continuously erodes their internal Origin Energy, gradually reducing their endurance.]

[D-Grade Ordinary Bloodline Essence: Nine Nether Fingernail

Type: Enhancement Type

Passive: Hardens and sharpens the fingernails.

Active: Allows the user to control the length of their fingernails within a certain range. Attacks carry the characteristics of the Nine Nether, weakening the defensive capabilities of secret treasures. Some of the damage can even bypass the treasure’s defenses and directly affect the main body.]

[D-Grade Ordinary Bloodline Essence: Metal Control

Type: Object Control System

Passive: None.

Active: Allows the user to remotely control metal objects, specializing in long-range manipulation and unpredictable attacks.]

After recalling the abilities of the four Bloodline Essences, Ryan fell into thought.

Bloodline Fighters in this world had spent countless years developing ways to strengthen and evolve their Bloodlines.

According to what Ryan had learned at the Bloodline Institute, there were two primary methods of Bloodline evolution.

The first was the Bloodline Essence Absorption Method.

A Bloodline could only refine Bloodline Essence of the same type and of the same grade or lower.

For example, a Lifeform-Type Bloodline could absorb Lifeform-Type Bloodline Essence, but it could not directly absorb Transformation-Type Bloodline Essence.

There was also a restriction on grade.

A C-Grade Bloodline could absorb Bloodline Essence ranging from D-Grade to C-Grade, but it could not directly absorb B-Grade Bloodline Essence or anything higher.

The reason was simple.

The greater the difference in Bloodline grade, the more concentrated and violent the Bloodline Essence became.

If the disparity was too great, the body simply couldn’t withstand it.

Therefore, Bloodline evolution had to proceed gradually.

Within the same Bloodline grade and type, higher-tier Bloodline Essence provided greater nourishment. By continuously refining and absorbing sufficient Bloodline Essence, a Bloodline could gradually accumulate enough power to undergo a qualitative transformation.

However, the exact amount required varied greatly from person to person.

Some Bloodline Fighters might need only a few drops to advance, while others could consume dozens or even hundreds without breaking through.

The higher the Bloodline’s grade and tier, the more difficult its evolution became.

The true bottleneck was usually the transition between major grades.

For example, advancing from D-Grade Top Tier to C-Grade Ordinary was far more difficult than advancing between tiers within D-Grade.

This phenomenon was commonly known as grade stagnation.

Bloodline Essence also contained a certain amount of Origin Energy.

Therefore, refining Bloodline Essence could simultaneously temper one’s Bloodline and improve one’s cultivation.

The only major drawback was the cost.

Even the lowest-quality D-Grade Ordinary Bloodline Essence cost around 300 Low-Grade Origin Stones per drop.

For most Bloodline Fighters, continuously relying on Bloodline Essence Drops to evolve their Bloodlines was simply too expensive.

That was why another evolution method had gradually become popular.

The second method was the Beast Core Essence Thread Absorption Method.

Beast Cores were the concentrated essence of Exotic Beasts.

Besides containing a large amount of Origin Energy, they also contained Bloodline Essence Threads.

However, once an Exotic Beast died, its body and Mental Awareness could no longer restrain its highly spiritual Bloodline Essence.

Most of that essence would rapidly dissipate.

Only a tiny portion would remain in the form of relatively stable Bloodline Essence Threads.

These threads represented the fundamental source of an Exotic Beast’s Bloodline ability.

The same principle applied to Bloodline Fighters.

After a Bloodline Fighter died, most of their Bloodline Essence would dissipate, leaving behind only a primitive Bloodline Essence Thread that could potentially be extracted from their Origin Energy Sea.

Ten identical Bloodline Essence Threads could then be merged and refined into a single complete Bloodline Essence Drop.

Thus, compared with complete Bloodline Essence Drops, Beast Cores contained a much lower concentration of Bloodline Essence but significantly more Origin Energy.

Roughly speaking, it took about ten Beast Cores to provide the same amount of Bloodline Essence as one complete Bloodline Essence Drop.

The advantage was obvious.

If one D-Grade Ordinary Bloodline Essence Drop cost around 300 Low-Grade Origin Stones, a Tier-1 D-Grade Ordinary Beast Core might cost only around 30 Low-Grade Origin Stones.

After absorbing a Beast Core, a Bloodline Fighter could refine its Origin Energy to strengthen their cultivation while simultaneously absorbing its Bloodline Essence Threads to gradually temper their own Bloodline.

It was essentially killing two birds with one stone.

However, this method was far more time-consuming.

To accumulate the same amount of Bloodline Essence, a Bloodline Fighter needed to refine roughly ten times as many individual sources, making the evolution process considerably slower.

Thus, both methods had their own advantages.

Bloodline Essence Drops offered rapid and concentrated Bloodline evolution, but they were extremely expensive.

Beast Cores were far cheaper and provided substantial Origin Energy, but required considerably more time and effort.

A Bloodline Fighter could also combine both methods to accelerate their Bloodline evolution, although doing so could potentially complicate their future evolutionary path.

There was one final factor Ryan needed to remember.

Exotic Beasts were generally divided into Tier 1 through Tier 9, but an Exotic Beast’s cultivation tier and Bloodline grade weren’t necessarily the same.

Some Exotic Beasts possessed extremely high cultivation realms but relatively low-grade Bloodlines.

Others had relatively low cultivation realms but extraordinarily high-grade Bloodlines.

Therefore, the value of a Beast Core depended not only on the Exotic Beast’s tier, but also on the grade and type of Bloodline Essence contained within it.