Chapter 38: The Cost Of Creation

Warriors with lower cultivation realms couldn’t simply refine high-grade Beast Cores.

If they attempted to absorb one directly, the enormous amount of Origin Energy contained within could overwhelm their meridians and cause them to rupture.

For this reason, most powerful adventurers who ventured into the wilderness had developed a more efficient method of processing Beast Cores.

After hunting an Exotic Beast, they would first separate the Origin Energy and Bloodline Essence Threads contained within its Beast Core.

The large amount of Origin Energy could then be refined and absorbed to strengthen their cultivation, while the Bloodline Essence Threads were carefully collected in jade bottles.

Once they accumulated enough Essence Threads of the same type, they would combine ten of them and perform a fusion refinement, completely merging them into a single Bloodline Essence Drop.

Afterward, they could decide whether to refine and absorb the finished Bloodline Essence themselves or sell it for a substantial profit.

This method allowed them to save a considerable amount of Origin Stones and Origin Power Pills that would otherwise be required for cultivation.

At the same time, they could transform the Bloodline Essence Threads they obtained from hunting into valuable Bloodline Essence Drops.

It was a way of extracting almost every bit of value from an Exotic Beast.

The vast majority of Bloodline Essence Drops on the market were produced through this method, accumulating sufficient Bloodline Essence Threads and fusing them into complete drops.

Of course, there were exceptions.

Some Bloodline Essence Threads scattered throughout the world would occasionally encounter unique conditions. After absorbing the essence of the sun, moon, and heaven and earth, they could gradually develop a spirituality approaching that of an intelligent lifeform.

Under various harsh natural conditions, these Bloodline Essence Threads could eventually condense into naturally formed Bloodline Essence Drops.

These were collectively known as Bloodline Spirits.

Bloodline Spirits were extraordinarily rare and mysterious.

They possessed exceptionally high spirituality and were considered a unique form of life.

They were similar to Exotic Beasts, yet fundamentally different.

They possessed independent consciousness and autonomous thought, while their bodies were essentially manifestations of Bloodline Essence.

More importantly, they provided far greater nourishment than ordinary Bloodline Essence of the same grade.

Refining and absorbing a Bloodline Spirit could provide an enormous amount of nourishment for Bloodline evolution.

There was even a chance that one’s Bloodline might undergo a mutation, developing unusual and unexpected changes.

Bloodline Spirits were also exceptional materials for refining high-grade combat artifacts and secret treasures.

More importantly, they could serve as crucial foundations for nurturing artifact spirits.

However, obtaining one was extraordinarily difficult.

Bloodline Spirits possessed powerful innate abilities.

Not only could they freely control their own Bloodline abilities, but they could also mobilize the surrounding free Origin Energy for their own use.

As a result, even when compared with Bloodline Fighters of the same cultivation realm and Bloodline grade, Bloodline Spirits were generally far more difficult to deal with.

They were also notoriously elusive.

Whenever they sensed danger, they would immediately attempt to flee, making them extremely difficult to capture unless the pursuer possessed overwhelming strength.

For this reason, Bloodline Spirits were almost always in short supply on the market.

Their prices remained extraordinarily high, and truly exceptional ones could be considered priceless.

Ryan’s thoughts returned to the four jade bottles in front of him.

Even the weakest D-Grade Ordinary Bloodline Essence among the four was quite practical in his eyes.

For example, he was particularly interested in the Metal Control Bloodline from the Object Control System.

The ability to remotely manipulate metal objects and attack enemies from a distance was extremely useful.

Unfortunately, there was always a price to pay for taking shortcuts.

D-Grade Ordinary was simply too low a grade.

If Ryan wanted to seal and wield a truly powerful Bloodline ability, he couldn’t settle for the immediate benefits offered by these four Bloodline Essences.

He had to take a gamble.

If I want something better, I’ll have to see whether the Boundless Creation Furnace can transform them first.

With that thought, Ryan’s eyes narrowed.

"Swoosh!"

A faint white light flashed.

The damaged Boundless Creation Furnace emerged from his body and hovered quietly in front of him.

The artifact spirit Mira had already understood what Ryan intended to do.

Without needing any instructions, she entered the Spirit Attachment state and merged with the Boundless Creation Furnace.

Ryan stared at the ancient furnace before him, his expression filled with anticipation.

"I wonder if it will work..."

He steadied himself and picked up one of the small jade bottles.

He pulled out the wooden stopper, carefully tilted the bottle over the Boundless Creation Furnace, and immediately watched as a drop of white, water-drop-shaped Bloodline Essence slid from the mouth.

The moment it emerged, the Bloodline Essence released a dazzling glow.

It possessed a remarkable spirituality and instinctively attempted to scatter and escape.

However, before it could get far, the mouth of the Boundless Creation Furnace suddenly produced a sharp swish.

An enormous suction force erupted from within the furnace, distorting the air above the furnace.

The Bloodline Essence struggled desperately, but it was completely powerless against the terrifying suction.

In the blink of an eye, it was swallowed into the furnace.

<Ding!>

[Energy value not met!]

[Please continue to input, Host!]

"It’s working!" Ryan’s face immediately lit up with excitement.

Although the result was exactly what he had hoped for, he had been holding his breath just moments earlier.

His greatest fear had been that the Creation Furnace would reject the Bloodline Essence entirely, wasting the 1,200 Low-Grade Origin Stones he had spent on the four drops.

As long as the furnace could process Bloodline Essence, however, the insufficient energy wasn’t a major problem.

He simply needed to provide more.

Ryan quickly poured a second drop into the furnace.

<Ding!>

[Energy value not met!]

[Please continue to input, Host!]

"Still not enough..." Ryan frowned thoughtfully before pouring in a third drop.

<Ding!>

[Energy value not met!]

[Please continue to input, Host!]

"Three drops still aren’t enough?" Ryan’s expression immediately darkened.

He hadn’t expected the energy requirement for creating Bloodline Essence to be this high.

Originally, he had thought that even if the first drop wasn’t enough, two or three should at least have met the requirement.

After all, every drop of Bloodline Essence was worth 300 Low-Grade Origin Stones.

He had hoped to save as much as possible.

The remaining Bloodline Essence could still be sold later or refined and absorbed himself.

But now...

"This is the last drop." Ryan gritted his teeth and poured the final drop into the furnace.

<Ding!>

[Energy value not met!]

[Please continue to input, Host!]

"No way!" Ryan’s expression changed drastically.

Four drops still weren’t enough.

He had already expected that creating Bloodline Essence might require a tremendous amount of energy, but he hadn’t expected the requirement to be this outrageous.

Four complete drops of Bloodline Essence were worth a total of 1,200 Low-Grade Origin Stones.

Aside from the 1,936 Low-Grade Origin Stones he had spent on Cole Manor, the four drops had consumed virtually all the Origin Stones he had been able to spare.

"This... what am I supposed to do now? I don’t have any Bloodline Essence left."

Ryan’s expression became somewhat grim.

Then, an idea suddenly occurred to him.

"If I mix in other types of items, I wonder if it’ll work..."

He didn’t want to give up after coming this far.

Even if there was only a small chance, he had to try.

Ryan immediately took out the three Tier-2 Low-Grade Blood Awakening Pills from Wesley’s spatial ring and tossed them into the furnace.

<Ding!>

[Energy value not met!]

[Please continue to input, Host!]

Ryan blinked. "It actually accepts different types of items..."

He had initially worried that the Blood Awakening Pills would simply be rejected.

Fortunately, the furnace had absorbed them.

However, the energy requirement still hadn’t been met.

Ryan couldn’t help but feel speechless.

Those three intact pills should have contained a considerable amount of energy, probably equivalent to six or seven Tier-2 waste pills.

If he had fed them into the Creation Furnace individually, they should have provided enough energy to create a Tier-2 Top-Grade pill.

Yet, when combined with the four drops of Bloodline Essence, they were still insufficient.

Ryan had no idea how the Creation Furnace’s energy requirement was calculated.

Sometimes, it seemed to require very little.

At other times, the amount was almost absurd. "Then what about Origin Stones?"

Ryan’s gaze fell upon his spatial ring.

After everything he had spent recently, the only valuable resources he had left were the 223 Low-Grade Origin Stones he still possessed.

He hesitated for a moment.

Then he gritted his teeth and took out one Origin Stone. "Let’s try it."

He tossed it into the furnace.

<Ding!>

[Heaven and Earth Essence Energy detected!]

[The current Creation Furnace grade is too low to create this item!]

[However, when the Creation Energy value is insufficient, this item can be directly consumed to supplement the required energy value!]

Ryan’s eyes widened slightly. "So that’s how it works."

The Origin Stone couldn’t undergo Advanced Creation because the current grade of the Boundless Creation Furnace was insufficient.

However, it could still be consumed as pure energy to supplement the Creation Energy value.

Ryan hadn’t expected Origin Stones to have this additional use.

The problem was... Origin Stones were hard currency.

They could be used to purchase cultivation resources, treasures, pills, equipment, and countless other things.

Throwing them into the furnace simply to provide energy felt painfully extravagant.

It was practically like throwing money into the ocean.

Ryan stared at the remaining Origin Stones in his spatial ring.

"Sigh..." He shook his head with a bitter smile. "Looks like I’ll have to spend the money."

There was no better option.

If he wanted to complete this Advanced Creation, he could only grit his teeth and continue.

Since he didn’t know exactly how many Origin Stones were required, Ryan didn’t dare throw them in all at once. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Instead, he fed them into the furnace one by one.

One.

Then another.

And another.

<Ding!>

[Energy value not met! Please continue to input, Host!]

The mechanical notification repeatedly echoed in his ears.

Every time it sounded, Ryan’s heart ached.

It was almost as if the furnace were personally reminding him how much money he was burning.

After a while...

Ryan threw the 198th Low-Grade Origin Stone into the furnace.

At this point, he was practically numb from hearing the same notification over and over.

Then...

Boom!

A dazzling white light suddenly erupted from within the Boundless Creation Furnace.

Ryan’s entire body trembled. The long-awaited notification finally appeared.

<Ding!>

[Energy value met!]

[Advanced Creation: Turning waste into treasure, randomly generating...]

[Output Probability: Bloodline Essence 95%]

[Enhancement Type 50% | Transformation Type 25% | Object Control System 25%]

[Grade Pill 4% | Mutated Unknown Type 1%]

"Oh my goodness!"

"The energy requirement is finally met!"

Ryan nearly collapsed with relief.

After repeatedly feeding Origin Stones into the furnace until he had become almost numb, the long-awaited success finally arrived.

His eyes immediately focused on the displayed probabilities.

He hadn’t expected that after feeding the furnace so many different types of materials, it would actually calculate the output probabilities so precisely.

Could it be that as I use the Boundless Creation Furnace more often, Mira’s consciousness will continue to develop, causing new functions and changes to appear?

Ryan felt both puzzled and amazed.

The Boundless Creation Furnace was truly an extraordinary treasure.

He still had no idea what level of treasure it was.

Even its Advanced Creation mechanism seemed to follow a surprisingly rigorous set of rules.

The output probabilities appeared to be determined according to the energy, or more accurately, the value, proportion of the different materials he had fed into the furnace.

As for the 1% Mutated Unknown Type, Ryan didn’t fully understand it at first.

After thinking about it carefully, however, he had a rough guess.

It was probably the "random generation" aspect of Advanced Creation.

With an extremely small probability, the furnace could create something that wasn’t directly represented among the materials he had supplied.

The more Ryan thought about it, the more he felt that the operating principles of the Boundless Creation Furnace were far more systematic than he had initially assumed.

At the very least, he had learned something important today.

If the energy value of an Advanced Creation wasn’t sufficient, he could supplement it with other energy-containing materials.

However, doing so came with an obvious risk.

If he wanted to create Bloodline Essence but accidentally ended up with a pill or some completely unexpected treasure, it would be a disastrous trade.

In the future, it would be better to avoid mixing materials whenever possible.

If he wanted precise results, he should use a single type of input material and supplement the energy requirement with Origin Stones when necessary.

Origin Stones appeared to be special in this regard.

They weren’t included in the output probability calculation.

Instead, they simply served as a pure energy source.

That meant that when the energy value was insufficient in the future, Ryan could potentially use Origin Stones alone to supplement the furnace while maintaining a more predictable output.

The only problem was the cost.

Nearly 200 Low-Grade Origin Stones had been consumed this time.

Ryan felt as though his heart had been cut with a knife.

After all, Origin Stones had countless uses, and he was genuinely reluctant to part with them.

His expenses over the past few days had been flowing away like water.

He had finally experienced firsthand the saying:

Origin Stones aren’t omnipotent, but without Origin Stones, nothing is possible.

Ryan couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

There were clearly still many hidden techniques and applications within the Boundless Creation Furnace that he hadn’t discovered.

It seemed he would have to explore them slowly in the future.

His attention returned to the furnace.

"I wonder what it’ll create in the end..."

Ryan stared intently at the Boundless Creation Furnace.

His heart was filled with both anticipation and unease.

Every time he used Advanced Creation, it felt like opening a completely unpredictable lottery.

That uncertainty made him love the furnace and fear it at the same time.

After waiting for what felt like an eternity, the long-awaited crisp notification finally sounded.