Chapter 93: Ancient Secret Medicine and Bankruptcy
The difficulty of advancing to Blade Grandmaster was not low. Su Xiao had already obtained six fragments of the Grandmaster's Power, with four remaining. If he had enough Paradise Coins or Soul Crystals on hand, it wasn't impossible to acquire them.
As for challenging designated powerhouses in the Trial Grounds, although Su Xiao wasn't confident, he wasn't too worried either. After all, his current hard power was right there.
Was that really the case? Many people had challenged in the Trial Grounds, intending to obtain the Proof of Glory, yet over 95% had failed.
For now, Su Xiao wasn't in a hurry to advance his Blade Grandmaster. After checking his Blade Dao, he found that the improvement was significant. The attack power bonus for blade-type weapons had increased by 15%, and the power of the Blade Aura had nearly increased by a third.
Su Xiao took out three gems from his storage space. These were three Legendary Gems.
Mad Knight (Legendary Gem): Attacks deal True Agility Attribute × 0.9 damage that ignores physical defense (88 points).
Elegy (Legendary Gem): If enhancement causes the weapon to shatter, Elegy will replace the weapon and shatter instead.
Blood Hunter (Legendary Gem): Each time an enemy is killed, permanently increase the lower limit attack power of the equipped weapon, up to a maximum increase of 30 points.
...
Each of the three Legendary Gems had its own characteristics: power increase, support type, and permanent growth enhancement. Su Xiao attempted to inlay them.
[Yes/No to inlay Mad Knight, Elegy, and Blood Hunter into Dragon-Slaying Flash +13 (Legendary). Completing this inlay will consume 120,000 Paradise Coins.]
Su Xiao glanced at his remaining Paradise Coins and chose to inlay.
The sheathed Dragon-Slaying Flash floated into the air. The three Legendary Gems rapidly shrank, eventually becoming the size of rice grains and inlaying themselves at the end of the sword hilt.
The inlay was completed quickly. This meant that Dragon-Slaying Flash now had a total of five Legendary Gems inlaid, and combined with its terrifying enhancement level, the cutting power was unimaginable.
Fortunately, Bubu Wang was selling skill scrolls. If Su Xiao had done all this himself, it would have wasted at least ten hours, or even a whole day.
After a busy session, Su Xiao converted most of his gains into strength. Now, only the newly acquired Alchemy formula and two Legendary Chests remained unopened.
After pondering for a moment, Su Xiao decided to master the new Alchemy Potion formula first, as this potion formula was too special.
[Ancient Secret Medicine (Alchemy Potion Formula)]
Origin: Reincarnation Paradise
Quality: Formula grade is Legendary, produced potion grade is Gold Quality.
Produced Potion Type: Recovery Item / Permanent Enhancement Potion.
Usage Conditions: Alchemy Potionology (Satisfied), Mastery of five or more Alchemy Potion formulas (Satisfied), True Intelligence Attribute above 85 points (Satisfied), Pay 200,000 Paradise Coins.
Effect: After using this formula, unlock the 'Ancient Secret Medicine' compounding formula.
Rating: 500 points (Legendary item rating is 400~530 points)
Introduction: A potion that combines enhancement and recovery, lost for many years. After mastering this formula, you must be cautious. You will become a valuable talent that many major forces in Derived Worlds / War Worlds / Primordial Worlds will try to recruit or seize.
Selling Price: 215,000 Paradise Coins
...
After waiting about two hours, the Ancient Secret Medicine formula shattered in Su Xiao's hands. Bubu Wang had sold all the skill scrolls on his end. After deducting the cost of mastering the new formula, Su Xiao only had 79,920 Paradise Coins left.
[You have unlocked a new Alchemy Potion formula.]
[Ancient Secret Medicine: Each production consumes 500 Mana Points. Required materials: Life Coagulation Essence, Void Spring Water, Sprout of Birth, Sacred Oak Fruit, Crystal Vial.]
...
Seeing the materials for the Ancient Secret Medicine, Su Xiao's head ached. Except for the Crystal Vial, he had never heard of any of the other materials.
[Yes/No to spend Paradise Coins to substitute the required materials. Cost: 10,000 Paradise Coins.]
A potion costing up to 10,000 Paradise Coins to produce. Su Xiao didn't yet know its effects, so he chose to produce one bottle to check the attributes of the Ancient Secret Medicine.
After spending the Paradise Coins, several materials appeared in Su Xiao's hands. He didn't need a Crystal Vial; he had many in his Alchemy Laboratory.
Entering the laboratory, Su Xiao began working at the experiment table. The potion wasn't generated out of thin air; he had to mix it himself.
Since it was his first time mixing, Su Xiao spent over two hours and wasted three batches of materials before successfully mixing one bottle of Ancient Secret Medicine.
[Ancient Secret Medicine]
Origin: Reincarnation Paradise
Quality: Gold
Type: Recovery Item / Permanent Enhancement Potion
Effect: After drinking, rapidly restore 90% Health Points (can restore health derived from True Stamina Attribute), and within the following 30 minutes, permanently increase 20 Health Points and 1 point of Poison Resistance or a random Elemental Resistance.
Rating: 400 points (Gold Quality potion rating is 310~400 points)
Introduction: A rare ancient potion that combines life-saving and self-enhancement.
...
Seeing the attributes of the Ancient Secret Medicine, Su Xiao's eyes lit up. This potion made you stronger the more you drank it. If he drank dozens of bottles, his survivability would increase dramatically.
Of course, setting aside the waste of resources from drinking dozens of bottles in a row, any potion consumed repeatedly in a short period would build up potion resistance, with diminishing effects until it became ineffective.
Using [Ancient Secret Medicine] when injured was the best choice. The enhancement also needed to be accumulated over time, allowing the body to gradually accept the potion's benefits. That was the most rational approach.
Just as Su Xiao finished producing the [Ancient Secret Medicine], Bubu Wang returned to the Exclusive Room. As for Amu and Beini, Amu went to appease his empty stomach, while Beini was doing business in the Trade Market with a tablet computer. The starting capital was 50,000 Paradise Coins, invested by Bubu Wang. It held 40% of the shares, Beini also held 40%, the freeloading Amu held 10%, and Su Xiao, who was basically unrelated to this matter, also held 10%.
For this, Bubu Wang even verbally established a company called "Listed Company." It wasn't going to go public; that was just the name.
In Bubu Wang's words, Beini was a complete money-grubber. "Master, you didn't see it. When selling the skill scrolls, that cat seemed to have a switch flipped. She blackmailed the contractors who came to buy the scrolls until they doubted their own existence."
Su Xiao had been surprised earlier. How could ten skill scrolls sell for nearly 2 million Paradise Coins? It turned out Beini had been managing the finances.
"I said it would lose badly."
Su Xiao chuckled. Bubu Wang shook his head, meaning, "That cat is shrewd."
Just then, the door to the Exclusive Room was pushed open. A listless Beini walked into the room, jumped directly onto the bed, and burrowed her upper body under the covers. She was clearly in a state of self-imposed isolation. The "Listed Company" had declared bankruptcy, going under faster than the fundraising process.
Bubu Wang looked at Su Xiao with reverence, meaning, "Master, how did you guess?"
Su Xiao could naturally guess. Beini had only just entered Reincarnation Paradise. The reason she could make money before was because of the astonishing financial power of over 1 million Paradise Coins.
It was like investing 20 million versus 500,000. The former easily made money, while the latter was fraught with difficulties.
Ignoring the self-isolating Beini for now, Su Xiao took out the two Legendary Chests. He planned to use his overwhelming advantage of 10 Luck Attribute points to do whatever he wanted with these two chests.
Just then, the money-grubbing cat Beini shot out from under the covers, crouched on the wooden table in front of Su Xiao, and stared intently at the two Legendary Chests, her money-grubbing nature fully exposed.