Chapter 98: The Setup
Su Xiao studied the plant harmonization section of alchemy. He had unlocked a new formula during the previous powerhouse tournament, named "Tree of Life."
[Tree of Life: Each concoction requires 1300 mana points. Required materials: Blazing Fire Wood Core, Soul Crystal (Small) x1, Wood-Type Life Essence, Revival Water, Crystal Vial.]
[Effect: After drinking/injecting, permanently increases True Stamina attribute by 3 points. (This potion is effective below 150 True attributes. Repeated use is ineffective.)]
...
Su Xiao exchanged Paradise Coins to procure the materials needed for the Tree of Life potion. Adding up the various materials, he could only exchange enough for five doses of the Tree of Life potion before reaching the exchange limit.
It wasn't just the materials for the Tree of Life potion; the main ingredients for other permanent enhancement potions were also restricted. To continue exchanging, he would have to wait until after the next world progression.
Each type of permanent enhancement potion had one main ingredient that was very rare. The higher his rank, the more he could exchange.
The main ingredient for the Tree of Life potion was Revival Water, while the main ingredient for the Radiance Potion was Soul Tough Sprout. Unless Su Xiao could obtain these two main ingredients within a mission world, he couldn't mass-produce permanent enhancement potions. Even so, concocting potions was still extremely profitable.
Several materials were laid out on the alchemy workbench. This was the set of materials needed for one dose of the Tree of Life potion. Including the cost of the Soul Crystal, the production cost of one bottle of Tree of Life potion was around 400,000 Paradise Coins.
He only had five chances, so Su Xiao concocted very slowly to ensure success.
Su Xiao first processed the materials, then catalyzed them with his mental energy. His current alchemy achievements were largely due to his high True Intelligence attribute. If his Intelligence attribute wasn't high enough, he shouldn't even think about mastering alchemy. Just the material catalysis alone would drive someone with low Intelligence to madness.
Unconsciously, Su Xiao's concoction speed increased. Everything felt so natural, like water flowing into a channel.
Transcendent·T Substance Resonance, Life Substance Fission, Fusion, Purification, Deep Extraction.
Su Xiao poured the light green potion into a Crystal Vial, sealed the opening, and the concoction was complete.
Looking at the Tree of Life potion in his hand, Su Xiao felt a slight doubt. After deciphering the Alchemy Codex, the process of concocting the Tree of Life felt very smooth.
In layman's terms, his touch was excellent. He didn't need to be overly cautious at every step. Throughout the entire concoction process, aside from some minor unfamiliarity with the techniques, there were basically no major problems.
The most important question arose: how many Paradise Coins should one bottle of Tree of Life potion sell for? Remember, this thing could permanently increase Stamina by 3 points. No matter what their specialization, no contractor would complain about having too high a Stamina attribute. Stamina was an attribute directly related to survivability.
In other words, the Tree of Life potion was suitable for all contractors.
If a merchant guild got their hands on this potion, they would definitely sell it through auction. Su Xiao didn't plan to do that. Most worker-type merchants didn't care about reputation, only looking at immediate profits. However, the name of Holy Flame Alchemist was something Su Xiao and Beini had cultivated for a long time. It was widely known even among high-tier large adventure groups.
During Beini's time setting up the stall, she had lost count of how many times she had been recruited—definitely several hundred times. They all wanted to recruit the Holy Flame Alchemist to join their adventure group or merchant guild.
Beini had a huge advantage: she didn't act together with Su Xiao in the mission world and basically didn't participate in combat.
People who knew Su Xiao all knew about Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha. As for Beini, very few people knew about her. This made the identity of the Holy Flame Alchemist even more concealed.
Once the identity of the Holy Flame Alchemist was cultivated to a certain level, it would become very useful. The Holy Flame Alchemist represented: "Integrity, never auctioning potions at high prices, never demanding exorbitant prices, a gentle-natured alchemist."
Ask yourself, if such a person issued a commission to high-tier contractors or high-tier adventure groups, would they refuse? The answer was absolutely not. Instead, they would try to build a good relationship with the Holy Flame Alchemist, hoping to use personal favors to buy permanent enhancement potions from him. The potions on Beini's stall were just too damn hard to snatch.
This was the identity Su Xiao needed to cultivate. There were some things he couldn't do, but the identity of the Holy Flame Alchemist could easily accomplish them.
Moreover, this could serve as a precaution. If Su Xiao became hostile with a high-tier adventure group, he could use the Holy Flame Alchemist's identity to scheme against that group until they were utterly confused.
The Blood Gate Adventurers, who had once been hostile to Su Xiao, should be glad that Su Xiao hadn't created the Holy Flame Alchemist identity before. Otherwise, Blood Gate would be several times worse off than they were now.
Not only within Reincarnation Paradise, but when Su Xiao's strength reached a certain level, he could cultivate the Holy Flame Alchemist identity within the Void. At that point, he could completely use this identity to deal with Arcane Eternal Star.
Imagine if Su Xiao, under the identity of the Holy Flame Alchemist, reached a cooperation agreement with Mage Sage Seraphilia and established initial trust. Then Seraphilia would be in for some bad luck.
Therefore, Su Xiao decided to price the Tree of Life potion at 1,510,000 Paradise Coins per bottle. After deducting costs, he would net 1,110,000 Paradise Coins per bottle. As for the loss from failed concoctions, after deciphering the Alchemy Codex, his failure rate for concocting potions at this stage was very low.
Converted to Soul Coins, that was 10 Soul Coins per bottle.
He could concoct a total of 5 bottles, with a net profit of 5,550,000 Paradise Coins. It looked very steep, but it was actually a fatherly price.
Compared to selling for Paradise Coins, purchasing with Soul Coins took priority. The reason was that 1 Soul Coin could be exchanged for 150,000 Paradise Coins at any time within Reincarnation Paradise. Selling to worker merchants or high-tier contractors, the rate was 1 Soul Coin = 151,370 Paradise Coins.
However, if he wanted to use Paradise Coins to buy Soul Coins, he would have to find a merchant guild. Merchant guilds that weren't very familiar with him were simply unwilling to sell Soul Coins.
One by one, bottles of Tree of Life potion were concocted by Su Xiao. Two hours later, 5 bottles of Tree of Life potion were neatly arranged on the workbench.
Su Xiao picked up one of them, flicked off the stopper with his thumb, and drank it. It had a slight bitter taste, but after a while, a sweetness lingered in his mouth.
A warm current surged through Su Xiao's body. After closing his eyes and sensing for a moment, he stored the remaining 4 bottles of Tree of Life potion into the team storage space. Bubu Wang, Amu, Baha, and Beini each got one bottle. This batch was not for external sale.
The benefits gained were basically all converted into strength. With nothing else to do, Su Xiao took out a notebook from his storage space. The contents inside were his own records.
During the second round of the powerhouse tournament, Su Xiao had entered the Death House. During that time, he traded with a deceased person. He contributed part of his alchemy knowledge, while the other party paid with the manufacturing method for a type of talisman.
This was the manufacturing method for a one-time-use talisman. The talisman had the characteristics of both a consumable item and equipment. Simply learning this talisman's manufacturing method would require a massive investment of time and resources.
Su Xiao's idea was to combine alchemy with this talisman's manufacturing method to create alchemical talismans. The effect was still unclear; this was just Su Xiao's hypothesis.
After researching for a while, Su Xiao had some clues. However, he realized that this kind of research could be done anywhere. There was no need to waste the precious time he had left staying in Reincarnation Paradise.
Leaving his Exclusive Room, Su Xiao headed towards the Trial Grounds. After arriving at the Trial Grounds, he first helped Sha regulate her internal injuries, then entered the Land of All Beings·Fifth Layer.
Su Xiao had 544,300 Paradise Coins left. The Land of All Beings·Fifth Layer cost 50 Paradise Coins per hour. He hesitated for a moment, then sold 10 Soul Coins, netting 1,500,000 Paradise Coins.
[You have entered the Land of All Beings·Fifth Layer.]
The arduous training began. There was no such thing as strength without reason. Su Xiao's blade techniques were all developed within the Land of All Beings. Not only did it consume a large amount of resources, but even with his current physique, he would be exhausted for a period of time after each training session in the Land of All Beings.
This also led to Su Xiao basically never leaving the house in the Real World. Every time before returning to the Real World, he would be so exhausted in the Land of All Beings that he didn't even want to move a finger.
Su Xiao basically never went out, which made the leader of the Scavengers in the nearby area want to send him a silk banner inscribed with: "Model Sixth-Rank Contractor."