Kenna took a thin booklet from within his clothes.
"Ian, I didn't fail you. This is the Bloodline Purification Technique you wanted. It's just that the price was a bit high—a full 60 Magic Stones."
Ian was overjoyed. He didn't care that it wasn't a Memory Crystal. It was difficult for other Apprentices to learn from a book, but he had his panel, so he didn't need to worry about that at all.
Ian paid Kenna an extra Potion, carefully put the booklet away, and didn't look at it right away.
Kenna put the Potion away and suddenly remembered something.
"Ian, do you remember Leica? He heard from somewhere that you've become a Magic Potion Alchemist and wants to meet you."
The Leica Kenna mentioned was also a former neighbor.
Ian rarely interacted with him. He only knew that Leica had been there for a long time and was vaguely the leader of their local group.
'He's never broken through to High Level Apprentice. He must be getting desperate and wants to get some resources from me, too.'
"We can talk about it when I have time. I don't want to take on too many outside orders right now."
Although Ian didn't mind having more channels, he still had to prioritize his Cultivation. Too many private orders would take up a lot of his time.
"Wade, has there been any movement from the Shadow Society recently?"
'I'm a little worried. Ten days have passed; it's impossible that they haven't noticed anything.'
"I've only heard some rumors. It seems the Shadow Society is planning something big recently, something about exploring some ruins."
Wade wasn't sure either. These were all things he'd heard on the grapevine and weren't necessarily accurate.
'So that's it.' It seemed the matter of the ruins was most likely not just a baseless rumor.
He had also secretly inquired about Nolan. This person was one of the founders of the Shadow Society, and many Apprentices worked for him.
After Kenna and the others left, Ian took out the booklet and began to read it carefully. When he finished the last page, the panel recorded the Witchcraft.
[Bloodline Purification Technique: Uninitiated (0/100)]
Ian took his Magic Stones and went out to the town's Fierce Beast trading area, planning to buy some other Fierce Beast blood to practice with first.
The blood of Demonized Fierce Beasts had many uses, including for Enchantment and Alchemy.
He walked through several streets where black sewage flowed freely across the ground, and a foul odor assaulted his nose.
On both sides, stalls had display boards casually propped up on piles of stones, showcasing all sorts of goods for sale.
"Freshly slaughtered four-horned antelope, selling cheap!"
"Fresh Wind Demon Wolf heart, the best medium for cultivating Wind Witchcraft."
...
"Blood from a Middle Level Demonized Fierce Beast, the Bloodthirsty Wild Boar! Ten Magic Stone Fragments a pound!"
Ian stopped short, halting in front of this stall.
"Just hunted this morning, this Bloodthirsty Wild Boar! The blood is still very fresh. How about buying some, customer?"
The stall owner was a bearded Middle Level Apprentice with a rugged appearance who enthusiastically pitched his wares to Ian.
"I need a large quantity. If you give me a better price, I'll buy it all."
Ian didn't know any haggling techniques; being direct was best.
"Customer, I have over 100 pounds of it. If you take it all, 10 Magic Stones will do."
The bearded man seemed sincere enough, so Ian didn't dawdle and agreed to the deal.
After paying the Magic Stones, he easily lifted a large leather bag. All he wanted now was to hurry back and reach the Beginner level in the Purification Technique.
Back home, Ian first stored the blood properly before heading to the Magic Potion Room.
On the clean workbench, Ian carefully dripped a small portion of blood into a Resonating Crystal vessel.
The Resonating Crystal was an auxiliary device in the Magic Potion Room that could amplify bloodline fluctuations.
Following the first stage of the Bloodline Purification Technique, Perceiving Bloodline, Ian began his practice.
After a good while, his Spiritual Power clumsily guided the Witchcraft, extending it toward the crystal vessel.
The moment it made contact, his control over his Spiritual Power was not precise enough. With a moment of inattention, the Fluorite Plate providing the Energy went dark, and the faint resonance effect ended.
[Bloodline Purification Technique Skill Level +1]
Looking at the noticeably duller blood inside, Ian frowned slightly.
'The consumption is a bit high!'
He hadn't gotten any feel for it at all before the fluctuations in the crystal vessel had stopped. Fortunately, with the panel's help, a trickle of experience flowed into his mind.
'Just have to keep grinding. Worst case, I'll just spend more Magic Stones.'
「Five days later.」
In the Magic Potion Room, Ian's hair was a mess, and his face was etched with exhaustion.
'This Bloodline Purification Technique is too damn hard, and it burns through Magic Stones.' In five days, he had bought Demonized Fierce Beast blood four more times, each purchase larger than the last, for a total of 120 Magic Stones.
'No wonder Kenna didn't learn it. He probably couldn't afford to!'
Ian had originally wanted to find a loophole by buying some ordinary Fierce Beast blood to practice with.
It wasn't that it had no effect, but the amount of Extraordinary Gene in the blood was too small, and his progress with the Witchcraft was turtle-slow, so he had to give up.
It was the Bloodline Purification Technique, after all.
Now, he could cast the Witchcraft in a relatively complete manner and sense the information within the bloodline.
The next step was to use his Spiritual Power to guide the Purification Technique and extract the Bloodthirsty Wild Boar's Extraordinary Gene.
Ian's Spiritual Power was like a pair of clumsy hands, trying to grasp the Extraordinary Bloodline that was manifesting inside the vessel.
He had no idea how many times he had gone through this process over the past few days.
Suddenly, the crystal vessel on the workbench began to vibrate slightly. The power supply module underneath was rapidly consuming Magic Stones, and the temperature in the room began to rise.
BZZZ...
An unnatural flush appeared on his face as if he were wrestling with the Bloodthirsty Wild Boar itself. Sweat beaded on his forehead, turning into wisps of steam before it could even drip.
'Stop... I have to stop!' Ian realized he was on the verge of losing control.
But the violent bloodline Energy was already like a bursting flood.
BANG! The blood exploded, and a cloud of crimson mist rose above the vessel.
[Bloodline Purification Technique Skill Level +1]
"Whew..." Ian wiped away his sweat, sighing in relief.
[Bloodline Purification Technique: Beginner (0/200)]
'Even though I failed, I finally reached the Beginner level. That wasn't easy!'
What Ian didn't know was that an ordinary Apprentice would never have been able to reach the Beginner level of this special Witchcraft without one or two years of practice.
He poured all the remaining Bloodthirsty Wild Boar blood into the vessel.
This time, his Spiritual Power felt as if it had been lubricated. It guided the Witchcraft with perfect fluidity, slowly extending toward the blood in the crystal vessel, covering it...
After a moment, with a SWOOSH, a bright crimson Blood Essence flew out.
Ian snatched it out of the air and examined it incessantly under the light.
The Blood Essence was crystal clear, about the size of an egg, and shaped like an irregular polyhedron. If you looked closely at a magnified view, you could see extremely fine threads swimming gently inside.
This was just the preliminary purification. It still contained many impurities and could only be used for refining Magic Potions, not for bloodline transplantation.
The next stage of refining was the crucial part. The Rock Bear was a High Level Demonized Fierce Beast, and the process of refining its bloodline would be even more difficult and much slower than that of the Bloodthirsty Wild Boar.
Ian refined all the Rock Bear blood he had collected into Blood Essence.
Fortunately, thanks to the panel's assistance, he didn't fail a single time and obtained a total of eight goose-egg-sized Blood Essences.
'One Blood Essence can be used to concoct ten doses of Rock Bear Potion. I wonder if that'll be enough to reach the Beginner level.'
He had coveted the Rock Bear Potion for so long. He could finally begin refining it.
'Let's begin!'
He first heated the Potion's base solution, the Oak Distillate, to a boil before lowering the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
He added the Thorntwig Bark, which had been ground into a powder, and simmered it for fifteen minutes until it turned a deep green.
He added the Magic Catalyst Powder and stirred it gently until uniform.
He placed the sliced pieces of Blood Essence into the mixture...