Chapter 164: The Problem of Life Spring Water

"Blind student, you've finally found the key point."

Gunie said to himself at this moment.

"After all, as a Transcendent Master and an expert-level alchemist, it's normal for him to discover the crux of the problem."

"Although I'd love to say I'm burning my own life to illuminate others, I'm sure you, Senior Parks, wouldn't be satisfied with that answer." Gunie said slowly and methodically.

"This involves some of my own secrets. I hope that after you see them, you won't spread them around." Gunie lowered his voice.

"Rest assured, we've all been aware of your progress in developing the Secret Pattern Potion from the very beginning."

Nigel's voice was low but full of certainty.

"If any of us wanted to harm you, you wouldn't be standing here talking to us so calmly."

"So we won't reveal a single bit of this secret. Every Transcendent has their own secrets, more or less. Since you've revealed part of yours to us, we'll add some extra merit when evaluating your contributions later."

Senior Nigel's words reassured Gunie considerably.

After all, this secret wasn't too big a deal for Gunie.

In fact, it might not even count as a secret.

Subtly, Gunie released his blood aura, then immediately retracted it.

In just that brief second or two.

All three of them showed slight changes in expression.

"This blood aura... so rich... Isn't this guy a spellcaster? This dense and thick blood aura is even richer than that of a third-tier, or even fourth-tier, Shield Knight!"

"The life force is too abundant, it's incredible. Was this guy raised in a bath of Life Spring Water?"

"This is... the aura of some powerful leader creature, a leader-level robust physique? This guy is only second-tier, how did he manage that?"

The three of them had their thoughts racing.

"As you seniors have seen."

"My Transcendent profession is Blood Curse Master, which you three should already know."

"As it happens, I have extraordinary talent in vitality."

"Coupled with my powerful leader-level vitality, I only need a small amount of Life Spring Water to stimulate enough life activity to construct a life channel and complete the extraction of Transcendent characteristics."

"For me, consuming a small amount of life activity is like consuming source energy—I can recover it easily, completely harmless."

"So, for me, this kind of extraction is very simple." Gunie said lightly.

On the surface, Gunie spoke casually.

But in reality, Gunie knew better than anyone.

There was not a single bit of ease in this. Without the support of abundant Life Spring Water, trying to overdraw life force wouldn't necessarily allow the extraction of Transcendent characteristics.

This extraction method, in the final analysis, uses the life properties of 'Life Spring Water' to exchange for another property, and the consumption is not low.

For Gunie, since he had an Elf Life Tree backing him, he could just claim that abundant vitality was his talent—no one could prove otherwise.

But for others, it would require a considerable amount of Life Spring Water.

"This extraction method might be simple for someone with your talent, but it's not simple for others."

Parks said in a steady voice.

"It requires a large, even massive, amount of Life Spring Water."

"I also saw your extraction process just now."

"If we want to mass-produce this Secret Pattern Potion,"

"a 'tool person' to extract Transcendent characteristics using Life Spring Water is indispensable. Of course, we can use enough resources to find Transcendents with that type of talent."

"At the same time, from your work, we also saw that Life Spring Water is needed as a medium throughout the process."

As he spoke, Parks looked at Gunie and asked,

"Can't we use Essence Source Spring Water?"

"I've tried many approaches, but none have succeeded so far. Of course, maybe I haven't experimented enough. If you want to cut costs, you could do more experiments in that area. But I think the path of using Essence Source Spring Water is most likely a dead end."

Gunie shook his head, cutting off Parks' idea.

"If Life Spring Water is irreplaceable, the extraction tool person needs it, and the extraction medium also requires it,"

"then the demand for Life Spring Water will be enormous."

"For one bottle of this potion, the amount of Life Spring Water used would be approximately..." Parks quickly calculated in his mind.

"Between 50 and 150 milliliters."

"And this range might not be accurate; I feel it could go higher, after all, it's almost impossible to replicate a second Transcendent with talent as remarkable as Master Gunie's."

"Thus, the demand for Life Spring Water for this Soul Secret Pattern Potion will be huge, and the range might even double."

When Parks said this,

Nigel and Hiro also quickly calculated in their minds.

Even with a consumption of 100 milliliters per bottle,

there were over a hundred thousand Transcendents directly under the Transcendent Association alone.

In addition, there were independent Pioneer Corps, Vanguards, the military, and the nobles of Congress.

There were far too many people who needed the Soul Secret Pattern Potion.

Producing one or two hundred bottles a day wouldn't even fill the gaps between their teeth.

Five or six hundred bottles might barely suffice.

But...

Five or six hundred bottles would require fifty to sixty thousand milliliters of Life Spring Water.

And that was just for one day.

For a month, that would be over one and a half million milliliters.

And this was under very ideal conditions.

If conditions weren't ideal, the amount could increase by two or three times.

Even if all the Life Spring Water stockpiled in the Yulan Empire were emptied, it might not support a month's usage.

Unless...

Their thoughts converged on the same place.

The Twisted Secret Realm, the Blood Ear Elves, the Elf Life Tree.

Yes, only by taking control of that Elf Life Tree could the Yulan Empire be supplied with abundant Life Spring Water.

Only then could the Soul Secret Pattern Potion play a huge role in the Yulan Transcendent Association, benefiting most of the powerful, and even all Transcendents under the Yulan Empire, thereby achieving a strategic improvement in overall national strength.

The three exchanged glances, vaguely sensing something.

The Yulan Empire's demand for Life Spring Water had never been large, and since the empire's north bordered the Otto Mountains, Life Spring Water also flowed into the country.

Coupled with the enormous cost of the Northern Expedition,

many members of Congress had opposed the Northern Expedition against the Blood Ear Elves and the occupation of the Twisted Secret Realm.

But this time, it was different.

The birth of the Soul Secret Pattern Potion had turned Life Spring Water from an insignificant 'healing potion' into a strategic necessity.

Moreover, all the powerful were urgently in need of this Secret Pattern Potion.

Thus,

once the information about the Soul Secret Pattern Potion reached the rulers of Congress,

they would surely slam the table and stand up, roaring: 'The Northern Expedition must be approved. Whoever disagrees is a traitor and should be hanged on the gallows and burned.'

More importantly,

this time, the Blood Ear Elves had participated in the plan to destroy the Sog Ruins City, and after their defeat, their strength had suffered considerable losses.

Launching a war with a just cause would not arouse outside suspicion.

Such perfect timing and motivation converged.

If the Yulan Empire wanted to become stronger, the Northern Expedition was almost inevitable.