Chapter 63: Consuming the Bloodline Potion

With the arrival of the divine flower as the harmonizing agent, Lobo officially began the process of medicine making.

Relying on crude equipment for purification, he then added several materials that even Zhang Ji could not identify, ranging from metals, ores, and plants, to the hair and horns of animals, and so on.

After that, he carried out repeated purifications...

While Lobo was taking a break to drink some water, Zhang Ji asked, "How long until it's finished?"

"A few days, I suppose," Lobo replied. "This is delicate work, especially the final step, which requires spiritual guidance to bring the potion to the corresponding resonance frequency for the reaction to truly occur. Even I cannot guarantee success every time."

"Can't you use machinery?" Zhang Ji asked.

"At least not for this part. Currently, there is no machinery capable of simulating spiritual fluctuations, so naturally, it's impossible to extract the desired energy from the void through mechanical means," said Lobo.

Hearing this, Zhang Ji could not help feeling a sense of emotion.

"Such a useful technology—if it didn't violate ethics and morality, it probably wouldn't have been universally banned by major nations."

Lobo shrugged and said, "There is no experiment that completely avoids violating ethics and morality. All scientific progress always involves reforming and trampling upon existing orders and rules, and the vested interests will naturally reject it."

"But in fact, we could proceed step by step, taking it slowly and establishing detailed rules for steady development, which wouldn't have caused so many disasters," Zhang Ji said.

Based on the information Zhang Ji knew, alchemy technology was gradually opened up after the War of the Holy Kings.

However, due to the deliberate indulgence of that Holy King of the Roman Empire, it caused even more irreparable catastrophes.

Not paying attention for even a moment during an alchemy experiment could result in countless deaths, or even create various alchemic monsters.

In the version he played, there was a dungeon called the Twisted City, which was filled with alchemically modified humans, mindless beasts, and where even the steel jungles had gained life...

If rules had been established first and things had been done step by step, so many disasters could have been avoided.

"Yet the reality is, once people witness the benefits of accelerating the pace, they will no longer walk slowly," Lobo said.

"That is why it became a taboo," Zhang Ji remarked.

"Wisdom that is too far ahead of its time is not accepted by society. Moreover, to gain something, one must first sacrifice something—that is an ironclad rule... Ethics and morals restrict progress most of the time, but of course, they also prevent us from self-destruction," Lobo said, taking a sip of water.

After exchanging a few more words, Lobo returned to work.

With nothing to do, Zhang Ji had already mastered the Guning language and prepared to learn the Roman and Hues languages as well, so he wouldn't need to study them additionally when he went to the Roman Empire later.

At night, he would also go to the rooftop of Lobo's clinic to check for the moon, then take out the Moon-Gathering Cup to collect the essence of the moon.

Here, he didn't dare to fly a drone, fearing it would be shot down and the cup would be lost.

Without the aid of medicine and relying solely on that tiny, unstable bit of moon essence, Zhang Ji's training speed had slowed down considerably.

Ever since he left the sea and arrived here, he had practiced the "Iron Body Skill" whenever he had spare time, but he had only accumulated three essences so far.

Under normal, resource-rich conditions, twenty-odd days would have been enough for him to bring this combat skill to the stage of mastery.

However, Zhang Ji was not discouraged.

He had made a plan for himself.

Once things stabilized later, he would make a full-speed push toward the B-tier to acquire sufficient strength.

Upon reaching the B-tier, many of the Void Realms he knew about in this world would become accessible to him.

Those dungeon resources were the key to leveling up.

Normal players, unless they used cheats, had to grind dungeons desperately just to quickly raise their levels and skills.

With his cheat now, coupled with those resources, Zhang Ji would be like a tiger with wings. Reaching the A-tier before the War of the Holy Kings would not actually be difficult; in fact, with careful planning, he could become a very well-rounded A-tier martial artist.

Time came to the seventh day after Lobo received the divine flower.

He called Zhang Ji into the laboratory and asked for a drop of Zhang Ji's blood.

Lobo added this drop of blood into the potion he had already prepared.

The next moment, the blood of Della within the test tube boiled rapidly, flashing with a crimson-gold light. Then, a pure white light emerged, suppressing it and gradually tending it toward stability.

Before long, within the test tube, the crimson-gold blood of Della flowed. It continued to release light and heat into its surroundings, but unlike before, it did not burn wildly upon contact with the air.

"That's quite beautiful," Zhang Ji uttered.

His eyes were filled with nostalgia.

He still remembered when he saw it in his past life, it looked just like this—except the brightness felt much lower, though he didn't know why.

At that time, however, it was through a screen, whereas now he was seeing it with his own eyes, so slight differences were normal.

"It is precisely because it is so beautiful and prompts endless reverie that countless scholars have embarked on the path of taboo for its sake," Lobo said with considerable emotion.

"Is it done?" Zhang Ji asked.

"Theoretically, yes," Lobo replied. "And it hasn't shown excessive rejection of your blood. However, for normal use, the transformation might be quite drastic. If you cannot endure this pain, it could lead to neurological problems..."

"So it requires a high willpower check, right?" Zhang Ji said.

In the game, he had once released a quest testing willpower.

Players had to wear a pain simulator to complete a small water-pouring minigame.

Upon completion, it would increase mental and technical attributes, followed by granting a Willpower Badge.

"I think your willpower is up to par," Lobo said, looking at the scars on Zhang Ji's body.

"How do I use it? Drink it?" Zhang Ji asked.

In the game, players simply drank it down in one gulp. But brought into reality, Zhang Ji felt that having this substance take effect through the digestive tract was somewhat unscientific.

"Yes, injection works too, or pouring it over yourself, though I worry too much would evaporate," Lobo explained. "Alchemical potions don't work through digestion; rather, they interact informationally with the subject directly at the microscopic quantum level to exert their effects."

Zhang Ji raised an eyebrow.

If he were playing a game, he would definitely complain about the developers' lazy writing, throwing quantum mechanics at everything when they ran out of ideas.

Meeting Lobo's gaze, Zhang Ji did not hesitate and drank the potion straight down.

Every last drop of it was poured into his mouth.

He didn't taste any particular flavor, but it felt somewhat scorching, like swallowing hot soup fresh off the stove.

Yet Zhang Ji did not spit it out, forcing himself to swallow it down.

Then it slid down his digestive tract into his abdomen.

Zhang Ji felt as if he had swallowed a piece of burning-hot charcoal into his belly, and his entire internal organs gradually grew warm.

"Do you feel anything?" Lobo asked.

"A bit warm..."

Before Zhang Ji could finish his sentence, his expression suddenly changed.

Because that warmth had transformed into scorching heat!

Spreading rapidly from his internal organs throughout his entire body.

He felt as though his whole person was being scorched by flames.

In fact, his body temperature was indeed rising crazily, something even Lobo could sense.

The things in front of Zhang Ji began to blur, bringing a feeling of delirium from the fever.

He stood up, took two steps, and staggered before collapsing to the ground.

"What's wrong? Hiss..."

Lobo stepped forward, intending to support him with his hands, but upon touching Zhang Ji, he only felt a burning heat.

"Hold on, I'll get you some ice!"

Lobo hurriedly improvised a large bathtub, filled it with water, and donning gloves, he threw Zhang Ji into it, fetching ice from his cold storage to dump into the water.

Influenced by the ice water, Zhang Ji's condition seemed to stabilize somewhat, but the ice melted rapidly, forcing Lobo to keep fetching more.

...

Before slipping into delirium, Zhang Ji finally realized something was amiss and understood certain things.

Doing this quest in the game seemed to require being B-tier, otherwise one couldn't even defeat that divine elephant.

He was only C+ right now, quite a distance away from the B-tier.

And was that potion in the game diluted? That must be why its brightness differed from what he saw now!

B-tier players in the game drank diluted potions and turned red all over, but what about him, a C+ drinker of the raw essence?

Burning, continuously burning.

Zhang Ji felt his entire body completely engulfed by flames.

His flesh and skin were being destroyed under the flames, and his tendons and bones were also scorched pitch black.

The bloodline power of an A-tier martial artist was being transplanted onto him in its original form; this was simply something he could not bear.

Just when he thought he would be utterly burned to death by the flames, he vaguely sensed a cool current weaving through the fire.

The divine flower had taken effect!

The divine flower of the Hues Kingdom possessed the effects of purifying bloodlines and suppressing the side effects of bloodline awakening.

Many bloodlines were far too overbearing at the inception of their awakening, capable of harming the user themselves or even causing their death. The effect of the divine flower was to guide them toward a gentle awakening.

Even when facing the blood of Della, however, the divine flower could not make it entirely gentle; it could only moderate a portion of the bloodline's expression.

For Zhang Ji, nonetheless, this was a life-saving moment.

The primordial vital energy within his body was mobilized, and in an instant, he entered the Heavenly Serpent Posture.

This primordial energy transformed into pure energy to nourish all parts of his flesh, recovering the energy consumed while drastically accelerating the self-healing capacity of his cells.

...

A weary Lobo sat by the bathtub; he had already changed over a dozen buckets of ice for Zhang Ji.

Yet the flesh and skin on Zhang Ji's body continued to rapidly turn charred black; he could only mitigate a portion of it.

At this moment, Zhang Ji had completely turned into charcoal, and even his chest no longer rose and fell.

Lobo felt only that his experiment had failed once more.

If such an exceptional experimental subject failed, then who could possibly succeed?

Could it be that divine bloodlines could truly only be borne by gods?

"Crack~!"

Suddenly, a crisp sound brought Lobo back to his senses.

He saw the slightest movement in Zhang Ji's chest.

On that charred surface, a crack appeared.

"Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack~!"

Cracks multiplied and multiplied until they covered his entire body.

Abruptly, the shell peeled away.

Revealing Zhang Ji, whose skin was rosy and healthy. His body was covered in crimson-gold patterns, within which flowed some faintly glowing blood.

Lobo's face was filled with pleasant surprise; he had once seen these patterns on the royalty of the Guning Kingdom.

This was precisely the trace of the Sun God bloodline, yet Zhang Ji's was much purer and much more complete.

Because this was the true first-generation bloodline.

Without exaggeration, if Della himself were resurrected, he would be just like this.

Of course, the current Zhang Ji could not yet fully unleash the power of the bloodline and still needed to grow, but undoubtedly, the bloodline transplantation had succeeded.

His growth ceiling had been raised, and sooner or later, he would reach a level comparable to Della.