Chapter 103: Experiments (2)
Inside the cave, Su Chen sat at his workbench, continuing his experiments.
He held a beaker in his hand filled with vibrantly red blood.
He grabbed some faint blue powder and placed it inside the beaker, causing the blood inside to slowly begin to congeal.
“The first experiment: excessive cold attribute due to the Frigid Water Herb caused the blood to congeal. Solution: lower the proportion of Frigid Water Herb.
“Second experiment: proportions of Frigid Water Herb are still too high. Lowered proportions again.”
“Fourth experiment: blood no longer coagulates, but the amount of Origin Substance present has clearly decreased due to low temperatures…… Dammit, this little Origin Substance Is not enough. Solution: separate substances with cold attributes and the Origin Substance.”
“Twelfth experiment: Origin Substance separation failure.”
“Thirty second experiment: Origin Substance separation failure.”
“Forty sixth experiment: successfully achieved initial separation of Origin Substance. However, after separation, the effect of the Origin Substance greatly decreases. Will need to determine the core reason.”
“Hundred twenty sixth experiment: Determined that wildly attempting this separation greatly harms the Origin Substance, and my original method of separation is adequate, so I need to give up on it. We’re back at square one; I need to once again figure out how to achieve this separation without damaging what I need……”
Days passed, and Su Chen conducted experiment after experiment.
Iron Cliff left the mountain range once to sell off their beast hides. The money that he had obtained was all used to buy more Frigid Water Herbs.
On the sixty fourth day of entering the Scarlet Mountain Range, Su Chen was able to successfully isolate the unique Origin Substance from the Frigid Water Herb for the first time.
However, Su Chen was still faced with the issue that this Origin Substance was not stable and its effect on Origin Energy was only short-term and was difficult to control. One could say that Su Chen still had quite a ways to go before the Origin Substance would reach a usable condition.
In order to resolve this issue, Su Chen was forced to search for new methods again and again, as well as perform experiment after experiment.
During this time, while performing with the countless number of experiments, Su Chen was actually quite conflicted.
For quite some time, he had wondered whether doing what he did had any purpose? Wasn’t it just a Snaking Mist Steps? Was there really a need to spend so much effort to research, understand, and search for a substitute?
Even if he was able to research it, so what?
In the end, all that he could reap was just an improvement in the introductory stance of one specific footwork technique, yet he had expended so much energy. Was it worth it?
Had he made the wrong choice?
Su Chen asked himself this multiple times.
However, in the end, he did not give up.
It was not because he confirmed that his path was correct. Rather, it was merely because he didn’t want to give up just like that.
The future was always shrouded in fog. No one knew what would happen.
Su Chen could not see the future. He could only see the past.
His past told him to not easily give up.
He finally told himself, “Whether it’s right or wrong, I must continue. At the very least, before my trip to the Scarlet Mountain Range ends, I cannot easily give up.”
Only many years later would Su Chen realize how important this decision was, and how lucky he had been at this moment.
That was right, lucky!
On the hundred twenty sixth day since arriving, Su Chen had finally resolved most of the difficulties that plagued him, concocting his first Soaring Serpent Origin Substance medicine.
After ingesting the medicine, Su Chen felt that his Snaking Mist Steps had very clearly improved.
Although the improvement was limited, this result told Su Chen that he was headed in the right direction.
It was not impossible to substitute bloodlines!
In order to achieve such a result in merely a hundred days, effort was only a small part of the equation. Luck was his main reason – he had unintentionally discovered that Frigid Water Herb possessed the Origin Substance that he needed. In addition, the relatively low cost of this herb coupled with his wealth meant that he could experiment without fear of costs. The Snaking Mist Steps and his clear, penetrating vision allowed him to easily observe and understand the bloodline. Ulrich’s experimental methods and style of thinking had also unintentionally met his need for creating an Origin Substance medicine. Lastly, he did not run into any annoying accidents or major setbacks during his experimentation. Su Chen was able to successfully accomplish what he had set out to do, concluding this period of experimentation.
In the future, if he wanted to achieve similar results, he would probably need to use tens if not hundreds of times the effort that he had used.
If Su Chen had encountered that kind of circumstance in the beginning, perhaps he would have long since given up.
Of course, the current Su Chen had no thoughts on this point. He was only excited and happy for the success of his own experiments. It had also further increased his faith that his decision to pursue endlessly was the right one..
At the same time, Su Chen discovered that the Soaring Serpent’s Origin Substance had basically no effect on any other Origin Skills. Although it could change Origin Energy, these changes were only suitable for bloodline Origin Skills. However, it would still affect any other bloodline Origin Skills of the same bloodline, meaning that if Su Chen were to learn any other Origin Skills of the Soaring Serpent Bloodline, according to reason he could also break through the restrictions of a bloodline.
However, the effects of the breakthrough were still quite limited.
One reason was that Su Chen’s Origin Substance medicine was still in its preliminary stages of development and there was great room for improvement. Secondly, he had only resolved the issues related to the Origin Substance itself and had yet to solve the problem of Origin Energy flow and changing his absorption technique. Thus, the current breakthrough was still small in magnitude.
However, the former was a matter of innate nature, while the latter were concerned with methods. Once the innate nature was taken care of, the issue with the methods were not quite as large of a problem.
To Su Chen, this was a question of time, not about whether or not the path he had taken was correct.
In the following days, Su Chen focused all his efforts on improving the Origin Substance medicine and forming his Origin Energy Pattern.
However, all of his experiments still relied on Lin Yemao’s “cooperation”.
Because of this, Lin Yemao suffered even more.
Drawing blood and analyzing changes of that blood, as well as determining the role that Origin Energy played in those changes, were all too common.
Apart from this, Su Chen would also occasionally slash out with a blade at Lin Yemao while his bloodline was boiling and he was activating the Snaking Mist Steps. This was to observe the rapid reactions of both the Origin Energy as well as his bloodline.
Sometimes, he didn’t even use a blade. Instead, he directly struck out with his fists, using brute force to create blood clots and observe the changes in Origin Energy purity, as well as the bloodline’s corresponding response while it was boiling.
Sometimes, Su Chen would soak Lin Yemao in cold water, performing experiments under extremely low temperatures. Sometimes, it would be the opposite to observe Lin Yemao’s ability to endure high temperatures.
In addition, there were also soul attacks, and he was fed poisonous medicines, etc. to observe the reaction of his Origin Energy, which was analyzed.
In truth, Su Chen didn’t need to test all of this, but otherwise he would just be idling around anyways.
It was hard to come by such a partner to practice on who was also not easy to kill. Naturally, Su Chen had to take what advantages he could.
From start to finish, Su Chen had kept his word – he had not dissected Lin Yemao.
With his clear vision, he could see everything without any need to dissect Lin Yemao.
As time went on, he began to see more and more.
Because of this, Lin Yemao suffering only increased, as Su Chen performed all kinds of tests.
In his eyes, Su Chen had already completely become a devil.
An insane person who derived pleasure from the suffering of others!
An inhumane, crazy killer!
Su Chen did not know what Lin Yemao was thinking, and even if he did know he wouldn’t have cared – there wasn’t much time left, and he needed to use all the time he was given in the mountain range.
Because of this, his experiments became more frequent, and Iron Cliff left the mountain range two more times to sell beast hides and buy Frigid Water Herb as well as other supplementary materials. Sometimes, if the money he made from selling beast hides was insufficient, he would need to tack on some of his own savings.
In other words, during this trip to the Scarlet Mountain Range Su Chen had absolutely no intentions of earning money. Rather, he had set aside quite a large number of Origin Stones, and even the increase in cultivation base that he had anticipated was greatly affected because of his experiments. In a hundred days, he had only gone from the second layer of Qi Drawing to the fifth layer. Of course, this “only” is slightly biased. To other people, this was already a speed quite difficult to obtain.
However, Su Chen did not care about this.
On his one hundred fifty first day in the Scarlet Mountain Range, Su Chen finally finished his improvements of his Origin Substance medicine.
At this moment, he was already a day late. It was time to leave the mountain range.
To Lin Yemao, this was definitely an exciting day, because he finally no longer needed to be tortured.
However, Su Chen didn’t let him go because of this.
He took Lin Yemao with him and began to leave the mountain range.
Two days later, Su Chen finally arrived on the outskirts of Northface City.
Upon seeing all the people at the valley’s entrance, Su Chen laughed.
This time, the people waiting for him at the valley’s entrance was not just the Su Clan. The Lin Clan was also there.
Not just servants were waiting there; even many elders were present.
Su Changche, Su Cheng’an, Su Feihu…… they had all come.