Ashen God

After upgrading Eternal Demon Body to LV.6, Zhang Yanhang didn't forget about alchemy, so he immediately triggered the related option, "Choose! Skill level up."

With the arrival of the Time Pause, a large row of text option boxes instantly appeared in front of Zhang Yanhang.

...

November 2nd, Monday, the first day after Halloween, also the first day Zhang Yanhang left the Ashen World, at 7:22 AM, Qin Island City, Xingfuli District, apartment 505, bedroom.

Since there were no other skill options that could be upgraded, Zhang Yanhang immediately chose the only alchemy option still lit up after triggering the option, successfully promoting Alchemy·Origin to Truth Alchemy.

And after the promotion, Zhang Yanhang naturally began to check the skill effect of Truth Alchemy, wanting to see the difference between this so-called Truth Alchemy and the previous ordinary alchemy.

[Truth Alchemy (Active skill)]

[Skill Effect: Converts one thing into another, no cooldown time, with each use consuming 1-??? Energy Value based on the complexity of conversion, quality, volume, and other related factors.]

[Additional attribute: Manufacturing]

[Additional attribute: Fusion]

[Additional attribute: Enchantment]

[Additional attribute: Extraction]

[Additional attribute: Repair]

[Additional attribute: Crystallization]

"Well, how should I say, although it's an upgrade from ordinary alchemy to Truth Alchemy, the skill effect can't be said to be completely unchanged, but indeed, not a single character spacing has changed."

Though the skill effect never changes with each alchemy promotion, Zhang Yanhang should have been used to this by now. However, this time, since the upgrade was to the impressive-sounding Truth Alchemy, he was still slightly disappointed.

Of course, while the skill effect remained unchanged, other aspects did change. For instance, fixed memory transmission occurred, and after the promotion, Zhang Yanhang's mind was immediately filled with a lot of knowledge related to Truth Alchemy.

Moreover, after promoting to Truth Alchemy, he could clearly feel his alchemy ability had improved again, far beyond the previous level, so it would definitely further shorten the time needed for equipment breakthrough limits and fusion.

However, because he currently doesn't have any equipment needing breakthrough limits, he can only wait for the opportunity to test the specific changes later.

"But let's put it this way, while it's true the skill effect remains unchanged for ages, the additional attributes steadfastly grant a new one each time during promotion, and the additional attribute provided this time is 'Crystallization'."

After recalling some related knowledge in his brain, Zhang Yanhang found that crystallization indeed means exactly what it says, which is to crystallize matter and energy or other things like souls.

Specifically, after using the crystallization ability, matter and energy will be transformed into a specially structured crystal, which is normally referred to as the 'Wise Man's Stone', the 'Eternal Energy' and 'Truth of All Things' pursued by most alchemists.

As for the specific usage of the Wise Man's Stone, it's primarily a special energy adaptable to all energy needs, for as a by-product of the pursuit of truth, the Wise Man's Stone inherently follows the rule of equivalent exchange.

If applied in battle, the Wise Man's Stone is essential for alchemists, since it can use its own properties for equivalent exchange to quickly create various elements and other forms of attacks needed for combat.

Furthermore, aside from that, the Wise Man's Stone can also be used to make spiritual medicines that prolong life and physical enhancement potions.

However, the most important factor in manufacturing the Wise Man's Stone is the soul; other materials really don't matter, only souls are the primary constituents.

"Well, here's the problem, all the monster souls I defeated in the Ashen World have turned into soul points, so where the heck can I find the souls needed to create a Wise Man's Stone? Should I draw a national-level array like in Steel Alchemist in a random small country?"

If soul points could be extracted, then Zhang Yanhang could easily manufacture Wise Man's Stones, but soul points obviously can't be extracted at all. Even the storage location is a mystery, likely existing only on the data panel. So how the heck to extract it?

Zhang Yanhang feels that unless he becomes strong enough to directly ignore the rules of the Ashen World someday, he might forcibly turn virtual into reality to seize soul points from the data panel, yet clearly, he can only think about it right now.

"Although finding a small devastated country would quickly yield a large number of souls, could the Wise Man's Stone converted from ordinary human souls truly meet the needs of an awakener like me in the Fifth Tier True Immortal Stage? It might be a bit of a stretch."

Zhang Yanhang had to point out that the Wise Man's Stone also has quality differences. Since the creation can vary, the Wise Man's Stone naturally varies in quality too. And without souls, you can at most create a Subordinate Sage Stone.

This subordinate sage stone lacks the unique effects of a true Wise Man's Stone. Although it's still usable in battle and as an energy source, without the soul, there's a fundamental difference that prevents it from enhancing life span.

"Initially, I thought possessing the Wise Man's Stone might substantially increase my lifespan, enabling me to gather a ten-thousand-year lifespan sooner. But now it seems the legitimate manufacturing of a Wise Man's Stone is indeed somewhat challenging."

Given the soul, the primary material for the Wise Man's Stone, Zhang Yanhang definitely can't collect them in the Ashen World, as regardless of the method used to kill monsters, only soul points get obtained with no forced soul extraction possible. So, if he wants to acquire souls, he believes he ought to work hard in the Main World.

"Speaking of which, there seems to be some ghost like a female ghost lingering near Xingfuli District, as a high-quality soul body should be able to serve as raw material for Wise Man's Stones, right?"

When Zhang Yanhang thought of all those fierce ghosts he casually sent off while collecting Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures before, he suddenly felt it was a bit wasteful and really shouldn't have done that.

"Though it's not great to squeeze Wise Man's Stone out of the dead, at least it's green, environmentally friendly, and non-polluting, plus it's for making new energy. Presumably, the NGO organizations will support me, after all, they are anti-humanity, and so am I, comrades of the same camp."

Zhang Yanhang planned to check around to see if there were any high-quality dead ghosts, aiming to refine more Wise Man's Stones and see specifically how much life span could be increased.

Of course, this time the crystallization ability provided Zhang Yanhang with the configuration blueprint and refining method for the Wise Man's Stone, but as for the specific way to extract the raw materials, he would have to use the additional attribute he previously gained, which was 'Extraction'.

This extraction ability allows Zhang Yanhang to extract raw materials on a large scale while maintaining low consumption, making it the best choice for extracting raw materials for the Wise Man's Stone.

"Sure enough, the additional attributes of Alchemy are all useful, it was just that I didn't know how to use them before."

At that time, Zhang Yanhang felt that with his lousy forging skills, he couldn't possibly make use of such a capability of extracting raw materials and using them to produce something, but now it seems that this extraction is clearly the prerequisite technology for developing the Wise Man's Stone, and it's very important as well.

"Speaking of which, since I've thought of extracting some useful things from monster corpses before, is it now possible to directly convert monster corpses into Subordinate Sage Stones?"

Zhang Yanhang thought it was feasible, after all, Subordinate Sage Stones don't have as many restrictions as the authentic Wise Man's Stone, not to mention corpses, even with poop, as long as the quantity is large enough, the same result can be extracted.

"No matter how you look at it, even if it's a Subordinate Sage Stone, it's still a Wise Man's Stone. As a kind of advanced energy, it should definitely be faster to absorb than a monster corpse, right?"

Although manufacturing into Subordinate Sage Stones might cause some energy loss in the monster corpses, Zhang Yanhang felt that as long as it could improve absorption efficiency, losing a little energy was actually not a big deal.

After all, right now the various corpses in his Stomach Space add up to at least enough for him to absorb for twenty days, so he's not lacking corpses at all, and if he indeed lacks them, he can always farm them at the Permanent Teleportation Channel, where they refresh ten times faster with a large quantity that can fill him up.

Therefore, rather than slow absorption but comprehensive, Zhang Yanhang felt losing a bit yet absorbing faster is more suitable for him.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yanhang immediately unfolded the Alchemy Array inside his Stomach Space and began mass production of Subordinate Sage Stones.

Exactly, perhaps because Alchemy had advanced to Truth Alchemy, Zhang Yanhang found that he could even unfold the Alchemy Array inside the Stomach Space and use it directly for refining.

But although this method is quite convenient, it also has certain drawbacks, for instance, the refining speed will be slightly slower, and energy consumption will increase a bit.

Moreover, most importantly, refining in the Stomach Space essentially requires the same focused operation as normal refining and cannot be done hands-off for now.

This means things like controlling alchemy in the Stomach Space while fighting are still out of the question for now; it would only lead to failed refining resulting in a pile of rubbish residue.

So, to sum it up, the only advantage of refining inside the Stomach Space is that it's quite convenient, allowing Zhang Yanhang to refine while lying in bed without worrying about large monster corpses like a railway train gun bursting and squeezing his room in such a tight indoor environment.

But at the same time, Zhang Yanhang eagerly wished for something like an auto-refining feature in later developments, which would surely greatly enhance his hunting efficiency, but that has to wait for further advancement of Truth Alchemy, and the next advancement is the Sixth Tier.

Thus, at present, Zhang Yanhang should use the most ordinary refining method for conventional refining, as it's faster and more energy-efficient.

After simply putting in about a thousand monster corpses, Zhang Yanhang successfully refined a fist-sized Subordinate Sage Stone.

Compared to the genuine Wise Man's Stone, this Subordinate Sage Stone, though also blood-red, is more transparent, more irregular, and has a stronger illusory feeling, seeming somewhat unreliable at first glance.

But unreliable or not, as long as it can be absorbed, Zhang Yanhang thinks it's not a problem.

After attempting to let his Stomach Space absorb this Subordinate Sage Stone, Zhang Yanhang found that this Subordinate Sage Stone indeed absorbs much faster than ordinary monster corpses.

If measured specifically using values, where the monster corpses were only 1.5 times his normal absorption speed, now because the Subordinate Sage Stone is easier to absorb, it could reach 2 times his normal absorption speed, which is 0.5 times faster than before.

Of course, this current 'double' is more due to Zhang Yanhang's immature refining technique, and later as Truth Alchemy's level improves, the quality of the Wise Man's Stone refined might also further increase.

Moreover, besides that the refined Subordinate Sage Stone is indeed easier to absorb, Zhang Yanhang also found that the energy loss rate when monster corpses are converted into a Wise Man's Stone is quite low, losing only about ten percent, and the remaining ninety percent is transformed into the Wise Man's Stone.

It can only be said that the extraction ability indeed contributed a lot in this process, achieving very high-efficiency extraction, preserving most of the essential materials.

Therefore, if Zhang Yanhang were to convert all the hundred thousand or so corpses he has now into Subordinate Sage Stones, the quantity from the original twenty days would turn into eighteen days.

"But although it's eighteen days' worth, in reality, because of the faster absorption efficiency of the Wise Man's Stone, these converted Subordinate Sage Stones would only last for up to two weeks, about fourteen days or so."

Thinking about it this way, Zhang Yanhang found that it still seems to be quite a lot, basically not having to worry about running out, since a rank promotion only costs him at most a week, even if he absorbs continuously for twenty-four hours, there's no need to worry about running out.

"Since that's the case, I should hurry and convert the remaining hundreds of thousands of corpses into Subordinate Sage Stones as well."

Saying this, Zhang Yanhang began to lay out Alchemy Arrays on a large scale inside the Stomach Space, because of the advancement in Alchemy, not only could he set up Alchemy Arrays in the Stomach Space, but his refining efficiency had also greatly improved. He estimated that it shouldn't take too long if it's only for tens of thousands of corpses.