My health recovery is incredibly fast.

The alchemical school recognized the research findings of Hillenburg's group and officially issued a patent.

Later that same day, the Sea Castle of Lumington and the Hillenberg Group reached an agreement, signing a long-term patent lease agreement.

An astronomical sum of money was deposited into Xia Zuo's citizen account.

130 million citizen points.

This is the first income from signing a long-term contract. Tens of thousands of citizen points will be credited to the account every year thereafter, depending on the number of underwater bullets manufactured that year.

Another piece of good news is that Hillenburg's team discovered a natural sponge that can passively absorb elemental energy during an outing.

This natural sponge is found in the central Mediterranean Sea, near the sandy seabed in the dark zone.

Because of its resemblance to a cow's tongue and its milky white color, the group named it the White Cow Tongue Sponge.

After conducting numerous experiments, Hillenburg's group concluded that:

The white cow tongue sponge can only passively absorb water-based energy and is not interested in the energy of the other three systems.

That's enough.

Hillenburg's group displayed several times the enthusiasm they had for researching underwater bullets, throwing themselves into alchemical experiments with the white cow tongue sponge.

Xia Zuo gradually lost interest in exploring the Western Continent again.

He disbanded the Blood Elemental servants of Silvermoon City and reclaimed 5 points of his Spirit attribute.

Time slipped away quietly in the daily experiments.

That evening, the day's work came to an end.

Shazo and Hillenburg returned to the observation room via the diving chamber.

He had barely sat down at his desk when Christo's coded ring activated.

Xia Zuo took out his device, checked the message, and then found Hillenburg and said:

"Team leader, I'm going to the temple. I'll come back to work overtime after I get back from the temple."

As Hillenburg cut the experimental material with a slicer, he said, "Okay, go ahead. I'll keep an eye on the samples first."

Shazo skillfully flew to the teleportation room in the city and arrived at Christo's office in the white light of the teleportation.

Christo had promised Shazo that she would teach him the blood magic [Essence of Life].

谷靉

Today marks the completion of the compilation of the magical scriptures.

After Christo appeared in the office, she first summoned a sofa as usual for Shazo to sit on, then took out a spellbook and said:

"Before you formally begin learning this blood magic, I need to explain a few requirements to you."

"This is related to the Temple's decrees, and you must remember them."

"Yes, Your Excellency." Xia Zuo nodded.

"The spell principle of 【Essence of Life】 is relatively simple."

"You condense your own life essence and entrust it to a designated object. The life essence you create will not dissipate before your death, and it can continuously help that object resist aging."

"It's that simple."

"The amount of life essence a pure-blooded mage can condense is limited. Once you've finished studying the spellbook, you'll understand how much life essence you can create."

"There is a method that can condense the essence of life without limit..."

Krestor wagged her index finger. "But I hope you don't have that idea. Because this method will make you a half-blood mage, putting you on the opposite side of the temple."

To gather the essence of life without limit?

After a moment's thought, Xia Zuo deduced the specific method...

First, find a life form with strong vitality.

This life form is not necessarily a protozoan; it could be an alchemical organism.

For example, injecting a blood demon with an already very long lifespan with a large amount of regeneration potion, or letting it drain the life force of living people.

The next step is to modify this monster so that it can be placed in a safe and sturdy container, and then hide the container in a place where no one can find it.

Once these tasks are completed, the life essence created using the life force of this life form will not be at risk of dissipating.

Theoretically speaking, as long as enough life force can be sacrificed to this life form, there is no upper limit to the life essence it can produce.

Christo looked at the thoughtful Shazo and stated the second restriction:

"As the price for learning this blood magic, the temple requires you to contribute a certain amount of life essence, which will be given to the temple for its disposal."

"The total quantity will not exceed one-fifth of the quantity you can produce."

"These life essences will be used on mages who have made outstanding contributions to the Temple. Like your mentor Adanavados, and other members of the Outer Temple such as Rexor, the life essences they possess come from the pure-blood mages of the Inner Temple."

"I believe you understand the significance of doing this."

"For every Life Essence you contribute, the Temple will give you a reward. This could be better living conditions, more meditation tools, or spellbooks that are only available to core members of each school of thought, and so on."

"As long as the reward you request is not on the prohibited list, the Temple can grant it to you."

This sounds more like a deal.

It's fairly fair.

Xia Zuo had no reason to refuse.

Christo said earnestly:

"The third requirement is that the Temple will not restrict who you give the Essence of Life to, but it expects you to report it proactively. This is related to your personal safety. Before the Third Era, many powerful pure-blood mages created countless Essences of Life."

"Due to various accidents and conspiracies, the holders of their life essence were imprisoned and forced to hand over their life essence."

"These life essences that changed hands became important tools for the demons to track down pure-blooded mages."

"After you report, the Temple will send someone to monitor the holder of the Essence of Life. Forgive me for using the word 'monitor,' it sounds a bit blunt, but it's something the Temple has to do. We can no longer afford to hear the devastating news of pure-blood mages being abducted by the Church of the Otherworldly Demons."

“Yes, Your Excellency. I will report back promptly.” Xia Zuo scratched his head. “In fact, I have no intention of giving my life essence to anyone for the time being.”

He continued:

"I can also accept the temple's other two requests."

"There is no benefit to me in creating life essence without limit, and I do not want to join the Church of the Otherworldly Demons."

"As for contributing life essence to the temple, I think that's fine. I also believe that the temple will entrust the life essence to the right mage."

Chapter 92 Transition

Christo was satisfied with Chazor's answer.

She smiled slightly. "I've put ample encryption on this spellbook. You can take it back and read it later."

“Let’s talk about something else now,” Christo paused and asked.

"How much longer do you think it will take you to advance to the rank of high-level mage?"

Xia Zuo put away the spellbook and pondered for a moment.

Of the conditions for promotion to high-level mage, I have met all of them except for the requirements for working hours and spiritual ocean.

Christo promised to waive the requirement for long working hours.

That leaves only the requirement of a spiritual ocean.

Xia Zuo pulled up his character template and took a look.

...

[Mental State] 35

[Free Attribute Points] 41

...

A spirit attribute value of 50 is sufficient to meet the requirements.

If Xia Zuo had been a little more reckless, he could have raised his [Spirit] stat to 50 on the spot and then immediately applied for a promotion.

But this doesn't match the persona she's been given.

It would be safer to stick to the original plan.

"It will probably take about seven more months," Xia Zuo said.

"Seven months... um..." Christo hesitated for a few seconds, "One month after seven months, it's the combat puppet's live-action competition. Do you need to participate in the competition in person?"

"No need," Xia Zuo shook his head.

When signing the long-term licensing agreement with Lumington's sea castle, Hillenburg also mentioned the plan to recruit active-duty commanders.

The plan has already been approved by the castle lord.

In this way, during actual competitions, professionals will replace Xia Zuo as the head of the command center.

"Once your work in Hillenburg's group is finished, I will immediately arrange your promotion ceremony."

"I will bring materials to strengthen your elemental body. Once you are ready, you can stay in the frozen snowfield for as long as you want, but don't stay for more than a month. That is the maximum time limit for the snowfield trial."

"Thank you, Your Excellency." Xia Zuo bowed in thanks.

Krestor shook her head. "I also have my own needs. The Temple urgently needs a group of high-level mages to be stationed permanently in the Western Continent."

"Is it related to the bloodline power there?" Xia Zuo asked.

Christo nodded slightly. "Yes. In the past few years, the phenomenon of bloodline awakening has become more and more frequent. There have been quite a few cases in the Starry Night Kingdom. The Starry Night Academy is a bit short-staffed."

"After you are promoted to high-ranking mage, the temple plans to assign you to guard that place as your work before you are promoted to archmage."

This conveniently saves the trouble of sending Blood Element servants to the Western Continent.

Xia Zuo accepted the job without much hesitation.

"Yes, sir, I have no problem."

Christo and Shazzo discussed the details of the promotion ceremony before she sent him back.