Alex returned back to his home a little later and logged out to get some food. He returned back to the game after a while.
He logged back into his lit-up room and looked a the time. It was half-past 7 right now.
"Hmm… what should I do now? Just wait around for it to be 9 pm?" he started to wonder. There was still over an hour before he had to go train with his master.
"Oh right, the cauldron. It should be used enough that it will be refined now." Alex thought and brought out his cauldron.
He placed the cauldron in front of him and placed his palm along the side of it. He slowly pushed his Qi towards the cauldron and instead of sending it in, he started washing the insides of the cauldron walls with his Qi.
"I don't feel any resistance anymore. Should be enough," he thought and took out his steel sword. He looked at the giant sword in front of him and thought, 'I should get a dagger or something like a knife. I can't keep on taking out such a big sword for small things like cutting my skin.'
He proceeded to turn the blade's tip towards his forehead and slowly made a small cut on it. His forehead started to bleed, but it also started to heal immediately. Alex stopped and looked as his skin wound healed within 5 minutes.
But, blood had already flowed out of his head, so he was fine with the wound healing. He took the blood, which was his blood essence, and slowly dropped it inside the cauldron.
ZMMMM
A small vibrating sound appeared from the cauldron and it started to glow. The drop of blood inside the cauldron started to move around but then was immediately swallowed by the cauldron.
The vibrating cauldron stopped, and a pair of notifications appeared.
<' Golden Jade Cauldron' has taken in your blood essence>
<' Golden Jade Cauldron' has accepted you as its master>
<Congratulation, you have successfully refined the True Earth grade artifact 'Golden Jade Cauldron'>
"Yes!! For a second there, it scared me," he thought as he looked at the cauldron's stats now that it was refined.
[Golden Jade Cauldron: Refined
Grade: True Earth
Elemental Alignment: Metal - Earth
Weight: 22 KG]
"Oh, it actually has elemental affinity as well? Thankfully that doesn't harm my pill-making," he thought. Alex wanted to bring out the stiletto as well, but he didn't want to break the floor with how heavy it was.
"Uhh… I want to check if there are any differences when making pills with the cauldron. Maybe I will have to wait until tomorrow," he thought. Then immediately thought, "No, I have to look up the information about beast companions tomorrow. After school then? Uhh… I need to go sell those pills in the auction."
"I guess I will have to wait a few more days before I see if there is any more improvement. Although, I don't see why there would be any?"
He kept back the cauldron and started rubbing his forehead to get rid of the remaining blood.
"Is this a waste of blood essence?" he started wondering as he looked at the little bit of redness in his hand.
"Ah, that reminds me, if my blood essence can help refine objects, then what can the blood essences of other animals do?" He quickly thought back to the item that he still had with him. The [????? ?????'s Blood Essence].
"I don't think it's an alchemy material. If it was, I would've known its name, right?" he thought as he took it out the check it. He looked into his storage bag to search for it and found it very quickly.
He took it out and was surprised when he saw it. While it had said blood essence, it was actually a solid ball of blood. Almost like, all the liquid in the blood had dried off.
'Is this what monster's essence looks like?' he wondered. Immediately a thick bloody scent started to fill the room.
"What the…" Alex started to get shocked. The aura that the blood was producing was so suffocating that he almost felt like he couldn't breathe anymore. He tried to use his Qi to bring the essence back into his storage bag, but he couldn't even get his Qi out anymore.
'What is happening?' he wanted to scream, but not even his voice escaped his mouth. The most he could do was grunt in pain as he was slowly brought down to his knees.
Suddenly, a warm flow of hot energy burst out from deep within him, relieving most of the pressure he was feeling. However, he still couldn't stand anymore or even use his Qi.
All he could do was sit around and watch the blood essence float in the air.
"What do i— " suddenly, his left arm started itching and the little cat jumped out. "Pearl? Why are you out?" Thanks to the little relieved pressure he could speak now.
"Meow." Alex thought he could almost hear the eagerness to eat the essence in Pearl's meow.
He remembered back to elder Xian telling him how a monster could die if it ate cores with too much energy in it. If this blood essence was the same thing as the cores, Pearl would be in serious danger if he ate that.
"No, don't. You can't mo— " his words left stuck in his mouth as he saw Pearl walk freely in this intense pressure. He could barely not feel the pain thanks to whatever his body was doing, yet Pearl was walking forward like a fish in water, completely unobstructed by the pressure.
'Is it because the essence came from his mother?' he wondered. He stopped feeling the same panic and fear he felt before and watched as little Pearl stopped right below the floating ball of blood essence.
In a single jump, Pearl reached the essence and opened its mouth. And without a shred of hesitation, he swallowed it.