Upgrade Entry, Alchemy Genius

Time flew, and Li Yun had unknowingly roamed around Kunlun Mountain for over three hundred years.

During these three hundred-plus years, he had slain numerous demonic beasts and primordial beings, thereby acquiring quite a few traits. However, these traits were all green, and there were only three blue ones at most. Yet this kind of combat had also brought him no small gain—the Taiqing Divine Thunder had successfully reached the Minor Accomplishment stage, elevating from its previous spell level to a Minor Divine Ability, with considerable destructive power. Besides that, he had also encountered many spiritual fruits similar to the Crimson Fruit. Since he didn't know alchemy, Li Yun had no intention of keeping them; he simply gnawed on them like fruit, and the benefit he reaped was that his cultivation base advanced to the mid-stage of the Mysterious Immortal Realm.

"System, how many traits do I have now?" On this day, after finishing off a Mysterious Immortal Realm python, Li Yun spoke up to ask.

[Ping! Detected in the trait library: 3 blue traits, 72 green traits!]

"Seventy-five in total? Not a bad haul," Li Yun said as he continued, "Merge all the green traits for me!"

The next moment, a virtual panel appeared before Li Yun's eyes. As far as he could see, there was a furnace on it, with the trait library below—a uniform sea of green light, with only three blue lights shining brightly.

"Is this asking me to do it myself?" Seeing this, Li Yun's mouth twitched. He had assumed the system would automatically help merge and upgrade the traits, but it turned out he needed to handle it himself? Still, that was fine—once he had more high-quality traits, he wouldn't have to worry about accidentally using them as upgrade materials. With that thought, Li Yun immediately got to work. With a mental command, five green traits were tossed into the furnace. Then, the furnace quietly blazed, bursting forth with a cerulean radiance.

[Ping! Merge successful. Acquired blue trait: Vigorous Vitality!]

"Not bad!" Nodding, Li Yun didn't hesitate and continued the process. One by one, blue traits appeared in the trait library. Suddenly, the furnace panel dimmed, and a prompt rang out: [Merge upgrade failed!]

"Damn! This thing has a failure rate?" Leaping up from the ground, Li Yun opened his mouth, feeling as if he'd been cheated. He'd already cheated the system—and now it was telling him the cheat had a failure rate?

[Ping! Green trait upgrade to blue trait success rate: 95%. Blue trait upgrade to purple trait success rate: 70%. Purple trait upgrade to red trait success rate: 30%. Red trait upgrade to gold trait success rate: 10%!]

"Uh..." Opening his mouth, Li Yun was at a loss for words. Though he felt deceived, he could understand it—if there were no failure rate, he could just farm green traits casually and eventually fill his warehouse with god-level traits, which would be total chaos. But seeing that the red trait success rate was only thirty percent, and the gold trait a mere ten percent, Li Yun felt the road ahead was long and arduous, even like facing a bottomless pit. Still, since things had come to this, Li Yun didn't hesitate and continued manipulating the traits for merging and upgrading. For a time, blue light flashed continuously. Aside from that one failure, all the other merges succeeded, and he successfully acquired twenty-four new blue traits. Adding the three he already had, that made twenty-seven in total, but he had no interest in checking them—after all, blue and green were too trashy. Rather than sifting through them, it was better to keep upgrading.

With that in mind, Li Yun no longer delayed and pressed on with the operation in one go. "Let it succeed!" With a low shout, five blue traits were tossed into the furnace. The next moment, purple light blazed, and a purple trait quietly appeared.

[Alchemy Genius (Purple): When equipped, the user becomes an alchemy genius, enhancing comprehension of pill formulas, refining techniques, and control skills by ten times!]

"Oh, this trait—not bad!" Looking at the Alchemy Genius trait, Li Yun stroked his chin in approval. Though not overwhelmingly powerful, this thing was indeed suited for Li Yun, since the Taiqing Lineage, besides its inheritance of sorcery and divine abilities, also had an alchemy inheritance. In particular, the Golden Elixir was almost a necessity for cultivating the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique. If he could learn alchemy and refine Golden Elixirs himself, he wouldn't need to rely on Laozi anymore—he could acquire enough resources and pills to sustain his own cultivation through his own efforts.

"Strike while the iron's hot—one more go!" Taking a deep breath, Li Yun unhesitatingly tossed another five traits into the furnace.

However, after a brief flicker, the gray panel reappeared.

"Are you kidding me? A thirty percent failure rate and I still hit it?"

"Do I have some kind of jinxed constitution? Is the Child of Destiny tag fake?"

Too exasperated to complain, Li Yun unhesitatingly tossed in another blue tag.

This time, there was no failure. A burst of purple light erupted, and a brand-new tag appeared: [Dragon Spirit Tiger Might (Purple): When equipped, grants vigorous energy and a fivefold increase in blood and qi!]

"That's it?"

The corner of his mouth twitched as he felt utterly cheated.

This thing qualifies as a purple tag? It's nowhere near as good as Alchemy Genius.

But since things had come to this, Li Yun said nothing more and unceremoniously threw in the remaining blue tags.

The next two fusion upgrades went smoothly, with no failures. Li Yun obtained two more purple tags:

[Unlucky (Purple): When equipped, brings extreme misfortune. After reaching a certain threshold, there is a chance to trigger a lucky event!]

[Lucky (Purple): Slightly enhances luck!]

"Trash!"

"System, are all the tags you give this garbage?"

After reading the info on the two new tags, Li Yun couldn't help but complain.

He had thought that starting with an Alchemy Genius tag would lead to a steady stream of powerful tags.

But it turned out that was just the peak from the start, and everything after was a complete letdown.

[Ding! Tags are countless; fusion upgrades are all randomly obtained.]

"Fine."

Opening his mouth, what could Li Yun say? The system rules were what they were—could he change them?

Suddenly, as if a thought struck him, Li Yun asked, "System, what if I want to upgrade an existing tag? Would it also become a random acquisition?"

This point mattered greatly to Li Yun.

Child of Destiny was a gold tag and wouldn't be changed.

But red tags like Great Witch Bloodline and Top-Tier Comprehension were still highly valuable. If they got replaced during a fusion upgrade, wouldn't that be a huge loss?

[Ding! The host can upgrade tags equipped in the tag slot: Green to Blue requires ten green tags, Blue to Purple requires twenty blue tags, Purple to Red requires fifty purple tags, Red to Gold requires one hundred red tags!]

"You—"

After reading the system's response, Li Yun felt as if struck by lightning.

Red to Gold requires one hundred red tags—when would he ever gather that many?

Besides, if he really had that many red tags, wouldn't five random fusion upgrades be a much better deal?

"Fellow Daoist~"

"Fellow Daoist!"

Just then, a shout from afar interrupted Li Yun's thoughts.

Following the sound, he saw one man and three women flying toward him on clouds, radiating the cultivation aura of the True Immortal Realm and Mysterious Immortal Realm~