Sky-High Priced Materials

The driving force behind Biao's growth was hatred. If Xu Bai had chosen the emotion attribute, the result, even if it wasn't Biao, would likely have been a creature much like it.

Although the compatibility between the first option and the emotion attribute was as high as 95%, the deduced evolution method might not even require any precious materials.

But, would the First who lived in hatred still be the First of today?

Admittedly, when Xu Bai first cajoled and persuaded First, he had used hatred as a catalyst. Yet, after spending so many days together, he still preferred the current First—gluttonous, sleepy, and somewhat like Gong Baiwan.

One can harbor hatred in their heart, but one cannot let hatred be the only thing in their heart.

Thinking this way, the result in his mind from the handbook finally appeared:

[Name]: Golden Spirit Holy Tiger

[Attribute]: Metal.

[Race Potential]: 100,000 years.

[Introduction]: A tiger-type creature that has gained the favor of the metal element. Its mastery of the metal element has initially reached the level of laws. When facing metals of a lower status, it is the undisputed uncrowned king.

[Note]: Consume a large amount of mental power to deduce the evolution method? (Yes/No).

"100,000 years of race potential!" Xu Bai's pupils dilated, filled with immense surprise.

The Mutated Green-Red Tiger's race age was only a thousand years; this was a hundredfold increase. It was truly worthy of being an existence deduced at the cost of a large amount of his mental power.

With a sigh of emotion, Xu Bai turned his gaze to the evolution method deduction column, discovering that it only required a large amount of mental power.

He had originally assumed that raising the race age directly to 100,000 years would require a massive amount of mental power at the very least, perhaps even unlocking a new unit of measurement, but he hadn't expected it to still be just a "large amount."

"Looking at it this way, the method shouldn't be too difficult. I'll deduce it directly tomorrow and see. Maybe I can even do it if I put in some effort now."

Calculating this in his mind, Xu Bai patted First on the head, signaling that there was nothing for it to do here and letting it go off to play.

First: (O_O)?

So, are you just messing with me?

After shooing First away, Xu Bai rubbed his temples, forced himself to stay awake to prepare dinner, greeted the two Soul Beasts in the small courtyard, and returned to his bedroom to sleep.

The next day, everything returned to its normal track.

It wasn't until after dinner that Xu Bai lay on his bed and initiated the deduction for the evolution method.

Staring at the circle spinning on the handbook like a loading webpage, his heart gradually filled with anticipation.

His first deduction of an evolution method...

If there were truly conditions to let First evolve now, First's strength would certainly see a significant boost.

If he were lucky, with the feedback from the Beast Taming Space, his own soul power might even jump directly to level twenty, or perhaps even higher.

After all, that was raising the race age from a thousand years directly to 100,000 years; calling it a leap in life hierarchy would not be an exaggeration.

Xu Bai waited with such hope, and more hope.

He waited until he fell asleep, and when he opened his eyes again, it was already the next morning.

Looking at the sunlight streaming through the window into the room, the corners of Xu Bai's mouth twitched for no reason.

Well, as a severe insomniac in his past life, he had finally found a solution in this one.

Every time the handbook consumed his mental power, it almost always left him dizzy and lightheaded, his eyelids feeling as heavy as a thousand jun.

He had always forced himself to stay awake to see the results, but this time, he had been waiting in the perfect sleeping environment of his bed.

With the double buff in effect, of course he had fallen asleep.

Fortunately, the handbook's deduction was not affected by him falling asleep, and the results were still displayed in his sea of consciousness:

[Evolution Conditions]: Proficient-level Metal Spirit Power, age reaching one thousand years.

[Required Materials]: Core of any large metal mine, thousand-year Gold-Melting Grass, High-Grade Flame Essence Crystal, Millennium Cold Marrow Liquid...

[Method]: Use the Gold-Melting Grass to soften the mine core. Once the Metal Spirit Power can freely control its form, cover the entire body evenly, then calcine it with the High-Grade Flame Essence Crystal...

Very well, one look was enough to confirm that this was a game he couldn't afford to play.

Not to mention the rest, the bulk of the cost was the metal mine core.

Although Xu Bai didn't know exactly how much a metal mine core was worth, he knew the price of a large metal mine was roughly around one million Gold Soul Coins.

And that was just for ordinary iron ore; if it were precious metals, the price could exceed ten million or even a hundred million...

"Damn it, how is this supposed to work? At my current rate of earning money, if I don't eat or drink, I can only net twenty thousand Gold Soul Coins a year. That means one million would take fifty years..."

Xu Bai looked dejected: "Didn't they say the higher the compatibility, the more common the evolution materials?"

With First's 81% compatibility, the materials required for evolution were already this expensive. If it were the Little Blue Silver Grass with 1% compatibility, would selling the entire Douluo Planet even be enough to afford the materials?

"Wait!" Xu Bai suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "Maybe I'm thinking about this wrong. Perhaps the mine core isn't actually that expensive, or its market price is far lower than an entire metal mine."

If that were the case, although he still couldn't afford it—since the other materials combined would still cost at least one or two hundred thousand—at least it wouldn't be quite so hopeless, right?

"No, I have to go and inquire about the price of a mine core!"

Action followed thought. Xu Bai sprang out of bed, tossed the simple breakfast he had prepared into his Beast Taming Space, and hurried away.

There happened to be a large iron mine near Huangshan City. He could go there to inquire; he should be able to get first-hand materials without any middlemen skimming off the top.

With the status of a soul master to back him up, the process of finding miners to ask questions went smoothly, but the results Xu Bai wanted were not so forthcoming.

He asked several people, all of whom claimed they had never heard of such a thing as a mine core.

Just as Xu Bai was beginning to think his trip would end in disappointment, an elderly man with an extraordinary air caught his attention.

Seeing this elder, Xu Bai couldn't help but think of a certain type of person found in novels, known as the omniscient passerby.

Whenever something beyond the common understanding appeared while the protagonist was present, an omniscient passerby would automatically emerge from the crowd to clear things up for everyone; the image of such a passerby was usually an elder with this very sort of distinguished temperament.

Although Xu Bai's setup didn't quite resemble that of a protagonist from the Douluo Continent, was a protagonist of the Beast Taming World not still a protagonist?

So, with a "might as well try" attitude, he decisively went over to ask, and to his surprise, he actually got an answer.

As it turned out, a mine core was indeed valuable, but not as valuable as he had thought; in essence, it was simply a higher quality, purer mineral.

While the quality was superior, the quantity was scarce, and under normal circumstances, the value of a mine core would not exceed one-tenth of the value of the mine itself.

Of course, certain precious metals were the exception.

Having obtained the answer he was looking for, Xu Bai returned home, feeling satisfied.

It was still early, and after finishing today's tasks, he could just use the time to deduce the evolutionary path for Little Blue Silver Grass.

He wanted to see just how precious these evolutionary materials with a compatibility of only 1% really were.