The Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well—now also referred to by Huo Yuhao as the "Blue Silver Grass Experimental Park."
Since the successful cultivation of the Dark Blue Silver King a few months ago, the entire experimental park had undergone a "second spring," flourishing more vigorously than ever.
Remember those immortal herbs Huo Yuhao had harvested from the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well before?
After the Dark Blue Silver King was successfully bred, Huo Yuhao branded those precious experimental materials with the "God-Binding Soul Seal" to prevent them from developing sentient wisdom. He then replanted them back into the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
It seemed like business as usual, right? No. Now, surrounding every single immortal herb, there were at least nine Dark Blue Silver Kings!
These nine Dark Blue Silver Kings formed a collaborative soul tool transmission array. This allowed them to purify the life energy they plundered from other ordinary Blue Silver Grass and inject it directly into the immortal herb, forcing it to grow at an accelerated rate.
Among these nine, five were responsible for absorbing the impurities left behind after the other four purified the life force.
The four "clean" Dark Blue Silver Kings would then entwine themselves around the immortal herb, bit by bit devouring the immortal herb origin nurtured by the freshly absorbed, pure life force.
By utilizing this method, every two months on average, each immortal herb could provide Huo Yuhao with four "Blue Silver · Immortal Herbs."
In a sense, these Blue Silver Kings were already genuine natural treasures. While their effects certainly couldn't match a true immortal herb, they had the overwhelming advantage of being mass-produced!
Take the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum as an example. According to Huo Yuhao's calculations, one only needed to consume ten to twelve "Blue Silver · Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemums" simultaneously to achieve the exact same effect as the original!
Considering Huo Yuhao could now harvest at least four such herbs every two months for each species, that totaled at least twenty-four per year—the equivalent of harvesting two full-strength immortal herbs of every type annually!
And this didn't even account for the immortal herbs he had planted previously that were still in their seedling stage!
In a certain sense, he had already achieved the "Wholesale Natural Treasures Plan."
Of course, the "Wholesale Plan" wasn't Huo Yuhao's main reason for visiting the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well this time.
Huo Yuhao had never forgotten that the primary purpose of breeding the Dark Blue Silver King was for the project he had always dreamed of: the "Blue Silver Soul Engine"!
Currently, the soul power consumption of various soul tools in the Spirit Transmission Pagoda was provided by soul masters one by one. Some did it because they had absorbed their first ring for free at the Spirit Transmission Pagoda and were thus obligated to give back; others did it for money.
The soul power of these soul masters would be stored in "soul power storage devices" to serve as the daily consumption for the Spirit Transmission Pagoda and various soul tool experiments.
While the current soul power reserves were very sufficient—including several large-scale Class 9 "soul power storage devices" Huo Yuhao had established in the Spectral Demiplane, each containing a storage capacity close to Sister Skydream's at her peak—he still felt it was unstable without a method to automatically generate soul power.
And just now, after seeing Tang San operate the Mysterious Heaven Skill to absorb life force and rapidly convert it into soul power, Huo Yuhao was struck by inspiration.
The reason the Dark Blue Silver King couldn't convert the life force accumulated in its body into soul power was that, as a lab-bred variant, its innate wisdom was fragmented. It would instinctively use the life force to strengthen its own body, leaving its soul power output naturally meager.
Huo Yuhao's inspiration was simple: Since you follow instinct, why don't I just change your instinct?
He would directly engrave a soul tool array onto the Dark Blue Silver King—one modeled after the Mysterious Heaven Skill that could rapidly convert energy into soul power. By altering its instinct, it would naturally pour the life force into the array, resulting in the conversion of a massive amount of soul power!
Concept: feasible. Materials: abundant. Experiment: begin.
Stepping directly through the spatial portal, he gave a casual greeting to the "Blue Silver Emperor"—the tool-grass currently working diligently to maintain the "vegetable garden"—before heading to the area dedicated to the Dark Blue Silver Kings.
Using soul power to pull one Blue Silver King toward him, Huo Yuhao briefly recalled the Mysterious Heaven Skill and the various modified versions based on it. Then, the Eye of Destiny manifested on his forehead.
Naturally, the Mysterious Heaven Skill and the other cultivation methods he had improved couldn't be used directly by the Blue Silver King. After all, one was a human and the other was a plant; the difference in their meridians and internal pathways was absurdly vast. Thus, modifications were required.
He retained the vital energy nodes and, while minimizing the complexity, used soul power to construct energy nodes within the Blue Silver King's body to function similarly to human meridians.
Two and a half hours later, as Huo Yuhao used his mental power to wrap his soul power around the final energy node within the Dark Blue Silver King... Bang!
The Dark Blue Silver King exploded.
Huo Yuhao looked at the debris in his hand—blown into powder so fine that not even a soul ring emerged—and fell into deep thought.
In those short two and a half hours, Huo Yuhao had accidentally destroyed five Blue Silver Kings. Almost every single one had exploded during the construction of the energy nodes.
"The physical strength of the Blue Silver King does not meet the requirements for deep modification..."
Each lab-grown Blue Silver King could be considered a 10,000-year-old Soul Beast. However, aside from the retained "Devour" trait, their combat power was basically zero, and their physical toughness was naturally not much better.
"Should I find a way to breed a 'Body-Strengthened' type of Blue Silver King? No... the Blue Silver King itself simply cannot withstand that kind of modification. It's not just a matter of physical strength, but also the internal energy circulation.
"The lab-bred Dark Blue Silver Kings are ultimately rushed products; their internal energy cycles are too fragile. The slightest modification causes them to collapse... unless I make their essence stronger, or rather, let them undergo another evolution..."
Huo Yuhao murmured softly, then instinctively looked up at the busy Blue Silver Emperor nearby. Suddenly, the Blue Silver Empress felt an inexplicable chill.
Blue Silver Emperor: ???
Hiss... what is this heart-stopping sense of impending doom?!
The Blue Silver Emperor subconsciously looked toward the figure sitting cross-legged in the field of Dark Blue Silver Grass, only to see the man looking down in deep contemplation. She immediately looked confused.
Why do I feel like someone wants to kill me?
The Blue Silver Emperor fell into deep thought...
On the other side, Huo Yuhao, who had already withdrawn his gaze, lowered his eyes in reflection.
The Blue Silver Emperor was too unique, possessing a "uniqueness" whose principles he hadn't yet fully grasped. Furthermore, she was quite honest; ever since signing the contract, she had worked diligently. Huo Yuhao was reluctant to use such a good worker for an experiment.
Could it be... Tang San's mother?
Huo Yuhao recalled the last meeting when he saw that self-sealing core within the Golden Ancient Tree, where a blue figure slept, slowly devouring and absorbing the power of many Limit Douluos within the tree.
If he remembered correctly, she was also a Blue Silver Emperor—the kind with noble blood, born as a natural sovereign.
Tang San, tell me: will your mother be useful?