Chapter 714: Chapter 439 Golden Blood Qi_2
And as long as efficiency increased, those spent Magic Stones would naturally be earned back.
Thinking thus, Colin walked up to the harvesting machine, looked up for a careful observation, and asked, "What’s the energy consumption like?"
"Five ordinary Magic Stones can support it for about an hour," Shelley said. "Just getting those blade gears moving doesn’t use much energy, and it’s quite simple to make it happen."
"Not bad, but it would be better if the consumption could be even lower," Colin stroked the metal exterior of the towering machinery, "The cost of this harvester is still too high."
After all, it was a piece of Witch Tools, and Witch Tools were never cheap.
This seemingly simple harvester had, from start to finish, from materials to research and development, cost him at least a hundred thousand Magic Stones.
"Indeed, if we were to harvest wheat solely with these machines, the cost would far exceed that of using serfs to harvest wheat," Shelley nodded in agreement.
You should know that it costs nothing to pay serfs to harvest wheat.
"No worries, continue to optimize the energy consumption and cost. The materials don’t need to be too good, as long as it can cut the wheat.
When those serfs are liberated from the fields, I have other places lined up for them," Colin continued.
As long as the production costs of the harvesters could be reduced to a certain level, they would eventually catch up with the cost-effectiveness of using serfs.
After all, even though serfs didn’t require wages, they still needed food and shelter.
And due to the Supreme Council’s regulations, the pricing of agricultural crops isn’t high, so it’s unrealistic to expect substantial profits from it.
Once those serfs could be liberated, having sufficient labor force, the next step would be to expand into other manufacturing industries.
Those were the real moneymakers.
"I’ll continue to work on reducing the costs of the harvester," Shelley nodded.
"You might try setting up some production lines with the same assembly line thinking," Colin added.
"I understand," Shelley nodded.
It was only in the Wizard World that they, without developing any associated industries like Iron Refineries, could rely on extraordinary powers to handcraft a harvester on their own.
But handcrafting meant high costs.
If they wanted to continue to develop in the future, they would still need to establish production lines, which would also help further reduce costs.
If the production cost of this kind of harvester could be reduced to ten thousand Magic Stones per machine, then it would probably have practical significance.
...
Knight Level was finally complete.
At night, Colin stood up after completing his practice and exhaled a breath of stale air.
His Blood Energy had reached its peak; while he felt an unprecedented strength, he couldn’t help but sigh.
The path of a Knight had once again reached its end.
At this moment, his physical strength alone was no worse than that of a Second Rank Wizard, and in some aspects, his combat prowess was even better.
However, this was also the terminal point for a Knight, temporarily unable to see a path forward.
No... if he really had to speak of a direction, he did have a clue.
After hesitating for a moment, Colin sat down cross-legged and took out the Divine Blood.
The translucent red liquid sparkled with specks of gold within the semi-transparent Crystal Bottle, achingly beautiful.
Visible to the naked eye, there was less Divine Blood in the Crystal Bottle than before.
Throughout this period, he had been strictly following the usage instructions, taking Divine Blood every three days.
The effect was very good; his cultivation as a Wizard soared rapidly.
And today, since three days had passed since the last use, it was time to use the Divine Blood again.
Shaking the Crystal Bottle in his hand, the crystalline Divine Blood was like a sea of blood, with golden speckles rippling within like stars.
"What is the essence of the Divine... I wonder?" Colin stared at it, suddenly thinking to himself.
The Divine intruders of the Yanan World were not those omnipotent Divines depicted in legends, Colin knew this.
Except for this, further information about the Divine was rarely heard.
One thing that could be ascertained was that these beings all possessed immense power.
"Does this power come from believers?" Colin wondered, yet the next moment he shook his head.
Although from the current perspective, these gods did indeed require faith, he did not believe that they were such fragile existences that would lose power without it.
These divine beings gave him the impression of being a type of life form with formidable power.
Pop.
Pulling off the lid, Colin stopped pondering.
After all, how could he possibly comprehend the nature and source of the gods’ power through mere conjecture?
He would go to the Council tomorrow to look for some information related to the gods.
As he thought this, Colin ingested the Divine Blood—out of caution, he only took one-tenth of a drop.
The same sensation as before, a warm current surged in his chest and then rapidly spread to his limbs and bones.
Colin silently observed the changes in his body and, after a moment, stood up to practice the Red Light Breathing Method.
Swoosh—
His movements were neither hurried nor slow, his breathing carried a unique rhythm, and the muscles and bones of his entire body moved in time with it.
Visibly, a red light emerged around him, Colin looked serene as he continued to practice the Red Light Breathing Method.
As time passed, the warmth in his chest from ingesting the Divine Blood gradually faded.
Once it had completely dissipated, Colin opened the Golden Paper.
Behind the Knight Level column, a faint upward arrow symbol appeared but quickly vanished.
Focusing again on sensing his body.
There was no change in the strength of the body, no increase in the power of will, and the quantity of Blood Energy also remained unchanged... Just as Colin was puzzled, he suddenly noticed something different.
He extended his right arm and spread out his palm.
Hum—
Red Light Blood Energy gushed out from the center of his palm, forming a fist-sized sphere of light. Within the deep red, a strand of Golden Blood Qi was particularly conspicuous.
After careful observation, Colin confirmed, "The Blood Energy has indeed undergone some sort of change."
He tried to separate that particular strand of Golden Blood Qi, but by the time he did so, only less than a third of it remained, the rest having been diluted and assimilated by the ordinary Blood Energy.
Next, Colin experimented with the strength of that strand of Golden Blood Qi.
The result left him utterly astonished.
This seemingly ordinary Golden Blood Energy, at the same amount of usage, enhanced physical strength almost five to ten times more than the regular Red Light Blood Energy!
This was a qualitative change!
Unfortunately... this Golden Blood Energy only existed for a moment before dissolving into the rest of the ordinary Blood Energy.
This situation was somewhat like putting a lump of rock sugar in water—the former, being in water, naturally could not maintain its separate existence and dissolved rapidly.
Dissolution did not mean disappearance, though. After all the Golden Blood Energy had dissolved into the ordinary Blood Energy, Colin distinctly felt an improvement in the quality of the Blood Energy inside him.
This improvement was fundamentally different from the previous enhancement brought about by compressing Blood Energy.
The former was about stacking density, compressing from a gaseous to a liquid state to achieve a qualitative change, while the latter was a fundamental alteration, like adding carbon to iron, making it stronger.
"This must be the future path for knights!" After the experience, Colin could not contain the joy in his heart and laughed out loud a few times.
Although he had unexpectedly learned that Divine Blood could indeed elevate Knight’s Blood Energy, he hadn’t held much hope that it would let him break through the Second Rank Knight’s ceiling.
But now, it seemed that the Golden Blood Qi was at least five times stronger than the original Red Light Blood Qi!
If he could convert all the Blood Energy in his body into Golden Blood Qi, then even if it did not bring a transformation, allowing him to ascend to Third Rank Knight, it would still be a tremendous improvement in strength!
"The remaining Divine Blood should probably all be used to strengthen Knight cultivation."
Colin made up his mind.
After all, on the Wizard side, he could still advance through daily meditation, even if it might be slower than using Divine Blood.
But on the Knight side, his daily practice of the Red Light Breathing Method was no longer bringing any progress.
The choice was obvious and needed no further hesitation.