Chapter 317: Lesser Energy Generator

Bai Zemin rushed over and was immediately disappointed when he saw the color of the treasure orbs.

All three were yellow orbs.

The yellow orbs represented Magic grade treasures.

Unconsciously or not, Bai Zemin was actually hoping to obtain at least one light green orb, which would represent an Epic grade treasure. However, after careful thought, he realized that it was quite normal not to obtain an Epic orb this time.

After all, unlike his battle against the Archaic Bear where Bai Zemin had basically done most of the work, this was especially not the case against the Ice Light Tiger.

While they were both Second Order beasts and, in fact, the Ice Light Tiger was several levels higher than the Archaic Bear, the tiger had actually been severely injured after its fight against the giant ape and the Second Order mutated spider.

What Bai Zemin had done was simply to strike the fatal blow. 

In fact, it was already surprisingly good that he obtained so much Soul Power and that was probably because the mutated spider had died first, so he ended up absorbing its deserved portion as well.

Regardless of the reason, Bai Zemin felt a lot better after thinking about this.

"How about we keep these and look at them later? We can divide them up depending on our needs and fighting styles." He pointed out as he looked at Shangguan Bing Xue.

However, she shook her head gently and said calmly, "No need. You keep all of them."

Anyway, I didn't do anything here. That was what Shangguan Bing Xue meant.

No matter how much she wanted such treasures, Shangguan Bing Xue had her own principles and rules to follow as well. She would not feel comfortable taking something undeserved; if she had participated in the battle, no matter how slight her contribution was, she might not refuse it. But since that was not the case, things were different.

Bai Zemin naturally understood what she meant. But he also had his own thoughts on the matter so after a moment's thought he proposed: "If all three are treasures I do not yet possess, then I will keep them all. If there are any that I already have, then you can have it. How about that?"

He already had some Magic grade treasures on him and since he couldn't have two exactly the same since the attached stats or skills didn't stack, then he might as well give it to someone else instead of letting them gather dust uselessly inside his backpack.

Shangguan Bing Xue was currently his most powerful fighter, and if Bai Zemin wanted her to be of use to him in the future, then not only did he need to prevent her from dying before she grew up, but he also needed to help her as much as possible.

Besides, since they could currently consider themselves as friends or something similar, then he didn't feel bad about it by giving her something that wouldn't be of any use to him anyway.

After a moment's thought, Shangguan Bing Xue really could not find a reason to say no to Bai Zemin's words. Besides, if she continued to refuse she might end up looking like a pretentious woman acting humble even though in reality her inner thoughts were different.

"Okay... Let's do as you say then." 

Seeing her finally give in even though she clearly looked hesitant, Bai Zemin nodded without saying anything and put away the three yellow orbs in his bag.

After putting away the treasure orbs, Bai Zemin picked up the skill scroll dropped by the white tiger and the information naturally flowed to him.

[Luminous Ice Armor (Second Order active skill) level 3: Uses the power of the purest frost to form a tough and resilient magical defense around the user's body. The armor can block magical attacks to some extent depending on how high the user's Magic stat is. While Luminous Ice Armor is activated, magic spells of skills lower than First Order are automatically repelled with no effect. Secondary effect: Decreases Agility by 10%. Consumes 30 Mana points to activate and 1 Stamina point for each active minute. The skill has a duration of 10 minutes and needs 6 hours of cooldown before it can be activated again.]

It was a considerably good skill. Not only did it mitigate damage from enemy magic spells but it even made the user immune to all magic below First Order for 10 minutes. In addition, the Mana and Stamina consumptions were not excessively high either.

However, it was not at all suited to Bai Zemin's combat style. But even if it were, before breaking through to the Second Order he wouldn't be able to learn new active skills at all.

"Do you still have room to learn active skills?" He asked as he looked at Shangguan Bing Xue.

She used ice-based skills, and somehow this skill scroll suited her fighting style.

Unlike Bai Zemin, who sought to overwhelm his opponents in seconds, Shangguan Bing Xue was quite the opposite and aimed to be able to resist and exhaust her opponent before finally finishing them off.

Since that was the case, this skill would indeed shine brighter with her.

"I still have room for two more..." She unconsciously replied. The next instant, however, she realized what Bai Zemin was going to do and was about to refuse when he threw the scroll towards her.

The information of the skill appeared on her retina and her words caught in her throat.

"That skill is no good for me and even Kang Lan, who is a pure mage, won't want it." Bai Zemin's voice immediately drew her in and as she looked at him she realized that he was looking at her as well.

"Kang Lan walks a path of poison and healing instead of defense. That skill will only end up taking up space in her soul." 

Bai Zemin was sure of this because Kang Lan had previously told him that she aspired to be able to melt the attacks of her enemies with her toxic poison someday. Therefore, he knew that she would reject this skill regardless of how powerful it was given that learning it would mean deviating from the path she had been walking so far and aspired to. Otherwise, he would definitely have given it to her rather than Shangguan Bing Xue.

As for Cai Jingyi, she would probably run away from the skill the first instant the Agility reduction came into her eyes. She aspired to be fast, how could she bind herself to a skill that made her slower? Therefore, she did not even cross Bai Zemin's mind.

The same applied to Fu Xuefeng and Zhong De. Fu Xuefeng was similar to Cai Jingyi, while Zhong De's Agility was already considerably low to begin with; if more weight was added, the man probably wouldn't even be able to take two steps in the future.

In the end, Shangguan Bing Xue ended up keeping the skill Luminous Ice Armor. She learned it on the spot and the thought of giving it to Wu Yijun did not even appear in her head as Bai Zemin was giving it to her and she believed that it would be disrespectful to do such a thing.

Finally, Bai Zemin bent down and picked up the antique sheepskin scroll.

[Lesser Energy Generator (Construction Plan): A completely renewable energy generator with no harm to the world or the living things in it .....]

A message with an extremely long description appeared in Bai Zemin's retina and his mind trembled when he finally finished analyzing all the information in the content.

This... A power generator! Bai Zemin was jumping for joy inside as his heart pounded like crazy as he realized what the Construction Plan in his hands represented.

How could he not be aware that the energy humanity was currently using was not a viable path? Sure, electricity still worked and mankind could take advantage of that so as not to lose their vision to any great extent during the night.

However, it was only a matter of time before the power finally stopped working. The Soul Record had arrived on Earth almost a month and a half ago, after the outbreak of the apocalypse most of humanity ended up becoming mindless zombies and the factories and reservoirs that need human support to function naturally came to a halt.

How long would the accumulated energy to produce electricity last? Bai Zemin did not know with certainty. However, he like everyone else was fully aware that it would definitely not be long.

But with the construction plan in his hands, all that could be solved!

Of course, things were not that easy.

After calming down from his initial great excitement, Bai Zemin frowned as he saw that it would take one Third Order Soul Stone as a core or 1000 Second Order Soul Stones to fill up some of the energy needed for the generator to work.

Third Order Soul Stone? Dream on! Bai Zemin hoped he wouldn't meet a Third Order existence anytime soon but even if he did who could guarantee that he would obtain a Soul Stone in the hypothetical case that he emerged victorious?

As for 1000 Second Class Soul Stones... Bai Zemin had only 1 of those, as for the remaining 999... Only fate knew when he could have such a huge wealth like that when he didn't even have that many First Order ones.

But the matter of the Soul Stones was not the only problem.

To build the generator also required some special materials that Bai Zemin had never heard of, let alone seen. It even needed the bones of a Third Order beast.

Apparently, as with the formula for the magic powder, the matter of the power generator could only be put aside temporarily.

When she saw him snap back to his senses, Shangguan Bing Xue asked curiously, "What's wrong? Your expression went from happy to bitter in such a short time."

She had been watching him silently so she noticed clearly how he seemed to travel from heaven to hell with a single step. Therefore, she felt curious about the scroll in his hands.

"Look for yourself." Bai Zemin passed the construction plan to her with a bitter look.

After reading and analyzing the information, Shangguan Bing Xue went through exactly the same emotions that Bai Zemin experienced a few moments ago. 

She forced a bitter smile and shook her head, "It's a good thing but we won't be able to use it for a while... We can only gather carbon and the like to use as energy during that time. I doubt the electricity will last more than a month or two from now on."

Bai Zemin nodded and just as he was about to say something, an idea occurred to him and his eyes lit up.

He looked at Shangguan Bing Xue and asked in a stiff voice, "Hey... Don't you think that thing can also be used to move cars?"

Shangguan Bing Xue's expression froze when she heard this and for a moment she stood there, stunned and staring at him. After a moment, she smiled bitterly again and shook her head as she muttered, "Really... Now I understand what its like to have a great treasure in your hands but not be able to use it. It feels like those movies where the main character possesses an incredibly powerful weapon but for some particular reason can't unleash its full power."

Oil was a non-renewable energy and it has been known for many years that it would one day run out. However, now that the distilleries had stopped working, the amount of fuel available was even more limited. Therefore, sooner rather than later, all petroleum-based means of transportation would cease to move forever.

At that time, mankind would need other means of transportation or a new source of energy.

Now, Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue had found a possible source of energy... Unfortunately, it could not yet be used. Fortunately, they still had time.

With bittersweet feelings in his heart, Bai Zemin moved forward to search for the corpse of the Second Order mutated spider.

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