Chapter 49: Qi, Mana, Lifeforce

The next one, Frostbite Den, was filled with many types of monsters, some humanoid, others just beasts. This would allow Alex to capture a variety of monsters.

The last one, Serpent's Lair, was filled with serpents. What interested Alex here were the exotic resources that came from the serpents. If he captured many of them, he would be able to obtain his own source of various types of toxins and venoms.

These would become great sources of income and experimental materials for Alex. After all, their toxins could be used for many things, not just poison. He could use them to make medicine or other materials.

But his thoughts were cut short as a delicious aroma reached his nose, making his stomach rumble in protest.

This made Emily chuckle, "Let's eat first. You're always like that; when deep in thought, you forget everything, so I ordered the food for you."

Seeing the dishes on the table, which were his favorite, made Alex ignore his sister's remark.

'Well, it's not like we're going to go today.

I still need to make more cubes to capture the animals and modify them with the beast bond contract,' he thought.

They then had a meal together before going their separate ways. Alex returned to the research facility because he wanted to finish the project quickly.

When he arrived there, he saw Faerith still busy tinkering with the storage cube.

"How is the progress?"

Faerith, with a satisfied smile on her face, pointed at a few things on the table. S~eaʀᴄh the Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

There was a watch and a mobile phone, along with types of jewelry, earrings, a bracelet, and a ring.

"I've done it; I need to optimize it now and add a security system.

The storage space for the items varies; for the watch and mobile phone, it can go up to 2 cubic meters, but for the jewelry, it can only go up to one cubic meter.

The jewelry can't function on its own; it needs to be paired with an app to work.

As for the energy, each of them is wirelessly charged with mana."

Even though Faerith said it was wirelessly charged, it still needed to be placed on a charging station to start charging.

Alex felt satisfied with the result. He gave some praise to Faerith and then moved to his own research bench.

Faerith looked at him, thinking, 'He seems changed, the hue in his red eyes has become deeper, and his body seems fitter now.'

She then started noting it in her personal notes, still obsessed with the progenitor's blood.

Meanwhile, Alex started working on the box to capture humans and beasts.

The beast bond contract he obtained from MingYue required the blood of the creature and the cultivator, which he needed to put into the formation.

Based on the analysis from Vesa, the formation took part of the creature's soul as the medium. Then, it mixed it with the cultivator, making the beast instinctively think the cultivator was their kin.

If the beast was smarter or even had its own cultivation, this would result in a clash of souls.

If the cultivator won, the beast would submit to them; conversely, the reverse could also happen.

But for Alex and MingYue, who had Vesa as part of their soul, this was not a problem.

Just as intelligent beings had a higher existence than normal animals, progenitors were even a level higher.

They would never be subdued by those of lower existence, but backlash was still possible if they were defeated.

This was a hassle for Alex; he didn't want to have to defeat creatures twice. He already needed to beat them to near death to capture them in the dimensional storage.

Alex also needed to think of a better way to provide a suitable environment for the creatures to live in; he didn't want to set up each one individually every time.

'Hmm, since an array is just like an electronic circuit, I should be able to incorporate some advanced logic into it.

Using their life force as input, I should be able to extract the environment they need and then use the information to adjust the living space inside the storage.'

Alex then started considering everything vital for a living being's existence, pressure, air, and terrain.

All of this could be manipulated with technology from his world; he just needed to use mana to sustain it.

This still meant he needed to set up preset settings in the sphere, such as an ice biome, forest biome, and undersea biome.

Alex started moving on the interface, playing with the formation array like a line of computer code.

The more he learned about it, the more excited he felt.

An array fueled with energy like qi or mana was like playing with computer code, but this one directly affected reality.

The bigger the change he implemented, the more energy would be required, but this didn't mean he could change matters at will.

Then, a question surfaced in his mind. 'Mana and qi produce different results; what if I use life force to fuel it instead?'

Alex asked Vesa about this, making Vesa sigh in defeat, 'Even without my knowledge, the King will keep progressing forward,' Vesa thought.

What Alex thought was not only possible but had been done and improved upon many times over by the vampire race using what they called Rune.

However, using Rune was not easy.

Cultivators used arrays and formations with many materials to cast them, but Vesa and Alex directly manipulated the qi, creating their own complex circuit with it.

To use life force to create their own Rune or array required Alex to have the capability to manipulate it.

Vesa then explained this to Alex.

"Is there really no other way to utilize life force?"

[Well, if you could obtain a relic from when the Vampire race was at its peak, then it's possible. But that is even harder than progressing to become a progenitor, King.

Every single one who holds our race's relics is our enemy.]