Chapter 9: Wind Spirit Moon Shadow

Although Gao De had little understanding of the wizarding world, he could grasp just how extraordinary this enhancement spell ability was.

This was a transcendence of the very essence of spells!

“A complete origin can enhance a spell of the corresponding tier. If I master more spells in the future and enhance all of them…”

Just imagining it was enough to make Gao De exhilarated.

What did this equate to? It was like in the same game, others played the standard version while he played the modified version—far superior to a “pay-to-win warrior.” “Is this your effect?” Gao De’s attention returned to the crescent-shaped gem hovering at the center of his spell star-sea, his heart awestruck.

At this moment, he understood: this gem was undoubtedly an extraordinary treasure, or rather, an invaluable one.

While marveling at the miracle of the crescent gem, Gao De reached into the cage again and grabbed another gray-eyed rat. With a familiar plop, he sent it away once more.

His mind sank into his thoughts.

Within the gem, after the group of “Big Dipper” stars representing the gray-eyed rat’s origin merged into the [Repair Spell] model, only one dot remained glowing.

This eighth gray-eyed rat had not lit up a new dot for Gao De.

Origins:

0th-tier — [Human] (1/7), [Gray-eyed Rat] (used). “One creature yields only one origin.” Gao De had anticipated this, but speculation was speculation—practice was still required for confirmation.

Thus, although the crescent gem was powerful, its limitations were real.

Yet even with many restrictions, even if Gao De currently did not know the gem’s upper limit—whether it could enhance only 0th-tier spells—this crescent gem still deserved the title of invaluable treasure.

Because 0th-tier spells, though low in tier, were all created by legendary great wizards of history, rigorous and perfect, passed down for countless years without anyone ever innovating or enhancing them.

One could imagine how difficult the act of enhancing a spell truly was.

“What exactly are you? You came with me to this world and possess such an unimaginable ability,” Gao De thought inwardly, his mind growing alert.

An innocent man suffers for possessing a precious jade.

If outsiders learned he possessed such a treasure, greedy thieves would instantly overwhelm him, devising every means to kill him and seize it.

Not to mention distant threats—Master Seda was surely the first who would kill him for it.

“I must be extremely cautious from now on. I cannot reveal this treasure’s existence by accident.”

Fortunately, the gem had already taken root in his spell star-sea. As long as he did not boast about it, who could possibly guess he possessed such a priceless treasure? Moreover, because of the gem’s existence, Gao De saw, for the first time, a faint glimmer of hope to escape his current predicament.

—Purchase spell formulas with lethal power, master new spells, then enhance them with the gem. Perhaps, just perhaps, he could gain the strength to directly resist Master Seda.

Gao De stared at the magnificent gem in his spell star-sea and decided to give it a name.

After all, it was not merely a simple gem—only its appearance was.

Its essence was some wondrous artifact, and thus it deserved a name.

Gao De gazed at the crescent-shaped “gem,” recalling its game-modifier-like miraculous effect, and a perfect name suddenly came to him, “I’ll call you…”

“Wind Spirit Moon Shadow!”

Gao De suppressed his excitement, acted as if nothing had happened, cleaned up the gray rat’s corpse, then went to the dining hall for lunch.

In the afternoon, it was still work hours.

The daily routine of the herb garden mostly involved cultivating and processing herbs, and preparing simple potions for Master Seda.

Although called “simple potions,” only three people were capable of handling this task.

—Everything requires talent.

And Gao De was the strongest among all apprentices.

Thus, he was granted a private “workroom.”

Of course, he learned all this from Amy—even his workroom was shown to him by Amy; otherwise, he would never have found it.

Gao De’s workroom was not large—just a long worktable, cluttered with tools needed for potion mixing.

On one side of the worktable stood a foot-operated bellows, a furnace, and several hanging crucibles of varying sizes. The bellows controlled the heat; it was said that advanced alchemists used spells for heating—more convenient and far more precise.

On the other end of the worktable was a large storage rack, lined with rows of raw materials for potion-making, each stored in different containers.

After carefully scanning this familiar yet alien environment, Gao De took a deep breath. “Let’s begin.”

His afternoon task was to brew a basic spider venom potion.

Just as in xianxia novels, alchemists, artifact-crafters, and array specialists were called the “Big Three” among side professions, in this world, though many spell-related disciplines existed—such as golemology and scrollcraft—these were minor arts; the most respected were always these three:

Alchemy, Potioncraft, and the most mysterious Glyphcraft.

Alchemy could be likened to artifact-crafting; Potioncraft was easier to understand—it was alchemy.

As for Glyphcraft, the former’s knowledge offered no insight into this discipline.

But overall, Potioncraft, as one of the Big Three, held profound depths far beyond what Gao De had seen in Western films—where all ingredients were simply dumped into a pot and boiled.

First, before brewing a potion, the required materials must be enchanted.

Enchanting releases a material’s properties and, through the alchemist’s precise control, aligns them precisely with the potion’s needs.

This was a crucial step—and extremely difficult.

Most apprentices failed at potion-making precisely because they could not master this step.

Gao De narrowed his eyes and mentally reviewed every detail again.

“One snake-tooth herb, one mountain wormwood, one green spider sac.”

Following his memory, Gao De retrieved the primary ingredients for the basic spider venom potion from the storage rack.

He then took the snake-tooth herb and placed it into a wooden bowl on the table—ordinary in appearance, and truly ordinary.

After calming his mind, Gao De stared at the gray-green snake-tooth herb in the bowl, summoned his mental energy, and his senses sharpened instantly.

About two minutes later, in his vision, strange patterns appeared on the herb’s surface.

Spiral patterns like DNA strands, jagged sawtooth waves, wavelike patterns—nearly seven or eight distinct waves, emerging from the snake-tooth herb in a peculiar yet regular rhythm.

Gao De knew these waves were manifestations of the snake-tooth herb’s multiple properties.

Snake-tooth herb was not a rare herb, yet it still possessed seven or eight medicinal properties. Of course, for brewing the basic spider venom potion, he needed only one—its “poison” property.

Gao De’s face grew serious. He reached out and touched the snake-tooth herb in the bowl, while his internal Qi extended, concentrating in his palm, flowing along his fingers, climbing onto the herb’s surface, and pouring steadily into the jagged sawtooth wave—as if charging it.

Instantly, all other waves except the jagged sawtooth one ceased emitting.

As if the stillness of the other waves granted the sawtooth wave more room to expand, and with Gao De’s “charging,” its volume surged nearly doubled.

But the stillness lasted only an instant.

Soon, the other waves reemerged from the herb, squeezing back into the space the sawtooth wave had occupied.

Yet the sawtooth wave was dominant; these returning waves could reclaim only a fraction of their original space—most remained firmly held by the sawtooth wave.

Seeing success achieved, Gao De, whose nerves had been taut, finally exhaled. He knew the enchantment of the snake-tooth herb was complete, and quietly withdrew his Qi.

The entire enchantment process, from start to finish, took less than a minute—but consumed considerable mental energy and Qi from Gao De.

Snake-tooth herb was merely an ordinary, unranked herb. One could imagine how immense the mental energy and Qi required to enchant a high-tier herb must be—no wonder powerful alchemists were always powerful wizards.

Although this was Gao De’s first time performing enchantment, the former’s muscle memory ensured not a single mistake.

With this experience, enchanting the remaining materials became much easier.

Soon, all materials were enchanted. The first step was complete. The next step was material processing.

(End of Chapter)