Chapter 176: Adding Variable X

With this as an auxiliary ingredient, many of the previously required medicinal herbs were no longer even necessary.

However, if the ancient tree of life could be squeezed for such high-quality goods, what about other ancient trees?

With this in mind, Lan Qingyou stepped out for a moment. She soon returned with three branches to extract their sap, then had Shang Chuan appraise the results.

[Sap of Knowledge (S)]

[Effect: A single drop allows a person to randomly awaken a piece of knowledge or magic that does not belong to them. (Limit one drop per person)]

[Description: Do you want to possess all sorts of bizarre magic? Then you should try this juice!]

[Sap of Gale (S)]

[Effect: A single drop allows a person to randomly awaken an Agility-type magic. (Limit one drop per person)]

[Description: A strong wind blows through the horn, emitting a deafening blast, but that does not have much to do with you.]

[Effect: A single drop allows a person to randomly awaken a Combat-type magic. (Limit one drop per person)]

[Description: Remember! Close combat works to your advantage!]

'An advantage my foot!'

'With my stats, going into close combat is just throwing my life away!'

Although she did not want to pay attention to the Small Screen's snarky comments, there were times when a person just could not hold back.

Still, these saps all looked quite excellent. The Sap of Knowledge, in particular, seemed suitable for brewing into potions.

Even though she wanted to experiment with the other saps first, Lan Qingyou had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment.

After scribbling and drawing in her notebook to calculate the precise measurements and the capacity of the Fire-Seeking Crucible, Lan Qingyou began brewing the potion.

For the liquid base this time, Lan Qingyou did not use Flame Strong Liquor. Instead, she directly used a pot of the Spring of Rest that she had brought with her when she went out.

Originally, she had not expected to use the Spring of Rest at all.

However, under the current circumstances, using it was absolutely perfect.

Chime!

Just as Lan Qingyou was brewing the potion, her Card chimed.

Moon: "Among the materials sent to you earlier, there was one called Stargrass. Have you used it yet?"

Tower: "?"

Lan Qingyou was confused.

Stargrass was a medicinal herb similar to a pitcher plant. It earned its name because its edges were lined with small, fleshy nodules that twinkled like little stars.

The primary function of this herb was to act as an adhesive, binding the medicinal properties of various ingredients together.

It was somewhat akin to an adjuvant herb in traditional medicine, serving to assist and harmonize the primary ingredients.

This herb was occasionally used when working with highly potent materials. After all, both the blood of the Starlight Dragon King and the Sap of Life were considered incredibly strong ingredients.

Without the neutralizing effect of the Stargrass, even if the magic potion was successfully brewed thanks to the Fire-Seeking Crucible, its efficacy would be drastically reduced.

Moon: "My subordinates accidentally left a few Three-Eyed Raven eyeballs mixed in with the washed Stargrass. Check if you have used it yet. If not, pick the eyes out."

'Huh?'

Lan Qingyou paused for a moment. She immediately grabbed a slotted spoon, stirred the contents of the pot, and scooped out the Stargrass to inspect it.

To her dismay, she actually found a few eyeballs in the mix that had already melted more than halfway down.

Lan Qingyou's face instantly darkened.

She had calculated every possible variable, yet she never anticipated a problem arising from something like this.

Since the herbs sent over by Shang Chuan were always clean and ready for immediate use in the past, Lan Qingyou had been careless and did not bother to double-check them.

...

'Forget it,' she thought. 'A few extra eyeballs are no big deal. I will just treat it as adding Variable X. Even if it fails, the loss will not be that great.'

After all, the Fire-Seeking Crucible had nearly half the capacity of the meteoric iron crucible, holding only about ten liters or so.

It could only produce around a hundred vials of ten-milliliter potions.

Even if she wasted it, the loss was strictly capped.

Besides, she still had plenty of materials left.

Tower: "This is a serious commercial accident. I do not want to see a next time."

Although the issue was not a massive deal to Lan Qingyou, she still had to issue a stern warning to prevent similar accidents in the future.

Moon: "Of course. I will contact you later regarding specific compensation."

As a merchant, especially when dealing with a major supplier like Lan Qingyou, Shang Chuan naturally knew how to handle the situation.

Truth be told, it was just a stroke of sheer bad luck.

Rather than just simple negligence from his subordinates, the incident was far too coincidental.

The person in charge of washing and processing the herbs had merely placed them together for convenience, planning to sort them out later.

However, they ended up getting injured, infected, and falling into a coma while out on an errand. They had only just woken up and realized the Stargrass had been shipped out, prompting them to hastily contact Shang Chuan.

The bizarre chain of events left Shang Chuan completely unable to vent his frustration.

Tower: "Acceptable."

Lan Qingyou sent her brief reply and set the Card aside.

She did not genuinely care much about the compensation; Alchemists were never short on money, after all. But a necessary punishment still had to be enforced.

Of course, she could not be bothered to micromanage those disciplinary matters. She would just leave that headache to Shang Chuan.

Tossing the Card away, Lan Qingyou continued to stir the potion in the Crucible.

The Fire-Seeking Crucible cut the potion brewing time by exactly half.

That meant a potion that previously took eight hours to brew now only required four hours. As for prototype potions that did not demand high stats, their brewing time dropped from four hours to just two.

Naturally.

Because she was playing for high stakes this time, Lan Qingyou did not treat this batch as a mere prototype. She did not skip a single step in the process, steadily and meticulously completing every phase.

Staring at the pale red liquid in the Crucible, Lan Qingyou had another sudden flash of inspiration.

'Since this pot of potion is already in a semi-ruined state because of those Three-Eyed Raven eyeballs, why do I not add a bit more Variable X into the mix?'

'If the blood of the Starlight Dragon King can be used as an ingredient, my own blood should be fine too, right?'

'After all, I am a Witch acknowledged by the will of the world.'

'Besides, there is already a precedent with the talent magic potion. Adding a little bit should not hurt.'

'At most, it will just be over a hundred drops of blood—about five or six milliliters. That is not even the volume of a standard ten-milliliter Mana Potion.'

With that in mind, Lan Qingyou used her Moonbright Stone Dagger to draw some of her own blood and let it drip into the cauldron.

After more than a hundred drops of blood fell into the mix, the potion inside the Crucible did not darken. Instead, it shifted from pale red to a vibrant hot pink.

'Hot pink it is, then,' she mused. 'I already have things like pink infantrymen under my command anyway, so this makes no difference.'

Four hours passed in a flash as Lan Qingyou earnestly brewed the concoction.

However, out of an abundance of caution, she did not hastily bottle and appraise the liquid the moment it was finished. Instead, she patiently waited for it to cool down and settle.

After all, this was a mandatory step when carefully crafting any proper potion.

An hour later, the settling process was complete. Lan Qingyou then began to filter and bottle the liquid.

From that entire pot, she yielded one hundred and eight vials of potion.

Unsurprisingly, looking through her Appraisal Glasses only revealed a string of question marks. This was easy to understand; although she had added plenty of low-level herbs and materials, they only served supporting roles. Expecting them to drag down the immense quality of the Starlight Dragon King's blood, her own blood, and the Sap of Life was rather unrealistic.

However, that was only one possibility. The chance of utter failure was still on the table.

After all, those question marks represented the absolute unknown. Considering she had deliberately thrown a bunch of Variable X into the brew this time, heaven only knew what she had just created.

Yet, just as Lan Qingyou was carefully observing the potion in her hand, the voice of the world's will suddenly rang out.