Lu Yuan steadied himself and finally saw what was in front of him.
It had no markings, just a tiny black fragment. If someone tossed it by the roadside, no one would give it a second glance.
No matter how he looked at it, it did not seem like something that could contaminate another person's Pathway.
Lu Yuan frowned at the residue before him.
"Lu Yuan, refine it again." Oden's voice had grown grave. He seemed to have noticed something.
"All right," Lu Yuan replied, and began the fourth refinement.
This time, the residue, originally the size of a thumbnail, shrank drastically. Most of it vanished during heating and refinement, leaving a fragment half the size of a pinky nail.
When Lu Yuan tried to examine it again, his eyes could no longer focus on it. If he had not placed it on a fixed wooden board beforehand, he might have overlooked it entirely.
"What the hell is this?" Oden exclaimed in Lu Yuan's mind.
"Nothing about this material suggests it can cause contamination. Lu Yuan, ask the Lantern Knight if this really is the core material in the Pathway Mutation Potion. How could something with these properties contaminate anyone's Pathway?"
Oden was utterly baffled.
The material's defining property was concealment, or perhaps invisibility. Calling it an invisibility potion would make more sense. Even the Aura Concealment Potion was not as potent as this.
So how did it contaminate Pathways? It showed none of the traits associated with Contamination. By itself, it could not contaminate anything.
"No need to ask, refine it further, or run any more tests." After examining it closely, Oden reached a firm conclusion. "Unless I'm mistaken, its contaminating properties must come from some other herb or material. They cannot possibly come from this core ingredient. The