Powerful Replication

Two days had passed since the assistant examination, and the turmoil in the Alchemy Department had gradually settled down.

Sun Hecheng's private workshop.

That evening, the clock reached half past nine.

Sun Hecheng sealed two prepared potions and stored them in the safe. Beside him, Bai Xiaowen helped clean up the scraps and waste left from potion-making.

"You did very well."

Sun Hecheng meant the praise sincerely. He had thought Bai Xiaowen would need some time to adapt, but after only two days, an unspoken rapport had formed between them.

No matter how complicated the potion was, as long as it had been prepared once before, Bai Xiaowen could have every ingredient ready at precisely the right moment during the second preparation, placed where Sun Hecheng could reach it most easily.

He did not seem like a novice at all. He was more like a seasoned assistant who had worked alongside him for years.

Sun Hecheng recalled his former assistant, Zheng Li. Zheng Li had followed him for five years before finishing his apprenticeship and was considered an experienced assistant, but compared to Bai Xiaowen, he had always lacked a touch of intuition.

Bai Xiaowen smiled shyly. "Teacher Sun, you should head back first. I'll prepare tomorrow's ingredients."

"Don't stay up too late. Just process the ingredients for tomorrow morning. I can make the afternoon and evening batches whenever I have some spare time," Sun Hecheng said. He had not forgotten that Bai Xiaowen was still a senior high school student.

After Sun Hecheng left, Bai Xiaowen closed the workshop door and began processing the next day's ingredients. Contrary to what he had told Sun Hecheng, he was processing ingredients for the entire day, and he worked quickly.

Compared to other assistants, Bai Xiaowen's greatest advantage was that he had memorized the Pharmacopoeia Compendium. He did not need to search through that massive volume for ingredient-processing methods. This allowed him to coordinate everything, processing ingredients that would not affect one another in the same batch and saving a great deal of time.

In just one hour, Bai Xiaowen finished pre-processing all the ingredients needed for the next day and completed the preparation work.

Then Bai Xiaowen turned his gaze toward the experiment table. He felt a faint thrill of excitement.

"Whether I can turn things around depends on this!"

Bai Xiaowen carefully gathered the scraps one by one, then used different ingredient-processing methods such as evaporation, extraction, and screening to reclaim them.

Under normal circumstances, these scraps would have been tossed straight into the trash. Since powders from various ingredients had been mixed together, their component ratios were difficult to determine, making them unusable for preparing new potions.

But under Bai Xiaowen's Insight, he could clearly see the mixture's composition and identify which medicinal ingredients it contained. Combined with the knowledge he had learned from the Pharmacopoeia Compendium, he could use the most suitable methods to separate them once more.

Bai Xiaowen was separating these scraps and extracting ingredient powders for one reason only: to prepare potions! Enhancement Potions that he could take himself!

Bai Xiaowen did not want to secretly use the shop's ingredients. Leaving aside the Alchemy Department's strict regulations, his conscience alone would not allow him to do that. But if he used scraps and turned waste into something useful, he had far fewer concerns.

In the end, piles of ingredient powders in different colors were successfully separated!

Bai Xiaowen let out a long breath and closed his eyes. Ten seconds later, he opened them again. His gaze instantly became sharp and piercing, while his left eye emitted a faint red glow.

Bai Xiaowen rose to his feet and walked step by step toward the preparation table, as though following some special trajectory. His movements were mechanical and precise, like a robot performing delicate operations, without the slightest error.

If Sun Hecheng had been there, he would have been utterly shocked. Bai Xiaowen's movements had practically replicated his preparation process!

What terrifying memory! Skimming ten lines at a glance or remembering everything after one look was nothing compared to this.

Half an hour later, Bai Xiaowen sat exhausted in his chair. On the test-tube rack before him stood a single vial of potion, radiating an intoxicating red glow.

[Enhancement Potion: Ruby's Might]

[Grade: Tier 1, Level 8]

[Purity: 67% (Qualified)]

[Components: Ironthread Vine 2.56%, Fuluo Flower Powder 4.41%, Moon-Wheel Leaf 4.72%, Earthwalker Dragon Blood Crystal Powder 7.81%, Water 80.50%]

[Effect: Permanently increases Strength by 4 points.]

"Enhancement Potion: Ruby's Might! It permanently increases Strength by 4 points. If it were placed in the sales hall, it could sell for at least two million! Although its 67% purity is a little low, it was made from discarded ingredients, so having more impurities is normal."

Bai Xiaowen closed his eyes, and intense pride surged through him.

Who could turn a pile of scraps into treasure and create an Enhancement Potion worth millions? Even an Advanced Alchemist could never do it without Insight!

Two messages entered Bai Xiaowen's mind.

"Sub-Profession: Alchemist unlocked. Current level: Alchemist Level 1."

"Your Spirit has increased by 3 points."

The two notifications brought Bai Xiaowen back to his senses. He opened his eyes and silently called up his personal panel, only to discover an additional "Profession" section. It listed only one sub-profession: Alchemist Level 1.

From what Bai Xiaowen knew, Alchemists were divided into ten levels.

Levels 1 to 3 were Beginner Alchemists, levels 4 to 6 were Intermediate Alchemists, and levels 7 to 10 were Advanced Alchemists. Every level required preparing large numbers of potions to build proficiency, and the higher the potion's grade, the faster proficiency increased.

As for his personal attributes, Bai Xiaowen saw that his Spirit had reached 7.9, higher than his Strength, Agility, and Constitution combined!

Should he drink this Enhancement Potion now?

Bai Xiaowen hesitated. He had learned that while Enhancement Potions could rapidly improve a person's attributes, they also came with many side effects.

Enhancement Potions caused agonizing pain, as though the body were being torn apart. Those without sufficiently strong willpower would directly fall into Stunned Status, causing the enhancement to fail!

Furthermore, as the number of Enhancement Potions consumed increased, the intensity of the pain doubled each time. For example, if the pain from the first Enhancement Potion was 1, then the second would be 2, the third would be 4... and so on.

Therefore, the first Enhancement Potion had the highest success rate. Naturally, one should choose as high-grade a potion as possible to maximize attribute gains. Fortunately, this vial of Ruby's Might was as high as Level 8, and its effect was strong enough.

However, the agonizing pain caused by high-grade Enhancement Potions was even fiercer than that caused by low-grade ones. If he insisted on maximizing his attributes and failed, it would all be over.

"Forget it! I can't be afraid of everything now. If I want power, I have to pay the price! My Spirit attribute is as high as 7.9. I should be able to endure a Level 8 Enhancement Potion!"

According to the pattern, the higher a person's Spirit attribute, the stronger their tolerance for Enhancement Potions! Moreover, among the four major attributes, there were no Spirit-type Enhancement Potions. To develop one's Spirit attribute, one could only rely on Meditation and special foods.

Bai Xiaowen picked up the test tube and downed the vial of Enhancement Potion: Ruby's Might in one gulp.

A warm current surged into his body. Bai Xiaowen could clearly feel his muscles stretching and becoming tougher, even making faint crackling, tearing sounds.

What followed was intense pain.

"My god, Enhancement Potions really aren't something you can just drink casually. My original Strength was only 1.8, and this potion is increasing it by one or two times in one shot. Such a massive increase has to hurt."

Bai Xiaowen was sweating all over from the pain, as though he had been pulled from the water. He gritted his teeth and held on, refusing to let himself pass out.

Fortunately, the agonizing pain came quickly and left quickly as well. Half an hour later, Bai Xiaowen finally recovered.

Another notification appeared.

"You have consumed Enhancement Potion: Ruby's Might."

"Your base Strength has increased by 2.7 points, bringing it to 4.5 points!"

Bai Xiaowen lightly swung his fists in the cramped workshop.

"Damn, I feel like I could punch a cow to death!"

This was no joke. A Strength of 4.5 was four and a half times that of a normal healthy man from another time and space! With training in how to exert force, killing a cow would be no problem at all.

However, the increase in Strength also brought a small aftereffect. Bai Xiaowen even staggered while walking and knocked over two chairs in succession. Still, Bai Xiaowen had read the Enhancement Potion instructions. This temporary inability to precisely control one's strength did exist, but one would quickly adapt. In the Psychic Energy Era, the human body's memory and adaptability were extremely powerful.

What Bai Xiaowen found somewhat regrettable was that this Enhancement Potion's purity was low, only 67%, which limited its effect. As a result, his Strength had only increased by 2.7, far short of the expected 4 points.

"I'll set Strength-type Enhancement Potions aside for now. Next, I need to learn how to make Agility-type and Constitution-type Enhancement Potions to raise those two attributes. Although the enhancement pain will increase drastically, my Spirit is high. I should still be able to endure another one or two enhancements."

"I need to get my attributes past the critical threshold of 20 as soon as possible. The world of the Awakened is not far from me."