The Pitfalls She'd Managed to Fall Into

The first floor of the Tree Hole Shelter.

Lan Qingyou was holding a Magic Hurricane Lamp in one hand and a Bamboo Basket in the other. Inside the basket was a Big Meat Bun and a bottle of tea.

This was the standard routine after getting hungry while reading.

It was just like getting hungry while looking at your phone in the middle of the night and going to raid the fridge.

Only, after picking up her food, Lan Qingyou suddenly realized something was a bit of a hassle.

It wasn't eating that was a hassle. It was having to run up and down just to get food. She wondered if she could move the Magic Desk upstairs.

[Movable.]

As soon as Lan Qingyou thought this, the desk suddenly floated an inch off the ground, and a projected dialogue box popped up above it.

"Oh, nice. That's pretty convenient."

As she spoke, Lan Qingyou prepared to move it upstairs.

But when she reached the door, she suddenly remembered that the Magic Desk had a teleportation function. Sometimes she'd need it to teleport large items, so wouldn't moving it to the second floor just make things less convenient?

That wouldn't do.

Lan Qingyou stopped and looked around. It would be better to find a more convenient place for the thing.

Beside the Alchemy Workshop would be a good spot.

After all, she'd need all sorts of items when she started working on alchemy.

Once she'd arranged everything, Lan Qingyou carried the Magic Hurricane Lamp back to the second floor. She still went via the outdoor balcony, because she found it more convenient.

After eating her fill, Lan Qingyou picked up Basic Potions beside the Mattress and started reading.

She'd spent much of the night skimming Semiotics and Drafting, and had learned a lot of new things.

Now, she was going to formally study the subject she was most interested in: Potions Study.

Half an hour later, Lan Qingyou slipped a leaf between the pages, closed the book, and shut her eyes.

She couldn't get through much in half an hour, even if she read carefully.

But it was enough for Lan Qingyou to realize she'd made a mistake.

Basic Potions, as the name suggested, was a basic guide to brewing potions. It recorded not only quite a few potion recipes, but also plenty of precautions to take when brewing them.

Unfortunately.

Lan Qingyou, a fledgling alchemist whom the Small Screen had mocked for needing to start over from scratch, had managed to fall into practically every pitfall there was.

There were six reasons why yesterday's batch of Mana Potion had turned out so poorly.

First, she hadn't set up an alchemy array or used its magic circulation system, so she hadn't controlled the heat properly.

Second, she hadn't used her own Magic Power to properly stir and blend the herbs and Base Water in the cauldron.

Then there was the Base Water she'd used. It was Creek Water from below. Although it contained Magic Power, it hadn't been treated into the Mana Water required for alchemy.

The potion also hadn't been filtered, leaving too many impurities and making it impure.

Another reason was that the herbs and tools she'd used hadn't been prepared. She hadn't even given them a simple rinse, which had lowered the overall quality of the potion.

Of course.

If those were the kinds of mistakes beginners often made, then the last one was probably something only an alchemist like Lan Qingyou, who'd started halfway through and taught herself, could get wrong.

Generally speaking, the most basic brewing ratio for alchemical potions was ten to one.

That meant the cauldron that could hold 20,000 milliliters of water and ingredients should have yielded 2,000 milliliters of potion if she'd followed the basic ratio.

But yesterday's batch had been about 10,000 milliliters. In other words, her ratio had been two to one.

No wonder the rust on the bottom and top of the cauldron had been so sharply divided.

Now she realized it was because she'd been brewing at a ten-to-one ratio for so long.

Thinking about how she'd gone downstairs in the middle of the night to fetch another bucket of water, worried that the potion would boil dry, made her cringe.

It was a little embarrassing, but no big deal.

She was a self-taught beginner. She couldn't really be blamed for it.

Otherwise, what?

She'd already sold the stuff and used the ingredients. Was she supposed to issue refunds? She didn't have time for that.

Well, then she'd better cover up her mistakes while nobody had found out.

For instance, she could sell those potions as soon as possible, then brew a new batch.

They were still usable. There was no reason to just pour them away.

What was done was done. She'd sleep first.

Lan Qingyou covered herself with the Air Conditioning Quilt and fell sound asleep.

She wasn't going to read tonight. Tomorrow she'd get up early, go gather herbs, try drawing her own alchemy array, and then brew a new batch of potion.

Oh, and she still needed to make Mana Water.

That required using her own Magic Power to neutralize the Magic Power in the Creek Water. It would be quite a project.

Busy. She hadn't expected to be this busy.

Not bad.

"Ah! My eyes!"

When Lan Qingyou opened her eyes the next morning, a beam of light struck her right in the eyes.

Her brave attempt to stare directly at the Sun had earned her a solid Solar Fist.

Then her freshly awakened, still-fuzzy brain snapped fully alert.

No, she had to see if anyone was selling curtains. If not, a piece of cloth would do. At the very least, she needed to put up some sheer curtains.

Otherwise, if she got hit like this every morning, how was she supposed to enjoy her life?

Lan Qingyou thought this as she looked around the second-floor bedroom, which was completely flooded with sunlight.

She went downstairs, ate breakfast, checked the chat logs, then headed out.

Nothing had happened last night.

Aside from her upgrading the Tree Hole Shelter, the Ghost they'd talked about hadn't appeared.

It seemed they'd just seen things.

Zhao Dulai, who'd spread the news, had been thoroughly chewed out. The gist was that everyone was already on edge, and he'd gone and stirred things up, making everyone even more anxious.

One hotheaded guy had even issued a death threat.

Still, that was good. At least she could carry out her plan to go treasure-chest hunting that night.

When the Sun was directly overhead—around noon, by her estimate—Lan Qingyou finally floated home with a Material Treasure Chest in her arms.

Over the course of the morning, she'd worked hard and gathered about forty or fifty pounds of herbs.

Besides herbs for brewing Mana Potion, she'd also gathered some for making other kinds of potions.

She didn't go out that afternoon. Instead, she chose to study Semiotics and Drafting.

There was no need to rush into Potions Study.

Her top priority now was drawing an alchemy array.

Without one, everything else was pointless.

"The Sun represents 'gold,' The Moon represents 'silver,' an upright triangle represents 'fire,' an inverted triangle represents 'water,' an hourglass represents 'time'..."

"No, no. According to the basic theory of Four Elements Four Properties, the four properties are dry, wet, cold, and hot. You combine them in pairs: dry plus hot equals fire, and wet plus cold equals water. I can't forget that."

On the afternoon of the fourth day, after studying all day, Lan Qingyou went to her Alchemy Workshop and began drawing the first alchemy array of her life on the iron base.

To draw an alchemy array on the base, she needed to use her personal Magic Power.

All she had to do was gather Magic Power at her fingertip, and she could draw on a base made of any material.

It looked very convenient, but in reality, it was not easy at all.

As Lan Qingyou traced the final figure with her finger, a puff of black smoke burst from the base, and the alchemy array on it instantly became useless.