[Type I Potion - Heart of Dark Night Boiling]

At the computer desk, Lin Ye held a scalpel in his hand, looking at the corpse of a Golden-Thread Night Bat with its wings spread out before him.

Beside the corpse sat a transparent beaker filled with dark red blood; the amount of blood that could be extracted from one Golden-Thread Night Bat was just over 300g.

Using tweezers, he plucked the mane from the neck of the Golden-Thread Night Bat, selecting only the parts that were completely transmuted to gold and exceeded 7cm in length.

Before long, nearly two hundred Gold-Transmuted Manes had been plucked, and after sorting through them, about one hundred and forty remained.

He nodded slightly; a high-quality Golden-Thread Night Bat could yield this many Gold-Transmuted Manes.

Judging by this, under normal circumstances, the materials extracted from one adult Golden-Thread Night Bat should be just enough for one bottle of Blood of Dark Night Boiling.

After putting the Gold-Transmuted Manes away, he used the scalpel to gently slice open the Golden-Thread Night Bat's corpse, extracting a dark red heart the size of a longan and placing it on a tray to the side.

As a top student in the Department of Pharmacy at Coast University, it was only natural for him to have some level of expertise in dissection, right?

Not long after, he repeated the process for the other two Golden-Thread Night Bat corpses, extracting the materials and setting them aside.

After finishing all this, he let out a slight sigh of relief.

A single Golden-Thread Night Bat cost over a thousand credits; if he made a mistake, the loss would be too great.

After resting for a few minutes, his gaze fell to the side, where three small bottles containing 30g of White Tin Powder each had already been prepared.

Without further delay, he lit an alcohol lamp and placed the Gold-Transmuted Manes on it to dry.

Soon, the dried Gold-Transmuted Manes curled slightly, and their color became somewhat dull.

He took them down to grind into powder, mixing them with the White Tin Powder to form a beautiful powder of mixed gold and silver.

Taking a glass plate, he began to draw the Night Demon rune.

The Night Demon rune was similar to the Night rune; it was also a variant rune.

Furthermore, it belonged to the category of special runes noted in the Rhine Script Dictionary.

This was a type of rune used when conducting summoning rituals, and the targets of such summons often originated from the underworld.

Or, to put it more commonly, they had a more popular name—Hell.

The main body of the Night Demon rune consisted of two concentric circles.

The three positions—outside the outer circle, between the inner and outer circles, and inside the inner circle—symbolized Heaven, the Human Realm, and Hell, respectively.

Inside the inner circle was a vertical line connected to the top and bottom ends of the inner circle, signifying that Hell and the Human Realm were connected.

Between the inner and outer circles were two circles symmetrical to each other, top and bottom.

The top circle connected to the apex of the outer circle and the top of the inner vertical line, while the bottom circle connected to the base of the outer circle and the bottom of the inner vertical line.

Inside each of the two symmetrical circles was an eye-shaped pattern, with a semicircular arc extending from the left and right, crossing the space between the inner and outer circles to connect them.

The general meaning expressed by this rune was that the eye of Hell connected to the Human Realm, observing the world in the dark night beneath Heaven.

This was extended to mean that demons peered into the Human Realm through human eyes at night.

"Snap!"

He used a lighter to ignite a stick of incense, the glowing red tip gently touching the Night Demon rune.

Just like when preparing the Night of the Black Goat, there was no open flame; instead, it spread like burning charcoal, resembling volcanic magma gradually cooling.

The Night Demon rune burned slowly, at a much slower pace than the Night rune, taking a full twenty minutes to finally finish burning.

He collected the Night Demon Rune Ash into a glass bottle and, following the same method, produced two more portions of Night Demon Rune Ash.

On the computer desk, three bottles of Golden-Thread Night Bat blood sat quietly.

Lin Ye stood up and casually cut off three succulent lotus flowers from the Black Bamboo Lotus plants on the windowsill.

He placed them into a manual juicer and squeezed out the juice, which was a murky, dark green liquid.

He poured it into the Golden-Thread Night Bat blood, and before long, the three bottles of dark red blood gradually turned a purplish-green.

Lin Ye nodded slightly; this step was just a simple mixture, and logically, it shouldn't result in failure.

The real difficulty lay in the subsequent steps.

He took out his phone and opened SuperChat.

"Mom, I'm doing extra training at the gym tonight, I won't be home."

Less than twenty seconds after sending the message, the phone vibrated twice.

[Mom]: Okay.

[Mom]: Take care and get some rest.

[Mom]: Martial arts aren't mastered in a single day.

[Mom]: Don't overwork yourself.

[Mom]: Also...

Looking at the string of messages, Lin Ye fell silent for a few minutes before replying.

"I know, Mom, I'll be careful."

He put away his phone, packed up the potion materials on the table, and headed straight out the door.

4:00 PM, on the outskirts of Coast City, at the Qingkun Mountain scenic area.

Lin Ye stepped off the bus and took a deep breath, the fresh air rushing into his nostrils.

He decided to skip the wild mountains for now; aside from the danger, it was simply too much trouble, and if he couldn't find what he was looking for, it would be a complete waste of time.

Looking ahead, a massive mountain range stretched across the horizon, with three or four peaks rolling into one another, covered in lush, dense forests.

It looked to be at least one or two thousand meters high, which certainly qualified as a tall mountain in the vicinity of Coast City.

An asphalt road led up the mountain, disappearing from view after a sharp bend.

He walked to the ticket office at the foot of the mountain; because it was Saturday, the price had gone up by ten yuan, totaling twenty yuan.

After a quick scan to confirm he wasn't carrying any fire-starting materials, the staff member handed him a map of the scenic area and let him through.

Walking up the mountain along the asphalt road, there weren't many tourists, mostly families with children out for the summer break.

After more than half an hour, the road leveled out, marking his arrival into the interior of Qingkun Mountain.

He looked down at the map he had been given.

"The location of Pearl Water Cave is at... an altitude of 1,800 meters?"

He couldn't help but look up toward the depths of the mountain, where he could faintly see a small stream flowing down from the summit.

Silently tucking the map away, he continued forward.

"I wonder if there are any magic herbs like Black Spiral Grass in Qingkun Mountain?"

"I still need to work hard on the translation; otherwise, it would be a sin to miss out on precious magic herbs."

As the sky grew dark, the tourists in the scenic area gradually disappeared.

Inside Pearl Water Cave, Lin Ye stood in an undeveloped wild tunnel, turning slightly to avoid the beam of a staff member's searchlight.

Once he was sure there was no one left nearby, Lin Ye put on his headlamp and turned to walk into the depths of the tunnel.

The cramped tunnel wasn't very high, requiring him to hunch over to move forward.

This was normal; if it were easy to pass through, it would have been developed long ago.

The sound of flowing water grew clearer in his ears. After walking for about an hour, the tunnel gradually widened, allowing Lin Ye to stand up straight.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~"

The distinct sound of flowing water came from ahead, and Lin Ye felt a surge of joy as he quickened his pace.

"Plop."

His soles landed on the soft river mud, and Lin Ye stopped moving.

Looking around, he found himself in a small limestone cave with damp, humid air.

A small stream flowed in from the right and disappeared into an underground river beneath the rocks on the left.

He checked the time: 20:28.

Without further hesitation, he laid out a waterproof tarp and took out his magic potion materials.

He uncorked the bottle containing the blood of the Golden-Thread Night Bat, poured in the Night Demon Rune Ash, and gently shook it to mix.

In just a few seconds, the purple-green color in the blood rapidly faded, turning into a purplish-gray.

Seeing this, Lin Ye quickly dropped a Golden-Thread Night Bat heart into the mixture.

He corked the bottle and placed it on a stand, ensuring it was stable and wouldn't wobble.

He performed the same steps for the other two bottles, and once finished, Lin Ye let out a sigh of relief.

He sat down on the ground, his headlamp illuminating the rock wall in front of him, where faint, blurry murals could be seen.

They seemed to record tribe members hunting some kind of wild beast.

Time ticked away second by second; Lin Ye sat and stood, glancing at the glass bottles from time to time.

More than three hours later, his phone vibrated slightly: 23:55.

Lin Ye turned off his headlamp, and the surroundings plunged into total darkness; there was no difference between having his eyes open or closed.

This was to prevent light from affecting the transformation of the magic potion.

A few minutes later, the time reached midnight.

"Hee hee~~"

Suddenly, Lin Ye's pupils constricted, and he threw a punch fiercely behind him.

His fist tore through the air, but it didn't strike anything.

"Clatter!"

He turned on his headlamp and scanned his surroundings, but there was no one else or any other living creature besides him.

His expression was cold and stern as he cautiously swept his gaze across the area, not missing a single detail.

Just a moment ago, he had vaguely heard something laughing, and there was even a faint current of air brushing against his neck.

That was clearly the sound of something breathing!

Any creature capable of exhaling a current of air like that could not possibly be small! It had to be at least the size of a human!

Forcing himself to calm down, he looked at the three bottles of potion; the liquid had become clear and bright, with a deep purple heart the size of a dragon's eye suspended in the center.

All three bottles had been successfully concocted.

Without much joy, he quickly stood up to pack his things and left immediately.

PS: I might change the book title in the next two days; the new title will be Transcendence Starting from the Ouroboros Stele. Also, I'll be asking for your continued support tomorrow, mwah!