At his computer desk, Lin Ye held a scalpel and watched the Golden-Thread Night Bat carcass spread its wings before him.
Beside the body sat a transparent beaker filled with dark red blood. One Golden-Thread Night Bat yielded just over 300 grams of blood.
Using tweezers, he plucked the mane from the carcass's neck, keeping only strands that had been completely transmuted into gold and were longer than seven centimeters.
Before long, he had plucked nearly two hundred strands of Gold-Transmuted Mane. After sorting through them, about a hundred and forty remained.
He nodded slightly. A well-preserved Golden-Thread Night Bat could yield this much Gold-Transmuted Mane.
By that reckoning, under normal circumstances, the materials from one adult Golden-Thread Night Bat should be just enough to make a bottle of Blood of Dark Night Boiling.
After putting away the Gold-Transmuted Mane, he carefully slit open the carcass with the scalpel and removed a dark red heart about the size of a longan. He placed it on a tray nearby.
As a top student in Coast University's Department of Pharmacy, it was only natural that he had some skill at dissection, right?
Before long, he had done the same with the other two Golden-Thread Night Bat carcasses and set aside their materials.
When he was done, he let out a slight sigh of relief.
One Golden-Thread Night Bat cost over a thousand yuan. A mistake would mean too great a loss.
After resting for a few minutes, he glanced to the side. Three small bottles, each containing 30 grams of White Tin Powder, had already been prepared.
Without further delay, he lit the alcohol lamp and held the Gold-Transmuted Mane over it to dry.
Soon, the dried Gold-Transmuted Mane curled slightly, its color turning somewhat dull.
He took it down, ground it into powder, and mixed it with the White Tin Powder, forming a beautiful blend of gold and silver.
Taking a glass plate, he began to draw the Night Demon Rune.
The Night Demon Rune was much like the Dark Night Rune, another variant rune.
It was also classified as a special rune in the Rhine Script Dictionary.
This rune was used in summoning rituals, and the summoned beings often came from the underworld.
Or, to use its more common name—Hell.
The main body of the Night Demon Rune consisted of two concentric circles.
The space outside the outer circle, the space between the circles, and the area inside the inner circle represented Heaven, the Human Realm, and Hell, respectively.
A vertical line ran through the inner circle, connecting its top and bottom edges to signify that Hell and the Human Realm were linked.
Between the inner and outer circles were two circles, symmetrical along the vertical axis.
The upper circle touched the top of the outer circle and the upper end of the vertical line in the inner circle. The lower circle touched the bottom of the outer circle and the lower end of the vertical line.
Each of the two symmetrical circles contained an eye-shaped design. A semicircular line extended out from either side of each eye, crossing the space between the inner and outer circles to join together.
The rune roughly meant that Hell's eyes were connected to the Human Realm, watching the world from the Dark Night beneath Heaven.
By extension, it meant that demons watched the Human Realm through human eyes at night.
"Click!"
A lighter ignited an incense stick, and its glowing tip touched the Night Demon Rune.
Just as when he had prepared the Night of the Black Goat, no open flame appeared. Instead, it spread like burning charcoal, like volcanic lava slowly cooling.
The Night Demon Rune burned slowly, far more slowly than the Dark Night Rune. It took nearly twenty minutes to burn away completely.
He collected the Night Demon Rune Ash in a glass bottle, then repeated the process to make two more portions.
Three bottles of Golden-Thread Night Bat blood sat quietly on the computer desk.
Lin Ye stood up and casually cut three fleshy blossoms from the Black Bamboo Lotus plants on the windowsill.
He put them in a hand juicer and squeezed out their liquid—a murky, dark green fluid.
He poured it into the Golden-Thread Night Bat blood. Before long, the three bottles of dark red blood gradually turned purple-green.
Lin Ye nodded slightly. This step was only a simple mixture, so in theory, nothing should go wrong.
The real challenge lay in the steps that followed.
He pulled out his phone and opened SuperChat.
"Mom, I'm staying late to train at the boxing gym tonight. I won't be coming home."
Less than twenty seconds after he sent the message, his phone buzzed twice.
[Mom]: Okay.
[Mom]: Remember to get some rest.
[Mom]: You can't master martial arts in a day.
[Mom]: Don't push yourself too hard.
[Mom]: And...
Looking at the string of messages, Lin Ye fell silent. A few minutes passed before he replied.
"Got it, Mom. I'll be careful."
He put his phone away, packed up the potion ingredients on the desk, and went straight out.
At four in the afternoon, Lin Ye was in the Qingkun Mountain Scenic Area on the outskirts of Coast City.
He stepped off the bus and took a deep breath, filling his lungs with fresh air.
He would leave the wild mountains alone for now. They were dangerous, and more importantly, too much trouble. If he failed to find what he was looking for, he would have wasted his time.
He looked ahead. A massive mountain stretched across the landscape, with three or five peaks rising and falling in succession, their slopes thick with lush forest.
It looked to be at least one or two thousand meters high, unquestionably a tall mountain for the area around Coast City.
An asphalt road wound up the mountain and disappeared from view around a bend.
He walked over to the ticket booth at the foot of the mountain. Since it was Saturday, the price had gone up by ten yuan, bringing the total to twenty.
After a quick scan confirmed he wasn't carrying any kind of fire source, a staff member handed him a map of the scenic area and let him pass.
He followed the asphalt road uphill. There weren't many visitors in the scenic area, mostly parents with children taking advantage of summer vacation for a day out.
After more than half an hour, the asphalt road leveled out. He had reached the interior of Qingkun Mountain.
He glanced at the map he'd been given.
"Pearl Water Cave is at... an elevation of 1,800 meters?"
He couldn't help looking up toward the mountain's depths. He could just make out a small river flowing down from the peak.
He quietly put away the map and continued on.
"I wonder if there's any Black Spiral Grass or other potion ingredients in Qingkun Mountain?"
"I'll have to keep working on the translation, too. It'd be a real shame to miss out on some precious potion ingredients."
As dusk fell, the visitors gradually disappeared from the scenic area.
Inside Pearl Water Cave, Lin Ye stood sideways in an undeveloped passage, avoiding the staff's searchlight.
Once he was sure no one was nearby, Lin Ye put on his headlamp, turned, and headed deeper into the passage.
The cramped passage wasn't very tall, and he had to stoop to move forward.
That made sense. If people could pass through easily, the passage would have been developed long ago.
The sound of running water grew clearer in his ears. After walking for about an hour, the passage gradually widened, and he was finally able to stand upright.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~"
The sound of running water came clearly from ahead. Lin Ye's heart leaped, and he hurried over.
"Squish."
His shoe sank into soft river mud, and Lin Ye stopped.
He looked around. It was a small karst cave, its air damp and warm.
A 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 hesitation, he spread out a waterproof cloth and laid out the potion ingredients.
He uncorked the bottle of Golden-Thread Night Bat blood, poured in the Night Demon Rune Ash, and gently shook the mixture.
Within seconds, the blood's purple-green color rapidly faded, turning purple-gray.
At once, Lin Ye dropped a Golden-Thread Night Bat heart into the bottle.
He sealed it and placed it on a stand, making sure it was stable and wouldn't wobble.
He repeated the same steps with the other two bottles. When he was done, Lin Ye breathed a sigh of relief.
He sat down on the ground, his headlamp illuminating the rock wall in front of him. Faint, indistinct murals were just visible.
They seemed to depict members of a tribe hunting some kind of beast.
Time passed minute by minute. Lin Ye repeatedly sat down and got back up, glancing at the glass bottles from time to time.
More than three hours later, his phone buzzed softly. It was 23:55.
Lin Ye turned off his headlamp. The surroundings immediately sank into darkness, so complete that opening his eyes made no difference from closing them.
This was to prevent light from affecting the potion's transformation.
A few minutes later, midnight arrived.
"Hee-hee~~"
Lin Ye's pupils contracted. He whipped around and threw a fierce punch behind him.
His fist cut through the air but struck nothing.
"Click!"
His headlamp came on. He looked around, but there was no one else there, no other living creature in sight.
His expression was cold as he cautiously surveyed his surroundings, missing no detail.
Just now, he seemed to have heard something laughing. He had even felt a faint current of air brush his neck.
Something had definitely been breathing!
Whatever could breathe out a current of air like that couldn't be small! It had to be at least human-sized!
Forcing himself to calm down, he looked at the three bottles of potion. The liquid had turned clear and bright, with a dark purple heart the size of a longan suspended in the middle.
All three batches had been successfully prepared.
He felt little joy. He quickly got to his feet, packed up, and left.
Before you continue