Brewing Potions

"Eno! I know you must be angry with me. I, Jack, swear to the Lord of Dawn that once I rise to wealth and status, I will repay today's kindness."

Jack knew full well that while a small part of why he had become an apprentice knight of the Golden Mane Knights was Lord Arthur's appreciation of his courage, the fundamental reason was the Hemostatic Powder.

Silverleaf Herb was merely a weed found everywhere.

The Hemostatic Powder's efficacy was moderate, but its greatest advantage was its extremely low cost.

On the battlefield, healing medicine was never sufficient. No medicine was better suited for the battlefield than Hemostatic Powder.

"There's no need to wait until later to repay me. As long as it doesn't violate the rules, could you give me a knight cultivation method?"

Adams Hank possessed wizard talent and had been strictly forbidden from cultivating knight body-tempering methods.

As a transfer student who had merely sat in on classes, Yin Ming naturally had not learned any knight cultivation methods either.

Jack froze.

He had not expected Yin Ming to make such a request.

He had refused to become an apprentice knight, yet he was interested in knight cultivation methods.

"I was just asking. Forget it if it puts you in a difficult position!"

As a transcendent wizard, Yin Ming would not cultivate the semi-transcendent knight cultivation methods.

Zero-Ring Wizardry: Flesh Strengthening could improve one's physical qualities in a month by an amount that knights needed years, even more than a decade, to achieve.

Knowledge and principles were what interested Yin Ming. There was no harm in learning more skills; perhaps the knowledge would come in handy one day.

"It's not difficult. Knight cultivation methods are just simple breathing methods. Without Life Essence brewed from magical beast blood, they don't have the slightest training effect."

Jack briefly demonstrated the breathing method, called the Golden Lion Breathing Method.

It was even simpler than the Ancient Qi Cultivation Method. It merely drew elemental energy into the body, lacking the portion that refined Qi into mana and turned the elements into one's own power.

Just as Jack had said, without consuming Life Essence, the breathing method would not have even the tiniest training effect.

"Apprentice knights can receive three bottles of Life Essence for free."

"If I can't become a knight after taking three bottles, I'll be kicked out of the Golden Mane Knights. Two bottles are enough for me." Jack gritted his teeth and pulled a bottle of viscous amber potion from his clothes.

"One drop is enough for me!"

Yin Ming poured out a drop of Life Essence, caught it in his mouth to taste it, and secretly stored it in the Scavenger Gourd for analysis.

[Name: Life Essence.]

[Components: Unknown magical beast blood, Blood-Melding Vine, Frost Condensing Grass, Groundcover Seed...]

[Note: Consuming this potion may alter genes and partially beastify organs toward leopard-type magical beasts. Consume with caution!!]

[Extractable: Life Essence Extract: 0.001.]

As long as the potion did not involve too many chemical reactions.

If substance A and substance B combined into an unknown substance C, and substance C then underwent a chain reaction with substance D.

The yellow-skinned gourd could use the finished product to reverse-engineer the raw materials as well as the method for brewing the potion.

"Alter genes! Beastification!"

Magical beasts were born with the ability to absorb elemental energy.

Life Essence actually granted magical beast genes through a potion, allowing the physical body to absorb elemental energy.

The unknown magical beast blood in this potion was most likely from the intermediate magical beast Adams Hank had hunted: the Shadow Leopard.

"Wait! I have a drop of Quasit Blood. Isn't a First-Ring Demonic Beast far stronger than a magical beast?"

After being purified by the gourd, the Quasit Blood was purer than the bloodline source—the original quasit itself.

If he brewed it into Life Essence, wouldn't he be able to cultivate a quasit hatchling?

"..."

Early the next morning.

Jack packed his belongings and left.

Having become an apprentice knight, he would no longer live in the Blackstone House.

He would follow the Golden Mane Knights and station at a camp far from the manor. After the count's grandmother's birthday celebration, he would also follow Adams Arthur to guard the western border of Landon Duchy.

Compared with serfs whose average lifespan was thirty years, becoming a border knight—though poor and dangerous—was a fairly good way out.

"He's gone! That guy is the first serf to leave Tulip Manor alive." Randy sighed as he watched Jack's retreating back.

In terms of friendship, Randy and Jack had actually been closer.

Yin Ming always seemed somewhat out of place. Though his words and actions were no different from those of a serf, and he too was trapped within the tiny manor, he felt none of the psychological restraints or oppression.

"This stroke of fortune should have been yours. Do you really not regret it at all?"

Randy could not find even the slightest look of disappointment or remorse on Yin Ming's face.

It was completely different from the emotions he had imagined—of realizing that the situation could not be salvaged and being forced to accept it.

"What about you? You know the Hemostatic Powder formula too. This opportunity could have been yours as well."

On the surface, Randy cursed Jack as a shameless thief.

But both openly and subtly, he was urging Yin Ming to accept reality, telling him that even if he found Adams Arthur, the outcome would only hurt others without benefiting himself.

Yin Ming did not care. No one in this world existed merely as someone else's backdrop. As long as they were human, they had their own pursuits.

Trading a crude Hemostatic Powder formula for a knight's breathing method and the formula for Life Essence was no loss for him.

"Between being an apprentice knight and a serf, I would definitely choose apprentice knight."

Randy considered it seriously for a moment, then paused before saying, "But I don't have Jack's ruthlessness. Even becoming an apprentice knight would be a near-death experience, and it would be hard to make something of myself. If I really had to choose, I'd rather be a commoner, marry, have children, and live an ordinary life."

"Once he makes something of himself and achieves fame and success, perhaps he'll come back to help you!"

Yin Ming smiled faintly and patted Randy on the shoulder in consolation.

He stepped forward to collect today's breakfast of black bread, shouldered his farming tools, and headed for the land at the edge of the Magic Beast Forest.

"When one becomes rich and powerful, one must not forget old friends!" Hearing that, Randy lowered his head in shame.

He repeated Yin Ming's words, then stopped regretting his choice. His eyes became incomparably resolute once more, two sharp lights flashing in them.

"..."

The Magic Beast Forest!

A forbidden zone of life in most people's eyes.

When Yin Ming stepped into it, he was as free as if he had returned home, knowing everything within a radius of ten miles like the back of his hand.

The plants and fungi, their growth patterns and distribution; the activity areas of animals and magical beasts—he knew all of it.

There were several medicinal ingredients needed to brew Life Essence.

Only the Blood-Melding Vine was relatively rare, growing on sheer cliffs deeper within the forest.

Frost Condensing Grass, raspberries, and several other medicinal ingredients could easily be gathered in the outer regions. Once Yin Ming had collected them, he headed deeper into the Magic Beast Forest.

"Found it!"

In a crack in a cliff face, Yin Ming found a section of withered yellow vine. When it broke, crimson juice like blood seeped out, and he stored it in the Scavenger Gourd.

"There's only one drop of Quasit Blood. I'll find a magical beast to practice on first."

[Wizard's Hand!]

Yin Ming condensed a transparent Wizard's Hand.

He reached it into a cave and grabbed out a robust wild bull with red eyes and black horns.

A low-level magical beast: the Red-Eyed Fire Bull.

He snapped the Red-Eyed Fire Bull's neck. Once the magical beast had lost all signs of life, its blood and flesh were taken into the Scavenger Gourd.

"Fuse..."

The materials had all been collected!

Unlike alchemy, potions did not require true fire to trigger a qualitative transformation. They merely required the active ingredients extracted from the materials to be mixed according to the original proportions of Life Essence. The Life Essence was then brewed inside the Scavenger Gourd.