Potions and Boons! Laying the Foundation

Deep within the Uchiha compound, underground laboratory.

There were no windows here, only cold stone walls and layers upon layers of flickering magical wards. The air was thick with the pungent smell of potions, the strange stench of rotting plants, and restless residual energy.

The sight on the laboratory bench was peculiar.

Beside traditional magical cauldrons stood ancient pill furnaces from the East.

Several arrays of precision crystal-glass conduits ran between them, connected to rune plates that shimmered with dim light.

This place did not resemble a pure magical workshop. It was more like a cold, efficient forbidden ground that fused the techniques of different worlds.

Uchiha Madara stood before the laboratory bench, wearing a fitted black lab robe with a scarlet Flame Fan Crest embroidered on its cuffs.

His still-youthful face was expressionless. Only his Sharingan glowed with calm red light in the dimness, precisely tracking every fluctuation of energy within the experimental containers.

Hiss—!

Inside a specially made cold jade container, a viscous dark green liquid churned violently, giving off bone-piercing cold and a rotten stench—

This was the core reaction of the "Shadow's Embrace" magical power enhancement potion.

"The energy dissipation rate is too high... the structure is nearing collapse... projected magical power enhancement... below expectations..." At his side, a trembling potion master in white robes rapidly reported the data.

Madara ignored the potion master's concerns.

His fingertips moved slightly. A strand of condensed magical power, like the finest probe, forcibly pierced the violent liquid and suppressed the energy on the verge of losing control;

He guided the faint factor within it that could stimulate magical activity, slowly merging it with another stabilizing agent that emitted a gentle white glow.

The light flickered and clashed violently before finally stabilizing under the forceful restraint of Madara's powerful magical power, forming a small bottle of dark cyan viscous liquid with what looked like ice crystals settled inside.

"A flawed product." Madara's voice carried no inflection, as if he were stating a fact unrelated to himself. "Limited enhancement, side effects, and long-term use may damage the soul... Barely usable."

He casually placed the potion onto a nearby crystal rack marked "Level III."

His gaze shifted to the other end of the laboratory bench—

There, an entirely different and far more dangerous experiment was underway inside a smaller amethyst container.

Several drops of phoenix blood formed the core, surrounded by life factors extracted from the blood of Muggle "volunteers," along with extracts from several crushed magical creatures.

Most crucially, a strand of Otsutsuki Clan energy repeatedly tempered by Madara's own magical power and carrying a faint "Awakening" attribute was, like a virus, forcibly kneading together these completely different substances!

The light inside the container flickered erratically, and the energy fluctuations were extremely violent.

The Muggles' life factors wailed and collapsed, while the magical creatures' cells disintegrated.

Failure was the norm. Every failure meant a "volunteer's" life force had been completely drained, leaving behind a pinch of Ashes on the laboratory bench.

Madara's Sharingan coldly recorded every failure as he continuously adjusted the parameters.

He did not care about the cost. He only cared about the result.

Finally—

After consuming more than thirty "volunteers," one fusion flashed with an extremely faint yet incomparably real glow of magical power in the instant before it collapsed.

"The path is correct." Madara's fingertip swept through the air, recording all the data from that instant.

He looked at the final product in his hand, a viscous liquid of strange dark gold with specks of light flowing within it—

"Bloodline Alteration Potion: Awakening (Flawed Version)."

This thing was extremely unstable. The magical power gained after conversion would be weak, and there was a serious risk of mental mutation. But it had indeed forcibly pried open the barrier separating the mundane from magical power.

One week later, Uchiha main hall.

The atmosphere was even more solemn than before. Under the firelight, the massive Flame Fan Crest seemed to be burning.

Several major figures who controlled a considerable portion of London's underworld now stood respectfully with their heads bowed in the center of the hall—

Antonio Rossi, godfather of the Italian Mafia.

Jin Li, elder of the Triad Enforcement Hall.

Sean O'Malley, leader of the Irish Gang.

Fujita, who oversaw both the Friendly Association and the Black Dragon Group.

And Moriyama, representing thousands of Squibs and Muggle laborers.

The confidants behind them cast reverent glances toward the figures standing in the shadows on both sides of the hall—

Those were Uchiha subordinates who had already undergone preliminary magical power alteration, their auras fierce and formidable.

Ryūichirō Uchiha and Kentaro Uchiha stood in attendance beneath the raised platform of the main seat.

Kentaro wore a black eyepatch over his left eye, but the faint red glow leaking from its edges chilled the hearts of those who knew.

When Madara appeared on the platform.

Silhouetted against the enormous magical flames, he looked slender. Yet when those Sharingan swept over them—

Everyone felt a chill run down their spines.

"Your 'loyalty,'" Madara said calmly, "needs to be proven."

Ryūichirō clapped his hands. Several attendants silently approached the major figures, carrying trays draped in black velvet.

The velvet cloths were lifted.

On the trays before Rossi, Jin Li, and O'Malley each rested a crystal tube. Inside was a dark cyan viscous potion, like liquid ice—

The "Shadow's Embrace" magical power enhancement potion, flawed version.

The parchment beside them clearly listed its effects and side effects: a limited increase in magical power, but possible magical instability and soul damage.

The three men's eyes lit up at once! Their breathing grew heavier.

Increasing one's magical power limit! For wizards like them, who struggled at the bottom of the Wizarding World and established themselves through ruthlessness, it was an irresistible temptation!

Side effects? What were those in the face of power?

On Fujita and Moriyama's trays, however, rested smaller amethyst bottles! Inside were several drops of dark gold liquid, as though specks of starlight flowed within them—

The "Awakening" bloodline alteration potion, flawed version!

The parchment beside them bore only a short sentence: Open the gate to magical power and grant the mundane the possibility of transcendence. Price: unknown.

Fujita and Moriyama—especially Moriyama, the man representing thousands of Muggle and Squib laborers—instantly widened their eyes, their breathing coming as fast as bellows!

Open the gate to magical power?!

This... this was something Muggles like them, rejected by the magical world yet forced to live within it, had never dared dream of!

Even if the price was "unknown," even if it might fail, this was still a path to another world! It was the only chance to change their own fate and that of their descendants!

"My lord! The Rossi Family is willing to die for the Uchiha!" Antonio Rossi was the first to drop to one knee, his voice trembling with excitement.

"My lord above! From this day onward, the Triad will follow the Uchiha's lead!" Jin Li followed close behind, his aged voice firm and resolute.

"The Irish Gang's loyalty will never change!" O'Malley slammed a fist against his chest and fell to his knees.

"This life of Fujita's (Moriyama's) belongs to you from now on, my lord!" Fujita and Moriyama prostrated themselves, their foreheads pressed to the floor as both hands clutched the amethyst bottles tightly, as though grasping at lifelines. Their eyes shone with tears mixed with fear, excitement, and fanaticism.

A boon!

This was a true boon!

Their fear of Uchiha Madara was now replaced by an even more intense fanaticism at being granted power and hope.

With these two flawed yet worldview-shattering potions, Madara had completely locked in their loyalty.

"Remember the oaths you made today." Madara looked down at the kneeling crowd, his voice calm yet carrying bone-deep coldness. "I have given you power."

"The price of betrayal..."

His gaze seemed to sweep casually across Kentaro's left eye beneath the eyepatch.

"Will be an eternal torment that even your souls cannot endure."

The major figures shuddered all over and repeatedly swore that they would never betray him. Only then did they carefully cradle their respective "boons," as though holding their lives and fortunes in their hands, and respectfully withdraw from the hall.

Madara watched their retreating figures disappear, his gaze cold.

The pieces had been placed.

Next, it was time to see how great a storm these "tools" bestowed with power could stir upon London's chessboard.

He slowly turned and looked toward the laboratory.

Ryūichirō stepped forward respectfully. "Lord Madara, are the side effects of those potions too dangerous? Especially 'Awakening'..."

"Dangerous?" A trace of mockery entered Madara's voice. "Wizards look down on Muggles and Squibs. They believe magical power is a gift of bloodline, a barrier between classes."

He walked to the window and gazed at London's gloomy sky.

"But they have forgotten—numbers are a kind of power in themselves."

"One Muggle is an ant. Ten thousand Muggles are trouble. But a hundred thousand, a million 'altered ones' forcibly awakened to magical power, even if they possess only weak strength..."

Madara turned back, red light flowing through his Sharingan.

"That will be a torrent capable of overturning the very foundations of the entire Wizarding World."

Ryūichirō shuddered, finally understanding Madara's true intent.

This was not merely control through boons.

This was quietly cultivating, within the Wizarding World's blind spot, a new army entirely belonging to the Uchiha—one unbound by pure-blood ideology.

"Those potions are flawed," Madara continued. "But flaws mean they can be improved. Every improvement requires 'volunteers,' resources, and data."

"Let them fight, let them seize, let them expand territory for the Uchiha. Their successes and failures, their evolution and mutation... all of it will become my experimental data."

"While the wizards are still arguing over pure-bloods and half-bloods..."

A cold, distant curve rose at the corner of Madara's lips.