Chapter 803: Potions: Rivaling the Occult
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 803: Potions: Rivaling the Occult
Mei Lind’s Office.
"Well? You personally visited the inner ring of the Wizard Academy. Did the information gathered by your Aura-Sensing Technique help you lock onto the location of the World Navel?" Sheryl’s voice echoed through the office. She was clearly questioning Mei Lind.
"You were far too reckless."
"So, it seems it didn't have much of an effect... Let me put it this way then: can we rule out the possibility of it being inside the Wizard Academy?" Sheryl continued.
She seemed genuinely curious, but she immediately followed up with another piece of intelligence.
"I went to check that Afuhemi Academy for you. The area beneath that World Tree branch isn't the World Navel; it’s a nested structure. Without the right methods, one would truly believe it was the spot... but it’s not. It’s quite touching, really—the Afuhemi Forest Elves are even willing to use their most sacred Afuhemi World Tree branch as bait just to provide cover. These transcendent races are truly deeply bonded."
"You went all the way to Afuhemi Academy as well?" Mei Lind asked, feeling a headache coming on.
"Of course. Are you disappointed I didn't cause a scene over there too?"
"I would much prefer it if you stayed put. Acting the way you do will eventually disrupt our plans. Your behavior is far too radical," Mei Lind critiqued. "Furthermore, I don't believe you caused a ruckus at the Wizard Academy just to help me. What else did you do?"
"Good heavens... A Rebel Witch helps you out of the goodness of her heart, and she’s met with suspicion? Did you feed my sincerity to the cat?"
"..."
Mei Lind was once again rendered speechless by the Rebel Witch before her, yet she had no choice but to deal with this exasperating woman.
Admittedly, this incident was sudden, and Sheryl’s unauthorized actions had indeed provided her with an opportunity to personally collect data via her Aura-Sensing Technique. However, that explanation felt too forced.
Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have been able to enter the inner ring of the Wizard Academy. Even the last time she went there to demand an explanation, she had been intercepted and greeted well outside the perimeter.
Mei Lind had ample reason to suspect that Sheryl had definitely done something else.
But in such a short window of time, was there really enough room for her to achieve some other specific goal?
It was a question destined to remain unanswered for now.
What truly made Mei Lind resistant to Sheryl was her inability to see what the woman actually wanted.
Many of her actions appeared chaotic, lacking any clear objective. This made it highly likely that Mei Lind would make incorrect judgments based on those actions—a common tactic used by Rebel Witches to bury the truth.
A Rebel Witch always had a fundamental starting point, and all her subsequent actions would revolve around that goal, but she would never openly reveal it to other witches.
This was one of the reasons why Rebel Witches were so dangerous.
Based on the current situation, a reasonable guess would be... Mei Lind had plenty of reason to suspect this Rebel Witch had come to the Main World because she was interested in the world itself. She might even use radical methods to bring the Main World entirely under the name of the witch race.
This was the Main World, after all—the most unique form of world existence in the Void.
Because it sat upon the main trunk of the Void Ley Lines, the Main World possessed the ability to influence the entire Void to a certain extent—or rather, the ability to influence the "birth of worlds throughout the Void."
Such a world was worth many times more than the worlds harvested through Void exploration. Even a large world community couldn't compare.
Furthermore, the Main World had a nearly infinite growth ceiling, provided it hadn't been ravaged until only a single Core World remained...
However, now that they possessed the World Repair Technique, the value of this Main World had been elevated once again in the eyes of the witch race, making it as precious as a complete, unbroken Main World!
Mei Lind suspected that a large number of Rebel Witches might soon descend upon the Main World. At this moment, she felt somewhat relieved that the Main World was shattered, as it meant there was a limit to its transcendent capacity.
Otherwise, the sight of these Rebel Witches swarming in would likely leave her breathless with stress.
Even so, she had to guard against Rebel Witches entering the Main World through other means. The Sheryl standing before her had snuck in exactly like that.
She felt it was absolutely necessary to conduct in-depth background checks on any transcendent witches entering the Main World from now on.
If a second Rebel Witch were allowed in, it wouldn't just be a problem for some transcendent academy; even the Witch Academy itself would suffer! If the philosophies of two Rebel Witches clashed, the situation would become even more uncontrollable.
* * *
The Laboratory.
Since Tan Han had things to attend to and didn't come in this morning, I had to work on my own projects first.
I felt quite confident about the "Perfecting Ritual" for self-generated mana. The only question was the efficiency of the final refinement.
As for the concept of "prototype self-generated mana" I had proposed, I didn't have the energy to delve deep into it at this stage. After all, things must be done one at a time; haste was to be avoided. Besides, even if derivation were possible, I currently had no leads, so I wasn't going to waste time on it.
Consequently, my morning was relatively relaxed.
When I wasn't particularly busy, I even wandered over to the group working on Potions to pay them a visit. I had always been quite interested in the craft of Potions.
This art, mastered by witches, used mana as a medium, transcendent materials as a carrier, and the finished potion as the ritual itself. It was undeniably fascinating.
While I wasn't yet proficient in Potion-making, I possessed a wealth of theoretical knowledge; I simply lacked practical experience.
If general alchemical potions focused on ratios and pharmacology, then Potions focused primarily on harmony and ritual. Mana was the ultimate medium for that harmony.
Actually, this application was quite common. For instance, the healing potions harmonized with the natural power of the Forest Elves were more effective than simple healing waters. The curse essences harmonized with the witch power of Wizards were so potent that even standard dispel spells couldn't remove the effects.
Potion-making harmonized with mana was an even deeper field of study!
As mana was currently the highest energy level of transcendent energy that life could master, the art of Potions was the most brilliant calling card of the witch race.
It wasn't that higher energy levels didn't exist in the Void, but among the energies that could be utilized for the advancement of a transcendent system, mana had the highest energy level. Other races didn't dare covet this power; if they did, they had to be prepared for their entire race to be assimilated into a branch of the witch race.
But back to the point.
While Potion-making seemed high-brow and sophisticated, for a witch... it was about as easy as whipping up a batch of "dark cuisine" in daily life.
One didn't even need to be a transcendent witch; as long as one was a witch candidate whose mental strength could interfere with mana, they could begin learning Potions and even start hands-on practice.
Potions was a classic example of a craft with an extremely high ceiling and a very low floor.
This often led to explosions during the harmonization process. Given the high energy level of mana, if even the slightest thing went wrong, a simple explosion might actually be the best-case scenario.
In the basic Potion-making books I had read, there were descriptions of various situations one might encounter if a potion exploded mid-harmonization.
For example, being splashed by waste liquid or being struck by an unknown curse shaped by a specific ritual—curses that lacked a systematic source and were nearly impossible to dispel.
Thus, for witches who hadn't mastered the craft, Potion-making could even be classified as a field of the "Occult"—the unknowable.
Nevertheless, this didn't dampen my curiosity.
After finishing my work on the Perfecting Ritual, I spent some time observing several girls performing potion harmonization.
Watching their "crude" handling of transcendent materials, I momentarily doubted if they were actually professional students who had studied Potions...
But after learning more, I realized that this behavior was considered part of a "behavioral ritual." It was similar to a prayer ritual or something of that nature.
This wasn't a matter of "it only works if you believe in it." Since the existence of rituals was a confirmed fact, if there was no effect, it simply meant something had gone wrong with the ritual itself.
I told myself I could never adopt their level of optimism.
Still, I learned many useful things over the course of the morning, such as specific manual techniques for harmonization and the preparatory rituals required beforehand. Many of these details and tricks weren't recorded in books.
According to them, everyone’s understanding of Potions was different, so the little ritual tricks they mastered would differ as well. Even the effects of the harmonized potions would vary, leading to a vast and complex array of classifications, styles, and schools within the field.
I could only offer my respect to that.
* * *
Afternoon arrived quickly.
The time for my appointment with Tan Han was approaching.
I sat in the lab, looking over the morning's results and planning how to communicate with her. Tan Han was a living person, after all; communication was essential.
"Oh, Tan Han is here! You haven't visited us in days; I thought we were becoming strangers~"
I heard voices near the main entrance of the lab. Tan Han had arrived about fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled.
Hearing her ask where I was, I casually picked up a document and pretended to read it. Eventually, a figure appeared in my peripheral vision at the entrance of my experimental cubicle.
"Tan Han, you're here." I put down the document and stood up.
"Yes. Sorry, I really had things to do this morning. I hope I didn't delay you too much?"
"Not at all. In fact, you've arrived at the perfect time," I said with a smile, leading her inside.
"By the way, you should have been practicing the Transformation Spell these past few days, right? How does it feel?" I looked at her expectantly, curious about her impressions of the technique.
"It's a very novel technique. It's a completely different experience from casting spells with a spellbook, but it hasn't defeated me yet," Tan Han said confidently.
"That's good. Has anyone given you trouble lately? If so, tell me immediately and I'll settle it. I don't want you getting distracted by other things during the experiment."
"Don't worry, no one has bothered me."
"Good. Then let's get straight to the point, shall we?" As I spoke, I pulled up the information summary page from the Tree of Great Knowledge.
This was the analytical data of Tan Han’s physical condition over the past few days. I had organized it into a more intuitive chart.
"I'm fine with that." Tan Han shook her head; she had long since grown used to Xiao Han’s habit of getting straight to business.
"The Perfecting Ritual I had you try before—have you been keeping up with it?" I looked at the line graph and noticed that the total amount of self-generated mana within the set time was increasing slightly.
The increase wasn't regular but intermittent. This gave me reason to believe that many of the previous versions of the Perfecting Ritual had some effect, though it was minimal, and there were even several points where the levels dropped back down.
"Yes, I've been trying them. Since I felt the change in mana generation wasn't significant, I thought it would just take more time to see a real shift," Tan Han said truthfully.
"Then, you wouldn't mind if I access some of your more private data from this period, would you? I just want to collect data on exactly when you tried which ritual and what the results were."
"Go ahead, I don't mind."
"Thank you." I nodded and pulled the data, merging it into the current line graph.
Since I was conducting a formal experiment, it was only right to ask for permission before looking into someone's personal life. Of course, this was mostly just following protocol to avoid future trouble.
"It's fine. So, can you see anything from that?"
"I can see that the rituals I had you try before all had an effect, but it was limited," I said with some regret.
Up to this point, Tan Han’s progress in self-generated mana could only be described as negligible. It wasn't for lack of effort on her part; it was simply that the previous techniques weren't mature enough. And, of course, it was my fault for not having a deep enough understanding of self-generated mana.
If Tan Han’s self-generated mana previously hadn't even reached a single "thread" of the standard unit, she was now just barely reaching that one-thread mark.
"I see..."
"Why do you look so down? This is clearly my problem; it doesn't have much to do with you."
"It's nothing. But let's not talk about whose responsibility it is. We're both participants in this experiment, and we both want it to succeed."
"Are you actually comforting me now?" I chuckled and waved my hand, clearing away the data.
"Don't lose heart. I haven't spent these past few days doing nothing. We're going to try again, but this time... I will personally preside over the Perfecting Ritual."
"Do I need to prepare anything?"
"No. I've cleared a large enough space; just stand there. Maintain the same state you usually do when attempting the ritual. Oh, and one more thing..." As I spoke, I pushed a light screen in front of Tan Han.
"This is the Initial Perfecting Ritual we're going to try. I will constantly adjust it based on the effects it has on you. This process might last a long time—maybe half a day, maybe a day or two. You can handle that, right? You'll need to maintain a high degree of mental focus during this time."
"That won't be a problem."
Tan Han took the light screen and looked at the Perfecting Ritual displayed on it. She realized there was a massive gap between this ritual and every single one she had tried before. She couldn't help but wonder if Xiao Han had completely overturned all previous theories to start from scratch.