Chapter 172:
A milky-white glow emerged from Leilin's palm. After sweeping across the Soul-Binding Orbs on the table one by one, he broke into a satisfied smile.
"All right then! I'll take these with me. Within ten days at the earliest, fifteen at the latest, I'll bring your share of the potion!" Leilin made his guarantee.
"I naturally trust you — after all, haven't we already signed an unbreakable oath under the Witness of the Eye of Judgment..." Although the old witch appeared to trust Leilin completely, he could still sense the wariness lingering in her heart.
But that was only natural.
He believed that once this transaction succeeded, her distrust would diminish considerably, and the bonds of mutual interest between them would grow much tighter.
After leaving the old witch's shop, Leilin hurried back to his villa.
His Spiritual Power hadn't seen any significant growth in a long time, and he was now practically itching to compound the ancient potion — Maria's Tears — so he could once again enjoy the thrill of watching his Spiritual Power soar.
After activating every last one of his defensive formations, Leilin descended alone into the villa's basement.
The space had been renovated and was now highly organized. The lowest level served as a magic experimentation arena, its walls inscribed with reinforced energy-absorption runes.
In a chamber off to the side sat a specially modified potion laboratory, fully equipped with every advanced instrument one could need.
All of this, naturally, Leilin had obtained through the old witch's connections, bartering with the resources he had plundered.
Otherwise, with his current finances, even if he compounded potions every single day, it would take him at least two full years to purchase all of this equipment.
After all, he couldn't spend every last Magic Stone on this — he still needed funds for daily living expenses and for purchasing other materials.
But that last heist had allowed him to build the laboratory from the ground up in one fell swoop.
"Chip!" Leilin issued the command from within his mind.
"Ancient potion — Maria's Tears compounding initiated. Authorization received from host.
The Chip's mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
"Let's begin!" Leilin took a deep breath and picked up a Soul-Binding Sphere with a spirit sealed inside…
In the blink of an eye, dawn broke on the second day.
Leilin was gasping for breath, cold sweat continuously beading on his face, yet his spirits were incredibly high as he gazed at the transparent tube in his hand with a smile.
The potion vials were made from specially crafted nitrogen-infused crystal glass, extremely sturdy and capable of preserving potion efficacy for extended periods. For this reason, Apothecaries had always used them to store particularly important potions.
Staring at the perfectly transparent, crystal-clear potion in the vial, a wistful expression crossed Leilin's face.
Thinking carefully, three or four years had passed since he had first obtained this potion recipe from Master Guofate.
The
But the potion he now held in his hand was a finished product refined completely according to the ancient potion recipe! Even for the Spiritual Power bottlenecks faced by ancient Wizards, it had a remarkably significant effect in breaking through them!
"And the success rate isn't bad either!"
Leilin looked at the three broken Soul-Binding Spheres on the ground, a satisfied expression on his face.
He had deliberately added several steps at the end of the potion recipe that only the Chip could execute. This not only successfully encrypted the potion but also increased the success rate. His current success rate in compounding this ancient potion had reached an astonishing thirty to forty percent!
In other words, from the sixteen Soul-Binding Spheres he had obtained from the old witch this time, he could produce five or six finished potions.
This discovery delighted Leilin greatly.
After all, the source of this potion's raw materials was extremely evil and difficult to come by. He wanted to maximize the utilization rate as much as possible.
Due to the Eye of Judgment's constraints, he truly had to follow the agreement and hand over forty percent of the finished products to the old witch.
Although this proportion was somewhat high, Leilin felt it was entirely worthwhile.
Also due to the Eye of Judgment's constraints, if the old witch were ever caught, she would be completely unable to reveal even the slightest information about Leilin, thereby transferring all the danger onto her.
"Chip! How is the potion analysis coming along?"
Leilin looked at the vial in his hand and suddenly asked.
"Ding! Analysis complete. Potion analysis spectrum recorded and stored in the database."
"High-Grade Potion — Maria's Tears. Raw Materials: A powerful spirit filled with pain and despair. Effects: Greatly increases a formal
The Chip's analysis was very specific, and the final sentence plunged Leilin into deep thought.
In the Wizard World, potions that could directly increase Spiritual Power were incredibly expensive.
Just like the exchange at the
And compared to Spiritual Power potions, potions that could directly help a Wizard break through their Spiritual Power bottleneck were even more precious!
Even if the bottleneck-breaking effect of Maria's Tears was small, it would definitely be crazily sought after by countless Wizards.
"It seems this bottleneck-breaking effect must be kept secret. The old hag has already signed a contract; she can't leak any information about the potion to outsiders. For now, I can relax..."
Leilin took out a gold pocket watch studded with diamonds from his pocket and glanced at it.
"There's still time. My meeting with Clio is in the afternoon. I can still personally test the potion's effects!"
Leilin took the transparent potion and went to the spell-testing ground beneath the laboratory, sitting cross-legged directly on the floor.
"Activate!"
Leilin slowly spoke a few syllables. Immediately, the carving at the top of the nitrogen glass test tube, resembling a flower, blossomed open, revealing the clear potion inside.
A somewhat faint, sweet scent that induced drowsiness and seemed to have a hypnotic effect began to fill the entire basement.
With the help of this scent, Leilin entered a meditative state in an instant...
During meditation, Leilin felt his mind become completely peaceful, as if floating among the clouds, embracing the sun. A feeling of profound harmony and tranquility flowed gently through his heart.
"What a pleasant experience!" After an unknown amount of time, Leilin slowly opened his eyes.
Meditation was a very physically taxing burden for Wizards. Many Wizards often chose to enter a deep sleep immediately after meditating, precisely to compensate for the physical energy consumed.
And the more advanced the Meditation Method, the more obvious this effect became.
In the past, even with his physique at 8.5, Leilin would feel extremely exhausted after daily meditation using the Comoin's Eye, wishing he could just collapse and sleep immediately.
But today, after circulating his Meditation Method once, he felt not a single part of his body that wasn't utterly comfortable, his Spiritual Power was incredibly abundant, and his condition was better than it could possibly be.
It was a feeling that was incredibly hard to describe — as if he had torn away a thin membrane separating himself from the natural world, and everything he looked at appeared with crystal clarity. Or like a person who had been in darkness his entire life, suddenly seeing the light.
"This feeling... it's truly wonderful!"
Leilin smiled faintly.
Only then did he notice two wet trails sliding down his cheeks.
"Tears...!" Leilin wiped them away with his hand, catching a single translucent droplet on the back of his hand.
"With my physique, my control, and the Chip's assistance, I actually shed tears without even realizing it..." A look of genuine admiration appeared on Leilin's face. "The effects of this ancient potion are far beyond what I imagined!"
Only at this point did he have the presence of mind to check his current status.
During his earlier meditation, the Chip had already displayed a long column of numbers, but Leilin had only now found the time to read through them.
"[Ancient Potion — Maria's Tears: volatile absorption in progress!]"
"[Subject affected by potion. Meditation Method effectiveness increased. Spiritual Power +0.5]"
"[Subject affected by potion. Meditation Method effectiveness increased. Spiritual Power +1.0]"
"[Ancient Potion — Maria's Tears: potion potency has reached threshold. Subject's Spiritual Power increasing significantly...]"
"[Comoin's Eye meditation complete. Subject's Spiritual Power has undergone significant change. Re-calculating data...]"
Afterward, the Chip refreshed Leilin's status panel once more.
"Leilin Fayrel — Warlock, Rank 1. Bloodline: Comoin Giant Serpent. Strength: 7.1 | Agility: 6.7 | Physique: 8.5 | Spiritual Power: 36.8 | Mana: 36 (Mana determined by Spiritual Power in synchronization) | Spiritual Elementalization Progress: 35% | Condition: Healthy"
"Seven points! A single dose of Maria's Tears increased my Spiritual Power by a full seven points!"
An undisguised grin of delight spread across Leilin's face.
"With this, even if my body develops a tolerance to the potion in the later stages, won't I still be able to push my Spiritual Power close to the threshold for breaking through to rank two?"
"And that dark-attribute energy particle crystal I've been keeping in storage — I can make use of it again too!"
Every aspect of a Wizard's physical data worked in synergy with one another.
Previously, Lei Lin's Spiritual Power and bloodline had been sufficient, but his degree of elemental transformation had been lacking — that was why he could use the dark-attribute energy particle crystal to compensate, pushing his spiritual elemental transformation to 35% in a single attempt. However, after this round of cultivation, Lei Lin's elemental transformation was now adequate, but his Spiritual Power had become relatively insufficient in comparison. Therefore, according to the Chip's estimation, until his Spiritual Power reached a certain threshold, using an energy particle crystal in advance would have no effect whatsoever.
As a result, the 500 grams of dark-attribute energy particle crystals Lei Lin had previously obtained from the old witch, along with the crystals he had exchanged through the Four Seasons Garden, had all remained sitting unused to one side.