At the same time, a Magic Stone crystal was also tossed onto the other party's table.
Leylin pocketed the Ice Jade Scorpion's breath in his hand, with no intention of returning it whatsoever.
"Just a research project, is it?"
The purple-haired female Wizard let an amused smile play across her lips. The Magic Stone crystal on the table leapt of its own accord into her palm, morphing into black tassels.
Leylin, meanwhile, met her gaze with an expressionless face, as though everything he had said was nothing but the plain truth.
"Very well!" The female Wizard elegantly extended her fingers — her nails stained with red narcissus juice — and tucked the Magic Stone crystal away into her robes.
"My name is Shireen! You can contact me later about the Ice Jade Scorpion matter! This is my secret imprint!"
With that, she handed Leylin a secret imprint in the shape of a purple narcissus.
Leylin nodded and left the spot. Almost immediately, a portly Wizard stepped forward and struck up an enthusiastic conversation with Shireen.
"Leylin! My friend, what are you doing over here?"
By this time, Siegfried had also wandered over.
"You've arrived just in time — do you happen to know who that purple-haired female Wizard is?" Leylin pointed toward the Wizard who was chatting and laughing with the portly Wizard, occasionally covering her mouth with a delicate giggle.
"Oh! That's Shireen! The successor of a small school. Though the school itself isn't much, she's quite the famous beauty in the capital of the Eastern Domain! But word is she's extremely shrewd — quite a few Wizards with ill intentions have ended up on the wrong end of her schemes. She's not someone you want to tangle with..."
Siegfried looked at Leylin, a grin suddenly creeping across the corner of his mouth. "What's this? Interested?"
"No! Just a simple trade, that's all!"
Hearing Siegfried's account, Leylin grew ever more certain that this female Wizard named Shireen was no simple character. His grip on the box tightened unconsciously.
But the Ice Jade Scorpion's breath crystal was directly related to his path as a sorcerer — he absolutely could not miss this opportunity.
"It looks like I'll have to play this game properly with this little fox!"
Leylin cast a glance at Wizard Shireen, a hint of a smile playing on his face.
……
In the capital of the Eastern Domain, inside the villa Leylin had purchased.
After Veylin had left without saying goodbye, the spacious villa was home to Leylin alone. He hadn't hired any servants or anything of the sort, so the place felt rather desolate.
At this moment, beneath the villa's original cellar, Leylin had carved out a hidden cave.
At the far end of the cave lay a spacious underground chamber. In its center stood a workbench of silvery-white metal, topped with an array of glass instruments — all obtained by Leylin through purchases and from the reserves he had originally carried with him.
"What a peculiar thing!"
At this moment, Leylin was using a pair of silver tweezers to hold a white, ice-sheet-like Icejade Scorpion breath crystal. His eyes shimmered with a faint blue glow.
With the aid of the Chip's atomic-level microscope, the original ice-sheet surface was magnified progressively until it revealed an intricate pattern of hexagonal runes.
A stream of frigid, yin-cold energy continuously emanated from the breath crystal as these hexagonal runes kept rotating.
"Ding! Analysis of the Icejade Scorpion breath crystal composition complete. Spectrum generated! Virtual model constructed! Bloodline experiment preparation finished!"
The Chip immediately relayed its feedback directly into Leylin's mind.
"Let's begin!" Leylin exhaled a long breath.
"Authorization received. Bloodline simulation experiment initiated!" The Chip whirred into action at full speed, and Leylin's gaze went vacant, as though he had been transported to another space entirely. Before him floated a translucent human model with purple-red blood flowing through its veins.
"Icejade Scorpion breath — injection!" Following the Chip's command, two slender metal needles pierced into the human model's shoulder area. As the gradations on the needles shifted, a strange white liquid was steadily infused into the body.
*Whoosh!* As if boiling oil had been thrown onto cold water, the moment the Icejade Scorpion breath entered the test subject's body, it triggered a violent reaction.
The entire experimental body began to tremble, and the waveforms representing the subject's vital data started writhing abnormally, nearly tangling into a knotted mess.
"Test subject's blood flow rate surging! Blood pressure rising! Physical stress increased fivefold!"
The Chip periodically projected the latest data directly before Leylin's eyes.
"Initiate energy particle radiation! Maintain life-system stability!" Leylin issued another command.