A day later, Leilin once again met with that old woman from the Bottley family.
However, her spirits were very poor this time around—her face was pale, as though she hadn't rested properly.
The moment she saw Leilin, a glimmer of light flashed through her eyes. She spoke immediately, her voice low: "I can give you our family's secret high-level Meditation Method, but I must make one thing clear—this Meditation Method is incomplete, and it has very strict restrictions on its practitioners. If one forces themselves to cultivate it, there will be certain side effects..."
"That's my problem to deal with. You give me the Meditation Method, I give you the key to lift the curse. Simple as that!" Leilin leaned back in his soft recliner, fingers interlaced, speaking in a calm tone.
"Agreed! But we must sign an Eye of Judgment contract!" The old woman straightened her back.
"Of course! Otherwise I wouldn't trust you either!" Leilin nodded. "Let's begin..."
A short while later, the old woman left with what she wanted, while Leilin sat in his chair, toying with a pale golden crystal ball, an amused expression on his face.
"What an interesting Meditation Method!"
He had just skimmed through the contents of the Meditation Method the old woman provided. With the Eye of Judgment contract in place, she wouldn't dare forge anything—but Leilin discovered that the old woman had still played a few tricks.
For instance, she had exaggerated or downplayed certain facts.
According to Haitar's testimony yesterday, the male Wizards of the Bottley family who had previously attempted to cultivate this high-level Meditation Method had all ultimately died from mental madness, yet here it was merely written as "potential psychological side effects."
Moreover, the old woman had also exaggerated the effects of the Meditation Method. She had changed "occasionally catching faint glimpses of the future" to outright "the ability to foresee the future."
An ordinary
"A bit of cunning! Too bad that's all it is." Leilin remarked casually, still playing with the crystal ball that held the Meditation Method's records.
Since the Meditation Method the old woman provided was genuine, it fully complied with the Eye of Judgment contract. The minor tampering with its effects and side effects wasn't enough to trigger the contract's backlash.
But in Leilin's eyes, no matter what she had done, it was nothing but a joke!
"However, prophetic ability! That really is astonishing—to actually be able to perceive fragments of the future through intangible spiritual power..."
Leilin stroked his chin. He had given the Meditation Method a general overview. Its main principle was to have the Wizard cultivate a very unique form of spiritual power through special meditation techniques, and through the extension of that spiritual power, one could obtain certain information and images of the future.
All in all, its effects were truly astonishing. What a pity it was incomplete.
"Chip! How are the scanning and recording going?"
Leilin asked silently in his mind.
Chip faithfully reported back.
"After scanning and comparison, this Meditation Method has massive deficiencies. The degree of damage exceeds 79.52%! Forcing cultivation of this Meditation Method will cause mental problems for the subject, with a 98% probability of secondary personality splitting!"
"98%! That means problems are guaranteed the moment you start cultivating!" Leilin sighed, then asked: "Chip! Can you complete this high-level Meditation Method?"
He suspected that the strict physical and bloodline requirements, along with the terrifying side effects, were all caused by the Meditation Method's incompleteness. If the gaps could be filled, it should resolve most of the problems.
"Ding! Due to insufficient high-level Meditation Method data, this Meditation Method cannot be completed!"
Unsurprisingly, Chip gave this response.
Leilin felt somewhat helpless. A high-level Meditation Method was something that determined the life or death of a Wizard family or organization. Even at his current status, he had only managed to obtain two high-level Meditation Methods: one was his own Eyes of the Komoyin, and the other was this incomplete Holy Light Candleflame!
Based on his speculation, Chip would likely need a large number of samples to analyze and compare before it could decode and perfect the Holy Light Candleflame.
The samples required would be at least ten complete high-level Meditation Methods! None of them could be incomplete.
Ten high-level Meditation Methods? Leilin let out a long sigh. Even across the entire South Coast, whether one could find that many high-level Meditation Methods was highly uncertain. There was no way he could get his hands on them now.
"Regardless! This is still a high-level Meditation Method! Something priceless!"
Leilin stroked the golden crystal ball in his hand. Suddenly, a wisp of black mist flashed from his palm—crack! crack! Fissures spread across the crystal ball one after another, and then, under Leilin's gaze, the entire crystal ball crumbled into a pile of fine powder.
All the information on the Holy Light Candleflame had already been recorded by Chip and would never be lost. Keeping the crystal ball served no purpose, and besides, Leilin had a natural distrust of anything the old woman left behind. Destroying it was for the best.
……
Leilin's room—a laboratory.
Now, as one of the two top leaders of
This laboratory had previously been reserved for department heads and other senior Wizards. Every piece of equipment represented the latest achievements and technology shipped in from the outside world—not a single one of Leilin's previous laboratories could compare.
At this moment, Leilin stood before a massive silver-white laboratory bench. On its metallic surface sat a black object resembling a honeycomb coal ball, its surface covered with uneven depressions. At the center of each depression lay a tiny dark-green pearl, radiating a dazzling brilliance that could almost make one dizzy.
This was something Leilin had found in Four Seasons Garden's True Treasury—a top-tier resource ranked among the top three in rarity: Thousand-Eyed Starfish meat fossil!
After obtaining this item's specific name and function from the Array Spirit's database, Leilin had eagerly claimed a laboratory for himself, determined to make full use of it.
"Come to think of it, since the starfish meat has already turned into fossil, extracting its active ingredients is quite troublesome—it requires many rare reagents. But as it happens, I happen to have them right here..."
Leilin smiled and pulled a peculiar reagent test tube from the pouch at his waist.
Ever since obtaining the spatial high-grade Magical Item pouch crafted from the skin of the Void White-eye Serpent, Leilin had transferred all his possessions into it. He now looked much leaner, many of his previous encumbrances gone.
The test tube was made entirely of nitrogen-infused glass crystal. The reagent inside was of a peculiar color—the upper half was brownish-green while the lower half was grayish-black, the two colors sharply demarcated.
"High-grade Vitality Potion! Even in the ancient era, this was one of the rarest of reagents! It can awaken the dormant life force buried deep within objects!" Leilin murmured.
This ancient potion recipe had been found in the Array Spirit's database. Since several required materials had long gone extinct, its secrecy level wasn't very high—Leonot probably considered it worthless.
But Leilin was different! With the resources he had accumulated after several rounds of plundering and extortion, he was extraordinarily wealthy. He had easily gathered most of the required materials.
As for the extinct key ingredients? By sheer coincidence, Leilin happened to have them!
When he was still a Third-rank Apprentice, his expedition into the Dilon Garden Secret Realm had not only yielded a high-level Meditation Method and the Book of the Great Serpent, but he had also casually pocketed several extremely rare plant specimens!
These plant materials were too precious for the Leilin of that time to make use of. He could only apply some preservation measures and seal them away for safekeeping.
But now, after obtaining the High-grade Vitality Potion recipe, he was startled to discover that the extinct materials were all present in those very plants!
It was truly remarkable luck. With all the materials gathered and Leilin himself being a highly skilled Apothecary, brewing the potion was a piece of cake.
"Drip! Drip!" As Leilin chanted his incantation, the mouth of the test tube unfurled like flower petals, and a pungent smell spread through the air.
Drop by drop, Leilin carefully applied the potion onto every dark-green pearl of the Thousand-Eyed Starfish meat.
Leilin worked with great precision, ensuring every pearl was evenly coated.
When the last drop of brownish-green potion had fallen, the entire Thousand-Eyed Starfish meat fossil began to subtly squirm, as if it were a massive piece of living flesh.
"Awaken!" An eerie light flashed in Leilin's eyes. His lips moved softly, producing a low murmur.
He was speaking in the Ancient Byron Language, and this time it seemed to channel a trace of some ethereal power.
Hummm!
An invisible force enveloped the Thousand-Eyed Starfish. The potion evaporated in large quantities, billowing forth plumes of black-and-white gas.
The black-and-white gas met in midair, forming patterns of black-and-white eyes.
"Whooo..."
Amid what sounded like the crashing of ocean waves, the Thousand-Eyed Starfish meat on the laboratory bench continued to writhe, layers of lime crumbling from its surface.
Tsss!
Green eyes opened one after another—those dark-green pearls nestled in the depressions had actually been the Thousand-Eyed Starfish's eyes all along!
"Deep heating initiated! Preset temperature: 1,548 degrees!"
At Leilin's command, two massive mechanical arms suddenly extended from beneath the laboratory bench. Their surfaces gleamed with a distinctly metallic sheen, yet at their joints, there were traces of something resembling writhing flesh.
The enormous mechanical arms seized the Thousand-Eyed Starfish and deposited it into a furnace-like apparatus beside the bench.