With Shang Chuan and Diana involved, Lan Qingyou no longer had to worry about the construction of the Witch's Forest at all.
Especially Diana.
She had studied urban planning and was a witch herself.
The suggestions and concepts proposed by such a person struck a chord deep within Lan Qingyou.
So, she simply dumped all those matters onto the other woman.
It didn't matter how she chose to tinker with things; Lan Qingyou had already provided a habitat for the witches, fulfilling her duty as the Clan Leader.
There was no need to shackle herself with further burdens.
And so, after handing everything over to Diana, Lan Qingyou flew back to her habitat, leaving Diana standing there with a look of utter bewilderment.
“Clan Leader, what about the rare materials!”
“Tag me in the group...”
Lan Qingyou waved her hand without looking back, appearing quite dashing—or perhaps like someone fleeing for their life.
Well.
To be precise, she was fleeing.
As the days went by, Lan Qingyou felt more and more like a corporate slave.
Don't be ridiculous. It was one thing to potentially be a workhorse back on Blue Star with only a middle school education, but if I'm still a workhorse after being forcibly transmigrated to another world, then what was the point of being transmigrated in the first place?
With that mindset, Lan Qingyou returned to her shelter and began researching the items she had acquired recently, one by one.
Of course.
While she had gained many things, she focused primarily on the high-quality items.
For instance, Ksuya's tears, Jormungandr's blood, the Platinum Dragon King's blood, and so on...
After all, the other pipsqueaks weren't worth her research—or rather, they weren't worth the waste of time.
Ksuya's tears were quite interesting.
During her closed-door research, Lan Qingyou discovered that aside from the minor drawback of being highly corrosive, these tears were essentially a jack-of-all-trades material.
Whether used in potions, as ink for inscriptions, or as the adhesive required for golemcraft, they provided varying degrees of enhancement.
This gave Lan Qingyou a deeper understanding of the tears and inspired even more ways to use them.
In particular, their application in potions could elevate the craft to an entirely new height.
This made Lan Qingyou feel even more protective toward the 'big-eyed cutie' locked in her basement.
Once she finished her initial study and understood the properties, she immediately headed to the basement. There, she saw the 'big-eyed cutie'—now looking as shriveled as a raisin—beside two basic golems and the dozen or so syringes she had left behind.
Ten of those syringes were already full, and another was half-full.
“Hmm... did I go a bit too far?”
Looking at the shriveled raisin, Lan Qingyou whispered as she eyed the liquid in the syringes lined up nearby.
Despite her words, her mind was already calculating exactly how many tears this big-eyed cutie could produce in a day.
Since her return, the creature had only produced about ten and a half syringes' worth. In other words, its recovery speed wasn't as impressive as she had imagined.
“Oh! I know!”
Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck Lan Qingyou.
She took out a bottle of Advanced Mana Potion and poured it directly onto the shriveled raisin. Instantly, the big-eyed cutie seemed to activate, frantically absorbing the potion into its body.
Shortly after, it looked slightly less shriveled.
After all, even though it was an Advanced Mana Potion, it was still a drop in the bucket compared to the creature's total mana point capacity.
Exactly.
Since the big-eyed cutie's recovery was tied to its mana, Lan Qingyou had just tested it with a potion, and the results were positive.
This meant she could simply brew potions to help it recover, harvest its tears, use more potions, and harvest again—creating a perfect cycle.
Moreover, the two golems were being a bit too ruthless.
She removed one to keep the creature within a healthy range.
After all, besides being her material factory, this creature also served as the mana source for the sealing magic circle and the larger magic circle outside.
Earlier, she had told Diana that the combination of the Spring of Repose and the Sunlight Salt provided all that mana.
In reality, this creature's mana contribution to amplifying the spring's energy was indispensable.
So, Lan Qingyou withdrew one golem, took the filled syringes, and set down ten fresh ones.
Because the tears were highly corrosive, they required a 'cleaning' process before they could be used.
Of course, that was no difficult task for Lan Qingyou.
She could just whip up a neutralizing alchemy circle; it was simple enough.
However, compared to Ksuya's tears, Jormungandr's blood was far more sinister.
No matter what it touched, it would pollute it.
This pollution was different from the 'corrosion' of the tears; it was far more potent.
Regardless of the experimental material Lan Qingyou used, the blood would turn it into a gray, attribute-less blank object.
To put it simply, it polluted 'useful' things until they were 'useless.'
But that was fine.
The stuff seemed powerful, but Lan Qingyou had her own ways of dealing with it.
She didn't know how those poor devils in Formation 505 had managed it, but she had someone she could ask.
The Tower: “@Lovers, how do you handle Jormungandr's blood?”
Yes.
If she couldn't figure it out, she chose to cheat.
Why rack her brain when there was a ready-made answer? She would just copy it. There was no shame in that.
After all, Tarot Villa was a place for exchange.
Lovers: “@The Tower, if you dilute it with human blood, there won't be any issues.”
The Tower: “Monster blood won't work?”
Lovers: “Monster blood will be polluted too.”
The Tower: “I see. That means my own blood should be fine.”
Lovers: “Er... strictly speaking, there might be a problem. You're not human anymore.”
The Tower: “...”
Frenna made a good point. Lan Qingyou really couldn't be considered human anymore, given that she had evolved into a witch of the Witch race.
But would it really not work?
Lan Qingyou wasn't ready to give up. Refusing to believe it, she tested it with her own blood. The result was exactly as predicted.
Her precious Origin Witch blood was instantly 'burned away' by Jormungandr's blood.
Lan Qingyou was on the verge of losing it.
Was this a joke? Did they know the value of Origin Witch blood? It was gone in an instant.
Did this mean Jormungandr's race was more advanced than the Origin Witch? Or was it simply that its level was higher?
No, she couldn't take this lying down!
Although Lan Qingyou didn't have many ways to improve herself besides fighting and leveling up, the key was to find a way to process this blood first.
Left with no other choice, Lan Qingyou scratched her head and walked back out of her shelter.
Rate on N.U.
