With a new direction in mind, Lan Qingyou was no longer feeling discouraged.
Though the dark circles under her eyes remained and her exhaustion was evident, she appeared even more spirited than before.
This time, she set aside the enamel mugs and used the Meteoric Iron Cauldron directly.
Even though she only had one, such professional equipment could increase the success rate, and that wasn't something she could afford to ignore.
At this point, she was operating under a "do or die" mentality.
Her materials were limited anyway, and the duration of the mana tide was nearing its end.
If she couldn't make it now, she would just have to find another way later. There was no need to bang her head against a wall forever.
Of course...
The main reason was that she felt her current state was becoming problematic.
No 'human' could work for this long at such high intensity.
Yet, she had managed to push through by relying on attribute potions and Gu Xiaobei’s food. It was, frankly, a bit eerie.
She decided that after finishing this batch, she would have to force herself to sleep, or she might actually drop dead from exhaustion.
Clutching the Emerald Stirring Rod, Lan Qingyou’s mind began to wander.
Her thoughts drifted from why she was so energetic to the necessity of forced sleep, then to being forcibly transported to this magic world. At some point, she even recalled the clumsy humor of her very first attempt at making a potion.
To be honest, she was very glad she had used a cauldron that increased success rates back then.
Without Albert's cauldron, she never would have succeeded on her very first try.
It was that cauldron that had given her the confidence to keep going.
Thinking back, the small screen had even roasted her for that first successful potion.
Since then, the roasting had never truly stopped.
Lan Qingyou smiled faintly, treating it as a small piece of her own embarrassing history.
But for some reason, the more she thought about it, the more something felt off.
It wasn't that the small screen was weird, but rather the specific criticisms it leveled at the potions.
Especially the roast regarding the first official Apprentice-level Mana Potion she had brewed.
What did it say again?
She remembered it saying her dosage was too large and that she was too rigid, lacking any real flair—that it was just plain boring.
At the time, Lan Qingyou had been a bit annoyed, feeling that such criticism was unnecessary for her first official batch.
But thinking about it now, none of her other official potions had received that kind of comment, had they?
Why did the small screen roast her like that specifically?
Was it just a whim?
Or was it suggesting that in the field of alchemy—or at least when developing new potions—one should be more unconventional and learn how to add some creative flair?
Lan Qingyou wasn't sure. None of the books on potions mentioned anything of the sort.
It could just be her overthinking things, or there might actually be something to it.
But... it did seem interesting.
Lan Qingyou, who had already given up hope on this current pot, suddenly felt that her previous thinking hadn't been nearly open enough.
Perhaps getting creative was indeed a viable path?
She began to contemplate how exactly she could shake things up.
Even if she wanted to be unconventional, she couldn't just throw anything into the pot.
Stones or tables, for instance, were definitely out of the question.
What else could be added to a potion?
Looking down at her own hands, Lan Qingyou suddenly realized—wasn't she a material herself?
What had Albert said back then?
If you bet everything you are on alchemy, then alchemy will surely respond to your sacrifice?
Well, if she was going for a creative spark, using herself as a material certainly fit the bill.
Besides, the process of brewing potions or elixirs had always involved using every possible means.
So, Lan Qingyou took the mortar, clipped some of her fingernails into it, pulled out a few strands of hair, and ground them all together.
After finishing that, she thought that since she was already going wild, she might as well go all the way.
Lan Qingyou turned to look at the distillation vessels on the wooden table.
If magic beast blood could be added, then what about her own blood?
After all, this was a potion meant to upgrade her own talent. It only seemed logical to use her own blood.
Moreover, ancient master swordsmiths liked to add such things to their forges. While she didn't quite understand the underlying principle, she felt it was worth a try.
One drop of blood was roughly 0.05 milliliters.
The twenty-liter pot would make two hundred vials of potion, so she would need at least two hundred drops, which was about 10 milliliters. That wasn't much at all.
So, Lan Qingyou took a measuring cup and the balance, drew the Moonlight Stone Dagger, and calmly made a cut on her wrist, collecting 15 milliliters of blood.
“Hiss... that actually hurts a bit.”
A shudder ran through her. Wincing, Lan Qingyou immediately poured a Healing Potion over the wound and then downed another vial herself. She then poured the fresh, uncoagulated blood into the cauldron.
In that moment, she felt as if she were performing some kind of DNA test.
Drip, drip...
As her blood fell drop by drop into the cauldron, Lan Qingyou could clearly see the potion inside beginning to change color.
It shifted from its initial brownish-yellow rust color to a brownish-red, then faded into purple, before blue, yellow, green, and other colors began to intertwine.
The transition of colors didn't stop from that moment on.
Having never encountered such a situation, Lan Qingyou was a bit bewildered, but she didn't dare stop. She continued to stir.
As she stirred, the previously monochromatic potion suddenly became vibrant and multicolored. The way the colors swirled together gave off a magnificent, kaleidoscopic feeling.
“It’s amazing how all these colors mixed together don't look garish or muddy at all. It’s actually quite divin—”
Lan Qingyou, gripping the stirring rod with both hands and rotating it clockwise, began to comment.
Before she could finish her sentence, a brilliant golden light suddenly erupted from the pot.
“Awooo!”
Blinded by the sudden flash, Lan Qingyou let out a strange cry and squeezed her eyes shut. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, a testament to how much damage that light had just dealt her.
Even so, she did not let go of the stirring rod in her hands.
She only dared to squint through a tiny slit once the hazy glow beyond her eyelids had vanished.
The brilliance was gone.
The liquid in the cauldron, which should have been multicolored, appeared to have undergone no change at all.
No...
It was actually quite strange.
The previous multicolored swirl had looked soft, but the current one felt... eerie?
It looked more like the oily sheen floating on sewer water, the kind of colors that only shimmer when you step into it.
But it didn't matter.
Since it had glowed, it had to be a success, right?
Without taking the time to overthink, Lan Qingyou immediately put on her Identification Glasses to see exactly what she had created.
Rate on N.U.
