While Colin was carefully pondering how to produce healing potions?
The nite had unknowingly grown deep.
The entire Blackwood Fortress had completely sunk into silence, save for the torches still brightly lit at the city wall construction site and the occasional footsteps of patrols passing by. However, in the secret room behind the Council Chamber—Colin's exclusive laboratory—several oil lamps fueled by animal fat burned with exceptionally steady light.
Colin stood under this light, before him an experimental table polished from a single massive slab of bluestone, cold and smooth. On the tabletop, various oddly shaped vessels were neatly arranged: transparent crystal beakers, slender glass droppers, and a precision-engineered brass distiller. These were all items Colin had spent Kill Points to exchange from the system space.
At the core area of the experimental table, beside the three core "divine medicines," were more than a dozen types of auxiliary powders, looking like fine colored sand shimmering faintly under the lamplight.
Colin's gaze was more focused than ever before. A fire burned within his chest. Ever since obtaining these genuine raw materials, a strong, almost instinctive urge had occupied his entire mind—he wanted to replicate the system-produced healing potion, a true medicine capable of reversing life and death.
He took a deep breath. The freshness of the herbs in the air calmed his excited brain considerably, and he immediately set to work.
Step one: Grinding and preparation.
He first picked up the bluestone mortar and gently placed a hemostatic herb of the finest quality inside. Gripping the pestle, he applied force with his wrist. "Crack... crack..." The tough plant fibers were crushed, and an emerald-green juice seeped out, emitting a rich, fresh scent of life. Soon, the hemostatic herb turned into a fine, dark-green paste.
Next, following the proportions from the system's blueprints, he sequentially added three powders: "moon-dust grass," "star-vein vine," and "cloud-fluff flower," continuing to grind and mix them with the pestle. The silver-white powder of the moon-dust grass neutralized the stickiness of the hemostatic herb, the faint glow of the star-vein vine acted as a natural harmonizer, and the cloud-fluff flower made the mixture's texture even finer. Afterward, he took a gel flower, ground it into powder after low-temperature drying, and mixed it evenly with "fat-leaf" and "dew-condensing seed" powders—the fat-leaf could lock in moisture, while the dew-condensing seed enhanced the liquid's adhesion. Finally, when processing the tri-color fungus, he held his breath and precisely cut the cap into red, yellow, and blue parts. He mixed them by ratio while adding three auxiliary materials: "blaze root," "dark-vein moss," and "wind-whistle grass." The pungent, cool, and crisp scents of the three intertwined, letting out a soft "sizzle" upon contact and emitting a peculiar aroma with a sweet, metallic tang.
Step two: Extraction and fusion.
He transferred the mixture of hemostatic herb and the three auxiliary materials into a crystal beaker, added a precisely measured amount of distilled snow water, and placed it on the brass distiller. He lit the alcohol lamp, and a pure blue flame rose up.
The pale green hemostatic herb extract was the first to drip down, followed by the gel flower extract mixed with fat-leaf and dew-condensing seed, which appeared transparent with a hint of milky white. As for the mixed powder of tri-color fungus, blaze root, dark-vein moss, and wind-whistle grass, he dissolved it with a small amount of warm water to create a pale purple catalyst, setting it aside to settle.
During this time, he performed simple extractions on the remaining auxiliary materials, such as "Rock Ear," "Stream Orchid," and "Gray-fluff Mugwort," obtaining diluted medicinal liquids of various colors—these were the final harmonizers to be added after the three main medicines fused to stabilize the properties.
Everything was ready.
Colin first poured the pale green hemostatic herb essence and the milky-white transparent gel flower extract into a spherical flask, shaking it gently to allow the two to mix initially. Then, he picked up the test tube containing the pale purple catalyst and slowly dripped it into the flask.
The moment the last drop of catalyst fell, a wonderful reaction occurred.
Under the agitation of the purple catalyst, the two medicinal liquids tumbled violently and fused frantically. The color slowly shifted from a murky gray to clear, and a halo of green representing life bloomed from the center of the liquid. Colin's heart leaped into his throat; he immediately followed the blueprint's requirements, adding the diluted auxiliary liquids of Rock Ear, Stream Orchid, and Gray-fluff Mugwort in three separate stages.
The halo grew richer, until finally, the entire bottle of potion emitted a soft green light almost identical to the system's healing potion.e and conquest.
"Magic, huh..."
"This is getting interesting."