Brewing an Ancient Potion

After studying it quickly, he burned the scroll with a flick of his wrist and removed the ashes from his experiment table.

'I think it is due time to brew my last remaining Ancient Formula. The Tears of Mary.' Lelyin's shiny green eyes shifted with an intense blood-red for an instant, as a smirk drew itself upon the handsome visage of the acolyte.

Before he ventured on his journey to Extreme Night City, Leylin had purchased 2 scrolls with powerful, albeit unconventional potion formulas from Professor Kroft. One of them was about the Azure Potion, for which he had found substitute ingredients that had helped him reach his current level.

The other one, Tears of Mary, involved the concepts from his soul research. This had left Leylin at a loss as to how he should proceed.

Afterward, with the observations from the bulk experiments at Extreme Night City, Leylin had gathered vast amounts of data regarding souls and was thus pushing for the analysis of the formula of the bygone elixir, Tears of Mary.

Finally, after having obtained the Grine WaterAralis performed reverse engineering to find out the refining process of this elixir, and extrapolated its secrets to overcome the last obstacle in concocting the Tears of Mary.

However, to Leylin's dismay, he found that some of the steps in the formula for the Tears of Mary could only be completed by an official Magus. Moreover, various of the concocting steps required huge reserves of Spiritual Force that were at least at the level of an official Magus.

This situation proved that Leylin's prior guess was correct — the Tears of Mary was definitely a secret formula for the ancient Magi to increase their Spiritual Force.

Thus, Leylin's eagerness to successfully configure the Tears of Mary was reinforced.

His Spiritual Force had not increased over a long period of time. His body had developed a complete resistance to the modified Azure Potion, so even if he were to drink more of the potion, his Spiritual Force would not increase even a little bit.

Also, after having increased his Spiritual Force using supplementary medicine, trying to increase it using his regular meditation technique was something he couldn't endure because the rate of increase was similar to a dead tortoise's pace.

His current Spiritual Force was just not quite enough to be able to break through the boundary to become an official Magus. According to Aralis's calculations and his own estimation, with his regular meditation, it would take him several decades to become an official Magus.

Leylin could not wait that long. Hence why he needed to brew a new type of potion. Apart from that, he had been collecting other lesser formulas all the while.

Any other Ancient Potion formulas were mostly controlled by the official Magi. Leylin did not have many treasured ingredients with him that he could exchange for, and did not wish to draw too much attention to himself either.

Moreover, compared to simulating and brewing an entirely new formula, more than half of the formula for the Tears of Mary was solved, so it was naturally the better choice.

Leylin boldly replaced a few brewing processes that could only be executed by an official Magus into one that was suited for a level 3 acolyte to brew with. After tens of thousands of modifications, together with Aralis's millions of simulations, Leylin's experiment now was very close to succeeding.

'First of all, I need the basic ingredient for the formula. A female vengeful spirit.'

From the corner of his experiment desk, Leylin picked up a brand new Spirit Confining Sphere. Within it, a woman wearing a red gown was looking at Leylin with an expression of fright. The energy waves emitted from this female vengeful spirit were not superior to those of the kidnapped spirit Leylin had used to fuel the Fallen Star Pendant.

After most of the acolytes in the academy had perished in the war, it was the golden age of self-development for the surviving acolytes.

Originally, the resources for the acolytes in the academy had been for a thousand acolytes, but now, they had all been released for these 50 remaining acolytes.

Furthermore, the prices of all ingredients and spell models had been marked down drastically compared to the time before the Bloodbath.

For example, a vengeful spirit was originally a rare commodity in the market. Once they had been seen on the market, they would have been bought immediately by acolytes, and the prices could have been up to 500 magic crystals.

As for now, Leylin had gone to the Trading Post to look at the price, and bought it immediately from one of the few stalls that were left. His expenditure did not even amount to 100 magic crystals.

Of course, this was a disguised reward from the academy to the survivors. This situation would continue all the way until the next batch of recruits.

However, in this discounted sale, Leylin quickly threw away the notion of reselling at a high price outside. The academy had long since forbidden this. If he were caught by the Overseer or the Chairman, the punishment would be severe. Besides, he was already quite rich and had no need for more money for the time being.

And so, Leylin made use of this opportunity, and spent half a meager quantity of magic crystals, buying a large number of resources and strange spell models.

The female vengeful spirit in the Spirit Confining Sphere had long silver hair, dark blue eyes, and soft moistened lips. She also had a slender waist and long legs. When she was alive, she would have definitely been an outstanding woman who drove men crazy.

Leylin casually moved his hand, and from a test tube, he dropped a silver liquid onto the Sphere.

This was the 'Dissolving Spirit Potion'. Leylin had specially prepared it for today. With only a few drops, any spirit would definitely shriek in pain for half a day, and sustain grave injuries.

"Ah… It hurts! Please… I beg you! No…!" -The vengeful spirit began to wail from within the crystal ball. Towards such an extraordinary woman, any man would have at least hesitated deep down within their heart.

However, Leylin's brows had not furrowed the slightest as he continued the movement with his hands. In fact, he was somewhat enjoying it.

As more of the Dissolving Spirit Potion was used, the pleading of the female vengeful spirit was becoming more and more muffled. Even her red robes were slowly dissolving, revealing an illusory, and yet alluring glowing skin.

"You mean to entice me, ghost?" Looking at this scene, Leylin's lips curled up in ridicule. "Go ahead. Reveal your original ugly form." Leylin raised a finger with a large, black needle protruding from the nail.

The black long needle pierced through the crystal ball, and directly into the chest of the female vengeful spirit.

"Argh!" -The female vengeful spirit let off a hair-raising scream, and her body became blurry. Once she could be seen again, the vengeful spirit that was in front of Leylin's eyes had taken on a completely different form.

The face was filled with scales and wrinkles, and the orifices seemed to be misaligned, as though someone had casually attached them to her face. There were a few strands of green hair on the sides of her bald head.

The mouth opened and closed, and razor-sharp teeth could be seen. From time to time, a disgusting, viscous liquid could be seen dripping from her scarlet tongue.

"Release me so I can tear you apart, human!" The female vengeful spirit's eyes contained a kind of wrath that could rip people apart. She stared intently at Leylin as if wanting to gobble him down immediately.

"Please..." -Leylin shook his head mockingly, before drawing another mysterious magic rune.

The experiment lasted for over a dozen hours and continued the way until the second day before the end was near.

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A long time later, within the experiment lab, a glowing scarlet pentagonal formation had been formed on the black floor. Inside this formation, a naked body could be seen. It was riddled with bruises, cuts, burns, and gashes of all kinds and shapes.

The female vengeful spirit had been tied down by a metal chain, trapped within the spell formation.

At this moment, although the female vengeful spirit looked to be a weak phantom that might disappear in the next moment, her face no longer had the craze and hate from before. Instead, there was a shy expression on it.

Leylin looked at the naked woman in front of him, his face revealing a satisfied expression. "After a long day of spell weaving and conjuring, I have finally removed all of the grievances from your soul."

"Thank you, young man! I don't know how I could ever repay your kindness! Alas, though it shames me to say it, could you release me and give me some clothes to wear?" -The woman spoke within the formation, her voice as delightful as a black-naped oriole bird

"Don't thank me just yet. I did not release you from your grievances because I wanted gratification from a useless ghost. No, I merely needed to refine my potion ingredient." -Leylin's face showed a dark grin.

After hearing Leylin's cold words, the female vengeful spirit suddenly felt that a calamity was looming over her.

Sadistic, crazed, and pondering expressions flashed through Leylin's face. Finally, they all uniformed into only one expression — Apathy. Indifference towards everything.

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A few hours passed. At this moment, there was a chill permeating the experiment lab.

One could almost hear the wails of vengeful spirits within these four walls. As for the female vengeful spirit in front of Leylin, it had completely lost its human appearance.

'The last step…' -Leylin picked up a silver fork and pierced the female vengeful spirit's head through the eyes.

As if made from some special materials, the silver fork directly pierced through the female vengeful spirit's eyeball. The female vengeful spirit squirmed and screamed like a wild beast, as if without a tongue.

After the fork had pierced the eyeball, the face of the female vengeful spirit could barely be made out. Two trickles of blood tears flowed down.

'This is it. The ancient potion Tears of Mary.' -Leylin raised his hand, dripping a few drops of blood on his hands.

An icy cold and viscous sensation was felt.

'The spirit is an illusory entity. As for me, I could actually come in contact with a spirit's tears, what a wonder…' Leylin mused as he smeared the red potion on his eyes.

An extremely hot sensation traveled from Leylin's eyes, causing immense pain.

His vision could only see the color red. There seemed to be a woman's voice sounding inside his brain as if narrating something. The voice gradually grew louder and louder.

Finally, Leylin could only grab his head and head-butt viciously against the wall, to ease this symptom.

Aralis's indicator appeared in front of Leylin.

[You have undergone an unknown effect. Spiritual Force increased. Currently, it is 18.1.]

The data that represented Leylin's Spiritual Force continuously increased.

18.3

18.9

19.5

20.6

21.2

The number which represented the Spiritual Force continuously rose, finally stopping at the number 21.4

'Huh… It is over.' -Leylin rubbed his temples firmly, as he inhaled a lungful of cold air.

'Although it was certainly an uncomfortable experience, these side effects are nothing compared to what I suffered in my breakthrough to level 3 acolyte.'

Before he could finish speaking, Leylin discovered that there was a thin layer of mist in the surroundings. A flash of red color robes streaked past in the room.

Leylin wanted to move, yet the air seemed to be extremely muddy like starch paste. Any movement would be difficult to execute.

Finally, the owner of the red robes appeared in front of Leylin — the vengeful spirit.

At this moment, more than half of the vengeful spirit's head had dissolved. Yet, it still dashed forward at Leylin with a clawed hand that was seconds away from vanishing into the ether.

The female spirit was about to strike Leylin's chest, and he could feel an icy cold aura emanating from her.

Unfortunately for the vengeful entity, her attack was halted by a series of impenetrable dark tendrils that coiled around her body. She was paralyzed.

She frantically tried to look for the origin of these dark tendrils, and was left in shock when she realized they were protruding from the very target of her offensive.

Leylin let out a raucous chuckle, as his tendrils exerted more strength on their grip, and even channeled their master's violent crimson aura. His demonic powers had grown in potency since the last time he had used them.

"Did you really believe I would manipulate a spirit body without being aware of the risks?" -Leylin's smirk was enough to drive the female ghost to the edge, and she began screaming and wriggling in a futile attempt to escape.