Ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling—
When the view outside the window shifted from gold to black, the alarm clock on the desk went off.
And the moment it rang, the potion inside the crucible emitted a burst of golden light, identical to the glow the base had produced during its initial activation.
This was the proper sequence for a completed potion.
Eight hours had passed. Kill the flame.
Lan Qingyou set down her book and snapped her fingers. The flame on the base extinguished instantly.
A freshly brewed potion couldn't be bottled right away.
First, she had to use a slotted spoon to scoop out all the herbs that had dissolved into mush, then drain the liquid from them through a cloth-lined funnel.
After that, the potion needed to cool down and settle so the remaining herbal impurities could sink to the bottom.
Lan Qingyou used that time to step out and grab a meal.
About half an hour later, she returned with a wooden ladle, a wine dispenser, and ten test tubes.
Using the wooden ladle, she carefully scooped the potion from the crucible into the filter without disturbing the liquid.
Once only a thin layer of dregs remained in the crucible, she wrapped them together with the previously removed herbs in a cloth and squeezed them dry, wringing out every last drop of potion until nothing more would come.
As Albert liked to say, the liquid trapped in the dregs contained the highest concentration of medicinal properties. Skip that step, and all you'd end up with was a half-finished product.
With all of that done, all that remained was to wait for the filtration to finish.
Twenty liters boiled down to two thousand milliliters — roughly four kilograms of liquid — so filtration didn't take long at all.
The moment the last of the potion vanished from the upper chamber of the filter, Lan Qingyou eagerly scooped some out with the wine dispenser, filled a test tube, and brought it over for appraisal.
"Apprentice-Level Mana Potion (E)"
"Effect: Restores 5 Mana Points per second for 10 seconds."
"Description: A standard apprentice-level mana potion. The dosage is slightly heavy, suggesting it was made by a newcomer to the field of alchemy. Too textbook, no flair, a bit dull, a bit rigid."
'So in your eyes, alchemy potions are supposed to have flair?'
Reading the description, Lan Qingyou pursed her lips.
'Last time the potion gave the Small Screen something real to criticize, so now that it can't find anything, it just nitpicks for the sake of it?'
Lan Qingyou was quite satisfied with her first genuine attempt at alchemy.
Which made the Small Screen's evaluation all the more irritating.
With the appraisal results in hand, the only thing left was bottling.
Two thousand milliliters of potion required just two hundred test tubes — a far cry from the thousand she'd needed last time. It barely took any effort at all.
She didn't rush to sell them, though. First, she sent ten tubes to Gu Xiaobei.
Lan Qingyou: "Here's the margin I promised you. If you don't mind me asking — where did you get that blueprint?"
Gu Xiaobei, who had been idly scrolling through the chat out of boredom, perked up the instant she spotted the notification blinking in her friends list.
In fact, compared to Lan Qingyou's grand total of two friends, Gu Xiaobei currently had only one.
So she knew exactly who had sent her a message.
Along with the blinking notification, she noticed ten potions had appeared on the Small Screen.
When the appraisal function revealed the potion's effects, Gu Xiaobei's eyes went wide with surprise.
Gu Xiaobei: "Plus 50 Mana Points! That's amazing! Thank you so much! As for the blueprint — I got it from a supply box."
In her excitement, Gu Xiaobei crammed her astonishment, gratitude, and answer all into a single burst of text.
'A supply box?'
'Those things can drop something like that?'
Lan Qingyou had always assumed supply boxes only contained basic supplies. Now she finally understood what the "treasure" in "treasure box" really meant.
'Looks like the nightly treasure-box hunts will have to continue after all.'
Gu Xiaobei: "Oh right, do you need herbs? I've got tons. Ascetic Grass, Yellow Tail Flowers, Jade Orchids, Thornspikes, Stone Orchids, Dusk Blossoms — you name it."
Lan Qingyou: "How do you have so many herbs?"
Seated at her desk, Lan Qingyou was genuinely surprised. They were all E-rank potion ingredients, sure, but she'd never imagined anyone else would bother gathering them.
Gu Xiaobei: "It's because of my talent. I collected all of these after I saw that you could make potions."
Lan Qingyou: "I see. In that case, let's say 500 grams per mana potion."
Gu Xiaobei: "Deal deal deal! I'll submit the trade request right now!"
The herbs had been picked and left unprocessed, so they wouldn't be as potent as freshly gathered ones. But in the end, Lan Qingyou decided to accept the batch anyway.
Gu Xiaobei's initiative had given her an idea — why gather herbs herself when she could have others do it faster?
If she didn't waste time foraging, she could brew two batches a day. The profit margins alone would be massive.
So there was no reason to dampen the girl's enthusiasm.
As for what Gu Xiaobei's talent actually was — what did that have to do with Lan Qingyou?
"An alchemist never worries about materials. I have no interest in ingredients."
Lan Qingyou chuckled softly, then began thinking about how to mobilize the residents of Villain Valley.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, she decided to first use the Small Screen's camera function to photograph the herbs, then write up identification guides for each one.
Finally, she'd post everything on her personal page.
The page functioned like a blog — anyone could visit by tapping on her avatar.
Just as Lan Qingyou had once browsed Shang Chuan's personal page.
Of course, most people were currently preoccupied with upgrading their shelters in preparation for the end of the novice period, so hardly anyone bothered writing online journals.
That suited Lan Qingyou just fine.
Once everything was set up, she listed the remaining potions for sale: one mana potion for 60 base units of materials.
She also created two trade listings in the shop.
The first: "E-rank herbs x 500g = Apprentice-Level Mana Potion x 1."
The second: "E-rank Monster Crystal Core x 1 = Apprentice-Level Mana Potion x 2."
The channel erupted instantly.
The old potions that restored 1 Mana Point per second had been barely adequate — usable, but nothing special.
But 5 Mana Points per second? That was an absolute game-changer!
The average Blue Star Earthling had a Spirit stat of around 5 or 6, meaning a total mana pool of roughly 50 to 60 points.
Now, a single 50-point mana potion was enough for most people to fully restore their mana within ten seconds.
"Are you kidding me?! I just bought ten Crude Mana Potions and now she drops Apprentice-Level ones?!"
"Shut up!"
"If you won't buy, plenty of others will."
"Buy? They're already gone!"
"That fast?!"
"Seriously gone. Sold out in the blink of an eye."
"Wait, wait — you can also trade Monster Crystal Cores and herbs for them!"
"Sounds like a good deal. 500 grams for one potion. But how am I supposed to know what the herbs look like?"
"She's got a guide on her personal page — even with pictures."
"No dirt, must be washed clean, otherwise instant shop blacklist. Wow, she's really outsourcing all the grunt work to us, huh?"
"Well, what did you expect? 500 grams of herbs and half of it is mud — would you put up with that?"
"Fair point."
"Hold on — doesn't anyone else think this is unfair? When it was 10 Mana Points, the price was 10 base units. Now it's 50 Mana Points and the price is 60? How does that math work?"