"Mana, materials, gold, stamina, spirit — everything an alchemist possesses exists for the sake of alchemy. And alchemy will, without fail, repay that devotion. Remember: alchemy is omnipotent! — Albert"
That night, Lan Qingyou slept like a baby.
She even dreamed of soaring through the sky with arms outstretched, looking down at all the people scrambling to survive below.
It was glorious.
The next morning, Lan Qingyou carried the little snowy owl downstairs and got to work.
First order of business: ordering breakfast from Gu Xiaobei.
Soy milk and fried dough sticks for her, plus a small portion of wolf meat for the owl. Both human and bird ate heartily.
After eating, she checked on her two treasures soaking in the wooden bucket. The potion had turned to water again.
A quick appraisal revealed the herb bag had expanded from one cubic meter to roughly 1.1 cubic meters, while the Moonbright Stone Dagger showed no change.
No matter. Lan Qingyou had always planned for this to be a long-term project.
She dumped the spent solution and turned her attention to yesterday's haul from Li Huai.
Obsidian. Fist-sized chunks, sixteen of them. Fewer than she'd hoped, but the man had nearly died getting them. She wasn't about to complain.
All of it went straight into the storage room. She'd wait until she had a hundred before using them for the upgrade.
Then came the herbs.
According to Li Huai, these were meant as "interest" on the potion debt.
'Interest is interest, I suppose. But they're not even washed...'
Lan Qingyou grumbled and started sorting.
After working with these herbs for so long, she could identify most of them at a glance.
"Hold on — isn't this a Flame Bell?! Between the Volcanic Worm, the Flame Bells, and the fire poison he got hit with... did this guy go fight at an actual volcano?"
Lan Qingyou muttered as she held up a string of red, lily-of-the-valley-shaped herbs.
Where Li Huai went to grind and fight was none of her business, though. What mattered were the materials she could use.
She immediately sat at the desk and messaged him.
Lan Qingyou: "Do you have more Flame Bells?"
Li Huai: "Flame Bells?"
Lan Qingyou: "Those red herbs that look like lily of the valley."
Li Huai: "Ah, those. I'm out, but once I've healed up, I can grab about fifty kilograms for you. Consider it compensation for the delays."
'Oh my, the patient is up bright and early?'
'Or did he never sleep at all?'
Lan Qingyou quipped internally, then sent: "All right. Rest up."
She was eager, but the man was still recovering. No point in pushing.
Top-tier combat power — best to let him heal first.
The reason for her urgency was simple: Flame Bells were the primary ingredient in Explosion Potions, Flame Potions, and Fire Resistance Potions.
With the first two in hand, combined with her levitation talent, she'd effectively become a bomber.
She didn't enjoy fighting, but if someone messed with her, she could just hover overhead and rain down explosions until the problem went away — while the enemy couldn't do a thing about it.
As she sorted herbs, Lan Qingyou happily daydreamed about her future as an aerial bomber.
Sensing her good mood, the little snowy owl — which had been pecking at herbs for fun — waddled over and started nuzzling Lan Qingyou's thigh, cheeping away.
"You happy too, little chick?"
She couldn't feel anything in her legs, but the sight still made her smile. She reached down and rubbed the owl's round head twice.
"Cheep cheep cheep!"
"Calling you 'little chick' might be an insult to a B-rank talent holder. How about a proper name? I'll call you... Steel Wool."
She mused aloud, petting the owl, not particularly caring whether it understood.
And so, under the owlet's wise, unblinking stare, its name was unceremoniously decided.
Can't really blame anyone — it looked exactly like a steel wool ball.
Once the sorting was done, Lan Qingyou began brewing.
Mana potions again.
After all, she now had two mana-guzzling clients. If she didn't take good care of them, how would they return the favor later?
Besides, she'd noticed that nearly everything she brewed ended up sold, barely leaving any for herself.
Going forward, she'd sell one-third, keep one-third as "strategic reserves," and dedicate the remaining third to feeding her two money pits.
To boost efficiency, she'd also purchased two 21-liter soup pots from Shang Chuan.
That brought her daily output to a thousand potions.
Shang Chuan had larger pots available, but the Alchemy Workshop couldn't fit them.
When the order first came in, Shang Chuan had wondered if Lan Qingyou had lost her mind.
But faced with her insistence, the professional merchant naturally wasn't going to turn away business that walked through the door.
He outsourced the job to one of his contacts.
The margins on soup pots were thin, but something was better than nothing.
The real money, as always, was in Lan Qingyou coming to him for deals in the first place.
"Cheep cheep cheep..."
Steel Wool started calling. Lan Qingyou looked up and spotted the little fluffball wobbling toward her from the workshop entrance.
Walking and cheeping simultaneously.
"What's up, Steel Wool? Want to play? Go play somewhere else — don't bug me while I'm working."
"Cheep cheep cheep..."
Steel Wool was clingy, but normally it wouldn't disturb Lan Qingyou during Alchemy Workshop hours.
It would just amuse itself, lone bird in the wide-open first floor.
If it was coming to find her now, something was up.
"Ah... it's mealtime, isn't it."
A glance at the desk clock told her why Steel Wool had come looking. She immediately ordered delivery from Gu Xiaobei.
Before, it had been the desk's alarm that called her to eat. Now she had Steel Wool for that.
A nice improvement, honestly.
Over lunch, Lan Qingyou checked her shop and noticed someone had submitted a trade request.
They wanted to exchange a copy of "Monster Studies" for 30 +50 mana potions.
Naturally, Lan Qingyou was interested.
Three times her posted price, sure. But who cared?
Knowledge was priceless. If someone was willing to sell, she'd buy. The markup wasn't outrageous.
The only issue was that she didn't have +50 potions on hand yet. They'd have to wait until tonight's batch was done.
The other party didn't mind — they'd already submitted the request, after all.
As for Li Huai's order, he was still recovering and the goods hadn't arrived yet. No rush there.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Just as Lan Qingyou was thinking this over, her friends list pinged.
She checked. It was Shang Chuan.
What did he want at this hour?
Curious, she opened his chat.
Shang Chuan: "[Appraisal Glasses] — interested?"