Chapter 47: This Is Utter Defeat, Afuduo!
Chapter 47 – This Is… Utter Defeat, Afuduo!
The so-called art of Potion Crafting—at its core—isn’t all that complicated in theory.
Put simply, it’s about extracting the unique properties of various herbs and blending them together.
Then, depending on the type of potion you want, you adjust the mixture—trying to maximize its effects while minimizing any side effects.
But in practice… well, it’s a whole different beast. What sounds simple on paper becomes a real headache when you actually try to do it.
After all, every herb comes with its own set of traits—some even have several at once.
Sometimes, their properties can work together and enhance each other. But most of the time, they’ll just cancel each other out, or worse, create nasty side effects you can’t avoid.
Take this for example: you’re aiming to make a healing potion, but the end result not only heals wounds, it also permanently shortens your lifespan. That’s a textbook case of a failed brew—too many side effects to be of any real use.
In other words, it’s all about knowing how to use different temperatures and techniques to extract the right qualities from each ingredient.
Then, you have to carefully combine those extracted traits, step by step, until you finally get the high-quality potion you want. It’s a delicate craft—pure precision. “Hmm…”
Glancing at the handful of herbs in front of him, Lin Wei swiftly mapped out a plan in his mind.
“Healing potions, when you break them down, actually come in all sorts of varieties,” he remarked.
A faint shimmer of magic gathered at his fingertips, wrapping each herb in a gentle glow and separating them one by one.
Afuduo watched, puzzled, as Lin Wei chatted casually while working—completely unfazed.
“There are potions for treating external wounds, others that help organs heal faster, and even ones specifically for hands, feet, the heart, the eyes… pretty much every part of the human body you can think of.”
“By choosing different herbs and extracting their unique properties, then blending them according to what the alchemist has in mind, you can easily end up with a potion that has some special effect—a so-called composite potion.”
“What are you getting at?”
Of course she knew about composite potions. Before she left home, she’d been one of the top alchemists for a hundred miles around her village—everyone knew that.
Afuduo shot Lin Wei a haughty look, her eyes flickering with a hint of wariness.
“I’m just curious… Since you’re an alchemist as well, Miss Afuduo, you must be able to craft high-quality composite potions.”
He paused, his tone casual but his eyes sharp. “So, when ensuring the healing effect, what’s the maximum number of enhancement properties you can blend in at once? Ten? Twenty? Or even more?”
The shifting magical light cast a kaleidoscope of colors across the room.
Grinding, boiling, direct pressing—each herb was manipulated in a different way, all in pursuit of the desired effect.
“What do you mean, ten or twenty?” Afuduo hadn’t even noticed what he was doing. Hearing such an outrageous claim, she stared at him in disbelief, as if he were spouting nonsense.
“Even the finest healing potions can only add a few extra effects—at best, maybe accelerated recovery, stabilized wounds, or a slight boost to strength or agility. If I can add three or five auxiliary properties, that’s already my limit.”
“If you go past that, it’ll compromise the healing effect itself! That’s just basic knowledge about composite potions—don’t tell me you didn’t know?”
“So your limit is three to five extra properties?” Lin Wei replied lightly. “I see… In that case, there’s really no point in extracting these at all.”
The glowing orbs that had been floating in midair suddenly dissipated.
The ingredients they’d been wrapped around dropped to the ground, abandoned like so much useless trash.
“Eh?”
It was only now that Afuduo realized something was off.
She’d been too caught up in the conversation to pay attention, but as she finally noticed Lin Wei’s movements, it hit her.
This guy—Lin Wei—hadn’t used a single tool from start to finish!
Instead, he’d simply and decisively processed the herbs directly, relying solely on his own magic.
Dozens of swirling orbs of Mana enveloped the ingredients, each one extracting a different property simultaneously, all floating in the air.
Under Afuduo’s incredulous gaze, the glowing spheres quickly yielded liquids, gels, powders, and other refined substances.
Yet even then, Lin Wei didn’t transfer the extracts into any equipment. Instead, as if showing off, he wrapped the results in new globes of light, letting them hover, patiently awaiting further refinement.
Was this… full-process, micro-level handcrafting?
Afuduo’s expression began to freeze.
She could perform fine control too, but handling three ingredients at once was already pushing her limits.
But this guy—how many materials was he processing at the same time?
And from the way he was chatting casually as he worked, it was clear he hadn’t even reached his limit. That effortless multitasking—there seemed to be no upper bound.
Just how terrifying was his control over magic?
“Uh…”
Even Paxson, who didn’t know the first thing about alchemy, could tell something was wrong by now.
He wasn’t an alchemist himself, but the school did offer the subject, so he’d seen demonstrations a few times.
From what he remembered, professors and substitute teachers alike always needed various tools to help extract properties from herbs.
They’d light fires, heat things up, grind ingredients—sure, sometimes someone would take a shortcut and use magic to speed up the process.
But… none of them were ever this outrageous.
Just how many orbs of magic was this Lin Wei—the one wanted by The Holy Church—controlling at once?
And each orb was simultaneously boiling, grinding, shaping, and performing all sorts of other processes on different materials.
Even a mage with no knowledge of alchemy couldn’t pull this off. Unless you’d trained specifically for it, there was no way you could command your magic with such microscopic precision.
“I saw how confident you were earlier, so I thought you were some kind of expert planning to show off a masterpiece from the field of alchemy,” Lin Wei said coldly.
“But now I see that’s not the case. You’ve got some skill, but not enough… Let’s just end this here.”
Lin Wei sighed, a touch of regret in his voice.
But as he finished speaking, the orbs of magic hovering in midair suddenly flared with light.
All the extracted substances began to coalesce in the air, guided by Lin Wei’s will, before surging into a vial on the table in a wild, swirling torrent.
It was an unbelievable method of Potion Crafting—there was no discernible order or measured pace. Instead of the painstaking, drop-by-drop approach of a typical alchemist, Lin Wei simply forced everything together in a way that defied all logic.
And yet, in barely ten seconds, a potion was born—crystal-clear, shimmering with a faint glow, and exuding a gentle medicinal fragrance.
“Here, the thing you wanted,” Lin Wei said, tossing the vial to Afuduo as if it were nothing special.
Lin Wei swept aside the leftover dregs, then paused, deciding to offer a bit more explanation.
“A multifunctional composite healing potion,” he announced, “nearly at the highest grade.”
“It accelerates the healing of external wounds, stabilizes internal injuries, and also temporarily dulls pain, boosts strength and agility, and even sharpens some of the senses.”
“As for side effects—virtually none. The only real issue is that if you drink too much, it might upset your stomach and you could develop a short-term resistance.”
A potion with almost no drawbacks—it was enough to make anyone uneasy.
Finishing up at the table, Lin Wei glanced at Afuduo, his tone urging her to respond.
“So? Are you going to admit defeat, or do you want to brew a potion and try to compete with me?”
There was really no need for any more theatrics. With a flick of his wrist, he nicked his own skin, then took a small sip of the potion.
A gentle warmth spread through his body, the healing effect plain for all to see. Afuduo watched the transformation, and gradually, all words failed her.
A moment later—
She collapsed to the ground in utter despair, all hope drained from her.
Clenching her fist, she slammed it against the floor, her face crumpling as if she might burst into tears.
“I lost… I’m sorry!” she choked out.
This wasn’t just a defeat—it was complete and utter humiliation!