Facing Murphy’s inquiry, a faint purple-gold luster reflected in Vina’s eyes. She asked back in confusion, “An intimate friend or a personal servant? Isn’t that you?”
Her soul was captivated by Murphy, leaving her in a dazed, compliant state. In such a condition, even Vina herself would not remember what she had revealed during this time.
Murphy couldn’t help but feel a surge of joy in his heart.
His lips curled slightly, and a genuine smile appeared on his face. In the moonlight, it bloomed like an epiphyllum; every curve of his expression revealed a breathtaking beauty. Even as a creature of such immense stature, when he truly showed joy, he looked exceptionally beautiful. Vina’s eyes reflected his image, and for a moment, she was speechless. She said, “You are truly beautiful.”
Murphy retracted his smile.
He asked, “Only me?” The man’s tone was gentle and soft, carrying a hint of a bone-melting sensation that held everyone’s gaze captive, commanding everything like invisible silk threads. Murphy continued, “If that is the case, then what are the things that he likes?”
“Tell me,” Murphy commanded. “Tell me everything.”
Vina’s mind was a blank slate. She muttered in her dazed state:
“What does Brother like? I have never seen him like anything so much. If there truly is something he cares about, perhaps it would be that little pet he brought back from the Dawn Forest.”
Murphy’s eyes flashed slightly. Vina then continued:
“Other than that, there is no one and nothing close to him. Only that big fat moth can fly around his study at will. I have seen it a few times. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought Brother was keeping a flying, fuzzy, fat pig.”
Vina’s words were sincere and reflected her inner thoughts, without a shred of falsehood. Yet, these very words made Murphy silent.
“Fat?” Murphy’s face was silently covered in a layer of gloom. He said, “A big fat moth?”
Vina nodded.
The man said slowly, “Sometimes, your standards for judging things seem a bit biased. Is there anything else? Continue.”
Perhaps sensing the faint, lingering aura of darkness in the air, Vina’s body trembled. She dared not look at Murphy’s face again and lowered her head, saying, “Oh, right. The City Lord has prepared a banquet for Brother, inviting all the young men and women of the city. Brother has never had anyone close to him, so I do not know why the City Lord is angry.”
Murphy’s voice became very soft. He asked, “Will he go?”
Vina replied, “I do not know. Brother does not like others interfering in his life, but this banquet is an order from the City Lord.”
“Besides,” she added with a confused tone, “what right do you have to ask about this? You are just his personal manservant.”
The air seemed to quiet down. Murphy lowered his eyes, and a dark color spread silently. He smiled and said, “You are right.” He changed the subject, looking at the trembling person in front of him to ask about another matter:
“Why do you call that fellow City Lord?” Murphy had caught this detail in Vina’s words. The young girl replied subconsciously, “Of course, because he is not my father.” Her voice paused, as if she had instinctively realized she had revealed her greatest secret, yet she could not hide her thoughts in front of Murphy.
Murphy did not know that his probing would lead to such an unexpected discovery. The man sized up Vina. Even though she had a beautiful face, her hair and eye color had nothing to do with Su Feng’s parents; on the contrary, they were exactly the same as Lady Tracy’s. If that were the case, wouldn’t the City Lord be wearing a massive cuckold’s hat?
No. A man like that could not possibly allow such a thing to happen. Murphy changed his line of thought and rejected the speculation. Perhaps that fellow did not care about Vina and Lady Tracy. If the leader of that mercenary group had borne someone else’s child, this Blackthorn City might have been destroyed by him long ago.
How interesting.
Murphy thought that in this seemingly ordinary Blackthorn City, there seemed to be many hidden secrets.
Murphy asked, “Since that is the case, who else knows about this?”
Vina’s body trembled even more violently. She said, “Mother and Father both know about this. That City Lord also seems aware, but he does not care.”
“So, only Su Feng does not know?” Murphy said.
Vina nodded, pale-faced. Murphy said, “Truly interesting. He could have simply gotten rid of you all. I can guarantee that in the eyes of that City Lord, you and your parents are merely existences not worth his attention.”
“If so, why would he go to such great lengths to do these things?” Murphy said slowly. Then, he snapped his fingers. Vina regained her senses, but she only saw the back of the man as he turned and left. Deep within her soul, a brand had been left, and in the nights that followed, she endured terrifying nightmares.
“Rest well, Miss Vina.”
In the alchemy room, Su Feng carefully dropped a crystal into a vial, melting it with magic into a thick, wax-like substance. This was a highly flexible crystal, but if the temperature or method during melting was even slightly off, its internal structure would change instantly, leading to direct failure.
Many alchemy apprentices failed in the process of making potions due to such small mistakes, and the resource consumption caused by failure was unimaginably high. This is why recipes for alchemical potions were expensive and even monopolized by some great families. Without these recipes, a single tiny variable often required dozens of experiments to correct.
In the manual titled Healing Potion: Low-Grade, that alchemist had even added a note at the end: “Only after becoming a true alchemist and pharmacist did I realize how much wealth and resources those pharmacists looted from my hands. They mass-produce low-grade potions using a bunch of the cheapest materials and the most common recipes, package them as secret medicines, and sell them at the most unscrupulous prices. The bottle of potion I spent millions of gold coins on back then was actually just a defective product in that pharmacist’s hands. I was played for a fool!”
“Regardless of who you are, as long as you can make potions and have mastered the method of refining secret medicines, try to make the top-tier, perfect, flawless potions, and then throw the defective products, the ones even dogs would find wasteful, to those adventurers. Just do that. Take the shiny gold coins from their pockets. This is why pharmacists are so wealthy!”
“Reminder: It is the pharmacists who are wealthy, not the alchemists who have no coins in their pockets.”
When Su Feng saw this long passage, a look of suspicion slowly appeared in his eyes, because he remembered a pharmacist from long ago who had sworn to him that the sleeping potion was effective and had demanded a large amount of compensation with his mouth wide open.
…He did not receive a defective product from that person, right?
Right?
Defective products did not mean they had no effect, but the reason they were defective was that they were practice pieces produced during the process of creating perfect potions.
Su Feng’s expression grew increasingly gloomy. The more he thought, the more he felt like he had been scammed.
He did not worry about that for now. The man lifted the reagent bottle, which was maintained in a semi-molten state, and dripped in a drop of the previously extracted “Leaf of Life” solution. The moment they touched, the vitality contained in the Leaf of Life conflicted with the properties of the crystal. A layer of white mist seemed to rise in the vial. The mist traveled up through the alchemical apparatus, was finally distilled and purified, and collected into a small bottle of light green solution. After that, Su Feng added other materials and recorded the reactions during the process. Finally, a potion shimmering with faint starlight, clear and transparent, was placed on the table, alongside a row of previously made defective products.
Su Feng tapped the bottle gently with his finger, and a pleasant echo resonated from the potion, as if green leaves were rooting and sprouting. A rich life force diffused out. This was a “perfect” Healing Potion: Low-Grade.
Potions have quality levels as well. A healing potion like this is what adventurers would carry with them and be willing to buy. Its ratings are:
Inferior Potion: Foot-soaking water made by a beginner mixing the Leaf of Life and crystal together.
Common Potion: Drinkable, but with a lot of grime sediment; ineffective.
Pure Potion: Most of the grime has been removed; it is the popular, circulating potion on the market.
Perfect Potion: Flawless, pure, and without any defects.
If an inferior potion is foot-soaking water, then a pure potion is already of high value, a high-end good kept by pharmacists for themselves. A perfect potion, however, is something everyone craves and fights over.
The value of the perfect potion in Su Feng’s hand was three times that of a pure potion.
If it were changed to a more precious recipe, this bottle of potion would be enough to make others fight to the death for it.
“Just like that?” Su Feng looked at the potion bottle in his hand and said suspiciously, “It is that simple?”
The man hesitated for a moment. He had not felt any difficulty just now, and in the process of making it, Su Feng felt very relaxed. He gradually began to like this feeling, even forgetting the passage of time.
Su Feng put away the perfect potion. He looked at the other defective products; although these were also pure potions, they were meaningless to Su Feng himself.
So now, could he try to take these things out to sell for money?
Su Feng shook his head. He did not think everyone else was an idiot. However, thinking of his past experience of being cheated, Su Feng still felt his teeth itch with anger.
“However, although I can make perfect potions, I still encounter some trouble during the production process. It would be great if I knew the perfect timing to add the materials.” Su Feng sighed.
Wait?
Knowing the probability and timing of adding materials, knowing the consequences afterward, knowing the success rate of the potion?
Su Feng’s eyes gradually brightened. He realized belatedly: Do I not have something like this in my hands?
“System,” he called out to the system he had not seen for a long time: “Can I deduce the success rate of a potion?”
【Yes, but every prediction and deduction requires the expenditure of Luck Points. The more precious the recipe, the more expensive the required Luck Points.】 the system said.
Su Feng could not even help but cheer softly. Is this not the most suitable, perfect golden finger for me!
He could not wait to try it, but he found…
He had no Luck Points left.
Su Feng was silent for a moment. Thinking about the source and acquisition method of Luck Points, the man could not help but feel a bit hesitant. The room went quiet. A moment later, Su Feng raised his head and sighed.
“Let us go find where Murphy is,” he said.
The moonlight was like silver, flowing like silk on Su Feng’s hair and reflecting in his cobalt-blue pupils. While admiring the moonlight, Su Feng walked around the City Lord’s mansion before finally arriving at Murphy’s room.
But he was not there.
Su Feng was confused for a moment. As he turned his head, he saw in his own study a chubby, fat, sturdy, fluffy, and soft chocolate marshmallow spirit flying in the air. It was flapping its wings, the small crown floating above its head rotating slowly, and two small, inverted-comb-like antennae swaying as it stared solemnly at its own body in the mirror.
Su Feng watched this scene steadily, his eyes fixed on it.
The big moth was scratching its equally furry belly with a furry claw. It stared at itself in the mirror, and in the process of flying, purple-gold scales were constantly falling from the air.
It muttered to itself, humming.
…Fat?
Not fat.
The big moth flapped its wings vigorously.
Not fat!
This is the standard body shape for a moth!
This is slander! This is defamation!
It constantly turned its body back and forth, as if to confirm its figure. After twisting its wings in a circle, it suddenly stopped and saw Su Feng’s figure appearing at the door.
The big moth was silent for a moment. Su Feng stared straight at it, and this time, Murphy truly saw an uncontrollable, unstoppable affection in his eyes.
The big moth’s wing-flapping movement became a bit more intense. It suddenly made a buzzing sound, but compared to the state of having no reason and only instinct before, this time the sound seemed much more deliberate.
The air seemed to fall into silence. Looking at the big moth in this state, Su Feng’s voice softened. He could not help but say in a clipped, tender voice:
“Why is there a flying fluffy ball here?”
Run!
The Captain’s body crossed the spirit realm, shuttling back and forth between the spirit realm and the human world.
Run.
He had to run as fast as he could. The brand on his body, the mark left by Cecilia, was reminding him: that guy is coming.
But Cecilia’s figure appeared in front of the Captain, blocking his path. The Captain’s footsteps faltered. His forehead was covered with beads of sweat. Looking at that beautiful face was like looking at a nightmare. The Captain retreated; Cecilia slowly pressed toward him. Clearly, he was smiling, with a polite and cultured face, yet when the Captain retreated, he reached out without hesitation and grabbed his fleeing prey.
Then, the Captain’s hood was ripped off, and the handsome man’s red hair scattered down. On his face was anger, displeasure, and a trace of hidden anxiety. Su Qian stared coldly at the person in front of him. A moment later, it was Cecilia who let go first. He stepped back and said in a teasing tone:
“So afraid of me?” Cecilia’s jewels glistened. His body exuded a dazzling luster of accumulated wealth and jewels, like a dragon plundering endless riches and guarding its most precious treasure in a nest piled with gold.
But the problem Cecilia had to consider was: that treasure had legs, was good at running away, and was afraid of him.
This was something that should not happen.
Su Qian took a step back and said, “My oath is still valid. You should leave.”
Cecilia had no intention of leaving. He clicked his tongue in wonder: “You have met our child. For these 20 years, you have never returned to Blackthorn City, nor did you dare to come back. You have been searching for the Crystal of Oaths, but failed repeatedly. Why do you have the time to come home today? That child asked me where his mother had gone, although he has not asked in recent years.” Cecilia’s green eyes reflected Su Qian’s image like a giant mouth, showing the prey’s panicked expression. He smiled and said: “All these years, have you thought of me?”
“No,” Su Qian spoke coldly. He said impulsively, “No!”
Cecilia’s vertical pupils slowly narrowed. Su Qian stepped back, trying his best to keep his distance from Cecilia. He said, “Can you get lost now?”
“You say that, it makes me very sad.” However, Cecilia did not back down. He slowly reached out, and in that instant, the ponytail behind Su Qian was grasped by the man. The fine scales that had grown on the older man’s wrist brushed against the sensitive root of the ponytail. Su Qian trembled as if he had a spasm. Cecilia wrapped that lock of hair around his arm. He smiled and said: “After all, you have sworn with your own mouth that you love me. Otherwise, how could you have borne a child for me?”
Su Qian’s bloodline, inherited after being blessed, allowed him to conceive children of any race, but such power had a prerequisite: he had to fall in love with the other person.
Su Qian gritted his teeth, held tightly by someone, struggling hard, but was easily crushed.
Cecilia patted the trembling ponytail and said: “You not only love me, but you were also willing to get pregnant and bear children for me.”
…And bore me a person without a destiny from another world, a visitor from outside the boundaries.
Cecilia whispered: “Do you regret it now? Oh, I know, you are actually very afraid of me in this form, but you like me in another form, do you not?” He laughed softly.
Then, that cultured face slowly changed, and a younger face appeared before Su Qian. It was a face that was very exquisite and beautiful, yet revealed a trace of craftiness. He blinked at Su Qian, smiling so purely: “Or is it that you would prefer me to call you. Teacher, in this form?”