Chapter 92: Via Returns

Half an hour later.

After the ninth silver-armored rat convulsed and its extraordinary characteristics were clearly and rapidly extinguished,

Gunie concluded this round of experiments with nine potions.

This time, all nine potions experiments had ended in total failure.

Gunie had originally hoped that at least one might be somewhat normal, so he could have the tenth silver-armored rat drink some as a comparison.

But as it turned out, all nine died.

This stuff worked faster than poison.

"A very successful experiment—it successfully showed me nine wrong paths."

Gunie wasn't too discouraged; he quickly adjusted his mindset.

"Leona, breed more silver-armored rats during this period; the experimental consumption will be quite large," Gunie instructed.

"Yes, Master Gunie," Leona replied respectfully.

"Mm!" Gunie nodded and turned to leave.

As for the subsequent cleanup work here, it would naturally be handled by these "apprentices."

In fact, in the future, when Gunie developed new secret-pattern potions, he wouldn't even need to conduct the experiments himself; he could leave it to Leona or Alex to record the results.

Of course, once the secret-pattern potions showed preliminary effects, more detailed data would require subsequent experiments in corresponding biological laboratories for more rigorous testing.

As soon as Gunie left, the laboratory erupted into chaos.

Excitement appeared on everyone's faces.

They began conversing with each other in high spirits.

"Master Gunie has already developed so many secret-pattern potions."

"Yes, I didn't expect so many to come out at once."

"It seems Master Gunie has passed the stage of extracting extraordinary characteristics—that's the most critical step."

"I've heard many potion masters struggle with this aspect."

"I've also heard that extracting extraordinary characteristics is extremely difficult."

"Since Master Gunie has broken through this step, as the number of experiments increases, useful secret-pattern potions will gradually emerge."

"Indeed, secret-pattern potions are the crown of current potionology. If one can pluck it, they will surely become a legendary figure in history."

At this moment, everyone was discussing heatedly.

Even across the entire Yulan Empire, there were no more than a handful of potion masters.

Although they had long sensed that Gunie would become a potion master,

it was only now that they truly realized Gunie had become a "potion master."

Not only had Gunie become a "potion master," but he was also making history.

And they were following Potion Master Gunie, creating history.

When they returned to their families in the future, this would be an extremely valuable asset for them.

Moreover, during this time, they had already learned a great deal from Gunie.

...

Outside the window, heavy snow was falling again, and it had not stopped for several days.

After a day of busy work, Gunie enjoyed the warm fireplace flames in the hall while drinking mellow coffee.

"Huh..."

While sipping his coffee, Gunie was also contemplating the successes of the past few days.

The research on secret-pattern potions had entered a steady progress.

Every day, a batch of silver-armored rats died, while another batch survived.

The results for the surviving silver-armored rats were also unsatisfactory.

Either their extraordinary characteristics were extinguished, or they mutated, or two different extraordinary characteristics fought each other, causing the rats to live for a day or two before dying of exhaustion.

Gunie remained quite calm about this.

Compared to the steady progress of the secret-pattern potion experiments,

Gunie had also made considerable progress in his own cultivation.

First was the Source Pool.

With the digestion of the red giant spider crystal,

Gunie's Source Pool easily broke through the thousand mark, giving him abundant source power.

Moreover, with the third-level Cyberna Source Pool, Gunie could increase his Source Pool capacity by more than 3 points each day.

In the future, Gunie's Source Pool capacity would only grow more profound.

As for the soul,

his soul strength had long reached the second-order standard, and even far exceeded it.

And his soul capacity, through Gunie's deliberate efforts, had also begun to grow gradually.

Of course, these were not the main points.

The main point was:

Gunie felt that the opening of his Blood Pool had finally begun to show signs.

Cultivating the "Blood Pool Codex" to open the Blood Pool was an extremely difficult task.

It was far more difficult than opening the Source Pool.

Generally, one needed to be at the extraordinary third order to open the "Blood Pool."

But Gunie had set the main direction of the Blood Pool Codex toward the "Blood Pool" aspect.

With the powerful feature of the AFK system, he was able to make the Blood Pool show signs of opening so quickly.

After opening the Blood Pool, Gunie would awaken an extraordinary talent skill of the Blood Curse Master.

As for what it would be, Gunie didn't know either.

At the moment of awakening, the stronger the blood's own intensity and extraordinary characteristics, the stronger the naturally awakened "Blood Curse Technique" would be.

At the same time, after opening the Blood Pool, Gunie would possess the very powerful "Blood Shield" that came with the Blood Pool.

It was precisely because Gunie knew he would have the "Blood Shield"

that he hadn't been in a hurry to cultivate other "Source Power Shields" or similar spells.

With the "Blood Shield" and the magic shield necklace he already owned, his defensive capabilities were sufficient.

Of course, if he encountered more powerful "shield-type" spells in the future, he would definitely cultivate them.

After all, no one would complain about having too strong a defense.

"In a few days, once my Blood Pool opens, I can try to advance to the extraordinary second order."

"However, after opening the Blood Pool, the issue of powerful blood... is also a troublesome aspect."

"After all, my Blood Curse Master isn't like the Blood Clan, who aren't picky and can use any blood."

"I need very high-quality blood with strong extraordinary characteristics."

Gazing at the heavy snow falling outside the window, Gunie thought lazily.

"You... are quite relaxed."

At that moment, a voice sounded behind Gunie.

The voice was familiar; Gunie turned to look.

What met his eyes was Via, wearing a blue robe and cloak, with a few snowflakes still on her clothes, clearly having just come in from outside.

Her demon hound was also held on a leash.

"You're back." Seeing it was Via, Gunie stood up with a smile.

"Mm."

Via didn't stand on ceremony; she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down on the single sofa closest to the fireplace.

"How did it go?"

After Via took a few small sips of coffee, Gunie asked.

Gunie knew that this time Via had gone out to track down Black Luo and her family.

Now that she was back, there was likely a result.

"Thanks to the information you provided, we tracked them quickly."

"However, Black Luo's father was more cunning than we imagined; he fled fast. Fortunately, the tracking experts in our Vanguard Group are no slouches."

"After nearly a week of tracking, we finally caught up with them in a small town near the southern ceasefire line."

"With the help of the local enforcers, we successfully captured them."

"Of course, during the arrest, fighting was unavoidable."

"Five of their clan died, and three were captured. The five who died were all cultists who had sacrificed flesh to the Face-Flower Emperor and implanted flower seeds."

"Among the three captured were Black Luo, Black Luo's father, and a mid-level member of the Face-Flower Cult."

"Have they all been brought back?" Gunie asked softly.

"According to the usual rules, after thorough interrogation and investigation, we would have executed all three and then performed a spirit summoning to get to the bottom of things."

"But, given some of your requests,"

"we only killed the mid-level member of the Face-Flower Cult, sparing Black Luo and her father."

"Unfortunately, on the train,"

"Black Luo's father seemed to have used some forbidden technique to teleport Black Luo away from the train, and he himself consumed all his life force and died, leaving not even a trace of his soul."

"So, Black Luo escaped?"

Gunie was slightly surprised.

"Isn't this the outcome you wanted to see?" Via squinted her eyes, staring directly at Gunie.

Gunie gently shook his head and sighed: "It's not as complicated as you think."

"We didn't directly kill Black Luo, and even when she begged for mercy, we didn't kill her father either," Via leaned back against the sofa backrest again and continued speaking softly.

"If not for your request, they would all have died. Black Luo would have had no chance of survival."

"So, you don't owe that girl anything anymore," Via said softly.

"I understand what you mean." After a moment of silence, Gunie nodded.