Chapter 280: The New Magic Potion

Chapter 280: The New Magic Potion

“Tsk tsk, I really want to find a good opportunity to launch the live-streaming feature…” Zheng Yichen squinted his eyes and muttered. Thanks to a special ‘undercover agent’ at the treasure site, Zheng Yichen could easily learn the entire process of that place from Dan Marina’s records when he flipped through them. She even managed to get him a close-up shot!

A close-up of a seemingly ordinary girl, who was the witch that placed the secret treasure…

“She looks very ordinary,” Zheng Yichen said, staring at this plain-looking girl. In Dan Marina’s records, she had also participated, but she appeared very average. She didn’t even make it one-tenth of the way through the trial area before she was forced to retreat.

“Ordinary? It’s not her real self, just a vessel. Of course it’s ordinary,” Dan Marina said casually. “It’s specially used to observe those people. Why would it need to be power ful?”

“This is an avatar?” Zheng Yichen asked with some surprise.

“No. In terms of avatar technology, as far as I know, you’re still the best at the moment. Other avatars cannot easily bear a witch’s power and would still bring extra influence to the environment. This girl is just a vessel that houses her ‘eyes’.”

“Sounds impressive but I don’t get it. Anyway, the matter at the treasure site is over. The rest has little to do with me.” Zheng Yichen waved his hand dismissively. Dan Marina’s eyes moved slightly, as if she had a new idea.

“So, any thoughts on attending the auction later?”

“Auction?”

“The secret treasures from the treasure site, according to incomplete statistics, number sixty-two. Eight were used directly by people, thirteen were hidden privately, plus the three most important final treasures. That’s a lot, right?”

“Incredible!” Zheng Yichen exclaimed. That added up to over eighty items! That witch was truly wealthy and powerful, to just toss out so many things like that.

“Well, many of them are duplicates, so it’s not actually that exaggerated,” Dan Marina said offhandedly, noticing Zheng Yichen’s surprise. “A lot of these items fell into the hands of the Sanctuary Church. After appraisal, some will end up in the auction.”

“That generous?” Zheng Yichen found it strange. Logically, these were a witch’s things. The Sanctuary Church wouldn’t do this unless they had nothing better to do. As for needing money? Their nature is to be wealthy and powerful. How could they let these things be sold?

“Well, mainly because the Sanctuary Church obtained too many secret treasures this time, so they’re putting out a portion.”

Oh… so it was for balancing. From the Magic Weapon Forum, Zheng Yichen had seen plenty of information about the treasure site. Dozens of factions, big and small, participated in that operation. If the Sanctuary Church, as the big boss, quietly monopolized all these treasures, even if others said nothing, they’d be extremely unhappy inside. Moreover, if those treasures had no issues, many wouldn’t be that useful to the Sanctuary Church anyway.

On the other hand, for factions far weaker than the Sanctuary Church, those items could be very important. After all, for some ordinary or even larger factions, one or two relatively common ‘secret treasures’ could create one or two individuals with excellent potential. Having better potential means they can become stronger. The Sanctuary Church doesn’t lack strong individuals, but those other factions do!

Of course, as the big boss, they wouldn’t do something so ungenerous. Hence, this auction… The biggest reasons for this auction were also that they had taken two of the final treasures, and the remaining last one was taken by an unknown nobody who managed to slip away during the slight chaos afterwards.

That person also carried something that obscured their presence, so they didn’t learn much about them. Thus, the whereabouts of the third treasure were unknown. With two treasures left, both monopolized by the Sanctuary Church with no intention of releasing them, if they didn’t hold this auction to release some of the less important treasures, they might face criticism.

Even though the Sanctuary Church truly wouldn’t care about such criticism, there was no need for it. Of course, this wasn’t weakness; the Sanctuary Church simply wasn’t afraid of trouble. They just saw no need to cause such a situation under these circumstances.

“And some other things will appear at this auction.” Since they were holding an auction, it naturally wouldn’t only feature the witch’s secret treasures. There would definitely be other items too.

“Hmm, then let’s go take a look.” Zheng Yichen said, also feeling tempted. An auction—since coming to this world, he hadn’t experienced such a place. His main body couldn’t go to such places, but fortunately, he was using an avatar now, so it should be fine. “I shouldn’t expose myself like this, right?”

“Hmm~” Dan Marina looked Zheng Yichen’s avatar up and down. “You should give this avatar some maintenance. It’s a low-grade product, after all. When new, it’s no big problem, but problems arise after long use.”

Zheng Yichen hadn’t paid attention until Dan Marina mentioned it. After she spoke, he carefully examined his alchemical avatar. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly. No major issues, but minor problems had indeed appeared. This avatar’s limbs were slightly twisted, and some internal ‘organ’ structures had shifted a bit. Overall, it was about one-tenth abnormal.

Zheng Yichen hadn’t anticipated this phenomenon, but now that he noticed it, a little analysis told him the reason. The limbs and torso of this body were cultivated from the muscle tissue of a magical beast. After special treatment, they became ‘bionic muscles’ that could be controlled by the avatar’s framework. But this was only surface control.

Deeper parts, because their ‘consciousness’ was gone and even instinctive reactions were replaced by the avatar’s structure, lacked the subtle adjustments akin to subconsciousness. Therefore, after prolonged use, the body would twist to some degree. After all, a bionic body wasn’t a real human body. Without those subtle adjustments, this twisting occurred. Strictly speaking, it was a kind of ‘reversion’.

“Tsk, there’s such a flaw too. Note it down. Need to go back and prepare a batch of body fixative,” Zheng Yichen muttered after analyzing the cause of the body’s twisting. The so-called fixative was also a magic potion, a byproduct Zheng Yichen developed during some magic potion experiments based on certain results. He had many similar things.

He recorded them all. This was a form of accumulation. Like now, encountering this problem, he didn’t need additional research; he could solve it directly. This thing forcibly stabilized the current structure of a living creature. Its specific purpose wasn’t tailored to his alchemical avatar’s current situation; it was just an application of that potion.

The original intended use of this potion was probably against certain curse-based attacks or when using moves that damaged one’s own body.

Besides curses that kill, many curses leave severe, hard-to-remove marks on a person. For example, aging curses causing bodily aging, or ugly scars left by damage curses. These curses could cause permanent residues. Using the Fixation Potion, while one would still suffer the curse’s damage and bear full pain, it could prevent leaving permanent residues on the body caused by those curses. As long as the Fixation Potion was active, one just needed to find a way to eliminate the curse power, even if only most of it.

The remaining residue, lacking the strongest effect, would at most cause some subsequent discomfort but wouldn’t chain-react with the marks on the body to create hard-to-remove permanent residues. Then there were moves that damaged the body… Through Zheng Yichen’s experiments, using it had some limitations. For example, it only worked on the body and offered no help with special powers.

This potion was like an alternative recovery potion. For a certain time, it locked the body’s state. Even if injured, it could quickly recover to the state when the Fixation Potion was used. Pain wouldn’t be reduced, of course, as this was just a potion, not some shop item from a game with infinite potion power allowing reckless actions during its duration!

Limited effect was also unavoidable. If this thing had no effect limits, Zheng Yichen would have thought he accidentally created the legendary ‘Elixir of Immortality’.

In short, the greater the body damage, the shorter the Fixation Potion’s effect duration. Also, due to the potion materials, potions made from lower-grade materials would have even more reduced effects if used by stronger individuals. For a suitable person using a mutually destructive move that would kill them, this potion might give them +1 second or a few seconds. For a powerhouse far beyond this potion’s level, its effect duration at that time might shrink to 0.01 seconds…

And this thing was usually used at critical moments. Using it normally was asking for trouble, as it forcibly fixed the body’s state. Until the potion’s effect was fully consumed, it kept working. During regular activities, the effect consumption was very low. So under normal conditions, using this thing, even training wouldn’t bring any improvement; it would only wear down the Fixation Potion’s effect until it vanished. Of course, during that time, one would gain exceptional recovery and the fixed stamina provided while the effect lasted!

“What do you think about showing this at the auction?” Zheng Yichen asked Dan Marina after explaining the Fixation Potion’s effects. Recently, he was short on money. The Mana Enhancement Potion alone brought him decent income, but his recent research expenses were huge, especially when making coating materials, causing his funds to evaporate rapidly. Even though he recently sold many ‘Magic Cycles’ considered black-tech in the Otherworld, and the profits were substantial, it didn’t completely solve his financial shortage.

Zheng Yichen didn’t have any money-printing methods. Ask Qin for money? Hmm, maybe she wouldn’t mind too much. He could borrow it, but the key was he felt capable of earning money himself, so why borrow? Well, the main reason was he couldn’t swallow his pride. So, taking advantage of the Sanctuary Church holding this auction, presenting a new special magic potion seemed meaningful.

Especially the Fixation Potion. Its effect was as unique as the Mana Enhancement Potion. Zheng Yichen truly believed it would be popular!

“You really… always manage to come up with surprising things,” Dan Marina said sincerely after listening to Zheng Yichen’s introduction. The Fixation Potion—she had never heard of such an effect. If it were just powerful recovery, that would be one thing, but locking one’s current state was very special. “This so-called fixation, can it even lock life and death?”

“Uh… in theory, yes!” Zheng Yichen said after thinking. The Fixation Potion came about when Zheng Yichen was researching restorative potions and tried combining certain ones. At the time, he designed dozens of formulas, and only this one yielded results. “But I can’t make one with that strong an effect now. It hasn’t reached the level where the potion can affect the soul besides the body. If that barrier could be broken, then locking life and death might be possible.”

As long as the potion’s effect wasn’t fully consumed…

“Keep working hard. This thing has great potential. But are you sure you want to put it out there?”

“I’m really short on money!” Zheng Yichen said with a stiff face. “And the deepest core of this potion still comes from my ability. The current formula is a compatible version I adjusted through subsequent experiments that doesn’t rely on my ability. Although it can achieve the current level of Fixation Potion effect, it doesn’t have the potential for research upgrades unless I develop newer versions and make them public.”

This wasn’t Zheng Yichen deliberately creating a tech blockade. The birth of this potion was based on the influence of his ability, ignoring the incompatible factors of many magic potion materials. It was precisely because of this product that Zheng Yichen could conduct follow-up experiments, identify incompatible material aspects, remove the biggest conflicts, and create the compatible formula…

Of course, this was compatibility, not perfect adaptation. So regarding subsequent research, unless Zheng Yichen produced higher-level results and used the same reverse research method to develop compatible formulas, it would be hard for others to research further. After all, many of those materials were ‘contradictory’. Compatibility just used other materials to forcibly or neutrally eliminate these contradictions. For others to research further, they must remove the ‘compatible’ prefix…

If others could do what Zheng Yichen himself found difficult, he could only say they were amazing!

“In a sense, your ability is also quite unreasonable.”

Zheng Yichen gave a slight, wry smile. “Do you think reaching out with both hands to grab magic someone casts is reasonable?”

Having decided to present this Fixation Potion, Zheng Yichen immediately prepared to contact Qin. After all, she was the ‘businessperson’. Appearing at the auction was just promotion. Truly scaling up later required Qin’s ability. Even though there would be a share, overall, with her help, Zheng Yichen could gain greater benefits than doing it himself.

“Let’s go together.”

As soon as Zheng Yichen stepped out, Dan Marina, having changed clothes, followed with a light jog. Seeing her quite interested expression, Zheng Yichen knew Qin’s face wouldn’t be too pleased when they met.

That was indeed the case. Upon learning Dan Marina was at her bar again, Qin planned to leave and avoid the annoyance. But this time, she came with Zheng Yichen, making Qin hesitate slightly before appearing with a truly unhappy expression. “I really don’t like her.”

“Ahem, I really can’t help it,” Zheng Yichen said helplessly. Dan Marina’s legs were her own; he couldn’t beat her. Could he just tell her not to come? He could, but it was useless!

“Alright, what’s the matter?”

“Hmm~” Zheng Yichen placed part of the Fixation Potion formula in front of Qin.

“…How did you develop such a strange magic potion?”