The darkness of night in the wild was especially bitter and cold; even the burning campfire could not drive the chill away.
But inside the tent, the temperature was several degrees higher than outside, giving one a drowsy feeling.
After waiting a few minutes, Leilin saw
It was obvious she was terrified. Her small hands gripped the hem of her clothes tightly, knuckles white.
A pair of pretty eyes were filled with fear.
Yet her body seemed to be under someone else's control, walking toward Leilin step by step.
"There's nothing to be afraid of! It's just a simple sampling — it won't cause you any harm!" Seeing the girl like this, Leilin couldn't help but offer a few words of reassurance.
"Roll up the sleeve on your arm!"
After hearing Leilin's words, Ivy hesitated for a moment before rolling up her sleeve, revealing an arm as white as jade.
"It'll sting a little. Don't be afraid!"
Leilin pulled out a large needle-like instrument from behind him, his voice soft as he comforted the little girl.
Unfortunately, the trembling only intensified.
Leilin grabbed the girl's arm with one hand and drove the syringe directly into the exposed vein on her arm with the other.
∑??? The moment the needle entered, the girl scrunched up her face, looking as though she was about to burst into tears, but forced herself to hold back.
After extracting several hundred grams of blood, Leilin sent the little girl straight back to her own tent.
"What's with that feeling of bullying a little girl?"
Leilin looked at the syringe in his hand and stroked his chin.
No matter how you put it, being stared at by a little girl with that "you're bullying me" look in her eyes was rather uncomfortable.
"Chip, begin the experiment. Prepare the microscope…"
After spacing out for a few seconds, Leilin put away his playfulness. His expression turned serious as his slender hands danced over the makeshift lab bench like a butterfly flitting among flowers.
The next morning, Leilin stared at the sulfuric test tube containing a small half-drop of pinkish liquid, his expression shifting between light and dark.
"Chip, analyze!" A beam of blue fluorescence shot from Leilin's eyes and fell upon the test tube's wall.
"Ding! A single drop of blood carrying a trace of the ancient creature — Pala Night Hawk — bloodline aura! Cannot be further purified!"
The information fed back by the Chip immediately darkened Leilin's expression.
Ivy did indeed carry a trace of ancient bloodline, but the Pala Night Hawk's bloodline had thinned to the point of negligibility by the time it reached her. Ivy was just an ordinary little girl — at most, she had slightly more radiation resistance than the average person. Only the Chip could extract even a trace of aura from the blood, but even that was of little use.
"At this concentration, even if I drained all of Ivy's blood, or kept capturing her and draining it on a regular schedule, I still wouldn't be able to purify a single drop of true ancient bloodline!"
However, Leilin didn't actually feel particularly disappointed.
Not every attempt could succeed, but without trying, there wasn't even the slightest possibility of success.
He had understood this principle long ago in his previous life.
"Besides, with this rare blood carrying an ancient creature's aura, combined with the few damaged Magical Items I seized from the blood tournament, I might be able to modify the Falling Star Pendant…"
A thought rose in Leilin's mind.
The Falling Star Pendant was only a low-grade Magical Item — very useful during the apprentice stage, but for Leilin now, it felt somewhat redundant.
Previously, the Chip's task list had always included a project researching the feasibility of upgrading the Falling Star Pendant, and that research was nearly complete.
But Leilin was now a Warlock. If the upgrade materials for the Falling Star Pendant included a few items rich in bloodline power, it would surely be even more suited to his use!
"Chip! Create a subtask: assess the feasibility of incorporating Ivy's blood into the Falling Star Pendant upgrade plan!"
The Chip's response came promptly.
Although he couldn't purify true ancient bloodline, obtaining upgrade materials that better matched the Falling Star Pendant made Leilin feel it was well worth it, and his mood improved considerably.
When he shared breakfast with Ivy, he even took the rare step of exchanging a few words of greeting with her, which immediately left the little girl flustered and at a loss — a sight that secretly amused Leilin.
After breakfast, Leilin brought the little girl along and continued on their way.
When they passed through a town, he purchased an additional horse-drawn carriage, sparing the little girl the misery of walking.
He didn't do this out of kindness — it was because the girl was having her blood drawn every single night. Although Leilin had prepared some blood-replenishing potions, the girl's spirits were clearly not in great shape, and her face was as pale as a corpse.
After buying the carriage, Leilin's life became even more leisurely: traveling by day, and spending each night purifying Pala Night Hawk bloodline essence to accumulate materials for upgrading the Falling Star Pendant.
"Dawn Peak! At this pace, we can reach the Magerlie Grand Canyon tomorrow!"
Leilin pointed at a towering mountain peak ahead that pierced the clouds, speaking to Ivy behind him.
"…" Ivy stared at the landmark on the map ahead, hugging her knees in silence.
Her eyelids hung low — whether from fear of the future or from bewilderment, it was impossible to tell.
"I've collected enough materials. Tonight, I'll upgrade the Falling Star Pendant!" Leilin said to himself.
He had deliberately controlled the pace of the journey so that they would arrive at the canyon just as he obtained a sufficient quantity of blood.
Deep night.
The surroundings were wrapped in quiet darkness, punctuated now and then by the chirping of insects and the howling of wolves.
Ivy, in the tent beside the carriage, had fallen into a deep sleep.
Even in slumber, the lashes on her face trembled ceaselessly, as though she were having a nightmare.
Seeing her like this, Leilin sighed softly and returned to the carriage.
"Chip, begin the simulated experiment!"
Inside the carriage, Leilin had cast a light spell, illuminating everything brightly.
In the center, several wooden crates had been stacked into a makeshift platform, its surface covered with various laboratory tools.
At the very heart sat a silver-gray cross-shaped pendant set with a few small gemstones.
This was the original form of the Falling Star Pendant, but ever since Leilin had advanced to First-rank Warlock, he had rarely used it.
The Falling Star Pendant's physical defense and magic resistance were both below twenty degrees, while any single First-level spell from a formal
That was precisely why Leilin had been racking his brain to find a way to enhance the Falling Star Pendant's power, hoping to continue using it in the future.
"Simulated experiment complete. Success rate: 87.9%." After a flash of blue light, the Chip projected a line of data before Leilin's eyes.
The current Chip could simulate the majority of experiments and provide a success rate — meaning that as long as Leilin followed the Chip's instructions step by step, he could raise the actual success rate to the level the Chip indicated.
For ordinary Wizards who painstakingly gathered materials only to face an experiment with an unknown chance of success, the Chip's function could save Leilin enormous amounts of resources.
This function could even be applied during advancement.
If the Chip's projected success rate was too low, Leilin could simply choose to abandon the current advancement attempt and accumulate more — far better than those who blindly charged at a bottleneck, failed, and suffered damage to their spiritual essence.
"First step: separate out the materials from the Magical Items!"
Leilin looked at the other objects laid out on the table.
There was half a dagger and a damaged palm — both trophies from the secret-realm blood tournament. Despite the passage of time, the palm still shimmered with silver light, giving no indication that it had once been made of human flesh and blood.
"Back then, Silver Claw Soren actually fused a Magical Item directly into his own palm. What a madman!"
Leilin picked up the silver palm and placed it inside a golden funnel, then lit the flame beneath it.
A ring of golden fire coiled endlessly around the funnel, heating it until it glowed entirely red.
Scorching heat radiated steadily from the palm. Seeing this, Leilin dripped a few drops of blue liquid onto it.
The blue liquid hit the palm and immediately turned red, spreading along the edge until it covered the entire surface.
The temperature spiked once more.
Leilin's face brightened. He placed a transparent beaker beneath the funnel.
Drip! Drip! Drop by drop, silver liquid fell from the bottom of the funnel.
Before long, it had filled half the beaker.
With his right hand, Leilin quickly tossed in some powder and gemstone fragments. His left hand extended a thin silver wire that stirred ceaselessly inside the beaker.
The moment the powder and gemstones entered the beaker, they dissolved completely, and the silver liquid began to turn cloudy.
After a dozen minutes, a clear separation formed inside the beaker — a layer of flesh-colored liquid on top, and a layer of pure silver beneath.
…
After another round of diligent work, Leilin gazed at the several materials laid out before him with a look of satisfaction.
The dagger and the silver palm had now been reduced to two blocks of metal — one black and one silver — each emitting a soft, lustrous glow.
Meanwhile, the original Falling Star Pendant sat soaking in a beaker filled halfway with pinkish blood that carried the fragrance of orchids, its scent continuously wafting through the carriage.
"Krestin… Gula-viel… Alonzo…"
Leilin chanted an incantation while slicing open his finger and letting a single drop of dark-red blood fall into the beaker.
Boom!!!
The instant the dark-red blood entered the beaker, it triggered a violent reaction.
Pink bubbles surged upward, and the blood began to boil furiously.
Tendrils of crimson liquid crept across the surface of the Falling Star Pendant, dyeing its original silver-gray to a dark, deep red.
Once all the blood in the beaker had evaporated, the former Falling Star Pendant had been completely transformed into a blackish-red cross.
"Next — the rune inscriptions must be modified!"
Leilin's expression grew intensely solemn. For the upgrade of the Falling Star Pendant, this was the most critical step!