Anise placed the green magic crystal on the table, using her mana to analyze its internal structure.
The final step of Witch Pharmaceutics was to inject natural energy into the mixture to enhance its medicinal properties, but Anise did not have enough time to thoroughly study this new power.
Because of that, she had a bold idea.
“No problem. Shatter!”
Several thread-like flashes of light flickered, and the crystal containing natural energy was sliced into several small gemstones.
She held them in her hand, carefully feeling the natural energy within. After confirming everything was correct, she nodded. “No problem. These can serve as the ingredients for the final step.”
After soothing Mimi and telling her to watch the house, Anise returned to the mansion.
After enjoying dinner with Sherry, she returned to her cage-like bedroom and read until late at night.
Once she was certain the mansion had grown completely quiet, Anise gently pushed open her door.
Using the cover of night, she easily avoided the patrolling butler and guards, reached the glass greenhouse, and entered the tunnel.
Carrying vegetable leaves prepared for the cat, Anise returned to her small alchemy hut in the dead of night.
“Meow~”
The cat happily ate the vegetable leaves while Anise gently stroked her small head.
‘When will you finally turn into a cat-girl?’
Turning Mimi — or rather, Xia Mi — into a cat-girl was the thing she cared about most, second only to saving the Second Princess.
After all, who could refuse a soft, fragrant cat-girl?
After getting her fill of petting the cat, she moved to her “battlefield” — the alchemy table covered in various instruments.
This was the time she had deliberately chosen, and the moment her true work began.
On the table, the black magic book was spread open to the chapter on Witch Pharmaceutics, with Anise’s study notes from the past few days neatly arranged beside it.
She lit the fire, boiled the water, and placed the materials…
Every step was identical to her previous brewing methods, with the sole exception being that Anise finally dropped in the gemstone containing natural energy.
She wanted to see what difference this brand-new magic would make compared to her previous potions.
The result was within her expectations. The early steps went smoothly, and a pale purple solution had even begun to form.
However, the moment she dropped the crystal in, the color instantly turned pitch black. The mixture became sticky, having already turned into a pot of waste.
In the world of brewing, this had a formal name: a Refusal Potion.
“It was rejected… No matter, it’s as I expected.”
Anise was not discouraged. She used magic to clean the cauldron and started over.
‘I suppose I really do have to follow the book’s instructions…’
According to the descriptions in the black magic book, the vast majority of discarded materials actually possessed strong medicinal properties.
For example, the most important ingredient was the Frost Lily. When brewing potions, typically only the stem and roots were used.
Its petals were usually labeled in pharmaceutics as having “limited auxiliary value.”
In conventional brewing, its position was extremely awkward: its magic content was low and its nature was mild, meaning it could neither serve as a primary material nor significantly enhance effects.
In most recipes, it was only added as a fragrance.
However, the book explained that with the support of natural energy, Frost Lily petals could be transformed into a material with incredibly strong magic, and they played a completely different role in stabilizing mana.
Anise put on her gloves and carefully separated the Frost Lily petals one by one. They were thin and translucent, shimmering with a faint white-blue hue under the dim lamplight.
She did not start brewing immediately. Instead, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
‘Phew… All right, let’s do this.’
Exploring the unknown always came with a sense of nervous tension.
In moments like these, Anise would fall back on a habit she had always maintained — sensing the state of the mana flow within her body.
The flow rate, the density, the reaction to the outside world, and the synchronization between her mind and her mana.
She would only begin once she was sure she had entered her optimal state.
She lowered the flame beneath the cauldron, controlling the temperature within an extremely precise range.
Anise weighed every single material for the mana stabilization potion on the scale with precision before slowly pouring them in along the edge of the pot.
The number of stir cycles and the strength used had to be constant. Even a tiny fluctuation caused by the stirring spoon bumping against the bottom of the pot could affect the final result.
She added the processed Frost Lily petal powder to the solvent and stirred again.
The color of the liquid changed.
It wasn’t the expected pale purple, but a clear, soft luster that was closer to white.
Anise immediately recorded the change while simultaneously adjusting her stirring rhythm.
She did not rush to throw in the natural energy shards for the final step. Instead, she waited.
The reaction speed in the pot was noticeably slower than usual.
She absolutely could not be impatient.
Time ticked by until it was so late that even the distant bell chimes sounded muffled.
When Anise finally dropped the first shard into the solution, she felt a reaction distinct from the last attempt.
It wasn’t a rejection, nor was it simply absorbing the energy. It was — a response.
The sensation was incredibly subtle, as if the potion were “listening” to the input of natural energy, aligning with it to make final adjustments.
Anise’s breathing unconsciously grew light. She raised her wand, attempting for the first time to control the flow of that energy to make them fit together more tightly.
Beads of sweat had already appeared on her forehead, and a stray lock of hair that hadn’t been tied back slid into her line of sight.
Her body began to grow stiff, and her muscles started to protest.
However, none of this caused her to adjust her posture.
Anise continued to add the shards, increasing the input of natural energy while continuing to let them become familiar and compatible with one another.
This was an extremely dangerous yet critical step.
If she failed, the solution would likely turn into another Refusal Potion.
But it didn’t. Instead, as the flow rate increased, it reached an unprecedented state of balance.
Anise’s heart leaped.
She realized she had touched upon a new possibility.
Yet, at the critical moment just before the brewing was complete, the color suddenly began to turn dark and black!
Resistance began to manifest in her stirring, and Anise immediately felt a sense of dread.
“Oh no! Is it still not working?!”
No, stay calm.
She still had plenty of Frost Lily petals — enough to support her continued challenge of this new field.
Over the next few nights, she repeated these experiments almost constantly.
Failure after failure led to adjustment after adjustment.
Sometimes the ratio of lily powder was wrong, sometimes the heat deviated, and sometimes her own unstable state led to one too many stir rotations.
But she did not get frustrated. Instead, she calmly recorded, analyzed, and corrected her mistakes.
On the morning 5 days later, when she had only one last chance left to try, her persistence finally paid off.
The potion in the pot did not turn black or thick at the final moment. Instead, it remained stable in its white state.
Anise knew she had succeeded.
She removed it from the heat and bottled it. Holding it up to the sunlight, she could feel the natural energy flowing smoothly inside.
It was perfectly stable.
“Phew…”
Anise took a deep breath. Although she had succeeded, there was still one last step.