39: The first edition of the textbook, the founding of a sect

Evening.

After Ron and Litton finished dinner, he returned to his storeroom, closed the door, and lit an oil lamp.

Under the dim yellow light, Ron took out "The Love Diary of Mr. Alchemist and Ms. Potion Master" and opened its pages.

Five minutes later.

Ron abruptly closed the book, his expression extremely complex.

"This... is too awful, isn't it?"

Ron couldn't hold back, feeling a stinging nausea.

Previously, when he read the intelligence, it indicated that Harrington's novel had extremely poor writing and story.

At the time, he wondered, how bad could it be?

But now, after a look, he instantly understood; the intelligence was indeed correct.

Could this even be called a novel? The writing was so terrible; even a primary school student's rambling diary would probably be three points better than his.

As for the story content... don't even mention it.

It was so abstract that Ron, after reading it, even began to question life.

"Hmph... this is just a facade; Harrington must have done it on purpose. I can't be angry, I can't be angry..."

Ron closed his eyes, and it took him a long time to compose himself.

Then, he took out the remaining nutrient potion, and just like last time, cut his finger and mixed it with his blood.

Immediately, he drew a strange pattern on the cover, the blood-red lines reflecting a mysterious color.

Next, Ron inverted the book and drew a pattern on the back cover that was eighty percent similar, with only a slight difference in the center.

The two patterns, one in front and one behind, were parallel and overlapped, connected by the lines on the spine and side pages.

"Rowling."

Ron whispered, a familiar incantation.

Suddenly, the pattern he had just drawn glowed faintly.

The blood-forged lines seemed to be absorbed, merging into the cover.

The next moment, the text on the cover began to change.

It was as if a lake surface, disturbed by small stones, became twisted, blurred, and shimmering.

This change slowly ended after a few seconds.

Ron focused his gaze, and saw that the text on the book's cover had turned into "Rowling's Potionology Notes."

Opening the pages again, the novel's story had also transformed into knowledge about Potionology.

Ron roughly flipped through it, the joy in his eyes growing more and more intense.

"This notebook, rather than being Rowling's casual notes, is more like an introductory textbook on Potionology?"

"It not only contains the most basic Potion knowledge but also includes some refinement formulas for magical potions."

Ron carefully studied the section on Potion formulas, finding that these formulas varied in grade.

Low-grade formulas, like the Nutrient Potion, could be concocted even by an ordinary person like him.

High-grade formulas, such as the Holy Spirit Potion, however, required the activation of Mental Energy and becoming a Potion Master before they could be refined.

Ron pursed his lips; he wasn't even a Knight yet, let alone having activated his Mental Energy.

Therefore, these advanced Potion formulas, which required becoming a Potion Master to refine, were useless to him at the moment.

However, when Ron turned to another page and saw the name of the formula, his gaze froze, and his eyes slowly widened.

"Wait, this is... the formula for the Spirit Awakening Potion?"

The Spirit Awakening Potion's effect is to activate a person's Mental Energy and open their Sea of Souls.

The so-called Sea of Souls, also known as the Sea of Spirit or Sea of Consciousness, is the source of a Mage's abilities.

It is similar to the Seed of Life within a Knight, except the former is mostly constructed in the brain's glabella, while the latter is in the chest, near the heart.

"The most crucial thing is, there's even a lower-grade, simpler alternative version for concoction?"

Ron's lips curved into a smile, his heart overflowing with ecstasy, almost laughing out loud.

One must know that a high-grade Potion like the Spirit Awakening Potion is even more difficult to refine than the Life Potion required for a Knight's breakthrough.

Generally speaking, even for seasoned Potion Masters, the success rate for refining an Spirit Awakening Potion would not exceed fifty percent.

And for an amateur like Ron, who hadn't even activated his Mental Energy and had no understanding of Potion, it was even more out of the question.

However, in Rowling's Potionology Notes, not only was the traditional refining formula recorded, but Rowling had even innovated and modified it, adding several more versions.

Among them was a low-grade formula where the potion's efficacy was significantly weakened, but the concoction method also became simpler.

Just like the previous Nutrient Potion, although it lost the effect of increasing the breakthrough probability, it still contained a large amount of vitality, which could assist in the cultivation of the Breathing Technique.

"However, the materials required for this Spirit Awakening Potion are precious and rare."

"At least in Hibo Town, they should not be available. Perhaps... I should go to Kula City to look?"

Ron fell into deep thought. Although the temptation to activate Mental Energy and become a Mage almost made him lose control, he still maintained his rationality, knowing that his most important goal at the current stage was to first become a Knight.

So, Ron continued to read for a while longer.

Then he closed the book, flipped it over, pressed his fingertip on the center of the back cover's pattern, and whispered a phrase.

"Harrington."

Suddenly, a faint light appeared, and Ron picked up the book again.

He saw that on the originally blank back cover, the words "Harrington's Alchemy Notes" now appeared.

Opening it, he found a large amount of Alchemy knowledge inside.

Of course, the only difference was perhaps Harrington's self-confession recorded on the book's flyleaf.

"So that's it... No wonder Harrington and his wife were clearly high-grade Potion Masters and Alchemists."

"Yet the contents of the notes meticulously recorded a large amount of basic knowledge. It turns out they wanted to compile a textbook to establish a school and leave their names in history?"

After reading the self-confession, Ron suddenly understood.

It turned out that Harrington and his wife had already achieved considerable success in their respective fields.

But at the same time, they had also reached a bottleneck, finding it difficult to improve further.

So, while continuing their research, Harrington and his wife also planned to organize their knowledge, compile it into a textbook, and find suitable disciples to teach.

This was also a customary practice on the God-Given Continent.

Many masters and renowned figures did this, and Harrington and his wife, naturally, were no exception.

But, for some reason, later, Harrington and his wife seemed to have encountered some unforeseen circumstances, so they temporarily put this matter aside.

"What exactly happened was not explained in detail in Harrington's self-description."

"However, the initial draft of the textbook, which the two had not yet finalized, was preserved..."

Ron thought to himself, feeling somewhat fortunate that Harrington had not chosen to destroy this initial draft of the textbook but had preserved it.

At this moment, as Ron continued to read, his mind became immersed in it.

Thus, unknowingly, time came to midnight, and Ron heard a system prompt in his mind.