The next day, Puyol brought Ye Ming to a wooden hut. Puyol ordered someone to open the door, then led Ye Ming inside.
“These are the ingredients kept by our tribe. Fell free to use any of them to make that potion,” said Puyol.
Ye Ming walked up to a sack, opened it and checked the content. He actually did find some of the herbs he needed inside. After checking a dozen sacks or so, Ye Ming nodded in satisfaction and said, “The ingredients you have are pretty ample. I should be able to do it.”
“Good. Give me a list of what other things you need. I’ll ask someone to prepare them immediately.”
Ye Ming did not waste any time. He returned to the tent and wrote down some of the equipment he needed for potion brewing, then handed the list to Puyol.
In the afternoon, the Gangrel tribe started to get busy. Ten whole pots were brought out, and the tribe members all worked together to set the pots upright using ropes. Ten large pots sitting together in a corner of the tribe was quite an imposing sight.
The women walked back and forth to bring firewood, and the young Vampires helped by filling the large pots with water. Everything was progressing in an orderly manner under Ye Ming’s command.
Puyol was overjoyed whenever he recalled that his tribe was about to make a big leap in strength.
“Oh, one more thing, Lord Puyol. I think we should raise a canopy to shelter the pots so that if it rains, the potion won’t be ruined.”
Puyol nodded. “You’re right, I’ve overlooked that. I’ll get it done right away.”
Soon after, a few posts were erected around the ten pots. The Vampires held the posts down with vines, then laid a layer of waterproof cloth on top. Thus, a large canopy was constructed.
Ye Ming continued to give out orders. He asked the tribe members to arrange the ingredients by type and split them up so that each portion weighed the same. He also ordered for fires to be lit under the pots to boil the water.
Everything was proceeding in order. When Ye Ming saw steam rising up from the pots, he ordered for the ingredients to be added according to a certain sequence and asked the Vampires to keep stirring.
Lastly, Ye Ming added in the bright-colored plant. Someone instantly reported that changes were happening to the liquid in the pot.
Puyol did not know what was happening, so he turned to Ye Ming and asked, “What’s the matter? Did something go wrong?”
However, Ye Ming remained confident. “Don’t worry, it gets worse.”
As soon as he said that, an unpleasant smell permeated through the air. Puyol pinched his nose and asked, “What the hell is this? It smells terrible, like human feces. It’s disgusting.” Puyol wished for nothing more in this instant than to get out of there.
Ye Ming, on the other hand, had his arms spread wide open with a dreamy look on his face, as if he was embracing the smell.
“This is the best thing in the world. It won’t take long before it becomes something that everyone wants to get their hands on.”
Puyol had no idea what he was talking about, but no sooner had Ye Ming said that, a refreshing fragrance wafted over.
Puyol was shocked. “Oh my God, what is this? This fragrance is simply…simply tantalizing.”
The surrounding women were ecstatic. “Oh my God, this smell is so tempting. If we can give off such a seductive scent, we’ll have the men dancing on our palms.”
“You can say that again. I think we should just ask the alchemist to make a perfume with this scent specifically for the women of our tribe. I’m willing to offer up my chastity for it.”
“You’re so dirty, haha.”
While the women were joking around, Ye Ming felt that it was almost time. He ordered for the distillation and refining process to begin.
The pots were covered with a lid that had an opening connected to a tube meant to collect the condensed vapor.
Drops of clear liquid dripped down from the tube into a bottle. When the first bottle of potion was collected, one of the Vampires happily brought it over to Puyol and Ye Ming.
“My lord, have a taste. This is the first bottle of potion we made according to the method Yelina taught us.” The Vampire handed the bottle to Puyol.
Puyol took the bottle and took a small sip, “Yes, this is the taste alright. Here, Yelina, have a taste of your creation too.”
Ye Ming took the bottle and also had a sip of the potion. He nodded in satisfaction. “To celebrate our success, how about we have a celebration party tonight with this potion as a drink?”
“Sounds good. Alright, it’s decided. We’ll have a celebration party tonight.”
That night, in the Gangrel tribe, campfires lit up the night sky. Men, women and children gathered around the campfires singing and dancing. Each of them had a cup of transparent potion in their hand, and they looked unusually excited. As a result of consuming the potion, they could all feel their strength increasing, giving them a feeling of breakthrough that was hard to describe.
Some female Vampires specifically came up to Ye Ming to thank him for the help he gave their tribe. Their flirtatious eyes made Ye Ming’s heart stop from time to time. The more daring ones even gave him a kiss, catching Ye Ming off guard. He was not used to have kisses forced on him like this.
A few humans also took the opportunity to express their gratitude to Ye Ming. They were the ones lucky enough to be chosen as test subjects. They had learned from other Vampires that Ye Ming was the cause for the change in their lifestyle, so they had gone to him specifically to thank him.
The celebration party lasted until the wee hours of the morning. Some young men and women who were not fully satisfied yet would walk into a tent hand in hand. Ye Ming could easily guess what would happen afterwards.
Ye Ming retired to his own tent after the party ended. He suppressed the festive mood he was feeling. The small amount of breakthrough he had made so far was far from enough to allow him to rest on his laurels. He must keep optimizing and refining the recipe. He wanted to produce a more powerful potion.
While lying down on the bed, Ye Ming thought of what he could do to further improve the efficacy of the strength-enhancing potion. ‘Add more herbs? This method might work, but it requires constant trial and error which will inevitably produce some bad outcomes. If I accidentally make a poisonous potion, I might kill myself.’
Ye Ming knew he would not be so lucky every time. If he had to personally test his own potion every time he made changes, a single accident was all it would take to kill him. Another major problem was time. This kind of trial and error approach would take a lot of time.
While he was trying to think of another way, he absent-mindedly placed his hand on his chest. His hand suddenly touched something hard. He immediately realized that it was a vial of Blood Essence.
Ye Ming abruptly sat up on the bed. An idea had suddenly sprang to mind. “Blood Essence. Will I increase the potion’s potency if I add Blood Essence to it?”
The next day, he decided to experiment. He added a drop of Viscount Blood Essence he previously obtained from a treasure chest into one of the large pots. He instructed the Vampire in charge to make sure the potion from this particular pot was brought to him first.
Waiting was always a tedious process, especially for those who were anticipating something. When the Vampire came to him with the freshly concocted potion, Ye Ming impatiently took it and gulped it down.
A strength that was even more immense than before instantly filled up his body. Eureka!