Chapter 284 - 280: Magic Steel

Chapter 284: Chapter 280: Magic Steel

Doudou had the weakest Magic Power here, so when Su Su stopped recording the Magic Patterns, his sensory experience immediately dropped by several notches.

’But seeing Big Cousin like this,’ he thought, ’I’d better not disturb him for now.’

Inside the culture tank, all the tissue and cells had completely disintegrated. All that remained was a pool of turbid liquid, and the catalyst had lost its activity.

However, the culture tank didn’t seem truly lifeless. A faint, bizarre reaction was occurring, giving off a subtle aura of Magic Power.

Unlike the awakened Magic Power of Magic Creatures, this aura was... if one had to describe it, it was like the power of a lingering obsession, naturally formed due to a special environment. In other words, it was more like a paranormal, calamitous natural phenomenon, such as the Nightmare Swamp.

But because it lacked any sense of rampant hostility or malicious intent, it was hard to say if it could be considered a calamity.

’What’s going on here?’

Puzzled, Qin Xiaoxia poured in some more nutrient solution, wanting to see if there would be any change.

After several minutes, there was still no reaction.

He then used a dropper to extract some of the liquid residue and place it in a new culture tank filled with nutrient solution. He added a drop of Baru’s blood, but after a few minutes, there was still no obvious change.

However, Baru’s cells were quite resilient. Even in this less-than-sterile environment, they didn’t die. With the addition of new nutrients, they probably wouldn’t be dying anytime soon.

Even though it had only been a few minutes, the mediums involved were no ordinary substances. Their high reactivity, combined with the influence of Magic Power, meant that results often became apparent within minutes.

"Su Su, can you see any unusual results?"

Hearing her Mentor’s question, Sister Su’s Crystal Ball flew between the two culture tanks. She channeled her Magic Power and focused her Perception for a moment.

"It’s strange. I feel their outcomes will diverge slightly, but neither seems like it will become completely inactive."

This sounded a bit strange, since the cells in one of the tanks were actually dead, meaning there was no "activity" to speak of. Su Su must have been referring to that special, self-generating aura of Magic Power.

Qin Xiaoxia pondered for a moment.

"Doudou, bring me a few of your pet rabbits. Healthy ones. Not those listless, half-dead ones."

"Don’t start without me! I’ll go get the rabbits. Be right back!"

Doudou was surprisingly quick to agree. He immediately hopped off the platform and ran toward the small outdoor pet enclosure Mumu had built for him.

A few minutes later, he returned carrying several cages. Inside were more than a dozen white and gray rabbits, each about the size of a soda can.

"Look, Big Cousin! I picked all females!"

Su Su’s lip twitched. Apparently, Doudou hadn’t given up on his rabbit-girl plan.

Qin Xiaoxia completely ignored the rabbits’ gender. With a wave of his hand, he confined the other rabbits to a large cage in the corner of the lab and took out two white ones.

He gave Hama Pi a meaningful look, and Hama Pi skillfully retrieved two syringes, drawing a small amount of liquid from each of the two culture tanks.

Then, before the two unsuspecting little rabbits could react, he injected the entire contents of the syringes into them. ℯℯ𝑙.

The rabbits struggled for a moment from the prick of the needles, but quickly settled down after the injections were finished.

"Time it."

As Hama Pi spoke, the Secret Realm immediately responded, manifesting two illusory clocks above the two restrained rabbits.

"Alright, set them aside for now. I’ll continue."

Seeing that the rabbits showed no immediate reaction, Qin Xiaoxia decided not to waste time waiting around.

Hama Pi placed the two culture tanks into an incubator and activated the Secret Realm’s power to contain it, preventing the aura of Magic Power within the tanks from escaping and causing a disaster.

Then he returned to his Mentor to continue with the next experiment.

"Perhaps our previous method was wrong. Let’s try again, but this time, we’ll continuously add nutrient solution and see if the cells die."

It was still tissue from an Invisible Salamander, still with Gou’s Catalyst and Baru’s blood. However, as soon as the cells and tissue began to coexist harmoniously, they began adding a constant supply of nutrients.

Su Su meticulously recorded the process with Magic Patterns. During these changes, her Divinatory Perception was even more acute than Qin Xiaoxia’s.

Sure enough, at around the four-minute mark, the demand for nutrients suddenly skyrocketed.

This time, however, the nutrient solution was already plentiful, providing a buffer. Before the nutrients in the tank could be depleted, Hama Pi immediately added more.

Waste materials and gases were produced by the cells’ metabolism, creating a large excess of water. Fortunately, this was an experimental environment within the Secret Realm, so separating these byproducts was a simple and swift process using Magic Power and the realm’s own influence. In a normal science lab, the culture tank would have overflowed long ago.

’But when will this ever end?’

"Time it!"

At Hama Pi’s command, the rest of the process for this culture tank was automated by the Secret Realm.

The shadow of the Red Demoness could be faintly seen in the lab—specifically, the Red Demoness in her current human form. It was a Shadow of the Secret Realm that she had created by splitting off some of her Magic Power to maintain the headquarters.

"Tsk, tsk. Experiments really aren’t something you can finish overnight."

Qin Xiaoxia turned to look at the two bewildered rabbits on the counter.

He had no intention of injecting the contents of the third culture tank into another rabbit. Based on what they were seeing, the rabbit would undoubtedly be stripped of all its nutrients and starve to death.

"Let’s switch materials. This time, we’ll use a branch from Mumu."

On the edge of a certain Crystal Forest, a Big Thorn suddenly shuddered.

...

From sunrise to sunset, the group remained in the lab, completely absorbed in their work, forgetting to eat or drink.

The incubator now held dozens of new culture tanks, all marked with classification labels. The corner of the lab was filled with dozens of new animals—rabbits, rats, pigeons, and the like.

In addition to Baru’s blood, they had also used blood from many others, including Otto, Brown, and Jack.

The blood of a Magic Controller, when introduced to a culture tank of dead cells, would generate a faint Magic Power of its own and immediately seize control, eliminating all other foreign auras.

When introduced to a culture of active tissue cells, it would do the same, destroying all foreign elements while coexisting harmoniously with Gou’s Catalyst.

If the foreign tissue also came from a Magic Creature, then of the two creatures’ tissues, only the stronger one would survive, and it too would coexist harmoniously with Gou’s Catalyst.

This demonstrated the purity of Magic Creatures, but it also highlighted the terrifying nature of Gou’s Catalyst.

Magic Power is influenced by its wielder’s emotions; if two Magic Creatures show goodwill toward one another, their different types of Magic Power can coexist harmoniously.

In the culture tank, however, the faint Magic Power generated by the two foreign tissues was nascent. Lacking any awareness of each other, they engaged in a life-or-death struggle.

Gou’s Catalyst, though not composed of living cells, exhibited remarkable resilience. Its ability to avoid annihilation spoke to some of its outrageously potent properties.

Seeing so many experiments all lead to a similar, brutal outcome, Su Su couldn’t help but hug her chest with one arm and press a hand to her stomach. She felt an urge to leave the lab.

"It’s alright, Su Su. When influenced by a wielder’s consciousness, Magic Power can still easily erase these things. Like this."

A purple light flashed at Qin Xiaoxia’s fingertip, and a spare culture tank instantly disintegrated into ash.

"Oh... right."

Su Su felt a little embarrassed that her Mentor had seen right through her.

Going without sleep for a while wasn’t a problem for anyone present, so even though night had fallen, they had no intention of stopping.

Next, they moved on to experiments with material fusion.

This process was much simpler than the biological ones and proved to be quite fruitful.

Essentially, everything was compatible; it was just a matter of varying efficiency.

Staring at the dozen or so new culture tanks, Qin Xiaoxia stroked his chin in thought.

"With ordinary metals from Earth, humanity has already mastered alloys, even without this kind of catalyst."

A small piece of Magic Energy Crystal appeared in his hand. The next second, under immense Magic Power, it was crushed into a fine powder.

Qin Xiaoxia then sprinkled it evenly into all the culture tanks.

But it was clear that Gou’s Catalyst had its limits. Magic Energy Crystals contained immense energy. The moment the catalyst’s enzymes tried to corrode the Crystal, the energy balance within the powder would shatter, releasing a massive shockwave—POOF!—that instantly destroyed all the active enzymes.

"Whew~"

While everyone else frowned, Su Su actually let out a sigh of relief. Realizing her mistake, she immediately clamped her mouth shut. Thankfully, her Mentor hadn’t noticed.

Qin Xiaoxia had considered having Doudou try using a Wish, but using it just to fuse these few substances would be a huge waste, especially to get a sufficient quantity of material. The cost would far outweigh the benefit.

"Wait! Hama Pi, bring out the first five Type-A culture dishes."

Type-A was the designation for the culture tanks in which the tissue and cells had already died.

It was a sudden flash of inspiration. After Hama Pi brought them over, Qin Xiaoxia took one and poured its contents into one of the metal fusion tanks that also contained Magic Energy Crystal powder.

The formerly lifeless Type-A derivative, which carried only that calamitous aura of Magic Power, suddenly began to absorb the energy from the Magic Energy Crystal powder upon contact with the liquid mixture.

"What is this?"

As if suddenly granted new life, the pitch-black Type-A derivative began to grow, spreading out like threads from a cocoon. The entire culture tank looked as if it were being overgrown by mold.

But mold is a fungus; it’s alive. This mycelium-like substance, however, was still inanimate. Or rather, it was still that strange substance containing what seemed to be a "calamitous aura of Magic Power."

As this substance continued to proliferate, the Magic Energy Crystal powder and the original Silver Iron Powder steadily diminished. In the end, only this new substance remained in the culture tank.

It was clearly different from the original Type-A substance. These pseudo-mycelia had a metallic sheen, and that strange, calamitous aura of Magic Power had vanished. It seemed that with the depletion of the Magic Energy Crystal powder, it could no longer revert to its Type-A state.

’Even a tiny speck of Magic Energy Crystal, divided into a dozen parts, still contained an enormous amount of energy. Could the pseudo-mycelia in this small culture tank have consumed all of it?’

With a flick of his finger, two of the filaments separated and floated into the air.

They struck each other, producing a faint, crisp sound.

He flicked one of the filaments hard. It deformed significantly, bending into a wide arc and flashing with a dim light before finally snapping.

Based on its color and properties, it didn’t much resemble a silver-iron alloy.

"It’s a bit like Magic Steel, though."

Hama Pi nodded in agreement with his Mentor’s quiet remark.

Magic Steel was a relatively rare material, usually found alongside rare, natural Magic Energy Crystal Ore deposits. Its yield was always low, but it came in a wide variety of forms.

However, no one here had ever seen real Magic Steel, so they couldn’t be certain.

Even so, the atmosphere in the lab had brightened considerably. At the very least, they had achieved a very promising result.