Duente entered the potion classroom through the back door.
Miqi sidled up and whispered mysteriously, “Old Yao’s eyesight is bad. I answered for you during the roll call and he didn’t notice!”
Duente replied expressionlessly, “Oh, thank you, my good buddy.”
“Pfft, so half-hearted. This class’s task is simple—just brew a basic mana recovery potion.”
The mana recovery potion only required mixing blue herbs and mana purification agent in equal proportions, then infusing it with a tenth of a container’s worth of mana.
Such a thing was a piece of cake for Duente now, but he didn’t want to show off.
So he quickly whipped up a deliberately low-quality mana recovery potion.
The hundred-milliliter container held a blue liquid that emitted a faint blue glow.
Miqi was stunned, never expecting his friend to be so fast!
“Lao Du, what’s with you? Done already?”
“Huh? What, you want to take this one to hand in?” Duente handed the low-quality mana recovery potion to Miqi.
“Hey, I’m too embarrassed. I think I should still make my own.”
“Don’t be polite. I can make another one.”
Duente shoved the low-quality potion into Miqi’s hands and quickly made another one.
“You’re a real bro! We can slack off the whole class now!” Miqi said excitedly.
“Keep your voice down, don’t let Old Yao notice. We’ll turn in our assignments at the very end.”
“There’s still half the class left. I’ll take a nap first. Keep an eye out for me—wake me up if Old Yao comes around!”
Miqi grabbed an empty bottle, placed a few blue herbs and several small bottles of mana purification agent beside his hand, covered his head with a book, and quickly fell asleep.
Duente didn’t have time to bother with him, because Ailisi would soon brew a top-grade mana recovery potion and become the center of attention for the whole class.
He looked toward Ailisi’s seat.
He found Ailisi also looking at him.
She quickly averted her gaze, looking guilty as she continued making the potion.
Duente didn’t understand why she reacted that way.
In his past life, Ailisi never spared him a second glance—at least not during this period.
Something must have gone wrong.
But that wasn’t important.
What mattered was that Duente would turn her top-grade potion into useless wastewater the moment she became the class’s focus.
The method was simple: just use the residual power of the Soul Core.
Duente reached his hand under the table and activated the Soul Core’s power.
A stream of cyan energy silently surged toward the bottle beside Ailisi’s hand.
She was focused on brewing the potion.
Old Yao was taking a nap.
The other students were busy with their own tasks.
Thus, no one discovered Duente’s covert operation.
As Ailisi’s potion-making progressed, the spectacle around her grew more impressive, drawing the attention of nearby students.
A few female students gathered around, watching her intently.
“As expected of Ailisi—high magical talent, and potion class can’t stump her either!”
“Watch carefully and learn.”
“I’m so jealous…”
Ailisi wasn’t swayed by the chatter around her.
She focused on completing the final step—infusing mana.
The moment the mana entered the container, the blue potion burst into a brilliant blue light, eliciting gasps from the surrounding students.
But it quickly calmed down.
Old Yao woke up, walked over to Ailisi’s desk, groggily picked up the potion, examined it closely, and yawned as he said, “Extreme purity, stable mana structure. Demonstration-level quality. As expected of Lady Selina’s daughter. Ailisi, please hold up your potion so the whole class can see.”
“Let me, let me!”
The noisy girl helped Ailisi lift her “top-grade potion.”
The mana recovery potion was pure and bright, its azure glow steady and very beautiful.
“Wow, it’s way prettier than the ordinary mana recovery potion I made.”
“Ah, the gap is too big—I only made a low-quality one…”
“She’s a genius. How can we compare?”
The students buzzed with discussion, mostly praising Ailisi.
She looked at Duente, hoping he was watching too.
Duente didn’t disappoint—he was indeed watching Ailisi, but the expression on his face was unreadable to her.
For the first time, she felt Duente had become a stranger.
He smiled at her.
She felt the familiar Duente was back, felt a surge of joy, and quickly looked away.
Duente didn’t understand why Ailisi in this life had become so strange, but he knew she would soon embarrass herself.
The Soul Core could temporarily change the attributes of a specific object.
The special potion bottle meant to hold the brewed potion could perfectly contain the finished product.
Duente changed it into an ordinary glass bottle, so the potion would be effective temporarily but would lose all its effects and turn into wastewater within a minute after completion.
The surrounding students continued to praise Ailisi, flattering and complimenting her.
Duente counted down in his head.
‘Five, Four, Three, Two, One.’
A flash of blue light passed, and the potion in the bottle instantly lost its luster.
The beautiful azure liquid turned transparent.
“Wh-What happened?”
The noisy girl who had been holding up the potion bottle quickly set it on the table.
Ailisi was also baffled.
Old Yao adjusted his glasses, suddenly wide awake.
In all his years of teaching, this was the first time he’d seen a top-grade potion turn into wastewater.
The surrounding students were equally clueless.
But Duente smiled slightly.
He walked through the crowd to Ailisi’s side, picked up the “waste potion,” and said, “Let me see. How could our genius be so careless? Using a glass bottle to hold the potion?”
The noisy girl pointed at Duente and accused, “Duente, what are you playing at? Did you switch Ailisi’s special container bottle?”
“Don’t slander me. I never came near here. You can ask the students around me.”
A male student at the desk next to Duente said, “Yeah, he and Miqi started slacking off and sleeping as soon as class began. They weren’t paying any attention at all.”
Old Yao glanced at Duente, shook his head, and said, “A useless child.”
But Duente said, “Hold on. Watch me turn this potion back.”
Duente picked up the container with his left hand and made a sprinkling-salt gesture over it with his right, actually sprinkling nothing.
He chanted mysteriously, “Maa~gic~trick~!”
After a few seconds, he infused mana into the bottle again, and the potion returned to its original state!
In fact, its quality was even better than what Ailisi had made earlier!
Old Yao was shocked, “In all my years of teaching, I’ve never seen a mana recovery potion of such high purity! Duente! Could you really be a genius?”
Duente put down the container bottle, said nothing, turned around, and returned to his seat.
He had achieved his goal—to embarrass Ailisi, slap her face first, and then snatch away the glory that belonged to her!
This was also part of his revenge.
‘So satisfying!’
Duente kept his expression blank.
He couldn’t let others know how he felt right now.
The surrounding students were astonished, unsure what trick Duente had pulled.
Old Yao chased after him, speaking enthusiastically, “I want to take you as my personal disciple!”