At the Royal Magic Academy, in a mage's laboratory.

  A female mage in a white lab coat bustled between four experiment tables, moving with practiced precision. [[0]](#__0)

  Henie, with rectangular glasses perched on her nose and beads of sweat glistening on her forehead, moved back and forth throughout the laboratory with determined focus.

  Her pristine white coat fluttered with her movements, subtly revealing her graceful figure beneath. [[1]](#__1)

  Various crucibles were arranged on the experiment tables, filled with potions brewing in a rainbow of colors.

  White steam rose gently from the crucibles, swirling slowly in the air like dancing spirits.

  Countless glass instruments were also filled with various reacting potions, their constant bubbling sounds echoing in Henie's ears.

  A small red alligator lying on the experiment table frowned with irritation. It found all this quite annoying. [[2]](#__2)

  The complex bubbling noises irritated Leighton, making it want to smash everything in sight.

  But this 'laboratory' seemed to be very important to Henie.

  After considering this, Leighton suppressed the rage rising within its tiny reptilian body.

  Leighton's gaze shifted to the side.

  It saw a chubby little dog lying on the experiment table, sleeping peacefully.

  A snot bubble at its nose expanded and contracted with each breath, a testament to its deep slumber.

  Since being taken away by Henie last time, it hadn't woken up at all.

  How should one put it? It truly lived up to its name as the Sloth Demon. [[3]](#__3)

  When Leighton turned its head again, it saw Henie holding two vials, carefully shaking them with precise movements.

  "Mix this one with this one," Henie muttered to herself while focusing on blending the crimson and luminous green liquids.

  The two magical beast blood samples in these vials came from a moth and a unicorn respectively.

  The abilities of these two magical beasts were polar opposites - one was pure, while the other was utterly corrupt.

  Now, Henie stared at the vial with great anticipation, her heart racing, even unconsciously holding her breath.

  Unfortunately, these two types of blood simply refused to merge.

  Henie sighed as she watched several globules of luminous green blood slowly rise from the bottom of the vial, floating above the crimson blood.

  Perhaps it was precisely because their properties were too opposite that they couldn't fuse.

  "So... how did she manage to do it?" she wondered aloud.

  She turned her head, her gaze falling on the expressionless Sapphirose behind her.

  At this moment, Sapphirose was sitting quietly on a chair, her vertical python-like pupils fixed intently on Henie.

  Henie rested her chin on her hand as she looked at her, sinking into deep thought.

  The blood extracted from Sapphirose's body contained the essence of dozens or even hundreds of magical creatures.

  However, she had just proven that simply trying to merge two magical beast blood types was futile.

  How could one achieve Sapphirose's standard?

  "Forget it, I'll put this aside for now," she decided.

  Henie had to temporarily shelve her research on Sapphirose's body.

  Although this was research requested by Professor Viktor himself.

  She needed to think of another approach.

  At this point, her gaze swept across the laboratory.

  When she spotted Leighton and Puki lying on the experiment table, she suddenly had a new idea.

  Her gaze fixed intently on the small red alligator.

  Feeling Henie's somewhat predatory stare, Leighton immediately stiffened, sweat droplets forming on its scaly forehead.

  Leighton looked toward the sleeping Puki beside it, seemingly suggesting Henie shift her target.

  But Puki remained deep in dreamland, completely oblivious to Henie's calculating stare.

  So, Henie kept her gaze firmly on Leighton and asked:

  "Do you have blood in your body?"

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  Demons need physical forms to act in this realm, and when they haven't revealed their true forms, they look pretty much like ordinary animals.

  So, could blood or energy be extracted from them?

  As Henie pondered, she picked up a small syringe from the table.

  Her finger pushed out the air inside as she approached the alligator step by step.

  Seeing Henie's somewhat fanatical eyes, Leighton fearfully backed away, almost falling off the experiment table.

  "M-maybe I don't have blood. I shouldn't have any, right?" it stammered nervously.

  However, Henie ignored Leighton's pleas and continued to advance.

  Leighton turned in panic to flee, only to find the experiment table's edge getting farther away.

  The red little alligator, now firmly pinched in Henie's hand, received a precise needle jab in its bottom.

  "OUCH!" A sharp cry instantly shattered the laboratory's tranquility.

  Henie skillfully manipulated the syringe, extracting some crimson, foam-filled liquid from the small alligator's body.

  She examined it carefully, holding it up to the light.

  Although she wasn't sure what she had extracted from Leighton, this liquid clearly wasn't ordinary blood.

  Just by observing this syringe of crimson liquid, Henie felt a strong surge of anger rising from within her core.

  It almost made her lose her rationality. She hurriedly put down the syringe, only then regaining some emotional control.

  Obviously, this was the power of the Wrath Demon manifesting. [[1]](#__1)

  Meanwhile, Leighton collapsed on the experiment table, convulsing dramatically.

  Like a fish stranded on a dry riverbed, it weakly stuck out its tongue, looking utterly desperate.

  It seemed to feel that a vital part of its essence had been stripped away.

  At the same time, Henie picked up a new syringe and walked toward Puki.

  Swoosh—

  The syringe quickly extracted a tube of pearly white liquid from Puki's body.

  Puki was sleeping so deeply that it didn't feel a thing, even with a needle in its bottom.

  Next, Henie squeezed out a portion of both liquids into a conical flask.

  A simple fusion was the best way to judge the compatibility of two energies.

  This time, the result greatly satisfied Henie.

  When the two liquids came into contact, they twisted and writhed like intertwining snakes.

  An orange-red liquid soon consumed the original two liquids, lying quietly in the bottle.

  Now, Henie began to ponder the implications.

  The essential nature of demons is their ability to evoke desires in others.

  Does this mean demons can naturally fuse with each other?

  But then again, demons also possess the special ability to grant power to others.

  Thinking of this, Henie suddenly had an idea.

  She quickly picked up the magical beast blood that couldn't merge earlier from the experiment table.

  After extracting some from both blood samples, she injected them into the demonic energy.

  Soon, upon contact with the orange liquid, the two magical beast blood samples became agitated.

  The two blood samples seemed to become extremely volatile, entangling with each other, and quickly merged completely.

  A deep blue blood swirled in the bottle, reflecting in Henie's shocked and widened pupils, highlighting the immense joy in her eyes.

  The two blood samples that couldn't merge before had now fused under the catalytic effect of demonic power.

  Henie was dumbfounded, turning her head to look at the quiet Sapphirose behind her.

  She found the pale Sapphirose sitting on the chair, still expressionless, still motionless.

  She too didn't seem to know what had just happened.

  After the fusion of the magical beast blood, many secrets about Sapphirose seemed to flash through Henie's mind.

  But specifically, she couldn't make too many guesses, as there was no concrete evidence.

  However, being able to achieve this much, Henie was already very satisfied for now.

  At least in terms of magical beast blood fusion, significant progress had been made.

  "I need to tell the professor about this," she decided.

  As Henie thought, she quickly packed up the glass instruments in the laboratory.

  She picked up the two demons, hid them away, and then headed toward the teleportation array in the laboratory.

  Seeing Henie preparing to leave, Sapphirose also stood up and followed closely behind her.

  After the two stood on the teleportation array, Henie snapped her fingers lightly.

  The array beneath them burst into a brilliant blue light, and the two instantly dissolved into sparkling points, disappearing within the mage tower. [[2]](#__2)

  ...

  The academy was exceptionally lively today, as if welcoming some grand festival, bustling with activity.

  Especially the students outside the teaching building, who were many times more numerous than usual.

  Walking on the path, Henie continuously saw these students in high spirits.

  With anticipation and joy on their faces, they excitedly ran toward the academy entrance.

  "Hurry, hurry, we'll be too late if we don't hurry!" one shouted to his friends.

  Too late for what?

  Henie didn't quite understand.

  However, some students, upon seeing her, ran over with delight to greet her:

  "Professor Henie!"

  "Good afternoon, Professor Henie."

  "Professor Henie, when is your next class? I'd like to book in advance..."

  Henie smiled and responded to each student with warm acknowledgment.

  Some of the students who greeted Henie blushed when they saw her smile.

  Some more shy students even ran away out of embarrassment.

  Of course, after greeting Henie, some students would curiously look behind her.

  Following Professor Henie was a strange woman in a robe.

  This made these students curious, their eyes lingering with questions.

  But they wouldn't ask Henie directly, as that would be very impolite.

  However, Henie could still hear their whispered questions from their conversations with companions as they left.

  "Who is that behind Professor Henie..."

  "Don't know, but she looks somewhat familiar."

  As the students gradually dispersed, Henie realized that walking around the academy with Sapphirose wasn't a good idea.

  Just as she was about to sneak away, a familiar voice nearby made her stop in her tracks.

  "Henie?" the voice called out.

  Looking toward the familiar voice, Henie saw a face she had been longing to see:

  "Erica!" she exclaimed.

  A look of surprise appeared on her face, and an involuntary smile curved her lips.

  It had been a long time since they had spoken privately, and they could only see each other during classes.

  "Henie, today you....." Erica began.

  Halfway through her sentence, Erica's gaze fell on Sapphirose behind Henie.

  Suddenly, an unpleasant memory flashed through Erica's mind.

  Her head buzzed, her entire body stiffened, and she stared blankly at Sapphirose.

  Isn't this the person Professor Viktor brought last time? The one who almost...

  Noticing Erica's strange look, Henie smiled gently and explained:

  "This is the teaching assistant Professor Viktor found for me."

  "She may look intimidating, but she's actually quite nice," she assured.

  Hearing this, Erica smiled stiffly.

  If she hadn't almost been attacked by this woman before, she might have believed Henie's words.

  But she understood, after all, Professor Viktor had mentioned he would prepare an assistant for Henie.

  And the chosen assistant was this mysterious woman.

  At this point, Henie watched the students suddenly walking past and turned to Erica to ask:

  "What's happening today? Why are all the students heading to the entrance?"

  Erica looked at the students, shrugged, seeming quite helpless about their reaction:

  "The Crown Prince has returned," she explained.

  "I heard he came to visit Viktor." [[3]](#__3)

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