'Is that for someone else? Or is he having sleeping problems?' Ning wondered. 'It can't be that my words got to him, right?' he thought.
Ning almost chuckled when he thought that. He waited for a while and the little girl said, "You can turn now."
Ning turned around and smiled at her. He then looked at the cauldron that was bubbling so much that the lids were now starting to rattle.
"You said you wanted to help, right young man?" the old woman said. "Come help."
Ning excitedly walked forward. "What do you need my help with?" he asked.
The old lady brought out a clean white cloth that had spaces in between the threads so wide that it could nearly be called a net. Then, she brought out another white cloth with normal spaces.
Finally, she brought out a gigantic bowl and placed the cloth on top of the bowl as a way to filter the liquid.
"Alright, help me slowly pour these all in here," the old woman's voice squeaked.
"Yes ma'am," Ning said and used his aether to slowly fly the cauldron over. He poured the contents onto the giant bowl which the old lady held from two sides so as to not let the contents spill away or the bowl tilt over.
Once all the content was poured over, the old woman caught the first of the cloth with both her hands and pulled it out.
All the solid materials in the liquid were filtered with this cloth that contained big holes.
Then the minute powders and bits of the bigger ingredients that managed to pass through were captured by the finer cloth.
The old woman had to sift through it a bit to let the remaining drops of liquid pass through, but that didn't take long.
"Is that it?" Ning asked, looking at the pale green liquid remaining on the glass bowl.
"Yes, but not quite," the old woman said. The little girl had already gone somewhere and brought out another large beaker of the sort, completely made up of glass.
"What do you mean 'not quite'?" Ning asked with a confused look.
"Help me pour this in that," the old woman said. Ning nodded and poured the bowl of liquid into the glass beaker the little girl was holding.
He secretly enforced the beaker so as to not strain the little girl's Aether, but it looked like that was unnecessary. The little girl was quite great at using Aether to enforce her body already.
The old woman took the beaker and put it on top of another stove before turning it on. She put the heat on low and covered the beaker with a lid except for a little space so that the steam could get out.
"The mixture we just made can be used as a potion, but it's not as effective. Since I put a lot of water at the start, the mixture is very diluted at the moment."
"If we want it to have more effect, we have to evaporate it until the concentration is higher," the old woman said.
Ning nodded as he listened to her. He had now understood how she made the potion. It was not different from how pills were made.
You mix ingredients, have their attributes influence each other, and have a vessel for the final attribute.
In a pill's case, it would be powder of the ingredients that were clumped up together. In the potion's case, it was the liquid the ingredients were cooked in.
Ning nodded. He knew what he had to do to make potions. Now, all he needed to do was learn the recipes for each potion.
"How many recipes do you have perfected right now?" Ning asked.
The old woman hesitated a bit and said, "that's… a family secret. So if possible, I will like to keep that to myself."
Ning thought to himself, 'If I who didn't know about potions today, suddenly started making high-grade potions tomorrow, it will be suspicious, to say the least.'
'So I need to somehow begin here before asking the system. But how do I get through to her,' he wondered. Then, his eyes fell on little Helena.
"Mrs. Gaani, would you mind sharing some recipes if I were to take in Helena as my student? I will teach her how to use Aether and make her adept at it," he said.
"No," the woman said resolutely. "I don't know if you mean well or not, but I cannot allow you to give my granddaughter hope. I know what hope does, it only leads to disappointment."
"I can understand what you are trying to say Mrs. Gaani, but I promise you, I am not giving her false hope. If you let me, I can help her reach the peak of Aether arts itself. In return, I only hope you share some recipes with me so I can start learning how to make potions as well," Ning said.
"My mother used to tell me that I would become a great Aether artist too. She told me if I eat the aether fruits day after day, I will become an amazing aether artist."
"Look at me now. I am barely an Aether grandmaster. What's so great about a 220-year-old grandmaster, hm?" she asked.
Ning thought for a moment and his eyes narrowed, "did your parents tell you that those Aether fruits could help you?" he asked. "Is that why you are so skeptical of everything?"
The old woman hesitated a bit. "It's not just the Aether fruits. I know nothing will work at all," she said
"What about this then?" Ning brought out a few Aether ores to show to the old woman whose eyes trembled slightly at the sight of the ores.
She knew how rare these ores were and were even more surprised at the fact how many Ning had managed to take out.
"I… I still don't think these will work," she said, lying to herself.
"Oh," Ning said. Then he stored and ores and brought out a small glass vial with purple liquid in it. "Then how about this?"
