The Witch's Anatomical Notes

Chapter 65

Feeding Experiment

Half a sandglass later, Talia’s figure reappeared at the end of the garden path.

Surprisingly, trailing behind her was an enchanted sunflower with root-like legs. The plant was laboriously dragging a large pile of herbs.

Since Lucy had not specified any particular types, the quality of these low-level herbs varied greatly.

However, she was not intending to brew potions anyway, so she did not mind the poor-quality ones mixed in the pile.

But as Lucy was counting the herbs, she subconsciously glanced at the enchanted sunflower, and a sense of familiarity rose in her heart.

"Wait a minute!"

Lucy swiftly drew out her Gear Staff, stepped on the sunflower that was trying to flee, and pressed the cold tip of her staff directly into its tooth-filled mouth.

"I let you get away last time, and you dare show yourself before me again!"

She clearly remembered the ambush she encountered half a month ago in Green Vine Garden; it was this very sunflower, hiding in the shadows, that nearly pushed her into the dangerous Zone Two.

After the Star Dew Grass was killed, a fire broke out, and by the time she wanted to search for the attacker, it was too late. Yet unexpectedly, this creature had now delivered itself to her doorstep.

"Are you going to confess yourself, or shall I expose everything you did with the Star Dew Grass?"

The enchanted sunflower trembled violently as the staff pointed at it. It had witnessed firsthand the power of this staff.

A powerful Zone Two guard was burned alive without being able to block even a single strike.

Even more frightening was the black robe on this woman, which marked her current status as an official apprentice.

The sunflower’s wide, toothy mouth kept making noises, while its large, watery, puppy-like eyes were filled with pleading.

"Squeak squeak squeak… squeak squeak squeak…"

"What’s it saying?" Lucy frowned and asked.

Having learned the whole story, Talia was equally indignant.

"It says it was forced too, and is willing to submit to the great witch."

As if to prove its sincerity, after Talia finished translating, the enchanted sunflower lay flat on the ground in a full prostration.

Lucy snorted coldly and put away her staff she had been bluffing all along, after all, lethal witchcraft was strictly forbidden inside the Tower of the Four Sages.

"By the way, how did you get it to bring the herbs over?" Lucy turned to Talia.

Talia said, "This fellow is a herb trader from Zone One of the North Tower. Most of the herbs you asked me to purchase were acquired through it."

"So it’s not completely useless after all." Lucy stroked her chin, observing this unexpected captive. "Here’s the deal: from now on, you’ll follow Talia. As long as you behave yourself, I’ll let bygones be bygones."

The enchanted sunflower nodded and bowed repeatedly, looking like a sycophantic lackey.

...

After obtaining what she wanted, Lucy went to Morgue No. 66 on the second floor of the West Tower.

Aside from Mentor Fernando’s laboratory, this was the quietest place Lucy could find.

With the Flesh Construct stationed at the entrance, no one dared to cause trouble in the morgue.

Lucy neatly arranged the purchased supplies one by one: dry food and water in the corner, glass jars filled with enchanted organs lined up on the dissection table, and piles of herbs radiating magical energy forming small mounds.

Finally, she carefully opened the special container holding the "Enchanted Cancerous Brain Tumor."

The freed tumor lay blankly on the silver tabletop, its rotting black-brown flesh mixed with hair, bones, and teeth, presenting a hideous and unsettling appearance.

After a period of feeding, its size had swollen a full circle larger than when it was first excised.

"I know you possess cognitive ability."

Wearing the plague doctor mask and leather apron, Lucy stood with her back to the Everbright Lamp, casting a long and eerie shadow across the dissection table.

"But Mentor Fernando told me that excised enchanted organs shouldn’t have independent consciousness, let alone actively feed..."

The tumor lifted its body slightly, seemingly puzzled by Lucy’s words.

This enchanted cancerous brain tumor was clearly unlike any enchanted organ she or even Mentor Fernando had ever encountered.

An enchanted organ specimen referred to an individual organ part that had undergone irreversible magical mutation due to contamination.

Even with the most complex dissection Lucy had ever done, such as the Banshee’s Phase Wings, the true enchanted portion was only the bones within the wings.

But this head contained complete structures including skin, flesh, bones, and even independent mouth, nose, and brain tissue.

More importantly, it was not a mutation of Leticia’s original organ, but a newly grown "second head" from her spine.

A gleam flashed in Lucy’s eyes capable of feeding, evolving, and possessing independent thought, this was very likely a one-of-a-kind "Primal Construct Core."

She casually picked a herb from the pile and tossed it toward the tumor.

After a brief trial, the tumor swiftly enveloped the herb into its body.

Accompanied by unpleasant, sticky squelching sounds, the herb was completely absorbed, and the tumor’s size expanded accordingly.

Then came the second, the third...

The tumor grew larger and larger, and its absorption speed increased as well.

When the pile of low-grade herbs was nearly depleted, as if reaching a certain critical point, the grotesque tumor suddenly shuddered. A large amount of milky-white fluid spurted out from its coarse pores and quickly solidified into a milky-white cocoon.

Lucy immediately recorded this key change in her Anatomy Notes.

[Feeding Experiment] After the one hundred and thirty-second herb was fed, the enchanted brain tumor’s magical energy threshold broke through the critical point, entering cocoon state. Suspected...

She paused briefly in thought, then wrote: Suspected evolution.

After that, she focused all her attention on watching over it.

She waited for an entire day.

Until the next day, faint tremors came from within the white cocoon.

A bulge pressed against the cocoon wall from the inside, instantly activating the "Fractured Crystal Reverse Scale Shield" model within Lucy’s mental sea.

Confirming there was no danger, she carefully cut open the cocoon wall with a scalpel.

Pop!

A pale human face suddenly pressed against the opening, desperately squeezing outward, seemingly oblivious to its twisted and deformed facial features.

As the opening widened, the entire head finally broke free and rolled out.

The moment she saw its face, Lucy drew a sharp breath it bore an eighty percent resemblance to Leticia, except that the broken neck was covered with maggot-like wriggling tendrils.

The head rotated its hollow eyeballs, scanning the morgue, and finally fixed its gaze on Lucy.

Lucy, who had been observing closely, tensed up, instantly forming the "Fractured Crystal Reverse Scale Shield."

Snap!

Almost simultaneously, a tentacle several meters long shot out from the mouth of the head, whipping heavily against the shield.

"What a wicked creature, daring to attack even its master."

Most wizard constructs were extremely violent, so when wizards created lifeforms of their respective schools, they would engrave master-servant magic marks on the bodies to exert control.

Having missed its first strike, countless tentacles surged from the head’s neck, suspending the beautiful head in mid-air.

Then, the dense mass of tendrils surged toward Lucy like a tidal wave.

But just as the tentacles were about to touch her body, Lucy suddenly spoke:

"Stop!"

As if a pause button had been pressed, all the tentacles froze instantly.

A smile appeared at the corner of Lucy’s mouth.

"You didn’t think those herbs were given to you for free, did you?"