Thorns Campus, Tang Qi's brick and stone bungalow.
"Bang"
In the small living room, which now served as Tang Qi's studio, a sudden noise was followed by a puff of smoke exploding before his eyes. It began no larger than a fist, emerging from the crucible, but it rapidly expanded, quickly enveloping the entire room.
Within the thick white smoke, a peculiar, outline-only face was slowly taking shape.
Its mouth seemed to move, as if it wanted to say something.
But before a word was uttered, it "sizzled" into fragments, the smoke abruptly retracting and eventually condensing into a drop of pitch-black liquid in mid-air, landing perfectly in the test tube passed over by Tang Qi.
"Another failure!"
Tang Qi's brow was slightly furrowed; he knew all too well that the scene which had just unfolded was not indicative of a successful concoction of secret medicine.
From his expression, it was apparent that this was not his first failure.