Looking at the completed Elixir of Life glowing ruby-red in the pure gold cauldron, Kael felt anticipation surge through him.
This single cauldron of precious elixir could extend life by thirty years. After carefully portioning the liquid into crystal vials, Kael had exactly three small containers.
Each vial contained just one mouthful of the jewel-toned potion but could miraculously extend life by ten full years.
Kael immediately drank one vial, unable to wait any longer.
The next second, he felt his entire body become impossibly light and airy. Surging vitality flooded through his limbs and bones like liquid fire, elevating his fundamental life potential at the deepest level.
Instantly he gained ten years of additional lifespan!
Moreover, during these ten years, his body would remain frozen in its current state, not aging a single day.
Overjoyed by this success, Kael eagerly drank the remaining two vials in quick succession without hesitation.
Within moments, Kael had added a full thirty years to his natural lifespan.
With such tremendous gains achieved, Kael naturally could not stop there with only one batch.
He immediately began preparing to create additional Elixir of Life, planning to stockpile a substantial batch as insurance against future uncertainty.
Over a month passed in what felt like the blink of an eye.
In Kael's well-equipped potions laboratory, he had successfully created three more complete cauldrons of Elixir of Life—yielding nine small crystal vials total.
Together these precious vials could extend life by ninety additional years.
Adding the previously consumed first cauldron, Kael could now extend his total life by one hundred twenty years, and during this century-plus period, he need not worry about aging or physical decline.
Not that Kael lacked desire to continue making more elixir—he had simply exhausted his supply of rare magical pearls.
These magical pearls were extraordinarily rare, formed from mermaid tears through natural magic, and only Teleri elves maintaining close relationships with mermaids could possibly collect such precious materials.
So Kael decided when he had time, he would visit the Grey Havens again to find Círdan or other Teleri elves to commission collecting more magical pearls.
Besides this limitation, collecting the necessary dew proved to be time-consuming and tedious work.
Creating each cauldron of Elixir of Life required collecting one full pint of White Tree dew—equivalent to one ordinary water bottle's volume.
Moreover, this sacred dew needed to be collected exclusively on moonlit nights without any sunlight exposure that would contaminate its lunar properties.
Facing nine full vials of precious Elixir of Life arranged before him, Kael desperately wanted to drink them all immediately but restrained himself.
Taking the Elixir of Life was similar to maintaining a healthy diet—requiring regular timing and controlled quantities. One could not become healthy by consuming everything at once.
Kael had previously drunk three vials consecutively during his first session, already reaching his body's maximum absorption limit for this period.
This capacity was because his physical constitution already far exceeded typical magical world wizards through his various enhancements.
Otherwise, normally one should drink only one vial at a time, extending life by ten years with each dose.
Then near the tenth year's end, take another vial, continuing this regular consumption pattern indefinitely to achieve practical immortality.
So Kael looked with visible reluctance at these beautifully bottled elixirs before carefully treasuring them in his enchanted medicine cabinet and sealing them securely away.
After ten years passed, he could safely take another vial without risk.
This dosing schedule left him twenty extra years of comfortable buffer time. He need not worry about accidents during dosing intervals, like failing to take medicine timely and experiencing sudden aging.
With these life-extending elixirs safely stored, the heavy shadow that had long hung over Kael's heart finally dispersed like morning mist.
Now he could finally achieve practical immortality, living long and enduringly in this beautiful world he had come to love.
In excellent spirits and feeling lighter than air, Kael left the potions laboratory, his mindset genuinely relaxed for the first time in years, unlike before when he constantly felt rushed as if something pursued him relentlessly.
Walking through the castle's long corridors with unhurried steps, Kael cheerfully greeted the magical portraits hanging on the walls.
After these productive years of steady accumulation, the castle now housed many enchanted magical portraits.
The portrait collection included not only Kael and Arwen captured in various poses but also Smaug, Thorondor, the giant kraken, Herpo, Cerberus, Aslan, and even many elves and dwarves.
Even Hogsmeade residents, plus captured giant spiders, orcs, and trolls, had commemorative portraits.
Smaug possessed several portraits displaying different moods—either resting contentedly amid endless mountains of gold and silver treasure or soaring majestically atop mountain peaks with wings spread.
Thorondor also had multiple paintings showing him in his Mallorn tree nest or soaring gloriously through endless skies.
The giant kraken had an entire ocean scene exclusively his, where he could swim freely through painted waters.
Herpo endlessly chased unfortunate giant spiders through his portrait, swallowing them one by one in an eternal hunt.
Some portrait figures were remarkably animated and intelligent, displaying personalities no different from real living people.
But others appeared rather stiff and limited in their responses.
The cleverest portraits, like Kael's own, were virtually indistinguishable from his real self, because he regularly injected fresh memories into the portraits through his wand, gradually forming complete, complex personalities.
While other portrait figures were merely virtual personalities formed from fragmentary memory impressions, appearing quite dull and limited.
Like those orc and troll portraits—based only on Kael's brief memories of encountering them, so they appeared very stupid and simple.
In one troll-themed portrait, three dim-witted trolls were constantly having their ankles slashed by thirteen aggressive dwarves or feet hammered repeatedly, causing the trolls to clutch their injured feet while howling comically—quite amusing.
The same painting also featured Bilbo Baggins, currently soaking in a large iron cooking pot with an innocent, bewildered expression on his face.
This particular painting depicted the famous expedition encountering trolls in the Trollshaws during the legendary Quest of Erebor.
The talented painter was Balin from the expedition dwarves—now Lord of Moria—who had gifted it to Kael as thanks.
Not all castle portraits were painted by Kael or Arwen personally—most were created by professional elven painters from Rivendell and Lothlórien, plus some skilled commissioned painters from human settlements.
These paintings were all animated by Kael using specialized potions, making them vivid and interactive.
So even with relatively few living people residing in Hogwarts Castle, it remained remarkably lively and entertaining.
Especially dwarf portraits—those noisy fellows possessed characteristically loud voices and loved making continuous noise, refusing to sleep at night but instead gathering to celebrate and sing drinking songs.
This rowdy behavior disturbed surrounding portraits significantly, especially the quiet-loving elf portraits, who repeatedly complained to Kael about the noise.
Kael also developed headaches, somewhat regretting painting these boisterous dwarves. With no other choice, he simply moved all dwarf portraits to less populated corridor areas to prevent them from disturbing others during their nightly festivities.
Castle servants and attendants responsible for cleaning were initially quite startled by the living portraits but gradually grew completely accustomed.
Now they could even chat casually with portrait figures while dusting frames or sweeping floors.
Especially Hogsmeade and Bree mayors Luke and Butch—when Kael was not physically present in the castle, they would report work situations directly to Kael's portrait.
Kael's intelligent portrait would correspondingly provide accurate advice and administrative guidance.
Though mayors Luke and Butch had long grown accustomed to portrait magic through experience, each encounter still involuntarily inspired profound awe.
Kael had also promised both dedicated mayors that if they performed their duties well, he would commission their portraits to remain eternally in the castle, becoming a permanent part of its history.
This generous promise energized both mayors tremendously, making them work even harder building and developing their respective cities.
Castle portrait legends spread throughout the surrounding lands, attracting countless curious and yearning people wanting to witness the magical talking portraits firsthand.
Kael approached his own portrait now, pressing his wand carefully to his temple, extracting a silvery memory thread, and injecting it directly into the portrait.
Portrait Kael immediately gained access to recent memories, his painted gaze becoming noticeably more animated and alive, and his personality growing more complete.
He smiled warmly while congratulating Kael, "Congratulations, original self—you have now achieved practical immortality!"
Kael's lips curved upward involuntarily, but he remained soberly realistic, shaking his head, "It is merely borrowing external objects for longevity, not truly reliable. If the Philosopher's Stone suffers accidents or potion materials develop problems, I would instantly revert to original mortal form—hardly true immortality."
"Using cultivation terminology from stories, this represents a shortcut method. True transformation is still needed—possessing innate immortality abilities within myself."
"So the ambitious plan to evolve my Animagus form into a phoenix must be completed next. With the phoenix's regeneration power, I can legitimately claim foundational longevity independent of external objects."
Hearing this reasoning, portrait Kael remembered something important, "I recall that the Balrog heart deposited in Lothlórien for magical purification should be nearly completely cleansed by now. When do you plan to proceed with the transformation?"
Kael shook his head thoughtfully, "Indeed nearly purified according to Lady Galadriel's reports, but I cannot rush yet. Evolving Animagus into phoenix form is merely theoretical—no successfully documented cases exist anywhere in magical history."
"Any significant accident poses irreversible catastrophic risk! I must prepare thoroughly without accepting any unnecessary risk."
In recorded magical history, there were absolutely no successful cases of any Animagus successfully transforming into magical creatures permanently.
Once Kael proceeded with the experimental phoenix transformation, he could encounter severe magical accidents—minor ones might turn him into monsters like Quintapeds, and severe ones could cause complete magical chaos resulting in explosive death.
Even a successful phoenix transformation might prevent reverting to human form ever again.
Magical history included cautionary tales of people attempting to transform into magical creatures but ultimately proving unable to revert to human form, gradually becoming more animalistic, losing human intellect progressively, and finally becoming complete magical animals permanently.
So during the critical phoenix transformation attempt, Kael must first ensure no transformation accidents occurred and then absolutely guarantee successful reversion to human form after transformation.
Before attempting this, Kael needed thorough preparation, ensuring maximum possible success probability.
To guarantee the maximum success rate achievable, Kael had decided to create the Felix Felicis potion first.
Felix Felicis was an exceptionally advanced potion, also called Liquid Luck. It could make drinkers "achieve their wishes" for a limited period after consumption, gaining excellent luck, avoiding disasters, and seizing opportunities.
Kael reasoned that if he created Felix Felicis and drank it immediately before attempting the Animagus phoenix transformation, he would possess significantly higher success rates in completing the dangerous transformation safely.
But when Kael pulled out Professor Snape's Advanced Potions notebook and carefully examined the Felix Felicis creation process and required materials, he could not help frowning with concern.