"Wait. You are really going to trust something with an unknown origin like this?"
When Williams saw that Felix was already impatiently pulling out the cork, he hurried to stop him.
"At the very least, send it for testing first."
Felix did not drink it immediately. Instead, he looked at the calm and composed Tver, and a broad smile spread across his face.
"My body cannot hold out much longer anyway. Otherwise, I would never have come to attend a meaningless meeting like this."
Ian gave an awkward smile.
The people who had come today could certainly be called financial titans of America, even of the whole world.
But saying that any one of them could single handedly command the winds and clouds of America would still be an exaggeration. With Ian's current network, he had not reached that level yet.
Take Felix for example. If he had not been near death and just happened to be spending his final years in Greenwich, he never would have attended a meeting of this level.
As for Williams and the others, they were simply coveting Ian's face mask business spread all across the world.
Tver did not mind.
Everyone here was just a stepping stone for him. He did not have time to work his way up one level at a time. He only needed to be like a lazy spider and use these few people to spin out a network capable of influencing the global economy.
"Besides... Professor Fawley would not want to bury his young life along with this old one of mine, would he?"
Felix gave the potion in his hand a little shake. A strange scent rose from it, like several different fruits mixed together.
It was not unpleasant, but it was not especially pleasant either.
He had never really understood Tver's words, nor could he figure out what made a potion different from ordinary medicine, or why it could heal him.
But he had no room left to choose.
"You are welcome to try it," Tver replied with a smile, answering his threat without any concern. "Although I have not personally tested how effective this newly developed potion really is."
Felix tilted his head back, then paused with the bottle held near his mouth. His old eyes blinked in confusion for a moment.
But the next second, he poured it firmly into his mouth.
Tver's earlier display had given him an inexplicable sense of trust. Besides, he was convinced Ian Russell would not gamble his entire career on the life of an old man who was already close to death.
Williams immediately reached out, but he was too late to stop him.
His own illness was troublesome, yes, but it was not something completely beyond the help of medicine. So he simply could not understand Felix's desperate willingness to grab at anything.
Especially because the instant Felix swallowed the potion, he clutched his throat hard, threw back his head, and opened his mouth wide toward the ceiling, his face turning red as if he wanted to scream something out.
It looked less like he had swallowed a potion and more like he had just gulped down the extra spicy broth from a Chongqing hot pot.
Of course, Tver had no idea whether any of them had ever eaten Chongqing hot pot. He only gave Ian, whose face was full of worry, a reassuring smile.
As part of their deal, Ian and even his family had already taken potions long ago.
But those had all been mature potions from the wizarding world. The reaction was never anything like Felix's.
"What are you all standing around for? Grab them!"
Williams roared at the bodyguards behind Felix.
The burly men in suits did not hesitate just because the order came from Williams. As they quickly drew the pistols from their waists, they also used their earpieces to contact the guards outside.
"Hands on your heads. Get down on the ground. If anything happens to Mr. Felix, you can prepare to be buried with him."
One of the bodyguards strode forward and pressed the muzzle of his pistol straight against Tver's temple without hesitation.
"If there is a problem with Mr. Felix, why not just ask him directly?"
Tver turned his head expressionlessly, shifting the muzzle from his temple to the center of his forehead.
"As for you, it seems you really enjoy holding a gun."
The bodyguard suddenly discovered that he could not move at all. He could only watch helplessly as Tver reached for the hand holding the gun, then closed his grip tightly around it.
"Ah...!"
The scream did not come from the bodyguard.
It came from Williams, who had rushed over and seen every detail clearly.
That hand gripping the gun seemed to melt. Every inch of skin and flesh beneath it turned into flowing liquid and slowly spread over the pistol.
Very soon, a grotesquely bulging layer of skin had wrapped around the entire gun, leaving only the dark muzzle exposed, still pressed against Tver's forehead.
As for the hand itself, it had long since disappeared.
Never mind the bodyguard. Williams, who had seen it from up close, had already collapsed to the floor in terror. His assistant and the bodyguards who rushed over had to help him back up.
"Devil... so you are a devil..."
Williams pointed at Tver in panic, his face on the verge of breaking into tears.
The sight of human flesh and the steel of a gun fusing together so nakedly before his eyes had left a permanent scar on his mind.
Ian suddenly felt fortunate that he had suppressed his curiosity and, out of fear of being held at gunpoint, hidden himself behind Bulstrode.
"A truly magnificent Transfiguration, Professor," Bulstrode said, displaying remarkable tact.
"Thank you." Tver withdrew his hand. The bodyguard was released from whatever had bound him, then promptly collapsed unconscious onto the floor.
"I thought you only liked Dark Magic," Tver said helplessly.
Bulstrode did not care in the slightest what would happen to Muggles or wizards in the future. The only reason he followed Tver was his pursuit of Dark Magic.
So after graduating, Bulstrode had not looked for work. Instead, he had tirelessly sought Tver out for guidance on all kinds of magical questions, especially Dark Magic.
There were quite a few wizards like that in the wizarding world. In the early days, Voldemort had recruited his followers largely through his superb research into Dark Magic, along with his generous and selfless teaching of it.
Only now, Tver was obviously a better fit for the picky Bulstrode.
"That is why I did not curiously ask how you cast it."
Bulstrode's answer was exactly what Tver had expected.
"All right. Carry him out. This is a place for doing business, not for you lot to start pulling guns."
Supported by his assistant, Felix rose to his feet and spoke in a hoarse voice, stunning everyone present.
"You are not... just now, I saw..."
Williams pushed away the people helping him and took two hesitant steps toward Felix, but quickly stopped again, wary.
It was as if Felix had already become a servant of the devil.
Felix immediately revealed an easy smile.
"That stuff tastes awful, and the reaction is fierce, but I have to admit, my body really does feel much lighter."
"Other than the marks on my neck, of course." He pointed at the red traces he had left there by clawing at himself.
Just a moment ago, he had truly thought he was about to die. But not long after, a burning heat had surged up from his stomach and spread through his entire body like lava.
And the pain that used to flare up now and then because of the spreading cancer cells had been melted away inside him by that lava.
Each time the potion circulated through his body, he felt a little lighter, and the burning in his throat eased a little more.
"So," Roby asked eagerly, "your cancer is cured?"
His heart disease was no minor issue either, but it was not as dangerous as Felix's condition. He was not desperate enough to drink some potion without hesitation.
"If Professor Fawley was right, then I have probably only gotten rid of the spreading cancer cells for the time being."
Long illness made for a good doctor. Felix carefully felt the state of his body and came to his own conclusion.
But even that was already enough to fill him with delight.
Before, because he was dying soon, he had not bothered turning his mind back to business. But now things were different. He could live at least another year, perhaps even many more, and that meant his thoughts naturally became active again.
A potion capable of precisely eliminating cancer cells, once sold outside, would absolutely increase his already vast fortune by twenty percent.
And if the effects of all the potions here were real, then his wealth would double.
"However, what concerns me more right now is whether Professor Fawley is willing to discuss a business deal with me."