In a small wooden house hidden deep in darkness and filth, a somewhat bizarre and strange... "experiment" is taking place.
In the room with locked doors and windows and closed curtains, a "big pot" placed in the center has become the only light here.
The "pot" was half a person's height, made entirely of a mysterious metal, and was shaped like a water tank. It was filled with half a liquid. It was a viscous, transparent liquid that emitted red, gold, and green fluorescent lights that conflicted with each other.
It looks both incongruous and ominous. The water surface is as calm as an ancient well, but it always gives people a sense of restlessness, as if it is the entrance to a foreign magic world, and a monster will emerge from it in the next second.
Next to this metal "pot" sits a skinny and short figure.
He was an old man who looked to be over seventy years old, with white hair and beard. His deep sunken eye sockets did not show the dullness, harshness or gloominess that are common in people of this age. Instead, they revealed obvious enthusiasm and sincerity.
It seems that he is not a skinny old man in his twilight years, but a young scholar who is full of enthusiasm, passion and thirst for knowledge and the unknown, full of vigor and fearless of any challenges.
He sat on an old bamboo chair with a backrest, his knees resting on an old book with yellowed and curled edges, his back hunched low, his nose almost touching the paper that exuded the smell of rotten wood.
In the deep eye sockets, the bean-sized eyeballs rolled rapidly.
He maintained this posture for an unknown amount of time before he suddenly slapped the book with his palm, stood up as if realizing something, and walked to the metal pot, muttering to himself:
"My previous thought was correct... It's not enough to just add the spiritual tissue of the 'One-eyed Wolf Spider'. I have to add a little 'Giant Heart Dry Powder', otherwise the intensity of the substrate will not be enough to produce a reaction..."
As he spoke, he walked a few steps to the side, took down a glass conical bottle from the shelf nailed to the wall, and unscrewed the cork:
"I don't know how to control the dosage. Let's try a quarter ounce first. If it doesn't work, I'll adjust it..."
He used a silver spoon to scoop out a little reddish-brown powder from the conical flask and poured it all in with a click, just like adding sugar to coffee. If evaluated by the standards of chemical experiment operations... it was horrible.
"Crash, lala, lala -"
As the reddish-brown powder fell into the half-person-high cauldron, the originally calm translucent viscous liquid suddenly began to churn, bubbling like boiling water.
The strange and discordant light also became brighter, illuminating the old man's skinny face.
"Very good! The intensity is high enough. Now we just need to add the 'main ingredient'..."
His bloodshot eyes lit up with excitement. While the violent reaction in the cauldron had not yet subsided, the old man hurriedly took a small bottle from his belt, unscrewed the cork cap, and emptied it into the cauldron:
"Then we'll see the results!"
Pouring down from the bottle was a crystal clear liquid emitting a light golden glow, which seemed so pure compared to the chaotic liquid in the pot.
After a brief fall, the two merged together.
"Bang!!!"
At that moment, an extremely violent light burst out from the pot! Along with it burst an indescribably loud noise, deafening, piercing the clouds and cracking the rocks, and piercing the eardrum more than putting your ear against the barrel of a six-pound cannon.
The old man was immediately knocked off his feet by the loud noise that was like an explosion. He staggered and fell on a bamboo chair. For a moment, his eyes were filled with misty bright light, and his ears were filled with only the buzzing sound of bees. He was so frightened that he fell into a trance that was almost unconscious.
It took him a long time to recover from the sudden change. He stood up in a daze, took a few steps forward, bent down and looked at the liquid in the pot.
If the scene in the pot was like "boiling water" before, it was like hot oil being poured into cold water now! Bubbles were surging and bursting wildly on the foamy liquid surface, and the sticky and shiny liquid was splashing everywhere, almost flying out of the pot.
The liquid that originally emitted green, red, gold and other contradictory hues simultaneously, in this constant churning... seemed to have received some kind of "essence tempering", and the other colors weakened at an extremely slow rate.
Only the holy and dazzling gold color remains motionless.
It’s as if… in the reaction just now, all ingredients except the “gold” were being neutralized and expelled!
"……it is good!"
Seeing this scene, the old man's eyes suddenly lit up and his pale face was filled with excitement.
He pounded the edge of the cauldron excitedly:
"The correct 'recipe' has been found! All we need to do next is reduce the dosage, and we can try out the most suitable ratio and continuously 'quench' the product!"
As he spoke, the violent reaction in the pot gradually subsided, and soon returned to its original calm state. Compared to before, the "golden" color of the liquid in the pot was more prominent.
However, the magnitude of the change is extremely slight, and unless one has exceptional eyesight, it is difficult to detect the difference.
"But we have to use it sparingly... We don't have much of this batch of 'main materials' left, and we don't know when we'll have the next batch..."
Muttering, he turned around and took down another glass bottle from the wall shelf. It was still filled with light golden transparent liquid and hung it on the hook on the side of his belt:
"Just now it was a quarter ounce of 'Giant Heart Powder' and two 'One-eyed Wolf Spider' eyeballs. The intensity was too high, causing the reaction to be too fast. It could only last for a short time. This time, we will reduce the dosage slightly..."
"If you don't clean out the residue in the pot, this bottle will blow up the whole house."
A pleasant and light voice suddenly floated over from behind.
"what!"
The old man shuddered all over, his hairs all stood up in the middle of summer, and he stood there as if frozen, unable to move!
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It’s the end of the month, please use your soon-to-expire monthly passes to hit me to death!!!
Chapter 401 Experiment
The second chapter will be updated around 8 o'clock.
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who? !
Who is talking! ?
The old man suddenly felt a chill on his back, his withered eyes widened, he turned around staggeringly, and stared in the direction where the voice came from without daring to move.
The room is not big, about four meters square, and the corners and walls are cluttered with various shelves, sundries, tools, materials, bottles and jars, making the already tight space seem even more cramped.
But the only source of light here is the half-man-high metal pot in the center. The colorful light inside is not much brighter than the fireflies in the forest on a summer night.
Therefore, at the edges of the room, there is still a thick darkness that remains.
And at this moment, the place where the old man was staring at was exactly such a small blind spot where light could not reach.
His eyesight was completely unable to penetrate the near-pure darkness, so he couldn't see clearly what was there.
Why would anyone speak?
Isn't this supposed to be a "secret" place?
Besides... all the doors and windows are locked, and the rituals used to detect intruders and sneakers are functioning normally...
How did that guy get in? Why didn't he make any noise? Why didn't the early warning ritual sound a warning?
Thinking back to the voice from a few seconds ago, it seemed... a young woman?
what is the problem?
The old man was now in great confusion and fear. He was completely at a loss and could only stare at the corner like an idiot, not daring to make a sound.
It was as if there was some horrible monster lurking in that small darkness, waiting for an opportunity to strike, and if he relaxed even a little, he would be torn to pieces.
This blood-chilling stalemate lasted for an unknown amount of time, and just before his heartstrings were about to break...
"Tuk, Tuk, Tuk..."
Light and rhythmic knocking sounds came from that dark corner.
It's footsteps!
The owner of that voice just now... is about to show up!
After realizing this, the old man relaxed a little, and subconsciously let out a breath as if the last boot had finally landed:
"Excuse me, Your Excellency is...?"
As he greeted and gazed timidly, a petite figure wearing a long black cloak appeared in his sight.
Because the light was too dim, he couldn't see the other person's face clearly, but judging from her figure and the voice she had heard before, she was most likely a little girl under twenty years old.
Soft and long black hair hung down from her shoulders. It was extremely beautiful black hair.
She walked towards him leisurely, at a leisurely pace:
"Tucson?"
"Gulu..."
Facing the girl approaching step by step, the old man's Adam's apple moved up and down, and after hesitating for half a second, he trembled and answered:
"It is me, it is me..."
The girl didn't respond, but seemed to nod. She didn't care about the old man's gaze and walked straight to the big pot. She stretched out her hand and casually pulled the bamboo chair over, then sat down.
"sit."
How could Tucson dare to sit down! Besides, the only chair in the room was already occupied by her.
The slender black-haired girl seemed to realize that her previous politeness was a bit shameless. She was slightly stunned for a moment, and then casually pointed at the strange liquid in the pot:
"This isn't the first time you've done this, is it?"
Old man Tusen was slightly startled. He didn't quite understand the meaning of this question, but he didn't dare to ask.
"I mean, before this batch of 'materials' arrived, have you tried to achieve similar effects in other ways?"
The girl noticed his confusion and embarrassment and gestured to Tucson's side with her eyes.
A glass bottle containing the "main material" is hung in that position.
At the same time, Tucson keenly noticed...she used the word "you", which added a hint of vigilance and alertness to his eyes that were originally full of panic, but was quickly dispelled by deep helplessness.
"Forehead……"
This question probably touched on some sensitive information. Tucson seemed a little hesitant for a moment. He bit his dry and flaky lips, and after several seconds he stammered:
"That was... that was a long time ago. My teacher once did a similar experiment when he was young... He has passed away now."
This vague statement obviously couldn't fool the girl in front of him:
"How long ago was it? What kind of experiment was it?"
At this moment, Tucson finally faced the reality: it was useless to play word games in front of this mysterious girl!
So he took a deep breath and said:
"My teacher received the same 'task' as me about... sixty years ago. The specific content was... to purify the divinity in the 'materials' sent to him, refine it to a sufficient concentration and preserve it stably for a long time..."
This answer did not seem to surprise the girl. She nodded slightly and asked in a calm tone:
"Since you've already had this experience, why do you want to repeat it again? Can't you just use your teacher's method?"
Tucson seemed to have completely given up resistance, with a resigned expression:
"The 'materials' used in both experiments are different. Although the divinity that needs to be 'purified' is the same, the difference between the two means that we cannot use the same method... We can only explore other paths."
"Did 'they' tell you the purpose of doing this?"
"No, I don't know. I don't even know who 'they' are. It's just that occasionally a young man who calls himself 'Mr. Shattuck' contacts me and tells me his requirements, as well as provides materials and funds..."
Tusen's eyes trembled slightly, his head lowered a few degrees, and his answer was much lower in volume:
"Perhaps my teacher knows the truth of all this, but all the answers have been buried with him."
After saying this, the girl across from him did not say anything else. The narrow wooden house fell into a dead silence for a moment.
Tucson raised his eyes nervously, trying to see the other person's expression, but even with the illumination from the liquid in the cauldron, the girl's face was obscured by the hazy darkness and he could not see anything.
The strange silence lasted for more than ten seconds, and was finally broken by a young black-haired girl who was covered in a black cloak and whose origin and purpose were extremely mysterious.
She stretched out a hand and slightly hooked her index finger towards Tucson.
The next second, Tucson discovered...
The glass bottle on the hook at the waist...suddenly moved.
As if there was an invisible hand pulling it, or as if it had the ability to move on its own, the old man could feel the bottle tending to move forward.
"hiss!"
It is a very terrifying thing that something that is impossible to move suddenly moves on its own - especially when the thing happens to be in your hand.
The old man reflexively loosened his hand and did not resist the force, and the glass bottle containing light golden liquid flew out of his hand at the same time.
It drew a smooth, round arc and fell right into the girl's outstretched palm, being pinched by that delicate little hand.
"Your strategy is to use spiritual means to 'neutralize' other ingredients, thereby increasing the abundance of the target divinity in the material, but you can actually look at it from another angle:
"Let the divinity be passively 'transferred' and enriched. This can also achieve the effect of increasing the concentration of divinity."
Hearing that the other party was actually discussing academic issues, and academic issues related to his own topic, Tucson was surprised for a moment, and then instinctively asked back:
