The Ancestral Legacy Begins in the Wild West

Chapter 160 Quick Mastery of Alchemy

That night, Zhang Chang'an neither chatted with his fellow inmates nor slept. He leaned against the wall, using the moonlight filtering through the iron bars above his head, and continued to flip through an alchemy book he had borrowed from the library.

The book's pages were yellowed, the corners were curled, and the gold lettering on the cover was worn away and barely legible. The moonlight wasn't bright enough; thankfully, he had four-color vision to see it clearly.

The frustrating thing is that this book still doesn't contain any real alchemy techniques. After all, it's a book you can find in a library.

After flipping through most of the book, I found only explanations of basic terms or some side information, such as what distillation is, how phlogiston was discovered, and what applications gold products have in daily life.

There are even a large number of introductions to the alchemy industry and its products aimed at the general public. To put it bluntly, they are introductory books with some professional terminology, or even product brochures.

To produce something like this before the Industrial Revolution even began was indeed a bit ahead of its time. Zhang Chang'an sighed helplessly, "No wonder it's an old bourgeois region."

Of course, if you flip through a few more pages, you might occasionally find something useful: "The Three Basic Components of Alchemy —"

Alchemists use three substances to symbolize different aspects of existence.

Sulfur represents the soul and passion; it is active, masculine energy. Mercury represents the spirit and intuition; it is passive, feminine energy. Salt represents the body, the material carrier, and stability; it is a harmonizing agent and the foundation of the soul and spirit.

The vast majority of alchemy is related to these three substances, or even involves controlling them.

However, most of the time, these three substances are neither pure nor separate. Instead, they combine to form various things in the world, and then are manipulated.

This kind of knowledge is sometimes buried in those superficial introductory texts, and it's easy to miss it if you don't read carefully.

Furthermore, it is still not substantial knowledge in itself, but that does not mean it is useless.

This kind of knowledge is the main reason why Zhang Chang'an is still flipping through these books.

He still remembered what the warden had said: four days to learn the basics and help him produce results.

For someone with some prior knowledge and the support of his family genealogy, this is unlikely to be impossible. However, until he actually comes into contact with alchemy, anything is possible.

So, before he could seriously start studying, he could only try to make as much money as possible.

Of course, he also knew that a man like the warden wouldn't keep him waiting for too long.

Before long, the echoing sounds in the cell, besides the rustling of pages turning, suddenly included footsteps coming from the corridor.

It was very light and very stable. Upon hearing this, Zhang Chang'an immediately looked up and closed the book.

Antoine appeared outside the iron fence as expected. He didn't speak, but simply stood there, looking at Zhang Chang'an, and tilted his head slightly.

Zhang Chang'an stood up, stuffed the book under the blanket, and walked to the door.

After Antoine opened the door for him again, he decisively turned around and walked forward at a moderate pace, without any intention of turning back to check if he was following.

The two of them walked one after the other down the corridor and down the stairs, passing the iron gate that had led to the depths of the prison during the day.

Presumably because they were passing through, the iron gate was open, and there were no guards at the entrance. Antoine walked straight in, with Zhang Chang'an following behind.

This section of the corridor is quite different from the part in front of the Bastille. The walls are thicker, the bricks are laid more regularly, and there is very little moss in the gaps.

The overhead fluorescent lamps were spaced far apart, casting a dim, yellowish light that made the walls on either side appear to press inwards.

Every few steps, you could see a heavy iron door, the lock on which was much larger than the one on the other side of the prison cell.

Zhang Chang'an silently observed all this, and roughly understood: "The security level here is much higher than the area where prisoners are held earlier. So this is the core of the prison?"

What exactly is that De Lamothe researching here?

Antoine led him and soon stopped in front of a door, stepping aside and gesturing with his chin towards the doorway.

Zhang Chang'an immediately went inside.

This is a laboratory. It's huge, bigger than any of the cells below.

A long, rectangular stone table occupied most of the central space of the room, and it was covered with various glasswares.

There were flasks, condensers, distillers, and several other things he couldn't name, connected together by copper tubes or other flexible tubing.

The phlogiston lamp on the shelf was still lit, its slightly yellowish flame burning quietly under the glass.

On the shelf against the wall, there were rows of jars containing powders and liquids of various colors. The jars had labels on them, but the writing was too small to read.

Deeper inside, there was another door, thicker and heavier than the one outside, made of iron, and tightly shut.

Just as Zhang Chang'an walked in, the door was pushed open from the inside.

Marquis de La Motte came out and closed the door behind him. The iron door slammed shut behind him with a dull thud.

He wore a heavy black glove that covered his fingers and wrists, covered in a viscous, dark red liquid that gleamed ominously under the light.

Combined with his cold face and expressionless eyes, the scene looked particularly eerie.

Zhang Chang'an didn't move, and neither did Antoine outside the door. Only the warden walked to the basin of water in the corner, took off his gloves, revealing pale fingers underneath, and quickly cleaned his hands and gloves.

Then, while drying his hands, he turned around and walked to the lab bench, rearranged the positions of several flasks on the shelf, and took out a new set of glassware from the drawer and placed it on the bench.

"As an assistant who needs to participate in the experiments," he finally spoke, still fiddling with the vessels in his hands, "you should systematically learn alchemy and master almost all the basics related to it."

It's not just you; any member of the Alchemy Society or researcher in this country who wants to participate in my experiments has to do this.

"But you don't have enough time, you don't have the ability, and I don't have the patience." As he spoke, he placed a thick book, as thick as a brick, in front of Zhang Chang'an.

The book cover is a dark brown hard leather with copper trim at the corners, and the cover is stamped with the words "The Original Refined Text".

Zhang Chang'an reached out and pressed his hand on the spine of the book; its thickness alone made his fingers feel heavy.

The warden had already turned back to the lab bench and started pouring things into the flasks. He moved quickly, one after another, the bottles and jars turning in his hands, clearly preoccupied with some kind of alchemical process.

"Next, I will use my experience to help you understand the knowledge required to participate in the experiment."

He said, his eyes fixed on the flask in his hand: "The book in your hand contains the complete theory, but you don't have time to read it all."

What you need to do is read the book while I explain. Grasp the basics that will enable you to participate in experiments as quickly as possible.

77