Chapter 67 Soul
7 a.m. the next morning.
Xia Zuo stood under the light pillar in the hall, looking up at the huge light group suspended in the sky.
After reaching 15 points in mental attributes, he can vaguely see things in the huge light group.
It is an octahedron-shaped alchemical product that spins slowly along its vertical axis while floating.
The exterior looks smooth.
As for the color, I don’t know if it’s due to the stained glass on the ceiling. The colors of the octahedrons in different light beams are different.
"Xia Zuo."
Kulov appeared quietly behind the student, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Follow me."
"Yes, Professor."
The two stepped into the spiral staircase, headed to the tower of the castle, and once again came to the large alchemy room where the inspection team tested Xia Zuo.
The place has been decorated, the sofa seats have been removed, and there are toxin cabinets placed close to the wall, as well as temporarily empty storage shelves.
"From now on, you can come in through the door behind us. The first step is to put on the poison-making leather robe beside the door."
Kulov pointed to the heavy front door of the large alchemy room and the wardrobe next to it, and then pointed to the small door on the left:
"When you go out, go from here. You also need to shower. Put the toxin-stained poison-making robes in the iron closet, and then leave from here through the door at the other end of the shower room."
Xia Zuo nodded. He had followed this route once before when the inspection team's test was over.
The shower room layout of this large alchemy room is small and designed for a single user. There is only an iron wardrobe and a shower room.
"Okay, first put on the poison-making leather robe and get familiar with this large alchemy room. There are teaching materials for the proficiency level on the alchemy table. The head of the school will give general classes to the freshmen in the morning, and in the afternoon and evening will guide you.”
Xia Zuo watched his first mentor leave, walked to the closet and put on his poison-making leather robe.
He walked slowly past the toxin cabinet, checking the toxin bottles one by one. In addition to the 60 basic toxins, there are also many unseen compound toxins.
Xia Zuo was not stingy with his detection skills and collected all the information about these complex toxins into the [Knowledge Reserve].
The poisonous effects of scrying feedback are really varied...
What makes the toes swell, make the arms as soft as jellybeans, grow sharp thorns in the armpits, and grow sharp horns on the top of the head... I saw nearly a hundred compound toxins along the way, and none of them had any poisonous effect. is repeated.
The most frightening thing is that there is a compound toxin that is only effective for men and will cause those who take it to experience the severe pain of women during childbirth.
Simply outrageous.
Xia Zuo twitched the corner of his mouth and passed by the glass bottle with the [Strong Person Identifies Poison] sticker on it.
The head of the school should not let his students use this bottle of poison to test poison...
Probably not...
Xia Zuo rubbed his throbbing brow, dragged a chair to the storage table of the alchemy platform and sat down.
I have seen a textbook on the desktop called "The Stripping of Poisonous Effects".
The above uses black-eye poison as an example to introduce in detail its effects and the new poisonous effects it will produce after several times of refining.
Entire books are devoted to stripping away the extra poison effects and leaving only the vision effects. It is not difficult to speculate that the current version of the textbook should have been developed after the refined formula of the black eye poison was developed.
Xia Zuo had previously made a conjecture: the hallucination picture seen after drinking the black-eye poison was two pictures overlapping each other.
This conjecture was confirmed.
In the introductory part of this book, there is a historical story about the black eye poison.
About 700 years ago, the poison alchemy master of the Mage Temple successfully stripped away the distorted images in the hallucination effect, leaving only the image of seeing small light spots.
The masters of potion alchemy and poison alchemy worked together and spent decades developing a new functional potion:
Potion of True Sight.
The full version of the potion of true seeing is a master-level alchemy product that allows people to clearly distinguish all things related to elements within the field of vision.
You can distinguish things as far away as you can see.
Standing on the top of a mountain, overlooking the vast sea of forests at your feet, you can also clearly distinguish whether each tree is related to an element. Things that are invisible or similar will also be visible.
Simplifying from the full version to the simplified version means that the level is reduced from master level to entry level or even apprentice level.
The process of simplification is as complicated as developing the full version. New poisonous effects will continue to emerge and have to be stripped repeatedly.
Many times, the alchemical operation itself that strips away poisonous effects will lead to the emergence of new poisonous effects.
Maybe I wanted to strip off one poisonous effect, but after the operation, there were two more poisonous effects.
At this time, should we continue to peel off the two new poisonous effects, or should we roll back to the previous stage and try other alchemical operations?
At the end of the introduction, I end with this confusing question.
Xia Zuo turned back the book and found the second refining formula of the black eye poison.
First, it took half an hour to memorize the formula, then twenty minutes to simulate the refining process, and finally two hours to produce a bottle of twice-refined powder.
10:40 am.
Xia Zuo found a bottle of perfect quality black eye poison from the shelf and mixed it with the secondary refining powder.
He used scrying on the vial of poison.
…
[Item name] Black-eyed poison·2 times refining
[Prop type] Poison
[Item Level] Apprentice Level→Proficient Level
[Props Quality] Completeness 100%, perfect
[Related resistance] Four lines of resistance
It is expected that after the resistance of all four series reaches 6%, the impact of this prop on the host will be significantly reduced.
[Item Description] The poison maker is unknown. The producer of the secondary refining powder is Xia Zuo.
[Props Effect]
After drinking this poison, you will get 3 layers of vision, 3 layers of deafness and 1 layer of hallucination effects, which last for 0.33 (0.32) minutes.
…
The book says that the twice-refined black-eye poison has a somewhat nauseating effect...
In addition to the illusion effect of distorted object shapes.
It can also produce the hallucinatory effect of granulation sprouting from the body.
Xia Zuo sat on the chair, raised his head and drank the poison.
A familiar distortion effect appears.
In his eyes, his two arms were like strips of cloth blown by the strong wind, dancing wildly along the same twisted ground lines.
Tiny little bumps appeared on the arms, undulating like waves.
This feeling is very strange,
Xia Zuo touched his forearm.
The touch told him that the arms were smooth and there were no bumps. But the hallucinations in his field of vision told him that there was a patch of fleshy buds that was constantly expanding and contracting.
It's really disgusting.
He let go of his forearms and stared intently at the small dots of light floating out of his body.
After the will attribute reaches 8 points, the poisonous effect of the poison is completely tolerable, and there is no need to lie on the table and close your eyes to push through.
Small light spots circled and danced regularly in the air, and twisted things became its background.
Xia Zuo's eyes followed the movement of the small light spots and gradually entered a strange state of calm.
The distorted lines in visions and the granulations in hallucinations are distressing.
He knew this and felt it.
But he was calm.
It was as if at this moment, his consciousness was split in two.
Half is experiencing the poisonous effects, and the other half is paying attention to the little dots of light. The two have nothing to do with each other.
As long as he focuses his attention on the half of his consciousness that focuses on the small light spot, he will be completely immune to the negative effects of the poison, and his attention will become more focused.
The poison effect lasts for more than 20 seconds.
The message from Goldfinger came to my mind:
"Successfully consuming a bottle of black-eyed poison (semi-self-made, 2 times refined) will reward you with an additional 20% experience bonus, gain 4.2 experience points, increase your will attribute by 0.042 points, and increase all four resistances by 0.042%."
Xia Zuo looked at the clock on the wall. There was not enough time left to refine the refined powder.
He took the raw materials of the black eye poison from the toxin cabinet and planned to make a batch of homemade poison and get the full extra experience reward.
A busy meal until lunch time.
Xia Zuo packed up the big alchemy room, showered and walked to the castle hall.
On the road, I happened to meet Beatrice walking towards me.
She walked up and down the corridor in front of the art like a graceful lady obsessed with ancient objects.
The dates stated on the artwork's nameplates range from two hundred years ago to ten years ago. Could these artworks represent a memory of Beatrice's?
Xia Zuo was thinking in his mind and walked up to Beatrice, looked at her long light orange hair for a moment, and then bowed down and saluted:
"Good afternoon, Your Excellency, President."
"Just call me tutor or professor."
Beatrice withdrew her right hand from a book sculpture, crossed her hands and hung them lightly in front of her:
"Are you used to that alchemy room? Is there anything that needs to be adjusted?"
Xia Zuo nodded and responded:
"Thank you for setting up the alchemy room for me. I tried to make the refined black eye poison twice. The alchemy room is very useful."
"That's good."
Beatrice smiled and said:
"The afternoon classes are held in my study. If you go straight along this corridor, you will see a sandalwood door. That is my study."
"Yes, Professor." Xia Zuo saluted again, "I'll take my leave now. I will arrive in your study on time before class in the afternoon."
He walked past the other person and entered the stairwell.
Talking to Beatrice, whose charm attribute is as high as 15 points, is definitely not an easy task.
Xia Zuo reminded himself repeatedly in his mind that the head of the hospital was a woman over 200 years old. Maybe the beauty in front of her was just caused by a magic spell, and then she controlled the urge to stare at the lines of the other person's face.
…
1 pm.
Xia Zuo walked into his tutor's study 10 minutes before class.
Beatrice stood up from the desk chair and led the students into the wooden door deep in the study room.
There is a relatively secret corridor here. In the fully enclosed corridor, there is no sky or windows, and it is illuminated by alchemical lamps.
Beatrice waved her hands lightly and opened the door at the end of the corridor.
A brightly lit room appeared in front of me.
The ten-meter-high ceiling is similar to the roof of the castle hall and is paved with patterned stained glass.
Tall round stone pillars stand on both sides of the room, integrating with the walls made of large stone bricks.
In the center of the spacious room is a rectangular open space. The wooden boards on the ground fit tightly together and were somewhat soft and elastic, giving you a light and airy feeling when walking on them.
"Kulof promises you that after you conceive the elemental characteristics on your own, he will give you the entry-level meditation method."
Beatrice led the students to stand in the middle of the open space, turned around and faced each other face to face and said:
"Then, let me first introduce you to what the spiritual ocean is."
Beatrice clicked her fingers.
Silver sand appeared around her, flew upward into the air, and then turned into a spherical dome to cover the two of them like scattered flowers from a fountain.
The sun's rays were blocked by the silver sand, and the spherical dome was temporarily plunged into darkness.
Hazy light emanates from the silver sand.
Xia Zuo looked around in disbelief. He was already in a sea of colorful clouds with flowing light, and colorful air masses were slowly floating around him.
He looked down at the ground.
The original soft and elastic wooden floor was gone, and now it was gray stone.
He raised his head again and looked up.
Many strips of gas clouds are connected end to end and slowly hovering in the sky. Higher up, gray stone forms the ceiling.
Looking as far as the eye can see at the end of the sea of clouds, a gray wall can be faintly seen.
Beatrice looked at the surprised look on the students' faces and chuckled:
"The spiritual ocean is the most private part of everyone. No one can see what other people's spiritual ocean looks like. What you see now is a rough scene that I simulated using magic based on my own spiritual ocean."
She raised her hand and pointed at the air mass and the strip-shaped gas clouds floating above:
"I will introduce these cloud-like things to you slowly in the future. Let's talk about some basic content today."
Beatrice moved her steps lightly, walked gracefully towards the students, and said at the same time:
“When teaching meditation, there is a metaphor that is common to all schools of thought.
"The spiritual ocean is like an abandoned garden. Reading books is equivalent to transporting fertilizers and tools to the garden. And the gardener of this garden is the soul of each of us."
"Soul..." Xia Zuo chewed on these two words and fell into deep thinking.
One more chapter at 6:04