The Alchemist's Guide to Flesh and Blood Ascension

"Ugh... why is the price list crooked again?" Yunefu swallowed a piece of whole wheat bread soaked in soup and straightened the price list again—although Iseria would always adjust it from time to time when tidying up the counter, she could never get it right in the middle.

I guess there's something wrong with the rope it's used to hang... Oh well, it's fine if it's crooked.

Iselia wiped her mouth, finished the last sip of mushroom soup, exhaled a satisfied breath, and looked at Yunevo, who was also eating to his heart's content... After thinking for a moment, she pulled him up to the third floor.

On the small wooden table in the two-person room, there was a book thicker than Iselia's head, with the title clearly visible on the cover: "The Complete Record of the Environment and Ecology of the Morse Desert".

"Hmm, I don't know why... I always have this feeling of wanting to go to the desert, like it's some kind of mission?" Iseria tapped her lower lip with her finger, looking thoughtful.

"It was probably not long after you left that I contacted the school library and asked them to send me any book about the desert," the girl said, sitting cross-legged at the wooden table, opening the book and removing the feather that served as a bookmark.

"I heard this book also contains excerpts from caravan journals, but I haven't seen them yet..."

Iseria pulled the parchment from under the book, picked up a quill pen, paused for a moment at her lips, then put it down and added new words to it.

She was very focused, her pen moving quickly, occasionally tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, though they would eventually slip down again...

Eunice didn't disturb her, but sat quietly opposite her, his gaze fixed on the girl's long eyelashes that shimmered golden in the sunlight.

mission……

When Iseria mentioned those three words, Yunevo frowned, and his heart pounded in his chest.

"Phew... I'm done!" Iseria let out a long breath, turned the parchment covered in neat handwriting around, pushed it toward Yunevo, and looked at him with expectant eyes.

The paper has three columns in total, which can be considered a kind of "travel tips".

The first section discusses environmental threats, noting that daytime surface temperatures can reach over 60 degrees Celsius, while nighttime temperatures plummet to freezing. Sandstorms are extremely frequent, and visibility can drop to as low as half a meter.

In the second section, under biological threats, a blurry humanoid creature was highlighted – officially named the Iron Sand Demon Armor.

Iseria pouted, underlined the name, and said in a soft voice, "The notes say that this is an undead creation that lingers on the unfinished Golden Sand Path."

The accompanying annotation reads: "Body made of yellow sand, blood made of steel, impervious to swords and magic."

The girl pointed the tip of her quill pen to the third column, "Required Supplies," and within a few hours she had listed the medicines, equipment, and other items the two needed, including specific names and estimated quantities.

Among the rows of text, the most eye-catching thing is the small shaved ice-shaped picture below – "Frozen Milk Pudding (I really want to take it with me on the road, but it seems I can't)".

Yonivore raised an eyebrow.

Iseria, head bowed, stroked the end of her quill pen, a suspicious blush creeping onto her ears, and asked in a low voice, "So, when are we leaving?"

"The sooner the better..." Yunevo pinched his cheek, took out a blank order form, and took the quill from Iseria to start writing and drawing.

……

For the next two days, the Heisenberg Pharmacy operated normally under Nehta's management, but every now and then a few wooden crates would be delivered to the door—the materials ordered by Junev had arrived.

The black-robed alchemist once again spent his time in the second-floor laboratory, attempting to perform preliminary grinding of the flame lizard's sweat glands and the bile of the Arctic clam.

He wanted to create an adaptive temperature regulation potion—just like the human body's temperature regulation, but with a much faster response time, far exceeding the limits of the physical body.

Therefore... this should be a "living potion," as these two ingredients with conflicting medicinal properties are simply not enough.

He needs a "thermoregulatory center," and the ganglia of the starfish in the deep sea... seem like a good choice.

Starfish do not have a centralized brain structure; their nerves are distributed as a network throughout their entire body.

In that case, we can use a decomposition array to separate it... and then use a synthesis array and runes to assist it.

feasible.

As for water storage, aren't there readily available storage bags? If that thing breaks... then the reputation of the "certified by the Dharma Masters Association" label will be utterly ruined.

There's also the Sandy Nightwalker Amulet... Simply wrap a sunstone with the silk of a nightwalker spider, then solidify it through alchemy.

Simple. Yunevo breathed a sigh of relief, then turned and walked out of the laboratory, lightly touching the neatly categorized equipment.

Sandstorm filtering masks, reflective cloaks... and a backup plan just in case.

All alive.

Just as he was about to go back to the third floor to rest, a noise came from the rat trail downstairs.

What is Nehta doing here at this time?

Yune went downstairs, but unexpectedly saw the figure of another rat-man.

The sixth brother has arrived.

Its tail was curled up with a neatly folded hand-drawn map, and it was also dragging large and small bags of dry food...

"I drew this over several nights in a row!" It spread the map out on the counter, pointing with its front paws at the crooked lines: "Brother Yunevo, look here, and here... these are the quicksand positions that Old Thornball clearly marked, and that golden trade route..."

It spoke in a hurry, as if it feared that Yonivo would set off under the cover of night.

After finally managing to explain most of the situation, Lao Liu then stuffed the dried rations into Yunefu's hands, only feeling relieved after seeing the latter stuff all the rations into his storage bag.

"Brother Yunevo..."

"Um."

"Come back alive."

Yune patted the short, fat, gray-white ratman on the head.

"nonsense."

……

Two days later, at dawn, the morning mist had not yet dissipated in front of the bronze gates of Starmoke.

The crystal tower still shone brightly, and before the early caravans had even lined up for inspection... Yunevo had already slung his backpack over his shoulder, his black alchemical robes fluttering in the wind.

Iseria obediently stood to the side, led by him, wearing the same style of black robe but a few sizes too small. The sleeves were shortened and the waist was narrowed, making her look much more neat.

The auditor was still the same dark blue-robed mage. He didn't say much, but simply spoke softly, "May you return."

Yunevo nodded, turned around and took out his modified magic shuttle—a new energy "car" powered by readily available magic energy.

He stepped into the shuttle, and Iseria sat behind him.

The protective shield slowly closed, a blue light shone in front of the magic shuttle, and its hovering height gradually increased. Then, with a "whoosh,"...

The brilliance of countless crystal towers is slowly converging into a single point, and the yellow sands of Morse are beginning to take shape.

"Did you bring the creamy milk jelly at the end, Iseria?"

"I brought three boxes, is that enough...?"

"Of course not, you fool."

A strong wind began to blow, causing the flags on the bronze city gate to flutter and nod slightly towards the departing figure.

The magic shuttle, trailing two slender tails of light, continued flying towards the earthen-yellow horizon...