My health recovery is incredibly fast.

Dim paused, stroked his beard, and added:

"The method for caring for the hairband and rattan hat is related to the meditation method of the Herbal Alchemist's Guild. I don't know exactly what it is. The headmaster and I said this...'Every morning and before going to bed at night, soothe it with a peaceful mind, otherwise it will wither quickly.'"

“Oh~” Xia Zuo sighed, “So the moment you saw Julia, you knew she was alright, right? People who have done something wrong won’t have a peaceful mind.”

“Yes.” Dim shrugged. “But with you here, it would be better to check it again.”

Chapter 32 Ring-breathing Insects and Helmeted Slugs

Xia Zuo pondered for a moment and then asked, "Then who should we go see tomorrow?"

“Baraz Flamehammer, a researcher at the Ore Alchemists' Guild,” Dim said.

Xia Zuo had a sudden thought and asked, "Does Balaz Flame Hammer have anything similar to a rattan hat?"

Dim nodded, placing the tip of his index finger on the center of his forehead.

"To prove his innocence, Balazs will wear a piece of jewelry here, set with a fiery red gem. If the gem is pristine and without cracks, then there's no problem. This is related to the meditation method of the Mineral Alchemists' Guild, but I don't know the specifics either."

"Does the Bio-Alchemist Association have something similar?" Xia Zuo asked again.

Dim shook his head, his beard rubbing against his chest. "The Bio-Alchemist Association doesn't even have meditation techniques. All their members come from other associations or academies."

“In that case, the Bio-Alchemist Association is the most suspicious.” Xia Zuo rummaged in his pocket and found a blank notebook, intending to use it to record matters concerning the Bio-Alchemist Association.

“Dim…” Shazo hesitated for a few seconds, “Do you already have a clear lead? I mean… you actually knew all along that there was something wrong with the researchers in bio-alchemy, didn’t you?”

He just recalled how, a few days ago, when he first met Dim, the other man steered the conversation towards the investigation... It seemed that Dim only inquired about the investigation's approach when they were discussing breathing techniques.

The main force behind the research and iteration of breathing techniques is bioalchemy.

Dim stroked his beard, crossed his arms, and shrugged his broad shoulders. "Hmm, yes. But I can't tell you. The headmaster instructed me to guide you more. I think you did very well today. Keep it up, and you'll soon notice the anomaly."

The following morning, Shazo and Dim visited Balaz Flamehammer, who expressed his enthusiasm for the visitors with a loud voice and spittle flying everywhere.

As usual, Shazo put on gloves, a hood, and shoe covers and inspected Balaz's alchemy room, alchemy journal, and inventory.

Mineral alchemy has little overlap with the other two branches of alchemy, but it has a deep connection with ordinary people.

Xia Zuo then focused on inspecting the stockpiles of rare minerals and controlled metals, and also visited the magic mine that emitted a hazy glow.

Later that day, Shazo and Dim returned to the hotel and arranged to go to the third researcher's base early the next morning.

The researcher assigned to Starlight City by the Bio-Alchemists' Guild was a woman named Emily Cardan.

Xia Zuo was extremely surprised when he first met her.

Emily's alchemical robe had many bulging little pockets.

Bioalchemists need to deal with different animals.

There are many ways to give commands to animals, but only a few animals can understand their owner's spoken language, gestures, or body language.

The simplest and most universal way to control animals is to use color cards to convey commands.

Because animals perceive colors differently through their visual organs, a color chart must be created for each animal.

The robes of bio-alchemists have many pockets for holding color cards, which is a clear difference from alchemists in other disciplines.

Emily's base is also larger than the previous two researchers'.

Two glass enclosures are located on either side of the back corridor of the shop. The left enclosure is used for cultivating plants, while the right enclosure is used for keeping animals.

After the three exchanged greetings, Xia Zuo suggested checking the alchemy room and the alchemy journal.

Emily twirled strands of her hair with her fingers, the ends spinning around her fingertips.

After thinking for a few seconds, she said sincerely:

“Xia Zuo, as you know, Starry Night Academy doesn’t teach bio-alchemy. I’d like to introduce you to this field of alchemy first, to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings.”

“Okay, thank you, Emily.” Xia Zuo took out the three-piece inspection kit and put it on.

“Come with me,” Emily said, beckoning Xia Zuo and the other girl to follow her.

She led the visitor directly to the warehouse.

There are more culture tanks here, divided into four areas starting from the left side of the entrance, with different colored floorboards separating the areas.

Emily pointed to the four areas in turn and said, “The raw materials of bio-alchemy are divided into four types according to their survival methods—symbiotic, symbiotic, parasitic, and independent survival.”

She looked at Xia Zuo beside her and gently instructed him:

"When you are calculating the quantity of raw materials, you need to pay attention to the following: the main body and the associated organism of the associated raw materials are calculated separately. Symbiotic raw materials are counted as one item. Parasitic raw materials need to be classified and counted. Some parasites can only parasitize one organism at a time, while others can parasitize multiple organisms at the same time. As for raw materials that can survive independently, I don't need to say more; you can calculate them normally."

Xia Zuo nodded, his eyes sweeping over the more than forty culture tanks, which contained a wide variety of things.

There are frogs with potted plants like garlic, orchids, and chrysanthemums growing on them, snakes strung together with vines, and lizards with glowing lantern flowers growing on their heads.

Plants and animals coexist harmoniously, but upon closer inspection, there's always an inexplicable sense of strangeness.

The only thing that looks relatively natural is raw material for independent survival.

Like an air jellyfish that can slowly swim even though the cabinet is filled with air. A sand-walking lizard that leaves watermarks as it moves across dry sand. A strange, grassy creature that turns into a withered flower branch upon seeing people…

Xia Zuo had a great time today, seeing many monsters that had only appeared in ancient books. Not all monsters were ferocious; the monsters transported to the Western Continent were relatively docile and easy to control.

Emily showed all the display cases to everyone and then led Xia Zuo and the other person back to her alchemy room.

The bio-alchemy lab has three more instruments than a conventional alchemy lab: a dissection table, a drying chamber, and a closed clean workbench.

The daily alchemy work has become more complicated, and there are as many as 20 alchemy diaries from the past 14 years.

Just as Xia Zuo was about to watch until dark, Emily took a manual out of her pocket.

"This is my own summary... well... how should I put it... it's recorded in this manual, and I feel something's not right, but it's not exactly a violation of the rules."

Xia Zuo and Dim exchanged a glance. He took Emily's handbook and quickly flipped through it.

Emily twirled a strand of hair between her fingers, tilted her head slightly, looked at the ceiling, and frowned in thought as she said:

"I've known the other four bio-alchemists for a long time. We were all students at Boying Academy, from our first year there until now, it's been at least 20 years..."

Xia Zuo rubbed his chin and nodded slightly, memorizing the name Boying Academy.

The Starry Night Academy has a limited number of books about the Eastern Continent. Due to the vast differences between the two regions, Beatrice intentionally restricts information about the Eastern Continent. For example, mage academies from the Eastern Continent, such as Boying Academy, have never appeared in the Starry Night Academy's library.

"I had the best grades and was the first among my classmates to become an expert-level bio-alchemist. So my mentor assigned me to be stationed in Starlight City, responsible for coordinating exotic materials."

Emily stretched out her right hand and counted on her fingers, saying:

"The performance of Hickar, Mead, and Bailey is the same as when they were studying at the academy. The demand for alchemical raw materials, the amount of waste, the quantity of products, and the success rate and yield of alchemy are consistent with their previous performance."

Emily raised her index finger and emphasized, "Only Helmsster's alchemy skills are a bit unstable, and the success rate has dropped slightly."

She frowned and pinched her chin. "But it hasn't exceeded the threshold; it's still within a controllable range. Before you arrived, I took advantage of the opportunity to transport raw materials to check Helms's alchemy lab and warehouse many times, and there was nothing unusual."

Emily shook her head, looking somewhat helpless. "Sigh, I don't know what to do either. After reporting to my mentor, I just left it aside. I'm not really suited to question him closely. Every alchemist has their own products under development, and if he thinks I'm trying to pry into his ideas or steal his alchemical concepts, I'll have to explain to my mentor..."

Xia Zuo listened while reading the contents of the manual.

He rubbed his temples, sensing that things were getting a bit tricky. This manual was of great significance, revealing some of the secrets of the breathing technique elixir.

The secret medicine of the breathing technique is essentially to implant a symbiotic organism called the Ring-Breath Worm into the cultivator's body.

Cyclops is a product of bioalchemy; it exists as a fungus outside the human body and as an worm inside the human body.

There are many types of it. The one approved for use in the Eastern Continent by the Mage Temple has the fewest side effects. Its internal code name is Level 1 Painless Ring Worm.

The process by which the circulatory worm enters a cultivator's body is called implantation.

If implantation is successful, the Cyclops will modify the cultivator's body, improve physical attributes, and foster special abilities. In the days that follow, it will live and grow alongside the cultivator.

If implantation fails, the Cyclops will also improve the cultivator's physical attributes to a certain extent before being expelled from the cultivator's body.

The lifespan of Cyclophora can be 50 years.

For the first 20 years, it absorbs the cultivator's life force. But in the next 30 years, it releases its own life force to replenish the cultivator.

说得数据化一点。前20年，环息虫使活力属性下降1至3点。后30年，活力属性提升1至3点。

When Xia Zuo read this, he looked through the templates of breathing technique practitioners he had encountered in the past, and they did match up.

Helms, whom Emily mentioned, was mainly responsible for the recycling and reuse of Cyclops.

When a cultivator dies, implantation fails, or the cultivator voluntarily takes a medicine to remove the Cyclops, the Cyclops will transform from an insect into a fungus and remain in the cultivator's intestines.

At this point, the annular worm has lost its activity. Feeding it to helmeted slugs can transform these slugs into the main raw material for producing annular worms.

Hermster's daily work consisted of collecting the corpses of practitioners of breathing techniques, dissecting them to obtain withered ring-breath worms, and using helmeted slugs to refine the main material for ring-breath worms.

With a 100% success rate, one helmeted slug corresponds to one part of the main material of *Cyclophorus spp.*

When Hemsworth was at Boyle School of Business, his average success rate was 98%. Starting a few years ago, the success rate dropped to 96%, only 1% above the warning line of 95%.

After reading the contents of the manual, Xia Zuo handed it to Dim beside him, pondered for a moment, and then looked at Emily and asked:

“Emily, if I understand correctly, you suspect that Hemsster intentionally lowered the success rate to obtain more Armored Slugs, and then used the extra slugs for some side jobs, is that right?”

Emily nodded. "But I only have suspicions; I can't do anything more."

Xia Zuo glanced at the wall clock. "If you don't mind, I'd like to read your alchemy journal carefully. It might not be finished until after 10 p.m.."

“Go ahead, Xia Zuo.” Amy stretched out her arm toward the desk.

She and Dim walked toward the door of the alchemy room, leaving the space to Shazo.

...

11 pm.

Moonlight shone outside the alchemy room.

Xia Zuo, looking exhausted, put down his pen, closed his eyes and meditated for two minutes, then tidied up his desk and got up to find Dim, who had been waiting for a long time next door.

The two said goodbye to Emily and returned to the hotel without saying a word.

After checking on the radishes in the backyard as usual, Xia Zuo went into Dim's storage room.

“I know why you’re not in a hurry, Tim.”

Xia Zuo rubbed his chin and paced back and forth by the table. "Actually, you had already identified Helmst a long time ago, and you already had evidence."

Tim sat down, took out a carrot, took a bite, and said: