My health recovery is incredibly fast.

The bookshelf is missing!

There were no bookshelves containing alchemical journals and classic texts.

A qualified alchemist will inevitably be accompanied by a large number of books. This is so that when their memory is fuzzy, they can easily find the corresponding information in the books, which can not only prevent mistakes in alchemy, but also immediately deepen their impression.

Therefore, an alchemist will definitely have a bookshelf filled with ancient books.

Where would the bookshelf be of this alchemist who is still stirring the cauldron?

Chapter 17 Bilingual Books

Inside the alchemy room, the thick liquid in the crucible bubbled and gurgled. The room was unusually quiet. There was still about half a slurry left in the crucible, so it seemed that the alchemy work would continue for a while.

Servant number 5 wandered around the room for a while.

Xia Zuo suddenly understood why there were no bookshelves here...

Because someone like Doom might come to visit the master of the alchemy room at any time.

If a bookshelf were placed here, the books on it would be seen by those with ulterior motives. Consequently, a desk would not be placed here either, otherwise the private alchemy diary on the desk would be secretly recorded by others.

Therefore, there might be a small secret room in this house used to store alchemical texts, or to write alchemical diaries in an undisturbed environment.

Xia Zuo narrowed his eyes, feeling that he had discovered the key point.

He instructed his servant number 5 to meticulously search every corner of the alchemy room, looking for a place to crawl into.

Upon entering, Xia Zuo noticed that the alchemy room was built on a platform among the tree canopies, making it unlikely to have a dark room like a basement.

In addition, from the outside, the alchemy room only appears to have one floor; there is no second floor.

The secret room must be behind the wall opposite the door.

Servant number 5 floated slowly close to the wall, trying to squeeze into any gaps it saw.

Oh, I found it.

Right behind the empty shelf, if the alchemist wants to come in, he can simply push the shelf aside and then push the wall back.

The Blood Element servant simply slipped through the crack in the door.

The secret room was very small, about five or six square meters.

The floors, walls, and ceilings were coated with an oil that repels moisture from the swamp, so there was no damp, rotten smell, and the air was very dry.

The lantern hanging on the wall emitted a yellowish-green light, and a small piece of monster grease was burning on the lamp base. It contained unique spices and emitted a faint fragrance.

At the top of the room was a soft couch made of animal hide, with a double mattress and a cotton quilt. It looked a little dirty, but it was definitely soft and comfortable.

There was a desk next to the bed, and the edge of the bed was used as a stool. A stack of books with covers made of some kind of animal hide was piled up at the corner of the desk.

There is an open book on the table.

Judging from the color and texture of the pages, its material is quite different from ordinary paper.

The white paper next to Xia Zuo looked very smooth, neatly cut, and even a little sharp, enough to cut through delicate skin.

The pages in front of Servant No. 5 had a thin layer of glue on the surface, with the glue being thicker at the edges, giving them a softer feel and making the paper appear more durable.

Xia Zuo scanned the text on the pages through the perspective of Servant Number 5…

"Hmm? Bilingual books?" Xia Zuo raised an eyebrow, wiggled his bottom a few times, sat up straight, picked up a pen, and began copying the contents of the book.

This book is available in two languages.

One is the Common Language, which is the primary language in both the Mage Temple Territory and Stillwater Town.

The other language was unfamiliar to me, and I had never seen Xia Zuo before.

Its writing style is similar to that of a common language, with characters written from left to right on the same line and from top to bottom on each line. However, the language type is not phonetic but pictographic.

There are many fishbone-like characters interspersed in the sentences. If you combine this with the translation of the common language, you can easily grasp the nouns and prepositions in this text.

After Xia Zuo finished copying the two pages, he understood the literal meaning in just a few seconds.

In short, this book records a form of alchemy that is different from the alchemy of the Wizard Temple.

Xia Zuo's alchemy of poisons, rare items, medicines, and oils is all based on the concept of "elements." To be precise, it involves processing the "elemental traces" contained in things to obtain the desired alchemical products.

This alchemy can be temporarily called elemental alchemy.

There are no untamed elements in the territory of Jing Shui Town, and therefore no traces of elements in nature.

The alchemy here specializes in the study of [monster materials]. It uses materials that do not contain any elemental traces—mainly monster organs, blood, fat, and shells—to perform alchemical processing and create the desired alchemical products.

Outside the secret chamber, the alchemist is using an alchemical technique called "Magic Essence Alchemy" to create the raw material needed for a certain alchemical armor—monster essence.

The pages of the book laid out on the table only provide this much information; turning the pages rashly might attract the alchemist's attention.

Xia Zuo can only see this much knowledge for now.

He turned his servant number 5 around to look at the books on the corner of the table, the titles of which were written in two languages ​​on the spines.

"Magic Alchemy: A Guide to Preparing Monster Essence"

Magical Alchemy: Compatibility of Monster Essences

The Alchemy of Bone Sacs: The Making and Storage of Bone Sacs

The Alchemy of Flesh and Blood: A General Introduction to Limb Dismemberment Armament

Alchemy Journal (Numbers 1 to 33)

..

Magical Essence Alchemy, Bone Sac Alchemy, and Flesh and Blood Alchemy are temporarily collectively referred to as Monster Alchemy.

It is easy to tell from the names of the three alchemical disciplines that they are intrinsically connected.

The Magic Alchemy department is responsible for refining monster essences from monster materials.

Bone sac alchemy uses the essence of monsters to create bone marrow and bone sacs, and bone grafting to implant these products.

Flesh and Blood Alchemy is responsible for creating limb-splitting weapons that match specific bone sacs.

Nukalofa calls himself the butler of essence and flesh, which may refer to his control over magic essence alchemy and flesh alchemy—this is just Xia Zuo's guess and cannot be completely confirmed.

Just as Xia Zuo was copying down the titles of several classic books, a commotion came from outside the secret room.

"Hiss..." A low, deflated sound.

Xia Zuo could tell that it was the bellows of a blower blowing air, indicating that the alchemy work in the alchemy room was nearing completion.

Servant number 5 slipped through the crack in the door and returned to the alchemy room.

The alchemist, who had just extinguished the fire in his furnace while boiling the liquid, wiped the ladle clean with a linen cloth, placed it on a nearby shelf, and turned around to reveal a bearded face. "Doom, something happened to Carpenter, didn't it?"

“Yes… Master.” Doom bowed his head and said humbly:

"I found a charred corpse and these fragments of armor near the reservoir's perimeter wall..."

Doom took a paper package out of his pocket and respectfully handed it over with both hands.

The bearded alchemist took it, dipped some of the fragments in his finger, put them in his mouth, tasted them briefly, and then spat them into the trash can at his feet with a "pfft".

"The essence's activity is completely lost... Carpenter is dead." The bearded alchemist asked in a deep voice, "Wasn't a bone sac found at the scene?"

“No, Master.” Doom lowered his head to his chest. “It must have been those two detectives who killed Carpenter and took the bone sac.”

"Damn the Alien Group! I'll tear them apart one day!" The bearded alchemist's eyes blazed with fury as he slammed his fist on the desk beside him.

Doom held his breath, waiting for the other party's rage to descend upon him.

The bearded alchemist took a few deep breaths, his two large, knuckled hands clenching together, making a creaking sound.

"We must retrieve that bone sac. We must retrieve it!" The bearded alchemist walked towards the shelf by the wall, each step heavy with effort.

He retrieved five or six glass bottles from the shelf, returned to the alchemy table, and used a mortar and pestle to crush the bones, scales, dried snake skin, and other materials inside. Then he added a spoonful of the crimson liquid from the crucible and stirred it well.

"Drink it and get out of here! I must see the high-level bone sac by tomorrow evening! Otherwise, I'll send you to the dungeon!" The bearded alchemist placed a stone mortar filled with liquid in front of Doom.

“Yes… Master…” Doom swallowed hard, picked up the mortar and pestle, smelled it, and then… “Ugh…”

Under the other person's fierce gaze, he struggled to suppress the urge to vomit, pinched his nose, and forced the liquid into his mouth.

"Gurgle..."

Something strange happened.

When Doom took his first sip, his expression suddenly changed from disgust to surprise, greed, and longing... as if he were drinking not foul-smelling liquid, but sweet, top-quality fruit wine.

Xia Zuo raised an eyebrow and cast a detection spell on Dum, who was gulping down slurry.

..

[Perception] 5-5→0

[Spirit] 2-2→0

(Due to the influence of unknown factors, some attributes have been reduced to zero.)

..

Good grief, Doom has been mentally challenged again... this time it's because of something he drank.

Doom drank the entire mortar full of liquid with gusto.

He placed the stone mortar back on the table, his eyes reddening, and gazed around with a dazed look. Then he turned his head to look due north, his face beaming with a rapturous expression. "I see it... hahaha... I see it..."

"Go there as soon as you see it!" The bearded alchemist pointed towards the door and instructed, "Take plenty of men with you, and be sure to bring the drum bag back!"

"Yes! Yes! Master! I'll go right away!" Doom shouted excitedly, completely unlike his previous cautious demeanor.

He strode forward with large strides, making a thumping sound as he walked towards the door, then jogged to the motorcycle.

Shazo immediately sent his servant number 5 to follow and attach himself to Doom's lapel.

This trip into the Catfish Forest with Doom was very rewarding.

They discovered the Mishima Group's secret base on the outskirts of Jing Shui Town, and also found an alchemy room with a rich collection of books.

Most importantly, as the most heavily guarded secret base within the territory of Jing Shui Town, it also contains absolutely no tools that can detect the spiritual ocean.

Since there are no untamed elements in this entire region, there is no need to practice meditation, and therefore no need to explore the spiritual ocean.