Chapter 134: The Mad Alchemist

Mulan left the royal palace at a brisk pace and immediately boarded the carriage back to Black Castle.

Black Castle had settled into a proper routine, and nothing particularly noteworthy had happened during the past month. Mulan’s return caused little stir.

He first confirmed several things. Walton was not in Digo, and no one knew what he had gone off to do. Owen had also been sent away. Third, Mulan went to the former alchemist’s residence inside Black Castle.

Matt had already arrived in Digo and taken up residence in Black Castle, but he was still in the process of adjusting and had not yet begun teaching. Aside from the official welcome, the government of Dierga did not truly trust this alchemist yet.

Meanwhile, the research into the lycanthropic poison in Mulan’s blood was being carried out by Black Castle’s former alchemist.

The alchemist had two residences. One was fairly secret, known only to him and a handful of others, located in the wilderness outside Digo. The other was inside Black Castle. After the castle’s reforms, he spent more time in the city. Even when he occasionally had teaching duties, it was mainly because students made convenient assistants who were easy to order around.

At one corner of Black Castle stood a fortress-like building that did not appear particularly large, roughly comparable in size to Mulan’s residential house. His carriage stopped there. Looking up, Mulan saw that the building leaned slightly to one side. Strange objects, some resembling ornaments and others sculptures, were embedded along the edges of its doors and windows.

The fortress was liberally dotted with chimneys, while a huge, arched pane of glass covered part of its roof. In the lake before the building, the water constantly changed color. Sometimes it was red, sometimes green; sometimes it gleamed like metal, and at other times it turned every color imaginable. It looked even more poisonous than a lake polluted by toxic chemicals.

Mulan glanced around. Although the building itself did not look especially frightening, no grass grew within dozens of yards of the lake or the building’s perimeter, and every tree had withered.

“My lord, I’ll wait here for you.”

“No need. You can go back. I can manage on my own here.”

“Yes, my lord.”

After seeing off the carriage, Mulan went straight to the entrance of the alchemical fortress. He had just raised his hand to knock when his knuckles passed directly through the door, leaving him momentarily stunned.

“Who’s outside? Oh, it’s Professor Jonester! Come in quickly. The door was blown apart some time ago, so we’re using a genuine illusion in its place.”

A somewhat withered hand reached out, seized Mulan by the wrist, and pulled him inside, leaving him almost no room to evade. The suddenness of it startled him.

The moment he entered, Mulan was assailed by a series of peculiar smells—some fragrant, some foul, and others strange mixtures that defied identification.

The interior was almost entirely visible at a glance. There were shelves and cubbyholes everywhere, along with glass and metal vessels, as well as an open platform supporting a telescope enormous in proportion to the room. The glass on the roof was clearly intended for it.

Along the western curved wall stood an entire stretch of workbenches covered with connected devices and tools, various unfinished materials, small spell formations, notes, papers, and pictures.

Mulan searched the room with his eyes but found none of the things that ought to have been present in an alchemist’s residence. After thinking for a moment, he tapped the floor with his cane. A faint, crisp knocking sound answered him, and he realized that there was another space beneath the building.

“Come, come, Professor Jonester. If you don’t mind, give me a few more tubes of your blood!”

Mulan was still wondering whether the space below contained forbidden alchemical facilities such as an altar or an alchemical pool when he turned toward the alchemist’s voice and saw that the man had already picked up a syringe thicker than an arm. Its steel needle gleamed like a bayonet.

“Professor Alopha, I came to learn how the lycanthropic poison is affecting me. I did not come to be your test subject!”

Mulan’s expression turned solemn, and his right hand tightened around his cane.

“Yes, yes, I know, Professor Jonester. Please, give me a few more tubes of your blood. Your blood is simply extraordinary. As the lycanthropic poison erodes your cells, it is somehow being eroded in return, showing signs of assimilation. This means your blood possesses an exceptional degree of vitality—or perhaps an exceptional toxicity. Do you know what that means?”

The alchemist spoke with feverish excitement, advancing on Mulan with the syringe in hand. Mulan could not help retreating half a step and raising his cane toward him.

“Professor Alopha, put down the syringe.”

“Oh, my apologies. I didn’t mean to.”

Apparently realizing that Mulan would not compromise, the bespectacled and somewhat gaunt alchemist finally lowered the syringe. He then beckoned to Mulan and walked toward a workbench.

“Look. These are the records, and here are a few culture dishes. It is already remarkable for this vitality to appear in an incomplete transcendent. More remarkable still is that I can sense something in your blood—as though every cell possesses a power of existence all its own.”

Mulan lowered his cane as well, but did not relax his guard. This alchemist was somewhat deranged.

“Are you saying that, in some respects, my blood resembles that of high-ranking vampires?”

The alchemist’s eyes brightened behind his thick golden lenses.

“A remarkably precise explanation, though there are also significant differences. Your blood does show a tendency toward contamination, but it does not erode others as frenziedly as a vampire’s would. In short, it is fascinating. I also discovered by accident that your blood surpasses the effects of certain catalysts in alchemical experiments!”

“In other words, the lycanthropic poison cannot affect my physical condition, correct?”

“That is correct, Professor Jonester. Even a Silver-Mane werewolf would be unable to transform you.”

“Very well. I understand. Thank you, Professor Alopha. I have an urgent matter to attend to, so I shall take my leave.”

Mulan nodded, left him with those words, and turned to go.

“Wait! Hold on, Professor Jonester!”

The alchemist tried to follow, but Mulan quickened his pace. By the time he reached the door after a few steps, its frame had begun to take on a black-and-gold hue.

A genuine illusion!

Mulan narrowed his eyes and reached forward with his left hand. When he touched the door, it no longer felt insubstantial. His gaze swept across the surface, and within the door he saw several gold-and-gray spell formations and runes in the corner of the frame. His mind raced as he searched through everything he knew.

Almost simultaneously, a faint white light appeared in the palm of Mulan’s left hand. A delicate ring of spell symbols emerged where his fingers touched the door.

The door became insubstantial once more, allowing Mulan to pass straight through it.

By the time the alchemist chased him outside, Mulan was already at least a hundred yards away. From a distance, he appeared to be walking, yet somehow he had crossed such a vast stretch of ground in an instant.

The alchemist stared blankly at Mulan’s retreating figure, his expression deeply troubled.

Mulan’s heartbeat was slightly quickened. He glanced back toward the alchemical cottage in the distance. Behind the alchemist’s faintly reflective spectacles, those eyes remained fixed on him without wavering. The sensation was extremely unpleasant. Mulan did not want to spend another moment with the man.

What a lunatic!

Before formally advancing to the next stage, Mulan had no intention of going near this place again. No—even after formally advancing, he still had no intention of approaching this man.

...

Apart from the queen and a few of Black Castle’s upper ranks, no one knew that Mulan had returned. The news had not spread among the students. He had already prepared most of the materials and could formulate the stabilizer at any time, but he had to wait for Hendel to return. Otherwise, Hendel’s solitary excursion would make no sense.

Although Mulan knew that no one would investigate him over such a matter, the necessary cover could not be neglected.

Several days later, Hendel finally returned. Mulan used resonance perception, card divination, and various other methods to confirm that there were no problems. He then had Hendel serve as his assistant while he worked in his small house for several days.

At last, he succeeded in producing the stabilizer for what was formally known as the Radiance Potion.