Chapter 674: Section 461: Jia Bing’s Alchemy Laboratory
Zong Ge and Zi Di both stood in front of Jia Bing’s house.
Plop—!
The huge sound of water drew their attention.
Zong Ge and Zi Di shifted their gaze and saw a huge fountain erupting into the sky, topped with an enormous lotus flower.
The lotus was big enough to cover four acres of land, lifted into the air by the fountain and then falling back down with the column of water.
“Fountain King Lotus,” Zong Ge and Zi Di both thought of the information related to this Golden Level Magic Plant at the same time.
The Fountain King Lotus could move by spouting water.
It wasn’t the time for it to spread its seeds; every summer, the Fountain King Lotus would shoot up to heights of five or six hundred meters, scattering countless offshoots—all of them small lotus leaves.
These tiny leaves would spiral and dance in the air, spreading by the thousands from the town’s center to the surroundings, a unique spectacle of Grafting Town.
The Fountain King Lotus wasn’t the only Golden Level Magic Plant in the town; there were four others aside from it.
Standing where Zi Di and Zong Ge were now, they could see most of the trunk, leaves, and tips of the Green Umbrella Tree, parts of the Golden Star Vine hanging down the northern cliff, and the rooftop of Chili Tower.
Grafting Town originated from the Prosperity Hybrid Master, who planted many Magic Plants years ago, five of which remain to this day.
They are the Fountain King Lotus, Green Umbrella Tree, Withered Claw Tree, Chili Tower, and Golden Star Vine.
The spray of the Fountain King Lotus had caught the attention of Zong Ge and Zi Di, but they soon refocused on the door to Jia Bing’s house.
Many passersby cast their eyes upon Zi Di, yet ignored Zong Ge as if he was invisible.
For the ease of operation, Zi Di had already cast another layer of the Deception and Disguise Skill on herself, taking on the appearance of Jia Bing. Zong Ge had become “completely invisible.”
The Deception and Disguise Skill really was incredibly useful!
Therefore, for this operation, Zi Di and Zong Ge, after discussion, still chose this spell.
To disguise their identities, they didn’t use the Teleportation Array when they left from Snow Rabbit City; instead, they walked all the way to Grafting Town.
Just the two of them set out alone, while the rest went directly to Snow Rabbit City using the Teleportation Array.
Without the delay of others, Zi Di and Zong Ge made quick progress on their journey and didn’t take much time.
Zi Di walked a few steps forward, stood in front of the main entrance to the house, and took out an alchemy ring, aiming it at the keyhole.
This ring, representing one’s identity, was of course a spoil of war taken from Jia Bing’s body.
Click.
There was a soft sound, and the door opened.
Zong Ge went in first, followed by Zi Di, and they smoothly entered the house.
Along the wall of the entryway, there was a row of coat hooks, most of which were empty, but two coats and hats hung on three of them.
Zi Di didn’t go straight in but took out several Reconnaissance Puppets from her storage device.
Then, she released a number of rat-eyed ghosts and snake-shadow ghosts.
These puppets and ghosts surrounded Zi Di and Zong Ge, not in a hurry to move.
Zi Di took out a Magic Scroll, tore it open, and released the concealment spell within. This spell could conceal the movement and noise within a certain area to prevent detection from the outside.
Zi Di lifted her Silver Level Magic Wand, casting a light spell.
A bright white light radiated from the tip of the wand, illuminating the surroundings.
Zi Di and Zong Ge then saw the full interior of the house.
The original living room had been transformed into a large Alchemy Laboratory.
Two brown elongated wooden tables leaned against the gray-white walls, with plenty of beakers, spherical bottles, pipette bottles, long-necked bottles, and tiny glass tubes on top of them.
In a corner of the living room, there stood a mahogany barrel with six metal pipes on its top and sides, going up to the ceiling, through the floor, and connected to the pools embedded in the long wooden table.
Inside the metal pool, there lay a pair of green grass leaves and a small pile of silver-gold metal.
Gurgle, gurgle…
On one of the long tables, there was a reaction occurring inside a glass flask, emitting a faint acidic smell.
“Is this a Corrosive Potion?” Zi Di recognized this low-level Magic Potion.
“Jia Bing left here in a hurry. This can be seen from the unprocessed Alchemy Material in the pool and this flask with the reaction still ongoing.”
“He probably wanted to create an advanced Corrosive Acid Water Potion.”
“When he got the invitation from the Axe Gang Leader, he was in the midst of an alchemy experiment. In his view, dealing with us wouldn’t take much time, enough for him to go there and back.”
“According to his plan, by the time he returned here, he would have been able to continue his Magic Potion Refinement.”
“Who would have thought that the end result would be his death, never to return to his own Alchemy Laboratory again.”
Zi Di felt something odd.
She now knew quite a lot about Jia Bing, in her view, Jia Bing was an Alchemy Mage adept at creating Alchemy Puppets.
But here, there were almost exclusively tools for potion refinement.
“It seems he didn’t have an alchemy assistant either,” Zi Di’s gaze swept around the room, and she didn’t see any Alchemy Puppets that could move on their own.
Generally speaking, Alchemists would have some alchemy assistants.
For example, the ship ghost once arranged for Fin Spirits to act as his alchemy assistants for many years.
The workload for alchemy was usually vast, requiring alchemy assistants to lend a hand, share the burden, and allow the Alchemist’s true abilities to be unleashed.
According to Zi Di’s guess, Jia Bing should have had one or two Alchemy Puppets serving as his assistants, as it was his area of expertise.
Most Alchemists, aside from training Alchemist Apprentices as assistants, would purchase dedicated Alchemy Puppets.
In this aspect, the most advanced assistant was the Tower Spirit.
The War Merchant’s alchemy assistant was a Tower Spirit.
Not every Mage owned their own Mage Tower, as the cost of constructing one was exorbitant. Even a prosperous place like Snowbird Port had only one Mage Tower.
Zi Di analyzed that it was almost impossible for Jia Bing’s alchemy assistant to be a Tower Spirit. This was just a rented house, not a Mage Tower.
Spell—Detect Traps.
The spell Zi Di cast revealed all the traps in the house.
Some were mechanical traps, others were Magic Traps.
Not many in number, and their power was not strong.
The highest level was a Golden Level trap, and it would be triggered when the enemy infiltrated, immediately notifying Jia Bing.
This trap had already been triggered, but there was no sign of it on the surface.
Zong Ge and Zi Di had not noticed it before.
“Jia Bing is already dead, so it doesn’t matter if the alert trap is triggered.”
“However, this further confirms my previous guess—that Jia Bing’s participation in the ambush was hasty and could almost be considered a spur-of-the-moment action.”
The advantage of traps lay in their secrecy; once discovered, their threat level plummeted.
Zi Di began casting spells to disarm the traps.
After several rounds of spells, she successfully dismantled most of the traps.
Some remaining traps were either negligible, more convenient and faster to directly destroy, or could be bypassed without any need to handle.
However, there were a few traps that occupied crucial positions, forcing Zi Di to resort to using Magic Scrolls.
She had brought two Advanced Spell Scrolls for disarming traps, originally as a precaution, but now they seemed apt for the occasion.
“Two scrolls are still not enough, I will have to stock up more next time,” Zi Di sighed helplessly, looking at the last trap.
“Fortunately, this Magic Trap requires a power supply, only with sufficient energy can it wield immense power. If we can find the energy source for the Alchemy Room and cut it off from the source, we might be able to disarm it.”
Zi Di was not skilled in this type of magic, nor was she an excellent Thief; disarming the traps was rather forced. This was still under the circumstance that Jia Bing’s defensive forces were weaker than those of most Alchemists.
Spell—Detect Magic.
The next moment, Zi Di’s vision filled with numerous magical lights.
Most of the Magic Tools were sources of light.
Zi Di looked down and saw the largest source of light. The magical lights were so bright that they couldn’t be concealed by the wooden floor.
“Is it an Acidification Energy Furnace?” Zi Di quickly identified the specific model.
This was a civilian alchemy energy furnace, providing this Alchemy Room with a stable and continuous energy supply.
“Huh?” Zi Di showed a puzzled look.
For she discovered that this energy furnace was not connected to the last stubborn trap.
“This means that this Alchemy Room has another source of energy!”
“That’s right, it’s just that the current Alchemy Room is too shabby for a Golden Level Alchemist.”
ps: I got a third-degree burn, went to the hospital today, and applying medication was really painful! They had to clean off all the necrotic tissue, I was sweating cold sweat because it hurt so much I felt dizzy and nauseous. The kind nurse gave me some chocolate, I lay down and took a while to catch my breath, only then did I start to feel better.