He could directly synthesize any known Magic Potion with his body, but the price was completely losing all experiences as a ’human.’
"Airena Moonlight, the only female Ancient Alchemist in history. Her specialty was Emotion Alchemy—the art of transforming emotions into tangible entities."
"Airena created a massive ’emotional treasury,’ where she stored emotions like love, hate, fear, and despair from tens of thousands of people.
She claimed these emotions were ’voluntarily donated,’ but according to survivors, her ’donation ceremonies’ were often accompanied by intense Spiritual Control."
"Ultimately, Airena was consumed by her own creation.
The negative emotions distilled into a colossal hatred entity, trapping her in the depths of her treasury.
It’s said she still lives, but has merged with that hatred entity, becoming an embodiment of pure malice."
Reading this, Ron inadvertently recalled the scene when he created the "Ink."
Although it was merely a modification of some Abyssal Creatures’ tissues, the feeling of creating life was indeed captivating.
Without sufficient self-control, it’s certainly easy to go further down this path.
Gould’s record also included some darker examples:
"Aegis Lacroix, who completely fell in pursuit of the Philosopher’s Stone. He claimed to have found a way to make it, but all we saw was his storing the pure souls of tens of thousands of young of different races in one go."
"Damian Puchi, when his laboratory was discovered, contained over five thousand corpses in various states.
Some were transformed into living organ cultivation vessels, some were fused into multi-headed monsters, and some were made into tools with partial consciousness.
Most terrifyingly, many of these experimental subjects were found to be alive, maintaining conscious awareness."
These records made Ron deeply understand why modern Wizards both revere and fear Ancient Alchemists.
Their achievements were truly great, but the means to achieve them were appalling.
However, Gould proposed a thought-provoking viewpoint in the last part of the book:
"What right do we have to condemn them? Modern Wizards’ research is equally built on the sacrifice of countless lives.
The Abyss Explorers lose hundreds of explorers every year, and the underground laboratories of the Crystal Tower imprison tens of thousands of test subjects, with the slaughter of Alien Race lives during conquest wars being incalculable."
"The only difference between us and the Ancient Alchemists is that we are better at hiding our crimes and finding moral excuses for our atrocities.
We say it’s ’for the advancement of civilization,’ they said it’s ’for knowledge breakthrough,’ is there essentially any difference?"
"Perhaps the real question is not what they did, but whether we have the courage to admit that in the pursuit of power, pure and unblemished hands don’t exist."
This viewpoint left Ron momentarily speechless.
As a researcher in pursuit of power, he certainly understood the urge to be ruthless for the sake of breakthrough.
But on the other hand, reason told him that completely abandoning the bottom line often results in self-destruction.
"The key is to find a balance,"
he summarized in his mind:
"It’s not to completely reject dark means, but to ensure these means serve a greater purpose, not become the purpose themselves."
As he continued reading, Ron began to feel an increasing mental strain.
This forbidden knowledge was like a living parasite trying to root itself in his consciousness.
Headache started to intensify, with sharp stabs at his temples;
His vision occasionally blurred, seeing some non-existent images, ancient Alchemy Labs with countless twisted creatures writhing in glass containers;
Faint whispers began to echo in his ears, coming from some long-dead ancient scholars whose souls were still trapped in knowledge;
His fingers started trembling slightly, needing to be extra careful when turning pages for fear of triggering mental traps hidden in the book pages.
To his surprise, the burden was much lighter than expected.
The pressure endured while communicating with the King of Illusions last night provided valuable training for his mental structure.
This level of knowledge shock, while still uncomfortable, was within his tolerable range.
"It seems that the pressure of higher-dimensional beings, though painful, does indeed train mental resilience,"
Ron assessed his condition internally:
"This ’vaccine-like’ training method may be worth further study."
As the afternoon sun began to slant westward, he closed the final tome.
Prolonged reading left him feeling fatigued, with the temple pain reminding him that his mental load was nearing its limit.
But the gains were also immense.
He now had a clear understanding of his future path and knew which goals were realistic and which required long-term effort.
On the other hand, he also gained a deeper understanding of the "cost of power."
Mastering any skill requires paying the corresponding price, the key is to ensure that this price is within an acceptable range.
Originally, he wanted to look up some information on the deeper Abyss, but the mental burden from reading forbidden knowledge had already reached a dangerous Critical Point.
Continuing to force reading would only increase the risk of Spiritual Contamination, outweighing the benefits.
Moreover, in the Abyssal Observation Station, there actually remained much more detailed and practical information than in the library.
When he returns to work next week, he plans to use the access Cassandra granted him to apply for and review, which should provide more valuable information.
As he walked out of the forbidden area, the Crystal construct scanned him again.
"Detected moderate mental fatigue, suggest resting 72 hours before re-entering the forbidden area."
The construct’s voice carried a touch of concern: "Hope you make good use of the knowledge gained."
"I will," Ron briefly replied, while pondering how to turn today’s gains into practical development plans.
As the sun set, the towers of the Central Lands glittered in the twilight.