Perfume Alchemist

Chapter 10 Gold in Books

Ahao trotted all the way to the Agadi Library, and it was his first time here.

The Agadí Library is said to be the largest single-room library in the world, and is known throughout the world for its "Long Hall", which contains more than 20 volumes of the library's oldest books.

But after Ah Hao came here in person, he thought that this was not the reason why he was famous.

Instead - cats all over the wall.

On the brass outer wall of the Agadi Library, there are also winding and complicated glass pipes, which are only half the height of a person.Especially suitable for small pets such as cats and dogs to walk through.

But now, the cats all over the wall are playing and playing in the glass pipe, or lying down lazily.Very cute.

And those who think these cats are cute are the young and beautiful women of Agadi.

Raising cats is the latest fashion trend of Agadhi. Many of the poor neighbors in Ahao’s apartment save money to raise cats.

Young and fashionable girls, wearing gorgeous and exquisite long skirts, sat in twos and threes on the tables and chairs in the square in front of the library to chat under the afternoon sun.

By the way, Agadi's long skirt is beautiful with its shoulders and collarbone exposed.Therefore, even the dresses of the ladies are often extremely bold.

At a glance, the milky-white skin of all the girls in the entire square reflects dazzling light in the sun.

As soon as Ah Hao stepped onto the square, he was greeted by a salesman.

"Cat food is 5 Canadian dollars a bag! Can the handsome guy buy a bag to feed the cat?"

"no thank you."

The hawker was not surprised that Ah Hao would refuse, because his customers were not mainly male.

It is fashionable for girls and socialites in Agadi to order a cup of coffee under the umbrella, flip through a borrowed book, and buy a few bags of snacks to feed the cat.

Cats attract girls, and these young and beautiful girls can attract more people of all kinds.When there are more people, the business of the library is naturally booming.

This is the ecosystem of the Agadi library.

so clever.

Ah Hao sighed, if he had this kind of business mind, he would have developed it long ago.

Put aside unnecessary thoughts, and cats all over the wall, and white chests all over the square.

He went straight to the library, he still has serious things to do today.

Entering the hall, he walked towards the young lady standing quietly behind the front desk.

"Hello, do you have books that introduce, uh, the elements of earth and fire?"

The lady at the front desk with an intellectual temperament raised her head, and calmly adjusted her glasses with chains:
"Elements? Are you referring to chemistry or mysticism? Mystery is in columns A to E in rows 25 to 32 of the corridor hall, basically all of them are there.

"Chemistry books are not open to the public. You need to be an annual member of the Agadhi Library to read them."

Ah Hao raised his eyebrows.

"Okay, thank you, I'll just go to the corridor hall, no need to be a member."

Ah Hao wanted to leave quickly, he was a little afraid that the lady at the front desk would chase him and ask him to become a member.

"Wait, there is also an entrance fee to enter the promenade hall, 10 Canadian dollars. You will have to pay an additional fee to borrow books."

"Okay, then, here you are."

Ah Hao was a little depressed, no wonder there were so many people in the square in front of the library just sitting and feeding the cats.

There is also an entrance fee for feelings.

The gallery hall of the library is made of wood.A 10-person-high arched passage is lined up in a long line, with three-story bookshelves on both sides, which is quite spectacular.

Ahao followed the guidance on the pillar and walked forward.

All chemistry books are paid to read.Ajadi advocated the essence of science, which can be seen in general.

But he was quite surprised that the occult was actually an open book.

He may have thought nothing of it before, but what happened to the Wende family made him see the mysterious arcane power.

This is a world where arcana and technology coexist, so why is chemical knowledge more noble than mysterious knowledge?

It wasn't until he came to the area of ​​mysticism that he realized that this was not the case.

Because none of the books here has anything to do with arcana.

On the contrary, there are two words on the cover of most books-"Alchemy".

He felt that he seemed to be in the right place. Earth and fire seemed to be the elements that would appear in alchemy legends.

But he can also realize that the alchemy knowledge hidden on the bookshelves here has been branded as "mysterious" and has become entertainment content for people's entertainment, which has been gradually abandoned by this era.

In other words, he was abandoned by Agadi.

He opened a book called "Alchemy Immortality", and saw on the title page:
[Although alchemy has been proven wrong by contemporary science, it cannot be denied that it has played a very positive role in the history of chemistry. 】

He continued to look down and found that this was a very new book, which represented the views of the mainstream people on alchemy.

—Alchemy has decayed and is an obsolete technology.

The book criticizes alchemists who fantasize about refining base metals into precious metals, or alchemists who are eager to make immortality potions.Spend a lot of pen and ink criticizing the huge damage they caused to the country's development.

The development of steam, the advancement of technology, and the knowledge circulation brought by the arcane star gate have torn off the mysterious coat of alchemy.Alchemy instantly fell from a symbol of mystery to a representative of ignorance.

People who study alchemy have also become despised by others.

The Agadi people no longer need to pursue the illusory technology of alchemy to refine gold. The arcane star gate they erected is the strongest gold manufacturing machine.

But this book does not blindly criticize alchemy, but instead affirms some of the contributions of alchemy.

For example, the utensils and purification methods used in alchemy provide a lot of knowledge and ready-made solutions for modern chemistry.

Ahao read with relish that the book said that alchemy also provided a considerable theoretical basis for the preparation of ancient spices and dyes.

The book was quite nice, but there was nothing in it that Ahao wanted. He closed the book for the time being, and was going to find some books that looked older in the bookshelf.

He flipped open a hard-bound tome with a delicate metal cover.

This kind of gorgeous binding with a sense of age is like a book that would only be available in the most prosperous period of alchemy.

This book called "The Secrets of Alchemy: The Rising Sun" explores some alchemical philosophical ideas, such as theoretical knowledge such as material transformation and element theory.He felt that this was the book he was looking for.

Looking at it, Ah Hao's eyes lit up, and he found it!
【. That is, everything in the world is composed of four elements: air, water, earth, and fire】

There is earth and there is fire!
He quickly looked down.In addition to describing the four elements of air, water, soil and water, the Discovery Book also describes the four characteristics of dryness, dampness, coldness, and heat.And consider each element to be a combination of two properties.

That is, soil = dryness + cold; water = wetness + coldness; air = dampness + heat; fire = dryness + heat.

He can now basically confirm that dividing earth into fire should be a concept in alchemy!
Both fire and earth have appeared, but water and air have not yet appeared.

Then the answer to this riddle is [divide earth from fire, divide water from air]!
right?

He felt a little far-fetched.

He thought about it again, earth and fire both have the same dryness, but there is a difference between cold and hot.

Then the answer to the riddle is: [Divide the earth into the fire, alternating hot and cold]!
Uh huh, it feels a bit outrageous.

Putting aside his thoughts, he looked down carefully.Gradually there are some more mature guesses.

Soil can be soil that contains minerals, or it can directly refer to ore.

So the mystery of dividing earth into fire should refer to the fine separation of ore from fire, which represents the first step of calcination in alchemy.

The answer to the riddle may be the second link of alchemy.

But what is that?

It was not mentioned in this too theoretical book, and he was going to look for some more practical books.

(End of this chapter)