From Prisoner to Si Chen..

Chapter 397 Secret Pattern
Jilan looked at the teacher's arm and was secretly shocked.

The white-haired old man, who was already over 300 years old, had no excess fat on his arms, and his muscles were very clear. But what was even more eye-catching was the densely packed alchemy array that looked like a tattoo.

At a quick glance, Gillan saw at least forty or fifty of them.

These alchemy arrays are large and small, as big as a palm and as small as a coin as big as a fingernail. Moreover, these alchemy arrays do not exist independently, but are stacked layer by layer.

This creates a complex yet uncluttered mysterious "scroll".

'There are 24 alchemical arrays for decomposition and reconstruction, each nested in each other, and branching out into auxiliary alchemical arrays such as "flow", "guidance", "link" and "acceleration".'

"Moreover, these alchemy arrays are almost all advanced knowledge that does not exist in ordinary mysticism. They are most likely developed by the teacher alone..."

Ji Lan's eyes narrowed.

He roughly identified the approximate purposes of these alchemical arrays, all of which were designed to make alchemy more efficient and more powerful.

At the same time, Jilan also secretly felt that each of these alchemy arrays could be regarded as the pinnacle of alchemy and was a treasure of knowledge.

It is incredible that teacher Pala can integrate them into one, making them fit together perfectly like the gears inside a mechanical structure, and produce a linkage effect.

The difficulty of designing an embedded alchemical array of this scale almost exceeds the limits of human thinking and can be called a miracle.

Crack!

Suddenly, Pala extended his index finger.

The alchemical arrays on his arms lit up red one after another, and scarlet arcs of electricity suddenly burst out from his fingertips.

Pala smiled at Jilan and snapped his fingers.

Snapped! !

A scarlet arc of electricity leaped out, as if pulling out a twisting and irregular red line, and in an instant, it fell on the potted plant in the corner of the room.

Among the blooming geraniums, a pink bud was hit by the electric arc and instantly decomposed into powder, which gathered into a stream and returned to Pala's palm, and condensed into a geranium "micromodel" the size of a mung bean.

"This is the result of me spending hundreds of years developing the 'Decomposition and Reconstruction Technique' to its limit... I gave this power a name, 'Sage's Secret Mark'."

Parra said in a deep voice.

"In the great science of alchemy, 'decomposition and reconstruction' is just the foundation of advanced knowledge... Alchemists from ancient times to the present have almost only regarded it as a 'convenient tool' when refining items."

"But I believe that the more basic something is, the closer it is to the truth... To this day, I still firmly believe in it."

Jilan took a deep breath and agreed with the teacher's point of view.

With his current attainments in mysticism, one thing is very clear, that is, the "decomposition and reconstruction technique" is indeed only suitable for research and refining.

Its limitations are too great, making it almost impossible for it to participate in combat.

First, "decomposition and reconstruction" relies on alchemical arrays and is slow to start.

Second, it was extremely difficult to work on living things. (Alchemists recognized that it was the spiritual beings that caused serious interference.)
Third, it requires a large amount of energy to satisfy the principle of "equivalent exchange" of materials.

Fourthly, it has a distance limitation and can generally only work through actual touch.

But after Jilan witnessed the teacher's abilities with his own eyes, this idea was completely changed.

Para Celsus single-handedly changed the definition of "decomposition and reconstruction".

All four restrictions have been broken!
All of this was not only due to Pala's talent, but also a key opportunity...

"Jilan, please remember this."

Parra said solemnly.

"The carving of the 'Secret Mark of the Sage' must rely on the help of the 'Philosopher's Stone', otherwise this power is like a castle in the air."

"The Philosopher's Stone can not only provide a large amount of energy to activate so many alchemical arrays at the same time, but also because it contains a large amount of soul power, it can suppress the spiritual interference in the body of living things and achieve the purpose of erasing life..."

Hearing this, Jilan frowned slightly.

Combining the teacher's words, he couldn't help but think of the story in "The Silver Bottle", so he asked in a deep voice:

"Teacher, does the refining of the Philosopher's Stone really require a large number of living people as materials?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the white-haired old man was restrained on the spot for several seconds.

He looked at Jilan deeply, and that look seemed to say "It has to be you after all."

Pala was silent for a moment, then said with a slight sigh:

"Jilan, you are too murderous."

He nodded first, then shook his head.

"As the first person in the world to refine the 'Philosopher's Stone', I also had such doubts... But I can tell you very clearly that the human soul is indeed the main material of the 'Philosopher's Stone'--"

“But it doesn’t have to be a living sacrifice!”

Pala leaned forward, put his head close, and said seriously:
"You must have known the nature of this world. There are two rules that override the twelve laws of truth."

"Hmm..." Gillan nodded.

He remembered that he had triggered the back-up plan set by the "director" Er Yue Si Chen in the "Spark of Enlightenment" series of films, awakening his apostle "special actor" Mr. A, and thus conveyed the message from the "director" to him:

“Everything exists, and existence leaves traces; everything dreams, and dreams are reflections of reality.”

Gillan said this word for word.

Pala nodded, very pleased.

"Yes, everything has traces of its existence. This is the highest rule in the world... I was inspired by this and found another way to refine the Philosopher's Stone."

He paused for a moment and continued:

"After a person dies, the soul is a trace and proof of its existence in the material world... Its essence is actually a kind of energy that will remain for a short time after a person dies completely, and then disappear."

"After hundreds of years of research, I discovered that the final destination of the soul is 'God's Hometown - Toyalan'."

"To be precise, it is the 'Corridor' of 'God's Hometown', a place called 'Black Cemetery'... The outer area there is called 'Hell Border', which is also the birthplace of the devil."

Pala looked directly into Gilan's eyes and said in a deep voice:
"The essence of demons is also a kind of spirit. I have studied them with Sadie Balbina and I am sure of this."

"Based on some of Sade's research records, I have unearthed a certain truth..."

"What's the truth?" Ji Lan asked with bated breath after hearing the teacher's serious tone.

"The devil is another form of existence transformed from the human soul."

Pala said.

"Their appearance is inevitably related to the disappearance of the July Hour 'Noon Dawn'."

"The devil was transformed from a human?" Jilan was stunned.

"That's not accurate."

Pala shook her head.

"Everything dissipates after death. I said that the soul is just a kind of energy, without any trace of its past life... and in hell, there is a law of truth that can transform this energy into the devil."

A flash of light flashed through Gillan's mind.

He almost blurted out: "Equivalent exchange?!"

"You could say that..." Pala sighed. "But this is a degenerate exchange of equal value. After I figured it all out, I had a sense of déjà vu."

"Hell is like a huge furnace. It continuously absorbs the dead souls in the mortal world and creates demons through the effect of laws."

"This process seems to strictly follow the alchemical 'mercury-sulfur-salt theory', except that what changes are no longer sulfur, mercury and salt, but the body, consciousness and soul."

“…” Jilan fell silent.

There was silence in the office.

Gillan was shocked by the truth explained by his teacher. He never thought that all this was so consistent with his impression of "hell" and so reasonable.

In his previous life, he had a certain understanding of Western religious culture. The so-called heaven and hell seemed to have similar concepts and were the destinations of people after death.

But in this different world, all similarities are only superficially similar, but their essences are completely different...

They follow the two supreme rules of the other world and the twelve laws of truth, just like a flawless machine without any flaws.

Half an hour passed.

Only then did Jilan raise his eyes and ask:
"Teacher... Could it be that your alternative method is to use the devil as material, replacing the human soul, to refine the 'Philosopher's Stone'?"

"That's right." Pala nodded.

Jilan raised his eyebrows, he didn't expect it to be like this.

Parra added:

"But if we only use ordinary devils as materials, the number required is huge and it is extremely difficult to gather them. Therefore, the existence of the first-level hell lords and devil nobles is the best choice."

As the teacher said this, Jilan felt the sapphire ring on his middle finger tremble slightly.

It seemed that Weiwei felt an inexplicable fear.

"Devils suck human souls to grow stronger. Teacher Pala has also created a method for alchemists to use devils as materials to create the Philosopher's Stone..."

Jilan couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu of a strange ecological chain.

"As expected, whether it's wizards or alchemists, these researchers are the nemesis of non-human creatures."

"Jilan, I will teach you the method of refining the Philosopher's Stone later... But remember not to reveal it. This is the empire's precious treasure and something that the superiors dream of."

Pala warned solemnly.

Jilan knew the importance of the matter and nodded in agreement.

The "self" of the superiors must rely on a body to walk in the world. Since ancient times, gold has been regarded as a perfect material, but even so, a body created based on gold can only accommodate the power of the fifth level.

It was not until the birth of the Philosopher's Stone that this upper limit was raised to the mortal limit, level 6.

The reason why the empire has its current strong position is not only due to the strength of the Führer and his knights, but also the key figure Para Celsus.

Whether it was the various theories of mysticism that raised the strength of the Knights, or the later creation of the "Philosopher's Stone" that enabled the apostles of the "Crippled King" to walk the world with the ultimate strength of the earthly realm, it was all because of this.

"Okay, that's all for today's class."

Pala looked at the night outside the window and spoke.

"It's getting late, go back and rest."

"Yes, teacher." Jilan nodded, stood up and saluted. "Thank you for your teaching today."

Parra waved her hand.

"'Decomposition and Reconstruction' may seem simple, but it is not easy to fully understand the 'Secret Mark of the Sage'. Think more about it... And, the 'Secret Mark of the Sage' that you finally engrave does not need to be the same as mine. Only what you understand yourself is your power."

"I understand, teacher." said Jilan.

He took off his hat, saluted the white-haired old gentleman again, and then turned and left.

...

...

After returning to the single-family apartment at No. 9 Morales Street, Guillen simply washed up. The first thing he did was to sit on the bed in the master bedroom, close his eyes and call out:
'Colorful, add some.'

In the corner of his dark vision, the colorful numbers "510" flashed rapidly and then dropped directly to "10".

This time, Jilan consumed a full 500 points of mysterious energy.

Today, I learned the "decomposition and reconstruction technique" from Teacher Pala, and I understood it instantly.

But there is still a long way to go to understand the "Secret Pattern of the Sage".

"The teacher's unique skill seems to be too profound. I spent 500 energy points and only barely got the basics."

Jilan opened his eyes and couldn't help but be shocked.

He sighed again.

"All the points have been used up..."

'But whether it is the deduction of the fifth-order essence, or the body-building technique "Life Star Track", the meditation method "Dream of Ten Thousand Flowers", the secret sword technique "Universe Sword", and even the "Sage's Secret Mark", they are all "big consumers". '

'If you want to get them done in a short time, the required number of mysterious points will be an extremely exaggerated number! '

Jilan rubbed his temples with a headache.

Then, he took out a black film from his alchemical leather pocket. On it was a note with blue-black handwriting:

The Unbeaten Legend

This is a commissioned item from Lady Crow.

After Jilan returned to China, he has not had time to contact the other party.

He looked down at the film reel, and after a moment's thought, he decided to watch the movie himself first.

In the commission requirements, Ms. Crow did not explicitly state that if the target object was obtained, Jilan would not be allowed to watch the movie without permission.

In the mysterious realm, if a commission is not otherwise specified, it is considered tacit consent.

It just so happened that Gillan was in urgent need of mysterious points, so he planned to accumulate some energy through this film to improve his strength.

Jilan did what he said. He first went to the kitchen and took some candied haws that the cook had prepared in advance, and then returned to the master bedroom on the second floor.

According to his previous experience of "bribery", he skillfully played the film empty, met the "assistant supervisor" of February Apostles, Ms. Hera Nibal, through applause, and got the opportunity to stay.

Only then did we officially start watching the movie.

As usual, he called out Vivi, then sat on the ground with the little familiar and looked up at the curtain.

After a burst of noise and vertical spots, the black screen faded away and slowly turned into a bird's-eye view of the desert.

In the desert, sandstorms swept across.

A towering city made of stone and wood, built in an oasis, slowly came into view...

(End of this chapter)