Live long enough, and you really could witness all kinds of bizarre things.
The City of Alchemy had already been banished into the void. The teleportation array Anbaixiu had casually laid down shouldn't have been able to function—after all, this was a seal imposed by deities.
If it could be bypassed by simply leaving behind a random teleportation array, the gods would have lost an awful lot of face.
The only explanation was that the guildmaster had discovered the teleportation array and done something to it.
Although Anbaixiu had only just seen the guildmaster, counting the elapsed time, the man had already been banished in the void for several months. Anbaixiu had grafted chaotic tentacles onto him, turning him into the master of that world. With that much time, it was more than enough for a legendary alchemist to pull off plenty of new tricks.
Anbaixiu gathered a portion of the mucus and returned to his laboratory to examine it thoroughly.
Half a day later, Anbaixiu arrived at a conclusion: this mucus was the living body tissue of an unprecedented creature.
It looked like slime mucus, but in truth, it was vastly different from an ordinary slime's.
Whether it was Anbaixiu's mercury slime or any other variety, they all possessed the trait of dissolving and engulfing other matter. The mercury slime consumed only metal, whereas other slimes devoured all kinds of organic material.
Yet this mucus possessed no corrosiveness whatsoever, which hardly matched the nature of a slime.
Just as Isabel had said, the mucus had a very peculiar temporal-spatial instability. Most creatures that consumed it would experience varying degrees of rejuvenation.
However, its effect was completely different from the Potions of Youth produced by the elves.
A Potion of Youth altered physical constitution, restoring the body to the vigorous state of youth; it had nothing to do with time, purely extending lifespan. Consequently, such biological remodeling induced drug tolerance, and it was impossible to prolong life by decades all at once. The best it could offer was ten years, and most people developed resistance after taking it more than thirty times, causing the efficacy to deteriorate progressively.
In the period before reincarnating as a lich, Anbaixiu had chugged nearly a bottle a year just to barely stay alive. That was why, when the price of a Potion of Youth rose to five hundred thousand, he knew he couldn't afford it and decisively became a lich.
The temporal-spatial instability of this mucus, on the other hand, was extraordinary. It had nothing to do with the physical body; rather, it wound back the flesh's timeline by decades, somewhat akin to the time-reversal abilities of a time dragon. Once that temporal power faded, however, the rejuvenating effect naturally vanished with it.
"Naomi committed suicide in the chaotic world, and when she was resurrected, she carried temporal energy. This mucus teleported from the chaotic world also possesses temporal energy... That place is truly a treasure trove. The guildmaster wouldn't end up gaining a temporal godhead, would he? That would be something."
A deity associated with time would at least be of greater deity status, wouldn't they?
Anbaixiu felt a twinge of regret. He should have treated the guildmaster better back then; looking back now, their connection wasn't nearly solid enough.
Still, no matter. There would be opportunities in the future. After all, his great-granddaughter was still in Anbaixiu's hands.
There was no need to worry about that right now. Anbaixiu took out a sheet of parchment, densely wrote down a slew of formulas, and handed it to Isabel.
"There are five new recipes here. Brew ten bottles of each for me."
Isabel nervously took the recipes. After reading them over, she let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, she could understand everything written and knew how to proceed.
Anbaixiu wasn't idling either; he brought out a wide array of bottles and jars and went to work. Isabel was only brewing five types, but he was going to brew more than a dozen.
These were new recipes Anbaixiu had drafted based on the mucus's properties. A portion consisted of improvements to Isabel's recipe, which he left entirely to her, while the remaining dozen or so were his own concepts.
This mucus was capable of far more than merely brewing a weakened Potion of Youth.
Half a day later, Anbaixiu stared at the dozen or so bottles of potion before him, none too pleased.
These potions were essentially all failures. Anbaixiu had originally intended to extract the temporal power within the mucus to create a novel type of speed potion.
It was a special potion capable of dramatically increasing reflexes and speed for a short duration—expensive, yet indispensable.
For ordinary people, a speed potion could double the pace of their physical actions, and it also offered decent benefits to certain legendary powerhouses who lacked agility.
However, every speed potion on the market had a drawback: once the effect wore off, it left the drinker dizzy and disoriented, with severe cases requiring days in bed.
That kind of speed potion altered bodily functions as well, applying intense stimulation over a brief period to enhance the body and boost speed. Naturally, such enhancement came with side effects, making dizziness inevitable.
The working mechanism of this mucus, however, was fundamentally different. Perhaps it could be used to formulate a speed potion without side effects.
Except he had failed. The potions brewed before him either had no acceleration effect, had only a minuscule effect, or suffered from side effects worse than the original.
"Sure enough, innovation isn't so simple. Even with a new material, results can't be produced overnight."
Anbaixiu wasn't surprised. Alchemy was never that simple, and these dozen failed potions weren't completely useless either; at the very least, they ruled out incorrect directions, greatly increasing his chances of success in the next experiment.
Still, it wasn't all bad news. Isabel's improved Potion of Youth had yielded results. Three bottles of potion sat before Anbaixiu, slightly different in hue, but each possessing a gorgeous appearance that gathered starlight within.
Isabel said excitedly, "Teacher, you're amazing! All three of these potions work better than my recipe."
All three potions had a better rejuvenating effect than the original, though it remained to be seen how long it would last; that would require a few days of observation.
Anbaixiu gave a nod, feeling no particular pride.
Modifying an existing recipe was vastly simpler than creating a new one from scratch. Even if the ingredients deserved half the credit, Isabel's effort could not be overlooked either.
Anbaixiu instructed, "Run more tests over the next few days, then tier them into grades based on their varying efficacy. The one we're selling for twelve hundred gold coins is merely the basic edition. We'll also have a deluxe edition, an exceptional edition... Think of whatever names you like. Once the basic edition captures the market, we'll roll out the other versions."
"Huh? We can do that?" Isabel asked in astonishment.
"Didn't your previous teachers ever show you how to do this? Like watering down a potion to dilute its potency and selling it as genuine?" Anbaixiu asked.
Isabel hurriedly replied, "No! That was a felony in the City of Alchemy!"
A city that held knowledge in the highest esteem naturally cared deeply about the quality of alchemical products. Peddling counterfeit potions could carry a death sentence at most, and the lightest punishment was total confiscation of property followed by permanent exile. Normal people truly wouldn't dare.
Anbaixiu scoffed dismissively. "Felony, my foot. The Alchemists' Council sold counterfeit medicine themselves. Besides, the Alchemists' Council is gone now, and we're not selling fakes anyway. Isn't it completely reasonable to sell an improved recipe for a higher price?"
When the economy collapsed, the City of Alchemy itself had peddled substandard goods under the guise of quality, completely ignoring the law. No matter which world one was in, such practices were never lacking.
Isabel said awkwardly, "Teacher... the Alchemists' Council seems to have been reformed."
"Huh? What did you say?" Anbaixiu exclaimed in surprise.
Isabel quickly pulled out a letter and handed it to Anbaixiu, explaining, "This is an invitation sent by the new Alchemists' Council. Take a look."
Anbaixiu opened the envelope. It contained courteous platitudes, followed by an invitation for Isabel to attend the ceremony for the re-establishment of the Alchemists' Council in a month's time.
The procedure was all too familiar. When the Alchemists' Council was first founded, they had invited Anbaixiu as well. Even the courteous platitudes used were identical—they had simply copied the old template, swapped out the name, and sent it off.
Isabel had created a novel Potion of Youth. Even though it had a time limit, inventing a new potion made her worthy of this invitation.
What caught Anbaixiu's attention most was the signature at the bottom of the letter—Gustavo Fring.
"That old geezer isn't dead yet?" Anbaixiu remarked with regret.
"Teacher, the ceremony is in three days. Do you want to attend?" Isabel asked.
Anbaixiu casually tossed the letter aside and said, "It's not like they invited me. What would I go for?"
"But..."
Isabel really wanted to say that she didn't dare go.
This was the Alchemists' Council, and that Master Fring was a legendary alchemist. She had even been reading the master's works over the past few days. To Isabel, he was a grand figure towering impossibly high above her.
She had merely gotten lucky, stumbling upon a special material to produce a new potion. Isabel didn't feel this was her own capability at all; had it been handed to other alchemists, they probably would have made it faster and better than she had.
After all, hadn't Anbaixiu just glanced at the recipe and immediately jotted down improvement schemes? Isabel felt she was still nothing more than an apprentice, entirely unqualified to attend such a high-profile event.
Thus, Isabel originally hadn't wanted to make a fool of herself, dreading that she wouldn't be able to string half a sentence together when talking with other alchemists.
Now that Anbaixiu had suddenly returned, Isabel hoped he could take her along to broaden her horizons.
"Teacher, this is the Alchemists' Council. Shouldn't a master like you join and become a member?" Isabel idolized Anbaixiu immensely; in her eyes, there was no difference between Anbaixiu and those legendary alchemists.
Anbaixiu scoffed disdainfully. "What are you thinking? Back then, the guildmaster invited me in person, and I turned him down. What does Gustavo Fring count for? Back then, he teamed up with Ryan to tear down my castle, and I haven't even settled that debt with him yet..."
Mid-sentence, Anbaixiu suddenly stood up and said with firm conviction, "Oh, you just reminded me. It really is time to settle that debt properly."
As the saying went, even a shipwreck had three jin of iron nails. Gustavo Fring had once been a wealthy man after all; he ought to be good for squeezing out some profit now.
Chapter 237