The main building of Claremont Manor, the bridal chamber overlooking the Fountain Garden.
“Big pot…”
“Do I look like my sister to you?”
Lin Nuo froze for a moment as he stepped past the screen, hearing that familiar, cool voice coming from inside the room.
But the figure on the bed, poised in a perfectly “Yulilian” duck sitting position, gave off a strikingly refined and otherworldly aura that clashed with the tone’s coldness.
Looking at the face, which already bore a six-part resemblance to Amidina, Lin Nuo couldn’t help but notice.
“That Transformation Art of yours…” He stared at her inexplicably swollen, abnormally bulky chest.
Raising his hand, he knocked on it—and was met with a solid “bang bang bang” sound.
“You… stuffed half a watermelon in there?”
Yulilian: “……”
“Maybe it’s because there’s no real substance in there, so never mind.”
Disengaging the Transformation Art, Yulilian pouted and sulked as she circled on the bed.
Upon hearing that, she suddenly understood, glanced at Lin Nuo’s flat chest, and planned to use magic to transform into his appearance.
But since she wasn’t sure if his entire body hair was golden and felt the Transformation Art wouldn’t capture such details—or be very useful—she gave up on the idea.
“You wanted to sneak off to Silver Tears Lake using the Transformation Art, right? Now it’s too late to replace your sister.”
“…Then what do we do?” Yulilian’s tone dropped.
“Shall we just hug each other and cry for a bit?”
“No need for that. If you’re still healthy, come sit by me. I’ll need your help soon.”
“Help with what?”
“You won’t understand.” Lin Nuo’s tone softened as Yulilian rubbed her belly and slowly approached.
“Extracting metallic sodium.”
Lin Nuo poured coarse salt mixed with sand into a large clay jar, added clear water, then detached the broken beam from the window and plunged it into the water, slowly stirring.
Once the salt dissolved sufficiently, he covered the surface of another clay basin with a fine hemp cloth.
Pouring the salted water through the cloth filtered out impurities easily.
He then placed the clay basin over the fire and continued stirring.
“Look here. When the brine evaporates, these crystals forming at the bottom are sodium chloride.”
Yulilian: “0.o?”
“…”
‘Forget it. No point explaining. She didn’t have the brain for it anyway.’
Yulilian took a few cautious steps closer, watching Lin Nuo arrange some iron wire on the table and place a sheet of paper with strange writings under an ink bottle to hold it flat.
The paper displayed a peculiar formula:
2NaCl (molten) {electrolysis} = 2Na + Cl₂↑
“Your sister’s Frost Soul Bow should be able to shoot arrows imbued with different magical elements based on the user’s intent,” Lin Nuo said.
“Can you conjure a fire magic arrow powerful enough to melt these crystals using your magic?”
“Fire?” Yulilian tilted her head.
“You’re seriously underestimating the Red Dragon. I already know fire magic myself!”
She rubbed her belly, as if checking her remaining mana.
Soon, she lifted her slender jade finger, shooting a narrow flame.
The high temperature instantly enveloped the sodium chloride crystals in the clay basin.
If she remembered correctly, sodium chloride’s melting point was 801 degrees Celsius.
Though the fire from her fingertips was small, the Red Dragon’s flame temperature definitely met Lin Nuo’s requirements.
“That’s enough!” Lin Nuo said, returning the dragon flame bow to Yulilian’s arms and immediately plunging the iron wire into the clay basin.
“Draw the bow. This time use lightning magic or electro magic. Just pass electricity through the iron wire… Don’t worry about how the electricity works, just follow my instructions.”
Yulilian couldn’t fully draw Amidina’s Frost Soul Bow, but shooting out a single lightning magic arrow was manageable.
She closed her eyes, her right hand twitching on the bowstring.
Suddenly, a lightning crackling arrow appeared, arcs of electricity bursting forth.
Following Lin Nuo’s commands, she listened closely:
“Don’t inject too much mana, don’t rush. Keep the arrow close to the wire and gradually increase the current…”
Electrolysis to produce metallic sodium requires controlling the voltage between 4 and 4.5 volts.
Obviously, using magic to conduct electricity can’t be that precise.
Lin Nuo brought plenty of coarse salt, fully prepared for hundreds, maybe thousands of failed attempts.
But—
“Zzzzzz—” The sharp sound of a vigorous chemical reaction filled the air, and Lin Nuo’s vision suddenly brightened.
He held his breath and gently fanned away the smoke rising from the basin.
Yulilian leaned in too.
There, floating in the basin, was a lump of metal shimmering like a silver ingot, clinging to some undissolved crystals.
And that metal, astonishingly similar in shape to the silver ingots intended for Silver Tears Lake!
It was as if the confused mind had been struck hard by the invisible electric arc.
Yulilian’s clear apricot eyes widened in stunned disbelief.
Normally slow to react except when eating, it was rare for anything to genuinely surprise her.
But this moment plunged her into a sudden, overwhelming shock.
“This weird thing might actually replace silver ingots!”
“But… no, wait!”
Yulilian raised her voice, tugging at Lin Nuo’s sleeve.
“If we use this metallic sodium instead of silver, it might fool others, but the wraiths won’t be attracted by this stuff.”
“That means your sister would have to use even more magic to purify the wraiths!”
“Replacing silver with this only causes your sister to consume more mana and become even more endangered—no other benefits.”
Before Yulilian finished, Lin Nuo grabbed the paper that had been weighed down under the ink bottle and wrote another chemical equation with a quill:
[2Na + 2H₂O → 2NaOH + H₂↑]
Breaking off a chunk of the metallic sodium, Lin Nuo, under Yulilian’s puzzled gaze, threw it directly into the first clay jar filled with water.
A thick plume of dense smoke and bubbling formed instantly as the metallic sodium violently reacted with water.
The explosion shattered the clay jar with a “boom”!
Yulilian was completely stunned, her heart skipping countless beats amid the shock.
“Wh-what is that?”
Her eyelashes fluttered upward as a rapid-fire string of questions poured out:
“Alchemy?”
“You created metal with divine magic?!”
“Did you chant a spell?!”
“Uh… I didn’t create the metal with divine magic. I’m just a chemistry transporter. The spell is to master math and science well—then you don’t fear anything in the world.”
“…Pfft! Forget that nonsense,” Lin Nuo suddenly shifted tone.
“I asked the elves in the Sacred Relic Hall. When the Magic Whale awakens, they throw silver ingots around the lake.”
“If the silver happens to explode at that moment…”
Lin Nuo looked at the dazed Yulilian.
“What do you think the Magic Whale will do?”
“Your first thought on seeing this metal was to use it as a silver replacement, right? So you must have guessed—the only chance to save your sister is to get the Magic Whale involved.”
“But the biggest problem is, we can’t communicate with the magical creature at all. No way to attack, not even to approach Silver Tears Lake…”
It’s like watching an opera, helplessly as the actors on stage follow their scripts, each one controlled by another.
The only thing you can use is the ‘props’ on stage…
If these props can explode with violent heat, enough to provoke the already ill-tempered lead…
Could the lead tear down the entire stage for him?
“Yulilian, tell me—if a magical creature with intelligence, newly awakened and raging, senses the danger of exploding silver, will it still rise from the lake… Or will it fly into a rage, attack, and smash the magic array on the lake surface first?”