In the alchemy laboratory of the Crow Hotel, Lu Ning suddenly raised his head from the table, rubbed his eyes, and looked at the empty coffee pot next to him, feeling that this thing had no effect on either Lillian or himself.
However, I finally understand why this suspended animation potion is so complicated.
Lu Ning picked up the last piece of calculation paper at hand, folded it and stuffed it into her pocket. She stood up and walked outside to eat something before continuing.
This potion can be refined simply by following the instructions, but then Lu Ning won't know what kind of potion Xue Ni wants. When she first asked, Xueni did not directly state that he would provide the formula. He only said it when she continued to ask, which implicitly meant that he wanted her to ignore these questions.
The main body of the potion, that is, the suspended animation potion itself has no problem. It is of the same standard as the alchemy potions circulating on the market, but the key point lies in the "impurities" part.
The standard purity of alchemical potions is over 95. In fact, there is no 100% pure potion. Any potion will always produce impurities due to environmental disturbances. The essence of alchemy lies in "exchange", so there is no need to consider the conflict of medicinal properties, so usually no one cares about what the impurities are.
However, this formula also provides a certain degree of guidance on the impurity part, adding some hidden "small functions" without violating the main medicinal properties of the suspended animation potion.
Lu Ning thought as she walked to the front. It was already late at night or early in the morning. It was the busiest time in the hotel. The previously empty shop was now filled with drinkers, and some magic could be seen outside. Crowd under the flames. The clerks were busy walking through the aisles delivering drinks and dishes, and the smell in the air began to mix.
"You're out? How are you? Are there any difficulties?" The boss was sitting very close to the entrance and stood up immediately when he saw Lu Ning coming out.
"No, I'm just hungry. Is there anything to eat?"
"Meat and vegetable dishes?"
"It can last a little longer."
"Okay, should I eat here or send it to you?"
Lu Ning was a little confused: "Can we eat outside? Don't we have to avoid it..."
"It's easy to notice if you are too deliberate. This entrance is slightly adjusted to lead to the guest room. It is used to receive some temporary guests. No one will be suspicious." The boss waved his hand, "But you'd better not talk to anyone. , find a corner and wait, I will bring you the things."
Lu Ning nodded. There were still some empty seats in the store. She found a dimly lit corner and sat down, where she could basically see the entire store.
Most of the guests were partying outside, and there were only about twenty people in the store. In addition to two tables with many people gathering for dinner, there were also some customers in twos and threes. It can be said that the styles of clothes on these people are very different, probably because they are people from various countries who came for the exchange meeting.
Lu Ning habitually observed everyone's words and deeds, but soon a clerk brought her a grilled steak with a thick layer of sauce, a bowl of stew and a glass of mixed juice.
Lu Ning picked up the knife and fork and started to eat. From time to time, she could hear the people in front of her chatting about the changes in the city or various strange news.
“Only when you really visit it do you realize how big the Ewa Gallery is.”
"Oh? How many districts have you visited?"
"I started to visit the diamond area here. I haven't finished watching the outer area yet. I will go to the central area when the tour here is over."
"anything fun?"
"Hey, if you follow those people's instructions and go to places like commercial streets, you won't see anything new. If you want to go, go...underground." The man lowered his voice slightly.
Lu Ning still heard the two words he said clearly. She probably drank too much and couldn't suppress her excitement. She glanced at the boss sitting on the other side. It stands to reason that this hotel is actually some kind of "underground" facility, but she has not yet planned to start with this route, so she did not start investigating the clues here.
At this time, two attractive men and women walked in.
Usually it is difficult for people to recognize the relationship between twins between a man and a woman at a glance, but these two people can make such a judgment at first glance. The two of them had almost heroic faces and sassy short hair. The only thing that could distinguish them was that the woman's hair just reached her shoulders, while the man's hair was behind the ears. The two people's clothes are exactly the same style, but they are black for the man and white for the woman. Two roses are embroidered on the side of the waist in reverse color.
Seeing these two people, even the boss stood up directly.
"Good evening, you two brothers and sisters haven't been here for a while." He walked to the bar and greeted him personally.
"Pierre, it's great to see you still in such good spirits. You probably haven't done any experiments that could kill you recently, right?" The corners of the man's mouth were slightly raised, but his smile was a little cold, "How is it? Are you still doing it here? Working for...?"
His mouth just opened the word in the middle without pronouncing it.
"That depends on whether you can bear it." The boss quickly stopped smiling, "Aren't you here to meet old friends?"
"Of course, after all, the first thing I think of when I come to Moonstone District is your old friend."
The woman leaned sideways on the counter, her voice soft and comforting, but Lu Ning frowned when she heard this.
"Old friends? Then I wonder if I can know your real names?"
The man coughed lightly: "If we had revealed our names, we would have been arrested long ago."
"It's better to just call us by their code names. This is how we came here before, right?" The woman smiled and leaned towards the bar, which just blocked Lu Ning's perspective, and the perspective of most people in the store was probably also blocked. The male blocked it.
Lu Ning saw a slight movement on the woman's hand, probably taking out something.
The boss's expression suddenly changed, and his hands were even shaking.
"You two."
"Hey, Pierre, we have principles, this matter has nothing to do with us." The man said dissatisfied.
However, the boss didn't listen to his nonsense at all. He grabbed a room number plate from under the bar and stuffed it into the man's hand. He pointed to the stairs leading to the underground: "Now take the key and get out of here with you damn trouble." , old room, wait until I think about how to deal with this matter before I go down to find you, and don’t let me come out before that!"
"...Thank you, Pierre." The man said after a slight silence.
"Wait until you don't beat me to death before you say this."
The man and woman walked down the stairs in silence, and Pierre immediately took out a gem from his pocket, pulled a clerk over to look at the bar, and got behind.
He went to contact Xueni.
Lu Ning put a small piece of meat into his mouth, but he was paying attention to the whole thing from the corner of his eyes. Not many people in the store are as concerned about this matter as she is. After all, everyone knows what kind of business the Crow Hotel does, and this kind of thing is commonplace.
But for Lu Ning, everything that happens now is a clue if it can be followed.
She calculated the time briefly, and soon Pierre came out from behind. There were even beads of sweat on his dark face. He swallowed slightly and walked to Lu Ning's side.
"Lillian... er... ma'am?"
"Just call me Lillian."
"Miss Xue Ni said that she will contact you and ask you to go to the alchemy laboratory with me." Pierre lowered his voice.
"oh?"
Lu Ning glanced at the dishes on the table, and Pierre immediately helped her pick them up: "I'll help you pick them up. I'm sorry it's an emergency..."
"Understood."
The two quickly returned to the alchemy laboratory. At this time, Lu Ning had already felt that the contact gem was heating up. She took it out, Pierre closed the door, and Xueni's voice came over.
"Lillian, it's an emergency."
"Well, so you have to tell me yourself, right?"
"Yes, Pierre and I have an employment contract. I believe in his loyalty, but loyalty does not necessarily mean keeping secrets. There is a master-slave contract between you and me. At this time, I must rely on the binding force of the contract, otherwise things will not work. It’s going to get bad…very bad.”
"Tell me." Lu Ning already had a vague suspicion in her mind.
"Pierre just received two people. Since you are already working in my laboratory, you can probably guess what my 'business' includes with your intelligence. Of the two people, one of us is more valuable. The 'supply sources' are codenamed Black Rose and White Rose, and their identities are thieves."
"Um."
"They are very clever. In addition to some work such as exploring ruins and picking up corpses on battlefields, they also steal some from the rich and powerful. Let's not mention these things for now. Today's trouble is caused by them, just because they came to the hotel. I touched someone on the way."
"...And then you got something incredible?"
"Yes, it is the thing we discussed in the morning. Fortunately, Black Rose is a high-level magician, and White Rose's transformation is also advanced. In addition, the experience brought by their work allows them to identify what it is, so it It hasn’t been opened yet.”
"They stole the guy who did that?"
"Maybe that would be better...but Pierre told me that although the thing was not opened, it was taken apart."
Lu Ning was confused: "I don't quite understand?"
"Pierre is here?" Xue Ni suddenly changed the subject.
"Yes, miss."
"Now you leave the house, guard the door, and cast a silencing spell. After Lilian comes out, all actions will be carried out according to her instructions. What she means is what I mean. Do you understand?"
"No problem, I'll guard the door right now." Pierre responded gruffly, turned around and walked out of the laboratory.
"Can't you tell him?"
"This part of the information needs to be 'filtered' by yourself. I am not present and cannot directly command, but you should be qualified for this position."
"I'm just an apprentice!"
"I am only a junior mage, but I already have so many properties in Evarang. Lilian, there is no connection between magical attainments and a person's ability to survive." Xue Ni's voice was extremely calm, "Next, I will What I tell you is all intelligence, and I don’t care which of them are used or what arrangements are made, and you absolutely cannot leave it all to any one person."
"You can also break this up and do it."
"Yes, after all, it hit my hand. By the way, don't talk about this with Catherine and Liz. The contract cannot bind you to tell them, but I don't want them to get involved."
"And I got involved." Lu Ning said.
"No one is immune to the storm, but there must always be someone who can investigate on the front line. Lilian, you are safe now. Your identity is a layer of protection for you. You are also the most suitable person I can contact at the moment. Someone who handles this.”
"one?"
"One, don't worry, the pressure won't be all on you. Okay, let's get down to business, what Black Rose stole is one of the five lost magic books..."
"Five magic books?"
"Five. After you raised the possibility, of course I will go find out the news. The news is not exact, but at least it is this number."
Lu Ning was silent. It wasn't that there were too many, but... too few.
For tourists with more than twenty people, the task of identifying the thieves is a personal main line, which means that the number of thieves must at least meet the needs of the tourists to complete the task. So either gang thefts are included, or the number is lower, or the thefts occurred more than once.
"That thing should be a chapter from the book "Garden of the Gods" among the five stolen books."
"Are you sure about this? Didn't you open it?"
"Lillian, you don't think the Magic Book is really just a book, do you?"
"Sorry, I haven't had a chance to go to the magic bookstore yet, so the magic books are in different forms?"
"It is a powerful magic prop that carries the lifelong knowledge, experience, talent and part of the soul of a magician above the Grand Magister. One person can only write a magic book, but it can be written on anything. People who have achieved such a glorious life and reached the level of a Grand Magister usually choose the most important souvenirs in their lives to write a magic book."
"So the places to search are actually not just bookstores."
"That's different. Opening a special form of book requires careful exploration and communication with magic power. People don't do that when buying some magic props or decorations."
"please continue."
""Garden of the Gods" comes from a divine magician. He has performed trances twelve times in his life. His soul is extremely close to the form of a god. He can even perceive some ambiguities in the divine world through this divine induction. Image. He picked up twelve lake stones from the lake where he prayed, wrote this magic book using these most ordinary stones, and strung these stones together with his own hair."
"So, Black Rose stole a stone?"
"After so many years, even ordinary stones have undergone qualitative changes under the influence of the magic book's magic. As thieves, of course they will not miss such a gem that looks very high-quality. The problem is, it is a gem, not A bunch.”
"This is the toughest question, isn't it?"
By now, Lu Ning also knew that Xue Ni would not worry about explaining to the guards why the magic book was in her hands. The strength she had shown now could already deal with these obvious problems. Xueni wanted her to handle the matter of the opened magic book.
