What seemed to be a letter with nearly nothing on it had taken many times longer than the usual time spent reading a neatly written page.
On top of the second page of the letter there were only five formulas. Unexpectedly, they were all alchemy formulas!
If it was only given like this, then they would still be an outstanding master alchemist, but it was still not an impossible accomplishment to sum up five alchemy recipes by oneself. However, these five formulas, in addition to the first method for producing acid, were all correlated well with each other. Certain neologisms appeared repeatedly, giving the appearance that it was a maintained cycle.
“Nitric acid reacts with silver to produce silver nitrate, mixed together with water it becomes nitric oxide.”
“Silver nitrate reacts with iron to form ferrous nitrate and silver.”
“Silver nitrate reacts with copper to form copper nitrate and silver.”
“Copper nitrate reacts with iron to form ferrous nitrate and copper.”
Previously, Kyle had already put a silver bar into the acidic liquid. It hadn’t taken long before the silver was dissolved. Dissolving something or letting it become invisible were the characteristic of acid, it corroded anything. But now, this unknown alchemist had stated that the silver nitrate had been dissolved in the water and on the surface it seemed to have gone away, but in fact, the silver had only morphed into another kind of existence, instead of being annihilated as previously thought.
How can this be?
No… Kyle shook his head. Apparently, the other side had already guessed my way of thinking, so that meant, these formulas correlating with each other isn’t something accidental, he realized. This person wrote these formulas exactly so that I could confirm them, whether it is silver, iron or copper, these are all common minerals. According to the following alchemy recipes, the silver can reappear again, proving that it wasn’t annihilated, and still exists within the acid.
Seeing these formulas so neatly arranged on the paper again and again, it became increasingly more difficult for him to breath. If these alchemy formulas could be proven to be true, their years of accumulated experience, the effort that all of his colleagues had put in and even the writing in his own book “The Door to Alchemy” would be nothing more than a joke!
“You can go to sleep early on with the child; I have to go to the Alchemy Workshop again!”
To the surprise of his wife, he wouldn’t attend to her tonight. Instead, Kyle put on his coat and left straight into the night.
Arriving at the Alchemy Square, he immediately called for the three disciples who were still buzzy on their duties, telling them that he now had to conduct an alchemy test and they had to light all the torches and candles, the more they lit, the better. His order was swiftly quickly executed, and soon after his wide table became illuminated by flames. Afterward, his disciples began to shuffling between the materials room and the refining room, preparing all the test materials for the Chief Instructor.
They had already produced several acid liquids out of dry distilled saltpeter, so he could immediately start verifying the second alchemy recipe.
He took some of the acid liquid and poured it into a glass; he then put a silver bar into it. Soon after the reaction started and the bar gradually corroded, creating many small bubbles.
To shorten the anxiety filled waiting process, he turned his attention to the third page of the letter.
But on it were only one short sentence: “This was only a small part of my work, if you want to know more answers, you have to come to Border Town.”
Damn it! Writing this sentence is equivalent to writing nothing! If I’m able to verify the formulas, I have no other option other than to go and visit this unknown master. Otherwise, there will only be sleepless nights left to me for the rest of my life.
After waiting until no more bubbles emerged, he removed the incomplete dissolved silver bar and put a small piece of copper into the cup instead.
Immediately an incredible things started to happen on the surface of the copper, a thin white film began to appear, looking like a beetle’s shell. The white layer became larger and larger, slowly covering the whole surface of the copper, while the colorless acid slowly turned blue.
It is exactly the same as described in the letter!
“The white precipitate is silver, and the newly created copper nitrate, just like silver nitrate, is soluble in water. However, the copper nitrate will turn the water blue.”
Looking into the cup, Kyle Sichi saw that it had turned blue, just as stated.
…