Chapter 1253: Dragon King? Legend! (Part 2)

“Oh?”

The old craftsman stared at Ian for a few seconds, seemingly intrigued by his confidence. He glanced at the door, and seeing no new customers coming in, nodded: “Alright, since it’s quiet now anyway. I’ll give you a test, to see what level your ‘slight achievement’ has reached.”

“If you can’t answer, then just go buy a finished product and don’t disrupt my work.” He studied Ian once more with an appraising look.

“Of course, at your disposition.” Ian elegantly nodded slightly.

The old craftsman cleared his throat, and began his “assessment”, starting with the basics of alchemy material processing.

“Extracting the essence of Moonlight Flower, what is the key moment in the process?”

“When the edges of the petals just start to show a silver glow, and the moonlight hasn’t fully blended into the juice, you instantly cool it to lock in the spirituality.” Ian answered without hesitation, even adding, “Using Cyprus’s Frost Crystal container works better, retaining over ninety-five percent activity.”

The old craftsman’s eyes flashed with a hint of astonishment, nodding as the questions began to deepen.

“How do you overcome the natural repulsion between mercury and refined gold?”

“No need to overcome it, utilize it.”

Ian replied calmly, “Construct microscopic vortices using the repulsion force, introduce a stable thread of earth vein energy as a neutralizer and bridge, the resulting alloy structure is in fact more stable, and magic power connectivity increases by thirty percent.”

Still a flawless answer.

The old craftsman sat up straighter, his expression becoming more serious: “Then… fabricating a replica of the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’, what are the three most crucial pseudo-material substitution solutions and their energy loss rates respectively?”

This was quite a professional question, touching upon the domain of high tier alchemy. Of course, practice and theory are one thing, many advanced alchemists know the theory.

Ian thought for five seconds, and smoothly replied: “First, use powder from Crimson Gem mixed with Phoenix Ashes to substitute the Essence of Life, loss rate about forty percent; second, use Stellar Core Shards to replace Philosopher’s Base, loss rate as high as sixty percent but has the best stability; third, the most unconventional option, use Hourglass Sand worn-out by the Time Converter as a catalyzing medium, directly skipping the step of material reconstruction, loss rate uncertain, the risk is extremely high.”

The old craftsman’s breath became slightly rapid, these questions already pertained to the core field of his lifelong research, yet the other seamlessly answered them, even providing a third option he had never heard of!

He couldn’t help asking for more details, which Ian provided clear and deep answers to, even pointing out possible breakthrough directions for several bottlenecks in the old craftsman’s own research.

The old craftsman’s expression had shifted from curiosity to shock.

He posed one final question, almost the zenith of alchemy he could comprehend, regarding how to safely detach and inject soul fragments into magic items without causing a backlash from the dark arts.

Ian pondered for a moment, didn’t answer directly, instead asked: “Why detach? Instead of guiding and coexistence? Forceful detachment inevitably harms the source, violating the core principles of alchemy ‘equivalent exchange’ and ‘harmonious transformation’. Perhaps constructing a two-way energy circulation path could be tried, merging part of the caster’s consciousness temporarily with the item’s spirituality, achieving similar effects without permanent damage…”

This was a problem Ian had long researched thoroughly.

Finding the cause.

He elaborated on a new approach based on Ancient Runes and Soul Magic, the depth of knowledge and creative thinking involved completely exceeded the old craftsman’s cognitive range.

The old craftsman listened entranced, many difficulties that had troubled him for years suddenly became clear, he even felt his understanding of the Magic Rune had elevated a level because of this!

After a long time, Ian finished speaking. The old craftsman sat there dumbfounded, eyes vacant, seemingly still digesting the massive amount of information. His face had completely lost the previous disdain, replaced by an immense shock and … unbelievable confusion. Ian thought perhaps the answer didn’t satisfy the other.

“Of course, if you simply wish to survive in the world, I do have the simplest method—Soul Artifact.” Ian studied the fusion of souls into alchemy items for this reason.

He had delved deeply into Voldemort’s methods of Soul Artifact.

“No no no, that is the choice of fools, I am very smart, and I also look forward to the adventures after death.” The old craftsman directly waved it off, demonstrating the mindset a truly wise wizard should have.

“Then you truly are a great wizard.”

Ian sincerely spoke, the other’s words aligned with Dumbledore’s viewpoints, evidently indeed a remarkable wizard.

“Thank you for the compliment, but why is your knowledge so exploitative…” The old craftsman seemed to realize something, he abruptly raised his head, staring intensely at Ian’s excessively youthful face, his gaze flickered sharply. Suddenly, as if having a hypothesized notion, he trembled while groping under his workbench, taking out a brass apparatus resembling a fusion of compass and crystal ball, covered with complex runes.

He was seen.

The old craftsman adjusted the device.

Muttering incantations, he aimed the apparatus at Ian, cautiously infusing magic power. The apparatus’s pointer spun wildly, the runes on the surface flickered unsteadily, the central crystal ball first attempted to manifest something, then abruptly fell into chaos, finally even emitted a slight “crack” sound.