Extracting "Magical Substance"

Richard did not listen to what Edward was saying and appeared in the room of the Independent Laboratory.

Before him was a spacious room of more than fifty square meters. The walls had been painted an immaculate white, and several Black Walnut tables had been pushed together in the middle of the floor, resembling an operating table. On them lay the python's corpse that the soldiers had just brought in.

Many wooden racks stood around the tables. Some held various instruments, experimental materials, knives, and the like, while others were instruments themselves. Most of them were far beyond the current world's level of technological development and had taken Richard considerable effort to have made.

Simply put, the technology in the room Richard now occupied was more than three hundred years ahead of the entire era, while the scientific thinking contained within it surpassed the age by at least seven or eight centuries.

Richard narrowed his eyes and walked toward a wooden rack. A handle was mounted on its side, with a nozzle beneath it and a wooden bucket below that.

Richard reached out and pulled the handle, positioning it beneath the nozzle. After a brief wait, a colorless, transparent liquid with a pungent odor flowed from the nozzle onto his hands.

This was seventy-five percent alcohol, which could serve as disinfectant. Richard carefully scrubbed every finger, ensuring that every part was thoroughly cleaned. He shut off the nozzle, lightly shook his hands a few times, and waited until the remaining alcohol had fully evaporated before walking to another wooden rack.

He took out a complete set of knives that had long since been disinfected with alcohol and walked to the wooden table holding the python.

At that moment, Richard's gaze fell upon the python's corpse as he carefully examined this strange creature capable of setting its entire body ablaze.

"The head is relatively small in proportion." Richard measured the python's skull with his hand. He pried open its mouth and saw no long fangs, then added, "Nonvenomous. Flattened snout."

"Three pairs of labial pits." Richard looked at the part of the python resembling a human upper lip and saw three pairs of depressions. He knew these were a special structure of pythons, similar to infrared sensors. They allowed a python to detect warm-blooded animals in its surroundings at night, pinpoint their locations, and thus track and attack them.

"Brownish tan." Richard shifted his gaze from the python's head to its entire body and back. "The back is yellowish, with arrow-shaped markings and numerous irregular cloud-like patterns."

"The belly is white." With a slight exertion of strength, Richard turned the entire python over. He looked at its lower body, where the python's cloaca was located, and then spotted a pair of protrusions. "It also has a pair of degenerated claw-like limbs."

"By the looks of it, it is quite similar to the Burmese Python on Modern Earth. It might even be a close relative." After finishing his examination, Richard muttered to himself as data about Burmese Pythons rapidly flashed through his mind: Burmese Python, also known as Burmese rock python, violin snake, or double-banded boa; scientific name: Python bivittatus; one subspecies of the Asian rock python of the Python genus, Pythonidae family, Serpentes suborder; the third-largest python on Modern Earth. Known for its immense size, it could grow up to seven meters long and weigh up to ninety-one kilograms. The world's longest Burmese Python measured 9.75 meters...

"Seven meters? 9.75 meters?" Richard spoke the numbers aloud and looked at the python on the table, which was only a little over three meters long. Thoughtfully, he said, "If it truly is a close relative, then it probably has not reached adulthood yet. But if it can produce flames as hot as 1,500°C before reaching adulthood, what would it be like once fully grown? Tsk, Demonized Creatures truly are remarkable."

The next moment, Richard took a deep breath, grabbed a knife he had prepared beforehand, and stabbed it into the python's body. With a pfft, the sharp blade easily sliced through the python's skin. With a slight exertion, he smoothly cut downward, opening the python's entire body and exposing everything within.

Richard rummaged through the internal organs, his eyes narrowing.

According to the descriptions in countless entertainment novels from Modern Earth, a magical creature like this python should have contained something like a "crystal core" or "magic crystal" within its body to provide energy for casting spells.

From a scientific perspective, however, if a python could set its entire body ablaze, then it had to possess some special organ or gland that ordinary pythons lacked.

Yet Richard found none of those things.

Richard furrowed his brow slightly, and his gaze eventually settled on the python's skin. He clearly remembered that the snakeskin he had touched in the fraudulent wizard's package had been warm. Clearly, there was something special within the snakeskin. Pressing his lips together, he gripped the knife and cut downward, quickly separating the python's skin from its flesh. Before long, Richard obtained a complete python skin.

He soaked the python skin, and after boiling it for a long time, a thick yellow substance resembling grease floated to the surface of the water.

"This is..."

Richard did not hesitate. He quickly scooped up the yellow substance, took an iron plate from a nearby wooden rack, placed it inside, and tried to ignite it.

With a pfft, orange-yellow flames surged upward. The air instantly grew hotter, yet the iron plate showed no signs of turning red from the heat. When he reached out and touched it, it was surprisingly ice-cold. Watching the yellow substance in the iron plate slowly diminish, Richard came to a realization.

"This substance within the python skin can seep through the scales to the exterior, where it burns and produces high-temperature flames for attack. At the same time, the vaporization of the liquid carries away a great amount of heat, ensuring that the body surface remains at a low temperature and does not suffer burns.

"It is much like the 'unburnable handkerchief' trick—before the performance, the cotton cloth is soaked in alcohol and then set alight. Because the water in the handkerchief vaporizes and absorbs heat, keeping the handkerchief's temperature below cotton's ignition point, the cotton remains completely intact even after the alcohol burns out and the flames go out..."

"If that is the case..." Richard's eyes lit up. "The so-called Magical Substance should be in this. If the water, grease, and impurities are filtered out, what remains should be pure Magical Substance."

"Then..."

Richard did not continue. Instead, he immediately got to work.

He scooped out all the yellow greasy substance, placed it in a jar, and began distilling it.

Since Richard was doing it himself, he was naturally far faster than the unqualified ponytailed maid outside.

Before long, Richard had distilled the excess water from the golden greasy substance, separated out the grease and other impurities, and ultimately obtained a small bottle of golden-yellow liquid that looked like melted gold.

"Is this the real Magical Substance?" Richard stared at the golden liquid, his eyes narrowed to slits. He felt that some of the answers he had been seeking might soon be revealed.

The next moment, Richard quickly disinfected and washed his hands with alcohol, picked up the bottle of liquid, and strode out of the laboratory.

By then, several hours had passed, and night had fallen. Edward was still waiting outside. When he saw Richard emerge, he opened his mouth, prepared to continue persuading him.

But Richard waved a hand. "Edward, have someone clean my laboratory, then guard the palace entrance. I have urgent matters to attend to now. No one is allowed to disturb me. I will not be having dinner either. Whatever happens, wait until tomorrow to speak of it."

"Uh..."

After saying that, Richard walked toward one side of the hall, quickly ascended the wooden staircase to the second floor, entered his bedroom and the connected study, and shut the door tight with a bang.