The String Knight's Manuscript
This notebook is very thick, with a warm, dark brown leather cover. Opening to the first page, one finds meticulously recorded experiences and key points regarding Pharmacology. The notebook begins with a preface:
"Pharmacology is a complex and sophisticated discipline that includes a great deal of Alchemical Arts. It is an essential learning experience for advanced pharmacists."
"Of course, this handbook is designed for Pharmacology apprentices with weak foundations, specifically those with limited technical skills. It will cover pharmaceutical techniques, medicinal materials and principles, and the classification of medicinal materials."
Below this preface, separated by two lines of blank space, is a sentence in slightly vigorous handwriting that clearly does not belong to the main text above:
I hope you can go further and further down this path.
The name left after that sentence was that of the String Knight. Lu Yuan paused slightly as he looked at the line of text, then reached out and turned to the next page of the journal to see the table of contents.
The entire curriculum is clearly organized, dividing the complex field of Pharmacology into several major parts.
The first part is the classification of medicinal materials. Various Transcendence medicinal materials are divided into several major categories based on their general properties, and simple and intuitive identification methods are also provided next to them.
For example, the basic appearance of fire-attribute medicinal herbs, their leaf veins and root color, as well as the unique external characteristics of ice-attribute medicinal herbs and other medicinal herbs are all clearly summarized.
Turning the page, the next section is about the techniques of making medicine. There aren't actually that many techniques for making medicine; they mainly focus on three or four basic categories, especially the core principles such as temperature control during decoction and the method of crushing medicinal materials. After that, the corresponding breakdown of medicinal materials and principles is presented.
This notebook, progressing from simple to complex, explains many previously obscure pharmaceutical secrets in great detail, which Lu Yuan found very interesting.
Just as Lu Yuan was engrossed in watching the crushing technique on the book pages and had no idea of the time passing, a series of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the west-side cubicle. Someone came over and knocked on the wooden door looking for him.
Lu Yuan snapped out of his reverie, gently closed the alchemy manual in his hand, and put it down. Gray-White Text prompt quietly appeared below his vision: Pharmacology +0.8.
[Pharmacology: 23.2/50]
Lu Yuan glanced at the flashing entries, carefully put away the String Knight's notes, and looked up to see Lin En walk in with a heavy expression. Lu Yuan looked at Lin En with some confusion and said:
"Have you finished your investigation?"
Lin En walked quickly to the lab table and said to Lu Yuan with a serious expression:
"Advisor Lu Yuan, the interrogation is basically complete, and we have also done a simple review of the projects Herbert took over."
"It involves a large number of officials from upstream and downstream sectors, and even directly implicates the Earl."
"This the Earl's identity is very special. We cannot arrest him until we obtain conclusive evidence from the interrogation. For now, we can only start with the projects Herbert has taken over."
As Lin En spoke, he solemnly unfolded a large, rolled-up map in front of Lu Yuan. It was a huge map of Watch City.
Watch City covers an extremely vast area, and on this huge map, from south to north, a huge arc has been marked in red, encompassing almost half of Watch City.
Within this area enclosed by an arc, everything—from the heating boiler room and water storage tank to the Waterworks and even some messy sewer pipes—has undergone a certain degree of reinforcement and repair.
Lin En pointed to the map covered in red circles, his face turning slightly green. His voice was tense and grave as he spoke to Lu Yuan:
"Advisor Lu Yuan, we have some very bad news. With a population of nearly one million in Watch City, Herbert has been in charge of dozens of construction and renovation projects, covering almost half of Watch City. This is a huge project with no end in sight!"
"The only good news is that the largest main furnaces and Waterworks in Watch City were not Contamination or harmed by him."
"Even so, with our current resources, it's wishful thinking to investigate all of this in a short time, and we'd also be risking being Contamination in the process."
Lin En gripped the edge of the table, took a deep breath, steadied himself, and continued:
"After a brief discussion, we decided to postpone our search for a place to cultivate the Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom'."
"Since that thing is the core method of the Heretic, and they have already started this plan, the training location they have chosen must be extremely secluded, sparsely populated, or well disguised. That's why we haven't discovered it yet. With our current manpower, searching for their training location will only lead to a very difficult situation."
"Therefore, after discussion, we need your help, Consultant Lu Yuan."
Upon hearing this, Lu Yuan looked at Lin En in front of him and nodded, saying:
"Sure, if you need any help, just let me know."
Lin En pointed to the red dots connecting the dots on the map and continued speaking to Lu Yuan:
"After our discussion, our goal is to find out exactly how many places they have placed mature 'Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom' in, where no one is paying attention."
"If they hadn't overlooked this during the setup, because the Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom causes memory loss in people, leading to some people causing too much commotion and prematurely exposing the existence of the Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom, this thing probably wouldn't have been discovered for a long time."
"They previously placed one in boiler room number three. Did they also place one in boiler room number two and boiler room number three? Is it even possible that someone has put spores of the Illusion-Reality Boundary Mushroom' into the residents' drinking water?"
"Now everyone in the city needs to drink water, and that water comes through those sealed pipes. If the Waterworks, the sealed pipes, the steam pipes, and even the tallest buildings like the Clock Tower are all covered in them, and one day they all explode simultaneously, the whole city won't even be able to escape!"
As Lu Yuan listened to Lin En's explanation, his gaze fell on the dense Pipe Network markings on the west side of the map, and he interjected with a question:
"So how do you plan to arrange manpower for the investigation? The Wailing Crystal haven't all arrived yet, so we probably don't have enough manpower from the local Night Watcher, right?"