After bidding farewell to Olivia, Ian did not stay too much in the outside world. He handed over the task of monitoring the world situation to Tower Spirit Morgana, and he teleported directly back to the core laboratory in the independent dimension.
Here, one of the biggest gains of his trip is sealed.
In a Chamber of Secrets room that was sealed by multiple barriers, a special flask was suspended in mid-air. Inside the flask, a white, amorphous substance was slowly squirming. It had a huge single eye open and was staring coldly at Ian through the glass wall.
This is Homunculus No. 1 created by Ian using the technology analyzed from Xerxes Ruins to completely replicate "Dwarf in the Flask" (father).
The only difference is that it's white.
"Master Alchemy, have you considered my proposal?"
Seeing Ian approaching, the little white man in the bottle grinned and showed a seductive smile, "As long as you help me create a body, I will share with you the endless knowledge behind Gate of Truth. That is a realm that mortals cannot touch..."
Ian looked at this chattering creature expressionlessly.
His purpose in creating it was never to obtain knowledge through "trading". For a wizard with Legilimency master level attainments, any thinking creature is an open book in front of him.
"Noisy."
Ian raised his hand, his eyes instantly became as deep as an abyss.
[Powerful·Legilimency]
Without any negotiation, the thinking probe roughly penetrated into the core of the white villain's consciousness like a red-hot sharp blade.
"Ah--! You can't... this is blasphemy!!"
The villain let out a shrill scream, but under the absolute mental suppression, it was unable to resist at all. Its memory was like a flood that burst a dam, being extracted and copied without reservation by Ian.
This little white man was born on the other side of the "door". As a native of that dimension, it was born with a massive amount of Alchemy underlying logic engraved on it.
A few hours later, Ian slowly opened his eyes, and countless complex alchemical formulas and arrays flashed across his eyes.
"That's it... this is the fragment of 'God'."
After digesting the memory, Ian's figure disappeared in the laboratory instantly.
The uninhabited desert at the junction of Amestris and Xing.
The sun is scorching in the sky and the heat wave is rolling.
Ian's figure appeared out of thin air. He was suspended in mid-air, holding his hands empty.
In the palm of his left hand, there is a piece of uranium-235 with a metallic luster suspended; in the palm of his right hand, there is a piece of plutonium-239.
This is the high-purity nuclear raw material he created through material recombination in Dimension Warehouse.
"In my previous life, humans used huge centrifuges and complex detonators to extract energy from atomic nuclei."
Ian looked at the metal in his hand and said to himself, "As a wizard, I have also developed forbidden spells that simulate nuclear explosions. But after all, they are 'artifacts' simulated with magic power."
"And now, with this knowledge..."
Ian Put your hands together slowly.
Snap.
This is not a prayer, but the activation of Alchemy.
There is no complicated Transmutation Circle light, because at his level, his body is the best Transmutation Circle.
Under the guidance of his will, the two pieces of metal in his palm were instantly compressed to the critical point. The neutron flow was accurately guided, hitting the atomic nucleus, and the chain reaction was ignited in a trillionth of a second.
That's the release of pure physical rules.
Boom--!!!
A bright light thousands of times more dazzling than the sun instantly deprived the world of color.
Immediately afterwards, a terrifying huge mushroom cloud rose into the sky from the depths of the desert, reaching straight into the sky. The terrifying shock wave carried hundreds of millions of tons of sand and dust, spreading to all directions with a devastating force, instantly flattening sand dunes with a radius of dozens of kilometers, and the high temperature directly crystallized the sand into glass.
Hundreds of kilometers away at the Xing border and Amestris outpost, you can clearly see the strange phenomena on the other side.
A few minutes later.
Ian held up a light blue magic shield and reappeared on the edge of the heart explosion.
Looking at the Hell-like scene in front of him, he nodded with satisfaction.
"Although I understood the principles of nuclear physics before, I couldn't use magic to control the fission process of every microscopic particle with extreme precision. But now Alchemy has completed the last piece of the puzzle."
This is a real hand rub nuke.
"Morgana, send cleaning puppets to deal with the radiation... No, it's too slow."
Ian shook his head, stretched out his right hand, and grasped the air.
A huge black vortex formed in the palm of his hand, which was the space passage leading to the "waste processing area" in an independent dimension.
"Swallow."
A powerful suction burst out, and the high-concentration radiation dust remaining in the surrounding air was drawn into the vortex like hundreds of rivers returning to the sea, and was cleaned up instantly.
Dimensional Laboratory.
After testing his strength, Ian lay back on the comfortable recliner and began a deeper review.
This time Legilimency brought him not only the means of nuclear explosion, but also clues to the ultimate secret of the world.
First, about the nature of "god".
Dwarf in the Flask is essentially a part of the essence of "god", or the fragments peeled off from that higher-dimensional existence. Because of this, they are born to know it.
Second, about the origin of Alchemy.
In this world, "God" is the source of Alchemy.
Third, the relationship between Truth and God.
Ian speculates that the so-called "Truth" and the "god" who was devoured by his father are most likely different aspects of the same existence, or they are closely connected Symbiote.
This also explains why in the later period of the original work, Father was able to forcefully open Gate of Truth and pull the "god" into the mortal world to devour it.
"It stands to reason that with Truth's omniscience and omnipotence, it is impossible for him to be counterattacked by a Creation."
Ian's fingers tapped the armrest lightly, Blink's eyes shone with speculative light, "The only explanation is - this is Truth's tacit approval."
Maybe to punish human arrogance?
Maybe it's because I'm bored and want to watch a game where the world is a chessboard?
Or is there a higher-level game behind this?
Ian shook his head, throwing away these temporarily unverifiable conjectures. He focused his attention on the most obscure fragment in Homunculus's memory, but which made him feel Shocker the most.
That's a door.
But not Gate of Truth.
It was a huge door suspended in the depths of Void, exuding an ancient and desolate atmosphere. There was no detailed information about this door in Homunculus's memory, it was just a glimpse at the moment of its birth.
But the moment he saw that door, a shiver and awe came from the depths of his soul.
There is a name that naturally emerges from my memory--
[Origin Gate]
"Origin Gate..." Ian muttered to himself, a strong intuition telling him that this was the key.
"If Gate of Truth is a channel connecting an individual to Truth, then what is Origin Gate connected to?"
A bold guess exploded in his mind:
Akashic Records.
That is the legendary ultimate the Library that records all past, present and future information in the universe.
"Truth's almost paranoid insistence on 'Equivalent Exchange' is like the executor of some kind of cosmic trading law."
Ian sat up straight and his mind began to work rapidly.
"What if... I mean what if. Truth is not the creator of this world, but a 'middleman' who has stolen Akashic Records's authority, or established some kind of transaction channel with Akashic Records?"
"He imitated the mechanism of Akashic Records, created 'Gate of Truth', and gave it to everyone in this world."
"Why is there no afterlife in this world? Why does the soul turn into energy and return to the world after death?"
"Because that's currency!"
Ian felt that he had grasped the tail of the truth, and the light in his eyes became brighter and brighter.
"Truth collects the knowledge generated by human exploration of Alchemy through the port 'Gate of Truth', as well as the Soul Energy that humans return after death. Then, he uses these as chips to trade with the real 'Origin Gate' (Akashic Records) in exchange for higher-dimensional power or knowledge."
"It's like... I set up a magic network in the Arcane Empire, let all the mages analyze magic for me, and I, as the emperor, enjoy the results."
"The so-called gods are nothing but the biggest exploiters."
Although this inference is crazy, it is extremely logically consistent.
But then, Ian realized that there was a huge loophole in the inference just now.
"Wait... if Gate of Truth is a privileged port given to humans in this world by 'Truth', then why do I have it too?"
Ian remembered that he had done experiments in Dimensional Space. The Muggles prisoner from the Harry Potter world also saw Gate of Truth after his sperm hole was forcibly opened.
At the time, he thought this proved that Gate of Truth existed universally.
But now that I think about it, that experimental environment was in this world, under the watchful eye of Truth.
"Is it possible... that as soon as you enter this world, you will be forced to install the plug-in 'Gate of Truth'?"
If this inference is true, it means a serious problem:
When Ian leaves this world and returns to the Arcane Empire or travels to other universes, out of the coverage of Truth, the Alchemy he has worked so hard to learn may become invalid.
Even his grand "National Alchemy" plan will come to nothing because Empire citizens have not been installed with this "plug-in".
"Unless... I can get the 'installation package'."
Ian's eyes became sharp.
If he wants the people of the Arcane Empire to also use Alchemy, he must obtain authorization from the source - that is, directly negotiate with "Truth" or steal the rules.
But with his current strength, facing Truth is tantamount to courting death.
"Since I can't handle it myself, I'll find someone who can."
A figure appeared in Ian's mind.
An old guy who is also wandering in this Multiverse, has unfathomable strength, and enjoys all kinds of pranks and deals.
"It seems it's time to use that trump card."
Ian A sly smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Mortals may be powerless in the face of gods. But what if it is another "god"?