Four-Element System

Second, Yellowing was not an independent state of eternal matter. It was sustained by something that would be absent after certain wizards died—either life, spirit, or both.

What did that mean?

Besides supposedly serving as a universal seed and turning stone into gold, the Philosopher's Stone was believed to differ most from other substances because of the Fifth Element beyond the four elements.

Alchemy held that the world was composed of the four elements—earth, water, wind, and fire—but these were actually symbolic designations, not literal soil, water, air, and flame.

The four elements could be broken down into concrete manifestations across various fields. For instance, in material substances, they corresponded to pairwise combinations of heat, dryness, moisture, and cold, while alchemical diagrams contained even more complex correspondences.

Earth corresponded to "existence" and "bearing." Water corresponded to "gestation" and "life." Wind corresponded to "flow" and "time." Fire corresponded to "energy" and "transformation."

According to alchemical theory, the four elements could correspond to everything observable in the world. The only thing in the entire world that existed independently of the four elements was... the spirit, or rather, the soul.

If the Philosopher's Stone was not truly meant to use things within the Four-Element System to create something beyond and above the Four-Element System, then its core was obvious.

Spirit—the only thing the Philosopher's Stone could transform from a seed that did not belong to the Four-Element System.

Combining that discovery with Manus's second gain, one could conclude...

"Life or spirit had existed within the seed since at least the Yellowing stage, and Nicolas also said that the essence of Alchemy had never changed. Then what was the true difference between a Yellowing seed and a Reddening Philosopher's Stone?"

Wholeness?

No. The Philosopher's Stone could not possibly be refined from every substance in