"Is this your doing?"
Annan turned around and asked.
Such a thing, it seemed, could serve as a decent quest reward item to give to players...
Instantly refills health—Isn’t it powerful?
"This is a Panacea, quite useful. It’s just that making it is quite troublesome."
Salvatore glanced at it and casually explained, "It can be used to treat external and internal injuries. Mainly for healing wounds of unknown origins. You see, over there are treatments for burns, wound adhesives, bone fracture remedies, snake venom relief, defenses against negative energy... generally, you diagnose the wound, then treat accordingly."
Annan suddenly realized.
It appeared that the Panacea was meant to heal the kind of injury where "although I don’t know what happened, I’m losing blood."
"The shelf life of a Panacea is very short; these were made a few days ago,"
Salvatore added, "It must be stored still, without shaking. Once it’s shaken—which will almost certainly happen when it’s taken out—it will become ineffective after three days. Also, it must be stored at the temperature of ’early spring’ and receive appropriate light to maintain its activity, but it can be stored for at most one month..."
"Actually, at the very beginning, I thought to myself. Why not make some Panacea? I happened to have the materials. I made Panacea for a day, produced three doses, but then I suddenly realized.
"If we were to face a difficulty that could only be resolved by using a large amount of Panacea... then I feared that making more would be of no avail."
He walked over, gently lifted a tube of Panacea, slowly laid it down, aligning it with the torches burning on all four walls.
"You see, Tan Juan. When the Panacea is still within its effective period, you can see these transparent patterns that resemble hair strands in the light. If it expires, these transparent patterns will turn into that kind of cloudy suspension... Basically, you could say the cloudier the Panacea, the shorter the effectiveness."
Annan nodded, indicating he had learned something new.
He immediately asked, "So what exactly have you made after being busy for these past few days?"
Salvatore gestured with his chin toward the barrier radiating intense heat.
A pigeon egg-sized ruby was bound by brass chains and floated in mid-air. All four chains were taut, and where they touched the tabletop were four red jade tablets, with traces like circuitry etched onto the surface of the table.
In the center, there was a set of eight brass walls standing upright like Mahjong tiles. The inner four walls were interlocked, but the outer four were all separated; despite that, the red liquid within didn’t spill out at all, simply continuously rotating counterclockwise around the center.
Salvatore answered, "A Philosopher’s Stone."
Annan was instantly startled.
Seeing this, Salvatore quickly added,
"— a semi-finished product. This is as far as I can go, but it’s already usable now."
He examined the red potion carefully.
"...What is it used for?"
Although the name "Philosopher’s Stone" carried significant weight... Annan still wanted to confirm whether it was the same thing he knew.
"The ’Rotation of the Four Wheels,’ ’The Work of Creation,’ ’The Crown of the Supreme,’ ’The Prototype of Truth,’ ’The Perfect Essence of Elements.’ I think your teacher must have told you about the five components of the sublimation ceremony... something every Transcendent once pursued."
Salvatore slowly said, "And the Philosopher’s Stone, it is the supreme treasure of nature, capable of acting as the perfect essence of all elements. Hence, it is also said to be Divine Blood, the key to the shortcut on the path to godhood.
"Therefore, it can transform imperfect beings into their perfect form. For instance, it can turned sand into gemstones, copper into gold... mortals into gods. If one is not a Transcendent, they cannot see or touch the Philosopher’s Stone; but even gods cannot destroy it.
"Or to say, no elemental force can destroy it. It cannot be burnt nor frozen, cannot be cut nor broken... It is one of the very few substances in this world that can completely resist the power of gods.
"Before the ’Wizard War,’ which was also known as ’The War of Unification,’ when we transmutants were still called alchemists, artificially creating the Philosopher’s Stone was our ultimate goal. To this day, transmutants who have succeeded in creating the Philosopher’s Stone have all ascended to godhood. But strangely, they have left no clear instructions on how to create the Philosopher’s Stone..."
Gazing at the flowing red liquid, Salvatore’s expression was a complex one: "Actually, I never truly believed I could succeed."
"...Then why did you dare to do it?"
"It was when I was asleep — I mean, when I was dreaming, I saw it... in a dream."
Salvatore replied subconsciously, but before he could finish, he caught himself and corrected, "I dreamt part of the process of concocting it, albeit incomplete, but I felt... it seemed worth a try."
Annan looked at Salvatore with some skepticism.
He was acutely aware that this was not the whole truth.
But Annan was no fool.
Seeing that Salvatore was making an effort to hide the fact, he naturally wouldn’t confront him about it directly.
He simply changed the subject, "So, how should it be used? What are the specific effects?"
Salvatore sighed with relief and hastily answered, "What I’ve made is only a semi-finished Philosopher’s Stone, which can only exert its power when dissolved in blood.
"The Philosopher’s Stone is a living thing; it automatically moves towards the sun. So I utilized this ’Crimson Blood’ gemstone to create a powerful constant temperature barrier, transforming it into the concept of ’the Sun,’ and I took a piece of gold-plated copper as the concept of ’the earth that receives sunlight’ to attract it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to control it...
"As for its effects..."
Salvatore’s lips naturally curled up, revealing a confident and pleased demeanor.
He pretended to be nonchalant, suppressing his gleeful mood, and calmly replied, "For us, it can act as a potent fuel for the soul.
"After advancing to gold, the soul begins to burn, unleashing its unique Elemental Power. While drastically shortening lifespan, it also immediately grants various near-divine abilities.
"However, here at Heath Tower of Black, there’s a theory. It is said that for Transcendents with golden souls, their Elemental Power stems from this ’combustible sublimated state of the soul,’ meaning it’s not necessary to burn the soul to gain the ashes of elements. In other words...
"After using the Philosopher’s Stone, we could temporarily elevate our soul’s rank to that of gold. Hence, it might be possible to directly obtain fully awakened Elemental Power... but I’m not quite sure about this."
Salvatore gazed at the undulating liquid Philosopher’s Stone on the table, and slowly said, "Anyway, with the strength of our souls, we should be able to use this about three times. Each time for about three minutes.
"With that, it should be enough."