Chapter 643: Early or Late Pill (Two in One)

Everyone was incredibly excited.

They had long since realized that the Alchemy Emperor likely originated from a background of mechanical energy expertise, or something similar. Previously, he had created a slime engine that operated by pumping bellows—a traditional physical engine. Now, as a master of mechanical energy, he had taken it a step further by creating a species that functioned as a special energy engine? It sounded incredibly fantastical, sophisticated, and high-status, transcending the usual scope of understanding.

"Master, demonstrate it quickly!" Everyone around him was beaming with excitement.

The Alchemy Emperor was speechless. He was kindly teaching them, explaining the principles, and they immediately asked about the object's purpose... Young people are just impatient.

"Cough, cough, cough." He coughed twice. "Alright, then, I'll demonstrate it for everyone. First, I must clarify something! This 'substance' is not unique to me. True top-tier alchemists *can* extract it, but the quantity is extremely scarce and difficult to obtain... It's also very hard to preserve long-term. And of course, no alchemists have been seen extracting this substance so far, because after my era of alchemy ended, no one continued to explore the path of alchemy. The prosperous era instantly declined, and even the age of wizards came to an end."

He sighed with a wry smile. "At that time, I also had similar ideas, realizing what the 'substance' described in the Door of Alchemy truly was, but there wasn't enough time."

This suddenly made everyone feel a bit sad. This was a true wizard, someone who genuinely pursued truth.

At this point, the Alchemy Emperor, Li Shengjiang, returned to the topic. "Of course, every cloud has a silver lining. I used the evolutionary creation here, taking a shortcut, and directly created an extraordinary species that possesses this substance... And as the 'sole substance' described by Mercury for the Door of Alchemy, the Trinity Formula, its function is naturally immeasurably vast. You can try to touch this species."

A tree-person player listened, then gently touched a curled-up insect, inside which was a glass sphere with fine ribbon-like veins flowing within.

*Splat!* The glass sphere suddenly melted, turning into a puddle of clear water, and then vanished.

"It melted with just one touch?""What?!""It's untouchable by living beings. Does it disappear into a parallel universe upon contact? Like dark matter? That's too advanced!""This must be a Ginseng Fruit then; it dissolves upon contact with living things! Can't touch it!"

Everyone was startled. At the same time, their first thought, instead of admiration, was to look at the Alchemy Emperor with a strange gaze, wondering, "You yourself, don't you also dissolve upon contact?"

"That's why I didn't let you touch me," the Alchemy Emperor said, looking at the surrounding gazes, unfazed. He leisurely crawled into a transparent bottle, asking others to put on a lid with several small holes, indicating he wanted to live as a tiny person in a bottle.

How tragic! He had evolved again, from the weakest monster in history, the slime, to an even weaker "little brother." Everyone looked speechless. Previously, everyone thought the Alchemy Emperor would evolve into a humanoid creature this time, to make up for the regret of having married seven little witches in vain back then, and to finally make a move on his beloved disciple, Armin, whom he had raised for years. Who knew... As the mysterious 'substance,' he couldn't be touched by living beings; he would melt instantly upon contact... "Have you completely turned into a slime made of water?"

"Master, are you going to live like this from now on?" The crowd was bewildered and couldn't help but blurt out the truth, "Armin, you raised her so painstakingly; are you not going to pursue her anymore?"

"Most likely," he said, his face darkening as he lay in the glass bottle, looking at the crowd.

Everyone's minds went blank. The Alchemy Emperor was still serious! As expected of the strongest wizard of his time, widely acknowledged for his pursuit of truth, an existence even the super cultivation fanatic Medusa admired. He was willing to pay any price in his quest for the Door of Alchemy.

The Alchemy Emperor continued, looking at the tree-person player who had touched the insect, "How did you feel after touching that beetle?"

The tree-person player scratched his head. "It felt like it merged into my body? There were some changes, and I felt much more comfortable all over?"

Li Shengjiang was not surprised. "It was just a merger, so it's normal for the effect not to be obvious. However, the benefits you gained mean your species will be lifelong beneficiaries, with significantly greater potential."

Increase the fundamental potential limit of a creature? That powerful?

Everyone looked down at the glass beetles, which were still slowly crawling or rolling around like glass spheres, moving in a slow and adorable manner. They dared not touch them, as a single touch made them vanish. Before anyone could ask, the Alchemy Emperor continued, "Don't touch them. Use a tray to take a dozen or so."

No one dared to touch them; they picked up a tray and carefully scooped some up.

"Go kill an animal; try not to make too many wounds, just hit it until it's brain dead," he said again from inside the bottle. Someone killed a small creature from their own species, a black, mouse-shaped organism.

"Sprinkle the insects on it," the Alchemy Emperor, Li Shengjiang, said again. So everyone tilted the tray, and the beetles spilled onto the mouse's corpse. The few glass insects crawled on the mouse's corpse for a while, slowly wriggling and becoming transparent, then astonishingly vanished into the black mouse creature. Suddenly, the black mouse creature's legs twitched slightly, and it began to crawl.

"It's alive?" Everyone's eyes widened.

"Holy cow, what in the world is this? These insects merge into dead creatures and bring them back to life? That's too powerful, it's absolutely heaven-defying!" Everyone's worldview was completely shattered.

Bringing the dead back to life! This is a true alchemist! This extracted substance... is omnipotent.

Before anyone could speak, he said, "Bring me that small wooden puppet from the table." He lay on the transparent glass bottle, looking at a tiny black puppet on an alchemy table filled with test tubes in the distance. It was about the size of a snail, exquisitely detailed, with gears and axles, clearly a product of meticulous crafting over an unknown period.

"Pour all the remaining species onto it," he said.

"All of them? That must be seventy or eighty, right? That big mouse only needed a dozen or so!" Someone asked, puzzled. But they did as instructed.

The tiny puppet was very small; as each one merged, a large puddle formed on the ground. Then a strange scene unfolded: the wooden puppet, made only of gears, actually began to move slightly, struggling, and seemingly looking around in confusion.

"My god! It actually came to life?""Bringing the dead back to life was one thing, but now it's bestowing life?""It's become a spirit; this puppet has become a demon! It's gained sentience!""My Creator God! Someone here is stealing your business!"

Everyone erupted. This alchemist, this substance, is simply terrifying. No wonder it's so difficult to extract. Who said players were all content with mediocrity, lacking true masters among them? Isn't this it!

The Alchemy Emperor said, "As you've seen, this thing is very difficult to preserve. It can only be stored in specialized containers. When it touches life, it merges; when it touches inanimate objects like wood or stone, it also gradually merges. If enough merges, the inanimate object it touches will also gain sentience."

"Now that you've seen this, do you want me to explain the principle?" the Alchemy Emperor asked. "What exactly is this substance?"

Everyone nodded quickly, their faces eager. Otherwise, their hearts would be itching with curiosity.

"You guys always fall for this kind of suspense," Li Shengjiang sighed, lying in the glass bottle and looking at the crowd. "Actually, there's no bringing the dead back to life; that's something no one can do. It's not resurrection... Rather, after those insects entered, a new soul was generated."

"A new soul was generated?" Everyone was puzzled.

"I'll start from the beginning, and you'll understand," Li Shengjiang said from inside the bottle, like a clumsy little glass beetle. "First, how I discovered this substance... You should know that human aging is divided into two types: the aging of the body and the aging of the soul. For ordinary people, if either their soul or body completely withers away due to old age, they are essentially dead."

"But for the powerful, the aging of the body can be overcome by seizing other souls, while the aging of their *own* soul is truly when their end is near."

Everyone nodded. Armin and Daojun were examples of this: their bodies could be replaced, which wasn't a major issue, but soul exhaustion was the true limit of life.

Li Shengjiang continued, "So, that's the aging of the body and soul, but what about their birth? How are bodies and souls born? I considered this question when I was on the verge of death, studying life alchemy, trying to prolong life."

Nearby, someone suddenly said thoughtfully, "The birth of the body, of course, involves the exchange of male and female DNA, undergoing a series of reactions, then ten months of gestation. But as for the soul, that's unknown."

"The birth of the living soul, that's the direction of my research," he explained. "I discovered that at the very instant life gives birth to flesh, and a soul is born, a purest substance appears. Can it be called 'soul-substance'? 'Primeval substance'? 'Soul-seed'? It could be called chaos, or the One. Then, this pure life energy, in an instant, like a seed germinating, undergoes an energy transformation and becomes the primordial soul..."

Hearing this, everyone thought: "The purest, primordial life energy at the moment of a soul's birth? Can it be extracted? This is the source?"

A group of players mused, offering their insights:

"Wouldn't that be incredibly cruel and unethical? To harvest that 'soul-seed' the moment a baby in a pregnant woman's womb gains sentience? How many people would have to be killed, perhaps hundreds or thousands, just to extract a tiny bit of this 'substance'?"

"This could be called the most primitive origin of life, perhaps the 'Primordial Qi' or 'Innate Fetal Qi'?"

"It reminds me of the Philosopher's Stone, an alchemical treasure that also required countless lives and immense bloodshed to extract, also from soul extraction, and possessed similarly terrifying power."

Suddenly, everyone understood. The mouse wasn't resurrected; enough of the "substance" to generate a soul was placed into it, and a new soul was created within. The small wooden puppet, too, had too much of the extracted "substance" placed into it, and then, similar to how demon beasts gain sentience, it awakened! The cost for demon beasts to gain sentience was immense, and the cost here was similarly high.

Of course, some also said: "Don't be so quick to judge. It's not necessarily about killing people. Raising a group of pigs, plants, or flowers, and harvesting them daily to extract it, would also work."

"But presumably, the transition from birth to evolving into a soul happens in an instant, like the dazzling moment a flower blooms, a seed sprouts, or the sun first rises. It appears and transforms immediately, making it very difficult to extract."

The crowd chatted.

"There's also another use: prolonging life. The tree-person brother who just touched it wouldn't have experienced that yet."

Li Shengjiang moved on to the next topic. "Ordinary powerful individuals who devour other people's souls only collect them as energy; those are incompatible soul entities... But this true primeval substance, before it transforms into a soul, is attribute-less. It can be absorbed by souls, forcibly delaying a portion of soul aging and decay."

In an instant, everyone present understood. Prolonging soul lifespan! So that's why he couldn't extract it himself before he died back then, and now he's working so hard to produce it, to go in and save Armin.

At the same time, everyone got goosebumps. If it hadn't been for the Cthulhu Evil God's attack back then, which led to the destruction of the alchemy era, if alchemists had continued to develop along this path, true top-tier alchemists might have emerged, capable of discovering the Door of Alchemy and that "primeval substance" that transforms all living things. At that time, a terrifying scenario might have unfolded. Some evil alchemists, in order to prolong their lives, would have scoured towns and kingdoms for newborns, extracting that unique "substance" to enhance their own alchemical cultivation, conduct various experiments, and research the fundamental origins of life. People would be treated like grass. Horrifying disasters would erupt, and an era of evil alchemy would begin.

Suddenly, someone fully grasped the implication and pointed at the Alchemy Emperor's bottle. "Yes, the 'person in a bottle' has already appeared. After all, back then, the champions of a Wizard Tournament, Edward and his brother Alphonse, already engaged in wicked human transmutation... If the story continued to develop this way, someone would inevitably use that substance to create life transmutation circles, synthesize pseudo-Philosopher's Stones, seek immortality, and open the Door of Alchemy..."

Someone exclaimed, their eyes gleaming. "So that's it! Those two from back then were already the foreshadowing for the era's explosion! If it had continued to develop like this..."

"Thankfully, our game's mechanics, to prevent such a tragedy, directly brought forth the Cthulhu Evil God, destroying the entire alchemy civilization and sinking the Babylonian Wizard Kingdom. Only then was this misfortune avoided."

Everyone wore expressions of relief and lingering fear.

Xu Zhi simply listened quietly from the side, sitting on a chair by the courtyard gate, drinking hot tea in the cold wind, and gently stroking Medusa's curled hair as she lay beside him. He thought to himself, *It's a good thing Medusa hasn't woken up yet, otherwise, all of you would be dead, beaten to death.*

At this moment, the Alchemy Emperor took a deep breath, staring at them for a while. "Now, do you roughly understand the principle?"

"We understand some of it," they nodded. This substance was almost omnipotent, its uses immensely vast: it could "bestow life" upon inanimate objects, "resurrect the dead" from corpses, and "prolong life" for the living... It could act upon everything in the world. Just as Mercury had said, mastering this substance allowed one to exchange and manipulate any material, thus opening the Door of Alchemy.

"Extraction is very difficult," Li Shengjiang said, looking at the crowd. "But right now, the evolution of this species is also very challenging. I'll explain the principle behind this creature." He looked at his beetle body. "It's a life that, at the very moment its purest, original soul-substance appears—its chaotic substance—is forcibly stopped in its development, confined to the 'substance' stage, preventing it from becoming a true soul." He stated it simply, but in reality, it was incredibly difficult. Furthermore, it was precisely because this was the origin of evolution, where all things evolved, and it was closest to the source of life, that such a special life structure had the chance to appear and touch this "chaotic" primordial life substance.

He continued to explain, "Therefore, these beetles are merely primordial life substances, lacking true souls and intelligence. However, their reproduction is also extremely challenging, requiring enormous resources, as the conditions for their survival, reproduction, and preservation are all very stringent."

Everyone nodded silently. The master had finally emerged! He had already evolved a species with extraordinary potential, and his goal was clear: was he going to bring about the resurgence of the alchemy era?

"A hero returns, still a youth." Suddenly, someone recalled the Alchemy Emperor's return from back then, feeling as if it were just yesterday. Everyone could already foresee the terrible waves this would create in the future era!

Without much more explanation, the Alchemy Emperor silently used the remaining materials to reproduce a batch of new small beetles, then placed them all into a specialized small glass bottle.

*Clink, clink!* The glass bottle, filled with glass pills, clinked crisply as they knocked against each other. Each one was an elixir of immortality, capable of prolonging Armin's lifespan for a period.

"Using them too much will lead to resistance; it's not infinite... However, this species will make Armin a true and deserving Underworld Emperor, overseeing the prolongation of life, bringing the dead back to life, bestowing life upon inanimate objects... all sorts of terrifying, invincible abilities," he said, looking around. "What do you all think I should name this new species?"

Everyone fell silent for a moment. Instantly, a solemn atmosphere settled. This creature was too marvelous, simply unbelievable. At the same time, it symbolized the pinnacle of the alchemy system—the Door of Alchemy itself.

A tree-person nearby, stroking its chin, solemnly said, "'Substance' is the origin, the very beginning, and where there is a beginning, there is an end. We can take 'origin' and 'end'... And this is also an elixir of immortality, so 'origin and end,' plus 'elixir'... I suggest this creature be named 'The Sooner or Later Pill.'"

"My personal suggestion is similar: 'The Morning and Evening Pill.'"

"I think that's excellent too. Taking one 'morning and evening pill' for longevity makes me feel cute!"