Chapter 99 Ring-breathing insects and helmeted slugs

Xia Zuo pondered for a moment and asked, "Then who should we go to tomorrow?"

"Balaz Firehammer, a researcher of the Ore Alchemist Association." Diem said.

Xia Zuo thought about it and asked: "Does Balazs Fire Hammer have something similar to a cane hat?"

Dim nodded, placing the tip of his index finger in the center of his forehead.

"To prove his innocence, Balazs will wear a piece of jewelry here with a fiery red gemstone set on it. If the surface of the gemstone is as beautiful as new and there are no cracks, then there will be no problem. This is the same as the ore alchemist.

It has something to do with the association’s meditation method, and I don’t know the specific situation either.”

"Does the Biological Alchemist Association have something similar?" Xia Zuo asked again.

Dim shook his head and rubbed his beard back and forth in front of his chest, "The Biological Alchemist Association doesn't even have meditation methods. All their members come from other associations or universities."

"In that case, the Bioalchemists Association is the most suspicious." Xia Zuo rummaged around in his pocket and found a blank notepad, intending to use it to record the affairs of the Bioalchemists Association alone.

"Dim..." Xia Zuo pondered for a few seconds, "Do you already have a clear clue? I mean... you actually knew that there was something wrong with the bioalchemy researcher, right?"

He just recalled how, when he and Dim met for the first time a few days ago, the other party turned the topic to investigation. It seemed that it was when the breathing method was mentioned that Dim asked about the idea of ​​​​investigation.

If implantation fails, the ringworm will also improve a certain physical quality and then be excreted from the cultivator's body.

Xia Zuo glanced at the clock on the wall, "If you don't mind, I want to read your alchemy diary carefully. It may not be finished until after ten o'clock in the evening."

Emily's alchemy robe has many small bulging pockets.

In the first 20 years, it will absorb the practitioner's vitality. But in the next 30 years, it will release its own vitality and deny the practitioner.

"Okay, thank you, Emily." Xia Zuo took out the three-piece inspection suit and put it on.

There are frogs with potted plants such as garlic, orchids, and chrysanthemums growing on them, snakes strung together with rattan, and lizards with glowing lantern flowers growing on their heads.

Plants and animals are harmoniously combined, but upon closer inspection, there is always an indescribable feeling of weirdness.

Xia Zuo nodded with a deep expression.

Xia Zuo and Dim looked at each other. He took Emily's manual and looked through it quickly.

"I will drive the carriage to Sbreer City on the surface. You, use the wind technique to go there, keep an eye on the target, follow him, record all his actions, as well as the people and objects he comes into contact with."

Hemst's daily work is to collect the corpses of breathing practitioners, dissect them to obtain the withered ring breath insects, and use the helmeted slugs to refine the ring breath insects.

The next morning, Xia Zuo and Dim visited Balaz Firehammer, and the other party expressed his enthusiasm for the visitor with a loud voice and splashing spit.

Xia Zuo put down his pen with a tired look on his face, closed his eyes and meditated for two minutes, then cleared the table and got up to find Dim, who had been waiting next door for a long time.

Emily stretched out her right hand, clasped her fingers and said:

"The performance of these three, Shiksa, Meade, and Bailey, is the same as when they were studying in the academy. The demand for alchemical raw materials, the amount of scrap, the number of products, the success rate of alchemy, and the yield rate are in line with past performance.

Number."

The researcher arranged by the Bioalchemist Association in Starlight City is a woman named Emily Cardin.

Two glass rooms are located on both sides of the corridor in the back hall of the store. Plants are cultivated in the glass room on the left, and animals are kept in captivity in the glass room on the right.

When Xia Zuo read this, he looked through the templates of breathing method practitioners he had encountered in the past and found that they were indeed correct.

Xia Zuo solemnly agreed, then scratched the back of his head, "Dim, will Hemster run away to the west and hide in the wilderness outside the kingdom?"

"I know why you're not in a hurry, Dim."

Dim nodded, a smile appeared on his bushy beard face, and he took out Emily's manual from his pocket, "Of course. To be honest, Emily's performance exceeded my expectations, and I didn't expect her to

Just take out this manual that ties all the evidence together. Maybe she got the instruction from her mentor."

Emily's stronghold is also larger than the first two researchers.

Since animals see different colors through their visual organs, a set of color cards must be matched for each animal.

With a 100% success rate, one helmeted slug corresponds to one ring-breathing insect main material.

"Okay, leave it to me." Xia Zuo touched the wrist guard. It seemed that Beatrice had already guessed all this, so she took out the temporary anti-detection barrier a month in advance.

Ore alchemy has little intersection with the other two alchemies, but its relationship with ordinary people is very deep.

"If what I said is correct, can you tell me what the key evidence is? Have you already obtained samples of Hemst's homemade ringworm?"

Emily pointed to the four areas in turn and said, "The raw materials of bioalchemy are divided into four types according to their survival methods - companionship, symbiosis, parasitism and independent survival."

"However, we need to contact Hemster in another way." Dim put away the metal box and manual, pointed at the other party and said:

After looking at the radishes in the backyard as usual, Xia Zuo walked into Dim's storage room.

"Be safe and don't take risks. Don't let your guard down just because Hemster is just a mage apprentice. Even with the anti-detection barrier in hand, there are still many flaws in the wind movement, so you should pay more attention."

The biological alchemist's robe will have many pockets to hold color cards, which is obviously different from the alchemists of other disciplines.

"Then can we go directly to Hemster?" Xia Zuo asked.

Emily entangled her hair with her fingers, twirling the ends of her hair around her fingertips.

At this time, the ringworm has lost its activity. Feeding it as feed to the helmeted slug can convert the slug into the main raw material for making ringworm.

Emily entangled her hair with her fingertips, raised her head slightly, looked at the ceiling, frowned and said in thought:

When Hemst was at Boying Academy, the average success rate was 98%. Since the past few years, the success rate has dropped to 96%, which is only 1% higher than the warning line of 95%.

Emily introduced all the display cabinets and took Xia and Zuo back to her alchemy room.

She and Dim walked towards the door of the alchemy room and gave up the space here to Xia Zuo.

Dim sat down, took out a carrot, took a bite, and said:

Xia Zuo nodded and glanced at more than forty culture tanks. The things in them were all kinds of things.

After thinking for a few seconds, she said in a sincere tone:

"Xia Zuo, you know that Bioalchemy will not be taught in Xingye Academy. I want to take you to understand this alchemy first to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings."

When the cultivator dies, or the implantation fails, or the cultivator takes the initiative to take medicine to remove the ringworm, the ringworm will transform from worms into fungi and stay in the intestines of the cultivator.

"Hmm, yes. Before applying to be an investigative researcher, we must first obtain key witnesses and physical evidence, otherwise the Mage Temple will not agree. What the two of us are doing now is just routine, and we hope that the traitor will surrender voluntarily.

That’s all.”

When Dim saw Xia Zuo's actions, he patted Xia Zuo's shoulder with his broad right hand.

"Emily, if I understand correctly, you suspect that Hemster deliberately lowered the success rate in order to obtain more helmeted slugs, and then used the excess slugs to do some private work, right?"

Dim reached into his alchemy pocket and took out a locked, heavy metal box.

Xia Zuo finished reading the contents of the manual, handed it to Dim beside him, thought for a while, looked at Emily and asked:

Xia Zuo put on gloves, headgear and shoe covers as usual, and checked Balazs's alchemy room, alchemy diary and inventory.

He rubbed his brows, feeling that things were a bit tricky. This manual was of great significance and revealed part of the secret of the secret breathing method.

The two said goodbye to Emily and returned to the hotel without saying a word.

The moonlight shines outside the alchemy room.

Emily raised her index finger and emphasized her tone, "Only Hemst's alchemy level is not stable, and the success rate has dropped a bit."

"Excuse me, Xia Zuo." Amy extended her arm to the desk.

"I have the best grades and am the first person in my class to become an expert biological alchemist. So my instructor arranged for me to be stationed in Starlight City and be responsible for preparing strange materials."

The secret medicine of the breathing method is essentially to plant a symbiotic organism called annular worm into the body of the practitioner.

Let’s put it more numerically. In the first 20 years, the ring-breathing insects reduced the vitality attribute by 1 to 3 points. In the next 30 years, the vitality attribute increased by 1 to 3 points.

Emily nodded, "But I'm just suspicious, I can't make any more moves."

Just when Xia Zuo was about to see darkness for once, Emily took out a manual from her pocket.

After the three of them greeted each other, Xia Zuo asked to check the alchemy room and the alchemy diary.

…

The daily alchemy work is also more complicated. There are as many as 20 alchemy diaries in the past 14 years.

11pm.

The simplest and most versatile way to control animals is to use color cards to convey instructions.

What seems to be more in line with common sense is the only raw materials that can survive independently.

Xia Zuo rubbed his chin and paced back and forth around the table, "Actually, you have locked onto Hemster a long time ago, and you already have evidence."

Xia Zuo listened and read the contents of the manual.

The process of the ringworm entering the practitioner's body is called implantation.

There are more culture tanks here. Starting from the left hand side of the entrance, they are divided into four areas. The areas are distinguished by floors of different colors.

"Follow me." Emily asked Xia and Zuo to follow her.

She frowned and pinched her chin, "However, it has not exceeded the threshold and is still within control. Before you arrived, I took advantage of the opportunity to transport raw materials and went to Hemst's alchemy room and warehouse to check

Many times, nothing out of the ordinary.”
To be continued...