29: Chapter 29 The Fire Stealer

When Lu Li returned to the Blackthorn Security Company, Old Neil was already waiting at the entrance of the Potion Room.

"Did you get everything?"

"Everything. Tailbone powder, Shadow Herb juice, and Alchemy Fire." Lu Li placed his backpack on the workbench and took out the materials one by one.

Old Neil picked up the portable crucible and lifted the lid to take a look. A pale blue flame rested quietly at the bottom of the pot, with a cluster of silver-white light still slowly flickering at its core. "Did Old Coppersmith notice?"

"He didn't. He stood by the workbench from beginning to end, and his spiritual rhythm didn't fluctuate at all."

"Very good. The optimal solution for the Prometheus ritual is to complete the theft while the target is completely unaware—the digestion efficiency of your acting this time should be very high." Old Neil placed the crucible on the workbench and turned to take out the Sequence 8 formula from the drawer.

Lu Li placed the crucible on the heating rack next to the distiller and took out the three auxiliary materials from his backpack, lining them up in order—rainwater from the night of a lunar eclipse, black cat whisker ash, and Chrono Grass root powder.

He took out the heat-resistant gloves Old Neil had lent him from the drawer and put them on; the golden metallic threads at the fingertips shimmered under the phosphorescent stone.

"The first step is to grind the tailbone fragments into powder, heat it to eighty degrees using the Alchemy Fire, and let the powder melt before recrystallizing." Old Neil placed the formula sheet on the workbench and tapped the first line with his fingertip.

Lu Li placed several adult Fire Lizard tailbone fragments into the mortar and ground them hard. The fragments made crisp cracking sounds under the pestle, gradually being crushed into coarse particles and then into fine powder. He poured the powder into the crucible, placed it on the heating rack, and gripped the handle with his gloved right hand.

The Alchemy Fire burned quietly at the bottom of the crucible, its pale blue flames licking the pot's base. Under the heat, the powder began to melt—not burning into ash, but melting into a layer of silver-white liquid film, then recrystallizing into needle-like crystals as it cooled.

Old Neil leaned in to take a look. "The purity of the crystals is very high. Old Coppersmith's Alchemy Fire is indeed more useful than ordinary heating equipment."

Next was the Shadow Herb juice. Lu Li took the sealed small glass bottle from his backpack, unscrewed the cap, and poured the thick, dark green juice into the crucible.

The moment the juice touched the crystals, there was a faint hissing sound, and a scent of bitter almonds mixed with damp soil rose from the crucible.

"Stir. Seven clockwise turns, keep the speed even." Old Neil said.

Lu Li picked up the stirring rod and began to stir clockwise. The dark green juice and silver-white crystals gradually merged during the stirring, turning into an intermediate color between dark green and silver-gray.

When the seven turns were complete, a layer of extremely fine silver-white foam floated on the surface of the liquid, rotating slowly before dissipating completely after about twenty seconds.

"The color is correct. Now add the auxiliary materials—first the black cat whisker ash, then the Chrono Grass powder, and finally pour in the rainwater from the night of a lunar eclipse."

Lu Li added the auxiliary materials one by one. The black cat whisker ash fell into the crucible silently, only deepening the color of the liquid by a shade.

The moment the Chrono Grass powder touched the liquid surface, the entire crucible vibrated slightly, and a layer of dark silver, web-like patterns emerged within the liquid, as if something had spread its wings deep beneath the surface.

The rainwater from the night of a lunar eclipse was the last item—he unscrewed the cap of the small copper bottle and slowly poured the rainwater in. The moment the rainwater mixed with the liquid, all the dark silver, web-like patterns retracted simultaneously, the liquid surface became completely calm, and the color shifted from dark greenish-gray to a translucent deep blue.

Old Neil picked up the formula sheet, checked it item by item, then took out the spirituality detection needle from the drawer and dipped the tip into the liquid. A few seconds later, a circle of pale blue spiritual light appeared on the needle tip. He held the needle up to the light to examine it, then pulled it out and wiped it clean with a cloth. "The potion ratio is correct. It can be consumed."

Lu Li took the crucible off the heating rack and placed it on the workbench to cool. While waiting, he cleaned the mortar and stirring rod he had used and put them back in their original places.

Old Neil sat in an armchair, picked up the silver snake key from the lead tray, and gently pressed the snake eye on the key handle with his thumb—the key was very quiet; the garnet had completely cooled.

"When do you plan to remove the key?" Lu Li asked.

"After the seal stability report is officially filed." Old Neil put the key back on the tray. "After the three anchor points were purified, the sealing pressure around the Chanis Gate has dropped to a normal level. In a few more days, after the Backup Team completes their first independent inspection, I can return the key to the Church headquarters for storage. This key has been locked inside the Chanis Gate for fifteen hundred years; it's time for it to change places."

Lu Li brought the cooled crucible in front of him. The surface of the potion was calm and ripple-free, and his own face was reflected on the deep blue liquid surface. He lifted the crucible and drank it slowly.

The sensation of the potion entering his throat was not like liquid, but like a ball of cold flame. It slid all the way from his mouth to his stomach, and then spread outwards with his stomach as the center—not heat, but light.

He felt every blood vessel in his body glowing from the inside out. That light had no temperature, but it spread along his spiritual circuits, from his torso to his limbs, from the ends of his limbs to his fingertips, and finally converged on the ball of Alchemy Fire in his palm, which had shrunk to the size of a fingernail.

Under the influence of the potion, that ball of fire suddenly expanded. It expanded from the size of a thumb to the size of a palm, then expanded to cover his entire hand. The color of the flame changed from pale blue to deep blue, and from deep blue to a nearly transparent silver-white. Then it stopped burning—it solidified.

The shape of the flame was fixed in his palm, like a rune made of light. The structure of the rune was completely different from the twelve-pointed star array he had seen in the Underground Channel Secret Room—that was the mark of a Prometheus, the spiritual brand of the Marauder Pathway Sequence 8.

He closed his eyes. In the Darkness, the Fate Anchor let out a very faint, very subtle hum, like a string plucked by the wind. That hum did not carry the meaning of a warning—it was just confirming.

Confirming that there was no contamination in this bottle of potion, confirming that his spiritual circuits had completed the advancement, and confirming that from this moment on, he was no longer a Sequence 9 Thief, but a Sequence 8 Prometheus.

Lu Li opened his eyes.

The light in his palm had faded, but that spiritual heat remained—he could feel the flow of every bit of temperature in the air. Cold wind from outside the window seeped in through the cracks, forming extremely subtle convection currents in the room; he could distinguish the path and temperature difference of every airflow.

This was the ability of a Prometheus: the perception and manipulation of heat.

He could not yet create spiritual fire, but he could perceive the location, temperature, and intensity of all fire sources around him, and he could also transfer the ownership of a small ball of flame within a very short distance.

Old Neil looked him up and down, then took out the spirituality detection needle from the drawer and pricked his fingertip. The light that lit up on the needle tip was one shade brighter than before the advancement, and the wavelength of the color was bluer.

He recorded the test results on a form and nodded. "The digestion speed is faster than I estimated. The Alchemy Fire you stole before the advancement—the secrecy of the theft process was very high, and the acting efficiency was maximized."

"Does the Sequence 7 formula need to be prepared in advance?"

"No rush. You just advanced, so stabilize at Sequence 8 for a while and get familiar with the abilities of a Prometheus. Sequence 7 is still far away; first, build a solid foundation right now." Old Neil stood up, locked the silver snake key along with the lead tray into the cast-iron safe in the corner, and then took off his deerskin gloves.

The distiller emitted a constant, low hum, and the bell tower of Saint Selena Cathedral outside the window chimed the bells for the afternoon.

When Lu Li came out of the Potion Room, Rozanne was organizing files at the front desk. She took the filled-out form, entered the information into the registry, and then pointed her finger toward the breakroom.

"Today's portion of biscuits is in the cupboard—Leonard went out for fieldwork, and Klein is in the breakroom."

Lu Li pushed the door open and went in. Klein was sitting on the old sofa by the window, reading a patrol log, with two cups of freshly brewed black tea on the coffee table in front of him. He looked up at Lu Li and put down the log. "Did you steal Old Coppersmith's fire?"

"I stole it. I just finished drinking the potion." Lu Li raised his right hand, and a tiny cluster of silver-white flame jumped on his fingertip. The flame was only the size of a lighter's flame; it lingered on his fingertip for a moment before silently extinguishing, leaving only a wisp of extremely thin white smoke. "It's a pity it only lasts for such a short while—the heat inherited from the Alchemy Fire is still there, but my total spirituality isn't enough to create fire myself yet."

"Daly was the same when she just advanced to Sequence 7; the spirit she summoned for the first time using Spirit Mediumship only lasted less than a minute. Old Neil said this is a normal phenomenon—when you just advance, your spiritual circuits haven't fully adapted to the energy output limit of the new Sequence, and you need to use it repeatedly to stretch that limit."

Lu Li sat down in the chair opposite, picked up the cup of black tea Klein hadn't touched yet, and took a sip.

The sound of rain outside the window grew heavier; tomorrow would probably be another day trapped indoors, comparing compass values and sealed charms against charts.