6 Extracting the Magic Substance

Ignoring Edward's words, Richard entered his private laboratory.

A spacious room of around 50 square meters greeted him. The walls were painted in pale white, and there were a few joined black walnut tables, which resembled an operating table. On them was the python's carcass, which had just been brought by the soldiers.

Surrounding the table were many wooden racks. Various apparatuses, experimentation materials, knives and tools were on these racks. Some of the racks were machines themselves. Most of these were far beyond the current level of science and technology in this world. Richard had spent a lot of effort getting these things constructed.

Simply put, this room's technology was more than 300 years ahead of the era, and the science and logic used were at least seven to eight centuries advanced.

Narrowing his eyes, Richard stepped towards a large wooden rack. There was a handle on its side. Below the handle was a nozzle, followed by a wooden bucket underneath it.

Richard reached out and pulled the handle. At the same time, he placed his hand under the nozzle. Shortly, a colorless and transparent liquid with a pungent odor flowed out.

This was a liquid with 75% alcohol content, and it had disinfecting properties. Richard rubbed it on each of his fingers meticulously. He turned off the nozzle only after ensuring that he had washed his hand thoroughly. After shaking his hands a few times until the remaining alcohol on them had evaporated, he moved to another wooden rack.

He took a set of tools that had long been disinfected with alcohol and walked to the table with the python lying on it.

Richard then glanced at the python's carcass. He meticulously examined this strange creature, whose entire body could be on fire.

"The head is disproportionately smaller than the rest of its body." Richard used his hand to measure the python's skull. He pried open its mouth to look for thin and long poisonous fangs. "It's not poisonous. The rostral area is flat.

"There are three pairs of pit organs." Richard's gaze landed on the python's upper lip, which resembled a human's. He saw three pairs of pit organs and recognized them as the unique characteristic of pythons. They were akin to infrared sensors. They enabled pythons to sense warm-blooded animals in their surroundings at night, letting them determine the animals' exact locations, track them down and attack.

"Brown." Richard averted his gaze from the python's head and glanced at its entire body and back. "The back is slightly yellow, it has arrow-like patterns and many irregular cloud-shaped lines.

"The stomach is white." Richard used a bit of strength and turned the python around. He looked at the lower body, the python's cloaca. He then saw a bulge. "It also has a pair of degenerated claw-like limbs.

"Judging from this, it resembles the Burmese python from the Earth. It could be a related species," Richard finished the examination and muttered to himself. The information about the Burmese python quickly came to his mind.

The Burmese python (scientific name: Python bivitattus), native to a large area of Southeast Asia, was considered a subspecies of python molurus. It was one of the largest species of snakes on Earth, famous for its enormous size. They were capable of reaching 7 meters or more in length and weighing up to 90 kilograms. The longest burmese python in the world was 9.75 meters long.

"Seven meters? 9.75 meters?" Richard muttered. He seemed lost in his thoughts as he glanced at the python, which was only less than three meters long, on the table. "If it's a related species, it most probably hadn't reached maturity. However, it could already release flames of 1500 oC at such a young age, what could it have become later on? Tsk. Indeed, it is a magical creature."

Next, taking a deep breath, Richard grabbed the knife he had prepared and made an incision in the python's body. Slash. The sharp blade slit the python's skin effortlessly. With a little strength, Richard cut deeper and dissected the entire body, until all the internal organs were before him.

Richard closed his eyes as he searched through them.

Based on fiction novels from modern Earth, magical creatures such as the one before him should have a "crystal core" or a "magical core" in their bodies to supply them energy for releasing the magic powers.

From a scientific aspect, since the python's entire body could be on fire, it had to have an extra special organ or gland.

But Richard did not find any of this.

Richard frowned, and his gaze landed on the python's skin. He remembered distinctly that the snake skin from the fake wizard's bag had felt warm when he had touched it. Obviously, there was something special about the snake skin.

Pursing his lips, he held the knife and cut deeper to separate the snake skin from the flesh. Very soon, Richard was holding all of the snake skin.

After soaking the snake skin and boiling it in water for a long time, a layer of a sticky, oily and yellow substance floated to the surface.

"This is…"

Without any hesitation, Richard scooped up the yellow substance quickly and placed it on a metal plate that he had taken from the wooden rack beside him. He tried to lit it up.

Poof! Orange flames rose, increasing the temperature instantly. However, the metal plate had no signs of being burned. When he touched it, it actually felt icy cold. Looking at the diminishing yellow substance in the metal plate, Richard had a realization.

"This snake skin goes through the process of osmoses, from the scale to the skin surface, and then burns its solvent matter into scorching flames used for attacks. When burning, it takes away a large amount of heat through vaporization. The skin surface is maintained at a low temperature, it doesn't get burned.

"This resembles the magic trick of lighting a handkerchief on fire without burning it. Before the magic trick, the cotton cloth is first soaked in alcohol and then lit with fire. Because of vaporization, an endothermic process, the handkerchief's temperature is lower than the burning point of cotton. Therefore, it ends completely unscathed even after the flames die and the alcohol is used up.

"This means that,"—Richard's eyes lit up—"the so-called magical substance should be in this. If we filter the water, oil and impurities, what is left should be pure magic substance.

"Then…"

Richard did not continue talking but sprang into action immediately.

He poured all of the oily yellow substance into a bottle and began distilling it.

Of course, it was faster for Richard to do it himself than to ask the servants outside.

Soon after, Richard had distilled the excess water from the oily yellow substance and segregated the oil and impurities. At last, he got a small bottle of yellow liquid which looked like molten gold.

"Is this real magic substance?" Richard's eyes narrowed into a slit when he looked at the golden liquid. He had a feeling that some of his questions would be clarified.

Next, Richard sanitized both his hands with alcohol quickly and left the laboratory in large strides with the bottle of liquid.

A few hours had already passed, and the sky had darkened.

Outside the door, Edward was still waiting for him. The moment he saw Richard coming out, he tried to continue persuading him.

However, Richard waved his hand and said, "Edward, get someone to clean up my laboratory and guard the palace's main entrance. I have something urgent and important to attend to. Don't allow anyone to come and disturb me. I'm skipping dinner. We can talk tomorrow if there is anything."

"Er…"

Upon finishing his words, Richard walked through the hall and ascended to the second floor via the wooden stairs. He entered his bedroom and the study room attached, shutting the door with a bang.