Ahao jogged all the way to the Agadi Library. This was his first time here.

The Agadi Library is said to be the largest single-room library in the world and is famous throughout the world for its "long hall" that contains more than 200,000 of the oldest books in the library.

But after Ahao came here in person, he felt that this was not the reason for his fame.

Instead - a wall full of cats.

On the brass outer wall of the Agadi Library, there are also complicated winding glass pipes, which are only half a person's height. They are especially suitable for small pets such as cats and dogs to walk through.

Now, cats all over the wall are playing and playing in the glass pipes, or lying down lazily. They are very cute.

And those who find these cats cute are the young and beautiful women of Agadi.

Keeping cats is the latest fashion trend in Agadi. Many of the poor neighbors in Ahao's apartment live frugally and keep cats.

Young, fashionable girls, wearing gorgeous and exquisite long dresses, were sitting in twos and threes on the square tables and chairs in front of the library chatting in the afternoon sunshine.

By the way, Agadi's long skirts are beautiful because they expose shoulders and collarbones. Therefore, even noble ladies often wear extremely bold dresses.

At a glance, the milky-white skin exposed by all the girls in the square reflected dazzling light in the sun.

As soon as Ah Hao walked into the square, he was greeted by a sales vendor.

"A bag of cat food is 5 Canadian dollars! Can the handsome guy buy a bag to feed the cat?"

"No, thank you."

The hawker was not surprised that Ah Hao would refuse, because his customers were not primarily male.

Girls and socialites in Agadi order a cup of coffee under parasols, flip through borrowed books, and buy a few bags of snacks to feed the cats.

Cats attract young girls, and these young and beautiful girls can attract more people of all kinds. When there are more people, the library's business will naturally boom.

This is the ecosystem of the Agadi Library.

So clever.

Ah Hao sighed, if he had this kind of business acumen, he would have become rich long ago.

Put aside the useless thoughts, the cats all over the wall, and the white breasts all over the square.

He ran straight to the library, he had serious things to do today.

Entering the museum, he walked towards the young lady standing quietly behind the front desk.

"Hello, do you have any books here that introduce, uh, the elements of earth and fire?"

The intellectual lady at the front desk raised her head and calmly adjusted her glasses with chains:

"Elements? Are you referring to chemistry or occult science? The occult sciences are basically in columns a to e in rows 25 to 32 of the corridor hall.

"The chemistry book is not open to the public. You need to be an annual member of the Agadi Library to read it."

Ahao raised his eyebrows.

"Okay, thank you. I can just go to the corridor lobby. There is no need to recharge as a member."

Ah Hao wanted to leave quickly, but he was a little afraid that the lady at the front desk would chase him and ask him to replenish his membership.

"Wait a minute, you have to pay an admission fee to enter the corridor hall, which is 10 Canadian dollars. If you want to borrow books, you have to pay extra."

"Okay, then, here you go."

Ah Hao was a little depressed. No wonder there were so many people sitting in the square in front of the library just sitting and feeding the cats.

There is an admission fee for relationships.

The corridor hall of the library is made of wood. There is a long arched passage 10 people high, with three floors of bookshelves on both sides, which is quite spectacular.

Ahao followed the guidance on the pillar and moved forward.

All chemistry books can only be read by paying a fee. Agadi advocates the essence of science, which is evident from this.

But he was quite surprised that occult science was an open book.

He might have thought it was nothing before, but what happened to the Wende family made him see the mysterious arcane power.

This is a world where arcana and technology coexist, so why is chemical knowledge more noble than arcane knowledge?

It wasn't until he came to the occult area that he realized that this was not the case.

Because none of the books here have anything to do with arcane magic.

On the contrary, most books have two words on the cover - "Alchemy".

He felt as if he had come to the right place. Earth and fire seemed to be the exact elements that appeared in alchemy legends.

But he could also realize that the alchemy knowledge hidden on the bookshelves here had been branded as "mysterious" and became entertainment content for people's entertainment, and was gradually abandoned by this era.

In other words, he was abandoned by Agadi.

He opened a book called "Alchemical Immortality" and saw on the title page:

[Although alchemy has been proven wrong by contemporary science, it cannot be denied that it played a very positive role in the history of the development of chemistry. 】

He continued to read on and found that this was a very new book that very well represented the current mainstream people's views on alchemy.

——Alchemy has declined and is an outdated technology.

The book criticizes alchemists who fantasize about refining base metals into precious metals, or alchemists who are eager to create potions of immortality. They spend a lot of pen and ink criticizing the huge harm they have caused to the development of the country.

The development of steam, the advancement of science and technology, and the circulation of knowledge brought by the Arcane Star Gate, have torn apart the mysterious cloak of alchemy. Alchemy instantly fell from a symbol of mystery to a representative of ignorance.

People who study alchemy have also become despised by others.

The Agadi people no longer need to pursue illusory technology like alchemy to refine gold. The arcane star gate they have erected is the most powerful gold-making machine.

However, this book does not blindly criticize alchemy. Instead, it affirms some of the contributions of alchemy.

For example, the equipment used in alchemy and purification methods provide a lot of knowledge and ready-made solutions for modern chemistry.

Ah Hao read with relish that the book said that alchemy also provided a considerable theoretical basis for the preparation of ancient spices and dyes.

The book was pretty good, but it didn't contain what Ahao wanted. He closed the book temporarily and prepared to find some older-looking books in the bookshelf.

He opened a hard-covered tome with exquisite metal decoration on the cover.

This kind of gorgeous binding with a sense of age is like a book that was only available during the heyday of alchemy.

This book called "The Secret of Alchemy: The Rising Sun" explores some philosophical ideas of alchemy, such as theoretical knowledge such as material transformation and element theory. He felt that this was the book he was looking for.

After looking at it, Ahao's eyes lit up and he found it!

[...that is, everything in the world is composed of four elements: air, water, earth, fire...]

There is earth and there is fire!

He quickly read down and found that in addition to describing the four elements of air, water, earth, and water, the book also described the four characteristics of dryness, moisture, cold, and heat. He believed that each element was a combination of two characteristics.

That is, earth = dry and cold; water = damp and cold; air = damp and hot; fire = dry and hot.

He is now basically certain that dividing earth into fire should be a concept in alchemy!

Fire and earth have appeared, but water and air have not yet appeared.

Then the answer to the mystery is [separate earth from fire, water from air]!

Right?

He felt a little far-fetched.

He thought about it again, earth and fire both have the same dryness, but there are differences between cold and heat.

Then the answer is: [Divide earth into fire, alternating between hot and cold]!

Uh-huh, this feels a bit outrageous.

Putting aside his thoughts, he looked down carefully. Gradually, he came up with some more mature guesses.

Soil can be soil containing minerals, or it can directly refer to ore.

So the mystery of dividing earth from fire should refer to the fine separation of ores from fire, which represents the calcination step in alchemy.

The answer may be the second link of alchemy.

But what is it?
Chapter completed!