Chapter 149: The Alchemical Laboratory (2)

"It must be here! Hurry up and search!!" the young girl said through clenched teeth, her tone filled with deep unwillingness.

She knew the laboratory was right here, yet she couldn't find it no matter what, which irritated her immensely...

"Miss, why don't we just tear the house down? It would make searching much easier." At that time, while conducting their search, they hadn't destroyed anything, opting instead to search slowly and meticulously.

"Tear the house down? If you have the ability to tear it down, you can have my seat!!" the young girl sneered. In truth, they had already tried demolishing the house long ago, but Ye Lang's alchemical array had forced them to return empty-handed.

Moreover, an alchemical array of that caliber was something the alchemical maiden and her peers wanted to study thoroughly, meaning it had to be preserved intact!

... After entering the laboratory and taking a brief look around, Ye Lang walked straight to the bookshelves to search for what he wanted, completely ignoring the other alchemical equipment and materials.

After all, to him, the materials and apparatuses here were utterly commonplace, so he naturally passed them by without a second glance.

Books, however, were a different matter entirely. Since this was the territory of the Cold-Blooded Syndicate, given their capabilities, the books here were bound to contain numerous untold secrets. There were sure to be many volumes that interested him, and perhaps even the very secret alchemy he had come here for in the first place.

Yet, this behavior only reinforced the crew member's belief that Ye Lang was simply putting on airs and bragging. The guy probably didn't even know what alchemy was; otherwise, why would he ignore the items alchemists dreamed of and instead go look at books just to pretend he understood them?

Hmph, he was definitely putting on a show!

Still, this suited him fine. Thirteenth Master had originally told him to keep an eye on this brat and make sure he didn't break anything. Since the kid was just reading books, it couldn't be better.

Books were things that were hard to damage accidentally. There was neither fire nor water around here, making it impossible for them to burn or get soaked.

Fine, let him read on the side while I keep watch here. I can even slack off a bit!

Slacking off was precisely what the crew member did, but Ye Lang paid him no mind. He was already filtering through the books, weeding out the information he already knew.

Of course, if he had nothing better to do, he would still read them. Sometimes, different editions of the same book contained varied content, and these discrepancies often brought him significant gains.

Therefore, when it came to books, one should never dismiss them just because they had been read before. Reading something another time could always yield different rewards!

Yet, at this moment, Ye Lang naturally chose the ones he hadn't read yet—those out-of-print alchemical texts that couldn't be found outside...

He really is just putting on an act. Even Thirteenth Master is still studying those books himself. Does this wet-behind-the-ears kid think he can understand them? Unless he has already surpassed Thirteenth Master, but how is that even possible?

The crew member felt even more disdain, mental categorization firmly placing Ye Lang in the tier of "alchemical geniuses" who boasted without drafting!

Ye Lang continued reading, and these books granted him considerable benefits. Some puzzles that he had previously been unable to figure out suddenly became crystal clear while reading. Indeed, the experiences of predecessors were of paramount importance.

It seemed this trip hadn't been made in vain; the harvest was quite good!

However, among these books, he still couldn't find the specific type of alchemy he suspected existed. Thus, all these gains were purely unexpected windfalls born of an unintended effort.

Even just this harvest alone was enough to satisfy Ye Lang. Therefore, he temporarily set aside the search for that particular alchemy and focused on reading other untold alchemical secrets housed here.

Time slowly drifted by. The crew member had already started dozing off, while Ye Lang continued to breeze through the books one by one, temporarily committing them to memory so he could carefully study them in detail later.

This wasn't driven by any acute sense of crisis—he didn't feel that he might lack the opportunity to read them later, or that the Cold-Blooded Syndicate would discover his true motives and purge him—no, rather, he would probably just be killed!

This was simply a habit of his. He was accustomed to reading a book completely once, memorizing everything, and then conducting a meticulous study. This seemed to be the habit of many people: a superficial reading first, followed by a close reading.

The only difference was that Ye Lang could memorize the contents word for word after just a single skim!

This reading speed only deepened the crew member's disdain, making him even more firmly convinced of his own judgment.

Unbeknownst to them, a long time had passed. Cold-Blooded Thirteen had finished his work and returned to his laboratory. Seeing Ye Lang flipping through books, he casually asked the half-asleep crew member beside him.

The crew member quickly recounted everything Ye Lang had done since arriving, appending his own personal judgments.

"Oh, that's for the best. Anyway, he just needs to be studied by me; he doesn't need to be researching anything himself." Cold-Blooded Thirteen seemed indifferent, likely because he had always regarded Ye Lang as a braggart and never believed him in the first place.

Or rather, it didn't matter what kind of person Ye Lang was, nor did it matter whether he knew alchemy. As long as his body was immune to all poisons, and as long as Cold-Blooded Thirteen could produce results from his research, that was all that mattered.

"Oh... understood." After thinking for a moment, the crew member grasped Cold-Blooded Thirteen's meaning and took his leave.

"Frank, is it alright here?"

Cold-Blooded Thirteen tidied up some books, then picked one up to read later. This particular volume seemed to be an alchemical text related to "medicine."

"It's fine. Where did you get all these books? Can you sell them to me?" Ye Lang nodded, then asked out of habit. Whenever it came to such items, he always bought them outright; as for the price, he never even considered it.

"Sell them to you? Can you afford them?" Cold-Blooded Thirteen glanced at Ye Lang for a moment and said coldly.

"As long as you are willing to sell, there is nothing I cannot afford!" Ye Lang replied nonchalantly. In this world, as long as someone dared to sell, he dared to buy, regardless of the price.

No one who knew Ye Lang would doubt this. Anyone acquainted with him understood that the higher the price, the happier he would be, and the more eager he would be to purchase it. Conversely, if the price was too low, he would actually become displeased.

However, Cold-Blooded Thirteen did not know that Ye Lang was the notorious spendthrift Thirteenth Young Master of the Ye family. He simply thought of Ye Lang as an insignificant little mercenary—Frank the little mercenary!

"Alright, I get it. I know you've got money, but these are not for sale. If you want, you can feel free to take any of the books here and read them! Also, if you want to sleep today, go outside to sleep; find a room yourself." Cold-Blooded Thirteen said with a hint of helplessness, wearing an expression that clearly said he didn't believe him at all.

"Oh, got it!" Ye Lang continued flipping through the pages. He hadn't finished reading the books here yet; even scanning required time, let alone skimming.

(To be continued)