Chapter 351: Cold Medicine

"I came here mainly for two things." Brother Lei Mengde pinched his nose, trying to block out the omnipresent strange smells in the air, but their presence was simply too strong.

The heavy scent of alcohol, the sour bitterness of plants, and the smoky odor of burning oil and paper mixed together, making him feel as if he were soaking in some bizarre medicinal wine bottle, about to be pickled and flavored.

It was hard to imagine how a normal person could have persisted here for two days, and at present, there was no sign yet that it would end.

While he was speaking, the instigator who had led the patrol squad to wander around half the monastery last night was still busy, filtering the pale green liquid soaking the swollen bark into another container.

"First, I hope you know that last night's incident caused some negative effects. Normally, a monastery abbot would not be absent from morning prayers for several consecutive days without reason.

"Nor should one run around in the dark corridors at midnight, breaking the newly repaired door bolts. I must admit, that technique was truly... incredible. The precision, the force—I can't imagine how it was done.

"However, compared to that, I would rather understand what personal grudge you have against several bookshelves that led you to use 'that method'."

Although he had witnessed it once unfortunately in Dunling, experiencing the traces of that power up close was a different feeling. The wooden separation point refreshed his understanding of the word "smooth"; there was not a single burr or sign of force. Touching that perfectly flawless cut surface would evoke a chill like a thorn in the back.

If there had been any ill-mannered intruder there at the time, the scene would likely have been quite terrifying.

"I am very sorry; I will explain this later. The situation is somewhat complex and cannot be explained clearly in a short time." Kraft swirled the bottle, hesitated repeatedly, and then filtered the liquid again; this time it was much clearer.

"In fact, I am not clear on exactly what I encountered either."

"Can it be understood as something extremely dangerous?"

"Hard to say. So far, it seems to have shown no obvious aggression, at least no intention to jump out and bite me."

The attraction of the liquid in the bottle did not seem inferior to unnatural forces, at least in Kraft's eyes.

He skillfully divided equal amounts into three portions from the large reagent bottle, added the bark extract, and stirred evenly.

Then he began to draw circles in the air before him; his well-coordinated physical functions made the movements exceptionally standard. Seemingly afraid that one pass was not enough, he drew a few more circles, looking somewhat incongruous.

But one could see his attitude was quite good; he must have been asking the Heavenly Father for something.

"What are you doing?"

"Praying." Kraft looked at Lei Mengde with surprise, as if the strange one was not himself but the person asking the question. "May the Lord bless His loyal Knight Commander's experiment with success and double the yield."

"..."

Lei Mengde gave up struggling; he realized he might never correct Kraft's attitude toward faith in his entire life.

Some people were not lacking reverence for mainstream faith, but rather showed equal disrespect toward all types of religious beliefs.

Since taking office, the only comfort was probably that the other's junior disciple was quite interested in the stories of the Holy Scripture; perhaps the next generation of the Knight Order still had hope and could be guided onto the right path.

"Second, you may have also noticed that managing a Knight Order is not an easy task; whether you or I, neither can handle all affairs alone." He emphasized the tone in the latter half of the sentence.

"We need division of labor, or rather, division of power, to entrust matters to suitable people, allowing them the freedom to decide how to handle things based on their own wisdom.

"The Grand Church assigns the religious affairs of each city to local bishops, knowing only the general situation, rather than collecting a report every few days.

"This is an inevitable trend; we are destined not to stop at the foot of the mountain or the Priyer Fief. The monastery has the right, and also an obligation, to reconnect the entire diocese, just as a lord is naturally responsible for his land and the king.

"Furthermore, this also means we need to establish communication with various churches; they provide the monastery with needed information, connections, and resources, while the monastery provides them with protection, nominal authority, and recommendations for advanced studies.

"Perhaps through the exchange process we will learn more things, better than waiting here for Father Green to find something and reply to us. Honestly, I rarely saw him go to the library before."

"Advanced studies? Advanced studies in what?" Kraft caught the most sensitive word.

"Uh, well, this can be put aside for now." The monastery was currently obviously more suitable for doctors than monks to pursue advanced studies. "But you really should consider my suggestion."

Lei Mengde finally found a chair not yet occupied by miscellaneous items and sat down, preparing for the possibility that he would not get an answer in the short term.

Kraft's mind was not on the serious matter, or rather, his understanding of the serious matter might differ slightly from Lei Mengde's.

The busy work in his hands occupied too much thinking space, so that he could only extract a few keywords from a long speech.

As the experiment progressed to the critical stage, his replies were reduced to occasional interjections like "Hmm" and "Oh."

Viscous oily substance dripped drop by drop into the yellow-green solution; finally, some fluctuation appeared in Kraft's expression, rippling with a complex mix of expectation and worry.

Those with keen eyesight could see the translucent outline of the droplets, pulling out thread-like, smoke-like trails in the solution.

One could hear a long exhalation, as if expelling all the dust accumulated in the lungs over the past few days in one go.

Only then did he notice that those trails were outlined by extremely fine white powdery particles, sinking slowly but firmly.

Kraft's already complex expression became even more spectacular, with surprise, confusion, realization, and disbelief taking turns in rapid succession.

"Thank that thing; I understand!"

"You'd better not tell me you suddenly received inspiration last night." Lei Mengde calmly accepted Kraft's behavior of thanking some thing only ghosts knew what was, rather than thanking the Heavenly Father.

As long as the mental state was stable, everything was fine.

"If I must say, the key breakthrough was indeed completed last night." Kraft's first sentence nearly snapped the tightened nerves.

Fortunately, he realized the ambiguity in his words in time and quickly added the second half: "I mean, thank it for wasting my entire night."

"Heaven knows why I kept heating the extraction before, and even heating it to concentrate; the thermal stability of this thing must be terrifyingly poor."

"Last night I was too busy looking for it and didn't have time to heat it; it soaked for a whole night." The viscous liquid kept dripping from the dropper in Kraft's hand; the snowflakes fluttering in the bottle became denser and denser, accumulating a visible layer of sediment at the bottom.

"It was that simple; heating during alcohol extraction destroys unstable extracts. The correct method should be room temperature with extended soaking time."

"So what exactly are you doing?" As a complete layman, the monk completely failed to share in the twists, turns, and surprises of the process.

"Hmm... cold medicine."

"Sounds quite broad; not really your style."

"Indeed quite broad."

(End of this chapter)