"Mr. Hohenheim, the villain in the bottle, like this thing, is mostly made of Philosopher's Stone." Ian said, pointing to the android Envi beside him.

"Yes." Hohenheim nodded: "Originally, it was only the size of an egg, and it has been sealed in a flask, only the little one is its body, and the rest is the skin it created using alchemy." ”

"So let's do an experiment."

"What experiment?"

"An experiment to take away the Philosopher's Stone directly." Ian took the ring from his bosom.

"This ring. Is the above thing also a Philosopher's Stone? Hohenheim looked at the bright red gem.

"Yes, this is the stone I got from the Bishop of the Leto Church." Ian said, "About twenty days ago, I came to Reor, and there is a new religious organization in this city, and their leader claims to be able to summon miracles to immortalize the living and raise the dead, so as to gather all the surrounding humans to Reor. ”

"Those are actually the hands and feet of the androids, who gave the stone to Bishop Leto, so that when the population gathers, they can slaughter at the right time to leave a blood mark."

"So, no wonder you say Leol is the next place." Hohenheim said.

"In the past twenty days, I have studied this philosopher's stone." Ian said, "I've tried to design a forge that can strip away the Philosopher's Stone, and it's mostly done, but I haven't experimented yet. ”

"Can you show me the refining array?" Hohenheim asked.

"Of course." Ian took out a rolled-up drawing from the sleeve of his big white robe: "Mr. Hohenheim, you have been studying alchemy for many years, and I have a lot to ask you about in this regard. ”

Hohenheim flipped through the drawings and saw that it was a draft that had been revised many times.

He didn't think about it at first, this kind of thing like stripping the Philosopher's Stone was not something that a novice alchemist could do, and the history of alchemy was only more than four hundred years now, and no one had studied this aspect at all.

Hohenheim had never thought of doing such a thing, and he had not studied it.

All along, he didn't think he could defeat the villain in a bottle in a head-on confrontation.

After all, he is only a human being, and he has survived until now not because of how awesome he is, but because the villain in the bottle let him go and gave him this immortal body.

Even the name von Hohenheim was given to him by the villain in the bottle, and four hundred years ago he was nothing more than a slave.

He was a slave of the king's alchemists, and he had a lot of blood drawn for his experiments, and the villain in the bottle was the unknown source of knowledge created by the alchemists' random experiments.

For many years, he spent time with the villain in the bottle, and he knew the horror of that guy, as if there was nothing in the world that he didn't know.

Hohenheim has lived for many years according to the instructions of the villain in the bottle, as long as he does what the guy orders, he will definitely get the desired result in the end, and it is with its help that Hohenheim has become a national alchemist in the country of Xelxes step by step, from slave No. 23.

At that time, the state alchemist was not some kind of widespread thing, it can be said that at that time, he was under one person, above ten thousand, except for the king who could give instructions to him, everyone else would bow or bow down when they saw him.

Although Hohenheim is a slave, although he is very stupid and slow, there is only one thing he knows very well, if there is no villain in a bottle, he will be a slave without power and freedom until he dies, and everything he has later is given to him by the villain in a bottle.

After the fall of the kingdom of Xelxes, in just four hundred years, the villain in the bottle established a new kingdom, which imparted new knowledge to mankind, trains, electric lights, automobiles. All sorts of unheard of things have appeared in the world.

Not knowing where the limits of the villain in the bottle were, Hohenheim always felt that he could only wait for his moment.

After years of calculating and calculating, he had already figured out the key location of the Territory Refining Array, but he had not gone to the site of the engraving to see it, and even took the initiative to avoid those places.

He felt that the only way he could win was to wait for the little one in the bottle to break the taboo and use the method of "self-reflexion" to eliminate it in order to save his son and wife.

But Ian's thoughts were completely different from his, and the man he knew was not thinking about sneaking around, but about how to press the villain in the bottle to the ground.

The more Hohenheim looked at the drawing, the more his brow furrowed.

This refining array is too complicated, and it is a composite of many small refining arrays.

Rao is his 400 years of alchemy, and he can only barely understand the effect of this thing, and if he inputs energy, it is indeed possible to achieve the effect of stripping the Philosopher's Stone.

The more he looked at it, the more confused he became, so he and Ian discussed it.

"I'm sorry, but the energy in this place is cut off, for what?" Hohenheim pointed to a small formation of the sketch.

"Here, this is not actually to interrupt the energy, but to match it with another refining array to achieve the frequency of opening and closing." Ian explained, "It's like electricity, Mr. Hohenheim, you should be able to understand it, electricity." ”

"And what about here?"

"This is for"

Ian simply built a table in front of him and discussed it with Hohenheim face to face.

This is a refining array made by him imitating the control chip of an electronic device, and he did not do it alone, and the artificial intelligence MAGI helped him do many complex calculations.

The general principle of refining the array is to first scan the number of souls contained in the Philosopher's Stone, and then link to each soul individually, like fishing, and pull them out of the stone one by one.

It's not a particularly complicated operation, but for people of this era, it should still be something that has never been seen before.

Although there are trains and landlines and telephones in this world, computers have not yet been born, and mobile digital computers are all high-tech for them.

He combined technology and alchemy to create this alchemy array, which should be the first in the world, the only one.

Hohenheim's knowledge was still sufficient, and after understanding what Ian meant, he began to propose how to modify the drawing.

"I actually have an easier way to achieve this effect." Hohenheim draws on drawings.

After all, he has lived for more than four hundred years, and he has the Philosopher's Stone all over his body, and he can use alchemy without movement, and he can still see the drawbacks and optimization plans of this drawing at a glance.

"Do you think it's okay to change it like this?" Ian humbly asked.

Where the Tao exists, where the teacher exists, with such a good and professional teacher, he naturally has to seize the time to learn knowledge.

In the blink of an eye, the sky was bright.

The two of them were at the table, tinkering and revising for hours.

None of them are ordinary people, they don't feel tired, but the more they discuss, the more they get into the state.

Knowledge burst out in the collision of the two of them burst into fierce sparks, and finally at sunrise, a refining array that made both of them feel that it was possible was completed.

"It's finally done." Ian let out a sigh.

"Wait." Hohenheim pushed the glasses on his nose: "There is one last question, what are you going to do with the stripped stones?" Do you want to keep it for yourself? ”

"Let those tormented souls be free, Mr. Hohenheim." Ian said, "I'm interested in alchemy, but I don't agree with anything that involves the art of killing. ”

"Human life is not a number, I am a pacifist, my hometown has been tormented by war and suffering, I have experienced that kind of torture, so I will not agree with the approach of the villain in a bottle."

"I hope you can believe me, I'm not fighting against the villain in the bottle for the purpose of the Philosopher's Stone and immortality, I just don't want to see disrespect for life, and on the premise of respecting life, I will continue to act for my purpose."

"Do you respect life" Hohenheim looked at his palm, "If only I had understood this earlier"

He remembered the years when he was a slave, even if he became a national teacher above ten thousand people under one person, in his heart, he was still a slave of the king.

In order to immortalize life, the king has repeatedly ordered the slaughter of human beings to carve the mark of blood on the land.

He knew about it, but he was indifferent to it, and in his eyes, it was right for those people to give their lives for the king, and if the king told him to slaughter the villagers, he would do the same.

At that time, he had no ego, he didn't know how to respect life, and he didn't even respect his own life, and if the king ordered him to commit suicide, he would probably obediently pick up a knife and cut his head.

"Then do it." Hohenheim agrees with Ian's approach: "We liberate all the souls in artificial human bodies. ”

"Okay." Ian shook Hohenheim's thick hand.

Both of them set their eyes on Envi, the android who had been locked down all night, and that kind of fiery gaze made Enwei feel as if he was about to be roasted and eaten.

Envi wanted to struggle, but it had no room to struggle.

With it as the center, Ian drew this new alchemy array on the ground.

If he sees something once, he won't forget it.

He pressed his hands on the ground, transparent crystals, like tree roots, spreading and growing in the soil, and the raised lines of dirt drew a super-large refining array with a diameter of twenty meters.

Even if it has been put so big, those dense characters still make Enwei dizzy.

It knew what this refining array was for, and Ian didn't avoid it at all when he and Hohenheim were discussing, and in Ian's eyes, it wasn't a thing at all.

"Then I'm going to get started, Mr. Hohenheim." Ian said.

"Let's get started!" Hohenheim was in a good mood.

Ian nodded, injecting energy into the refining array.

The warhammer crystals in the center of the Refining Array vaporized under his control, melting little by little, freeing Envi.

Enwei finally breathed fresh air, and it could move again, but the huge body continued to tremble, and thousands of red lightning bolts burst out from the underground refining array and catapulted onto his body.

"Ahh It hurts!! It hurts!! Envi screamed in pain.

When the lightning catapulted into its body, it turned into wisps of "fishing line", pulling the monstrous body to the ground and pulling it in all directions.

This is similar to the capital punishment of five horses, but it is not just five horses that pull Enwei, but thousands of horses, and there are as many silk threads pulling it as there are souls in its body, and this feeling is like forcibly tearing off its flesh piece by piece.

Soon, the Philosopher's Stone was ripped out of its body, and as the silk threads snapped and retracted, fine red crystals rustled from Envi's wounds, like red gem sand.

"Mr. Hohenheim!" Ian shouted at the same time.

"I know!" Hohenheim clasped his hands together and pressed them to the earth.

He longs for forgiveness from the souls of his fellow citizens, and the soul in Envi's body, which is also the soul of the kingdom of Xeluxes, is separated from the body of the villain in the bottle, his fellow man.

For four hundred years, Hohenheim has repented countless times, talking to the "philosopher's stone" in his own body, with the souls of his fellow citizens, in order to beg their forgiveness and fight with them against the villain in the bottle.

"Close your eyes, O dead ones." Hohenheim prayed.

The finely broken philosopher's stones, emitting a blinding light, no longer maintaining the shape of the stones, first melted into water, and then those painful souls were released and flew into the sky.

They melted into energy and primordial elements in the air, ending 400 years of torment.

"Thank you."

Both Ian and Hohenheim heard someone thanking them.

The light of the refining array dissipated, and the huge body in the center had disappeared.

Ian stepped forward, picked up a handful of dirt, tugged at his tail, and pulled out a small lizard the size of a palm.

The baby lizard has eight legs and a head with large proportions of eyes.

It's a smaller Envi, in fact, this is its body, it's just such a small lizard, and after all the philosopher's stones in its body are stripped out, it will change back to this form.

"I didn't say you could go."

"Bah!" Enwei broke out in a cold sweat.

It was still useful to keep this guy, so Ian didn't kill it, but put it in a small sealed jar made of crystals.

Afterwards, Ian and Hohenheim worked together to clean up the scene.

"Mr. Hohenheim, do you think this refining array can work on the villain in the bottle?" Ian asked.

"Theoretically, yes." "But in practice, it's unlikely to succeed, there are too many Philosopher's Stones in the bottle, and there are too many uncertainties in the process," Hohenheim said. ”

"Then let's improve it." Ian said.

"But time is running out." Hohenheim looked in the direction of the rising sun: "It will definitely make a move, it has always thought through the plan to deal with all kinds of unexpected situations that may arise, even if you join in, I dare not say that we have a high probability of winning." ”

"And if Leor's Blood Seal didn't succeed, I'm afraid it will soon notice the anomaly."

"Yes." Ian patted the dust on his white robe: "Then let's think about it, let's go to Leor's to rest for a while, the people here are very friendly, I'm sure they will like you." ”

Hohenheim was silent, and he looked out from high above at the city rising from the sand.

He wondered if he was too cowardly. How many people have died in the mark of blood so far?

If he could, he also wanted to save these people, and with Ian joining, maybe it would no longer be a luxury.

(End of chapter)