The latter gave a faint smile. “This is an alchemical formula. From the way I’ve kept it, you can tell how precious it is—of course, this alchemical formula is not as simple as the one you saw three years ago. I’ll give you three days. You may consult any materials you wish. If you can produce what’s described in the formula, you’ll have passed.” Benjamin Franklin finished speaking, took off a ring from his own hand, placed it in front of him, gave him an encouraging smile, and left.

Benjamin Franklin possessed a vast collection of books, rivaling a small library on Earth. With so many books, Benjamin Franklin had to put in considerable effort to craft a quasi-artifact storage ring with enough space to hold the equivalent of forty rooms.

This quasi-artifact ring, named “Think Tank,” now sat right in front of William Graham. Since Benjamin Franklin permitted him to consult all the materials, he naturally left the ring behind.

William Graham turned over the scroll and, beneath the knot of the straw rope, discovered a special mark: a circle of flames surrounding a roaring flying dragon.

William Graham was no longer as ignorant of this world as he had been three years ago; he knew very well what this symbol represented.

The person represented by this symbol was renowned in the history of the Starforge World: the Dragon Alchemist Albert Graham. Founder of the Alchemists’ Guild, under his leadership, the guild grew from nothing to become one of the three great guilds of the Starforge World, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Mage Guild and the Warrior Guild.

The difficulty of a master’s formula like this could well be imagined.

However, instead of feeling daunted, William Graham felt a surge of heroic spirit: All right, let me see what I’ve truly learned in my three years in the Starforge World!

He untied the straw rope, and the alchemical formula was spread out before William Graham. Once again, it was a strange diagram, and just as Benjamin Franklin had said, no alchemist would ever write out their formula directly.

The background of the diagram was a massive temple, different from the usual single-spired temples of the Starforge World; this one had two spires of equal height. In the left spire, a fountain gushed forth the sun; in the right spire, vines of plants bound the moon.

On the lower level of the temple, to the left was a giant python, its body coiling upward to form a suspended staircase, with steps carved into it. On the right was a small mountain, and on the slope stood a griffin.

The entire temple was not built on the ground, but was carried on the back of a giant turtle, floating on the water’s surface.

Around the diagram, there were also annotations written in ancient Gulan incantations.

These annotations were the simplest part of the entire formula, so William Graham temporarily ignored them and focused his main energy on deciphering the formula.

……

During this period, Benjamin Franklin came to see William Graham several times. Each time, William Graham was busy working on the formula, and Benjamin Franklin would look in from outside the window, nod in satisfaction, and leave.

Three days passed quickly. Benjamin Franklin sat in his own wooden cabin, and before long, William Graham knocked and entered. “Sir.” After sitting down, he first placed the precious formula and the Think Tank ring on the table. “Please take these two items back first.” Benjamin Franklin didn’t touch the items on the table, but instead asked with a smile, “Well, how did it go?”

William Graham scratched his head, looking a bit confused. “The result left me rather perplexed.” “Oh?” Benjamin Franklin couldn’t help but look a little disappointed. “You failed? Well, that’s not surprising. The Dragon Alchemist’s formula isn’t something that can be solved so easily.” William Graham shook his head. “I don’t even know if I succeeded or failed.”

He took something from his left sleeve and placed it on the table. Benjamin Franklin’s face lit up with joy, but then William Graham took another item from his right sleeve and placed it on the table as well.

“This…” Benjamin Franklin was also a bit puzzled. “You managed to produce two items in one attempt?”

William Graham shook his head. “No, I made two different items in two separate attempts.” He spread out the alchemical formula. “Sir, from this formula, the two spires are side by side, of equal height, and neither disappears in the end. This suggests it’s a transmutation formula.” Benjamin Franklin nodded. “Correct, and then?”

“The sun and the moon represent gold and silver—that’s basic knowledge. But I don’t think the Dragon Alchemist’s formula would be that simple. The sun bathing in the fountain should symbolize a precious metal ore that is found together with sulfur.” (A fountain can represent sulfur, mercury, etc.)

Benjamin Franklin smiled. “You guessed right. It’s mithril. Go on.”

“The python staircase is a bit hard to interpret, but based on the surrounding ancient Gulan annotations, I think the diagram means to ‘dye red’ layer by layer through three steps: separation, calcination, and ceration.” Dyeing red means producing the final product. The red stage in alchemical operations signifies the final stage. Clearly, this formula is very complex, and contains many smaller formulas within it.

The python staircase is divided into three levels.