To help the adults find the right direction—that is what he needed to do.

Once the direction was correct, they could follow the clues and investigate; it wouldn’t be hard to find the mastermind behind the scenes.

If they kept struggling with the idea of monsters causing trouble, the case would never be solved. Even if it was solved in the future, the court would already have said: Send you away, a thousand miles from here!

He dissolved coarse salt in water, stirred it, then covered the cup with raw xuan paper and slowly poured in the saltwater.

After filtering, he placed the porcelain cup over a candle to heat it, stirring constantly with a bamboo stick.

Before long, the saltwater in the cup evaporated, and the crystals that formed inside were sodium chloride.

Essentially, it was just further purifying the salt.

Mr. Brooks, the middle-aged man, and the stunningly beautiful girl in the yellow dress stood by, watching intently.

Andrew Bennett looked up and grinned at the girl in the yellow dress: “You must be a disciple of the Directorate of Astronomy, right?”

He had noticed the feng shui compass at her waist; apart from disciples of the Directorate, no one else would use such a thing.

The girl in the yellow dress replied with an “Mm,” and said with a bright smile, “My master is the Director of the Directorate of Astronomy.”

Her delicate, radiant oval face was as flawless as a peeled egg.

A disciple of the Director... things like her chest don’t matter... Andrew Bennett spoke gently, “Sister, could you please help me melt these crystals?”

Sodium chloride melts at about eight hundred degrees Celsius.

The girl in the yellow dress pouted slightly: “Controlling fire is a skill only alchemists have. I’m just a feng shui master.”

“But my master gave me a magical tool.” She changed the subject, took off the feng shui compass at her waist, and with her jade-like fingers manipulated it a few times, channeling her qi. The character for “fire” lit up.

“Step back!”

Andrew Bennett immediately stepped back. The next moment, a blinding tongue of flame shot out, engulfing the porcelain cup.

“Stop!” Andrew Bennett quickly called out, then swiftly inserted two iron wires into the porcelain cup and asked, “Electrify... no, use thunder magic! Be careful to control the voltage... Hmm, this step is difficult, it might fail many times.”

She turned the feng shui compass, her jade-like fingers lighting up the “thunder” character. Several arcs of electricity flashed in the air, striking the iron wires.

“Zzz...” The molten sodium chloride underwent a violent chemical reaction.

“Stop!”

Andrew Bennett held his breath and leaned over to look into the cup. A lump of silvery metal had formed, with some unconverted crystals and impurities at the edges.

It actually succeeded in one go, the voltage was just right... Andrew Bennett was pleasantly surprised.

The electrolysis method for producing metallic sodium requires a voltage of about 6–15 volts. He had been prepared for repeated failures.

He hadn’t expected to be so lucky and succeed on the first try.

Mr. Brooks and the middle-aged man eagerly leaned in to look. Inside the cup was a lump of silvery metal, which at first glance looked quite similar to silver.

Mr. Brooks’s pupils contracted, and he was deeply shocked.

John Carter clenched his fists tightly, staring blankly at the silvery metal, as if a bolt of lightning had struck through his mind, clearing away all the confusion.

“Please take a look, sirs,” Andrew Bennett poured out the metallic sodium, wrapped it in xuan paper, and weighed it in his hand:

“This stuff is much, much lighter than silver, but looks extremely similar. If someone used this to pass off as silver, could it fool people? You can try weighing it yourselves.”

He handed the metallic sodium to Mr. Brooks. At this point, the color of the sodium gradually turned dull, becoming almost indistinguishable from silver.

The middle-aged man took it, weighed it, his eyes shining, and said repeatedly, “It really is much lighter. If this was what was being transported, it would make perfect sense. Miss Emily, you try it.”

The girl in the yellow dress took it, weighed it, then stared at Andrew Bennett with a strange look: “You, are you an alchemist?”

No, I’m not. I’m just a porter of chemistry.

Scholars do have more active minds. After his initial delight, Mr. Brooks suddenly shook his head and said in a deep voice, “No, that’s not right. Even if the silver was replaced with this, what about the explosion? If there weren’t monsters hiding in the river, how could fake silver explode when it hit the water?”

Andrew Bennett didn’t answer. He picked up the metallic sodium, walked to the desk, and threw it into the brush-washing bowl.

A fierce burst of fire erupted, and thick smoke billowed.

“Boom!”

The metallic sodium reacted violently with the water, causing fine cracks to appear in the brush-washing bowl.

“This, this...” Mr. Brooks was stunned.

“This fake silver explodes when it meets water. That explains why the silver caused such a violent explosion when it fell into the water,” Andrew Bennett explained.

The middle-aged man muttered, “From the very beginning, we were misled. The mastermind used the explosion and the demonic wind to make us think it was the work of monsters, focusing our investigation on tracking and hunting them.”

“No wonder the Directorate of Astronomy’s aura-watching technique couldn’t detect any monsters.”

Andrew Bennett added, “After the tax silver fell into the water, the soldiers only recovered a little over a thousand taels of silver. If I’m not mistaken, that silver was all laid on the top layer to deceive people.”

Everything fit together perfectly; all the anomalies made sense.

“Andrew Bennett!” The middle-aged man looked at him with admiration. “Good, very good.”

Suddenly, his brow furrowed as his gaze fixed on Andrew Bennett’s crooked collar. John Carter, following up with a pat on the shoulder, helped straighten his collar.

Andrew Bennett was flattered—this adult actually appreciated him so much.