#770 - Stolen? (Seeking monthly ticket recommendation)

When the word 'Black Death' came out of Anduin's mouth, Nick raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise at first, and then showed a look of understanding.

"Why?" Nick continued after a moment of silence, "Why do you think the Philosopher's Stone is related to the Black Death?"

"Because the Philosopher's Stone is powerful enough! It's a kind of power beyond ordinary people's understanding!"

Anduin kept staring at Nick, as if trying to see something from the other's eyes. Of course, he didn't try to use Legilimency to humiliate himself by using mental magic on a wizard who had lived for hundreds of years.

"At the same time, by some coincidence, I just learned some knowledge about [Life Alchemy], and from the Philosopher's Stone, I can clearly recognize that trace."

"And to create such a treasure as the Philosopher's Stone, the life consumed must be astronomical!"

"Your wisdom is eye-opening, Anduin." Nick nodded in admiration, then immediately put on a straight face, "Yes, I can tell you clearly that the Philosopher's Stone is indeed related to life alchemy."

"So you admit that the Philosopher's Stone was the culprit that caused the Black Death to spread back then?"

Anduin said this with a serious face, and at the same time, he could see that Nick was not lying to him at this time, or that he did not intend to lie to him.

"If... I mean if." Nick did not answer Anduin directly, "If the answer is as you think, what are you going to do? You must know that hundreds of years have passed since the 15th century, are you going to seek justice for the people of that time?"

"I don't know."

Anduin said frankly, and at the same time, a dangerous light gradually appeared in his eyes, "But this at least proves that the person who created such a tragedy is not trustworthy, and even allowing him to exist is a huge threat in itself."

"The lessons in history tell me that a person's sins are unlikely to dissipate with the passage of time, especially those who can slaughter millions of people for their own selfish interests without any bottom line."

"So, just for the sake of my own safety, sometimes I have to use some extreme means to eliminate the dangers lurking in the dark."

Nick listened to Anduin's slightly threatening words with a indifferent expression, then raised his hand and pointed upwards, looking at him with a teasing expression.

"The extreme means you mentioned, are you referring to the ship hidden in the sky? Or are you referring to yourself? To be honest, with the methods you have shown so far, you can't make me feel threatened."

Anduin smiled coldly when he heard this. He was not surprised that Nick could discover Leona ambushing in the sky, but if the other party thought that what he perceived was all, then he would be underestimating him.

You must know that Anduin has put 80% of his alchemy talent on combat. Even if the other party is a legendary wizard, he is confident that he is not without the power to fight. Even if he can't beat him, he can at least retreat completely.

"Whether my methods can threaten you, you can only know if you try it yourself, how about it? Do you have such an idea?"

After Anduin said these words full of gunpowder, he stared coldly at Nick LeMay, and at the same time, the other party also stared at him without squinting.

For a time, the atmosphere in the living room dropped to freezing point, and the surrounding air was almost solidified. Both of them were tense, as if they would suddenly riot in the next moment.

"Hahaha!!"

Just when Anduin thought that he would not be able to end well today, Nick on the opposite side suddenly relaxed, not at all like the tense look he had before.

"It seems that Albus is right, you are indeed a young man with a sense of justice, and you are not afraid of power, and you even dare to fight an old monster like me, it's really amazing."

After saying that, Nick waved his hand at Anduin, "Don't be so nervous, Anduin, I'm not your enemy, and the matter of the Philosopher's Stone is not what you think."

Seeing Nick's sudden change of attitude, Anduin couldn't help but be a little surprised. He thought Nick was going to fight to the death on the spot.

As for what the other party said, Anduin would naturally not believe it all. Maybe it was just Nick's delaying tactic, or he wanted to deceive him.

But in the previous confrontation, Anduin could feel that Nick was not lying to him, and from the previous contact and the state of his relationship with Dumbledore, he did not seem like a demon who regarded life as worthless.

Could it be that there are other secrets about the Philosopher's Stone? Is it actually not related to the Black Death? Or is there something else hidden?

With such doubts, Anduin, who had not let down his guard, asked, "Oh? You mean... the appearance of the Philosopher's Stone has nothing to do with the Black Death?"

"No!" Nick shook his head lightly, "Your sense of smell is very keen, the Philosopher's Stone was indeed formed during the plague that year."

"Then why do you say that things are different from what I imagined? Could it be that the Philosopher's Stone was not actively created by you?" Anduin guessed.

"Yes, and no." Nick sighed, "Although this matter is a bit embarrassing, I am not willing to deceive you because of this, the Philosopher's Stone is not actually my work."

"Ah?"

Nick's answer was indeed greatly beyond Anduin's expectations.

You must know that in all the documents and materials that can be found, it is clearly stated that the Philosopher's Stone came from Nick's hands, and no one in history has ever come out to refute it.

"This matter is a long story, Anduin, you must think that the Philosopher's Stone is in my hands, so it must be my work, in fact, it is the opposite, the Philosopher's Stone was actually snatched by me." Nick said frankly after careful consideration.

"Snached?" Anduin looked at the other party in astonishment, "How is it possible, who else in this world can create such a treasure besides you?"

"Hahaha, don't be result-oriented, Anduin." Nick laughed at himself, "You really overestimate me and underestimate the Philosopher's Stone too much."

"Think about it, when the Black Death broke out in Europe more than 500 years ago, I was only over 100 years old. Was it possible for me to start from scratch and develop the method of making the Philosopher's Stone at that time?"

"Or let me put it this way, if you don't understand the technology of life alchemy, and you are given 100 years, can you complete the research and development and successfully make the Philosopher's Stone?"

"This..." Anduin shook his head in surprise. He had to admit that he really couldn't do this, and even after understanding the technology of life alchemy, he might not be able to do it.

It is not as simple as imagined to create such a treasure as the Philosopher's Stone. You must know that this is the first creation, and there is no predecessor that can be imitated or simulated.

If he were to do it, first of all, creating the production drawings of the Philosopher's Stone would take a lot of effort, and at least a huge amount of knowledge about bloodline magic and rune studies would have to be accumulated.

Then he would propose ideas, and then conduct a lot of experiments and tests, until he determined that the idea of making the Philosopher's Stone was feasible, and obtained the final draft.

Just this link, if you are unlucky, you may have to spend decades or even hundreds of years.

Because the purpose of making the Philosopher's Stone is to live forever, and to test this achievement, you have to use enough time to test the results from the experimental body.

Thinking of this, Anduin immediately recalled the snake slough potion recipe he got from the Silver Spear Club. To be honest, that thing looked like an early work produced during the development of the Philosopher's Stone.

Maybe the snake slough potion can be spread out for experimentation.

And even if you get the final drawing of the Philosopher's Stone, it does not mean that the work is completed, because life alchemy requires the sacrifice of a lot of life.

And killing people, especially harvesting lives on a large scale, is not as simple as imagined.

Therefore, we have to develop highly infectious and highly lethal viruses, and in order to achieve this goal, the amount of work required may also consume time in units of ten years.

According to this, the preparation work for making the Philosopher's Stone alone will take a hundred or two hundred years. With Nick LeMay's age at the time, even if he put all his energy into it, he would have to reach this achievement after two hundred or even three hundred years.

But the Nick LeMay on the information was a well-known alchemist in his early years, and he also had a formal job. Where did he have so much time to study life alchemy and viruses?

In fact, from the perspective of the time, the appearance of the Philosopher's Stone was actually quite abrupt, just like a hen laying an egg, suddenly one day Nick declared that he had made the Philosopher's Stone.

Until this time, Anduin realized that he had actually fallen into a misunderstanding before.

He preconceived that Nick, who is already over 600 years old, as a legendary alchemist, must be the maker of the Philosopher's Stone.

But after understanding the essence of the Philosopher's Stone, and carefully thinking about it from another angle, how could Nick LeMay, who was only a hundred years old at the time, be able to make such an amazing treasure as the Philosopher's Stone.

Just like today, if Dumbledore told him one day that he had made a Philosopher's Stone, he would definitely not believe it, and would even think that the other party had stolen it from somewhere.

"I see." Anduin thought for a moment before nodding affirmatively, "The Philosopher's Stone is indeed not a treasure that can be made in a short time."

"Yes, I didn't have your talent back then, and alchemy wasn't as common as it is now. Although I don't want to admit it, I didn't even understand the fur of the Philosopher's Stone at that time, and even now, I haven't been able to fully understand the mysteries of the Philosopher's Stone." Nick gave a self-deprecating wry smile.

"Then who is the person who made the Philosopher's Stone? You said you snatched it, what's going on?" Although the misunderstanding was eliminated, Anduin was still full of doubts at this time.

Nick's expression became serious when he heard this, "You must have heard of that person's name, but you must not imagine that he is the despicable Herpo!"

"Herpo? This guy is a figure from two thousand years ago, right? He hasn't died after so long?" Anduin widened his eyes in surprise, this answer was indeed a bit unexpected.

The despicable Herpo was an ultimate old antique who existed before 100 AD. He became the first dark wizard in history for committing many heinous acts.

He was also the first to successfully create a Horcrux, and may also be the first wizard to invent the method of making it.

In addition, the other party also invented a large number of dark magic, and was the first to hatch the 'Basilisk', a high-risk magical creature.

After Anduin recovered from the shock, Nick continued, "Since you know life alchemy, you should also know about Horcruxes."

"But Horcruxes don't seem to be able to truly achieve immortality, right? Even Horcruxes will perish after thousands of years." Anduin is naturally no stranger to Horcruxes, and even has one on him at this time.

"Yes, Herpo also discovered the drawbacks of Horcruxes back then. He regretted it after splitting his soul for the first time, so he finally chose to reunite his soul."

"Ah? Is it possible to do this? This is too bizarre? And how did he live so long after reuniting his soul?" Anduin looked incredulous, which was beyond his understanding.

Heaven knows how difficult it is to reunite a split soul. In history, let alone no one has done it, even few wizards have tried it.

Anduin himself knows that there is only one magic that can reunite the soul, and that is the Three Purities Mantra.

But that magic does not actually completely split the soul, it should be described as differentiation, and the process of reunification can be seen as the return of the differentiated soul.

But making a Horcrux is really about splitting the soul in half. In reality, it is difficult to restore a stone that is divided into two halves, let alone a soul.

"Heh, to be honest, I didn't believe it before I met him. As long as a normal person does this, he will definitely die, but Herpo seems to have really found a way."

Nick chuckled lightly. He was also shocked when he learned that Herpo was still alive.

"As for how he achieved immortality, I didn't understand at the time. Later, I had a guess that Herpo was likely to make Horcruxes by splitting his soul, and then when the state of the Horcrux declined, he chose to reunite his soul, and then split his soul again to make a new Horcrux, so as to achieve the effect of prolonging his life."

"Are you sure that his spirit will not have problems if he does this?"

To be honest, Anduin was a little skeptical about this statement. Soul reunification is already outrageous enough, and he also split and reunited, reunited and split again. Do you think it's a marriage?

Nick recalled the past and shook his head with a smile, "You can say that. At that time, Herpo did look a little mentally abnormal. I think the other party also decided to make the Philosopher's Stone because he couldn't bear the torture."

"Of course, thanks to Herpo's mental disorder, I found an opportunity to snatch the Philosopher's Stone."

"So the Black Death plague that prevailed in Europe was also caused by Herpo?"

Although everything Nick said sounded a bit incredible, it finally connected the clues Anduin had obtained before. Then he seemed to suddenly realize something and couldn't help but exclaim, "You don't want to say that Herpo is still alive, right?"