Finally, Richard obtained around 5 ml of ether, which was merely 1% of the volume of a water bottle in modern times on Earth. However to Richard, this was already sufficient.
After sealing the bottle of ether with a wooden cork to prevent it from evaporating, he wrapped it with a dark sackcloth so that it would not oxidize under strong sunlight.
Nodding satisfactorily, Richard took the bottle and walked out of his private laboratory.
As he entered the palace's main hall, the sun shone through the windows. Richard looked up and found that the sun was already in the west. This meant that, unknowingly, he had already been in the laboratory for an entire day. However he did not feel hungry at all. On the contrary, he felt very energized and excited. He could not wait to return to his bedroom and test the effect of the ether he had developed earlier. He wanted to know if it could decipher that first life reconstruction, find out if the power of science could overcome the problems of magic.
He was very much looking forward to that.
Just as Richard was pondering over this and ascending the stairs, he heard a voice.
"Your Highness, Your Highness!" Richard raised his eyebrows. He already knew who it was without guessing.
He turned around. Indeed, he saw Edward running and stopping near him. Panting, Edward said, "Your Highness, that… Have you finished your experiment?"
"Yes, I am done for now," Richard replied. He added, "Did anything happen in the palace during this time?"
"No, no," Edward said, shaking his head.
"Good." Richard nodded. He was about to turn around and continue his way up the stairs when he added, "I have something important to attend to. Keep guarding the palace. Unless it's on fire, don't disturb me regardless of what happens."
"This… What about dinner?"
"You can have it yourself."
"Your Highness!" Edward exclaimed anxiously. "You have not eaten anything since yesterday. You will get sick if this goes on."
"I know my health best. It's no problem not to eat for a short period of time, I will take my breakfast tomorrow. You don't have to worry." By the time he finished speaking, Richard had already reached the second floor and disappeared from Edward's sight.
Edward had a complicated expression. At last, he could not help bemoaning, "Your Highness, if you continue to be like this, I don't know if I can carry out my duty as Chief Bodyguard anymore."
…
After returning to his bedroom and study, Richard did not hurry to try it out. He read The Writings of Monroe seriously, and he carefully deliberated the part about astral projection to confirm that he had fully understood it before making a decision.
The sky had darkened. Richard sat cross-legged on the velvet bed in his bedroom. He took out the glass bottle containing ether, removed the cork, placed it near his nose, and inhaled deeply.
As the air traveled into his lungs, Richard could clearly sense the changes in his body. After inhaling a certain amount, Richard sealed the bottle quickly and placed it on the table beside him. Next, he sat on the bed without moving to let the ether take effect in his body.
In slightly more than 10 seconds, Richard started feeling dizzy, and his body began to feel heavy.
Soon after, his body felt as if it had been loaded with lead.
One minute later, he was immobilized but still very conscious.
Recalling the instructions in The Writings of Monroe, Richard tried to picture that his consciousness was weightless, not subject to gravitational forces, that it could come to the surface like a fish and fly in the sky like a bird.
Suddenly, Richard could sense his entire body begin to shake. His muscles were not shivering because of the cold, but because something seemed to be struggling and trying to free itself from his body.
He continued using his mind to manage the situation. He attempted to control his consciousness and make it drift out of his body.
Buzz, buzz.
Richard's heavy body started shaking even more. He had the feeling of being in a horse carriage that was galloping swiftly on a dirt road, and not of being on the soft, velvet bed. An unknown and uncontrollable thing was about to jump out of his body.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
He did not know if it was an illusion. Gradually, Richard felt the entire bed shaking, followed by the floor and the house. It was like an earthquake.
However, Richard was well aware that Blue Lion City was situated on a plain, it never had earthquakes. The chances of him experiencing an earthquake were close to zero. Most probably, his body was undergoing some special transformation due to the astral projection.
Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz.
As the vibrations intensified, Richard sensed his body being pulled by a certain kind of brutal force. Following this, he was stunned to notice countless threads in his body, each one pierced through his chest and back. They were very hot and vibrated repeatedly, as if they wanted to slice his body into pieces. The pain was unbearable.
Could these threads be the planet's magnetic induction lines formed by thoughts? The idea suddenly came to his mind.
He faced South when sitting on the bed. If this world was the same as the Earth, the North Magnetic Pole was behind him, and the South Magnetic Pole was thus in front of him—since the North Magnetic Pole was directly opposite the South Magnetic Pole. If this was the case, the Earth's magnetic field, beginning at the North Magnetic Pole, consistently spread through the ground, passing through his body before arriving at the South Magnetic Pole.
Well.
At the thought of this, Richard heard a loud snap, something seemingly broken. His entire body suddenly drifted into the air. Richard's eyes opened, and he could see.
It wasn't the eyes on his body that opened, it was the eyes of his consciousness, that had drifted out of his body. The consciousness saw things differently from his physical form, but Richard discovered quickly that his consciousness was drifting above his body in the form of a ball of white mist.
Well, yes, he was drifting above his body.
This was a very strange and mysterious experience. He could clearly tell that he was sitting on the bed and could not move, but his consciousness existed in another form.
"Interesting," Richard muttered to himself, and soon started guessing. "Is this my soul? Plasma? Or quantum?"
As he had too little information, Richard could still not find any scientific explanation to his current situation after a long time thinking. He could merely continue using his consciousness eyes to observe his surroundings.
Following this, Richard discovered that some sort of transparent tape grew out of the neck of his consciousness and was connected to his physical body.
Richard tried to distance himself from his body, and the transparent tape behind him automatically lengthened. Regardless of the distance, it seemed to stretch unlimitedly without restrictions.
Richard tried moving to his study and then returning to his body. The transparent tape at the back of his neck immediately "teleported" his consciousness back to his physical body. In order to shorten the distance, the consciousness had even traversed through the wall directly.
Richard then realized that his consciousness could disregard physical bodies and pass through walls and obstructions effortlessly.