"Bishop Anluoke, it's here! I saw that wizard and the witch-hunter lord come out of the house from afar and fought all the way to here..."
A quarter of an hour later, in the lower city, a ragged scavenger, covered in filth, hunched over as he looked at the priests of the church before him, carefully recounting everything he had seen.
Anluoke remained silent, examining the scorch marks on the ground. The fresh blood had turned dark red under the heat, and the upturned soil mixed with shattered flesh attested to the ferocity of the battle.
The severe destruction was likely caused by the second-circle spell, Flame Burst Skill!
"Where's the body?" Anluoke suddenly questioned. There were clear signs of a fight, but Blaine's body was nowhere to be found.
The scavenger swallowed hard and began to speak with difficulty. "After the witch-hunter lord died, that wizard threw him into... threw him into the Yin River..."
"This is blasphemy!"
Before Anluoke could respond, a middle-aged priest behind him burst out angrily.
Over the years, thanks to the "wise" measures of the Duke of Nordland, the entire downstream of the Yin River had truly become a place of filth.
Blaine's identity was not just a simple witch-hunter; he was also a member of the church's divine punishment army, and he had even taken the Divine Grace Elixir, becoming God's emissary on earth.
His frequent participation in witch-hunting operations was merely to pad his resume.
But that wizard, corrupted by a demon, had ruthlessly killed him and thrown his body into the polluted Yin River, undoubtedly a direct challenge to the authority of the church!
The scavenger's body trembled slightly, lowering his head in fear.
Anluoke tightened his grip on his staff, his anger rising. He turned to the trembling scavenger and questioned again.
"Did you see clearly what the wizard who killed Blaine looked like? Was anyone else involved?"
"I only saw a few distant glimpses, Bishop. There should have been no second wizard..." the scavenger replied, trembling. "The person looked just barely an adult, with brown hair, about as tall as you."
"Carl..." Anluoke murmured to himself, contemplating the information.
Previously, he had not paid much attention to this obscure wizard apprentice. After all, the intelligence indicated that the apprentice had been learning for just about half a year and was not favored by Wizard Coru, making him the least threatening target...
But it seemed that was not the case...
Releasing the second-circle spell Flame Burst Skill and killing two witch-hunters was not something a novice could achieve!
Unless the person possessed a powerful alchemical tool, or... was a formal wizard like Coru!
...
Several days later, at the border of Nordland Territory, in an inn in Wuer Town.
Waking from a nightmare, Lynn jumped off the hard wooden bed, quickly moving to the window to observe the scene outside.
Seeing that everything was normal, with no one coming to catch him, Lynn finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Since he killed those two witch-hunters in the slums five days ago, he had been worried about the Judgement Court's pursuit. He took a deliberately longer route to Wuer Town and even falsified some escape traces.
Perhaps his half-baked counter-surveillance techniques worked, or the Judgement Court had no time to deal with a minor wizard apprentice, as he had not encountered any pursuers yet.
Despite this, the journey had been arduous.
Used to the conveniences of modern life, suddenly finding himself in a setting resembling medieval Europe was almost too much for Lynn to bear.
There were no phones or computers, no familiar family or friends, no hot breakfast in the morning, only hard black bread washed down with water...
The only consolation was that he retained all the memories of the original Carl, which allowed him to understand the language and writing of this world. His skills were not too weak, enabling him to deter some petty thieves and avoid dying on the way.
After several days of hardship, Lynn reluctantly accepted the reality of his situation, and this was his second day in Wuer Town!
Out of caution, Lynn had not hurried to find the other wizard apprentices. After discovering the markers they left, he returned discreetly, taking a day to familiarize himself with the terrain and stock up on flints and black bread.
The days on the run had made Lynn paranoid, but after a preliminary understanding of Wuer Town, he realized why Johnny had chosen this place for the meeting.
As a trading town on the border of Nordland Territory, the place saw a mix of people coming and going regularly, with merchant caravans frequently passing through. One or two strangers would not attract much attention.
As he pondered, Lynn reached for a stone mortar, placing the fragmented flints inside, and began grinding them into fine powder with a small wooden stick.
During his time in Wuer Town, aside from looking for markers and familiarizing himself with the terrain, Lynn had devoted the rest of his time to making white phosphorus!
White phosphorus is an allotrope of phosphorus with the chemical formula P4, appearing as a white or pale yellow transparent solid.
There are two common methods of preparation.
First, mixing calcium phosphate, quartz sand, and carbon powder into a mixture, heating it to 1400 to 1600 degrees Celsius. The resulting phosphorus vapor is then passed into cold water to solidify into white phosphorus.
Second, heating red phosphorus to 416 degrees Celsius in the absence of air, sublimating and cooling it to obtain white phosphorus.
However, in this pre-industrial, medieval-like world, gathering these materials in a short time was no easy task.
071 had shown him some ancient and "convenient" methods of extracting materials, but Lynn preferred not to use them unless absolutely necessary.
Fortunately, Lynn soon discovered a surprise: the flints he had used contained traces of red phosphorus!
Given red phosphorus's role as an effective flame retardant, its use in making matches in the last century to improve safety was not surprising.
It seemed the natives of this world had already discovered phosphorus, albeit at a primitive level of application.
As he ground the flint with the stick, removing the impurities, he was left with clumps of red powder...
He lacked professional equipment, but his magic was far more useful than any scientific apparatus!
Mage's Hand!
With a thought, the fine red phosphorus seemed to be summoned, floating up, and under the effect of the Initial Material Decompilation Skill, breaking down into basic molecular states...
(P.S.: Any support for the new book is appreciated!)