When Doctor Duzem put away the bottle of apple dew, he habitually glanced towards the side behind the male student.

Zheng Qing almost immediately realized what he was looking for.

"Ah, sorry, Doctor."

The young scholar explained without hesitation: "Jiang Yu was originally supposed to come and she’s already in Beta Town. But just recently at Greenhill Mansion, Su Councilor felt that she’s been overworked lately, her health is not great, and needs some good rest, thus he forcibly kept her at the mansion..."

"It’s okay, it’s okay." The owner of the laboratory waved his hand, looking at the male student in front with a subtle expression: "You mean to say Su Councilor proactively kept Miss Jiang at Greenhill Mansion?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm," Doctor Duzem cautiously glanced out the window, pondering his words: "Coincidentally, since Jiang Yu is not here today, there’s something that’s been on my mind. I’m referring to your relationship with Student Jiang Yu... Even I can sense some ambiguity between you two, does Su Councilor not mind? What about Qingqiu or Zhongshan? Aren’t they concerned either?"

Zheng Qing’s mouth twitched slightly.

Who says an alchemy fanatic focused on research wouldn’t care about gossip? For a moment, he truly didn’t know whether to call Doctor Duzem ’straightforward’ or ’mindless’.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

The young scholar displayed a forced smile, replying dryly: "Student Jiang Yu and I aren’t in that kind of relationship... Nor am I in that kind of relationship with Su Councilor."

Seeing the doctor seemingly wanting to say something more, the warlock determinedly changed the topic: "By the way, I saw Lin Guo at the alley entrance just now, I’ve heard he’s already joined your lab?"

Mentioning Lin Guo made Doctor Duzem instantly overlook Zheng Qing’s little gossip.

"A very outstanding young man, extremely outstanding... Even more so than I was back then!"

While speaking, he pulled out a long piece of parchment from the table, densely covered with spell formulas and alchemy models. Zheng Qing could vaguely see several rough sketches of sheep heads and horns at different angles, indicating: "This is the design plan for the sheep puppet he crafted alone when he was eight. We can see clearly that he used Thomas Vaughan’s cold fusion technique here, achieving a transformation from material to spiritual through the blending of male sulfur and female mercury, thus forging that alchemy Black Mountain Goat. In a certain sense, the combination of male and female seeds is a homomorphic form of Yin Yang conversion, a concrete embodiment of life and death, and is one of the initial inspirations for my method of crafting the ’Dushi Philosopher’s Stone’..."

Zheng Qing blinked, trying very hard to appear as if he was listening attentively.

When the doctor paused slightly to catch his breath, he seized the moment to interject: "But, Professor, I must tell you that Lin Guo wasn’t the person who provided yesterday’s observation report..."

"I know."

Doctor Duzem shrugged: "But he’s also a remarkably talented alchemist, isn’t he? All in all, I really appreciate your introduction of such an excellent assistant... If you could also bring over the student who wrote yesterday’s report, that would be even better... By the way, I’m not a professor yet."

He carefully put away Lin Guo’s alchemy design manuscript of the Black Mountain Goat.

Then he turned around, fingertips tapping lightly on the glass jar containing the sunflower vase, and with a crisp ding ding sound, the three little sprites nestled in the sunflower dish swayed slightly almost simultaneously.

If not for Zheng Qing’s keen observation, he would have nearly missed this scene.

"Them?"

The young wizard immediately perked up, his eyes showing a glimpse of surprise, lowering his voice several tones as if speaking too loudly would wake the three little sprites: "Are they awake?"

"They will awaken in some future time,"

Doctor Duzem cautiously and conservatively worded it: "Before you arrived, I gave them a thorough check. The good news, as you just saw, is that your little sprites are very healthy. The frequency of the sound when I tapped the glass jar was seven hundred forty-one Hertz, which in the realm of mysticism is known as ’awakening intuition’, meaning that wizards’ magic unconsciously reacts to this sound frequency. This is also the principle by which many types of detection magic work, and the best way to resist these kinds of detection magic is to restrain your ’unconsciousness’, or to use a talisman that shields against sounds of special frequencies. As an example, like the ’knee-jerk reaction’ in biology, lightly tapping the knee tendon will cause the leg muscles to contract unconsciously. Similarly, upon hearing the seven hundred forty-one Hertz sound, magic within a wizard will undergo a similar conditioned reflex..."

"But I didn’t feel anything unusual just now," Zheng Qing instinctively glanced at his own hands and feet, his first reaction being whether his lack of anomaly was related to the Forbidden Curse.

Fortunately, the doctor immediately dismissed this possibility.

"Because you are conscious,"

Duzem slightly emphasized, pointing to the three little sprites inside the glass jar: "While they have yet to gain consciousness. The magic reaction produced by ’awakening intuition’ is extremely subtle, so subtle that only special spells can detect their presence. It’s precisely due to this, we can infer your little sprites are quite healthy... An unhealthy body would not exhibit a healthy reaction to this sound."

"And the bad news?" Zheng Qing didn’t forget the doctor’s initial wording.

"The bad news is, I cannot determine how long they will continue to sleep either." The doctor showed regret while looking at the few little sprites within the glass jar, his eyes filled with reluctance: "Honestly, they are marvelous experiment materials. If you’re willing to allow me to conduct a detailed analysis on any one of them..."

It was a euphemism for ’dissection’.

Zheng Qing very impolitely interrupted before he finished speaking: "No, thank you. I’d rather wait slowly, as long as they are healthy..."

Doctor Duzem shook his head slightly.

"Empathy, the eternal paradox of a wizard’s emotions. A powerful ability to empathize can create an excellent spell caster, but at the same time, it can ruin an excellent researcher." He muttered softly, turning to take out a small box, thrusting it into Zheng Qing’s hand: "Here, this tuning fork might be of some help to you."

Zheng Qing opened the box, inside was a silver-white tuning fork and a slender metal rod dotted with intricate runes.

"A tuning fork of five hundred twenty-eight Hertz."

The doctor concisely explained: "It is one of the most potent frequencies in the field of mysticism, capable of awakening life’s spirituality, activating the deepest magic source within life, promoting transformation and evolution. Occasionally tapping it in the dormitory would be beneficial for them and might even wake them up sooner."