When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#722 - Bottled Lightning and the Prototype of a Clockwork Difference Engine

Entering Xiluo Fu's pure white laboratory, Jeanne couldn't help but wrinkle her nose, despite having been there many times.

The sunlight outside the window was blocked by the heavy winter clouds, and only the fluorite lamps in the laboratory emitted a pale light.

It was less that the light divided the darkness, and more that the darkness divided the light and shadow.

The air was filled with a sour and pungent smell, and there was a faint smell of something burning.

"Xiluo Fu? Are you there?" Jeanne knocked on the door. "Madeleine baked a super delicious cheese pie for Horn, and I brought it here. Do you want some?"

But there was no response in the laboratory.

The guards had told Jeanne earlier that Xiluo Fu was working in the laboratory at the moment, so she should be upstairs.

But the wolf girl was like a deaf person when she worked, and she could only hear when the fluff on her ears was on fire.

Jeanne had seen this with her own eyes. Last time, the candle was about to burn the fluff in her ears before she reacted.

"If you don't answer, I'm coming in myself."

Holding a blueberry cheese pie the size of a washbasin, Jeanne pinched her nose and entered the somewhat dirty laboratory.

Her eyes swept over the dense experimental equipment and the colorful alchemical reagent bottles, and the air was so oppressive that it was almost suffocating.

To be honest, Jeanne never understood how Xiluo Fu could work in such a depressing environment.

Holding the cheese pie high above her head, Jeanne squeezed through the narrow gap between the tables, and sure enough, she saw orange light shining through the crack in the door on the second floor.

"Xiluo Fu..." Jeanne hadn't finished speaking when she felt a strange, electric-like sensation coming from her side.

Turning around, a glass bottle came into view.

The glass bottle was about 15 centimeters high and made of transparent crystal glass. The bottle shimmered faintly in the dim candlelight.

It stood there quietly, sealed with a cork and clamped with an iron clip, with a simple label on the bottle.

"I thought it was something..." Jeanne muttered, a hint of doubt suddenly rising in her heart.

This bottle looked ordinary, but for some reason, her footsteps paused slightly as she approached the wooden table, and her heart beat faster.

Although Xiluo Fu had repeatedly warned Jeanne not to touch her laboratory, the last time Jeanne moved the position of the crucible, the little sisters had a cold war for three whole days.

However, she was just looking this time, not touching it, so it should be fine, right?

Going around the corner of the table, Jeanne stretched her head over, and then her eyes widened.

In the dim light, was something she was very familiar with - lightning!

Inside the bottle, a beam of lightning was solidified.

The lightning was curved like a snake, filled with dazzling blue-white light, as if trapped in that moment, unable to escape.

The jagged edges of the lightning emitted weak electrical fluctuations, and occasional slight vibrations came from the bottom of the bottle.

Jeanne couldn't resist her curiosity and reached out a hand to touch the glass bottle.

"You didn't touch my things, did you?" Xiluo Fu's mechanical, emotionless voice came from behind.

"No, no, I didn't." Jeanne immediately raised the cheese pie high with both hands, a smile on her face. "How could I touch your things?"

Xiluo Fu's ears perked up alertly, twisting from side to side: "You better not have."

Turning her wheelchair to the table, Xiluo Fu picked up a black cloth and covered the glass bottle.

"Xili, what is that?" Jeanne called Xiluo Fu by her nickname, and offered the cheese pie in her hand as a peace offering.

"This is bottled lightning."

"Bottled lightning? What is that?"

"It's simple. According to the school of magic, aether is the medium for spellcasting, but once the spellcasting process is over, the aether returns to the astral realm.

So I personally define two states of aether, one is the activated state, and the other is the stable state.

And moon mercury, as an alchemical substance that can preserve aether, can actually preserve the activated state of aether in the form of lightning.

The moon mercury crystallization technology derived from the red dragon's breath can even lock the lightning aether with minimal loss.

This is the activated lightning aether contained in the moon mercury crystal, just like filling a bottle with lightning, so I call it bottled lightning."

"Tch, don't you have results?" Jeanne patted her chest. "You already have results, what are you worried about?"

"What results are these... Horn sent you here, didn't he?"

"...I can't hide it from you, hehe." Jeanne pounced on her and rubbed her face against Xiluo Fu's. "Brother was afraid you were too anxious, but the cardinals were urging you, so he had to let me come and see what's going on."

Picking up a piece of cheese pie and stuffing it into her mouth, Xiluo Fu's hard and aloof wolf ears immediately softened: "Do you remember the hand-cranked calculator that Horn asked Leonardo to design?"

"I remember, is that the one that creaks when you turn it?" Jeanne confirmed with Xiluo Fu, assuring herself that she had not said anything wrong.

Xiluo Fu nodded: "That thing is very useful for calculating aether turbulence points, and it can even be used to simplify the formulas of aether spires.

According to the notes in the Emerald Tablet, I think the aether connection time may not be fixed.

In other words, if we can summarize the rules, use mathematics to establish a formula model, and then drive it with a spring.

We can change the aether connection mode of the entire spire from static to dynamic, which can continuously shorten the time interval, and even continuously connect to the aether."

The aether spire connects to the aether about every two weeks, mainly to charge the star-forged gears.

But the original connection ritual was static, that is, the predecessors only calculated a time point and the placement position of the ritual and other utensils at that time point.

When connecting to the aether, Xiluo Fu used pulleys and tracks to fine-tune these utensils and rituals.

Now Xiluo Fu's proposal is to first use a hand-cranked calculator to calculate several characteristic points, and then summarize the rule formula or a model function.

Finally, use a spring or star-forged gears to drive these ritual utensils to change automatically with time, and ultimately even achieve a continuous source of aether.

In this way, a large amount of aether can be connected to the lightning furnace through the moon mercury, so that the lightning furnace can be realized without stopping work.

The only thing needed may be a lightning wizard to ignite the lightning each time the lightning furnace is started.

After telling all this, Xiluo Fu looked at Jeanne's blank and clear eyes, and could only sigh: "When you go back, tell Horn that I'm fine, I just need time to calculate."

"Never mind my brother, we haven't played together for a long time, let me stay with you, how long do you need to calculate?" Jeanne asked with a smile.

Xiluo Fu looked at Jeanne helplessly: "I have to calculate this for the next two or three years..."

"Ah?" Jeanne became anxious. "What's so difficult about this? Besides, why do you have to calculate it? We have found so many mathematicians, let them calculate it. Even if it's not enough, don't we still have a hand-cranked calculator?"

"This calculation is too complicated, the calculator can't calculate it..."

"Why? Add a few more gears, and then install the star-forged gears, can't you?"

"It's not possible to install star-forged gears on a hand-cranked calculator... um..." Xiluo Fu's face, which never had any expression, even showed a hint of surprise. "Wait, yes, why do I have to calculate it myself? Change the hand-cranked drive to star-forged gears, and then add a few more sets of gears... yes, yes..."

"How long did it take me to solve this? Three seconds?" Jeanne spread her hands triumphantly.

Xiluo Fu didn't answer her, not even bothering to eat the cheese pie, and hurriedly turned her wheelchair up the slope in a sprint, entering the small second-floor study.

Jeanne looked at the cheese pie that had only been eaten once, and was about to chase after her when she saw a loyalist running over the guards in a hurry.

After the loyalist whispered for a while, Jeanne frowned: "What is the Shard Stone Wasteland's envoy doing in the Holy See of Machinery?"