Chapter 6 - Extracting "Magic Material

```Richard didn't listen to what Edward was saying and appeared in the room of the independent laboratory.

What he saw was a spacious room more than fifty square meters in size, with walls painted pure white. In the middle of the floor stood several black walnut tables joined together, resembling an operating table, on which lay the snake's carcass that the soldiers had just brought in.

Around the table were numerous wooden stands, some of which held various instruments, experimental materials, and tools, while others were instruments themselves. Most of these were far beyond the current technological level of this world and were created with great effort by Richard.

In simple terms, the technology level of the room Richard was in now was more than three hundred years ahead of its time, and the scientific thought contained within was over seven or eight centuries ahead.

Squinting his eyes, Richard stepped toward a wooden stand. On the side of the stand was a handle, below which was a spout, and further down was a wooden bucket.

Richard reached out and pulled the handle, positioned it under the spout, and after a brief wait, a colorless, transparent liquid with a pungent odor flowed from the spout onto his hand.

This was 75% alcohol, which could be used as a disinfectant. Richard carefully scrubbed each finger, ensuring every part was clean, then closed the spout and flicked his hands a few times until the remaining alcohol evaporated. He then stepped toward another wooden stand.

He took a set of tools that had already been sterilized with alcohol and approached the wooden table where the snake lay.

At this moment, Richard's gaze fell upon the snake's body, observing this strange creature capable of engulfing itself in flames with great scrutiny.

"The head is relatively small." Richard measured the snake's head with his hand and remarked. Opening its mouth to see no elongated fangs, he continued, "Non-venomous, snout flat."

"There are three pairs of labial pits." Richard's gaze fell on a part of the snake similar to a human's upper lip, where he saw three pairs of indentations, indicating the snake's special structure, akin to infrared sensors. These allowed the snake to detect warm-blooded animals in the environment at night, determining their exact position for tracking and attacking.

"Brown." Richard's eyes moved back from the snake's head to its entire body and back, noting, "The back is yellowish with arrow-like markings and numerous irregular cloud patterns."

"The abdomen is white." With a slight effort, Richard flipped the entire snake over and looked at the lower part, where the snake's cloaca was, and saw a pair of protrusions, "There are also a pair of vestigial claw-like limbs."

"By this measure, it resembles the Burmese Python on modern Earth, likely a close relative." Having completed his observation, Richard spoke to himself, with data about the Burmese Python swiftly passing through his mind:

The Burmese Python, also known as the Myanmar Rock Python, Qin Snake, or Double-banded Python, scientific name: Python bivittatus, is one of the subspecies of the Asian rock python within the snake suborder. It is the third-largest python on modern Earth, known for its enormous size, reaching lengths of up to 7 meters and weights of up to 91 kilograms. The longest recorded Burmese Python measured 9.75 meters...

"7 meters? 9.75 meters?" Richard uttered aloud, looking at the snake on the table, which was just over 3 meters long, pondering, "If it truly is a close relative, it must not be mature yet. But even without reaching maturity, it can emit flames up to 1,500°C; what would it be like when mature? Truly a magical demonized creature."

The next moment, Richard took a deep breath and grabbed a set of prepared tools, stabbing into the snake's body. With a "puff" sound, the sharp blade easily cut through the snake's skin. With a slight force, it glided downward, slicing open the entire body of the snake, revealing all its inner contents.

Reaching into the viscera to search, Richard squinted his eyes.

According to many modern Earth's entertainment novels, magic creatures like this snake should contain something like a "crystal core" or "magic crystal" in their bodies to provide energy for casting spells.

And from a scientific perspective, if a snake can engulf itself in flames, it must possess special organs or glands not found in other snakes.

But Richard found none of these.

Richard frowned slightly, finally setting his gaze on the snake's skin. He recalled clearly that the snake skin he touched in the pretender wizard's package had temperature; it was evident that the snake's skin contained something special.

Pressing his lips, he sliced the snake's skin and flesh apart with a knife, quickly obtaining a complete snake skin.

Soaking the snake skin and boiling it for a long time, a layer of viscous, grease-like yellow substance floated to the surface of the water.

"This is..."

Without hesitation, Richard quickly scooped up the yellow substance, took an iron tray from a nearby wooden stand, and tried to ignite it.

With a "puff" sound, orange flames leapt into the air, and the air temperature instantly rose. However, the iron tray showed no signs of being red-hot. Upon touching it, it was astonishingly cold. Watching the yellow substance in the tray gradually decrease, Richard realized something.

"This substance present in the snake skin can seep through the scales to the surface, then ignite to produce high-temperature flames for attacking. While burning, it evaporates, taking away a significant amount of heat, maintaining the skin at a low temperature, preventing burns.

This is similar to the 'fireproof handkerchief' magic trick—the trick involves soaking the cloth in alcohol before lighting it. During the burning, the evaporation of moisture absorbs heat, lowering the temperature of the handkerchief below the ignition point of the cloth, so until the alcohol is burned, the cloth remains unharmed..."

"So, by this measure..." Richard's eyes lit up, "The so-called magic material should be among this. If the water, grease, and impurities can be filtered out, what remains should be the pure magic material."

"Then..."

Richard did not continue speaking but started to work quickly.

He extracted all the yellow, oily substances, put them into a jar, and began distilling them.

Richard personally undertook the task, naturally much faster than the inadequate maid outside.

Before long, Richard distilled out excess water from the golden, oily substance, separating the grease and other impurities, ultimately obtaining a small vial of golden-yellow liquid, resembling molten gold.

"Is this the true magic material?" Richard squinted at the golden liquid, feeling that some answers he'd been seeking might soon be unraveled.

The next moment, Richard swiftly disinfected and washed his hands with alcohol, grabbed the bottle of liquid, and strode out of the laboratory.

By this time, several hours had passed, and night had fallen.

Outside, Edward was still waiting. Seeing Richard come out, he opened his mouth, ready to continue persuading him.

However, Richard waved him off and said, "Edward, have someone clean my laboratory, then guard the palace entrance. I have urgent matters to attend to and must not be disturbed. I won't be having dinner. Any issues, wait until tomorrow."

"Uh..."

After speaking, Richard strode toward the hall, quickly ascended the wooden stairs to the second floor, and entered his bedroom and the adjoining study, shutting the door with a "bang."