The thick gray smoke rose, and a pair of hands suddenly grabbed him and dragged him into a thick and hazy world.

The man wrapped his hand around his shoulder and led him down to get around the laid blocks. They walked through the narrow cave filled with chemicals and messy manuscripts.

Instead of taking the opportunity to rush out of the hole, they sneaked inward.

William felt that he had returned to the stone platform. He followed the force from the rescuer's hand and leaned over and drilled into the hidden space below the stage.

As he staggered, he bumped into a small figure, and the two of them rolled into a ball in the dark with a muffled groan. The man just now squeezed in and dragged the book basket with his backhand to block the gap.

William fumbled and accidentally touched the little girl's lips, and she opened her mouth and bit it on her finger, and almost screamed in pain.

"Quiet! It's me." Isaac's voice was restrained and calm, "They're still outside."

William's tense nerves did not dare to relax, and immediately raised his ears and focused on the sound outside. Only the subtle cold wind blew the grass and trees and made a shattering sound, and the expected foot sound and voice did not appear.

It was not until the wet and cold Xilu wet the corners of her clothes and the coldness slowly got up from the soles of her feet that William finally felt safer: "Are they leaving?"

"Not necessarily, wait a little longer." Isaac shook his head. Out of his understanding of the two masked men, he was more cautious than usual. He hadn't had a good bath for a while, and his messy black hair was full of chemical materials, smelling like a strange piece of alchemy substance.

This strange and unique smell made the other two children feel at ease. William firmly believed that Isaac must have begun to plan this plan to escape the moment he saw them appear. He admired this serious silent boy even more.

Anne was afraid of the cold and curled up among the two. The long afternoon trip was already exhausting energy and was frightened by a considerable fear. Now she is in a quiet and peaceful dark cave, and the body temperature transmitted from left to right made her drowsy.

In a daze, she heard two boys talking softly.

"I thought you left me."

Isaac glanced at William without saying anything else.

"You could have taken Annie to run away."

"It may not be possible to run away." Isaac shrugged, "Who knows."

"……sorry."

"What?"

"What happened before... was that I deliberately found fault. At that time, I was determined to bet to win Brian."

"Accustomed to it." Isaac was not caring. After a long time, he added softly, "but this is the first time someone apologized to me."

William couldn't hold back his face, but fortunately the environment is dark: "Why are you dealing with these people?"

"I want to find something," Isaac tried to avoid the topic, "I can't get it myself."

"What is the Invisible Academy?" This question seemed to touch Isaac's secret pain, and William had to admit embarrassedly, "I...I have read the letter from my uncle to you. He has never told me about the Invisible Academy," and he was so aggrieved that he could not continue. "When he left, he didn't say a word to me."

"He has looked for me. You have read the content of the letter," William heard the loss in Isaac's tone for the first time. "The messenger must have left. I can't contact them anymore."

"But you were clearly communicating with other invisible academy people before." William remembered the piles of letters on the floor of the attic, "Those two just now..."

"The company's people." Isaac lowered his voice, "I don't want you to get involved, it's too dangerous. This is my own business." After a moment of silence, he let out a sigh, "I contacted the Invisible Academy through them."

William opened his eyes wide in surprise. Isaac continued: "They have a membership of the Invisible Academy. I don't know how they got it - it may be a deceased old professor or a poor researcher - I have always used that identity to communicate with others. Every time I receive and send it, they have to pass it through them, and they will check the content in advance." He smiled rarely, "So it was the first time that your uncle actually received a message from the Invisible Academy."

"Have you seen a messenger?"

"No." Isaac shook his head. "Today happened to be their day from London, and I was intercepted halfway." He pondered. "I doubt they might know something. These two guys are obviously more alert than before, and even... bring a bargaining chip that I can't refuse."

"Emerald Slate." William nodded. He has always been smart and clever. "Is it an ancient book? Latin is so difficult to understand."

Isaac was a little surprised by his keenness, but admitted frankly: "Yes. It is said that it was written by the ancient Egyptian god Thoth, and later passed on to Hermes. By interpreting it, you can understand all the mysteries of alchemy."

"Why do you have to understand it?" William murmured in a low voice, "You really want to be a sage stone?"

This sentence reminded Isaac that he suddenly stood up, pushed open the book basket and crawled out of the hiding place under the stone slab.

"Hello!"

William's reminder was ignored. He had no choice but to pull up Anne, who was half asleep, and go out.

After nightfall, the cave was dark and swaying fire, Isaac found a long-necked flask filled with golden liquid from the instrument table. A large amount of equally golden and dazzling gas evaporated from the liquid. It swirled and flowed in the narrow space inside the bottle like a living swimming fish, making people dizzy.

It was too unstable. There were some fine golden particles attached to the wall of the flask, proving that the liquid in the bottle was solidifying and crystallizing at the last moment.

"Is it what you made for them this time?" William leaned closer and looked at him curiously, "Has it succeeded?"

Isaac quickly pushed him away: "Danger! Stay away from it." He stopped and observed carefully for a while, shook his head and said, "...The temperature is not enough. The final condensation and molding requires a huge supply of heat. This small stove is not enough, unless-"

His head stopped, but then a voice replied, "Unless we are going to the London laboratory we have prepared for you."

The light of the fire reflected and leaped on the silver beak, and the masked man emerged from the darkness like a ghost. No one knew how long he had been waiting in the shadow.

"I originally planned to wait until Old Qiao finished cooking before dealing with you." He stepped forward step by step, with a heavy cane on his hand, "I must have said before, so that you don't think about running away."

William protected Anne and stepped back unconsciously. Isaac beside him gritted his teeth and took a step forward: "Let them go. I agree-"

Before he finished speaking, the cane was broken and the wind roared on his shoulder. The man stepped forward and kicked Isaac down: "Did you agree? Have I asked you what you mean?" He stepped on the black-haired boy's violently undulating chest from a high point, and put his cane on his throat, "What qualifications do you have to agree?"

"Don't hit him!" Annie cried and wanted to rush over, but was pulled by William. He felt that she was actually trembling with fear.

"I suddenly felt strange since I was just now. When did the Thomas family have a little brown-haired bastard?" The smiling man slowly turned his head to this side. "If I remember correctly, their little daughter should be named Charlotte."

Then he pretended to be enlightened: "You are Anne Clark! The pharmacist's baby."

William's heart sank and he took Anne behind him. He suppressed the urge to retreat and avoid it in his heart, straightened his body and blocked the girl's face.

“The knight is good.”

The smiling man sincerely praised him. He let go of Isaac and lifted his cane toward the two children. He deliberately kept his calm and lazy manner, like a ferocious beast licking his minions.

When he turned gracefully, he suddenly staggered and almost fell in a mess.

"Let them go."

Isaac raised his body from the ground, firmly grasping the other end of the cane with one hand, his eyes firmly: "This is not a request. If you still want that recipe, do what I said."

The smiling man exerted force on his hand and wanted to pull the cane back, but he didn't expect that the thin boy's hand was amazingly strong. He pulled it hard several times, but eventually he was in a stalemate.

The anger caused him to completely throw away the so-called gentleman mask. The smiling man raised his foot and stomped on Isaac's face, rubbing the rough soles hard: "There is only one formula--yes," he slowly pulled out a short-handled dagger from his cane, "But the person who makes the formula is not necessarily--"

"Isaac!"

Anne was horrified to find that she was being caught and picked up.

Old Qiao is back.

At the critical moment, William raised the long-necked flask on the instrument table with golden smoke and threw it hard at the smiling man!

The flask was knocked down by a swinged dagger and shattered when it touched the ground.

Golden yellow smoke rose everywhere, and a loud roar was like thunder. The vibration caused by the explosion lifted up bottles and jars. The fire ignited the flammable liquid flowing everywhere, and the flames rolled up in the cave. Under the high temperature, many stored alchemy materials were also ignited one after another, and the waves of heat swept almost suffocated.

William crawled out on the ground and crawled outwards. The air was so hot that it was scary. He tried to find Anne, but he couldn't open his eyes in the thick smoke. As the chemicals burned, all kinds of strange smells of smoke penetrated into his lungs from his mouth and nose, choking him to tears and cough loudly.

In the nightmare scene, he gradually lost consciousness.

"He's here!"

William heard the shouts of people and felt that he was being picked up from the fire, and then cold and fresh air was poured into his chest.

"Young Master!"

It is a familiar sound, and there are dog barking.

He rubbed his eyes, which were flowing through tears, and finally saw clearly the person in front of him little by little - the milkman Old John.

Immediately a big enthusiastic animal came up to lick his cheek. William avoided it and realized that it was the White Bear Dog his uncle gave him, Willie.

"We've been looking for you for a long time!" Old John said in a whisper, a little angry in his tone. "If I hadn't heard the explosion, it would have been hard to end!" He wiped William's face with a linen handkerchief soaked in water, "The master will definitely lose his temper again!"

After a little slowing down, William turned his head and looked around.

The two East India Company people were gone and they probably ran away. He breathed a sigh of relief for a while. Anne was lying in a roll of blanket not far away, not yet awakening.

Isaac was sitting alone under a tree, staring at something in his palm.

William groaned, struggled to stand up, and walked to the black-haired boy to sit side by side.

A small piece of strange matter, like a star, lies in his palm, gleamed. It looks like crystals, but shines with the cold light of metal.

"Regurus." Isaac lifted it up and put it in front of William, "It's very beautiful, right? I didn't expect it to succeed in this way."

"The explosion and fire just now..." William hesitated, "Is this the Sage Stone?"

"No, it's not that precious yet. But... I think it might be a Sage Stone. It's just that there are a few other materials."

"What did you say just now?"

"Regurus, the name I gave it." Isaac pointed to the stars in the sky, "Don't you think it looks like the brightest one in Leo?"

"You gave it a name?" William couldn't stop talking, "that means it-"

Isaac nodded lightly: "It was created by me."

He held the small piece of dazzling fragment tightly, turned to look at William, and handed it to him solemnly: "As a thank you--"

This is undoubtedly a very precious thing for Isaac. William hesitated and didn't know whether to take it.

"I was shocked when you and Anne appeared in front of you." A faint light was flowing in the dark-haired boy's deep pupils. "For the first time, I knew that someone would look for me if I was missing."

He slapped the fragment in his hand, called Regulus, on William's hand.

The teenagers' hands folded and clasped, just like their entangled trajectory of fate in the future.
To be continued...