After visiting the farm, Roland arrived at the rubber bug laboratory.

This room, only about thirty square meters, resembled an ancient wizard's alchemy chamber—a row of buckets filled with sticky liquid stood against the wall, the already solidified milky-white liquid sticking everywhere. A large pot was full of scorched rubber chunks, emitting a foul odor; heaven knows what they had put inside.

The long-handled soup ladles, buckets, and stirring rods used in the experiments only deepened this feeling; if paired with a few toads and bats, it would be a perfect recreation.

"Your Majesty," Kaimo Strell nodded simply as a greeting, "the thing you wanted, I think I've found it."

Roland noticed his pale face and the bandage wrapped around his finger. "You're injured?"

"A minor issue, nothing serious," he waved his hand, then handed over a glass of light red liquid. "Your Majesty, please have a look."

Kaimo inverted the glass, but the liquid did not spill out. Instead, it slowly wriggled along the glass wall, forming a soft, hemispherical blob at the rim.

Roland's eyes lit up, and he reached out to take the jelly-like substance, but the chief alchemist stopped him.

"No, Your Majesty!" He withdrew the glass. "This stuff is corrosive."

"I thought rubber bug sap was supposed to be non-toxic and harmless," Roland raised an eyebrow. Otherwise, it wouldn't be used for food packaging bags and straws.

"But after mixing with blood, it does change its properties."

"Blood?" Roland was slightly stunned and couldn't help but look at his finger. "Could the wound on your hand have been for the experiment..."

"Of course not, that was just an accident," Kaimo chuckled, stroking his beard. "Even if I'm crazy, I wouldn't use myself for experiments—the path of chemistry is so long, and I still hope to go further."

After listening to his explanation, Roland finally understood the discovery process of the new colloid.

The solidification of rubber bug sap comes from the mixture of gland secretions, and according to the difference in the ratio of the two, it can form bio-rubbers of different hardness, but none of them have fluidity and are irreversible once solidified.

Kaimo initially followed the experience of chemical experiments, adding various elemental substances or acid-base liquids in groups, but none of them could reverse the final result.

Later, the selection of materials was further broadened, from complex inorganic salts to organic matter, all of which were thrown in to observe the effect. Although the process also discovered many interesting special colloids, the new gel Roland wanted was never obtained.

Until an accident happened.

While cutting waste rubber strips, he accidentally cut his finger, and the dripping blood contaminated a glass of experimental sample waiting to solidify. A large amount of white gas suddenly emerged from the glass, dissolving the bird's kiss mushroom placed in it into a pool of yellow water.

The solution also turned into a semi-congealed gel.

"Its biggest feature is that it can retain the characteristics of the mixed materials." Kaimo threw the gel into the furnace, and it immediately emitted a bright light, and the flames soared several feet high, instead of slowly turning black like the previous rubber block and finally turning into a pile of powder. "I only added a spoonful of grease in it. Burning it alone might not achieve such an effect. It can be said that it is even better than what you requested!"

Although the old alchemist's voice seemed a little tired, his tone was full of excitement. Looking at the exuberant fire, Kaimo's eyes seemed to have a flame burning in them—he had obviously already envisioned the scene when this gel was used in large quantities.

Gelignite, was what Roland was trying to create.

It was originally made by mixing gasoline with special thickening agents, with extremely low flash points, easy to ignite and explode, and difficult to adhere to the liquid fuel, which was not only much safer to use, but also more lethal. Combined with explosives, it can instantly create large areas of burning, and once contaminated, it is difficult to get rid of. At the same time, the raging fire will accelerate the consumption of oxygen, causing suffocation.

When he saw that rubber bug sap had similar gelling properties, he had this idea—if the sap could be completely fused with incendiary materials and fully burned, he could obtain a simple and crude weapon.

After all, the Red Mist feared fire.

During the Taqila era, the most headache for the Union was the established outposts. The Red Mist covering a small area made the Holy Guard unable to move, and they could only rely on witches with isolation or clearance abilities to lead everyone forward slowly. The task of dismantling the Mist Storage Towers fell to the mortal army. Often in a battle, the Holy Guard would pay a great price because they could not be flexible and mobile, and the mortals would never return.

It was under such cruel exchanges that the demons weakened the Union's power every time they built an outpost, until the latter could no longer stop their actions, and was finally dragged down by the demons pouring in from all directions.

If they could have the ability to set fires at will, the threat of enemy outposts would be greatly reduced, and the Red Mist on which the demons depended for survival would become a noose around their necks.

Perhaps it was because the impression of defeat was too deep that Pasha and the others cared so much about the rubber bugs—especially Elxia, who initially had some reservations about raising insects of unknown origin in the Third Border City. Since Roland had described the concept of solid fuel weapons, her attitude had changed one hundred and eighty degrees, and even her tone when mentioning the insects was different.

Roland didn't have to bite the bullet and compete with the demons at close range. Before all the moving targets disappeared, he would never let the First Army leave the range of artillery cover. Therefore, incendiary bombs were more of an auxiliary means of attack, a product of the "don't put all your eggs in one basket" mentality. It would not affect the entire strategic plan if it didn't exist, but it could save some gunpowder and reduce the production pressure of the chemical plant.

Under this premise, it was naturally great if Kaimo Strell could make a discovery, but the problem was...

"Blood is not a convenient raw material to obtain."

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty," the alchemist replied, "it is not necessary to use human blood... The blood of cattle, sheep, and other livestock can also change its properties. I have already tested this. The only prerequisite is that it must be freshly released."

This reassured Roland a lot, but the second question followed, "Why blood?"

"This..." Kaimo was speechless for a moment.

"I think it may be related to the worm itself." Pasha interjected, "Although it no longer has the control of that multi-eyed monster, the instinct still exists. It is to capture and store prey, and fresh blood is probably a trigger condition."

This speculation was quite reasonable, he thought. What the multi-eyed monster wanted was obviously not food, so whether it was stored as it was or in a gel state, there might not be much difference to them.

"Then start the weapon test as soon as possible," Roland instructed, "Now that you have the ideal raw materials, the next step shouldn't take much effort. You can leave the next things to those colleagues in King's City, after all, as you said, the road of chemistry is still very long, and taking a rest is the right thing to do."

"As you command, Your Majesty." Kaimo said, stroking his chest.

"I have another idea." Pasha said suddenly.

"What is it?" Roland looked at her.

"Maybe you can bring a special audience along during the weapon test." She swayed her main tentacle leisurely.

Roland immediately realized who Pasha was referring to, "Is that guy still alive?"

Since he didn't take advantage of the chaotic period of soul fusion to ask for more information, he didn't expect to pry open the high-level demon's mouth again. Now that he had fallen into the hands of the Taqila witches, either he would choose suicide, or he would be tortured to death by his nemesis. He thought the other party had already turned into a wisp of soul.

"It didn't starve itself. As long as food is sent in, it will eat it all up." Pasha said concisely.

This showed that it had no intention of dying at all.

Neither surrendering nor confessing.

It was waiting for the complete failure of mankind, and the moment it regained its freedom.

Even if the hope was slim, it was persevering.

Was it because it felt that dying at the hands of the insects was too unworthy?

"I understand," Roland raised the corner of his mouth, "Then take it with you."