When the white substance in the flask completely transformed into golden liquid, the originally brilliant radiant golden liquid suddenly restrained its golden light, no longer releasing dazzling radiance.
Seeing this, Kael finally breathed a sigh of relief from mental exhaustion.
Without the golden light's shroud, his extremely amplified five senses also finally subsided, no longer causing him discomfort and pain.
You must know that in the final moments, Kael had been tormented by his five senses to the point of wishing for death, several times harboring thoughts of giving up, but ultimately gritting his teeth and suppressing them.
But the results of persisting were also good. Kael discovered his body's five senses had been enhanced by more than double.
His eyes could clearly see the scenery of Hogsmeade at the mountain's base, even travelers walking on the Great East Road over ten miles away, and their clothing and attire, all visible with perfect clarity.
He could also hear subtle sounds from very far away. He currently heard bards by the Black Lake at the mountain's base loudly reciting poetry praising Hogwarts.
The verses were ornate but mediocre in quality, Kael mentally evaluated.
The enhancement of his sense of smell allowed Kael to detect the scents of grass, various flowers, the White Tree, and the mallorn tree.
He could even close his eyes and rely on smell alone to distinguish which flower fragrances were carried in the breeze, and track their directions.
'So have I gained a hound's nose?' This thought popped into Kael's mind.
The enhancement of touch strengthened Kael's perception of his surroundings, granting him an intuitive warning ability that could actively alert him to danger.
For instance, when enemies attacked from behind, he could sense changes in wind speed in advance, allowing him to dodge attacks or react beforehand.
Such improvement in his five senses didn't trouble Kael this time. He could even actively control his senses without experiencing the extreme discomfort from before.
It could be said that after having his five senses enhanced, Kael's current physical condition was completely comparable to elves, not just in strength but especially in extraordinary acuity.
Besides this, what delighted Kael even more was that his life potential had been stimulated and increased, greatly extending his lifespan.
Even without longevity methods, with his current transformed body alone, he could easily live three to four hundred years, not less than the long-lived Dúnedain among humans.
Having gained such tremendous benefits, Kael was naturally very happy.
He extinguished the dragon blood flames in the furnace, opened it, and took out the flask within.
In the furnace, the Arkenstone he had thrown in to burn also miraculously remained undestroyed. However, after having too much earth elemental power extracted, the gem that originally radiated brilliant white light had now become dim, no longer possessing its former radiance.
Kael put away the Arkenstone and looked at the golden liquid in the flask.
The golden liquid rotated on its own within the bottle, forming a miniature storm while emitting faint golden light. Not as dazzling as before, but containing more powerful energy.
This was the mark of successful third-stage Philosopher's Stone transformation, called the "Solar Wheel" stage, also known as the yellowing phase.
At this step, though the golden liquid in the bottle couldn't turn stone to gold, it could extend human life.
If taken directly, it could allow someone to live very long. At least six to seven hundred years, possibly even a thousand.
Of course, if alchemists had refined to this step, no one would abandon easily obtainable success, discarding the chance for a complete Philosopher's Stone to choose consuming the golden liquid for merely a few hundred years of extended life.
So the actual life-extending properties of consuming the golden liquid remained purely theoretical—no alchemist would sacrifice the chance at true immortality for a mere few centuries of extended life.
Having completed the Philosopher's Stone's yellowing stage, only the final "reddening" stage remained.
Once reddening was complete, the red Philosopher's Stone would take shape, becoming a treasure capable of granting immortality and transmuting base metals to gold.
"Congratulations, Kael. Your Philosopher's Stone is only one step away from success."
Outside the stone circle, Arwen, who had been waiting nearby for a long time, felt genuinely happy for Kael from her heart.
Hearing this, Kael's eyes grew gentle as he softly caressed Arwen's face, smiling as he placed the flask containing golden liquid in her hands. Under her puzzled gaze, he said solemnly:
"When the Philosopher's Stone is completed, I'll use it as a betrothal gift to ask Lord Elrond for your hand in marriage!"
Arwen's eyes showed surprise, then tears of light overflowed from her starry eyes, blooming into a brilliant smile that could enchant souls.
"Yes! I look forward to it."
The final stage of Philosopher's Stone refinement required fusing fire and air elements while conducting it during the celestial phenomenon of Venus conjunct Mars.
Venus conjunct Mars—when Venus and Mars appeared simultaneously in the night sky—occurred almost once yearly, lasting anywhere from several days to dozens of days.
According to Elrond's prediction, this year's Venus-Mars conjunction phenomenon would begin in one month and last an unprecedented two and a half months—the longest duration on record.
So this time, Kael didn't need to wait long before beginning the next stage of Philosopher's Stone creation.
Additionally, when refining the Philosopher's Stone, Kael needed to fuse air and fire elements.
These two elements could be condensed by the Ring of Air and Ring of Fire, respectively, so Kael only needed Elrond's and Gandalf's help.
Elrond basically lived in Rivendell and was easy to contact.
But Gandalf was restless, with no fixed residence and difficult to find.
Though Kael could send messages via Patronus, they weren't omnipotent. Over extremely long distances, the magical connection would weaken and fail, causing even the Patronus's form to dissolve before reaching its destination.
So Kael simply went to the Owlery to ask the owls there for help.
The Owlery was a separate tower standing apart from Hogwarts Castle. The circular stone structure housed owl roosts and perches, with large unglazed windows allowing the owls easy access.
The owls here were all great snowy owls Kael had brought from northwestern Annúminas, creatures from Númenor Island who now mingled with the great eagle Thorondor living in the mallorn tree, much cleverer than ordinary owls.
Kael used them as his exclusive messengers, specially creating an owl potion for them.
Owls were important members of the magical world, serving as wizards' messengers. Not only intelligent enough to understand human speech but also capable of accurately delivering letters to target recipients, even when constantly moving.
But not all owls possessed such abilities. Owls in the ordinary world, the Muggle world, lacked these capabilities.
The difference between the two was that magical world owls were trained by wizards through special means.
In Diagon Alley's magical world, there were shops specifically selling various owls—from grey owls, screech owls, barn owls, eagle owls to snowy owls.
These owls were originally no different from ordinary wild owls, but owl-selling wizards would specially create owl potions to feed them, enhancing their positioning and message-delivery abilities while making them more intelligent.
The quality of owl potion determined the owls' intelligence after consumption. Owls fed lower-quality potions appeared duller, while those given high-quality potions became very clever.
Therefore, depending on owls' intelligence levels, owl shop prices varied accordingly.
Professor Snape, as a Potions Master, had created perfect-quality owl potions for owl shops while still a student to earn living expenses.
So his notebook recorded this specialized potion and even improved it for better effects.
After learning this potion, Kael specially created a batch of owl potion for his messengers.
After consuming the owl potion, the already intelligent great snowy owls became even cleverer, understanding human speech while having their positioning abilities enhanced and even gaining magical affinity.
Simply handing letters to them, even without specific addresses—just mentioning names—the great snowy owls could find the intended recipients.
So Kael gave his letter for Gandalf to one of the great snowy owls, fed it some meat strips, and the snowy owl flew away with the letter toward distant lands.
A week later, the snowy owl returned with Gandalf's reply.
From the letter, Kael learned Gandalf was currently in Gondor's capital Minas Tirith and promised to return one week before Venus conjunct Mars.
Having received Gandalf's reply, Kael felt relieved.
During this free time, he refocused attention on invisibility cloak creation.
The invisibility cloak was already half-woven by Arwen, using giant spider Shelob's silk as the main thread supplemented by mithril thread and Arwen's hair, appearing overall black.
Silver threads woven throughout formed tadpole-sized mysterious runes and patterns. From afar it looked like silver-glittering stars in the night sky, very mysterious and eye-catching.
In invisibility cloak creation, Kael contributed the least. Besides providing design drawings and concepts, almost everything was woven by Arwen.
Every inch of the invisibility cloak contained magical runic symbols, with each rune being different yet needing to connect together for overall magical effects. It required over ten thousand symbols total, extremely difficult.
If Kael did this himself, he admitted lacking the patience for bit-by-bit weaving over three full years.
But Arwen surprised Kael. Not only were her weaving skills exquisite, with the invisibility cloak being extremely beautiful, but the runic symbols were also perfect and dynamic, matching the whole seamlessly while containing extraordinary magical power.
Her weaving speed and efficiency were also rapid, directly reducing time by two to three times while continuing to accelerate without affecting quality.
At Arwen's current weaving pace, the invisibility cloak would be completely woven in less than six months.
By then, the Philosopher's Stone would also be nearly completed. Adding the invisibility cloak would mean two harvests.
A month passed quickly. One week before Venus conjunct Mars, Kael came to Isengard and began arranging preparations atop Orthanc Tower.
The Philosopher's Stone's final creation stage would have the greatest commotion and require the most energy. Only by borrowing Orthanc Tower's wizard tower amplification could successful Philosopher's Stone refinement be guaranteed.
So Kael didn't mind the trouble of moving the furnace to Orthanc Tower, then using mithril to gradually draw formations and runes atop the tower.
Simultaneously, Gandalf also rode Shadowfax, the horse-lord from the south, to Isengard.
"Long time no see, Kael! I'm not late, am I?" Gandalf said with a cheerful smile.