Chapter 141: Cyanogenic Glycosides
Li Lang struggled to contain his excitement as he stared down at the auto-analysis report. It had an exhaustive list of names, including amygdalin, prunasin, and sambunigrin. They were all cyanogenic glycosides and were exactly what Li Lang wanted. That was because they were the ingredients for making cyanide. It was a poison with an onset time measured in seconds rather than minutes or hours and would be his first choice if he had access to any material he wanted.
He couldn’t be happier at having attained a natural source of these cyanogenic glycosides. Extracting these cyanide compounds from raw materials was much easier than synthesizing them from simpler substances. This was especially so for Li Lang, who did not have access to any industries.
As Li Lang analyzed the details of the report, his excitement died down. The unnamed branch he found contained very small traces of these precursor materials to cyanide. With the concentration too low, it became a problem to produce useable quantities. It simply wasn’t realistic to harvest the vast portion of the forest for a small supply that he would struggle to replenish.
“Ruby, bring out samples of this tree branch for me.”
“Right away, master!”
Blinking once, Li Lang could see the branch he had harvested during his adventures out in the pocket realm. Its appearance wasn’t anything special. It had a rough texture and a particularly dark shade of brown. Taking a sniff, the tree had a faint almond-like scent. Other than that, it appeared like a branch from any regular tree.
Hmm, too bad the tree was withered. There aren’t any leaves or anything else to examine. How should I proceed to extract sufficient hydrogen cyanide?
With one question answered, Li Lang was rewarded with several new ones. It became the new topic that would occupy most of his free time.
Thankfully, plants and faunas were something Li Lang had dealt with all his life. It didn’t take long for him to come up with several ideas to increase the concentration levels of the cyanogenic glycosides.
As always, the easy part was done in Ruby’s artifact space. The difficult part was to do the same in reality.
One evening, when Li Lang’s group gathered once again in the mess hall, everyone surprisingly discovered that Li Lang was the first one there. He stood over their usual table, which now had several clay jars. He was wrapping them with large pieces of cloth.
The second person only frowned at the scene for a split second before greeting his friend.