Young Master Lu stared at the small, ragged boy, his pride warring with his desperation. The offer was an insult. He, a proud apprentice of the Three Flower Alchemist Association, being tutored by a seven-year-old beggar.
The salesgirl, Meili, scoffed from the doorway. "Young Master, don't listen to him! He's a lunatic!"
'Ah, desperation,' Li Xuan thought, a flicker of amusement in his mind. 'The mortal's greatest motivator. More effective than logic, and far more entertaining.'
Lu finally sighed, the sound of a defeated man. "Fine," he muttered. "What do I have to lose?" He gestured to a fresh set of ingredients. "The herbs on your list. If this works, they are yours. If you fail… I'll tell my Master you hypnotized me."
Li Xuan almost smiled. 'At least he's not a complete idiot.'
"Begin," Li Xuan commanded. "Prepare the cauldron. Use the cheap spirit stones."
Lu hesitated. "But the purity of the heat source—"
"Is irrelevant if the person using it is incompetent," Li Xuan cut in, his voice flat. "The expensive stones release heat too aggressively for your level of control. Use the cheap ones, unless your goal is to create another piece of expensive charcoal. Your choice."
Gritting his teeth at the thinly veiled insult, Lu swapped the stones. Meili rolled her eyes, convinced she was about to witness an explosion.
"Now, the Iron Root," Li Xuan said. "Grind it with your hands."
"What?" Lu stared. "That's impossible! The spiritual essence will leak out!"
'He thinks the essence is a shy little bird that will fly away,' Li Xuan thought with an internal sigh. 'Mortals and their charmingly stupid superstitions.'
"The mortar is a dead rock," Li Xuan said aloud, his voice dripping with forced patience. "Your hands are alive and connected to your Qi. Do you want to make a dead pill or a live one? It's not a difficult question."
Humbled and confused, Lu did as he was told. He channeled his Qi, and to his astonishment, the tough root crumbled into a fine, fragrant powder.
"Now the Blue Cap Mushroom," Li Xuan ordered. "Lower the heat first."
"That's alchemy suicide!" Lu protested, his training screaming at him. "You add the main ingredient at peak heat!"
'Right. And the best way to cook a fish is to throw it directly into a volcano,' Li Xuan thought sarcastically. 'The logic is flawless.'
"Are you making a pill, or are you flash-frying the mushroom's soul into oblivion?" Li Xuan asked, his tone dry. "Lower the heat."
Lu, now completely adrift, obeyed. He placed the mushroom into the simmering cauldron and watched, mesmerized, as a pure blue essence bled from it, filling the room with a clean, sweet fragrance.
"Binder. Seven heartbeats after the aroma sweetens," Li Xuan commanded. "Try to count correctly."
Lu counted the frantic beats of his own heart and, on the seventh, tossed in the binding agent.
For a moment, there was silence. Then, a brilliant, jade-green light erupted from the cauldron. The sweet fragrance intensified, washing over them like a wave.
Lu stumbled towards the cauldron as the light faded. Meili was frozen in the doorway, her jaw hanging open. At the bottom sat a single, perfect, translucent green pill, with faint, cloud-like patterns swirling within its core. A top-grade pill.
"I… I did it," Lu whispered in pure reverence. He turned to the small, ragged boy who was watching him with a completely unimpressed expression. "How…?"
'Congratulations,' Li Xuan thought. 'You followed a simple set of instructions without blowing us up. Here is your medal.'
"It's acceptable," Li Xuan said aloud, his tone suggesting it was barely a passing grade.
Just as Lu was about to either prostrate himself or demand more answers, the door to the workshop creaked open.
A stern, powerful old man with a long white beard stood in the doorway. His sharp eyes took in the scene—the cracked, smoking cauldron from the last failure, the look of pure, dumbfounded shock on his apprentice's face, and the impossible, top-grade pill radiating a gentle light on the workbench.
"Lu," Master Feng said, his voice a low rumble that promised trouble. "What is the meaning of this commotion?"