Practicing Alchemy

"Ahem…" a beautiful lady faked a cough as she plays around with her voluminous black hair, seemingly embarrassed to ask about something.

Seeing this, a young man that appears to be in his mid-teens shook his head as the dignified image of the lady gradually crumbles in his mind.

"So… Master don't know my name?" he asks just to make sure, but the lady was embarrassed, scratching the back of her head as she smiles awkwardly, unsure of what she should reply.

"Ahem… I forgot to ask about it yesterday as I have other things to deal with" she replied, trying to act proper to regain a bit of the dignity she lost.

"Haah… forget about it, Su Tian greets master!!" he sighs before cupping his fist, using his fake identity instead of addressing himself as disciple in order to save her a bit of face.

Seeing how he acts, the lady couldn't help but nod in satisfaction at this tactful disciple she picked up, praising herself in her mind, she drags him towards her study room, proceeding to test his knowledge of the book she gave him previously.

To be honest, the thing she did is more of a way to curb down the young man's pride, that is easily visible in his eyes. She had seen so many of such geniuses despite her mere two and a half decades of life, nearly all of them falling at a young age because they either ate more than they can chew, offending someone capable of annihilating them, or they let their guard down and encountered someone who can match them, completely catching them off guard.

Obviously, she doesn't want anything like this to happen to her first disciple, hence she decided to teach him the most important lesson first, and that is forbearance, and what more perfect way to teach him than comparisons? Making him comprehend something that she needs a couple of days just to memorize, isn't it basically asking for a mortal to pluck the stars in the sky?

However, her expectations are bound to be shattered as he answers each and every question she threw him with ease, each answer concise and direct to the point, with little to no problems that she could point out.

What even terrifies her more is that when she allowed him to ask her questions, the thing that he asks are far too advanced for his current level, asking about the things needed to neutralize this kind of reaction between two kinds of herbs, and even reaching a point where he was almost ninety percent accurate with his self-formulated pill formulas, and some of them even appears to be an improvement over the original.

'I observed him all night, and I'm completely sure he never gets out and only read the book in his room, doesn't that mean that he basically inferred this all by himself just by knowing the properties of the herbs?' the thought terrifies her, as if so, what she picks up is no genius, but a monster hiding in human clothing.

"Dear disciple, is it really your first time coming across alchemy?" the lady asked just to be sure, even though she already knew the answer.

"Yes, as this is this disciple's first time going out of home, and the elders at home are cultivators of the martial path, rather than the alchemical path" he replies simply, trying to avoid revealing any sort of information about his family.

"Doesn't that mean that you're also a martial artist?" the lady was surprised as she heard about his elders.

"Yes, how else can I roam freely and safely if not?" he said shrugging his shoulders, to him, nothing was special about what he does as people in this world also do the same thing as him.

"That's just amazing" she praised.

"I think there's nothing amazing about it" he said truthfully rather than humbly, if others heard him, they might think he's bragging but the message was properly conveyed to his master.

"Hahaha, that's just what you think" she laughs quite loudly, and while her voice is extremely pleasant, it is still quite weird seeing a lady laugh so free-spiritedly like that.

Gathering herself together, she starts talking once again as she stares over the distance.

"Back when I was your age, I was also at the peak of Qi Refining Realm" she said, completely convincing herself that Wu Xiaotian was a mid-teen at least, given his appearance.

'If she knows my true age, I wonder how she will react' he thought as he continues listening to her story.

"But different from you, I was never allowed nor do I dared to go outside until I reached the Pedestal Establishment Realm. It was not only me, everyone in the same generation was also raised like this, as the elders was worried due to the outside being too vicious, realms don't matter and your riches will be your downfall, especially when its plenty enough to attract enemies far more powerful than you" she pauses as she sighs recalling her teenage years outside. Recalling the times, she remembered that she also experienced quite a lot back then, cultivators stronger than her sometimes coveting her treasures, and more often than not, it was her beauty they covet.

Fortunately, she was skilled enough to escape, or even repel the people who tried doing all sort of things to her, and looking at the status and strength she currently has, only retard would dare to do such things to her now.

"Well, enough about me, let's turn you into a fine alchemist, disciple" she said as she stood up from her seat, dragging him towards the pill refinement room, where multiple cauldrons were set, making him sit in front of the largest one in the center.

She started by teaching him the basics, how to properly handle the materials, how to extract the necessary essence out of them, controlling the fire, the most optimal temperature, how to deal with the materials once they're already inside the cauldron, and how to condense the completely refined materials into a pill. While the process is long and complex, as well as requires a massive amount of focus, Wu Xiaotian enjoys every second of it as he absorbs all the knowledge his master teaches him, almost like a bottomless pit.

"What a monster…" she mutters to herself as he witnesses him completely controlling the flow of the pill refinement like a maestro conducting in front of an orchestra. Every wave of his hand, materials were refined and added to the cauldron, fire was increasing and decreasing completely through his command, and the materials inside completely harmonizing, forcing out the best quality of each other as he controls it with his intent masterfully.

It was only his first solo try after following her examples three times in a row. While following her, he never messed up even once and now that he was no longer guided, the no mess up streak continues.

Eventually, he condensed the seven pills out of the mixture of materials in the cauldron, surprising his master when he saw it.

"Is it hard to condense seven pills from that?"

"What hard? It's almost impossible given its your first try, don't you know how much of a hard work this lady had gone through just to condense seven pills at will? I'm twenty-five!!" she said with pride and indignation in her voice. Pride due to her eyes being good enough to pick up such gem as her disciple, and indignation due to this said disciple being oblivious enough to not know the implication of his achievements.

"Well, I've been focused with martial arts since I was a child so I've never really had an idea" he said as he scratched the back of his head, clear that his master is quite annoyed despite this being only their second meeting.

"Haah… forget it, let's refine some more set of materials and rest for a while" she said as she comforts herself by thinking that at least he's her disciple, before starting to refine pills with him occasionally pointing out his mistakes and sometimes she seeks out and ask him when she find something interesting in his refining process.

If outsiders were to see what's happening, they would rather incline believing that the two of them are peers of the same level exploring alchemy together.