Alchemy Prodigy?

After a while, the alchemists could wait no longer. "All right, Young Master Ye, we'll take this box to study first. We won't disturb you and the Seventh Princess as you celebrate."

"Why study this box? Is it fun?" Little Prodigal Son was utterly puzzled.

"Not fun. This isn't for playing with. We need to open the box and obtain Ban's notes," the alchemists said solemnly.

"Notes? You mean this book?" A book suddenly appeared in Little Prodigal Son's hand.

"Yes, this Alchemy Notes... Huh, no... You, you..." The alchemists pointed at Little Prodigal Son, their eyes so wide they seemed ready to fall out, their faces filled with shock and disbelief.

"Ah..." At that moment, everyone gaped, staring at Little Prodigal Son in such astonishment that they could not make a sound.

"There are more. One, two, three, four... five books. There are five books in this box." Little Prodigal Son took out book after book, while everyone present remained frozen in a daze.

"Are you sure you weren't fooling us just now? Is this box really that difficult to open?" The Emperor and the others began to doubt the alchemists, suspecting that they had lied about the box being impossible to open just so they could be the first to see the notes.

However, everyone present knew that possibility was vanishingly small.

The alchemists immediately swore vehemently, "No, absolutely not! How could we deceive Your Majesty? This box truly requires a great deal of effort and many hurdles to open. It's just..."

"It's just that why could a ten-year-old child open it so easily?" The Emperor looked at Little Prodigal Son, his gaze full of confusion—and even more so, something strange.

That was right. The box that so many top alchemists had failed to open had been opened in the hands of their Thirteenth Young Master. And he had opened it with ease, without the slightest obstruction, so quickly that no one had even noticed when it happened.

Everyone found it unexpected and shocking. They wondered whether they had seen wrong, whether the indisputable truth before their eyes was real.

If it had been another child, they might have called him a genius. But the Thirteenth Young Master was not even as capable as an ordinary person. How could he possibly be a genius?

"Perhaps he is an alchemy prodigy." Though they found it unlikely, the alchemists still raised the possibility.

"Impossible. He has never studied alchemy. We would never let him touch something so dangerous." Long Anqi directly rejected the possibility. As his mother, she knew her son's affairs clearly—at least, she knew about this.

"That's right. Young Master doesn't know alchemy. He hasn't even read an alchemy book." Tiger Girl beside them nodded as well.

If Long Anqi's words alone were not enough to convince them, then Tiger Girl's words were more than enough to erase all doubt. Everyone knew that Tiger Girl had remained by the Thirteenth Young Master's side all these years; no one knew better than her what he had done.

"If he doesn't know alchemy, then how did he open it? Could it be another coincidence? This boy truly is favored by the Goddess of Luck. This is far too miraculous." The Emperor and the others began discussing it. This was their only explanation: the Thirteenth Young Master's miraculous luck.

At that moment, the Seventh Princess spoke up. "Ye Lang, how did you open this box?"

The Seventh Princess's question made everyone present suddenly realize that instead of making guesses among themselves, they could simply ask the person involved, who was standing right before them.

But they were worried about one thing: this person involved might not be able to explain it clearly.

"What do you mean, how did I open it? I just opened it like this. What's so difficult about that?" As expected, the Thirteenth Young Master's answer explained absolutely nothing.

Looks like it was just luck. There's no way to explain it. Everyone thought with bitter smiles. Once luck appeared, no difficult problem could stand in its way.

But was it really luck?

"I definitely haven't seen these Alchemy Arrays before, but why do they feel familiar?" Little Prodigal Son muttered as he looked at the Alchemy Notes, then made a decision that left everyone stunned.

"I want to learn alchemy. I want to read these books." With that, he put the five Alchemy Notes into his Space Ring. The alchemists beside him did not even have time to stop him.

"Well, Young Master Ye, could you give us those five books from just now? We have many books here too. Let's exchange them." As they spoke, the alchemists brought out many books, all alchemy books they had treasured away. Under ordinary circumstances, they would not even bear to take them out, but now they were throwing caution to the wind.

After Young Master Ye collected those books, he said something that made everyone collapse in despair.

"I'll take these books, but I won't trade!"

"..."

The alchemists wanted to cry but had no tears. They looked to the Emperor for help, hoping only that he would uphold justice and find a way to obtain those five Alchemy Notes.

In truth, even if they had not asked for help, the Emperor would have found a way. He knew that leaving them in Little Prodigal Son's hands would be completely useless; only by giving them to these Royal Alchemists could they benefit the Empire.

In the end, after discussion, the Thirteenth Young Master handed over the Alchemy Notes—but only lent them out for three days. During those three days, they could copy down all of the Alchemy Notes.

Do not forget, the Alchemy Notes were merely Ban's notes, not some profound alchemical artifact. As long as the contents were copied down, the result would be a set of notes with the same function.

And this idea had been proposed by their Thirteenth Young Master. These people had overthought things and completely failed to consider the simple solution, making many people present feel ashamed.

Sometimes, the key to solving a problem was often very simple. It was just that many people never thought in simple terms, only making things more and more complicated until the problem became increasingly troublesome.

"Well then, Young Master Ye, could you give us those books first? We'll copy a set for you..." The Empire's Royal Alchemists asked timidly. Since there was already a precedent, they naturally thought of this approach.

Letting Young Master Ye keep those rare books was truly too wasteful. If they could get them back, they had to try. At this point, they could no longer care about saving face. For the sake of their precious books, they were willing to go all out.

"Sure!" The Thirteenth Young Master agreed readily, but he had another sentence after that. "You have to copy all your books for me too!"

"..."

Was this boy truly the dim-witted fool the rumors claimed he was? No matter how they looked at him, he did not seem like one. He seemed more like a little fox. Could he be pretending?

At that moment, many people became suspicious, though only briefly. They did not believe someone could pretend to be like this, especially not from childhood onward.

In truth, the Thirteenth Young Master was not pretending. He merely seemed to lack something, making him weak in certain matters but exceptionally strong in others—such as his memory from before, and the alchemy he was about to learn.

Perhaps there was one more thing: his luck.