After that, besides being a prodigal son, Thirteenth Young Master also became an alchemist—an apprentice, of course. He did not take any examinations, merely studying alchemy at home.
Alchemy also gave him another avenue for squandering money. He could openly and properly buy alchemical materials, and no matter how expensive they were, he would buy them.
This situation made many alchemists envious. Aside from those Royal Alchemists supported by the Empire and the few alchemists backed by great Lineages, most alchemists were plagued by headaches over materials. Even if they possessed superb alchemical skill, without materials, it was all useless.
As the old saying went, even the cleverest housewife could not cook without rice.
No one knew whether Thirteenth Young Master truly possessed talent for alchemy or whether it was simply because of his powerful financial backing, but his alchemy improved at a respectable pace. This delighted Ye Chengtian and his wife, making them even more supportive of his wasteful ways.
To them, as long as their son could achieve even a little, it did not matter how much money they spent. Anything that could be solved with money was no problem at all to them.
Yet although Thirteenth Young Master had found something he could accomplish, the strange looks people gave him only increased. Before, he had not yet grown up, so some things had not been obvious. But as he grew older day by day, those matters became increasingly apparent.
Given his family background, not many people should have dared bully him. But there were always some, and those around him were of similar age. At that age, they were like newborn calves unafraid of tigers, temporarily overlooking matters of background.
There were also those driven by jealousy. They envied Thirteenth Young Master—no, he should now be called Thirteenth Young Master, since he could no longer be considered young. They envied why Thirteenth Young Master had such good fortune, why he had been born into the Ye Clan.
Many people thought this way: why had an idiot like him been born into the Ye Clan, wasting such excellent conditions? If it had been them instead, they would certainly have become figures at the very pinnacle of the Empire.
That truly drove many people mad with envy, and such envy turned into resentment. A common man was innocent, but possessing a jade ringed him with guilt; Thirteenth Young Master Ye was precisely in that situation. His status was the He Shi Bi jade.
Of course, some people continued to care for and love Thirteenth Young Master as they always had. One of them was Tiger Girl. Tiger Girl had now grown graceful and slender, and the development of her beauty had basically been completed. Well, that only referred to the initial stage of development; later, she would enter the next stage, until she fully matured.
That beauty-in-the-making—ah, no, Tiger Girl—did almost the same things every day. And without saying it, everyone knew that those things basically revolved around the fortunate-to-the-point-of-envy Thirteenth Young Master Ye.
After getting up in the morning, she first prepared breakfast for her young master, prepared his clothes, prepared water for washing his face, prepared...
After she finished all that, Thirteenth Young Master would more or less be awake. Tiger Girl would comfortably attend to him as he dressed, washed his face, combed his hair, shaved, ate breakfast, and then sat in the courtyard reading.
Speaking of reading, Thirteenth Young Master read every kind of book, though he mainly focused on alchemy. He did not know why, but the more he read, the more familiar these things seemed to him—whether Alchemy Arrays, those materials, or the alchemical synthesis formulas.
Yet he also found it strange, as though these were not things he himself knew. But he did not know what it was that he did know, and given his personality, anything he could not figure out was naturally tossed aside. It could only be tossed aside. As time passed, he got used to it and no longer found it strange.
While Thirteenth Young Master read, Tiger Girl would practice martial techniques and Battle Qi in the courtyard. This was her daily lesson, and her martial techniques and Battle Qi had not come from the Ye Clan. She had known them since childhood—rather, she had known them from the moment she was born.
Among the Orcs, most races possessed inheritances. From the moment they were born, they instinctively knew the abilities of their race. For a strength-oriented race like the Tiger Clan, what they inherited were Battle Qi and martial techniques.
Of course, these were generally only the basics. To achieve further progress, one had to further study one's martial techniques and Battle Qi and absorb the experience of others.
Still, there was no denying that they were excellent for building foundations. The more one practiced them, the deeper one's foundation became. At Tiger Girl's age, she only needed to learn these basics; there was no need to consider anything else for now.
As for the ability to protect Thirteenth Young Master, Tiger Girl was more than capable. Among those her age, she was considered very strong. Combined with the Tiger Clan's inborn divine strength, she was like a tiger with wings, able to handle ordinary young experts.
And she only needed to deal with people like that. Others would not provoke Thirteenth Young Master. Besides, even if someone of that sort truly came to cause trouble, someone of the same level would naturally step forward to resolve it.
What she really needed to guard against was Thirteenth Young Master himself. He often did things that gave people headaches, such as what was about to happen.
"Young Master, what are you eating?" Tiger Girl suddenly noticed Thirteenth Young Master eating something strange, seemingly some kind of medicinal potion or pills.
"I'm taking cold medicine," Thirteenth Young Master replied.
"Do you have a cold? Did you catch a chill yesterday? I'll go call a physician right away," Tiger Girl said nervously.
"No, I don't have a cold." Thirteenth Young Master immediately shook his head in refusal.
"You don't have a cold? Then why are you taking cold medicine?" Tiger Girl asked in confusion. Anyone would fail to understand—if he did not have a cold, why was he taking cold medicine?
Then Thirteenth Young Master gave an answer that left Tiger Girl stunned for a moment.
"This cold medicine is about to expire. It would be a waste not to take it," Thirteenth Young Master answered very seriously.
"..."
What kind of nonsense was that? Who took medicine without being ill just because it was about to expire? Tiger Girl thought helplessly. Probably only her foolish young master in the whole world would do something so foolish.
And now this foolish young master was continuing—no, wait, he was still continuing...
"Young Master..." Tiger Girl watched Thirteenth Young Master continue taking the medicine. She immediately darted over and snatched away those soon-to-expire potions.
"Do you want some too?" Thirteenth Young Master asked Tiger Girl.
"I don't!!" Tiger Girl replied irritably.
"Then give them back to me." Thirteenth Young Master held out his hand to ask for them back.
"No!!" Tiger Girl first refused sternly, then explained gently, "Young Master, you can't take things like potions at random. They aren't food. You can only take them when you feel unwell, or else you'll make yourself sick."
"What could possibly go wrong? Aren't I perfectly fine?" Thirteenth Young Master used his own body as proof that taking medicine at random was not a problem. Of course, that only meant it was not a problem yet.