Hua She'er: Your Majesty Eats Really Well!

"Ohoho!!"

Yan Lin's howls echoed through Wude Hall from time to time. Today's battle was even more intense than yesterday's, and the sounds carried beyond the hall.

The snake guards in the nearby palaces began letting their imaginations run wild again.

"Morning training has started again?"

"From the sounds of it, it seems even more intense than yesterday."

"Your Majesty is too brutal."

That was how rumors started.

About an hour later, the sounds in Wude Hall gradually faded. Hua She'er carried the battered Yan Lin back to Saint King Palace and prepared a medicinal bath specifically for him to speed up his recovery.

Queen Medusa had instructed her to do all of this, but Yan Lin was far from grateful, because she was also the one who had beaten him up.

"Commander Hua, what was wrong with that woman today? She nearly beat me to death."

Soaking in the bath, Yan Lin complained bitterly to Hua She'er.

Not only had Queen Medusa reached the level of a Da Dou Shi today, she had even gone all out, pummeling him like the Pegasus Meteor Fist.

Damn it, if he could have beaten her, Yan Lin would have made that beautiful snake understand why flowers were so red.

Hua She'er knew that when Yan Lin angrily referred to "that woman," he meant Queen Medusa. Though the term was highly disrespectful, since it was Yan Lin, she felt there was nothing wrong with it.

"Your Majesty Saint King, Her Majesty asked me to tell you to stop reading those little yellow books humans have," Hua She'er reminded him.

"What? Little yellow books?"

Yan Lin looked confused. He had never read that stuff.

What decent person read little yellow books?

He preferred animated ones—the kind he could listen to, watch, and learn from.

More importantly, even if he did read little yellow books, what did that have to do with Medusa?

Hua She'er could see his confusion from his expression. After hesitating slightly, she guiltily told him the truth. "Her Majesty already knows about your conversation with Cauliflower Snake yesterday."

"She knows, then she knows... Wait, you're saying the Queen... knows everything?"

Yan Lin spoke before thinking. But once reason took the high ground, he finally reined in his temper. He swallowed the words that had reached his lips and asked again in a somewhat guilty tone.

Hua She'er seemed to understand what he wanted to say and nodded firmly. "She knows everything, including every word you said while teaching Cauliflower Snake how to pick up women."

"Fuck! Which bitch tattled on me?!"

Yan Lin shot up from the bath. Medicinal water streamed down his body, leaving his clearly defined, muscular upper body completely exposed to the air.

Hua She'er, caught utterly unprepared, widened her eyes. So... big!

Hua She'er, usually full of mature charm, turned her slightly flushed face away. Yet her eyes still secretly drifted back for another look as she murmured enviously to herself, Your Majesty eats really well!

But when she remembered Yan Lin calling her a bitch, her shock was replaced by anger.

Though she had played a part in this matter, she had merely followed Queen Medusa's orders. The fault was not hers.

She had even spoken up for Yan Lin. Hua She'er felt rather wronged.

Forget it. I'll forgive him this once, seeing as he has a pretty good body...

Hua She'er could barely control her eyes from stealing glances at a certain someone's body, but Yan Lin's next words broke her composure again.

"It must have been that bastard secretly protecting me. Only she could know so much."

"Damn it, that person's got way too loose a mouth. Secretly following me was bad enough, but she even tattled on me. What a complete lack of decency. I hope she stays single for life and gives birth to a son without an asshole..."

The more Hua She'er listened, the darker her face became. Her small fists clenched so tightly that her knuckles cracked.

She had the urge to fly over and beat Yan Lin up viciously. But considering his noble status, Hua She'er ultimately did not dare commit such insubordination.

"Your Majesty Saint King, take care of yourself."

After tossing down those words irritably, Hua She'er flew out of the Bath Palace in Saint King Palace in a fury.

Yan Lin, whose temper had been flaring, actually calmed down when he suddenly heard her say that.

Watching Hua She'er turn into a streak of light and fly away, Yan Lin's face was filled with confusion. "Why does it feel like she's even angrier than I am? I didn't offend her, did I?"

"Could it be..."

Rumble!

As a possibility suddenly came to mind, it was as though thunder crashed above Yan Lin's head. For some reason, he felt like he had just died of embarrassment.

"No way, no way, it can't be such a coincidence!"

"She's the blabbermouth who tattled on me?!"

Someone who knew his whereabouts so precisely, knew whom he had met and what he had said... other than the Snake People Clan expert secretly protecting him, Yan Lin could think of no one else.

There was no way Queen Medusa had told Hua She'er all that she had just said. Yan Lin knew that she was not much of a talker.

That left only one truth: Hua She'er was his protector.

Thinking about how he had cursed Hua She'er right in front of her, Yan Lin felt that he had been truly bold—and more than a little embarrassed.

Fortunately, Hua She'er had been calm enough and professional enough not to explode in rage on the spot.

This huge misunderstanding instantly extinguished the anger Yan Lin had still been holding onto. He obediently remained in the bath and accepted the medicinal treatment.

Once his injuries were mostly healed, Yan Lin headed to Pill Hall to receive Deis's instruction.

Pill Hall, Alchemy Room No. 1.

"Saint King, for now, a two-handled cauldron is enough for you..."

Deis, the master of Pill Hall, began teaching Yan Lin the basics of alchemy.

Deis was also a member of the Snake People Clan. Like Yan Lin, he was a snake person.

When he was young, his talent for alchemy was discovered, and he received focused training from the Snake People Clan's higher-ups.

Deis's Alchemy Talent was fairly good. With the Snake People Clan pouring resources into him over the years, he steadily advanced until becoming a Fourth-Grade Alchemist.

At present, he was the highest-ranked alchemist in the entire Snake People Clan.

Even among the human alchemists captured from outside, not one had surpassed him. The highest-ranked among them was merely a Third-Grade Alchemist.

Deis was the only Fourth-Grade Alchemist in the Snake People Clan. Thus, he naturally became the master of Pill Hall and took charge of it.

Since Yan Lin wanted to learn alchemy, he naturally needed to find the best and most trustworthy teacher. Deis's loyalty to the Snake People Clan was beyond question, making him the obvious choice.

If one relied solely on blind exploration to learn alchemy, it would be very difficult to achieve anything.

With someone to guide you, you could avoid many detours.

That was the benefit of having a teacher.

Under Deis's hands-on guidance, Yan Lin, a complete novice at alchemy, quickly gained some basic understanding of the craft.

"To refine medicine, you must first convert dou qi into fire. Saint King, give it a try first..."

Under the guidance of Deis, a Fourth-Grade Alchemist, Yan Lin began practicing the conversion of dou qi into fire.

He seemed quite talented in this regard, succeeding on his first try.

Deis praised him without holding back, then began teaching Yan Lin to attempt actual alchemy.

Inevitably, Yan Lin made mistakes.

Either something went wrong while extracting and refining medicinal ingredients, or he failed to control the heat properly, or he was still not skilled enough at using his Soul Perception.

After repeated failures and adjustments, Yan Lin finally succeeded in extracting the essence of the medicinal ingredients and condensing it into a paste as night fell.

He had refined the lowest-grade healing medicine, something between ungraded and first-grade. Since it had not condensed into a pill, he did not yet count as a true First-Grade Alchemist.

Of course, becoming a true First-Grade Alchemist was only a matter of time for Yan Lin.