Smoke curled above Lin Qi's head. The heat of the little fireball had scorched his hair to ash, and it drifted high into the air. It hadn't just burned his hair; his eyebrows, eyelashes, and the faint mustache on his upper lip had all been reduced to ash, too. His upper body felt as if it had been plunged into boiling water, and he shrieked in agony without pause.
"Damn old monster!" Faced with a fireball powerful enough to kill him in a single blow, Lin Qi made one last desperate gamble and pulled a heavy, single-edged cleaver from a hidden pocket in his trouser leg. With a fearless, defiant roar, he brought the blade down on the side of the fireball, putting every ounce of strength into shoving the little orb aside.
The cleaver instantly glowed red-hot. The flesh in Lin Qi's palm gave off a foul, scorched stench, and he screamed again, letting go of the hilt. The fireball had been knocked less than half a foot off course. It skimmed past Lin Qi's cheek and slammed into the iron door behind him.
Runes like rose branches on the iron door flashed once, and the rune array silently absorbed the fireball's powerful energy.
Panting, drenched in sweat, Lin Qi's knees buckled, and he dropped to the ground, cursing under his breath.
The owner of the laboratory, the man Lin Qi served, the Imperial Academy's specially appointed visiting professor, Master Alchemist Ke Cha, appeared soundlessly before him. With a cold, dry hand, he grabbed Lin Qi and poured a bottle of crimson potion down his throat.
The foul-smelling potion turned into a rush of heat as soon as it entered Lin Qi's mouth, surging into his stomach. The energy he had just expended quickly returned, and the places on his cheeks burned by the fireball began healing fast. Lin Qi let out a long breath, his face already breaking into a fawning smile. He bent forward and greeted Ke Cha obsequiously. "Esteemed Master Ke Cha, it's been several days since you summoned me. Is there anything you need me to do?"
Ke Cha was short, standing more than half a head below Lin Qi. A loose black robe riddled with holes wrapped around his thin frame. It was covered in all sorts of strange stains and spots—the splashes of juices from the various ingredients he processed. Lin Qi had no idea what Ke Cha looked like, because his face was one enormous scar.
It must have been the result of some mishap during a secret-potion experiment. Ke Cha's entire face had been destroyed, leaving him scarred from his face down to his chest, and grotesquely disfigured. The potions had eaten away his nose and ears, leaving only a few black holes exposed. His red, white, and black scars twitched faintly, and every breath he took carried a strong medicinal stench.
Ke Cha casually tossed the crystal potion bottle in his hand onto a nearby square table, then released Lin Qi. "Is that so? It does seem like I haven't seen you for a few days. Hm, there are some things I need you to get ready at once. I've run out of food in my laboratory. Hurry and bring me another supply."
As he spoke, Ke Cha's stomach gave a few loud growls, and the skin of his face twitched violently. It looked like he hadn't eaten in days.
Lin Qi didn't dare say a word. He hurriedly nodded and agreed.
Ke Cha had an extremely eccentric, reclusive temperament. Apart from Lin Qi, the service attendant assigned to him by the school, he forbade anyone from approaching his laboratory. He was also as twitchy as a lunatic, and sometimes went off the deep end. Even Lin Qi could be attacked just for walking into the laboratory.
After Ke Cha's spells had turned four or five cleaners to ash, his laboratory had become the most dangerous forbidden ground in the Master Tower. Aside from Lin Qi, nobody dared approach it casually. So when Lin Qi went several days without showing up, Ke Cha's food ran out. With no one else he could ask to replenish his supplies, he had no choice but to go hungry.
Lin Qi did feel a little guilty. He'd had too much on his plate these past few days. The six Stabbing Swords alone had taken up a great deal of his time and effort. On top of that, the Dragon Cavalry had arrested the Brotherhood's peripheral members, and Lin Qi had to raise money to pay their fines and get them released. With all those matters mixed together, he'd forgotten about Ke Cha, that unlucky and dangerous old fellow.
If a senior secret-potion master specially appointed by the Empire were to starve to death in his laboratory, the consequences would be horrifying. Even the bold-as-brass Lin Qi couldn't help shivering at the thought.
He reached into his sleeve and pulled out half a loaf of white bread. He'd pocketed it at Iron Hammer's welcoming banquet, planning to save it as a late-night snack. Now, it came in handy.
The moment Ke Cha saw the half-loaf, his eyes turned a ghastly green. He snatched it up and wolfed it down. His teeth, blackened and rotted by poisonous potion, looked like the jagged fangs of a rabid dog. They ground together with a horrible sound, like a grinding wheel sharpening metal.
Ke Cha swallowed the large piece of bread in a few bites, then burped with satisfaction. "If you hadn't come, I'd have had to keep myself going with potions. If it had come to that, I'd have turned you into a puddle of human oil."
Ke Cha gave a few strange, cold laughs, and Lin Qi felt the back of his neck go cold. No wonder he'd been hit with a fireball as soon as he entered today. So Ke Cha had just wanted to vent his anger. Fortunately, Lin Qi had shown up in time today. If he'd remembered Ke Cha only a few days later, and the old man said he'd render him into human oil, he definitely wouldn't have stopped at squeezing him dry like a corpse.
What did it matter if this strange old monster killed a few unlucky attendants? Those damn Coppers would never pick a fight with a monster like him over some lowly service attendant.
Now that he was full and had his strength back, Ke Cha wriggled his two twisted, misshapen lips and began harshly berating Lin Qi in a rasping, grating voice. Lin Qi bowed his head and listened meekly, keeping his voice low. He needed money—he needed a lot of money—and Ke Cha was his biggest client. So even when Ke Cha started cursing that only a pair of damn wild boars could have given birth to such an idiot as Lin Qi, Lin Qi still had to stand there and take it.
After cursing Lin Qi for a full half hour, Ke Cha finally stopped, satisfied, and pulled a tough sheet of parchment from his sleeve.
"These are the ingredients I need and the quantities. Hurry up and get them for me!"
Ke Cha shot Lin Qi a dark look, rolled his eyes, and snorted. "Tell that pack of useless fools in the logistics department that the Five-Leaf White Raven Grass they gave me last time wasn't old enough, and they prepared it wrong. That's why the Potent Energy Potion I brewed turned into a Powerful Aphrodisiac Potion. If they dare make the same mistake again, I'll force them to drink enough aphrodisiac to make a wild bull's balls explode!"
Lin Qi shivered with fright. At the same time, he gripped the parchment tightly, his heart bursting with joy.
A quarter of an hour later, Lin Qi walked out of the Master Tower whistling, twelve bottles of what Ke Cha considered defective "Potent Energy Potion" in hand. All along, Lin Qi had been the one to take care of the potions Ke Cha had ruined.
Aphrodisiac powerful enough to make a wild bull's balls explode? Golden light gleamed in Lin Qi's pupils.
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