The Master Alchemist

A puff of smoke rose from Lin Qi's head, his hair scorched by the heat of the fireball, turning to ashes that floated high up. Not just his hair, Lin Qi's eyebrows, eyelashes, and the faint stubble on his upper lip were all burned to ash by the intense heat. Lin Qi's upper body felt as if it had been scalded by boiling water, causing him to howl in agony.

"Damn old monster!" Facing a fireball that could kill him in one blow, Lin Qi desperately drew a heavy single-edged saber from a hidden pocket in his pant leg. With a resolute roar, Lin Qi slashed at the side of the fireball, pushing it aside with all his might.

The saber instantly turned red-hot. The flesh on Lin Qi's palm emitted a foul burning smell, and he cried out again, letting go of the hilt. The fireball was only deflected by less than half a foot, grazing Lin Qi's cheek before hitting the iron door behind him with a heavy thud.

The runes on the iron door, resembling rose branches, flickered, and the powerful energy contained within the fireball was silently absorbed by the runic array.

Panting and drenched in sweat, Lin Qi's knees buckled, and he knelt on the ground, muttering curses under his breath.

The master of the laboratory, the one Lin Qi served, the Imperial High-Tech Guest Professor, Master Alchemist Ke Cha, walked silently to Lin Qi's front. With a cold, dry hand, he grabbed Lin Qi and forced a bottle of crimson potion down his throat.

The potion, emitting a strong, fishy odor, turned into a surging heatwave that rushed into his stomach the moment it entered his mouth. Lin Qi's depleted energy was quickly restored, and the burns on his cheeks healed rapidly. Lin Qi let out a heavy sigh, a fawning smile appearing on his face as he obsequiously bowed to Ke Cha and greeted him, "Respected Master Ke Cha, I haven't received your summons in several days. Is there anything you require my assistance with?"

Ke Cha was not tall, being more than half a head shorter than Lin Qi. A loose black robe, full of holes, was wrapped around his emaciated body. The robe was covered in various strange colorful spots and stains, the result of splashing from the juices of various medicinal ingredients he handled. Lin Qi had no idea what Ke Cha looked like, as his face was a massive scar.

Likely due to an alchemical experiment accident, Ke Cha's entire face had been destroyed. His face, all the way down to his chest, was a mottled scar, extremely hideous. His nose and ears had been destroyed by the medicinal liquids, leaving only a few dark holes exposed. The red, white, and black scars twitched slightly, and with every breath, Ke Cha exhaled a strong medicinal scent.

Casually placing the crystal potion bottle in his hand on a nearby square table, Ke Cha released Lin Qi and grumbled in a low voice, "Oh? It seems I haven't seen you in a few days. Hmm, there are a few things I need you to prepare quickly. My laboratory's provisions are all gone, go and replenish them for me."

As he spoke, Ke Cha's stomach rumbled, and his facial muscles twitched violently. It looked like he hadn't eaten in days?!

Lin Qi dared not speak and quickly nodded in agreement.

Ke Cha had an extremely eccentric and reclusive personality. Apart from Lin Qi, the school-assigned attendant, he strictly forbade anyone from approaching his laboratory. Moreover, Ke Cha was neurotic and prone to fits of madness, and even Lin Qi could be attacked by him when entering the laboratory.

After four or five cleaners were turned to ashes by Ke Cha's spells, his laboratory had become the most dangerous forbidden zone in the Master Tower. Besides Lin Qi, no one else dared to approach it carelessly. Therefore, when Lin Qi didn't visit the laboratory for several days, and Ke Cha ran out of provisions, he had no one to replenish them for him and could only starve.

Lin Qi felt a pang of guilt. He had been too busy with other matters these past few days. The six Stabbing Swords alone had consumed a great deal of his time and effort. Furthermore, the outer members of the Brotherhood had been captured by the Dragon Cavalry, and he had to raise money to pay the fines to bail them out. With all these things mixed together, he had actually forgotten about the unlucky and dangerous Ke Cha.

If the esteemed Imperial High-Tech Master Alchemist were to starve to death in his laboratory, the thought of the terrible consequences made even the audacious Lin Qi shrink his neck.

Reaching into his sleeve, Lin Qi pulled out half a loaf of white bread. He had "borrowed" this from Iron Hammer's welcome banquet, intending to eat it as a late-night snack, but now it came in handy.

Upon seeing the half loaf of white bread, Ke Cha's eyes immediately turned a sickly green. He snatched the bread and devoured it in large mouthfuls. His teeth, blackened and ragged like a mad dog's from corrosion by potent medicinal liquids, gnashed together, producing an unpleasant sound like grinding stones.

The large piece of white bread was gone in a few bites. Ke Cha let out a satisfied burp and mumbled in a low voice, "If you hadn't come, I would have been sustained by potions. If that were the case, I guarantee you would have been burned into a pool of human oil."

Ke Cha let out a few strange, cold laughs, and Lin Qi felt a chill run down his spine. It was no wonder he had been hit by a fireball just as he entered today; it seemed Ke Cha had intentionally vented his anger. Fortunately, he had arrived in time today. If he had remembered Ke Cha a few days later, Ke Cha's threat to refine him into human oil would have been a certainty, not just a threat to turn him into a dried corpse.

What did it matter to this ancient, monstrous old thing if he killed a few unlucky attendants? Those damned brass hats would never bother with such an old monster over a mere attendant.

Having eaten his fill and regained his strength, Ke Cha moved his distorted lips and reprimanded Lin Qi in an extremely hoarse and unpleasant voice. Lin Qi lowered his head submissively, obediently listening to Ke Cha's scolding. Lin Qi was short on money, very short on money, and Ke Cha was his biggest financial backer. Therefore, even though Ke Cha had started cursing him, saying only a pair of damned wild boars could give birth to an idiot like Lin Qi, he had to listen obediently.

After cursing Lin Qi furiously for a full half hour, Ke Cha finally stopped, seemingly satisfied. He pulled out a piece of tough parchment from his sleeve.

"These are the medicinal ingredients and quantities I need recently. Go and get them for me quickly!"

Giving Lin Qi a gloomy look, Ke Cha rolled his eyes and snorted, "Tell those useless fools in logistics that the Five-Leaf White Raven Grass they gave me last time was not aged enough and the preparation method was also wrong. As a result, the Potent Energy Potion I refined turned into a Powerful Aphrodisiac Potion. If they dare make such a mistake again, I'll pour enough of that aphrodisiac potion, enough to make a wild bull's hindquarters explode, down their throats!"

Lin Qi shivered in fear. Overjoyed, he tightly gripped the parchment, his heart bursting with happiness.

A quarter of an hour later, Lin Qi whistled, proudly carrying twelve bottles of the 'Potent Energy Potion' that Ke Cha considered scrap, out of the Master Tower. All along, Lin Qi had been the one to dispose of the potions Ke Cha had refined into waste.

An aphrodisiac potion potent enough to make a bull's hindquarters explode? Lin Qi's pupils gleamed with a golden light.