The Difficulty of Becoming an Alchemist

"Kill them? Or spare them?"

Yun Zimo looked at Ge Ye, who was kneeling before him and trembling, and Gu He, whose expression was strange as he stood nearby. He lightly tapped the Judgment Sword against his palm, struggling to decide.

"Hall... Hall Master, I... I truly didn't know the Mo Clan was like this! I... Even though I'm Mo Ling's teacher, he... he never told me what his family was really like!"

Seeing the sword in Yun Zimo's hand sway back and forth, Ge Ye feared it would come down on his head the very next moment. He was so frightened he nearly burst into tears, his old face scrunched up like a withered chrysanthemum.

"All right, all right, get up. You're a sect elder, for heaven's sake. What kind of spectacle is this? Still, while you can escape the death penalty, you won't escape punishment. Go to the Punishment Hall to receive it once you're back at the sect. You'll handle the matter of returning seventy percent of the Mo Clan's property to the sect. If anything goes wrong this time, you won't be coming back to the sect!"

Seeing Ge Ye like this, Zi Mo lost interest. He returned the Judgment Sword to its scabbard and waved him off, giving him a chance. The old fox was a bit slippery, but he wasn't so utterly depraved as to take part in the Mo Clan's plan to overthrow the Misty Cloud Sect.

Ge Ye was overjoyed. He hurriedly rose, clasped his hands in farewell, and left. The instant he turned around, murderous intent surged from him, and he looked ready to kill anyone who dared stand in his way.

"Grandmaster Gu He, what are your thoughts?"

Standing in the Mo Clan's vast secret chamber, Yun Zimo pointed out the various things inside and asked Gu He with a hint of emotion.

"Nothing but heretical nonsense. It doesn't hold a candle to orthodox alchemy."

Gu He only needed a few glances to see through this so-called Transplantation Evolution Technique. He spoke with undisguised scorn.

"Oh?"

Gu He's attitude surprised Yun Zimo. He knew that the Medicine Emperor of the Black-Corner Region had made his name through the Human Refining Technique. He'd thought there might be something to it, but he hadn't expected Gu He to dismiss it so completely.

"What is it? Have you taken an interest in alchemy again, Hall Master?"

Gu He turned his head and glanced at Yun Zimo.

"How could I not be interested? Alchemists have the most esteemed profession on the Dou Qi Continent. It's just a shame I don't have the fortune to become one."

Yun Zimo sighed. With his mutated Wind and Cloud Attribute, he had no chance of becoming a proper alchemist.

Gu He recalled the "rumors" that circulated among the sect's upper ranks.

The young deputy hall master of the Punishment Hall, Yun Zimo, was studious from a young age and displayed astonishing talent. He began cultivating at six and, through a nearly masochistic training regimen, crossed several major tiers in just three years. He became a Da Dou Shi at ten, and now, at twenty, he was a bona fide Dou Wang expert.

His only regret was that the young deputy hall master was so obsessed with alchemy that his passion had reached the point of madness. But his soul had the dual attributes of wind and water, and after cultivation they had mutated into the bizarre Wind and Cloud Attribute, leaving him destined to have no connection with alchemy.

However, thanks to Yun Zimo's exceptional talent, he had taught himself alchemical theory and even worked out a system of "alchemy."

In Gu He's eyes, though, this wasn't alchemy at all. It was plainly just hand-rolling pills. Even if their effects rivaled first- or second-grade pills, it was still a crude craft unfit for the grand stage, with no future.

"So the young deputy hall master chose to leave the mountain and gain experience because he wanted to learn more alchemical theory?"

Gu He suddenly recalled Yun Zimo's resentful departure from the sect to travel five years ago. Thinking about it now, Yun Zimo seemed to have studied every text in the sect by the time he was twelve. He'd even learned all of Gu He's published alchemical theory.

"Terrifying talent."

Gu He seemed to understand something. Then he felt both regret and relief that Yun Zimo couldn't become an alchemist. Otherwise...

"Young deputy hall master, I think you should keep your distance from this kind of heresy. In the world of alchemy, practitioners of such techniques would be reviled by everyone. Only the Poison Alchemists of the Chu Yun Empire would tolerate them, and even then, such practices could never be brought into the open."

Afraid that Yun Zimo's obsession might lead him astray, Gu He couldn't help warning him. He'd seen Yun Zimo secretly pocket that Mountain-Breaking Arm!

"Ahaha, I know, I know." Yun Zimo laughed uneasily and waved a hand. "Don't worry, Grandmaster Gu He. I'm not interested in those half-human, half-ghost things. It's only alchemy, right? There must be some other way."

Hearing that, Gu He grew even more worried. He wondered whether he ought to go have a serious talk with Sect Master Yun. He had a feeling he couldn't quite talk this young deputy hall master out of anything.

By now, Yun Zimo understood why Yun Yun had sent Gu He along. This alchemy grandmaster guarded the principles and dignity of alchemists fiercely; he would never allow something that desecrated orthodox alchemy to exist.

She was afraid he'd stray down the wrong path if he let his guard down for even a moment!

"Sis..."

Yun Zimo felt a warmth in his heart, and his interest in the Human Refining Technique faded considerably.

"Grandmaster Gu He, would you be willing to teach me alchemy?"

Yun Zimo thought for a moment, then suddenly asked. Gu He was taken aback, then furrowed his brow.

"Young deputy hall master, with your constitution, actually..."

Gu He trailed off. But when he glanced at the sinister things behind Yun Zimo, he worried that he might upset him and push him further down the wrong path.

"Grandmaster Gu He, it's precisely because I'm destined not to become an alchemist that you can teach me without worry. You know I only need the theory of alchemy. I've already learned all the alchemical theory publicly available in the Jia Ma Empire. I hope you'll teach me." As he spoke, Yun Zimo bowed solemnly.

Gu He's mouth twitched. What would Yun Zimo do with his alchemical theory? He had neither fire nor wood attribute Dou Qi. Was he going to use the knowledge to roll more pills with medicinal ingredients?!

The thought of his alchemy becoming a manual for pill-rollers gave him a headache. He raised a hand to his forehead.

"Grandmaster Gu He!"

Yun Zimo's eyes sparkled as he gazed at Gu He, full of hopeful longing. Gu He had already brought his refusal to the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't say it. All he could do was change it to, "I'll think about it."

Watching Gu He flee as if for his life, Yun Zimo couldn't help sighing. He gave one last reluctant glance at the Mo Clan's "masterpiece," then waved for someone to set it all ablaze and cover up every last trace of its crimes.

"The Mo Clan is finished..."

The towering blaze that engulfed the Mo Clan made it clear to everyone: from that day on, there would be no more Mo Clan in the Jia Ma Empire. But everyone knew the Mo Clan would never truly disappear...

"The Mo Clan was wiped out?"

Even far away in Wutan City, at the foot of the Warcraft Mountain Range, people had heard that the northeastern tyrant, the Mo Clan, had been destroyed.

With the Jia Ma Empire's authorities stoking the flames, everyone began to tread carefully, afraid of becoming the next Mo Clan. Meanwhile, Yun Zimo, who had masterminded it all, was turned by rumor into a ruthless, cold-blooded butcher who hated evil and showed no mercy.

"Brother Yun Li is actually..."

Having returned to the Fifth Stage Dou Qi, Xiao Yan was stunned for a long while when he heard about Yun Zimo's feat.

"Heh heh, Yan brat, who'd have thought Yun Li seemed so refined, yet was such a ruthless fellow? Just look at what the newspaper says. 'Wherever he went, not even the chickens and dogs were spared!' Tsk, tsk, tsk..."

Medicine Elder's teasing voice rang in Xiao Yan's ear. Xiao Yan couldn't help rolling his eyes.

"Those reporters just love to exaggerate. You'd be lucky if even three tenths of what's written here were true."

Xiao Yan replied softly. Even in a different world, some things never changed...

"Oh?"

This time, it was Medicine Elder's turn to be surprised. He couldn't help coming out and circling Xiao Yan once.

"You brat, you actually understand that?"

"You think those three years really were just three years of being useless?"

Feeling the Dou Qi gradually filling his body, Xiao Yan grew more and more excited. It looked like he had a chance of becoming a Dou Zhe before the coming-of-age ceremony!

"This damn world, full of people who look down on others!"

Xiao Yan remembered the way those people had looked at him like he was an ant when he went to the Nalan Family that day. His hunger for strength burned hotter than ever.

"Brother Yun Li, thank you..."

A memory flickered through Xiao Yan's mind. He firmly closed his eyes again and began forming hand seals...

"You're saying you're Xiao Yan?!"

Looking at the little fellow before him, who was a whole head shorter than he was and whose aura already fluctuated at the Dou Zhe level, Yun Zimo finally realized he'd come too early!

"Who are you? Why are you wandering around my Xiao Clan's territory in the middle of the night?!"

Little Xiao Yan pointed at Yun Zimo and shouted at him. But he looked so young that, to Zi Mo, it only made him seem adorably incongruous.

Smack!

Yun Zimo couldn't resist flicking the adorable little Xiao Yan on the forehead. Under his indignant glare, an evil idea rose in Yun Zimo's mind.

"Disciplining the future Flame Emperor... wouldn't that be—ahaha!"

"Y-you... what are you going to do?!"

Seeing the evil gleam in Yun Zimo's eyes, little Xiao Yan swallowed nervously. He had a feeling this fellow wasn't a good person. Could he be a trafficker from another world?!

"Fath—"

Little Xiao Yan's startled cry hadn't even left his mouth when Yun Zimo clapped a hand over it. With his other hand, he applied a little pressure to the back of Xiao Yan's neck, and Xiao Yan fainted.

Cloud Mist Illusion!

Yun Zimo changed the hand seal, and mist quietly spread across the Xiao Clan. In a daze, quite a few people saw Third Young Master Xiao Yan hop back to his little courtyard. They even wondered why he'd come home so early today.

"What a troublesome little brat..."

Yun Zimo clearly sensed the shifts in those people's emotions within the illusion and gained a rough first impression of Xiao Yan's current personality. Well, it was hard to put into words...

The Xiao Yan of the past had been mature and steady, showing wisdom and composure far beyond his years. He often said astonishing things that left the Xiao Clan's elders convinced he would amount to great things.

Little Xiao Yan had set out on the path of cultivation amid everyone's praise and flattery. After that, things had gradually taken on the makings of a prodigy who would squander his talent. The only difference was that Xiao Yan remained a dazzling genius.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Unless something unexpected happens, little fellow, your inflated little journey is about to come to an end..."

Yun Zimo couldn't help glancing at the pitch-black ring hanging around Xiao Yan's neck. He didn't know whether Elder Yao was awake yet. He'd chosen to come here first because he wanted to see if he could get to know Elder Yao.

As he pondered this, Yun Zimo reached out with his soul power and touched the ring on a whim. In the next instant, he felt as if a heavy hammer had struck his forehead. His ears rang, the world spun, and he toppled to the ground.

"Next time... I'm never sticking my hand where it doesn't belong again!"

"Eh, two little fellows with soul strength good enough to pass..."