"You must all be careful," Zhong Kui said. "Pill refining and medicine refining both require extreme caution. These pills... medicines are mostly made to help yourselves or others become stronger.
An Alchemist is a profession that can help others become stronger. They might not be very powerful themselves, but they can help others become very powerful.
According to ancient records of Alchemists, Alchemists were highly praised and held lofty status. Though their own combat strength was not necessarily great, they could help others grow stronger and even turn useless people into geniuses.
That is why Alchemists were revered. My requirement is not that you must be very powerful, but that you must be able to make medicine and understand how to help others become stronger.
Refining pills means changing people's constitutions, allowing them to gain the ability to cultivate and grow stronger.
It is like Soul Engineers. Soul Engineers may not be skilled in battle, but they excel at making Soul Tools.
Everyone has things they are good at and things they are not.
Alchemists are the same. Some Alchemists may not be good at fighting, but they are skilled at making others stronger. That is also an ability."
After Zhong Kui said this, everyone nodded, agreeing with him.
"Understood, Master Zhong Kui."
"Then you must work even harder. Be careful when refining medicine, and pay attention to your own safety. Be obedient, and do not give up after a single failure. Failing once is not frightening. What is frightening is being unable to get back up after failing."
"Yes," the apprentices said.
This kind of teaching should have been right. Students should not be suppressed; they should be encouraged and guided properly.
(Note: In the world of Battle Through the Heavens, as well as in the worlds of cultivation novels, Alchemists basically help others become stronger.
At least, that was how I saw it.
They basically turned trash into geniuses. That was my view.
For example, Yao Lao. Although Xiao Yan himself could be considered a minor genius, he was only a genius of the Northwest Continent.
The resources and education Xiao Yan received were basically limited to the Northwest Continent, or even merely a few small cities within the Jia Ma Empire.
Moreover, the strongest person in the Xiao Family at the time was only a Da Dou Shi—Xiao Yan's father, Xiao Zhan.
So in my view, no matter how talented Xiao Yan was, without Yao Lao's help, he would have only been a genius from a small city in a remote corner of the Northwest Continent.
Although Yao Lao had absorbed Xiao Yan's Dou Qi because he needed it, turning Xiao Yan into trash, Yao Lao later helped him as well.
In my view, considering the resources and education Xiao Yan had received, without Yao Lao's help, at most he would have made the Xiao Family into a family with a Dou Emperor within the Jia Ma Empire.
He would have been qualified to attempt a breakthrough to Dou Zong and venture into the farther world beyond, but he would basically have had no chance of reaching Dou Saint, much less becoming a Dou Emperor. Therefore, without Yao Lao, Xiao Yan could never have become a Dou Emperor in this life. At most, he would have become a Dou Zun.
Thus, the protagonist's view was that Alchemists helped others become stronger and could even turn trash into geniuses.)
After Zhong Kui said these things, everyone worked even harder.
Because Zhong Kui's words made a great deal of sense. Despite his young age, Zhong Kui had already become a Soul Emperor-level powerhouse, even stronger than Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen, the two Hongchen Family geniuses of the Sun Moon Empire.
This further proved that Alchemists were a profession that helped others—or themselves—become stronger. They did not need to be powerful themselves, yet they could help others become extremely powerful.
Furthermore, everyone more or less knew Zhong Kui's background. Those from the Sun Moon Empire who studied Alchemy under Zhong Kui generally had some background, as well as talent and knowledge.
They all knew that Zhong Kui came from Douluo Three Kingdoms and was born into an ordinary Soul Master family.
They knew all this, and they also knew that before Zhong Kui joined the Sun Moon Empire Royal Academy, he had never attended any other academy in Douluo Three Kingdoms. He had basically figured everything out on his own.
And his Innate Soul Power was nothing like that of Shrek's geniuses.
Therefore, in their eyes, Zhong Kui had relied on Alchemy to turn himself into a genius, so they all believed what he said.
Otherwise, who could explain how someone born into an ordinary Soul Master family, with no background, no connections, and not even any experience attending a prestigious academy, had become a Soul Emperor at such a young age?
So in their eyes, Zhong Kui must have discovered an ancient Alchemy ruin. After learning the art of refining medicine, he became a powerful Alchemist, turned himself into a powerhouse, and became a genius.
There was also another point: Zhong Kui was an exceptionally gentle teacher. He was patient with his students, and even when they failed, Zhong Kui would patiently guide them. Everyone felt that Zhong Kui had to be a very gentle person.
One had to know that studying under the teachers of the Sun Moon Empire Royal Academy was an extremely serious and strict affair. Furthermore, because the Sun Moon Empire had long lost to Shrek, its education was relatively strict.
As a result, many students found attending classes, studying, and growing stronger... utterly exhausting.
When they encountered someone like Zhong Kui, whose teaching style was gentle, how could they not feel happy and want to work hard?
At the very least, they wanted to repay Zhong Kui's kindness.
Actually, the reason Zhong Kui treated these apprentices—and those learning Alchemy under him, some of whom were not much younger than him—so gently was because, back in his original world, teachers at school had treated him differently.
It was not as though he had suffered any great grievance, but when he was young, teachers treated outstanding students well while having poor attitudes toward average students like him.
When Zhong Kui had once clashed with an outstanding student, that student had clearly been the one to provoke Zhong Kui first. Yet because the other student was outstanding and considered a good student in the teachers' eyes, while Zhong Kui was merely average, the unequal treatment only deepened the conflict.
When outstanding students encountered difficult problems in class, teachers would carefully instruct them. But when average students like him—especially students who had previously clashed with teachers—encountered difficult problems and asked for help, they would be treated differently and directly asked why they had not listened carefully!
So when Zhong Kui taught everyone Alchemy and acted as their teacher here, he used those former teachers as negative examples, reminding himself not to become that kind of teacher.
He only hoped that, having been soaked by the rain himself, he could hold an umbrella for others. He did not want his own experiences to happen to anyone else, especially not to children. At the very least, in Zhong Kui's view, he had lived into adulthood in his previous life, and with his age in this life added in, his soul was far older than these students.
Thus, he also had something of an elder's attitude toward juniors. He hoped these students would amount to something and become outstanding, but he would not oppress them or treat them differently. He would treat them with what he believed was gentleness.
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