Zaki looked at the scene twisting and crumbling into specks of light and then reconstructing into some sort of lab.

He looked at himself and saw his extremely worn and torn shirt and cargo pants, then at the lab, which was filled with machines and apparatuses he had never seen before except for some he recognized as beakers, test tubes, burners, and other such things, and his eyes lit up as he saw a series of lapidary equipment on the other side of the lab.

With a fascinated face, Zaki moved over and slid his palm on top of the equipment; he recognized it as lapidary equipment from its shape, but he didn't know where it originated from or how to power it because he didn't understand its workings.

He was startled to hear a voice behind him say, "I see you've made yourself at home, lil brat."

Zaki spun around, and reached for his sword on his hip, only to have his hand grab at the air because he didn't have his weapons on him.

" Who are you?" Zaki inquired.

The man arched his brows in astonishment, as if he hadn't seen it coming.

"you dont know who I am?"

"how am I supposed to know you? And where's this place?"

"...well...I'm Zhou Yuan, the best alchemist in immeroth, the wild lands, and possibly the entire frontier, and you're in my personal lab, well...specifically, you're in a mirror image of my old lab."

"...I know it's an odd question, but how did I get here? I don't know who you are or where I am"

"Well, it's probably your obsession with alchemy, or at least a part of it, that has brought you here in the final level of your trial."

"uhh...what trial?"Zaki said in a confused tone.

This time, the man raised his brows even higher and his eyes enlarged to the point where they seemed to fall out of their sockets.

"How did you pass the six trials without knowing the TRIAL!!! This is ridiculous!!!"

Zaki leaned backwards as the man roared.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about; I just ate a fruit and ended up here after some strange dreams; wait, am I still dreaming?"

"No, you are not! In a way, yeah, but truly, you had no notion you were on trial? How did you get through the previous six trials?... Sigh* anyway, I'm here to teach you the art of alchemy, not to probe into your trials."

"Wait, what exactly are these trials, and what is alchemy?"

The man now had a flabbergsated expression on his face, as if he didn't expect that there'd be someone that didn't know what alchemy was.

"You can ask around once you're out of the trial space, and alchemy is what I'm about to teach you. It appears that you are familiar with lapidary considering your interactions with the equipment, and lapidary is a part of alchemy."

The man added, "This lab and I are just phantoms, so everything that happens here will be known only to you, so no worries about your identity being leaked to my true body. Now with that out of the way, let's start your lessons; we don't have unlimited time in here."

"Wait! Wait! Wait! You didn't answer my question, and why are you teaching me alchemy?"

The man sighed, "Like I said, just ask around after you leave, this trial goes by a lot of different names and has different meanings and significance for different cultures, so I'm not the best person to ask, and the reason I'm teaching you alchemy is because you managed to clear the previous six trials, and this is your final trial and reward."

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The man smiled" That and my true body gets a reward too if my teachings could help you pass the trial, and before you ask, considering the nature of this trial that is more of a reward than a trial, you'll probably just face a series of tests about alchemy after the time I spend teaching you"

Zaki had more inquiries, but the stranger cut him off with a wave of his hand. "I don't have time to answer questions that are common knowledge, and you certainly don't have time to ask stupid questions, unless you want to fail your trial and lose everything you've gained in previous trials, so do you want to lose everything?"

What the man said made Zaki turn pale; his education from the academy and his experiences as a three-sword user may tremendously aid him in his survival after he was out of the trial space, and losing it was out of the question for Zaki.

The man chuckled at Zaki's reaction, "so let me give you a tour of my lab and show you what alchemy truly is, after all, if you see for yourself, you might--no, you will get motivated enough to go through the mountains of books worth of lessons I'll be teaching you."

As the Master alchemist discussed alchemy, the two strolled around the massive lab.

"Alchemy isn't just one art; it's a combination of many other occupations; to this day, a large number of people misunderstand what alchemy truly is; some mistake potioners or pharmacists for alchemists; it's REDICULOUS!"

The man continued " every major occupation is connected to alchemy in a minor way or a major way, for example, there are certain alchemical agents that temporarily changes the properties of a metal, making it possible for weapon or armor smiths to compress large amounts of it into smaller but far more powerful metal sheet or other whatnot, while it might be unbelievable for you an your current cultivation level, standard military armors for organizations that reached certain levels are usually made of compressed metals, it's quite normal for an armor to look like it's been made out of thin metal plates but weight several tonnes."

"While other occupations benefit from alchemy and contribute to its fame, what makes alchemy truly famous and the most sought after occupation is its alchemic equipment, which I will explain and demonstrate later, but for now..."

The man and Zaki came to a halt next to a few meters long lab bench with a broad range of equipment on it, some of which Zaki only recognized as beakers, test tubes, volumetric glass, and other items he'd seen in labs and chemistry books.

"This is the main equipment you'll need to brew potions; I assume you're familiar with potions?"

"hmm...those miracle drinks that instantly heal wounds and detox poisons?"

He scoffed, little irritated, "Miracle drinks?" He sighed deeply and gazed at Zaki with an intimidating gaze.

"The art of Potioneering is about mixing precise amounts of extracts or essences of herbs, fruits, or certain other resources using specialized glassware in a specific formulae while heating it and influencing it with a specific frequency of spiritual energy, it's not a miracle, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't use that word when referring to anything related to pioneering or alchemy."

"uhh...okay"

The man waved his hand, and nearly all of the equipment vanished, leaving only a little quantity that appeared to be fairly simple.

"For the time being, these will suffice; everything else is for more advanced potionering; I'll be brewing a healing potion; watch closely.

*********

Author here...

First off, I'll not be turning Zaki into Zoro or anything, neither will I introduce ninjutsu or anything of that sort as this isn't fanfiction...hmm perhaps I will add this as a minor cultivation style, but I won't be adding ninjas and other whatnot.

As y'all know the first chapter of by book was about equity, and equity is one of the most important components of this book, the trials Zaki went through is a part of one of the ways the equity bridges the gap between certain groups of people, something I will explain in-depth later on in the story.

One of the reasons I had Zaki go through the 6th trial which was living and fighting as Zoro was because my logic says a guy that gets thrown into a place that could be considered "hell" wouldn't be able to survive and thrive, especially if the person in question isn't a warrior, solider or had martial arts background.

And no Zaki isn't over powered, not will he be overpowered in the future, unlike most cultivation books that turns the protagonist into an edgelord facing off against powerful opponents where victory inevitably provokes even more powerful foes.

I plan on exploring other stuff in cultivation world instead of just murder, gore and most importantly face-slapping...still to this day I don't know why cultivation type novel authors are obsessed with face-slapping.

Well, anyway now that I think about it my book description is kinda misleading isn't it?

If it's the type of mc's you want that says "if the heavens want to erase me, I shall erase the heavens" and other cringe stuff, well I have other side characters or secondary protagonists in this story that are like that.

Anyway I had the urge to write my thoughts, and here it is.