“Though the class is called the fundamentals of Alchemy, I do have the expectations that all of you know the basics of what it means to be an alchemist. Would I be correct in my assumptions?” Yue Mengli spoke softly, but her voice could be heard throughout the entire room.

She waited and watched as everyone nodded their heads to show their agreement, but some of the boys were nodding without real reason. Most of them were focused on other things.

“Great, so for the first day of class, you will all be taking a test on key figures and discoveries in the history of alchemy as well as completing two written productions on the importance of alchemy. Is that clear?”

Every student's expression turned sour. It was only the first day, wasn’t this much work a little overboard.

After a pause, the girl sitting on the left of Zhao Chen raised her hand. She stood up as she was called on by Yue Mengli.

“Professor, don’t you think that this amount of work is a little bit too much? I mean we all have the basics of Alchemy down but no one's knowledge is that extensive.” The girl spoke with prestige and confidence, much to the surprise of Zhao Chen.

‘From the way she was gossiping with her friends earlier, I thought she was a typical mean idiot.’ Zhao Chen started to change his assumptions about everyone he saw in the class. Maybe he was wrong about the rest of them too.

Zhao Chen only had the time to let his mind drift off in such a manner, because the assignments didn’t really bother him. Other than key figures, Zhao Chen knew everything about alchemy, or at least everything that people of the mortal plain would know.

And as for the key figures? Well he had already anticipated something like this would happen, so he did a small amount of research on his journey to the academy.

Zhao Chen didn’t know much about the academy as most of the information was kept secret from the outside world, but classes and who taught them were all general knowledge.

“And what was your name, Ms.?’

“Liu, Biyu Liu”

“Well, Ms. Liu, this isn’t too much at all. The test will show me just where everyone is in the class. Who the promising students are, and who I'll be seeing again next year.”

Unsatisfied, Biyu Liu spoke up once more.

“Well what about the work we have to do outside of class? I mean I know we only have this class once a week, but we have other classes. And if you all pile loads of work onto us, just how are we going to get any of it done?”

Yue Mengli let Biyu Liu finish speaking before turning her eyes to the rest of the class.

“Do you all feel this way?”

No one dared to move. Of course they felt that way! But if they were to speak up they feared the consequences. From the way she had asked the question, the students knew that if they even slightly nodded their heads then something dire could happen to them.

Biyu Liu observed her classmates as well. Seeing that not a single person was supporting her, she felt defeated. Even a little crushed as when she tried to make eye contact with her friends, they simply turned their heads the other way.

‘Whatever, I don’t need them anyway!’ Biyu Liu scoffed inwardly.

“Well then, seeing as you’re the only one with complaints, I can see that you really have a lot of ideas. I want you to come up with a new pill formula by next week's class, or I will fail you!” Yue Mengli raised her voice slightly, but immediately returned to her normal demeanor.

Being a fairly new teacher, she didn’t appreciate students standing up to her. She felt that they were challenging her knowledge, and that was not something she could stand for.

“But-”

“That’s a little unfair, don’t you think, Instructor Mengli?” As Biyu Liu was about to speak up, Zhao Chen interjected, with a strange smile on his face.

He had been observing the whole situation thus far, but he had no plans on speaking up at all. That was until Biyu Liu was getting punished. Zhao Chen didn’t care for others, in fact, if he could , Zhao Chen wouldn’t have even come to the academy.

He would have just made enough pills to last him a few years, before sealing himself in some secluded cave and cultivated until he could return to the upper realm.

But when it came to injustice and unfairness, Zhao Chen couldn’t let it slide. No matter what relation he had to the person on the receiving end, Zhao Chen would stand up for them to the best of his abilities.

‘From the way she was looking at me, I’m 99 percent sure she’s the same instructor from the entrance exam. I guess calling her instructor instead of professor might help her remember me too.’ Zhao Chen was still sitting down, but just from the wicked aura coming off of him, the people sitting around him scooched as far away from him as possible.

Yue Mengli said nothing. She walked over to where Zhao Chen was sitting and tapped on his desk. A strong energy came from her finger, burning a large hole through his desk.

Zhao Chen watched, without a single change to his expression. He already guessed she would act out in some way, but for some reason Zhao Chen found it amusing.

‘She’s like a little dog. Throwing a fit because she’s not getting any attention.’ Zhao Chen was smiling inwardly and outwardly.

“So, do you have a problem with my teaching methods as well, Mr. Zhao Chen?” Yue Mengli had lowered her head to be levelled with Zhao Chen, as she peered into his eyes.

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“Do they know each other?”

“How does she know his name?”

“Wait, I've heard of him before!”

“He’s that lunatic who went all crazy and started beating up everyone in the entrance exam!”

As Yue Mengli spoke Zhao Chens name the class exploded in hushed murmurs. Speculations about the pair's relationship quickly turned into gossip about Zhao Chen's little episode during the last leg of the entrance exam.

‘I guess news travels fast here, huh? Well at least I don’t have some corny nickname’ Zhao Chen didn’t care what others thought about him, but he did have a strict principle when it came to nicknames. Strictly against.

Titles were fine, that’s why he wore his title of the golden sun divine lord like a badge of honor. But nicknames always felt too childish to Zhao Chen, as if they were mocking someone more than praising them.

Zhao Chen stood up with his hands behind his back and walked in front of his desk to stand in front of Yue Mengli. Who had taken a few steps back as the much taller Zhao Chen approached her.

“Oh no, I have no problem with you professor. I just think my fellow classmate here doesn’t deserve a punishment. I didn’t see anywhere in the academy rules about voicing your opinion to be forbidden?”

“My classroom means my rules, if you don’t like them then you can get out! And the rest of you have 2 seconds to shut up or I’ll fail you all!” Yue Mengli turned to walk back to the front of the class. Expecting Zhao Chen to sit down and be obedient.

Zhao Chen did the opposite.

“Then how about a bet, Instructor Mengli?” Zhao Chen's eyes had a strange glint, as if he was thinking up a plan.

“It’s professor Mengli, and I don’t have time to make bets with students. If you interrupt me one more time Mr Chen, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Yue Mengli had cooled down by the time she had returned back to her podium, wasting no more time with Zhao Chen.

“Well that’s too bad. Although I do have a question for you, assuming that’s not against the rules?” Zhao Chen continued, adamant on succeeding in his plan.

“Go on.” Yue Mengli had already wasted enough time not teaching, so she tried to transition back into her planned lesson, and Zhao Chen asking a question seemed to be a great segue.

“My Master used to tell me stories about a great tier 3 demonic beast that lives in the mountains near the academy. He also told me that it guarded a rare spirit herb, one that could be added to any recipe, and would result in the pill being formed successfully. I wanted to ask if that was true?”

“A little bit off topic but I’ll allow it. Yes it is true, the spirit herb is called the twin yang root horn. Its properties allow it to make up for any missing piece of a pill formula, no matter what type of spirit herbs are needed. It also enhances the success rate of a pill formation by almost 10 percent. Which means it doesn’t guarantee success, but 10 percent in alchemy is the difference between life and death. It’s actually a lifelong dream of mine to find it.” Yue Mengli paused, as if she had just come to a realization.

“Are you interested in this spirit medicine, Mr. Chen?” She watched Zhao Chen's face carefully, waiting to see how he reacted to the question.

‘Got you.’

“Oh, well I’m not at the stage where I need to worry about having such an amazing spirit herb, but my Master also told me that he discovered a way to retrieve it. I brushed it off as a joke, but sometimes I wonder if he was serious. But seeing a figure such as yourself, being unable to retrieve it, I guess he was just messing with you.”

Yue Mengli's expression changed ever so slightly but nothing noticeable had occurred. She simply nodded her head and silenced the students who snickered at Zhao Chen's words, then returned to her lesson.

As she spoke on basic affinities and attributes of spirit herbs, a strong sense of unrest was building up inside of Yue Mengli. She shot several glances at Zhao Chen, but he was fully asleep.

‘Maybe the master part was too much? Should’ve said my father, I mean no one thinks I’m from the Chen family, but as a teacher she should probably know my background?’

In reality, that whole exchange was just Zhao Chen taking a gamble. He read about the spirit herb in one of the books in the library the other day, and while he was impressed at first, however, when he learned that it’s effects only applied to grade 3 pills and below he was greatly disheartened.

Though with his current strength he couldn’t refine grade 3 pills, Zhao Chen knew once he reached the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm, he would be on par with the greatest of grade 3 alchemists.

‘Oh Yang Chen how you’ve fallen from grace. The greatest of grade 3 alchemists? They can’t even be considered rookies!’

‘That’s the first time you’ve called yourself by your past life's name since you awoke.’ Baifuns voice appeared out of nowhere, causing the class's attention to shift to Zhao Chen as he almost jumped out of his seat.

He cleared his throat awkwardly and apologized, saying he had a bad dream. Yue Mengli reprimanded him for sleeping in her class and several students laughed amongst themselves.

The only person that seemed to be genuinely concerned for Zhao Chen was Biyu Liu, who had been observing Zhao Chen silently after he spoke up for her.

‘I heard rumors about him being some bloodthirsty maniac, but if he stood up for me, I guess he’s not such a bad guy.’ Biyu Liu caught herself staring longer than she should have and immediately straightened her posture and turned to face the front.

‘A warning would be nice, you mysterious weirdo!’ Zhao Chen still wasn’t used to having someone else in his sea of consciousness. It was like having someone show up at your house one day and just moving in without saying anything.

To make matters worse, Baifun only spoke about 4 or 5 times, which didn’t help in making him very memorable.

‘I was just pointing it out.’ For some reason Baifun’s tone seemed to have changed, it had become more soft. Zhao Chen naturally picked up on it but he just assumed it was some kind of weird thing Baifun liked to do. Acting soft then doing something twisted and sadistic.

‘Well, my soul is still that of Yang Chen’s, so even though I’ve assimilated with this body, and have technically become Zhao Chen, I still consider myself to be Yang Chen.’ Baifuns words sparked several questions in Zhao Chen, but after remembering the state he ended up in just the other day, he decided to hold his tongue.

‘If you say so.’ Once again, Baifun decided to speak in odd and mysterious ways before going radio silent.

‘I should make figuring him out my number one priority.’ Zhao Chen scoffed. But, Baifuns words also made him think. That was the first time he had called himself by his past life’s name. It wasn’t that weird, but Zhao Chen found it a bit strange. He remembered his past life fully, but it seemed like he was drifting further and further away from it everyday.

After giving it some thought for a few minutes, Zhao Chen pushed the thought into the pile of a thousand other questions he had for Baifun. His only focus for now was getting stronger, worrying about everything else that would come later.

“And finally alchemist and pill grades. Alchemists are graded 1 to 7, this grade not only applies to an alchemist's cultivation realm, but their soul force and skill as well. Soul force is the essence of an alchemist, and it’s what’s used while making pills. Having a strong soul force can even help you suppress an opponent in a fight, but that’s not an alchemist's concern.

For us on the path of alchemy, improving our soul force means improving our skill and our potential. As for pills, they too are graded 1 through 7, but they are also separated into smaller tiers. The lowest tier of pills is naturally a low tier pill. Then it’s middle tier, high tier, and perfected. A perfected pill is scarcely seen here in the southern domain , but who knows. Maybe one of you will go on to refine one.” Yue Mengli paused as her gaze swept over the classroom, glancing at the now, once again, shut eye Zhao Chen.

“Anyways that’ll be all for today, are there any questions?” Yue Mengli prayed that there were none, she could no longer suppress her urge to ask Zhao Chen a million questions.

To her disdain, there were several hands that went up. She wanted to cry out in frustration, but she kept an elegant demeanor on the outside.

“Yes, you.” Yue Mengli pointed at the boy sitting to the right of Zhao Chen.

“You said that it is scarcely seen in the southern domain, does that mean that the northern domain has better alchemists?” The boy sounded like a complete idiot. Which contradicted his nerdy looks.

“Well, it pains me to say it but yes. The northern domain suppresses us in every category possible, that includes alchemy.”

“Now you.” She pointed at a girl sitting at the very back of the class.

“So then what's the highest grade alchemist we have in the southern domain?”

“Unfortunately, the highest grade alchemist is the grade 4 alchemist, Hu Guozhi, the head of the southern domains Alchemist Association. And just to eliminate any further questions, the strongest person in the southern domain is Song Boqin, who’s at the peak of the Soul Ignition Realm.”

The class let out murmurs of confusion, the strongest person was just some random guy? Not one of the six great patriarchs?

The mention of the strongest in the southern domain finally “woke” Zhao Chen up. Though he had been partially awake the whole time, what Yue Mengli was saying now finally caught his interest. He too was surprised that the strongest wasn’t one of the six great patriarchs.

“Song Boqin is the head of a now fallen sect. He pays no attention to secular affairs, and rarely appears in public so I understand why you all may not know him. But trust me when I tell you this, in the entire southern domain, not a single person dares to even look at him the wrong way. In fact there are some rumors that he has the strength to go to the northern domain, but he’s waiting to break through to the next major realm.”

Yue Mengli paused and peered outside the window, watching uncomfortably as the sun went lower and lower and as more and more hands shot up into the air.

“But rumors are rumors, so why worry about all of that. Alright then, that’s enough questions for today, seeing as I didn’t give you that test today, you’ll all be taking it during next week's class, and don’t forget the homework. Now off you go!”

As the students groaned and moaned while standing from their seats, Zhao Chen sat in his seat. The smile from earlier taking over his face once more.

When all the other students had made their way outside of the room, Yue Mengli watched Zhao Chen for a moment. Waiting to see what he would do. Naturally she wanted to ask him about the method his master had come up with, but she didn’t want to expose herself early on. She had to keep her cards close to her chest.

“Can I help you, Mr Chen?”

“No, but I can help you.” Zhao Chen said softly as he stood up from his chair before stopping just a step away from Yue Mengli.

‘This should be fun’ Zhao Chen smiled inwardly, his heart beating in a strange rhythm.