Early next morning Alex heard Gael’s footsteps downstairs and quickly joined him. Turns out Bistof, the old man he met yesterday, already brought the breakfast as well as new subjects they could experiment on. There were quite a few cages full of hamster sized rats, probably over fifty in total, and several buckets with lids on them – most likely containing some kind of fish.

After a light meal both went back to the room Alex decided to call the ‘laboratory’ and continued with the experiment.

This time Gael extracted poison from red spotted sand eels and tried to mix it with juices from different plants. Alex’s main task was to note down Gael’s findings, thus he was not too busy and could observe the process.

From what it looked like, Gael was trying to brew a particularly strong poison by extracting it from poisonous fishes and at the same time removing the odor mixing it with juices from different plants.

At first Alex was surprised by the peculiar research subject since he was expecting to learn about processing of the cultivation resources, but soon he forgot his initial intention and wholeheartedly dived into the world of poisons.

The interesting part wasn’t the poison subject itself, but the medieval style alchemy that captivated him. The extraction process of the essences from plants and living beings involved the application of strange Qi techniques, but Alex’s guess was that those could be performed only by a Qi master and it was few years early for him.

He wasn’t disheartened though. He kept practicing Qi during the nights and noting down the Gael’s research results during the day. Finally Alex realized why Gael had this strange greenish skin color – the man basically never left the house and all he did was mix ingredients at the alchemy table. This lifestyle was soon adopted by Alex.

The only other person they both met was Bistof who kept bringing food and supplying the alchemy ingredients.

Contrary to the Alex’s first impression, the old man was not simple at all. Upon Gael’s requests, he somehow managed to deliver not only the ‘regular’ poisonous ingredients like the local plants – river hemlock and purple nightshade. In large buckets he carried over stonefishes, eels, cadirus and even the exotic lionfishes and pufferfishes.

But Alex couldn’t care less how Bistof got the ingredients and was more curious about their poisonous nature. Indeed, during the next few months they extracted, purified and mixed thousands of poisons and for some reason Gael was never satisfied with the results.

Unknowingly Alex learned almost everything there was to know about the poisonous plants, insects and animals of this part of the world. Of course, him reading Gael’s research notes after the workday helped a lot.

At first the old man strictly forbade Alex to touch anything, including books in the laboratory, but it all changed when Alex made a suggestion.

“Why don’t we look at the problem from other perspective?” He said one day, “We are obviously trying to create a poison capable of instantly killing an experienced Qi master, but extracting the poison essence from wildlife always leaves an unpleasant odor. On the other hand, the moment we mix it with less potent plant poisons to mask the smell, it inevitably looses effectiveness. So – why don’t we approach the problem from a different angle? The goal is to kill that Qi master, right? Why don’t we use loss toxic, but odorless plant poison and mix it with a substance that would disable the Qi master or make them unable to use Qi for a period of time? Wouldn’t we achieve the same goal that way?”

From that moment on Alex ‘got promoted’. Gael even tasked him to read his earlier research notes in case Alex got another idea and taught the proper refinement methods so he could have more ‘time to think’ while Alex would do the menial jobs.

Alex didn’t mind. In the evenings he could basically pick up any book to read and finally he was educating himself on the initial subject he came here for – the knowledge about the cultivation resources.

Contrary to the poison subject, Gael had spent most of his life researching the cultivation supplements and all Alex had to do was to memorize names of the plants and ways to process them. With great interest he tried to find a plant that could produce something similar to the Lord’s seeds, but unfortunately he had no such luck.

On the other hand, Gael had recorded many processing methods allowing one to extract Qi essence from different plants, similar to how they currently were doing with poisons. To Alex’s great disappointment there was no such thing as transforming the liquid Qi essence into a solid state, like a pill, for example. But that was fine as well, since in the future Alex intended to directly consume anything he produced – the main focus would be to use the proper Qi method to absorb the essence. And this would be how he could become a Qi master in the shortest period of time.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

On few occasions Alex did try to sneak out to ‘have a stroll’, but every time he took more than ten steps from the house, he found Gael standing in front of him. The man obviously was a Qi master of Jacobo’s level and after he was caught for the third time, Alex decided to forget about having fun for now.

Months flew by without neither Alex nor Gael stepping out the house other than Alex carrying in the fresh water from the well and picking up food and supplies from Bistof.

During all this time they only had one visitor – Jacobo dropped by at some point. He didn’t intend to take Alex with him and the latter didn’t actually want to go, at least not yet – he needed few more months to scan through the Gael’s notes.

Before leaving, Jacobo pointed at Alex’s unhealthy complexion and suggested to take a better care of himself. Alex, of course, already knew the unhealthy ‘work environment’ left ugly marks on his appearance. His skin had become similar to his boss’s and turned greenish, while his previously golden blond hair became dark yellow, like a dirty sand. Even his voice was becoming dry and hoarse – also results of a daily exposure to the poisonous substances. Since he didn’t intend to get married, he even welcomed the changes – it would scare off the unwanted suitors in the future.

The ‘poison project’ was of great importance for Gael and they kept working on it for almost a year. Even when at some point they got the desirable result, Gael insisted on researching other routes and ingredients.

Alex inevitably became bored with the routine and already began to consider ways to leave, when an event occurred that turned his life upside down.

For the last few days both Gael and Alex kept refining the poison in large quantities, filling portions of it in glass flasks and sealing them in a special way. Alex took it for some kind of a special task from the royal palace and didn’t raise any questions.

One evening, when the second box was filled with the flasks of poison, Gael ordered to clean everything up earlier than usual. Alex was just about to finish when someone knocked at the door, but this time Gael himself went to open it.

When Alex left the laboratory, he noticed Gael whispering something to two hooded men in dark leather outfits and beckoning them to follow to his laboratory. But the moment they passed each other, Alex’s heart literally skipped few beats and he froze in his tracks.

Cesar! One of the hooded men was Cesar Perez and he obviously came to pick up the poison they just finished brewing! Alex could never forget that face with the crooked nose!

Alex forced himself to take one step after another and finally climb up the stairs. After entering his room, he sat on the bed, covered in a cold sweat. The only thing he could do now was to pray that neither Gael nor the two visitors noticed his odd behavior.

The fact that Cesar didn’t recognize him was not surprising – currently Alex resembled an ugly boy and was ways off from his pretty appearance from a year ago. But Cesar had not changed at all. Alex could swear he could recognize the man’s perverted look under any circumstances and he was certain this was no paranoia.

The question was – what to do now? Wasn’t Gael the former confidante of the late king Bautista? Why was he working with rebels? Or was he behind the assassination already back then? But the poison they brewed was enough to easily eliminate a whole garrison of soldiers, maybe even half an army! Was it meant to be used only in the palace or to weaken Zamora’s defenses?

Be as it may, Alex would die the moment the poison was used, maybe even tonight. But there was no way he could run away – Gael somehow always knew his whereabouts. And what if Cesar recognized him?

Alex was not afraid of death, not in the slightest. He didn’t want to reincarnate because the early years of life always were annoying, slow and tedious, full of schemes and pretending. But Cesar wouldn’t let him die. With Gael’s skills Alex would live for months while loosing sanity under a terrifying torture.

He began to calm down only after he heard the front door shutting and Gael going to his room. He realized that since he was still alive, Gael probably had some use for him. Be as it may, tomorrow morning he would find out what their next research project would be and then try to think of a plan.

The next morning didn’t bring the expected peace of mind. After suppressing stress the whole night, Alex found his teacher absent minded as if he was currently somewhere else. These were bad news since there was only one big upcoming event. From his experience Alex knew Gael was thinking of something important and the moment a decision was made, Alex most likely would die.

He did his best to do his chores in the usual carefree manner, met Bistof and received the morning food delivery while formulating a plan in his head.

After the breakfast he continued to clean up the laboratory room and while Gael stepped out, hid a few useful items under his shirt. When there was nothing left to do, Alex picked up a book and pretended to read while multiple times going over the simple plan he made.

In the evening, when Bistof delivered the regular meal, Alex received it and went out to get water, like always, but didn’t return. While eating Gael, lost in thoughts, didn’t notice his student-servant missing at first, but after a minute he realized that Alex was gone. Unfortunately the only thing he saw outside were two empty water buckets.

There was no way Alex could run far in this short amount of time and with his amazing Qi master’s abilities Gael quickly searched every nook and cranny within few blocks. Unfortunately he only found few vagrants he killed on the spot in anger, but there was no sign of Alex – it was as if he evaporated in a thin air. Realizing the kid was gone, Gael didn’t return home, but disappeared towards the city gates.

Meanwhile the great schemer sat three meters deep in the water. Indeed, Alex decided to use the well to escape once again, but this time there was no secret passage or a dent where he could sit and hide. In fact, he even would’ve preferred to go deeper to avoid Gael’s remarkable sensory abilities, but he was already sitting on the bottom of the well.

Once in a while Alex slowly and carefully made slow inhales and exhales through a thin tube he earlier stole from the laboratory room. He managed to secure the top part above the water level and it was just long enough to reach the bottom.

Even though it was already the spring outside, the freezing water was a problem. While on paper Alex was a Qi warrior and it shouldn’t have been a too uncomfortable, he refrained from using the Qi to warm himself up or to protect from the cold since it could lead Gael to his hiding spot.