Seph returned to the library/workshop to find a downcast Zhi floating by himself.

He guessed it must be because he thought he would remain alone in this room after Seph had left, but Seph was pretty confident that his theory about the cauldron was true, and Zhi will get to leave the room with him.

Sun signaled Seph to be silent, and he went towards the library and took out a book. At that moment, Zhi became alarmed and looked around him, only to find that his pupil and his demonic monkey were back.

“Hey, put that book back right now. Stop messing with my books. Seph, take control of that bloody monkey!”

Sun and Seph started laughing, and they both went toward the Master alchemist after putting the book back in its place.

“So, the last trial is done. You are all done with this place after I teach you the last formula.” Zhi said, while unable to hide his melancholy.

“That’s right, in the last garden we found a lot of fire based items. One of them is so disgusting.”

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense. What did you find?” Zhi asked, regaining his lively, excited voice that he gets each time he speaks about books or alchemy.

Seph took out the new ingredients for him, and Zhi said, “Let me guess, among these ingredients you consider the Fairy Fire Queen Nectar the most disgusting. Am I right?”

Seph said in exclamation, “But Of course!”

“Fucking Yin cultivators, the fire fairies must be just a snack for you.”

“Oh, I ate some of them when I started this trial.”

Zhi face palmed and said, “For fuck’s sake, you all are hopeless, I swear.”

While Seph just stood there not even realizing what he did wrong with a dumb look on his face.

“Well, anyway, it’s time for the final formulas.”

“You mean formula? As in a single one?” Seph asked.

“No, formulas. What you got back from that garden has many uses. We will start with the first one of them, the fire-breathing bottles.”

“Oh, very nice. I was hoping for a fire weapon. Let’s get down to business.”

“Well, this formula is easy, but dangerous, you will need to make it either after you leave this room, or if you really want to be prepared for whatever comes next, then you will need to go back to last garden, assemble the weapon there, and then come back for the last formula. I can’t risk you assembling this weapon in my precious library. An important rule around here is no fire allowed, and I won’t be able to join you either way, so you need to listen to me carefully.”

Seph thought for a second, and then said, “That’s fine. We will go back to that fire forest and assemble the weapon there.”

“Good then. To make fire-breathing bottles, the essential ingredient you need is the fairy fire queen nectar. It is the catalyst for all the other ingredients.” Zhi paused before continuing, “Only problem with dealing with the nectar is that it’s extremely volatile, so you need an inhibitor, and what’s better to use as an inhibitor than the creatures that use the nectar for their cultivation?”

Seph focused intently on what his teacher said, thinking that it all makes sense, and that there are laws to this alchemy.

Zhi continued after he paused, to see the understanding look on his pupil’s face, “After the color of the fire fairies change, they become pale after being left for a while inside the nectar, only when they are dead of course, cultivation is a real personal thing for all creatures, and it’s rare to find out the habits of another creature’s cultivation. As I was saying, after their color changes the nectar is safe, and then you just need to close the bottle with a firestone, which works as the activator for the weapon after being thrown, it’s 90% guaranteed to explode in a whirlwind of fire each time. Did you get all that?”

“Yes teacher, I understand. What happens if I mess up?” Seph fearfully asked.

“You will end up caught in a whirlwind of fire yourself, so be very careful dealing with this mix.”

Seph gulped hard, then said, “Yes teacher, I will be very careful.”

****

image [https://imgur.com/GCoiLPW.jpg]

Seph and Sun walked back through the portal to the fire forest and found a clear spot to assemble the weapon.

Meticulously Seph uncorked the bottle, then took out one of the fire fairies, and folded the wings on its back neatly to dip it into the liquid, he tried to put it in carefully, but ended up dropping it in the liquid, which splashed out on his hand, but luckily didn’t explode.

Still, the liquid was like acid on his skin. He left the bottle on the ground and ran away, screaming from the pain. He couldn’t risk knocking the bottle over while he was panicking like that.

He took out one of two remaining wolf hearts and pressed it on the wound first, trying to rub off the acid on it, not even sure if that would work, before eating the heart to heal his wound.

After the pain subsided, he got up and went back to the bottle, to find that the fairy had indeed changed color. He then took out a firestone and corked the bottle with it instead. It had the perfect shape to plug the bottle’s opening.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

And per the final tip from his teacher, he inspected the bottle with the eye of the appraiser, to see if it worked.

Appraising…

Name: Fire-breathing bottle

Type: Throwing weapon

Quality: Uncommon

A very simple but very dangerous throwing weapon; handle with care, or your story will end in a blaze of flames.

“Another ominous message by the system. It sure loves scaring the shit out of me with those messages.”

Seph paused for a second before continuing, “Okay, I need a countermeasure for if things go south, I can’t depend on my last accessory charge, and since there is no water around these parts, I should just collect some sand to have beside me.” He paused and directed his talking to Sun and said, “Also, Sun, you need to remain at a safe distance. There is no use in both of us getting hurt.”

Sun acknowledged his words before both of them started collecting a small hill of sand, then Sun climbed on a tree to keep watch over his master.

Seph got to making the bottles, one after the other, and stashed them in his spatial sack, until the last bottle while he was plugging it with the stone, the stone fill inside the bottle, he threw the bottle on the sand hill, and ran away as fast as he could.

Ten seconds later he heard the explosion, and could feel the heat behind him, so he jumped forward, but luckily for him, he was far enough to avoid getting scorched.

Sun came down fast to check on him, and Seph said, “Damn, this was close, these bottles are crazy. No wonder Esme was scared as fuck from them.”

Sun was petting him on the back, consoling him.

“Anyway, we are done making these bottles. Hopefully, for the last time, let’s get out.”

****

image [https://imgur.com/GCoiLPW.jpg]

“I see you are back. Did everything go according to plan for you?” Zhi said after perking up on seeing the return of his pupil.

“A couple of minor accidents, but everything turned out fine, anyway. I hate to be a greedy student, but I need to move forward, so now, what’s the final formula?”

“I guess our time is up then. The great Zhi Zixin will return to his lonely, ghastly existence again…” Zhi stopped talking for a few seconds with a sad but proud look on his face, before saying, “The last formula has to do with your seed of fire, you have 3 ingredients that can influence a dao fruit to give you an insight into the dao of fire, thus advancing your seed, but only issue is, you don’t have any dao fruits, and they are extremely rare, so keep the rest of the ingredients with you until you find dao fruits, or maybe use them in another formula later on, that you might learn without your great teacher.” Zhi forced a smile, looking haughty as ever, before saying, “Now shoo. Let me get back to my reading, and good luck in your journey.”

Seph just stood there, with a warm smile on his face, then he exchanged a look with Sun, who nodded his head to him, and he spoke to his teacher, “Well teacher, there was something I was hiding from you, fearing it might not be the case, but I think you are coming with me. Even though we went through all the gardens, the trial isn’t over yet, and I think it’s because I need to take the alchemy cauldron with me. But the alchemy cauldron is soulbound, and I think it’s your soul that’s bound to it, meaning, we will be inseparable from now on until the day I die, if my theory is correct.”

Zhi’s eyes became as wide as saucers, before he blurted out fast, “It is the case, soulbound items are items that have a soul bound into them, and it’s sadly a punishment that the powerhouses of the world used to punish their bitter enemies. I thought about this for a while and I guess Scorn got me in the end. I guess this is my punishment,” the alchemist finished with a sad, defeated voice.

“I am so sorry for your situation master, you shot your shot with Scorn, you came out short, the only way now is to make the best of your situation, until maybe we figure out a way to release your soul from this cauldron, if that’s your wish?”

Seph’s suggestion shocked Zhi. He didn’t know if it was possible to unbind a soul, but if it was, this kid with goodness in his heart, is the only one who could help him out of his current condition.

“If I was alive, I wouldn’t hold my breath for that to happen. But, until then, as long as you remain a bright pupil, I’ll continue teaching you what I know about alchemy. But I have a few conditions.”

Here we go again, more greedy demands from the eccentric master.

Seph chuckled after what he thought and then said, “Yes master, anything you demand will be done, within reason, of course?”

“Good, I expect nothing less for my great and priceless knowledge. The first condition is, once you’re an established cultivator, and you have your own base of operations, I demand a bigger library, with more books than the one I have here.” he paused, and Seph nodded signaling his approval before the master continued, “Second condition is, on matters of alchemy, you never listen to anyone but me, and if needed you will request my permission first before seeking help from someone else.”

Monopoly of information, to make sure I always need him, typical dictator strategy.

“Third and last condition, you hire a servant to polish my cauldron daily, and since that’s something that will happen in the far future, the monkey can handle that task from now on.”

Sun started screaming and shouting at him in Monkeyese, and Zhi was taken aback a little in fear, but in his defense he didn’t run away, like the time he ran away at the mention of Scorn.

Seph calmed down the monkey by saying, “It’s okay Sun, our friend here isn’t corporeal, it’s only fair we take care of him, me and you will take rounds polishing his cauldron, that way the entire job doesn’t fall only on you.”

Sun calmed down a little, but he still glared at Zhi, warning him of any further requests heading his way.

“I agree with all your conditions, teacher. May I always be blessed with your teachings. I think after I take the cauldron and put it in my spatial sack, you won’t be able to get out anymore. Is there anything else I should know or do before we leave this area?”

“Yes, the most important thing is my library. We will have to take it with us.”

“What do you mean, take it with us? I don’t have enough room in my spatial sack for all these books!”

Zhi floated fast towards a shelf and pointed at it, saying, “That won’t be a problem, don't worry, I have a location spatial ring hidden on this. Shelf, it will enable you to store the entire room. The gardens aren’t coming with us, though.”

Seph went and looked on the shelf to find a beautiful ring with a blue gem. He felt so envious of his teacher for owning such a fancy ring; he thought it must be so expensive.

“Very impressive ring, teacher. You must have been living the life. I will take the cauldron now to end this trial.”

Seph moved towards the Cauldron and put it in his spatial sack. And true enough, Zhi Zixin disappeared.

After that, he wore the location spatial ring and touched one bookshelf. The entire place got sucked into the ring as well.

He found himself standing in a place that can only be called the nowhere, but the portal that had appeared once he stashed the cauldron was still there, so he took Sun on his shoulders and they both entered this portal to the next of the last challenges in the trial.