After the whole fiasco with Celestia, Ryuu was till forced to visit the creepy library and was forced to memorize the whole book, he hates reading such boring books, according to him books should have pictures in them and those which did not have any should not be read at all.
A few days later, Biskha went to retrieve Ryuu, and bring him to a place where his teacher for the day Veena has been waiting for him.
Biskha took him to a place and he was surprised to see hustle and bustle of so many people, he has never seen so many people, not only that everyone was eyeing him, pointing and gossiping about him making him uncomfortable, so he asked curiously, "Biskha where are we going?"
Biskha :" Young master, Ayindril is separated into four regions, Outer, Middle, Inner and Core. His Holiness and his family live in the Core region, it is also the place where you currently stay, and the other regions are for the servants they according to their position and power stay in various regions. The servants can move freely in all region except the Core where except the permission of the Holy family no one can step in. Currently we are in inner region; Her Holiness has asked me to escort you to the alchemy hall in this region."
Ryuu nodded at that then he asked a question which has been bugging him for quite sometime,"Biskha I want you to answer me honestly, if I were not my teacher's disciple but an ordinary cultivator with no ties to Ayindril what so ever, would I have been able to join Ayindril based on my strength."
Biskha gave it a thought before answering as politely," Young master take no offence but even your mother barely qualifies for the lowest position and job in Ayindril, you can forget about taking a glimpse let alone joining."
Ryuu nodded his head, his mother was right the world is huge and there are lots of strong people, thus one should be humble otherwise they might offend wrong people and die a gruesome death.
Ryuu: "Biskha, Why are they staring at me like that and gossiping I do not like it,"
Biskha: "I must apologize young master, if those stares bother you too much, but Her Holiness ordered me to bring like this so you may better acquainted with Ayindril, also they are staring at you because I being one of the few people who have been blessed to serve the Holy family as their personal maid, am guiding you thus there are merely curious about you identity."
Ryuu nodded at that, the rest of the journey went on without any conversation as Ryuu was engrossed in looking at the scenery around as his head moved from left to right trying to see everything so fast that Biskha thought his head might fall off.
Soon they came to one of the biggest but least decorated place, many different beings dressed similarly holding different weapons stood guard around it, some people leaving and going inside the place. When they saw Biskha many gave them wide berth some went as far as to bow their head in utmost respect, but all seem to look curiously at Ryuu making him uncomfortable from all the attention he was getting.
Biskha led him to an old man who was busy ordering something to other people, Biskha approached her before speaking, "Heinkel I brought young master here, and I hope you would guide us to where Her Holiness is."
Heinkel nodded at Biskha before giving a kind smile to Ryuu,"Yes lady Biskha, Ah you must be Young Master Ryuu, Her Holiness's newest disciple.", everything came to a grinding halt as everyone looked at the child bug eyed, before long the appearance of the newest disciple of the Holy family spread throughout like wild fire before the end of the day.
Ryuu nodded before answering," Hello my name is Ryuu and it is my pleasure to meet you Mister Heinkel.", he spoke in the most polite tone and mannerism as had been instilled to him by his mother and second mistress.
Heinkel smiled and replied back,"The pleasure is all mine and welcome to The Crucible Young master Ryuu. You are well mannered and polite despite such a young age as expected of His and Holiness's disciple, come let us go and greet Her Holiness.", he then took Biskha and Ryuu and guiding them deeper inside the building and came in front of a room where they found Veena meditating, before anyone could respond Veena ordered,"Biskha and Heinkel you both may leave and return to your respective duties, Ryuu come and sit in front of me."
They both bowed and left, Ryuu entered the room as he bowed and greeted his teacher, "Greetings First Mistress.", Veena gave a nod before pointing Ryuu to sit in front of her.
Ryuu had never seen such a serious and stern look on his teacher's face, he gulped as he mentally prepared for another encounter with a demon.
Veena just looked at him for a second with a raised brow before she moved her hand and a very beautiful looking cauldron appeared in front of her, the cauldron had images of various creatures on it it looked as if they were alive and were going to eat him Ryuu froze in fear, to only relax a second later as he found himself enveloped by a calming aura courtesy of his teacher.
His teacher without speaking to him started arranging sets of different herbs putting them on a set of eleven, each set had a spirit grass and stalk of ambrosia, she then put them on eleven designated places on the cauldron put the lid on it, and then she moved her hands at specific spaces as a golden colored flame came into being, Ryuu watched curiously at the flame which moved like water all around the cauldron he moved his hand and extended his finger trying to poke the flame only to get scolded by Veena, "Ryuu YOU SHALL NOT TOUCH", Ryuu hastly removed his hands Veena's eyes softened a bit before explaining, "Child never try to touch an unknown directly without any precaution it might kill you and also do not diturb an alchemist when he/she is working it can lead to terrible accidents."
Ryuu nodded feeling a bit guilty, after a few minutes and lots of popping and sizzling sounds after Veena stopped the flame and removed the lid; she then quickly fished out ten out of eleven pills she was making only for a small black cloud to form on top the cauldron, the black cloud hurled a few lightning strike on the pill for a few moments Ryuu watched with utter amazement at the weird phenomenon.
Veena then fished the last pill and put it on a tray with the other creations she fished out before and presented to Ryuu. Ryuu was assaulted with various smell from wonderful fragrance which made him drool to horrendous stink which made him want to vomit, he looked at the tray to see 11 different things some looked like slag to somewhat a pill like look to something which although looked like a pill could also be passed as an work of art.
Veena let Ryuu look at the pills thoroughly before she began, "Child this ten are all various attempts in creation of Ki gathering pills, the one on far left is called slag, a slag is formed when the formation of a pill is complete utter failure leading to destruction of ingredients, this can only be used to give someone stomach ache and diarrhea, the next one is somewhat success it looks somewhat like a pill but it will only be 10% useful, that is if a pill give 100 units worth of Ki when consumed a 10% pill will give only 10 units, as you go from left to right the percentage of each pill increases by ten, anything less than 50 is considered garbage because the can cause nausea, diarrhea and stomachache now above 50% the higher you go the pill increases in value and effectiveness whereas its side effects are not present any more as it has increased purity but also rare normally anything above 90% is said to be legendary and exists in myth. But for me anything below 90% is trash and not worth my time, now child do you remember the last pill had some clouds floating above it while it hurled thunderbolts."
Ryuu nodded with his eyes sparkling, "Yes First Mistress, it looked cool."
Veena smiled at his antics, "Now child when you go above 90% it is like challenging the heavens itself, a pill that defies heaven thus heavens wants to destroy the pill, the arrival of black cloud signify tribulation, the maximum number of lightning strike that can happen is 10, it is very difficult to get even one let alone ten, but if you can start a tribulation and successfully harness the lightning to create a pill, it will completely burn of all the impurities in it and creates a complete pure pill with hundred percent efficiency, this pills are also known as Divine pills, this pills are so rare people think they exists only in fairy tales."
Ryuu gulped at hearing that, Veena took a deep breath before she continued," The Divine pill is the only pill in existence that is completely side effect free, the others no matter what one says if consumed in large quantities leads to poisoning of oneself, which is a chore to remove. Although currently in the entirety of all the realms I have yet to find anyone except me who can create such a pill ", she paused for a bit, and saw Ryuu staring with his mouth wide open in awe and eyes full of reverence and worship, "So child will learn from me the prestigious and sacred art of Alchemy."
Ryuu nodded before he spoke in reverence,"Yes yes First Mistress please teach me, please teach Me.", as he kowtowed her.
Veena sweat dropped at that, her sister's were right this kid is a riot, as she giggled inwardly.
Veena: "Lift your head Ryuu, the process of learning to be an alchemist is long and arduous, I will punish you severely if you quit mid way", Ryuu nodded at that, she then produced a very big book thicker than Ryuu's limbs and tossed it to Ryuu, he tried to catch it only to get toppled and get buried under the book it was heavy.
Veena continued with a kind smile, "Ryuu this book has many different plants and its usage listed in it, there 6 volumes of this I just gave you the first volume, after plants I will give you another 6 volume of animal parts, try to memorize this book within 3 weeks time, if you fail I will spank you."
Ryuu's face drained of any color while he inwardly he cried thinking, 'why why what have I done to receive such torture from my demonic teachers, what sin have I committed in my previous life.'