The habitation wasn't far from her own cottage, albeit a short distance from her home to avoid facing any trouble if one of her many experiences backfired. Sheng Hao's eyes shone like a bright lamp the moment he stepped inside the wooden workshop. Hundreds of flasks and boxes appeared in his view.
Even with the many hours he spent studying under the knowledgeable Alchemist Flamelle, he found himself having difficulties recognizing the hundreds of different materials. The medicinal smell in the workshop assaulted his eyes and nostrils, but after a few breaths he found himself already adapting to the atmosphere. It wasn't the first time he had entered his master's workshop, but the scene of the workshop didn't lessen nonetheless.
"You can look around as much as you want but never touch anything! Most of the products won't really have a positive effect on you." She explained with a strange laughter that made the hair on his skin rise for a few seconds.
"In the best case, you'll end up losing all the hairs on your body. And if you are unlucky, you might find yourself turning into something that even I won't be able to call a human."
He couldn't help but remind himself not to bother this kind-hearted Grandma too much as it might one day backlash on his own face. "She really didn't steal her outer appearance…" he mumbled silently in his heart with a shiver traversing his spine.
After the strange warning, the old witch didn't say anything as she continued walking between the large shelves that could be found in her workshop. At some point the sharp noise released by her feet brushing on the wooden tiles came to a sudden stop. Her thin and long finger ransacked through a few boxes, taking out sacks and pouch that had a heavy smell. Sheng Hao felt a weird acrid odor burn his nose when he dare to approach his nose in the direction of the boxes, he couldn't help but feel that the materials used by the old witch were far too dangerous for him to manipulate.
"This place is closer to a terrorist den than an alchemy workshop!" the eyes of the young boy flashed with a sudden curiosity despite the lethality of the resources surroundings him. He couldn't help but feel that the atmosphere surrounding the workshop wasn't anything normal; here he felt like every single box was hiding venomous snakes, deadly insects and beautiful yet murderous plants.
Although he was having trouble maintaining his usual calm, Sheng Hao wasn't afraid as he continued following the old witch who had soon finished picking up the necessary resources.
"Time to work the pot!" she jokingly spoke in a tone that made it seem as though her throat was filled with broken glass. "Remember what is needed to produce a Ten-Year-Old Goo?" She asked in a slightly jovial tune that made the young boy answer with the fastest speed possible.
"Yellow Osmanthus Clay needs to be boiled at the correct temperature, then proceed to mix it with Gray Beetles, Brown Sugar, Millenial Roses and a hint of Ozonated Virgil Oil to raise the mixture to the correspondent texture." His memory kicked in the instant his mouth opened and unraveled the recipe in his mind.
The young boy seemingly turned into an automated radio that spilled the content of the recipe in one go. He couldn't help but inhale a deep breath, inflating his lungs when he finished his sentence. He only dared to exhale when he noticed the validating nod released by the old witch.
"She is nice, but damn do I feel like I am standing on thin ice during her lessons… Grandpa Wang is definitely kinder when it comes to his teaching methods."
"At least I am not afraid of making mistakes in front of him." He finished that thought and calmed himself down with difficulty before following the old witch to the part of her workshop where she always cooked her potions and pellets.
"Today, I am going to ask you to prepare something else, something much more specific." She started explaining before pausing in the middle of her words. "The material isn't like anything you've ever dealt with. Consider yourself very lucky if you manage to go through the entire process without failing." She continued quietly and it even seemed like the old witch was elongating her sentences in order to tease the young boy standing in front of her.
"Today, you will use these five sets of resources to produce a Purple Sunset pill." Her sentence was simple but the shock that appeared in the young man's head wasn't anything he had expected.
Throughout the two past years of tutelage, the rare times he was lucky enough to use the alchemy pot were spent producing easy recipes that only needed him to maintain the temperature of the cauldron while adding the ingredients in the correct order.
"Purple Sunset… The recipe is a Grade 1 Alchemy Pill that is meant to cleanse the blood from any ingested poison and can even deal with low-level curses. It is very effective and works on most poisons that doesn't have an exceedingly high level of spirituality." His brain delved deep in his memory as the information related to the Purple Sunset appeared in his mind.
"Are you confident in being able to succeed in this task?" asked the old witch Flamelle with honesty in her voice. The preparation of a pellet, even if it was only a Grade 1 Pill still meant that the young boy's preparation needed to be of a certain quality. From the mixing of the different resources, to the condensation of the medicinal essence into a round-shaped pill. No state in the preparation of the elixir was easy to go through.
"Here are the details related to the concoction of the pill, study it and take the time to memorize every single step with a religious zeal." She added before leaving the surroundings of the cauldron. Sheng Hao couldn't help but feel the atmosphere around the old witch change into something different. She turned back to the kind-hearted grandma Melle and sat down in a chair that was a few meters away from the work table of the workshop, leaving him by himself around the cauldron.
The reincarnated man nodded silently, his body moved toward the floor as he sat down and prepared himself to study the paper he had received from Flamelle. The moment he sat comfortably on the ground, he closed his eyes for a few seconds as he started tempering his concentration. Soon his breath turned long and deep, every cycle of inhalation was followed by an equally relaxing exhalation that forced oxygen into his system.
After what felt like a long minute where the old witch didn't look in Sheng Hao's direction, constantly looking down on the thick book that rested on her lap. Her demeanor made it seem as though she was sitting alone inside her workshop, not taking account of the young boy's presence. However despite that fact, Sheng Hao's actions would never escape her senses even if she wasn't looking in his direction.
One of the most important characteristics needed to become a master alchemist would be linked to the strength of one's soul. The thousands of changes that could happen during the concoction of an elixir meant that the alchemist needed to monitor the cauldron with a perfect calm and precision.
If one panicked during these important moments when the medicinal properties of the different ingredient fused, he would end up in the very least burned out by the scalding temperature of the unstable fumes. Or even worse, end up injured with the cauldron exploding right on the face of the pill maker.
"Good." Thought the old witch Flamelle when she noticed the degree of seriousness Sheng Hao had when studying her craft. She knew that even the most talented craftsman would produce bad results if their concentration wasn't on par with the task. "Let's see what this child of yours is capable of when he is facing a wall that he deems insurmountable." She thought with a despicable smile appearing on her thin lips.
"Sheng Wang. This precocious child of yours, better surprise me! Uhm." Contrary to her outer demeanor, her inner thoughts were filled with expectation as she had taken the time to teach the young boy.
In the end, the old witch was someone far too focused on developing herself and had rarely focused her own energy on teaching someone else.
Although her current actions made her look disinterested as if she wasn't expecting much from the near ten-year-old child. The reality was completely different, with her thoughts completely focused on him. Had Sheng Hao spend some of his focus on her, he would have noticed that throughout his preparation, the old witch didn't turn the page from her thousands paged thick book.
The moment Sheng Hao's eyes opened, he rose to his feet and patted his clothes with a calm gaze flashing on his chubby face. Hidden inside the cold nature of the young boy, a burning determination was bolstering his action as he confidently stepped in the direction of the cauldron.
"Although this panacea is a Grade 1 Pill, there isn't any reason I won't be able to go through those few steps." He mumbled as he raised the paper he was holding in his hands to his eyes, read the dozens of steps continuously before putting the paper on a small wooden table.
"Let's do this!" his small hand slapped his chubby cheeks in one swift motion. After that he immediately started going through the process depicted in the recipe page. Despite his lack of practice when it came to using the cauldron, there wasn't much hesitation in his movement. The short meditation he forced himself to go through calmed his mind and helped him forget his fear of failure.
His concentration didn't waver as he lighted up the cauldron and soon started inserting the ingredients in the specific orders. The cauldron he was using wasn't anything fancy, the black marks his eyes picked up when he opened the lid of the cauldron told him that the artifact had already gone through numerous experiences. The small lines that could be found also showed that the cauldron had gone through numerous repairs, with dozens of spots being repaired and filled.
Time passed quietly, short minutes passed with the impression that dozens of minutes were skipped from reality as he manipulated the ingredients one by one. The forehead of the young child was already filled with numerous droplets of sweat, his eyes had reddened from the fumes coming out of the young child.
The old witch couldn't help but silently compliment the young boy in her heart. Although the preparation of the Purple Sunset was far from being complete, he nonetheless went through the first three steps of the concoction without any hesitation in his movement. Despite the fact that it was his first attempt at crafting the panacea, his mind showed a focus and a familiarity with the cauldron that left her genuinely impressed.
"Looks like I didn't waste my time on him…" She mumbled as she no longer hid her senses from what was going on. Her powerful soul enveloped the area of the workshop, focusing on the cauldron that was sitting in front of Sheng Hao.
"Not a bad result for a first attempt…" she mumbled a few seconds before a reaction took place inside the gray colored cauldron.
The reincarnated man had been going through the fourth step, where he was supposed to add drops of spiritual dew to create reactions among the dozens of ingredients. Sadly his timing was off by a few milliseconds, turning the controlled reactions that should have happened calmly into hazardous changes that made him completely lose control of the cauldron.
Thankfully, apart from a horrible burned smell that escaped from the lid of the cauldron. There wasn't any big reaction from the failure as the young boy sighed before turning off the fire. He once again took the paper that contained the recipe, his eyes avidly reading the steps one after another and searched for the reason behind his failure.