The two instructors looked at each other, both visibly impressed. One chuckled and whispered, "Poor lad doesn’t know what he’s getting into."
The other replied, "He’ll learn."
As the room slowly filled over the next hour, more and more disciples began to trickle in, yawning, stretching, or slouching to their seats.
Some rubbed their eyes as they saw Han Yu already seated at the front row, scroll open, brush in hand, reviewing notes like an exam was around the corner.
By the time Instructor Gai Qing entered precisely at the stroke of the hour, nearly all the seats were filled.
As always, he stepped in with the same calm, stone-faced demeanor, hands clasped behind his back. He gave no opening greeting, no flair, no idle talk. He simply summoned the attendance scroll and began.
"Attendance," he intoned. "Call and respond."
The names were listed off one by one, until at last—
"Present," Han Yu said, loud and clear.
Once the last name was called, Gai Qing rolled up the scroll with a flick of his finger and turned toward the class.
"As is customary, any disciples with unresolved questions from the previous lesson may speak now."
He paused for the usual polite silence.
Except, this time, a hand rose.
Gai Qing blinked. Just slightly. His eyes followed the motion and landed on Han Yu, seated perfectly upright in the front row.
"I had a question regarding the counterbalancing properties of the Nine-Spice Fern when paired with Silverroot Powder, Instructor," Han Yu said. "Most compendiums list both Silverroot and Stone Dew as stabilizers, yet you mentioned only one is effective in that combination. I’m wondering why."
The room was dead silent. Dozens of heads turned toward Han Yu in slow disbelief. Some students even glanced at each other, mouthing silently, Is he serious?
Gai Qing, however, was quiet only for a breath longer.
"Silverroot contains trace amounts of essence-binding qi," he answered. "Stone Dew does not. While they both cool and harmonize volatile ingredients, only Silverroot maintains long-term essence cohesion during low-temperature binding. That is why it works in a Nine-Spice Fern mixture—where the heat is lowered during final stages."
Han Yu nodded thoughtfully and jotted it down. "I see. Thank you."
"...Any other questions?" Gai Qing asked.
Han Yu’s remained busy writing.
The instructor gave a small, almost imperceptible nod before turning toward the board, his fingers tracing a new illusionary diagram of a pill cauldron’s internals. "Then we continue."
For the rest of the lesson, Gai Qing explained rare failures in essence extraction during mid-tier pill crafting. His illusions danced with different colors and symbols, demonstrating the exact moments of failure or instability.
While most disciples struggled to keep up, Han Yu found himself able to parse the lessons more easily now, linking them to mistakes he had personally made in the refining rooms.
He took notes throughout, filling another three scrolls.
By the end of the six-hour lecture, nearly everyone else looked exhausted—but Han Yu’s eyes still glinted with focus and energy. Instructor Gai Qing remained silent at the front, but his eyes followed the boy as he sat there.
A sliver of thought lingered in the instructor’s mind.
Just as the illusion diagram on the pill cauldron faded and the ambient light arrays of the classroom began to dim, Instructor Gai Qing stood silently at the podium for a moment longer.
His expression remained as stoic as ever, but something thoughtful stirred behind his eyes. He cast a glance toward the students—no, toward one student in particular.
Han Yu was still seated in the front row, quietly sorting his scrolls and sealing them away in a neat jade slip. His attention to detail, his grasp of theory, and above all, that unexpected, sharp question earlier had left a rare impression on Gai Qing.
The instructor cleared his throat and raised a hand, halting the few disciples who were already beginning to shuffle out.
"One more thing," he said evenly. "An assignment."
A collective mental groan rippled through the room.
Though no one dared express it openly, several faces twitched, expressions falling like wilted leaves.
Assignments from Gai Qing were never light. The last one had sent most of them digging through compendiums for days, just to barely cobble together enough material to avoid reprimand.
A faint whisper was heard from the back.
"...Here we go again."
But no one dared move. Instructor Gai Qing’s gaze swept over them like a looming cliff face. Everyone remained silent.
Han Yu, however, perked up—pupil focused, brush poised, as if he were about to write down the assignment with relish.
"This task will test your grasp of process refinement and ingredient reaction," Gai Qing began, arms behind his back. "I want you to identify two pills that share identical ingredients but result in entirely different pills."
Some gasps escaped this time.
He continued as if he hadn’t heard. "You are to not only identify the pills, but explain why their outcomes differ. What process, phase, or reaction causes the divergence? I expect detailed, alchemical reasoning. Diagrams, flame sequences, and extraction timelines where applicable."
A disciple near the back quietly slumped forward in despair.
"This is due in seven days," Gai Qing added. "Fail to submit it, and your merit evaluation for the month will be halved."
That got everyone straightened again in silence. A halved evaluation meant delayed privileges, reduced access to pill rooms, and in some cases, forfeited entry into special lectures.
Most of the disciples already looked like they were on the verge of crying.
His eyes shone with interest, and a sly smile crept across his face.
’Oh, this is almost too easy...’
He already knew the answer.
Back when Li Mei had been testing him on various theoretical reactions, she’d mentioned an advanced-tier quirk in passing—two pills, the Jade Vitality Pill and the Emerald Blood-Recovery Pill, both used the exact same five ingredients.
But they differed in the sequence and temperature of refinement.