Chapter 411: Ye Chong's the teacher again!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Guan Jin was the most carefully fostered member in Guan family, that she had her own laboratory, and freedom to research on whichever branch of the alchemy. Not even her father, the leader of the family could have a word on her preferences.
The room was filled with all sorts of utensils. The air was fresher than what one would expect in a laboratory thanks to the superior air ventilation. This was the first professional laboratory Ye Chong witnessed in the free space zone. He was not familiar with most of the apparatuses there. He recognized a few since he had seen them in Lunatic Guan's encyclopedia entries before. Well, he was not a novice and he could guess the functions of these foreign utensils at one glance.
He did enter the place however, as he had perceived 8 spots of threats while he stood by the entrance. Speaking of entrance, there were three of them.
The lady seemed to be rather skillful at handling these reagents. The anesthetic she added remained at the specified area ever since. Spreading of fluid did not occur - now that was not something any alchemist could do.
Knowing that it was an anesthetic, Ye Chong let down his guard, since the smoke pearl in his possession was the counter to all hallucinogens and anesthetics. So he walked into the laboratory as usual, and as he had expected, he was unaffected by the reagent.
Guan Jin's cherry lips slightly opened in disbelief upon seeing Ye Chong walking in nonchalantly. She did not expect the little mischief she created would cause any visible trouble to Brother Zhu Feng since she only wanted to see his countermeasure for this, she was eager to verify the frightening rumor about him after all. But then ... he did nothing! Literally nothing!
Guan Jin's passion in her gaze intensified.
Ye Chong did not notice Guan Jin's passion stare however, as he had been distracted by these strange utensils on the table. Certainly the alchemy system was different between one galaxy to another. From the perspective of apparatuses, the 5 major galaxies had an upper hand since they had the avant-garde technologies after all. The precision of analyzing mechanism and processor were far more superior than those in the free space zone. When it came to historical background however, the position changed. No way the studies of alchemy in 5 major galaxies could compete with those of free space zone. Any alchemy aristocrat could easily have history of over a few centuries.
Regarding the learning difficulty, the system of free space zone outweighed the one in 5 major galaxies. The 5 major galaxies did analysis at best, with the aid of technologies but alchemists in free space zone could rely none other than their own senses.
Based on Lunatic Guan's records in her chip, she seemed to have thoroughly understood and absorbed the system of 5 major galaxies. The later part of her research was indistinguishable of its system. She probably had combined both systems at one point. Ye Chong could not help but to marvel at Lunatic Guan's insane luck. She was born in free space zone and was raised at May Night's Ridge, the heavenly place of alchemy, while being able to learn about the alchemy system in the 5 major galaxies. With all these he strongly believed no one else in this world could have surpassed her.
Ye Chong noticed that one flask on the table.
"Are you trying to improvise the Bilayered Liquid Tempering Technique?" asked Ye Chong as he pointed at the utensils near Guan Jin.
"Mhm...," she blushed, as she bit her lips, "I wanted to try... since father told me that this was aunt's masterpiece in the past. She always wanted to improvise it. So I would like to try... see if I could make a little improvement... just a little would've been great..." It was not sentiments that filled her voice, it was pure embarrassment. She should not have brought Brother Zhu Feng to the lab, now everyone in the ridge would know she wanted to "improvise" her aunt's technique and she would become a laughing stock for she overestimated herself.
Ye Chong lowered his back and observed these used utensils carefully. He was pretty surprised of the progress. The little girl failed at this attempt, but she was heading to the right way. As expected, this girl was talented after all. Ye Chong could not imagine a girl could have such understanding on alchemy even before adolescence.
Does Guan family only give birth to geniuses?
Shouted Ye Chong in his mind.
"You are right at this." He decided to offer some advice, "But you did a few parts wrong. The tempering technique basically achieves extraction by splitting the liquid membranes, and your hypothesis should revolve about this core concept. The shape, the membrane, remember."
Guan Jin's brows furrowed as she pondered. "I got it!" Then she shouted while jumping, "I know what you mean! I finally got it!" And she excitingly rushed to her table and began mixing the reagent again. She was very attentive on her research, her hands moved gracefully as she added more things to the mixture, as if Ye Chong was not there.
Ye Chong was impressed since he always had a soft spot for a diligent researcher. Well, he was one too and he believed only those who diligently researched would hit the top of their field.
Ye Chong did not say a thing as he started strolling in this laboratory.
The aristocrat was sure something. The lab contained a rich collection of reagents, which teased Ye Chong's curiosity deeply, that he finally jumped into action and started producing his own reagent too.
The apparatuses in the lab were fairly unique. He knew how to use them but he lacked the actual experience, thus the clumsy movement of his hands. He enjoyed the process of exploration nevertheless.
It took him a moment to grow familiar with the apparatuses. He breathed in relief as he placed one flask down, that was when a pair of watery eyes appeared before him.
Guan Jin was staring at this strange brother of hers. She found him peculiar as he should be a very experienced alchemist, yet he was clearly unfamiliar with most of the apparatuses in the lab.
Weird.
This student of her aunt was filled with mysteries...
"Did it work?" asked Ye Chong, lifting his head.
"Yes! Yes! Indeed it worked!" Guan Jin smiled brightly, as if her dream came true.
Ye Chong responded with a nod. He wanted to tell her something but he did not.
The improvised technique was not the ultimate. It was not final, simply because Lunatic Guan had never stopped improvising the technique ever since. The attempt Guan Jin did this time was merely the first version. Ye Chong zipped his mouth not because of sympathy or confidentiality, but the fact that the later versions would require high-end machines. So it would be pointless to tell her.
"I can't believe it!" said Guan Jin proudly, biting her finger, "I can actually improvise my aunt's technique!" Her eyes were filled with blazing passion.
"It's meal time!" And someone came shouting.
... (At the dining table) ...
It was a feast on the dining table as Ye Chong chomped vigorously. "So today, Brother Zhu Feng taught me on improvising the bilayered technique..." Reported Guan Jin to Guan Zhengyuan, and the others gave a friendlier stare at Ye Chong.
Ye Chong's chopsticks danced, the bowl was tingling yet his eyes remained low.
The tale of "Little Alchemist, Big Creation" had spread throughout the family rapidly. Ye Chong noticed it because of how courteous everyone acted towards him in the house.
Well, he had gotten used to such treatment back when he taught the Sangs on crafting. He still was a little uneasy however so he spent most time in the lab. There would always be a few young men standing by his side. Guan Jin on the other hand would be her pretty assistant.
Ye Chong was rather puzzled by this. Lunatic Guan's microchip had been kept inside his bag. And the bag was not with him at the moment. He could have just passed the chip to Guan family but he could not. There were too many contents in the chip, several centuries would have easily passed if he had to write everything out from his memory.
He would not be able to accept such fate. But which one to write then? Which would be able to convince the family to let him go?
The worst part was, Lunatic Guan's later research was beyond the family's understanding since her research had incorporated techniques from both systems of the galaxies. It was so complicated that even Guan Jin was showing that incomprehensibility towards his writings, eventually Ye Chong only could explain from the most fundamental to at least make sense in his teaching.
Well, that had earned more respects from the family however.
Little Ye Chong knew that, the ultimate factor to Guan family's resurrection was not the refined theories and techniques created by Lunatic Guan, but those basic approaches from the 5 major galaxies.
The ridge was chaotic these few days, as the generations fought each other. It was becoming more common to see different forces coming to challenge the family, that mortality increased drastically.
But Guan family was at peace. Nothing happened ever since Ye Chong came.
But visionary elderlies like Guan Zhengyuan knew conflict would one day arrive and, "The leader would like Mr. Zhu Feng to move to the entrance. Someone had come for a challenge."
That was when Ye Chong was demonstrating the molecular qualitative approach in class.