Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 64: Affection

"Steady now," The Alchemy Elder urged. "Don’t let any naive excitement get in the way."

Liam didn’t need to hear that twice. Succeeding was his way of ridding himself of logs forever, so his mind remained sharp, continuing to apply that mental filter to his Qi so that its poisonous traits wouldn’t alter the alchemical flame.

The effort paid off. The flame kept flickering and growing, but didn’t change color, retaining its natural red shades.

"It was about time," The Elder scoffed. "You still lit it up with your normal Qi, which has affected the log’s structure, but it’s something."

The log was more resilient to changes than the flame, so the effects of Liam’s poisonous Qi weren’t immediately evident. Still, the Elder had stressed that they existed and were a variable that couldn’t be allowed to exist in the alchemical concoctions.

However, that seemed to be enough for the Elder since he placed the cane on Liam’s head instead of hitting him. That was an attempt to distract him, but his concentration remained firm.

"Tell me what the Blue Blades’ ideal age is," The Alchemy Elder asked.

Liam had to split part of his concentration to search for the answer inside his brain. The usual interrogation had begun, the flickering red flame acting as an added difficulty.

"Three days after picking," Liam slowly said, his drying eyes glued to the flame, which luckily remained red despite Qi still escaping his hands.

"Why?" The Alchemy Elder questioned.

"Too much water before," Liam responded, avoiding detailed, complex answers to opt for short ones, "Decaying properties after."

"What if you had to choose between the two?" The Alchemy Elder wondered.

"After," Liam replied. "Water messes with concoctions. After only causes weaker concoctions."

The Alchemy Elder suppressed a nod. Liam’s alchemical flame was still red, and his replies showcased his efforts in his studies. Dedication clearly wasn’t one of his problems.

Of course, those two weeks of private lessons had taught the Elder what Liam’s weaknesses were, and he didn’t hesitate to exploit them in that situation.

It was easy to remain focused among certainties, but that didn’t apply to doubts.

"Maturity difference between Snowy Stalks and Spring Stalks," The Elder asked.

"Four days and four and a half days," Liam immediately replied, almost making the Elder arch his eyebrows in surprise. Liam usually struggled with those kinds of questions, but he had been quite confident that day.

"Color difference between Tengu Flowers and Sphinx Flowers," The Elder probed.

The alchemical flame flickered, exposing Liam’s mental struggle. He knew both answers, but didn’t know which was which, and his concentration almost failed him while he tried to settle on a response.

"Red and yellow?" Liam muttered, the flame miraculously remaining red.

The Elder didn’t say anything. Liam had given the correct answer, but his questioning tone was quite telling. He hadn’t been sure about that topic, but for reasons that the Elder started to wonder about.

At the beginning, the Elder had blamed the lack of study, but Liam had since demonstrated his dedication. He wasn’t a scholar by any stretch of the imagination, but he put in the required effort and more.

Later, the Elder had begun to blame the nature of his questions. Liam always seemed to struggle with comparisons between similar ingredients, but his first, confident answer made the Elder start to believe otherwise.

There was a chance that the question’s nature wasn’t the problem. The issue could lie elsewhere, so the Elder reviewed all the wrong answers Liam had given in the past two weeks.

If studying wasn’t a problem and neither were the comparisons, the Elder could only come up with one guess.

"What’s a Vermillion?" The Elder questioned.

Liam furrowed his brows, the answer absent in his brain. His concentration finally failed him while he explored his options, and the flame quickly turned pitch-black. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Before Liam could retract his hands, the Alchemy Elder crushed the burning log with his foot. Liam lifted his gaze, only to find the angriest glare he had ever seen pointed at him.

"Vermillion is a color," The Alchemy Elder explained. "You read the books that mentioned it. You wouldn’t have known the other answers otherwise."

Liam lowered his head to prevent the Elder from reading anything on his expressive face, but it was too late.

"Unless," The Elder muttered, "You couldn’t read the word."

Liam kept his head lowered. He was improving quickly, but the Elder had been correct. The books Liam had read often featured words that were too complex for him.

"Why haven’t you said anything?!" The Elder scolded, almost shouting now.

Liam lifted his head to meet the glare above him, but didn’t have a straight answer to that question.

Part of Liam’s silence had come from sheer lack of time. The private lessons barely lasted one hour each, and Liam had to deal with endless logs and a barrage of questions in them. Books had never entered the balcony, either, so the topic had failed to come out.

Moreover, the Elder wasn’t exactly easy to approach. He never really gave Liam room to express his difficulties. Besides, Liam believed he was doing fine. Every wrong answer taught him a new word, gradually fixing his issue.

Nevertheless, if Liam had to be completely honest, trust was the biggest reason. Everything Liam had seen about the cultivation world told him that he had to be careful, especially when it came to his weaknesses.

The Alchemy Elder had also explicitly said that he was only doing the Sect Leader a favor. Once again, all that attention had nothing to do with Liam, so he felt no need to open up or give anything in return.

And, despite not showing it, the Alchemy Elder understood some of those points, too, especially those about himself. Liam might have stayed silent about his issues, but the Elder knew that he had been the problem there. He had been a poor Master.

Of course, that admission of guilt came in the form of three hits of the cane.

"Fool, never even keep these secrets from me again!" The Elder ordered while Liam held his head in pain. "Now, get another log!"

Liam was about to comply when the Elder stormed out, exiting the balcony to disappear into the corridor.

The surprising development left Liam at a loss for what to do. He still seized a new log and returned to the balcony’s center, but the absence of the Elder made his next step unclear.

’Should I work on the alchemical flame again?’ Liam wondered. ’Maybe I should start trying to light it up with the filtered Qi. It’s training anyway.’

Before Liam could start working on the log, the Elder stormed back inside the balcony, hurrying with such momentum and blatant fury to his side that he almost retreated in fear.

Still, when the Elder reached Liam, he simply sat down, slamming a book in his lap.

"I want you to show me every word you can’t read!" The Elder ordered. "I, Horace Rauret, shall never suffer the shame of having an illiterate disciple!"

"Master, you said that I wasn’t your disciple-?" Liam asked, barely having the time to finish his question before the Elder slapped the back of his head.

"Every single word!" The Elder shouted, his tone no different than a threat. "And once you are done with that, you will resume working on logs until you can summon a hundred natural alchemical flames in a row!"

Liam was so terrified of those stakes that he didn’t hesitate to open the book, which contained an endless list of words and their definitions, many having nothing to do with alchemy.

Yet, as Liam searched for something that he couldn’t read, he also felt a strange warmth expanding in his heart. The slap had hurt more than the cane ever did, but it had also carried something that Liam felt vaguely familiar with.

If it hadn’t come from the grumpy Alchemy Elder, Liam would have almost mistook that warmth for affection.