As Hundao cautiously placed his left hand on the icy, translucent surface of the crystal, a jolt of frigid energy shot through him. Almost instantly, beads of cold sweat formed on his brow as an overwhelming pressure pressed down on his mind.

His jaw tightened, teeth grinding audibly, while his right hand balled into a fist so tightly that the veins bulged on his forearm and forehead. Every muscle in his body tensed as he struggled to endure the unseen force emanating from the mysterious artifact.

Alaric watched with a furrowed brow, puzzled by the stark contrast between Hundao’s reaction and Manager Go’s earlier composure. ’Manager Go didn’t seem to experience the same challenge as Hundao,’ he mused, tapping his chin thoughtfully.

’Perhaps Manager Go has undergone this test many times and has built up a resistance to the crystal’s pressure. Or maybe Hundao simply doesn’t have the mental fortitude needed to withstand it yet.’

He could tell Hundao was under the pressure Manager Go had spoken of earlier. ’It would seem Hundao is going to fail this test.’ Despite this, Alaric remained calm, believing that recognizing one’s weaknesses is the first step to improvement. ’Experiencing setbacks is necessary for growth,’ he reflected. ’I just hope Hundao can accept this result without letting it crush his spirit.

Just as predicted, his score hovered above the crystal, clearly showing 15. Alaric wasn’t too surprised by this, but Manager Go frowned before shaking his head. ’This is the lowest I have ever seen so far.’

Previously, the results from this assessment had always fallen in the range of 20 to 35; never before had anyone scored so low. Manager Go felt a wave of concern for Hundao’s future prospects, but he kept his worries to himself. Instead of voicing his doubts, he decided to offer words of encouragement, hoping to lift the spirits of the dejected young man.

"You shouldn’t feel too bad about the results, young man. You are still very young and have so many things to experience. I am sure you will do a lot better if given a couple of years." He said lightly.

Hundao, who felt gloomy about having a mortal with higher mental power than him, felt his spirit lift up a little. He clenched his fist and thought, ’Of course, this man has lived far longer than I have, naturally accumulating more experience and mental energy. If we were the same age, I’m sure I’d have the advantage. I just need to keep training, and one day, I’ll surpass him for sure.’

A genuine smile broke through Hundao’s earlier gloom. "You’re right, Mister Go. I still have so much to learn and many opportunities ahead," he replied, his voice steadier than before.

Alaric gave him a gentle tap on his shoulder in encouragement before stepping forward and placing his right hand on the crystal.

That cold energy flowed through him, invading him; he could feel it at the edge of his mental world, probing him, but he felt no pressure from it. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

’I see.’ He closed his eyes, entering his mental world, before giving a brief analysis, ’’It’s not that the crystal’s power changes from person to person; rather, it’s each individual’s mental resistance that determines how intense the pressure feels. For most, this test is a true challenge, but for me, it’s a little more than a gentle breeze. Still, I have no doubt there are artifacts or beings out there with the power to truly test my limits.’

He opened his eyes slowly, and through his perception, he could feel the shock running down the two audience members he had, and the reason was obvious. The crystal displayed a bold 100, which was the very limit the crystal could display. To him, this number really wasn’t significant; this was the highest this crystal could give, not the highest he could score.

"This..." Manager Go’s voice trembled with disbelief, the words barely escaping his lips. His hands shook as he stared at the glowing number hovering above the crystal, struggling to comprehend what he was witnessing.

Never before had he encountered such an overwhelming result, not even from the renowned elder Xiao, whose mental strength was legendary throughout the city. The number displayed was not just high, it shattered every expectation, setting a new standard that seemed almost unattainable for flesh-refinement cultivators.

For a moment, Manager Go could only gape in awe, deeply aware that he was witnessing a historic display of power.

Hundao, who was already feeling better, felt a spark of envy wash through him: ’I must work harder.’ He clenched his left fist tightly.

"Does this satisfy you, Manager Go?" Alaric asked calmly.

Manager Go nearly stumbled over his words in his eagerness to respond. "Ah, more than enough, young Alaric! You have exceeded every requirement. Please, consider this alchemy facility yours to use as you wish," he said, his voice filled with a mix of relief and lingering astonishment.

"Good," Alaric replied with a decisive nod. "I intend to begin my work here today. However, there is one matter I must attend to first. Please ensure your staff have all the necessary ingredients ready before I return."

Manager Go offered his assurance with a formal bow, promising that every preparation would be made without delay. With the matter settled, Alaric and Hundao turned and left the merchant’s house, the tension of the previous moments still lingering in the air.

Together with Hundao, Alaric made his way through the bustling city streets to the captain of the city guards. The search was swift; the captain was easily found near the training grounds, and Alaric wasted no time in laying out his proposal. The captain’s eyes widened with delight as he listened, his face breaking into a broad, grateful smile. Without a moment’s hesitation, he wholeheartedly agreed, clearly elated by the opportunity presented to him and his men.

After getting approval from the city guard, he sent Hundao to Eva to help carry the remaining ingredients to the merchant house, which didn’t take long.

Immediately after stepping into one of the alchemy rooms, Alaric felt a connection being established between himself and the existing formations.

Alaric moved to the cabinets first.

He had sent Hundao with Eva to bring the ingredients from his room, and they arrived within the hour, the sack bag set carefully on the preparation table by Hundao, who hovered for a moment as if uncertain whether to stay or go. Alaric looked at him once. Hundao left. He heard the reinforced door close behind him with a soft, final weight, and the room went quiet.

He unpacked the bag with both hands, placing each item on the table in the order it would be needed, rather than the order it had been packed. The Ironhide Boar Blood first, still in its clay vial, double-stoppered and wrapped in waxed leather. He held it to the light from the ceiling crystals. The color inside was a deep arterial red with a metallic undertone, dense enough that it did not move when he tilted the vial. Good. He set it aside.

The Earthbear Essence came next. A compressed resin, dark amber, the consistency of old wax. It carried a faint smell even through the cloth it was wrapped in, something between iron and wet forest floor, which was exactly right.

Beside it, the Skinforge Root, pale and fibrous, the outer bark already peeling away in the thin strips that indicated the root had been harvested at the correct stage of maturity. Most people harvested it too early. The bark should be loose. The merchant had known what he was doing.

The Jade Skin Ore he left wrapped until last. It was the most reactive of the group and had no business being near open air any longer than necessary.

He arranged everything in a row, left to right, and looked at it.

The formula existed in his memory in precise detail because he had spent time analyzing and modifying it to the point of a structural level. He did not think about the steps the way one recites a list. He thought about the relationships between the materials, the way one thinks about the grammar of a language, rather than individual words. His analysis already prepared him for the best outcome.

Ironhide Boar Blood: the base medium. It carried heat and distributed the refined properties of whatever it was combined with into the body’s surface layers without requiring the practitioner to consciously direct it. Left to its own nature, it was too aggressive; it would force the other components into the skin rather than allow them to gently settle. That aggression had to be dampened before anything else could be introduced.

Which was what the Earthbear Essence was for.

He set the furnace alight with a thought. The control came almost naturally to him.

The fire that rose from the stone platform was not ordinary fire. It was produced by the formations embedded in the platform itself, the temperature fixed at a precise point and held there without variation. The kind of heat that a craftsman could trust without fear of damaging the product. He watched it for a moment anyway, reading the color. Then he placed an empty refinement vessel [cauldron] over it.

While the vessel warmed, he began preparing the Earthbear Essence.

The resin needed to be broken down before it could be introduced to anything. He used a small curved blade from the tool rack and worked the amber block against a smooth stone inset into the preparation table, pressing and rolling in short strokes until the resin softened into a paste.

The smell strengthened as he worked, the iron-and-forest combination layering itself into the room’s air. He noted the consistency from one pass to the next. Too dry and it would seize in the heat. Too wet, and it would lose the binding properties that made it useful. He carefully analyzed, making sure to leave no room for failure.

He added three drops of distilled water from the cabinet. Worked it in. Tested the consistency between two fingers.

’Perfect.’

The vessel had reached the required temperature. He introduced the Earthbear Essence paste first, using a flat instrument to scrape it cleanly from the stone. It hit the heat and immediately shifted, liquefying, then darkening, then thinning as the volatile compounds within it burned off. That burning-off was intentional. What remained after was the fixed compound, the part that would hold without evaporating.

He held the temperature steady for four minutes by his internal count.

Then he broke the wax seal on the Boar Blood vial and removed both stoppers with care, holding the vial at a slight angle so nothing escaped before he was ready. The smell was immediate and strong — metallic and warm, almost feverish. He poured a measured portion into the vessel in a thin, controlled stream, watching the surface of the liquid below accept it.

The reaction was visible. The two substances met and resisted each other, the darker blood sitting above the thinned Essence like oil over water for a moment before the heat forced them to begin integrating. He raised the temperature slightly, a thought from him reaching the formation embedded within the cauldron, and watched the boundary between them dissolve.

This stage required attention because the window for the next introduction was narrow. The integration had to reach a specific state, homogenous, without visible separation, but not yet fully bonded at the compound level, before the Skinforge Root could go in. Too early, and the Root’s fibrous compounds would resist absorption. Too late; they would bond to the surface rather than distribute throughout the mixture.

This process took almost a whole day.

He watched the color shift from banded to uniform. Watched the surface tension change.

’Now.’

The Skinforge Root he had been preparing in parallel, shredding the pale fibers into a fine consistency with two blades that worked against each other. He introduced it now in three additions, not one, each separated by thirty seconds, stirring between each addition with a glass rod to distribute the fibers evenly before the heat could clump them.

The mixture thickened. The color moved toward dark amber rather than red, with a slight metallic sheen beginning to develop at the surface.

The Jade Skin Ore he unwrapped last.

It was a small thing to look at. A fragment of mineral no larger than a thumb joint, pale green-white, its surface faintly iridescent in the crystal light. Raw Jade Skin Ore was stable in wrapped storage but highly reactive to heat in its unprocessed form; it would simply volatilize and be wasted.

It had to be ground to a specific particle size before introduction, fine enough to absorb into the liquid medium rather than sink to the bottom, coarse enough to retain its structural properties during the bonding process.

He used the smallest grinding instrument on the rack, working in a circular motion with consistent pressure. The mineral produced a faint sound as he worked, a soft, high resistance, the kind of material that pushed back. He checked the powder against the light. Checked it again. Reduced the particle size further in two more passes.

Then he introduced it to the vessel at a distance, releasing it through a small funnel positioned above the surface, letting it settle through the air instead of dumping it directly into the liquid. It hit the surface in a fine dispersal and was absorbed almost immediately, the mixture pulling it in with a brief, visible shift in the surface as the compounds reacted with each other.

The sheen deepened.

He lowered the heat to a maintenance level and left the mixture to bond at a slow, even temperature. While it worked, he cleaned the preparation table. Instruments returned to their places. The grinding stone was wiped clean.

The empty vial was set aside for disposal. He worked without haste, and when the table was clear, he returned to the furnace and checked the mixture’s progress by observing both its color and its movement when he tilted the vessel slightly.

He extinguished the furnace formation and allowed the vessel to cool for 10 minutes.What he decanted into the storage vials afterward was not a pill; that had never been the intention. It was a topical compound, designed to be applied directly to the skin in controlled amounts and absorbed through sustained contact.

The properties of each ingredient had been refined down to their essential functions, allowing for the most efficient use.

A flesh-refinement compound.

After sealing within the container, he labeled each with a different name.

He looked at them for a moment before carefully deducing, "Three days, not bad at all." This refinement was supposed to take more than a week at best, but he completed it in three days. He smirked before moving forward.

Then he began preparing the second batch.