Chapter 012: The Power of Alchemy

Du Fan stood in his bedroom. With a casual wave of his hand, he saw the space around him ripple, and soon the dark entrance to the basement appeared before him. He snapped his fingers again, and with a whoosh, rows of bright flames appeared on both sides of the basement, illuminating the entire passage.
After taking a slight breath, Du Fan stepped inside. Deep in the passage, a tall wall still blocked the way. He had come here every day for the past few days, only to see the same scene each time.
Seeing this, Du Fan couldn’t help but sigh. “What on earth are these two up to? Chenchen is such a good girl—she shouldn’t be corrupted by Ringo, right? That wouldn’t be good…”
Although Du Fan knew in his heart that, given Chenchen’s shrewdness, she certainly wasn’t “good” by any means… he still felt emotional. Before Ringo returned, he could enter here whenever he wanted, but now he almost felt like an outsider.
After watching for a while longer, Du Fan shook his head again and was about to leave. But just as he turned around, he suddenly heard a rumbling sound—the wall blocking his path was slowly falling down…
From deep within the basement came Chenchen’s sultry voice, “Are you coming in now, or not?”
Du Fan was taken aback. He hadn’t expected Chenchen to suddenly open the door. Without hesitation, he stepped into the long-absent basement.
After passing through the numerous traps he had carefully designed, Du Fan finally reached the third floor of the basement. Perhaps because the two girls had lived here all along, the basement was incredibly tidy.
In the center of this space, Chenchen and Ringo were busy with a bunch of strange items. When they saw Du Fan enter, Chenchen’s face turned slightly red, but after a moment, she nodded at him as if nothing had happened.
Ringo, on the other hand, raised her head and glared at Du Fan fiercely. Strangely, however, her gaze wasn’t that of an enemy seeking revenge—it was more like the look one gives a heartless man…
Du Fan couldn’t help but sweat inwardly, unsure of why. He walked over to the two of them and glanced around before saying indifferently, “Well, what are you two doing? So busy you won’t even see me?”

Ringtone snorted and said, “It’s nothing. I just hate you the moment I see you… Why bother seeing you?”
Du Fan’s expression remained unchanged, but as he looked at Ringtone, he secretly snorted. Hate me? Since I, the young master, have come down today… then tonight I’ll make you understand what true hatred is!
Chenchen glanced at Du Fan, sighed suddenly, and said, “I think… you really can’t see what I want to do, can you?”
Du Fan shook his head.
Chenchen sighed again and after a moment said indifferently, “Do you still remember our agreement? I said I would make you an alchemist… And with your current strength, you can definitely become a great alchemist on your own!”
Alchemy?
How long had it been since I last thought about this…
It seems I’ve long been used to letting Chenchen prepare everything I need…
Chenchen seemed to see through Du Fan’s thoughts and suddenly smiled faintly, saying, “I naturally understand. With your current abilities, you probably look down on alchemy. But… if you want to reach that final threshold and ascend to the Sacred Rank, you’ll have to learn alchemy.”
Du Fan frowned and asked, “How so?”
Chenchen smiled and said, “Which Sacred Ranker didn’t achieve it through arduous training? Their understanding of power and rules is built step by step… But you’re completely different. You’ve reached where you are thanks to luck and opportunity. Let’s use an analogy… If the Sacred Rank is the mountaintop, then others climb up step by step, while you were carried there… Although everyone is at the mountaintop, those who climbed up worked hard, so they naturally understand the mountain better than you. You flew up, not even knowing what’s along the way. How can you compare to them in this regard?”
“You can’t fly up that final step; you can only climb like ordinary people. But without prior experience, it’s extremely difficult… And alchemy is what you need to learn—it’s what can fill in all the gaps in your understanding… Do you get it?”
Du Fan touched his nose and said with a wry smile, “It seems that even if I don’t want to learn, I have no choice… Then let’s start.”
“Very good,” Chenchen nodded. “Let’s begin with the basics… Look, this is mint tea, this is Ye Feng, and this is withered wood vine… What effect will these three have when combined?”

So what exactly is the effect?… We’ll have to wait and see…
Time passed unnoticed in this way, and it was unclear how many days had gone by.
That day, while Du Fan was still immersed in the mysteries of alchemy, Chenchen, who had been by his side the whole time, suddenly patted Du Fan on the head and pointed at the crystal ball on the table.
What appeared on the crystal ball was exactly Du Fan’s courtyard. In the courtyard, Old Mark was walking back and forth anxiously, seemingly extremely worried because he couldn’t find Du Fan.
Du Fan was slightly stunned before suddenly smiling and saying, “It seems my alchemy practice stops here for now… I’ll continue researching it in the future… But then again, I’ve still achieved something these past few days!”
As he spoke, his gaze fell on a bottle of red liquid in front of him, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
Chenchen snorted and said, “What exactly is this thing you’ve created? You refuse to tell us?”
With that, she reached out to take it and smell it.
But Du Fan quickly snatched it away in a flurry, seeing Chenchen’s slightly angry expression, he hurriedly said, “Girls shouldn’t touch this… It’s better if you don’t… I’ll go outside first to see what’s going on…”
With that, Du Fan left the place like the wind.
Chenchen watched him leave, a hint of sorrow on her face. After a moment, she murmured, “You’ve gotten all the advantages… What are you afraid of? It’s just a bottle of aphrodisiac, right? Hmph… What’s so great about that?”
“If that’s the case, why don’t you tell him everything that happened that night?” Ringtone slowly stepped out from behind a cabinet, looking at Chenchen with a deeply complex expression. “If you tell him, given his personality… he definitely won’t…”
Chenchen shook her head slightly, her face showing a complex expression as she murmured, “Ringtone, you don’t understand… He’s my master… It really isn’t anything… It’s just that there are some things I absolutely can’t tell him now, because if I do, it will only harm him…”
“Can’t he face those things with his current strength?”
“Yes…” Chenchen sighed. “Not to mention reaching the peak of level nine… Even if he were a saint-level warrior, it would probably still be impossible…”
“What would that be?”

Chenchen shook her head, gave a bitter smile, and said, “Forget it. There’s no point in talking about these things… Ringne, don’t forget what you promised me. I’ll help you improve your strength, but in the future, if something happens to him, you must help him… You won’t go back on your word, right?”
Ringne sneered and said, “We Karans aren’t like you Rolands, who like to go back on their words. Don’t worry… As long as I promise something, I’ll definitely do it.”
Chenchen suddenly giggled, walked over to Ringne, and whispered, “I knew it… Are you… feeling something for him?”
Ringne’s face turned red instantly. “Feeling something? What a joke!? Who would fall for that jerk!”
“A jerk? Is he really a jerk?” Chenchen glanced at Ringne with a half-smiling look. “Do you mean you can no longer deceive others? Do you still want to deceive yourself? Do you need me to speak up for you?”
Ringne’s expression changed, and she said fiercely, “If you dare say nonsense, I’ll reveal what happened that night. Let’s see who’s really scared of whom!”
Chenchen seemed startled. She quickly waved her hand and said, “Okay, okay, stop talking… If that little jerk finds out, we won’t be able to live in peace anymore… It’s good that he’s busy with something now. Let’s get back to it… Have you understood the scriptures I gave you? Your barbarian magic is inherently flawed. As long as we fix these flaws, your strength will increase greatly!”