Kafka stayed outside of the alchemy workshop again, as Lilith and Seph headed inside.

  He did that out of respect for the duo, to not check on the new items they bought, since the cultivation world was all about hiding your advantages and how your powers worked, and what kind of offensive or even defensive items you had. After all, the element of surprise could be what determines the winner in any fight.

  Inside the alchemy workshop a woman was working in peace, focused on what she was doing, she was gorgeous, her long silky black hair fell on her shoulders that were covered by a long white robe that had patches of random colors here and there from the splashes of the materials she worked with frequently.

  Scorch marks at different places from the fire — she used to boil her liquids with — going haywire after certain liquids falling in them.

  Her face was white and round like the full moon, and her eyes fully black; she didn’t have whites like most people. An alteration caused by a skill stone she had used to help her further in her cultivation path of choice, and that’s becoming the best alchemist she could be.

  Around her were shelves filled with different materials: tree roots, herbs, mushrooms, nails and strands of hair of different beasts in small vials. There was even a shelf with jars that were filled with different eyeballs floating in a liquid to preserve their quality.

  There was also a shelf with a protective glass casing that contained many glass decanters with various fluids inside each one.

  A table with mortars and pestles of different sizes that had different crushed herbs or other matter inside them.

  In another corner stood a small oven that she used for lower heats, which she required sometimes while creating the different pills and elixirs that were produced out of her workshop.

  Next to it was a water sink that had a strainer inside of it, which she used frequently to clean the impurities in different materials.

  And the most important item of all, an alchemy furnace smack-dab in the middle of the workshop, one of noticeably much higher quality than the one Seph used.

  The more valuable materials were in her spatial ring; they only came out if she used them or someone paid a hefty sum to buy them.

  All this peaceful and chaotic beauty of the beautiful alchemist, Marie, and her workshop were suddenly disrupted as Zhi Zixin appeared behind her.

  He looked dumbfounded for a minute before she noticed him, then he exclaimed loudly, “A woman?!”

  Seph and Lilith ran into the workshop as soon as they heard the loud exclamation.

  Once they entered the main room of the workshop, they saw Zhi Zixin and the alchemist facing off.

  They were standing in front of each other, and Zhi had a look of disbelief on his ghostly face.

  Zhi looked at Seph and Lilith, then spoke to the alchemist. “Hey, you, where is the master of this workshop? Call him for us; we have important business to discuss with him.”

  The woman looked between the odd trio who had entered her shop running, and said, “I am the master of this workshop; what business do you have here?”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Zhi looked offended as he said, “A woman?! It was bad enough when I thought you were an apprentice here. Fiddling with these tools risks burning yourself or even causing the entire workshop to explode. How could the elder of this sect let a woman in here, anyway? This is very irresponsible of him. But now you are telling me you are actually the master of this workshop!”

  Marie looked pissed as she said, “What backwater village are you coming from? Of course, a woman could be an alchemist. Why is that so hard to believe?”

  Zhi’s mouth dropped open, and he looked between her and Seph and said, “For your information, I come from an empire; want me to spell it out for you? E M P I R E. How dare you call yourself an alchemist? And in my presence? I’ve never heard of a woman alchemist in my life; this is preposterous. Will you stand for this, Seph?”

  Seph looked between them and said, “It’s none of my business who is an alchemist or not. After all, it’s a job about skill and knowledge; anyone can try to get good at it.”

  Zhi mocked Seph in a funny voice. “Anyone can try to get good at it.” He then returned to his normal voice. “Look at this moron; what do you mean anyone can become an alchemist? I completely prohibited any woman from being a student of mine all my life.”

  Seph face-palmed as he said, “Which just goes to prove our point really; maybe if you allowed them to have that position, they would have become as good as the men.”

  Zhi went to pull at his ghostly hair, but his hands went through his head as he shouted at Seph, “As good as the men? Do you even hear the words that come out of your mouth?”

  Marie interjected and said, “I like you, kid. You are very respectful and obviously not a misogynist like this asshole ghost.” Zhi was about to say something again, but she didn’t stop. “My name is Marie; if you want, you could be my apprentice. I’ll teach you everything I know.”

  Zhi suddenly scowled, and he didn’t even allow Seph to speak. “Don’t you even think about it, Seph; If you know what’s good for you.”

  Seph acted like he was thinking it over in his head before he said, “Thanks for the offer, but sadly the ghost is my master; he teaches me alchemy.”

  Zhi shouted in disbelief, “Sadly!”

  Marie said, “Oh, well, not everyone can be perfect, and your imperfection is your master.”

  Zhi shouted, “Imperfection!”

  Seph ignored him and asked the alchemist, “I would like to continue working on my alchemy while in the sect. We were coming to ask to use your workshop for the experiments we will be doing. I am fine with paying rent or something if that’s needed.”

  Marie said, “I am fine with you if you want to work on your alchemy here for a small fee of course, but not him.”

  Zhi said in a proud voice, “Not him? Woman, your workshop would be blessed by having me do any experiment in it. Do you even know who you are talking down to right now? If you knew who I was, you would leave the workshop of your own free will and take permission from me for the rest of your life to work here.”

  She looked at him with a deadpan face and said, “Hmm, not interested.”

  Seph held himself back from laughing; he didn’t want to lose his master after all, and said, “Sadly, I have to have him here with me. I am a newbie, and he is my master. But I understand if you don’t want us to work here after what he said.”

  Zhi looked around in disbelief among all who were present and asked, “What did I say? I said nothing that isn’t the truth!”

  Marie ignored him and said, “Hmm, okay, I guess I can allow you to work here; you are a very respectful young man, unlike your master. Do you have your own alchemy furnace with you?”

  Seph answered, “Yes, I do, but we could probably use some of your other gadgets here.”

  She nodded and said, “Well, that’s good as the most expensive fee would have been for you to use my furnace. Overall, it’s fine by me; you can come here at any time and use the workshop, and I’ll determine the fee depending on how long you work that day.”

  Seph bowed to her deeply, and then he rose, smiling in excitement, and said, “That’s amazing; I can’t wait to learn even more alchemy using all these gadgets you have here.”

  Lilith was also smiling from ear to ear, happy that Seph got what he wanted.

  Zhi wasn’t though, as he looked with haughtiness and said, “‘Learn even more alchemy’ I’ll have to think if I want to teach you anything else after you said here today. I can’t believe a student of mine thinks a woman can be an alchemist!”

  He disappeared from where he hovered, and the workshop became calm again, except for the various sounds of boiling fluids.

  Seph apologized to Marie. “Again, we are very sorry for that; he is just from thousands of years ago, so he doesn’t really know what changed in the world, and as you can see, he is set in his ways.”

  Marie said, “It’s alright; I mean, he is just a ghost. What’s worse that could happen to a human being? It’s hard to hold a grudge against someone like that.”

  Seph nodded and bowed down and left the workshop with Lilith.