Chapter 394: I Will Try to Listen and Earn Money for You to Spend

"No, no, absolutely not—I'm a skeleton, I see with my soul; in my eyes, you're just flesh and bone, not beautiful at all," Nagelis said with disdain.

Ji Li exploded with rage, lashing out to scratch An Ge—she could forgive him taking off her clothes, but she could not forgive him saying she was ugly!

Unfortunately, An Ge couldn't understand her emotions; he only found her irrational, and punched her cheek, knocking her unconscious.

He cast the Purifying Spell to heal her face, then physically woke her up: "Talk properly, don't hit. You can't beat me. Let's talk about the tattoo on your back—what is it? It doesn't look like a simple tattoo; it's more like some kind of blueprint."

Ji Li covered her cheek and sneered: "That's an alchemical diagram—you wouldn't understand even if I told you."

"Oh? You think I don't understand? I know… I know plenty—what's there I don't get? You say it, I get it," Nagelis said.

"Heh, you know everything? Then you should understand it at a glance—why ask me?" Ji Li sneered.

An Ge felt the Brass Book in his hand twitch again, as if trying to leap up and strike someone.

…

His consciousness returned to his body, and An Ge went through each item on Nagelis's list, explaining them one by one to everyone.

"The Emperor isn't dead? Trapped in the Infinite Void Domain? Hurry, my lord, summon me—I must go rescue the Emperor!" the witch exclaimed excitedly.

An Ge shook his head—he couldn't grasp something so large, unless she could shrink down to the size of the Brass Book.

The Grand Sage hurried to console her: "You cannot go—you must remain here to guard the Emperor's body."

Du Luo Kan felt a surge of longing: "The world of sorcerers? So that starburst array was made by an alchemist? Hanging in the void? I'd love to see what it looks like—my lord, grab me and take me there."

An Ge shook his head: "Too big."

"It's big now—but it won't be anymore." Du Luo Kan plunged his hand into his chest, pulling out his soul phylactery: "Grab me—rebirth…"

Before he finished speaking, Du Luo Kan collapsed onto the ground.

The witch's eyes lit up, her face eager—but after glancing at the Black Crystal Body, she restrained herself.

An Ge stored Du Luo Kan's body and soul phylactery inside the Palace of Rest, then projected himself again, retrieving the tiny, fist-sized phylactery.

"Ssshh—he's insane? That was a Steelhide Body—he just threw it away?" Nagelis winced.

From within the phylactery came Du Luo Kan's thought: "I'm a thinker—skin and steel are irrelevant. My lord, just find any corpse, put my phylactery inside."

There were corpses nearby—the dozen or so bandits slain during the day were pulled out one by one.

"This one's too ugly—no, no."

"This one's too short—no, no."

"This one's so tiny? Is this even a man? No, no." Du Luo Kan carefully selected, complaining incessantly.

Nagelis cursed: "You call this 'any corpse'? You want handsome and tall? Fine—I'll find you a female corpse."

Eventually, he picked the tallest, most handsome, and largest corpse among the bandits—their small leader.

He swapped the heart with the phylactery, cast several Rebirth Spells to bind the body tightly to the phylactery—the corpse suddenly opened its eyes and sat upright.

Du Luo Kan's eyes fixed on the starburst array in the sky, excitedly exclaiming: "Is that it? Is that really it? My god—this is even more incredible than a World Transit Station! Is this the pinnacle of alchemy?"

Nagelis fully agreed—the upper limit of this starburst array far surpassed that of the World Transit Station. A spell array built in the void, its attack had caused deities from another realm, impossibly distant, to perish en masse—terrifying.

Even more terrifying: among sorcerers, there existed beings capable of rivaling the Undying King. According to Ji Li, the Lord of Annihilation had already trapped the Undying King and his undead legions. This Lord of Annihilation was a being of equal power to the Undying King.

At this thought, Nagelis understood why Du Luo Kan had risked abandoning his original body to come here—for an immortal alchemist like him, what could possibly be more alluring than higher-level alchemy?

"Come, let me see the woman's back—what's this alchemical diagram?" Du Luo Kan said.

"No need, no need—I've seen it all, I've memorized it. Look." The Brass Book flew up, its pages opening to reveal an alchemical diagram.

"Ha! I thought it was something special—it's just a Philosopher's Rod! According to its parameters, she planned to make gloves—one for combination, one for decomposition—combining the two most common alchemical spells together. Clever design, but this blueprint won't work at all. Redundant design, wasteful materials…"

…

An Ge grabbed the Philosopher's Rod, one hand holding the Brass Book, the other the Rod, standing before Ji Li, his mouth moving—Nagelis launched into a furious tirade:

"Redundant design, wasteful materials. The idea of one hand combining, one decomposing is good—but they overlap by sixty percent. Separating them uses sixty percent more material. And where's the buffer structure? Are you making a tool or a weapon?"

Ji Li turned beet red with shame, recalling her own words—she was utterly humiliated. Not only did he understand, he'd pinpointed the flaws in her design.

My god—this wasn't just understanding; he was better than her master.

Seeing Ji Li's expression, Nagelis felt a secret thrill of satisfaction and said smugly: "Let me show you what real Philosopher's Stone alchemy looks like."

An Ge took out a glove and some materials from the Palace of Rest—Du Luo Kan, the master, processed them into semi-finished products in seconds.

An Ge held the Philosopher's Rod and lightly tapped the glove and materials. The materials rose into the air as if lifted by invisible hands, assembling themselves rapidly—soon, a black glove took shape.

Ji Li stared, dumbfounded—she looked from the glove to the Philosopher's Rod. Her own design, which she'd considered excellent, had already been made by someone else. Damn it—she'd duplicated someone else's work.

Not only duplicated—someone had improved it and turned it into reality. Worse, they had even further designs. This was truly an alchemical master.

My god—how humiliating! She'd told a master, "You wouldn't understand." What now?

Forget living—Ji Li dropped to her knees with a thud and shouted: "Master, take me as your student! Let me be your apprentice!"

As she spoke, she pulled out paper and pen, scribbling complex, arcane alchemical runes, signing her name, then bit her finger, chanted a spell, and pressed her bloody thumb firmly onto the signature.

As the blood imprint touched the paper, a faint pulse of energy rippled across it.

Ji Li raised the paper above her head and presented it to An Ge: "Master, please take me as your student! This is my indenture—accept it!"

Nagelis was stunned. What was this? He'd just scolded her—how did she end up selling herself?

He leaned closer, reading aloud: "To follow 【Name】 as master in the study of alchemy, obey all commands before graduation, never defy, and after graduation, forty percent of all alchemical income shall belong to the master. This contract is established by the art of alchemy…" So this was an indenture? He'd thought it was a soul oath.

Ji Li lifted her head and said: "Accept my apprentice contract—I'll work hard, listen well, and earn more money for you to spend."

As she spoke, she swiftly changed the "four" to a "five."

Nagelis said: "Wait a moment."

He ran off, found Du Luo Kan, and explained the situation.

Du Luo Kan said: "Accept her. I can use her to learn about this world's alchemical and sorcerer systems."

"But I don't know alchemy—how do I teach her?" Nagelis asked.

"Say I'm a graduated student. I'll teach the basics," Du Luo Kan said.

They brought Du Luo Kan back and introduced him to Ji Li: "This is a graduated senior. He'll teach you the basics—I don't have time to teach you fundamentals."

Nagelis said dismissively, took the apprentice contract, wrote An Ge's name on it, and walked toward Albert.

Suddenly gaining a student was odd—but Albert would definitely notice, especially since this person looked familiar—wasn't he the bandit leader killed earlier?

As he approached, Nagelis whispered: "I summoned a holy spirit—I'm borrowing this body to disguise myself, otherwise I can't get near the town."

Albert's spirits lifted: "My lord, are you planning to rescue Desert Town?"

"Not certain—but we must gather intelligence, see how many of them there are," Nagelis said.

These people came to pursue Ji Li—so until they captured their target, they wouldn't leave.

The distance to Desert Town was only a few minutes' ride on horseback. If they were searching, this area would certainly be included—Nagelis didn't want enemies surrounding them while they knew nothing.

Of course, this was just a plausible excuse for Du Luo Kan's arrival—intelligence gathering wouldn't use such an inefficient method. Let Du Luo Kan set up a few arrays instead.

Just as he calmed Albert, Du Luo Kan arrived with Ji Li to report: "My lord, Ji Li explained why the bandits chased her—I think you'd find it interesting."

An Ge tilted his head.

Du Luo Kan turned and gestured: "Ji Li, tell him."

"I once had a suitor. Recently, he suddenly came to me, gave me something, told me to run fast—and then he died."

"Before he died, he said it was a 'Multi-Layered 3D Farming Alchemy Sphere.' Activate it and throw it—it becomes a multi-layered farming field, producing dozens of times the crop yield of its tiny footprint. Perfect for the starburst array. He told me to deliver it to a secret sorcerer alliance outpost."

"Then the bandits chased me—it must be because of this alchemy sphere," Ji Li said angrily.

The moment An Ge heard "multi-layered 3D farm," he had already stepped forward; after hearing the rest, he asked: "Where is the alchemy sphere?"