**Chapter 13: Alchemy**

*Click.*

Clark removed his monocle, revealing eagle-sharp eyes.

Without extra tools, he lifted the fist-sized irregular gold lump for all to see.

“Watch closely for my demonstration!”

With that, he deliberately externalized his mental strength, making the gold float from his hand.

Jie Ming clearly sensed Clark’s mental strength—steady as a stream, yet brimming with resilience.

Under Clark’s guidance, the irregular gold seemed to come alive.

It didn’t melt or change too quickly but shifted slowly and firmly in an invisible force field.

Its uneven surfaces smoothed, edges sharpened, the process fluid and stable.

In seconds, the irregular lump became a perfectly smooth, sharp-edged cube, its surface so polished it reflected like a mirror.

Clark withdrew his mental strength, and the golden cube settled back on the table, faintly gleaming.

“This is Alchemy’s basic shaping. Through repeated practice, you’ll master precise mental control over a material’s form.” He put his monocle back on. “Now, collect your materials and tools and begin.”

With a wave, supplies flew from the lab’s cabinets. Each apprentice received an irregular gold lump similar to Clark’s and a basic toolbox.

Besides standard crucibles, tweezers, gloves, and goggles, the toolbox contained a metal disc etched with complex runes.

Jie Ming collected his materials and returned to his worktable.

Upon touching the disc, he felt his mental sea’s truth rune surge, its central alchemy rune resonating with the disc’s runes.

“Since you haven’t completed the first three truth runes, you’ll need the alchemy disc as an aid for now. Once you’ve inscribed all three alchemy runes in your mental sea, you can perform Alchemy bare-handed,” Clark reminded flatly. “The disc is expensive. The first is free as a textbook, but damage means buying replacements with credits…”

Jie Ming donned his gloves and goggles, placing the gold in the disc’s central groove as instructed.

“Using mental strength to control a material’s form… incredible. Is this unique to the wizard system?” he mused.

Cultivators’ divine sense was for perception, scanning, attachment, or direct mental attacks, and could manipulate true essence to move objects remotely.

Altering a material’s physical form was possible but relied on brute external force, unlike Alchemy’s approach of coaxing the material to change itself.

Jie Ming took a deep breath, sank into his mental sea, and extended his mental strength through the truth rune, connecting with the disc to gently envelop the gold.

*Buzz!*

A faint but clear resistance pushed back from the gold, rejecting his mental strength.

He tried guiding his mental strength like elemental energy in meditation, condensing it into a beam to “press” a protrusion on the gold’s surface, aiming to dent it.

Instead…

*Crack!*

His momentary overforce didn’t dent the gold but chipped off a small fragment.

Startled, he adjusted quickly.

Trying again, he carefully focused energy on a corner, aiming to round it.

Instead…

*Sizzle…*

The localized temperature spiked, and the gold’s surface began to melt into a flowing liquid.

“Damn! It’s completely different…” Jie Ming cursed inwardly.

Using his cultivator-style mental control for wizard techniques felt awkward.

It was like a sculptor skilled with a chisel being asked to embroider—different in both force and technique.

Looking around, most apprentices were struggling similarly.

Some gold lumps were pocked with dents, others melted into puddles, and some even crumbled into dust during decomposition attempts.

There were exceptions.

Amy, nearby, worked slowly but steadily, her energy fluctuations stable. Her gold lump was gradually changing shape, rough but showing signs of shaping.

Jie Ming took a deep breath, forcing himself to abandon his habitual mental control and mimic Clark’s demonstrated fluctuations.

He rewrapped his mental strength around the gold, not rushing to shape it but, like a cultivator “nurturing a treasure,” gently and persistently interacting with it, sensing its “nature” and “resistance.”

Failure… try again… failure…

The gold grew increasingly misshapen, but he gradually grasped Alchemy’s essence.

“Understanding, decomposition, reconstruction… I see.”

“Understanding” was key—knowing a material’s structure, properties, and energy fluctuations enabled guided changes, not brute force.

After several tries, he barely shaped the gold into a “cube.”

It was lopsided, its surface marred by melted and resolidified patches, edges blurry—a far cry from Clark’s pristine cube.

“This is my first alchemical creation?” Jie Ming looked at the ugly lump, torn between laughter and tears.

Just then, Clark descended from the podium, inspecting the apprentices’ worktables.

His sharp gaze lingered on each success or failure, offering brief critiques.

At Jie Ming’s table, he eyed the distorted cube, and Jie Ming felt a rare twinge of nerves.

Clark’s eagle-like eyes studied the gold, then glanced at Jie Ming.

“Mental control… decently stable,” Clark said, his tone as flat as ever. “But energy output is unstable, and temperature and force field control are poor.”

He pointed to the melted marks and twisted edges. “Practice basic meditation more to stabilize your mental strength and get used to handling elemental forces. Pay attention to material structure details in Alchemy.” He offered advice and moved to the next table.

Jie Ming nodded inwardly, impressed. Clark had pinpointed the issue.

The unstable output stemmed from maintaining Internal Circulation, sealing his state while outputting energy—a tricky balance.

Suddenly, a pained scream and a loud metal shatter echoed from the lab’s other side.

*Boom!*