“Wake up! Wake up, Tolly…”

 There was a faint cry in his ear. 

He saw nothing before him but darkness. He lay on the ground, unable to lift his heavy eyelids to see.

“Wake up, Tolly! I won’t allow you to die…”

A few hot tears dropped onto his angular face and streamed their way to his mouth. The salty taste made him cough violently.

“Pfft…Pfft…cough…”

“Oh, my god, thank goodness. You’ve finally woken up!”

When Tolly gradually opened his eyes, what came into his sight first was a young girl crouching beside him with some tears still hanging on her two beautiful big round eyes.

Rather dazed, who was she? Tolly wondered.

He coughed a few more times, and his head still hurt. However, all of a sudden, tens of thousands of strange images, flashing like a movie, appeared in his mind. Odd enough, some memories that did not belong to him whatsoever flooded into his mind.

He took a long, deep breath before casting a look straight up into the sky.

In the distance stood lofty mountains and high ranges, while in the sky hung a blood-red sun, extraordinarily large that it almost occupied most part of the sky, where tornado-like clouds flared in anger, scattering down like long snakes on the head of Medusa, shooting out their forked tongues.

“Hiss…”

“Crap, where am I? What the hell is that in the sky? Is it the sun? So damn big!”

A moment before, it was the monster scorpion that had stupefied Tolly, but this time he was petrified by the radically super-sized sun.

‘That’s incredible! Oh, man, it is a joke, isn’t it?’ he groaned.

But that was not all, and there was something more yet to come to surprise him.

“B-boom…”

Came a loud bang! All of a sudden, a woman of about forty appeared before her eyes, who, by stepping on the about-two-meter-long scorpion under her feet, rose up from the ground with a special hunting trap in her hand, at the end of which was a huge golden net.

Not before long, the woman suddenly stamped one of her feet, sending a wave of hot air onto the ground, instantly stirring up a whirl of dust into the air.

For a split second, the monster scorpion, not far away from her, broke through the soil and dashed towards her. It was about five meters long, covered with brownish-red rock-made needles all over.

‘Swoosh…Swoosh…’

All the rock-made needles on its body were flying towards the woman. However, she was quite sure of herself. She was not in a panic at all, as the faint sneer hanging on her rose-red lips spoke volumes.

“Super Flash!” the elegant woman let out a loud cry.

With her knees bent slightly, and her feet sinking down a little bit, the elegant and brave woman stretched out a single punch, which sent a ball of light straight towards those flying rock-made needles.

The ball of light met with those needles halfway, making a loud explosion, and it continued to go straight at the monster scorpion, burning it into ashes.

“Am I dreaming? What the hell is this world? Who is the woman? A powerful martial artist?! “

His jaw dropped and his eyes widened, suggesting Tolly almost gaped.

“Hmph…” the elegant woman snorted coldly, “I can’t believe you were dragged off to the ground by Fushi. You are a boy who’s going to become a true man. Don’t be so silly! If you think you can pass the test with such a poor performance, you are daydreaming! Get up now and work hard!”

Her voice was sweet but with a sense of authority. She cleared her throating, adding,

“You know, Fushi is just a rooster-like bird named after its call. It’s the guardian bird of liquorice root, also known as Gancao.”

“Gancao is also called ‘Guolao’, which means the imperial instructor, who is not a monarch, but the monarch follows his instructions. It is the drug that can bring harmony among all the drugs in a prescription and can neutralize the toxins of 72 stone and chemical drugs and 1,200 herbal and wood drugs.”

Her head raised high and her hands clasped behind her back, she seemingly took pride in being a woman of great erudition.

After a little pause, he continued, “So if you want to be a successful alchemist, the first thing you have to do is to be able to defeat Fushi and get Gancao, because it is one of the most common things that we need for refining pills. Otherwise, even if you are an excellent alchemist, you can’t make something out of nothing. Work hard if you don’t want me to call you a piece of junk!”

Totally confused, Tolly got a bunch of questions popping up in his mind.

“Ms. Harmsworth, my dear master alchemist, there’s a reason for this. The other day Tolly was cut on his arm by a Sword Swan, and it has not healed yet. That’s why…” the girl standing next to Tolly tried to defend him.

“Stop making excuses. I won’t buy your story. Even though I do, those brutal beasts won’t. They just want blood and flesh, you know. If he wants to survive here in this world, always remember these rules in his mind. The first rule: no excuses. As for the second and the third rule, refer to the first one. Tolly is an ordinary alchemist of the first rank. Now you can tell me, Sally, what’s the difference between him and a waste of space?” interrupted Ms. Harmsworth.

“Did you have any special ointment to cure him, Ms. Harmsworth?” Sally asked with a certain diffident.

“Well, try this!”

Ms. Harmsworth showed her a leaf-like thing. When she held out her hand to get it, it went straight to the cut on Tolly’s arm and disappeared instantly. To their surprise, the cut on his arm vanished and Tolly was healed.

“I made it yesterday with some sesame seeds. It’s called Letgo. It can heal cuts in a second.” Ms. Harmsworth said proudly.

“Thank you, Ms. Harmsworth!” Tolly said gratefully, giving her an admiring look.

“Work hard, young man. you’ve got a long way to go!”

Looking up, only at that moment did Tolly realize that he was underneath a sword-like aircraft, with dozens of other equally strange aircraft all floating in mid-air.

The girl beside Tolly was his best friend, Sally Addison. With one arm on her shoulders, Tolly eventually came to his own feet.

With a stamp, Sally lifted him up to the aircraft. Upon arriving on the aircraft, Tolly immediately saw a lot of his peers standing on the front part of the sword-like aircraft.

They were all about twelve or thirteen years old, all dressed in ancient costumes made of rough cloth. Tolly felt as if he was in a film shooting scene, but where were the cameras and cameramen?

“They just look funny!” Tolly could not help but think to himself, his lips curving up into a mocking smile.

Meanwhile, the children also stared at Tolly through their narrowed eyes, with contemptuous gazes even colder than the glaciers of over ten winters. Tolly got such a fright that he flinched a little bit, feeling they would chisel the glaciers into the sharpest daggers, and then stab him in his warm heart with any hesitation.

They gazed like that for a few moments and the dead silence reigned among them, but not before long, they began to talk in whispers. Though their voices were weak, they could still be heard if someone stayed focused.

“A big loser! He should kill himself!”

“He a piece of crap! He should have shit for every meal, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!! Ha-ha…”

Hearing the taunt, Tolly really wanted to shrink himself and disappear. Lowering his head, he unconsciously looked at his hands with a blank expression on his face. Suddenly, he found out something wrong, causing him to gasp in disbelief.

‘Huh? Why are my hands so small?’ he thought, discovering he also donned an ancient costume, ‘Did I transmigrate??’

Still puzzled, he bit his bottom lip slightly. Maybe also a little bit nervous, he was sweating buckets, instantly incredibly weak and sluggish. His body began to shudder, but he still could hold himself.

“Hey, are you okay?” his friend Sally asked with a look of deep concern.

Sally had blonde hair, slicked back away from her face with a little pony behind her head. With beautiful hazel eyes and a straight nose on her egg-shaped face, she was just so damn pretty-no, pretty was virtually a big understatement. She looked to be the type of person everyone would always pay heed to.

“Yes, maybe I am just a little bit tired after all this.” Tolly lied as he did his best to make himself steady.

“Don’t be hard on yourself, you know. Always remember this in your mind: health is wealth. Now, sit down and have a break!” Sally said kindly.

Her words seemed like a subtle breeze in spring, caressing Tolly gently. In her eyes, six inches shorter than him and very thin for his age, Tolly was just like a younger brother to her.

Hence, she was always ready to help him.

“Just ignore that nonsense! If anybody here dares to mess with you, just let me know! I’ll skin him alive!!!”

Though a drop-dead gorgeous beauty, Sally was also a powerful alchemist who could beat the crap out of anyone who dared to harm Tolly.

However, before Tolly was able to make a reply, he saw the elegant but powerful woman abruptly step out and for a moment, she stood solemnly in front of the crowd already. She then began to fumble something with her slender fingers, finally taking out a small red booklet from one of her upper pockets.

Flashing a triumphant smile, she waved it in the air with a flourish, suggesting that everyone should keep quiet now. After taking a deep breath, she began to read the booklet which was actually a record of their test results.

“Quinn, as an ordinary alchemist of the third rank, caught a low-grade Fushi.”

 “Luke, as an ordinary alchemist of the fourth rank, a medium-grade Yellow-Billed Duck.”

  Following the line of other children’s admiring gazes, Tolly saw the young boy called Luke standing not far away from him, looking proud. In return for their admiration, he was grinning from ear to ear, flashing his white teeth.

“Kevin, as an ordinary alchemist of the fifth rank, got a top-grade Sword Swan.” Ms. Harmsworth continued.

Almost at the same time, exclamations of surprise were heard from the crowd all at once.

“Did he break through to a new level again? How could it be possible for an ordinary alchemist of the fifth rank to be able to catch a Sword Swan?”