The Broth

Volume: 3

Title: Chapter 39: The Broth

“Ah, I’m going to die!”

Amidst the swirling steam, Ewan leaned his head back, letting out a groan of pure bliss. “I’m about to die from pleasure.”

****

The time was the following day.

Their location was the Sea of Flowers.

After returning to the academy, Ewan had enjoyed a wonderfully restful sleep that didn’t drain any energy. He was then promptly summoned by Teacher Mera.

However, the Sea of Flowers had undergone a drastic transformation.

Amidst the undulating waves of blossoms now stood a luxurious open-air pool, constructed from pieced-together marble. Pink gossamer veils drifted around it, lending an ethereal beauty to the scene.

It was, astonishingly, a hot spring.

And the first thing Teacher Mera had asked Ewan to do was to soak in it?

While a strange feeling nagged at him, Ewan didn’t refuse. He knew there was little point in doing so.

He immediately stripped off his clothes and stepped into the water.

“Does it feel good?”

Teacher Mera squatted by the hot spring, her amber-red eyes fixed intently on Ewan. A brilliant smile lit up her youthful face.

“It feels great.”

Ewan instinctively hunched his shoulders, the unease in his heart intensifying. Still, he answered truthfully, “It feels even better than Celicia’s bathhouse.”

“That’s good then.”

Teacher Mera’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t need to be so tense. Just relax and enjoy your soak.”

“I-I’m not tense at all.”

Ewan stretched his limbs. “See how relaxed I am?”

After all, resisting was futile; he might as well enjoy the moment. Surely Teacher Mera wouldn’t actually eat him.

“That’s good then.”

Teacher Mera nodded her small head, repeating the phrase, her smile growing even brighter.

Yet, for now, she did nothing more than quietly observe Ewan as he soaked.

Ewan shifted uncomfortably.

He had, after all, undressed in front of Teacher Mera more than once. Still, being stared at so directly made him feel a growing sense of apprehension.

“Um… Teacher Mera.”

“Speak.”

“Could you please not stare at me like that? It’s making me uneasy.”

“What’s there to be uneasy about?”

Teacher Mera pouted, scoffing, “Do you have something I shouldn’t see?”

“No… it’s just that I feel like your gaze right now is… unsettling?”

“Oh, you’re so bothersome. If I don’t keep an eye on it, how will I know if the heat is right?”

“Wait, heat? You just said ‘heat’ for cooking, didn’t you?”

“Oh dear, you misheard me. I said ‘temperature’ just now, ‘temperature’! Isn’t it a teacher’s duty to ensure my dearest disciple can enjoy a perfectly heated… I mean, perfectly tempered hot bath after several battles?”

“You definitely said ‘heat’ for cooking! I heard you!”

Ewan jolted upright, leaping to his feet. He exclaimed angrily, “I knew something was off about this hot spring! What kind of hot spring has a hemispherical bottom? This is a pot!”

“Nonsense! Where would you find such a large pot!”

Teacher Mera, meanwhile, was dropping various strangely shaped objects into the hot spring. From somewhere, she produced a ladle taller than herself and began stirring the water, her voice disturbingly gentle. “Come now, lie down nicely. It won’t be that painful. Just close your eyes and open them again!”

Her demeanor reminded Ewan of a big bad wolf boiling water to stew a lamb.

“I’ll be ‘cooked’ if I close my eyes and open them again! You actually want to eat me, don’t you?”

Ewan struggled to get out, but an invisible, immense force suddenly pressed down on him, pushing him entirely into the pot… no, into the hot spring.

“Oh, I didn’t want to be so aggressive, but when I saw how much stronger my dearest disciple’s body has become after just a few days, how could I, as a teacher, suppress this excited heart?”

“Gurgle gurgle… You said… gurgle… you’d wait until I fully adapted… gurgle gurgle… to the sixty-fold time dilation… gurgle gurgle gurgle… before moving to the next step?”

“That’s right. While your progress has indeed exceeded my expectations, to reach that stage, your realm needs to be at least Tier 3. You’re still a bit short.”

“Then… gurgle gurgle… why?”

“Strictly speaking, this is just an optimization of the previous foundation, or rather, it’s to make a certain later step proceed more smoothly. A crucial process must begin ahead of schedule.”

“Gurgle gurgle… What is it?”

“Oh, you’re already in the pot, and you’re still spouting so much nonsense! Be a good boy, that way you’ll absorb the flavors better!”

Teacher Mera raised the ladle and tapped Ewan’s head, who was still struggling. Ewan instantly felt his body go limp, completely submerging into the hot water.

Gurgle gurgle…

The water gradually heated up.

The unfamiliar materials that Ewan couldn’t identify dissolved into the water, turning the pool a faint golden hue.

The water in the entire hot spring truly resembled a continuously simmering broth, growing thicker and more concentrated.

Soon, Ewan’s figure was no longer visible from the surface.

Teacher Mera stood by the pool, casually tossing aside the ladle. Her small face grew serious.

“Grit your teeth, boy. It’s starting now.”

She extended a slender finger and lightly tapped. In an instant, the water in the entire hot spring began to boil furiously.

Underwater, Ewan’s eyes snapped open in a wide, furious glare.

Hot! So hot!

At that moment, what enveloped him felt not like rich broth, but like molten iron!

The intense heat stimulated his body, turning him entirely crimson, like a boiled shrimp.

His face contorted in a grimace, his pores wide open, as if his entire being would melt away with this pot of broth!

His jaw clenched involuntarily, for this was yet another entirely new sensation he had never experienced. It was so agonizingly exhilarating that he wished he could burst out right now and pummel that deceitful, heartless loli!

As Ewan’s consciousness began to blur amidst the extreme pain, he suddenly felt something else equally scalding.

The alchemical core.

And… those artificial magic patterns Teacher Mera had personally engraved upon him.

Those elements, crafted from special materials and embedded within Ewan’s body, also became incredibly hot, without any active activation.

A scorching body, a scorching core, and scorching patterns.

One was a vibrant body of flesh and blood, the other an inanimate object constructed from special materials. These two intrinsically incompatible things now seemed to gradually merge into one within the churning liquid.

“It’s begun.”

By the pool, Teacher Mera’s small face was not just serious, but utterly solemn.

With a gentle wave of her small hand, countless arcane lines descended into the pool, adhering to Ewan’s body. They began a series of extremely minute and precise manipulations.

Her goal was to ensure the entire magic matrix and alchemical core remained stable, preventing them from collapsing amidst the upcoming transformations.

Yet, within this intense process of fusion, Teacher Mera began to distinctly feel a barrier.

It was like the interaction between boiling water and rolling oil, an agitation that would not subside until one side completely vanished.

As if she had anticipated this, Teacher Mera raised her small hand. In her pale palm, a cool, clear moonlight appeared.

“The stagnant power of the moon. I wonder if it can erase the unbridgeable chasm between these conflicting entities.”

She sighed softly, a glimmer of expectation in her eyes for a result even she could not foresee, as she cast the moonlight into the great pot where life and death were being simmered.