Chapter 316 - One Hundred and Sixteen - They gather and talk about Alchemy (2/2)

”Actually, a talented youth did appear,” the softly spoken Alchemist of the Mage Towers mentioned.  ”He's quite good.”

Xiang Lim's expression was probably as grim as the man who posed the question.

The Savage Red Sands School was a militant School said to sharpen the already brutally tough edges of the people that dwelled in the South of Eastern Xulaphrey.  They produced an array of tough, ferocious Martial Artists and fearless Beast Tamers from commoners and nobles who were already entrenched in the ways of warfare.  With such a pool of warriors to source from, the resulting catches for an Alchemist tended to be on the thin side; a weak runt with mediocre roots on a good day, a lazy trash with no talent on most others.

Xiang Lim's Qilin Academy could be deemed not much better, just instead of the weak runts, they received the third sons' or fifth daughters' from noble side branches, who were expected to support the main family's heir who happened to be studying in one of the other schools of knowledge.  Not that there wasn't a speck of jade to be discovered, yet on these rare occasions, more often than not, the child was whisked away, adopted by the main branch then could chose any path to study that they wished.  It was seldom Alchemy.  As for the policy of only teaching Nobles, while Xiang Lim had always agreed to it in principal, even he could not deny that it was truly restricting his ability to pass on the knowledge of his arts.

Xiang Lim had always loved the Alchemic Arts, had always poured his very being into making this disliked path something to be revered as much as any other.  Thus it brought him no end of frustration when his good seeds vanished one by one, faltering after setbacks caused them to be scolded by their relations or even withdrawn from School as they were deemed 'no longer worth investing in'.

Perhaps they could see the difficulties he faced due to the frustration within his eyes, but no one pressed him; they all had different circ.u.mstances to face.  In this respect, the Institute could consider itself quite well off.  Although their Alchemy schools were less popular than the other schools within their folds, they had enjoyed raising several excellent students over these several hundred years.  But then, they cast their nets wider, would take in any students with talent, even the so called 'trash' were not cast aside.  If only ten percent of those students chose to enter the alchemy school, if only one in twenty of those had some potential, that was often still better than the students other Alchemists might be blessed to develop.

Of course the downside of wide nets were that the resources would be stretched thinner and potentially the most excellent might not get the full resources to see them truly soar, but somehow, the Institute managed to make it work.  Xiang Lim might not be happy to acknowledge this point, being more in favour of the Academy's policy, but he also couldn't deny it.

”Teacher Sagi,” a student interrupted their conversation, wringing his slender hands a bit nervously he approached.  The youth bowed respectfully as all six Teachers glanced around at him.

”Juta, is something the matter?” Teacher Sagi called the student by his name, knowing that the youth had taken upon the tough task of weeding the fields.  Those weeds having enjoyed the spiritual concentration within the fields were no longer like those causing issues in a farmer's landscape.  They were tougher, more wilful and not willing to give up the blessed resources that were meant for the herbs.  But they needed to be removed or the herbs around them would suffer and their quality reduce.

”There's a student from the Martial Arts school...” Juta explained, pointing towards the Herb Hall in the dimensional distance.  ”He says his small alchemist was attacked by outsiders and wanted to know whether Teacher wished to deal with them.”  He scratched his face sheepishly as he added that person's almost careless, final words; ”Or else, he would expend the effort to... toss them over the nearest cliff, dealing with them that way.”