Chapter 31 – Shi Lan: Waiting for you to crash, bad girl.

Witches were truly a species born to stir things up. Their chaotic creativity didn’t just show in daily life—it manifested perfectly in the bizarre range of products they churned out.

Take, for instance, this multifunctional “Surprise Egg” made from top-tier materials. It boasted dual elemental effects—ice and fire—complete with vibration enchantments and more… Seven different enchantments, all etched into something the size of a pigeon egg using micro-carving techniques. That alone was something only a master-level enchanter could pull off. And let’s not even get started on the egg’s alchemically modified composition—it was smooth like jade yet practically indestructible.

It could even be charged. And discharged.

The girl had been dumbfounded when she first saw it, okay?

Was the thing useful? Absolutely not!

Using ninth-tier fire dragon horn and eighth-tier ice crystal to make this was borderline sacrilegious. A total waste of legendary materials. But you had to admit—the craftsmanship and enchantment technique on this pain-inducing little egg made it a true masterpiece.

Fusing materials with completely opposing properties wasn’t impressive enough; this thing could harmonize those properties, convert between them, and regulate temperature with perfect balance.

No doubt about it—when witches got creative, their imagination was practically limitless.

Products like this littered the flea markets, and the second test for joining the Alchemy Society was none other than…

“So… why is it a nipple patch?”

The girl squinted at Shi Lan, momentarily at a loss for words.

“Ahem! This happens to be one of our Alchemy Society’s flagship products. Fully transparent healing patches—comfortable, practical, and even come with micro-repair enchantments.”

“But it’s still a nipple patch, isn’t it?”

How did Jiang Cha even know it was a nipple patch? And one of those with… extra features?

Because Lina used them all the time.

The blond loli with a flat chest had no use for bras, and she hated sports bras. Most of the time, she simply slapped on two of Shi Lan’s so-called “fully transparent healing patches.”

—The truth was, when almost every witch could cast healing magic, this patch’s main role had become… well, as a nipple cover.

Soft, anti-chafing, breathable, cooling, self-cleaning… And since it was alchemically made, you could just cut the mana supply to peel it off. Super convenient.

“A product’s a product. What people use it for isn’t our concern. I mean, if you made a cucumber model and someone used it for… that, are you gonna stop making cucumbers?”

Shi Lan’s cheeks turned a little pink, but she doubled down, pushing the logic sideways.

Jiang Cha: I’m just gonna sit here and watch you talk nonsense.

Sure, if you sold a cucumber and someone used it in… creative ways, that wasn’t your fault. But when your “healing patches” kept evolving with each version and looked more and more like high-end nipple covers? Yeah, that’s on you, Shi Lan.

“Are you gonna make them or not?”

“Of course~ If it makes money, it’s a good product.”

The girl shrugged. Just as the blushing Shi Lan let out a breath of relief and turned to leave, she suddenly grinned mischievously and asked:

“Senior Shi Lan… Are you wearing them right now?”

Her eyes wandered—pointedly—toward Shi Lan’s chest.

Fully transparent nipple covers, huh?

Just imagining it felt… spicy!

“No, I’m not!!”

Throwing down the words, Shi Lan bolted out of the alchemy lab like she was fleeing a crime scene.

The girl shrugged and turned back to the product recipe with a thoughtful expression.

“The principle’s simple enough. Not too difficult to replicate either. The trick is to keep the cost low, win with supply and consistent quality.”

Obviously, the Alchemy Society wouldn’t use a top-secret recipe for a newcomer’s exam. In fact, the formula was so simple that after just one glance, Jiang Cha already had a good idea of how to approach it.

Other alchemists could probably copy it too, but the Society had the advantage of a direct supply chain, keeping production costs at rock bottom.

For most independent alchemists, buying the raw materials off the market would cost more than just buying the finished product. No wonder they weren’t worried about leaks.

“Slime mucus, Ice Crystal Grass, Healing Cells… that should do it.”

Alchemy wasn’t hard, not really. No matter how complex the product, the core principle was the same:

Use magic to alter material properties. Fuse various materials’ special magical traits to form a stable, unique mana source.

That’s it.

The physical form didn’t matter. The mana core was the product’s true essence.

But simple theory often got messy in practice. How do you process materials? How do you merge opposing properties? How do you resolve magic incompatibilities?

That’s the alchemist’s job.

And Jiang Cha’s challenge.

Shi Lan’s formula only listed the materials, not their quantities, prep methods, or the specific magic modulation needed.

In the infinite resources of the multiverse, almost every alchemical material had a substitute. But any recipe that could be mass-produced had to meet three criteria:

One, the materials had to be abundant and mass-producible.
Two, the alchemy method had to be simple and easy to replicate.
Three, mass production had to yield consistent quality.

Following those three rules in reverse, Jiang Cha quickly figured out the optimal approach.

“To make the slime mucus bond transparently to skin, mana-solidification won’t work. A gel form is better.”

“For the Ice Crystal Grass… the basic method wastes too much. Let’s use the Meist method—just stew it. Lower purity a bit to save time.”

“As for the healing cells, turning them into spore powder might cause allergic reactions. Let’s just extract the healing magic directly. We’ll lose some healing potency, but since it’s mostly used as a nipple cover, who really cares? The healing’s just a bonus comfort effect anyway.”

As her thoughts clarified, her hands moved without pause.

Slime mucus—into the mixer. A dose of magic adjusted its physical properties, turning it into a perfect transparent gel.

Ice Crystal Grass—into a flask with solvent, boiling gently. She carefully teased out its unique magic signature using her mana.

Healing cells looked like a slice of meat. She treated them the same way—stewed and strained for magical extraction.

Filtering the impurities out of the two flask solutions…

Mixing them in a 4:3 ratio. Stirring with a glass rod, pouring the mix into the gel.

She used her magic to guide the fusion. The once-clear gel slowly took on a soft blue-green tint.

Then she removed the finished gel sheet, etched mana runes onto it to embed the absorption enchantment…

And sliced it into thin sheets with the cutting machine.

Just like that—five hundred alchemical… healing patches were done.

“Senior Shi Lan, I’m finished~”

Holding one up on a tray, she handed it to Shi Lan, who had returned to the doorway. The girl clasped her hands behind her back, tapping her toe anxiously, hopeful eyes fixed on Shi Lan’s face.

The process hadn’t been difficult.

But she genuinely didn’t know if her version matched the Society’s standard method.

“How many did you make? How much material did you use? Judging by the time… it was a first-attempt success?”

Shi Lan only glanced at the patch and felt the magic within. She already had a sense of the answer—she just needed to confirm it.

“Five hundred. Four-to-three ratio. About a kilo total. First try success.”

“Then congratulations, Jiang Cha—welcome to the Alchemy Society.”

Shi Lan smiled slightly and said it softly.

“Thank you, Senior~ Oh, will you be using these five hundred patches? If you do, let me know how they feel, okay? I’ve never tried a nip—uh, healing patch myself.”

“I told you, stop getting hung up on that!!”

“Hehe”

…

“Every newcomer in the Alchemy Society gets a monthly material stipend of 100 gold coins. You can save unused funds for the next month. It’s part of our support for trainees.”

“If you want more materials, you can earn income by producing items the Society sells externally. Buying from within the Society also gets you discounts, based on rarity tiers… You’ll find all the prices in this list I sent you.”

Shi Lan’s cheeks still had a faint blush as she explained everything carefully.

She occasionally glanced at the now oddly obedient and curious Jiang Cha trailing behind her. With a quiet sigh, she thought to herself…

The Alchemy Society wasn’t like the Combat Club. There weren’t many battle maniacs here. Most members were shut-ins. By comparison, she was practically a social butterfly.

Letting Jiang Cha in…

Shi Lan was honestly a little worried. This troublemaker better not drag the rest of us down when she crashes and burns.

Shut-ins might be easy to trick, but when they caught real feelings and got played… the fallout could be scary.

—Witches didn’t exactly have the most stable mental states, after all.

“I know”

Jiang Cha lightly tapped her lips, nodding playfully.

Of course she knew that constantly