The Silly Alchemist

Prodigals and aristocrats were a regular sight around the Imperial Capital and of course, at the Royal Institute of Education. Ye Lang’s addition to the crowd was almost insignificant and could be easily overlooked. 

It was rather odd that people seemed to care more about Ye Lang back when he was dumb. Now that he was much better and smarter, everyone started to ignore him. He was not as well-known as he used to be. 

Sigh, he decided to just be a “regular citizen”. 

There were reasons for that, perhaps he had been way too flashy back then; perhaps he was used to his peasant life memories from his past life, that he became very humble. His name did pop up occasionally in small rumours or gossips but everyone would just quickly forget about him. It couldn’t be helped that the Imperial Capital was such a lively place, there was always something major every other day. 

Another reason was that he had not bothered to showcase his talents, giving off an illusion that he was just some normal boy. Everyone knew the thirteenth prince of the Ye family had become way smarter than he used to be but compared to the past, he was no longer interesting. Some people even thought that he was not as sharp as his old self. 

Back then, he would’ve had amusingly odd answers to inquiries and weird points to defend his prodigal tendencies. But now, his replies were just… normal and factually correct, so normal it was no longer entertaining.

As time passed, people started to care less, everyone lived with the impression that he was a good-for-nothing incompetent aristocrat, they believed he wouldn’t be able to achieve anything. 

Competence and capability were important qualities the people of the mainland treasured and Ye Lang seemed to not possess any of them, at least in the eye of the general public. 

“Useless? My master isn’t useless, he just doesn’t bother to show his skills to you peasants,” murmured Tigress under her breath. She had never liked hearing such remarks about her master. 

To her, Ye Lang was the best, he was also the best even when he was dumb in the past. If he were useless, he wouldn’t be able to coach her on her combat skills! He even suggested her a more compatible fighting style to train for. 

After Tigress had mastered her punches, she learnt how to wield weapons. She grabbed a weapon with a long handle from the side. The weapon clenched tightly in her palms was a sturdy sabre equipped with long handles, forged during the Tang dynasty. Back in time, the sabre was one of the most important weapons of the Tang dynasty warriors at war, it was limited to military use and people were banned from owning or forging the weapon. Its earliest form was the horse chopping sabre used by the Han dynasty to fend off the invasion by the Mongolian cavalry. 

Its blade was curved, double-edged and completed with a four feet long handle, giving the wielder immense destruction ability. It was unbeatable in the war zone. After the Tang dynasty, the sabre was no longer seen or forged throughout history. Sabres like this were expensive to make, it was a luxury. The Tang dynasty was a prosperous time. Without such a blessing, the other dynasties and kings found it difficult to afford such expensive weapons. 

Anyone could recreate it now, it was just a sabre. It was child’s play for a prodigal like Ye Lang to get his hands on one. 

The process was meticulous, it was designed with great detail, its high-grade materials ordered from the far corners of the empire and then carefully custom made. It cost a hefty amount of money for such craftsmanship, but it was all worth it. In the end, a resilient and sleek long-handled sabre worthy as a family inheritance was birthed. 

Ye Lang wasn’t the mastermind behind its design, he had referred to a book titled The History of Weapons taken from the martial arts treasury. This book recorded all weapons used in China in the past along with some notes on rare unique weapons like the legendary crossbow used by the famous Zhuge family and the three-arrowed giant arcuballista that prospered the Song dynasty. Other than that, the book even talked about various firearms. 

The book was almost as precious as the notes of the Great Alchemist Ban, its contents were imprinted only in Ye Lang’s memories so there was no chance of showing it to someone else. 

You must be wondering why Ye Lang had such great memory on The History of Weapons. Well, warfare and weapons were a common interest among young boys, so it was natural for them to want to learn more about it. 

When he had obtained this book in his past life, he was very happy, he had treasured it very much, slowly flipping through each page to bask in its knowledge. 

Out of all weapons, he had chosen this particular sabre after some thought. He felt that this weapon was very suitable for Tigress, and he had altered some parts of it to suit her even better. There was a small section on his rendition of Yeung’s Style Spear located at a corner of the design sketch. The mentioned style would help utilize the weapon’s full ability way beyond its limit.  

Yeung’s Style Spear techniques were created and concluded after many wars, it may be a combination of simple defence and offence moves but it had proved to be very lethal through its application. The simpler the style was, the easier it was to alter it in accordance with one’s style.     Witnessing the demonstration of the now altered Yeung’s Style Spear technique on her sabre, Tigress was absolutely impressed, her eyes were bright and wide. It was obvious that she had taken a liking towards this set of style, and loved her new custom-made weapon. 

Her weapon had deviated a lot from its historical form, the design was rather unconventional. According to The History of Weapons, sabres could be mainly categorized into two versions: its most primitive form and its altered form. The altered form was much suitable for martial art practitioners but not on the battlefields of war.

His version of the sabre had a unique mechanism. At first, Ye Lang had found it rather useless in this universe but decided that having more features was better than having none, so he kept it there. The production cost was a tad bit more expensive because of that but he didn’t mind it at all. He was a prodigal, such expenditure was up his alley. 

Though so, he had kept the gear’s existence a secret from everyone, including Tigress. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her, but he thought that it had no use for her. Plus, he knew her well, she wouldn’t want to use it. 

Tigress was excited, throwing him rapid questions asking the name of her weapon and what technique he had demonstrated just now. Ah, good question, he realized he’d never thought about it.  “Let’s name your weapon Tigress’s Sabre. The technique’s name could still remain as Yeung’s Style Spear,” said Ye Lang after a brief moment of silence. 

He decided to not change the technique’s name to honour its creator. 

“...Master, is there a better name for it? It’s quite an odd name to tell the others,” her disappointment was obvious.

“Ah, you don’t like that? Then… what about Tai Ya’s Sabre?

“I… guess that’s alright, this sounds better,” Tigress agreed reluctantly. She had no hopes for impressive names from her master, she’d decided to just accept it as it is now. 

At least it was a norm to name your weapon after yourself in this universe.