The Alchemist's Guide to Flesh and Blood Ascension

Chapter 154 Smile

"Overtime pay — words — learning?" Lilith tapped her lips with her fingertip, blinking hard as she tried to perfectly replicate Iseria's thought process.

The residual heat from the high-pressure furnace still lingered in the air. Somewhat helplessly, Iseria pulled Lilith to sit opposite her at a wooden table.

She rested her chin on her hand, and Lilith copied her.

Only then did the pale-haired girl realize what the "mentor" Yonivo was referring to.

Iseria sat on a creaking wooden stool, her chin resting on her hands, her eyes fixed on the girl opposite her.

A sliver of light shone through the tiny dust particles drifting in the air and landed on Lilith's silver hair, while the faint red lines at her joints revealed a poignant beauty.

"Lilith," Iseria called softly.

The silver-haired girl turned her neck with a mechanical, stiff motion, like gears meshing. Her bright red eyes were fixed on Iseria, waiting for her next words.

"Laugh—do you remember?" Iseria pursed her lips, stood up and walked to Lilith, looking at her pale face that shone with a cold light.

The latter tilted its head slightly, and the red lines at its joints seemed to tighten a little with this movement.

"Look at me—" Iseria's lips twitched, her smile somewhat forced, but the curve of her eyes revealed undisguised sincerity.

Ionevoy said that emotions allow us to better perceive the world.

"This is real laughter, not that weird laugh where you prop your mouth up with your hand—"

Lilith gazed at Iseria's face, a glint of light slowly shifting in her eyes, as if she were observing and learning.

The next moment, her facial muscles were pulled by an extremely awkward force, and with a few slight cracking sounds, the corners of Lilith's mouth slowly turned up.

One millimeter, then another millimeter.

What kind of smile was that?

Iseria, who had been holding her breath, felt a chill run down her spine the moment she saw that smile!

It must be admitted that Lilith's face is as flawless as those dolls, with symmetrical curves at the corners of her mouth, but due to excessive force, it almost reaches her ears.

The corners of his eyes did indeed curve like crescent moons, but his blood-red pupils gleamed with an eerie light, making the entire smile appear ferocious and bizarre.

This is a pure smile, devoid of any warmth or emotion.

Lilith only managed to "replicate" the appearance.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Iseria covered her forehead and waved her hand to stop.

Upon hearing this, Lilith withdrew her smile, her expression returning to its usual cold and hard state.

She looked at Iseria taking a few steps back, a look of confusion in her eyes.

"—Failure?" Lilith murmured softly, her voice cold and hesitant, like a highly precise machine questioning itself. "Same frequency—why—are you afraid?"

"Because, because you're just learning, but you don't know why you're doing it!" Iseria rubbed her temples, seemingly recalling the "shameful scene" when she pestered Yunevo to understand "reality".

The black-robed alchemist remained leaning quietly against the doorframe, pinching his cheek, before finally speaking up to remind her, "Iseria, you're in too much of a hurry—"

"She is a blank sheet of paper, but also a blank sheet of paper as thin as a cicada's wing. Anything beyond her comprehension can easily tear this blank sheet of paper apart."

"Then—how should we teach her?" Iseria lowered her head in frustration.

Instead of answering directly, Eunice walked to the door leading to the rooftop terrace and casually pushed it open.

In the stairwell, a wild wind, carrying the smell of scorched earth and post-rain dampness, mingled with the rusty smell, flowed through the loose gaps between the corrugated iron sheets.

"Feel the wind, feel nature, feel—reality," Yunevo stepped aside, looked at Iseria, and whispered to her, "just like I taught you."

The fair-haired girl nodded and led Lilith onto the terrace.

The latter, facing the wind, walked with stiff steps, like a toddler learning to walk, but stopped the moment he stepped onto the terrace.

Her long silver hair was blown into a mess, and her Gothic-style clothes were rustling.

"Close your eyes," Iseria whispered.

Lilith obediently lowered her eyes. In this tangible darkness, the omnipresent, cold, flowing sensation seemed to become the only light.

A wisp of wind slipped into the red line on her neck, causing a slight itch.

Although Lilith didn't understand what "itching" meant, this free touch without any purpose was slowly relaxing her irregularly beating "heart".

This feeling was not recorded in any of the experiment logs —

"Grab it—?" Lilith raised her hand, trying to hold onto the ethereal wind. The red threads at her knuckles tightened, and several of them snapped at that moment!

"You can't hold onto the wind," Iseria stepped forward, her off-white hair gently blowing in the wind. "It's the wind that's touching you."

Lilith turned her head and looked at the two humans standing behind her.

She tried to smile again.

This time, the corner of her mouth was slightly crooked, which brought out the dimples on both sides of her cheeks.

Even though Lilith's eyes were still somewhat vacant, it was that awkward and clumsy "effort" that allowed Iseria to see something called "life" at this moment.

That was an action she made because she "wanted" to do it, not an action she imitated for the sake of imitation.

"Isn't the wind beautiful?" Iseria turned her head and looked at Lilith, who was still smiling.

The latter did not speak, but stared at the few red lines scattered by the wind. His voice was less mechanical than before and more ethereal.

"So noisy!"

In her world, this vibrant activity is far more "real" than the numbers that float on paper or flow on the screen.

Iseria paused for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Yes—it's noisy and chaotic, but how can that not be considered reality?"

Just like when Heisenberg Pharmacy opened in Stamock, it was bustling and noisy, but people lingered there.

"Ahem, ladies—if you've had enough of the wind, why don't you come down and have some hot tea to warm yourselves up?" Yunefu had somehow walked onto the terrace, and his eyes inadvertently caught sight of a broken red thread on Lilith's neck.

Perhaps, one day, this silver-haired girl can become a living, breathing "human" again.

Yonivore regained his composure, walked down the stairs first, and closed a drafty side window.

Lilith followed behind the black-robed alchemist, mimicking his slightly unsteady gait. Even though she would often stumble and bump into the iron walls, she stubbornly followed in every single footprint of Yunevo.

She turned around, looked at the orange-red sunset, tilted her head, and seemed to be imagining what tea tasted like.

But the heart began to beat anxiously.