My health recovery is incredibly fast.

He looked at Anru and said with a smile:

"Let me guess, is this your favorite color...?"

He poured the last bottle of medicine into his mouth.

"Pfft~"

"Whoo~"

The azure flames shot upwards, like a fountain spouting water into the sky.

“It’s this color…” Anru’er’s eyes sparkled. “How did you know?”

Xia Zuo spat out the last mouthful of potion, and the light blue flames suddenly burst into an even brighter light before dissipating into the air.

"Hehe. Guess?"

He wiped his mouth, carefully collected the torch and the matches that had fallen to the ground, and said:

“Do you remember what happened at the testing station in Rosac City? You went behind the curtain, and Thales let you choose one of two glass bottles. You chose the light blue one.”

Anruer hugged him tightly, "You're so good to me, you even remember this."

Xia Zuo gently stroked her hair and whispered in her ear:

"Happy birthday."

The delicate body in his arms stiffened for a moment, then trembled slightly, and soft, intermittent words, like sobs, escaped her lips:

"Thank you, Xia Zuo. How did you know that? I can't even remember myself."

People in this world also have the custom of celebrating birthdays.

Just like in the previous life, as people get older, their birthdays become increasingly blurry, and they gradually forget this special day amidst their busy lives.

But if someone remembers a birthday and takes action to celebrate it, anyone would feel more favorably toward that person.

“My advisor has a list of students; I found out about it from him.”

Xia Zuo patted her on the back, took a small box out of his pocket, and handed it to her.

"This is a birthday present, open it and see."

Anru covered her mouth in surprise, her eyes trembling as she stared at the small square box.

She lifted the lid of the box; inside was a thin string with several tiny, light blue gemstones strung on it. "This is..."

Xia Zuo knew that such a small box could easily lead people to misunderstand that it contained a ring.

Actually, this is not the case.

"This is a hair tie." Xia Zuoqiang suppressed a laugh as he watched her put the tie on her slender wrist.

"Oh, you should have said so earlier," Anru'er gently patted the other person's chest, raised her hand to remove the black hair tie from the ponytail, and put on the new hair tie. "Does it look good?"

"It looks beautiful." Xia Zuo put his arm around her waist. "So, are you willing?"

"I do," Anru answered first, hooking her arms around his neck, her eyes slightly dazed.

“From today onwards, we are officially dating.” Xia Zuo quickly stopped the other person’s lips and looked in the direction of the guards and onlookers.

The following content is not suitable for public occasions.

He planned to skip it.

"Alright. Mission accomplished. Let's head back. Hmm... it's still early, I'm going to go to the poison alchemy section to practice concocting poisons."

Xia Zuo took the initiative to change the subject, placing his right hand on the other person's waist as they walked towards the castle.

Anru leaned against her boyfriend's chest. "When is your birthday?"

Xia Zuo glanced at the castle lights and blinked. "I don't remember very well. I'll have to ask my mentor."

...

The Poison Alchemy Zone.

Xia Zuo escorted An Ru'er into the dormitory corridor and then walked in alone.

He spent a month reducing the time required to refine the Black Eye Poison powder from 1 hour and 20 minutes to about 1 hour.

He planned to further study the connection methods between the various alchemical processes, as well as his own movement techniques when moving between alchemical machines.

Once the refining time for this powder is completely stabilized to within 1 hour, then proceed with refining the next type of powder.

The learning sequence is the same as the trainee stage.

The refining difficulty ranges from simple to complex, successively producing refined powders of White Palate Agent, Black Eye Agent, Brown Foot Agent, Venus Agent, and Blue Bone Agent.

As Xia Zuo approached the basic alchemy room, he tiptoed and was surprised to see his mentor sitting at his desk, simultaneously manipulating three pens to write words in three notebooks.

"You've arrived."

Kurov looked up. The three pens stopped moving.

"Come, sit down. I have something to tell you."

"Good evening, Professor." Xia Zuo quickly walked to the chair and sat down. His intuition told him that his mentor was in a good mood today.

"Take a look at these."

Kulov manipulated three picture books and placed them on the table:

"This is the brochure for the next cohort of students majoring in Poison Alchemy. They will arrive at the academy in a month. You will be responsible for teaching them the apprentice level content."

"Ah I?"

Xia Zuo straightened his back and stared wide-eyed at the picture book in front of him.

Kulov placed his hands on the table, his fingers touching:

“Yes, that’s right. You’re the one who will teach them. You see, we don’t have any elemental servants here. Unlike other alchemy districts, where you can use elemental servants to teach new students, here, only you can serve as a teaching assistant.”

"identity…"

Xia Zuo carefully read the word... Could it be that teaching assistant is also a part-time job?

Serving as a teaching assistant would definitely reduce the time available for preparing poisons.

But if the teaching assistant can provide new ways to gain experience, then it's worth a try.

Xia Zuo pointed to the "Gender" column on the first picture book and said:

"Professor, female students... oh, no, I don't mean to discriminate against women. I just want to ask if a woman's physical condition is capable of handling poison testing?"

There was something else on his mind that he didn't say.

The Black Eye Agent is a poison that produces hallucinations.

Leaving aside the tiny specks of light that floated out of the body.

In the hallucination effect, the hallucinations that each person sees are different, and are unrelated to willpower attributes.

Xia Zuo's situation is that things in front of him appear distorted and spinning. Anru'er, like him, also sees distorted lines.

Masson and Brandon were rather unfortunate.

They would see countless black dots that kept zooming in and out.

Another is that everything in sight turns into the shape of a banana.

During the first taste test, Masson was so frightened by the dense black spots that he convulsed, while Brandon obsessively licked his forearm.

After several attempts with the black eye poison, Mason and Brandon's abnormal symptoms gradually worsened, causing them to knock over many glass bottles containing the poison.

Before they were about to cause even bigger trouble in the vision, Kulov transferred them to the field of potion alchemy.

Generally speaking, guys are more easygoing about these embarrassing moments; they just let them go.

But girls are more sensitive, and there's only one girl among the incoming freshmen.

If something embarrassing happens, it might be difficult to handle...

"Don't worry. I'll be watching when the freshmen first try the Black Eye Poison. If they don't see distorted lines, I'll transfer them to another department immediately."

Kulov took a wooden box from the drawer and placed it in front of the other person:

"Open it and drink the potion inside. After you finish, you can continue testing the medicine. Otherwise, that pile of poison on the shelf will kill you."

"Oh, yes, Professor."

Finally, we can test the drugs! Finally, we can gain experience!

Xia Zuo calmly picked up the potion bottle, cast a detection spell, and carefully examined the crystal-blue potion inside the bottle by the light of the alchemical lamp.

[Item Name] Unknown

[Item Type] Unknown

[Item Grade] Unknown

[Item Quality] Unknown

[Associated Resistance] Unknown

[Item Description] Creator unknown.

[Item Effects]

After drinking it, it is expected to increase the vitality attribute by 2 points.

(Due to insufficient knowledge, no further information was available.)

Huh? Did the slap in the face come so quickly?

The conclusion was reached in the afternoon: there are no alchemical products that can enhance vitality.

We met in the evening?!

No wonder Kurov's vitality attribute can exceed 5 points; it must be the effect of this potion.

Xia Zuo noticed a tiny red line moving within the crystal-blue potion.

He glanced at his mentor, who was manipulating three pens, knowing that the other man wouldn't tell him what it was, so he uncorked the potion bottle, tilted his head back, and drank the potion.

Xia Zuo licked his lips. The medicine didn't taste like anything, and there was no movement on his body.

There was no sweltering heat or black grime oozing from the skin.