"Ah, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!"

Amid the swirling steam, Moen tilted his head back and couldn't help but let out a satisfied sigh:

"I think I might die from sheer pleasure."

The time was the next day.

The location was the Sea of Flowers.

After returning to the academy, Moen enjoyed a perfect rest that didn’t consume any energy.

But as soon as he was up, Teacher Mela promptly called him over.

By now, the Sea of Flowers had undergone a dramatic transformation.

Amid the cascading waves of flowers, a luxurious outdoor hot spring pool, made of interlocked marble tiles, stood resplendent. Pink silk draped in graceful waves, giving the scene a hazy, dreamlike beauty.

It was, unmistakably, a hot spring.

And the first thing Teacher Mela had done upon summoning Moen was to tell him to get into it?

Though it felt inherently suspicious, Moen didn’t object since he knew refusing would be utterly futile.

So he simply stripped down and submerged himself.

"Feeling good?"

Teacher Mela crouched by the spring, her amber-red eyes fixed on Moen with an unblinking intensity. Her youthful face bore an unusually radiant smile.

"Good," Moen replied, shrinking his neck instinctively as an uneasy feeling grew in his chest. Still, he spoke honestly. "Even better than the one at Celicia's house."

"That’s great."

Mela narrowed her eyes with satisfaction, her smile deepening. "No need to feel so tense. Just relax and enjoy it."

"Who said I was tense?!"

Moen stretched his limbs nonchalantly, adding, "See? Totally relaxed."

After all, resistance was pointless, so he might as well take this opportunity to enjoy himself.

It wasn’t like Teacher Mela was going to devour him or anything.

"That’s more like it," Mela said with a nod, repeating herself with an even brighter grin.

For now, she did nothing—merely maintaining her watchful gaze as Moen soaked in the spring.

Moen, feeling her unwavering stare, shifted uncomfortably.

Even though this wasn’t the first time he’d undressed in front of her, Mela’s piercing gaze made him feel increasingly uneasy.

"So, um… Teacher Mela…"

"Speak."

"Could you… stop staring at me? It’s making me nervous.

"What’s there to be nervous about?"

Mela pouted dismissively. "Is there something on you I’m not supposed to see?"

"That’s not the point… It’s just, your expression right now—it’s kind of creepy?"

"Goodness, shut up. If I don’t keep an eye on you, how else would I know if the timing is right?"

"Wait, timing? Did you just mention timing?!"

"Ah, you misheard me," Mela said hastily. "I meant the temperature. Yes, the temperature. To ensure my dear disciple can enjoy a perfectly warm and soothing bath after all your exhausting battles—what could be more fitting of my duties as your teacher?"

"You *definitely* mentioned timing just now! I heard it clearly!"

In an instant, Moen sprang to his feet with a sense of urgency.

"I knew something was off about this hot spring pool! Who ever heard of a hot spring with a rounded bottom—this is a pot!"

"Nonsense, who would need a pot *this* big?" Mela retorted calmly, unfazed, as she added all sorts of peculiar items into the spring water. From seemingly nowhere, she also fished out a massive ladle, taller than she was, and began stirring it gently. Her tone was soft and soothing:

"Come now, be good. Just lie back down. It won’t hurt that much. One blink is all it takes—easy as that!”

Her demeanor suddenly reminded Moen of a big bad wolf getting ready to stew a lamb for dinner.

"The only thing easy about this is how I’ll get cooked if I stay!" Moen shouted. “You’re really going to eat me, aren’t you?!”

He flailed and struggled to escape, but an invisible force suddenly pressed him down, shoving his entire body back into the pot—no, into the hot spring pool.

"Ah, it’s not that I *want* to be so forceful," Mela sighed, her tone almost apologetic. "But seeing my dear disciple suddenly gain so much more muscle overnight—it’s not fair to expect me, your teacher, to restrain my excitement, now is it?"

"B-But… gurgle, gurgle… didn’t you say… gurgle… we’d wait until I fully adapted… gurgle… to the sixty-fold time dilation… gurgle, gurgle… before starting the next phase?"

"Yes, yes," Mela said with a nonchalant wave of her hand. "While your progress has indeed exceeded my expectations, you still need to reach the Third Tier for that major step forward. For now, you're still a bit short of the mark."

"Then why… gurgle, gurgle… are we…"

She grinned cheerfully. "This is just a little optimization, so to speak. Think of it as laying the groundwork to make the later steps go smoothly. There’s a particularly crucial process that needs to be initiated a bit earlier."

"What… gurgle, gurgle… kind of process?"

"Oh, come on.” Mela rolled her eyes. "You’re already in the pot; why waste time on all this chatter? Now, be good and stay still—only then will you absorb all the flavors properly!"

With that, she raised the enormous ladle and gave Moen’s head a gentle knock. His whole body instantly went limp, sinking fully into the heated water.

Gurgle, gurgle...

The water’s temperature began to rise.

Unfamiliar ingredients dissolved into the pool’s liquid, tinting it a faint golden hue.

The entire hot spring began to transform into what really feel like a bubbling, increasingly rich soup.

Before long, Moen’s silhouette was no longer visible beneath the surface.

Standing by the pool with a solemn expression, Mela casually tossed away the enormous ladle.

Her cute face was now tinged with an unusual gravity.

"Brace yourself, kid," she murmured. "Here we go."

She extended a slender finger and lightly tapped the steaming water. At that instant, the entire hot spring erupted into a vigorous boil.

Under the water, Moen’s eyes shot wide open.

It burned.

It burned so much!

At that moment, it felt less like he was submerged in thick broth and more like he’d been plunged into molten iron.

The intense heat attacked his body relentlessly, turning him a fiery red—like a shrimp freshly boiled to perfection.

His distorted expression and painfully clenched jaw bore testament to the excruciating, utterly alien sensation coursing through him. It was so overwhelming that he wanted nothing more than to crawl out and sock his insufferable, conniving teacher.

But just as his consciousness began slipping into a hazy oblivion from the torment, he suddenly sensed something equally searing.

His Alchemy Core.

And… the artificial magical runes Mela had painstakingly carved into his body.

Those intricate strips of materials, embedded deep within him, started heating up just as fiercely despite no active trigger.

His burning body, his burning core, and his burning runes—

A vital, living host of flesh; a cold, mechanical construct of lifeless materials.

Two utterly incompatible entities.

And yet, within the churning cauldron, they seemed to gradually begin blending into a harmonious whole...

"It's begun," Mela said softly.

Now standing at full attention, her expression had shifted from grave to entirely somber as she extended a delicate little hand.

A complex array of arcane patterns materialized, drifting into the steaming pool to adhere to Moen’s body. With meticulous care, she manipulated them, stabilizing both the magical matrix and the Alchemy Core, preventing either from collapsing under the extreme conditions of his transformation.

However, in the midst of this violent integration, she felt the presence of something obstructive.

It was as if water and oil were being forced to mix—two substances that could never truly reconcile, unless one ceased to exist.

Mela’s expression didn’t change. With the air of someone who had anticipated such a reaction, she lowered her hand. Sitting in her pale palm was a faint, ethereal glow.

It was moonlight, but it carried a chill—a lifeless stillness.

"The desolate power of the moon…" she murmured.

"I wonder if it can eliminate this insurmountable divide."

With a gentle sigh and a glimmer of expectation—though even she was unsure how things would turn out—Mela allowed the cold moonlight to fall into the boiling cauldron of life and death.