"Even if you forgive me, I will never be able to forgive myself for this mistake! I'm truly sorry, Master!" Bai Lihua continued to kowtow to him, feeling as though she'd committed something even worse than treason.

"Please, punish me so I can feel less guilty! I won't complain even if you disown me as your disciple!" Bai Lihua said.

"You want me to punish you?" Su Yang raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, please! Or this guilt in my heart will not subdue!" She insisted.

After a moment of silence, Su Yang sighed and said, "Very well, turn around."

Bai Lihua immediately turned around without questioning him.

A second later…

*PAP*!

Su Yang spanked Bai Lihua's buttocks so hard that she nearly pissed herself.

"Aaaah!" Bai Lihua moaned in pain with pleasure mixed within her voice.

"M-Master… it hurts…" Bai Lihua said a moment later, feeling a stinging sensation on her buttocks.

"Naturally. Or else it wouldn't be a punishment but a reward instead." Su Yang said.

"Anyway, tell me about your situation. Although I already have an idea what happened here, I still want to hear it from you."

Bai Lihua nodded with teary eyes and began explaining how she'd got into such a dangerous situation.

"After studying the techniques you gave me, I had an urge to impress you, so I started making pills by myself. Of course, I would burn even the easiest pills at first, but after a few days of practice, I've managed to stop burning the pills once in a while."

"However, while I have stopped burning every pill, they were all of the lowest quality and too dangerous for consumption because they were filled with impurity."

"Then just a few days ago, I finally concocted a pill that was safe for consumption, so I…"

"So you consumed it?" Su Yang continued it for her.

"Yes, Master… And because I didn't know how much I was improving, I ate every pill that was safe for consumption to experience my own improvements…"

Su Yang sighed at her words and said, "I applaud your enthusiasm in alchemy and feel flattered that you wanted to impress me, but using your own body to experiment on your own pills as a novice Alchemist is quite the dumb thing to do, as you might accidentally poison yourself like today…"

"I won't do it again, Master," she said with an apologetic face.

"I am not saying you shouldn't consume your own pills ever again, but you are still too inexperienced for that kind of stuff. Once you are more experienced, it's only natural for you to do it." Su Yang said, and he continued, "Anyway, I'd planned on giving you lectures today, but you are in no condition for that. Spend the next few days removing the impurities you'd built up instead."

"What about my lecture?" she asked, still feeling the desire to learn, as she'd grown increasingly fond of Alchemy after doing it for herself.

"I will give it to you once you are fully healed," he said.

"Thank you, Master."

"Then I will leave you alone now."

Once Su Yang left the place, Bai Lihua stood up with her hands on the buttocks that Su Yang had violated with pain.

"I didn't think he'd spank me for my mistakes as if I was a child…" Bai Lihua sighed deeply, still feeling a weird sensation on her butt.

"What a blunder I've made today! I just hope he won't see me as a weird woman now…"

After sighing for a few more times, Bai Lihua went to cultivate to remove the impurities she'd built up from consuming her own pills.

Meanwhile, after returning to Wang Shuren's home, Su Yang explained the situation to them.

"Unbelievable… To think that Bai Lihua would poison herself with her own pills…" Wang Shuren didn't know how to feel about this incident, as it was weird for someone like Bai Lihua to make such a mistake.

However, Senior Zeng, on the other hand, was impressed by Bai Lihua.

"She has never studied Alchemy before you accepted her as a disciple, right? It's actually quite remarkable that she'd learned how to concoct pills by herself in just a few short weeks! As expected of Senior Xiao's disciple— she's a true genius." Senior Zeng spoke in a praising tone.

"Yes, I was also surprised to hear that she had learned to concoct pills by herself. However, having talents won't mean a thing if she can't use it because she's dead." Su Yang sighed.

"Honestly, what happened to Sect Master Bai isn't all that uncommon. There will be at least one or two disciples in the Divine Nature Garden that would poison themselves from swallowing their own pill every year, but that only happens to novice Alchemists that are too dedicated in their own work." Senior Zeng said.

"Anyway, since Sect Master Bai will not be attending the lecture, what are we going to do?" he then asked.

"We'll have to continue without her for now." Su Yang said.

Sometime later, Su Yang brought the four of them into the pill room and said to Senior Zeng and Luo Yixiao, "Since the two of you already have years of experience in Alchemy, I won't be giving you any lectures for now. Instead, I will have you participate in some exercises that will significantly boost your ability to concoct pills."

"Really? There are such profound exercises?" Senior Zeng's eyes immediately shone with excitement, looking like a child who just received his first toy.

Su Yang nodded and said, "It's really simple, too."

He then looked at Wang Shuren and asked her, "Can you bring two more cauldrons in here?"

A few minutes later, Wang Shuren returned with two new cauldrons and placed each of them in the corner of the room.

Su Yang then went outside for a minute and came back with a few buckets of water and some ingredients.

He proceeded to pour water into both cauldrons until they were filled to the brim with water, and then he tossed the ingredients inside.

"Go ahead and use your alchemy flames to heat up the cauldron. However, I want it to be exactly 300 celsius, and you have to keep it at that temperature for over an hour without changing the temperature."

"Not even a single celsius?" Senior Zeng raised his eyebrows.

"Did I stutter?" Su Yang responded in a serious tone.

"I understand…" Senior Zeng nodded, and he immediately went to heat up the cauldron.

However, he quickly realized that no matter how strong his alchemy flames were, the cauldron would only heat up to 200 celsius and would not increase anymore until at least ten minutes later, and when the temperature did increase, it only went up by one or two celsius.

"W-What's happening? Why isn't the cauldron heating up?" Senior Zeng mumbled with a confused face, as this is his first time encountering such a problem.

"Is it because of the mixture you put inside the cauldron beforehand, Master?" Luo Yixiao asked him with a sweaty forehead.

"That's right. The mixture inside the cauldron will absorb most of the heat from your alchemy flames, making it much harder for you to heat up the cauldron itself. If you want to reach the goal, you'll have to strengthen your alchemy flames."

"Increasing the power and heat of our alchemy flames is easier said than done, as that requires years of practice!" Senior Zeng said.

"Is it really?" Su Yang asked him.

"W-What do you mean?"

Su Yang then said, "Just like how one can quickly increase their stamina if they exert themselves to their limit, you can quickly strengthen your alchemy flames by exerting yourself. All you really need to do is push yourselves and heat the cauldron as though you are trying to melt the cauldron itself."

"But how are we going to control the flames if we have to exert so much energy? We won't be able to control the temperature, much less maintain one!" Senior Zeng said with wide eyes.

"One step at a time, old man. You can worry about controlling the flames after you can heat the cauldron up to 300 celsius." Su Yang said.

"..."

Although Senior Zeng still had plenty of questions, he decided to keep them to himself, as he didn't want to appear too distrusting and was afraid that it might anger Su Yang.

Shortly later, Senior Zeng and Luo Yixiao returned to heating the cauldron, but they were no longer controlling their alchemy flames and exerted all of their spiritual energy, causing the flames to go crazy.

However, even when using all of their strength, neither Senior Zeng or Luo Yixiao could reach a temperature higher than 250 before they run out of spiritual energy and collapse from exhaustion.

"Until you can maintain the temperature I want for an hour, I will have you continue doing this exercise. If you cannot achieve it even after one month, I will no longer lecture you, and in Luo Yixiao's case, I will let you go as my disciple."

When they heard Su Yang's words, their hearts became filled with anxiousness, and they immediately began heating the cauldron again despite their exhaustion, only stopping once they've truly lost consciousness.