10: Chapter 10 Turning Trash into Treasure, Iron Hand Suppresses Villains

Zhang Wei looked at the grayish-white powder in Lin Qi's hand with a look of disbelief.

"Brother Qi, can this stuff really be used? This is a defective byproduct from a failed extraction. Even the poorest apprentices wouldn't use it for practice."

Lin Qi brushed the powder off his hands, his tone certain.

"For your data System, anything without Source Power is waste. But for me, the violent factors have been removed, leaving only pure calcium and phosphorus."

He grabbed a handful and ground it firmly between his fingers.

The powder made a faint grinding sound.

"The hardness is sufficient, and the particles are uniform. Using this as a supplementary material for 'Skin Grinding' is better than the five-thousand-a-bottle Emery on the market."

Zhang Wei's mouth fell open.

"Five thousand? This whole sack only costs fifty bucks."

Lin Qi nodded.

"Then I'll take it all."

He walked over to a nearby half-open wooden crate.

The crate contained a pile of withered yellow leaves, looking like autumn refuse swept from the streets.

"Blazing Sun Grass?" Lin Qi picked up a leaf.

The leaf was dry and curled; it would crumble into dust with the slightest pressure.

"How did this get ruined?"

Zhang Wei leaned in to take a look.

"Don't even get me started. The temperature control equipment broke during transport. It overheated, and most of its medicinal properties dissipated. Now, besides being a bit dry and hot, you couldn't even cast a Fireball with it."

Lin Qi held it to his nose and sniffed.

A faint, pungent scent.

There was no rich medicinal fragrance, only a very pure smell, like burnt chili peppers.

"Perfect." Lin Qi's lips twitched slightly.

"The medicinal properties of normal Blazing Sun Grass are too fierce; using it directly would burn the sweat glands. This 'waste grass' with dissipated properties still has its Fire Toxin, which is perfect for stimulating the pores to open and close, allowing the bone powder to seep in."

He grabbed another handful of withered leaves and put them into the previous bag of bone powder.

"How much for this?"

Watching Lin Qi stock up with such practiced ease, Zhang Wei was a bit dazed.

"This stuff... usually people are paid to haul it away for firewood."

"Name a price."

"Brother Qi, if you like it, just take it," Zhang Wei waved his hand generously. "It's just taking up space anyway, and I still have to pay rent for the warehouse."

Lin Qi stopped what he was doing and turned to look at Zhang Wei.

His gaze was very serious.

"Friendship is friendship, business is business."

He pointed to the bags on the floor.

"I'm poor right now, so I can only pay you waste prices. When I have money later, I'll make up the difference at the full price."

Zhang Wei froze for a moment, then gave a bitter smile.

"Fine, fine, we'll do it your way. For this pile of rotten grass and bone powder, just give me two hundred bucks as a token gesture for the shipping cost."

Lin Qi fished out two crumpled bills from his pocket and slapped them into Zhang Wei's hand.

Money paid, goods settled.

This was a matter of principle.

If he didn't pay, the relationship would sour; it would be awkward to ask for more strange Materials in the future.

Lin Qi continued to wander through the warehouse.

The variety of waste Materials here was vast; it was practically an untapped treasure trove.

The data System was too rigid.

It only recognized purity and numerical values.

If a medicinal herb failed even a single metric, it was judged as trash.

But in the eyes of an Ancient Martial Artist, everything has medicinal properties.

Lin Qi stopped in a dusty corner.

A half-man-tall bronze dummy was tossed there.

The surface of the bronze dummy was pitted and dented, as if it had been struck many times.

Most importantly, the carved lines for the Acupoints on the dummy were a mess; some lines were even carved far away from the muscle fibers.

"This bronze dummy..." Lin Qi reached out and touched the dummy's head.

"That? It's a failure," Zhang Wei explained. "It was originally custom-made for teaching at the medical academy, but the craftsman's hand slipped and he carved the meridian lines all wrong. We were planning to melt it down to sell the copper."

Lin Qi crouched down, carefully examining those incorrect lines.

His finger slid down the bronze dummy's spine.

"Off by three inches," Lin Qi muttered to himself. "But this deviation is very interesting."

In this world, because humans had undergone Awakening with data panels, their body structures had undergone subtle mutations.

Standard ancient martial meridian charts didn't align in certain places.

This incorrectly carved bronze dummy actually presented the flow of meridians after a certain type of mutation.

Although it was wrong, the direction of the error gave Lin Qi inspiration.

"I'll take this too."

Lin Qi lifted the several-dozen-pound bronze dummy with one hand.

"Wait, Brother Qi, are you taking that back to use as a dumbbell?"

"As a teaching tool."

Lin Qi didn't explain much.

"To study the human body structure of your world."

"Fine then." Zhang Wei sighed, thinking his newly acknowledged big brother certainly had a unique way of thinking.

Others came to the black market to buy god-tier gear or forbidden drugs.

He came to buy bone ash, withered grass, and a defective bronze dummy.

For the whole trip, he had spent less than three hundred bucks.

Lin Qi packed everything up.

Three large, full bags.

Though he looked like a scavenger, he knew in his heart that these things were enough for him to complete the first stage of 'Skin Refining'.

Once the skin membrane was refined to be as tough as cowhide, ordinary swords and blades wouldn't even leave a white mark.

Only then would he truly have the power to protect himself in this dangerous world.

"Let's go." Lin Qi shouldered the two large sacks and carried the bronze dummy in his hand, his steps still light.

After being nourished by the Source Beast Meat earlier, this body's strength had indeed grown significantly.

In the past, carrying this much would have definitely left him panting.

Zhang Wei followed closely behind, wanting to help share the load, but Lin Qi refused.

Carrying weight was also a form of cultivation.

The two walked through the dim warehouse corridor toward the front shop.

They were only halfway there.

Suddenly, a commotion came from the front hall.

"Bang!"

It sounded like a heavy object being slammed onto a table.

Followed by a coarse male voice roaring.

"Cut the crap! The strengthening potion I bought from you guys—my blade snapped as soon as I applied it! Pay up!"

Zhang Wei's steps faltered, and his brow furrowed.

On that round face that was always smiling, a rare hint of Evil Qi appeared.

"This routine again."

He cursed under his breath.

"What is it?" Lin Qi asked, glancing sideways.

"Black market deadbeats," Zhang Wei snorted coldly. "There are always some reckless thugs who get their poor-quality gear broken in a fight and then use our potions as an excuse to extort us. Since there's no oversight in the black market, it's all about whose fists are bigger."

Lin Qi nodded.

Perfectly logical.

In this place without legal constraints, the law of the jungle was the only rule.

"I'll go check it out. Brother Qi, you rest in the back for a bit; don't let this filth offend your eyes." Zhang Wei rolled up his sleeves, ready to charge forward.

Despite his usual cowardly appearance, when it came to his own turf, this fatty still had some backbone to defend his family business.

Lin Qi said nothing, merely placing the sacks gently in the corner.

The bronze dummy was also set aside.

He patted the dust off his clothes.

"I'm coming with you."

"Huh?" Zhang Wei looked back. "There's no need to trouble you with such a small matter, Brother Qi..."

"I took your goods, so I owe you half a favor." Lin Qi stepped forward, passing Zhang Wei. "Besides, I want to see exactly how hard the 'fists' are around here."

Zhang Wei was stunned for a moment, then a warm feeling surged in his heart.

Hitching his wagon to this star was definitely worth it!

The two lifted the door curtain and entered the front hall.

The atmosphere in the shop was tense, like drawn bows.

Several large men in leather armor were surrounding the counter, each looking fierce and malicious.

The leader was a bald man with a necklace of wolf fangs around his neck, the flesh on his face quivering.

He had one foot on the counter and was clutching the collar of the thin little clerk, spittle flying everywhere.

"I don't want to hear your explanations about physical hardness! My blade broke, and that's that! It was a Blue Grade item! Without a hundred thousand bucks, this isn't over!"

The clerk was being choked until his face was red and purple; unable to speak, he could only wave his hands frantically.

The surrounding customers had long since scrambled away, fearing they would get splashed with blood.

"Let go."

Zhang Wei walked over with a dark expression and shouted.

The bald man turned his head and looked the chubby student up and down.

"Oh? Where'd this little fatty come from? You've got no business talking here. Get your boss out."

"I am the boss," Zhang Wei raised his head. "Huichun Hall has never been known to sell fake medicine. If there's a quality issue with your blade, that's the blacksmith's problem. What does it have to do with our potion?"

"Heh, quite the sharp tongue."

The bald man tossed the clerk aside like trash and turned to face Zhang Wei.

"Since you're the boss, that makes things easy."

He pulled a longsword broken into two pieces from his waist and slammed it heavily onto the table.

The break was jagged, as if it had been forcefully snapped by something.

"This is the evidence." The bald man grinned maliciously, his large, fan-like hand reaching for Zhang Wei. "If you don't pay up today, I'll take this fatty apart to settle the debt."

Zhang Wei instinctively shrank back.

That large hand came whistling with the sound of wind; it was fast, clearly belonging to a strength-type Awakened.

Just as that hand was about to touch Zhang Wei's collar.

A pale, thin hand shot out from the side.

Like a viper's strike, it accurately and ruthlessly clamped onto the bald man's wrist.

Snap.

The sound was crisp.

The bald man's movement came to a dead stop.

He froze for a second and tried to pull his hand away, but found that the seemingly weak hand was like an iron vise, completely immovable.