36: Chapter 36 is outrageous; a pressure cooker is used to forcibly refine a divine medicine.

The old man's hands were shaking a little.

He stared at the open vault door, then glanced at the shattered glass on the floor, a strange clucking sound coming from his throat.

Half a minute ago, this was still an absolute defense touted as physically immune.

Now, it wasn't worth a damn.

"Wait a moment." The old man took a deep breath, turned, and ducked into the vault.

Not long after, he walked out holding a pitch-black, long wooden box.

As soon as the box appeared, the eyes of the group of Awakened ones who had been dazed instantly changed.

That look was called greed.

Lin Qi ignored those gazes, which were like flies, and reached out to take the box.

Click.

The lid opened.

A pungent, fishy smell rushed over him, as if a fierce tiger were roaring right in your face.

Lying in the box was a leg bone the length of a forearm. Its color wasn't ghastly white, but rather a faded, antique gold, and the bone texture was as fine as a piece of polished topaz.

There were no data light effects, no equipment stats.

But in Lin Qi's eyes, this thing was more dazzling than any epic-grade equipment.

This was a raw Materials that hadn't been assimilated by the System rules.

"The goods are not bad." Lin Qi closed the lid and slung the box over his back.

The old man wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Little brother, care to leave a number? If there are any more demolition jobs like this in the future..."

"Depends on the money." Lin Qi interrupted him and turned to leave.

Zhang Wei only then recovered from his shock, hurriedly straightened his back, glared around with borrowed authority, and trotted after him.

"Brother Qi! Awesome!"

After leaving the vault area, Zhang Wei was so excited that his legs stopped shaking, and he was spitting everywhere while talking.

"You didn't see the expressions on those people's faces; it was like they'd eaten a dead fly! That was the Star Shield, rumored to be able to withstand even a forbidden spell from a Fifth-Turn Mage, and you just punched it—snap! It shattered!"

Zhang Wei gestured with his hands, his face full of admiration.

"From now on, we can walk sideways in this black market gray zone! Whoever dares to refuse to submit, I'll just report your name, and that'll be..."

"Shut up." Lin Qi didn't stop, turning into an alley only half a meter wide.

Zhang Wei froze, then lowered his voice: "What's wrong, Brother Qi?"

"Someone wants to rob us." Lin Qi's voice was flat, devoid of any emotion.

Zhang Wei shrank his neck, the arrogant air from just a moment ago instantly dissipating, and he looked back nervously.

Behind them was empty, with only a few stray cats rummaging through trash cans.

"There's no one..."

"Three on the left, two on the roof, and one with a stealth skill who has been following us the whole way."

As Lin Qi said this, his pace suddenly quickened.

He twisted and turned through the maze-like alleys, specifically choosing the dark, damp paths that were blind spots for surveillance.

Two minutes later.

Ahead was a dead end.

A high wall covered in graffiti blocked their path; the only exit was the way they had come in.

Zhang Wei's face turned deathly pale: "Brother Qi, we went the wrong way! This is a dead end!"

Lin Qi stopped and turned around.

He looked at the empty alley entrance, his expression as calm as if he were waiting for a bus.

"Come out. Aren't you tired of following?"

No one responded.

Only the rustling sound of the wind blowing through waste paper could be heard.

Zhang Wei swallowed hard and shrank behind Lin Qi: "Brother Qi, are you sure we didn't make a mistake? There's really no..."

Bang!

Lin Qi suddenly moved.

He didn't rush forward but instead suddenly turned sideways, lashing out with his right leg like a whip, kicking hard against a tin trash can filled with construction waste by the side of the road.

This kick had immense force.

The half-person-tall tin can flew as if struck by a cannonball, whistling through the air as it flew horizontally toward an empty space on the left side of the alley entrance.

There was clearly nothing there.

Thud!

A dull thud.

The trash can seemed to hit an invisible wall, and the bricks and debris inside spilled all over the ground with a clatter.

The air distorted for a moment.

A figure appeared.

It was a rogue wearing tight leather armor, currently kneeling on the ground while clutching his chest, his expression uglier than if he had seen a ghost.

He didn't understand.

His [Shadow Stealth] was a Level 15 Advanced skill; as long as he didn't attack, even thermal imaging cameras couldn't detect him.

Why was he precisely hit by a trash can?

Before he could figure it out, a foot wearing a school uniform sneaker was already stepping on his face.

Thump.

The rogue's head hit the ground, and stars danced before his eyes.

Lin Qi looked down at him from above.

"The stealth skill is not bad, but your footsteps are too heavy."

Lin Qi bent down and began to search the rogue's body.

"Your heartbeat is also loud. I could hear you plotting to take this bone in my hand from ten meters away."

The rogue wanted to struggle, wanted to activate a skill to counterattack.

But he discovered in horror that the foot stepping on his face was as heavy as a mountain.

That pure physical suppression made it difficult for him to even move a finger.

Slap.

Lin Qi delivered a hand strike to his carotid artery.

The rogue rolled his eyes and passed out, but the shoeprint on his face remained exceptionally clear.

One minute later.

Lin Qi stood up, holding a bulging money pouch and a dagger emitting a blue glow in his hand.

"Three thousand in cash, one fine-grade dagger."

Lin Qi stuffed the money into his own pocket and threw the dagger to Zhang Wei.

"Compensation for emotional distress."

Zhang Wei scrambled to catch the dagger, looked at the unconscious unlucky guy on the ground, then looked at the calm Lin Qi, feeling that his worldview had been refreshed once again.

This wasn't being robbed.

This was clearly a sting operation.

"Let's go." Lin Qi patted the dust off his clothes. "In the future, remember to be polite to these gods of wealth who deliver themselves to our doorstep."

...

When they returned to the Tianhai No. 3 High School dormitory, it was already late at night.

Lin Qi locked the door and pulled the curtains.

He placed the century-old tiger bone on the desk and dragged out an old-fashioned pressure cooker he didn't know where he had gotten from under the bed.

If those alchemists saw this, they would be so angry they'd vomit blood.

Who doesn't use precision constant-temperature furnaces or Medicine Cauldrons engraved with spirit-gathering arrays to refine rare medicinal Materials?

Using a pressure cooker? Is this for stewing pork ribs?

Lin Qi didn't care.

In his view, the core of refining medicine was the control of temperature and pressure; as long as the heat was right, it didn't matter what container was used.

He smashed the tiger bone and ground it into powder.

That bone, which was so hard that even an alloy blade could barely damage it, was like brittle candy in his hands, and after just a few moments, it turned into a pile of pale gold powder.

He poured it into the pot, adding the strong liquor he had prepared in advance and those few stalks of tiger-bone grass.

He turned on the heat.

Twenty minutes later.

The pressure cooker's valve began to hiss.

An extremely overbearing medicinal scent filled the narrow dormitory.

The smell was pungent, like burnt leather mixed with high-proof liquor; taking one whiff made one's head heat up.

Lin Qi turned off the heat and released the pressure.

He opened the lid.

The original pot of soup had boiled dry, leaving only a layer of pitch-black paste stuck to the bottom of the pot.

It was done.

Tiger Bone Body Tempering Paste.

Although it looked terrible, its effect was ten times stronger than those Body Tempering liquids that cost tens of thousands per bottle on the market.

Lin Qi used a spoon to scoop up a little and applied it to his arm.

Scalding hot.

It felt like countless needles were pricking him.

His skin quickly turned red, and his muscles twitched involuntarily under the stimulation of the medicinal power.

To Lin Qi, this kind of pain was enjoyment.

This was a signal of getting stronger.

Just as he was preparing to take off his clothes to apply it all over his body, the phone on the desk vibrated.

The screen lit up.

It was a WeChat message.

Sender: Zhang Wei.

[Zhang Wei: Brother Qi, are you asleep yet? There's a bolder job; dare to take it?]

Lin Qi wiped his hands and picked up the phone.

[Lin Qi: Speak.]

[Zhang Wei: Target: cloud-pattern herb. Someone found this thing on the edge of the black market.]

Lin Qi's fingers froze.

cloud-pattern herb.