71: Chapter 71 The Joy of the Garbage Collector, Physical Alchemy

"Ash from Lightning-Struck Wood, a five-hundred-year-old Abyss Demon Snake venom sac, and thousand-year-old Cold Pond Water as a catalyst?"

Lin Qi closed the book, 'Dragon-Tiger Bone-Forging Pill,' and tossed it onto the table with a loud thud.

"Old Mo, is this recipe meant for humans? If you mix these things together, forget bone-forging—even an elephant would drop dead on the spot."

Old Mo sat in a worn-out rattan chair, holding a thermos, his eyelids not even twitching.

"Scared of dying?"

"If I were scared of dying, I wouldn't be practicing martial arts." Lin Qi pulled over a chair and sat down. "I'm just afraid of dying for nothing. This recipe is clearly lethal; the logic doesn't hold up."

"Logic?" Old Mo scoffed, setting down his cup. "The way modern Professionals level up and assign points is the logic provided by the System. For us martial artists, it's about breaking logic."

He pointed at Lin Qi's chest.

"Your flesh has been hardened through training, but your bones are still mortal. To carry ten thousand catties of force, your bones must be harder than steel. How do you get them that hard? You shatter them and rebuild."

Old Mo stood up and walked to the bookshelf, his fingers trailing across rows of dusty ancient texts.

"The poison in this recipe isn't meant to kill; it's meant to create an extreme energy environment.

It forces your bone marrow to produce blood and your periosteum to proliferate. It's like blacksmithing—how can you hammer it if you don't heat it red-hot?"

Lin Qi fell silent for two seconds.

"Got it. It's basically self-torture."

"A very concise summary." Old Mo nodded. "Do you dare to try?"

"I dare, sure." Lin Qi spread his hands. "But I can't afford these Materials. An Abyss Demon Snake venom sac is going for three hundred thousand gold coins on the black market, and even then, you can't find one for sale."

Old Mo smiled, a look that carried the cunning of an old fox.

He fished a rusty bronze key from his robes and tossed it to Lin Qi.

"Go to the back mountain."

Lin Qi caught the key. "The back mountain? That's a school restricted area."

"It's a waste disposal area," Old Mo corrected. "Waste from every lab in the school, scrapped equipment, unwanted Source Beast carcasses—they all get dumped there."

"The System deems it a junkyard, but in our eyes..."

"It's a free buffet," Lin Qi's eyes lit up.

"Smart." Old Mo waved him off. "Go on. In the deepest part, there's an abandoned Pill Furnace. It's an antique left behind by the former headmaster, but it still works. Don't let the patrol see you."

Lin Qi grabbed the book and the key, turning to leave immediately.

With a 'buy-for-zero' opportunity like this, arriving late would feel like a loss.

...

Longya Academy, Back Mountain.

The area was surrounded by a high-voltage electric fence. The air was thick with a nauseating, sour stench mixed with the pungent smell of chemical reagents.

Lin Qi swiped the key to open the rusted iron gate and slipped inside.

Mountains of trash greeted his eyes.

Multicolored waste liquids converged into small streams, flowing across the ground and giving off eerie bubbles.

Occasionally, a few mutated rats could be seen scurrying through the trash, their size larger than cats.

"The environment is a bit rough, but there's definitely plenty of stock."

Lin Qi covered his nose, his toes lightly tapping across the scrap metal littering the ground.

He didn't search blindly.

Although he didn't have an inspection skill, he had his newly awakened Martial Intent.

That keen perception of energy fluctuations was more useful than radar.

Lin Qi closed his eyes, his perception extending outward like tentacles.

Beneath that pile of discarded robes on the left, there was a restless heat. Inside that broken petri dish to the right, a gloomy coldness was hidden.

"Found it."

Lin Qi walked over to a pile of scrapped weapons and reached out to pull out a staff broken into two pieces.

The gem at the tip of the staff was shattered, but the shaft was made of Lightning-Struck Wood. Although the break was charred black, the interior still contained violent lightning elements.

"It's not ash, but this lightning energy is even more potent."

Lin Qi stuffed the broken staff into his backpack.

Next, in a box labeled 'Biochemical Waste,' he found a damaged glass jar.

A thick layer of dark green crystals had settled at the bottom.

This was the venom gland extract of some snake-type Source Beast. Because the purification had failed, it produced a highly toxic sediment and was thrown away as waste.

"Even more toxic than a Demon Snake venom sac." Lin Qi touched a tiny bit with his finger; the tip instantly turned black, sending a jolt of sharp pain through him.

He shook off the toxic powder and tucked the jar away, satisfied.

This was the joy of scavenging.

What others saw as trash was all treasure if you just changed your perspective.

Half an hour later, Lin Qi arrived at the deepest part of the waste area with a backpack full of 'trash.'

A bronze furnace, about half a man's height, lay overturned in a pile of rubble.

The body of the furnace was covered in cracks, like a dying old man. But when Lin Qi reached out to touch it, he could still feel a residual warmth within the walls.

"Old partner, I'll have to trouble you to shine and heat up one more time."

Lin Qi set the furnace upright and cleared out the accumulated ash and bird droppings.

Lacking charcoal, he picked up a pile of discarded energy blocks nearby. Although these blocks were 90% depleted, the remaining 10% was more than enough to fire the furnace.

Boom!

Flames surged upward.

The bronze furnace emitted a low hum.

Lin Qi sat cross-legged before the furnace, his expression becoming solemn.

Refining medicine wasn't like cooking.

Especially with such toxic substances; the slightest mistake could cause the furnace to explode. If the toxic gas spread then, he would be the first to go.

"Rise."

Lin Qi gave a low shout and threw the broken Lightning-Struck Wood into the furnace chamber.

Crackle.

A burst of blue electric arcs instantly erupted inside the furnace.

Next came the jar of toxic crystals.

Dark green smoke rose, entangling with the electric arcs and producing an ear-grating sizzling sound.

The furnace lid began to tremble violently, as if it couldn't hold back the monster inside.

Lin Qi did not retreat.

His eyes widened, and the invisible Martial Intent at his brow erupted.

This wasn't magical control, but pure suppression of will.

He transformed his intent into an invisible giant hand, firmly pressing down on the restless lid, forcibly kneading the wildly conflicting energies inside the furnace together.

"Melt for me!"

Veins bulged on Lin Qi's forehead. Sweat slid down his cheeks, evaporating instantly as it hit the scorching ground.

The furnace vibrated more and more intensely; even the stones beneath the base began to crack.

That sense of pressure, the feeling that it could explode at any moment, was enough to cause an ordinary person to have a mental breakdown.

But Lin Qi remained as steady as a mountain.

He was gambling.

Gambling that the furnace wouldn't explode, and gambling that his Martial Intent could hold it down.

Ten minutes.

Twenty minutes.

The commotion inside the furnace gradually lessened. The originally piercing crackles turned into a low bubbling sound.

A strange scent wafted out.

It smelled somewhat like burnt rubber, yet carried a bizarrely sweet fragrance.

Lin Qi let out a long breath and withdrew his Martial Intent. He looked as if he had just been fished out of a lake.

"Is it done?"

He stared at the lid and reached out to grasp the scorching handle.

Once he lifted this lid, whether it was life or death, treasure or trash, would be clear at a glance.

Without any hesitation, Lin Qi applied force with his wrist and suddenly flipped open the furnace lid.