72: Chapter 72 Counterfeit Pills and Ruthless People's Ruthlessness

The moment the lid of the Pill Furnace was lifted, an indescribable stench rushed out.

It was not the fragrance of a Medicinal Pill.

It was the sour, pungent smell of scorched rubber mixed with fermented sludge from a sewer, laced with the distinct acridity of chemical reagents.

Lin Qi held his breath and leaned in to look into the furnace.

Three pitch-black spheres lay quietly at the bottom of the furnace.

Their surfaces were pockmarked, looking like semi-finished products rolled by African dung beetles. They were shiny black, occasionally flashing with an eerie, dark green glint.

"Is this the 'Dragon Tiger Bone-Forging Pill'?" Lin Qi pinched one between two fingers and held it up to his eyes with disgust. "Anyone who didn't know better would think these were kidney stones discharged from some chemical plant."

"This is just the industrial-grade alternative, make do with it."

An old voice sounded from behind him.

Lin Qi didn't turn around, still staring at the Medicinal Pill in his hand. "Old Mo, you really need to fix that habit of walking without making a sound. It's only because I have a strong heart."

Old Mo walked slowly to Lin Qi's side with his hands behind his back, leaning over to sniff the black pill.

"The heat was a bit too high; about thirty percent of the toxicity remains," Old Mo commented professionally. "If an ordinary person ate this, they'd be meeting their great-grandmother within half an hour."

"And me?"

"Your flesh is tough; at most, you'll have diarrhea for two days. You won't die."

Old Mo said it nonchalantly.

Lin Qi curled his lip. "Listening to you is like listening to nothing at all."

He didn't waste any more words and didn't ask for water to wash it down, tossing the foul-smelling Medicinal Pill straight into his mouth.

Gulp.

The Medicinal Pill went down his throat.

There was no bitter taste as imagined; instead, it carried a fishy sweetness.

But this sweetness lasted only two seconds.

The next moment, Lin Qi's face turned pale abruptly.

The medicinal power exploded in his stomach, not following his Meridians or blood vessels at all, but instead, like countless tiny poisonous snakes, it drilled directly through his stomach wall, following the texture of his fascia, and ruthlessly plunged into the gaps of his bones throughout his body.

It wasn't a flow of heat.

It was magma.

The kind of magma mixed with strong acid.

"Ugh!"

Lin Qi let out a muffled grunt, his legs went weak, and he knelt directly onto the gravel-covered ground.

His knees hit the ground with a dull thud.

Normally, this impact wouldn't even break the skin.

But at this moment, Lin Qi felt as if his kneecaps had been ruthlessly smashed by a sledgehammer.

It was a sharp pain coming from deep within his bone marrow.

It was as if tens of thousands of army ants had crawled into his bones, frantically gnawing on his bone marrow and tearing at his periosteum.

Cold sweat instantly seeped from his forehead, gathering into streams, dripping off his chin onto the ground.

Lin Qi gripped the ground tightly with both hands, using so much force that he actually gouged five deep finger marks into the hard weathered rock.

His fingernails cracked and blood spilled out, but he seemed completely unaware.

Old Mo stood to the side, still holding that paint-chipped thermos, watching this scene with calm eyes.

But his hand gripping the cup tightened slightly.

He was waiting.

Waiting for Lin Qi to ask for help, or scream.

The pain of this "violent bone-forging" was comparable to the ancient punishment of death by a thousand cuts.

Ordinary people, let alone enduring it, would go into shock from the pain of the first wave.

If that happened, Old Mo would take action immediately to disperse the medicinal power with his internal strength.

But this kid...

Old Mo looked at the teenager kneeling on the ground, shivering.

Lin Qi's entire body's muscles were spasming because the pain had exceeded the load limit of his nerves.

But he gritted his teeth tightly, his cheeks bulging with hard knots, and he didn't make a single sound.

Only his heavy, ragged breathing, like an old bellows, echoed in the empty scrap yard.

"Interesting."

The look of appreciation in Old Mo's eyes grew stronger.

This kid is not only ruthless to others, but even more ruthless to himself.

He is a good seed for martial arts.

Time ticked by second by second.

About half an hour later, the heart-drilling, Shi Gu pain finally began to subside, replaced by a sense of soreness and itchiness.

Lin Qi was like a puddle of mud, lying limp on the ground.

His school uniform was soaked through with sweat, sticking to his body and revealing the sharp contours of his muscles.

"Are you dead yet?" Old Mo kicked Lin Qi's calf with the toe of his shoe.

"Almost..." Lin Qi's voice was hoarse. He rolled over and lay on the ground in a spread-eagle position, looking at the gray sky. "This isn't bone-forging; it's like taking the bones apart and frying them in a wok of oil."

"If you don't fry them, they won't be hard."

Old Mo squatted down and reached out to pinch Lin Qi's wrist bone.

"Don't move."

Old Mo bent his finger and flicked Lin Qi's ulna lightly.

Ding!

A crisp sound rang out.

It wasn't like the dull bone-on-flesh sound from before, but rather like the sound of two pieces of inferior metal colliding.

"Did it work?" Lin Qi's eyes lit up. Ignoring the soreness in his body, he sat right up.

He raised his arm and tapped on it himself.

Ding, ding.

It was indeed different.

Although it was still far from the level of "steel tendons and iron bones," the bone density had increased by at least ten percent.

One had to know, this was the effect of just one Medicinal Pill.

"This suffering wasn't for nothing." Lin Qi grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. Paired with his face covered in sweat and dust, he looked somewhat ferocious.

Old Mo stood up, took a yellowed notebook from his bosom, and threw it into Lin Qi's arms.

"Take it."

"What is this?" Lin Qi opened it and saw that it was densely packed with handwritten, tiny regular script, accompanied by various human skeletal structure diagrams.

"My insights from a lifetime of researching 'Ancient Martial Arts'." Old Mo took a sip of tea, his tone casual. "Since you won't die, come once every morning and evening from now on. Figure out the things in this notebook yourself, and if you don't understand something, ask me."

Lin Qi closed the notebook and looked at Old Mo deeply.

He didn't say thank you, nor did he perform any apprenticeship ceremony; he just tucked the notebook away close to his body.

"This trade is worth it."

"Less lip," Old Mo turned and walked back. "Clean yourself up, you reek. Right, don't go to those messy theory classes these next few days; it's a waste of time."

"Then what do I do?"

"Scavenge trash, practice Alchemy, and endure pain."

In the following days, Lin Qi disappeared completely from the public eye.

Whether it was the practical combat classes of the Special Training Class or the lectures of the theory department, his figure could not be seen.

His daily life trajectory was a straight line between two points.

During the day, he rummaged through boxes and cabinets in the scrap yard behind the mountain, fighting for territory with the old men collecting scraps, collecting all sorts of strange and weird waste Materials.

At night, he hid beside that abandoned Pill Furnace, doing his "industrial Alchemy".

Screams (though suppressed to the best of his ability) would occasionally ring out in the deep night on the back mountain, scaring the patrolling security guards so much that they didn't dare to approach, thinking it was a vengeful spirit at work.

This method of Cultivating, which bordered on self-abuse, had immediate results.

Although on the System panel, his Rank was still an eye-piercing LV.1.

But his body was undergoing earth-shaking changes.

If Lin Qi was a piece of raw iron before, then now, he was being repeatedly forged into a piece of fine steel.

In the blink of an eye, half a month passed.

This morning, Lin Qi had just swallowed the last improved version of the "Pseudo-Bone-Forging Pill" and was sitting on the ground wiping off sweat.

Old Mo walked over with his hands behind his back.

"The Freshman Competition is next week," Old Mo suddenly said.

"Not interested." Lin Qi didn't even raise his head. "Playing house with a bunch of brats is boring. If I had that time, I'd rather scavenge for two more pieces of lightning-struck wood."

"The prize for first place is 'Extraterrestrial Meteorite Iron'."

Lin Qi's hand wiping sweat stopped.

He looked up abruptly, a green light appearing in his eyes. "How big?"

"As big as a fist." Old Mo gestured. "That is a top-tier Material for forging weapons; its density is fifty times that of ordinary steel, and its conductivity is excellent."

Lin Qi stood up immediately and patted the dirt off his butt.

"When is registration?"

"Today is the last day." Old Mo checked his watch. "Also, it's being rumored outside now that you, Lin Qi, are afraid of Li Shaobai and are hiding in a rat hole, not daring to come out."

Lin Qi laughed.

He grabbed the iron rod next to him that was used to stir the Pill Furnace and casually snapped it.

Snap.

That wrist-thick solid iron rod was snapped into two pieces by him as if he were snapping a cucumber.

"Afraid?"

Lin Qi threw away the broken iron, loosened his neck, which made a series of crackling sounds.

"It just so happens that I'm lacking a suitable piece of Material to forge a weapon."

"Since someone is sticking their face out for me to slap, and there's a prize to be won..."

"It would be impolite of me not to go to such a good thing."