22: Spray pesticides! Spray pesticides!

Lin Yu left Old Ghost Hall.

The wind chime of the shop behind him was drowned out by the noisy voices of the black market.

This guy called Old Ghost, he was truly interesting.

That last move of refunding money, he wanted to curry favor, yet was unwilling to spend a lot, revealing the businessman's shrewdness and limitations completely.

His vision was too narrow.

However, this made him feel much more at ease.

Ordinary people are like this.

Not daring enough to gamble big, but also not evil to the core.

Future matters, he would consider them later.

Lin Yu walked through the crowded and chaotic alleyways; he now had only one goal.

To become stronger.

Soon, he returned to the single room he had initially rented.

The room was still dim, filled with a mixture of cheap disinfectant and mold.

Lin Yu stood in the center of the room, meticulously counting the items in his storage ring.

One Life Serum Standard Edition card.

One physical Clarity Potion.

And a black card with a balance of 830,000.

Everything was accounted for.

He was ready to begin.

But looking around, he stopped his actions.

Not here.

It was too unsafe.

The sound insulation of this room was virtually non-existent, and the disguise was only basic. If anything unexpected happened during the process of enhancing his strength, even a slight movement could attract unnecessary trouble.

Lin Yu didn't hesitate, he put everything back into his ring, turned around, and left the single room he had only stayed in for less than half an hour, rejoining the flow of people in the black market.

He walked directly towards an area deep within the "Junkyard."

The buildings here were no longer temporary tin shacks, but solid concrete bunkers, with several powerful guards standing at the entrances.

"Renting a room."

Lin Yu walked up to a building with a "Hive" sign and spoke to the guard at the entrance.

The guard sized him up, didn't ask any further questions, and stepped aside to let him pass.

Inside was a spacious hall, where a woman in professional attire but with a metal mask on her face sat at the front desk.

"What level?" the woman asked without looking up.

"Gold-tier."

The woman looked up, her masked eyes scanning Lin Yu's cloak.

"Code name 'Bunker,' independent power supply, physical isolation, energy shielding. Eight thousand eight hundred per day, one month's deposit, one month's rent in advance."

"Alright."

Lin Yu handed over his black card.

Seventeen thousand six hundred was instantly debited.

"Bunker Number Three. Here are the key and the shield activator."

The woman pushed a card and a small remote control towards him.

Lin Yu took the items, turned, and left without a word.

He found Bunker Number Three, opened the heavy alloy door with the card, and stepped inside.

"Boom—"

The door slowly closed behind him, completely isolating all external noise.

The world instantly fell silent.

The room wasn't large, only thirty square meters, but the walls, ceiling, and floor were all thick metal, giving an extreme sense of security.

Lin Yu pressed the remote control in his hand.

Buzz.

An invisible energy field instantly enveloped the entire room.

This was a military-grade signal jammer, capable of blocking all prying eyes.

Now, it was absolutely safe here.

Lin Yu took off his cloak, revealing his slightly pale, young face.

He sat cross-legged in the center of the room and took out the Clarity Potion.

Next, was the crucial step.

Card Transformation!

Target: Clarity Potion · Standard Edition!

A resistance no less intense than when he made the Life Serum card earlier was felt.

The internal structure of this potion was equally complex and precise, and the energy attributes it contained were extremely unique. To regularize it, the consumption of mental energy was terrifying.

Lin Yu felt his temples throbbing, and his mental energy was being drained at an unprecedented rate.

His 45 points of mental energy limit were as fragile as a piece of paper in the face of this consumption.

In these five years, he had created tens of millions of junk cards, and his Card Transformation skill had long been trained to its current level's limit.

Theoretically, both Life Serum and Clarity Potion, their item levels far exceeded the scope he could convert into cards at his current stage.

His success was entirely due to the rule proficiency brought by his max-level skill and a bit of luck.

His brain began to spin, and his vision started to blur.

His mental energy was about to be exhausted.

Now!

Just before his consciousness completely blurred, Lin Yu forcefully pushed his last bit of mental energy onto it.

The potion in his hand vibrated violently.

Card Transformation successful!

A card shimmering with a clear blue light quietly appeared in his hand.

It was done!

Lin Yu's body swayed, and he plopped down onto the ground, gasping for air.

Just making one card had almost drained him.

But he didn't rest.

He took out several mental recovery pills he had bought elsewhere from his ring, popped them into his mouth like candy, and then immediately activated his core ability.

Ghost Card!

Multiplication Card!

Infinite loop, activate!

Buzz—

The space within his storage ring began to undergo a wondrous change.

One Clarity Potion card, one Life Serum card.

Two, four, eight, sixteen… His mental energy slowly recovered under the effect of the recently consumed pills, and then rapidly depleted as the cards were duplicated.

Lin Yu's face constantly shifted between pale and flushed.

He closed his eyes, his entire mind immersed in this frantic proliferation.

256 times!

This was the limit his current mental energy could withstand.

When the loop stopped, his storage ring was neatly stacked with two piles of cards.

One pile flowed with a clear blue light, the other emitted a sacred golden glow.

256 Clarity Potion · Standard Edition!

256 Life Serum Standard Edition!

Lin Yu's face showed no joy.

This was just the beginning.

He took out a Clarity Potion card and activated it.

A syringe filled with blue liquid appeared in his hand.

Then, he took out a Life Serum card and activated it as well.

A syringe filled with golden liquid appeared in his other hand.

Without any hesitation, he aimed the blue syringe at his arm and plunged it in!

Cold liquid injected into his bloodstream.

The next second, he plunged the golden syringe into his other arm.

Two syringes, one blue and one gold, were unhesitatingly pushed into the veins of both his arms.

Cold and warm, two completely different liquids simultaneously surged into his body.

Wherever the blue liquid went, the fatigue in his brain seemed to be instantly smoothed away by a cold hand, and his thoughts became clearer than ever before. Every thought, every fragment of memory, was like polished glass, incredibly transparent.

And the golden liquid transformed into a warm torrent, instantly flushing through his limbs and bones. It acted like the most efficient repairman, even mending, filling, and nourishing every hidden injury left after each mental energy depletion, every ounce of vitality overdrawn from staying up late to make cards.