Chapter 104 - 103: City Lockdown, Complete Iron Cloth Shirt, Refining Internal Realm

Chapter 104: Chapter 103: City Lockdown, Complete Iron Cloth Shirt, Refining Internal Realm

This time, he was fully prepared. Once the poisonous mist dispersed, Su Chen flipped through the pages one by one. In the time it took to finish a cup of tea, he had finished reading the Spirit Head Skill.

There were forty-nine movements in total. Each movement looked extremely effortless, but when Su Chen actually practiced them, he realized the difficulty was unusually high.

Even with his current strength, he could not completely perform all of them. He only managed to reach the thirty-sixth movement. In the end, he had to rely on the enhancement of his inner force to complete a full practice run.

After the practice run was completed, the panel displayed the text for the Spirit Head Skill:

[Martial Arts: ... Spirit Head Skill (Initiate 1%)]

[Simple Mode: ... Spirit Head Skill 0 times (1 silver tael/time)]

Since he wasn’t lacking silver, he didn’t hesitate. He directly used Krypton Gold and activated Simple Mode.

The Simple Mode for the Spirit Head Skill was shaking his head. Minor Accomplishment required fifty shakes, Major Accomplishment one hundred shakes, Consummation two hundred shakes, and the Limit required five hundred shakes. It would take about two hours to complete.

As the Spirit Head Skill was pushed to the limit using Krypton Gold, Su Chen predictably noticed a change. The defense of his head had strengthened. Although it was still inferior to his current Iron Cloth Shirt, it was enough to satisfy him.

What surprised Su Chen the most was not the enhanced defense of his head, but the strengthening of his five senses. He could feel that his vision, hearing, smell, and other senses had become incredibly sharp. The surrounding objects and sounds seemed to be magnified several times in his mind, becoming exceptionally clear.

TAP TAP TAP.

Just then, a series of light footsteps came from outside.

"Sigh, what rotten luck. It’s getting harder and harder to be a beggar these days."

"Yeah, the situation in the city finally improved, and now another big shot has arrived, locking down the city at the drop of a hat."

"These guys act like they’re crazy. They arrest honest people on sight, and they arrest you just for looking at them the wrong way. When the hell will these bitter days come to an end?"

"..."

Beggars entered the abandoned residence in twos and threes, cursing and swearing. They had clearly been here many times before, as they only sat in the front courtyard and didn’t enter the backyard.

After listening from his room for a while, Su Chen figured out their intentions. It seemed they planned to spend the night in the abandoned residence. This disrupted his plans a bit, as he had originally intended to start brewing medicine tonight to push his progress forward.

Indeed, after the Spirit Head Skill was pushed to the limit with Krypton Gold, the Iron Cloth Shirt finally showed changes and could be fused once more. This time, the condition was twenty portions of Blood Boiling Powder!

When he saw the condition, Su Chen was somewhat surprised. He wasn’t sure if it was because he had obtained the prescription for the Blood Boiling Powder, or if the panel had planned it this way all along. In any case, the panel had changed Qi and Blood Powder to Blood Boiling Powder, though he didn’t delve into the reasons too deeply.

After learning the condition, Su Chen began to take inventory of his gains. Currently, he had a total of twelve thousand, three hundred and fifty-three silver taels, consisting of silver notes and loose silver. He originally had ten gold fish-shaped ingots, but he had used one for the Spirit Head Skill, leaving him with nine. Financially, he wasn’t lacking for the time being.

In terms of medicinal ingredients, the ten packets of Blood Boiling Powder had long been used up, leaving only the Red Blood Grass. He had a lot of Red Blood Grass; having experienced the frustration of lacking it before, Su Chen had taken a large amount from the Medicine Gang’s warehouse. He had one hundred and twenty stalks in total.

"One hundred and twenty stalks of Red Blood Grass. Each stalk can be divided into three portions for preparation, which means I can prepare it three hundred and sixty times. Even with only a fifty percent success rate, that would yield one hundred and eighty portions of Nameless Medicine," Su Chen calculated. "The panel requires twenty portions of Blood Boiling Powder, which translates to one hundred portions of Nameless Medicine. If I can successfully prepare them, it will be more than enough to max out the progress."

He reached his conclusion quickly, but his joy didn’t last long. The current problem was that while he had the most crucial Red Blood Grass, he might not be able to buy the other medicinal ingredients. After all, many clinics and pharmacies had closed down because of the Medicine Gang, naturally reducing the supply of medicinal ingredients significantly.

With this in mind, Su Chen took out the prescription for the Blood Boiling Powder and studied it carefully. "Compared to the Qi and Blood Powder, the formula for this Blood Boiling Powder seems simpler. It doesn’t require many ingredients, just a higher demand for Red Blood Grass. In that case, I can start with the Blood Boiling Powder."

He memorized the prescription. Unfortunately, time had been short, so the deaf-mute man had only briefly written out the formula and steps. If he were to prepare it, there might be a high number of trial-and-error attempts. "Forget it. I’ll go out this afternoon and take a look. It would be best if I can buy everything."

After the beggars stayed for a while, they left. Su Chen put his things away and then left the abandoned residence.

On the streets, there were not many shops still open. Most had already closed their doors, not to mention the clinics and pharmacies. Su Chen walked all the way to the Inner City before finally finding an open pharmacy. He walked in and purchased some of the medicinal ingredients.

After strolling around the vicinity, Su Chen found that there were two or three open pharmacies in the Inner City, and an idea formed in his mind. Because he needed to buy a large quantity, he used one disguise three times, buying a pile of ingredients from each store. He then hid the purchased goods, assumed a different identity, and continued buying the rest.

This time, Su Chen was buying ingredients to prepare the Blood Boiling Powder, so he only needed to change identities four times before he had acquired everything.

He brought these ingredients to the abandoned residence in batches. During this time, he also made a trip home to grab some clay pots for brewing medicine before returning to the abandoned residence.

However, to his surprise, he nearly ran into those beggars upon his return. The beggars hadn’t gained anything all day and had returned to the abandoned residence to rest. Seeing this, Su Chen guessed that they would likely be living here for the foreseeable future, so he decisively chose to ’move’.