Chapter 53 - 54: A Murder Caused by a Dose of Fake Medicine

Chapter 53: Chapter 54: A Murder Caused by a Dose of Fake Medicine

In the dead of night, a waning moon pierced through the dark clouds, casting a faint glow over the earth.

"Strange. Why hasn’t Brother Leopard come looking for me yet?"

At the entrance of Zhong’s Pharmacy, a figure looked around anxiously. The pedestrians on the street grew increasingly scarce, yet there was still no sign of Brother Leopard and his men.

This made Chen Erniu slightly worried. After all, Brother Leopard had never come to find him this late before.

"Could he have been delayed by something? Or did he fail to find that scholar-looking guy?" Chen Erniu muttered to himself. Even now, thinking back to what had happened during the day made him gnash his teeth in hatred.

He had mixed fake medicinal herbs into other people’s orders before, but he had almost never been caught. He never expected Su Chen to spot it this time. Being found out was one thing, but the man had given him no chance to salvage the situation, directly calling him out in public.

Not only had it nearly ruined the pharmacy’s reputation, but it also resulted in a severe scolding from his boss. This left a bitter taste in his mouth.

He wondered, "It was just a little fake medicine, so did he really have to smear my innocence like that?"

So, he had sneaked out during a break to find Brother Leopard, the Medicine Gang leader in charge of this street. Relying on their relationship, he asked him to teach Su Chen a good lesson.

But so much time had passed, and Brother Leopard still hadn’t come to collect his reward. Usually, the man would show up the moment the beating was done!

"Forget it. I’ll go check Brother Leopard’s place."

Still feeling a bit uneasy, Chen Erniu closed the pharmacy and headed toward the alleyways.

After walking for a while, Chen Erniu suddenly stopped in his tracks. "Who’s there?"

A figure stood ahead, seemingly waiting for him. However, with the moonlight behind the stranger, he couldn’t make out the person’s face.

"Brother Leopard asked me to pass you a message. The man you wanted to teach a lesson has been killed," a deep voice rang out.

"Dead?" Chen Erniu’s expression froze for a second before turning into wild ecstasy. "Haha! Good riddance, wonderful! That kind of person deserves to die!

"Then thank Brother Leopard for me!" Pausing, he took out the prepared payment from his shirt, intending to hand it over. "Here is three taels of silver. Please pass it to Brother Leopard for me."

As he spoke, he handed the silver over, taking the opportunity to subtly lift his head to get a clear look at the man’s face.

However, to his surprise, the man didn’t take the silver. Instead, he let out a sneer. Before Chen Erniu could react, he heard the man say, "Not enough!"

"How can it not be enough? Brother Leopard and I had a deal!" Chen Erniu frowned and bluffed. But remembering that Brother Leopard had killed someone for him, his expression softened slightly. Gritting his teeth, he added, "Tell you what, I’ll add two more taels."

"There’s no need."

"Huh?"

"Your life will do!"

Su Chen slowly raised his head. His body surged forward, leaping in front of Chen Erniu in the blink of an eye. With a single palm strike, he left the man dizzy and disoriented, bleeding from all his facial orifices before collapsing dead to the ground.

"Heh, to think my life was only worth five taels!"

Su Chen gave a self-deprecating smile after fishing out the three taels of silver from the corpse. Shaking his head, he stood up, his figure quickly vanishing into the vast darkness of the night.

After returning to his residence, Su Chen washed up and flipped through his medical books, reading late into the night before finally falling asleep.

In the time that followed, Su Chen kept a low profile, staying indoors and preparing herbs in the kitchen every day. In the blink of an eye, four days had passed.

By now, the progress on his panel had reached the halfway mark. He only needed to consume five more doses of Qi Blood Medicine to meet the panel’s requirements.

"Thanks to my previous accumulation and four days of practice, my skill at formulating Nameless Medicine has improved.

"Although I’ve used up nearly half of the herbs, a large portion of that was for trial and error to enhance the prescription’s effectiveness.

"With this experience as a foundation, my success rate will be much higher moving forward. Plus, I can formulate the Nameless Medicine that works best for me," Su Chen concluded, looking at the notes he had accumulated over these past few days.

In just four short days, Su Chen’s notes had already spanned over a dozen pages, densely packed with experiences and lessons learned. He had finally figured out a path that offered a high success rate and yielded highly effective Nameless Medicine.

"Having taken the Qi Blood Medicine for four consecutive days, I feel that my body’s adaptability to Qi Blood has greatly improved. Over the next few days, I’ll see if I can take two doses a day. If it works, I’m confident I can max out the progress in three days!"

Su Chen set down his notes, lost in thought. With sixteen doses of herbs left, his current success rate was enough to formulate five portions of Nameless Medicine. The key issue now wasn’t the Qi Blood Medicine, but whether his body could withstand two portions of Nameless Medicine.

"Let’s give it a try!" ℴ

With that thought, Su Chen began preparing the Nameless Medicine. It took him nearly half a day to brew the decoction, and he subsequently drank two bowls of the Nameless Medicine, one after the other.

Waiting as time passed, he felt the medicinal soup circulate within him. Soon, a warm sensation arose in his body, and his skin suddenly flushed red. He stepped into the courtyard and let out a frantic burst of energy to vent the heat. By the time he settled down, he was drenched in sweat.

"Not bad. I can handle it. Next up, it’s time to increase the dosage!"

Meanwhile, as Su Chen was brewing his Nameless Medicine and cultivating, several corpses lay lined up on the ground of a courtyard in the Medicine Gang branch. They were none other than the bodies of Brother Leopard and his men.

"Do we know who did this?"

A completely emotionless voice came from a grey-robed man, making everyone listening feel as though they had been plunged into an icy cavern. He pulled back the white cloth covering Brother Leopard and closed the dead man’s eyes. Drawing a deep breath, he seemed to be suppressing something.

"Hall Master, we’ve already sent people to investigate," someone replied dryly. "Someone saw Leopard and his gang leaving the town, seemingly tailing someone."

"Then hurry up and find out! Once you do, bring him to me. I want him to atone with his life in front of Leopard!" the grey-robed man said coldly.

"Yes, sir!"

"Oh, Hall Master, there’s one more thing. Before Leopard left the town, he was seen interacting with an assistant from Zhong’s Pharmacy."

"Do you know what it was about?"

"I’m not exactly sure. The assistant is dead."

Hearing this, the grey-robed man looked at his subordinate. His piercing gaze subjected the speaker to immense pressure. "How did he die?"

"This assistant had a conflict with a customer. His meeting with Leopard happened right after that conflict. After they met, Leopard left the town. This subordinate suspects that customer is the murderer."

"Do you know where he is?" the grey-robed man asked.

The man choked on his words, forcing himself to say, "We are currently looking into it."

"Then get going, now!"

Three days later.

Before the crack of dawn, Su Chen got out of bed. Skipping breakfast, he went straight to preparing his medicine.

An hour later, Su Chen stared at the two bowls of red medicinal soup in front of him, his eyes burning with intensity. He picked up one bowl and downed it in a single gulp, then immediately drank the second bowl down to his stomach.

Not long after the soup settled in his stomach, the progress on his panel changed:

[Easy Mode: ...Iron Cloth Shirt·Incomplete 0 times (Extreme Ape Arm Skill + 10.8 / 10 portions of Qi and Blood Powder / time)]

Shortly after this change appeared, the panel refreshed once again.