Ch. 59 - Dude, Is This Medicine for Real?

The next morning, everyone packed up and left the estate.

By afternoon, Chen Shu was already back in Nanjiang City.

"So son, how was your half-month adventure? One word answers only," His father Chen Ye happened to be home taking a break.

"One word?” Chen shu grinned, “Exhilarating!"

Chen Shu went to his room and started taking stock of his haul.

Six Vigor Flowers, three Iron Core Fruits, two Wisdom Fruits, plus various common herbs like century-old ginseng and processed fleece-flower root.

Dimensional spaces produced some of the same medicinal materials found on Blue Star, but nothing particularly valuable. Current technology could cultivate most of them artificially anyway. The truly expensive items were still unique materials like Vigor Flowers.

Vigor Flowers and Iron Core Fruits were self-explanatory, while Wisdom Fruits were used to make Intelligence Potions - basically brain food for contracted spirits, boosting their smarts and battle instincts.

Chen Shu got to work, pulling out various other materials he'd gathered, basically burning through his entire 100,000 yuan savings.

Time for another boring automated... er... potion-making session!

It only took one afternoon for Chen Shu to finish brewing everything.

Final tally: thirty-nine bottles of mid-grade Vigor Potions, nine bottles of basic Defense Potions, and six bottles of Intelligence Potions.

The nine Defense Potions gave his slime a 4.5% boost to its defense stats.

When it came to the Intelligence Potions, however, Chen Shu hesitated.

Looking at his drooling, sleeping slime, he had his doubts. Would brain supplements actually work on this thing?

"Worth a shot. Maybe it'll at least look a little smarter."

Chen Shu fed all six Intelligence Potions to his slime. Predictably, there was absolutely no visible change...

"Whatever. Time to hit the black market and sell these Vigor Potions."

Chen Shu cleaned up, enjoying a nice long hot bath, then headed straight over to Zhang Dali's place.

"Dali!"

Surprisingly, Zhang Dali answered the door right away.

"Chen Pi! You're back?"

"Huh? Why'd you answer so fast today? Not gaming?"

"Don't even ask." Zhang Dali sighed heavily. "They banned my account. Said I was playing too passively."

"..." Chen Shu just nodded, completely unsurprised. Beast Taming Glory had just lost another toxic player.

Zhang Dali looked indignant. "I finally learned how to jungle! How is that passive play?!"

He even pulled out his phone to show Chen Shu his match history.

Chen Shu took one look and nearly jumped out of his skin - nothing but perfect 0-0-0 scores across the board.

So when you say you "learned to jungle," you literally mean you ONLY to jungle...

"Quit moping around. I'll buy you dinner tonight, and you can come with me to the black market."

Chen Shu patted his shoulder sympathetically - not for Zhang Dali, but for the poor souls who had been his teammates. What those people must have endured...

The two headed out together to a restaurant near the black market.

"What can I get for you gentlemen?" the waitress asked with a polite smile.

"Hold on a second."

Chen Shu looked a bit suspicious. "You guys don't serve something called 'Mega Noodles,' do you?"

The waitress looked confused but kept smiling and shook her head.

"Your signature dish isn't 'Tomato Stir-Fried Tomatoes,' is it?" Chen Shu pressed.

The waitress's smile grew strained. Tomato stir-fried tomatoes? What kind of bizarre dish was that? What restaurant would even serve such a thing? What was this guy's deal?

She took a deep breath and shook her head again.

"You don't have that kind of cola that costs three yuan outside but you charge twenty-something for, right?"

The waitress finally had enough, rolled her eyes, and walked away.

"Looks legit." Chen Shu nodded approvingly. "Two orders of fried rice!"

"..."

After filling up, they made their way to the black market.

"Chen Pi, what exactly are we doing at the black market?"

"Time to show you what it means to be the black market's number one big shot!"

Chen Shu went to his usual spot, but Old Wang was nowhere to be seen.

"Even scammers have no work ethic these days. No ambition whatsoever." Chen Shu shook his head and spread out a blue cloth, arranging all his mid-grade Vigor Potions on display.

"Chen Pi, have you seriously stooped to running scams now?"

Zhang Dali's eyes went wide, clearly mistaking him for just another fraudulent vendor.

"Hey, I deal in the real deal! Genuine potions, got it?"

Chen Shu shook his head proudly. "Just watch my reputation work its magic! Don't even need to advertise - customers come running."

Right on cue, two guys walked over.

"Hey buddy, how much per bottle?"

Chen Shu's face lit up. See? Customers already! Even when he wasn't working the scene, his legend lived on.

"Eight grand per bottle!"

"Jesus, are the bottles made of gold or something?"

"Look around - where else are you gonna find cheap Vigor Potions these days? These are fresh batches."

Chen Shu frowned slightly as he spoke, sensing something was off.

"I'll take one!" one of them said.

Chen Shu sized the guy up, then pulled out a bottle of mid-grade Vigor Potion.

"This stuff legit?"

"I'm a potion maker—you think I'd be selling fakes?" Chen Shu laughed.

The guy's expression immediately turned hostile. "I asked you a question - is this stuff legit?"

"Are you trying to start something? You buying or not?" Chen Shu was starting to get nervous.

"If this medicine's real, sure I'll buy it!" The guy moved closer to Chen Shu. "But what if it's not?"

"If it's fake, I'll drink it myself. Happy now?"

Chen Shu stayed alert. Even though this was the black market where they wouldn't dare make a real move, he somehow felt this invisible pressure, almost wanting to protect his stomach instinctively.

"You said it - if this medicine's fake, you'll drink it yourself!"

The guy's expression went cold, his eyes turning menacing. He grabbed one of the Vigor Potion bottles and looked ready to open it.

"You're touching my merchandise without paying? Don't you know who Big Brother Dali is around here?"

Chen Shu reached out to grab the guy's wrist.

But suddenly a pair of silver handcuffs appeared out of nowhere. Before Chen Shu could even react, he was already cuffed.

What the hell! What's happening?!

Zhang Dali was just as shocked. Before he could make a move, the other guy had him subdued too.

"Nanjiang City Spirit Suppression Bureau! Don't resist!"

One of them flashed his badge, instantly crushing any thoughts of fighting back.

"Pi-bro, you really are like a brother to me. So this is your black market influence? Absolutely incredible..."

Zhang Dali looked completely defeated. All I did was go out for a bowl of fried rice - what did I do wrong...

"Hey, how was I supposed to know? This isn't how things were supposed to go!"

Chen Shu was just as confused. He looked at the two officers. "Officers, you've got the wrong guys! We're both upstanding citizens with clean records! I even caught a wanted criminal last time!"

"Save it. We've been tracking you fake medicine dealers for half a month!"

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