I'm a proper student; I only take nine kinds of potions every day.

Chapter 95 The ceremony failed, and I even lost 100 yuan.

Cough cough cough cough!

A violent coughing fit struck him, and he instinctively turned his head to the side, coughing up a mouthful of thick phlegm streaked with blood into the nearby ditch.

The young foreman beside him caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of his eye, and a flash of joy immediately crossed his eyes.

He turned and ran silently up to the lit window on the second floor of the company building.

Parker didn't see it.

He felt dizzy and disoriented, the light from the row of kerosene lamps swirling in front of him, and strange noises echoing in his ears.

"Am I really going to die?"

His heart skipped a beat, a terror he had never experienced before, mixed with despair, rushed straight to his head.

He has so many things he can't bear to part with now.

A clever son, a well-behaved and adorable daughter —

His virtuous and hardworking wife would prepare a midnight snack for him every day after he returned home at midnight.

I watched him finish eating while laughing.

While sleeping, I would hold his arm and whisper cheesy love lines about wanting to be together forever.

He couldn't imagine how heartbroken his wife and children would be if he died, and how difficult their lives would be!

"Damn Kerry!"

He knew how it came about.

But by then it was too late to complain.

"Heavenly Father—"

Parker's lips moved, but he barely made a sound.

"I have followed you devoutly since I was a child."

"If only you could restore my health to its former glory—"

He gritted his teeth.

"I will never drink alcohol again, and I will never smoke those cheap cigarettes again."

"I will cherish her for the rest of my life! I won't have any other thoughts."

"I want to buy her the new leather shoes she's been talking about for half a year, and those suede gloves for winter—"

"I want to make up for what I owe her—"

The more excited he became, the more dizzy he felt.

But he also knew that this was just his fantasy.

In his extreme pain, he seemed to miss home.

Just as he turned to leave—

A familiar, clear voice, characteristic of young people, rang out from beside me.

"Uncle Parker."

Parker slowly raised his face, which was half-submerged in shadow.

His vision was so blurry that he could barely make out the facial features, but he recognized the outline of the body at a glance.

Evan, son of the Arkham family.

"No—don't come any closer."

He instinctively took a step back, nearly tripping over the heel of his shoe.

"I—I'm sick."

He dared not let the kid get close.

This child has potential.

Ambitious, hardworking, and studious—these are the role models he often talks about to his son, who is still in the third grade.

He didn't want to be a burden to this good child.

Ivan, however, didn't listen to his explanation and instead smiled even more broadly.

"Uncle Parker."

He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a soda bottle containing a black liquid.

"This is a special medicine concocted by my teacher. Here, drink this."

"I have personally witnessed him cure many people."

At this moment, Parker no longer had the mental capacity to distinguish between truth and falsehood.

The fear of death, the inability to let go of family, and the desire to live a few more days.

Three feelings intertwined, making him pick up the bottle and gulp it down.

The sweet liquid rolled down the back of my tongue and down my throat.

at the same time.

Ivan's hand, which was resting on his shoulder, had its bronze nails pressed against the festering wound through the gaps in his gauze.

You have absorbed the Dark Mother Fungus.

You have absorbed the rabies virus.

You have ingested streptococci.

You absorbed it————

Less than three seconds.

The copper plague drained away all the viruses, bacteria, and inflammation in Parker's body that were trying to kill him.

Meanwhile, Parker clearly felt that he was getting better rapidly as he swallowed that dose of the special medicine!

The tinnitus is gone!

The stinging in my throat is gone!

The feverish and dizzy mind is now rapidly regaining its clarity.

Previously, my mouth tasted bitter and I had no appetite even for the smell of grilled meat, but now I suddenly felt incredibly hungry.

At that moment, Parker felt like he could eat a cow!

As the viruses and bacteria that caused the inflammation were instantly cleared out, all the deterioration stopped.

The body's own regulatory system begins to function rapidly.

Even the wounds that used to smell terrible now have a much milder odor.

If this trend continues, in the next two or three days, as long as you eat well and sleep well, your body will recover quickly.

Parker's eyes widened in excitement, his expression filled with disbelief.

He stretched out his calloused hand and touched his chest through his clothes, then touched the wound on his face.

The huge difference between before and after made him feel like he was dreaming.

He looked up and turned to the young man beside him.

Ivan, still sporting a bright and sunny smile, asked.

"Uncle Parker, how are you feeling?"

Parker's voice trembled with excitement.

"Evan—my dear Evan—"

He took half a step forward, but then stopped, afraid of getting the other person's clothes dirty, and asked.

"What did you give me to drink?"

He raised his hand to wipe the corner of his eye, and the mist in his eyes was almost overflowing.

"God Father above! You saved my life."

Ivan smiled and waved his hand, saying, "I'm helping out at the Medical School of Sage University today."

"Dr. Forem happens to have several cases similar to yours, where the wounds became ulcerated after being scratched."

"I took the opportunity to bring back a bottle of medicine."

He put the bottle back into his pocket as he spoke.

"I didn't expect it to work so quickly."

Upon hearing this, tears welled up in Parker's eyes.

"Evan—I—I really don't know what to do—"

The happiness and relief he felt, as if he had survived a catastrophe, left him speechless.

But just then, a rather untimely voice came from the other end of the company's entrance hall.

"Manager, look, he's really dying."

Parker and Ivan turned their heads at the same time.

The young foreman who had been following Parker and sounded concerned was now quickly walking towards them with a middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man was in his early forties, wearing a sharp black wool suit and an overcoat.

Parker recognized the person's face at a glance, and almost immediately straightened his back, took a few steps forward, and greeted him respectfully.

"Manager Mike, what brings you here?"

The middle-aged man called Mike glanced at Parker discreetly from under the brim of his top hat, his brow furrowing slightly.

Dan said you're about to die today.

Upon hearing this, a ruthless glint flashed in Parker's eyes, which had been gradually losing their bloodshot color.

Immediately afterwards, with a submissive expression, he pounded his chest.

"Manager, he's talking nonsense."

"That kid Dan has been eyeing my position for a long time now."

"I haven't been sleeping well these past two days because of the pain from the wound on my face. You know about the accident a couple of days ago."

As he spoke, he simply stepped down from the steps and deliberately spun around on the wet wooden plank road at the dock, his steps light and quick.

"Look!"

"People who are about to die don't have my stamina."

Mike's gaze lingered on his face for two seconds before he hummed in agreement.

"That's good."

He then turned his head and fixed his gaze on the young man named Dan, his eyes filled with coldness.

"If you dare to pull such a trick in front of me again..."

"Get out of here."

The young man froze on the spot, his face turning from white to green.

He had witnessed this guy coughing up blood just minutes before, and almost falling into the canal.

How come you're all lively and energetic all of a sudden?

At this moment, his intelligence was insufficient to comprehend what was happening before his eyes.

After the sound of Mike's footsteps faded into the distance, Parker slowly turned his head, as if to say something else—

But when he turned around, Ivan had vanished without a trace beside the pier.

Parker paused for a moment, clenched his fist as his strength gradually returned, and made a vow in his heart.

"Evan, you not only saved me, you saved my whole family!"

"I will never forget this kindness."

Then, he fixed his gaze on the young man named Dan's face again, his eyes gradually becoming cold and hard.

"Kid, I've been pretty good to you these past few days, haven't I?"

Dan, his face pale, took a step back: "Brother Parker, it's a misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding."

Parker gave a chilling smirk: "Since it's a misunderstanding, let's work together from now on!"

Parker had worked his way up as a foreman at Bryce Transport Company for many years at the docks in Bolton City, and it wasn't just his hard work and ability to carry sacks that secured his position.

Using his newly acquired extraordinary ability to pull a familiar elder back from the brink of despair gave Ivan a very satisfying feeling.

The bottle he just filled with wasn't medicine, but rather a concentrated sugar water that he had made, which would replenish Parker's energy.

"I want to be a doctor when I grow up."

He muttered to himself as he walked.

"It's not unreasonable for you to know a little medicine now, is it?"

Humming a tune whose melody no one could understand, he returned to his apartment.

The night was the same routine: reviewing, previewing, blowing out the light, and sleeping soundly until dawn.

[The side effects of the Mind-Concentrating Potion have been reversed.]

Your brain activity has been boosted! Mental alertness permanently increased by 0.01.

Your focus has been improved! Mental state permanently increased by 0.01.

"The side effects are about what was expected."

Lost in thought, I headed out to school.

After the Phoenix Brotherhood was completely eradicated overnight, no one on the entire Sage University campus dared to have any designs on Ivan anymore.

He handled his coursework, lunch, and afternoon small group discussions smoothly and efficiently.

After school, he ran into Karp at the school gate.

"Well done, kid."

The square-faced bodyguard smiled broadly, his words carrying a tone of elder-like approval.

Evan's decision to hand over all the credit to Elting before yesterday's awards ceremony clearly suited the Hearst family's tastes.

Ivan smiled and complimented, "It's all thanks to Brother Garp's guidance."

Karp chuckled, pulled a square bag wrapped in old canvas from the inside pocket of his coat, and handed it to him.

"This is a reward from the young lady."

He lowered his voice.

"We should cooperate more in the future."

Ivan weighed the bag in his hand, turned around to face the tram station lights, and used the light to open the bag and peek inside.

Brand new banknotes! A full five hundred and fifty dollars.

It seems that yesterday's move, which gave all the credit to Erdin, brought him a hefty reward.

He then nodded to Garp and quickly ran onto the tram.

After returning to Guding Street and having dinner, he casually eliminated a nest of mice that had just moved in in the stairwell.

After a hearty meal, he took out the materials he had prepared for the day from his schoolbag.

Mercury, moonstone, white sea salt.

I looked up at the calendar on the wall.

Today is Wednesday.

Mercury Day is an auspicious day for identification.

He locked the bedroom door and drew the curtains.

After completing the self-comforting security measures, he crouched down and began to draw the magic circle according to Armitage's steps from his memory.

First, draw a square, then put a triangle inside it.

Finally, draw that symbol in the very center of the triangle.

He raised his hand, and the sub-brain emerged from his palm, placing the small silver key steadily above the symbol.

Everything is ready.

He arranged the offerings in their proper places and took a deep breath.

"Dr. Armitage said that one must be completely focused during the ceremony and have no distracting thoughts, otherwise some unpredictable dangers may occur if the ceremony fails."

He silently recited a sentence in his mind.

"All magic is like this; there are gains from success and losses from failure."

Upon reading this sentence, he nodded inwardly, knelt on the floor to gather his thoughts, and spoke softly.

"Mercurius, speak truth."

Unveil the hidden state.

'

"Mercury—the same name as Phantom—"

"Damn it! We're done for!"

The moment he reached the last syllable of the second sentence, a wildly divergent nerve in Evan's mind went completely off track, conjuring up a rather inappropriate image for him.

Ghost: Mercury.

When he played Dota, this was one of his favorite hero units.

"What a lousy name!"

He cursed the unlucky name under his breath.

Subconsciously, copper instantly covered the entire body beneath the skin.

At that very moment, the three offerings burst into flames. The sparks from the sea salt, unlike last time, did not fly out rhythmically but instead scattered with a bang.

Evan immediately felt something that had been held in his hand by the thin thread of his spirituality suddenly break free.

The feeling was like having him use this rope to lead an angry bull.

The next second he held his breath.

Nothing happened.

There are no tentacles, no blades.

No translucent, twisted ghosts or anything like that sprang out from the center of the magic circle.

"It failed, that's it?"

Ivan scoffed, raising his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, making no attempt to hide his disdain.

He quickly reached out and retrieved the small silver key from the magic circle into his palm.

And just as his fingertips gripped the key handle...

He caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye—

In the very center of the magic circle, a neatly folded, bright green banknote was slowly sinking into the crack in the floor, and then it was swallowed up.

Ivan froze on the spot.

A second later, he abruptly reached into his inner pocket, pulled out the small cloth bag containing cash, and poured it onto his lap.

He counted them quickly.

Four hundred and fifty.

Only four hundred and fifty left!

"Mercury!! You damn sage!!"