I became the King of Ryukyu

"Kid, don't blame me," the white coach cracked his neck and said jokingly, "Sixty thousand yen isn't a small amount for me, especially in my hometown of Ukraine, you know, female college students are very cheap."

Zheng Yi didn't say anything, but simply moved his wrists.

When a country is broken, the powerful and wealthy live freely with foreign residency cards, while the poor who cannot leave the country are always the most miserable.

The competition follows K1 rules, which allow punches, kicks, and knees, but prohibit elbow strikes and ground grappling.

This was somewhat disadvantageous for Zheng Yi, because he had never received any training in this area. Taizongquan was a battlefield combat technique. Saying that it specialized in eye-gouging and groin-kicking was nonsense, but every move was definitely aimed at killing the enemy.

Fortunately, Zheng Yi has a strong learning ability. After watching a few matches between amateur enthusiasts, he basically mastered the rules.

It was his group's turn.

Zheng Yi almost threw up while changing his protective gear.

These public protective gear items are absolutely stinky.

But there was nothing he could do; he wasn't rich enough to buy a set of protective gear on the spot.

Get dressed and step into the ring.

As soon as the referee blew the whistle, the white coach strode forward and delivered a powerful hook punch that whistled through the air. The punch was indeed quite forceful; if it had been Zheng Yi two weeks ago, taking that blow would probably have sent him straight to meet Uncle Zhu Chenggong.

But Zheng Yi has already died hundreds of times in the Gaoliang River and has experienced two life-or-death battles in reality.

He turned his head to avoid the punch, while simultaneously landing a jab on his opponent's face. The force wasn't too great, but the accuracy was remarkable, hitting right on the bridge of the nose.

The white coach's tears streamed down his face instantly. The bridge of the nose is one of the most fragile bones in the human face; even a small force can cause enough pain to temporarily incapacitate someone. He instinctively took a half step back, wiped his nose with the back of his hand, and looked down to see that it was bleeding.

"You son of a bitch!"

Enraged, he lunged forward and unleashed a flurry of punches. His stance remained, but his rhythm was completely disrupted.

The muscle growth brought about by steroids comes at the cost of ligaments and coordination, and once emotions run high, movements are easily distorted.

Zheng Yi calmly retreated, dodged, and looked for an opening.

Then, in the instant the white coach missed a powerful but inaccurate right hook and lost his balance, Zheng Yi stepped forward, used his waist to power his shoulder, and landed a clean and precise left hook on his opponent's chin.

"Great tits destroy kittens!"

With a loud shout, the white coach rolled his eyes upward, his tall body swayed twice, and then he slammed straight to the ground like a wall that had been pushed down.

The referee was stunned for two seconds before reacting. He leaned over to check on Zheng Yi's condition, then stood up and lifted Zheng Yi's arm.

"The victor is—the Tripitaka Master!"

This is the nickname Zheng Yi gave himself when he registered.

Compared to the Undertaker or something, it doesn't seem to have much of an impact, but Zheng Yi doesn't plan to pursue a professional fighting career, so it doesn't matter.

"You should probably go back to China soon and get your thread filler done, little kitty!"

Amidst the sparse applause from the audience, Zheng Yi reached out and pulled up the white coach, who was as limp as a noodle, and tossed him aside to the medical team.

He held back; you can't rely on the medical team for this kind of amateur competition. Going too far could result in someone's death, which wouldn't be worth it.

[Winner of the ring.]

Your performance won the favor of General Zhu Shou, and you became friends.

[Strength +3. Current Strength: Battlefield Warrior 1/5.]

When Zheng Yi stepped off the stage, he felt as if there was a force in his arms and shoulders that he had never felt before.

It's not just simple muscle growth; it's more like a qualitative change in the way force is exerted—the strength of a dockworker is brute force, while the strength of a battlefield soldier is the strength to kill.

As for becoming friends with "Zhu Shou", he currently has two people on his friend list: one is "Young Zhu Yuanzhang" and the other is "General Zhu Shou". Both are from the Zhu family, and so far, he hasn't found them to be of any use.

Based on his previous experience playing casual games like Stardew Valley, Zheng Yi figured that once they became friends, they would probably send each other small gifts from time to time, but he didn't take it to heart.

He walked out of the gym in high spirits, riding his bicycle through the twilight. The evening breeze blew the stray hairs on his forehead, and even the creaking old car didn't sound so annoying anymore.

Back in the attic, Zheng Yi locked the door and took out his alchemy furnaces from under the bed.

Eight microwave ovens were neatly stacked in the corner.

I bought it from secondhand stores and recycling centers, and it cost me less than 20,000 yen in total.

Aside from the inferior Rejuvenation Pill, which cannot be easily digested and has very weak healing abilities, Zheng Yi has not yet been able to refine a single useful pill.

That useless poison pill that was previously put in feces had an awful smell and the toxicity of a powerful croton oil; it would be strange if anyone were poisoned by it.

Zheng Yi felt that he was probably too eager for quick success.

Eight alchemy furnaces should not be used simultaneously for alchemy.

With his intelligence and resourcefulness, he was capable of doing so.

However, these microwave ovens were from different brands and were second-hand, so each one had different heating speeds and power parameters, which was the reason for my failure.

After summarizing his experiences and lessons learned, he has developed a streamlined alchemy process: Furnace No. 1 is responsible for low-temperature drying, Furnaces No. 2 to No. 5 are responsible for different stages of heating and reaction, Furnaces No. 6 and No. 7 are responsible for shaping, and Furnace No. 8 is used for re-drying until crisp.

Zheng Yi opened the system panel and brought up the alchemy interface.

Today in Professor Aragaki's class, he gained a lot of knowledge about plant pharmacology. He has enough theoretical knowledge and is now ready for large-scale practical application.

He rummaged through the drawer and found several local Ryukyu medicinal herbs—moon peach leaves, Ryukyu pine needles, island goji berries, Okinawa honey, and a small packet of powder from an unknown fern collected in the wild.

According to his own formula, he roughly crushed the medicinal herbs, mixed them with honey, kneaded them into small pills, and then put them into each microwave oven in sequence according to the procedure.

Ding ding ding ding ding ding.

After eight beeps, Zheng Yi opened the door of the last microwave oven.

A burnt smell wafted over.

Lying in the plate were a dozen or so dark, irregularly shaped pills with cracked surfaces, which looked more like burnt bird droppings than elixirs.

"This sales figure is even worse than the last one. This must be the fault of Nissan's decline. Garbage Panasonic, garbage Toshiba, garbage Hitachi!"

After cursing those old money people, Zheng Yi picked up a piece, brought it to his nose, and smelled it—it had a faint herbal scent mixed with the caramelized sweetness of honey, not too unpleasant. But he still didn't dare put it in his mouth.

He thought for a moment, picked up a pill, and went downstairs.

On the third floor of the izakaya, Tetsuya, a chubby boy, was doing his homework while hunched over a table.

Looking at his broad back, Zheng Yi had reason to suspect that the kid had definitely gained weight again, maybe even two hundred pounds!