Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life

Although Laozi's shop mainly operated as a pharmacy, with Laozi's skill, he was naturally adept at prescribing medicine based on the four diagnostic methods of observation, listening, questioning, and palpation.

Sherlock not only needs to learn how to combine various medicinal herbs from the prescriptions given by Laozi and understand the various Five Elements principles in each herb, but also needs to learn how to decoct the medicine.

Occasionally, Laozi would even deliberately write the wrong prescription. If Sherlock didn't notice the error and brewed the medicine directly, he would only be met with a scolding from Laozi.

Don't underestimate these things. You should know that the magic of traditional Chinese medicine is that even with the same herbs, if the cooking time is not right, the efficacy of the decoction will be greatly affected. It may even turn a life-saving medicine into poison!

Sherlock, an alchemist, was just like an ordinary person in Laozi's apothecary. His days were spent preparing and decocting medicine, and if he made a mistake, Laozi, who was holding Doro, would hit him with his Ruyi.

Sherlock, however, was quite pleased with this and even felt a sense of excitement.

The reason is simple: the so-called alchemy technique within his cheat system has gradually begun to unveil its mysterious veil to him during this process.

Once Sherlock truly grasped the basics of alchemy, he discovered that many of the medicinal herbs in traditional Chinese medicine were actually inferior versions, or mortal versions, of those so-called 'elixirs'.

The control of the heat during decoction is actually quite similar to the process of pill formation in an alchemy furnace.

Sherlock spent half a month as a medicine boy, and only after that did Laozi begin to give Sherlock some 'medicinal herbs' to refine into elixirs.

In Sherlock's mind, alchemy naturally required something like a furnace.

But when Sherlock mentioned this to Laozi, Laozi calmly tossed his 'alchemy furnace' to Sherlock.

A pressure cooker without a pressure valve.

Sherlock was completely distraught, holding the pressure cooker in his hands.

No, is that right?

Can you imagine that the so-called Nine-Turn Golden Elixir was actually made using this pressure cooker, which clearly dates back to the 1980s?

This is so damn down-to-earth!

The expression on Sherlock's face as he held the pressure cooker was exactly the same as the expression on Thor's face when Sherlock told Thor he wanted to see the core of Asgard.

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Seeing Sherlock's expression, Lao Jun, who was teasing Doro with an orange-shaped pill like a cat, almost laughed himself to tears and explained to Sherlock.

"Young friend, why make such an expression? We are not standing still; naturally, we must move forward with the tide of the times. The so-called alchemy furnace is nothing more than an external manifestation."

The pressure cooker in your hand can be the alchemy furnace, and the pots and pans in ordinary people's homes can also become the alchemy furnace for immortal pills. There are only two things that are truly important in alchemy: the first is the material, and the second is the technique.

Since you can create life like this little fellow, it proves your crafting skills are quite good. Why bother with external conditions and end up buying the box and returning the pearl?

Hearing Laozi's words, Sherlock understood Laozi's meaning and realized that to truly complete the alchemy, he should focus more on his own abilities that originated from alchemy.

If the essence of alchemy is equivalent exchange, then the essence of elixir making is the balance of yin and yang, but the methods of "refining" in both are actually the same.

In other words, if Sherlock wanted, he could completely abandon the alchemy furnace and directly refine the pills.

However, for Sherlock, such behavior ultimately made him feel that something was missing. Looking at the pressure cooker in his hand, Sherlock still had an expression of disapproval.

In the end, Sherlock used alchemy to forcibly transform Laozi's pressure cooker into the shape of a pill furnace, although in essence it was still just a pressure cooker.

In Sherlock's words, the proper sense of ritual should still be maintained.

Lao Jun didn't care about this. After all, in Lao Jun's opinion, Sherlock's 'refining' method had its advantages and disadvantages. It was indeed convenient and fast.

However, such abilities can only be limited to the 'ordinary' level. If Sherlock wants to truly embark on the path of alchemy, there is still too much for him to learn.

As for whether Sherlock can truly embark on this path, that depends on Sherlock's own destiny and how much of the contents of the nameless ancient book given by Laozi he can comprehend.

When Sherlock understood Laozi's meaning, the first batch of pills he prepared and refined on his own surprised Laozi quite a bit, even making him feel like he was falling behind the times.

The reason is quite simple: the first batch of pills that Sherlock refined was entirely the result of Sherlock's own improvisation.

Sherlock named this pill "Limited-Time Gender Experience Pill"!

The effect is simple: a total of 47 pills, 47 different genders, including Walmart plastic bags and armed helicopters. Once you take them, you can temporarily experience that gender for 3 days, although these 47 pills are basically a messy gender blind box.

Laozi was not surprised by the effects of the elixir, but by the number of gender-specific blind boxes.

Gender? 47 types? And they even have Walmart plastic bags and armed helicopters?

For the first time, Lao Jun felt that after living for so long, he really couldn't understand what those foreign devils were thinking.

Even if Laozi racked his brains, he could only come up with four genders: male, female, hermaphrodite, and asexual.

What exactly are those 47 kinds?

Chapter 153 The Calm Before the Storm

Regardless of the circumstances, once Sherlock's first batch of pills was successfully refined, it meant that Sherlock had truly embarked on the path of alchemy, and at the very least, he had truly mastered the art of alchemy.

That's why Lao Jun handed over the main business of his pharmacy to Sherlock, while he himself spent his days seeing patients and taking care of children.

It was at this moment that Sherlock realized that Lao Jun's pharmacy was not as simple as it appeared to be, merely a pharmacy that provided medical care and medicine to ordinary people.

The truth is that Laozi's pharmacy was a place where humans, gods, ghosts, and demons gathered, and they lived in a strange state of not disturbing each other.

And apart from humans, who have the simplest requirements, none of the other gods, ghosts, and demons have simple requirements.

Most people come to the pharmacy because they are sick and want to get treatment, but the requests from gods, ghosts and demons are much more numerous. Even setting aside these strange and unusual requests, and even with Sherlock's current skill level, it would be difficult to refine pills, just the request for illness alone is enough to make Sherlock scratch his head.

Unlike humans, gods and demons rarely get sick, but once they do, they are extremely difficult to cure. Otherwise, they wouldn't come to Laozi's pharmacy for medicine. Gods are better off; they only need to follow Laozi's diagnosis to prepare medicine and refine pills to cure them.

The real trouble comes from ghosts and demons. After all, demons need to be considered in terms of their original form, and many medicinal herbs that are highly nutritious for humans are deadly poisonous to demons.

The situation with ghosts is a bit more special. After all, they are spiritual beings and are inherently yin. The balance of yin and yang is already broken, so extra care must be taken.

It's no exaggeration to say that Sherlock was so overwhelmed by this bizarre and complicated situation that he almost collapsed in the apothecary. But he also had to admit that in just seven days, his alchemy skills had improved dramatically.

Even after those seven days, which Sherlock initially called hell, had passed, Sherlock, whose skills had improved by leaps and bounds, still had the mind to use Laozi's apothecary to study his elixirs.

However, Laozi's evaluation of these elixirs was only four words.

Not doing business properly!

Perhaps due to his personality, most of the pills Sherlock concocted, aside from a few that were genuinely meant to save lives, were prank pills like the first batch of gender-experience pills.

Even Laozi couldn't stand Sherlock's "waste" of his "natural treasures" and created a whole process for applying for medicinal materials, even though most of the prank pills Sherlock made were just "auxiliary ingredients" of elixirs.

In Sherlock's words, since he didn't want to live forever, and this thing was so interesting, who could refuse it?

Of course, aside from the troubles of being a medicine boy for Laozi, what probably annoys Sherlock the most is Doro being held in Laozi's arms.

In Sherlock's eyes, this little pink-haired ball of fur was already somewhat 'unruly'.

Fortunately, the Laozi in front of him was only an avatar. If it were the real Laozi, the old green ox who loved oranges would not be able to eat a single orange, and even the Vajra Bracelet, which was a nose ring, would have to be worn on Doro's hand as a bracelet.

Sherlock absolutely refuses to admit that he was jealous of Doro's treatment of receiving Laozi's elixirs like candy! Absolutely not!

The most ridiculous thing is that Laozi, this unscrupulous elder, actually managed to make a pill for Doro that looks and tastes like an orange.

While Sherlock was busy working as a medicine boy in Laozi's apothecary, the world was eerily quiet, as if none of the major events that had occurred in the past had happened.

The world was as calm as the calm before a storm, which made people feel uneasy.

At home, Tony pressed the new element left by his father to his chest, remarked on its coconut flavor, and then began to redesign his armor according to the new element's power.

Meanwhile, in New York, Tony's old friend Rhodes, with the help of Hammer Technologies, has transformed into the 'Iron Patriot' and is constantly testing his armor.

Even though Rhode already knew that Tony had already decided to make him the user of the armor when he gave it to him.

And if we're talking about the busiest person, it would probably be Justin Hammer, the brilliant strategist.

This guy first spent a lot of money to redeem Ivan Vanko, this 'genius,' from the rabbit. But just after he smuggled Ivan Vanko to the eagle's side, the military came to him with the Mark II that Rhodes had brought back to seek cooperation.

This was like a windfall for Justin Hammer, a brilliant shrewd man.

Using the prototype brought back by Rhodes, Justin Hammer had Ivan Vanko analyze the technology on the Mark 2 while simultaneously modifying it using the extracted technology in conjunction with Hammer Technology's weapons.

The real core technology, however, was mostly used by Justin Hammer on Ivan Vanko's Iron Warriors.

It has to be said that Justin Hammer's ulterior motives are the most typical example of the ruthless business thinking on the American side.

When Justin Hammer was modifying the Mark 2 to transform it into the 'Iron Patriot', he used mostly conventional kinetic weapons, which looked impressive with their guns and cannons.

However, these things are practically useless against Tony's armor.

The real big bet, however, was placed by Justin Hammer on his unmanned land, sea, and air combat drones, which is also the main reason why Justin Hammer spent a lot of money to redeem Ivan Vanko from China.

After all, Hammer Technologies is an arms company, and in the arms industry, unmanned equipment will always outsell manned equipment, especially when the performance is roughly the same!

It can be said that Justin Hammer's brilliant idea was to target military sales from the very beginning.

What could have been a technology licensing deal with Tony turned into a complicated situation due to this brilliant maneuver, even allowing Tony to stage a comeback at the hearing.

After acquiring Ivan Vanko, a "genius comparable to Tony," they became so arrogant that they wanted to showcase their latest Iron Soldier at Stark Industries' industrial exhibition!

Justin Hammer, despite his supposed intelligence, made a grave mistake by appointing the 'genius' Ivan Vanko as the project's designer, even though he knew Ivan Vanko was just an ordinary person.

So much so that Ivan Vanko, with a toothpick in his mouth and playing with birds, easily acquired the technical skills to arm wrestle with Tony. And because of Justin Hammer's jealousy, even a stage was set up for Ivan Vanko.

Most importantly, everything seemed flawless to Ivan Vanko and Justin Hammer, unaware that it was all being done under the watchful eyes of others.

Chapter 154 The Great Battle Is About to Begin

As it turns out, never underestimate S.H.I.E.L.D. during its Snake and Shield era; their intelligence capabilities were truly phenomenal.

From the moment Justin Hammer smuggled Ivan Vanko, it was all under the watchful eye of S.H.I.E.L.D., including when Rhodes took the armor from Tony and when the military requested Hammer Technologies to analyze it; S.H.I.E.L.D. knew about it from beginning to end.

However, SHIELD did not stop it from happening; instead, they chose to acquiesce.

The reason is simple: a black-boiled egg, which is black inside and out, certainly wouldn't put all its eggs in one basket. While investing in Tony, it was also observing whether Tony's armor was replicable.

The moment Tony finished creating the new element and resolved the damage from palladium, S.H.I.E.L.D. abandoned Hammer Technologies.

Coulson, with a smile, revealed Justin Hammer's secrets to Tony under the pretext of "receiving intelligence."

The implication is that there's a risk with Pepper Potts, so you need to speed up the production of the new armor. Also, although you officially fired Black Widow, she's still protecting Pepper Potts; that's a favor from S.H.I.E.L.D.

After listening to Coulson's words, Tony almost immediately took out his phone and called Sherlock.

Sherlock was still in Laozi's apothecary, refining his elixirs with an evil grin on his face, when Tony's call came in.

"Hey, what do you want with your dad?"

Sherlock opened the call, maintaining the alchemy furnace while yelling irritably at Tony on the other end of the line.

"Get out! You unfilial son, I am your father!"

Tony almost instinctively retorted, and only after saying that did he realize what he had said. Just as he was about to explain, Sherlock's voice came through the phone receiver.