Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life...

As for Tony, it must be said that he was quite restrained throughout. However, even if the Chinese side didn't care about the appearance of his armor, those heartless maggots sitting on Capitol Hill in the United States would definitely cause trouble for Tony.

However, Tony wasn't going to be outdone either.

As for Sherlock, he certainly wouldn't miss out on such fun, and judging from the current situation, Tony has indeed started to let loose.

Sherlock never imagined that Tony would actually create a melee-specialized suit of armor just for that lightsaber!

This made Sherlock feel as if he had made a whole plate of dumplings just for this dish of vinegar.

Chapter 145 The Dark Scheme of a Corrupted Maggot

Because Ivan Vanko damaged several cars, forcing the race to be stopped, and given the immense attention the race itself received, the incident quickly became an international event.

Just as Sherlock had predicted, Tony's deployment of armor on the rabbits' side quickly became the focus of this incident.

Although Tony defeated Ivan Vanko, who stood up to cause trouble, it also made the black-hearted maggots in the U.S. Congress jump three feet in excitement, and they issued a statement almost that very night.

The content was nothing more than first condemning the Chinese for having the idea of ​​stealing the US's advanced technology, and then explicitly and implicitly warning Tony to return home immediately, or he might be charged with treason.

Of course, for someone like Tony who frequently deals with this group of heartless maggots, the so-called treason is not important. Tony knows that what these people care about is not whether he has betrayed the country, but whether they can get their hands on the suit of armor he is wearing!

Sure enough, that evening, a statement from Capitol Hill infuriated Tony. Congress would hold a hearing at 9 a.m. the following day to determine whether Tony was capable of maintaining and protecting his armor.

The essence of this hearing, which had no defendant, was simply to use the time difference to legislate and force Tony to hand over all the technical data of his suit.

Tony was furious about this.

The rabbit's response was also swift; that very afternoon, they delivered an investigation report to Tony. Sherlock even took a look at it, and after reading it, Sherlock felt that Ivan Vanko was truly a talent.

You might not believe it, but ever since this guy found out Tony was coming to Shanghai to participate in F1, he actually crossed the border into China as a tourist, then stayed illegally in China, working while moving closer to Shanghai.

As for how this guy obtained palladium, the most crucial consumable for the Arc Reactor, we have to mention where he worked.

Various small auto repair shops!

As is well known, palladium is a powerful catalytic metal, and therefore it is widely used in automotive three-way catalytic converters.

Therefore, when this Russian man offered to help out at the shop for an extremely low price and with food and lodging provided, almost no small auto repair shop would refuse such a good deal, especially since Ivan Vanko's repair skills were not bad.

This guy used this method to work in a car repair shop during the day to earn travel expenses, and at night he would steal the three-way catalytic converter from cars, then refine palladium metal to make an arc reactor and travel all the way to Shanghai.

The reason why it performed worse than in the movie is simple: the palladium content in the three-way catalytic converter is not high, so the arc reactor that this guy built was just a crippled version.

The report did not mention the subsequent negotiations between the rabbit and Justin Hammer, and Sherlock did not care. Moreover, Tony, who was already furious, could no longer control what Justin Hammer wanted to do.

Tony's mind is now filled with thoughts of going back to the US and tearing those heartless maggots apart.

Thanks to Sherlock's earlier reminder to Avalokiteshvara, the rabbits were unusually cooperative with Tony's desire to return home, processing his exit procedures without hesitation. Then, Sherlock took out the Anywhere Door and opened it in front of Avalokiteshvara and the others.

On the other side was the toilet at Ronald Reagan National Airport on the US side.

With Sherlock's help, Tony, along with Pepper Potts and Black Widow, stormed through the Anywhere Door back to the United States.

After clearing immigration, Tony led everyone directly to the Capitol. Due to the time difference, the Capitol was not yet open for business, but Tony managed to get himself into the defendant's dock at the hearing by using his facial recognition.

Sherlock easily thwarted this treacherous scheme, which he had planned to carry out by taking advantage of the time difference, with a simple Anywhere Door.

When the group of confident congressmen opened the door and walked in with their documents, their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when they saw Tony sitting in the dock with a sneer on his face.

After that, what was originally a conspiracy against Tony turned into Tony's personal show. Tony went all out throughout, even using his phone to control Jarvis to hack into the military and Hammer Technologies' databases.

A video showing injuries caused by research into Iron Man armor was played in front of the public.

What drove these heartless maggots to despair the most was that what should have been a sure thing turned into a conspiracy against them in an instant, thanks to Tony's sudden return and witnessed by numerous media outlets.

They didn't even have the chance to manipulate the media, because Sherlock was grinning and holding up his phone in the audience, with a sign hanging below it that said "Live Now".

That's right, Sherlock turned this hearing, which was a comprehensive and three-dimensional display of the greed of those black-hearted maggots, into a live online broadcast.

With Jarvis's technology and Tony's money paving the way, Sherlock's livestream has become one of the most popular livestreams on the American side.

To prevent the media from taking things out of context, Black Widow and Pepper Potts were also recording the entire incident on their phones next to Sherlock.

Unfortunately, despite being surrounded and pursued by everyone, the idea of ​​these heartless maggots to seize all the technical data of Tony's armor ultimately came to nothing.

However, Tony, despite winning the case, didn't smile, and neither did Pepper Potts.

Having dealt with these heartless maggots frequently, the two knew perfectly well that these scoundrels, whose greed had been thoroughly consumed, would not let Tony go.

The only difference is the method and approach. If this confrontation continues, unless Tony immigrates, there is no way he can defeat these heartless maggots.

Moreover, the Iron Man suit is so powerful that it can give an untrained ordinary person weapon attributes comparable to a main battle tank. If it were just left in Tony's hands, those black-hearted maggots would have to keep one eye open while they sleep.

Therefore, handing over a set of Iron Man armor is almost inevitable; the only difference lies in how to hand it over, to whom, and in what manner.

Only in this way can those heartless maggots barely feel a sense of balance and stop staring at Tony.

On the way back to Los Angeles, a seemingly outrageous yet perfectly reasonable solution was devised by Tony and Pepper after discussion.

At this moment, Rhodes, far away at the air force base, had no idea that as Tony's good friend, he would eventually be tricked by that bastard Tony, and there was even a possibility that he would suffer a similar fate to Captain America back in the day.

Chapter 146 A Chaotic Daily Life

Because of Black Widow's identity, under Sherlock's deliberate guidance, Pepper Potts and Tony's 'conspiracy' remained unknown to Black Widow.

It was precisely because of this that after Sherlock sent Tony and the others back to their Los Angeles mansion, Tony's "unrestrained" behavior made Black Widow even more certain that Tony was terminally ill.

After dropping everyone off in Los Angeles, Sherlock didn't rush to leave. Instead, he stayed at Tony's house with a sly smile. Partly, Sherlock wanted to experience the joys of the wealthy, and partly, he wanted to have more fun.

Of course, the main reason was that Sherlock was just too curious about Tony's Mark V, which was completely different from the one in the movie.

Tony, on the other hand, didn't hide it from Sherlock and openly showed him the Mark V, which shouldn't have been there in the first place.

Just as Sherlock predicted, the Mark V really was the dumpling Tony made for that stack of vinegar. Codenamed "The Swordsman," it's a melee-specialized suit of armor. Tony even went so far as to embed action models trained from all the martial arts films in movie history inside it.

After all, it's the armor that's carrying Tony into battle, not the other way around. In Sherlock's words, Tony's design is the most unorthodox of all sword-wielding evil practitioners!

Sherlock also experienced the joy of being rich with Tony.

Good heavens, those legs were longer than Sherlock's life! And most importantly, all those long legs of all kinds of skin tones were dressed very scantily.

Such a party is only possible on the US side; if it were on the Chinese side, it would definitely be called a den of thieves.

Not to mention Sherlock, even Doro was somewhat reluctant to leave, lingering in the arms of a series of tall, beautiful older women, drooling so much it was practically flying into the sky.

In the end, Pepper Potts couldn't stand it anymore and personally intervened, angrily grabbing Sherlock's ear and dragging the two out of this idyllic place, while scolding Sherlock for corrupting Doro.

Sherlock was utterly exasperated. All he did was drink a little, go clubbing, and maybe have a bit of fun. Compared to him, Doro was living the high life!

Sherlock saw it with his own eyes: Doro was wearing a crown on his head, and that guy needed a beautiful woman to clean up his fruit and feed it to him!

But Pepper Potts didn't believe Sherlock's accusations at all. She even forcefully arranged for Sherlock to start working at Stark Industries and forbade him from going to Tony's mansion at night. Instead, he had to go to Pepper Potts' apartment.

Sherlock's so-called rich life hadn't even lasted a few days before he was forced to live the life of a working beast of burden.

As for Doro, it doesn't matter much. After all, there's not much difference between being in the arms of the long-legged girl and the voluptuous Scarlett Johansson. In fact, he didn't even take off the little crown on his head.

This made Sherlock so jealous he was practically splitting apart, yet he couldn't do anything about Doro.

While it might not have mattered much to Sherlock and Pepper Potts as they dragged him away from Tony by the ear, it was a different story for outsiders, especially for those whose focus was always on Tony.

As expected, Rhodes appeared at Tony's mansion, and the two of them got into a fight just like in the movies, except this time, he was facing Tony's brand-new Mark V.

Even though Rhodes was wearing Tony's Mark 2 prototype suit, Tony still beat him up with a fireplace hook and he ended up having to flee Tony's mansion in a sorry state.

What Rhode didn't know was that Tony had already set Rhode as the master in the armor's system, and that unpainted Mark II prototype was originally prepared for Rhode.

Tony wasn't worried about technology leaks.

On one hand, Tony has absolute confidence in his skills, and on the other hand, Tony's upgraded armor is now superior to Rhodes' Mark II.

Throughout the entire performance, Tony felt incredibly satisfied beating up his own brother, Pepper Potts was relieved because Tony gave her the armor, and Congress relaxed its tensions with Stark Industries.

Even Doro was completely immersed in the pleasures of love, while Sherlock was left heartbroken and speechless.

Good grief, I thought I'd get some fun from watching this, but instead I was forced to work like a slave, and I didn't get to see any of the fun from the fight between the two iron men.

Furious, Sherlock 'resigned' from Pepper Potts' company, grabbed his Spear of Longinus, and, using his human enhancement alchemy, stormed into Tony's mansion and gave him a sound beating.

Even though Tony was wearing a Mark V, he was still beaten to a pulp by Sherlock, and he could feel Sherlock's pain. Even the Mark V had to be temporarily repaired, and Tony had no choice but to switch to his Mark IV and run away.

What made Sherlock even more heartbroken was that when Tony went to buy donuts wearing Mark IV, Black Egg met Tony, and Sherlock, unsurprisingly, missed another memorable scene.

God knows how desperate Sherlock felt when he saw Tony return carrying a pile of videotapes, followed by a grinning Coulson.

So much so that Sherlock only left a message saying "Call me if anything happens," and without saying another word, he pulled out the Anywhere Door and ran to the rabbit's side to ask September and Ao Lie for the traditional Chinese medicine books they had prepared beforehand.

Then, through a portal, he traveled back to his home in New York and began to study in seclusion.

Suddenly, both Tony and Sherlock became busy, and even Pepper Potts was not idle, preparing for the Stark Industries Expo.

Even Rhodes' side was busy. The military and Hammer Technology were cooperating to modify the Mark II that Tony had given away. Meanwhile, Tony finally learned what the precious legacy left by his father that Sherlock had mentioned at the beginning was.

"That brat!"

After muttering something with a smile, Tony turned around and began a major renovation of his mansion in order to create a new element to replace palladium.

If there was anything Tony was unhappy about during this process, it was...

Black Egg would occasionally come to check on the progress, and another reason might be that Natsumi would force Tony to become his chewing gum almost every night, which made Tony feel dissatisfied.

However, as time went by, Tony was surprised to find that the meat jelly could not only relieve his poisoning symptoms, but also treat his kidney deficiency. Most importantly, after being chewed on the meat jelly like chewing gum, Tony was able to have a great time at night, and even after a day's work, he did not have any muscle soreness when he woke up the next day.

So much so that Tony gradually seemed to have started to like this big fish with its clear, foolish eyes.

Chapter 147 Unlocking the Dao of Alchemy

Compared to Tony's life of swinging a sledgehammer by day and using an electric pickaxe by night, Sherlock's life was exceptionally miserable. After all, the saying "advising someone to study medicine will get you struck by lightning" isn't just for show.

Not to mention the six classic books on traditional Chinese medicine, the 25 introductory textbooks on traditional Chinese medicine alone almost made Sherlock go bald.

Even so, this was after Sherlock abandoned the most classic diagnostic methods of traditional Chinese medicine—observation, auscultation, inquiry, and palpation—and focused solely on pharmacology. Yet, even so, Sherlock still felt incredibly uncomfortable.

The reason is simple: Traditional Chinese medicine does not treat headaches like Western medicine, but rather a dynamic, cyclical approach that emphasizes overall balance rather than focusing on a single point.

If you see a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) doctor and they prescribe medicine for more than a week without changing the prescription, then it's highly likely that the TCM doctor is incompetent.

After this incident, Sherlock found it hard to imagine how those medical students could possibly keep up with their studies. In any case, Sherlock was now truly filled with awe for medical students. Choosing the right major and facing the annual college entrance examination was no joke.

For a whole week, Sherlock's head was spinning from memorizing the texts, but he still couldn't find any clues. Forget about the prescriptions recorded in those nameless ancient books, Sherlock didn't even dare to prescribe himself a single dose of traditional Chinese medicine.

We must remember that people in ancient times have already shown us the consequences of taking medicine indiscriminately, even at the cost of their lives.

He then studied medicine and achieved some success. He wrote a good prescription, took it, and died. This was never a joke.

Unable to break through the alchemy technique after a long time, Sherlock had no choice but to take out his phone and contact the Great Master. After obtaining the Great Master's permission, Sherlock used the Anywhere Door to return to the rabbit's side and, led by Ao Lie, went to Laozi's Chinese medicine shop again.

Laozi seemed to have expected Sherlock's return, showing no surprise whatsoever. After hearing Sherlock's purpose, Laozi burst into laughter.

“Young friend, you’re blinded by a leaf and have gotten yourself into a dead end! Neither you nor I are ordinary people, so why follow the ‘experience’ of ordinary people and even give up your own advantages for it? I see that you have achieved quite a bit in weapon refining, so how come you become so stupid and clumsy when it comes to alchemy, which leads to the same goal but takes different paths?”

Laozi's words startled Sherlock, who almost instinctively activated the Analysis of All Things. However, what happened next left Sherlock frozen in place.

With the help of the analysis of all things, Sherlock quickly sensed the unique 'breath' of Chinese medicine in this small Chinese medicine shop.

Some are as fiery as fire, some as gentle as water, some are balanced and peaceful, some are lively and agile; some contain great poison yet hold a glimmer of hope, some contain great tonic yet contain a trace of deadly toxin.

And just then, Laozi's voice rang in Sherlock's ears once again.

"In the art of alchemy, medicines complement each other, in a continuous cycle. The extremes of yin and yang lead to their opposites. From this point on, you will have embarked on the path of alchemy."

Upon hearing Laozi's words, Sherlock bowed deeply to Laozi and solemnly expressed his gratitude.

"Thank you for your guidance, Laozi. I am deeply grateful."

Looking at the respectful Sherlock, Laozi nodded before continuing to speak to Sherlock.

"Now that you have embarked on the path of alchemy, why don't you stay in my little pharmacy for a while? After all, the pills you take are a matter of life and death, so we can't be careless. I'll guide you for a few more days. Are you willing?"

Upon hearing Lao Jun's words, not only Ao Lie, who was standing to the side, but even Sherlock, the protagonist, was stunned. Fortunately, Ao Lie finally came to his senses and quickly nudged Sherlock, who then bowed to Lao Jun again.

"This junior thanks Laozi for imparting his knowledge. I am of humble status and have no way to repay you. Please accept my three bows, Laozi."

After saying this, Sherlock was about to kneel down to become a disciple, but to Sherlock's surprise, he was suddenly pulled up by a gust of wind. Just as Sherlock was wondering what was going on, he heard Laozi, who had just been so dignified, cough somewhat awkwardly.

"Ahem, forget about becoming my disciple, especially since you have more to offer than I do."

???

After Lao Jun said these words, Sherlock and Ao Lie were once again stunned. They looked at each other and saw a hint of confusion in each other's eyes, completely not understanding what Lao Jun meant.

You have to understand, this is Laozi, the Lord of Immortality, who possesses countless elixirs and magical treasures. Sherlock really couldn't think of anything he had that could catch Laozi's eye.