Chapter 9: Third-Class Armor and Third-Class Capsules (Third Update—Vote for Me!)

Chapter 9: Tier-3 Armor and Tier-3 Medkit (Third update, asking for votes!)

Zheng Zha’s expression turned cold. How dare a small gang like the Black Dragon Society try to bully the woman his brother fancied!

A gentle breeze stirred. Zheng Zha narrowed his eyes and said languidly, “The weather’s turning cold. Time to make the Black Dragon Society go bankrupt.”

Luo Feng glanced up at the sky to be sure it wasn’t a lush green or a garish pink—no, he hadn’t strayed into the wrong genre.

“All right, all right,” he said.

Zheng Zha waved his hand helplessly. “They came to provoke us; we need at least an excuse to retaliate.”

Very good. This young man is promising. That was a proper provocation—you’ve got the makings of a hunter.

“When do we make our move?” Zheng Zha inquired.

“Tomorrow night.” Luo Feng absentmindedly plucked a blade of foxtail grass.

“Are you sure?” Zheng Zha glanced at Luo Feng in slight surprise.

This wasn’t like Luo Feng—he was usually cautious. This impulsiveness was more characteristic of himself, rushing in headlong to wipe out an enemy family.

“Nonsense, I’m absolutely sure,” Luo Feng replied firmly. Then, as if remembering something, he added, “I’ve got everything else ready. Tomorrow, bring the past six months’ stock.”

“You’re taking it this far…” Zheng Zha was startled.

Three talismans a minute, one hour at a time, thirty-six talismans a day—over six thousand in half a year.

Six months’ worth of stock—you’re planning to blow up the entire Ping’an County!

Luo Feng let out a cold laugh. “If we’re going to act, we go all the way.”

“Otherwise, you take out the underlings, and the bosses show up. Take out the bosses, and the old masterminds arrive. What a headache!”

Back on Earth, Luo Feng had always lamented in novels: whenever the protagonist rooted out evil, they only slew the ringleader, always sparing the henchmen!

He never realized that the King of Hell is easy to appease, but minor devils are hard to deal with; sometimes the misdeeds of the small fry far exceeded those of the leaders.

At least the boss cared about his reputation, while the underlings swaggered about, abusing borrowed authority!

If you wiped out a gang or a group of bandits, some innocents might get caught up, but if you killed nine out of ten, there’d always be some who slipped through the net.

Heaven’s justice turns like a wheel—evil must be thoroughly eradicated!

If you don’t pull out the roots, weeds sprout anew with the spring breeze.

If you don’t act, fine. But if you do, unleash overwhelming firepower—leave none alive!

As the sages said: “Let no enemy stand; if they do, you’ll be in danger. Strike first, and all that remains is dust.”

Zheng Zha was speechless. So it really was just his imagination.

He’d still underestimated this guy—he was just as... well...

Was it really necessary to go to such lengths for a small county gang?

“But I support you,” Zheng Zha said with a sly grin.

He already had old scores to settle with the Black Dragon Society—time to settle both new and old accounts!

Early the next morning, Luo Feng and Zheng Zha prepared their gear and met in the courtyard.

Luo Feng held a chest plate, speaking at length, “We’re heading to the county seat; think of it as a small dungeon in a game. There’s a real chance something could go wrong!”

“What’s most important when running a dungeon? Equipment! What lowers the risk of failure? Equipment!”

“Isn’t this a bit of overkill?” Zheng Zha asked, touching the chest plate on his body. He nearly felt like he’d armored himself into a masked superhero—protection for heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, spine, knees, even the joints of his hands.

Luo Feng wagged a finger. “You’re too young. You don’t know how dangerous the world is. What if one of those gangsters shoots from behind? Even if they don’t have guns, they might have crossbows. And if not crossbows, perhaps bows and arrows.”

“What if they let loose a volley? What then?!”

“I’ll be fine, but you’re as fragile as paper!”

Zheng Zha had no answer and even felt Luo Feng made some sense.

While they talked, Luo Feng finished donning his gear, then took out a pair of boots. “Did you bring wind talismans?”

“What do you need wind talismans for?” Zheng Zha asked, distressed, pulling out a thin stack of talismans. “The five elements are easy enough to draw, but I only have a handful of wind talismans!”

The art of talismans was about communing with nature, commanding spirits and gods.

The five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, earth—were the most common forces in nature, with tangible forms, making them the easiest to inscribe. Wind talismans and Yellow Turban Strongman talismans, though, were formless yet substantial, relying entirely on the talismanist’s comprehension—much harder to draw.

As for thunder, yang, or yin talismans, those lofty, ethereal spells—Zheng Zha had yet to complete even one after a whole year!

“Heh. As they say, before you talk of victory, prepare for defeat.”

Luo Feng started sticking wind talismans inside his boots, one after another—about twenty in all—instantly halving the pile on the table.

Patting his boots, Luo Feng smiled, “If we can’t win, we can still run.”

Zheng Zha’s face twitched. He was about to protest, to stop Luo Feng from squandering resources, when Luo Feng reached out a hand. “The five elements, please!”

“Hurry up, you’re dawdling like an old woman.”

Soon, the table was stacked with a hundred water talismans, a hundred fire talismans, a hundred metal talismans, a hundred earth talismans, and a hundred wood talismans. They might have been cheap quality, but five hundred talismans was no small sum—it would take Zheng Zha over half a month to draw that many.

Luo Feng carefully stuck all five hundred talismans inside his undershirt, then put on another shirt, followed by more talismans, and finally donned a cloak covered in talismans.

“This is tier-3 armor!” Luo Feng announced proudly.

“Any more?” Zheng Zha asked, struggling to keep up.

“Of course! Those are for saving your life, but you need healing gear too. Tier-3 medkit is a must.”

Zheng Zha: “???”

Is there really a difference between life-saving and healing gear?

Forgive him—he was a science student…

…

Luo Feng hurried into his room and returned with a wooden box. He opened it to reveal rows of bottles and jars, a medicinal scent filling the air.

“This is blood-staunching powder—keep a handful on you.”

“This is Immortal’s Water. Supposedly, it can temporarily stimulate the nerves—I haven’t tried it, so it’s probably fake.”

“Oh, and here’s the Celestial King’s Heart-Guard Pill, the Nine-Turn Black Dragon Pill, and the Yellow Sprout Snow Pill. Take a few bottles of each…”

“And this—corpse-dissolving powder. The old pharmacist gave it to me on the sly. Not sure if it works…”

“And this is Five-Poison Powder. Scatter it, and it’ll poison people. Here’s the antidote for it.”

…

Zheng Zha broke into a cold sweat just listening. He couldn’t help but ask, “Where did you get all this stuff?”

The two of them were together nearly every day—he’d never once seen Luo Feng buy these things.

Could it be that the tiny Yang Family Village secretly harbored a reclusive master physician?

“You know the pharmacy across from the fruit shop in the county?”

“I always thought, in case of injury or illness and no time to see a doctor, I could use some of this. So every time I went into town, I’d buy a little.”

Luo Feng carefully divided the medicines between them, like a teacher assigning snacks to children.

“These are really for treating injuries and illness? Aren’t you being a little too cautious?”

“We’re up against gangsters, not assassinating a king!” Zheng Zha complained.

Still, looking at all the bottles and jars, Zheng Zha hesitated, then stuffed them into his pockets—just in case, just in case. Traveling the land, it pays to be careful.

“Anything else?” Zheng Zha asked flatly.

“Of course!” Luo Feng immediately produced another treasure.

It was a map.

Luo Feng explained, “The son of the great-aunt’s third niece on Yang Village’s headman’s mother’s side works as a cook at the Black Dragon Society’s headquarters.”

“I chatted him up, got him talking, and drew this rough map.”

…What could Zheng Zha say to that?

(End of chapter)