Chapter 309: Ambergris, I Want the Top Quality

Lin Yu walked over and patted his shoulder. The force wasn't great, but Xu Xiaochuan felt the pain in his leg lighten a bit.

"'Dragon's Blood' must be the real thing that's over a hundred years old, and 'Placenta' also has its requirements. 'Ambergris'... those fakes on the market are useless." He walked up to Xu Xiaochuan, "As for the testing equipment, it must be of the level of a biological laboratory."

"This place looks broken," Lin Yu lowered his voice, "but the water is deep. There are all kinds of people from all walks of life, and no one will notice us for a while. But if we are targeted, it will be more troublesome than being outside. You and her, don't show your faces for now."

Xu Xiaochuan looked at the unconscious Xuanyuan Qing on the bed, thought of the missing Xiao Ya, thought of the coordinate and "Ark" project left by his old man, and thought of the people who had died and been injured along the way. His fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"I won't hold you back. Uncle Lin, tell me, what do you want me to do?"

Lin Yu looked at him; in the dim light, something flashed in those eyes that had always been calm.

"Rare medicinal herbs, the black market in the south of the city might have a way. Testing equipment..." He paused and looked at the pitch-black night outside the window.

"It seems I have to go see an 'old friend'."

In the inner room heavy with the smell of medicine, Lin Yu took off his blood-stained, tattered combat suit and fluidly changed into a gray, dusty work jacket and a pair of worn-out jeans. He rummaged from the bottom of the medicine box for a flattened baseball cap, pulled it down on his head, the brim pulled very low. He also found a most ordinary blue disposable mask and put it on. The whole process took no more than thirty seconds; the Lin Yu who radiated cold, hard killing intent disappeared, replaced by an inconspicuous, ordinary middle-aged man who could never be found if thrown into a crowd. He walked to the outer room, where Xu Xiaochuan was sitting against the wall, his face pale, staring fixedly at the unconscious Xuanyuan Qing on the diagnostic bed.

"Guard the door well, don't open it for anyone. If she has a high fever, use the medicine powder in the blue bottle on the second layer of the cabinet mixed with water to wipe her body." Lin Yu's voice was lowered, carrying a hoarseness of someone who had mingled in the marketplace, completely different from the previous coldness. He didn't wait for Xu Xiaochuan's response, pushed open the creaking wooden door, and slipped out, like a drop of water merging into the dirty, damp night outside the door.

Xu Xiaochuan listened to the clamor coming from the street outside, looked at the lifeless Xuanyuan Qing on the bed, and then thought of Lin Yu's appearance that was like two different people, only feeling his heart being gripped by an invisible hand, cold and heavy.

In the Haicheng South District, on the edge of the red-light district, lay a completely different shadow. Lin Yu turned into a narrow alley that could only accommodate one person; the smell in the air changed immediately, no longer a mixture of food decay and cheap perfume, but a unique scent intertwined with the smell of earth, medicinal herbs, and a faint bloody odor. At the end of the alley was an inconspicuous iron door, rusted and mottled, with a distorted gourd mark drawn sketchily in red paint on the wall beside it.

Lin Yu raised his hand and knocked three times, not too hard or too soft, paused, and knocked twice more.

From inside the door came the sound of an iron bolt being pulled, the door opened a crack, and a pair of turbid eyes scanned him vigilantly through the crack. Lin Yu didn't speak, just pulled the brim of his hat lower. Those eyes seemed to recognize something, or perhaps just confirmed he wasn't trouble, and the door opened completely.

Behind the door was another world. This was a huge underground space, which might have originally been an abandoned air-raid shelter or warehouse. The air was foul, the light dim, with only a few underpowered light bulbs hanging overhead, and various small lights pulled out by each stall providing illumination. Figures were moving, shoulder to shoulder, but there was no loud noise, only low conversation, the rustling of money and goods trading, mixed with the strange odors of various medicinal herbs, chemicals, and even some living creatures. This was Haicheng's underground medicine market, a trading ground outside the law.

Lin Yu was exceptionally familiar with the environment here; he hunched his body slightly, avoiding the crowd, his footsteps not stopping, his gaze scanning the stalls on both sides rapidly. The things on the stalls were varied, with bundles of herbs, strange organs soaked in turbid liquid, prohibited implant parts gleaming with metallic luster, and even mutated creatures in cages emitting low growls.

He stopped in front of a stall hanging shriveled snake skins; the stall owner was an old man who was skin and bones, his eye sockets deeply sunken.

"Hundred-year Dragon's Blood, real stuff." Lin Yu's voice was lower.

The old man raised his eyelids, his turbid eyeballs turning, and took out a dark red, irregular block-shaped object from a black wooden box beside him, handing it over.

Lin Yu took it in his hand, brought it closer, scraped off a little powder with his fingernail, twisted it, and smelled it.

"Not old enough, sixty years at most." He put the thing back on the stall.

The old man chuckled twice, didn't refute, and didn't take out anything else.

Lin Yu continued to walk forward, asking two more stalls, getting either inferior goods that weren't old enough, or fakes made of hematite or dyed resin. The few medicines he needed were extremely rare and hard to find, and the real ones were worth a thousand gold.

Finally, in a corner, where the light was dimmest, he saw a relatively larger stall. The stall owner was a fat man wearing a silk jacket, wearing several thick gold rings on his fingers, squinting his eyes, drinking tea with a small purple clay pot. Behind the stall stood two muscular men, looking like they weren't to be trifled with.

Lin Yu walked over.

"Placenta, Ambergris."

The fat man raised his eyelids and looked him over slowly.

"Heh, quite a mouth. These two things aren't for just anyone to ask about." The fat man put down the teapot, his voice oily.

"Do you have it, or not?" Lin Yu didn't take his bait.

"Things, well, naturally I have them. However..." The fat man deliberately dragged out his tone, extending three fat fingers, "This number, per gram."

Lin Yu looked at him silently.

The fat man thought he was scared by the price, a smug smile appearing on his face. "What? Think it's expensive? This is the only real stuff I have. Miss this village, and there won't be this shop. Seeing that you're an expert, why not add a little more? I also have 'Ice Toad Slough' that just arrived, which has miraculous effects on your old problems of constant light avoidance, liver fire, kidney water deficiency, night sweats, and daytime urinary retention..."

Before the fat man could finish, Lin Yu suddenly spoke, his voice not loud, but clearly transmitted into the fat man's ears.

"You've had dull pain in your lower right abdomen for three years, worsening at night, thinking it's an old problem, but it's actually sludge accumulation in the gallbladder. You've been taking 'Liver-Soothing and Gallbladder-Benefiting Pills' for a long time to suppress it, right? Taking too much of that medicine hurts the yin; have you felt dry mouth, blurred vision, and double vision recently?"

The fat man's smile froze on his face, his eyes widening suddenly, cold sweat seeping from his forehead. He subconsciously touched his right abdomen.

"You... how do you..."

"Ambergris, I want the gray-white top quality. Placenta, from a first-born baby boy. Dragon's Blood, go find A Gui next to you; he has a 120-year-old piece, you get it for me." Lin Yu's speaking speed was steady, but carried an unquestionable power, "Price, at market rate. Also, I'll write a prescription for you; adjust for three months, and seven or eight parts of your gallbladder problem can be removed."

The fat man's facial muscles twitched a few times, his expression toward Lin Yu changing completely, from the previous flippant probing to awe and a trace of fear. He hurriedly stood up, shouted to the side: "A Gui! Bring that old Dragon's Blood to this gentleman!" and then bowed and scraped to Lin Yu repeatedly, "Sir, please wait, please wait! Ambergris and Placenta, I'll get you the best right away!"

Soon, the three main medicines were carefully wrapped in oil paper and placed on the stall. The fat man respectfully handed over a card.

"Sir, this is the shop's credit card. In the future, if you need anything, contact me directly, and I will definitely give you the best price!" ===== CHAPTER 310 =====