Chapter 633

Jie Ming returned to the old city area with a slight sense of regret.

The gazes behind him had followed him for three streets, crossed two intersections, passed a gas lamp tower, and suddenly disappeared at the corner of the seventh street.

Jie Ming did not look back, but his spiritual sense captured the reason.

The two people who helped him solve the "trouble" were two people.

They were still old acquaintances to Jie Ming, exactly the two who had been on duty at the Psychic Association during this period.

They walked out of the dark alley, their movements clean and neat, without any extra sound.

Those who originally wanted to ambush Jie Ming didn't even have time to fight back; there were just a few very short, muffled sounds, and then those gazes stuck to his back were broken one by one.

However, those unlucky ones were not killed; it looked like they were taken away.

Jie Ming's passive perception could distinguish the disappearance and transfer of vital signs.

After the two people from the Psychic Association finished dealing with the last person, they did not approach Jie Ming, nor did they make any extra movements.

Jie Ming could feel their gazes linger on his back for a moment; after confirming he was fine and the trouble had been cleared, they retreated back into the dark alley and disappeared into the thick fog of Fog City.

To be honest, there was a bit of regret in his heart.

Jie Ming had originally prepared to increase his experiment subjects.

Those people following behind him, carrying dangerous intentions, wanted to treat him as a fat sheep.

This kind of material delivered to his door, if handled properly, could both solve the trouble and provide new samples for research.

He had even gone through the plan in his mind: how much force to use, controlled to what degree, so it wouldn't cause too much of a stir, nor would it let the Psychic Association notice.

As a result, those two people from the Psychic Association killed the plan halfway.

And those two people's methods were too neat.

Those two people had already made their move before the other side could act, not waiting for the other side to act before stopping and completing the cleanup.

So Jie Ming could only painfully give up these experiment subjects that were about to be in his hands.

Jie Ming's footsteps did not have any pause; he walked into the stone-paved road of the old city area calmly, just as if he hadn't noticed all this, and pushed open the wooden door of the old bookstore.

The door hinge made a familiar creaking sound.

The oil lamp was still lit, the flame dancing lightly in the breeze, exactly the same as when he left a few hours ago.

It was just that Eric was nowhere to be seen.

"This kid—"

Jie Ming's spiritual sense immediately discovered what Eric was doing, and he shook his head helplessly.

He sat down on the rocking chair, the creaking sound of the wooden board being particularly clear in the quiet room.

"However—this Psychic Association is unexpectedly persistent in maintaining order, and their sense of responsibility is unexpectedly high.

No wonder they can still maintain human society in this world under the ravages of many eerie."

This level of sense of responsibility was not faked, nor was it for show for anyone.

Jie Ming leaned on the rocking chair and rocked slightly.

He was not angry, just a little bit of a pity.

But for those "experiment subjects," Jie Ming had originally acted on a whim; if they were gone, they were gone; he was not short of research materials.

And he would likely have to deal with these two people from the Psychic Association in the future; since they had already noticed him, then appropriate low-key and restraint were necessary.

So he pretended not to see, regretfully giving up those "experiment subjects" that were about to be in his hands.

It could also be considered a kind of politeness.

"Boss? You're back?"

Eric's voice came from the direction of the stairs.

Jie Ming turned his head and saw the young man walking down from the second floor.

He was holding a roll of black wire in his hand, with an expression mixed with fatigue and satisfaction after being busy all day on his face.

"The people who pull the wires came, I just let them finish the wiring." Eric pointed to the new circuit in the corner of the ceiling. "It's exposed wiring, didn't chisel the wall randomly. I told them, this house of yours is an old house, the wall is not strong, it's troublesome if chiseled broken. They followed the wall corner for the wiring, covered it with wire troughs, looks okay."

Jie Ming looked up and glanced.

The black wire troughs were neatly arranged along the junction of the ceiling and the wall, elbows were used at the corners, and the joints were wrapped with tape; it was indeed done quite meticulously.

"Installed two light bulbs, one at the door, one above the bookshelf." Eric walked to the door and pulled the switch wire hanging down. "Look."

The light bulb lit up.

The white light was much brighter than the orange-yellow light of the oil lamp, and the entire room was instantly illuminated.

The old book spines on the bookshelf shone with different colors under the light, and those corners on the floor that were usually not reached by the oil lamp also became clearly visible.

"How is it?" Eric asked.

"Not bad."

Jie Ming nodded, stood up from the rocking chair, took a few silver coins out of his pocket and handed them over.

"But didn't expect you to do it yourself—that counts as the reward for the work of watching the shop today."

Eric glanced at those few silver coins and did not take them.

"Can I—" he hesitated for a moment, "want something else?"

Jie Ming looked at him.

Eric scratched his head, an embarrassed expression appearing on his face: "I'm not saying I don't want money, I just—you that, aren't you a black—aren't you a doctor. Do you have any medical books or something like that? Just the kind that is basic and can be understood. I want to—learn."

His voice lowered when he said the last few words, as if he were saying something shameful.

Jie Ming was silent for a moment.

"You wait a moment." He turned and walked toward the small door behind the bookshelf.

Eric knew that behind there should be Jie Ming's black clinic, so he didn't ask more.

Jie Ming walked into the small room and closed the door.

He stood in the center of the room and stretched out his hand.

Spiritual sense began to surge under the manipulation of alchemy, condensing into a precision control force at the particle level at his fingertips.

Casually placing his hand on an empty wooden box nearby, using the moisture in the air and various elements in the wooden box, he quickly synthesized paper and ink.

This process was as natural as breathing to Jie Ming, and he could precisely control the arrangement of every molecule almost by instinct.

Paper emerged from nothingness under his palm, stacking page by page, forming thickness.

Then the cover, deep brown hard cardboard, with fine texture on the surface.

Then the binding, thread-sewn, firm but not losing softness.

Finally, the text—

The ink quickly took shape on the paper, line by line, page by page, the handwriting clear, the layout neat.

Almost in the blink of an eye, a book appeared in Jie Ming's hand.

Jie Ming flipped through the book in his hand to confirm the content was correct.

This book was written based on the medical knowledge of this world.

He had extracted a large amount of basic knowledge from the brains of those black intermediaries and bandits, plus the public information collected in Fog City these past few days, integrating it into a systematic medical introductory textbook starting from zero.

The content covered human anatomy, physiology and pathology, diagnosis and treatment of common diseases, and some basic first-aid techniques.

Jie Ming also deliberately controlled it so that the content in this book did not exceed the existing medical level of this world.

With Jie Ming's existing medical level, these basic knowledge, after his organization, were enough for someone who had not received any formal education to master the basic knowledge required to become a qualified doctor through self-study.

He originally wanted to name this book "Basic Guide for Even Monkeys to Become Doctors," but after thinking about it, he felt this title was a bit too discouraging for the little guy, so Jie Ming regretfully gave up this name.

Taking the book and walking out of the small room, Jie Ming handed the book to Eric.

"What is this?" Eric took the book and looked down at the cover.

There was no title on the cover, only a simple symbol: an open palm.

Unlike the badge of the Psychic Association, this palm had no eyes, only five open fingers.

"The medical books you wanted." Jie Ming said, "I specifically picked a basic one. If you study it well, you should be able to understand it."

Eric's hand shook upon hearing this, and he subconsciously wiped his other hand hard on his clothes before taking it back.

He opened the first page.

His fingers were trembling a bit, and the action of turning the page was very light and slow, as if afraid of damaging something precious.

Eric's gaze swept quickly over those words and illustrations, his lips slightly parted, then closed, then parted again.

"This—this is for me?" His voice was a bit floating.

Jie Ming did not answer this obvious question.

He walked back to the rocking chair and sat down, picked up the newspaper on the table, and flipped to the page he hadn't finished reading.

Eric stood under the white light of the light bulb, holding the book, flipping page by page.

His eyes were getting brighter and brighter, his breathing was getting faster and faster, and in the end, his eye sockets were even a bit red.

He wiped his eyes with his sleeve, closed the book, and held it tightly in his arms.

"Boss." He said, his voice a bit hoarse.

"Hmm."

""

"Thank you."

Jie Ming flipped a page of the newspaper without even raising his head: "The money for watching the shop will offset this book."

Eric was stunned for a moment, then smiled.

He held the book, turned and walked toward the door, walked two steps and stopped again, turned back and glanced at Jie Ming.

Jie Ming was still in that posture, lying on the rocking chair, holding the newspaper in his hand, with no expression on his face, as if he were reading an unimportant piece of news.

"Then I'm leaving." Eric said.

"Hmm."

""

The wooden door closed.

Eric's footsteps gradually faded away on the stone-paved road and then disappeared into the night of Fog City.

Jie Ming put down the newspaper and glanced at the light bulb on the ceiling.

The white light was shining steadily, without flickering or noise.

He reached out and pulled the switch wire.

With a "click," the light bulb went out, and the room returned to the soft orange-yellow light of the oil lamp.

Jie Ming leaned on the rocking chair and closed his eyes.

Overall, today's harvest was not small.

Various materials related to the eerie, black stone slab, eerie fragments, research manuscripts, sealing containers—

Plus that complete, sealed eerie, it was already enough for him to conduct preliminary research.

Especially that silver-white metal box, the sealing technology of the Psychic Association, if it could be thoroughly researched, it would also be of great help to the research on the eerie itself.

Jie Ming opened his eyes, took out the metal box from his internal cave heaven, and placed it on his knees.

His fingers stroked the surface of the box, feeling that layer of extremely subtle energy fluctuation.

The fluctuation was very weak, weak to the point that people in this world might need specialized instruments to detect it, but to him, every detail of this layer of fluctuation was as clear as lines carved on glass.

The material of the sealing container, the structure of the runes, the method of energy locking, the principle of inhibiting the eerie's activity—

These things needed time to analyze.

He put the box back into his internal cave heaven and closed his eyes again.

But another matter was still turning in his mind.

Those people following behind him—among those who treated him as a fat sheep after the auction ended, he noticed one thing.

Among all the trackers, one person was missing.

It was that cold, black shadow who sat in the corner during the final bidding of the auction.

Jie Ming could confirm that when he left the exhibition center, that person indeed revealed a dangerous gaze.

That kind of gaze was not ordinary greed or curiosity, but clear, genuine killing intent.

Jie Ming had seen this kind of gaze too many times on the battlefield; it was impossible to misidentify.

But among those preparing to hunt him, that person was not there.

Those gazes he perceived came from several other people, all faces he had seen at the auction, and a few had even made eye contact with him when he was bidding.

They wanted his money, wanted the things he had auctioned, wanted that sealed eerie.

Their intentions were very direct, very simple, very easy to understand.

But that black shadow was not among them.

That person had clearly revealed a sufficiently intense killing intent, yet did not act.

He didn't even appear in the hunting team.

Either he gave up, or he changed his plan.

But that genuine killing intent was not fake; the reason that could make him give up, Jie Ming thought about it, felt the most likely one was: people from the Psychic Association.

It wasn't that he saw those two people make a move, but that he knew in advance that people from the association would intervene.

So he gave up.

If that was really the case, it meant this black shadow was very familiar with the action mode of the Psychic Association.

Familiar to the point of being able to predict that the association would protect buyers after the auction ended.

This kind of person was not an ordinary black market merchant or desperado.

Jie Ming's fingers tapped lightly on the armrest of the rocking chair twice.

"It seems this city is also going to gradually become lively—"

Jie Ming was not surprised by the upcoming turmoil in this city.

When he chose Fog City, one of the reasons was that the fate fluctuations here were quite intense.

This was the convenience of fate-related knowledge.

Jie Ming didn't need to go out looking for anything at all.

He only needed to wait quietly in this city; those that should come would always come.

The flame of the oil lamp danced lightly in the breeze, casting his shadow on the mottled wall.

Jie Ming lay on the rocking chair, rocking slowly.

The wooden board made a slight creaking sound, mixed with the wind outside the window, the distant steam whistle, and the faint, eerie whispers coming from countless corners of this city, forming a night rhythm unique to Fog City.

He closed his eyes, a faint smile hanging on the corners of his mouth.

Waiting was the best action.