The Nineteenth Chapter, Compendium of Materia Medica and Turkish Ice Cream

Time passed day by day.

On January 1, 2025.

Wen Luo finally made a satisfactory gift. He carried Guangling San's signature xiaolongbao in his left hand and his toolbox in his right. He took off his oil-stained work clothes, put on a decent windproof coat, and ran to the staff canteen to prepare a hearty New Year's dish for Jiang Xueming.

Jiang Xueming has been busy these past few days. He prepared a birthday gift for Teacher Victor, which was also a New Year's gift—a complete set of stationery made of titanium steel.

At 2 a. m., the two brothers had just mailed out the stationery set. The postage to the Nine Realms Station was 44 Radiant Stones, which was quite expensive.

The mailing process went smoothly without any unusual incidents. However, one extra sentence from the logistics manager at the station upon receiving the mail caught Jiang Xueming's attention.

"Is the recipient also David Victor? Great, I'll give you a group discount!"

"Are there any other people who want to send gifts to Teacher Victor?" Jiang Xueming immediately asked.

The logistics manager, a kind-looking man in his thirties, said with a grin, "Of course! Many people like Professor Victor's work and send him all sorts of strange things. VIPs are all prominent figures—they have many followers and admirers who send them gifts."

Jiang Xueming didn't press further. "Oh, I see."

"How many Little Pink send gifts to the teacher?" Meteor immediately asked curiously, "Are there any hot female fans with big breasts and slim waists?"

While packing the goods, the logistics manager said, "There's one package for you, and another one for someone else."

Bu Liuxing: "Huh?"

"Today's a big day in the underworld, it's New Year's Day!" Hearing A Xing's surprised tone, the logistics manager continued, "Everyone's so busy preparing gifts for their loved ones, who has time to take care of Mr. Victor! Usually, there are more gifts for Mr. Victor when a new book in The Sun is published, or when an old book is finished."

The meteor wanted to say something more.

"Today is Professor Victor's birthday."

Jiang Xueming immediately covered Liuxing's mouth, telling him to stop talking.

After all, not everyone knows Professor Victor's birthday.

Back to the cafeteria--

--When Wen Luo arrived at the workers' canteen.

Jiang Xueming was showing off his latest achievements; he had prepared four new guns for A Xing and himself.

When the New Year's gift was pushed in front of A Xing was quite embarrassed. The boy rubbed his hands together, looking like a shy child for a moment.

Xue Ming tried to take the weapon away, but he immediately changed his mind, becoming brazen and no longer polite.

Jiang Xueming picked up one of the appetizers. "Meteor, this is the secondary weapon I prepared for you. You should really like it—the prototype is the Beretta 92F, designed and manufactured by the Italian company Beretta in 1985."

He handed the pistol to Meteor, whose eyes immediately lit up. "This... this...

"Is your internet connection bad? Is your brain not connected to Wi-Fi?" Jiang Xueming patted the grip of his gun. "Should I remind you?"

"No, no, no! Let me think about it! Let me think about it some more!" Bu Liuxing thought for a long time, and finally recognized the "anime/manga" attribute of this gun from the shape of the muzzle brake and the semi-open, lightweight slide. "This is a samurai blade! Wow! Woohoo! -- Wow! Wow!"

That's right, it's the design of the Samurai Blade from the Resident Evil series.

"The Beretta 92F's trigger guard is very large, and your hand size is also very large. I specially adjusted its grip according to your knuckles and metacarpals," Jiang Xueming continued. "It uses 9mm Paragon bullets with a muzzle velocity of 333 meters per second, making it very suitable for mounting a flash suppressor. It has a stable structure and is very reliable."

Its overall appearance is a matte gold of Titanium Nitride, with a silver grip for a gold and silver mix, giving it a dazzling look.

"Ming Ge!" Meteor was overjoyed when he received the pistol; he practically floated on air.

"Don't thank me yet. There's more to come." Jiang Xueming then pulled a smoothbore shotgun from the weapons case.

It had no scope, only a simple rear sight.

It's like a specially sawn-down smoothbore shotgun, double-barreled with double triggers, but with two sturdy magazines on the main receiver.

"This is..." Meteor started boiling water again, his expression like he was about to poop. "Let me think, let me think!"

"Don't think about it anymore, Brother Wen is already here. I'll get straight to the point. This is the Wild Wolf A - Demon Hunter series' exorcism shotgun. Since it's from a virtual game and doesn't have a real-world counterpart, it took me a lot of effort to train it properly."

Jiang Xueming knocked open its magazine, revealing its internal structure. "It can fire 12-gauge shotgun shells, doesn't require pump loading, but does require ejection. The original meaning of Coyote ACE is a humanoid coyote from North American indigenous mythology, capable of using mysterious magic; ACE is its trump card."

He inserted two empty cartridge cases into the firearm. He then slapped the receiver latch with his palm and vibrated the barrel, causing the two cartridge cases to pop out of the muzzle.

"Whether you want to fire a single-shot or a riot-safe rock salt round, this smoothbore gun without rifling can do it. It has a simple structure, is stable and reliable, and is extremely lethal."

After saying that, Jiang Xueming completed the unloading action again, swung the heavy weapon with one hand, pulled the trigger, pressed the release button on the side of the receiver with his Thumb, and the muzzle dropped due to gravity, the spent cartridge jumped out, and then swung the barrel back into place, thus completing the action of firing and reloading.

"Wow! Wow!" Meteor's eyes were full of A Xing. He held onto the shotgun tightly and kissed the cold titanium alloy leather grip.

Wen Luo seized the opportunity to come over and put the toolbox on the table.

"Come on, young man! Let me show you my skills!"

Jiang Xueming watched with anticipation as the toolbox slowly opened.

That moment--

A few blue flames emerged from the toolbox, drifting a few meters away before extinguishing immediately.

Bu Liuxing immediately snapped out of his daze, the gun in his hand losing its appeal— Inspiration was faintly warning him. It was like the intense, scorching pressure he felt when he first saw the Beast of Transformation.

Jiang Xueming took a deep breath.

He saw that there were eight separate sticks in the toolbox.

These sticks are about three fingers thick, and each one has a different pattern or symbol.

At this moment, Wen Luo didn't say anything, letting Jiang Xueming feel the inherent rhythm attached to these sticks himself.

Xue Ming found it difficult to describe that feeling.

--They are both a unified whole and independent entities.

This is rather riddle-like; it needs to be described in detail.

The eight pieces are arranged in pairs, linked together by oil-soaked ropes woven from the fur of Green Lion, forming four pairs of nunchucks, two black and two white.

The talisman engravings feature contrasting colors, with black backgrounds and white lines or white backgrounds and black lines in pairs, resembling a slogan or trademark of a major company—representing the eight gates and eight extremes of life, rest, obstruction, injury, scenery, death, shock, and opening.

There are the Ming De beast patterns of the BOSS with a human face and tiger body, and there are also the flame patterns of the holy Green Lion.

Meteor could hear Ming Ge swallowing.

Jiang Xueming picked up two pairs of sticks and, from the other side, which was clearly black and white and neatly matched, he discovered that the reliefs on these sticks had a new meaning—representing the eight directions of the eight trigrams: Qian, Kun, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, Dui, and Zhen.

The material of these sticks felt very unusual; it was forged using an outrageous technique. If Xue Ming's guess was correct—

"--Mr Wen Luo! How did you do that!"

Xue Ming's voice grew louder, and his emotions became agitated. There were processes in these steels that he couldn't understand, and he wanted to know and figure them out.

He held up the nunchucks and offered them to Wen Luo. "Tell me, how did you make these layers? The outer layer is flexible steel, the inner layer is bone-carbon composite steel, and the outermost layer is an ultra-high hardness, rust-proof, and scratch-resistant layer made of aerospace-grade aluminum alloy with anodizing. How did you manage to do that?!"

Wen Luo clapped his hands, used his extended arms to light a cigarette, and beamed with joy, as if he had been smugly pleased by Kua Kua's attack, extremely happy.

"Your eyesight is terrifying. You can figure out its structure and materials just by touching it a few times. If you had Soul Power, it would be very interesting."

"Is it Soul Power? Can your Soul Power really achieve such precise heat treatment?" Jiang Xueming was stunned. "It's like making dough, layering materials with different melting points and ductility, making them tightly bonded together. It's truly like a craftsman from mythology. I can't see any pinholes or pores left by the heat treatment—it's outrageous! It's absolutely outrageous!"

Jiang Xueming's Steel Heart began to emit a bright bluish-white flame, as if it had been ignited by a stick.

"Their melting points and densities are different, their material limits are different, their material penetration ratios, anodizing, and quenching temperatures are also different. These processes are relatively isolated and cannot be completed simultaneously. How did you manage to do it? Could it be that you used your Soul Power to create a highly precise kneading and forging process, repeatedly trying each step like brewing traditional Chinese medicine, and finally obtained this formula?!"

"YES!" Wen Luo roared, his fist colliding with Jiang Xueming's palm. "That felt great!"

Jiang Xueming's metacarpal bone was almost shattered by the punch. He clutched his throbbing hand and immediately felt a warm current flowing through the nerves and acupoints of his hand from the stick. In the time it took to breathe, although the physical essence of his hand was still faintly aching, the nerve endings had recovered completely and he could continue fighting!

"What the hell is this weird thing?!" Jiang Xueming went from shock to utter astonishment. "Why can it stimulate my bioelectricity and affect my nerves? Is it a vibrator?"

"Ten directions and eight extremes, longevity and enduring vision." Wen Luo clasped his hands together, performing a gesture of unity with heaven and man. "Power penetrates the eight gates, strength flows through the eight directions, this is the inner essence I have endowed it with. You might as well try its abilities and experience the feeling of endless life circulating throughout the universe."

"Right here?" Jiang Xueming's breathing became rapid. "This is the cafeteria. I'm afraid I'll break something."

"If you take the two gates of life and death, the two trigrams of water and fire, it will naturally possess a balance of softness and strength," Wen Luo tossed over a box of Guangling San buns. "You need to be full to have the energy to practice!"

Jiang Xueming swallowed a small steamed bun and felt his mental energy return to its peak. His mind was as clear as water. However, there was a hint of tea fragrance in the soup inside the bun. It seemed that he had drunk this kind of tea soup in the VIP tea room before. It was a good thing for repairing the essence of the spirit.

Before he could think further...

Wen Luo immediately asked, "Jiang Xueming, have you ever learned kung fu?"

Jiang Xueming immediately said, "Just a little bit!"

Wen Luo: "Then do you know which is more ferocious, more dangerous, and requires more courage, a knife or a sword?"

Jiang Xueming answered without hesitation, "It's a sword!"

Wen Luo: "Why?"

Jiang Xueming: "From a completely still state to the thrusting motion of raising the sword, it's about breaking through obstacles and heading straight for the throat. It needs to be fast, accurate, and kill the enemy in one move. The whole body is like a slingshot launched from a cannon. Unlike the thrusting with long spears and lances, which can use their long handles to get the kill, every inch shorter is more dangerous. Two-handed swords are weapons that require a lot of courage."

Wen Luo: "Why can't the knife do that?"

Jiang Xueming: "The sword should be used to borrow momentum, from top to bottom, or from right to left, using the weight of the weapon itself or the force of the body's tilt, or to put it simply, using the power of horsepower and vehicle. It should be a straight line of slashing, not a concentrated point. The weapon should not immediately penetrate the vital organs; there should be a back and forth movement, and the sword should follow the body, not charge straight ahead."

Wen Luo nodded in approval.

"Then that's it, you understand what I'm saying. The history of weapon evolution is the history of getting things for free. Getting things for free to this day means using gunpowder and firearms to get things for free—weapons are becoming simpler and simpler, which diminishes the presence of kung fu for people. The weapons you made for me are tailor-made for my body and my physical essence, and I'm very satisfied with them. And what I've prepared for you will allow you to practice kung fu for a lifetime to strengthen your physical essence."

Wen Luo immediately asked, "Have you ever used nunchucks?"

"I've used it a little, but I'm not very good at it." Jiang Xueming had already started practicing with the stick. "I learned from Teacher Zhao. He said his grandmaster was Bruce Lee. This thing can easily hit you. You have to control your emotions and muscles, you have to be extremely clear-headed, and you have to adjust your breathing like water to control your strength."

Wen Luo: "Then I won't talk to you anymore. Just breathe properly and feel it."

Bu Liuxing only saw Brother Xue Ming walk out step by step, swinging his stick and arm in the aisle by the window of the cafeteria, like a human windmill.

The black and white stick shadows spun and bounced, from which a bright light suddenly burst forth, like the flames of Green Lion, or the light source of the Magic Wand itself.

Its inner turmoil subsided, causing a howling wind to blow, and the ceiling fans in the cafeteria began to spin.

Jiang Xueming was no longer able to speak.

His clumsy staff skills weren't exactly impressive. The two pairs of nunchucks were far too heavy. The Magic Wand themselves were made of unusual materials—extremely high-density steel, plus the bone of the BOSS and the Green Lion —keeping the weight of the staffs around fifteen kilograms. He had to constantly adjust the balance of the staffs, like invisible water and fire, letting inertia drive them to spin in arcs, like drawing soft yet violent circles.

The flames emanating from the relief on the stick grew increasingly dazzling and bright.

As Xue Ming wielded the nunchucks faster, his stride length and distance also increased.

Meteor saw it clearly; he could feel that something on Ming Ge's body seemed to have shattered—a strong Inspiration Pressure bursting out from it!

At this very moment--

--9527, who was slacking off at the customer service department of Nine Realms Station, suddenly woke up from his afternoon nap.

She rolled over, almost falling off the sofa.

But when Xiao Qi came to her senses, she was completely unharmed.

She saw the floor just inches away, supported herself on the ground with her left hand, her whole body motionless, only the Steel Heart emitting a soft, bluish-white light.

That's an exceptional ability to maintain balance, a characteristic that indicates the employer has undergone a transformation.

The canteen was quiet. The workers, seeing the results of their work over the past few days, suppressed their excitement and felt a unique tranquility emanating from Jiang Xueming.

The chaotic stick shadows in the blue storm gradually formed a semi-circle.

A cafeteria worker, engrossed in watching short videos on her phone, forgot to dodge the strong gust of wind. The potato basket she was carrying was disturbed by the gust and she stumbled and tipped over.

Mud-covered potatoes are smashed into pieces in mid-air by sticks, then peeled and cooked like in an air fryer by a scorching storm, finally landing precisely in a rice bowl.

Meteor was stunned. "It looks like a juggler playing with Turkish ice cream!"

"Call--"

Xue Ming took a deep breath, waking up from his superhuman state. In just one minute, the pair of sticks had drained all his mental energy.

He lay back in Meteor's arms, sleeping very deeply and soundly.

Wen Luo squinted, his smile radiating satisfaction. He took a piece of roasted potato from the rice bowl and tossed it into his mouth.

"Perfect!"