Chapter 29: The Second Lottery

Foxtail, a plant that could be found everywhere in the suburbs and wilderness, was one of Yang Qi’s two remaining medicinal ingredients.

Its other name was Bright Grass. It had medicinal value itself; it could dispel wind, improve eyesight, clear heat, promote urination, and even treat cervical lymph node tuberculosis.

Yang Qi did not know what role foxtail played in this formula, but since it was included in the formula, it must be genuine.

Foxtail bloomed in summer and bore fruit in autumn, but what the formula required was its stem, so there was no seasonal restriction.

He took a bus out of the city and got off. Yang Qi ran to the foot of a small hill. Although it was already past evening, there was still some light. Soon, Yang Qi found a large patch of foxtail. He pulled up quite a lot, removed the heads, tied them into a bundle, and placed them in a large bag he had prepared.

As the sky darkened, Yang Qi had to head home first, planning to find the final medicinal ingredient and prepare the medicine tomorrow.

It was often said that walking the night road too much could lead to meeting ghosts. Yang Qi had not walked the night road much, so he did not meet any ghosts. Instead, he found a phone, an iPhone 5S in gold. His luck was somewhat incredible. Thinking the owner would probably call or come back to look for it, Yang Qi held onto it.

Generally, a phone did not hold much value, even a gold one. What was valuable were the things inside the phone: contact information, life photos, and even other materials. Just like many people who lost their wallets tried every means to get them back, they were not in a hurry for the money inside but for their bank cards and ID cards.

Without the unlock method, he naturally could not open the phone, and Yang Qi also had no desire to peek inside to see if there were any special life photos or pictures.

Before long, the phone really rang. Yang Qi answered it. Before he could even say “hello,” the other party started babbling a whole bunch of words.

“Who the hell are you? How dare you steal my phone? Tell me your address right now, and I’ll come get it! My phone has a tracker; I’ll find you soon! Do you even know who I am? How dare you steal my phone? You’d better stand there nicely and don’t move, or I’ll have my husband find someone to chop you up!…”

The voice belonged to a woman. The voice sounded quite nice, but the words…

Yang Qi did not say anything. He silently threw the phone into a small river nearby.

Nowadays, any thief with a bit of sense would definitely turn off the phone after stealing it and then take it to be reset. If you weren’t a thief, and if you just said something nice, the person would most likely return it to you.

So, one needed to have some manners. Well, one needed to have some brains.

The next day, after getting up, finishing morning exercise, and attending morning classes, Yang Qi asked for a half-day off in the afternoon. He went back to the wilderness, even bringing yesterday’s large bag. He planned to find the last medicinal ingredient and then directly prepare the medicine in the wild.

The last medicinal ingredient was called snakeberry. It mostly grew on slopes, roadside, ditches, and field ridge weeds. It was distributed all over the country, so it had many alternative names, like snake bubble grass, snake coiled grass, snake fruit grass, dragon spitting pearl, precious pearl grass, and so on.

The whole snakeberry plant could be used for medicine. It could clear heat, detoxify, promote blood circulation, disperse blood stasis, and stop bleeding. It could also treat venomous snake bites.

The formula required the fruit of the snakeberry. This plant bore fruit in summer, but as it was almost early summer now, Yang Qi thought he should be able to find it.

After about two hours, Yang Qi finally found about twenty fruits. This amount, combined with the other ingredients, was just enough to make ten vials of Muscle Enhancement Potion.

He memorized the location. There were many snakeberry plants here, but not many were bearing fruit. He planned to come back to pick more next time.

With everything prepared, Yang Qi quietly took out the Phantom Chariot. After getting on, he flew straight to a distant mountain. He found a place with a mountain stream and a small creek and stopped. There were also bamboo plants nearby, which were needed for making the Muscle Enhancement Potion.

Yang Qi found a few robust bamboo plants and cut them down with the knife he had brought. Then he cut them into sections, making a total of ten bamboo tubes.

Yang Qi washed all the medicinal ingredients by the stream, measured them out, divided them into ten portions, placed them into the bamboo tubes, and poured in stream water. Then he gathered some firewood, lit it, and placed the bamboo tubes over the fire to roast.

This method of making the medicine was the same as roasting bamboo tube rice.

Inside the bamboo tubes, these mutually opposing and conflicting medicinal ingredients boiled and mixed together. Their medicinal properties were all extracted by the boiling. The bamboo charcoal element that seeped out from the bamboo itself during heating perfectly neutralized the toxicity within, even converting the toxicity into the most crucial component of the Muscle Enhancement Potion.

Of course, Yang Qi could not see any of this, nor could he imagine it. The SM69 planet’s research on the tiniest trace elements in plants and their combinations was not something that could be explained by Earth’s current scientific knowledge.

Two hours later, he extinguished the fire and took down the bamboo tubes.

There was still the final step left, the most unimaginable step: sprinkling salt into each of these bamboo tubes… one by one.

If this production process had not come from the Superpower List, Yang Qi would not have dared to imagine whether this thing was drinkable. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed like he was making poison.

After sprinkling salt into the first bamboo tube, the entire medicinal liquid inside the tube started boiling vigorously again.

“Ding! Muscle Enhancement Potion successfully made!”

“Ding! For the first time completing an enhancement formula, the host gains one lottery draw opportunity.”

“Ding! For this lottery draw, the probability of obtaining an enhancement-type item is 99%, a spatial-type item is 1%, energy-type is 0, mechanical-type is 0, Battle Beast-type is 0, elemental-type is 0, time-type is 0.”

“Ding! Does the host confirm to start the lottery draw?”

Another lottery draw!

Yang Qi almost jumped up. Looking at the odds, sweat trickled down his forehead. The lottery odds this time had changed significantly compared to the last draw. There was a 99% chance of obtaining an enhancement-type item, likely related to successfully making the enhancement potion this time. The remaining odds were all 0, except for the spatial-type item.

“Confirm!”

Yang Qi placed all his hopes on that one percent chance. Although he did not know what enhancement-type and spatial-type items were, human nature was like this: he felt that rarity made things precious, and the scarce ones were the good ones.

“Ding! Lottery draw begins…”

“Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining a spatial-type item: Tier-1 Spatial Folding Bag.”

“Tier-1 Spatial Folding Bag: A spatial pouch made using the spatial-type superpower Space Folding. The capacity of a Tier-1 Spatial Folding Bag is 1 cubic meter.”

A black ring appeared in Yang Qi’s hand, and a large amount of information about the Spatial Folding Bag and how to use it flooded his mind.

“Holy crap, isn’t this the spatial ring I often read about in novels?”

Even with Yang Qi’s calm temperament, he was incredibly excited for a moment. Although this was just a one cubic meter Spatial Folding Bag, it was immensely precious to Yang Qi. With this item, Yang Qi could solve the trouble of carrying things.

“Ding! The host obtained a Tier-1 Spatial Folding Bag, triggering a mission: Upgrade the Tier-1 Spatial Folding Bag.”

“Mission completion reward: Activate the [Space Manipulation] superpower.”

“Mission failure penalty: None.”

“The mission has no time limit.”

…

Seeing the reward for the newly triggered mission, Yang Qi looked even more excited. He finally had a lead on a new major category of superpower, and it was [Space Manipulation], a superpower that sounded incredibly cool and full of potential just from its name.

However, upon seeing the conditions for upgrading the Spatial Folding Bag, his face immediately showed difficulty. Upgrading the Spatial Folding Bag required three minerals: Obsidian, White Obsidian, and Spatial Element Stone!

Yang Qi had heard of Obsidian. It was not particularly precious; it was a type of gemstone that could be bought.

He had also heard of White Obsidian, but this item was controversial. Some said it existed; others said it didn’t. At the very least, Yang Qi had never seen any truly conclusive evidence or pictures.

As for the Spatial Element Stone, Yang Qi had never even heard of it. It sounded too fantasy-like.

How difficult it would be to gather these three things!

Fortunately, this mission had no time limit; he could search slowly. Yang Qi thought that since such a mission was issued, there must be a chance to complete it eventually. As for the lack of a failure penalty, Yang Qi did not feel particularly happy about it. If he could not complete it, then [Space Manipulation] would undoubtedly remain permanently unactivated, which was no different from a penalty.

Calming his emotions, Yang Qi meticulously added salt into the bamboo tubes according to the ratio. If any mistake occurred, that vial of Muscle Enhancement Potion would be ruined.

He poured the medicinal liquid from all ten bamboo tubes into the prepared bottles and, following the Spatial Folding Bag’s usage method, stored them all inside. Out of curiosity, Yang Qi picked up a pebble nearby and practiced putting it in and taking it out several times. Finally, after satisfying his curiosity and becoming familiar with the Spatial Folding Bag, he drove the Phantom Chariot away from the mountain.

Of course, before leaving, Yang Qi thoroughly extinguished the fire to prevent any wildfires. Everyone is responsible for forest fire prevention.

Now that he had the Spatial Folding Bag, the one million US dollars naturally had a place to be stored. So, Yang Qi drove to the place where he had hidden the money. Naturally, it wasn’t the same mountain, in case the fire attracted attention. Anyway, with the Phantom Chariot, distance wasn’t a problem. He tried his best to avoid leaving traces in the same place twice, showing Yang Qi’s caution.

After getting the money, Yang Qi finally returned home, just in time for dinner. After dinner, Yang Qi immediately called Zhou Mi and asked him to meet at the park.

While waiting for Zhou Mi, Yang Qi drank one vial of the potion himself.

It was indeed effective!

Although the muscle enhancement duration was a bit short, the effect naturally could not compare to that from the Superpower List. However, it was still a potion with remarkable effects, capable of quickly changing Zhou Mi’s current state of being weak and powerless, allowing him to possess strength, speed, and reaction abilities far beyond ordinary people.

“Drink this.”

After Zhou Mi arrived, Yang Qi directly told him to drink the potion.

Facing this unknown black, sticky substance, Zhou Mi did not hesitate at all and drank it all in one go!

In Zhou Mi’s view, a master like Yang Qi would not harm him and had no reason to harm him.

Although traditional concepts were not as absolute nowadays, for Zhou Mi, the moment Yang Qi was willing to teach him the Flying Stone Technique, he regarded Yang Qi as his master, even though he never called him that out loud; he acknowledged it in his heart.

Naturally, one had to listen to one’s master.