A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 179 The Philosopher's Stone

Inside basement number 221, Pix controlled Ram to open the door.

Then he silently turned it off.

"What did I just see?"

Open it again, then close it again.

bump!

The door was broken open by Jiang Shuzhou.

Jiang Shuzhou couldn't take it anymore. No, what do you mean?

You look down on me, don't you?

You keep turning it on and off, are you refreshing your computer desktop?

"Looks like we meet again, little mouse. Can you die again now?"

"How could you have found me so quickly?"

Piss looked utterly incredulous, his eyes practically popping out of their sockets.

"Are you... are you a mockingbird, a falcon, or a parrot?"

How come this slang is so elaborate?

"No, I'm a bird walker."

Fortunately, Jiang Shuzhou was not bad either; he knew a little bit about it.

"That's impossible, someone must have been helping you!"

"I was wondering if it was possible that I had a little bit of insight into the Path of Flesh and Blood, and you used the Flesh and Blood Puppet Technique, which is why I was able to find you so easily?"

Piss remained silent.

In short, he jumped around like a clown.

"Alright, the hide-and-seek is over. Now surrender and I'll give you a proper death. Otherwise, you definitely won't want to experience my methods."

"We can cooperate."

"I can help you manipulate public opinion and secure more benefits for you. I can sign a contract!"

After a brief period of shock and disbelief, Pix began the second phase: begging for mercy.

I don't think so.

Jiang Shuzhou remained unmoved.

He's not incapable of these things; besides, this person's methods of manipulating public opinion rely entirely on magic, which is only so-so.

Moreover, Jiang Shuzhou is a law master, and he can't associate with these gangsters.

After all, the so-called "jianghu" (江湖, a term referring to the martial arts world or江湖江湖) is nothing but trash in front of the regular army. If not, then the jianghu is not the jianghu but a rebel army.

"Killing me won't change anything. I knew what the outcome would be the moment I started doing this."

Is this the third stage, and they're already giving up?

"But if you don't kill me, I can help you settle this, as long as you..."

It seems we're still in the second phase.

Jiang Shuzhou listened with great interest, while the soldiers around him surrounded Piss, showing no intention of letting him leave.

Pease looked around and seemed to understand something.

"Even if you kill me, it won't make any difference. Public opinion will still ferment. I've already planted the seeds."

Are they actually preparing to die?

That's a really fast change of expression, and he certainly has a lot of work to do. No wonder he can be a bard.

"Let me hear your story."

Upon hearing Jiang Shuzhou's words, a hint of smugness flashed across Piss's face.

"Since it's your request, I can't refuse."

I was born in…

Then Chahara slit his throat.

"you……"

Before he could finish speaking, Piss collapsed, his eyes filled with disbelief and pain, but a hint of smugness still lingered on his face.

Jiang Shuzhou had no interest in hearing Pearce's story; he was just teasing Pearce, just as he had fooled ordinary people, using the name of peace to carry out war.

Moreover, this is very much in line with his identity as a bard, beginning his life as a bard with the end of a story, and ending his life as a bard with the beginning of a story.

Begin with other people's stories, and end with your own.

This can be considered Jiang Shuzhou's reward for not resisting him, after all, this way of dying is much more comfortable than going into Jiang Shuzhou's laboratory.

Now that the person is gone, it's time for the enjoyable looting phase.

To be honest, Jiang Shuzhou hadn't killed anyone himself for a while. Ever since he became a mage, the loot in the game seemed to have disappeared, consisting entirely of junk.

It was mostly gold coins. Jiang Shuzhou seriously suspected that this module was likely under the control of the gods, and that its drop rate had definitely been secretly altered.

While others could get equipment drops from killing monsters, Jiang Shuzhou could only get gold coins. For a while, Jiang Shuzhou was so angry that he complained every day, but the administrator said he couldn't do anything about it.

So Jiang Shuzhou stopped insisting on killing it himself; with that low drop rate, he probably wouldn't be able to eat four dishes in his entire life.

However, you still have to do the looting yourself, otherwise it just won't feel right.

First, I checked the clothes. Not bad, I found a key to basement 221. Although the door is broken, at least this is a good start.

Then we just need to see if there's anything good in the open air.

"The Art of Language?"

Out of professional habit, the books on the table caught Jiang Shuzhou's attention. After flipping through them briefly, Jiang Shuzhou was captivated.

This book is full of various techniques for evoking emotions, something that Jiang Shuzhou is currently lacking.

His speaking style is one of two things: either he prioritizes profit above all else, or he spouts a bunch of platitudes, designed to torment people.

However, the content of this book is completely different.

What about creating a common enemy? What about turning black into white, distorting right and wrong, and the role of gestures?

All of this made Jiang Shuzhou very eager to try it out.

However, his rationality as a mage prevented him from going so far as to give a speech in a beer hall.

If you're going to give a speech, you should stand in a large hall. What's a beer hall compared to that?

Immediately afterwards, Jiang Shuzhou released the detection hidden door.

Sure enough, there was a hidden door in the drawer.

Immediately afterwards, Jiang Shuzhou began hammering and tinkering.

There's no other reason than the fear of magical traps.

These traps might not harm Jiang Shuzhou, but what if they damage the treasures in the hidden compartments?

However, after a series of taps, Jiang Shuzhou discovered that there seemed to be no magical traps.

"Chahara, go, pick the lock."

However, Chahala looked helpless.

"My lord, there's no lock here."

What is that hidden compartment?

"That's a mechanism."

As he spoke, Chahara used a clever trick to pull out the hidden compartment along with the contents.

It's a very simple partition.

So this person didn't take any anti-theft measures at all?

Jiang Shuzhou was speechless. The saying goes that a fool can defeat a master. Jiang Shuzhou originally thought that the other party had prepared a lot of traps and was carefully preparing to break them.

Who would have thought that the other side was completely unprepared?

"It's all your fault for being so careless. No wonder I came looking for you and kicked you to death."

After kicking Piss's corpse, Jiang Shuzhou looked at the hidden compartment.

Sure enough, it was a spatial ring.

The ring wasn't very big; it contained only some money and a stone.

Clearly, this stone is the so-called treasure.

"Why does this thing look so much like the Philosopher's Stone?"

The Philosopher's Stone is a versatile substance created by alchemists.

It is said to be able to replace most materials in its function.

This thing is ridiculously expensive to make, and it also has a high rate of wear and tear.

Although high-level alchemists can craft it, almost no one is willing to do so.

Only a high-ranking alchemist would create one and make it into an ornament to wear on their person, in order to show everyone their alchemical skills.

After looking at the body, Jiang Shuzhou understood.

The body and emotions are made from the Philosopher's Stone.

My Philosopher's Stone!

So many bodies, how many Philosopher's Stones must that consume!

It's such a waste to use the bright red Philosopher's Stone on someone like this!

Jiang Shuzhou grew angrier the more he thought about it, and then kicked him again.

If I had known, I wouldn't have let him die a quick death.