Around the sa ti.
Main Continent, an isolated castle.
"Gurgle, gurgle..."
In the hall of the castle, a light gray pot was boiling over the fire, the liquid inside bubbling, with a heap of herbs bobbing up and down continuously.
You could see that the herbs included not only common things like branches but also so strange and rare items, such as: translucent crystal caterpillars, half of a black bone, a viscous liquid mass, grass-green bird eggs, a tuft of gray-brown hair...
These things boiled in the pot for a long ti until the pot turned glowing red, lting everything into the water, transforming into a large pot of deep black liquid. It emitted a stench akin to rotting fish and shrimp, making one involuntarily think of sewage flowing in sewers at the harbor, sowhat nauseating.
A pair of hands stretched out, the palms enveloped in compressed air with a vacuum layer in the middle, resembling a perfect thermal glove. Witch Su effortlessly lifted the scalding pot from the fire, limping over to Hulk’s side, straightforwardly saying, "Drink it."
Hulk glanced at Su, then at the liquid in the pot.
After examining it, he looked at Su again, swallowed hard, and forced a stiff smile, sowhat pleadingly asked, "Isn’t this a bit too hot? How about letting it sit for a while, cool down a bit before drinking?"
"Too hot?" Su raised an eyebrow, turned her head to the side, and called out the nickna, "Ice Cube!"
"Okay." A voice replied, "Ice Cube" in the corner waved a hand, and diamond-shaped ice slices ford in the air. Waving a hand again, the generated ice blocks swam like fish in the ocean, swiftly swarming to the pot’s edge, jumping into the pot in succession.
The white steam rising from the pot quickly diminished, and the temperature of the deep black liquid inside continuously dropped to a drinkable level.
"Now it’s fine, you can drink it." Su voiced, urging Hulk.
Hulk opened and closed his mouth, finding no excuse to delay, his expression turned extrely aggrieved, almost pleading as he looked at Su and said, "Can we not discuss not drinking this stuff? I think, even without drinking it, I can withstand the side effects of the Energy Furnace fusion process."
"Nonsense!" Su glared, retorting with displeasure, "Whether you can withstand it isn’t up to you, but rather the tests. Three days ago, the attempt failed, did you forget?"
Saying this, Su set down the pot in her hand, reached a hand towards Hulk’s collar, roughly tearing open Hulk’s shirt, revealing a palm-sized blistering scorch mark on Hulk’s chest.
Pointing a finger, she warned, "If we hadn’t discovered it early and stopped in ti, you’d be a dead man now, understand!"
"I was just in a bad state, if I adjust a bit, maybe..." Hulk weakly defended.
Su, growing impatient, raised her voice, "Stop the nonsense. You should just obediently drink the Enhancing Liquid. This isn’t just about you; it concerns a whole lot of people. You have no choice but to drink it.
Don’t look at with those eyes. Do you feel aggrieved? Honestly, if my physical strength were on par with yours, I would’ve fused with the Energy Furnace myself, wouldn’t be as scared as you are, not even as brave as a woman."
"I..." Hulk protested, eyes widening a bit, "I’m not afraid of fusing with the Energy Furnace okay, even if it ans death, it’s fine. After all, I’ve been ntally prepared for a long ti. But what I fear is drinking this Enhancing Liquid... This stuff is really too hard to swallow. Initially, I never thought it would be this horrible. Maybe... add so sugar? If not, adding so salt would do, the taste is just too strange."
"Stop daydreaming, obediently drinking is your only choice." Su said, "The consumption of this Enhancing Potion must be strictly according to records, adding so water to dilute it a bit, so ice to lower the temperature — that’s the limit. Adding anything else might change the potion’s effect. I assu you wouldn’t want to drink it for ages, only to find that it doesn’t enhance your body’s capacity for the Energy Furnace, but rather backfires?"
Hulk: "..." He was rendered speechless, any excuse he found was shut down by Su.
In resignation, clinging to one last shred of hope, he looked towards Captain Moli in the hall, voicing, "Captain, you think I could... take a break and drink it in the afternoon?"
At this ti, Moli was sitting on the ground, maintaining silence while constantly gazing at a room sealed with stones several ters away — Xizhe’s resting place. Ever since returning from exploring the ruins, he had gone inside, and until now, no sound had co out, making her increasingly anxious.
In worry, Hulk called out several tis, Moli finally snapped back, glanced at Hulk, and said irritably, "Can’t delay it, drink it now. Either do it willingly, or I’ll call the others to force it down you, your choice."
As soon as she said this, "Wood," "Cal," "Ice Cube," and several others all stood up, directing their gaze towards Hulk, showing keen interest in this task.
Seeing this, Hulk cursed under his breath, reluctantly said with a pained expression, "Alright."
After speaking, he sighed deeply, picked up the pot, and gulped the liquid down his throat.
"Gulp! Gulp!"
The sound of swallowing echoed as Hulk’s entire face began to twist, almost crumpling into a bitter lon.
"Gulp! Gulp!"
After a while, Hulk swallowed all the liquid in the pot in one go, tossed the pot away. He tugged at his hair with both hands for a few seconds, rolled around on the ground a couple of tis, and banged his head on the floor repeatedly, finally exhaling with a "Phew," feeling his soul returning.
Tears, unknown when they started, had already flowed from his eyes. Hulk looked at his companions displaying not a trace of sympathy beside him, and couldn’t help but complain, "This is just too awful to drink."
"Alright, alright, stop complaining and get this pot down as well."
A voice rang out, and there stood "One-eyed," entering from outside with a new pot, placing it before Hulk.
The pot was filled almost to overflowing, the color even darker, and the sll more pungent than before.
Looking at it, Hulk couldn’t help but freeze, "What’s this?"
"Oh, forgot to tell you," "One-eyed" said, "To maximize the increase of your body’s capacity for the Energy Furnace, from today on, the amount of potion you drink has to keep increasing, this is just the first added pot, there are two more cooking outside, once they’re done, we’ll bring them in for you."
"I..." Hulk’s eyes widened to the extre, then he turned and ran headlong into the nearby wall, shouting in so distress, "Don’t stop , I’m done living!"
"Bang!"
A dull thud was heard.
Out of respect for Hulk, no one really stopped him, and Hulk’s head thudded solidly against the castle wall, then went through—it left his lower body still on this side of the wall.
Everyone watched silently.
A few seconds later, with the cool breeze outside the castle blowing on his head, Hulk realized he couldn’t escape his tragic fate. Letting out a long sigh, he withdrew his dusty head, returned to his original location, and drank the second pot of liquid with tears in his eyes.
Then ca the third pot.
The fourth pot.
Altogether four pots— and this was just one day’s quota, tomorrow would co soon enough.
...
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