Chapter 1: Pharmacy Rookie (Shelf Explosion Seeking Votes and Fresh Flowers)

  Lin Li woke up in a wooden hut, probably due to the hasty construction, the wooden hut looked a bit simple, with only one chair and one bed as the furniture in the room. The door was slightly ajar, and a pungent medicinal smell wafted in through the gap, making Lin Li unable to open his eyes for half a day.

  "Barbarian Bull's Strength potion? But this taste seems a bit off..." Lin Li sniffed and recalled for a while before realizing: "Damn it! It's actually a failed product, no wonder I always felt that the taste was wrong. Who is so genius to add Wisdom Tree leaves to Barbarian Bull's Strength potion? Doesn't he think the conflict between the four materials is intense enough?"

  The power of the barbaric cow was nothing more than a high-grade medicine. As Lin, the master of medicine, took a slight sniff, he naturally understood the reason for the failure. However, just because he could understand it didn't mean others could too. Before he even sat up from bed, he heard a frantic and exasperated roar coming from the gap under the door.

  "Impossible! This time there was not a single mistake, how could it still be a failure? Is the material problematic? Ah, it must be the material's problem. Good grief! You old scoundrel, selling fake goods and actually selling them to my old man, I'll settle the score with you when I get back!"

  Then that voice had a good temper, just as Lin Li was about to cover his ears and continue sleeping, the slightly ajar door suddenly opened.

  Behind the door stood an old man of about sixty or seventy years, with a face full of wrinkles and white hair, but his movements were vigorous and showed no signs of age. The old man was wearing a long white robe, which was stained with medicinal marks all over, probably due to frequent contact with medicine, and looked somewhat dirty and disheveled.

  "Hey kiddo, I know you're awake, stop pretending to sleep, get up quickly." The old man pushed open the door, sat down on the rattan chair with a huff, and was still worried about that failed bottle of Barbarian Power medicine.

  "Just woke up...". Knowing that old man was in a bad mood, Lin Li quickly flipped over and got out of bed.

  But as soon as he lifted the quilt, Lin Li's expression changed.

  "Flame of Fury!" He was actually wearing the Flame of Fury!

  It was indeed the Flame Robe, Lin stood firm in his belief that he couldn't be mistaken. To get this legendary robe with thirty scroll spaces, he had spent almost 300,000 to 400,000 gold coins initially and even gave up an epic equipment just to barely exchange it for this top-grade robe of a low-level mage.

  "It can't be this weird......" Lin Li almost trembled with fear as he raised his right hand, thinking to himself that he must have seen things, it's impossible to encounter a ghost in broad daylight!

  But the ring on his thumb once again proved that he really didn't have blurry eyes, Endless Storm Ring, a mythological space ring with unique properties, possessing nearly infinite space, and it's said that this ring also hides a great secret. When Lin Li first delved into the Sun's Well, he obtained two pieces of mythological equipment, one was the Hunter's Star Fury on his hand, and the other was the Endless Storm Ring in front of him.

  This ring is really too familiar, Lin Li can't be wrong.

  Look at the Flame Robe on his body, and then look at the Endless Storm Ring in his hand. Lin Li felt that he didn't need to open the Dimensional Space again, because he was completely certain that inside must be over a hundred pieces of Dragon Skin, twenty or so pieces of Divine Metal, plus countless top-grade equipment and materials accumulated from before...

  "What the hell is going on here?!" Actually, Lin Li had already vaguely guessed that something strange might have happened to him when he woke up earlier, but he never thought it would be this bizarre.

  Everything in the infinite world actually appears in reality!

  No matter whether it's the Flame Emperor's Robe or the Endless Storm Ring, they're just equipment in the endless world. In the end, they're just a pile of data. But now this pile of data has actually appeared in the real world. Everything is so realistic. The Flame Emperor's Robe is constantly emitting its unique temperature. The Endless Storm Ring is quietly worn on his thumb. Lin can completely feel it. With just a thought, he can open up the nearly infinite space within the ring.

  "I... can I ask, what is this place?" Lin Li's voice was dry and even he himself felt a little surprised. He was very afraid that the old man in white would say a familiar name. A pile of data appearing in the real world wasn't scary, what was truly terrifying was if he himself became a pile of data, just like the plot of horror movies where a vengeful spirit dwelled in the network and searched for a substitute through various killer websites...

  "You don't even know where this place is?" A common question from Ping, but it made the old man in white robes widen his eyes.

  "I don't know..." Lin Li nodded honestly.

  "What are you running here for? This is the Sunset Mountains, one of the most dangerous places in the northern part of the Anriel continent. Even I, an old guy, only dare to come here and stay for a few days every July. You little brat, your guts are quite big, not even knowing what this place is, yet you still dare to rush in with such arrogance!"

  When Lin Li heard the unfamiliar place name "An Rui Er Continent", he knew that things had gotten out of hand. Apart from crossing over, there was no other explanation. It was just that even Lin Li himself found it strange, inexplicably becoming a crosser, and he actually felt a sense of relief, while the first thought that popped into his head was: "Crossing over is fine, at least it's better than being a network ghost..."

  "Alright, young one. Although I don't know why you've come here... The old man in white robes glanced at the Celestial Scepter on his bedside before responding to Lin Li with a hint of impatience: "Of course, I'm not interested in knowing either! In any case, the Sunset Mountains aren't a suitable place for sightseeing. If you're just looking for some excitement or are bored and want to test yourself, then I'll offer you one piece of advice: go back where you came from and don't come to the Sunset Mountains to seek death."

  He didn't care about Lin Li's reaction at all, stretched out his hand to push open the slightly ajar door, and then buried his head in the beaker and test tube again.

  "You're looking for excitement, your whole family is looking for excitement!" Lin Li gazed at the slightly ajar door, muttering to herself in annoyance. But after finishing her curse, she started worrying again. The fact was that she had indeed traveled through time and space, but she didn't have even the most basic understanding of this completely unfamiliar world. Where did she come from? Where should she go back to? She wanted to go back, but how could she?

  Moreover, the old man's last words, which sounded like both advice and intimidation, were not very pleasant to hear, but their meaning was clear: this Sunset Mountain Range was definitely not a peaceful place. Now that he couldn't even tell east from west, if he went out like this, he might really get into trouble.

  "You have only ten minutes, if I finish this bottle of tonic and find that you haven't packed up your things and left, then don't blame me for being ruthless. Lin Li hadn't even made a decision yet, but the old man outside was already driving people away without any courtesy."

  Lin Li smelled the scent of medicine and knew that this old guy had used the leaves of the Tree of Wisdom again.

  "If I were you, I'd quickly pick up those two leaves, otherwise, don't even mention ten minutes, I reckon it wouldn't take ten seconds for the beaker in your hand to explode again." Lin Li's laughter sounded exceptionally vicious.

  "Pack up your things and get out of my house at once!"

  The angry roar had barely fallen when a muffled "plop" sound came from outside the door, followed by a thick smoke that filled the air, and the pungent smell of medicine wafted in through the gap under the door, making Lin Li's eyes sting again. The old man, who was covered in bandages from the explosion, burst into the room and grabbed Lin Li: "Tell me! How did you know it would explode?"

  "There's something strange about this..." Lin Li's smile was still wicked, he started to say something but didn't continue, instead he just pointed at the collar of his shirt that had been grabbed.

  "Sorry, sorry, I got too excited." The old man chuckled twice, somewhat embarrassed, and loosened his grip. Finally, he even helped Lin Li adjust his wrinkled collar with a smile: "Can you talk now?"

  "The reason is actually very simple." Lin Li smiled satisfactorily and sat down in the rattan chair, beginning to explain: "The Barbaric Bull's Strength Potion has four main ingredients: Dragon's Blood Grass, Thousand Knots Vine, Nightmare Flower, and Giant Demon's Blood. Although these four materials have a strong medicinal conflict, they can also maintain a delicate balance among themselves. It's not impossible to add some auxiliary materials to enhance the medicinal properties, but adding the leaves of the Wisdom Tree... I can only say you're too talented. The Wisdom Tree leaves are often used to balance medicinal conflicts, but another effect is to stabilize the mind. Putting stabilizing mental ingredients into a body-strengthening potion is like putting a cat in a mouse cage."

  "It turned out to be like this, I thought...". With master-level knowledge of medicine, it's natural for him to talk about these things with ease and fluency. The old man listened with a mixture of admiration and puzzlement, and couldn't help but look at Lin with an odd gaze, feeling that he was becoming increasingly unreadable. This young man had almost perfect magical talent, yet his actual strength was weak, barely meeting the standards of a first-class mage. To call him a rookie would be fitting, yet he dared to venture into the Sunset Mountains alone.

  But what really made him see through was that this kid could actually explain the principle of the Barbarian Bull's Power Potion in a way that was both profound and easy to understand. To think that he himself wasn't even a true master of potions, but the Barbarian Bull's Power was an ancient potion formula that he had obtained from deep within the Higher Spirit Ruins. Not even the average pharmacist, let alone the Anril Pharmacy Association, would be able to find any information on it. And yet, this kid could explain it as if it were a trivial matter, making the old man wonder if there was still justice in this world.

  By the time Lin Li finished explaining the principle of the Bull Power medicine, and began to analyze the pros and cons of similar medicines, the old man's gaze at him had already become like he was looking at a dinosaur.

  The old man had completely forgotten about driving Lin Li away, and as the sky outside the wooden house gradually darkened, he cordially invited Lin Li to stay overnight and prepared a sumptuous dinner for him. During the meal, under Lin Li's probing questions, this strange world also gradually took shape in his mind.

  This is a world of swords and magic, and the old man in front of him, named Anduin, is a magician by profession, and a very powerful one at that. Although Anduin didn't say how strong he was, Lin Li could guess from his confident tone that this somewhat disheveled old man was far stronger than he had imagined.