Chapter 44

Little Price smiled but said nothing. He must have his reasons for doing this. Although Little Price didn’t know what the restorative potion was, he had developed some trust in Jiang Junming.

"So it really is a restorative potion. That thing is just a scam for the poor. How could he actually take it out to treat someone?"

"What if the person was still alive, but after drinking this, he really died?"

"He’s committing murder!" The squire attendants, hearing the words of the two young men who knew the details about Jiang Junming, had a clear understanding. Someone knew what the restorative potion was—it was essentially useless, just a cheap potion that only the poorest, who couldn’t afford proper medical care, would buy. Its only effect was to give them a little comfort.

The small merchant, though he seemed to have come back to life, the squire attendants knew that he could die at any moment. Giving him this kind of potion was like a joke. A disease that even healing magic couldn’t cure, could a bottle of restorative potion really heal it?

Earlier, they hadn’t seen clearly whether the person was dead or alive, but now the squire attendants could see clearly. It seemed they had forgotten that the small merchant had been saved by Jiang Junming, and they directly accused Jiang Junming of murder.

"I’ve heard of the restorative potion. The poor in West Street often use it, but it has no real use," a merchant said softly.

"It’s just something to comfort themselves. People who can’t afford treatment, after drinking this, pretend they’ve been treated. I’ve never seen anyone’s illness cured by a restorative potion."

"Could it really work?"

"Are you crazy? If it really worked, could it be sold for a few copper coins a bottle? For someone on the brink of death, if a restorative potion could cure them, how much would that potion cost? Could the poor in the West District afford it?"

"You have a point..." The merchants didn’t understand the condition, but when it came to money, they all understood the logic. As the squire attendant had said, could a potion that costs a few copper coins cure a severe illness that even a priest’s healing magic couldn’t handle? If that were true... it would be impossible, no need to even imagine it.

Hearing the people’s discussions and the squire attendants’ accusations, Jiang Junming didn’t pay much attention to those boring people. He carefully observed the small merchant’s vital signs. His right hand, unnoticed by others, rested on the small merchant’s wrist, feeling his pulse.

The small merchant’s heart rate gradually increased, from about thirty to forty beats per minute to stabilizing at around ninety beats per minute. The premature beats disappeared, and the heart rate became steady. Jiang Junming could see from the changes in the pulse that the small merchant’s heart was beginning to recover, beating strongly and regaining vitality.

This change was even beyond Jiang Junming’s expectations. He knew exactly what a restorative potion could do, having worked in the Wild Herb Shop for two years.

Jiang Junming believed that the only effect of a restorative potion was to make the user somewhat excited, increasing their chances of surviving the illness through their own resistance. But in most cases, it was just a placebo. Even if the restorative potion he formulated was better than the one made by Stan, it wasn’t much better. However, the small merchant’s recovery speed far exceeded Jiang Junming’s expectations, even... even better than the effects of intravenous lidocaine, adrenaline, and atropine.

At the very least, Jiang Junming had never seen a patient in the medical school’s affiliated hospital recover so quickly after intravenous medication for severe heart failure. A restorative potion with effects comparable to a new triple combination? How could such a thing happen? Jiang Junming hadn’t expected it either, and he couldn’t understand it, just like the squire attendants and priests. Jiang Junming’s mind was even more chaotic, as more thoughts were swirling in his head than in others.

While observing the small merchant’s vital signs, Jiang Junming pondered what had happened. Could the restorative potion he had refined be so effective? No, no matter how strong it was, it couldn’t be used like a fourth-generation antibiotic when it was only a first-generation one, let alone that a restorative potion wasn’t even a first-generation oral penicillin. It might be a bit better than the fake pills made by unscrupulous merchants in the previous life, but not much.

Jiang Junming felt it most directly. The surrounding priests, squire attendants, students from the Church Academy, and merchants still didn’t know what had happened to the small merchant and were still talking. The two young men, one fat and one thin, seeing that they had exposed Jiang Junming’s true colors and everyone was agreeing with them, were very pleased and spoke even more excessively. In their talk, they even began to insult the Goddess of Compassion.

"Only the followers of the Goddess of Compassion would think of using a restorative potion, which is completely useless."

"In my opinion, that person wasn’t saved by Junming at all. It must have been the priest’s divine magic and Little Price’s divine power that worked. He would have been fine originally, but who knows if he’s now so weak because of Junming’s rough actions."

"Even the priests of the Church of Compassion’s divine magic is inconsistent, let alone a believer, and he doesn’t even seem to be a believer."

"Even if the Goddess of Compassion herself came, she might not be able to save this person..." The two young men, one fat and one thin, were talking with great enthusiasm, as if the injuries on their faces had already healed, forgetting about the slap from Jiang Junming. Just as they were talking, the thin one, Aired, suddenly stared at Jiang Junming with wide eyes, as if his eyeballs were about to fall out, and forgot what he was saying.

Fat Chados, not knowing what had happened, but seeing Aired’s reaction, looked in the same direction and almost fell out of his eyes. The small merchant lying in Jiang Junming’s arms had already recovered his normal complexion, and his weak state had been relieved. He looked as if he had never been sick, with a slight flush on his face, much healthier than before he fell ill.

Did the Goddess of Compassion come? Aired suddenly thought, could it be that his reckless blasphemy had angered the Goddess... He shrank his neck and looked around, but saw no strangers.

The small merchant had already sat up on his own, looking around in confusion. From his appearance, he himself didn’t know what had happened.

It actually... actually worked? A restorative potion that was completely useless actually did something that even divine magic couldn’t do? Not only the two young men, but all the onlookers were completely stunned. This didn’t make sense. If a restorative potion had such good effects, why would it be so cheap? But... the critically ill merchant was really cured by this restorative potion, and everyone saw it with their own eyes, there was no way it could be fake. With so many eyes watching, it would be impossible to cheat.

The only possibility was that this potion wasn’t a restorative potion at all!

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Thank you, friend "jonesw," for your support. I will set a fixed update time next week, but this week, updates will generally be from 9 to 10 AM and 3 to 4 PM, with two updates each day. Please continue to support me!

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