“These medicinal ingredients are useless to me. I only need two: one is strong liquor, the other is garlic!”

John Adams replied with a grin.

Samuel Carter was dumbfounded after hearing this. Strong liquor was one thing, but as for garlic, it was also one of the “three forbidden foods,” and there was no way the entire Tianjie Temple would have any.

“You’re treating someone’s wounds—what do you need strong liquor and garlic for?”

No sooner had he spoken than he was contradicted. No matter how good Samuel Carter’s self-restraint was, he couldn’t help but feel both embarrassed and angry.

“Has the Grand Preceptor forgotten about the matter of the relic?”

John Adams didn’t explain, but instead smiled and asked in return. Samuel Carter immediately understood what he meant. It was only because he had unconditionally trusted John Adams before that the relic could be produced. Now, to save Brian Cooper, he would have to trust him unconditionally again.

“Someone, go outside the temple and buy strong liquor and garlic!”

Samuel Carter gave the order decisively once more. He wanted to see if John Adams could create another miracle.

“Get the strongest liquor you can find—the stronger, the better. As for garlic, bring twenty jin to start with!”

John Adams added from behind.

The steward monk agreed and immediately dashed off.

Strong liquor and garlic were common items, so about half an hour later, the monk brought them over.

A jar of liquor—John Adams opened the seal, and a pungent alcoholic aroma rushed out.

“Not bad, it’s distilled liquor.”

John Adams nodded in satisfaction. The exact era when distilled liquor appeared is unclear—some say the Song dynasty, some say the Yuan—but in any case, distilled liquor was already common in the Ming dynasty.

“How are you going to use it? Don’t tell me you’re going to pour this whole jar of strong liquor into Commander Cooper’s stomach?”

Samuel Carter questioned again.

The relic was one thing, but medicine was one of Samuel Carter’s specialties. Even he was at a loss for how to treat Brian Cooper’s wounds, so he didn’t believe that the young John Adams would have a solution.

“Is there a stone mortar for grinding medicine? Bring the biggest one you have!”

John Adams didn’t explain and directly instructed the steward monk.

The steward monk looked at Samuel Carter, and after receiving his approval, hurried off and soon returned with a stone mortar as thick as a man’s embrace.

John Adams dumped all the garlic in, didn’t even peel it, and started pounding it with the pestle.

Very soon, the entire Buddha hall was filled with a pungent garlic smell. Samuel Carter silently muttered “what a sin”—pounding garlic in a Buddha hall was no different from eating meat in front of the Buddha.

In no time, the garlic was mashed into a paste. John Adams had the steward monk help pour all the garlic paste into the liquor jar, then had two monks carry it and shake it vigorously for quite a while.

“All right, put the jar down!”

Finally, John Adams had the monks set the jar down and let it sit for a while. Then he poured out a cup of strong liquor, now with a strong garlic aroma. Just smelling it was enough to clear the mind; taking a sip would make your very soul jump.

John Adams took the garlic liquor to Brian Cooper’s bedside. He was about to use the liquor to wash the wound when he suddenly stopped.

“You! You! You…”

John Adams pointed at four burly soldiers. They were all palace guards who had been ordered to bring Brian Cooper here.

“You four, hold down Commander Cooper. Don’t let him move an inch.”

Following John Adams’s instructions, the four guards grabbed his arms and legs, pinning Brian Cooper firmly to the bed.

Once everything was ready, John Adams brought the cup to Brian Cooper’s wound and slowly poured it on.

“Ah~”

As the garlic liquor touched the wound, the previously unconscious Brian Cooper let out a miserable scream, his whole body tensing up as if he were about to leap off the bed.

Fortunately, the four strong guards held him down tightly. John Adams didn’t stop—instead, as he poured the liquor, he used the small knife from before to scrape the medicinal paste from the wound.

In fact, this stuff really shouldn’t be applied directly to wounds, but since there were no better alternatives in this era, it would have to do.

The sting of the strong liquor and garlic, combined with the knife scraping the tender flesh of the wound, would be unbearable even for a man of iron.

Although Brian Cooper was being held down, he still struggled violently in pain. The veins on his neck bulged high, his face flushed red, and his eyes nearly popped out.

“Are you trying to kill him or save him?”

Seeing Brian Cooper’s agony, Samuel Carter couldn’t help but ask again, and even David Foster looked at John Adams with suspicion.

“Don’t worry, Grand Preceptor. This is a perfectly normal reaction. It won’t hurt in a moment!”

John Adams replied without even looking up.

“That miraculous? It only hurts for a moment?”

David Foster finally couldn’t help but ask.

“What I mean is, once he passes out from the pain, he won’t feel it anymore.”

As John Adams spoke, he noticed there was still some medicinal paste deep in the wound, so he used the small knife to pick at it a couple more times.

Brian Cooper let out a series of beast-like howls. The pain finally exceeded the brain’s threshold, triggering its protective mechanism, and he passed out again.

But John Adams still didn’t let Brian Cooper off. After thoroughly cleaning the wound, he poured another cup of garlic liquor and forced it down Brian Cooper’s throat.