Ethan's roommates were all half-boarding, half-day students, meaning they stayed in the dormitory from Monday to Friday and went home on weekends. So when the weekend came, he was left all alone in the dorm.

Ethan Brooks's cold had already recovered, though he still had a bit of nasal congestion and a cough. This cough was a cold-induced one, which was more troublesome to get rid of. If not properly taken care of, it could last for a month or so.

On Saturday, with a day off, Ethan slept in until eight o'clock before getting up and went to the cafeteria for a light meal.

With nothing to do, he returned to the dormitory.

After turning on his computer, he habitually checked the chat history in the Jiuzhou No.1 Group, which had become his favorite way to pass the time every day.

Unknowingly, it had already been more than ten days since he joined this group.

During these ten days of lurking, he saw that most people in the group were chatting about which secret realm they had ventured into and what they had gained. Or they talked about where evil spirits and monsters had appeared—either subduing them or slaying them.

They talked as if it were all real. Ethan Brooks thought, if he copied all this content and polished it a bit, he could post it online as a xianxia novel and earn some manuscript fees.

In these ten days, Ethan Brooks had also gotten to know several people in the group.

For example, the rarely-seen group owner, Henry Clark.

And the two administrators, Samuel Harris and Charles Bennett, who hadn't shown up at all since he joined.

There was the always-online "information broker" Logan Carter, the ever-reckless Blake Miller, the always-talking-about-fighting Adam Foster, and the man-of-few-words Pharmacist.

There was also Wandering Monk Thomas, who always lurked and, even when he did show up, only posted emojis and punctuation marks. It was said that this high monk was practicing "silent meditation," so not only could he not speak, he couldn't even type—at most, he could send an emoji.

Finally, there was Olivia Bennett of Bennett Island, who, in this slightly chuunibyou group, was the only one who spoke normally. Her number differed from Ethan Brooks's by just one digit. Thanks to her, Ethan had the chance to join this Jiuzhou No.1 Group.

All this information was enthusiastically introduced to Olivia Bennett of Bennett Island by Logan Carter.

……

……

Today, when he opened the Jiuzhou No.1 Group, the first thing he saw was a message from Pharmacist.

Rarely, the man-of-few-words Pharmacist spoke up: "I've improved a basic pill recipe."

This was a sentence with nine characters including punctuation. Since Ethan Brooks joined the group, he had never seen Pharmacist send such a long message. So, he read on with curiosity.

Pharmacist's message was sent in the early morning.

"Simplified Body-Tempering Liquid recipe: three taels of ginseng, four taels and three qian of goji berries; one tael of morning dew mysterious grass; three taels of yangqi stone, one tael and three qian of maiden's fragrance... one tael of fresh overlord branch, four taels of sliced nine-yang red flame bamboo..."

A string of forty-five medicinal ingredients, some of which were familiar, like ginseng and goji berries, and some more obscure, like yangqi stone, and others he had never even heard of, such as morning dew mysterious grass, fresh overlord branch, and nine-yang red flame bamboo.

"Add the ingredients to the pill furnace in the prescribed proportions, simmer for about five minutes; add new ingredients, continue simmering for about five minutes. Pay attention to the heat! Repeat this cycle until the medicinal liquid becomes a paste. The finished body-tempering liquid should be black, transparent, and have a strong taste."

Simple and easy to understand!

Out of the forty-plus medicinal names, Ethan only recognized a few. Out of curiosity, he looked them up online.

Of the ingredients, thirty were common Chinese medicinal herbs, mostly for replenishing qi and blood.

The other fifteen, like morning dew mysterious grass, overlord branch, and red flame bamboo, he had never heard of. Could it be that this " Pharmacist " and the others in the group just made them up?

"These guys are really too far gone, even coming up with pill recipes. Could someone actually try to make this and eat the resulting paste?" Ethan Brooks thought to himself.

He was a bit worried, because you can eat food carelessly, but you can't take medicine recklessly!

Taking the wrong medicine can kill you, right? Should he try to persuade these chuunibyou group members? After all, he'd been watching from the sidelines for more than ten days.

If someone in the group really died from taking the wrong medicine, he would feel a bit guilty.

He continued scrolling through the chat history, and sure enough, someone had already started making pills according to the recipe!

It was actually Olivia Bennett of Bennett Island, the girl who seemed the most normal in the group, and the time was around two in the morning.

Olivia Bennett of Bennett Island: "Compared to the old body-tempering liquid, a lot of rare ingredients have been omitted, and the pill-making process is much simpler. Senior Pharmacist, how precise does the heat need to be? I just tried it and failed halfway through. Also, how does the efficacy compare to the old version?"

"Efficacy 2:1," replied Pharmacist.

The efficacy was only half of the previous version, since many precious ingredients had been omitted. But being able to make body-tempering liquid with such common ingredients was still a great deal.

"The heat and specific simmering time need to be figured out on your own, I can't explain it," Pharmacist said, once again sending a rare long message. Only when it came to pill-making questions would he grit his teeth and type a few more words: "Also, if your 'fire control technique' isn't good, I recommend using a fire control magical tool."

"Thank you, senior, I'll try again," Olivia Bennett of Bennett Island sent a smiling emoji and then went back to lurking.

Olivia Bennett of Bennett Island's last message was at 2:13 a.m. If she went to make pills right after that, by now she should have already made several batches, right?