Nine-layer armor-breaking

Chapter 327 Pill
The steward shouted, his grip on the short sword becoming unsteady and trembling.

Seeing the steward swallow a pill, Guard Li was momentarily taken aback, but he didn't dare to think too much about it. The next moment, a short sword swept towards him with an extremely fast and strange motion.

"hiss!"

With a whooshing sound, the short sword sliced ​​through the air.

"Whoosh!" The short sword suddenly stopped in front of Li Huwei.

"Clang!" The short sword and the short knife collided, flashing sparks.

However, the steward's move did not seem to succeed, as the guard Li reacted quickly and parried the attack with his short sword.

The steward, having ingested some kind of elixir, suddenly experienced a surge in strength, becoming like an inflated balloon, as if suspended by an invisible thread.

He was no longer himself; he seemed to have completely changed, like a puppet being manipulated. He began to attack rapidly, as if he had gone mad, making it difficult for Li, the guard whose strength was comparable to his, to cope.

The puppet was so irrational, completely different from the indifferent manager before taking the pill. It seemed that the pill was indeed strange.

However, at the moment, Guard Li couldn't think about that anymore.

He now has to deal with the puppet and the out-of-control dagger in its hand.

Faced with the steward whose strength had suddenly increased and whose swordplay was unpredictable, Guard Li's heart was suddenly in his throat.

He had to concentrate on dealing with the steward, and even though he was finding it difficult to keep up with the attacks from the puppet's short sword, he still had to do his best to cope.

Jiang Xian naturally saw that Li Huwei was not up to the task, but the opportunity she was waiting for had not yet arrived, and she still needed to wait.

However, of the four people in the courtyard, two were currently sparring with swords, one was observing with a hood up, and the other seemed absent-minded, his thoughts wandering elsewhere.

And that person who is absent-minded is the backbone.

What he is thinking right now is unknown to others, but he himself is very clear about it.

The battle between Guard Li and the steward, and even the conflict between Jiang Xian, Guard Li, and the steward, was exactly the outcome he wanted to see.

Therefore, he was not surprised by the current situation; on the contrary, it was all within his expectations.

However, his absent-mindedness at this moment was not feigned as before; he genuinely had some concerns.

These concerns arose after seeing the steward take that somewhat strange pill.

He clearly saw the state of the steward after he took the pill, and his somewhat horrifying appearance.

His concern stemmed precisely from his somewhat eerie appearance.

Now, he was more worried that Guard Li would be no match for the steward after taking the pill, and he was very afraid that Guard Li would lose the battle.

This contest was directly related to life and death. Losing this battle meant that Guard Li would lose his life, and it also meant that even if he won and saved the life of the steward, the steward might also lose his life.

In this way, if Guard Li were to fight the steward and ultimately lose his life, in the eyes of the leader, the next one would be Jiang Xian or the leader himself.

Therefore, the leader was naturally still somewhat uneasy.

He could only pray that Li Huwei would win, and he was now on the same side as Li Huwei. If Li Huwei lived, he might live; if Li Huwei died, he would surely die.

He understands this basic principle.

He also understood that the only people who could help him now, the only people who could save his life, were Guard Li and Jiang Xian.

In his mind, it would be the best thing if Jiang Xian, Li Huwei, and the steward could fight each other to the death.

But now, in his view, that possibility is clearly out of the question.

Now, the most likely scenario is that the steward will use the power of the elixir to kill Guard Li.

Therefore, in his opinion, the two people with the strongest abilities at present are none other than Guard Li and the steward.

Now that the steward has taken the pill, his strength has greatly increased. Therefore, the only person who can fight against the steward and put up a slight resistance is Guard Li.

Therefore, the steward now has a great chance of winning, while Guard Li is likely to be the one at a disadvantage.

This can be easily seen from the way the two of them fought.

If things really develop in this direction, then after the steward kills Guard Li, his own life will naturally be in grave danger.

Therefore, he would not allow such a thing to happen. He would seize the opportunity at the crucial moment to help Li Huwei as much as possible, so that the two of them could be put on the same page again, or Li Huwei could kill the steward.

Therefore, his current absent-minded and worried appearance is actually an attempt to seize the opportunity so that he can betray the person in charge at the best and most accurate moment.

Since he had already personally dealt with the leader of this team, he didn't care whether one more or one less person died at his hands.

If he could really help Li Huwei, he could use that to gain merit and exchange it with Jiang Xian for something, such as asking Jiang Xian to give back his own life.

His life is now in the hands of others, and those who hold his life could be anyone present.

After all, he dared not make a decision rashly, and he did not know who the final winner would be among the four of them.

Whoever wins, his life is in their hands.

He no longer expects to be valued by Jiang Xian in the future, nor does he think his future is bright. He just wants to save his life and survive in this world a little longer in this moment when everyone is in danger.

That was enough for him.

He has nowhere to go back to. Now he is like a piece of duckweed, drifting in this world, helpless and alone, relying only on himself.

Therefore, only he himself could control his own destiny and future; only he himself could rely on himself. Li Huwei was already exhausted, but the steward remained the same somewhat excited puppet, unleashing sword strike after sword strike, relentlessly attacking Li Huwei.

However, the attack was strangely indiscriminate, unlike other martial artists whose minds could be controlled and who knew the vital points and weaknesses of their opponents.

However, even under these circumstances, Jiang Xian observed that the puppet-like steward's mobility had actually decreased, both in speed and strength.

The fact that the steward is now exhibiting this gradually declining state indicates that the effects of the pill he took are beginning to dissipate and are showing a gradual downward trend.

Jiang Xian had naturally heard of these kinds of elixirs.

Although Jiang Xian couldn't say exactly which type of pill he had taken, he knew that this type of pill could not be taken continuously.

These types of pills concentrate a martial artist's entire energy and control their mind, thereby gathering all the martial artist's strength into one point for manipulation. However, these pills consume a tremendous amount of the martial artist's physical strength.

As far as she knew, and based on Jiang Xian's guess, after the pills took effect, the steward would appear listless and weak, his body would become increasingly tired, and his reactions would be much slower than usual.

Generally speaking, taking this kind of pill once will cause a huge drain on the body. Ordinary martial artists would find it difficult to bear the feeling after the effects of the medicine have completely worn off. They would also expose their weakest state to their opponents when their bodies are at their weakest, thus putting themselves in a dangerous situation.

Therefore, one should either not take such pills, or if one does take them, one should defeat the opponent before the effects of the medicine wear off.

If such pills are to be used in actual combat, the goal is to defeat the opponent within the time it takes for the pills to take effect, leaving the opponent with no chance to fight back.

If such pills are used in competitions, there are no strict standards. However, if the user wants to save their life, they need to have a trustworthy person by their side so that they don't lose their mind and fall into the opponent's trap when the effects of the medicine are strong. Having a reliable person by their side also ensures that after the competition, the user won't be bullied because of their weak body and lack of ability to fight back.

However, if this steward were confident that he could take that kind of pill again, the effect of the second dose, although not as great as the first time when the martial artist was in the best condition, would still allow him to perform at the expected level, albeit with less effect.

Even so, it was definitely better than the dejected state that the manager would appear afterward, and certainly much better than his usual condition.

However, if the steward were to take a second pill after the effects of the first one wore off, then Guard Li would definitely die at his hands after taking the second pill.

Li, the bodyguard, is now in a state of utter helplessness.

In Jiang Xian's and his core opinion, Guard Li should not be able to hold out for long before he is defeated by the steward.

The advantage of taking that elixir is that it can mobilize all the power in the user's body to one place through the medicine's effects, allowing for frequent and rapid attacks on the opponent, making it impossible for the opponent to defend themselves.

However, there are also disadvantages.

The disadvantage of taking this pill is that after taking it, one will be like a puppet, manipulated by someone holding strings. Therefore, the user lacks independent judgment and has no tactics, thinking, or rationality.

Therefore, the opponent could actually break through and attack from this point.

But Li Huwei was different. The difference in strength between Li Huwei and the steward was not that great, which made it very difficult for Li Huwei to fight the steward. He was somewhat unable to keep up with the steward, whose strength had increased significantly.

In fact, Li was already exhausted, both physically and mentally, and it was difficult for him to continue the protracted battle with the steward.

For a martial artist like Li Huwei, whose strength is not much different from that of a martial artist who has taken elixirs, the difference in strength is not huge, so there is actually no time for him to think fully during the battle.

Li Huwei fought back and forth with the short sword he gripped tightly in his hand, desperately trying to defend, resist, and dodge.

Therefore, he naturally dared not spare any thought for anything other than parrying or dodging.

However, the key figure standing aside now seemed to have also noticed the manager's gradually decreasing speed and strength.

Upon seeing this, his brow furrowed even more, as if he had thought of something, and his previous thoughts seemed to have been changed by himself in an instant.

His current thoughts are somewhat different from those he had thought of before. As a fellow martial artist, he is not completely ignorant.

He was also wondering, and he was also speculating, whether the kind of pills that the steward took would make him very weak when the effects wore off.
If his guess is correct, then when Guard Li falls to the ground, the steward will also be extremely weak, giving him an opportunity to take advantage of the situation. In that case, he won't need to help Guard Li backstab the steward anymore.

Thinking of this, he felt a surge of excitement, as if he had discovered some incredible secret unknown to others, and his heart was filled with joy.

If his guess is true, then he won't have to put his life in someone else's hands. For him, the best outcome would be for both Guard Li and the steward to suffer heavy losses.

His excitement vanished, replaced by a flurry of calculations running through his mind.

Even though he didn't understand pharmacology, he was a genuine Earth-rank martial artist. He naturally knew that there were no pills without side effects. Even those pills that could help martial artists improve their strength often required the martial artist's cooperation, or even involved enduring inhuman torture, causing immense suffering, not to mention their exorbitant prices.

For martial artists like them, if it can improve their strength and if they can bear the extremely high price, they are willing to endure a round of painful torment.

This is precisely because many pills have side effects. Mild pills have fewer side effects, but their effects take longer to take effect. While powerful pills can work faster and more effectively, such as pills that can boost a martial artist's combat strength in a short period of time, these come at the cost of damaging the martial artist's body. They also have more side effects and are less suitable for use.

Therefore, as the backbone of martial arts practitioners, he knew a bit about things like pills. It was precisely because he understood these things related to pills that he no longer blindly believed in them, nor did he painstakingly consider using pills to improve his strength.

Before he started practicing martial arts, when he was going through a rough patch, he knew about elixirs and even considered using them to quickly improve his strength.

However, due to the team's limited financial resources, he could not even dream of using elixirs to improve his martial arts skills.

However, even so, he was not willing to give up and was still not convinced about the pills. He still tried to find out about the pills by going around in circles.

Later, after making numerous inquiries, he finally understood some of the intricacies involved and learned that elixirs were quite risky, especially the more potent they appeared, the greater the risks and the higher the requirements for the alchemist or pharmacist.

He also knew that if he could find a skilled pharmacist to refine the pills for him, the risks associated with the pills would be greatly reduced, and the user would be safer.

However, finding a skilled pharmacist is extremely difficult.

The quality of the pills sold on the market varies greatly, and the pharmacists behind them are often just ordinary ones. Naturally, the pills they produce will have many impurities and be of poor quality.

Even if the quality of pills on the market is poor, those that can be sold on the market are often made by pharmacists with powerful backers, or some powerful forces employ pharmacists to produce pills in large quantities to earn money. They are not to be offended easily.

Therefore, finding a pharmacist who can provide a long-term supply of stable quality products is not an easy task.

Therefore, his idea was temporarily shelved.

(End of this chapter)