Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life

The Philosopher's Stone has never been anything sacred, which is why Sherlock, even with the ability to repair Helen's body, still had to consult Helen and Zhao Weike.

When Zhao Weike finally understood what the Philosopher's Stone in Sherlock's hand truly represented, his expression turned ferocious as he looked at the tiny, rice-grain-sized stone in Sherlock's hand.

The reason why Sherlock didn't use the Philosopher's Stone in his own eye but instead used the Philosopher's Stone forged from Gola's soul is quite simple: they are essentially the same.

The only difference is that the Philosopher's Stone in Sherlock's eye socket, which can automatically replenish itself, has an unknown origin, while the one Sherlock crafted himself has a known origin.

As Zhao Weike's expression grew increasingly ferocious as he stared at the Philosopher's Stone in Sherlock's hand, Helen gently placed her hand over Zhao Weike's clenched fist, which was covered with veins and sweat.

Almost the instant Helen grasped Zhao Weike's hand, Zhao Weike calmed down and turned to look in Helen's direction, only to see that Helen's eyes held no greed whatsoever for the Philosopher's Stone in Sherlock's hand.

"No, Sherlock, I don't think I'm the one who needs this the most. After all, we already have enough children. If we have any more, I won't be able to take care of them all."

As Helen spoke, she looked at Laura, who was playing in the water with Doro in the bathroom, with a tender, maternal gaze.

Looking into Helen's eyes, and then following her gaze to look at Laura, Zhao Weike's previous struggle vanished in an instant. He gave Sherlock a relieved smile and gently patted Sherlock's shoulder.

"You think I'm not busy enough? First Anna and Mindy, and now that I've finally managed to get those two aunties into school, here comes Laura. You still want me to support you?"

It was clear that both Zhao Weike and Helen had made their choices. Just as Sherlock was about to put away the Philosopher's Stone made from Yura's soul, Helen stopped him.

"Sherlock, I think there are some people who need this stone more than I do!"

Helen repeated her words, while glancing at Black Widow, who was discussing things with Captain America and Tony in the living room.

Sherlock understood Helen's meaning in an instant, gave a helpless wry smile, shrugged at Helen, and then spoke.

"I have a feeling I'm going to get into some weird trouble!"

Helen simply smiled at Sherlock's statement, patted him on the shoulder, and walked towards the living room. She then pulled Black Widow aside and whispered something to her.

Black Widow's expression shifted from initial confusion to shock and finally to excitement. She even rushed to Sherlock's side before Helen could finish speaking and asked him a question.

"Sherlock, is what Helen said true?"

Sherlock could only nod helplessly under the questioning gazes of Captain America and Tony.

Before Captain America and Tony could even ask what had happened, Sherlock grabbed Black Widow and used the Space Stone to teleport her to his home, showing her the Philosopher's Stone.

"Sister Black, are you sure? Putting aside the question of whether it's sinful or not, once you regain your health, all the troubles women face will follow. Have you really thought this through?"

When Sherlock asked her question, Black Widow nodded without even thinking.

Seeing this, Sherlock no longer hesitated and directly placed the tiny Philosopher's Stone, about the size of a grain of rice, on Black Widow's lower abdomen with his palm.

Almost instantly, a sharp pain accompanied by an unbearable itch came from Sherlock's hand covering Black Widow's lower abdomen.

But before Black Widow could scream, Sherlock removed his hand from her lower abdomen.

This left Scarlett Johansson somewhat at a loss for words.

"Is it all done?"

"It's all done, but your body needs some time to adjust, probably about a week. During this week, avoid strenuous activity and don't eat any raw or cold food."

Sherlock spoke calmly to Black Widow, as if it were nothing more than a trivial matter, showing absolutely no sign of tension.

"That mission?"

"I'm sorry, you'll have to stay home and rest for the rest of the week. I even suggest you stop doing any clerical work that requires you to stay up late. What you need to do is eat plenty of fruit and meat to replenish your body's nutrients and let your body get used to the organs you've regained."

My personal suggestion is that you have Sister Hua do another check-up, and she can give you a supplementary note regarding the specific situation.

Sherlock answered without the slightest hesitation, but he could never have imagined that his 'medical advice' would remind him of the painful life he had as a slave in his previous life.

Chapter 567 Limited-Time Experience Card for Working-Class People

After listening to Sherlock's advice, Black Widow promptly went to Sister Flower for a thorough examination. Sister Flower's advice was similar to Sherlock's, only more detailed.

After confirming that she had truly recovered, Scarlett Johansson happily went home with the supplements prescribed by her friend, Flora.

For the entire day, neither Scarlett nor Sherlock experienced any unexpected events, and nothing even happened until the evening of the following day.

However, what neither Black Widow nor Sherlock knew was that the news of Sherlock restoring Black Widow to full health had already begun to spread like a virus among the Black Widows on the very first afternoon.

Most importantly, because of Black Widow's past espionage training, this information was kept tightly within her small group, with absolutely no intention of leaking it outwards.

It wasn't until the third day that Scarlett Johansson began to realize that something was amiss.

The reason is quite simple: throughout the day, dozens of Black Widows have come to visit under various pretexts, repeatedly probing whether Black Widow has truly recovered.

Not only that, Scarlett Johansson even noticed that from the moment the group of Black Widows entered, their attention was always on her lower abdomen!

Having all undergone the same training, how could Scarlett Johansson not see through the group of women's true intentions in coming to ask them questions?

Although Black Widow initially wanted to shield Sherlock from the bullets, after dozens of waves of continuous harassment, she gave up. Black Widow snapped, honestly explaining everything and the conditions clearly before decisively closing the door to visitors.

However, the information provided by Black Widow caused a huge uproar within the Black Widow community.

It's important to know that the Black Widow organization originated from a spy organization during the Soviet era. Unlike the Western countries that were heavily influenced by Christianity, the Soviet Union, despite the existence of religions like the Orthodox Church, always adhered to materialism at its core.

Therefore, for Black Widow, if she could exchange the soul of a sinner for her own wholeness, there would be no better deal in the world!

So when Sherlock was happily holding an iced Americano on the fourth day, ready to open the gate and bask in the sun in the yard, he was met with a long line of Black Widows, each with a huge suitcase, standing obediently in front of his house.

Most importantly, almost every face revealed a yearning expression.

Honestly, when Sherlock found out what had happened and saw the half-dead man inside the huge suitcase in Black Widow's hand, who was first in line, Sherlock really wanted to refuse.

However, it was obvious that the Black Widows, with their experience as veteran spies, had long since figured out Sherlock's temperament, and without saying a word, they handed him all the evidence of the half-dead man in the box.

Faced with such compelling evidence, perfectly logical and admissible in court, Sherlock couldn't resist giving the man a good beating.

Since he had already practiced, Sherlock had no use for the tiny Philosopher's Stone, so he simply used it to heal the Black Widow in front of him.

This is like opening Pandora's box.

With the first Black Widow successfully cured, the long line seemed to have received a standard procedure: carrying boxes into Sherlock's house, opening the boxes to hand over the evidence, receiving treatment, and finally running to Sister Flower for a check-up.

Like an assembly line, it is precise and efficient.

Sherlock, however, was completely devastated. After half a day, his sanity had almost completely plummeted.

In the short span of half a day, Sherlock witnessed firsthand what the hell meant by human species diversity, and what the hell meant by a constellation of humankind.

Sherlock once thought that the things shown on the dark web were the limit of human curiosity, but after seeing the contents of those incriminating evidences, he realized that the dark web was nothing!

Sherlock once thought that the capital described in Marx's Capital as cannibalistic, exuding filth from every pore, was a metaphor. Turns out, it was all real!

Sherlock once thought the priest and the little boy in American hell jokes were hell enough, but after half a day, Sherlock realized that this was practically heaven!

Sherlock never expected that after half a day, his sanity would be the first thing to give out!

Even so, it was only because Sherlock actively blocked out the memories he should have acquired while training those humanoid creatures. If he hadn't actively blocked out those memories, Sherlock probably wouldn't have been able to last even five people!

But that wasn't the most devastating thing for Sherlock. What truly drove him to despair was that the Black Widows went even crazier after learning that Sherlock had his limits.

They even rang Sherlock's doorbell before eight o'clock the next morning.

For three consecutive days, Sherlock, who was originally rich and had plenty of free time, was tormented by this group of Black Widows to the point that he felt like a beast of burden, like a wage slave in his previous life!

Most importantly, this damn job is just as mentally taxing as going to work!

Finally, unable to hold back any longer, Sherlock decisively told the Black Widows on the evening of the third day to stop capturing those humanoid creatures. He warned that if this continued, Sherlock himself might become depressed.

Sherlock will figure out a way to deal with the Philosopher's Stone; they just need to line up!

Yes, Sherlock plans to use his Philosopher's Stone to help the Black Widows. After all, if things continue like this, it's uncertain whether the Black Widows can all heal Sherlock, but he himself will definitely go insane first.

The good news is that not all Black Widows want to be whole again. Most of the Black Widows who are eager to be whole are those who have found someone they love, and many others don't mind their disability at all.

After all, while she is incomplete, she is spared some of the troubles that are unique to women. Moreover, not all Black Widows like men; those who like women are completely indifferent to this matter.

The bad news is that even so, Sherlock was busy for about half a month before he was finally freed and ended his miserable life as a working beast of burden.

The good news amidst the bad news is that among the evidence of the humanoid creatures that Black Widow brought back, quite a few were linked to some wicked maggots. Sherlock promptly packaged all this information and sent it to Tony.

This evidence is enough for Tony to control a small group of wicked maggots and increase the Avengers' influence among them.

Chapter 568 Sherlock's Connections

Sherlock originally thought that his mission was over and he could now enjoy his laid-back life. However, to Sherlock's surprise, he didn't get to enjoy his laid-back life for more than a few days before Tony called him to the watchtower.

Inside the huge conference room at the Watchtower, all the Avengers were seated neatly, with Sherlock and Tony being among the last to arrive.

Even Hawkeye, Banner, and Thor, who hadn't shown up for a long time, sat obediently in their chairs, and almost everyone's expression was not very good.

As for the reason, it soon became clear after Sherlock took his seat.

It's quite simple. Using the clue provided by Sherlock about Hydra's legitimate company located in the Rabbit Kingdom, the Avengers, together with those ruthless maggots whose secrets they held, actually managed to uncover a huge multinational corporation.

Hydra is very clever; the entire chain of operations is broken down into hundreds of companies and labs scattered around the world, each of which is independent of the others but has business dealings with them.

The entire process was legal and compliant, and could even be considered a model of law-abiding behavior, with absolutely no violation of local laws allowed.

Even the business dealings along this entire chain are not static. Suppliers and customers are constantly changing, and even product prices fluctuate with the cost of raw materials.

It's no exaggeration to say that if Sherlock hadn't taken on the mission from the rabbit's side and inexplicably discovered that Hydra actually had such a legal and compliant profit chain, the Avengers probably would never have been able to find this line of events in their lifetime.

After all, such a chain of interests is hidden within the massive amount of international trade every day. Without any clues, finding this hidden chain of interests is almost like finding a needle in a haystack.

Even though Sherlock has already torn a hole in this chain of interests, the Avengers still can't find the ultimate beneficiaries of this chain.

To put it simply, the ultimate beneficiaries of this profit chain have constructed a completely legal and compliant pyramid-shaped trade chain.

As the top-level beneficiary, below him may be two or more subordinate companies that have absolutely no legal connection to him and may even be located in various parts of the world.

Below each sub-company are several sub-sub-companyes that are completely unrelated to that sub-company, forming a huge network like a tree canopy through several levels.

Most importantly, communication between each level is limited to business transactions.

It's important to understand that the business dealings within these legitimate and compliant companies aren't limited to Hydra's own people. Amidst the massive amount of business transactions, the top beneficiary has essentially created a database with a huge amount of interference.

The company Sherlock discovered with the rabbit was merely a small branch within this enormous canopy.

This is the main reason why the entire Avengers team was gathered for this meeting.

Because within this massive system, even Tony despairingly realized that trying to find this top-level beneficiary with the Avengers' own power was nothing short of a pipe dream.

But that's not the most crucial issue. The most crucial issue is what reason the Avengers will use to conduct the investigation, since those companies in the profit chain are completely legal and compliant.

Even the companies that have already been exposed are among the most legal and compliant in the local area. In terms of employee benefits alone, these companies are probably among the top in the region.

They say they have connections to Hydra?