Chapter 106: A Slow Death


    "Good evening, Edward," The figure spoke, and Edward''s eyes widened for a second as a huge grin appeared on his face.


    "Good evening Mr. Rayforth," Edward rubbed his hands together as he walked over to his customer, and the unsure thoughts that he had had melted away.


    That''s right, of course he made the right choice! Edward thought to himself. He had a customer who had connections with the king himself!


    Which meant that the more he became friendly with this young man, the more chance he had of improving his business.


    "Good evening, Edward," The figure spoke, and Edward''s eyes widened for a second as a huge grin appeared on his face.


    "Good evening Mr. Rayforth," Edward rubbed his hands together as he walked over to his customer, and the unsure thoughts that he had had melted away.


    That''s right, of course he made the right choice! Edward thought to himself. He had a customer who had connections with the king himself!


    Which meant that the more he became friendly with this young man, the more chance he had of improving his business.


    "If I may ask, what brings you here today?" Edward asked, his eyes stuck on ude''s hands, which held a small vial inside of it.


    "Are you closing up for the day, Edward?" Before answering his question, ude looked over the counter of the shop and found out that the medicine bottles that Edward usually keeps on the front had all been moved to the back, kept inside a ss shelf.


    "Ah, you noticed, Mr. Rayforth?" Edward scratched his cheeks embarrassingly, and exined. "I was thinking of closing up early today to take some time off. But now that you''ve here, I figured I might as well close the shop afterwards."


    "Ah! I''m not saying that Mr. Rayforth is a nuisance. That''s not what I meant!" Suddenly, Edward''s eyes widened as he realized what his words might''ve sounded like to his high paying customer, and so he tried to clear the misunderstanding.


    "You don''t have to exin, Edward," ude waved his hands, stopping Edward from rambling on, and then walked towards the counter and ced the small vial on it. Pointing to the vial, ude asked Edward; "I just need you to tell me what this medicine is, and I''ll be on my way. You can do whatever you want after that."


    "Oh? You''re not going to buy anything today?" Edward''s tone was incredulous.


    "Unfortunately, no. Not today. Maybe another time." ude shook his head, still tired from the journey he had. He had just arrived from Soderberg city, and had decided to enter Edward''s medicine shop before heading towards his residence. He was simply too tired to have a back and forth chat between him and Edward and so, with an annoyed expression on his face, he once again pointed at the vial on the counter and said. "Look, can you just take a look at the medicine for me and tell me if you find anything interesting?"


    "Ah, yes! Of course. Forgive me for the dy," Edward said as he gave a fake smile to ude, to which he let out a snort in response. Ignoring his customer''s rude response, Edward walked over to the counter, picked up the vial and read thebel on it. "Maziken?"


    "Yes, Maziken.." ude nodded his head. "Have you heard of it before?"


    "Uh yes I have." Edward, who was still busy analysing the contents of the vial, muttered softly and continued, "It is an energy medicine. Not the normal kind, but much more expensive and rare. It is usually used to treat people with a severe shortage of energy-life."


    He ced the vial on the counter and turned to ude as he spoke, "Basically, the people who use this drug have a problem with fast spiritual energy depletion, and the drug is used to increase the length of this short period of time."


    His gaze then shifted back to the vial on the counter once again. "Can I analyse the medicine itself?"


    ude shrugged his shoulders as leaned back on the wall. "Go ahead. That''s what I wanted to ask you anyways."


    Edward nodded his head, and then opened the vial. He then smelled it for a brief second before he headed towards the basement while grabbing the vial.


    ude, who was curious, decided to follow Edward close behind, and they entered his secretb where he kept his illegal drugs and medicines.


    nk! nk!


    Edward ced the vial on the table and walked towards one of the cupboards, opened it and grabbed a small bottle which was filled with a strange green goo.


    He then grabbed a dropper, took a drop of the ''Maziken'' from the vial and dropped it into the small bottle with the green goo.


    PSSS!


    All of a sudden, the green goo began to turn blue in colour, confusing ude, but Edward nodded his head as if he figured out something.


    "What''s the matter? What did you find out?" ude asked as he moved closer to inspect the bottle containing the blue coloured goo.


    "This bottle does not contain pure Maziken." Edward said as he picked up the vial in his hand and brought it closer to his face, fascinated by the contents inside of it. "Normal people wouldn''t find a problem with it, but as someone who has previously worked under one of the most famous medicine masters in the country, I can tell you that this is a mixture of Maziken and Delihernum."


    This woke ude up from his tiredness, who was now curious about the results. "What the hell is Delihernum?"


    Edward''s gaze turned to ude and his smile widened. "Delihernum is an extremely toxic chemical that if entered into your body, will slowly force your meridians to expand in thickness in certain areas, where the flow of energy might be really high. Once the chemical is inserted, meridians start to thicken, and as the amount of Delihernum increases, the thickness of the meridians increases as well until itpletely copses on itself due to its increased mass,pletely blocking the flow of spiritual energy."


    "So it turns the user of the medicine into a cripple?" ude asked, intrigued by the mixture, and Edward nodded his head.


    "Not in an instant, but gradually." Edward corrected, as he began flipping the vial up and down with his hands. "It would confuse the hell out of a doctor though."


    "Oh?" ude, who was annoyed by Edward who was ying with the vial, immediately grabbed it from his hands and ced it in his pocket. "And why would you say that?"


    Edward, who seemed sad that the vial had been taken away, let out a sigh as he answered, "Although the meridians might have copsed, it wasn''t severed. In the martial world, only the ones whose meridians have been severed are considered to be crippled. So, the general consensus after an examination of the patient''s body would be simply that he or she was still able to practice cultivation."


    Edward shook his head. "Unless you rip open the patient and check his or her meridians instead of proving their body using spiritual energy, you wouldn''t find a single problem. And as the results are gradual, most woulde to the conclusion that the patient is suffering from a severe depletion of spiritual energy, asplete copse won''t happen quickly. And when it does happen, the mass of the meridians would simply force them to explode, which would, in most cases, critically injure the patient. And to most people it would just look as if his or her meridians were destroyed by a fierce attack."


    "Interesting..." ude rubbed his chin, intrigued by what he was finding out about the medicine that Elizabeth was taking. It meant that someone was secretly drugging her.


    But for what reason? For the White Dragon''s teeth? ude wondered.


    "It would definitely be a great way to kill somebody," Edward said."However, it certainly wouldn''t be easy. As it''s a mixture that is not even avable amongst the illegal drug world, you would probably need to know the right people to get your hands on that."


    "Wouldn''t it be simple for an alchemist to recreate it?" ude asked.


    Edward let out a loud chuckle, causing ude to raise his eyebrows, annoyed. "Mr. Rayforth, although it was easy for me to identify the additional element, it isn''t so easy to recreate aplex medicine such as this. Identifying and making medicine are two very different processes. I had a hunch about the additional drug because I''ve already dealt with a few samples of Delihernum back when I was an assistant, and that too was by chance. Delhernum has a very peculiar odour, and although faint in this particr mixture, I was able to identify it. But recreating it would be impossible for most alchemists."


    ude leaned forward. "So, you''re telling me that this drug cannot be recreated by just anybody."


    Edward nodded his head, "Trust me, Mr. Rayforth. There are only a few alchemists who are able to concoct such a mixture, and they''re the best of the best. You just have to figure out which one of them made it."