Chapter 55: Breaking the Bottleneck

Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Breaking the Bottleneck

Thanks to the original owner’s brain, which was well-versed in poison arts and magic potions, Jeremy didn’t take much time rummaging for a formula. He walked straight into the bathroom and pulled out all the high-tier spiritual plants he had gathered on the deserted island.

Using his magic power to crush every branch and blade of grass into a viscous liquid, Jeremy poured it all into the hot bathtub.

A Fire-element magic flame flared up in his hand, which he threw directly into the tub to heat it. The initially crystal-clear water boiled furiously in an instant, turning into a murky, liquid green sludge churning with massive bubbles. To make matters worse, beneath that eerie green foam gleamed a terrifying dark red hue, exactly like volcanic magma. Scalding steam densely enveloped the entire bathroom, carrying a pungent, nauseatingly fishy stench that permeated the air.

Jeremy frowned and tossed the final core ingredient—the "Twin-Leafed Phoenix Fire Flower"—into the tub. The moment the petals touched the water’s surface, they were completely swallowed up by the solution in a split second, dissolving without leaving a single trace of residue.

Jeremy stood watching in silence. The corner of his mouth twitched.

Was this damn thing really meant for a person to soak in? No matter how he looked at it, it resembled a vat of highly corrosive acid capable of dissolving human bones rather than a purification potion.

Reconfirming the formula in his head for the third time, Jeremy gritted his teeth, deciding to bet his life and trust himself. Yusha, in the living room, sensed the dangerous smell and tactfully slipped away, leaving the space for Jeremy to fend for himself.

—

After making sure no one would disturb him, Jeremy took off all his cumbersome clothes and decisively stepped one foot into the bathtub.

The exact moment his bare skin touched the water’s surface, a maddening heat like volcanic magma lashed directly at his flesh. The extreme burning sensation caused the young man’s entire body to spasm; he almost cursed and bolted out. It took him a long while of biting his lower lip until it bled, deceiving himself into suppressing his survival instinct, before he slowly submerged his entire body.

Hot. It was so hot that his brain felt like it was going to smoke.

Under the effect of the tyrannical medicinal power, his firm skin immediately broke out in patchy, tiny microscopic cracks. Fresh blood seeped from his capillaries, meandering through the crevices like streams of dark red magma before dissolving into the murky green water. Jeremy shut his eyes tightly; a strong premonition told him: tonight would be a night where living was worse than dying.

With a trembling hand, he fished up his communication bracelet, opened the team chat channel, and sent a brief message to Lucius and the others: "I am using a purification potion, if you feel any abnormal magical resonance, just take some painkillers. Don’t panic and break down my door."

The moment he hit send, a tearing sensation aimed straight at his soul struck without warning.

Jeremy gasped a breath of cold air, his eyes rolling back as he instantly lost consciousness, falling into a deep coma due to his body’s self-activated protective mechanism.

But that peace lasted for less than a few minutes. The bone-deep pain ruthlessly dragged him back to wakefulness. Jeremy let out a choked roar from his throat.

His body’s entire meridian system felt as if it was being sawed apart by thousands of rusty blades. His internal organs were being gnawed by tens of thousands of bone-eating ants; it was maddeningly itchy while simultaneously agonizing enough to tear his sanity apart.

"Cough, cough..."

His throat dry and cracked, he coughed drily a few times, and thick, viscous black blood immediately welled up from the corner of his mouth, dripping down into the water. Rough, red rashes suddenly erupted all over his body. Jeremy instinctively reached out to scratch, but the moment his fingers lightly touched it, the patch of skin and flesh sloughed off and tore open.

"..."

Looking at the bloody, glaringly red flesh on his hand, Jeremy’s pupils contracted. He felt goosebumps erupting down his spine. If the blood pouring out wasn’t this foul-smelling, blackish-red toxic blood, he would truly suspect he had just cooked a pot of human flesh hotpot with himself as the main ingredient.

The water temperature continued to rise higher and higher; the agonizing, bone-deep pain scorched every nerve. Having learned his lesson from just now, Jeremy clenched his hands into tight fists, his fingernails digging into his palms to maintain his sanity, absolutely not daring to touch any patch of skin on his body again.

"Tick-tock, tick-tock..."

The bathroom was eerily silent; the only sounds to be heard were his heavy, labored panting and the rhythm of the clock echoing from the living room.

It was unclear how much time had passed, but the thick, green medicinal bath had now been dyed into a viscous, dark red color by the black blood.

The young man’s entire body was crisscrossed with bleeding cracks. Even more terrifying, from within those torn layers of flesh, hordes of squirming black toxic parasites crawled out, thrashing in the water before drowning. It looked incredibly bizarre and nauseating.

Even though he had mentally prepared himself for the fact that purging over a decade’s worth of accumulated toxins would be gruesome, this actual reality had far exceeded his imagination.

Afraid that he might die of shock right in the tub, Jeremy bit the tip of his tongue until it bled to muster his last shred of spiritual force, pulled a Holy-tier healing potion out of his spatial ring, tilted his head back, and downed it in one gulp.

The cool, refreshing Holy water flowing into his esophagus immediately clashed violently with the Fire-element medicinal power ravaging his body. The conflict between these two extreme forces of life and death created a magical particle explosion within his meridians, nearly knocking Jeremy out once again.

He slumped his head against the rim of the tub, his throat continuously emitting muffled groans of agony like a wounded beast. His arms, bulging with a network of green veins, gripped the edge of the bathtub tightly, forcing himself to maintain this cruel state of wakefulness.

The only consolation was that after the fiery clash, the healing water and the purification potion finally began to compromise and merge. But Jeremy’s joy was swiftly extinguished, replaced by a bitter, self-deprecating smile.

This merging process was even more brutal. One side was madly destroying and tearing the meridians apart; the other side was frantically patching them up, forcing them back together. The pain was magnified a thousandfold.

If the phrase "living is worse than dying" was merely an empty descriptive cliché before, Jeremy could completely use it right now as an active verb that accurately reflected his condition. What a life of penal servitude.

Seven hours passed as slowly as an entire century. Jeremy had repeated the cycle—falling into a coma from the shock of the pain, then being woken up by the agony—over a dozen times. His mind was entirely hazy; all that remained was the instinct to grit his teeth and endure.

It wasn’t until the darkness outside the window was torn apart by the first ray of dawn, casting a faint light upon the young man’s pale face, that Jeremy dazedly opened his eyes, realizing this extreme torture had come to an end.

The bone-deep pain had completely vanished, replaced by a sensation of his body feeling as light as a cloud. He propped himself up, stepped out of the foul-smelling bathtub, and turned on the magic showerhead, letting the freezing cold water wash away the crusts of black blood clinging to his skin.

The dense network of cracks had disappeared without a trace. His firm skin and previously faint muscular contours gradually became more defined, exuding a vibrant vitality because his meridians had been thoroughly unblocked. Jeremy reached out and gave his bicep a light squeeze. It felt quite flexible and brimming with vitality.

The severe ordeal had just drained his stamina dry. After bathing, he casually threw on a masculine bathrobe, used magic power to dry his soaking wet hair, and sluggishly ambled toward the bed like a ghost.

The moment his heavy body collapsed onto the soft mattress, the nerves that had been tautly stretched all night finally snapped. Jeremy fell into a deep, dreamless sleep in the blink of an eye. At this moment, he refused to think about anything else; he only wanted to follow his instinct and give himself a quiet moment to catch his breath.

Afternoon.

When the sun was casting long shadows, Jeremy finally stretched lazily and woke up. His exhausted mental state was now fully recharged. Having just brushed his teeth and washed his face, he stepped outside to find that Yusha had floated back at some unknown point.

After scanning the stable magic wave radiating from Jeremy’s body, the orb of light nodded in sincere praise: "Well done. I didn’t expect you to slip through this life-and-death trial so quickly. With this terrifying recklessness of yours, what could you possibly fail to achieve?"

"I hope you’re right." Jeremy walked over to the sofa and plopped down, closing his eyes to inspect the sea of magic power inside his body.

Just as he expected, that damn bottleneck was shattered. His realm had successfully broken through, stepping straight onto the six-star boundary. What was even more fantastic was that, thanks to completely eliminating the obstructive toxins, even if he didn’t actively absorb them, the elemental magic particles from the surrounding environment still automatically seeped through his pores, merging into his meridians naturally. Although the amount of these automatic magic particles was very small, this was a massive qualitative leap.

The corners of the young man’s lips curled up into a satisfied smile. It was well worth it; it seemed the horrifying pain last night wasn’t in vain.

As long as he reaped an equivalent reward for his efforts, Jeremy could accept any price.