The reason he had fallen was that he had been utterly shocked by the strength Qingyuan had just displayed.
“That makes sense.”
Qingyuan agreed.
There were still three days left, and Renegade Qingyuan could still give him some pointers on improving his strength.
After saying goodbye to the others, Qingyuan quickly headed home.
Once home, Qingyuan looked at the ninjutsu scroll in his hands and immediately felt a headache coming on.
Sometimes, even with a teacher explaining things, you still had to practice on your own until you became proficient.
It was very easy to understand something with your eyes but fail to perform it with your hands.
People called it: you understood it at a glance, then fell apart the moment you tried.
Then there was the issue of chakra capacity, which also required gradual accumulation over time.
Unless he immediately fulfilled his second dying wish and let Renegade Qingyuan merge with him.
“By the way, do you have any methods for getting stronger quickly?”
Qingyuan said.
Logically speaking, his future self, now in his thirties, had already become a renegade ninja, so he should know quite a few crooked methods… oh, no, rather, quick and painless ways to increase his strength.
“There is one—take drugs.”
Renegade Qingyuan said.
How else were you supposed to get stronger without taking drugs?
Hearing this, Qingyuan remembered that during the three years Sasuke spent with Orochimaru, he had also taken quite a few forbidden drugs.
It was just that Orochimaru valued Sasuke’s body too much.
The forbidden drugs had caused no real harm, so Sasuke’s head had not become pointy.
Chapter 6: This Is Clearly a Miracle Elixir
“You got the forbidden-drug formula from Orochimaru?”
Qingyuan asked.
If there were forbidden drugs, then he really could rapidly increase his strength.
The Akimichi Clan were experts in this field, though they did not call them forbidden drugs.
They called them secret medicines produced legally.
For example, the three-colored pills: the green pill could increase the human body’s strength by one-third, while the yellow pill could completely unleash the user’s potential.
The final red pill was said to be capable of stimulating a hundredfold potential.
Of course, Qingyuan thought that was just bragging.
If it were really that powerful, the Akimichi Clan would have long since become the number one clan in the ninja world.
Still, the fact that they could bear such a title was enough to show how extraordinary their clan’s secret medicines were.
Qingyuan was very curious about what effects the forbidden drugs known to Renegade Qingyuan might have.
“I got some.”
Renegade Qingyuan said.
“But most of them are extremely harmful to the human body.”
When Renegade Qingyuan said this, his tone carried a faint sigh. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Although they provided strength far beyond that of an ordinary jonin, he would have to take medicine for the rest of his life to suppress the side effects.
The reason he had stepped on an explosive tag was that his illness had flared up at the time.
“Then tell me about the ones without any harmful effects.”
Qingyuan said.
“Strictly speaking, all secret medicines are harmful. The difference is whether the harm is permanent or temporary, and whether it can be reversed.”
“Explain in detail.”
Renegade Qingyuan glanced at Qingyuan.
As expected of his past self, he had no reservations about using such methods.
After all, orthodox ninjas all relied on painstaking training to gain strength—the so-called path of the ninja.
But Qingyuan would be leaving for Kannabi Bridge in three days.
Even a last-minute scramble would not produce any real results; sharpening a weapon on the eve of battle could at most scrape off a little rust.
If he wanted to take a shortcut, then naturally he had to use unconventional methods.
“Go take out a loan right now.”
Renegade Qingyuan said.
“What do I need a loan for?”
Qingyuan was surprised.
Could it be that these medicines were very expensive?
“Who knows if you’ll even survive? What’s the point of keeping this stuff? You might as well exchange it for something that improves your chances of staying alive.”
Renegade Qingyuan shook his head, his tone tinged with exasperation at Qingyuan’s failure to live up to expectations.
He had paid for that mistake himself.
Damn, he had defected in too much of a hurry.
Orochimaru had not given him any time to make his getaway.
By the time he looked back, he had already slipped out of Konoha, leaving his entire fortune behind in the village, and in the end, all of it had been legally confiscated!
“There isn’t much a ninja can borrow, is there?”
Qingyuan had never tried to take out a loan.
For a high-risk profession like being a ninja, where you never knew whether you would live to see tomorrow, no company would dare offer insurance, let alone lend money.
Konoha possessed refrigerators, televisions, utility poles, and all sorts of technological creations.
In fact, its level of modernization was quite high; it was just that people’s thinking remained relatively traditional and conservative.
He had actually considered borrowing money from every Uchiha a few days before the night of the Uchiha massacre.
Once the Uchiha Clan automatically closed its accounts, he would not have to repay the debts.
Qingyuan trusted Itachi Uchiha’s professional ability.
He would surely leave only his younger brother Sasuke alive.
“Borrow as much as you can.”
Renegade Qingyuan said.
You’re going to the battlefield—why not go all out and get six full sets?
“This is a sure-win, no-loss deal. If you die, the debt dies with you. If you live, just take on a few more missions and you’ll earn the money back.” Find the original chapter at g.com.
Qingyuan thought about it, and it really did sound fucking reasonable.
But doing this was equivalent to going all in.
Going all in was a kind of wisdom, but not many people could make the right choice.
After all, no one knew how difficult a mission would be.
They could only make a rough judgment based on its rank.
But a C-rank mission could suddenly become a B-rank mission, while an A-rank mission could also turn out to be no more difficult than a C-rank mission because the enemy had made a careless mistake.
Take this Kannabi Bridge mission.
Everyone thought that with Minato Namikaze there, the mission would definitely succeed.
In fact, Minato Namikaze really did complete the mission.
But who knew whether Qingyuan himself would be the price?
No matter how strong Minato Namikaze was, he could not possibly look after everyone, and no normal person would think they would be the one to die.
That was why few ninjas ever took out loans.
Only someone like Qingyuan, who knew the plot in advance, could exploit that information asymmetry.
Qingyuan pondered for a moment, then rummaged through every box and cabinet, taking out everything valuable in his home.
Using it all as collateral, he borrowed a total of six hundred fifty thousand ryo.
No one was willing to lend Qingyuan any more—not even an unsecured loan.
Even this amount was only possible because Qingyuan had decent credit in the village and happened to be lucky.
To the lenders, Qingyuan was just a lowly genin, and his chances of dying were considered fairly high.
Adding his previous savings, he had a total of seven hundred thousand ryo, which was already a considerable sum.
Without delay, Qingyuan went to purchase medicinal materials and tools under Renegade Qingyuan’s guidance.
In Konoha, the Nara Clan and the Akimichi Clan had deep-rooted influence in the medicinal-materials trade.
It could even be said that many businesses were monopolized by these two clans.
The Nara Clan owned a large stretch of forest and raised wise spirit deer, whose antlers were a rather valuable medicinal material.
The Akimichi Clan, meanwhile, excelled in all kinds of medicinal formulas.
In the original work, Tsunade had even borrowed the Akimichi Clan’s prescriptions, which was enough to show how valuable their expertise was.
On top of that, the three Ino-Shika-Cho clans were allies with extraordinary ties, so the Nara Clan and the Akimichi Clan could truly be described as a formidable alliance.
“Hiss, these medicinal materials really are expensive.”
The money Qingyuan had just borrowed had barely warmed his hands before more than half of it was gone.
“Expensive things have their reasons. These forbidden drugs can reduce the side effects as much as possible. If you control the dosage properly, at worst you’ll suffer occasional headaches for three months, and after that there won’t be any further problems.”
Renegade Qingyuan said.
These were a few good things Orochimaru had only thrown his way after Qingyuan had followed him for a long time.
As far as Orochimaru was concerned, he only had eyes for Sasuke.
That was also good news for Renegade Qingyuan: he did not need to worry about Orochimaru stabbing him in the back.