Chapter 200

Having changed his appearance, Severus returned back to the magic market, where he exchanged galleons for Chinese kanji, and then, having rented a room in one of the hotels for the whole next week, decided to take a walk around the local analogues of Diagon Alley, of which there were three in the country and they belonged to the three largest groups: "Golden Dragon", "Green Dragon", "Fire Phoenix", and if the first two were almost indistinguishable from each other, then the last one, to the surprise of the Prince, consisted entirely of women who would kill someone for simply laying their eyes on them.

This is how one bartender described them, from whom Severus acquired all the latest information about the magical world of the country.

And while in China, oddly enough, everything was very calm. The three largest groups were almost equal in strength and served as a kind of deterrent to each other, and they paid almost no attention to the wars of smaller gangs, unless of course they decided to arrange a battle on their territory.

For this reason, the Prince could calmly spend this week, without fear of being drawn into some kind of underhanded games or wars of some small gangs.

As for Arnold, he decided to deal with him in the evening, when he came to his senses, because the "Devastating Potion" sprayed into the air could easily knock out even the "Masters" of the highest rank, at least for a couple of hours, and the leader of the organisation was only in the middle of this rank, so it was unlikely that he would wake up soon.

Of course, removing the potion from the body was a piece of cake, but Severus wanted to take a good look around first, so he didn't waste his time on it, because by the evening, Arnold should come to his senses anyway.

In addition, Severus also wanted to give him some time to think and cool down, so that he could have a more constructive conversation.

After all, he had no intention of killing him from the very beginning, since he wanted to take on the management of an entire organisation that had taken root almost all over Eurasia, and leaving it without a leader was even more so.

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After gathering information, Severus left the bar and decided to take a little walk around the local magic market and almost immediately, his attention was drawn to a medical shop, located almost opposite the establishment from which he had just recently left.

The two-story building looked very simple compared to other buildings in the area, above some were bright, shiny signs, and on the street, some even had barkers, mostly pretty women.

A wooden, dilapidated building, a simple white sign, on which there were only two words - "medical shop" and a small entrance, without frills. And this simplicity was able to interest him, so he decided to look in.

Inside, the store turned out to be much smaller than from the outside, even too small, but at the same time very clean and well-kept, it was immediately obvious that its owner took good care of it.

Around the small table, along the walls, there were three cabinets, on two of which stood, at most, a couple of dozen vials with unknown contents, several books and even a human skull, and on the other, the largest, instead of shelves stood forty small cabinets with unknown contents, and on them, a couple more vials.

Behind the table itself, on which lay simple scales, a couple of books and several vases, stood an elderly man of Asian appearance, in a red robe and the same cap, whose face, in addition to deep wrinkles, was decorated with a small beard and a pair of glasses with a round frame. And his pair of dark eyes studied the guest who had appeared with interest.

"Good morning, can I get you something?" the old man asked, watching the young man, who only after his words finally paid attention to him.

"Good, yes, I need herbs." his gaze rose to a small bunch of peeled watercress hanging on the cabinet, which had a calming effect, but what caught his attention was the freshness of the herbs, as if they had just been picked today, unlike those that were located in some shops: withered, dried and yellowed.

"Which ones exactly?"

A scroll appeared in Severus's hand, which he handed to the owner of the shop.

Inside were only twenty-seven types of herbs that were almost never sold in Britain and did not even grow in the "Magic Jungle".

"These, and also if you have: acanite, goosefoot, cinquefoil and cousinia, I will also take them as well." Severus added, watching the wizard, who was currently thoughtfully studying the herbs from the list.

"Yes, they are all there." the old man nodded, not very surprised by the number of grasses, "How many grams of each do you need?"

"Let's have five kilograms each," Severus replied, thoughtfully stroking his chin, causing the wizard standing opposite him to widen his eyes in shock. "F-five kilograms?!"

"Yes, I think that should be enough for a long time."

"And do you have enough money to pay for everything…?" Pulling himself together, the man measured Severus with a suspicious look, since such a volume of herbs was too large and usually only the "Golden Dragon" could afford that much, and the young man standing in front of him was someone he saw for the first time.

"Yes, of course." smiling slightly, the Prince ran his hand along the table and right before the old man's eyes, one after another, small, open bags of gold began to appear, immediately causing another bout of shock for the old man.

Almost immediately, he sharply waved his hand towards the front door and a click sounded.

"Young man, have mercy, I am already too old." putting his hands on the table, the owner of the shop sighed tiredly, stroking his chest, in the area of the heart, "If someone saw them, I doubt that you would be able to leave this place in one piece."

"Before doing this, I first checked that there was no one here except you." Severus said.

"And aren't you afraid that I can rob you or tell someone?"

"You don't look like a person greedy for gold," Severus replied with a half-smile, his expression unchanged, causing another sigh to escape the old man's lips, "And with your strength, earning that much isn't such a big deal."

"Oh-ho-ho, you're such a joker, I'm just an old man…"

"An old man who calmly visits the Tianzi Mountains alone can hardly be called simple," the atmosphere in the room became heavier almost immediately,

"Although it's still surprising that a "Master," almost at the peak of the initial rank, is a simple owner of a small shop."

"I don't understand what you're talking about."

"Okay, I didn't say anything, so what about the herbs?"

"I only have a few kilograms of each, and there isn't even five hundred grams of elecampane, you can take what you have or wait until tomorrow, I'll send my people today and they'll collect everything for you." the old man answered calmly, returning his good-natured expression.

"Okay, then I'll come back to you tomorrow, will lunch be a good time for that?" putting the gold back into his wallet, Severus asked.

"Yes, quite right."

"By the way, I'd also like to walk around Tianzi, I wonder if you have a map, I'm ready to buy one."

"Young man, Mount Tianzi is a very dangerous place, I would not recommend you to go there, especially alone," the elderly wizard warned him sullenly, he was more than anyone else, well acquainted with that place after all, but seeing that his interlocutor's face did not change at all, he languidly waved his hand, in which a rolled-up parchment appeared, "Five thousand kanji."

"I'll take it," putting a small bag of gold on the table, he received a card, which, under the slightly surprised look of the old man, he immediately put away in a spatial artifact, "I trust you," in response, he only chuckled and put the list of ingredients under his robe, "Thank you, then until tomorrow, mister..."

"Wong."

"Mr. Wong," he turned around and headed towards the exit, "Have a nice day," snapping his fingers and dispelling the spell on the door, he calmly walked out of the shop, leaving the gloomy wizard alone.

"What a strange boy, no respect for his elders," the elderly man sighed irritably, closing the door again with a charm and sitting down on a chair, "Five kilograms... eh... I'll have to close after lunch, but still, how does he know...?"

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At this time, Severus continued walking around the market, continuing to study the goods there. "If you are wondering how I figured all this out, it's very simple, at first, I just wanted to buy some herbs and leave, but after I felt his power, I decided to read the old man's mind," he answered calmly, satisfying the curiosity of one snake that liked to stick its nose everywhere.

"I see, but why do you need to go to Mount Tianzi?"

"Rare herbs and the local animals."

" Animals? Do you want to take someone home again?" she asked without any surprise, already accustomed to the fact that wherever they go, they always take someone with them, "And who is it this time?"

"Qilin and Phoenix, and if possible, get a dragon egg," hearing this, she looked at the back of his head with a strange look.

"Why do you need a dragon?"

"I want to study it closer and understand the difference between this wyvern and a real dragon, or rather, how much they have degraded, and for the future, dragon meat is one of the best in taste,"

he answered, stopping in front of a stall selling talismans, examining these crafts with weak charms, such as: trust, confidence, improving eyesight and the likes.

"You're my glutton, don't you want to try it?" his gaze stopped on two pendants depicting yin and yang, which had detection charms, but only on each other.

"Interesting…"

"Just two kanji." the seller looked at him with a smile, noticing Severus' interest, "I assure you, your other half will definitely like it."

"If you say so, then I will take it." putting two gold coins on the counter, he took the pendant and walked on.

"For that b... that is, Bella, I take it?" She asked casually.

"No, I was interested in the material it was made of," the Prince answered calmly, raising it to eye level, using scanning charms, "The combination of gold, platinum, titanium and magical iron gave very interesting properties, and none of the named materials conflict with each other, but gold and platinum, although they have similar properties, differ in that platinum is much purer and can only store light charms, while gold can hold both dark and light ones, but has less hardness, but thanks to their fusion, the effect on light charms has doubled, due to which it can hold charms of a higher rank than before. And the titanium gave them its strength and sociability, for example: you knew that this material has a certain feature - loyalty and if you add a similar enchantment to a ring made of this material, and "contact" it for a long time, passing magic through it, then it will be impossible to remove it from the owner's finger, and if he dies, then in ninety percent of cases, it will follow him and simply crumble. This is not to mention the magical metal that gave them…"

"I understand, I understand, stop explaining to me." the snake muttered with a hint of resentment in her voice, realising that he was doing it on purpose.

"And you're jealous," he chuckled, grinning, putting the pendant in his wallet and continuing his walk through the market...

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Did we really reached 200 chapters?...

Thank you guys, that's all I can say.