Even if Gu Yue'an harbored ill intentions, once his fishing boat was built, given that Uncle Si and Sanzai were accustomed to life on the sea—spending three and a half out of four seasons adrift—it would take considerable effort just to track them down. Thus, Fang Senyan wasn't overly concerned about someone using them against him... If Uncle Si or Sanzai so much as lost a hair, Fang Senyan would wipe out that person's entire family!

With this thought, Fang Senyan wasn't too afraid of the situation. Since the gangsters had cleared out, the hospital’s normal order naturally resumed. After Uncle Si had his dressing changed, Fang Senyan walked to the door and told Sanzai to take Uncle Si home first. Sanzai, however, possessed a certain street smarts; knowing there would likely be follow-up matters, he dawdled, reluctant to leave. But when Fang Senyan donned his 'Big Brother's authority' and let out a stern, low reprimand, Sanzai immediately became thoroughly obedient, sulking slightly as he took Uncle Si away.

Sure enough, Fang Senyan stood by the hospital entrance for a few minutes before seeing Brother Toilet come running up, looking utterly dejected and pale-faced, coming to "beg for forgiveness." In his hand, he clutched what looked like two or three hundred crumpled New Taiwan Dollars (the exchange rate being about four to one against RMB)—money likely acquired by scraping the bottom of his subordinates' pockets.

This fellow, named Toilet, didn't seem to have only excrement in his brain. He clearly understood that Fang Senyan had saved his legs. Fang Senyan couldn't be bothered with pleasantries, but then he suddenly reconsidered, realizing that these kinds of petty thugs could sometimes be put to good use. He had Toilet leave a phone number. Toilet, sporting a long hairstyle reminiscent of Brother Hao Nan, was instantly flattered beyond measure and scurried away, bowing and scraping.

Fang Senyan waited another two minutes before a black sedan pulled up. A man dressed as a butler emerged and respectfully addressed Fang Senyan: "Sir, my master invites you to join him for lunch."

Fang Senyan replied coolly, "No need. Tell him this: I don't take jobs involving killing. However, if someone intends to kill him, I can provide protection... for a fee, of course."

Saying this, Fang Senyan paused, then added four more words: "And it will be steep."

The butler's demeanor was clearly highly professional; without uttering another word, he turned and left. A short while later, he returned: "If that is the case, please, Sir, leave us a contact method."

Undoubtedly, Gu Yue'an’s maneuver was quite brilliant. As the chairman of the Bamboo Union and the local kingpin, finding people was truly faster and more convenient for him than for the police—no bragging intended. Using Fang Senyan’s presence here while accompanying someone to medical treatment as a lead was more than enough to dig up his entire background and the last eighteen generations of his ancestors... Of course, doing so would mean directly offending Fang Senyan to the point of no return... Asking for contact information like this made it clear that things would proceed as usual, and his privacy would absolutely not be investigated.

With matters here settled, Fang Senyan first went back to check on Uncle Si's injuries. He found that the inflammation had basically subsided. Most crucially, although the old man had lost his fingers, his palm remained. Combined with a prosthetic installed by the hospital, a significant portion of his upper limb function had been restored... Most importantly, he could still manage the helm, and with the help of his teeth, tasks like tying knots for the sails were also possible.

For Uncle Si, the new boat had already begun construction, meaning a lifelong dream was halfway fulfilled. Now, the prospect of being able to return to the sea to make a living, even barely, was an incredibly uplifting development. He immediately began actively practicing with the prosthetic, heedless of grinding the wound until it bled anew.

Fang Senyan was delighted to see Uncle Si regain his spirit. The most fearsome thing for a person is the loss of the will to live, the despair. Now that Uncle Si's heart knot had been untied and he found joy and purpose, that was Fang Senyan’s greatest wish.

Sanzai, being a young man whose nature inclined towards play, and with Fang Senyan being generous, certainly wouldn't skimp on him financially. The very next morning, Fang Senyan couldn't find him. Upon inquiring, he learned that Sanzai, knowing there was nothing to do that day, had already slipped off to mess around at Pier Five West.

Although Sanzai was still young, he had made several trips out to sea. Through osmosis, he had already been exposed to gambling and women. Are prostitution and gambling inherently bad things? The answer is certainly yes, but everything has its pros and cons. Those with strong self-control can indulge occasionally without going bankrupt; instead, it can serve as a great way to relieve stress and uplift one’s mood. Therefore, Fang Senyan wasn't overly concerned. When Sanzai returned, he gave the boy a light reprimand, but Sanzai just grinned cheekily. However, his smile vanished when he looked at the list Fang Senyan handed him...

"Brother Yan! What do you need all these things for? And so many of them?"

Sanzai stared at the list in shock: "Wolves, freshwater fish, snakes, dogs, mantises... and the more the better! What are you planning to do!"

Fang Senyan said impatiently, "Don't worry about what I'm doing. I'll give you thirty thousand. Get them for me as soon as possible, and stop asking questions."

Sanzai shrugged, only feeling that Brother Yan’s activities were becoming increasingly strange, yet the aura of unquestionable authority he possessed was growing stronger day by day. Still, Sanzai was fundamentally a person without his own strong opinions, which made him quite efficient when executing tasks. He immediately headed to Pier Five West for the major procurement, publicly claiming he was collecting goods for a wealthy client. In those days, everyone knew rich people had eccentric hobbies, so they didn't think much of it—the main thing was that money was being spent.

When Sanzai returned, puffing and panting, that evening, Fang Senyan noticed that despite being near the coast, among the five major materials he required, freshwater fish and dogs were the easiest to acquire in large quantities. As for the mantises, Sanzai spent the entire afternoon collecting only two from a couple of children. However, after those two children excitedly ran home waving the cash, based on Sanzai’s most pessimistic estimate, he could gather a large sackful by the next day.

Fang Senyan was someone who valued his time immensely. Over the next few days, he sequestered himself in the basement of the house, focusing intensely on research. Knowing Sanzai’s clever and mischievous nature, if he caught Fang Senyan working on this, the Nightmare Imprint might issue a prompt to slap him with the charge of leaking spatial secrets, possibly even requiring him to mete out justice upon his own kin—a prospect that would bring tears of regret. Therefore, the entrance to the basement was truly heavily guarded, rigged with numerous traps.

That clever, naughty boy Sanzai actually ignored the warnings and tried to sneak a peek twice, but both times he was caught by Fang Senyan, whose face was masked in frost. First, he was bound with rope, then soundly beaten twice while dangling from the rafters, even being beaten until his nose bled. He cried loudly until Uncle Si stepped in to plead for him before it finally stopped. However, for an apprentice on a ship, being beaten and scolded was routine. Sanzai retained his simple, youthful nature; he only knew he was in the wrong, and from then on, he could only wipe his tears and suppress his curiosity, daring not to spy again.

After nearly half a month of adjustments and countless failures, Fang Senyan finally managed to research a new potion, using the mantis as the primary ingredient. He named it the Mantis Potion. Its effect was quite strange: Attack Speed increased by 5%, Movement Speed increased by 5 points, Hit Rate decreased by 5%.

This potion wasn't overwhelmingly strong, nor was it particularly weak; it stubbornly included a negative attribute. More importantly, it couldn't be mixed with other potions! Under such conditions, its practical value in actual combat was almost negligible.

However, Fang Senyan knew that nothing in this world was achieved overnight. Merely managing to roughly formulate the new potion was already quite remarkable. In other words: it was merely a crude prototype that had just been manufactured and would certainly require meticulous fine-tuning. The various dosages would need careful micro-adjustments to achieve the best effect.

After this period of working day and night, Fang Senyan was truly exhausted and collapsed into sleep. Just as Uncle Si was reminding him to check on the shipbuilding progress, Fang Senyan received the prompt to enter the space. His eyes immediately lit up, and his spirits soared; he couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Truthfully, Fang Senyan had initially enjoyed the leisurely days spent at Pier Five West, but after two or three days, he constantly felt a lack of motivation for anything, as if every meal lacked salt. For these past few days, he had even started to miss the stimulation of the space. If things continued this way, Fang Senyan wasn't sure if he could last a few months in the real world without going mad from boredom.

Watching Fang Senyan leap onto a tricycle, energized, and wave goodbye, Sanzai couldn't understand why his Big Brother had suddenly transformed from listless and slightly lethargic a few days prior to being so spirited, as if he had taken an aphrodisiac. Sanzai, no longer purely innocent, couldn't help but maliciously speculate: "Were you holding back too much these past few days? Did you just get news from an old flame arriving in Taiwan, so you're rushing off to release the pressure?"

If Fang Senyan knew Sanzai’s thoughts were so vulgar, he would surely have to use his fists and feet again to teach the boy a good lesson, telling him not to fill his head with such sordid ideas. After Fang Senyan left, Sanzai went to check on Uncle Si before slipping back to the pier to waste time.

This time, when Fang Senyan entered the space, even the usually gloomy and terrifying interior seemed quite welcoming. However, as soon as he entered his private space, he noticed several messages left by others: Among them were two messages from Mogansha requesting to join his team.

There was also a message from the individual who previously bought the Vicious Beast Carapace (Deep Blue), asking if he still had more for sale.

Furthermore, there were seven or eight messages concerning the silver plot item: the Hydralisk Venom Gland! Fang Senyan could only roll his eyes and sigh—he had dumped this thing into the space ages ago, yet people were still bringing up outdated topics!

Jiaoshi also sent Fang Senyan a message: If anything out of the ordinary occurs, be sure to proceed with extreme caution.