I picked up skill fragments in the demon world

Chapter 6: Mysterious Air Current

Since someone was eagerly offering weapons and equipment, Zhang Chen naturally had no reason to refuse, but he was a little worried that these items might bring trouble.

Especially the knife. In a backward agricultural civilization, knives were strictly controlled, and being discovered by the government could cost you your head. However, having an extra knife for self-defense would allow him to venture further into the mountains in the future, and give him some confidence to fight back if he encountered wolves or leopards.

"Take them all! With these things, you'll be able to hunt bigger game," Cui, the blacksmith, said with a smile, patting the box.

Hearing this, Zhang Chen didn't stand on ceremony. He directly placed the knife into the basket on his back, and then carefully wrapped the dozen or so arrowheads in his clothes before looking up at Cui, the blacksmith, with a serious expression: "Uncle Cui, there's something I'm not sure I should say."

"What is it? With our friendship, you can just say it," Cui, the blacksmith, said with a smile.

"Knives and swords are prohibited items. I don't know how many knives and swords the other party has asked you to make. If something goes wrong in the future, I'm afraid your customer will kill to silence you," Zhang Chen said in a low voice.

In fact, Zhang Chen's question was redundant. Of course, he knew that the knives and swords were being made in large quantities, otherwise, how would Cui, the blacksmith, have the opportunity to deduct iron ore to make a long knife and arrowheads for him?

"Do you think I don't know the danger involved?" Cui, the blacksmith, said with a wry smile, "You don't think a mere village blacksmith like me would have the opportunity to refuse, do you?"

Hearing this, Zhang Chen's heart sank. As expected, the worst-case scenario had occurred.

"Arrowheads are too conspicuous. Why not melt them into iron beads and make a powerful slingshot instead?" Zhang Chen looked at the arrowheads in his hand, afraid of causing trouble. He put down the sharp arrowheads and looked up at Cui, the blacksmith: "Using slingshot to hit some roe deer, pheasants, and rabbits is enough. As for hunting wolves and tigers, we still have to rely on traps."

Hearing this, Cui, the blacksmith, looked at Zhang Chen and grinned, revealing a smile: "You're still as cautious as ever. I'll make it for you overnight tonight, and you can come to me tomorrow. But you still need to find a way to get the slingshot bands yourself. It's not easy to find slingshot bands that can shoot iron beads."

"Leave the slingshot bands to me, and I'll naturally have a solution. Also, please prepare some iron wire for me, Uncle. The traps for hunting in the mountains consume too much iron wire. Also, prepare a few iron pipes for me," Zhang Chen said to Cui, the blacksmith, as if he had thought of something.

Hearing this, Cui, the blacksmith, nodded: "This is not difficult, we can just put it on the bill at that time."

Zhang Chen bid farewell to Cui, the blacksmith, but a haze rose in his heart. Someone was looking for a blacksmith to make weapons for no reason, which was definitely not a good sign.

"Could it be that someone is going to rebel?" Zhang Chen muttered to himself as he walked in the night.

Unfortunately, he had never been more than ten miles away from the village. He knew nothing about this world and was a complete country bumpkin. He didn't know how the world was doing now, but he was already wary, feeling that the outside world was not peaceful.

Zhang Chen returned to the house in a low-key manner, closed the doors and windows, and did not light the oil lamp. Instead, he took out the long knife in the moonlight and looked at it in his hand:

"It's a bit like the Embroidered Spring Blade of later generations. The blade is very thick, and the main focus is on being sturdy and durable. From my point of view, Cui, the blacksmith's craftsmanship is not bad, but he didn't do heat treatment, so it's a little lacking. It's just an ordinary iron knife, not treated as a steel knife! But for me, it's enough for the time being. I just need to heat treat it to improve the performance of the iron knife."

Zhang Chen stroked the iron knife. The iron knife had already been sharpened, shining with a cold luster, with a bit of murderous intent.

Zhang Chen tore off a piece of cloth, carefully wrapped the iron knife, and then put it into the basket on the side. He would never dare to let the villagers see the iron knife, otherwise someone would definitely report him, and he was afraid that his life would be in danger.

The control of weapons such as knives and guns was extremely strict in the bureaucratic era. Even the government officials only used iron rulers. Basically, weapons were not seen except in military camps.

Zhang Chen bandaged the weapon. At this time, the fragrant aroma of claypot rice came from next door, which made Zhang Chen frown and feel a little uncomfortable. After all, he couldn't be happy that the person and beast next door were enjoying his labor.

"I just don't know how much my Second-Order Righteous God's Light has been enhanced to restrain the fox spirit," Zhang Chen approached the wall, took out a small brush made of rabbit hair, and gently brushed against the cracks in the wall. Before long, a crack appeared in front of him, and a faint ray of light was projected over, illuminating the dark room.

Zhang Chen lay down at the crack and looked over, only to see Zhang Chen sitting upright in front of the table reading. The fox spirit stood on the table, shaking its head, seemingly listening with intoxication. Zhang Chen looked at the person and the fox, listening to the chanting that came from his ears. It was a classic that he had never heard before, but unfortunately, it did not bring him any skills.

"If I hadn't hunted a rare sparrowhawk back then, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to use the sparrowhawk to please the teacher and be accepted as a disciple by the teacher, thus having the opportunity to study," Zhang Chen muttered to himself while lying in front of the wall crack. Back then, he originally wanted to use the sparrowhawk himself, but who knew that the fox spirit next door would intercept it.

"Damn fox spirit, sooner or later I will make you pay the price," Zhang Chen cursed in his heart, his mind full of indignation.

As for the conflict between him and the young man next door, it was not only because of the fox spirit, but also because there had long been a conflict between the two sides.

"Eh ~"

At this moment, Zhang Chen, who was spying, suddenly discovered something unusual. He saw the golden light in his abdomen suddenly burst out from his eyes, and then the fox spirit in front of Zhang Chen suddenly became blurred and changed. A layer of cyan air current appeared around him.

The cyan air current was like a gauze coat, draped over the fox spirit's body, looking green and particularly conspicuous.

"That is… Qi?" Zhang Chen looked at the cyan air current and said thoughtfully after a long time.

He looked at Zhang Chen, but saw that Zhang Chen was a mortal, without any air current flashing on his body.

"My eyes can see this Qi, is it demonic Qi? Or some other Qi? Or is it only for all beasts?" Zhang Chen was surprised, and he seemed to have discovered something new in a trance.

He lowered his head to look at his hands, and faintly saw a golden air current flowing under his skin. The air current was upright and bright like the great sun, completely different from the fox spirit's air current.

"I know, the air current represents the power of the strange. As long as you master the power of the strange, there will be air current accompanying it. That Zhang Chen is an ordinary scholar, of course, there will be no air current surrounding him," Zhang Chen had a guess in his mind and tentatively set his theory.

After listening to Zhang Chen recite scriptures for a quarter of an hour without any skills emerging, Zhang Chen carefully resealed the cave entrance with mud and sand, and then started preparing dinner.

Zhang Chen's dinner was simple, just roasted meat.

After eating and drinking his fill, he luxuriated in a hot bath, and then Zhang Chen lay in bed to sleep, while pondering the matter of his Eye of Law.

The next morning,

Zhang Chen packed his equipment and prepared to enter the mountains early to hunt, as he feared that if he went late, the prey in his traps would be taken advantage of by the small animals in the mountains.

However, Zhang Chen's body was still young, a time for growth and development when he loved to sleep, so he woke up in the morning and started munching sleepily on the roasted meat left over from last night.

"Zhang Chen, it's time to go into the mountains to hunt!"

Just as Zhang Chen was dozing off, a familiar shout suddenly came from outside the door, it was Wang Wu, a hunter from the village.

Zhang Chen shuddered and quickly got up: "I'm coming."

With meat in his mouth, Zhang Chen mumbled a response, quickly grabbed his basket, packed his machete, and hurried out the door.

At this moment, a thought suddenly flashed in Zhang Chen's mind: "Five years ago, Wang Wu personally captured the fox spirit, almost skinning it alive to make a fur collar, could it be that Wang Wu is a reclusive expert?"

Thinking of this possibility, Zhang Chen was slightly excited.

If Wang Wu was a reclusive expert, then if he sought guidance from Wang Wu, based on his friendship with Wang Wu, Wang Wu would definitely not refuse him.

Wang Wu was a hunter in the village who never married and treated Zhang Chen like his own son.

If it weren't for Wang Wu taking pity on him and often helping him out over the years, he would have starved to death long ago.

When Zhang Chen was eight years old, his biological father went into the mountains to hunt and was bitten by a beast.

Because there was no anti-inflammatory or disinfectant medicine, he eventually couldn't make it through three months later and died, leaving his mother to make a living with her three children.

However, his mother was a stepmother.

As for Zhang Chen's biological mother, his predecessor's memories were also vaguely remembered.

In his predecessor's childhood memories, he only remembered that the family seemed to be a branch of a large clan that had been demoted to a harsh and cold place for making a mistake.

After his father was stranded in this village, in order to take root here, his stepmother, with the help of a village matchmaker, married a local widow, thus taking root here and becoming half a local.

Zhang Chen was the second oldest of the three siblings, with an older sister five years older and a younger sister two years younger born after his stepmother married his cheap father.

After Zhang Chen's father died, the family's fields were seized by the village landlord through trickery, leaving only a dilapidated house for the orphans and widow, as well as some worthless bottles and jars.

After his father died, Zhang Chen's stepmother struggled to survive with her three children, relying entirely on her mother's sewing and mending.

Then, when Zhang Chen grew a little older, after being raised by his stepmother for four years, he was able to hunt prey in the mountains with Wang Wu from time to time, and then he was driven out to live separately, and then Zhang Chen returned to his own old and dilapidated thatched hut and became neighbors with Zhang Chen next door.

As for the deeper root of the conflict between him and Zhang Chen, it was because the thatched hut where Zhang Chen's family lived originally belonged to Zhang Chen's family, but it had been abandoned after his father 'married into' his stepmother's family, and it had been left unattended for many years.

After Zhang Chen's mother and son came, they directly occupied it.

Zhang Chen was angry and went to reason with them, but they bullied him for being young, and since they had rebuilt the thatched hut, they certainly couldn't move out, and then the hatred was formed.

After Zhang Chen was driven out by his stepmother, he began to rely on himself, but life was very difficult and he almost starved to death.

Over the years, he had relied entirely on the help of the hunter Wang Wu, and if it weren't for the hunting skills taught by the hunter Wang Wu, who often took him into the mountains to hunt, he would have starved to death long ago as a half-grown child.

So, for him, Wang Wu was not his biological father, but he was better than his biological father.

Even the cured meat on the wall before was obtained by following Wang Wu into the mountains to hunt before Zhang Chen's memories were awakened, and was used as dry food for winter storage.

Ending his memories, Zhang Chen tried hard to keep his face normal, took a deep breath, and slowly stood up, pushed open the door and walked out, and sure enough, he saw the old hunter Wang Wu standing outside the door waiting.

Wang Wu was in his fifties this year, his face was covered with the marks of wind and frost, and he looked extremely old, but because he had a superb means of setting traps, even if he was old, he could live very comfortably, eating meat every day and his body was very strong.

Golden light flashed in Zhang Chen's eyes, but he saw that there was no mysterious aura flowing around Wang Wu's body, obviously he was just an ordinary person.

Zhang Chen looked towards the neighboring yard without a trace, but saw that the fox spirit was shrinking against the wall, grinding its teeth, and its eyes were somewhat unkind when it looked at Zhang Chen and Wang Wu.

"Let's go, let's go into the mountains to hunt!" Zhang Chen said with a smile.

Although he and Wang Wu were both hunters, they each had their own default territory and would not hunt in the same territory to avoid competing for resources.

"I still need to go to Uncle Cui's house to get some equipment today, Uncle Wang, please wait for me." Zhang Chen said to Wang Wu, and then ran quickly to the village blacksmith Cui's house, listening to the clanging sound of iron striking in the house, and shouted loudly outside the door: "Uncle Cui, I'm here to get my things."

Blacksmith Cui heard the sound and walked out of the house, then beckoned to Zhang Chen, signaling Zhang Chen to walk into the yard.

After Zhang Chen walked into the yard, Blacksmith Cui led Zhang Chen into the house, took out a palm-sized hemp rope bag, the bag was very heavy, and directly stuffed it to Zhang Chen: "These are the iron beads you wanted, there are three hundred of them, you can save them a bit."

Zhang Chen opened the bag, and inside were gray and dull iron beads.

The surface of the beads was not complete, and they looked very inconspicuous, obviously their casting technology needed to be improved.

"There is also the iron shovel and the slingshot frame.

This slingshot frame was personally hammered out by me, enough for your children and grandchildren to use for a hundred lifetimes." Blacksmith Cui took out an iron frame from a counter on the side.

The iron frame was polished very smoothly.

Although the shape looked a bit clumsy, but in Blacksmith Cui's words, it was enough to use for several lifetimes.

Moreover, the slingshot structure was extremely reasonable, and it was very heavy in the hand, weighing about a pound, and it was very stable.

"Take it back and polish it yourself!" Blacksmith Cui said carelessly: "Last night, for you kid's items, I worked overtime until the second half of the night."

Zhang Chen didn't mind, he directly put away the slingshot frame, and then took the Luoyang shovel and ran happily to Wang Wu.

"Uncle Wang Wu, let's go into the mountains together." Zhang Chen carried the bamboo basket on his back, carried the Luoyang shovel, and his eyes were full of joy, which was the joy and anticipation for experience points.