CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
A hammer struck a red-hot piece of iron, sending sparks flying.
"Which family are you delivering firewood for?" the burly blacksmith asked, seeing a dark-faced youth walk in with a basket of wood on his back.
Some people in the camp made a living by gathering and delivering firewood in exchange for food.
"Uh, I'm not. I'm here to trade some meat for a few things."
"Meat?" The blacksmith looked skeptical. 'A half-grown kid like you managed to get meat?'
Tang Wen put down his basket, took out the firewood, and then produced a chicken.
"A wild pheasant?"
The blacksmith examined it closely. "A whole pheasant, not bad. The heart, liver, and brains are all intact. This will be perfect to help my wife recover her strength. What do you want for it?"
"A kitchen knife, a few daggers, and a pair of scissors."
"That's too much. I can only give you the kitchen knife and the scissors."
"I'll throw in the firewood."
"That's not worth much." The big man put down his hammer.
Tang Wen pulled three Red-beaked Sparrows from his coat. "With these included, give me three daggers."
"Red-beaked Sparrows?" The big man looked at Tang Wen in surprise, then thought for a moment and said, "My daggers are forged from refined iron. I can only give you one."
Though tempted, Tang Wen pulled his hand back, looking as if he was calling off the deal.
The blacksmith quickly sweetened the pot. "I'll throw in some needles and thread."
After a few seconds of standoff, Tang Wen agreed.
The blacksmith hadn't lied. The dagger he gave Tang Wen was over twenty centimeters long.
It was double-edged with a chilling glint on its tip. It was a straight blade with no curve. Tang Wen took it and tested its sharpness on a piece of firewood, nodding in satisfaction.
"If you get more meat next time, you can bring it here."
Tang Wen gave him a serious look. "Do you have any Maize?"
"I have potatoes and sweet potatoes."
"What should I call you?"
"Li Daniu."
"I'm Tang Wen."
"Xiaotang, if you get more birds, you can really bring them to me. Just like today. I'll give you potatoes and sweet potatoes for them. My wife just had a baby, and the little one needs meat to grow strong."
"Alright!"
'In a severely imbalanced camp with far more women than men, a man who cared so much for his wife and child was probably trustworthy.'
Few people in the camp hunted. Most of them scraped by through the winter by catching fish in the swamp, digging for roots, foraging for wild vegetables, and finding insects outside the camp.
Once they survived until spring, they could go work in the fields.
For working in the fields, the camp provided one meal a day. When the Maize was harvested, they would also receive a share of the grain.
If they wanted more, they could slowly save up for a set of farming tools and apply to cultivate new land.
The camp would give you seeds, and the grain from the new land would be split with the camp, which would take a seventy percent share.
The Guards often hunted Mutated Beasts, but they only ever sent their kills to the city.
...
Inside the small hut, daggers were stuck into a hanging wooden post.
THWACK, THWACK, THWACK...
From a very close distance, every throw hit its mark.
After several successful hits, the Experience Panel appeared:
[Skill: Flying Knife Skill, Beginner (1/500)]
Tang Wen's soul was that of a man from Huaxia.
He had all the typical traits of someone from Huaxia: prone to anxiety, insecure, and possessing a congenital fear of insufficient firepower, among other things.
On his way back, he had been thinking, 'Encountering the pheasant in the woods today was a stroke of luck. But what about next time? What if a wild wolf or a Mutated Beast appeared instead? I can't outrun them, and if I fight for my life, it's a seventy-thirty split. In three minutes, the mutated wolf is seventy percent full.'
Therefore, practicing a more lethal skill was an urgent priority.
After thinking it over, he chose flying knives.
From then on, besides practicing the Eight Vajra Techniques, Tang Wen also had to practice with his flying knives.
Before he had leveled up his Eight Vajra Techniques, this would have been impossible.
Back then, his Constitution and stamina were too weak. Even with a full stomach, he wouldn't have had the energy to practice two skills consecutively.
Amidst the THWACKING sounds, Tangtang held a needle and thread, humming an unknown tune as she mended his clothes.
THWACK.
The one hundredth hit.
[Skill: Flying Knife Skill, Beginner (100/500)]
'Practicing on a stationary wooden post is too inefficient. One successful hit only gives one point of experience.'
That night, the north wind howled and the temperature dropped.
Tang Wen and his sister were woken by the cold during the night. They had no choice but to light the earthen stove for warmth, which allowed them to barely sleep until dawn.
The next morning, many more people than usual left the camp carrying bamboo baskets and wood-chopping knives.
Tang Wen, also carrying a basket, blended into the crowd. He moved away from the wood-gatherers and headed deep into the forest, where he found a suitable clearing and scattered some Maize.
He hid and practiced his Flying Knife Skill.
When the Red-beaked Sparrows arrived, Tang Wen put his dagger away.
He didn't know if it was because of the cold or some other reason, but these were the only birds in the forest. For the past half-month, Tang Wen had hardly seen any other type of bird.
SWOOSH, SWOOSH, SWOOSH...
Four Red-beaked Sparrows were struck one after another, falling to the ground with a flutter.
Tang Wen went to pick them up, then carefully checked the Maize grains on the ground.
'Good, I struck just in time. They barely ate a few bites, so I don't need to add more for now.'
At noon, he didn't return to the camp. He took out the Maize balls his sister had made for him, filled his stomach, and continued hunting.
'The weather is getting colder, and the days are growing shorter. We still don't have proper bedding at home. I need to hunt more birds.'
His Master Level Flying Locust Stone Skill had a very high hit rate. Whenever three to five birds flew over, not a single one could escape.
In the afternoon, he finished up early as usual.
Carrying a bamboo basket of scavenged firewood to disguise himself as a wood-gatherer, he blended in perfectly. Although the path was crowded, he looked just like everyone else, so no one paid him any special attention.
Today's harvest was bountiful: a full fifteen Red-beaked Sparrows.
Meanwhile, from practicing his knife throwing in the woods, his experience had risen quite a bit: [Flying Knife Skill: Beginner (207/500)]
Back at the camp, he visited several grain shops, first trading for ten jin of Maize. Then, he took another ten jin from home and went to a general store to trade for two new sets of hemp clothes and two thick hemp quilts.
The hemp quilts were made of multiple layers of linen cloth, stuffed with thick layers of dry grass and cotton wadding. As long as you had the materials and were willing to put in the effort, a woman could sew one in two days. The only real cost was time and some needle and thread.
When he brought the hemp quilts home, Tangtang pouted, looking very reluctant. She muttered under her breath, "What kind of junk is this... they dare ask for ten jin of Maize for a quilt that'll get moldy the first time it rains next year..."
But that night, she slept very soundly.
Every day, Tang Wen would scatter Maize deep in the forest, like a fisherman pre-baiting a fishing spot.
The Red-beaked Sparrows seemed to know there was food here, and they came one after another in waves.
For several days in a row, Tang Wen's daily haul was over twenty birds.
He and Tangtang ate a roasted Red-beaked Sparrow for each of their three daily meals, trading the rest for grain and other necessities.
Their arduous days were, at least, peaceful.
They had traded for so much Maize that the grain jars at home were no longer enough. The hut was too small to fit a large vat, so Tang Wen went to the carpenter and traded for several lidded buckets to store the Maize.
One day in late October, Tang Wen was on his way back to the camp, carrying a wild rabbit and a full load of firewood.
"Stop! Give me the firewood!"
Tang Wen's body instantly tensed, and he looked at the person who had jumped out from behind a tree.
The man's clothes were thin and tattered. His face was sallow and gaunt, his eyes bulged, and he held a long, sharpened wooden stick that he jabbed threateningly in Tang Wen's direction.
'A Scavenger from outside the camp. No one inside the camp looks this wretched.'
Tang Wen lifted the corner of his shirt, revealing the dagger at his waist, which glinted with a cold light.
'It's best to subdue the enemy without a fight!'
The Scavenger grew even more excited. "The dagger... give me the dagger, too."
Tang Wen was speechless.
SWOOSH.
His right hand, hidden in his sleeve, flicked out a Flying Locust Stone!
"Aargh!"
The Scavenger clutched his nose and staggered backward, crashing into a tree with a THUD.
[Skill: Flying Locust Stone, Mastery (899→932/3000)]
Tang Wen raised an eyebrow. 'Such a big jump in experience?'
For a Scavenger, injury and pain were as common as daily meals.
Having his nose broken, however, only triggered his ferocity.
The Scavenger straightened up, gripped his sharpened stick, and charged straight at him.