Chapter 59: Chapter 44: Conquering the Permafrost (Part 2)
"I’m not afraid!" Zhang Chen handed over the food urn with a smile.
"Next time, you can’t bring it!" Wang Wu reprimanded Zhang Chen but didn’t refuse his good intention and squatted down to eat.
"Isn’t there any way to control this in the world?" Zhang Chen looked at Wang Wu devouring the food, then at the unshaven face and disheveled hair of the other and tentatively asked.
"If you encounter it, you can only consider yourself unlucky!" Wang Wu said irritably.
Hearing this, Zhang Chen remained silent, his eyes showing a hint of contemplation. This world confused him. Since there’s such mysterious power like the Fox Spirit, why are there no legends of slaying demons?
If there were, it would surely be passed down as myth, and neither he nor Wang Wu would have remained so completely uninformed.
"Perhaps the perspective is too low, or maybe the chance is too rare, that’s why not even a word has been passed down," Zhang Chen muttered to himself.
After Wang Wu finished eating, they set off together towards the mountains. At this time, Wang Wu was walking ahead and earnestly instructed, "You kid must be extra careful. Stay away from me recently and don’t bring me food. I’m living with whatever fate has in store. But I, Wang Wu, will never succumb! No matter what background the opponent has, I, Wang Wu, will never succumb!"
Wang Wu was an old hunter, having hunted all his life, mastering the power of life and death over beasts. Naturally, he had an aura of Evil Qi.
Following behind Wang Wu, Zhang Chen said with a chuckle, "What are you talking about, uncle? We are family. Why delineate us as two separate households? Were it not for you, I’d have starved to death long ago."
Hearing Zhang Chen’s words, Wang Wu shook his head, "It’s different; you’re still young and have a better future ahead. I can’t drag you into this. Besides, if all of us men die, who will bury us? No one would even send us off."
Wang Wu’s voice carried an indefinable obsession, seemingly especially concerned about burial affairs after death.
This is probably a psychological knot of the older generation.
Zhang Chen couldn’t persuade Wang Wu, but he resolved to do his own thing. Even if the Fox Spirit avenged him, at worst life would be a little harder, but he could never let Wang Wu starve to death.
Zhang Chen and Wang Wu parted ways. First, Zhang Chen went to the cave to feed the giant hornets. Seeing the gradually forming honeycomb, a smile appeared on his face, "Once I raise millions of giant hornets, in a mere thought they will swarm the skies, even an army will have to retreat."
Of course, Zhang Chen knew that relying on his Unranked Beast Taming to raise millions of giant hornets was unrealistic, but he needed to set a small goal for himself, just in case he could actually achieve it.
The whistle echoed across the wilds as the Hunting Falcon soared into the sky, joyfully exploring, while Zhang Chen carried a basket to check the traps. After checking over a dozen traps, Zhang Chen summarized today’s harvest: two pheasants, one wild duck, two rabbits.
"Rabbits are spreading uncontrollably, it’s almost an infestation. It’s a shame rabbit meat doesn’t satisfy hunger, and the more you eat, the hungrier you get. Otherwise, it would be an excellent meal," Zhang Chen shook his head silently.
Rabbit meat tastes great and is lean meat throughout, but unfortunately, it only makes you hungrier the more you eat. If you solely eat rabbit meat, you’d starve to death.
"And my slingshot. I still haven’t found a suitable bowstring; it’s hard to find the right slingshot rubber in this world. I can only wait until my skill level improves, hunt large beasts, extract their tendons, and make rubber," Zhang Chen muttered, heading deep into the mountains to gather nectar.
Finding a place of flourishing flowers, Zhang Chen unhesitatingly activated his Beast Taming Technique, capturing the air’s bees to help gather nectar.
After about an hour, Zhang Chen stopped gathering nectar, observing the honey in the jar, realizing it was less than before.
"I’ve forgotten that nectar gathering is seasonal. Once the season passes and the flowers fall, naturally, there’s no nectar to gather. For me, although I understand this principle, I can’t change it, as I can only tame beasts for one hour daily," Zhang Chen shook his head. "My concerns might be excessive. What I can do is find a suitable spot daily and try to capture more bees to find larger flowers."
Looking at the honey in the jar, Zhang Chen carefully covered it with gauze. Honey brought back mustn’t be sealed; it has to be air-dried, evaporating its moisture, to prevent spoilage.
Within the hive, hundreds or thousands of bees gather, flapping their wings to evaporate the honey’s moisture, but Zhang Chen lacked that convenient condition, relying only on natural evaporation.
"Next is excavating the ancient tomb. Only ten meters remain before I can touch the true barrier of the tomb. If I manage to break through and get inside, I’d gain greatly. It’s not just ten meters of permafrost; even if it’s a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand meters, I would dig through it all," Zhang Chen entered the tomb carrying his tools, picking up the chisel and hammer, beginning to chip away at the permafrost.
"I’m puzzled; why is there permafrost here? It defies logic," Zhang Chen felt his numbed hand, his brows slightly furrowed, sensing something amiss.
This permafrost clearly wasn’t ordinary; its icy traits exceeded average ice.
"Could it be that some mysterious power within the tomb has leaked out, causing the permafrost here?" Zhang Chen speculated, "Perhaps the mysterious power leaked, leading to an anomaly in experience points accumulating."
"Interesting," Zhang Chen mused, recalling the tremors in his dreams. The tomb had undergone a shock, enabling the Jade Stele to absorb True Dragon Blood.
"Since the tomb’s burial till now, untold years have passed; tectonic shifts and oceans changing into fields are normal. Unfortunately, my dream was incomplete, fragmented, only showing me parts of the environment. I barely understood the tomb’s structure, its layout remains unknown," Zhang Chen sighed. He only saw parts through the blood’s third-person perspective, not the mysterious man who arranged the tomb’s viewpoint.
Zhang Chen energetically chiselled, but after half a day, he had to go outside to sunbathe, dispelling the cold within himself.
"At this pace, it may take me three to five years to chisel through the last ten meters of permafrost. Continuing like this won’t work; I need a solution," Zhang Chen looked at the big sun overhead, lazily sprawling on the sandy ground, feeling the coldness within his body dissipate entirely.
Zhang Chen considered two approaches. The first was to enhance his skill level, see if any Powerful Skill would emerge, accelerating excavation progress. The second was to light wood in the passage daily before leaving; after a night’s baking, even if the permafrost doesn’t melt, it will be affected, speeding up his chiselling.
"So now I need to add more tasks," Zhang Chen stopped resting, wielding an axe, wandering through the mountains, searching for suitable dead wood and branches to collect and bring back to the underground cave.
"If only I weren’t afraid of collapsing the cave with explosives, I would definitely blow the permafrost open with them," Zhang Chen grumbled while chopping mountain trees.
For him, digging through the permafrost wasn’t the goal; collecting experience points was. If the permafrost were blasted causing cave-ins, it’d be a real hassle, requiring a clean up of the soil, significantly increasing workload. Zhang Chen was a smart man; he definitely wouldn’t do something so foolish.
ps: Sorry, forgot to detach today; here’s a Chapter for everyone to read.