Tian Yuan War Chronicles: The Path of Artifacts to Ascension – Chapter 2

Ch 2: Entering the Mountain to Hunt

The Ironware Workshop will have a three-day holiday at the end of each month, so everyone can take this opportunity to go home and take care of housework.

Hua Kong is a half-grown boy who can feed himself and not worry about the whole family. He usually takes this opportunity to call friends and hunt wild rabbits, roe deer, and mountain deer in the mountains to improve their meals.

If he is lucky and has a good harvest, he can also sell it for some silver.

To this end, he also specially learned a few tricks from the blacksmith who made steel crossbows, and made a steel hand crossbow for himself when Zhao Da was not paying attention.

He secretly test-fired it a few times, and the accuracy was good. Within thirty steps, the prey would be either dead or seriously injured.

This month was the same. Hua Kong called Zhao Ning, Wang Erlang, Li Gouzi, and Li Shitou, who usually played together, and entered Duanshan Mountain together.

“Xiao Kong, how is your life at my Paternal Uncle’s house?” Zhao Ning is the child of Zhao Da’s younger brother, Zhao Er.

“It’s okay, but your Paternal Uncle has a bad temper and always calls me a beggar,” Hua Kong replied casually while looking at the scenery on both sides of the mountain road.

“Hey~ My Mother said that my Paternal Uncle is just a stone in the latrine, but he is not a bad person. Don’t take it to heart,” Zhao Ning explained.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, his craftsmanship is good, and I really learned some skills. Look at this hand crossbow, I made it myself,” Hua Kong took out his hand crossbow from the back basket and showed off.

“Not bad, not bad.”

“You’re a good kid.”

The others grabbed the hand crossbow and examined it carefully, praising it repeatedly.

“Give it back to me, don’t break it,” Hua Kong saw that they were rough, so he quickly took the hand crossbow back and carefully wiped off the fingerprints they had left on it.

“Stingy, my family’s long-armed crossbow is also good,” Li Gouzi and Li Shitou, the two brothers, took out their own crossbow bows and said.

“I’m not comparing with you, your family is a hunter, that’s your skill for making a living,” Hua Kong waved his hand and put the hand crossbow back into the bamboo basket.

“That’s right,” the two brothers also put away their crossbow bows.

The five walked for a few more miles and gradually entered a habitat of mountain deer. Li Gouzi and Li Shitou, the two brothers, released their hunting dogs and began to search for the scent of mountain deer.

The hunting dogs quickly found the trail of the mountain deer herd, and the group quickly followed. After chasing for a few more miles, the five gradually caught up with the tail of the mountain deer herd.

“Same as before, don’t shoot the females, don’t shoot the young ones. Listen to my order, Half Moon Formation, go!” Li Gouzi directed the others, and everyone put down their back baskets and backpacks, took out their respective bows or crossbows, and surrounded the herd.

The group carefully outflanked the mountain deer herd from behind, each at a distance of dozens of steps, selected their targets, and waited for Li Gouzi’s order.

Li Gouzi saw that everyone had selected their targets, so he lowered his left arm and gave the order to attack.

The group released their arrows, the sound of strings rang out, and three mountain deer fell to the ground immediately. The other mountain deer noticed the movement and immediately panicked and fled in all directions.

“My small crossbow is really a magic weapon, it hit the target on the first try,” Hua Kong jumped up when he saw a mountain deer struggling with his iron arrow in it. He rushed to the mountain deer and ended its pain with a knife.

“This time I missed,” dozens of steps away, the arrows of Zhao Ning and Wang Erlang had disappeared.

“It’s okay, it’s still early, let’s go and see other places,” Li Shitou comforted them.

The three put the mountain deer they had hunted on their back baskets and chased after another group of mountain deer. The hunter’s habit is to only hunt a group of roe deer, wild boars, or mountain deer once.

Duanshan Mountain is actually a mountain range, very vast, and is the remnant of the boundless Helian Mountain Range. The depths of the mountain range are uninhabited forest seas.

There are not many villages nearby, so everyone does not exhaust the fish when hunting, farming, or fishing.

Duanshan City is built against the Duanshan Mountain Range. It is a medium-sized city with only about 100,000 people. It is located two thousand miles northwest of Ying Province City, the capital of Liang Province, and is a rather remote city.

Because the refined iron ore produced in the Duanshan Mountain Range is quite good, some craftsmen engaged in mining, iron smelting, steelmaking, and ironware manufacturing gathered here, and this slowly formed a small city.

Being close to the water gets the moon first, the ironware made in Duanshan City is quite famous throughout the province, and merchant teams from other states often come to purchase it. The entire city of over ten thousand people mainly engages in this industry.

The group walked for another dozen miles and found another group of mountain deer, but this time Li Gouzi, Li Shitou, and Hua Kong did not take action because they had already caught their prey.

There was no need to take action again. An adult mountain deer weighed at least dozens of pounds, and they couldn’t carry it away if they hunted too many.

This time only Wang Erlang and Zhao Ning took action, and sure enough, they both caught a fat mountain deer.

Now everyone was happy. However, Wang Erlang’s family was a local carpenter, and Zhao Ning’s family was a local blacksmith. Both families had many siblings and had not separated.

One mountain deer was only enough for a large family to improve their meals, so they carried their prey back to the village.

Li Gouzi and Li Shitou, the two brothers, were hunters at home, and they usually tasted these mountain delicacies, so they discussed with Hua Kong to carry them to Duanshan City and sell them for some broken silver.

Hua Kong originally wanted to carry the mountain deer back to improve his meals, but he thought about it and decided against it. At that time, it was estimated that most of it would still end up in the stomachs of Sister-in-law and her family.

It’s better to take it myself and exchange it for some broken silver. Just leave some for my Parents.

In fact, Hua Kong didn’t need to worry too much. The farmers and craftsmen in the nearby villages would carry bows, crossbows, wild boar guns, and hunting dogs to Duanshan Mountain to hunt when they had nothing to do.

Father also went there often, so there was no shortage of meat at home.

Li Gouzi, Li Shitou, and Hua Kong carried the mountain deer they had hunted and entered Duanshan City. The three dispersed and each found a place where wine shops gathered to set up stalls and sell venison.

“Take a look, take a look, freshly caught fresh venison, cheap sale, only ten cash per pound,” Hua Kong shouted to the crowd on the street while processing the mountain deer.

“Young man, cut me three pounds of hind leg meat,” a Woman said, looking at the fresh venison that Hua Kong had cut out.

“Okay,” Hua Kong skillfully took out a small scale and a few large tree leaves and cut the meat for the Woman.

“Madam, this is your meat, a total of thirty cash,” Hua Kong handed over the wrapped meat.

“Thank you, young man, here are thirty cash for you,” the Woman took the meat and handed the money to Hua Kong.

“Thank you,” Hua Kong happily took the money and put it away.

“Young man, don’t touch the other hind leg, give it all to me,” a drunken Big Man said, while taking out his purse.

“Twenty-three pounds and six taels, I’ll remove five pounds of bones for you, so it’s eighteen pounds and six taels, one hundred and eighty cash, Elder Brother,” Hua Kong was just earning some pocket money, so he was always more generous.

“Young man…man, not bad, you’re an honest person, here, this is a mace and a half of full-color Broken Silver, no need to give change,” the Big Man was generous.

“How can this be?”, Hua Kong was pleasantly surprised, but also a little hesitant, fearing that the Big Man would regret it when he sobered up. Duanshan City was a small place, and he might be able to find him.

“Don’t worry, keep it, I made a big deal today, I’m happy,” the Big Man took the deer leg and stuffed the money to Hua Kong.

“Thank you, Elder Brother, I wish you a prosperous business, take this liver back to drink with Wine,” Hua Kong was an honest child, and wrapped the liver for the Big Man.

“Okay, okay…”, the Big Man took the liver, carried the deer leg, and walked away unsteadily.

With the first two people testing the waters, the people on the street already knew that Hua Kong was an honest child, and his prices were relatively cheap. In less than an hour, the hundred or so pounds of mountain deer had been sold off.

Looking at the remaining mountain deer head, offal, and bones, Hua Kong sighed in his heart that if he hadn’t been working as a blacksmith for more than a year, he probably wouldn’t have been able to bring back this mountain deer.

Today’s harvest was good. He got a mace and a half of full-color silver, plus more than 400 cash, plus the 7 mace of silver saved from the Ironware Workshop, he had saved nearly one tael and two mace of silver.

He would often go hunting in the mountains in the future. In a few years, when he had saved enough 5 taels of silver, he would ask his Parents to find him a Wife. Hua Kong smiled happily in his heart, and a pig-like smile appeared on his face again.

“Young man? Young man? Are you okay?”

A slightly hoarse and old voice came, and Hua Kong suddenly woke up from his sweet dream.

“What’s wrong? Who are you?” Hua Kong came back to his senses and saw an Old Beggar with gray hair in front of him, which startled him.

“Young man, don’t panic, I just want to ask you, do you still want these bones? Can you give me some? I haven’t tasted meat for a long time. I want to take it back and boil some soup to drink,”

The Old Beggar finished speaking and looked at Hua Kong expectantly.

“Bones? Ah, ah, yes, yes…”, Hua Kong was just a young man, and his heart was not so cold, so he took out a small axe, chopped some of the remaining bones with some meat, wrapped them up, and handed them to the Old Beggar.

“Thank you, young man, thank you, young man,” the Old Beggar thanked him repeatedly.

“That, that, young man, can you give me some of the offal,” the Old Beggar looked at Hua Kong expectantly again.

“Ah?”, Hua Kong was a little unhappy. Why was this Old Beggar so ungrateful? There were at least a few taels of meat on the bones he gave him.

“Hehe, young man, don’t be angry, I’ll exchange something with you, I have a book here. I’ll give you the book. Can you give me the offal?”,

The Old Beggar pulled out a wrinkled little book from his dirty sleeve and handed it to Hua Kong.

“Book?”, Hua Kong was puzzled. Since he dropped out of Private School, Hua Kong hadn’t touched his books much. He had seen some picture books about men and women hidden by other laborers.

“Yes! It’s a book! I picked it up in Ying Province, it must be a good thing! No doubt!”, the Old Beggar said very definitely.

“Can I take a look?”, Hua Kong was suspicious.

“If you look at it, you have to give me the offal,” the Old Beggar hesitated.

“This book for half of the offal,” Hua Kong said unhappily.

“Okay! Okay!”, the Old Beggar handed over the book with a smile.

“Here you go!”, Hua Kong threw the book into the bamboo basket without even looking at it, and cut half of the offal and gave it to the Old Beggar.

“Can you wrap it up for me?”, the Old Beggar was a little dazed looking at the offal that was still dripping with filth.

“Hmph!”, Hua Kong had no choice but to take out a few tree leaves and a few strands of thatch to wrap up the offal before handing it to the Old Beggar.

“Thank you, young man! Thank you, young man!”, the Old Beggar thanked him profusely and took the offal.

“It’s okay, I’m leaving!”, Hua Kong replied, not expecting this Old Beggar to be so entangled. Did he have an easy-to-bully face?

“That, that, young man, young man, how about… how about… you give me some more of those bones with no meat?”, the Old Beggar was a little weak and hesitantly made a new request.

“Here you go!”, Hua Kong was a little dazed, but seeing the Old Beggar’s hesitant appearance, he still couldn’t get angry. He had no choice but to take some more deer bones, wrap them up, and give them to the Old Beggar.

“Thank you so much, young man! Thank you so much, young man! I’m leaving now! I’m leaving now!”, the Old Beggar finally looked satisfied, took the two full bags of bones and a bag of offal, and disappeared around the corner.

“What a ridiculous guy!”, Hua Kong sighed helplessly, looking at the corner where the Old Beggar disappeared.

“Tian Yuan Qi Guiding Art? A Taoist Health Preservation Method?”, Looking at the small book in his hand, Hua Kong was dumbfounded. He actually exchanged it for a health preservation book! He hadn’t reached that age yet!

To prevent the book from getting wet from the offal, Hua Kong put the small book into the pocket in his arms, and put the remaining offal, bones, internal organs, and deer head into the bamboo basket, and then hurried home.

That night, Hua Kong washed the remaining bones, offal, and internal organs, and asked his Mother to cook a big pot, and the family had a delicious meal.

As for the remaining venison, no one except Sister-in-law asked about it. Elder Brother also knew what he was thinking and said a few words to Sister-in-law, so the two even had a few words of argument.

Hua Kong was a little speechless and went to bed early. As for the small health preservation book, it was placed in the pocket in his clothes, and Hua Kong was too lazy to care about it.