by Lazy Bird
Everything was done, and it took only two to three minutes.
The farmers returned one after another. As the food for lunch was in Zhao Da’s hands, they had to queue up and collect it from him.
Meanwhile, Li Siwen first went to pee, then returned to the humid farmer’s hut at an angle and hid the wheat earheads inside the void of a tree trunk that he’d dug out yesterday. Only then did he leisurely head to collect his ration, then turn back to the farmer’s hut.
When Zhao Da walked over with a withered spirit, he was seated and slowly chewing and swallowing his ration.
The two met eyes, Zhao Da’s gaze was a little exhausted. Instead, the fire amulet in between his brows seemed to be even brighter than before. Perhaps it was an illusion?
“Old Zhao, do you want to take a break?”
Li Siwen asked tentatively.
Zhao Da did not speak, but he suddenly shouted angrily without warning, “That Sun fellow is a damn stinking bug, I will personally crush him to death and smash him to pieces, eventually!”
When he finished yelling, Zhao Da’s fist pounded on the stone wall of the farmer’s hut. Blood appeared at once, but he seemed to feel nothing at all.
However, Li Siwen was horrified to see that in the instance Zhao Da had raged, the fire amulet between his brows had brightened intensely for a moment.
And Zhao Da, who was done venting, turned and left, his spirits even more wallowed than before.
“It seems like this fellow cannot control his own emotions? What exactly did Sun Tieshi that fellow say in the morning, did he extend his greetings to Old Zhao’s entire family [1. Actually means to have cursed his family]? That it had him so agitated?”
Li Siwen sat on the rock. At first, he still found it hilarious, but a few seconds later, he was frowning.
“No, this isn’t right!”
“There was a wound on Zhao Da’s hand previously, and it was stained with soil. This meant that he’d been raging earlier and it seems like he would strike everywhere and the fire amulet would be activated once he rages. After that, he would sober up very quickly but his spirits would become even more withered.”
“Then, even without direct evidence, I can absolutely confirm one thing, while the fire amulet gain from the exchange with the statue can increase power for a person, but it would affect one’s emotions at the same time. For the recent two days, Overseer Sun Tieshi has been rebuking Zhao Da once he gets a chance, this could be a remote cause.”
“Besides, an ordinary person would feel physically empty and mentally exhausted after venting out anger, let alone this being anger that is controlled by the fire amulet. Naturally, the negative effects on one’s body would be even greater.”
At this thought, Li Siwen could not help but arrive at an even scarier question.
That was, Zhao Da’s fusing of the fire amulet then led to his emotions going out of control. Was this incident an exception?
If it was, that was all.
What if it wasn’t!
Wouldn’t that mean that Overseer Sun Tieshi, Song Hu, Zhang Ye, Qin Fen, all these people who’d similarly fused the fire amulet all had the possibility of having their emotions go out of control!
And up to now, only Zhao Da had lost control of his emotions to some extent, but Overseer Sun Tieshi had been wearing a frosty look since the day before yesterday.
As the trusted subordinate of the boorish Feudal Lord, he definitely would have fused more than one fire amulet.
As for the boorish Feudal Lord, it was no longer as simple as fusing one or two fire amulets for him. He had directly blended the power of the strange flame into his body.
If the boorish Feudal Lord were to lose control of his emotions——
This possibility instantly had Li Siwen’s hair standing on end.
But a guess was just a guess.
So Li Siwen very carefully concealed the doubts and vigilance in his heart. As he paid attention to the situation outside the stone hut, he pulled out those wheat earheads. With a rub of his hands, they become plump and ripe golden wheat grains, each the size of a soybean.
When he threw them into his mouth and chewed, the delicate fragrance of wheat filled his mouth.
10 minutes later, about five catties of wheat grains were cleaned out by Li Siwen. He didn’t feel a hint of discomfort, and it had swept away his hunger. To put it specifically, he was at least 70% full.
Watching his Stamina slowly recover, Li Siwen’s little heart that had suffered some scare earlier finally found some consolation. Fortunately, the subsequent days wouldn’t be too trying.
But the necessary preparations still had to be done, should the occasion arise, he had to spread his legs and run.
“Mm, while Old Zhao is listless, let’s be willful for a while this afternoon.”
After resting for about an hour, and his Stamina had been restored to 16 points, Li Siwen lifted his hoe and walked out of the farmer’s hut, preparing to weed in advance.
At this stage, the biggest threat to him was not Overseer Sun Tieshi. This fellow would no longer specially watch and see if all the farmers were slacking because this was Zhao Da’s job, so Sun Tieshi only needed to monitor Zhao Da.
Presently, the sun was like a big fireball. The ambient temperature was probably thirty-something degree celsius, but to Li Siwen, it only felt like twenty-degree celsius.
Taking a glance at Zhao Da, who was seated under the big tree and dozing off, he headed right to the bottommost wheat field and worked at full steam without another word.
Say, he’d yet to try such a violent flat pushing, because this was the costliest in terms of Stamina.
However, the emotions that Zhao Da showed had a sense of crisis vaguely rising in his heart, so what he needed today was efficiency.
For the whole afternoon, Li Siwen only took three brief breaks, then he used six hours’ time to madly push down close to two acres of the wheat field.
Counting the 0.5 Vitality Point left from the morning, up till about 7 PM in the evening, he’d already saved up four Vitality Points.
This was absolutely making a record, he’d even consumed his Stamina into the red zone, left with just three points.
chapter 31
“Extract!”
“Add Agility!”
This time, Li Siwen didn’t hesitate. He added all four Vitality Points to Agility.
It didn’t feel different adding to this attribute at first. He wasn’t surprised either. He had thought this was how it was supposed to be until he walked out of the wheat field and suddenly felt dizzy. He completely lost judgment of his surroundings and fell on the ground.
The surroundings moved irregularly. Even the solid hard ground seemed like a sponge, incapable of withstanding stress.
Fortunately, Li Siwen was still calm at this moment. He closed his eyes and decisively activated his Spirit Vision, so he knew what was going on.
There was nothing wrong with his brain, it was his muscles spasming. He was in a weird T-shape with his head slanted on the ground. He couldn’t feel any pain, and he could still move. But he couldn’t control his body properly. It was as if he was more drunk than a drunkard.
“Is the nerve center affected?”
Li Siwen didn’t understand, but he was not anxious. He waited for everything to settle down.
After about ten seconds, his limbs regained normality followed by his body, neck, waist, then head.
The strange spasms were gone and he gained full control of his body. With little thoughts, he leaped off the ground like a carp leaping out of the water. There was no difficulty in doing so, it was like he was born with it.
Li Siwen got a shock the moment he landed on the ground. What happened?
He didn’t care to check the reason and glanced into the distance. He saw the farmers walking tiredly. Zhao Da appeared listless as well. Seeing that no one had noticed him, it relieved him.
“This is the magical effect after I added 4 points to Agilit
y?”
Li Siwen was secretly happy. He always thought that Agility meant he could run fast. But it seems—he suddenly turned around and caught an agile grasshopper with one hand.
He squashed the big, fat grasshopper to death, then revealed a thoughtful look.
“So what the Agility attribute increases is actually the sense of space, the speed of nerve response, the speed of muscle response, and the overall coordination ability. It’s not simply running fast. If one just concentrates on wanting to run fast, they just need to increase Stamina and Strength. On a flat track, I can also run 100 meters in six or seven seconds if I run desperately. However, it cannot be compared to the current state.”
“Take the series of actions that I used to catch a grasshopper just now. I first discovered the grasshopper through Spirit Vision. In normal circumstances, I will turn around and continuously correct the grasshopper’s movement trajectory through Spirit Vision, then finally killing it in the next one to two seconds. That was how I killed those gray wolves previously.”
“But just now, my turning movements were minimal. The neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, knees, ankles, and even the entire soles of the feet completed a very delicate coordination in an instant. This coordination is the mastery of the sense of space, and also a manifestation of the speed of nerve response, the strength of muscle response, and the overall coordination ability.”
“Hence, I detected the grasshopper using Spirit Vision. Without waiting for Spirit Vision to lock it in, the sense of space in my body already knows where the grasshopper should be and my muscles were mobilized. That was how I was able to catch it so accurately. The whole process took less than a second.”
“Of course, looking at the changes in my movements at this moment, there are actually two hidden conditions. Firstly, I must have enough strength to support this level of muscle response strength. Otherwise, if I do it forcibly, I will only strain my muscles and fall flat on the ground.”
“Secondly, I must have enough Stamina to provide energy to support these actions. Otherwise, I won’t be able to achieve it. For example, my muscles were all in a state of spasm just now. The reason I can’t feel pain, or how I could recover so quickly, is related to my high Stamina.”
“Based on this, the people so-called skilled in Stamina and Agility are all false propositions. Without sufficient Stamina and Agility, no matter how high one’s Strength is, it’s useless; without sufficient Stamina and Strength, no matter how high one’s Agility is, it’s just a fantasy. If it is as I expected, the upper limit of Stamina and Strength will affect the upper limit of the Agility attribute. That is, Agility will never be higher than Stamina and Strength.”
Li Siwen walked as he thought about it. He realized that his current state of walking differed completely from before.
It was not that he became more energetic or steadfastly. But with each step he took, different parts of his body reacted subtly. He could even change his walking state through these subtly reactions. Such as transiting from a slow walk to a brisk walk, from moving forward to moving left and right, from moving forward to suddenly turning around, from moving forward to suddenly running and jumping. Everything was within his control.
This made Li Siwen suddenly have the illusion that he was a master of qinggong. [1. A technique in Chinese martial arts that is visually reminiscent of parkour.]
“Ah!”
He suddenly heard a scream and when he looked up, he saw Zhao Da holding his head, lying on the ground and rolling. He seemed to be in extreme pain.
Seeing that, Li Siwen immediately stopped cautiously. He sensed danger. It didn’t matter if Zhao Da had advanced to become a Flame Berserker or any other situation, nothing good would come out of approaching him at this moment.
Two farmers attempted to step forward to help. But the moment they came into contact with Zhao Da, a flame ignited and both farmers were burnt to a crisp in an instant.
This accident happened too quickly. Before the other farmers could react, Zhao Da was already screaming in pain. His clothes were burned out, his body was stretched, and his skin became red. Two hideous claws grew on his back, two red flesh lumps grew on his head where the fire amulet was originally at. His limbs instantly became claws and an infinite flame could be seen in his eyes.
“Ah ah ah!”
Finally, a farmer screamed, but a red shadow flashed in the next second and the farmer’s body was cut open!
“Heck, this speed is outrageous!”
Li Siwen, who was more than a hundred meters away, walked southwards without a word.
That was right, he walked. He didn’t run. Although he was panic-stricken, he remained calm.
He only had 3 points of Stamina left, he couldn’t waste it.
The reason he headed southwards, was because it was time for the loggers to get off work. If nothing happened to Song Hu, the loggers should have returned and they could then live or die together.
But this was not his only plan.
If that creature was too fast, he would have to think of something else.
There were constant screaming behind him. A farmer wanted to escape and as expected, the red-skinned monster killed him.
At this moment, Li Siwen looked back subconsciously and instantly saw the red-skinned monster’s two fiery eyes. He could clearly see its desire for lives. It was like facing an erupting volcano, wanting to vent, tear, and destroy!
“Oh, no!”
Sensing that the situation was not good, Li Siwen subconsciously wanted to avoid the monster’s glare. But it was too late. An intangible force slammed into him and his head buzzed.
Then, his Spirit Vision’s secondary spirit force field broke.
Apart from this, there were no other abnormalities.
Was this a mental attack?
Shocked in his heart, Li Siwen immediately quickened his pace. The green wolf which could break his secondary force field came to his mind.
He could not afford to offend it.
chapter 32
At this moment, the red-skinned monster that chased him was no longer recognizable as human. It landed on the ground with four claws and moved like a beast at a quick speed.
But Li Siwen was still continuously looking back. At the same time, he jotted down the running posture and various details of this red-skinned monster in his mind.
Just when the red-skinned monster finally got within 20 meters of him, he jumped forward. A river valley appeared with the stream in its middle.
But this was not the section that the logging team often walked through. It was more to the southeast, and the stream was deeper and wider.
Li Siwen strode across the stream with big steps and stepped onto the south bank. The monster that was slowly turning into something weird followed him. To his disappointment, the monster was not afraid of water and jumped directly over the stream.
At this time, the distance between the two was only five meters.
“Roar!”
With a low roar, a red shadow flashed past. The monster suddenly sped up, jumped over three meters high, and charged fiercely at Li Siwen’s back.
At this moment, Li Siwen suddenly turned around like a prophet. Taking advantage of the moment that the monster was in the air and had nowhere to use as a support, he held the hoe in both hands and hit the monster with all his strength!
The power of 14 Strength exploded instantly.
“Crack!”
Because of the force, the wooden handle of the hoe broke and the monster’s body flung backwards, falling into the one-foot-deep stream!
He heard a sizzling sound. The monster’s body was not afraid of water, but blue smoke came out of the flame-like eyes when they were splashed by the water from the stream.
The monster roared in extreme pain immediately.
At the same time, Li Siwen did not hesitate. He held the broken wooden handle of the hoe and leaped down from the river bank. He borrowed power with the first step, sped up with the
second, and leaped with the third. Like a raging gust of wind, he directed all the power and inertia of his entire body to the wooden handle in his right hand. Like a javelin, it pierced the monster’s left eye.
Having gotten a direct hit, he immediately let go, landed, rolled, and went ashore. He did this all in one breath, opening a safe distance of over ten meters from the monster.
However, the monster’s body twitched violently in the stream of water, then stopped moving. In the blink of an eye, layers of ashes peeled off from the surface of the monster’s corpse and were washed away by the stream water like red hot iron being quenched.
In less than half a minute, there was only a red crystal the size of an apricot kernel left.
Li Siwen watched from beside the stream. After a long time, he used the broken handle of the hoe to fish out the red crystal from the stream. He also caught a shrimp, two grasshoppers, and a pot-bellied cricket. He put them one after another on the crystal to make sure there was no danger before picking it up with his hand.
It was heavy, at least about three catties.
It felt warm to the touch, as if it were alive. He could even feel a faint heartbeat.
However, after ten seconds, the red crystal gradually dimmed and turned into an ordinary pebble.
“Wait!”
Li Siwen suddenly thought of something. He opened the Attribute Bar and looked at it. As expected, the blue orb that did not light previously because of conditions unmet had now lighted up. If he concentrated, there appeared on it the same mark—
(14/15).
This was really an unexpected surprise!
So, should he try to extract a bit?
If he didn’t try, how would he know what the blue orb collected?
Thinking of this, Li Siwen quickly decided and extracted a little with one swipe. Then he looked at the Attribute Bar. A line of flickering text had appeared.
Withdrawing Heavenly Workmanship Point +1, Time remaining: 10 seconds.
Heavenly, heavenly what?
What workmanship?
It confused Li Siwen!
He hurriedly focused his attention on other attributes. As a result, except for the ability to repair the Attribute Bar, this Heavenly Workmanship Point could not be used on any of the other Attributes. Seeing that the ten-second countdown was about to end, he was so anxious that he was breaking out in a cold sweat. This was so much more exciting than a grand opening!