Chapter 66: The Porter Fang Shi: The Weapon Dilemma

(PS: There is one more chapter to be released during the day.)

"Senior Brother, settle the bill!"

Fang Shi pushed the cart and shouted loudly.

"Coming, coming!"

Several disciples from the Sword Affairs Hall, with nimble hands and feet, began inspecting the black bear corpse on the cart.

"One sword strike severed the head, no extra wounds, the fur is intact."

"No excessive fright before death, the meat quality is perfect."

"Weight 2064 jin, quality: Early Qi Condensation."

After a while, the leading outer sect senior brother said: "Fang Shi, record 206 contribution points, any objections?"

Fang Shi smiled and said: "No objections, no objections. Senior Brother, could you move the black bear away faster? I have more goods to transport."

"Sure, no problem. It's rare to see such a diligent junior brother."

After the senior brothers finished moving the black bear corpse, Fang Shi hurriedly pushed the cart and ran off in a flash.

There was no choice; only after killing the black bear did Fang Shi discover a fatal problem.

He still needed to handle the transport of the corpse.

A big black bear weighs one ton.

Fang Shi exerted all his strength just to lift it to his waist; without tools, wanting to transport it was a fool's dream.

Helplessly, he could only sprint back, get a cart, and transport the big black bear.

As a result, the big black bear was naturally gone.

No one knew which beast in the Demon Valley had dragged it away.

"Really, a waste of time. If it weren't for the First Senior Brother's order, I wouldn't do this kind of work."

Fang Shi still held great respect for the First Senior Brother, even though he violated regulations by ordering him to complete this month's mission.

He just did it; absolutely not because the First Senior Brother was powerful and had given him benefits.

Ancheng, Linyuan Community.

A Fire-Winged Bird descended from the sky, diving toward the bait on the ground.

However, when it was ten meters from the ground, it was struck down in one shot by an arrow fired from a building.

With a bang, it fell to the ground.

The bait stood up, revealing a muscular body; it was Zhang Di.

He shouted toward the nearby building: "Jiang Xian, your archery is getting more and more accurate."

On the fourth floor, a woman carrying a long bow on her back, looking valiant and spirited, climbed over the window and, with a few leaps, reached the ground.

Jiang Xian said indifferently: "Clean up the Fire-Winged Bird's corpse, then we'll change locations."

"Otherwise, those cowardly beasts won't dare to come again."

Zhang Di nodded, grabbed a Fire-Winged Bird in each hand, and threw them into a nearby building.

Meanwhile, Jiang Xian stood silently, using a breathing technique to relieve the soreness in her arms.

Since parting ways at the Trial Tower, Fang Shi had gone missing.

The Hua Nation could not find him no matter what they tried.

If it weren't for the fact that his name on the stone tablet had not yet disappeared, they would have thought Fang Shi met with misfortune.

There was no choice; Director Li could only inform Jiang Xian and the others of some information.

He told them to find the person in charge of the Ancheng area as soon as possible.

Jiang Xian and the others did not disappoint Director Li's expectations and successfully completed the mission.

After this, Jiang Xian, due to her outstanding potential, was specially cultivated by the Ancheng area.

She was trained until she reached Level 3 and possessed the ability to independently kill Fire-Winged Birds before being allowed to hunt freely in low-to-moderate risk areas.

Low-to-moderate risk areas are regions comprehensively classified based on the number of spatial gates and Fire-Winged Birds.

Generally speaking, there are rarely absolute gaps in the number of spatial gates.

Low-to-moderate risk areas are formed more often because too many Fire-Winged Birds have been slaughtered.

The pheromones remaining after death serve to drive away most Fire-Winged Birds.

High-risk areas are generally located in unrecovered lost territories and traps specifically created by humans to hunt Fire-Winged Birds.

Jiang Xian fought her way down this path; by the twentieth day of the apocalypse, which is today, she had already advanced to Level 4.

And Zhang Di, thanks to Jiang Xian, as Jiang Xian's exclusive bait, also managed to reach Level 3.

Among the survivors in Ancheng, this counts as a mid-to-upper tier.

"Jiang Xian, how much longer until you reach Level 5?"

"Still a long way off?"

Zhang Di sighed: "Even so, you are far stronger than me. Although I am Level 3, I can only bully the walking corpses."

"But now, the walking corpses have basically been swept away; except for some unknown remote corners, they have all been killed by people with red eyes."

"I don't know where that group of cowards got their courage. At first, they were timid and hid."

"Later, seeing a walking corpse was like seeing Tang Monk's flesh; for a walking corpse to live one second longer was a bloody profit."

While moving the corpses, Zhang Di ranted crazily, recounting the bizarre things he had seen these past days.

Jiang Xian remained very silent, listening quietly.

Apart from her own personality, becoming the person she is now was also one of the reasons.

"Alright, are you done talking? If you're done, let's go quickly."

"Don't rush, there's still one more, just one. And look, your hands are shaking. Why don't you rest for a bit?"

Jiang Xian said casually: "They'll steady up when I start shooting."

Zhang Di said urgently: "Big brother—no, big sis, I'm not feeling sorry for you, I'm thinking about my own life. What if you miss and I'm done for?"

"Then swap people out? I'll go ask Officer Zhao for a Wanderer. You're so fat, it's really tough on you luring monsters."

"No! No! No! I think I can still do it. What are Wanderers anyway? I'm stacking all defense, a Shieldbearer is invincible."

Jiang Xian was speechless: "Don't you know that in the three-dimensional great world, defense can never keep up with attack?"

"Where did you get that theory from?"

"Can't be bothered to explain, even if I did you wouldn't get it."

With that, Jiang Xian simply started walking, and in a few strides he was far away.

"Hey, hey, hey, wait for me," Zhang Di ran after him, "How long are you going to train until, exactly?"

"Until I have that person's strength."

"Holy crap, Consultant Fang is a freak—he could already fight first-tier back then. It's been almost ten days now, I don't know what level he's reached."

"I don't care, that's my goal."

"Sigh," Zhang Di sighed, finally catching up to Jiang Xian, "Whatever the goal is, you still have to wait for me."

"Mm."

……

Ancheng, Peace Avenue.

Some twenty large crossbow carts were lined up on the field.

Not far ahead, five spatial passages were densely clustered.

But no matter how many spatial passages there were, they were useless—any Fire-Wing Bird that dared charge the position was instantly shot dead by a hail of bolts.

Even if one luckily dodged, spells like Slowing, Animal Befuddlement, Animal Immobilization, and Blinding were thrown at it in rotation.

Then they rushed up and hacked it to death.

Afterward they used all sorts of spells to cleanse the ground, purifying the death pheromones of the Fire-Wing Birds.

Letting fresh-spawn Fire-Wing Birds step into the trap again, until the spatial passages vanished.

A young man said: "Captain Qian, these crossbow carts have decent power, right?"

Qian Sheng nodded: "Decent enough, pity the manufacturing cycle is too long."

"Pressure the Engineering Department, tell them to speed up production."

The young man sighed: "It's not that easy. This isn't the old industrial age."

"Purely handcrafted, paired with magic—rushing the work, having this many is already pretty good."

Qian Sheng said suspiciously: "Is it really that hard? Isn't it just grabbing a few iron plates and nylon cord or whatever, slapping them together?"

The young man said, exasperated: "If a single iron plate could guarantee this kind of power, crossbows would have ruled warfare in ancient times."

"Do you know what material the bow limbs should use? What about the bowstring? Why use composite and recurve designs? How do you guarantee accuracy?"

"The most important thing is still power and speed—do you know how fast Fire-Wing Birds react?"

"Unless you fire within six or seven meters, they can dodge. And firing at that range—do you know how dangerous that is?"

"And if you don't hit a vital spot, the one who dies is you."

"Or you could just have lots of people, everyone volley-firing to lock down their movement."

"But in reality, Fire-Wing Birds aren't that stupid. Even with more people they'll retreat, gather a big flock, and come back."

Qian Sheng argued back: "Then we can fight a positional battle, like right now."

The young man said: "That's what the higher-ups intend, but ten days won't make much difference."

"The monsters later on react faster and faster. Unless we find suitable materials, the power will always have a ceiling."

Qian Sheng said: "So you lot came up with a bunch of useless stuff."

The young man, rarely, blushed a little: "What do you know? This is called technological reserve."

"Once we have suitable materials, we can manufacture high-power, high-precision bows and crossbows."

"Also—are you lot taking them or not? If not, I'll give them to someone else."

Qian Sheng's eyes rolled, and in the end he squeezed out the word "yes."

Despite all the drawbacks, it was at least a ranged attack—a threatening weapon.

The young man, watching Qian Sheng's expression, hardened his heart: he had to come up with a new kind of gunpowder.

Make them drop in a rattling hail—otherwise it was just too damn stifling.