Shedding a Layer of Skin

Taming a falcon was actually very difficult. More often than not, a person couldn't outlast the bird and would instead be worn to death by the ordeal.

After Zhang Chen finished making the leather gear, he secured the falcon onto its perch. Then he sat opposite it, staring straight into the raptor's eyes.

The taming began!

Next door

The little fox spirit lay sprawled across the table in utter boredom, watching the bookworm Zhang Chen recite scriptures. Thoughts churned endlessly through her mind, and she suddenly thought of the brute next door. "I wonder what that brute is doing."

No sooner had the thought arisen than Little Fox projected her soul. Her yin spirit passed through the wall, and she saw Zhang Chen taming the falcon.

"A falcon? Where did that boy catch a falcon?" Little Fox looked at Zhang Chen's bird, a hint of wariness appearing in her eyes. Her gaze shifted, but she made no move. Instead, she returned to her own room.

Day after day passed. The burning sensation within Zhang Chen's body grew even fiercer. He felt as though every inch of his body had been scorched by blazing flames, and it seemed that some kind of mutation had occurred in his blood vessels—their number appeared to have increased.

On the fourth day

In the end, the falcon could no longer endure. When Zhang Chen offered it chicken, it swallowed the meat. He knew then that he had succeeded in taming it.

After successfully taming the falcon, Zhang Chen sat in the courtyard eating stewed meat and brewing medicine. As he sensed the flow of blood through his body, he felt that the pain had lessened considerably.

"The burning feeling inside me seems much weaker today."

"The source of that searing pain was actually the crystal core. As it flowed through my body, wherever it went, it was like a small blade scraping across my meridians, which was why the pain was so unbearable. After adapting to it for so long, my blood vessels seem to have adjusted to its circulation, so the pain has gradually decreased." Zhang Chen finished brewing the herbs and slowly drank the medicine. Feeling his liver accelerate its blood production, he reached out and began scooping up meat to eat.

Name: Zhang Chen

Skill 1 (Tier 2): Light of the Righteous God (0/5000)

Skill 2 (Unranked): Dragon Qi (0/2000)

Skill 3 (Unranked): Blood Control (0/100000)

Points: 4650

"Just three hundred and fifty points left!" Zhang Chen looked at the Golden Finger Interface, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. In the past, three hundred points had only required a single day of hard work. Who would have thought he would be stuck here now?

"No rush. There's something abnormal about that Ancient Tomb. I'd better wait until my stamina has fully recovered before going again. Since I have nothing to do now, I can train the falcon." Zhang Chen sensed the blood within his body. He was still short by one-fifth, and it would probably take around three days to replenish it. It would not be too late to work again then.

Of course, those three days assumed he continued drawing blood from prey normally. If he relied on daily meals alone, it would take much longer.

But the most important thing for him now was sleep! No matter how much his body hurt, even an iron man couldn't withstand four days without closing his eyes!

The night passed without incident.

Early morning

Zhang Chen was awakened by the sound of the falcon beating its wings. He sat up and soothed it for a while, then lit an oil lamp, cut off a piece of minced meat, and fed it to the bird. He fetched a basin of water and was about to wash up. After rubbing his hands in the basin for a moment, Zhang Chen froze in shock.

Skin had rubbed off!

That was right—a complete layer of skin had rubbed off! It was absolutely not the sort of dead skin that peeled away. It was a whole layer of intact skin.

Yet after the skin came off, what was revealed beneath was not flesh and blood, but snowy white skin, startlingly pale even under the lamplight.

"What's going on?" Zhang Chen looked at the large piece of skin in his hand, then carefully reached out and tugged at it. Once he started, he could no longer stop. Large swathes of skin tore away. Half an hour later, Zhang Chen looked at the intact human skin on the ground, then lowered his head to look at his own snowy-white, smooth, flawless skin. His eyes were filled with bewilderment.

"I shed a layer of skin—but not dead skin. It was a complete layer of skin. That burning sensation inside my body before was actually the process of pulling my tendons and flaying my skin, stripping away my old skin and promoting the growth of new skin." Zhang Chen raised both hands. His palms were smooth and fair, and all the calluses had vanished.

If anyone saw these hands, even the noble sons and grandsons of royalty and wealthy families would be far inferior.

Though the burning sensation still remained, it had weakened greatly. Zhang Chen had a premonition that this transformation of his might end within three to five days.

"This skin is far too pale. Even those pampered young masters are nowhere near this fair." Zhang Chen stroked his skin, a strange look in his eyes. Then he glanced at the human skin on the ground and, without another word, lit the stove and burned it.

Something as horrifying as shedding skin was best kept secret. If the villagers mistook him for some kind of heretic, it would only bring trouble.

Besides, he could not keep the human skin. What if there were some strange creature in this world capable of using human skin to harm people, perhaps secretly curse him? That would be troublesome indeed.

After Zhang Chen thoroughly burned the shed skin, he finished cooking breakfast. After drinking a bowl of meat soup, he walked out of the room with delight written all over his face. By then, the sun had risen over the horizon. As sunlight shone upon Zhang Chen's cheeks and skin, his heart suddenly stirred. He felt as though the world before him had changed.

His skin seemed able to sense the movement of the air, the wind in the mountains, and the sunlight in the sky. It seemed able to capture some inexplicable information.

Every hair on his body seemed to have become a sensor. After capturing information from the air, it transmitted it into his blood, which then carried it to his brain.

"What a strange feeling!" Zhang Chen stood there in a daze for a moment, then shook his head and headed into the mountains.

It was not unusual for skin to sense the movement of wind or detect warmth and cold. Ordinary people's skin could do that as well. His senses were simply sharper. He assumed it was because his skin had just regenerated and was more sensitive to air currents.

By now, Zhang Chen's blood had been fully replenished, and he no longer felt the faintness he had experienced before.

After all, more than ten days had passed since Zhang Chen made the ceramic whistle. It was only natural that he had replenished his blood by now.

"The baskets at home don't seem to be enough anymore. As I catch more and more wild chickens and ducks, I need to weave some more baskets." Zhang Chen walked through the mountains while training the falcon.

He checked the traps. Today, there was a rabbit and a pheasant inside. After collecting the prey, Zhang Chen headed toward the cave to feed his hornets.

After several days, the hornet nest had grown to about the size of an infant's head and was beginning to take shape. Hornets bustled continuously in and out of the nest, working diligently.

Zhang Chen took out the diced meat he had prepared beforehand. The hornets in the nest flew out and charged straight at him.

The hornets landed on Zhang Chen's skin. Today, Zhang Chen found the sensation especially strange. Somehow, the hornets' movements all passed into his mind.

He could clearly feel every one of their feet crawling across his skin. He could even feel the slightly warm stream of air puffed against his skin with each breath they took.

"Incredible!" Only then did Zhang Chen suddenly realize that some kind of mutation seemed to have occurred in his skin. He had never heard of an ordinary person being able to sense a hornet's breath.

Zhang Chen lightly shook his clothes, brushing the hornets away. Then, with a gentle push of his arm, the falcon soared into the air and flew toward the heavens.

A hawk was meant to soar through the vast skies; Zhang Chen would not keep it completely confined at his side.

At this moment, Zhang Chen picked up a jar of honey and headed into the deep mountains, looking for bees to harvest honey from.

Harvesting honey while training alongside the hawk kept Zhang Chen busily entertained.

Zhang Chen came to an area with quite a lot of bees and directly activated his skill, entering bee-herding mode. As he walked along, herding the bees, every bee wherever he went was swept over to him. A Bee Swarm that blotted out the sky came buzzing in, sending the mountain beasts fleeing and the birds avoiding its sharp edge.

Once the bees gathered into a massive swarm that covered the sky, even the tigers and wolves of the mountains had to retreat three miles and flee far away.

With beast-taming mode activated, Zhang Chen always felt that a quarter of an hour passed far too quickly. He could only gather up all the honey from the bees before leaving contentedly.

After putting away the honey, Zhang Chen took out his whistle and called to the hunting hawk soaring through the sky, signaling it to return. Who would have thought that the hawk would let out a cry, ignore Zhang Chen's command, and shoot away like a sharp sword, vanishing amid the mountain forests?

Staring in the direction where the hunting hawk had disappeared, Zhang Chen stood rooted to the spot as a thought churned through his mind. Could this guy be one of those sneaky sixths among hunting hawks? I let him out for some air, and he actually ran off?

At that moment, Zhang Chen looked as though he had been struck by lightning. His eyes blankly stared at the clear sky stretching for miles, and for a moment, he was left sitting on hot coals, at a loss over what to do.

"Are hunting hawks this sneaky too? Even animals know how to put on an act and play false courtesy?" Zhang Chen's head buzzed. Wang Wu had never told him about this situation, never mentioned that a hunting hawk might run away on its own.

"Forget it. If it ran, it ran. It's my first time training a hunting hawk, so I lack experience. I can find another chance to train one later." Zhang Chen tucked the whistle into his clothes, disappointment showing in his eyes. Even the honey he had just collected no longer seemed sweet.

But Zhang Chen's gloom did not last long. Suddenly, a familiar cry came from the distant sky. The hunting hawk had returned and was circling overhead. What surprised Zhang Chen even more was that it had caught a little rabbit—and then tossed the rabbit right in front of him.

The hawk beat its wings and landed on Zhang Chen's shoulder, staring at him with a proud look as though showing off. "See? I'm not just sitting around eating for free!"

Zhang Chen picked up the rabbit. Its internal organs had all been shattered by the fall; it clearly could not survive. Following the principle of wasting nothing, Zhang Chen immediately drained its blood, removed its tendons and skin, then headed toward the stream.

"Nicely done!" Zhang Chen praised the hunting hawk, tossing it the cut-up internal organs.

There was no helping it—hunting hawks liked this stuff! Animals all liked eating internal organs; they were not nearly as fond of meat.

Zhang Chen did not put the hunting hawk back into its cage. The hawk was unwilling to enter a cage and be restrained, and since Zhang Chen wanted to build a bond with it, he did not do anything that would damage their relationship.

"In this feudal society, where human power crushes the law, it actually wouldn't be bad to live quietly as an ordinary commoner." Zhang Chen muttered. Although he possessed a Golden Finger, he had no great ambitions. He was quite satisfied with his current life. Other than that damned Fox Spirit hanging over his head like a sharp sword, Zhang Chen honestly did not want to take risks.

Those strange methods came in all shapes and sizes. He could not even defeat a single Fox Spirit, so how could he dare wander around recklessly? Being able to survive properly was already enough for him.

With a back basket slung over him, Zhang Chen walked home as a thought flashed through his mind. Humans are the spirit of all living things. I wonder what would happen if I drank human blood!

But he quickly cut off that thought. The idea was far too dangerous! If someone happened to catch him in the act someday, he would surely be treated as a demon, with everyone crying out to kill him. Never mind human blood—even if he were drinking animal blood, should he encounter some self-righteous defender of morality and be seen Bloodsucking, there might well be a great battle to slay demons and exterminate monsters. No matter how he looked at it, his Bloodsucking skill did not seem like a proper skill. What kind of proper skill drank blood? The more he looked at it, the more villainous it seemed!

When he reached the foot of the mountain, Zhang Chen spotted Tiger-Hunting Wang Wu from afar. Wang Wu stood waiting at the roadside with a roe deer slung over his shoulder, his face full of smiles.

"Uncle Wang," Zhang Chen called out from a distance.

"I heard the cry of a hunting hawk in the mountains just now and guessed you had succeeded in training it, so I waited to see the results. That hunting hawk had been trapped by you for over ten days. Once it suddenly soared through the open sky again, it couldn't contain itself and cried out, venting the pent-up gloom in its heart." Wang Wu looked at the hunting hawk on Zhang Chen's shoulder, curiosity in his eyes.

Zhang Chen stroked the hunting hawk's head on his shoulder, his eyes brimming with delight. "It's only just taking shape. This beast can merely fly out and fly back; it still doesn't understand any more commands."

A trace of envy appeared in Wang Wu's eyes as he looked at the hunting hawk on Zhang Chen's shoulder, his gaze burning.

"You must keep your hunting hawk well hidden. Don't let those princes and young masters see it, or it may stir up some trouble. Especially Landowner Lin—he is the greediest of them all. If he learns you have a hunting hawk, he may find some way to seize it through trickery or force." Wang Wu warned him with a worried expression.

Zhang Chen nodded at those words. He was not the sort to stir up trouble for no reason, and naturally knew that one should keep a low profile.

"Tomorrow, I'll leave the hunting hawk in the mountains and not bring it back. That'll save me some trouble too," Zhang Chen said.

He was not only worried about Landowner Lin; he was even more worried that the damned Fox Spirit might catch his hunting hawk and eat it.

The two returned to the village together. Zhang Chen carefully hid the hunting hawk inside the house, then took out some fresh grass to feed the roe deer before finally setting up the pot, lighting the fire, cooking dinner, and brewing medicine.