Golden Finger?

Golden Finger?

The prompt ringing in his ears made Shi Jue, who had been studying Bone Script, look around in alarm. It hadn't come from nearby!

"System?" Thinking of something, Shi Jue silently called out in his mind, suppressing the urge to burst into laughter.

[Ding, Chat Group invites you to join the Chat Group. Do you accept?]

"Uh...?"

The slight upward curve of Shi Jue's lips froze the instant he saw the group's nickname, then began twitching the next moment.

Could it be any more bare-bones? Its name really was just the plain and unadorned Chat Group.

Should he even join this Golden Finger? What if there were a few Ancestors of Anomalies mixed in there?

He longed for a Golden Finger of some sort, but this group made him hesitate.

How should he put it? There were plenty of Chat Group-type systems, but this Chat Group was the worst one he had ever seen, without question.

After thinking it over repeatedly, Shi Jue decisively agreed to join, hoping the people inside were not some vicious and terrifying beings.

"Chat Group? Where is everyone?"

As soon as he entered the group, there was not a single message inside. When he looked at the member list, Shi Jue's vision went dark. So this group chat was an empty shell—he was the only one.

[Ding, the first person to join the group may become the group owner, regardless of strength.]

[Chat Group members may be invited under conditions set by the group owner, or the group owner may actively pull people into the group. (P.S. limited to the trilogy's worlds.)]

[The group's functions are: chatting (with photo-taking), cross-world teleportation (with restrictions).]

(P.S. The people brought into this Chat Group would mainly exchange intelligence and call for help at certain times. It would occupy very little of the story. There would be no function for exchanging cultivation resources, and there would not be too many members.)

"Uh... it doesn't seem very useful." Seeing those few functions, Shi Jue immediately lost interest.

Which person with a Chat Group did not have a whole pile of functions that could rapidly make the members stronger and help them rise? This was far too simple, even simpler than his stone house.

Forget it. Something was better than nothing. Shi Jue rubbed his brow. It barely counted as a Golden Finger, but having one was better than having none. For now, he would not invite anyone from this era.

"Little Jue? Have you been reading Bone Script for too long? If you're tired, rest for a while first." Seeing Shi Jue rubbing his brow, Shi Yunfeng spoke with concern.

"I'm fine, Clan Chief Grandpa. You don't need to worry." Shi Jue smiled, warmth filling his heart.

Neither the Old Clan Chief nor the Stone Village villagers had distanced themselves from or guarded against him because he came from the outside world. He truly felt at ease here; it felt like home.

"Yiya, I'm so tired!"

Little Dot had reached his limit. The large bluestone in his hands fell to the ground with a thud, and he dropped onto his backside. The manifested runes on his hands rapidly faded before disappearing altogether.

Though he was only a little over three years old and had once been a naturally born Supreme Being, the loss of his Supreme Bone had affected him greatly. His body was clearly not as strong as before, and he needed cultivation to recover, perhaps even become stronger than before.

"Little Dot did well. He's much better than you brats." The Old Clan Chief spoke with disappointment at their failure to meet expectations.

"Learning this is too slow. We might as well go hunting with our dads and uncles," one child muttered softly.

Several other children nodded in agreement. The Old Clan Chief instantly felt a headache coming on and did not even know what to say. They truly gave him no peace of mind.

"Do you want to stay here for the rest of your lives? If you do want to go out, then with your little bit of skill, you'd be carried off by a descendant beast before you even left the Great Wilderness."

"Clan Chief Grandpa, what exactly is outside? You've never told us. How are we supposed to know whether it's fun?" Shi Meng complained.

They all knew that, within Stone Village, only the Old Clan Chief had ever gone outside. Everyone else had hunted here for generations, living in near-total seclusion. Things beyond the village were unfamiliar and novel to these children. How could children possibly resist their curiosity?

Even Shi Jue was curious about the Great Wilderness, as well as the Ancient Kingdoms and Blessed Lands beyond it. In the past two years, the farthest he had gone was Liu Shen's place. The Great Wilderness was far too dangerous for him; it would be easy to lose his life there.

The Old Clan Chief sighed. "The outside world is vast. Even the Great Wilderness bordering Stone Village is boundlessly expansive. An ordinary person might spend their entire life unable to cross it. The distance is one thing, but beyond the cities of humankind's territory, there are all sorts of powerful and mysterious pureblood descendants, whose divine power reaches the heavens. They possess the strength to destroy the world in an instant.

"You think your fathers are impressive because they can hunt and bring back powerful descendants, but in the outside world, they would be as weak as ants."

The children's faces gained a measure of awe. They had originally planned to sneak away, but their longing for the outside world did not fade.

"The Bone Script you find so obscure is actually only beginner-level. The human geniuses outside cultivate even more powerful Bone Script, and there are plenty who know the Precious Techniques of Pureblood Ferocious Beasts," Shi Yunfeng said.

"Clan Chief Grandpa, does the beast milk outside taste good?" Little Dot licked his lips, his bright eyes sparkling as they blinked.

"Haha!" Shi Yunfeng laughed and rubbed Little Dot's head. "I don't know about that. Once Little Dot becomes strong, you can go find out for yourself!"

"That's right, Little Dot. Bring some back for us to try too."

"It would be best if it were beast milk from a Pureblood Ferocious Beast. None of us have ever had any!"

"Yiya, okay!"

Little Dot nodded solemnly.

Little did he know that this promise would one day make a certain Fatty Girl chase him across more than a dozen mountains in humiliation and fury.

Shi Jue smiled and shook his head. Beast milk tasted good, but he basically did not drink it anymore. He had been weaned at a little over two years old, unlike Shi Hao, who was so obsessed with beast milk.

Looking at the beast bone in his hand, Shi Jue fell into thought. It seemed that only ferocious beasts possessed Treasure Bones within their bodies, with runes engraved upon them. As for humans, aside from Supreme Bones like Shi Hao's, he had never heard of killing someone and having a Treasure Bone drop. Was it because of the rules of heaven and earth, or because human bodies were special?

Enough thinking. His brain was starting to hurt. He could ask Liu Shen later. As the Ancestor Spirit of Immortal Ancient, what she knew was practically a treasure trove.

"Let's stop here for today. Fei Jiao and the others have returned from hunting. Continue learning Bone Script tomorrow; you're at just the right age for it now." Shi Yunfeng saw more than a dozen figures in the distance, nearly every one of them dragging back a beast.

The children cheered and immediately ran off in excitement.

Compared to Bone Script they could not understand, raiding bird nests and catching fish in the river were much more fun. Shi Yunfeng could only shake his head helplessly, though seeing Little Dot and Shi Jue still studying here gave him some comfort.

"All right, children. Read more tomorrow. Rest for now!"