Chapter 142
"That's easy. I have some friends in the traditional Chinese style community who can find all sorts of obscure minerals. Just let me know if you need any."
Wen Jing paused, then asked, "... The traditional Chinese style circle?"
"Yes, this hobby of replicating ancient methods belongs to the traditional Chinese style circle," the group said matter-of-factly.
Soon, with the help of others, Wen Jing, who usually focused on studying and exploring, learned about the 'ancient style circle' in the interstellar era for the first time.
Most are craft enthusiasts, but the difference is that in this technologically advanced world where Awakened exist, 'crafts' has a very wide and hardcore scope.
Especially for those Awakened in the ancient style circle, they can use combat skills, energy, and transformed Wilderness Body as tools to do things that ordinary people can only do with machines.
Wen Jing used his smart device to search for 'traditional methods' on a video website.
Traditional aircraft manufacturing
Ancient aircraft carrier manufacturing
Traditional car manufacturing
Ancient methods...
Driven by big data, all sorts of things that couldn't be connected to her past life or ancient methods started to emerge one after another, clinging to her like ghosts.
Before long, Wen Jing found the knowledge she wanted in videos like "[Starting from mining, pure handmade ancient missile]".
A day later, the copper-bearing ore and tin-bearing ore that Xia Yun's friend had purchased on his behalf also arrived.
After putting his acquired theories into practice, Wen Jing entered the Chime Bells World once again that evening.
"Ta-da..."
This time, Wen Jing no longer imitated the monkey-headed craftsman as before. Instead, he acted like a sophisticated detector, using gravity and energy flow to select ores, adjust the ratio of copper and tin, and complete the 'enrichment selection' and 'raw material ratio pre-control' in modern metallurgy.
After the ore was placed into the crucible, Wen Jing sensed the temperature and suppressed the flame with a wisp of Frost Vein Silk, first using low temperature to remove volatile impurities from the ore.
The blackish-gray smoke gradually turned into yellowish-white smoke.
She channeled her energy into the flames below, and the flames instantly flared up.
The copper began to melt, and bluish-white vapor rose from the crucible; the temperature was entirely under Wen Jing's control.
When the temperature reaches the copper-tin eutectic point, the liquid metal in the crucible begins to stir automatically under the influence of gravity, causing more impurities to rise to the surface.
More and more impurities float to the surface under this gentle stirring and are automatically ejected by gravity, resulting in higher alloy purity.
At this moment, the flame color on the surface of the liquid metal in the crucible turned into a pure blue.
Looking at this scene, Wen Jing suddenly realized that the idiom "perfect in one's career" comes from this.
Finally, of course, are the soul materials—
A small section of Wen Jing's forelimb flew out and was ground into uniform powder by her energy, then thrown into the liquid metal.
The fully prepared liquid metal flows into the mold.
After a long while... a long, golden spear emerged from it!
Wen Jing excitedly wielded the spear that could be called a 'peerless spear' from any angle, and slashed at the monkey-headed man's spear.
[Master ' Casting - Bronze Spear ', Skill Points +1]
[Master ' Casting - Bronze Spear ', Skill Points +5]
[Perfect ' Casting - Bronze Spear ', Skill Points +20]
It's done!
Aside from devouring the core of the Ancient Wilderness civilization ruins, Wen Jing's Skill Points have never come so quickly before.
However, while she was gaining these Skill Points, the long-awaited Deer Head chess piece also rushed towards her.
Chapter 142
The moment the deer-headed chess piece attacked, Wen Jing was on high alert.
In an instant, the world changed once again.
"Boom!"
A thunderclap resounded throughout the space, the gloomy sky was illuminated by lightning, and a strong wind howled violently.
This world is different from previous martial arts and skill challenges; it exists in an extreme weather environment.
Not only are there meteorological disasters, but also geographical disasters. Flash floods are sweeping around the area, carrying large amounts of mud and rocks with them, their destination unknown.
At this moment, Wen Jing landed on a protruding mountain peak, the only isolated island in the world standing amidst the disaster.
Before her stood a stone altar, and across the altar stood the deer-headed man holding a tortoise shell.
"Natural disaster... so is it time for a ritual?"
Having already anticipated the challenge posed by the craftsman, Wen Jing observed the opposite side.
Then, sure enough, the deer-headed man moved.
Following the surrounding thunder and gale, it walked step by step with rhythmic steps until it arrived at the empty stone platform in the center of the altar.
Then, the deer-headed man stretched out two hands covered in brownish-yellow fur and grasped the antlers on his head.
"No way..."
Wen Jing felt a sense of foreboding.
"Bang!"
The pair of antlers, still covered in blood, were broken off by the deer-headed man and placed on the stone platform.
"Boom..."
As the two horns were released, a bolt of lightning struck the altar with pinpoint accuracy.
The pair of horns that had just been placed there vanished without a trace in the lightning.
After this primitive sacrifice, the flow of the surrounding floodwaters and the thunder in the sky noticeably decreased.
Blood flowed from the deer-headed man's head. It stood motionless, its dark eyes fixed on Wen Jing, the meaning clear—
now you.
"No way, you're not even going to act, are you? Besides, I don't have horns on my head..."
Halfway through her internal monologue, Wen Jing noticed her own twin-tail antennae and paused.
A moment later, she also started to move.
Under the emotionless gaze of the deer-headed man, the pale insect followed the same rhythm as the man before, stepping onto the altar without missing a beat.
Looking at the empty stone platform, devoid of any trace of blood, Wen Jing moved.
"Whoosh!"
The next moment, the deer head with the missing horn flew up and landed steadily on the stone platform.
--This trial does involve sacrifice, but there's no rule saying you have to sacrifice yourself, right?
When faced with the skill test of the monkey-headed chess piece, Wen Jing was willing to use a small amount of the outer shell to increase the material strength because doing so would grant him perfect-level bronze forging Skill Points.
Although she improved her skills through modern metallurgical methods, there weren't many monkey-headed pieces on the chessboard. Each piece represented an opportunity to gain Skill Points, so she naturally wanted to maximize their use.
If you don't add an exoskeleton and only gain mastery-level Skill Points, it's like wasting an opportunity.
In comparison, losing a little bit of physical matter can be easily replenished by eating a Ancient Wilderness, making it a very cost-effective way to exchange for Skill Points.
However, considering that the deer-headed man contributed two antlers, the current sacrificial difficulty is not something Wen Jing can solve with just a few fingernails.
She'd give it a try first; if it didn't work, she planned to go into the floodwaters to see what was going on.
However, what Wen Jing didn't expect was...
"Boom!"
Thunder roared again, and lightning struck, landing squarely on the head of the deer-headed man on the stone platform.
[Master ' Ritual - Sacrifice ', Skill Points +1]
[Master ' Ritual - Sacrifice ', Skill Points +5]
[Perfect ' Ritual - Sacrifice ', Skill Points +20]
Huh? It actually worked? And it reached the Perfect level in one go!
Wen Jing watched in disbelief as the lightning, flood, and the world vanished together.
Although she tried it, she didn't expect it to be so simple. She thought it would be like facing the monkey-headed chess piece, where she couldn't break the rules and had to sacrifice herself to pass the level.
However, all of this actually happened.
The Deer Head chess piece, which has the fewest number and seems the most difficult to deal with, is actually the easiest to solve, and it even gives you twenty-six Skill Points for free... It's just that the method is a bit underhanded.
"Clang, clang..."
Before Wen Jing could return to the chessboard and figure out the reason, he heard the chime bells on both sides of the wall ring out once again.
Amidst this ancient and mysterious melodious music, the tightly closed door in front of them suddenly opened slowly and automatically, letting out a large amount of golden light.
"Um?"
Wen Jing keenly sensed the fluctuations in spacetime.
The light vanished in the next instant, and she found herself in a different location.
Wen Jing jumped directly from the chessboard of the previous palace to another palace... and then to another, even larger chessboard.
I was always curious about what was behind the door, but I never imagined it would reveal a whole new game of chess.
This chessboard is also densely covered with chess pieces depicting animal heads and human bodies.
The difference is that some of the chess pieces here not only have different creatures on their heads, but their clothing and appearance are also more complex and exquisite than those in the previous palace.
Wen Jing is now standing at the edge of the chessboard, with the gate behind him wide open, and he can still see the unfinished game left by the previous palace.
She sensed that she could return to the previous palace if she wanted to, but now that she was on this new map, she naturally wouldn't go back. Besides, it would be troublesome if she went back and couldn't get back in.
Her gaze carefully swept over the chess pieces in the palace—
More than a hundred bells stood silently facing her, this uninvited guest. The chimes in the palace remained silent, and the air fell silent once more.
Soon, Wen Jing discovered that the distribution of chess pieces in this palace was different from that in the previous palace, and there was a clear pattern to it.
The chess pieces in the previous palace were mixed together, differing only in quantity.
In this palace, the three types of chess pieces are gathered in small groups of their own kind, and there are also new chess pieces that were not present in the previous palace.
At the wolf-head chess piece position for the 'Warrior' class, there is now a tiger-head chess piece wearing leather armor and wielding a larger weapon such as a halberd or a battle-axe.
The monkey-headed chess piece for the 'Craftsman' profession is replaced by an ox-headed chess piece holding a large hammer and carrying a ore basket.