Chapter 24 - The Riotous Wind Rock Demons

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

At the junction of the woods and the gravel ground, two figures, one big and one small, were lying on the ground.

“Do you remember what I said?” Lu Yu asked

Little Tail nodded and whispered, “Got it.”

“All right, you stay here. When I draw the Wind Rock Demon away, you run over to the pile of sand and fill the bag with as much sand as you can.”

After saying that, Lu Yu stood up and walked around half a circle, appearing openly in the sight of the Wind Rock Demons.

“Hey, silly demons, come and chase me!” In order to attract the attention of the Wind Rock Demons, Lu Yu even brought a red cloth and shouted while waving the red cloth in his hand.

He did not know these Wind Rock Demons that looked like rhinoceroses would interest in the color red or not.

The key was not the color red, but him. The Wind Rock Demons were very interested in him.

As soon as they saw Lu Yu, some of them got up and rushed toward him. One led two, two led three, and three led all.

For a moment, the earth and the mountains shook. Dozens of huge Wind Rock Demons rushed toward Lu Yu.

Lu Yu’s expression changed drastically. He threw away the red cloth in his hand and turned around to run. As he ran, he added experience points to the Eight Steps Chasing Cicada. He was afraid that he would not have enough qi-blood later, so he wanted to upgrade the skill level of the Eight Steps Chasing Cicada first.

[ Skill level up! Eight Steps Chasing Cicada (skilled)→Eight Steps Chasing Cicada (highly skilled) ]

After the Eight Steps Chasing Cicada leveled up, Lu Yu immediately had a lot of experience from cultivating the Eight Steps Chasing Cicada in his mind. His footsteps became more rhythmic, and his speed increased by a lot.

This time, even if he did not use any skills, Lu Yu was confident that the Wind Rock Demon would not catch up to him.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The trees fell, the grass was trampled, and the bushes were flattened, causing a huge commotion.

Lu Yu disappeared into the forest with the Wind Rock Demons. After waiting for a while, Little Tail quickly got up and rushed towards the pile of sand with a few large sacks in her hands. At this moment, there were no more Wind Rock Demons on the gravel ground.

She took out the small shovel that Lu Yu had prepared for her and tried her best to dig the sand into the sacks. She filled them up and kept filling them up. Lu Yu had said that as long as she put the sand into the sacks, she didn’t need to tie the sacks.

Just as Little Tail was desperately digging the sand, the disciple of the Han Residence who were in charge of monitoring the Wind Rock Demons was stunned.

When he felt the earth and the mountains shaking caused by the Wind Rock Demons, he ran out of the sentry post to check the situation on the gravel ground. He discovered that the Wind Rock Demons had all disappeared. They were supposed to stay quietly on the gravel ground and bask in the sun. His face immediately turned pale.

“Where did the Wind Rock Demons go? Could it be that they are charging towards Windmill Town? It’s over, it’s over. We have to hurry up and report to the family head.” A few disciples hurriedly ran towards the Han Residence.

In a place that they could not see, under the pile of sand, a small figure was working hard to dig the sand.

It did not take long for Lu Yu’s figure to reappear on the gravel ground. His clothes were slightly disheveled, and he was panting heavily.

He had used the Eight Steps Chasing Cicada multiple times to shake off the Wind Rock Demon. Then, he used the fastest speed to rush back to the gravel ground. This was all thanks to the Eight Steps Chasing Cicada skill that he had leveled up before. Otherwise, how would he have the strength to come back.

He ran to the side of the sand pile and saw that Little Tail had already filled three bags. He immediately put them into his backpack and dug the sand with her, filling the fifth and sixth bags.

Just as he was about to fill the seventh bag, Lu Yu felt the ground shake. He quickly put away the bag, picked up Little Tail, and quickly left the gravel ground.

An hour later, Lu Yu and Little Tail appeared at the biggest river in Windmill Town. The two of them were panning for the iron essence.

Lu Yu carried the big sack and placed it in the water. He let the river water wash over the sack and carry away the powder-like fine sand.

Little Tail squatted at the side and picked out grains of iron essence from the sack that had already been washed and placed them into the small sack.

Seeing her actions, Lu Yu said, “This is too slow. When will you finish picking? Stop, I’ll think of another way when we get back.”

When Little Tail heard this, she stopped and tied up the sack before handing the sack containing the iron essence to Lu Yu.

Lu Yu put the sack into his backpack without any concern. After all, Little Tail had already seen him put the things into his backpack.

After the six sacks of yellow sand were washed by the river, only half of the sacks were left, and only about one-fifth of it was iron essence.

In other words, only one-sixtieth of the Wind Rock Demon’s excrement was iron essence.

Lu Yu didn’t know how much a Wind Rock Demon excreted in a day, but that sand pile must have been accumulated over many years because there was only one big sand pile on the gravel ground.

After picking up the bag of sand containing iron essence, Lu Yu walked to the Ji Min Hall with Little Tail.

The Han Residence sent people to the Wind Rock Demon’s nest to check the situation and found that the Wind Rock Demon was still on the gravel ground. However, the traces left in the woods showed that the Wind Rock Demon had gone on a trip together.

“What’s going on?” the squire of the Han Residence was confused. “Why did the Wind Rock Demon go out for no reason?”

The Han Residence had actually thought of snatching the iron essence in the Wind Rock Demon’s nest, but they were afraid that it would cause the Wind Rock Demon to riot.

If a Wind Rock Demon left the Wind Rock Mountain and barged into Windmill Town, it would be useless no matter how many benefits the Han Residence received in the Wind Rock Demon’s nest.

Therefore, the Han Residence had never attacked the Wind Rock Demons. They only captured one or two lone Wind Rock Demons and bred them to produce iron essence.

“It might be that some martial art cultivators who didn’t know the situation here had mistakenly entered the territory of the Wind Rock Demons, which caused a riot.” someone guessed.

“It seems that the martial art cultivator has already escaped, and the Wind Rock Demon has returned. It should be fine!”

“Send some guards to check the surrounding forest. Don’t let the Wind Rock Demons run down the mountain. If you see a Wind Rock Demon is alone, capture it and bring it back to the Han Residence.”

“Yes.”

A large group of courtyard guards from the Han Residence quietly searched the forest and soon got the results.

The good news was that no Wind Rock Demon had run out of the Wind Rock Mountain. The bad news was that they did not find any Wind Rock Demon who was alone.

After returning to Ji Min Hall, he asked the shopkeeper, “Do you have a magnet?”

“What is a magnet?” the shopkeeper was a little confused. He had never heard of such a thing.

“It is something that can absorb iron but cannot absorb copper.” Lu Yu briefly described the characteristics of a magnet.

“Oh, you are talking about a magnetic stone! We have it in the medicine shop, but it is just powder. It is used as medicinal materials. If you want to find the whole piece of magnetic stone, you can go to Boss Tang of Tang Blacksmith Shop. I heard that his father got one in his early years.”

“Boss Tang?” Lu Yu thought of the Boss Tang who bought him the Hundred Forged Greatsword and said, “Thank you.”

This was the second time he came to Tang Blacksmith Shop, when Boss Tang heard that Lu Yu wanted to see him, he thought that there was something wrong with the Hundred Forged Greatsword and wanted to return it. As soon as he saw Lu Yu, he said.

“Once the goods in this shop are sold, they will not be returned or exchanged.”

Lu Yu shook his head and said, “I’m not looking for a return. I’m looking for something from you.”

“Something? What do you want?”

“A magnetic stone. I heard that you have a complete magnetic stone.”

“What do you want that thing for? It can’t be used to forge weapons. I can only make some small things.”

Boss Tang brought Lu Yu to the warehouse. He took out an irregular stone from among the miscellaneous items. It looked like an ordinary ore.

Boss Tang casually picked up an iron weapon and threw it at the magnetic stone. The weapon in the air was attracted by a suction force and was sucked onto the magnetic stone.

“This was given to my father after he helped people forge weapons. Seeing that the magnetic stone had the ability to absorb weapons, my father originally wanted to forge it into a special weapon to counter ordinary weapons and hidden weapons.”

“However, he discovered that during the forging process, the magnetic stone would lose the ability to absorb weapons. In the end, it could only be left in the warehouse to collect dust.”

Lu Yu knew that heating would demagnetize the magnet. He had learned this phenomenon in high school.

“If you want it, I can sell it to you for a cheaper price. You can take this magnetic stone for 50 gold. You must know that you can’t find such a large magnetic stone anywhere else. 50 gold coins is already very cheap.”

Lu Yu was already used to Boss Tang’s sudden offer.

“Wait a minute. Let me see if this magnetic stone is useful to me.” Lu Yu pretended to take out a cloth bag from his pocket. He took out an iron essence from the cloth bag and threw it at the magnet.

The iron essence in the air was firmly attracted to the magnetic stone. Seeing that the magnetic stone could indeed attract the iron essence, Lu Yu said, “I don’t have money, but I can exchange this with your magnetic stone.”

Lu Yu handed the bag in his hand to Boss Tang.

Boss Tang took the bag with some doubts. He opened it and looked at it. He reached out to pinch it and said at an extremely fast speed, “Deal.”

He was afraid that Lu Yu would refuse the deal.

Seeing that Boss Tang agreed so quickly, Lu Yu felt that he had made a mistake. Could it be that the iron essence that was as small as a fingernail was worth 50 gold coins? Or was the magnetic stone not worth anything at all?

Seeing that Boss Tang was pulling the iron essence on the magnetic stone, Lu Yu was a little speechless, he said, “Deal. However, you have to help me modify this magnetic stone and make it into two bracelets, one big and one small. Pack the rest for me and don’t leave anything behind!”

“No problem. Leave it to me.” After saying that, Boss Tang happily put the cloth bag into his pocket and lifted the magnetic stone on the ground, ready to help Lu Yu finish the process.

Lu Yu asked curiously, “Is the iron essence really that valuable?”

“Yes! Of course it’s valuable. One tael of iron essence can be sold for 80 gold coins. Do you see those hundred refined weapons on the wall? My father spent a few months to forge one. If I add a little iron essence, I can forge one in ten days.”

“Now you know where all the hundred refined weapons in the Divine Weapon Pavilion came from!”

“Didn’t you say that the iron essence is used to forge spirit weapons? How come it’s used to forge hundred refined weapons?” Lu Yu was a bit puzzled. This was different from what Zhang Lun had said.

“Spirit weapons, that’s not something that can be forged by blacksmiths. You must know a special refining technique to forge it. I’m not a weapon refiner. Moreover, forging spirit weapons requires a large amount of iron essence. Even if I’m a weapon refiner, I can’t help you forge spirit weapons.”

“But in my opinion, if you spend a large amount of iron essence to forge a spirit weapon, you might as well give it to me. I’ll help you strengthen the Hundred Forged Greatsword. Other than not being able to transmit spiritual energy, it’s definitely more powerful than the expensive spirit weapon.”

Boss Tang guessed that Lu Yu might have a way to get the iron essence, that was why he gave this info to Lu Yu.

“We’ll talk about these things later. I’m not certain if I could find more of this thing. It’s just that I was lucky to find this little bit.” Lu Yu was well aware of the principle of not revealing his own wealth. Even if Boss Tang might not have evil intentions, he shouldn’t test one’s humanity.

Boss Tang smiled and didn’t say anything. He let Lu Yu wait outside for a while before taking out two polished magnetic bracelets and giving them to Lu Yu. There was also a wooden box that contained the fragments from the grinding of the magnetic stones. He really didn’t leave any behind.

After returning to the backyard, Lu Yu gave the small magnetic bracelet to Little Tail. He let her use the magnetic bracelet to absorb the iron essence in the sand and pick out them out.

With the magnetic bracelet, Little Tail’s speed of picking up the iron essence was greatly increased. She finished processing all the iron essence before dinner and filled two small cloth bags.

Lu Yu held the two small cloth bags and weighed them. They should weigh 5 to 6 jin. If converted into money, they should be more than four thousand gold coins.

More than four thousand! He had never received so much money.

Lu Yu did not plan to strengthen the Hundred Forged Greatsword for the time being. His qi-blood pills had been used up. He had to sell some iron essence to exchange for money to buy qi-blood pills.

His cultivation speed could not be slowed down..