He cleared away a good amount of weeds.
Su Qing obtained quite a few more First Layer Grass Cakes.
'Just as I thought, a Mutated synthesis isn't that easy to trigger.'
Su Qing looked at the large patch of land he had cleared and picked up the wood-cutting knife he had been carrying on his back.
He swung it at the tough vines.
CRACK! CRACK!
With two swings, the vine was severed.
Su Qing gathered himself and continued chopping.
Soon, Su Qing had eight long vines bundled up and set aside.
Then he went back to weeding.
[Eight Blades of Grass + One Vine]
Su Qing wanted to see what this combination would synthesize.
[Synthesis Successful: Chaotic Life Body (A Mutated Talent...)]
When Su Qing's consciousness focused on the description following Chaotic Life Body...
[Chaotic Life Body: Vitality Recovery (Absorbs all chaotic Energy between heaven and earth to provide the body with recovery ability. Randomly gain 1%~500% of your natural recovery speed every second.)]
He sucked in a sharp breath.
'It's that powerful!' Su Qing couldn't understand how such a strong Talent could exist.
'Extract!'
Su Qing didn't hesitate for a second, even stopping his weeding work.
With this Talent, he felt that it would be incredibly useful for practicing Martial Arts. His body's recovery speed could be up to five times faster.
Although the minimum bonus was only 1%, it changed every second. On average, his recovery speed was bound to be around two to three times faster.
Unless his luck was terrible.
After extracting it, Su Qing felt his body become much lighter. The fatigue he'd accumulated from weeding seemed to have recovered significantly.
'Comfortable!'
'This feels really good!' Su Qing set his hoe aside, carefully sensing the changes in his body.
It really seemed to be slowly restoring his physique.
Of course, it still relied on his own frail body's Recovery Power as a baseline.
But suddenly enhancing his frail body's Recovery Power by two or three times would also improve his physique over time.
Su Qing touched the bones of his skin-and-bones hand.
He couldn't help but sigh. 'If only I could eat more meat.'
'Then I'd probably get a bit stronger, have a bit more energy.'
'Martial Arts!'
Su Qing made up his mind; he had to learn Martial Arts.
'When the time comes, I'll activate the Evolution Talent. If a Martial Arts manual can be synthesized with a tenfold amplification, something extraordinary is bound to happen!'
Su Qing was absolutely certain that with the Synthesizer, he was destined for a transcendent future!
—
—
[Synthesizer]
Host: Su Qing.
Synthesis Lv1 (89/200)
Su Qing had been energetically synthesizing all morning.
Unfortunately, after so many attempts, all he got were grass cakes.
He also tried to synthesize another Chaotic Life Body using the same recipe, but he couldn't trigger that one-percent probability again.
「At noon.」
Su Qing had no intention of returning to his house.
He continued searching for thin wooden branches.
Another two hours passed.
Su Qing was exhausted.
But looking at the items before him, he felt a great sense of satisfaction.
Nine of the shoddiest bows imaginable, made with thin branches for the body and vines for the string.
Even if he tried to shoot an arrow, their effective range was one meter at most.
After resting for a while, Su Qing, who was sitting in the shade, found that the sweat on his face had already dried.
[Especially Crude Wooden Bow + Especially Crude...]
He placed all nine Wooden Bows into the Synthesizer.
'Three Pure Ones, Jade Emperor, God of Wealth, please grant me good luck!'
Su Qing cheered himself on internally.
'Synthesize.'
Instantly, the nine Wooden Bows that had taken him over an hour to make vanished.
[Synthesis Successful: Simple Wooden Bow (Effective Range: 10 meters)]
'The synthesis succeeded?'
Su Qing felt like he had discovered a secret of the Synthesizer.
It seemed that as long as he used nine similar items, the success rate of the Synthesizer was very high!
Just like with his grass cakes, he had barely ever failed.
'Time to try making some simple arrows.'
Su Qing got right to work.
Splitting wood.
Sharpening the tips.
Soon, another hour had passed.
By now, Su Qing had made twenty-three arrows at most.
It was too slow. This was because even the most basic arrows had to be perfectly straight for his Synthesizer to recognize and display an appraisal. Otherwise, it would just show information for a piece of wood.
To synthesize three arrows, he'd need to make twenty-seven of them himself.
Another hour went by.
Only then did Su Qing let out a sigh of relief.
The three arrows before him were anything but ordinary.
[Light Wood Arrows (Penetration +100%, Durability +50%, Lightweight Body, Bow Range +50%)]
The bonuses, like penetration, were based on the original wood, so the actual increase wasn't that significant.
But the last bonus, a 50% increase to the bow's range, was fantastic.
His Wooden Bow was pathetic before, but now its effective range had reached fifteen meters.
At that distance, as long as he chose his moment carefully, whether in the village or out in the wastelands, and coated the arrowheads with some powder from a Small Poison Pill...
Su Qing refused to believe it.
There was no Physician in the village.
How could Zhang Mazi and his two cronies possibly survive?
By now, the sun was about to set.
Su Qing hurriedly packed his things and headed back toward the village.
Along the way, he kept a lookout for the three thugs.
Fortunately, he didn't run into them.
After a particularly smooth journey back to his house, Su Qing stared at his ransacked little courtyard and the broken wooden door.
He was dumbfounded. His home had been turned upside down again.
At the same time, a blaze of fury ignited in his heart.
'It must have been those three. Just you wait!'
Su Qing rushed inside to see if his firewood had been taken. If it was gone, he wouldn't hesitate to take care of those three tonight, even if it meant working through the night.
Stealing someone's firewood, on top of beating the original owner of this body to death—these acts would make even a saint snap, let alone a transmigrator like Su Qing!
Without firewood, the probability of a Demon Fiend invading the house at night would become infinitely high.
Moreover, the Yin Qi grew heavier at night. Even Su Qing himself would be susceptible to dark thoughts.
But having a fire changed everything. A fire was like light, a source of Yang Qi to suppress the darkness.
As Su Qing entered the woodshed and saw that his firewood was untouched, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, he gritted his teeth and muttered, 'Those three... I'll let them run free for a few more days!'
Su Qing began to plan.
His firewood was still there, and he had enough food, so there was no need to panic.
He needed to rest. He had already exhausted himself today.
Tomorrow, he would plan his route to the county town. The day after, he would kill the three of them. Then, before dawn on the day after that, he would flee to the county town.
Martial Arts!
How could he possibly waste his time away in a small village?
More importantly, the Chaotic Life Body that Su Qing had synthesized was clearly beneficial for practicing Martial Arts.
High Recovery Power meant he could definitely spend more time training.
'Zhang Mazi, Liu Dan, Guan Gousheng.'
Drowsily, Su Qing drifted off to sleep, listening to the faint crackling of the fire.
...
The night stretched on.
In the central-eastern part of Flood Village, there was a large courtyard compound.
It was the living quarters of the village chief's family.
And not far behind this compound, there was an abandoned, dried-up well.
Even during the day, one couldn't see the bottom of that well with the naked eye, let alone at night.
However, the moon was not very bright tonight. Only a crescent, as thin as an eyebrow pencil's stroke, hung high in the sky.
A suffocating black mist slowly floated up from the dry well.
Following that, the figure of a woman appeared within the black mist. Her eyes were completely white, and the resentful aura emanating from her body was immense.
It was a Demon Fiend!
A ghost!
The moment this female ghost appeared, she looked around, then cast a hateful gaze toward the Zhang Family compound, and also in the direction of the Liu Family and the Guan Family.
In Flood Village, these families made up almost half the population.