Chapter 40 (1/2)

“Thunk, thunk, thunk”, Lin Xun heard some knocking noise while getting home.

In the yard, Shia Zhi was striking a suit of inner armour with a huge hammer in her hand, sparks splashing out with each beat.

It was rather an inharmonious picture in which a five or six-year-old girl, young and tender, was carrying a huge rough hammer with her white and fine hands.

However, the hammer seemed to be as light as a needle in her hands. The strikes were accompanied by a special rhythm and beat, which made the task look all too easy for her.

Lin Xun recognized the armour. It was the very one he made with the flakes of the one-horned scaly lizard earlier which was damaged four days ago during his fight with Lian Rufeng. Thanks to the armour, he didn’t suffer much from the slap on his back.

Though it never occurred to him that Shia Zhi would repair the armour without him asking.

Lin Xun went near and took a closer look at the hammer, then got startled again. The head of the hammer was like an iron blotch surfaced with finger prints.

“You kneaded this with bare hands?” Lin asked.

Shia Zhi nodded with no intention to stop, and said, “I have to make one with iron since there is no one off the peg”.

Lin Xun gasped in surprise after hearing this. That was refined iron for God’s sake! How could she make a huge hammer simply with the strength of her fingers?

He looked at her blankly, thinking to himself that there might’ve hidden an ancient fierce beast within her delicate and slim body.

Laying the hammer aside, Shia Zhi passed the armour to Lin Xun and said, “It’s done now. Try it out”.

Looking at the repaired hammer which was as good as new now, Lin Xun praised with smile on his face, “You are full of surprises”.

However, Shia Zhi went straight to the room as if she wasn’t listening, and said, “I’m gonna go to sleep for a while. Remember to make dinner. I’ll be hungry when I wake up.”

Bang!

Just then the door was shut.

Lin Xun shrugged his shoulders, feeling quite used to her unique behavior which completely differentiated her from other kids.

His gaze alighted on the huge hammer which was incredibly heavy and as motionless as a statue when he tried to lift it with his hands.

He was surprised and then exerted force suddenly with the spirit energy circulating in his whole body. Only by then did he manage to lift the hammer and with the slightest perception, he realized that it couldn’t be lighter than 250kg.

Boom!

The hammer fell down when Lin Xun loosened his grip, leaving a big hole on the ground.

“She really is a little monster!”

Thinking that the hammer was kneaded by Shia Zhi with the only use of her hands, Lin Xun got a complicated expression on his face, becoming more and more curious about her history.

“I have to ask her when she wakes up and get to the bottom of it”.

Soon Lin Xun stopped dwelling on it, got into the kitchen and made dinner ready. Only then did he find the time to sit on the chair in the yard. Turning his hand over, there was a copper coin of the empire lying in his palm. He couldn’t help but stare at it.

This was the first time he had ever seen a real copper coin which was roughly the size of a baby’s palm, in a pale yellowish color and felt gentle and delicate.

As far as Lin Xun knew, all coins of Ziyao Empire were made from the powder of a special mineral called Cloud Spirit Stone, mixed with a dozen of materials including gold, silver and copper, and then refined by a series of complex and unique techniques which would never be mastered by people outside of the empire.

Coins of Ziyao Empire were divided into three categories, namely gold coins, silver coins and copper coins, with the same exchange ratio of one to a hundred. All coins, no matter what category they belong to, were carved with special patterns of the empire on both sides.

Like this one at the moment, the front patterns consisted of three parts. A purple flower like a fire burning stood for the royal household of the empire, an extraordinarily sturdy green deer looking up to the sky for the empire’s first academy called The Green-deer School, and a sacred sword breaking through the canopy for the army.

Beyond all that, there were dense and colorful branches in cloud lines carved around the three patterns, representing the bigwigs, aristocratic families and clans who made outstanding contributions to the empire.

On the other side, there stood a beautiful landscape covered in clouds and mists, surging forward with great momentum and unfathomable meanings.

Lin Xun had no idea what the landscape represented, but it definitely meant something.

Hum!

Lin Xun took a blow on the coin, which was followed by a unique musical sound. This was undoubtedly a Ziyao Coin which would be indispensible to both his survival in the empire and his future cultivation.

From Wu Henshui’s storage ring, Lin Xun got quite an unexpected fortune of 1500 copper coins where were equal to 15 silver ones.

The coins of the empire had great values. For example, three copper coins could exchange for half a kilo of spiritual grains.