Chapter 32 – Path of Glory (1/2)

Translated by Sunyancai

Early the next morning, Shao Xuan tied those animal skin bags, filled with gravel, to himself, and headed to the training ground with Caesar.

In the past when Shao Xuan had not awakened yet, he would often feel worried about being hurt, or even being killed by mistake if he did not pay enough attention to the surroundings. Now he was much more emboldened because his body could endure more damage or wounds.

People in the tribe did not know many moves or forms. All they could do was imagine the existence of a certain game and react based on its habits.

Some warrior would just treat the cliff as some kind of animal, and then hit the cliff hard and strong. Because of that, one should not be surprised when seeing a gust of wind carrying sand and stones in the mountain. That was merely some warrior practicing his punches.

Just like Shao Xuan saw at the Shaman’s place the other night, kids like Mao could break normal stone plates.

After Shao Xuan arrived at the training ground, he picked out a mountain and began to run from the mountain foot to the top with stones carried on his shoulder. While running, he could see which part of the mountain consisted of fine stones, so that he could go dig or carve them out.

“Fortunately I have such a special ability.” Shao Xuan said as he saw the different shades’ of grey in his sight.

Compared with totemic power, the other ability in his body had no doubt helped him save a lot more time and effort.

Shao Xuan could not punch out mid-level or mid-upper-level stones. His hands would be the ones hurting if he punched the stones with his bare hands.

After carving out the stone he had chosen, Shao Xuan looked up in the sky and realized it was almost noon. Shao Xuan carried the stone and headed back. He ate lunch back in his place, and then headed for old Ke’s house with the stone he carved out in the morning.

Shao Xuan had arranged every afternoon for learning stone crafting.

The stoneware might look simple, but it was more than just hitting on them.

“First of all, you need to know how to identify the different qualities of the stones. Even with the same hardness, the way of striking could be different when it comes to different stone cores.” Old Ke said as he took out two stone cores of the same grade.

Shao Xuan saw that old Ke directly carved off stone flakes from one stone core, while he processed another with heat and cold. Old Ke explained the changes of color, and the cooling time of quite a few different kinds of stones to Shao Xuan in detail.

For instance, old Ke could tell which stone core was hotter with a single touch, when the difference seemed to be undetectable for Shao Xuan.

Different stones had different reactions on temperature so they have to be heated up with different periods of time. Also the cooling times and their reactions all varied.

Old Ke took one of the two stone cores earlier and started to heat it up above the fire. He held a stone stick in each hand and used the sticks to hold the stone core in the middle.

The fire burnt strongly as if it was trying to dry the surrounding people. One would be sweaty after just a short time by the fire. On old Ke’s face there were lots of sweat stains, but his hands were quite steady, and he was quick and nimble when he turned the stone core.

About half an hour later, the stone core above the fire turned from pale gray to brownish red. Then old Ke took it away from fire. However, he did not start the carving right away, but waited until it cooled down so that the brownish red faded to some extent.

The stone flakes that were carved away, were in almost the same thickness, regardless of their shape!

What kind of crafting ability could achieve that?!

At least in the conception of Shao Xuan from his former life, that could not be realized without advanced cutting machine.

The so called “Ideal crafting” was an extremely complicated process, and people who did not follow this path would never be able to imagine it.

Practice came right after the theory. Shao Xuan had been practicing carving off stone flakes for most of the afternoon.

“There’s so much waste. Do it again!”

“What the hell are you carving off? Do it again!”

“Bad control on your strength as you swing the hammer! Do it again!”

“Hold it! Who taught you to carve this kind of stone directly? Have you had too much fish?! Heat it up before you do it again!!”

…

Old Ke’s neighbors all realized that recently old Ke became more hot-tempered. They all sighed and shook their heads when they talked about Shao Xuan, “Such a poor boy, Ah-Xuan!”