Chief, don't hit me in the face

Chapter 13: The Eye of the Ruler

When tribal warriors ventured into the uncharted wilderness to hunt and explore—a realm untouched by humans—they were always dancing with death. That’s why everyone did their utmost to keep their bodies in peak condition, ready to face whatever dangers might arise at any moment. Setting aside the weapons designed by Xia Ye for the moment, the insulated sleeping bags and tents, portable protective gear, and various small tools could make long-distance hunting much more comfortable. With good food, a good night’s sleep, and plenty of energy, combat effectiveness naturally remains at a very high level. “What else are you unhappy about? Just look at all this gear—are you going on a hunting expedition? You’re practically going on a picnic!” Mo Wu Heng roared loudly. Xia Ye could only smile. He didn’t understand what had gotten into this girl—was it really because of her—well, small breasts—that she was being so petty? “You’re even bringing bronze fishing hooks? A sewing kit? A flask of wine? Why don’t you just carry your whole house on your back while you’re at it?” By the end of her tirade, Mo Wu Heng burst into tears, sobbing, “Wuuu.” “Stop crying. If you don’t want to, then we won’t do it!” Xia Ye sighed and patted Mo Wu Heng on the back. It seemed he’d have to find another mechanical shop. Sigh—when would he ever have his own place and his very own personal mechanical engineer? “Who said I’m not doing it?” Smack! Mo Wu Heng swatted Xia Ye’s hand away and glared at him angrily: “If you dare leak these blueprints, I’ll kill you on the spot!” “Uh!” Xia Ye was speechless. “Do you really have to be so harsh?” “I won’t let you lose out on this. You won’t have to pay for the materials or labor for this batch of gear, and I’ll even give you a hefty sum of money!” Mo Wu Heng was sobbing in frustration because she hated her own incompetence and envied Xia Ye’s inspiration. Why couldn’t she have come up with these ideas herself? “Just give me a 50 percent discount!” One must know when to be content; being too greedy could cost you your life. As for these blueprints, Xia Ye was left with no choice—he needed this gear to increase his success rate when jungling. In this era, mechanical engineers were highly respected and held in high esteem, so they were all incredibly arrogant, possessing a sense of intellectual superiority. Now, a poor kid from the slums—who might not even know how to read—was demanding that they craft gear exactly as he wanted. They would absolutely spit him out in disgust. Even a gentle girl like Mo Wu Heng wouldn’t have listened to Xia Ye’s nonsense if it weren’t for her craving for brown sugar. Given Xia Ye’s abilities, he couldn’t possibly keep these blueprints safe—he might as well give them to a mechanism engineer who’d repay the favor and earn some goodwill. “Try to look on the bright side. I know this isn’t fair to you, but you can’t protect them—and they might even get you killed!” Mo Wu Heng explained earnestly, “In the mechanist community, social hierarchies are strict and factions abound. These items of yours will attract the covetous eyes of many. Some people are too petty—if they can’t get them, they’ll destroy them just to make sure no one else does!” “They’re yours!” Xia Ye smiled, revealing eight white teeth, his grin as cheerful as could be. “Stop being so stubborn! At least hand them over to me—I’ll make sure you get your share!” Mo Wu Heng tried to reassure him, unaware that Xia Ye wasn’t actually lying—back in college, any outdoor enthusiast could have rattled off a whole list of these things. The truly priceless knowledge in Xia Ye’s mind—the few types of seeds he was cultivating in his “Peach Blossom Spring” vegetable patch—was worth far more than these blueprints. “How much would it cost, roughly?” Xia Ye was now a big spender: “How much of a deposit in Dao Coins do you need?” “I already said I’m giving them to you for free!” Mo Wu Heng rolled her eyes and quickly did the math in her head: “Weapons and armor are pretty expensive. If we use top-quality materials to ensure every piece is a masterpiece, the total will come to at least six hundred Dao Coins!” “That much?” Xia Ye frowned; most of these items didn’t require much technical skill, but upon further reflection, he understood. There were no assembly lines back then; every single item was handcrafted by artisans. And in this era, being an artisan wasn’t a lowly profession—they were considered mid-to-high-level professionals. Coupled with low productivity, the difficulty of obtaining materials, and their scarcity, prices naturally remained sky-high. In those days, just carrying a fine blade and wearing a set of leather armor was enough to draw a flood of envious glances—let alone a complete set of such high-end gear. That’s exactly what a wealthy warrior looks like! “Is that a lot? If the craftsmanship were top-notch, even a thousand knife coins wouldn’t be enough to snap this up on the open market!” Mo Wu Heng smiled confidently. Due to the time-consuming production process, demand far outstrips supply, making it a seller’s market. “You’re right!” Heroes are incredibly powerful and can earn a lot of money, so just meeting the demands of these customers alone would be enough to make a fortune. In fact, Xia Ye had a way to cut costs, but he wasn’t obligated to tell Mo Wu Heng about it—he could use it himself once he established his tribe. After some back-and-forth, Mo Wu Heng insisted she wouldn’t accept Xia Ye’s deposit under any circumstances, so he let it go. It would take more than two days to craft all this gear, so Xia Ye listed the priorities and then took his leave. “Please accept this—it’s just a small token of my appreciation!” Mo Wu Heng held out a clay jar filled with grape wine with both hands. “I’ve already told you I don’t like it—just keep it for yourself!” Xia Ye waved his hand dismissively. The shop assistant stared in disbelief. He’d seen that earthenware jar once before—it held precious grape wine. Could the Great Craftsman really be giving it away as a gift? Even more baffling was that the half-blind good-for-nothing actually turned it down. Had he lost his mind? “Hmm, he really is an idiot!” The moment that thought crossed his mind, the shop assistant felt much more at ease. When he got home, the moon was high in the sky, and it was already dark! “Why are you so late?” Xia Lingyue had been waiting anxiously. Only after confirming her younger brother wasn’t hurt did she breathe a sigh of relief—after all, selling brown sugar that had never been seen before could easily lead to trouble! “I went to Da Mo Zao to order some gear!” Xia Ye set the burlap sack filled with money down by the bed and patted it with a smile: “Here—today’s haul!” “Let’s eat first!” Xia Lingyue scooped a bowl of warm millet porridge from the earthenware pot and sprinkled a few strips of pickled vegetables on top. “I’ll do it myself!” After washing his hands, Xia Ye grabbed a piece of flatbread and took a bite. He had no complaints about this simple fare; on the contrary, he saw it as a form of discipline. “How much did you make? It must be at least fifty dao coins, right?” Xia Lingyue speculated as she opened the burlap sack, only to freeze in place. Her eyes widened to their limit, and her small mouth formed an “O” in astonishment. The sack was piled high with dao coins, nearly spilling over. The bronze glow shimmered mysteriously in the light of the charcoal fire, like an intoxicating scene. “I must be dreaming!” Xia Lingyue exclaimed, instinctively scooping up a few handfuls from the wooden bed: “Is there something else underneath this?” “No, it’s all knife coins!” Xia Ye laughed. “That’s impossible!” Xia Lingyue cried out, “You took out a total of ten jin of brown sugar today. Even if you sold it at the sky-high price of thirty Dao coins per jin, that’s only three hundred!” There are at least a thousand in this sack. “I didn’t count them, but it should be close to two thousand.” The Body Tempering Realm has nine levels in total, and the most obvious sign is an increase in strength. Don’t let Xia Ye’s frail appearance fool you—he can easily carry two hundred shi on his back. The Dao Coins issued by the Zhao clan were almost all one liang each and of good quality. “How can there be so many?” Xia Lingyue counted them twice before she was certain Xia Ye wasn’t joking: “Did you sell the secret formula?” “Am I that stupid?” Xia Ye raised an eyebrow. “Stop guessing. Selling brown sugar? That’s way too lowbrow. This is a ‘sweetness’ unique in the world—just letting them get a taste is good enough!” Xia Lingyue was a girl of refined character and gentle nature. After hearing Xia Ye’s explanation, she realized that there was naturally a difference in price between hawking the product herself and having others scramble to buy it. “A single Dao coin for a taste? That price isn’t just for the brown sugar itself—it includes all kinds of added value, like the bragging rights to show off to your neighbors, or the experience of being among the first to try it. That’s a sense of superiority!” Xia Ye explained, “Of course, the most important factor is the desire to get rich quick. A single knife coin for a thousand—becoming a millionaire in an instant. Who wouldn’t want to give it a try?” “Who taught you all this?” Xia Lingyue was astonished. She knew her younger brother was sharp, but he had once again shattered her expectations. “Want to take a ‘knife coin’ bath?” Xia Ye changed the subject. “Go ahead and show off!” Xia Lingyue grabbed a knife coin and hurled it at her younger brother. Smack! Xia Ye raised his hand to catch it: “Or how about spreading them out on the bed and taking a nap?” “Aren’t you afraid you’ll break your bones?” Xia Lingyue teased, happily counting as she neatly arranged the knife coins; soon, a large patch covered the bed frame. After washing the dishes, Xia Ye took out the Dominator Core and the turtle shell he’d bought from a street vendor earlier that day. He casually removed his eye patch to give his eyes a rest after keeping them covered all day. “An ancient giant turtle?” Xia Ye knew that ancient prophets had a habit of carving symbols onto thousand-year-old turtle shells for divination and blessings, but he couldn’t make out the gibberish scrawled on this one. “Tsk, tsk. It’s practically on par with Picasso’s Cubist paintings. If this were the Middle Ages, he wouldn’t stand a chance!” After staring at it for a while, Xia Ye got a headache, so he set it aside and picked up the Dominator Core instead. Even Mo Wu Heng had said it was a valuable item, so he figured she must be right. The core was a stone slab covered with strange lines and uneven marks—it looked a bit like a circuit board, with crisscrossing patterns forming various shapes. “This is interesting!” As if it were a puzzle game, Xia Ye surveyed the entire surface and began at the bottom-left corner, following the lines upward. Perhaps because of his intense concentration, Xia Ye gradually sensed a faint warmth emanating from the Dominator Core—and a sudden insight struck him! “What would happen if I infused it with qi?” No sooner said than done, Xia Ye took a few deep breaths, channeled his Yuan Qi, and concentrated it in his palm. Hum! To his surprise, the Dominator Core glowed with a warm radiance; its temperature gradually rose, and at the same time, tiny specks of light, each about the size of a red bean, drifted out from it. Soon, the thatched hut felt like a riverside scene in midsummer, with fireflies dancing like flames and starlight swirling all around! Whoa! The stone slab had grown so hot it was burning his hands. Just as Xia Ye could no longer bear it and was about to toss it aside, those floating specks of light suddenly accelerated and shot in unison toward his left eye. Silent, yet like flowing fire! “Ah!” Xia Ye let out a blood-curdling scream!