Shushan: Extinction

Chapter 216 Another Chance
Gong Tianwu nodded.

Hasar squinted his eyes and carefully examined the broken end of the bird's leg. Then he found alum, stove core soil, and copper salt, mixed them together, and smeared them on the broken end.

Suddenly, I saw wisps of light gray aura coming out, which was typical demonic aura.

At the same time, the demon tendons at the broken end shone with a faint phosphorescent light.

Then Hasar said simply:

"This monster struggled for too long before dying, so it died of exhaustion. The quality of this monster tendon must have been reduced first."

"The monster was not bled immediately after death, so its tendons were soaked and contaminated by the blood, causing its quality to decline once again."

"In the end, the demon tendon was not removed immediately. By then, the flesh and blood inside had rotted, and the bone marrow had decayed, causing the quality of the demon tendon to further decline."

"So, it's only worth two silver treasures at most."

Malantou's eyes widened immediately, and heavy breathing came out of her nostrils. She suddenly pulled out a small dagger from her boot and stabbed it into the table:
"Do you understand? If you don't, stop talking nonsense!!"

Facing such a threat, Hasar's expression was very cold. He just glanced at Ma Lan indifferently and then retreated behind Gong Tianwu.

The muscles on Malan's face twitched suddenly. He felt a chill all over his body when he saw Hasar's look, because this kind of look could only be possessed by those who had killed countless people and regarded life as worthless.

After thinking for a while, Gong Tianwu took out six silver treasures and threw them in front of Ma Lantou:
"It's a fixed price. If you don't think it's suitable, just take it away."

Ma Lantou sighed and made an expression as if she had suffered a great loss, but her hand had already quickly grabbed Yinbao, put it in her arms and left quickly.

Looking at his leaving back, Hasar suddenly said:

"Master, I remember his smell. I can get the money back after dark."

Gong Tianwu shook his head.

Hashar looked a little anxious:

"Master, my wounds have almost healed. Although my right hand is powerless, I can still lift the knife with my left hand!!"

Gong Tianwu smiled and said:
"If he takes the money, more people will come and sell me similar things in the future."

"Hasar, the rules here are different from those on the grassland. Don't worry, I will speak up when I need you."

Hashar's expression suddenly relaxed and he nodded.
"Okay, master."

***
Next, Gong Tianwu reassembled the two legs of the demon crane and carried them back home with great effort.

He planned to deal with this thing quickly. After all, the storm was about to come, and some people in the entire Sansheng City were in a panic, so he had to strengthen his means of self-protection.

When they were still thirty meters away from home, the two dogs came to greet them. They were jumping around and wagging their tails, looking very pleasing to the eye.

They should have also sensed the evil spirit in the cloth bag, so they were quite alert when looking at the cloth bag.

After returning home, Gong Tianwu asked his mother to fetch a liter of vinegar, and then he turned over and smashed the stones, picking out a few with sharp edges to make temporary stone knives.

After all, according to the memory of weapon-making techniques from the previous life, one cannot use metal knives to process the materials of this demon bird. It is best to use wooden and stone knives.

After his mother brought back the vinegar, Gong Tianwu soaked the two legs of the demon crane in it. After a few minutes, he saw that the blue-gray feathers on the legs began to stand up gradually.

Gong Tianwu lit a stick of incense at this time, first poked the root of the feather with the red-hot incense head, and then pulled it hard, and finally pulled the demon feather off.

The demon feather treated in this way can maintain its spiritual energy and save trouble. If it is pulled out directly, the material will be destroyed.

After processing the demon feathers, the two bare demon crane legs looked not much different from raw chicken legs, except that the claws appeared particularly sharp.

At this time, Gong Tianwu hung it upside down and smeared a layer of special medicine powder on its surface. Gradually, drops of demon blood began to seep out from the wound on the leg.

When this stuff was dripped onto the blue bricks, it condensed into red beads the size of pearls like mercury, and Red-Haired and Big-Eared, who were peeking in the dark, rushed over to lick them.

At this time, Gong Tianwu also laughed at himself. In his previous two lives, he would casually throw such a mere crane leg to his apprentice to help. He didn't expect that he would have to take it seriously now, and he was actually a little nervous.

When the demon's blood stopped dripping completely, Gong Tianwu picked up a sharp stone and began to cut it carefully. Every cut would make the crane's legs twitch, making it look like a corpse.

Every time after cutting a piece of meat, Gong Tianwu would pick up a torch made of pine branches nearby and roast it carefully. Black smoke mixed with the smell of burnt pine resin would spread out until the meat gave off a slight burnt aroma, and then he would throw it to the two dogs wagging their tails to eat.

When the meat has been mostly removed, the tendons begin to appear. At this time, you have to be extra careful and pick them out bit by bit.

Then the demon tendon was soaked in a large bowl of castor oil. This thing actually kept wriggling like an eel.

After seeing this scene, Gong Tianwu sprinkled some white powder into the castor oil and covered the bowl.

At this time, the two dogs absorbed the evil spirit from the crane meat. The manes behind their necks exploded, and they howled like wolves at the sky. Two blood rings appeared in their pupils, and their whole bodies were shaking.

After a few seconds, he fell asleep. This should be the demon wolf blood in his body beginning to awaken.

Taking advantage of this time, Gong Tianwu began to take out some special parts from the box next to him and then assembled them. These parts were cut out when he was bored, and now they came in handy.

After these parts were assembled, Gong Tianwu picked up two demon crane tendons from the castor oil and easily hung them on, and then installed the handle guard and trigger.

Suddenly, a small crossbow appeared in front of Gong Tianwu.

Gong Tianwu picked it up, test-fired it twice, and nodded with satisfaction.

This crossbow is a special weapon made by Gong Tianwu by combining the weapon-making techniques here with the technological concepts on Earth. It looks quite mini and cute, especially the eccentric wheels on both sides, which look quite cute.

At the same time, because this Minghe crossbow uses demon tendons as the crossbow string and is combined with some special materials from this plane, its shooting distance has reached about 300 meters, and it can even fire two shots in a row.

If it is paired with a dedicated winder, the firing rate can reach about fifteen rounds per minute.

Finally, Gong Tianwu can also use the scraps of the demon crane claws to create special arrowheads.

In this case, at least within two hundred meters, even heavy armor cannot withstand its powerful force, and one arrow will leave a bloody hole.

The disadvantage of this thing is that for Gong Tianwu, once the shooting distance exceeds ten meters, the accuracy will be reduced at an alarming rate - this has nothing to do with the weapon, but is related to his own poor shooting skills.

Even so, Gong Tianwu could be sure that although this crossbow was not refined using any means of cultivation (after all, Gong Tianwu did not even have spiritual energy at this time), it only used half-demon materials.

But if the arrows were made of demon materials, they would definitely be able to catch up with the attack power of yellow-level weapons. At this time, Gong Tianwu finally felt a little safe. In the near distance, he had Red Hair and Big Ear, two dogs with demon wolf blood, to protect him. In the distance, he had the demon crane crossbow to protect him. His self-protection power began to take shape.

Looking at the scattered feathers beside him, Gong Tianwu shouted at the top of his voice:

"Mother!"

Cui Xiaoyi came over quickly:

"What's the matter?"

Gong Tianwu said:

"When you have time, use these feathers to knit two small vests for the two dogs."

Cui Xiaoyi's needlework is quite good. Since she found out that the two dogs can protect her son, she has been very kind to them. She nodded and said:
"It's fine to do it, but there are too few feathers. It won't keep you warm."

Gong Tianwu said:

"This feather is not an ordinary feather. It can protect against knife cuts and arrows. When I take my dogs hunting later, I can keep them from getting hurt."

Cui Xiaoyi didn't say anything after hearing this.

***
A few more days passed,
Gong Tianwu, accompanied by Hasar, picked four herdsmen.
These four men are all capable of riding and horse fighting, and they are young, strong, and loyal.

At the same time, Hasar's injury was almost healed. Although his right hand could not exert much power due to the tear in his tendons, his left hand could still hold a knife and throw stones.

For Gong Tianwu, this was not a big problem. After all, he knew how to make alchemy. Such injuries could be solved with a basic rejuvenation pill in the future.

At the same time, apart from being unable to exert force and draw the bow, Hasar still possesses the qualities of a top archer.

Based on the S-type talent: never miss a shot, as long as Gong Tianwu is given the Minghe crossbow, he will still be the feared archer.

At this time, the situation in the entire city has become increasingly tense, because news has been heard that five or six merchant caravans have been robbed - this means that the vanguard of the Naiman people has approached Sansheng City.

Moreover, the backbone of this city, Marquis Zhenbei, is not in the city, and even his heir has disappeared on the grassland with no news.

Amidst the panic, Li Tao stepped forward decisively and imposed martial law on the entire Sansheng City. Holding great power, he immediately sent out a signal for help and directly convicted the Marquis of Zhenbei of deserting his post.

Soon, the Naiman army arrived at the city. It could be seen that their numbers were really huge, so vast and almost endless.

Looking down from the top of the city wall, one can see dark brown tents rising from the ground, like a large number of poisonous mushrooms popping out of the ground, which looks extremely creepy.

There is no doubt that people in the city must have been in panic at this time, and food prices were soaring. However, Cui Ziyang had sold most of the food three days ago, and his profit almost doubled. As for the remaining small amount of food, he sold it at a high price.

In this case, even if Li Tao wanted to stabilize grain prices and make an example of someone, it would not have an impact here as the shipment volume is very small.

There is no doubt that the Marquis' Mansion was leaderless and in great chaos at that time. Gong Tianwu was happy that no one was controlling him, and he would go to the human market every day to see if there were any "bargains" to be picked up.

On this day, Gong Tianwu had just left the house when he suddenly activated his divine art and heard the voice of a person next to him:
"Look at how smug this little bastard is! I'll let you be smug for a while now, but when the Naiman army enters the city, I'll kill you without leaving a single corpse, not even your family or dog alive!"

After hearing this, Gong Tianwu casually looked up and saw a thin, dark man.

This guy was sitting in the grocery store diagonally opposite the Marquis' Mansion, looking drowsy in a chair.

Gong Tianwu remained calm, and after a while he went to find Cui Ziyang, pointed from a distance and said:

"Uncle, do you know this man?"

Cui Ziyang looked at it and said:
"This is the second steward of the Xu family of Baosheng."

Gong Tianwu immediately understood and nodded slightly.

***
an hour later,
Governor's Office,
Li Tao was having a secret conversation with his aide Chen Xiang.

Although Li Tao was a governor and held the power of life and death over thousands of people, he looked like a scholar who had failed in the exams many times.

"How's the situation in the city?"

"Sir, the people are certainly in a panic, but the grassland tribes have always been weak at sieges, so they are relatively stable."

"What about the price of food?"

“There has been an increase, but we have ordered grain traders to keep prices down. They probably don’t want to lose their heads.”

Li Tao nodded and was about to ask again when he suddenly heard hurried footsteps outside the door.

The guard pushed the door open, knelt on one knee, and presented a ball of paper with both hands:
"Sir, several balls of paper wrapped in stones were thrown at the base of the wall. This is a serious matter and I dare not make any decision on my own."

Li Tao took the paper ball, unfolded it and his face suddenly changed.

He handed the letter to Chen Xiang and said in a deep voice, "Take a look at this."

Chen Xiang took the letter, glanced at it, and immediately took a breath of cold air:
"The Xu family of Baoshenghao colluded with the Naiman tribe and wanted to surrender the city. Was the signature Cui Ziyang from the Zhenbei Marquis Mansion?"

Li Tao stood up, paced with his hands behind his back, and said in a serious tone:
"Although Cui Ziyang is a minor character, this matter is of great importance."

Chen Xiang sighed and said:
"The Xu family of Baoshenghao has always been submissive. To be honest, there is no need for them to collude with the Naiman tribe. It is said that the third son of the Xu family is working as a staff member of the fourth prince."

Li Tao said coldly:

"At this turbulent time, it is better to believe it than not to believe it!"

"If Baosheng was really wronged, merchants are profit-driven, so we will compensate them in the future."

Chen Xiang was shocked:
"Sir, if you have made up your mind, then you need to investigate immediately. If the Xu family really has ulterior motives, the city is in danger!"

Li Tao stopped and said with a sharp gaze: "Send someone to investigate immediately. Be careful and don't alert the enemy."

Chen Xiang bowed and replied, "Yes, sir!" He turned and left in a hurry.

(End of this chapter)