Chapter 17: Lower Third Grade

A wild beast that has become a spirit is also called a demon beast. The strength of a demon beast is divided into nine levels like humans. The black bear that Zhou Chen killed before had reached the ninth level.

"I didn't expect that this Beast Building actually has eighth-grade beast meat for sale."

"Haha, this thing is not available every day. I have been waiting for a long time before it is my turn. Let's eat more while this girl can't eat anymore."

Watching the two of them quickly putting meat into their mouths, Xia Rong was extremely greedy, but because he had eaten too much just now, he really couldn't eat anything more at the moment. He simply turned a blind eye and said, "Uncle Zhao, I hate you", then got up and left the private room.

Zhou Chen looked in the direction Xia Rong left and said, "Captain Zhao, why don't you leave some for Miss Xia?"
"That girl has eaten everything, come and eat quickly, don't bother her." After Zhou Chen's strength reached the ninth rank, his appetite also increased a lot. Although he had eaten a lot of meat before, this eighth rank monster was quickly divided up by the two of them.

Zhou Chen was delighted when he quietly opened the panel. This meal actually gave him eight more strengthening points. At this moment, his strengthening points had reached 8.3.

"Brother Zhou, I wonder if you are interested in joining the county government and serving the court. If you go to the county government with your skills, I guarantee that you will at least be a captain of police."

When asked this, Zhou Chen was a little confused and said, "Captain Zhao, I haven't thought about this yet."

"Joining the county government is much better than hunting. After joining the county government, the government can also provide you with resources for martial arts training. Your strength will then be rapidly improved. And the most important thing is that as long as you become a member of the government, you will be protected by the luck of the empire, and your strength will be instantly improved."

When Zhou Chen heard the word "luck" for the first time, he asked curiously, "What is luck?"
Zhao Kuo was not very clear about the details. He only knew that as long as one was a member of the imperial court, he would be protected, and the higher the official position, the greater the power bonus he would receive.

"I just mentioned it casually today. Brother Zhou, you don't have to take it to heart. If you want to join the county government one day, tell me and I will arrange it. If you don't want to, it's okay too."

After the two chatted for a while, Zhou Chenbian left the Beast Building. It was already late, and if he didn't go back, he would not be able to get home before dark.

Zhou Chen touched the amber around his waist and said, "I almost forgot about you." Then Zhou Chen came to a blacksmith shop, where the sound of clanging iron could be heard.

Seeing Zhou Chen walk in, a shirtless man stopped what he was doing and asked, "Sir, do you want to buy weapons or order them custom-made?"
Zhou Chen handed the amber to the big man and said, "Help me repair this knife."

The big man took the amber, pulled it out and looked at it and said, "This knife is not bad. The crack on it seems like it's not a big problem. If I repair it, it will cost me ten taels of silver."

Ten taels is already very expensive for ordinary people, but the price of weapons in this world is not cheap. "Please fix it for me as soon as possible."

The big man nodded and said, "Don't worry about that. But if you like, I can add some special materials to your knife. In this way, the quality of the knife can be greatly improved, but the price will be a little higher."

“How much can it be improved?”
"At least the hardness can be doubled."

"Okay, how long will it take to fix it?"
Seeing Zhou Chen so happy, the big man gritted his teeth and said, "Normally it takes ten days, I'll help you and come get it in five days."

Afterwards, Zhou Chen paid a deposit of ten taels and left the blacksmith shop. After leaving the city, Zhou Chen quickly rushed home. This time, without Zhao Kuo accompanying him, Zhou Chen increased his speed to the limit. Half an hour later, Zhou Chen returned home and it was just getting dark.

Leng Yiyao had also prepared the meal early. Although Zhou Chen had already eaten, he had consumed a lot of energy after the exercise just now. After eating a simple meal, he went back to his room to rest.

Leng Yiyao collected the thirty taels of silver Zhou Chen gave her and began to clean up the dishes. The animal skins sold for seventy taels, and ten taels of deposit were paid today. When he picked up the knife in five days, he would have to pay another thirty taels, so Zhou Chen kept thirty taels for himself. Of course, he had explained this to Leng Yiyao. After returning to the room, Zhou Chen opened his attribute panel and upgraded the Liuhe swordsmanship to the level of breaking the limit. Because he was afraid of the same thing as last time, Zhou Chen held back and waited until he returned to the room to upgrade it. However, this time, there were no other changes except for the influx of a large amount of memory.

Zhou Chen's strength also increased by another thirty points to 108 (84+24). Feeling the tremendous power coming from his body, Zhou Chen showed a worried look on his face, because his Liuhe swordsmanship had been practiced to the limit and could no longer be improved.

This means that without new martial arts, his strength will limit itself here.

"It seems I have to find a way to learn this martial art."

Today he also asked Zhao Kuo about the division of warrior realms. Warriors are divided into nine grades, namely the top three grades, the middle three grades and the bottom three grades. The bottom three grades mainly focus on training strength, and once the strength reaches a certain level, they can break through. The middle three grades focus on training qi, which is internal strength.

The lower three grades are the ninth grade blood training, the eighth grade tendon training, and the seventh grade bone training. Zhou Chen also asked about the exercises. Zhao Kuo told him that those were things only needed by the middle three grades, not the lower three grades.

This upgrade used five enhancement points and left three points. Since there was no new martial arts, Zhou Chen added all the remaining enhancement points to ordinary archery.

Host: Zhou Chen
Realm: Ninth Grade (Blood Training)

Strength: 128 (104+24)

Speed: 10
Skill: None

Martial arts: ordinary archery (great success) Liuhe swordsmanship (breaking the limit)

Strengthening points: 0.3
The improvement of his archery skills made his strength increase again. In the following few days, Zhou Chen stayed at home to accompany Leng Yiyao. During this period, it snowed heavily for three consecutive days. The heavy snow had closed the mountain, and it was completely impossible to go up the mountain this winter. The incident of black bears entering the village was also completely resolved. In the past few days, no one had heard of any child being taken away by a bear.

Time quickly came to the fifth day. It did not snow that day, but the temperature was even lower than if it were snowing. However, this weather was nothing to Zhou Chen, and he arrived at the blacksmith shop as promised.

When Zhou Chen got the amber, he felt that it was much heavier than before, although the amber was now as light as a feather in his hand.

Amber emitted a cold light which reflected on his face. "Not bad." Zhou Chen took back the amber and gave the remaining thirty taels of silver to the big man. Then he left the blacksmith shop with the knife.

After leaving the blacksmith shop, Zhou Chen went to the rice shop and bought 100 kilograms of rice. Rice was still very expensive at 50 cents per kilogram, but it was still affordable for him. Then Zhou Chen was seen leaving the rice shop carrying a sack of rice.

He didn't stay for long and rushed out of the city carrying the rice. The guards at the city gate didn't say anything when they saw Zhou Chen carrying the rice. After all, the people outside the city also had to live, and they would occasionally come into the city to buy food.

However, when Zhou Chen left the city, there were several people following him. They had been following him since he left the rice shop. Zhou Chen must have a lot of money on him to be able to buy so much rice at one time. Even if he had no money, that bag of rice would be enough for them to eat for a while.

When there were so many people in the city, Zhou Chen didn't notice them, but when he left the city, they still followed him, which made Zhou Chen suspicious. After walking about three miles, Zhou Chen pretended to be tired, then put down the rice and sat aside to rest. There was no one on the road at this time, and five or six big men with knives slowly surrounded him.

(End of this chapter)