Chapter 547: Chapter 195: Treating Others as They Treat You! (2)
Out in the Wasteland, almost everyone has a gun, but bullets are scarce, always a highly coveted consumable.
"Inspector Cheng, here’s the Red Blade you asked for."
The staffer pulled a metal case from the bottom of the pickup’s bed, keyed in a code, and the lid popped open with a "click."
A sharp aura rushed out instantly, making one’s heart tighten.
Nice blade.
When he’d only seen the pictures on the tablet, the Red Blade’s shape and color were already stunning. Now, seeing the real thing, Cheng Ye felt its price of 3,500 Contribution Points was more than worth it.
The forearm-long blade was thick and solid. The blood-agate-like body had a matte sheen, the wide flat grind of the edge slanting up from the base, the very edge wreathed in a layer of cold iridescent light.
Cheng Ye’s gaze roamed up and down and finally landed on the handle.
A carved traditional "龍" character was inlaid near the bottom, soaked in a red patina, giving off an ancient, heavy feel.
He reached out and gripped the handle. The touch was warm and fit neatly into his palm, but when he hefted the weight, Cheng Ye froze.
It didn’t look that heavy, but in his hand it had to be over thirty jin!
This wasn’t some camping knife that prioritized agility; this was clearly a heavyweight contender among polearms!
"If you don’t train out the Four Forces... no, if you don’t open your Tendon Gates, there’s no way you can use this thing."
Cheng Ye was a bit stunned and reflexively glanced over at Wang Kang.
Did choosing the same model Purple Blade basically scrap Wang Kang’s close-combat weapon?
But to his shock, Wang Kang was happily playing with the Purple Blade, rolling his wrist and spinning the knife through the forms Miao Yang had taught him, knife flowers flaring with seemingly no effort at all.
Seeing him look over, Wang Kang stopped and grinned. "Hey, Brother Cheng, Dad’s knife is super light, feels about the same as the wooden practice sword!"
"Light?"
Cheng Ye strode over and took the Purple Blade.
It really was extremely light in hand. With his current strength, he could barely feel any weight at all.
The two blades clearly looked identical in shape and material, yet their weight difference was like heaven and earth—straight-up ridiculous.
"Then go try mine." Cheng Ye jerked his chin at the Red Blade lying in the case.
Wang Kang walked over and instinctively gave it a lift.
Huh?
Didn’t get it up?
Eyes wide, he put in a bit more strength and only just managed to clamp his hand around the grip and drag the Red Blade up, his arm trembling slightly.
"This..."
"Looks like even if the design is the same, the Extraordinary Ore they mixed in is different." Cheng Ye mused.
He gripped the Purple Blade again and tried a few continuous swings, and found the blade growing faster with each motion. Once the speed came up, the sense of weight got even lighter.
He didn’t dare imagine how fast this thing would be once the Hundred Martial Students state was unlocked.
Handing the Purple Blade back to Wang Kang, Cheng Ye picked up the Red Blade and swung it twice as well.
He might not have opened his Tendon Gates, but his physique and strength by now were no weaker than a top-tier Twelve Tendon Gates fighter. Wielding a thirty-jin blade was easy enough. It was just that, while he swung and chopped, he didn’t feel any speed boost—only the heavy, crushing force innate to a massive weapon, slicing the air with a howling wind.
Pondering, he walked over to a nearby pile of discarded supplies and picked up a fist-sized chunk of brick-stone.
With a light flick of his wrist, the Red Blade brushed past the brick-stone.
There was a soft "shff" sound, and the brick-stone parted down the middle as if cleaved by flowing water, the cut surface so smooth it could reflect a human silhouette.
"Oh, so what it boosts is sharpness!" Cheng Ye realized.
Case closed.
The Purple Blade took the route of extreme lightness and speed, while the Red Blade was all heavy-sword ferocity and cutting power.
Back when Cheng Long forged these knives, he hadn’t tried to shove everyone around him onto the "heavy-weapon brute" path; instead, each piece had its own emphasis.
"Wait, I don’t think Brother B has this type of blade?"
Cheng Ye suddenly recalled Liu Bi’s knife strapped at his waist—patched and re-patched, its design completely different from the Red and Purple Blades.
There was clearly a story buried in that too. Down the line, he could ask Liu Bi about the original ideas behind these blades.
"Inspector Cheng, the weapons and gear have been delivered. If you could sign here, we need to get moving."
From the distant horizon came the sharp cries of a Thorn Bird flock again, and the staffer’s face changed slightly.
Cheng Ye took the checklist and signed his name in a swift flourish.
The pickup driver was already primed to go. As soon as the staffer with the checklist climbed in, the pickup spun around, the accelerator floored. The tires kicked up a cloud of dust as it shot out of Dapo Town like an arrow.
Nobody was going to go after Thorn Birds.
Their meat was tender enough, but they’d been eating metal year-round, so the heavy metal content in their bodies was through the roof—completely inedible.
More importantly, in Stone Province, Thorn Birds actually counted as "beneficial birds." They would actively drive away infection sources and Infected Bodies around their nesting grounds and specialized in eating those ecosystem-wrecking mutant pests.
Take the iron-corroding bugs, for example. They could absorb the Extraordinary Curse and convert traits; if they proliferated too much, they would directly slow the evolution rate of Stone Province’s mineral veins. Or the steel-winged moths, which loved laying eggs on metal; once the larvae hatched, they’d gnaw on metallic traits and drag mineral product grades straight down.
Those two kinds of pests could metalize their own bodies, which happened to make them Thorn Birds’ favorite food.
For humans living in Stone Province, Thorn Birds swallowing some metal was no big deal, but they absolutely couldn’t allow pests to gnaw out the "roots" of the metal mines.
On top of that, Thorn Birds would also deal with mutant plants that hindered plant growth.
For example, Life-Devouring Vines, a species that could coil around and strangle other plants. The toxin sacs would spray when Thorn Birds pecked at its new shoots, leaving the inhibitors from the poisonous spines in the vines, which just happened to suppress the spread of Life-Devouring Vines.
Even though Stone Province’s plants lost their traits to the underground Extraordinary Curse as they grew, those traits ultimately still fed back into the soil. The existence of Thorn Birds was equivalent to indirectly protecting the ecological cycle of this land.
So, even though Thorn Birds could be a nuisance when they flocked together, very few people would take the initiative to slaughter them.
