"The Fox Spirit’s power has recovered quite a bit." Zhang Chen stared at the Fox Spirit for a while, then scanned the entire room. Seeing no experience points dropping from the neighboring room, he slowly blocked the hole before sitting back on the bed. Suddenly, he was stunned in his heart: "It doesn’t hurt anymore! I’m actually not hurting anymore! The fiery feeling within my body is gone too."
Zhang Chen’s eyes were filled with amazement, and his gaze was full of joy. Carefully sensing the blood within his body, he saw that the Crystal Core, previously the size of a grain of rice, had now transformed into a round sphere, smooth and flawless, quietly circulating in his body instead of being a polygonal crystal.
Zhang Chen ’watched’ the sphere, and as his thoughts moved, the crystal sphere rotated along with them, continuously shuttling through his blood like a fish swimming ceaselessly.
"This is my second life!" Zhang Chen adapted for a while, finding that when he activated the Crystal Stone, there were no supernatural powers discovered. He stopped sensing and lay on the bed pretending to sleep, contemplating the inherited memories from the previous dream. However, the memories were fragmented and required his own arrangement. To fully decode them would still take some time.
After an unknown period, Zhang Chen organized his thoughts from the Dream Realm, gradually succumbing to sleepiness, only for one thought to flash before sleep:
"Now that my physical state is better, I should go see my mother and little sister, and bring them the robe."
The next day, Zhang Chen went into the mountain to hunt, inspected some traps, caught a wild duck, a rabbit, and a wild chicken, collected honey, and fed the giant yellow bee. He did not continue to excavate the ancient tomb but instead cut some grass and headed down the mountain to prepare to visit his mother and little sister.
Returning home, he fed the grass to the deer. After the deer finished eating, Zhang Chen carried the wild duck, rabbit, and led the deer towards the door.
Since the Fox Spirit disaster struck his home, he hadn’t visited his stepmother and little sister for a long time. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go; he was afraid that his visit might draw the Fox Spirit’s attention, which could result in his whole family being wiped out.
Moreover, at that time, he didn’t have extra food to bring, so he decided not to visit.
Zhang Chen led the deer and carried the wild duck, attracting some attention as he walked, but passersby only looked at him with envy and said nothing more. The world hadn’t fallen into chaos yet, and now, after six decades of a peaceful era, the dynasty’s laws are strictly imposed on everyone, and no one dares to challenge the court’s authority.
The laws of the Great Victory dynasty are harsh, comparable to the Qin Law of the past, with a system of mutual punishment, so it’s rare to see acts of treachery and deceit.
However, in this era, the emperor’s power doesn’t reach the countryside, and some remote areas are beyond the emperor’s control, giving certain people opportunities, such as those who forge weapons.
If they forge in the county town, it’s likely that they would have been reported long ago, facing severe punishment with nothing left, even their eggs scattered, with boiling water poured on ant nests, leaving none alive.
The stepmother’s estate is behind the mountain, and Zhang Chen’s village is in front of it.
The distance between the front and back of the mountain is not far. Thinking of his stepmother, Zhang Chen couldn’t help but smile bitterly. Honestly, his stepmother treated him quite well.
In his vague childhood memories, around the age of five, his father brought him, his older sister, and the baby sister out of a grand residence, escorted by a group to a bitter cold place to herd horses and cattle. Then, somehow, his father managed to leave the pasture and settle in this small village shortly after.
His father, an outsider, stood out when he came to this place, but somehow managed to connect with a widow in the back mountains, and they had a wedding, making his father a semi-local. So Zhang Chen went to live with his father at the widow’s home.
In the following year, the family lived harmoniously. Although they didn’t enjoy a lavish lifestyle, they got by, with two new additions bringing a lively atmosphere – the widow gave birth to a boy. Despite tight living conditions, laughter and joy always filled the house.
Until he was eight, Zhang Chen’s real father went hunting in the mountain, got injured by a wild beast, and without antiseptic medication, he succumbed three months later, leaving his mother to care for four children.
Among the siblings, Zhang Chen was the second child, with an older sister five years senior, a younger sister three years junior, and a younger brother five years junior from his stepmother’s marriage with the ’cheap dad’.
Following his father’s demise, Zhang Chen’s stepmother struggled to support the four children in a broken house, relying on odd jobs for survival.
Then, when Zhang Chen grew a bit older and was raised by his stepmother for four years, he began frequently hunting with Wang Wu in the mountains. Once capable, he was sent to start his own household, returning to his old dilapidated straw house and becoming neighbors with Zhang Chen.
"Honestly, my stepmother is really great; even after my father passed away, she raised me for four years, nurturing me until I was able to hunt with Wang Wu. Pushing me to live on my own after ensuring my ability to survive shows her profound kindness. Plus, my little sister is still raised in her home. My stepmother doesn’t own any land and relies solely on manual labor to support four kids; the difficulty of her life is imaginable," Zhang Chen muttered.
Though his stepmother urged him to move out, Zhang Chen only felt gratitude and no resentment towards her.