Volume One: First Arrival Chapter Twenty-Five: Night Raid on the Camp

Afterward, under Wei Siyuan's direction, the kobolds returned to their cave and brought out the iron ore and a dozen iron ingots they had been hoarding.

Meng Xingchen picked up an iron ingot the size of a brick and examined it, shaking his head. The quality was even worse than the iron spear seized from the kobold leader earlier; it was riddled with sand holes of various sizes.

Tossing the carcasses of two wind wolves, their bodies covered in scorch marks, to the kobolds, Meng Xingchen said, "Let them continue mining. We will come back tomorrow to transport the ore."

The group of kobolds stared at the wolf carcasses, drooling uncontrollably, yet they dared not approach at first. Eventually, two of the stronger kobolds pushed through the crowd and respectfully dragged one of the carcasses toward Ye Feng, while the others swarmed forward to fight over the second one.

Ye Feng looked at the wolf carcass in front of him, momentarily unsure how to react. Xiao Yun laughed and said, "Go ahead, enjoy the food your subjects have offered you, oh Kobold Leader."

Upon hearing this, Meng Xingchen, Wei Siyuan, and Liang Junyi could not help but snicker.

Having successfully achieved both objectives for the mountain trip, they had Wei Siyuan instruct the kobolds once more to work hard at mining, and then the five of them began their journey back.

When they passed the partially collapsed bunker, they spent some time clearing it. Ensuring the road remained open was essential for transporting the iron ore from the kobold nest later on.

During the return trip, Meng Xingchen periodically cleared away trees blocking the path, trying to ensure that the narrow trail—hardly worthy of being called a road—could at least accommodate two people walking side by side.

With nearly thirty miles of mountain roads, it was impossible to rely on human labor to transport the iron ore and limestone. Meng Xingchen planned to use the wild oxen for the task. Since one ox was far from enough, he would have to find a way to get Wei Siyuan to lure a few more back once they returned.

Although their pace was slow, they encountered no major delays, and the group arrived back at Li Family Village before the sun had dipped below the peaks.

From a distance, Meng Xingchen felt that the atmosphere in the village was off; it was tense. The "transmigrators" were gathered in small groups, whispering about something. Some of the able-bodied men of Li Family Village were patrolling the fields near the village entrance with hunting bows and spears, as if on guard against the opposite bank of the river.

*Did something happen?* Meng Xingchen’s heart tightened as he hurried into the village. Seeing him return, both the transmigrators and the villagers let out sighs of relief.

Xu Jingya received the news and came out to meet him. "You’re finally back."

Not seeing Li Changfeng, Meng Xingchen’s heart sank. "What happened? Where is Captain Li?"

Xu Jingya replied, "Captain Li is injured. Shortly after noon, five goblins crossed from the other side of the river and attacked our compatriots who were collecting wood. Captain Li killed two of them and drove the others away, but he was wounded in the process."

Just then, Li Changfeng walked out to meet them. His left arm hung unnaturally, and his left hand was wrapped tightly in strips of cloth.

Meng Xingchen looked at his injured hand and asked, "How is it?"

Li Changfeng smiled. "Frostbite, nothing major. One of the five goblins that attacked could cast ice arrows. I blocked one with my shield, and my hand got frostbitten as a result."

It turned out that shortly after lunch, just as everyone had resumed work, a squad of five goblins had appeared in the woods at the west end of the village. The transmigrators collecting wood had been vigilant, spotting the squad from afar and running back.

Li Changfeng, who had been heading to the kiln construction site, heard the cries for help and rushed over with his shield. He saw the five goblins—four wielding thick, spiked wooden clubs and one holding a long wooden staff—chasing the fleeing transmigrators.

Seeing this, Li Changfeng used his ability to accelerate, leaping into the air and gliding over the heads of the transmigrators, slamming into the two lead goblins with his shield.

Before the two goblins could react, they were knocked to the ground. Li Changfeng staggered back two steps from the recoil. As soon as he steadied himself, he fired two wind blades at the goblins trying to scramble up. One goblin suffered a deep gash to its chest, while the other managed to block the wind blade by waving its club.

Just as Li Changfeng prepared to attack again, the goblin in the back with the long staff began chanting. It pointed the staff at Li Changfeng, and an ice arrow formed and shot toward him.

Li Changfeng crouched and blocked the arrow with his shield. However, upon impact, the arrow shattered, and a thin layer of frost instantly covered the shield, freezing Li Changfeng’s hand to the handle.

Seeing the staff-wielding goblin begin to chant again, Li Changfeng, enduring the numbness and cold in his left hand, fired three wind blades: one at the nearby goblin that had risen, and two at the spellcaster in the distance.

The wind blade at the nearby goblin was blocked by its club, while the two aimed at the spellcaster were either blocked by another goblin’s club or swatted away by the spellcaster’s staff.

Having its spell interrupted, the goblin spellcaster abandoned magic and, along with the two remaining goblins, began to surround Li Changfeng.

In this critical moment, a wild ox that had been grazing peacefully outside the village fields suddenly charged toward the goblin spellcaster. Seeing the ox charging head-on, the goblin spellcaster hurriedly turned, pointing its staff at the beast, preparing another ice arrow.

Seeing this, Li Changfeng immediately fired a wind blade at the spellcaster. The spellcaster had to swing its staff to deflect the blade, and its casting was interrupted once more.

Facing the wild ox charging toward it with sharp horns, the goblin spellcaster let out a shrill cry and turned to flee into the woods. The other goblins followed suit. Watching the retreating goblins, Li Changfeng fired one last wind blade, cutting a massive wound into the neck of the nearest goblin. Blood sprayed from the wound as it ran; after a few stumbling steps, it collapsed, powerless. By then, the goblin with the chest wound had also died from blood loss.

Meng Xingchen looked at Li Changfeng’s injured left hand and asked, "How much bio-energy did you get from killing the two goblins?"

"Forty-six points, plus two hundred points from completing the sudden quest," Li Changfeng replied.

Meng Xingchen took out a wind wolf beast core he had previously hoarded and handed it to Li Changfeng. "Level up again. Put the points into Constitution; it will speed up your recovery."

Li Changfeng didn't stand on ceremony; he took the core and began absorbing the bio-energy.

Meng Xingchen had four wind wolf beast cores in total. He remembered that Tongtong only needed less than a hundred points of bio-energy to level up again. He had originally decided not to use cores to boost her level, but the situation was special. If Tongtong leveled up, she could push her Spirit attribute to ten, which should give her better self-defense capabilities and increase the speed at which she could manufacture crossbow bolts.

Last night, goblins had been spying on the village from the woods, meaning they could likely see in the dark. The afternoon squad was likely just a probe, and a large-scale attack might come tonight. He decided to give the remaining three cores to Tongtong, Ye Feng, and Xiao Yun so they could each level up.

When Meng Xingchen found Tongtong in Li Daniu’s courtyard, the little girl was using her ability to forge the metal components needed for the crossbows according to Zhai Yao’s blueprints. Zhai Yao was nearby, using a set of alloy-forged woodworking tools to frantically craft the wooden parts.

Tongtong’s face was pale, with fine beads of sweat on her forehead and cheeks—a sign of overexerting her mental energy. Seeing the girl grit her teeth to finish a component, Meng Xingchen reached out and stopped her from continuing to control the metal.

The girl finally noticed Meng Xingchen’s return, looked up, and gave him a sweet smile. "Brother Meng."

He Qingwan emerged from the room, holding a towel, and began wiping the sweat from Tongtong’s face with a pained expression.

"Rest for a while," Meng Xingchen said, handing Tongtong a wind wolf beast core.

Tongtong leaned into her mother’s arms, closing her eyes contentedly. "Didn't Brother Meng say you wouldn't let me use beast cores to level up anymore?"

Meng Xingchen didn't explain. "Absorb it. Once you level up, put your Spirit attribute to ten and see what new changes your ability has."

Tongtong didn't say more. After absorbing the core, she closed her eyes and focused. Suddenly, the metal component she had just finished processing floated up from the table and began to orbit her, moving faster and faster.

Watching the metal component flying around her, only two words crossed Meng Xingchen’s mind: "Flying sword!"

Ye Feng, standing nearby, clearly had the same thought. His expression twisted with envy as he croaked, "Cool, little Tongtong. Cool enough to have no friends!"

Meng Xingchen asked, "How heavy of an object can you control, and how far can it go?"

The component moved outward, stopping at a distance of about five meters. With a gesture from Tongtong, it flew swiftly back into her hand.

"That’s the heaviest I can control, and that’s as far as it goes," Tongtong said, holding the component and looking down, slightly discouraged. "Am I useless?"

Meng Xingchen’s cheek twitched. *Is this little girl actually a mastermind?* He flicked her forehead gently and turned to Zhai Yao. "How many crossbows can you assemble now?"

"I’m making Zhuge repeating crossbows," Zhai Yao said. "Currently, I can assemble twenty. However, most of the bowstrings are made of ordinary hemp rope, which is lacking in both elasticity and durability. Five of them use a mix of hemp and the wire Tongtong made, which increases lethality, but it consumes too much of her mental energy, so I stopped doing that."

Meng Xingchen nodded. "Twenty crossbows firing a volley will be quite effective. What about the bolts?"

"I’ve asked the villagers to whittle them out of ironwood," Zhai Yao replied. "There should be nearly two hundred ready."