Daqin Zhentiansi

Chapter 1109 Ancient Heavenly Palace Battle Patterns

Zhang Yuan handed him the leg bone: "Feel along the lines. If you feel something uneven, that's a hidden injury inside the bone."

"Bone with hidden injuries cannot be used to make knives, but it can be used to make arrowheads."

Amu took it, his rough fingertips slowly sliding across the bone surface, his expression as earnest as a young child learning to read.

After touching it for a while, he looked up and said, "Here. There's a lump here."

"Hidden wound. Use this piece for an arrowhead."

Amu grinned, carefully placed the leg bone aside, and picked up another one to continue feeling around.

Several hunters around him also squatted down, picking up bones one by one, imitating him by tracing the texture with their fingers.

Some people were shouting "This piece is slippery," while others were shouting "There's a crack in this piece." The voices rose and fell, making it as lively as an early morning market.

Zhang Yuan stood up, looked at the group of men squatting in the pile of animal bones, and his lips twitched.

These people are different from the Zhenyue Army.

The Zhenyue Army was mostly composed of death row inmates and stragglers, and they carried a murderous and violent aura.

These hunters of the White Frost Clan didn't possess that kind of ferocity, but they had something else: a sense of cherishing.

They cherish everything that can make them stronger.

Because in these mountains and forests, if you're not strong enough, you'll die.

This kind of cherishing is even more precious than murderous intent.

Zhang Yuan looked up and saw an old man carrying animal bones walking deeper into the village.

The old man walked very slowly, each step carefully, holding the animal bones to his chest as if they were some precious object.

Tuoba Shan had told him that the last old man in the village who could carve battle patterns was named Tuoba Gu.

As I get older, my skills are still there, but my eyesight is getting worse.

He followed the old man into a low wooden house.

The room was dimly lit, and the walls were covered with all kinds of bows and arrows.

Some were finished, some were unfinished; some bow arms were covered with dense patterns, while others had only a few.

In the center of the room was a heavy wooden table covered with a polished animal hide, on which sat carving knives, bone needles, and several dishes of mineral paint.

The charcoal stove in the corner was burning brightly, and a copper kettle was placed on the stove opening, with white steam puffing out of the spout.

Tuoba Gu sat at the table, holding an unfinished bone bow in his hand.

The bow arm is made from the spine of a black-maned beast, which has been polished to a smooth, jade-like finish.

He ran his thumb along the bone lines, then tapped it near his ear to listen to the sound.

Then, he picked out the finest carving knife from the table, held the bow arm with his left hand, and gently pressed the carving knife onto the bone with his right hand. With a slight dip of his wrist, the carving knife slowly moved along the texture of the bone.

His movements were so slow that each cut felt like writing a word on the bone.

The sound of the carving knife gliding across the bone was very soft, like the tip of a pen rubbing against rice paper.

After finishing the carving, he put down the carving knife, dipped a little dark red mineral pigment from the dish, and rubbed the pigment into the carving with his fingertips.

The pigment seeped into the bone texture, and the originally light engravings revealed a dark red, like blood that had congealed in the veins.

Zhang Yuan stood at the door without saying a word.

He recognized the patterns.

That's one of the standard battle patterns of the Heavenly Palace, the Sharp Edge Pattern.

Engraved on the bow arm, it can attach a layer of sharpness, increasing the arrow's penetrating power by 20% to 30%.

The patterns carved on the Tuoba bones are almost identical.

However, at several key turning points, it deviates from the natural direction of the bone pattern.

This deviation is almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

But Zhang Yuan's eyes are no longer the same as the Venerable One's.

Within his sea of ​​consciousness, the golden light of Emperor Jun Tianzun's inheritance trembled slightly.

The original forms of those battle patterns then clearly appeared before his eyes.

Each turn corresponds to the grain of the bone inside the bow arm. By following the bone grain, the effectiveness of the battle runes can be doubled.

Going against the flow greatly reduces its effectiveness.

After Tuoba Gu finished carving the last line, he raised the bow arm to his eyes and squinted as he examined it for a while.

Then, he sighed.

The sigh was very soft, as if afraid of disturbing something, but the dimness and quietness of the room made it sound very loud.

“It’s off track again.” He placed the bow arm on the table and rubbed his eyes. “This sharp line, when my master taught me, the turning point was like this.”

"But I always felt something was wrong. Every time I finished carving, I felt the strength leaking out and I couldn't hold it up."

“But my master’s master drew it like this, and their bows were like this too.”

"I don't know what's wrong."

"Now I'm the only one left, and my eyesight is failing. If I continue teaching, the next generation might not even be able to learn my distorted skills completely."

He didn't turn around when he spoke, as if he were talking to himself.

Zhang Yuan stepped forward, squatted down beside the table, and picked up the bow arm.

His fingers slowly slid along the bone lines of the bow arm, stopping at a bend.

“Here. The bone patterns spiral inwards as they reach this point, and the battle patterns should follow suit and spiral inwards as well.”

“You carved a straight line, so the bone patterns and battle patterns are misaligned. The force leaks out from the misaligned area, which is why you feel like you can’t hold on.”

He picked up a carving knife from the table, placed the tip of the knife at the turning point of the battle pattern, and without pausing, casually made a stroke.

The blade traced the inward spiral of the bone pattern, making a clean cut without the slightest hesitation.

Then he dipped his brush in some paint and rubbed it into the new cut.

Tuoba Gu was taken aback when he saw him make his move.

That moment of stunned silence lasted only a brief instant, and then his eyes widened in surprise.

He has been engraving all his life, and he can tell a person's skill level just by looking at them make a cut.

Zhang Yuan's strike, in terms of placement, force, and direction, followed the natural texture of the bone perfectly.

This kind of skill cannot be acquired overnight.

It must have taken countless steps to carve countless lines on countless bones to be able to pinpoint the direction of the bone lines so accurately.

But that wasn't the most shocking thing for him.

After that turn, Zhang Yuan didn't stop, but continued down the bow arm, carving three more lines in one go.

The three lines intertwine with the original sharp lines, forming a larger pattern combination.

He vaguely recognized the combination; he had seen similar patterns in tattered picture books passed down from his ancestors, but he had never seen the complete version.

“This is a power-gathering pattern. This is an armor-piercing pattern. This is a wind-stabilizing pattern.” Zhang Yuan said as he carved, his voice not loud, but every word was clear. “The three patterns and the sharp edge pattern are superimposed, not four times. It’s five times.”

Tuoba Gu slowly stood up.

His legs were weak, and when he stood up, his knuckles trembled as he supported himself on the table.

He stared intently at the four intersecting lines on the bow arm, his eyes unblinking. His lips moved a few times before he finally managed to squeeze out a sentence.

"Could you... let me take a look?"

Zhang Yuan handed him the bow arm.

Tuoba Gu held the bow arm in his hand, turning it over and over to examine it. He then took out a piece of bone that had been ground very thin and placed it on the engraving, feeling the depth of the lines with his fingertips.

He stared at it for a long time, until the sky outside darkened a bit, then he gently placed the bow on the table and looked up at Zhang Yuan.

“I’ve only ever seen four overlapping patterns before, in fragments of maps passed down from my ancestors.”

"Only half of that picture remains, and the lines are blurred. I tried to repair it when I was young, but I haven't been able to do it in forty years."

"Senior Zhang, these four patterns are not ordinary techniques; they are ancient celestial palace battle patterns. How did you know that?"

Zhang Yuan put down his carving knife: "I've seen it in ancient books." (End of Chapter)