Jiang Xuan didn’t feel any recoil at all; in fact, he felt almost nothing.
“So you’re this weak after all!”
Jiang Xuan let out a cold chuckle, his mind greatly settled.
Over the past year, he had fled from zombies and Skeletons countless times.
This time, he finally had the chance to strike back.
The torch illuminated the surrounding space.
Under the dim light, Jiang Xuan clearly saw where the Skeleton was positioned.
It was a large open space inside the cavern.
To the left and right of the cavern were two separate tunnels, pitch-black, with no telling where they led.
However, Jiang Xuan estimated that in a cavern of this scale backed by a mountain, there would be mob spawners deep inside.
Choosing the wrong direction could easily lead to trouble.
Alone, he wouldn’t be afraid—at worst, he could just dig down three blocks and place one above his head anytime.
He could even expand the space below, bring out a bed, and sleep.
But doing so with Ganyu and Keqing present wouldn’t work.
They would probably have to stop here for today and wait until they were fully prepared before exploring further.
However, now was not the time to think about such things.
Jiang Xuan kept his eyes fixed on the Skeleton.
Once he confirmed there were no other monsters around, he immediately launched a charge.
The Skeleton swiftly shot another arrow, but Jiang Xuan merely raised his shield with ease, blocking the attack effortlessly.
The Skeleton’s attack frequency wasn’t very high.
Taking advantage of the interval, Jiang Xuan closed the distance.
With a heavy, powerful slash of his sword, the Skeleton was knocked airborne.
Upon landing, the Skeleton raised its bow again, intending to shoot Jiang Xuan.
However, Jiang Xuan pushed off with one foot, leaping into the air for a powerful overhead strike.
As he landed, he followed up with several rapid horizontal slashes.
The Skeleton collapsed straight onto the ground.
A flash of ash swept by, dropping a bone.
Jiang Xuan felt a bit of regret.
Still, spiders weren’t hard to run into anyway; at worst, he could just go out for a walk tonight.
Scanning the surroundings to confirm no other monsters were present, Jiang Xuan first went to check the two tunnels.
One was dead silent, but had a steep vertical drop, making it impossible to explore very deep even with a torch.
The other faintly echoed with the grinding of bones and the growls of zombies.
Evidently, there were plenty of monsters there.
Decisively, Jiang Xuan took out some dirt blocks and sealed off the cave entrance.
Sealing it with dirt prevented monsters from getting out while making it easy to distinguish from the surrounding stone.
Jiang Xuan was determined to fully explore this cavern before doing anything else.
It was close to the village.
With later planning, he could encompass this area within the village boundary.
For the early game, the resources of a single cavern were enough for his needs.
Having handled all this, Jiang Xuan didn’t have time to inspect whether there were ores nearby.
He called out toward the rear:
“It’s safe! Come on over!”
With that, Jiang Xuan picked up the bone from the ground.
This scene was witnessed by Keqing and Ganyu as they walked over.
The two had clearly seen what the Skeleton looked like earlier—it was a literal skeleton.
The bone it dropped was undoubtedly its own.
The bone of a humanoid skeleton… just thinking about it made them feel nauseated.
Suppressing her discomfort, Keqing frowned and said, “Jiang Xuan, why are you picking up that bone? It’s so disgusting.”
Disgusting?
Jiang Xuan looked at Keqing with an amused expression and said softly, “Don’t think this thing is disgusting; it’s actually extremely useful.”
“Useful?”
Ganyu patted her chest, feeling a bit sick to her stomach.
“No matter how you look at it, that thing shouldn’t be usable, right?”
Jiang Xuan gestured helplessness with his hands.
“In a way, bones are much more important than coal ore. Bones can not only be used to tame the wolves of this world…”
“They can also be ground into bone meal. The effects of bone meal are beyond imagination.”
“The most powerful use is applying it as fertilizer!”
Hearing this, Ganyu and Keqing felt even more nauseated.
Seeing their reaction, Jiang Xuan couldn’t help but laugh, “The instant ripening effect of bone meal isn’t as weak as you think. Put it this way: as long as you plant a seed and use bone meal, you can make the newly planted seed mature instantly.”
“Ignoring the time factor and taking effect immediately. Do you still think bone meal is bad now?”
Ganyu and Keqing were astonished by the miraculous effect of bone meal.
However, having seen so many oddities in this world, they weren’t as deeply shocked as before.
“If that’s really the case, bone meal is indeed crucial to us. Perhaps Liyue will bid farewell to food shortages once and for all because of this.”
“It deserves our focused attention…”
Keqing looked at Jiang Xuan thoughtfully, but after a moment, she frowned again and said, “Still, it’s really disgusting…”
“The monsters in this world are too strange… Even skeletons can attack people?”
“If Hall Master Hu found out, she would definitely rush over in a fury, shouting that she needs to uphold the balance between life and death.”
Hearing Keqing say this, Jiang Xuan also burst into laughter.
What Keqing said actually made a lot of sense.
When Hu Tao eventually saw the zombies, skeletons, and wraiths of this world…
She would almost certainly clamor to open a branch of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor here to maintain the balance of yin and yang.
Perhaps…
Hu Tao might even become an anti-Wither warrior.
Ganyu didn’t pay too much mind to the monster.
Once her feeling of nausea subsided, she began surveying the surrounding area.
In the dim light, Ganyu faintly spotted a patch of wall with a whitish tint.
Immediately, Ganyu walked over out of curiosity.
Taking a closer look—
Ganyu was overjoyed and immediately turned around to shout, “Jiang Xuan! Come quick! I found a huge amount of Iron Ore!”
15.
The First Step to Wealth: Iron Ingots!