Chronicles of Primordial Wars

Chapter 15 – He’s always up to something, just like you

Translated by Sunyancai

Shao Xuan lifted the curtain and walked inside, followed by Caesar. However, Caesar dared not relax or bump into anything.

Last time when he sniffed on something, that he was curious about, he got clamped on his nose once he accidentally touched it. Even with all his efforts, he could not tear it off with his paws, instead, the more he struggled, the tighter the clamp became.

Even though Shao Xuan came to his rescue soon and helped him remove the clamp, it hurt like hell for days. Ever since then, Caesar would always behave well when he followed Shao Xuan in here. And he would only stay with Shao Xuan with no extra curiosity.

Ke’s house was relatively larger than the others’ and was around a hundred square meters. In the room there were different kinds of stoneware, from daily-use stone cups and bowls, to hunting tools such as stone knives and spearheads. Also the tools were in different materials. Some of them were made from buckhorns or animal bones, and some were made from ordinary stones only. However, most of the tools were combinations of the former two materials, as composite type tools. The warriors in the tribe used mostly the composite type ones.

After glancing at the tools hanging on the wall, Shao Xuan looked away and went straight into the small room that Ke used to polish his stoneware.

Gray haired old Ke sat there still. Because he dealt with stones all day long, so all his animal skin clothes were covered with a layer of white stone powder. His hands, that he was using to hold the stoneware, now were stained with a layer of gray.

Ke fixed his eyes on the stoneware which he was still working on, and did not move his eyesight because of Shao Xuan’s entry, as if the whole world had disappeared besides the stoneware in his hands.

Knowing Ke’s character, Shao Xuan directly took out his animal skin bag and fetched those two stones as he handed them to Ke.

“Uncle Ke, could you please help me make two stone knives or daggers?”

The stones Shao Xuan took out could merely be made into short knives or daggers because of their limited length.

Ke stopped what he was working on and raised his head to take a look at the stones Shao Xuan passed on to him. Then he glimpsed at the two fish Shao Xuan brought and said, “Yes, one fish.” He meant that he could make the daggers for him and it would cost him only one fish.

“You must keep those two. The other one is my gift, in order to express our gratitude to your kindness for the past six months!”

Every time when Shao Xuan collected the stones, he would bring them to Ke’s place and do the trading. At first Shao Xuan was unfamiliar with all this stuff and he had brought Ke some not-so-fine stones, but still, Ke gave him food anyway. Later on Shao Xuan knew how to identify stones of different levels, so then he recalled and realized about Ke’s intention to help, because how could someone deal with stones and stoneware everyday and not know the difference between fine stones and normal stones?

Although Ke was a man who always wore a straight face, giving others a sense of alienation, he did help Shao Xuan a lot. What’s more, Shao Xuan had seen Ge, who was in charge of food delivery, come to visit Ke the other day, and the way they talked obviously indicated that they were pretty close to each other. So Shao Xuan guessed that perhaps this stoneware crafter was the true reason that Ge put Shao Xuan in charge of the orphan cave after Ku had left.

Ke frowned and before he could talk, Shao Xuan pulled out a small stone knife and handed to Ke, “Uncle Ke, please take a look at this stone knife that I myself made the other day.”

The stone Shao Xuan used to make this stone knife was not of good quality. In the eyes of a stoneware craftsman, perhaps it could merely be considered as an inferior one, barely better than those stones in the gravel yard. Surely it was not difficult to polish or craft, and Shao Xuan spent three days working on it.

Ke took over the stone knife and looked at it, as he brushed the knife with his fingers covered by stone powders. At last, he pointed at the spot about one-third away from the handle, and said, “This part is no good.”

Shao Xuan knew that experienced stoneware crafters could tell the strengths and weaknesses with one simple glimpse. And Ke was just pointing out and informing Shao Xuan, about the biggest problem about his knife.

Why should he only mention the biggest problem?