Shen Yan asked someone to carry a bunch of stones back, which made a group of people look puzzled.
What is even more puzzling is that Shen Yan smashed the stone into powder with a hammer and cooked it in a pot.
"It doesn't smell good either?"
"I've never heard that stones can be eaten if cooked."
The children of Locust Cub looked worried.
Until Zhao Kuo came back, the two trucks of cloth had sold well recently, and Zhao Kuo exchanged all the money for food.
"Commander, this is serious, there is something wrong with Shen Yan's brain."
"Today we encountered a corpse crawling out of the sewer. Is Shen Yan infected?"
They were close at that time, and the people who joined in the fun died quickly. Although the aberration was killed, the mental infection was as likely to be transmitted to those present as a disease.
The locust cub took several children and told Zhao Kuo everything about what happened today.
Once mentally infected, people's behavior will become abnormal, distorted or abnormal, showing some incomprehensible strange behaviors, such as suicide, madness, or hurting others.
Isn't Shen Yan a bit abnormal in their eyes? Who can boil stones?
Zhao Kuo walked over and pressed Shen Yan against the wall.
Shen Yan was stunned. He was boiling his baking soda, but when Zhao Kuo came over, he fixed his hands to the wall and opened his eyes to look at them.
The eyes of infected people will gradually turn gray and have obvious symptoms.
Shen Yan was now like a chicken being pressed against the wall, so dazed that he didn't know how to react for a moment.
Zhao Kuo: "Have you had any auditory hallucinations, such as hearing strange whispers, murmurs, or curses?"
"Ever seen visions that are incomprehensible? Images that are frightening, bizarre, or darkly pleasurable."
He also pushed it with his thigh to see if Shen Yan's strength had increased.
Shen Yan's face turned red. Zhao Kuo's body was so strong that he felt like he had no choice but to be conquered.
He quickly said: "Put me down, I'm fine."
Zhao Kuo: "Then... why are you boiling stones?"
Shen Yan took a deep breath: "I'll just boil some baking soda. Do you know about baking soda? Expanding powder."
"..."
Although I didn't understand it.
But his speech was clear and clear, his eyes were bright, not gray, and there was no sign of any distortion or abnormality.
Once an infected person is stimulated by the outside world, they will basically lose control and behave extremely crazy, as if they are a completely different person.
Only then did Zhao Kuo let go: "Next time you do something strange like this, let me know in advance."
Shen Yan thought to himself, what strange thing is Xiao Su planning?
Enduring the pain in his thigh: "Does it need to be so exaggerated?"
Zhao Kuo hesitated for a moment and said, "It's not necessarily a bad thing."
After speaking, he continued: "Do you know why every time you use a holy weapon, the heroic spirit you call out lasts for a very short time?"
This book was also one of Shen Yan's doubts, and he asked: "Why?"
We are all human, why should he be so short!
Zhao Kuo: "The length of time the heroic spirit stays depends on the strength of the mercenary itself."
"The strength of a mercenary depends on two things. First, a strong body. You probably can't get enough of this."
The corners of Shen Yan's mouth twitched, who was he looking down on? When he pulled up his sleeves, he also...had some muscles that couldn't be seen clearly.
But looking at Zhao Kuo's ridiculously tall body and the muscular lines hidden under his clothes, it's better not to humiliate himself. There is a beast sleeping in the other person's body. Inside his body, he is at most a little rabbit. .
Zhao Kuo: "The second reason why mercenaries are powerful depends on the strength of their souls."
"Whether you are physically strong or not can basically be judged with the naked eye based on some characteristics of the body and traces of exercise."
"The strength of the soul is invisible to the naked eye, but there are also standard training methods."
"We call the way of exercising the strength of the soul the "revelation ceremony". The so-called "revelation ceremony" is to constantly approach pollutants and pollute elements, so that the spirit is constantly infected, thereby being strengthened again and again."
"Pollution is a revelation to the soul, dangerous but also fascinating."
Shen Yan opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to say. He took the initiative to infect again and again? You must know that mental contamination can lead to madness and death, and the mortality rate is very high.
Zhao Kuo said the most classic saying of mercenaries: "Sometimes, mercenaries are not not strong enough, but they do not have the courage to become strong."
No one can guarantee the safety of the "revelation ceremony". In other words, every time a mercenary approaches a pollutant and allows the pollutant to infect and strengthen the soul, it is a life-or-death choice.
Not everyone has the courage to face life and death choices again and again.
The path of becoming a powerful mercenary is too dangerous and requires unimaginable will and courage.
Zhao Kuo thought for a while and said: "I heard from Locust Cubs that your heroic spirit did not deal with the aberrations you encountered today?"
He was relieved to let Shen Yan go around because Shen Yan had a heroic spirit by his side. There is a saying in the mercenary city that there are two kinds of people in the mercenary city that should not be messed with. One is children, because they represent a mercenary group. Bottom line, one is a mercenary with a heroic spirit. A mercenary with a weak body may be able to summon an unimaginably powerful heroic spirit. A mercenary with a heroic spirit does not care about life and death in order to become strong. It is very terrifying to fight for one's life. Such mercenaries are sometimes more terrifying than infected monsters.
But Zhao Kuo didn't expect that Shen Yan didn't even know the most basic way to use the heroic spirit.
Shen Yan became interested: "Which mutant is the weakest? There are arrows stuck in its head, but it can't be killed."
Zhao Kuo: "...Actually, with the power of your heroic spirit, you can kill it with one arrow."
"You need to use the "enchantment ritual" to attach the power of the soul to the arrows of the heroic spirit."
Shen Yan listened very carefully, because the world was too dangerous, and he needed to master some self-protection abilities as soon as possible. This was also the first time he got to know real mercenaries completely.
The foundation of mercenary service includes three major rituals.
The first is the Linyuan ritual, which uses a sacred instrument to transmit your voice into Mengyuan, so that the heroic spirit in Mengyuan can hear your voice and respond to the call.
Second, the revelation ceremony is a way for mercenaries to seek death and exercise their soul power. They let pollutants infect their souls and give soul enlightenment. They are infected again and again, and then try to become stronger on the edge of death.
Third, the enchantment ritual is a method of attaching soul power to the weapons of heroic spirits.
Monsters infected by pollutants are difficult to kill using physical methods, and only their bodies are destroyed.
What can directly harm them is the power of the soul.
Therefore, the battle of mercenaries is not only the battle of summoned heroic spirits, but also includes the powerful factors of the mercenaries themselves.
Shen Yan thought to himself, so Zhao Kuo said that it was not necessarily a bad thing that he encountered the aberrant body today. This was because he might have performed a "revelation ceremony."
The success of the "Revelation Ceremony" is very simple. As long as you don't go crazy and die after being infected, you can survive.
It is indeed an invisible and intangible force, but it is not impossible to quantify. For example, the duration of calling the heroic spirit can quantify the strength of the soul's power.
There was so much information obtained today that Shen Yan had to spend time digesting it, and even the progress of boiling baking soda was slowed down.
Zhao Kuo: "These basic things are also recorded in books. I happen to have a book like this. You can read it yourself when you are free."
"The book comes from the abyss and is very useful. The Mercenary City will also customize some customized books privately."
Zhao Kuo spent a long time flipping through it before finding this dusty book in the cellar.
Shen Yan took it with a happy face. Looking at the production process, it seemed a bit rough and the paper was a little hard.
As soon as he opened it, Shen Yan's face dropped immediately because he found that he couldn't read.
This writing is crooked, what does it say?
He was an intellectual after all, but here he became an illiterate who didn't even know a word.
Zhao Kuo: "This is the common language of mankind, one of the three major human language families. If you can't understand it, I will help you find the Abyssal or Eldar text version."
Shen Yan: "..."
It doesn't help, he probably can't understand it.
Shen Yan was so angry that he went to bed and went to bed. He had failed in his studies. He didn't know how long it would take to learn Chinese characters again, and he had to learn three subjects at once.
…
The next day, Shen Yan continued to boil his baking soda.
This thing is not easy to make because it contains a lot of impurities and other metal elements. Metals should not be eaten randomly. If you eat too much, you will be poisoned.
The locust cub ran over with a few children: "Someone died again, another person died in the city."
Then he waited expectantly for Shen Yan to ask.
Shen Yan: "Did you die very strangely again?"
In a city, it is normal for people to die every day, and if the locust cubs come non-stop to tell them, there must be something strange.
He still remembered that a person drowned in the washbasin last time. It was speculated that he died of madness after being infected by pollutants.
The Locust Cubs nodded their heads like chickens pecking at rice: "This time this person strangled himself to death."
Shen Yan's first reaction was, how is this possible?
It is impossible for a person to strangle himself to death.
Whether it is self-protection awareness or a person in a dizzy state due to lack of oxygen, he will directly let go, and at most he will be on the verge of death.
Locust Cub: "Many mercenaries have rushed to the city, taking the opportunity to conduct the "revelation ceremony."
Shen Yan felt hot, why not go and see it himself?
Of course, he still felt a little guilty and asked, "Where is your commander?"
Locust Cub: "I rushed here to watch the fun. I guess all the corpses have been buried by now. People infected by pollutants will 100% turn into aberrations after death and must be buried in the ground."
…
At this time, Zhao Kuo was bending down to inspect the dead body.
There were no signs of attack on the deceased. There was a pinch mark on his neck. The location of the pinch mark turned purple due to blood coagulation, which was very obvious.
There were no signs of struggle.
However, the expression of the deceased was very happy, as if he had experienced some indescribable joy when he died.
His face was a little distorted with pleasure.
The eyes are gray and white occupying all the positions of the eye sockets.
Weird and extraordinary events.
It can basically be concluded that it is an abnormal death due to mental infection.
But the source contaminants still could not be found.
…
Shen Yan originally wanted to take advantage of the courage to attend the "revelation ceremony", but the locust cub said that the corpses were probably buried.
"Hey, I missed the opportunity to become stronger by sleeping in."
He didn't know whether he was disappointed or happy, but he actually started to think about himself with the thinking of a mercenary.
In the next few days, Shen Yan tried to boil baking soda. The physical cooking method seemed simple, but it was extremely time-consuming.
It takes a long time just to dry the mixture.
In the past few days, there have been a few new tables and benches, and business seems to have improved a lot.
Sometimes there are several people sitting at one table. The mercenaries must have eaten their noodles, returned to the mercenary group, and came back again with their friends in the group.
The utilization rate of the table has increased.
As the reputation of the noodle stall at the gate of the city grew, business was booming, and the members of the Tiger and Leopard Mercenary Group seemed to be laughing a lot more.
"If this continues, we will have enough food for this year."
Several children were too happy to stop: "Eat noodles every day."
At this time, Aunt Dong suddenly came back from outside with an anxious look on her face.
Shen Yan looked at the sky and wondered, isn't it the time to sell noodles?
Aunt Dong is looking for Zhao Kuo.
Shen Yan asked, "What's wrong?"
Aunt Dong patted her chest before speaking: "Someone also set up a stall at the gate of the city and started selling noodles."
"It's right opposite our stall."
"The price is one copper dove less than ours."
If that were the case, it wouldn't make Aunt Dong so angry that she couldn't speak, but because...
"The people setting up the stall are from the Iron-Blooded Mercenary Group."
Shen Yan: "..."
The city of mercenaries was so big that it was hard to set up a stall, so they went all the way from the upper city to the lower city and placed it opposite them, and the price was even cheaper than a copper dove.
Is this done deliberately to cause trouble and make people feel uncomfortable?
To put it seriously, it can even end your life.
I'm afraid this matter may not be that simple, because of the relationship between Zhao Kuo and the Iron-Blooded Mercenary Group?
Shen Yan took another look at the baking soda he had brewed.
It's a coincidence that he originally thought that making noodles was too simple. He could figure out how to make noodles by observing or trying more, so it was impossible to start a separate business.
They didn't expect this moment to come so quickly. They didn't make any money from the noodles. With such a small number of people, they couldn't spread their fame quickly.
The corners of Shen Yan's mouth rose, and the muzzle of the gun came.
