Chapter 60.

Back at home, nothing else happened on the way.

Zhou An sat in the house and lit the oil lamp in the room.

Looking at the dim flame on the oil lamp, he fell into deep thought.

It was still that saying, strength was the hard standard in this world.

Everything else is just empty stuff.

With strength, all conspiracies and tricks are just empty talk.

No matter how many fancy things there were, when they came, one punch would dry him out.

Zhou An had carefully sorted through his skills, and he found that what he lacked the most right now, should be a defense skill.

It was true that the Swimming Dragon Steps could dodge attacks, but that was only a body technique.

If one day he was unlucky, or accidentally got hit, when the time came, without a defense skill, the physical body was vulnerable.

Even if you play a game, you know that a boss with high offense and low defense, the tolerance rate is extremely low.

Therefore, defense skills in the opinion of Zhou An, is currently the first choice.

But in the current view, how to raise defense was the most crucial.

His golden finger came from life skills.

If he wanted to obtain defense type skills, he could only liver proficiency through life skills as well.

“When I first designed the game, I should have designed a cultivation game.” Zhou An thought.

He tapped his fingers on the desktop, making snatching sounds as he thought about having defense-type abilities in his mind.

After thinking for about half an hour, there were two options in Zhou An’s mind.

The first one was to enhance defense through external objects.

There would be many methods for this kind of enhancement, the simplest being the skill of iron smithing.

Blacksmithing could cast armor or other defensive type items to boost one’s defense. However, this ability had a flaw.

Not only did he not have the time right now, but he didn’t have the tools.

The second one was to raise one’s own defense, this was a bit easier compared to the first one, but it also had some shortcomings.

The first one boosted more than just defense, it could also build various tools, while the second one was slightly more one-dimensional.

Zhou An stood up and walked back and forth, thinking about which option to use to boost his defense.

The entire room was illuminated by firelight, with only Zhou An’s footsteps ringing out.

After walking for roughly another pillar of incense, Zhou An finally finalized his plan.

-Still choosing the first one.

The first method was a bit more troublesome, but it wasn’t very troublesome, as long as one found the time, one could still squeeze it in.

For the tools and those things, there was absolutely no need to worry about them by oneself, there were naturally ways to do it when the time came.

Most importantly, the first option was able to enhance more.

Let’s say one wanted a good knife and a good pot, it could also be upgraded through the first option.

Another thing was that Zhou An currently didn’t think of exactly what life skill to use to be able to directly and purely boost defense.

He would go for it when he thought of it in the future.

Thinking about this, Zhou An relaxed a bit inside.

After upsetting the pot for a while and practicing the Dragon Walk for a while, he went to bed early.

The next day.

Zhou An woke up early.

First, he practiced the Dragon Steps in the house for a while before going out to have breakfast and going to the Yamen to report for duty.

There was a depressing atmosphere in the yamen.

Everyone knew that something big had happened again recently, and that Magistrate Chen’s temper was very bad.

After all, when something like this happened near the inspection, it would be like this for anyone.

Zhou An didn’t care about this, he chatted with Yu Hang for a while before heading to the kitchen to turn the pot upside down and cut the vegetables.

Proficiency has increased a lot more, until the noon time meal, Zhou An did not stop at the government office, but directly on the street.

The people didn’t know what was going on, but went on with their lives as usual.

Life goes on, no matter how much suffering they encounter, people always have to move forward.

Zhou An didn’t wander in the street, but found a blacksmith store.

In An Ding County, there were not many blacksmith stores, but there were still a few.

Zhou An found the one closest to the government office and walked in.

Most of what blacksmith stores like the ones in Anding County sold were agricultural tools.

After all, in such a small county, there weren’t many jianghu people patronizing it, so selling weapons would be purely smashing one’s own rice bowl.

The blacksmith store is divided into two parts, outside is a counter, specializing in selling agricultural tools here.

Inside, on the other hand, was the place where iron was made.

When Zhou An approached, he could faintly hear some clanking sounds.

The fellows on the counter were sleeping soundly, a bit of laziness when there was no business, that was the ultimate goal of a beater.

A hitman who doesn’t touch the fish, isn’t that getting paid for nothing?

When Zhou An walked to the counter, the fellow was still awake, he could only knock on the desktop.

The fellow didn’t sleep much and woke up after hearing the knocking sound and rubbed his eyes.

Upon seeing Zhou An in his constable’s uniform, he immediately changed his face.

“Sir, what are you …… doing?”

Regardless of how low the constable’s establishment was, it was at least an establishment, and it was a normal situation to meet like an ordinary citizen and call out your lord.

“I want to meet your boss.” Zhou An said.

This kind of small county blacksmith was the boss, and that was the purpose of Zhou An’s trip.

The fellow didn’t know what Zhou An meant, but the Sheriff Lord had said so, and he, a little old man’s didn’t dare to refuse, and hurriedly came out from the counter and led Zhou An to the inner courtyard.

Zhou An didn’t say anything and followed behind to walk into the courtyard.

Just as he entered the inner courtyard, he was attracted by the situation in the inner courtyard.

There were only a few rooms inside the inner courtyard, and inside one of them, the clanking sound was the loudest.

The fellow led him to the door, and Zhou An felt a heat wave coming from it.

Inside the house, there was a burly middle-aged man, holding an iron poker in one hand and a hammer in the other, constantly striking the iron blocks above.

The furnace, the flame, and the scorching heat wave carried a sizzling heat that was visible to the naked eye.

The middle-aged blacksmith also heard the footsteps, and when he saw Zhou An, his face was filled with doubt and he put down the work in his hands.

The fellow hurriedly walked forward and told him what happened.

The middle-aged blacksmith’s face was slightly hesitant, and after letting the fellow leave, he then walked over.

“My lord, what is it that you came over for this time?”

Zhou An smiled, didn’t nag, and went straight to the point: “I want to learn how to make iron.”

The middle-aged blacksmith was stunned, expressing great confusion.

He couldn’t figure out why a constable would come to learn ironworking.

Zhou An said, “You don’t have to think too much, you only need to teach me some introductory means, after I learn it, I’ll cover your field here, and if there’s anything you need to do, you can come directly to the Yamen to find me.”

This was the first time Zhou An exercised his special means.

The identity of a constable could also deter many people in Anding County.

Zhou An was not using these means to oppress the people, but it didn’t stop him from seeking something he wanted, let’s say now.

He was a man of his word, and he would not use his power to oppress people.

If the blacksmith agreed, he would do his part as long as he was in Anding County.

If he didn’t agree, he would think of other ways.

All for the sake of living, there was no need to make things difficult for each other.

When the middle-aged blacksmith heard this, his eyes lit up slightly.