Chapter 57: Chapter 43: Dream of the Dragon Corpse (Part 4)
Just like when Zhang Chen previously spied on the Fox Spirit cooking next door; at that time, the Fox Spirit revealed its form, intentionally allowing him to see it. Later, when the Fox Spirit transported items through the wall, it intentionally concealed its soul form to tease him.
After analyzing the Fox Spirit, Zhang Chen began analyzing his three skills. After much analysis, he was still puzzled. Among his skills, only the first one could suppress the Fox Spirit’s soul. The second skill could control unranked beasts, and the third skill could only control his own blood. It seemed there was indeed no good way to deal with the Fox Spirit.
"Moreover, what I see of the Fox Spirit doesn’t represent all of its skills. This Fox Spirit must have hidden skills. I wonder if my first skill, upon reaching the third tier, can compete with the Fox Spirit," Zhang Chen thought to himself.
His Light of the True God had already rendered the Fox Spirit helpless. If it could be upgraded to the third tier, there might be hope to suppress the Fox Spirit or at least drive it away.
Zhang Chen returned to his house, listening to the clattering of pots and pans coming from next door. He couldn’t help but envy that bookworm Zhang Chen, who seemed to have good fortune. By merely selling off his family’s farmland, he exchanged for a Fox Spirit, which brought him day and night care from Hongxiu Adds Fragrance. This made Zhang Chen envious to the extreme, hating that such fortune hadn’t come his way.
Zhang Chen sat quietly in his room for a while before beginning to wash up for bed. Today’s experience with Wang Wu added to his feeling of urgency, knowing the Fox Spirit threat was ever-present.
"I need to continue digging graves, collecting experience points," Zhang Chen muttered before closing his eyes on the bed, pondering last night’s mysterious dream.
"So the Jade Stele was formed by a hand; that drop of blood was the only remaining vitality. The hand’s owner met a great foe and was slain, then turned into the Jade Stele and buried in the tomb. It’s unknown how many years have passed, yet it still maintains vitality. It records fragments of the past, trying to revive and cause trouble again, truly unbelievable." Zhang Chen was secretly alarmed, his mind whirring with thoughts:
"This world isn’t that simple. I am still very weak; I must continue to develop cautiously, avoiding becoming a target."
Rather than fear, Zhang Chen felt a hint of expectation. He was not afraid of encountering the strange and mysterious. Only with these could he continuously gain experience points and new skills, offering him endless possibilities.
"That’s not right! I seem to have forgotten something important!" Zhang Chen suddenly opened his eyes: "I once saw in my dream how ’the Emperor’ constructed the tomb, its structure and location. This is the most important thing for me!"
Zhang Chen’s heart pounded uncontrollably: "In that grave, not only is the Princess buried, but also a dragon! If I can excavate this, how many experience points would I gain? What earth-defying skills could I acquire?"
Excitement filled Zhang Chen, who carefully recalled the tomb’s structure. Yet, the previous night’s memory was somewhat hazy, obscured by a mysterious unknown force. Even though it appeared in his memory, it was still vague and unclear.
"The Princess’s tomb is not a simple grave. Underneath it lies a grand palace complex spanning ten li. The tombstone is roughly ten meters from the tomb’s barrier! In other words, I’m just three meters away from reaching it, after which I can break through the barrier and obtain the Great Creation inside?" Zhang Chen’s eyes were filled with excitement, near the peak of his emotional state.
"Not far now! Just ten meters, even if it’s a hundred, I must break it open!" Zhang Chen felt a rush of excitement while also pondering: "But why is the area around the tomb encased in ice, emitting such immense cold? There seems to be something unusual about it. Unfortunately, my dream wasn’t complete, and I didn’t fully see the burial process of the Princess, only seeing her being placed inside the tomb while the Emperor mourned her."
Despite the countless thoughts flashing in his mind, Zhang Chen was quite happy, knowing that as long as he continued to bide his time, he wouldn’t worry about advancement in the future, not only having a continuous supply of experience points but also awaiting even more incredible skills.
At an unknown time, Zhang Chen gradually drifted off to sleep, with the Crystal Core inside him faintly flickering. The next moment, countless runes shimmered within the Crystal Core, and a small thread of Qi Mechanism flowed into Zhang Chen’s mind. Soon, he slipped into the Dream Realm once again.
This time, Zhang Chen seemed to dream of himself turning into that hand, quietly buried in the earth unseen by daylight. Time seemed to pass unknowingly, and no one knew how long it lasted. Suddenly, a violent tremor occurred, lasting a long time before everything returned to calm.
At one moment, the hand seemed to discover something, with its blood transforming into strands of red silk, burrowing into the earth’s crevices. Zhang Chen then saw the familiar Dragon Corpse and the pool of blood flowing from it. The red silk, upon encountering the blood, became overjoyed, avidly absorbing the seeped blood, undergoing an inexplicable transformation.
At this moment, the crowing of the chickens outside the house woke Zhang Chen from his sleep. Slowly opening his eyes on the bed, he showed a look of sudden realization:
"I finally understood why I gained the skill: True Dragon Qi from the Jade Stele. The blood in the stele is still alive, having long manipulated the tomb, absorbing strands of Dragon Blood, preserving traces of its true essence!"
"But... something doesn’t seem right. Why did I dream of these things?" Zhang Chen sat up from the bed, a hint of uncertainty crossing his mind, sensing something amiss and feeling unaccountably uneasy.