I picked up skill fragments in the demon world

Chapter 45: Conquering the Frozen Earth

At this moment, Zhang Chen suddenly sat up on the bed, his eyes flashing with uneasy light. He stared at the reddening sky, a hint of surprise and uncertainty in his gaze.

"Something's not right! This is too strange! Why am I dreaming about these things? Could it be that by excavating the tomb, I've become entangled with the strangeness within it?"

Dreaming about it once would be one thing, but dreaming about it twice???

Zhang Chen stroked his chin, lost in thought. After a moment, a hint of speculation arose in his mind: "Actually, there's another possibility. I absorbed that drop of blood before, and my body underwent a transformation. Could my dreams be related to that drop of blood?"

Zhang Chen's mind raced with thoughts. After a long while, he tapped his knee absentmindedly. Considering the transformation of his body, the only explanation was likely the change brought about by that drop of blood.

Moreover, the perspective in his dreams was entirely from the point of view of that hand. Therefore, his dream about the mysterious tomb was most likely related to that drop of blood.

"That drop of blood…" Zhang Chen internally examined his own bloodline, his gaze falling upon the crystal core, a hint of apprehension in his eyes: "Could it be that a demon wants to be reborn by borrowing my body? Is it now changing my body, strengthening its physique, in order to bear the power of that hand's resurrection?"

"That's not very likely!" Zhang Chen shook his head, rejecting the possibility. First of all, he had the Light of a True God protecting him. If there were truly any abnormalities, his Light of a True God would not be without any reaction. Secondly, and most importantly, his golden finger had not provided any prompts. Whether it was the crystal core or any changes within him, they were all defined as 'skills' by the golden finger.

Zhang Chen looked at his golden finger interface:

【Name: Zhang Chen】

【Skill 1 (Second Tier): Light of a True God (0/5000)】

【Skill 2 (Unranked): Dragon Qi (0/2000)】

【Skill 3 (Unranked): Blood Control (0/100000)】

【Points: 4690】

"From the previous blood-sucking to the current blood control, that is to say, all the changes in my body are in a state of skill, all caused by the golden finger, and still within the control of the golden finger. Moreover, I have a bloodline connection with that crystal core. I can sense everything about the crystal core, and grasp all its movements. That crystal core is just like my finger. As long as I think about it, it can react." A hint of relief appeared in Zhang Chen's eyes.

"Since it's a change brought about by the golden finger, then there's nothing to worry about! As for my dreams, it must be the influence of the mental fragments brought about by that blood. The crystal core in my body has already undergone a transformation. Within it, there seems to be a drop of mysterious and unfathomable blood. That blood seems to be gestating something, but I can feel that I have a bloodline connection with the blood within the crystal core. That thing within the crystal core is my other incarnation. Moreover, constantly absorbing blood will bring inexplicable benefits to the crystal core."

As he mastered the new skill and continuously understood the structure of his body, Zhang Chen felt that he seemed to have a new understanding of skills in the dark.

"Interesting. I want to see what you can transform into in the end. As long as the level of the Light of a True God in my body can suppress you, even if you really have some strangeness, don't even think about escaping my palm." Zhang Chen made up his mind. In the future, the Light of a True God would be his main skill. He must ensure that the level of the Light of a True God was ahead of all other skills. Even if something went wrong in the future, he could rely on the Light of a True God to turn things around!

Having figured out the key points, Zhang Chen relaxed and began to think about the ancient tomb: "Only ten meters left before I can touch the deeper levels of the ancient tomb? Then I can enter the ancient tomb, and countless good fortunes will unfold before me. That mere fox spirit can be suppressed with a snap of my fingers. For now, I'll be a bit cautious and let that fox spirit have three points."

"Uncle Wang, I can only wrong you!" Zhang Chen silently mourned for Wang Wu for a second, then got out of bed to feed the chickens and prepare breakfast before heading into the mountains to hunt.

Zhang Chen's breakfast was stewed meat. He was currently at an age where his body was growing, and if he didn't get enough nutrition, he would be ruined.

After breakfast, Zhang Chen took a food urn, put the cooked meat into it, and then carried a basket towards the mountains.

The so-called food urn was the ancient version of a lunch box. Rural people used to put water and food in food urns when they went to work in the mountains.

At this time, the sound of reading had already come from next door. Looking at the candlelight reflected on the window paper next door, Zhang Chen couldn't help but sigh that the poor scholar Zhang Chen, although his character wasn't great, his skills in reading and writing were top-notch and he worked hard. The poor scholar Zhang Chen went to bed later than him every day. Sometimes, when Zhang Chen got up to urinate at dawn, the poor scholar was still studying hard. And every day before dawn, when Zhang Chen got up, the poor scholar Zhang Chen must have already gotten up to read.

"This kid is not simple. Just this tenacity is something that ordinary people don't have." Zhang Chen muttered to himself: "I don't know when that Mr. Wu Liu will come back. It would be good for me to go and read and write too, otherwise I will definitely suffer too much."

Walking to the entrance of the village, Zhang Chen stood there and waited for a while, and then he saw Wang Wu, who had lost a circle of weight, appear in his sight.

"Uncle Wang, I brought you breakfast." Zhang Chen stood in the morning light and waved to Wang Wu.

Before Wang Wu got close, his reproachful voice had already sounded: "Didn't I say that I would take care of my own three meals a day from now on? If that monster implicates you because of me and pulls you into the fire pit, it would be terrible."

"I'm not afraid!" Zhang Chen handed over the food urn with a smile.

"Don't bring it next time!" Wang Wu reprimanded Zhang Chen, but he didn't refuse Zhang Chen's kindness. He directly squatted on the ground and started eating.

"Is there really no way to restrain it in this world?" Zhang Chen looked at Wang Wu, who was gobbling down the food, and then looked at the other party's bearded face and disheveled hair, and tentatively asked.

"If you encounter it, you can only admit that you are unlucky!" Wang Wu said unhappily.

Zhang Chen was silent when he heard this, a pensive look in his eyes. He couldn't understand this world. Since there was such a mysterious power as the fox spirit, why wasn't there a legend of demons being slain?

If there were, it must have been passed down in the form of myths and stories. It was impossible for him and Wang Wu not to have heard anything about it.

"Perhaps my horizon is too low, or the probability of encountering the mysterious is too small, so not even a word has been passed down." Zhang Chen muttered to himself.

After Wang Wu finished eating, the two walked towards the mountains together. At this time, Wang Wu walked in front, earnestly exhorting: "You kid must be careful. Stay away from me during this time, and don't bring me food anymore. My life and death are now in the hands of fate, but I, Wang Wu, will never give in! No matter what the other party's origin is, I, Wang Wu, will never give in!"

Wang Wu was an old hunter who had taken lives his entire life. He held the power of life and death over wild animals, and naturally possessed a fierce aura.

Zhang Chen followed behind Wang Wu, smiling, and said, "Uncle, what are you saying? We are family, so why speak like outsiders? If it weren't for you back then, I would have starved to death long ago."

Hearing Zhang Chen's words, Wang Wu shook his head: "It's different. You are still young and have a better future. I can't drag you into this. Besides, if we old men both die, who will bury us? There won't even be anyone to send us off."

Listening to Zhang Chen's words, Wang Wu's voice contained an indescribable obsession, as if he was particularly concerned about being buried after death.

This was probably the knot in the hearts of the older generation.

Zhang Chen couldn't dissuade Wang Wu, but he was determined to do things his own way. Even if the fox spirit retaliated against him, it would only make life a little harder. He absolutely couldn't let Wang Wu starve to death.

Zhang Chen and Wang Wu parted ways. He first went to the cave to feed the bumblebees. Watching the gradually forming honeycomb, a smile appeared on Zhang Chen's face: "When I raise millions of bumblebees in the future, and they swarm out at my command, even an army of thousands will have to retreat."

Of course, Zhang Chen knew that it was unrealistic to raise millions of bumblebees with his unranked Beast Mastery skill, but he always had to set a small goal for himself, in case he could really achieve it?

The sound of a whistle echoed through the wilderness, and the peregrine falcon took flight, soaring straight into the clouds, enjoying its freedom. Zhang Chen carried a basket on his back to check the traps. After checking a dozen traps, Zhang Chen summarized the day's harvest: two pheasants, one wild duck, and two rabbits.

"Rabbits are rampant in this world, almost becoming a disaster. It's a pity that rabbit meat isn't filling and actually makes you hungrier the more you eat it. Otherwise, it would be a good staple food," Zhang Chen muttered to himself.

Rabbit meat tastes great, and it's all lean meat, but the only pity is that rabbit meat will only make you hungrier the more you eat it. If you only eat rabbit meat, you will starve to death.

"Also, I still haven't found a suitable bowstring for my slingshot. It's not easy to find suitable slingshot rubber bands these days. I can only wait until my skills improve and I can hunt large beasts and extract their tendons to make rubber bands," Zhang Chen muttered before heading towards the deep mountains and old forests, starting his daily honey-gathering routine.

Finding a place with blooming flowers, Zhang Chen didn't hesitate to activate his Beast Mastery skill, starting to capture the bees in the air and ordering them to collect honey for him.

After only an hour, Zhang Chen stopped collecting honey, and then looked at the honey in the jar with a pair of eyes, finding that it was actually less than before.

"I forgot that there is a season for honey collection. Once the honey-collecting season is over, when the flowers fall and bear fruit, there will naturally be no honey to collect. But although I understand this principle, I can't change it, because I only have one hour of Beast Mastery time each day," Zhang Chen shook his head: "My worries are a bit superfluous. All I can do is capture as many bees as possible in a suitable location each day and find a larger flower cushion."

Zhang Chen looked at the honey in the jar and carefully covered it with gauze. Honey cannot be sealed after it is picked. It must be dried first to evaporate the moisture before leaving behind honey that will not rot.

If it were in a beehive, hundreds or thousands of bees would gather together and flap their wings to evaporate the moisture in the honey, but Zhang Chen didn't have that convenience and could only rely on natural evaporation.

"Next is excavating the ancient tomb. There are still ten meters left, and I should be able to reach the real barrier of the ancient tomb. If I can break through the gate and rush in, I will make a fortune. Don't say it's only ten meters of frozen soil, even if it's a hundred meters, a thousand meters, or ten thousand meters, I will dig through it," Zhang Chen carried his tools into the tomb and then picked up a chisel and hammer to start chiseling the frozen soil.

"Speaking of which, I'm very curious, why is there frozen soil here? This is completely illogical," Zhang Chen felt the numbness in his palms and frowned slightly, realizing that something was wrong.

This frozen soil was obviously not ordinary frozen soil, and its icy properties were not ordinary ice.

"Could it be that some mysterious power leaked out from the ancient tomb, causing the frozen soil here?" Zhang Chen speculated in his heart: "Because of the leakage of mysterious power, a large amount of experience points will be dropped."

"Interesting," Zhang Chen thought thoughtfully. He remembered the vibration in his dream. The ancient tomb had obviously experienced a vibration, and then the jade tablet was able to absorb the blood of the True Dragon.

"From the burial of the tomb until now, I don't know how many years have passed. The changes in the Earth's plates and the transformation of the sea are normal. It's a pity that my dream wasn't complete. I only saw a part of the scene intermittently. I roughly know the structure of the tomb, but I don't know what arrangements are inside," Zhang Chen sighed. After all, he was seeing a part of the content from the third perspective of the blood, not from the perspective of the man who mysteriously arranged the tomb.

Zhang Chen was chiseling vigorously, but after chiseling for half a day, he had to run out to bask in the sun to dispel the cold air in his body.

"At this rate, I'm afraid it will take three to five years to chisel open these last ten meters of frozen soil. Chiseling at this rate won't work. I have to think of a way," Zhang Chen looked at the big sun in the sky, lazily slumped on the sand, feeling that the coldness in his body had completely dissipated.

Zhang Chen had two ideas in his mind. The first was to improve his skill level and see if he could unlock any powerful skills to speed up the excavation progress. The second was to burn wood in the tunnel every day before going back, and after a night of roasting, even if the frozen soil didn't melt, it would definitely be affected and speed up his chiseling.

"So I have to add tasks now," Zhang Chen stopped resting and instead picked up his axe, wandering around the mountains, starting to look for suitable dead wood and branches, collecting them and bringing them back to the underground cave.

"If I weren't afraid that the gunpowder would collapse the cave, I would definitely use gunpowder to blow up the frozen soil directly," Zhang Chen muttered while cutting down trees in the mountains.

For him, excavating the frozen soil was not the goal. The goal was to collect experience points. If the frozen soil collapsed, it would really be a big trouble. He would have to clean up the soil again, which would increase the amount of work. Zhang Chen was a smart person and would never do such a stupid thing.

ps: Sorry, I forgot to split it today. Let's give you a chapter.