Midnight Knocking

Zhang Chen happily tied a bundle of explosives around his waist and went up the mountain to search for flint, intending to make fuses from it. Only when the sky gradually darkened did he shoulder the Luoyang Shovel and head out to inspect his traps.

Today's harvest was plentiful: two wild chickens and one unlucky rabbit. Zhang Chen could not help but marvel at how abundant this world was. Rabbits and wild chickens ran everywhere in the mountains, yet the common folk had no hunting skills and simply could not catch them.

Of course, the mountains were not without danger. There were plenty of wolf packs and venomous snakes, but because of the True Dragon Tomb, all snakes had gathered of their own accord around it. As a result, the nearby villagers were rarely harmed by snakes.

Zhang Chen carried the wild chickens home. Surprisingly, the Fox Spirit was nowhere to be seen at the door today, which struck him as rather strange. Why was she running around instead of guarding the entrance?

He casually hung the chickens on the wall. Before Zhang Chen had waited long, movement came from next door. The Fox Spirit appeared, listlessly hugged the chickens, and vanished, utterly lacking her usual liveliness.

"Eh, has this Fox Spirit changed her ways? Why is she wearing that expression today?" Zhang Chen wondered to himself.

He did not dwell on it. He boiled some water in the house, took a sip of hot water, washed up briefly, then lay down to sleep without removing his clothes.

He had explosives on him now and did not dare undress carelessly. If the Fox Spirit snatched them away, things would become troublesome. If she suddenly lit the explosives in the dead of night, he had no power to guard against them.

Inside the great tomb

As the sky steadily darkened and night fell, a plume of black smoke gradually flew out from the Stone Tablet and slipped out of the tomb. After briefly orienting itself, it vanished into the air.

Within the village, the scholar next door had eaten and drunk his fill. He was holding that scroll of Blood-Red Scripture and studying it when the blood-red script suddenly burst forth with streaks of crimson light. Each line seemed to come alive, dyeing the white paper a deep scarlet.

"Eh? Why are these words suddenly glowing?" Scholar Zhang Chen stared at the crimson characters in his hand. Like tongues of flame, they shot out red light and bathed the entire room in scarlet, as though he had been plunged into a sea of blood-red. An ominous air blanketed the room, leaving him dumbstruck.

"Impossible!"

At that moment, Little Fox, who had been lying in a basket nearby, was startled by the strange phenomenon. She abruptly rose and stared at the blood-red words, terror filling her eyes. "Wasn't that ghostly thing always suppressed inside the tomb? How does it have the power to Manifest Saint in the outside world?"

Little Fox sprang up, leaped onto the bed, seized the quilt in her mouth, and flung it directly over the Blood-Red Scripture. Yet every character of the Blood-Red Scripture was a pearl of wisdom, as though it contained some strange power. Its glow pierced straight through the quilt, still radiating ominous red light.

"Damn it! How could this happen? Why are the words copied from the Stone Tablet glowing?" Little Fox's voice was filled with panic. "My Qingqiu Clan is responsible for guarding the Emperor Daughter Tomb, but this has never happened before! I only wanted to dig up a few things to improve my Qingqiu Clan's predicament. How did I stir up such a mess?"

Little Fox was beginning to panic. She pressed her body tightly against the paper, hoping to cover up the blood-red radiance, but just then,

A gust of Black Wind suddenly rose outside the window. It whipped up sand and stones, shrouding the entire village. For a time, the flying sand and rocks made the Thatched Cottage moan and howl.

"Damn it, has some strange power leaked out from the Goddess's tomb?" Panic flashed in Little Fox's eyes.

Just then, the red light on the paper inside the room abruptly went out, and everything fell quiet. Only the boundless gale howled through the night. Scholar Zhang Chen looked at Little Fox pressing down on the scripture, then finally came back to himself. "It seems this scripture is quite extraordinary, to have caused such a phenomenon. There must be a great secret within worth pursuing."

The bookish Zhang Chen relaxed. His eyes fixed on the scripture with a trace of ease as he reached out and placed Little Fox onto the bed beside him.

Zhang Chen had relaxed, but Little Fox had not. Her eyes nervously turned toward the window, and sure enough, red light flickered outside. A blood-red shadow was cast upon the window paper. After making a motion as though crawling up to peer through the window, it flashed away. Then came a knocking at the door.

Knock, knock, knock~

The knocking followed a steady rhythm. Zhang Chen, who had been reading, suddenly raised his head and looked toward the door in surprise. "How strange. Who would knock at the door in the middle of the night?"

"Who is it?" Zhang Chen slowly stood inside the room and called out.

No one outside answered Zhang Chen. The knocking merely continued, making him frown. Someone knocking in the dead of night must have an urgent matter. He rose to open the door, but the instant he stood up, Little Fox suddenly leaped forward and bit down on his trouser leg.

"Eh?" Zhang Chen looked at Little Fox biting his trouser leg, surprise in his eyes. He knew his Little Fox was no ordinary creature and understood human nature exceptionally well. Now she was actually biting his trouser leg to stop him from opening the door, leaving him stunned. Thinking of how it was the dead of night, how the pages had emitted blood-red light, and how knocking had suddenly sounded outside, he froze. Then he instinctively grabbed the inkstone, his face turning pale. He was no fool.

Seeing Zhang Chen stop moving, Little Fox finally released her bite. Her eyes remained fixed on the door, filled with disbelief. How could this be? Why would that monster come for Zhang Chen? Could it be because the words on that tombstone carry the monster's aura?

The knocking outside grew more urgent, like rain beating against banana leaves. Zhang Chen was so frightened that he did not dare breathe loudly, gripping the inkstone tightly in his palm. Little Fox's eyes darted about, and in the next moment, her soul left her body. She directly picked up the document and entered Zhang Chen's house, tossed the document into his room, then turned tail and ran back.

"I hope the strange strength on that bastard's body can scare this ghostly thing away! Otherwise, we'll all be in deep trouble!"

Sure enough, once the document was moved into Zhang Chen's room, the knocking outside stopped. Then footsteps receded into the distance, followed by another round of knocking from Zhang Chen's Thatched Cottage.

"Who is it! Why are you knocking in the middle of the night? I'm not here!" Zhang Chen, still muddled with sleep, heard the urgent knocking and cursed as he shouted. Then he pulled the quilt over his head and continued snoring away.

P.S. I beg everyone to please keep reading daily during the new book period. Once it goes premium, this little author will work like an ox and a horse to repay your great kindness and virtue.

I'm begging you!

"Holy Fist"

Add points and become the God of Martial Arts with the Worldly Saint Fist! How could a mere nuclear bomb compare to my battle-hardened flesh!?