The Stone Tablet Bleeds (Part 1)

Inside the dilapidated thatched cottage, Zhang Chen's hands trembled as he repeatedly struck the flint, until finally, a small flame rose from the damp firewood. Zhang Chen quickly picked up the blood-red scripture and threw it into the stove to burn. The orange flames in the stove were now dyed red by the blood-red pages, a terrifying crimson like blood, filled with an ominous aura. It seemed as if faint, cold sneers emanated from the flames.

Only when the pages were completely burned did the flames in the stove return to orange. Then, Zhang Chen looked at the fire in the stove with a look of surprise and uncertainty, a hint of bitterness in his eyes. He said with a mournful face, "Oh, my heavens, how did I encounter such a thing? What a sin!"

He turned his head to look at the little fox, his voice hoarse, "My little ancestor, you're going to kill me. Where did you get this ghostly thing?"

In the room next door, Zhang Chen didn't know that the man and the fox next door were both wearing worried, bitter expressions, staring at each other with helpless eyes. Zhang Chen in the room next door had just opened his eyes today, recalling the events of last night. He sat by the bed, lost in thought, and muttered, "Strange! Strange! It seems it's not so hard to accept that there are fox spirits and other strange things in this world."

Zhang Chen dressed himself in the room, then picked up his Luoyang Shovel and was about to go out. But as soon as he opened the door, Zhang Chen's steps paused involuntarily. There were two dazzling clusters of experience points at the entrance.

Experience Points +150

Experience Points +200

After collecting the experience points, Zhang Chen looked at his golden finger panel:

Name: Zhang Chen

Skill 1 (Tier 2): Light of the Righteous God (0/5000)

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

Points: 2250

"I didn't do anything all night, and I actually gained three hundred and fifty experience points for free. This is enough for a day's hard work in the past." Zhang Chen looked at the golden finger panel, his gaze falling on the second skill, Dragon Qi. In the end, he suppressed the urge to upgrade. For him, specializing in one divine ability was the most important thing. No matter how many low-level skills he had, they wouldn't be as effective as one high-level skill at a critical moment.

"I still need two thousand seven hundred and fifty experience points, and my Light of the Righteous God can be upgraded. I just don't know what incredible power a Tier 3 Light of the Righteous God will have." Zhang Chen recalled the scene from last night. He couldn't even see the appearance of the strange entity clearly, and it was automatically driven away by his Evil-warding Golden Light. It seemed that his Evil-warding Golden Light was ineffective against living people, but it had miraculous effects against these strange entities.

Zhang Chen carried the Luoyang Shovel up the mountain. After checking the traps, today's traps were empty.

"Strange! Could it be that the wind and sand were too strong last night, or that there were strange entities around, which affected the movement of prey?" A thought flashed through Zhang Chen's mind.

However, Zhang Chen ate meat every day, and he could endure not eating breakfast. So he directly carried the Luoyang Shovel to the cave. But he suddenly thought of the snakes buried underground, and a thought suddenly struck Zhang Chen: "I can eat snake meat!"

"But snake meat has a lot of parasites, so forget it." Zhang Chen thought of the damned parasites and the medical level of this world, and directly gave up on this idea.

Zhang Chen entered the cave and went all the way to the Stone Tablet. He saw that there was indeed an extra cluster of experience points under the Stone Tablet.

Discovered Experience Points +200

Zhang Chen's mind moved, and he directly picked up the experience points. Then the golden finger panel refreshed:

Name: Zhang Chen

Skill 1 (Tier 2): Light of the Righteous God (0/5000)

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

Points: 2450

"If this happens a few more times, I can gain more experience points in less than ten days." Zhang Chen looked at the experience points. Now he could be considered to have gained half of what he needed to upgrade his skill.

"Something's not right. Today's Stone Tablet seems a bit off!" Zhang Chen put away the experience points and was about to turn around and continue digging the ancient tomb, but his steps suddenly paused. He looked at the Stone Tablet and saw that the writing on the Stone Tablet was a bit dimmer at this time. Drops of blood were seeping out from the writing on the Stone Tablet, gradually gathering together, turning into a drop of blood, which dripped onto the soil and disappeared without a trace.

"What's going on?" Zhang Chen looked at the blood seeping out from the Stone Tablet and couldn't help but feel his scalp tingle. He took a deep breath, a look of horror in his eyes: "The Stone Tablet is bleeding?"

"Could it be that the blood I smeared yesterday wasn't absorbed?"

Zhang Chen carefully tore off a piece of cloth from his clothes and wiped the bloodstains on the Stone Tablet clean. However, in less than a quarter of an hour, countless characters on the Stone Tablet began to seep out fine, mist-like blood-colored beads again.

"This Stone Tablet is indeed strange. It's like a living thing, it can even bleed." Zhang Chen looked at the Stone Tablet, a look of solemnity in his eyes.

However, he wasn't afraid. This Stone Tablet hadn't harmed him before, so there was no reason for it to harm him now.

"Moreover, according to the text on the Stone Tablet, this Stone Tablet seems to have been dug out by the Emperor from the tomb of a great enemy, right? And it was specifically used as a tombstone for the Emperor's Daughter. No matter how you look at it, it doesn't seem like an ordinary object. It's normal for it to have such abnormalities." Zhang Chen thought about the useful information in his mind. He looked at the blood seeping out from the tombstone, a look of curiosity in his eyes: "I wonder if the blood on this tombstone has any effect."

Zhang Chen thought that he had the protection of the golden light, so he directly stretched out his hand and tried to touch a little of the blood mist.

It was strange to say, as soon as the blood-red mist touched Zhang Chen's skin, it disappeared without a trace, as if it had vanished into thin air.

"Strange?" Zhang Chen withdrew his hand, a look of confusion in his eyes. He didn't notice anything wrong, but it didn't seem to have any benefits either.

"I thought the blood flowing from a strange entity would have some mysterious effect, but it turns out it has no effect at all." Zhang Chen glanced at the blood on the tombstone, immediately losing interest. Then he picked up the Luoyang Shovel and continued his great work of digging the frozen soil.

Until noon, Zhang Chen crawled out of the cave and started looking for traps again. This time he had a good harvest, catching two wild ducks.

Zhang Chen returned to the cave, and without a word, he killed the ducks and sprinkled their blood on the Stone Tablet. As expected, the hot blood poured down and was quickly absorbed by the Stone Tablet. Even the blood that had been constantly seeping out from the Stone Tablet stopped.

"It works!" Zhang Chen looked at the Stone Tablet, which no longer had blood seeping out, a look of surprise in his eyes, and a thoughtful expression: "Feeding on blood, this thing is probably not a proper thing. If it were in a novel, it would definitely be some kind of demonic object."

However, Zhang Chen still chose to perform the blood sacrifice, for no other reason than that the other party gave too much! Maybe it could even give him skills. No matter what its origin was, he would naturally serve it well.