Ran Half a Meter!

The wounds could heal, but too much flesh had been lost; it would never grow back.

However, Zhang Chen was not anxious. As he acquired more and more skills in the future, and even stacked skill points onto them, his Blood Drain would one day reach the realm of Flesh Derivation.

Looking at the scar on his palm, Zhang Chen had gained a real understanding of the limits of his skills.

So long as the injury was not fatal, his skills could restore him.

"Of course, I can get hurt in the future, but I absolutely cannot lose flesh. Otherwise, once the flesh falls away, it won't grow back," Zhang Chen thought to himself.

"Even so, this skill is still utterly heaven-defying. As long as my head isn't pierced and I don't lose consciousness, even if my heart is stabbed through, I should probably still have a chance of surviving!" Zhang Chen was not entirely certain. He tossed the rabbit's corpse onto the ground, then raised his head to look at the hawk. "This beast is fierce indeed! But it's my first time dealing with a hawk, so getting hurt was unavoidable. Next time, if I find animal hides and make some protective gear, I won't have to fear its attacks."

Zhang Chen did not dare bring the hawk home. Instead, he left it in the cave, casually sliced off some rabbit meat and tossed it into the cage, then turned and left.

Hawks were difficult to tame, and Zhang Chen did not have the time to train one by keeping it awake.

When he returned home, the two muntjacs he had hunted yesterday were still lying on the ground. The light in their large eyes had dimmed considerably; being tied up for a whole day had clearly not been pleasant.

"Has the Fox Spirit next door changed her ways? Why didn't she take the muntjacs?" Zhang Chen looked at the muntjacs tied to the ground, surprise flashing through his eyes. He took out a rope and tied a Pig Hoof Knot, then led the muntjacs into the yard and tethered them there like donkeys.

Muntjacs were somewhat large animals. They were smaller than roe deer and deer, roughly the size of goats.

Whenever Zhang Chen hunted muntjacs in the past, he traded them for grain. But now, he felt he ought to change his way of thinking. He needed to raise some animals, so that if he suffered severe injuries in the future, he could quickly drain their blood to heal his wounds.

After all, there would not always be animals nearby for him to drain. If he was injured one day and had no animal around to drain blood from, only to die alive and kicking, that would be a truly suffocating way to die.

"How strange. Has that Fox Spirit really changed her ways?" Zhang Chen inconspicuously glanced at the neighboring yard, surprise in his eyes. He saw neither the shabby scholar Zhang Chen nor the Fox Spirit, so he picked up a rope and went to the village entrance to cut grass. From now on, he had one more task: cutting grass to feed the muntjacs and wild chickens.

Zhang Chen cut grass in the mountains, then returned to the yard. When the muntjacs saw him, they panicked and darted about wildly. Yet their hooves were bound by rope, and after struggling for a while, they could not escape. Only after Zhang Chen piled the fresh grass on the ground did they calm down somewhat. Once Zhang Chen entered the house, they cautiously crept forward to eat.

Zhang Chen stood inside and watched the muntjacs in the yard for a while. Seeing them start to eat, he knew that becoming familiar with them would take time, and getting them used to their "restraints" would take time as well.

Zhang Chen washed up briefly inside, pondering the future. Then he remembered that Rich Man Li wanted to raise the rent, and his head began to ache. Where could he possibly find spare money to give Rich Man Li now? And Rich Man Li was holding a grand birthday celebration. The steward had been hinting openly and covertly that he needed to offer a birthday gift. That was another expense.

"Damn Rich Man Li, he really is Li the Skinflint!" Zhang Chen lay on the bed, cursing under his breath. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, but there was nothing he could do. He could only lie there and curse a few times to vent his anger. Rich Man Li's backing was no simple matter. At least, to ordinary people, he was absolutely not someone they could afford to provoke.

"One day, I'll get my revenge." Zhang Chen cursed, just as sounds came from next door. The poor scholar Zhang Chen and the Fox Spirit had returned, followed by the sounds of setting up the pot, heating oil, and cooking.

"How miserable my days are! Not only do I have to feed myself, I have to feed the people next door too, deal with the rent, and handle a mountain of miscellaneous nonsense." Zhang Chen lay on the bed, grumbling and cursing, then gradually drifted into a groggy sleep. Only one thought kept circling through his mind: The scholar next door has two Golden Pages. When I get the chance, I should get them and study them.

Nothing happened through the night. Zhang Chen slept sweetly, while the one human and one fox next door spent another tormenting night on edge, half asleep and half awake.

Early the next morning, Zhang Chen carried a basket and a Luoyang Shovel into the mountains. Walking beneath the mountain trees' shade, he looked at the wilted leaves and could not help frowning. "This weather is far too hot. It's only morning, yet the leaves on the trees have already wilted?"

Zhang Chen looked at the leaves overhead, then sensed the scorching heat in the air, his brow knitting tightly. "This is going to be troublesome! If this keeps up, the crops in the fields probably won't survive. When the people's lives grow hard, the authorities will raise the rent again."

Zhang Chen cursed as he felt the sweltering heat in the air. His back was already soaked with sweat.

He arrived at the traps in the mountains to make his rounds. Today's haul was fairly decent: one wild chicken and one wild duck.

"This world's resources are simply too abundant. The animals' habitat hasn't been destroyed, and there's no technological hunting either, so the animals' chances of survival have increased enormously." Zhang Chen caught and tied up the wild chicken and wild duck, then continued deeper into the mountains.

In this world, hunting relied entirely on traps. As for bows and arrows? Those were controlled items, not things ordinary commoners could possess.

And making a single bow cost at least twenty or thirty taels of silver, not counting its daily upkeep. Mountain hunters simply could not afford it.

Zhang Chen carried his prey into the tomb. Feeling the tomb's coolness, the scorching heat from outside gradually faded away. Then Zhang Chen looked toward the Stone Tablet, and his whole body froze.

What had he just seen?

The Stone Tablet had actually moved!

"Someone came here? And even touched the Stone Tablet?" Zhang Chen's heart jolted. He hurried to the Stone Tablet and examined the drag marks on the ground, then carefully inspected the surrounding area. His brow furrowed. "Something's wrong! There are only my footprints here. There are no human footprints at all! Not only are there no human footprints, there aren't even any animal tracks."

"But these marks from the Stone Tablet moving... Could it be that the Stone Tablet moved by itself?" Zhang Chen looked at the traces on the ground. Compared to yesterday, the Stone Tablet had shifted a full twenty centimeters, exactly the same distance it had sunk into the soil yesterday.

A flash of insight struck Zhang Chen's mind. "This Stone Tablet is something strange. If it can move on its own, that shouldn't be such a big deal, right? It's not hard to understand, right? So the Stone Tablet wants to run away?"

Thanks to "Summer Evening Breeze" for the one hundred points.