"Impossible! Impossible! My body was burning up—why wasn't there the slightest sign of it outside?" Zhang Chen simply stripped off his clothes in the burrow and sat there naked. Though the burrow was bitterly cold, it could not affect Zhang Chen in the slightest.
"Damn it, is this trying to burn me to death?" Zhang Chen felt as if a ball of fire inside him were constantly scorching his internal organs.
Zhang Chen silently circulated the Light of the Righteous God, but it was utterly useless.
Lowering his head to look at his palm, he saw that it showed no abnormalities at all, as though nothing were wrong.
"Impossible. My body is this hot, so why haven't I sweated at all?" Zhang Chen stared at his palm, confusion appearing in his eyes.
Just then, Zhang Chen seemed to recall something. He hurriedly opened his Dharma Eye. The moment it opened, he was completely stunned. Looking at his arm, he stood dumbfounded, at a loss for what to do.
Through his Dharma Eye, he saw his entire body shrouded in a layer of red light. That red light was like flames several meters high, tightly wrapping around him. The Light of the Righteous God he had cultivated was actually being suppressed by those fiery red flames.
Zhang Chen stared at his arm. A layer of fiery red flames covered it, flickering and twisting without end, carrying an overwhelming stench of blood.
"What is this? What kind of mutation is happening to my body?" Horror filled Zhang Chen's eyes.
Looking closely at the flames, he saw countless ancient symbols flashing within them. Those countless symbols joined together, forming tiny chains. The chains then wove together, flickering according to some profound and mysterious law.
"What the hell is this?" Zhang Chen looked at the chains within the red light, his eyes full of terror. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, yet he had no idea what was happening.
Zhang Chen forcibly calmed himself, then fixed his eyes on his arm as his mind rapidly drew two conclusions. "The first possibility is that my third skill swallowed that strange liquid, and the liquid was left behind by some powerful being who wants to possess my body. But the Light of the Righteous God has shown no reaction, and my consciousness and will remain intact, untouched in any way. So that possibility can be ruled out. The second possibility is that I am undergoing Marrow Cleansing and Body Tempering, experiencing some special transformation. If I can endure it, it will bring me enormous benefits."
Countless thoughts flashed through Zhang Chen's mind. The intense heat inside his body was so powerful that even his breathing seemed about to be scorched into suffocation.
"I can't dig the burrow today!" Zhang Chen slowly stood up, only to feel pain in every inch of his body. The pain made him bare his teeth, as though his body were being torn apart. It felt like blazing flames were searing every scrap of flesh within him.
"Home!"
Zhang Chen had no mind to feed the bumblebees, nor did he have any mind to fuss with Sparrowhawk. All he wanted now was to go home.
Without even taking his basket, Zhang Chen staggered out of the tomb. With every step he took, the pain inside his body doubled. It was as though someone had burned him with fire and then splashed him with chili water, hurting so badly that he was about to pass out.
"What exactly was that blood? My third skill seems rather strange!" Zhang Chen staggered toward home, but before he could reach it, a violent wave of pain struck him, and he fainted on the spot.
Zhang Chen did not notice that all the blood in his body had evaporated, turning into streams of red liquid. They merged with the runes attached to the red light around him, weaving together according to some mysterious law. Those countless blood-red rune chains twisted and flowed, converging toward Zhang Chen's heart. Before long, they had all gathered within it.
At that moment, there was no longer any blood in Zhang Chen's body. All of it had taken the form of runes and gathered in his heart.
Naturally, a single heart could not contain all the blood in a human body. But after the blood transformed into runic form, it compressed and rotated on its own, twisting according to some peculiar pattern. Before long, a crystal as clear and translucent as a grain of rice appeared inside Zhang Chen's heart.
That crystal was formed from all the blood in Zhang Chen's body being compressed together with those runes. If taken out for a closer look, it would prove identical to the crystal Zhang Chen had previously dug out of the tombstone.
The crystal now emitted a dazzling red radiance, illuminating Zhang Chen's body until he resembled a piece of transparent jade.
Fortunately, three breaths later, the crystal's light withdrew. Then red streams of energy flowed out from within it, like threads of red silk. Replacing Zhang Chen's blood, they circulated through his veins, seemingly remaking his body.
As darkness gradually fell, the crystal appeared to have finished its transformation. All the red light within Zhang Chen's body vanished, drawn back into the blood-red crystal. Yet Zhang Chen's body was completely empty, without the slightest trace of flowing blood, and his heart had stopped beating as well.
No one knew how much time passed before the crystal suddenly trembled faintly. A drop of golden blood flowed out and fell into Zhang Chen's heart. Unfortunately, the drop was far too small to fill the entire heart.
Then that drop of golden blood suddenly evaporated, turning into a cloud of mist. Not only did it fill Zhang Chen's heart, it even began to fill the blood vessels throughout his body.
Thump~
The silent heart began to beat. The golden mist seemed to replace the blood, sustaining the blood supply throughout his body and carrying energy everywhere.
With the beating of his heart, Zhang Chen's vitality began to revive bit by bit. His liver's blood-forming function began to recover, and drops of dark red blood slowly flowed out, gradually drowning the golden mist within the crimson blood.
At some point, Zhang Chen, unconscious on the ground, suddenly opened his eyes. An indescribable weakness filled his entire body. He felt dizzy and disoriented, his mind a chaotic blur, as though excessive blood loss had driven him to the brink of brain death.
At the same time, an overwhelming hunger swept through him, making his stomach rumble like thunder.
Zhang Chen wanted to struggle to his feet, but with no blood in his body, where could he find the strength to rise?
The blood in Zhang Chen's body had yet to recover.
"Damn it! Why am I so weak?" Zhang Chen's eyes were full of confusion as he continuously examined his condition. He felt as though he had lost too much blood.
But after looking over all his skills, there seemed to be no solution at all.
"It seems there's only the Bloodsucking skill!"
Zhang Chen struggled to open the lid and grabbed the immobile wild chicken.
Whether Bloodsucking would work or not, this was the only thing he could do!
Thanks to 'Brother Li 10086' for the 100-point donation.
Thanks to 'Zhi-Qu' Great Prison for the 100-point donation.
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