I picked up skill fragments in the demon world.

Chapter 43 The Dragon Corpse in the Dream
Zhang Fei looked at the dried meat in Zhang Chen's hand, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he rushed over without even bothering to wash his hands.

"Go wash your hands, wash them clean before eating." Zhang Chen scolded angrily: "Zhang Taowei, why don't you help your brother wash his hands!"

Zhang Taowei could only put down the dried meat with a pair of eyes full of reluctance, and then obediently took Zhang Fei to wash his hands. Zhang Chen found the warm water in the house and directly filled a bowl with it in a ceramic bowl. Then he took out the honey, scooped a large spoonful, mixed it with the white water and brought it to his stepmother: "Mother, this is the honey I found in the mountains, please try it."

Honey is a good thing. It contains various rich nutrients and various vitamins.

"This is a good thing. We have wasted it. We might as well sell it and exchange it for some rotten rice or a few feet of cloth to supplement the family expenses." Zhang felt distressed. She looked at the honey water handed to her, swallowed her saliva, and then looked at Zhang Chen: "Mother doesn't like sweet drinks, you drink it! I wish I could have a bite of meat. This sweetness chokes my throat. Mother doesn't like it."

As she spoke, she pushed the honey water away, then lowered her head to pick up the embroidery needle: "You drink it, mother doesn't like it!"

Zhang Chen looked at Zhang, who had a skinny figure, and then at Zhang's hands full of old wounds. Inexplicable emotions surged in his heart, blocking his throat and making it difficult for him to speak.

Zhang Chen stared at Zhang and forced the honey water into her hands: "Mom, drink it quickly! I found a honey nest in the mountains and learned some beekeeping skills from them. This honey is nothing to me. When my bee colony is bigger, we will have no shortage of honey to eat."

Zhang Chen's words were firm. Upon hearing them, Zhang looked at Zhang Chen with her eyes. Seeing Zhang Chen's unquestionable expression, she moved her lips and finally took the bowl with both hands. Then she lowered her head and picked up the honey water to drink in small sips.

Zhang Chen brewed two more bowls of honey water, called the two little ones over, then took out a butcher knife from the backpack and started slaughtering the musk deer.

The knife went straight into the artery. Zhang Chen used both hands to hold down the struggling musk deer. At this time, the musk deer was tied up and held down by Zhang Chen. He could only watch his vitality slip away bit by bit. Seeing that the time was almost right, Zhang Chen's two fangs quietly pierced out from the palm of his hand and directly pierced into the musk deer's neck. Then, the blood in the musk deer's body was absorbed in just three or five breaths, and it completely lost its life and stopped struggling.

Zhang Chen looked at the blood in the basin, but there was only one bowl. He couldn't help but shook his head and sighed: "Why is there only so little blood from this musk deer?"

Zhang Chen was afraid that Zhang would become suspicious, but in fact, Zhang Chen was overthinking. Zhang had never slaughtered any prey before, let alone a robe. How could he know how much blood was in the robe?
"Let me help you!" Zhang quickly finished drinking the honey water and was about to come forward to help.

Hearing Zhang's words, Zhang Chen was afraid that Zhang would notice something unusual, so he quickly raised his hand to stop her: "Mom, don't dirty your hands. It's just a deer. I can clean it up later. You should boil a pot of water for me. I need to prepare the skin later."

Zhang Chen didn't dare to ask Zhang to come over for help. If Zhang found out that there was no blood in the musk deer's body, it would be troublesome. He didn't think he could hide it from Zhang's clever mind.

"It's a pity for this musk deer. If we could sell its meat, how much food would it be enough to feed us for a long time?" Zhang looked at the musk deer with a hint of regret in her eyes.

"Mom, don't worry. We will never lack meat in the future." Zhang Chen comforted her with a smile. Not to mention hunting skills, he also mastered the art of taming animals. In the future, he would be able to eat meat every day and would not starve to death.

When Zhang's water boiled, Zhang Chen cut and chopped the musk deer and stewed them in the pot.

Zhang looked at the meat that Zhang Chen kept throwing into the pot, and a look of heartache appeared in her eyes: "Don't put too much! Don't put too much! Let's put some more wild vegetables, so we can get by for a few more days."

"Mom, musk deer meat can't be kept in this weather. We might as well stew it and eat it to nourish our bodies." Zhang Chen said with a smile.

There is actually not much meat in a musk deer, about the same as a whole roasted lamb.

"We should sell the meat that we can't eat." Zhang looked at the piled up musk deer meat and began to calculate the cost carefully.

Zhang Chen smiled when he heard this: "Mom, you have to believe me. I will never let you and your brother live a hard life again. Besides, my brother and little sister are in the growth stage now. How can they not eat meat? If they don't grow tall, they won't be able to find a wife."

Hearing Zhang Chen's words, Zhang looked at him with a pair of eyes, and finally Zhang gave in: "You are the man of the family now, the pillar of the family, and I will listen to you in the future."

Zhang Chen smiled when he heard this, and began to stew the meat and boil the oil. He kept cooking the musk deer and cut the meat into pieces and put them in the pot.

If you want to keep the meat for a long time, one way is to air-dry it, and the other is to fry it all in the oil when boiling the oil, and then add more salt, so that it will not go bad even in the hot summer.

The two little ones over there were eating stewed meat, drinking honey water, and living a very comfortable life.

Soon the aroma of barbecue wafted out. Zhang Chen took out the fried meat and placed it on the table with the stewed meat, and the family began to eat.

The two little ones ate happily, and Zhang's mouth was full of oil.

"I will come to bring you the prey in a few days. They cannot stop eating meat. Now is the time when they are growing and developing. How can they stop eating meat?" After finishing his meal, Zhang Chen began to pack up the knives and skins.

Mother Zhang looked at Zhang Chen and started to nag: "Don't worry about us. The three of us can always survive. It's hard for you to be alone. Take care of yourself first. If you have extra prey, you can sell it for money and save it to find a wife."

Zhang Chen smiled and did not refute. Chaos was about to emerge. In troubled times, money was just useless stones. How could it be as important as having a full stomach?
Zhang Chen said goodbye carrying the skin, and did not return to the village. Instead, he went straight to the mountains. After sucking the musk deer's blood, he felt much more energetic, and rushed to the mountains with a happy face. He checked the traps, but found them empty, with no prey. He then went back to the mountains to start training falcons.

When it was getting dark, Zhang Chen fed the falcon again before going down the mountain with the basket on his back. However, halfway down the mountain, he saw Wang Wu, covered in mud, sitting on the ground and cursing.

"Fuck your ancestors, you son of a bitch. If you have the guts, just kill me. What's the point of torturing me like this?"

"I'll fuck your ancestors, fuck your mother! I'll kill your great-grandmother!"

"Do you think I'm afraid of you? If you have the guts, kill me. If you can't, you're my child!"

"..."

Zhang Chen looked at Wang Wu from a distance as he was cursing at the air. At this moment, Wang Wu's face was ferocious, his body was shaking with anger, and all kinds of foul words were uttered from his mouth, as if he was swearing at someone.

"Uncle Wang, what are you doing?" Zhang Chen was walking over from a distance. He was shocked when he saw Wang Wu's appearance. He thought Wang Wu was possessed by an evil spirit. He quickly opened his Dharma eyes, but saw a golden light flashing in his eyes. A beautiful girl appeared in the void in front of him, holding two fish and looking at Wang Wu, who was speaking foul language, with an unpleasant expression on her face.

Zhang Chen glanced at the soul of the fox spirit, then at the fish in the fox spirit's hand, and then at Wang Wu who was covered in mud. How could he not know what had happened?
"What a sin! Wang Wu has been targeted by a vixen!" Zhang Chen's mouth twitched, and he said to himself in his heart. He was also wondering why the vixen was becoming more and more powerful and could even reveal its soul under the sun. What a good trick, which made Zhang Chen even more fearful.

Zhang Chen didn't seem to see the vixen. He looked at Wang Wu and asked, pretending to be ignorant.

When Wang Wu saw Zhang Chen coming, he stopped cursing. Then his face turned red, his eyes flashed with light, and he stammered, not knowing what to say.

"Uncle Wang, is there anything we can't talk about?" Zhang Chen asked when he saw Wang Wu's expression.

"Do you have anything to eat?" Wang Wu suddenly asked.

Zhang Chen was stunned when he heard that, he looked at Wang Wu, he saw that his lips were dry, his face was pale, and his stomach was rumbling like thunder, it was obvious that he had been hungry for a long time.

"Could it be that Uncle Wang Wu has been targeted by a vixen, and the vixen is starting to take revenge on him?" A thought flashed through Zhang Chen's mind. After all, Wang Wu almost skinned the vixen alive. With such a deep hatred, Zhang Chen didn't believe that the vixen would not take revenge, given her strange temperament.

Fortunately, he had some fried dried meat in his backpack. He quickly took out the meat and handed it to Wang Wu. Then Wang Wu didn't bother to speak or care about the mud and sand on his hands, and started to stuff it into his mouth frantically.

At this time, the vixen saw Zhang Chen coming and was afraid of the golden light protecting Zhang Chen's body. She glared at Wang Wu fiercely and went away with the fish.

But after taking a few steps, the vixen seemed to be so angry that she turned around and walked back, throwing the big fish in her hand directly away. The fish's tail hit Wang Wu's face with a crackling sound. Zhang Chen, who was standing by, could only hear the crackling sound of the big fish and couldn't help but feel pain for Wang Wu.

"This is too much! This is too much! You son of a bitch, I am your father, if you have the guts just beat me to death!" Wang Wu was beaten so hard that he was confused. After he came to his senses, he started cursing but still refused to admit defeat.

Zhang Chen looked at the increasingly ugly face of the vixen, knowing that the vixen probably had not expected Wang Wu to be so stubborn, and refused to give in even after being tortured by him. Even in the face of the mysterious power, he still refused to yield. Seeing that the vixen was about to swing the fish tail again, Zhang Chen hurried forward to persuade him, blocking between Wang Wu and the vixen:
"Please stop scolding me, old man. Come and eat some meat and take a rest. Tell me what's going on."

The fox spirit was afraid of Zhang Chen's golden light and didn't dare to rush over. She just stamped her feet in anger and left cursing: "Damn hunter, I, the fox fairy Nannan, will never let you go! You bastard almost pulled out my tendons and skinned me. I just wanted you to suffer a little, but you dared to scold me like that. I, the fox fairy Nannan, never want to suffer a loss. You are in trouble! You are in big trouble!"

The fox fairy Nannan went away cursing, leaving Zhang Chen to comfort Wang Wu. Wang Wu was extremely hungry at this time, and wolfed down the dried meat.

"Eat slowly and drink some water. Don't choke!" Zhang Chen handed the kettle to Wang Wu and pretended to be puzzled, "Why are you so embarrassed?"

Wang Wu took the water and gulped it down. It took him a long time to fill his stomach. Then he looked at Zhang Chen with eyes full of grief, anger and fear: "Boy, run away quickly. Don't stay in the village. There is something wrong with this village. I have been haunted for the past half month!"

Zhang Chen's mouth twitched, but he asked knowingly, "What's wrong? Why did you get possessed by evil spirits?"

Wang Wu took a deep breath and swallowed the last of the dried meat. Then he looked around and said in a low voice, "Don't say anything. Just leave this village as soon as possible. There are dirty things in this village! You'd better run as far as you can!"

"Dirty things? What dirty things?" Zhang Chen showed a look of surprise.

Upon hearing this, Wang Wu took a big gulp of water, then looked around cautiously, and then lowered his voice and said, "I'm telling you, I've been haunted by an evil thing! This ghost thing comes to my house every day to carry away brown rice, white flour, and prey. My house is almost empty. I haven't eaten for three days. Today, when I passed by the stream, I saw that the water level was dropping and there were fish in the water, so I went into the water and caught two big fish, but before I could take the fish back, it was snatched away by that damn 'thing'!"

At this point, Wang Wu's voice was filled with grief and indignation: "It's been three days! I haven't run out of rice for three days! If this continues, I will starve to death!"

Zhang Chen couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he heard this. He looked at Wang Wu and felt that the vixen was really going too far. His previous experience was actually being repeated on Wang Wu. Wang Wu, a man of iron, was actually tortured into this state. It was speechless.

"Boy, you'd better run away quickly. This village is not safe. It won't be long before that 'monster' becomes powerful and harms people. I'm afraid I won't live long." Wang Wu was also afraid when he talked about the sad part, with tears in his eyes. "I thought you would take care of me in my old age, but now you don't need to. You can dig a hole and bury me now."

Zhang Chen looked at Wang Wu, who had a haggard face, and for a moment he didn't know what to do. Facing the vixen, he was helpless and couldn't figure out the vixen's background.

Especially the way that the fox spirit controlled things, Zhang Chen also found it quite difficult to deal with and he had not yet figured out a solution. Now he could only protect himself when facing the fox spirit.

"I wonder if there is any capable person in this world who can get rid of that monster." Zhang Chen asked tentatively. He also wanted to find out if there was any extraordinary power in this world.

Wang Wu shook his head: "I've never heard of it. If you get entangled with this thing, you can only consider yourself unlucky. Life or death, good or bad fortune, is unpredictable."

Zhang Chen frowned upon hearing this. Seeing Wang Wu's ups and downs, he could not think of a solution for a moment, so he could only comfort him, "Don't be afraid, uncle. The monster has entangled you, but it hasn't killed you. It just moved things from your house. It can be seen that the monster may not be a random killer. It's just some things anyway, just give it to him! If you don't have food in the future, come to my house to eat. I am more than enough to support you. You also know that I can't eat all the prey I hunt every day."

"There is just one thing. You must never yell or curse casually in the future. If the monster has no intention of harming you, but you scold it and make it angry, if it gets angry and harms you, you will have no way to seek justice." Zhang Chen advised.

After hearing Zhang Chen's words, Wang Wu sat on the ground in a trance for a moment, and seemed to have recovered some strength: "If you say so, it makes sense. The monster didn't kill me, but just moved the things in my house. Maybe I still have a chance to survive."

"That's right. It's better to live a miserable life than to die. It's just a slap in the face. Why bother with him?" Zhang Chen hurriedly comforted Wang Wu: "Starting tomorrow, you will come to my house for dinner. Let's make it a deal."

"No! Absolutely not!" Unexpectedly, Wang Wu immediately shook his head and refused: "If you get too close to me, I might get targeted by that monster and then be entangled by him. That would be bad. I can't implicate you. I absolutely can't do that!"

Hearing Wang Wu's words, Zhang Chen shook his head: "Uncle, do you think I'm a coward? At worst, we can just support that monster together."

Wang Wu shook his head and refused to accept it. His head was like a rattle. "Don't say anything. I have made up my mind. At worst, I can just eat something in the mountains and then bring the prey back."

Zhang Chen was helpless after hearing this. He knew Wang Wu was very stubborn, but he made up his mind to bring the prey to Wang Wu after he hunted it. Wang Wu treated him well, so how could he just sit back and watch Wang Wu starve to death?
Zhang Chen sent the dazed Wang Wu back home, washed the dirt off his body, and then spoke to comfort him for a while before turning away. When he was just a mortal, he had also encountered the same thing as Wang Wu, so he naturally understood the grief and anger in Wang Wu's heart, but he survived it anyway, and gradually gained the strength to protect himself when facing this vixen.

"I was wondering why the vixen hasn't come to trouble me lately. Turns out she went to seek revenge on Wang Wu." Zhang Chen muttered to himself for a while.

"This damn vixen, is there really no way to subdue her?" Zhang Chen thought to himself.

There are three known methods used by fox spirits: First, the soul can freely shuttle through all material obstacles. This is the most difficult to deal with. The soul can freely enter and exit matter, shuttle through various materials, and is truly elusive and hard to guard against. Second, the soul can move objects, and combined with the ability to shuttle through matter at will, it is simply unstoppable. The third is form transformation. The soul of this fox spirit can actively let people see it, or it can quietly disappear. Only by opening the eyes of the law can you see its traces.

Just like when Zhang Chen spied on the vixen cooking next door, the vixen showed her body at that time and deliberately let him see her. Later, the vixen moved things across the wall and deliberately hid her soul to tease him.

After analyzing the fox spirit, Zhang Chen then analyzed his own three skills. After analyzing for a long time, he had no solution in his mind. Among his three skills, only the first skill can restrain the fox spirit's soul. The other two skills can control ungraded beasts, and the third skill can only control his own blood. It seems that there is really no good way to deal with this fox spirit.

"Moreover, the vixen I saw does not represent all of her skills. This vixen must have hidden skills. I wonder if my first skill, if upgraded to level three, can fight against the vixen." A thought flashed through Zhang Chen's mind.

His righteous divine light has rendered the fox spirit helpless. If he can be promoted to the third level, there may be hope to suppress the fox spirit, or at least drive it away.

Zhang Chen returned to his room and listened to the clattering of pots and pans coming from next door. He couldn't help but envy the nerd Zhang Chen. This guy was so lucky. He just sold his family's land and bought a fox spirit, and then he got the fox spirit to take care of him day and night. He was envious to the extreme and only hated why such a good thing didn't happen to him.

Zhang Chen returned to the house and sat quietly for a while before washing up and going to bed. Wang Wu's experience today made him feel a sense of urgency. The threat from the vixen was always around him and had never gone away.

"I have to continue digging graves and collecting experience points." Zhang Chen muttered, closed his eyes and lay on the bed, starting to think about last night's dream again.

"It turns out that the jade tablet was transformed from a palm, and that drop of blood was the only remaining vitality of the palm. The owner of the palm encountered a powerful enemy and was killed, and then it was made into a jade tablet and buried in a tomb. I don't know how many years have passed, but it still retains its vitality and records some of the fragments of the past. It wants to revive and cause trouble again. It's really incredible." Zhang Chen was secretly shocked, and thoughts kept flashing in his mind:
"This world is not that simple. I am still very weak now. I have to continue to survive and grow. I must not be the first to do so."

Zhang Chen was not afraid, but instead had a hope in his heart. He was not afraid of the existence of weirdness in the world, he was only afraid of the absence of weirdness in the world. Only with weirdness could he continuously gain experience points, constantly bring him new skills, and allow him to have unlimited possibilities.

"No! I seem to have forgotten something important!" Zhang Chen suddenly opened his eyes: "I once saw in my dream how the 'Emperor' built the tomb, and saw the structure and location of the tomb with my own eyes. This is the most important thing to me!"

Zhang Chen's heart began to beat uncontrollably. "Not only is the emperor's daughter buried in that tomb, but there is also a dragon! How much experience points will we get if we can dig it out? What kind of extraordinary skills will we gain?"

Zhang Chen was excited, and carefully recalled the structural diagram of the tomb in his mind. However, his memory of that night was a little vague, as if it was obscured by a mysterious unknown force. Although it appeared in his memory, it was hazy and unclear.

"The tomb of the emperor's daughter is not a small tomb. Underneath it is a huge palace complex with a radius of ten miles. The tombstone is about ten meters away from the barrier of the ancient tomb! In other words, I only need three meters to dig to the barrier of the ancient tomb, and then break through the barrier and get in to obtain the great fortune inside?" Zhang Chen's eyes were full of excitement, he was excited to the extreme.

"Not far away! Not far away! It's only ten meters. Even if it's a hundred meters, I will dig it open!" Zhang Chen was excited, and at the same time, a trace of doubt flashed in his mind: "Why is the tomb surrounded by ice and emitting extremely strong cold air? It's a bit abnormal. Unfortunately, what I saw in my dream was not complete. I didn't see the whole process of the emperor's daughter being buried. I only saw the emperor's daughter being placed in the tomb and the emperor worshiping her."

Countless thoughts flashed through Zhang Chen's mind, and he was very happy in his heart. As long as he could continue to survive, he wouldn't have to worry about his future advancement. Not only would he not lack experience points, but there would also be more incredible skills waiting for him in the future.

At some point Zhang Chen gradually fell into a deep sleep, the crystal core in his body flickered slightly, the next moment countless runes flickered inside the crystal core, and then a trace of energy floated into Zhang Chen's mind, and the next moment Zhang Chen fell into a dream again.

This time, Zhang Chen seemed to dream that he turned into that hand, quietly buried in the soil in the darkness where no light of day could be seen. The years seemed to have passed without his knowledge, and he didn't know how much time had passed. Suddenly, there was a violent vibration, which lasted for a long time, and then everything returned to silence.

At a certain moment, the palm seemed to have discovered something, and the blood turned into red threads, which drilled into the cracks in the ground. Then Zhang Chen saw the familiar dragon corpse and the pool of blood flowing from the dragon corpse. The red threads were overjoyed when they saw the blood, and began to swallow the blood that penetrated them, causing themselves to undergo an inexplicable transformation.

At this moment, the pheasants in the room crowed, waking Zhang Chen from his sleep. Zhang Chen on the bed slowly opened his eyes, with a look of realization in his eyes:
"I finally know why the skill: True Dragon Qi dropped from the tombstone. The blood in the tombstone is still active. I'm afraid that the tomb has been tampered with a long time ago and a trace of dragon blood in the tomb has been absorbed, so that a trace of true nature can be preserved!"

"But...it doesn't make sense. Why would I dream about these things?" Zhang Chen sat up from the bed in confusion. He realized something was wrong and felt inexplicably uneasy.

(End of this chapter)