I picked up skill fragments in the demon world

Chapter 17: The Bleeding Stone Tablet (Part 1)

Inside the dilapidated thatched hut, Zhang Chen trembled, his hands repeatedly striking the flint. Finally, a small flame flickered from the pine firewood. Zhang Chen hurriedly picked up the blood-red scripture and threw it into the stove to burn. The orange flames in the stove were instantly dyed red by the blood-red pages, a terrifying crimson, filled with an ominous aura. It seemed that faint, almost imperceptible sneers emanated from the flames.

Only after the scripture had completely burned away did the flames in the stove return to their orange hue. Then, Zhang Chen looked at the stove fire with a mix of surprise and uncertainty, a bitter expression on his face. He lamented, "My heavens! How could I encounter such a thing? What a sin!"

He turned his head to look at the little fox, his voice filled with hoarseness: "My little ancestor, you're going to be the death of me! Where did you get this ghostly thing?"

In the next room…

Zhang Chen was unaware that, at this moment, the faces of the man and fox in the next room were creased with worry, both wearing bitter expressions. The two, one man and one fox, stared at each other, their eyes filled with helplessness. Meanwhile, in the next room, Zhang Chen had just opened his eyes that day. Recalling the events of the previous night, he sat on the edge of the bed, lost in thought, and muttered, "Strange! Strange! If there are fox spirits in this world, then other strange things shouldn't be so hard to accept."

Zhang Chen dressed and, carrying his Luoyang shovel, was about to go out. But as soon as he opened the door, he paused. At the doorway were two dazzling orbs of experience points.

【Experience Points + 150】

【Experience Points + 200】

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

【Name: Zhang Chen】

【1st Skill (Second Tier): Light of the True God (0 / 5000)】

【2nd Skill (Unranked): Dragon Qi (0 / 2000)】

【Points: 2250】

"Without doing anything overnight, 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 said, looking at the golden finger interface. His eyes fell on the second skill, Dragon Qi, but he ultimately suppressed the urge to upgrade it. For him, specializing in one divine power was the most important thing. Having many low-level skills was not as effective as having one high-level skill in a critical moment.

"I still need two thousand seven hundred and fifty experience points to upgrade my Light of the True God. I just wonder what kind of incredible power the third tier of Light of the True God will have," Zhang Chen thought, recalling the scene from last night. He hadn't even seen the appearance of the strange being before it was automatically driven away by his golden light of exorcism. It seemed that his golden light of exorcism was useless against living people, but it had miraculous effects against these strange creatures.

Zhang Chen carried his Luoyang shovel up the mountain and checked the traps. Today, the traps were empty.

"Strange! Could it be that the sandstorm last night, or the appearance of strange creatures, affected the movement of prey?" A thought flashed through Zhang Chen's mind.

However, Zhang Chen ate meat every day, and he could withstand skipping breakfast. So, he directly carried his Luoyang shovel to the cave. But suddenly, thinking of the snakes buried underground, Zhang Chen had an idea: "I can eat snake meat!"

"But snake meat has a lot of parasites. Forget it," Zhang Chen thought of the damned parasites and the medical standards of this world, and immediately abandoned the idea.

Zhang Chen entered the cave and arrived at the stone tablet. As expected, there was another orb of experience points under the stone tablet.

【Discovered Experience Points + 200】

Zhang Chen thought and directly picked up the experience points. Then, the golden finger interface refreshed:

【Name: Zhang Chen】

【1st Skill (Second Tier): Light of the True God (0 / 5000)】

【2nd Skill (Unranked): Dragon Qi (0 / 2000)】

【Points: 2450】

"If this happens a few more times, in less than ten days, I can gain more experience points," Zhang Chen said, looking at the experience point count. He could now be considered halfway to the next skill upgrade.

"Something's not right. Today's stone tablet seems a bit off!" Zhang Chen stopped as he was about to turn around and continue excavating the ancient tomb. His eyes fell on the stone tablet, and he saw that the writing on the stone tablet was dimmer than before. Within the writing on the stone tablet, there were specks of blood seeping out, gradually gathering together, turning into a drop of blood, dripping onto the soil, and disappearing without a trace.

"What's going on?" Zhang Chen looked at the blood seeping from the stone tablet, his scalp tingling. 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 on it yesterday wasn't absorbed?"

Zhang Chen carefully tore off a piece of cloth from his clothes and wiped the blood stains on the stone tablet clean. But less than a quarter of an hour later, countless tiny, mist-like blood-colored beads seeped out of the stone tablet again.

"This stone tablet is indeed strange. It's like a living thing, able to bleed," Zhang Chen said, looking at the stone tablet, a look of caution in his eyes.

However, he wasn't afraid. The stone tablet hadn't harmed him before, and 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 some great enemy, right? And it was specially used as a tombstone for the Emperor's daughter. It doesn't seem like an ordinary object. It's normal for it to have such anomalies," Zhang Chen thought, considering the useful information. His eyes looked at the blood seeping from the tombstone, a look of curiosity in his eyes: "I wonder if the blood on this tombstone has any use."

Zhang Chen thought that he had a golden light to protect him, so he directly stretched out his palm and tried to touch one of the blood mists.

Strangely, 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 palm, 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 out of a strange object would have some mysterious effect, but it doesn't seem to have any effect at all," Zhang Chen glanced at the blood on the tombstone, his interest immediately waning. Then, he picked up his Luoyang shovel and continued to dig the frozen soil.

Until noon…

Zhang Chen emerged from the cave and went to check the traps again. This time, the harvest was good. He actually caught two wild ducks.

Zhang Chen returned to the cave and, without saying a word, directly slaughtered the ducks. Then, he sprinkled the duck blood on the stone tablet. As expected, the hot blood poured down and was quickly absorbed by the stone tablet, even stopping the blood that was constantly seeping out of the stone tablet.

"It works!" Zhang Chen looked at the stone tablet, no longer seeping blood, a look of surprise in his eyes, and a thoughtful expression: "It feeds on blood. This thing is probably not a normal object. If it were in a novel, it would definitely be some kind of demon."

However, Zhang Chen still chose blood sacrifice, for no other reason than that it gave too much! Maybe it could even give skills. He didn't care about its origin, of course he had to serve it well.