Fortunately, inside the cave, Zhang Chen had prepared honey. Zhang Chen no longer needed it, so he took it out to feed the wasps, attracting tens of thousands of wasps to feast around the honey jar.
"Screech~"
Upon seeing Zhang Chen, the Hunting Falcon suddenly emitted a plaintive cry. It flapped its wings but didn’t fly, instead toppling to the ground, landing crookedly at Zhang Chen’s feet.
Zhang Chen hurriedly drew moisture to dissolve the honey and infused it into the Hunting Falcon’s body, providing it with some energy to prevent it from starving to death.
Then, using his Beast Taming skill, he discovered a nest of snakes underground. Zhang Chen directly commanded the snakes to crawl out and fed them to the Hunting Falcon.
This place had a water source, so some mice, rabbits, and snakes survived underground.
The Hunting Falcon came over and devoured the snakes entirely in a few bites, as if eating spicy sticks, sending them straight into its stomach.
After calming the Hunting Falcon and wasps, Zhang Chen transformed into a bat again, disappearing into the sky, flying towards his village.
His own house and the neighboring straw hut had been blown to ruins, nothing worth looking at, but he was still thinking about that page from the Golden Book, yet had found nothing.
The village was now dead silent, with villagers starting to flee, leaving the village desolate. Only three to five households emitted wisps of smoke.
"Huh?" Zhang Chen looked towards the village chief’s house and saw shadows moving inside. A Feng Shui Master was sitting in the yard, holding a compass, seemingly calculating something.
The village chief, no longer respectful and humble, gave the Feng Shui Master a kick: "You old coot, you’ve been freeloading here for a month; did you find the water vein or not? If you can’t find the water vein, don’t blame us for being unsparing."
The Feng Shui Master, looking disheveled and bruised all over, clearly had suffered a lot.
After being kicked to the ground, he dared not resist and could only plead helplessly, "Please don’t be impatient, give me a little more time! A bit more time!"
Zhang Chen merely glanced, paid no heed, and transformed into a bat to alight under Wang Wu’s eaves. Yet, Wang Wu’s house was dusty, with doors wide open, long deserted.
"Mr. Wang hasn’t returned for some days. Could it be because of my influence that he’s been implicated?" Zhang Chen, as thirty-six bats, settled in the corners of the house and yard, seeing that all the firewood, rice, oil, and salt inside had disappeared, the entire house like it had been rummaged through.
After scanning the house, a trace of worry arose in Zhang Chen’s heart. The next moment, turning into a Vampire Bat, he came to his stepmother’s house, finding it similarly devoid of life, evidently abandoned long ago.
"Could it be the big leader took action? It must be!"
The thirty-six Vampire Bats converged inside, Zhang Chen manifested within, observing the house filled with dust and chaos, a thoughtful glint in his eyes.
Based on the big leader’s means, investigating his connection with Wang Wu wasn’t difficult and doing himself a favor was something the other was pleased to do.
Having speculated correctly, Zhang Chen felt relieved, without seeking further, then summoned the Fox Spirit, "Where’s your page of the scripture?"
He still had the Fragment of the Western Ascension Scripture on his mind. It was from this fragment he comprehended the Light of the True God. Before, due to fearing the Fox Spirit’s capabilities, he let her hold onto the scripture. But now, since he controlled the Fox Spirit’s life and death, he naturally wanted to seize the fragment.
"Didn’t you last visit Mr. Wuliu wanting to learn to read and write, hearing from Zhang Qingyan that Mr. Wuliu went traveling? Actually, it was Zhang Xiaohua who got hold of the scripture to consult Mr. Wuliu. Mr. Wuliu recognized the scripture’s unusualness and took it with him on his trip." Fox Fairy Nannan said.
Hearing Fox Fairy Nannan, Zhang Chen was taken aback, "Who is Zhang Qingyan?"
"In Prince Pingbian’s Mansion, the stand-in for Zhang Xiaohua, who is also the woman who bought your swan meat," the Fox Spirit said.
Zhang Chen immediately frowned upon hearing this, not expecting that he would have to deal with Mr. Wuliu after all.
This time he had two objectives in returning: the first was to see if Mr. Wuliu had come back. Now he had a second goal, which was to see if he could retrieve the Golden Page.
"Where did you get that Golden Book?" Zhang Chen asked the Fox Spirit.
"Of course, it was dug out from the Great Tomb," the Fox Spirit replied, "This scripture was picked up by my Fox Race ancestor back when discovering the True Dragon Tomb, accidentally found in an earthquake crack, retrieved by me some days ago, though it turned out to be rather useless."
Hearing this, Zhang Chen secretly felt smug; thanks to your abandoned scripture, otherwise, I fear I wouldn’t have regained control.
Having a Fox Spirit as a servant does feel quite nice.
Zhang Chen glanced at the Fox Spirit, directly transforming her into a rune and storing away, then turned into a bat and flew, appearing at the site of the makeshift shelter Mr. Wuliu had built.
Outside the shelter, it remained the same as always, except for the withered wild grasses of the mountain, unchanged.
A dozen men, swords strapped at their waists, full of vigor, patrolled the mountains, but saw nothing as bats flitted in the jungle, Zhang Chen’s figure manifesting behind a large tree.
Using divine techniques, he summoned the Fox Spirit, "Go see if Mr. Wuliu is home."