"Pa!"
At this moment, the old village chief slapped the Feng Shui Master’s head: "I asked you to find a water source, what are you doing searching for Dragon Qi? Hurry up and find the water source. If you don’t find it today, you won’t get dinner."
Hearing the village chief’s words, the Feng Shui Master’s expression turned excited, and he turned to look at the village chief: "Ignorant! Fool! You have no idea what this Feng Shui layout signifies!"
"I don’t care what it signifies. If you don’t find the water source today, it will ruin my plans to sell water, and you’ll be in for a beating." The village chief sneered coldly, then said to the bully nearby, "Teach him a lesson, let him know we’re not to be trifled with."
While the village chief was outside admonishing the bully, Zhang Chen had already arrived in front of the bronze door. Seeing the twisted gap before him, his eyes lit up, and a smile appeared on his lips.
The bronze door was still a bronze door, unchanged in form, yet it was assembled, and the threshold was only ten centimeters thick steel. Now, with the impact, a gap had finally appeared between it and the bronze door.
The gap wasn’t wide, only a finger’s width, through which a normal bat couldn’t pass, but Zhang Chen had a superpower.
Then Zhang Chen transformed into thirty-six Vampire Bats, one of which squeezed into the gap in a self-destructive manner.
The gap was too narrow, the Vampire Bat forcefully pushed through, breaking its own chest bone to squeeze into the crack.
Pain!
It really hurt!
It was excruciating!
It was no different from having his human ribs directly broken.
But ever since undergoing two bodily transformations, Zhang Chen found that his pain tolerance had greatly increased.
Zhang Chen restrained the Crystal Core’s healing ability, preventing the Vampire Bat from healing.
At this time, the rest of the Vampire Bats crowded around, biting the prepared wooden stick, forcefully pushing the Vampire Bat into the gap, without concern for its survival.
The ribs were snapped with the wooden stick, the neck twisted, eventually, the Vampire Bat was pushed inside.
Once the Vampire Bat reached the other side of the door, the Crystal Core inside began to flicker rapidly, releasing powerful healing abilities, continuously repairing the injuries.
However, to avoid wasting Qi Blood, the injuries were not completely healed, only enough to regain the Vampire Bat’s mobility.
Then the Vampire Bat opened its eyes, the Golden Finger Interface flashed before it, and indeed, a large amount of experience points appeared in front of it.
[Experience Points +100]
[Experience Points +70]
[Experience Points +200]
...
A great amount of experience points flooded in. With the last bit of experience light absorbed, Zhang Chen’s experience points became abundant again, once more surpassing the 150,000 mark.
Seeing the Vampire Bat complete its task, it suddenly transformed from its bat state into a stream of Qi Blood, slipping back through the gap, merging with the thirty-five Vampire Bats, and Zhang Chen returned to his human form.
"I can summon a Vampire Bat back in Qi Blood form while it’s still alive. Unfortunately, I can’t have it enter the crack as Qi Blood and then transform into a Vampire Bat." Zhang Chen sighed, then looked at his Golden Finger Interface.
Among his own eight skills, now all of them required the Gold-devouring Beast, and only two were worth adding points, with a high cost-performance ratio, which were the two latest skills:
[7 Skill (Entry-level): Qi Cultivation Third Heaven (100/4000)]
[8 Skill (Perfection): Body-Stabilizing Rune (0/2000)]
[Points: 150000]
Not too much, just perfect at 150,000 points.
"First, I’ll enhance the Body-Stabilizing Rune; otherwise, my protective means are too limited."
Zhang Chen looked at the Body-Stabilizing Rune and chose to add points directly:
[8 Skill (Quasi-First Level): Body-Stabilizing Rune (0/4000)]
[Note 1: Please prepare one jin of pure gold to complete the upgrade.]
Looking at the skill, Zhang Chen originally found "quasi-first level" somewhat strange, but upon seeing the note, he was stunned: "It requires one jin of pure gold?"
Usually, his skills would upgrade directly by adding points, how come now it requires materials?
With the doubt in Zhang Chen’s heart, the Golden Finger explained: [Runes are special skills and require special carriers.]
Zhang Chen realized that the previous skills were akin to Divine Techniques, which could naturally be upgraded by adding points, but runes needed drawing and naturally required a carrier.
Zhang Chen mused, "It’s similar to a Magical Treasure!"
"My skills may be divided into two major categories: one is the Divine Techniques category, which can be upgraded infinitely by adding points. Another is like a Magical Treasure, requiring material carriers. I’ll understand the difference once I upgrade completely."
One jin of pure gold isn’t much for Zhang Chen.
He might lack many things, but gold isn’t one of them.
Zhang Chen transformed into a Vampire Bat, left the underwater cave mansion, circled in the mountains, and suddenly his gaze paused, spotting the wandering Feng Shui Master in the mountains, along with the village chief and eight bullies from the village. Each carried flags and other items, wandering aimlessly in the mountains.
"Still haven’t found the water source? It seems this Feng Shui Master is just a fraud! Even though the underground water veins are depleted, there are plenty of underground waters in the mountains. This Feng Shui Master has been wandering for a month without any success, clearly a swindler." Zhang Chen thought to himself.
He was now busy upgrading the runes for the major competition and looked down upon ordinary mortals, flapping his wings and disappearing into Heaven and Earth.
In a corner of the county town, Zhang Chen found a deserted alley and revealed his presence.
Zhang Chen scanned the bustling crowd with his eyes, then swaggered towards the direction of the county yamen.
Where is the place with the largest gold reserves in the entire Northern Land? The Prince Pingbian’s Mansion for sure, but Zhang Chen dared not go there rashly, the shadow of Zhang Shicheng loomed over his heart, making him feel the Prince Pingbian’s Mansion wasn’t simple, better not provoke it lightly.
Besides the Prince Pingbian’s Mansion, the biggest gold reserves should be with the wealthy households in the county town. But since he held no grudges with them, Zhang Chen didn’t want to act against them, so he decided to check the County Magistrate’s house to see what kind of private stash the County Magistrate had.
Zhang Chen bought a hat to shield the sun from the sky and leisurely wandered through the streets, unknowingly arriving near the county yamen.
"The county yamen is guarded by Dragon Qi, but since I possess Dragon Qi, and the Fox Spirit also naturally has Dragon Qi protection, I’m not afraid of the county Dragon Qi." Zhang Chen smiled proudly and said to the Fox Spirit: "I want gold! Lots and lots of gold!"
The Fox Spirit rolled her eyes at his words: "That County Magistrate must have the worst luck to be targeted by you. But the county yamen is heavily guarded, my Illusion Technique is restrained there, and moving gold out won’t be easy, you might have to wait a bit longer. Plus, the place where the County Magistrate hides his gold isn’t easy to find; I’ll need some time."
"You just go ahead, I’ll visit my master. I haven’t seen him for seven days now, and it’s time to listen to his teachings." Zhang Chen said.
He never thought the knowledge and classics he was learning were useless; only by learning more and understanding history could he find more clues in the river of history. Then, when encountering a great tomb in the future, he could discern its whereabouts and origin.
With a smile on his face, Zhang Chen bought some gifts and headed towards his master’s home.
It was the afternoon now, not too late for a visit. Besides, Zhang Chen thought, with him bringing food, his master’s wife wouldn’t say much.
Note: In this world, you visit people in the morning.