"This kid is doing it on purpose!" Zhang Chen cursed inwardly, "Damn you, Zhong Xiang, daring to mess with me like this. Just wait and see how I’ll deal with you later."
While Zhang Chen was cursing in his mind, Mr. Wuliu was carrying Zhang Xiaohua with his left hand and Chen Xu with his right, running wildly within the cave. Zhang Xiaohua passed by Zhang Chen’s corpse. Zhang Chen was disheveled, and Zhang Xiaohua didn’t recognize him; otherwise, he would have certainly stabbed him a couple more times.
Quickly, everyone in the cave evacuated at high speed. Then Chai Chuanxin, looking rather embarrassed, crawled out from the stone wall, spat a mouthful of blood, and without a word, sprinted away, cursing, "Came too early. Who would’ve thought the whole mountain would collapse? If I had known, I would’ve come later."
He had used the Transformation of Illusion and Reality to hide within the stone wall, but as the wall suddenly cracked and shook, he suffered severe injuries.
In a flash, only Zhang Chen was left in the underground mausoleum. Seeing this, Zhang Chen transformed into a stream of water, clinging to the root foot of the stone wall to hide. The next moment, an earth-shattering cracking sound rang out, and the entire mountain collapsed, with countless stones filling the sky and raining down.
Fortunately, as water, Zhang Chen was able to avoid the attack, using the advantage of being a stream to dodge. Amidst the shaking and trembling of the earth, Zhang Chen’s water form continuously flowed through the gaps in the rocks, quickly reaching the Princess’s coffin.
Strangely enough, within five meters of the Princess’s coffin, the soft branches of a willow tree held back any falling debris.
Zhang Chen glanced at the Princess’s coffin, not rushing to take action. Instead, he transformed into water at the bottom of the pond, revealing his true form, and activated the Dharma Eye to harvest experience points.
[Experience Points +100]
[Experience Points +150]
[Experience Points +300]
[Experience Points +350]
...
A vast amount of experience points poured in, making Zhang Chen’s eyes squint with happiness. This experience is mine, and that experience is also mine. Zhang Chen was thoroughly enjoying himself, but soon enough, he noticed something was amiss.
Not far from him, there was originally a cluster labeled [500+] experience points. Zhang Chen planned to go over and collect it, but to his surprise, the experience points disappeared into thin air.
"Huh?" Zhang Chen was stunned, even doubting his own eyes. How could experience points just vanish?
He looked again at the experience points nearby, but when he moved over to collect them, another cluster of experience points suddenly disappeared.
"What’s going on? Why are the experience points disappearing? Is someone secretly stealing my experience points, taking them before I can?" Zhang Chen was dumbfounded, his eyes filled with disbelief.
Feeling a bit flustered, Zhang Chen had no choice but to inquire with the Golden Finger: "Why are my experience points disappearing? Where did such a large amount of experience points go???"
[All experience points will automatically disappear if not collected within a year.] The Golden Finger provided its explanation.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Chen was momentarily stunned, then realized:
"It makes sense. If all the experience points were preserved and didn’t disappear, this place that’s been here for countless millennia would be piled high with experience points."
That makes more sense!
After all, this place holds countless mysteries.
Watching the continuously disappearing experience points, Zhang Chen felt a shiver down his spine. He quickly moved forward to collect the experience points to prevent more from disappearing. Once he had collected all the experience points, he finally let out a sigh of relief:
[Points: Five Million]
Countless mysteries had gathered here, dropping an impressive amount of points.
Five million is definitely a windfall.
Looking at those five million experience points, a hint of joy appeared in Zhang Chen’s eyes. He could continue upgrading his skills.
However, the most exciting prospect was the black skill, which Zhang Chen speculated might have dropped from the Cursed Demon God.
Zhang Chen shifted his gaze from the points to the skill, noting that this skill was unlike any he’d encountered before.
This skill was particularly large!
It was the size of a basketball, entirely pitch-black, looking very eerie and ominous, with a tinge of a sinister aura.
"Could it be another bizarre skill like the Soul Hook Chain?" Zhang Chen stepped forward and picked up the skill.
[New skill discovered. Would you like to collect it?]
"Collect."
Zhang Chen quickly responded.
[New Skill: Cursed Tongue]
[Note 1: This is a passive skill, cannot be upgraded, and is randomly triggered when related to personal matters.]
[Note 2: Bad predictions come true, good ones don’t. Be careful not to speak ill of yourself.]
"Damn! I got duped!" Upon reading the skill description, a wave of dismay washed over Zhang Chen.
Can’t speak any bad words about myself? Only the bad comes true while the good doesn’t? Is this even a skill? It’s like picking up a hot potato.
"Now I don’t want this skill. Is it too late?" Zhang Chen felt overwhelmed.
In a lifetime, one has to interact with countless people daily, and say countless words. Who can guarantee never speaking wrongly?
This isn’t a skill; it’s a negative buff, and Zhang Chen didn’t want it at all.
"I knew there was something off at first sight of this skill, but I held hope, thinking maybe there’d be benefits like the Soul Hooking and Soul Stealing skill. I thought it might just be a special skill, but I really got duped." Zhang Chen stomped in frustration.
What could he do? He was helpless!
At this moment, the Golden Finger directly responded: [Dear Host, once a skill is collected, it can no longer be removed. Unless the host acquires a powerful blessing-type skill to offset the negative effects of this skill.]
The system’s voice was gentle, but the smile vanished from Zhang Chen’s face. His happiness was gone.
"Damn it, it’s like walking into a pit," Zhang Chen cursed inwardly.
With things as they were, Zhang Chen could only reluctantly accept the fact and think of ways to remedy his mistake.
Zhang Chen’s eyes turned to his Golden Finger Interface, contemplating whether the Light of the True God could offset the negative effect, and that he should give his skills a boost and level them up.
The first skill, Light of the True God, in its fourth stage required two million points to upgrade, which Zhang Chen immediately skipped. The power of the Light of the True God was already sufficient for him. Further upgrading would only enhance its application, not its power.
What he lacked now were techniques to attack others.
The second stage Dragon Qi needed twenty thousand points, but its use was in Beast Taming, which he had not encountered recently and didn’t need for now.
The third skill, Blood Control Technique, at its first stage, could currently transform into a Vampire Bat and required a million experience points, which Zhang Chen found tempting.
"The Blood Control Technique should also be upgraded," Zhang Chen murmured to himself.
But for now, he wasn’t in a rush to upgrade, opting to look at the other skills and make various comparisons to select the best skill.
The fourth skill, Water Control Technique, required only ten thousand points to upgrade, which wasn’t much and could be considered.
The fifth skill, Soul Hook Chain, required ten million skill points, so Zhang Chen skipped over it entirely.
The sixth skill, Visualization and Forgetfulness, needed forty thousand points, which Zhang Chen also bypassed since it didn’t significantly boost his current combat capabilities.
Seeing the seventh skill, Qi Cultivation Technique, Zhang Chen’s eyes lit up: "The Qi Cultivation Technique must be upgraded. In the future, if I want to cultivate into a celestial being, this technique is my foundation. The key is that the Qi Cultivation Technique amplifies various skills and relates to my future skill upgrades. I should max it out this time."
The Body-Stabilizing Rune at the fourth stage needed eighty thousand to upgrade to the fifth stage. The Sealing Rune at the fifth stage needed two million to upgrade to the sixth! I can’t afford to click it!
Clicking it would use up most of my points.
The rest of the skills, Divine Mist Transformation, Fire Extinguishing Rune, and Wind Stabilizing Rune, required fewer points and might prove significant at key moments, making it worth considering an upgrade.
Especially the Fire Extinguishing Rune, which could give immunity to fire. Once upgraded, it would give me a significant advantage over Zhong Xiang.