Zhang Chen was in a panic, a sense of helplessness, dizziness, and suffocation filled his entire body. He could do nothing, the only thing he could do was to use the Bloodsucking Technique!
The Bloodsucking Technique could heal injuries, but he didn’t know if his current state counted as an injury.
A pair of fangs extended from Zhang Chen’s palm, instantly piercing into the rabbit’s neck. Within a single breath, the rabbit was drained of its blood by Zhang Chen, becoming nothing but a corpse.
As the rabbit’s blood was absorbed, undergoing mystical transformation, Zhang Chen’s liver suddenly sped up in producing blood. Drops of crimson blood were continuously generated, reducing his dizziness and the feeling of suffocation slightly.
"It works!" Zhang Chen kept moving, blurry-headed, grabbing a wild chicken from the cage, and again drained it of its blood. This relieved the discomfort in his body quite a bit, but his body still felt as though it was burning with flames. Even though Zhang Chen still felt dizzy, he was much better and had regained some strength.
"Sucking blood can alleviate my symptoms, but although there are plenty of prey in this wilderness, I can’t catch them. There are two deer at home, and if I could suck their blood, I could definitely get through this crisis safely. However, in my current condition, it’s going to be difficult to walk back home myself." Zhang Chen struggled to get up and managed to take a few steps, but soon felt off balance, the world spinning around him as he lost his footing and fell to the ground.
"What should I do? Am I going to die here?" Zhang Chen sat dumbly on the ground, his head spinning and limbs weak, a wave of indescribable desolation washing over him. Clearly, there were animals at home, and he could survive the crisis just by absorbing their blood, but who would have thought he’d be stuck on the mountain, unable to return? Could there be anything more pitiful?
Despite having a solution, he couldn’t achieve it. At this moment, Zhang Chen was filled with grief and resentment, muttering to himself, "Damn it, if I die in this wilderness, I’d die wronged."
He felt that he had been careless, and because of that, he had lost vigilance against the supernatural, underestimating its power.
His body felt like it was burning from charcoal fire, the red flames pervading his chest, and he was unable to sense what was happening inside his body.
"No, I’ve weathered big storms, how can I die here?" Zhang Chen sprawled on the ground, struggling to get up and stagger toward home.
How could he resign himself to die in this wilderness?
He had already awakened the Golden Finger and had mastered skills. There was still hope for an extraordinary life and immortality in the future. How could he willingly die in the wilderness and become animal feed?
Zhang Chen stumbled along, driven by a strong will to make his way through the mountains. He was bruised and battered, but he never stopped moving, relying on his strong will to head home. If he stayed in the mountains, his fate was uncertain. It might have been that his bodily mutation would end and everything would return to normal, or it could be that his skills’ mutation failed, leaving him to die in the wilderness. Zhang Chen wasn’t the kind to sit and wait. He had a premonition that as long as he absorbed the blood, he could overcome the current crisis. As Zhang Chen stumbled down the mountain, a familiar voice suddenly called out from afar:
"Zhang Chen, are you alright?"
It was Wang Wu’s voice!
At this moment, Wang Wu, clutching two wild chickens, spotted Zhang Chen and rushed forward to support him.
"Uncle Wang, please take me home! I ate an unknown fruit in the mountains, got poisoned, and my body feels weak. Please hurry and take me home." Zhang Chen, with a thought-out excuse in mind, quickly said.
Hearing this, Wang Wu’s heart skipped a beat, full of concerned reproach. "You kid, you’ve been hunting in the mountains for three years, how could you still make such a mistake? Didn’t I tell you the first time we entered the mountains, never eat unknown fruits? How could you act so recklessly!"
Wang Wu grabbed Zhang Chen, flipped him onto his back, and hurried towards the village.
Wang Wu, though in his forties, was strong and robust from running through the mountains eating meat. While Zhang Chen himself was a mere fourteen-year-old half-grown kid, and having eaten little and been bullied by the Fox Spirit, he was not heavy at all.
Wang Wu carried Zhang Chen all the way home, laid him on the bed, then scooped up a large ladle of cold water from a jar, opening his mouth to pour it in. "Drink more cold water to expel the food in your stomach, and whether you survive depends on your Creation!"
Zhang Chen, holding the ladle, didn’t want to drink a drop. All he wanted now was to send Wang Wu away so he could consume the blood of the two deer in the courtyard, but looking at Wang Wu’s worried eyes, he was not about to leave.
Hence, a thought quickly crossed his mind:
"Doctor! Doctor! Uncle Wang, please get a doctor for me!"
Hearing this, Wang Wu smacked his forehead.
"How could I forget! I’ll get a doctor right away, hang in there!"
With that, Wang Wu dashed out of the courtyard like the wind, disappearing from view. Zhang Chen staggered off the bed and rushed into the courtyard, spotting the deer tied there.
Without worrying whether the Fox Spirit next door would see, Zhang Chen shuffled his way there, stumbling and falling towards them. The deer, spooked by the swaying Zhang Chen, fluttered lightly to avoid him, and Zhang Chen fell repeatedly, unable to catch it, until he collapsed to the ground.
Finally, though, Zhang Chen toppled onto the rope, and following it, managed to grab the deer’s leg.
The deer struggled, trying to kick Zhang Chen off, but with his life depending on the deer’s blood, Zhang Chen wouldn’t let go.
Holding tightly to the deer’s leg, a pair of sharp teeth appeared in his palm and drove into the deer’s body. The deer suddenly froze as if hit by the Body-Stabilizing Technique, unable to move while Zhang Chen freely drank its blood.
In three breaths, the deer collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
Having absorbed the blood of a deer, Zhang Chen’s heart pumped strongly, with blood being produced in his liver like spring water, nourishing his entire body.
The dizziness finally faded. Although his limbs remained somewhat weak, it was not as severe as before, resembling the discomfort of a severe cold, with his body feeling as if burning with charcoal fire.