The next day
Zhang Chen fed the chopped meat to the Hunting Falcon, then returned to the cave, placing the Hunting Falcon on the perch he had set up earlier, and started sorting through the jars of honey.
As Zhang Chen opened the jar of honey, the wasps building their nest seemed to catch a signal, buzzing forward in great swarms, darting toward Zhang Chen’s jar. Startled, Zhang Chen quickly swatted them away with his sleeve, then scooped a bit of honey with his finger and flicked it onto a nearby rock, luring the wasps to it. This gave Zhang Chen the opportunity to consolidate the honey into another honey jar.
"Next, the most important thing for me is to excavate the ancient tomb, then collect honey to cope with the rising rent. Most crucially, I need to enhance my skills." Zhang Chen tidied up the honey, noting that it was already mid-morning, the time when Yang Qi was at its peak, making it the best moment to dig tombs.
Zhang Chen, carrying his gear, entered the underground cave. After thoroughly checking the cave and finding nothing unusual, nor any small animals, he took up his Luoyang Shovel and descended to begin his day’s work of digging the frozen soil.
Chipping away, packing, and transporting, as he excavated down to the extremely icy permafrost layer, the Luoyang Shovel had essentially lost its efficacy.
The cave remained cold, and before long, the hammer was covered with a layer of frost. Zhang Chen had to wrap himself in animal hides to prevent the cold air from invading his body.
In fact, although Zhang Chen’s bloodline had mutated, it did not aid him at all in excavating ancient tombs. His strength had not increased, nor had his stamina, and he lacked any resistance to heat and cold; it seemed the bloodline mutation granted him only the ability to control blood, and nothing more.
However, Zhang Chen mastered the ability to control the flow of blood, accelerating the process of promoting circulation and dissolving stasis, speeding up the blood’s delivery of nutrients and power, which indeed enhanced his endurance. But correspondingly, his blood consumed his strength much faster.
After digging all morning, Zhang Chen stewed meat outside the pit, ate to his fill, then continued chipping the earth.
[Points +1]
[Points +7]
[Points +18]
[Points +6]
[Points +2]
[Points +6]
...
Until around 3 PM, Zhang Chen paused, looking at the Golden Finger Interface:
[Name: Zhang Chen]
[1st Skill (Tier 2): Light of the True God (0/5000)]
[2nd Skill (Unranked): Dragon Qi (0/2000)]
[3rd Skill (Unranked): Blood Control (0/100000)]
[Points: 4690]
"How strange that today I only gained forty-plus points. Logically, shouldn’t deeper cave explorations yield more experience points? Why are they decreasing?" Zhang Chen was perplexed, unable to fathom the reason behind it.
Why does it drop like the experience values from a stele?
"I won’t know until I break into the tomb and investigate." Zhang Chen didn’t mull it over too much, only hoping the tomb could help him accumulate the five thousand experience points needed to upgrade his first skill.
For him, all hopes of subduing the Fox Spirit, suppressing the Fox Spirit, and living a carefree life hinged on the grand tomb.
"As collecting experience points slows, perhaps I should explore other ways, like stealing the Golden Page from the neighboring Fox Spirit." Zhang Chen entertained a sly thought, but after considering it, he dismissed the idea. He wasn’t about to provoke the Fox Spirit again after it had finally let him off the hook. Why would he want to court trouble?
Who knows if the Fox Spirit has tampered with the Golden Page?
Excavating the tomb for upgrades was slow, but it was at least stable. Zhang Chen now aimed for stability, avoiding taking risky actions.
Zhang Chen patted the dust off himself, then exited the tomb and headed to the small river to wash up. Looking at the increasingly dry stream, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes; the little stream was now just two meters wide, and he could clearly see the bottom, as fish swam unaware of the approaching danger.
"The stream’s level is dropping fast! Such rapid decline is obviously abnormal. I fear a great calamity year is coming," Zhang Chen said with a hard look as he stood by the bank.
Many people wonder why, when in years of great disaster the populace has no grain to harvest, they don’t catch fish from the water or hunt animals in the mountains?
This thinking is too narrow-minded. In a calamity year, drought is the main culprit. Drought causes all foliage in the mountains to wither, animals can’t survive, and they must either migrate or starve to death. Villagers’ crops fail due to drought, and even grass roots and bark are unavailable, forcing them to leave home to find a way to survive.
As for fishing?
In those calamity years, even the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers could dry up, leaving no fish to catch.
If the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers did not dry up, with Heluo’s powerful evaporation, there would certainly be rainfall, preventing such severe droughts from occurring.
So when drought occurs, essentially no one can survive; not just humans and crops, but mountain foliage, animals, streams, and fish all meet the same fate.
"I must prepare in advance." Zhang Chen looked at the slightly dried yellow leaves in the mountains, took his knife to cut some grass, then checked his traps, gathered two wild ducks, and headed home.