Zhang Chen has plenty of time; he can afford to wait!
Next, he plans to absorb incense in a big way, strive to perfect various skills, and hopefully use the Dragon Qi skill to transform two wild beasts into demon beasts.
Seeing that his own lair is safe, Zhang Chen doesn’t want to draw too much attention, so he transforms into a vampire bat and returns.
It’s just that the day after Zhang Chen mastered the Mountain-moving Technique, a major event occurred inside the Daoist Temple: the Pool of Faith dried up!
After mastering the initial entry stage of the Mountain-moving Technique, Zhang Chen looked at the few remaining points, pondering that next he would focus on upgrading his skills to become a master as soon as possible.
That day, Zhang Chen went underground and looked at the flowing incense Qi on the rock wall, showing a hint of surprise in his eyes:
"How strange, the Power of Faith I absorbed yesterday hasn’t recovered?"
Looking at the wall with its dim sheen, Zhang Chen showed a hint of astonishment, unsure where the problem had arisen.
Logically, the endless incense faith collected by Yellow Heaven Dao should have recovered overnight, so why does it still look the same as last night?
Zhang Chen pondered in his heart for a moment, then refrained from rash action, instead returning to the surface to think through the matter.
Why did the power of faith in Huangli Temple suddenly dry up?
"Could it be that something major happened within Yellow Heaven Dao?" Zhang Chen speculated in his heart.
Outside, the north wind howled, and Zhang Chen stood by the window in a fox fur cloak, unable to figure it out.
After a long time, Zhang Chen transformed into water mist and left the Daoist Temple, heading to other temples in the Northern Land. He needed to investigate whether Huangli Temple’s power of faith alone had dried up, or if the faith power of other temples had also dried up.
The nearest to Huangli Temple is a temple a hundred miles away, known as Huanggua Temple.
Zhang Chen quietly came outside the temple, transforming into dozens of vampire bats that flew in the winter.
Logically, bats should hibernate in winter, but Zhang Chen’s vampire bats were already of high grade, not troubled by usual cold conditions.
The dozens of vampire bats formed by Zhang Chen dispersed around the temple, secretly emitting ultrasonic waves to explore the temple’s layout and personnel. After over thirty breaths, Zhang Chen had a good understanding: "This temple’s strength is no less than Huangli Temple. There are over two thousand Daoists, all with vigorous Qi blood, evidently martial artists ready to arm themselves for battle at a signal."
"Yellow Heaven Dao has such deep resources, but why does Yellow Heaven Dao train so many masters? Liu Feng previously said rebellion, but now Yellow Heaven Dao cooperates with Prince Pingbian’s Mansion, becoming one family. How can they rebel?" Zhang Chen’s thoughts flashed:
"Unless the rebellion isn’t against Prince Pingbian’s Mansion!"
After probing the temple’s masters, all the vampire bats converged and transformed into water, penetrating underground, exploring further.
His ultrasonic waves didn’t have the ability to detect underground secret chambers, but Zhang Chen surmised the secret chamber location in this temple shouldn’t differ much from Huangli Temple.
Indeed, shortly after, Zhang Chen found a stone chamber underground. However, the divine light on the chamber walls had completely drained, even worse than Huangli Temple.
The water flow transformed by Zhang Chen circled outside the secret chamber, carefully probing into the adjacent room, finding it vacant.
Feeling reassured, Zhang Chen boldly infiltrated and indeed saw an identical Pool of Faith, though its water had dried up.
"The drying up of Huangli Temple’s Pool of Faith is definitely not a coincidence." Zhang Chen glanced at the Pool of Faith ahead and scanned the secret chamber, seeing a bookshelf with books. His interest piqued, he picked up each book and flipped through them, soon losing interest. Those books were merely ledgers and Martial Dao secret techniques, no different from items in Huangli Temple.
"I suppose the layout of other Northern Land temples is generally the same, going further would just be a waste of time." Zhang Chen returned the books to the shelf, when suddenly the sound of cursing came from outside. Zhang Chen, sensitive to sound waves, immediately discerned it was two people.
Zhang Chen’s heart stirred, as he transformed into water and seeped into the stone floor. Just as he was about to leave, he heard a Daoist cursing: "Senior Brother, I’ve had enough! That damn Gu Mingyue is too much! Northern Land is our turf, yet he’s come here to boss us around; what in the world is he up to!!!"
This voice was rough and full of anger: "It’s bad enough he replaced the master in commanding us, but now he’s sending all the incense faith we collected to nobles for divine enthronement! We’ve painstakingly collected that incense; even if there’s a divine enthronement, we should have priority, not those city aristocrats!"
"Gu Mingyue is cutting off our path to immortality, leaving us no room to survive." The rough man cursed incessantly at Gu Mingyue’s actions.
This torrent of curses made Zhang Chen, who was about to leave, pause, his curiosity piqued, and he continued eavesdropping from within the stone.
From the earlier man’s curses, Zhang Chen roughly understood why the power of faith had dried up in various temples; it seemed all had been extracted by Gu Mingyue for the use of nobles.