Ma Zhou heard this and rubbed his hands, a look of eagerness on his face, then he regretfully said: "I would like to join the Prince and secure a lifetime of wealth, but unfortunately the General Temple has issued an edict to me, and I will soon set off for Qingcheng Mountain. After I finish my business, how about I come to join the Prince?"
Prince Pingbian was overjoyed upon hearing this: "Good! I am always welcoming of you, Mr. Wuliu, to come here, and I promise I will not treat you poorly."
Prince Pingbian had witnessed Ma Zhou’s strength with his own eyes, and he was genuinely fascinated by Ma Zhou’s methods.
As the two were conversing, Mr. Wuliu, who was standing nearby, interrupted, reminding them:
"Prince, you can take action now!"
What Mr. Wuliu meant by taking action was to go collect the snake skin.
Upon hearing this, Prince Pingbian looked over and saw that the snake skin had already collapsed into flat ground.
"Take action!"
Before Mr. Wuliu’s words had finished, the soldiers from the Inspection and Supervision Department, under the command of Xie Lingyun, were the first to start collecting the snake skin.
Seeing this, Prince Pingbian was shocked and quickly reprimanded: "Xie Lingyun, are you planning to rebel? That snake skin landed in the Northern Land, and I have already reserved it, yet you dare to seize something from my mansion?"
As Prince Pingbian spoke, he hastily signaled his men to fight for the snake skin. However, when everyone grabbed the snake skin, they found that it had already decayed into ashes, with only pieces of snake scales the size of grinding stones scattered on the ground.
If the snake skin had been intact, the Prince’s Mansion would naturally have had no objection to taking it away, but now that the snake scales had fallen off, whoever collected them could claim them. This immediately excited everyone, and they rushed towards the snake scales.
In an instant, chaos erupted as people from major families and the martial world gathered up snake scales and fled, fearing retribution from the Prince’s Mansion. Li Donglai and his two companions mingled in the crowd, each carrying several snake scales, and left with various martial world experts.
Facing the chaos, Prince Pingbian could do nothing and was reluctant to give a random order to stop it. He needed to recruit talents from all sides to plan big things in the future, so he couldn’t afford to appear too petty, lest it damage his reputation.
Although the Ba Snake’s body had shrunk, there were still hundreds of thousands of scales, albeit much smaller, now about the size of basins instead of grinding stones.
As tens of thousands of people scavenged, in just an hour, all the snake scales were snatched up, and the lively groups of martial experts dispersed. The Inspection and Supervision Department’s and the Prince’s Mansion’s armies also withdrew.
Zhang Chen saw the tranquility return to the scene, then turned into a mist and drifted through the valley, landing at the place where the Ba Snake’s body had fallen. Sure enough, he saw a white sphere on the ground at the place where the Ba Snake’s body was dismembered.
"White? Is it experience points or a skill? I’ve never seen white experience points before." Zhang Chen was astonished as he looked at the white sphere, showing a surprised expression as he approached to pick it up.
[A skill fragment has been discovered. Do you wish to acquire it?]
The Golden Finger interface timely popped up.
"A white skill? How rare." Zhang Chen glanced at the Golden Finger interface and then commanded: "Acquire!"
With Zhang Chen’s command, streams of light on the ground were absorbed by Zhang Chen’s Golden Finger interface, and the next moment, a new skill appeared on Zhang Chen’s Golden Finger interface:
[Skill (Unranked): Mysterious Space (0\10000)]
[Area: One Cubic Meter]
[Note 1: Can only devour unranked mysteries]
[Description: This space can accommodate any mysterious item except living beings, then decompose and absorb the mysterious item, transforming it into energy for cultivation or body refinement. Or, through system conversion, it can be transformed into points. This space originates from a fragment of the Ba Snake’s core fall, and more skills can be discovered with further exploration.]
Upon seeing this scene, Zhang Chen couldn’t help but be stunned: "Interesting!"
It should be noted that the Golden Finger interface mentioned accommodating any mysterious item.
"Not bad, not bad! This skill is good!" Zhang Chen praised: "If only it could be transformed into a storage space, so I could put things in it freely."
Although this space is good, it cannot be used as a storage space because all mysterious items that enter it will be decomposed by the space’s power.
Zhang Chen looked at his points, and after absorbing for five days, he collected forty million points.
Zhang Chen’s first gaze fell on the Invisibility Rune, but unfortunately, upgrading the Invisibility Rune to the level where a Ninth Rank Yang God True Man cannot see through it would require at least 160 million points, and Zhang Chen’s 40 million points were just a drop in the bucket.
Including previous savings, Zhang Chen’s points now totaled 41.6 million.
Sweeping his gaze over all the skills, there weren’t many options that could be upgraded with 40 million points. [1 Skill (Fifth Rank): True God Golden Light (0/20000000)] was not needed for now, as its current power was sufficient for Zhang Chen’s use.
[2 Skill (Third Rank): Dragon Qi (0/2000000)] required fewer points, but Zhang Chen had no intention to upgrade it, as he felt its usefulness had not yet been realized.
The third skill, Blood Control Technique, was not worth mentioning, as Zhang Chen couldn’t afford to upgrade it.
[4 Skill (Fifth Rank): Water Control Technique + Weak Water (0/5000000)] was worth considering for an upgrade. The rest were Body-Stabilizing Runes and Sealing Runes. The other skills consumed too many points, not enough to make any substantial progress.
Zhang Chen didn’t plan to retain his points, as spending them would actually put them to good use.
[9 Skill (Fifth Rank): Sealing Rune (2000000)]