Zhang Chen cheerfully tied a pack of explosives around his waist and headed up the mountain to look for flint, intending to make a fuse for it. Only when the sky started to darken did he carry the Luoyang Shovel to search for traps.
Today's harvest was bountiful; he had caught two wild pheasants and one unlucky rabbit. Zhang Chen couldn't help but marvel at the abundance of this world, where wild rabbits and pheasants roamed freely, yet without hunting skills, the ordinary folks couldn't catch them at all.
Of course, the mountains weren't devoid of danger either; there were plenty of wolf packs and poisonous snakes. However, because of the presence of the True Dragon Tomb in this area, all snakes naturally gathered around it, resulting in few locals being harmed by them.
Zhang Chen carried the pheasants home and was surprised not to see the Fox Spirit at the door today, wondering why she was not keeping guard and was wandering about.
He casually hung the pheasants on the wall, and soon a commotion came from next door. The Fox Spirit took the pheasants away, rather listlessly, unlike her usual lively self.
"What's up with the Fox Spirit? Why the change of character today?" Zhang Chen wondered to himself.
But he didn't pay much attention to it. He boiled some water, took a sip, and after washing up a bit, went straight to bed with his clothes on.
He had explosives with him now, so he dared not take his clothes off casually. If the Fox Spirit got hold of the explosives, it would be trouble if she suddenly ignited it in the dead of night; he wasn't prepared for the power of explosives.
Inside the tomb
As the sky grew darker, black smoke gradually streamed out from the stone tablet, emerging from the tomb, and vanished after a brief moment of recognition.
In the village, the scholar next door, after having his fill, was examining the scroll of ominous red script in his hand when it suddenly shot out streaks of red light. The script seemed to come alive, dyeing the white paper a crimson red.
"Huh, how is it that these characters suddenly glow?" The scholar, Zhang Chen, looked at the crimson text in bewilderment, as if flames were shooting crimson rays, illuminating the entire room in blood red. It felt as if he were submerged in a sea of red, with an ominous aura enveloping the room. He was taken aback, stunned.
"Impossible!"
The Little Fox, startled by the phenomenon, quickly got up to watch the blood-red text, eyes filled with fear: "Wasn't that ghostly thing always suppressed within the tomb? How does it have the power to manifest outside?"
The Little Fox sprang up, leapt onto the bed, and grabbed the blanket, spreading it over the crimson scripture. However, the blood-red script, each word a jewel, seemed to contain some strange power, making the glow pierce through the blanket and continue emanating that ominous red light.
"Damn it! How did this happen? How could the inscriptions on the stone tablet start glowing?" The Little Fox's voice was filled with panic: "Our Qingqiu Race is responsible for guarding the Princess's tomb, but nothing like this has ever happened! I only wanted to dig up some things to improve our Qingqiu Race's plight; how did I end up causing such trouble?"
Panicking, the Little Fox pressed himself firmly on the paper, hoping to block that blood-red light. But just then,
suddenly, a gust of black wind swept from outside the window, sending sand and rocks flying, coating the entire village in a veil of black wind. For a time, the howling storm made the straw huts wail and whistle.
"Damn it, is there a strange force leaking from the Divine Lady's tomb?" The Little Fox's eyes flashed with panic.
Just then, the red light on the paper inside the house extinguished, and everything went silent, except the night was filled with the roaring rampant wind. The scholar Zhang Chen being jolted back to his senses, looked at the Little Fox pressing down on the scripture, and remarked: "It seems this scripture is extraordinary to stir such phenomena. There must be great secrets within worth exploring."
The bookish Zhang Chen relaxed a bit, gazing at the scripture with light eyes, gently placing the Little Fox back onto the bed beside him.
While Zhang Chen relaxed, the Little Fox did not. It nervously looked out the window, noticing flecks of red light, a blood-red shadow reflected on the window paper, mimicking an act of peering through the window before darting away. Then came a knocking at the door.
"Knock-knock-knock~"
The knocking was very rhythmic. Suddenly lifting his head from reading, Zhang Chen gazed in surprise at the exterior: "Strange, who'd come knocking this late at night?"
"Who's there?" Zhang Chen slowly rose inside and called out.
There was no reply to Zhang Chen's question from outside, only the persistent knocking continued, causing Zhang Chen to furrow his brow: 'Knocking late at night, surely it must be urgent,' he thought and stood to open the door. But just as he got up, the Little Fox jumped, clutching onto Zhang Chen's pant leg.
"Huh~" Zhang Chen eyed the Little Fox biting his pant leg, bewildered, for he knew his smart Little Fox possessed unusual human-like understanding. Seeing it stopping him from opening the door, he was taken aback. Reflecting on how the red glow from the pages emerged, coupled with the knocks from outside, he paused, instinctively clutching the inkstone, his face turning pale, understanding dawning that he wasn't dealing with a trivial situation.
Seeing Zhang Chen halt his actions, the Little Fox released its grip, fixing its eyes outside, filled with disbelief: 'How could this happen? Why did that monster target Zhang Chen? Could it be the inscriptions on the tombstone carry the monster's aura?'
The knocks grew more insistent, resembling raindrops drumming on banana leaves, leaving Zhang Chen breathless with fear, tightly gripping the inkstone, and the Little Fox rolled its eyes. In a flash, it underwent Soul Emergence, grabbing the text and dashing into Zhang Chen's room to toss the document inside, then darted back:
"Hopefully, his monstrous power will scare off that ghostly thing! Otherwise, big trouble awaits us all!"
Indeed, as soon as the document was transferred to Zhang Chen's room, the knocking stopped, followed by retreating footsteps, and shortly, knocks echoed from Zhang Chen's straw hut.
"Who is it! Knocking at this ungodly hour, I'm not home!" Zhang Chen, half-asleep and annoyed, shouted while cursing, and covered his head with the blanket, drifting back to sleep.
ps: Begging everyone to follow the updates. I hope all the noble readers continue to follow daily during the promotion period of the new book. Once it's on sale, the little author will repay your great kindness by doing all he can for you.
I'm begging you!