A barely audible crisp sound echoed like thunder in the lonely ancient tomb, exploding next to Zhang Chen's ears. Zhang Chen hurriedly looked towards the source of the sound, only to find that the source of the sound was actually the Jade Stele under his hand.
'Crack~'
'Crack~'
A series of crisp sounds continuously spread through the air, so constant, akin to popping beans.
Zhang Chen's eyes turned towards the Jade Stele, and he saw that fine cracks had inexplicably appeared on the Jade Stele, and those cracks seemed to trigger a chain reaction, now rapidly expanding to cover the entire stele in the blink of an eye.
"It's broken! The Jade Stele actually shattered!" Zhang Chen, looking at the Jade Stele in front of him, couldn't help but be overjoyed, his excitement causing his breathing to become erratic. The intricate patterns on the Jade Stele multiplied, dense like a shattered tempered glass, countless in number.
Yet as this moment approached, Zhang Chen's heart grew more cautious, fearing some strange and terrifying counterattack from the Jade Stele.
At this moment, Zhang Chen activated the Golden Light Body Protection, his expression solemn as he gazed at the Jade Stele before him, standing silently in front of it for a long time.
No one knew how much time had passed, but the popping-like sound from the Jade Stele had ceased, with no anomaly to be seen. Zhang Chen stared at the Jade Stele for an hour, seeing no evidence of it shattering, then summoned the courage to reach out and lightly touch the Jade Stele. In the next moment, the entire Jade Stele exploded into powder, vanishing into the ancient tomb, and when the dust settled on the ground, it transformed into gray dust, mixing with the earth.
But at the center of the Jade Stele, a cluster of red light fell, resting motionless in the dust.
The red light was very dazzling, akin to a brilliant crystal, now emanating a striking red glow.
"What is that?" Zhang Chen looked at the fallen red light; his own Golden Finger had no reaction, obviously, this was not equipment spawned by the Golden Finger.
"What kind of object is that?" Zhang Chen carefully observed the cluster of crystal, noticing that it was not large, merely the size of a peanut, yet it shone with a brilliant glimmer, very eye-catching.
At that moment, Zhang Chen felt an itch in his palm, as his third skill, blood absorption, suddenly stirred. The bat head unexpectedly appeared in his palm, a great yearning message surged into Zhang Chen's mind.
"This thing benefits the third skill?" Zhang Chen looked at the blood-red crystal on the ground, then raised his hand to look at the bat head in his palm, pressing it back immediately, causing his palm to revert to its original form.
Zhang Chen studied the blood-red crystal for a while, before cautiously extending his hand to carefully make contact with it.
Upon making contact with the blood-red crystal, no anomalies arose, hence Zhang Chen felt at ease to pick up the blood-red crystal, placing it in his palm for examination.
At this point, Zhang Chen's third skill stirred once more, but was immediately suppressed by Zhang Chen's thought, allowing no chance for the third skill's anomaly.
"What kind of treasure is this crystal?" Zhang Chen gazed at the blood-red crystal, after studying it for a while, he said in a surprised tone, "Such a wondrous thing."
The outer shell of the crystal was hard, resembling the texture of glass to the touch, but upon careful inspection Zhang Chen discovered that inside the glass was a crimson liquid, a bright scarlet seemingly like a droplet of blood.
Of course, the most attention-grabbing feature was that a blood-red glow seemed to be circulating in the blood, constantly rolling up and down, like a bat continuously rushing back and forth, seemingly trying to break through the shackles of the crystal to fly out.
Zhang Chen observed for a long time and found that there indeed was a bat in the blood.
"This seems like a drop of blood? But then again, it doesn't quite look so. The Jade Stele was destroyed, leaving only this artifact. Logically, this should be the core of the Jade Stele, meaning this blood is the core of the Jade Stele." Zhang Chen stroked the crystal with both hands, his eyes showing a hint of surprise.
"My third skill, blood absorption, comes from the Jade Stele, and this crystal also originates from the Jade Stele. Now the third skill has such an urgent desire for the crystal, could there be some unknown connection between them?"
Zhang Chen felt astonished as he looked at the crimson blood, and the constantly bouncing blood-red bat inside, it didn't seem like it came from a proper origin at all.
"But my third skill is conveying such an urgent need..." Zhang Chen pondered for a good while, ultimately a thought moved within his heart, in the middle of his palm, a ferocious mouth opened, two fangs gleamed with a cold light, piercing the crystal's surface, then the fangs grew longer, directly penetrating into the blood-red liquid.
Though there was only a little blood-red liquid, barely equivalent to a few drops of blood from a wild rabbit, the fangs absorbed it very slowly this time.
While Zhang Chen could absorb a wild rabbit in mere breaths, taking a tiny bit of liquid from the crystal took a whole six hours.
The blood seemed to sense the threat when being absorbed by the fangs. The red bat in the blood flapped its wings frantically, repeatedly striking the fangs, attempting to shatter them, but those two fangs gleamed like pillars of heaven, unmovable to be troubled by a mere ripple in a small stream.
"Quite interesting!"
Zhang Chen watched the change in the crystal's blood with a peculiar look in his eyes.
'Boom~'
Finally at a certain moment, the crystal turned into a stream of light. Together with the blood, they were directly absorbed by the fangs. Then the mouth on Zhang Chen's palm vanished, seemingly with no anomalies present.
"Is that it? Absorbing the mysterious Jade Stele's liquid should have some kind of reaction, right?" A bewildered expression overtook Zhang Chen, yet before he finished mulling over his thoughts, suddenly a sensation of burning heat arose within him.
"So hot! It feels like a summer furnace, so hot!" Standing in the underground cave, the chill in the air surprisingly didn't stir a sense of coldness in Zhang Chen.
Though Zhang Chen felt extremely hot at that moment, oddly, not a single bead of sweat rolled from his pores.
So hot!
Incredibly hot!
And the temperature kept rising, making Zhang Chen seem like he was in a furnace, his blood boiling, his flesh seemingly emitting thin smoke.
But from the outside, Zhang Chen looked as usual, except for a slightly flushed complexion, as if nothing had happened.
"Why is it so hot? Damn it, it feels like I'll catch fire, it must be that crystal's effect." Zhang Chen directly walked to the depths of the underground cave, pressing himself against the frost-covered earth, but upon contact, it had no effect, as if the burning power within him didn't exist, even the frost on the walls remained unmelted.