Chapter 90: Chapter 66: Controlling the Physical Body
I am now just a step away from excavating the tomb.
"I’ll verify the authenticity of the tomb entrance once I dig it up!" Zhang Chen replied perfunctorily: "If I can’t open the entrance to the tomb, then we’ll talk about cooperation."
As he said this, Zhang Chen gathered yesterday’s leftover firewood and started a fire.
"By the time you dig up the tomb entrance, I fear you might ask me... Hey! What are you doing? We agreed to settle this peacefully, and now you’re trying to harm me?" Seeing Zhang Chen light the firewood to start a fire, the Fox Spirit’s face changed color, her charming face full of suspicion, as she shouted angrily at Zhang Chen.
"Why are you yelling? I just want to use the fire to melt the ice. You’re hiding in the cave; the smoke can’t even reach you," Zhang Chen said irritably. "If I don’t melt the frozen soil, how can I dig the earth, get inside the tomb, and cooperate with you?"
Upon hearing Zhang Chen’s words, the Fox Spirit didn’t speak, which was considered as agreeing with him. Her eyes followed Zhang Chen as he lit the firewood, and she probed, "What was the explosive technique you just used? I didn’t sense it at all?"
"How did you survive my explosion?" Zhang Chen retorted instead of answering.
"The power of your explosion was strong. Normal second or third-level bizarre creatures with flesh bodies would have peeled off even if not dead unless they had special skills, because your technique attacks unexpectedly; it’s simply unguardable. When the explosion occurred, I was severely injured but still had the ability to employ techniques, so I dragged that scholar underground. Unfortunately, the explosion shook the underground soil. I was already heavily injured and couldn’t stay hidden in the earth; the shockwave blasted me out of the ground, leading to the loss of a piece of that scholar’s ear. I originally intended to drill further into the earth, but the explosion was too swift; I couldn’t make it in time." The Fox Spirit’s eyes were filled with a probing look as she gazed at Zhang Chen.
"It’s my technique, why would I tell you?" Zhang Chen said with a sly smile.
As for the levels mentioned by the Fox Spirit, first and second, they’re probably about the same as my skill levels, likely corresponding to them.
"What level of demon are you?" Zhang Chen asked as he watched the flames gradually rise.
Upon hearing Zhang Chen’s question, the Fox Demon didn’t answer; she just turned and walked towards the tomb. "Hurry up and dig, I’ll wait for you inside."
The Fox Spirit left, and Zhang Chen, watching the fire burn inside the tomb, also quickly exited the burial chamber.
"Too bad I don’t have the Earth Escape Technique now, otherwise dealing with the Fox Spirit would be a piece of cake." Zhang Chen shook his head, wondering when he would acquire the Earth Escape Technique skill; it would make things much more convenient for him.
Evening
Within the underground tomb passage, the flames were gradually dying down.
Then Zhang Chen picked up a shovel and began digging, feeling that even the permafrost, once as unyielding as a Copper Wall and Iron Wall, was starting to soften under his hands. An hour later, the handle of the hoe vibrated slightly, and Zhang Chen’s pupils shrank as his eyes fixed on the bronze in front of him, a look of joy appeared in his eyes: "Is this the entrance to the tomb?"
He remembered that the entrance to the tomb was supposed to be a bronze gate.
"Did I really dig to the entrance?" Zhang Chen’s eyes were filled with excitement as he quickly swung the handle of the hoe, digging rapidly through the softened soil, and soon revealed about a meter of the bronze door’s exterior.
In the lower-left corner of the bronze door was a hole the size of a doghole, which Zhang Chen recognized as the passage the Fox Spirit used to enter and exit the tomb.
The bronze door was coated with frost, much like the frost that clings to the windows in rural homes during winter.
But soon Zhang Chen’s expression turned serious as he observed the hole and concluded that the bronze door before him was probably fifty centimeters thick.
"Stop staring; this bronze door is ten meters high, fifty centimeters thick, and must weigh tens of thousands of kilograms; breaking it is impossible for you!"
"You’re digging too slowly." A girl’s figure appeared behind the bronze door, her eyes fixed on Zhang Chen with a bit of impatience in her voice.
"Didn’t you say we were collaborating? Why are you nagging here? Hurry and open the door for me to get in," Zhang Chen said irritably.
"This bronze door is ten meters high, fifty centimeters thick, and must weigh tens of thousands of kilograms; do you think I could open it?" the Fox Spirit said impatiently from the other side of the door.
If she had such Divine Techniques, she would have smashed Zhang Chen long ago, why wait till today?
"Then how do I get in?" Zhang Chen checked the door carefully; the heavy bronze gate could not be opened by the Fox Spirit, nor by him.
If he continued to dig through the soil, breaking through the stone might take him ten days to half a month, by which time it would be too late; the Fox Spirit might well have recovered by then. So, it would be better to seize opportunities from the Fox Spirit now.
"Of course, I’ll bring you in." The Fox Spirit, a bit smug in the tomb, said, "I told you, without me, you can’t enter this tomb. What’s this bronze door? Behind it, there are dozens of meters of rock; that’s the real despair for any tomb raider."
"Put away the Golden Light around you and watch me use Divine Techniques to bring you in." The Fox Spirit spoke from within the tomb.
"This Fox Spirit can actually use Divine Techniques?" Zhang Chen’s heart skipped a beat upon hearing her words, his mind buzzed: "Damn it, this Fox Spirit lured me here to dig the tomb. Now she might intend to have me face some bizarre entity within."