I picked up skill fragments in the demon world

Chapter 76: Chains Reaping Souls

Zhang Chen initially felt that his automatic cruise skill was quite useless. After all, he could already use Golden Light Empowerment to actively slay the souls of the strange and unusual. What was the point of having automatic cruise?

But after experiencing the fox spirit incident, Zhang Chen finally understood that his automatic cruise skill was truly amazing!

After all, a human's reaction speed can't compare to that of a monster, but if automatic cruise can block for a moment, it's enough to give him time to react.

"Moreover, after my golden light empowered the long saber, it actually gained the saber's sharp attribute, increasing its lethality. This is incredible. Could it be that when I empower something with golden light, the automatic cruise golden light that bursts forth can acquire the attributes of that item?" Countless thoughts raced through Zhang Chen's mind.

Zhang Chen hurriedly empowered the long saber with golden light again. At this moment, the stone wall not far away suddenly twisted, forming a familiar human face, which was none other than the fox spirit girl.

"Boy, what kind of trick is this now?"

The girl's face was entirely composed of stone, lifelike and exactly the same as the fox spirit's face. At this moment, the stone was as soft as water, becoming exceptionally pliable.

Accompanying the stone human face opening its mouth, a clear voice entered Zhang Chen's ears.

Hearing the sound, Zhang Chen hurriedly looked over, and at a glance, he saw the lifelike and constantly moving human face on the stone wall. The eyelids of that human face were blinking, and even the eyeballs were moving, angrily questioning him.

Zhang Chen ignored the fox spirit girl's scolding, but instead lowered his head and glanced at the long saber at his waist. His automatic cruise actually had no reaction to the human face on the stone wall.

"The fox spirit's human face is residing within the stone wall, and with the stone wall acting as a barrier, it's equivalent to a real body. My automatic cruise seems unable to do anything to the fox spirit's soul residing in the stone wall," Zhang Chen muttered to himself.

But it doesn't matter, if automatic cruise can't do anything to the fox spirit, doesn't he still have other skills?

"You wanted to harm me, and you still come to ask me what methods I'm using?" Zhang Chen's eyes looked towards the fox spirit in the stone wall, and in the next moment, he directly activated the skill: Soul Mark.

As Zhang Chen's skill activated, suddenly a gray, misty chain burst out from his pupils. The chain followed Zhang Chen's gaze, directly landing on the stone wall, actually ignoring the stone wall's obstruction and directly piercing into the fox spirit's soul.

The moment the fox spirit saw the gray, misty chain, a bad premonition arose in her heart. As the chain flew towards her, she seemed to hear a faint, cold, icy, and evil clanging sound of the chains, echoing deep within her soul.

That sound seemed to possess a mysterious magic, making one feel as if they were in a nightmare, their thinking stagnating, and their reaction speed slowing down infinitely.

She saw the chain approaching like a venomous snake, and only felt a tremor in her heart as if she had encountered a natural enemy, scaring her to want to burrow deep into the stone wall to hide, but who knew that her soul seemed to be frozen at that moment, only able to watch helplessly as the chain directly crossed the void and entered her soul, becoming one with her soul's origin.

Then, in the next moment, Zhang Chen's heart stirred, and he only felt that in the darkness, he seemed to have a trace of a mysterious connection with the fox spirit in front of him. That feeling was as if there was a chain linking himself and the fox spirit together.

He could feel the location of the other end of the chain, and similarly, the other end of the chain could also feel his location.

"What the hell is this thing!"

The fox spirit in the stone wall paled in shock, her eyes full of horror. She felt that she had been violated, and something suddenly appeared in her soul. That feeling was as if she had become impure.

Then, following the sensation, the stone eyes on that face moved, and her gaze landed on Zhang Chen, her voice full of panic: "Is this your doing?"

The fox spirit seemed to have encountered something incomprehensible, and then several runes flowed within the fox spirit's body, using them on the chain, but the chain seemed to be non-existent, neither on this shore nor on the other, not in this time and space. All of the fox spirit's methods directly passed through the chain's body.

It was as if they were hitting air, directly passing through the air.

"It's settled!"

Seeing that the fox spirit was successfully marked by his own skill, Zhang Chen stroked the fox spirit's body at his waist, and his heart couldn't help but relax.

Now, all that needed to be done was to try to see if, when he destroyed the fox spirit's body, the skill would judge that the fox spirit's lifespan was about to end, and whether he could enslave and control the fox spirit's soul.

"What is this trick of yours!" The fox spirit glared at Zhang Chen with a mixture of shock and anger: "Quickly pull that ghostly thing out of my body!"

Hearing this, Zhang Chen couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, always feeling that this sentence was a little strange, but he didn't know exactly where it was strange.

Cancel the skill?

Sorry! Although the skill belonged to Zhang Chen, he really had no way to remove the mark.

If you want to remove the mark, there are only two ways: one is that Zhang Chen kicks the bucket, and the other is that the fox spirit kicks the bucket.

"Since you, beast, dared to secretly launch a sneak attack, wanting to put me to death, have you ever thought about how I would retaliate?" Zhang Chen stared at the fox spirit with his eyes, his voice full of coldness.

"Heh heh, so what if I sneak attacked you? You are now trapped here. Without my help, you simply cannot escape. Unless you want to be trapped and starve to death here forever, otherwise you wouldn't dare to touch my body." The fox spirit didn't show any weakness at all. At this moment, her gaze stared at Zhang Chen, her eyes full of smugness.

If he killed her body, Zhang Chen would be trapped here forever. Unless Zhang Chen was crazy, he would never do such a thing.

"Boy, have you thought it over? If you know what's good for you, obediently hand over the True Dragon Fate, and I, your ancestor, will take you away from this place and give you a way out. Otherwise, the next time I come, I'm afraid you will already be starving to death in this tomb." The fox spirit's voice was very smug, her words full of complacency.

Hearing the fox spirit's words, Zhang Chen already knew that what was to follow would definitely not end well.

Since it couldn't end well, then of course he had to strike a deadly blow! It's better to strike first than to suffer later!

Then, in the next moment, Zhang Chen stroked the fox spirit's palm, and suddenly a tiny mouth appeared in the palm of his hand. Two small fangs directly stretched out from the mouth, piercing into the fox spirit's body. Then, in the next moment, the blood in the fox spirit's body poured endlessly into Zhang Chen's body.

While Zhang Chen was sucking the fox spirit's blood, he carefully observed the fox spirit's reaction in the wall, but the fox spirit didn't seem to notice the loss of blood in her body at all, as if this body was not her own at all.

After three breaths, until Zhang Chen had absorbed all the blood in the fox spirit's body, the fox spirit in the wall still stared at Zhang Chen with anger in her big eyes, waiting for Zhang Chen's choice.

Zhang Chen stroked the fox spirit's body, confirming that the fox spirit was no longer breathing, but the fox spirit's soul on the opposite side actually had no reaction at all, which was truly strange!

"That shouldn't be! That physical body belonged to a fox spirit. Now that the physical body is dead, the fox spirit's soul, after leaving the body, actually has no connection to it?" Zhang Chen thought, puzzled.

According to his understanding, the physical body is the foundation, the root of everything, the source of the three treasures of essence, qi, and spirit. Now that he has destroyed the fox spirit's physical body, how could the fox spirit have no reaction? Isn't that strange?

"Skill: Soul Hook - Activate!"

In the next moment, Zhang Chen unhesitatingly used his new skill.

Then, he saw the chain in Zhang Chen's soul sway slightly. In the next moment, Zhang Chen only felt the world before his eyes change. A misty aura rose from the surroundings, and all the sights and sounds within the tomb seemed to recede into the distance. The world was dim and hazy, somewhat resembling the Netherworld from Journey to the West, but at this moment, the entire world was deathly silent, without any sound. Only Zhang Chen stood alone in the darkness.

"Where is this?" Zhang Chen looked at the dim world before him, a hint of surprise involuntarily appearing in his eyes. In the next moment, he discovered that his body was actually transparent, transformed into a soul form.

A power from the darkness was added to his soul. A very mysterious rune emerged in his soul, and then the rune flickered. Zhang Chen seemed to understand the principle of the skill, and directly took a step, stepping onto the only chain, and walking towards the unknown depths of the mist.

Zhang Chen seemed to have walked a dozen steps, or perhaps hundreds of steps. Suddenly, a ray of light flashed before his eyes, and the clouds and mist of the Netherworld abruptly dispersed into a circle ten meters in diameter. Behind that ten-meter circle, a dark and deep cave was revealed. The cave looked somewhat familiar. Zhang Chen's gaze pierced through the circle, and he turned his eyes to find his physical body standing on the ice on the other side of the light circle, holding a night-luminescent pearl in its hands.

He saw the white-haired fox behind the light circle, its soul attached to the stone wall, forming a human figure on the stone wall, looking down at him.

The misty world where his soul was located and the world behind the light circle seemed to be two different worlds. His soul was in the Netherworld, and behind the light circle was the material world.

The chain was now at his feet, and the other end of the chain was actually inserted into the fox spirit's soul.

At this moment, the space-time within the stone cave behind the light circle seemed to have frozen. Zhang Chen saw his own breathing stop rising and falling, and the fox spirit's half-spoken words halted. That scolding expression was now vividly imprinted on the wall.

Zhang Chen had a feeling that as long as he slightly pulled the chain, he could pull that soul from the material world into this strange world.

In fact, Zhang Chen did just that. He bent down, grabbed the chain suspended in the void beneath his feet, and then gently pulled it. He saw a miniature fox spirit slowly being pulled out of the fox girl's body.

The little fox was very small, about the size of a fist, its eyes full of confusion, without any spirituality. It looked just like a ignorant beast, with no power to resist Zhang Chen pulling the chain.

"Something's not right! This is very wrong!"

As the little fox's chain was pulled out, that one chain turned into two.

One was linked to the little fox spirit's body, and the other was connected to the fox spirit girl's body.

"How could this be?"

Zhang Chen was dumbfounded, looking at the fist-sized, foolish-looking white-haired little fox in front of him with a bewildered expression. Its clear eyes were full of stupidity, and it didn't seem to have opened its intelligence at all.

As the little fox's soul was pulled into the gray world, the little fox, which had been frozen in space-time, seemed to come alive, looking at Zhang Chen with a face full of surprise and horror, emitting a series of whimpering sounds, desperately trying to struggle, causing the chain to rattle.

"This little fox is completely an ordinary fox soul, without even a trace of azure airflow! It doesn't look like it has opened its intelligence at all!"

"How could this be? What is this little fox?"

Zhang Chen stared at the little fox soul in front of him with both eyes, the chain in his hand coiling around. The little fox was pulled by the chain and suspended in the air, floating in front of Zhang Chen, desperately struggling, trying to get rid of Zhang Chen's shackles.

"That shouldn't be! There's absolutely no cleverness of intelligence in this little fox spirit's eyes. It doesn't look like it has opened its intelligence at all. What exactly is going on?"

Zhang Chen looked at his golden finger panel with both eyes: "Hey, golden finger, did you have a bug? How could this situation occur? How could there be two souls in one body?"

Just as Zhang Chen was full of doubts, his golden finger seemed to sense something. After a burst of twisting, the panel information instantly collapsed, turning into countless snowflakes.

Then, in the next moment, the snowflakes reorganized, and new information appeared.

【Species: Ordinary Fox】

【Level: None】

【Lifespan: 0】

【Note 1: Physical body severed, soul can be hooked】

"Ordinary fox?"

Zhang Chen looked at the panel introduction on the golden finger, his head buzzing. For a moment, he couldn't figure out what was going on. How could there be a soul in the fox spirit's body?

Zhang Chen carefully stared at the little fox's soul for a moment, and couldn't help but be stunned, his eyes filled with astonishment. He turned his head to look at the white-clothed girl, the other chain locked on the white-clothed girl's body.

【Species: Fox】

【Level: Seventh-Order Body Snatching Realm】

【Lifespan: 0】

【Note 1: Physical body severed, soul can be hooked (Find the physical body within seven days to seize it and continue life!)】

"Holy crap!"

Zhang Chen looked at the refreshed information on the golden finger panel, his whole body couldn't help but be horrified. All the information in his mind instantly recombined quickly like an electric current, running through his mind like a movie.

Even all the unclear things in the past were now deduced by Zhang Chen.

"This fox spirit was hiding its strength! It told me before that it was a sixth-order Manifestation existence, who knew it was actually a seventh-order Body Snatching existence!" Zhang Chen cursed inwardly. He also had a rough deduction of what had happened in the past few years, and had a clue in his heart.

According to the information in front of him, Zhang Chen connected and sorted out all the information from the past five years. His mind was like a movie, and a truth appeared: About five years ago, this fox spirit, for some reason, actually had its physical body destroyed, and then seized the body of the little fox, suppressing the soul of the little fox. At this time, the fox spirit had just seized the body, and all its skills turned into flowing water, and then it was caught by the hunter Wang Wu, and almost had its skin peeled off to make a fur collar.

At a critical moment, the scholar next door, for some reason, actually abandoned his family business and bought the fox spirit from Wang Wu's hands. Zhang Chen didn't need to think to know that there must be a fox's trick in it. The fox spirit didn't know what means it used to establish a connection with Zhang Chen, and then Zhang Chen didn't hesitate to sell all his family property to buy the fox spirit.