I picked up skill fragments in the demon world.

Chapter 340: Faith Drys Up
Zhang Chen has plenty of time, he can wait!

Next, he would absorb a large amount of incense and perfect his various skills as soon as possible. Then, he might be able to start with the dragon energy skill and transform the two beasts into demon beasts.

Seeing that his own nest was safe and sound, Zhang Chen didn't want to be too conspicuous and attract people, so he turned into a vampire bat and returned.

However, on the second day after Zhang Chen mastered the method of moving mountains, something terrible happened in the Taoist temple: the pool of faith dried up!
After Zhang Chen mastered the Mountain Moving Technique and entered the initial realm, he looked at the few points left and thought that the next step was to concentrate on improving his skills and prepare to raise his skill levels so that he could become a master as soon as possible.

One day, Zhang Chen came underground and looked at the scent of incense flowing on the stone wall, with a hint of surprise in his eyes:
"Strange, why didn't the power of faith I absorbed yesterday recover?"

Zhang Chen looked at the dull wall with a hint of surprise in his eyes, not knowing what went wrong.

Logically speaking, the incense and faith that Huang Tiandao collected were endless, and it should have recovered overnight. Why was it still the same as last night?

Zhang Chen pondered in his heart for a moment, and then did not dare to act rashly. Instead, he turned back to the ground and pondered the key points.

Why did the power of faith in Huangli Temple suddenly dry up?

"Could it be that something big happened in Huang Tiandao?" Zhang Chen pondered in his heart.

The north wind was howling outside. Zhang Chen, wearing a fox fur cloak, stood in front of the window, puzzled.

After a long time, Zhang Chen turned into water mist and left the Taoist temple from underground, heading towards other Taoist temples in the north. He wanted to find out whether the power of faith in the Huangli Temple had dried up, or whether the power of faith in the other major Taoist temples had also dried up.

The closest Taoist temple to Huangli Temple is a hundred miles away, called Huanggua Temple.

Zhang Chen quietly came to the outside of the Taoist temple and instantly transformed into dozens of vampire bats, flying in the cold winter.

Normally bats should hibernate in winter, but Zhang Chen's vampire bats are already of high quality, so how could they be bothered by the ordinary cold?

Dozens of vampire bats transformed by Zhang Chen walked around the Taoist temple, secretly sending out ultrasonic waves to detect the layout and manpower inside the temple. After more than thirty breaths, Zhang Chen had an idea in his mind: "The strength of this Taoist temple is not inferior to Huangli Temple. There are more than 2,000 Taoist priests in the temple. Moreover, these 2,000 people are full of vitality and are obviously martial artists. They can put on armor and go into the battlefield as long as they are ordered."

"Huang Tiandao's foundation is really profound, but what exactly does Huang Tiandao want to do by cultivating so many masters? Liu Feng said he wanted to rebel before, but now Huang Tiandao and the Pingbian Palace have cooperated and become a family. How can he rebel?" A thought flashed through Zhang Chen's mind:
"Unless it's not a rebellion against the Prince of Pingbian's Palace!"

After Zhang Chen had found out who the masters of the Taoist temple were, all the vampire bats gathered together, turned into streams of water, penetrated into the ground, and explored underground.

His ultrasonic wave did not have the ability to detect the underground secret room, but Zhang Chen guessed that the location of the secret room in this Taoist temple should be not much different from that of Huangli Temple.

In fact, it was true. Zhang Chen quickly found a stone chamber underground, but the divine light on the walls of the stone chamber had completely dried up, which was even worse than that of Huangli Temple.

The water flow transformed by Zhang Chen hovered outside the secret room. After a little thought, a drop of water clone carefully penetrated to the next room, and saw that there was no one in the next secret room.

Zhang Chen infiltrated confidently and boldly, and indeed saw an identical pool of faith, but this time the water in the pool of faith had dried up.

"It's no accident that the Huangli Temple's Faith Pool dried up." Zhang Chen looked at the Faith Pool in front of him, and then he looked through the secret room. He saw a bookshelf in the secret room with books on it. Zhang Chen was very interested in the books, so he walked up and picked them up to read them one by one, but lost interest after a while. Those books were just some account books and secret methods of martial arts practice, and they were no different from the objects in Huangli Temple.

"I think the layout of other Taoist temples in the north is generally the same. Going there will only waste time." Zhang Chen put the books back on the bookshelf. At this moment, he suddenly heard cursing sounds outside the door. Zhang Chen was very sensitive to sound waves and immediately recognized that there were two people.

Zhang Chen's heart moved, and he quickly turned into a stream of water and penetrated into the bluestone on the ground. When he was about to leave, he heard a Taoist cursing: "Big Brother, I've had enough! That damn Gu Mingyue is really too much! The North is our territory, but he came here to make decisions. What on earth does he want to do!!!"

The voice was rough and full of anger. "It was fine that he replaced the master to issue orders before, but now he actually gave away the incense and faith that we collected with great difficulty, asking the powerful people in the north to be deified! Those are the incense that we collected with great effort. Even if they are deified, we should be given priority. How can it be the turn of those nobles in the city?"

"Gu Mingyue is cutting off our path to immortality. He is simply not leaving us any way to survive." The rude man cursed and denounced Gu Mingyue's behavior.

Zhang Chen, who was about to leave, paused when he heard the curse. Feeling curious, he continued to lurk in the bluestone and eavesdrop.

From the man's earlier shouting and cursing, he could roughly understand why the power of faith in the major Taoist temples had been exhausted. Probably all of it had been withdrawn by Gu Mingyue and used by the major nobles.

Just as Zhang Chen was thinking, a gentle voice sounded: "Junior brother, be careful with your words! You must know that words can cause trouble. This matter was decided by Uncle Gu Mingyue, and our master did not raise any objections, which obviously means he has acquiesced."

After a brief thought, Zhang Chen realized that the master he was talking about was Wu Changming.

"The incense and faith of the Northland were prepared by Master to reach the tenth level. The remaining ones were enough for us brothers to be deified. Now that old bastard Gu Mingyue has taken advantage of it, Master didn't even say a word and became a coward. It's really disappointing! If this continues, the hearts of fellow disciples will probably be dispersed. Who will dare to work for Master in the future?" The rough voice was filled with dissatisfaction:

"Why should those nobles come to reap the spoils? We have worked hard for decades and have collected the faith bit by bit through preaching."

"Master, I think you have your own difficulties." said another voice.

"I don't care what difficulties the master has. I only know that Gu Mingyue gave all our shares to the nobles at the foot of the mountain, but the master didn't dare to say a word. If it continues like this, people's hearts will surely be scattered. We might as well go and seek refuge with Uncle Master Gu Mingyue, rather than follow the master and suffer humiliation." The burly man cursed.

Then the secret room fell into silence. After a long time, another gentle voice was heard: "I am ready to join Uncle Master Gu Mingyue. What about you?"

"Master has become a coward, so of course we disciples should find another way out. I will go with you to join uncle-master." said the burly man.

Then the two of them conspired on how to please Gu Mingyue and offer their forces to Gu Mingyue.

After hearing what the two said, Zhang Chen couldn't help but be secretly shocked: "No wonder that old guy Wu Changming gave up Shintoism and practiced Yin Shen Fa. I didn't expect that he would end up in such a miserable state. His old nest was even destroyed by Gu Mingyue." Only now did he realize that Wu Changming had to practice Yin Shen Fa.

He is already fifty-five years old this year, and half of his body is buried in the ground. It is too late for him to recruit believers and collect faith.

Moreover, now that all families have realized the importance of incense, all major forces have begun to enclose territory and support their own incense forces. Even many people in the underworld have begun to plan ahead to spread the belief in incense.

Wu Changming wanted to spread his faith again, but he no longer had the blank breeding ground he had before. He had to face the strangulation of various major forces and the suppression of various nobles. It was extremely difficult for him to preach.

After the two finished their discussion, Zhang Chen turned into a stream and flowed out of the Taoist temple, revealing his trace among the mountains. He looked at the wilderness in the cold wind, lost in thought.

"Gu Mingyue gave the incense to the nobles, so he must be going to the Conferred God. The catastrophe of the incense chaos is finally coming." Zhang Chen felt a little regretful. If such a huge amount of incense was given to himself, how great would it be? I'm afraid all the skills can be perfected.

"What a pity." Zhang Chen sighed in his heart and turned back to his own Taoist temple.

My idea of ​​​​gaining points crazily was shattered.

"I don't know what Zhang Xiaohua is doing now. Do I have a chance to kill that bastard Zhang Xiaohua?" Zhang Chen had murderous intent in his heart. He returned to the Taoist temple and secretly observed the energy in the temple, but found that Zhang Xiaohua had already left the temple.

"Luckily he ran fast, otherwise I would have tried to throw a big rock from the sky to see if I could kill that bastard." Zhang Chen cursed and returned to his own cottage. Looking at the little kid practicing, he did not disturb him. Instead, he quietly took out the slingshot and began to practice.

Time passed by little by little, and by the evening, Wu Changming, feeling somewhat lonely, came into the Taoist temple carrying a jar of wine.

"Boy, come and have a drink with me." Wu Changming pushed open the door and walked into the room. He tightened his Taoist robe and called out to Zhang Chen.

Zhang Chen put the slingshot back into the jade box and sealed it, then walked out of the house and saw Wu Changming, whose hair was covered with ice, sitting in front of the stove, somewhat dejected, with streams of steam evaporating from his robe, looking very embarrassed. The most important thing was that the divine light shrouding Wu Changming dimmed by another three points, and Wu Changming's strength had dropped significantly.

"Master." Zhang Chen looked at Wu Changming and felt that the old guy was in a bad mood.

"Come and drink." Wu Changming poured a bowl of wine for Zhang Chen.

Zhang Chen looked at Wu Changming's uncertain face under the firelight and knew the depression in his heart, so he asked knowingly: "Master, is there something on your mind?"

"I'm going to go into seclusion. I won't come out until I've reached the Yin Spirit level!" Wu Changming took a sip of the wine, then took a bite of the prepared beef:
"You should practice on your own from now on."

Zhang Chen knew Wu Changming's distress, so he picked up the wine cup and poured wine for him: "Master, do you have any instructions for me? If you go into seclusion, what should I do with the immortal cultivation formula I want?"

Wu Changming drank a bowl of wine after hearing this, and then held his breath to savor the wine. After a long while, he let out a long sigh: "To be honest, I can't even take care of myself right now, so how can I take care of you? As for the immortal cultivation secret book you want, the secret book is in the general hall. If you can become a true disciple in the future, go and get it yourself."

Wu Changming felt so miserable!
How could he have the face to go back to the general view?

"Cultivating immortals and practicing Qigong is ultimately just a hoax. It is a trap set up by our ancient predecessors to protect the secret book. Practicing Qigong is a nonsense formula made up to hide the soul method. Don't waste your time on this formula." Wu Changming warned Zhang Chen.

He did not think the formula was of any use, so he was too lazy to go back to Zongguan to get it for Zhang Chen. He was in such a state of desolation now, and if he returned to Zongguan, he would definitely be ridiculed, and even confined by the Great Sage Master to prevent him from tripping up Gu Mingyue.

"Where is the Huang Tiandao Temple?" Zhang Chen asked.

"Qingcheng Mountain." said the old Taoist priest.

"Disciple understands." Zhang Chen looked at Wu Changming and felt that he had worshipped this master in vain.

"Also, there is one thing I want to remind you. If you can break into the mysterious realm in the future and if you have a chance to glimpse the Yang God, you must never take the path of incense and gods. Without enough water from the Yellow Spring to wash away the poison of incense, the path of gods is a dead end. Even the Great Sage Master was plagued by the poison of incense, let alone people of my generation?" After Wu Changming gave some more instructions, he finished his drink and left the Taoist temple.

Watching Wu Changming going away in the wind and snow, Zhang Chen stood in front of the door facing the cold wind for a long time without saying a word. How high-spirited was Wu Changming in the past? He slaughtered dragons, split mountains and stepped on the sea, and the world shook with his every move. But now he has fallen to such a state, which is really sad.

The next day, Xie Lingyun came again.

Zhang Chen prepared the tea and then looked at Xie Lingyun: "Sister, how come you have time to come here?"

"That space channel is about to be closed. Everyone below has explored the places that can be explored. There is no point for me to stay there." Xie Lingyun said here, looking at Zhang Chen with a pair of eyes: "Besides, I heard that there was a major change in Huangtian Dao. Wu Changming was ordered by the Great Sage to be confined and practice hard, and not to interfere in the affairs of the Taoist temple. I am worried that Wu Changming's loss of power will affect you, so I came here specially to strengthen your momentum. It is also good to tell those people that although Wu Changming's lineage is scattered, you still have me behind you."

Zhang Chen was moved when he heard this, and bowed to Xie Lingyun: "Thank you very much, sister."

He was previously wondering why Wu Changming surrendered so obediently and was willing to give up all his territory. It turned out that there was a decree from the Great Sage Master. No wonder Wu Changming was so miserable last night. It was really sad.

"There is one more thing I want to remind you. The situation down the mountain has changed. If you go down the mountain in the future, you must not show off in public." Xie Lingyun reminded Zhang Chen.

Zhang Chen was stunned when he heard this. He could tell that Xie Lingyun had something else in mind, so he asked, "Please give me some advice, sister."

“The nobles have already started to deify the gods! I heard that in the past few months, hundreds of gods comparable to the Yang God have been born in the Dasheng Dynasty.” Xie Lingyun said.

(End of this chapter)