Chapter 1 Since Awakening to the Awakening Stage

Since Su Zhou advanced to the Awakening stage and obtained the supernatural powers of the Devouring Evil Demon Lord, he had been hunting monsters and evil spirits all over Hong City, trying to see if he could obtain ‘evil souls.’

But, alas, perhaps those monsters and evil spirits were too weak, or perhaps Su Zhou killed them before they could even do evil. In any case, neither the human-faced cat nor the corpses floating in the river provided any evil souls, at most just a few scattered spiritual energy fragments, which were better than nothing.

But, honestly, spiritual energy fragments really contained very little spiritual power.

For example, a spiritual energy fragment contained 5-50 units, while Su Zhou's own spiritual energy was at least 15,000 or more.

A spiritual energy reaction exceeding 100 points meant the opening of the spiritual sense, and you might occasionally see a wandering soul.

1,000 points meant semi-awakening, capable of deterring ordinary spiritual bodies.

Even the weakest Awakened had a spiritual energy reaction of over 3,000 points—normal Awakened usually had around 5,000.

Su Zhou had only awakened for less than a week, and his spiritual energy reaction was already three times that of a normal mature Awakened. This was the kind of Awakened with an exceptionally deep foundation. To put it simply, his father should now be saying, 'My son Su Zhou has the makings of a great emperor.'

Training spiritual power was not difficult. As long as you ate and exercised in the high spiritual energy environment of the spiritual energy revival, you would naturally accumulate spiritual power—even if it was just one point a day, or occasionally none, or occasionally two points, it was still training, just with low efficiency. An ordinary person could slowly touch the edge of awakening in a dozen years.

But to train efficiently, you must have a ‘cultivation method,’ that is, a relevant spiritual energy training inheritance.

Just like scientific muscle training, which is not just lifting weights and running as ordinary people imagine. In addition to various trivial, reasonable, and complex small techniques, you also need to match relevant diets and lifestyle habits.

The cultivation method of spiritual power is also the same. It needs to be used with related spiritual objects, or worn on the body, and then you must carry out relevant cultivation anytime, anywhere in your life.

A low-level cultivation method might just be pure observation and meditation, accumulating a dozen points of spiritual power every day—but even so, it is more than ten times faster than an ordinary person. What takes an ordinary person a dozen years to accumulate, a person with a cultivation method can complete in a year of hard work.

And medium and high-level cultivation methods are even more terrifying, not only accumulating spiritual power, but also tempering spirituality, fundamentally improving the cultivator's talent, the more you cultivate, the faster your cultivation speed.

Su Zhou's Sacred Geometry cultivation method even directly solved the problem of spiritual power accumulation with the talent of the Harmony of Heaven and Man, only needing to focus on tempering spiritual nature and true spirit, which is a true fundamental cultivation method.

But no matter what kind of cultivation method, the most difficult thing is not the subsequent hard work, but starting from the initial mortal stage and reaching the semi-awakening stage. Even with spiritual root talent, it takes a long time to polish from nothing, to cultivate a trace of spirituality and spiritual power that belongs to oneself, and to nurture the true spirit.

How to say it, it's like the first million in capital, which is a stepping stone, so there is often the saying of Hundred Days Foundation Establishment, which is to take the first step.

In general, hunting low-level extraordinary creatures such as wraiths yields little gain, and can only be used as fertilizer for trees. For the current Su Zhou, only demons and devils of the Awakening stage are worth hunting.

August 8th, 1:27 AM. Su Zhou, dressed in a navy blue night suit, was walking at night.

He was carrying a full set of exorcism equipment, leaping and speeding across the rooftops of the old city, as if flying.

At this time, the city center was still flashing with lights. As the provincial capital, Hong City was not exactly a city that never sleeps, but it was by no means devoid of sound at one or two in the morning.

Cars drove on the streets, bright headlights illuminating one turn after another, passing through the still-lively commercial streets, then through another street, disappearing at the corner.

And between the flickering of streetlights and car lights, a black shadow quickly crossed the roofs of one building after another, avoiding all the cameras it sensed, moving vigilantly through the city.

After awakening, Su Zhou's jumping power was about several times that before awakening. He could now jump more than ten meters high and tens of meters far with a single leap. This was not even the limit. Su Zhou felt that with the help of 'wind assistance,' the limit could probably jump more than fifty meters high and two hundred meters far, almost comparable to a human flea.

With this speed and method of action, which was almost like flying, it was basically impossible for him to be discovered by ordinary cameras. Before long, Su Zhou had already seen the faint spiritual energy trails winding in mid-air, and then continued to move, speeding through the shadows at night along this trail.

Then, arrived at the target location.

It was an ordinary-looking residential building located northeast of the cross-river bridge, surrounded by other buildings in the riverside district.

Because of the long time, its surface was a bit mottled and black, almost obscuring Su Zhou's spiritual vision, and he almost thought that the aura had ended there.

"Let me see... a total of nine floors, and the spiritual energy trail is on... the ninth floor?"

Standing on the top of another taller residential building, Su Zhou looked down at the small building below, his pupils slightly contracted, observing the end of the spiritual energy trail: "Sure enough, is it human... um, the visible area is quite clean, can't see anything."

"Living on the top floor, it is indeed convenient for him to enter and exit for hunting."

Yala was currently in a state of silence. Unless necessary, it would not prompt Su Zhou on what to do, but let him judge and try for himself—not just experience, but to cultivate a valuable way of thinking.

And Su Zhou was also making his own judgments: "Since it is a human, and located in a densely populated residential area, then what I have to do is to exert the strongest power, a sure kill, to directly solve the opponent in an instant—the same as what I originally prepared to do."

The lights in the bedroom on the eighth floor were still on. It seemed that the family below had not slept in the middle of the night... In that case, the movements should be more careful.

Having determined the plan, Su Zhou jumped out and transformed into a black shadow in the air, gliding directly to the side wall of the residential building.

And at the moment of clinging to the wall, he was like a gecko, pressing his five fingers slightly against the wall and moving to the balcony of the ninth floor, then raised his hand and placed it on the glass window of the balcony.

Whoosh, a faint spiritual light flashed.

The temperatureless purplish-blue spiritual power flame submerged into the glass, gradually strengthening a circle of glass plate. After being strengthened, the material of this glass plate became crystal clear, and even the inner layer flickered with bright spiritual light, which was obviously different from the surrounding ordinary glass.

Next, Su Zhou exerted a little force. With a 'pop,' the strengthened glass separated from the other ordinary glass and was caught in his hand—and a large hole for one person to enter and exit appeared on the sealed balcony window.

Even the enhancement-type spiritual power has various wonderful uses.

Silently entering the balcony, Su Zhou was about to look up and take a serious look to see if the house at the end of the spiritual energy trail was the lair of the Twilight True Fiend, but before he could fix his eyes and observe carefully, at the moment when his body and spiritual energy interacted, he noticed something was wrong.

Taking entering this ninth-floor residential room as the dividing line, Su Zhou could clearly feel that the surrounding air suddenly became turbid, and the lights and moonlight from the outside world also dimmed.

As if a layer of hazy shadow filled it, absorbing all the brilliance.

In spiritual vision, there was no spiritual light at all. The entire ninth floor was completely dark, not even a single wandering soul existed—but this was the biggest wrong, because even furniture that had been used for a long time would naturally condense a little spiritual light.

—It feels a bit disgusting.

A kind of annoying, subtle sense of unease constantly rose from Su Zhou's heart, as if someone was whispering and secretly looking at him from behind and from the sides, from angles he couldn't see, a strange feeling of trembling began to directly affect the transmission of nerve micro-currents, trying to give him a hint, making him feel fear.

"..."

Silently exhaling a breath, Su Zhou narrowed his eyes slightly. He could see a half-covered door at the entrance of the balcony, inside the door was complete darkness, without a trace of light, and just now, he seemed to feel a resentful gaze popping out from that darkness, focusing on himself, and the cross spear also reacted, beginning to release light.

Layers of holy emblems, soaked in high concentrations of holy water, flickered on it, purifying the surrounding darkness, also serving as a warning against shadowy evil forces.

"Ridiculous!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Su Zhou stepped forward with a sneer. He held the spear and pushed the door open, directly entering the house, his whole body, along with the cross spear, burning with purplish-blue spiritual light.

Want to scare him? Please, Su Zhou had grown up and had always been the one that wandering souls were afraid of and ran away from. How could he be afraid of wandering souls!

Expose? So be it! Did they really think he was afraid of being discovered by the authorities!

But after opening the door, there was no ambush.

In the dim light, Su Zhou could only see many 'balls' rolling on the ground.

A strong bloody and putrid smell rushed to his face, filling his nose. Without even guessing, Su Zhou could see clearly at a glance that those balls were simply human heads in dried bloodstains.

And the resentful gaze he had just sensed was exactly from a human head aimed at the crack of the door. She had lost all spirituality, and her unclosed eyes stared at the balcony, being noticed by him. That already stiff face seemed to be screaming in fear.

He could even see that there was a large hole behind this head, and the brains had been licked clean.

Boom!

The snake spirit lurking in Su Zhou's temples instantly felt an astonishing heat erupting from the blood vessels of its contractee. The simple, pure anger was only a little short of being transformed into a substantial wind by the action of spiritual power, blowing his hair upright.

But even so, the sound of chattering teeth could be heard—not because of fear, but because of rage.

Nine heads—nine lives—even far more than that.

In the news, it was just a number of lives, but only by seeing it with one's own eyes can one know what kind of evil act this is!

Raising his head and striding forward, Su Zhou headed towards the 'darkest place' he could see, that is, the bedroom in this three-bedroom apartment!

At the bedroom door, he thrust out with the spear, and the spear burning with spiritual fire directly pierced the door with a crack.

Then Su Zhou exerted force on his wrist and rotated the cross spearhead, pulling back with great force, directly tearing the entire door to pieces, turning it into a room full of purplish-blue ashes.

But in the next instant, Su Zhou, who was preparing to unleash a thunderous blow and directly blast the Twilight Devil in this bedroom into ashes, stopped his action at the last moment before launching the attack.

Because, in this bedroom, there was no 'True Devil' at all, only an ordinary middle-aged man with a pale face and full of fear, lying on the bed, seemingly having a nightmare.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." A dreamlike murmur leaked from between his teeth, filled with an atmosphere of despair.

The bedroom floor was full of scattered photos, mostly of a couple and a little girl, or photos of a family of three. It could be seen that the desk was also full of scattered papers, densely covered with incoherent words.

Slowly approaching, Su Zhou raised the spear burning with spiritual fire, the tip of the spear pointed at the middle-aged man's forehead, the temperatureless spiritual fire touched the skin, but did not burn him, as if it did not exist.

"Not evil?"

The feedback from the supernatural power made Su Zhou subconsciously raise the spear a little. He seemed to want to get closer and see the situation.

But at this moment, the shadows filling the entire ninth-floor house suddenly began to churn!

Accompanied by the sound of rushing water, shapeless dark tentacles suddenly stretched out from all directions, churning and swiftly pouncing towards Su Zhou, who was in the center of the bedroom!

Snap snap snap—

In an instant, things as black as shadows and mud covered Su Zhou's body, constantly spreading, seemingly trying to wrap and erode him—the strength of the tentacles was surprisingly great. If it were an ordinary person, they would probably lose the power to resist in an instant, their joints between bones would be torn apart, and they would become a pool of烂泥 (lanni, mud).

Even, this shadow contained cutting power like a blade, the surging mud, condensed black spiritual power turned into a light blade, and slashed fiercely towards Su Zhou's neck!

Crack.

But, at the moment of the slash, what shattered was the blade that was enough to instantly cut off a person's head.

"Demonic outsiders!"

At this time, on Su Zhou's neck where he was attacked, a piece of triangular purplish-blue patterns appeared. They stretched into a string, forming an extremely solid form. The previous slash of the black spiritual blade did not even leave a white mark!

And at the moment after the spiritual blade shattered, accompanied by a low shout, surging purplish-blue spiritual power suddenly erupted, blasting out cracks in the surrounding black shadows, and causing them to rapidly expand like balloons.

It could be seen that pure spiritual light burst out from the bulging shadows, and demonic fire was burning these dark muds little by little, turning them into pure spiritual matter.

And Su Zhou's cold vertical pupils appeared from the constantly scattered ashes. He held the spear and stared at the middle-aged man who was still sleeping in front of him.

—In the era when spiritual energy has not yet recovered, no newly born demon's power can be stronger than Su Zhou, who has already perfectly awakened.

With a horizontal sweep of the spear, the violent wind carried spiritual power, sweeping away the darkness in the house. Su Zhou took a big step forward, shattering the last few shadowy tentacles that were still trying to entangle his entire body, turning them into scattered black smoke.

He originally wanted to directly pierce the seemingly ordinary middle-aged man, who was obviously the origin of various anomalies and likely the original body of the Twilight True Devil who had killed at least nine innocent people, with a single spear, but in the end, after thinking for a while, Su Zhou stopped and put away the spear.

He stretched out his hand, a hand burning with ‘Devouring Evil Demon Fire,’ and pressed it to the forehead of the middle-aged man who almost died on the spot. Su Zhou closed his eyes and began to concentrate.

The purplish-blue spiritual fire suddenly transformed into water-like ripples, infiltrating from his seven orifices, exploring the secrets in his body.

After a while, Su Zhou opened his eyes again, his eyes full of astonishment.

"What..."

"Actually, so?"

He raised his hand, his expression extremely complicated. And at this moment, Yala's voice sounded from the depths.

"Su Zhou, facing this situation, what are you going to do?"

And Su Zhou exhaled a long breath. At the beginning, what filled his raised eyebrows was just pure anger, but soon, Su Zhou's eyebrows slowly smoothed out, and his gaze turned firm.

"Wait."

Su Zhou said calmly.

"I am not the kind of guy who will randomly attack 'innocent people'."