Chapter 1 2014.8.8 19:20

In Hongzhou, the weather was capricious. At noon, it had been bright and sunny, but by afternoon it had turned cloudy. Now, in the evening, it was overcast, with a misty dampness in the air.

Inside the Su household, a telephone rang.

"I'm fine. Sigh, purifying that monster took a little time. You know how those things self-destruct when they die. To avoid affecting the safety of ordinary residents passing by, I had to purify it slowly."

"Okay, I'm fine. Thanks for covering for me. I'll definitely come to the next gathering—check the time, hurry over. After it's done, let's go grab some dinner together. Any later and it'll probably start raining."

Hanging up the phone with Shao Qiming, Su Zhou, who had returned home during a lull in the afternoon crowds, looked at the fist-sized black ball of light before him, and fell into a dilemma.

"This evil soul looks dirty. Doesn't seem very appetizing."

The harvest from killing the Twilight True Demon wasn't as great as that from the Wood Centipede. According to Yala, it was because this True Demon hadn't completely transformed. If he wanted to obtain the maximum reward, he should have waited for it to devour several more people, fully mature, and become a complete form before killing it. That way, he could have obtained a Fiend Crystal plus some transcendent materials.

But Su Zhou simply couldn't stand the stench of the True Demon, which was more disgusting than frog urine. Nor could he allow it to kill people just to obtain transcendent materials.

It was precisely because he had decisively blasted it to death that he could only obtain a Fiend Crystal.

"Sigh... the spiritual energy revival is something I like, but the fiends... I can only do my best to hunt them down."

Dismissing the pointless sentiment, Su Zhou turned his attention back to his harvest.

Like the Wood Centipede, the Twilight True Demon's Fiend Crystal contained a trace of the will of a great being. That will had been extracted by Yala and stored in the 'Celestial God Imprint' as a backup traversal coordinate. The Wood Centipede's aura was also within it.

Unlike the God Tree behind the Wood Centipede, 'Twilight' had no value other than complete destruction. Using it carelessly would be suicidal, at least for Su Zhou's level.

And the Twilight World behind it was also called a 'garbage dump' by Yala. Not only did it lack anything meaningful, but it was also full of Twilight True Demons. It was best avoided.

Now, the blood-red, jewel-like Fiend Crystal was soaking in high-concentration holy water to purify the filth and resentment within it. Yala was also somewhat fatigued from extracting the Twilight Divine Thought, and was now sleeping on a branch of the Wisdom Tree.

Soon, Su Zhou would pour this spiritual fluid onto the Wisdom Tree, causing it to bear fruit.

"Should I eat it, or enchant it..."

As for the evil soul, Su Zhou was torn, unsure whether to eat it or use it for enchantment.

According to the instinctive feedback from the Demon Devouring Lord Divine Power, enchanting with the 'Spirit of Madness' would give a weapon the ability to inflict a small mental shock upon hitting an enemy. Attached to armor, it would reflect a bit of mental shock back at the attacker.

If enchanted on accessories, it could resist some mental attacks.

In general, because the soul rank of the Twilight True Demon was only at the Spirit Opening to Awakening stage, the efficiency wasn't high.

The mental damage of the Spirit of Madness enchantment, Su Zhou estimated, was about the same as the Evil-warding Array, or even a little weaker... If he had to enchant something, the Obscure Earth Vein Crystal from the Wood Centipede's nest would be enough to act as a complete superior substitute.

Most importantly, its special effect was black gas swirling and mud-like tentacles writhing around, which wasn't aesthetically pleasing and didn't match Su Zhou's own sense of justice.

If it weren't for the fact that it looked unappetizing, Su Zhou would have eaten it already.

"Forget it, I'll eat it first."

Although wearing a disgusted expression, after thinking for a long time, Su Zhou still swallowed the ball of light in one gulp.

Souls didn't have taste, but with the act of swallowing, the black evil soul instantly turned into countless soul fragments and scattered throughout Su Zhou's body.

A warm, comfortable sensation, like drinking a cup of hot cocoa-infused coffee, gently caressed his internal organs, finally converging this warmth into his spine and brain, then sinking into his soul... Closing his eyes, a pleasant ease, with a slightly bitter and fragrant clarity, spread throughout his body, sweeping away all mental fatigue.

"This feeling..."

Accompanied by a satisfied sound, cyan-purple纹路, slightly flickered on both sides of his head, and a pure spiritual force spread, strengthening his soul.

Su Zhou felt that his soul seemed to have grown a little stronger. Similarly, his spirituality and spiritual power had also increased slightly, apparently a chain reaction after his soul was strengthened.

"So the taste of evil souls is like a drink?"

Su Zhou slumped on the sofa with a look of comfortable satisfaction: "If that's the case, I wonder what other evil souls taste like... The black one is like a slightly bitter mocha, what about other colors?"

Wait, maybe I'll encounter White Snake Herbal Water flavor... No, no! That's too unlucky!

Quickly cutting off that possibility, Su Zhou turned his head to focus on the changes in his soul body.

Leaving aside the taste, eating the Twilight True Demon's evil soul had, in writing, increased Su Zhou's mental resistance. In practice, this meant that Su Zhou's soul had become stronger and more difficult to be affected by mental shocks.

If it were back in Shan State, the mental secret technique used by that Shan State guide would probably be useless against Su Zhou now, at most making him feel like he was being poked with cotton.

This also showed that the strongest part of the Twilight True Demons was their souls.

This was perfectly normal for the Twilight lineage, which had no physical form and relied on possessing and distorting other lifeforms to wreak havoc.

"It's about time to get down to business."

After eating the evil soul, Su Zhou savored the feeling of becoming stronger for a while, then stood up and looked at the fiend core placed in a crystal bottle, submerged in translucent holy water.

The ruby-like, blood-colored fiend core had now been almost completely dissolved by the high-concentration holy water. The entire bottle was like a bottle of red wine, exuding an aura that cleared the mind and soothed the soul. (500mL holy water, 10 calories, 9800 points of essence spiritual energy recovery, powerful divine purification effect)

The Wood Centipede's fiend core contained a large amount of high-purity wood-type spiritual energy, and wood generates fire, which corresponded to Su Zhou's spiritual energy attribute. But the Twilight True Demon's spiritual energy was pure yin, leaning towards the soul, without any attributes. Using this stuff to irrigate the Wisdom Tree, which also had no attributes, could be considered a good match.

Picking up the bottle of reddish, somewhat viscous spiritual fluid, Su Zhou went to his room and poured it directly onto the Wisdom Tree without any hesitation.

[Mmm~ Good!]

He could hear the Wisdom Tree's comfortable voice, as well as its invigorating encouragement!

The blood-colored spiritual fluid looked very viscous, but in reality, not a single drop was left. All of it rolled cleanly out of the bottle and onto the Wisdom Tree.

Whether it was the leaves or the trunk, the Wisdom Tree would absorb the spiritual fluid as it rolled over it, like watering a desert that had been dry for thousands of years. Traces of spiritual energy disappeared in an instant. And within the area that the spiritual fluid had rolled over, pure white light lit up, like the dawn of a new day, releasing a rich life aura.

The moment all the spiritual fluid was absorbed, the Wisdom Tree's spirit, connected to Su Zhou's soul, was covered in a layer of warm white light. Divine, pure, and glorious, runes enveloped its surface, causing the small tree to sprout branches and leaves in a matter of seconds, gradually growing stronger!

And as the sapling spirit grew stronger, strands of white light gathered at the tips of the branches. Countless luminous纹路 poured into the two fruit embryos, gradually transforming them into pure entities!

After a while, the new, slightly grown Wisdom Tree spirit appeared in Su Zhou's soul space. And in the real world, two crystal-clear 'fruits', as if constructed from light, hung from the branches of the Wisdom Tree bonsai.

Neither apples nor figs, they were simply fruits of light that constantly changed and flickered. In the flowing light, illusions frequently appeared, as if reflecting all sorts of future possibilities.

"Oh, they're ripe."

At this time, Yala, who had been hanging on the branches of the Wisdom Tree, also woke up due to the intense spiritual energy fluctuations. She looked around and immediately understood: "The growth of these Elementary Wisdom Fruits looks quite gratifying—congratulations, Su Zhou, you can get rid of your greatest weakness."

"I'm not happy at all when you congratulate me like that."

Extending his hand, feeling that he was being mocked in a roundabout way, Su Zhou let the snake spirit climb back onto his body. He looked at the Wisdom Tree with the two fruits hanging from it, his heart full of pure and simple joy, just like an old farmer seeing a bountiful harvest.

Alas, the joy of transcendents is often so simple, unadorned, and dull.

"Two fruits. For each level of Wisdom Fruit, it's enough for one person to eat one—any more is useless."

"The other one, I'll leave it for Qiming—putting aside other things, the ritual materials, night suits, and other miscellaneous things are really thanks to him."

"The college entrance examination is imminent. Even if I gave it to my parents, they would probably push it back to us... Anyway, as long as there's enough fiend blood, the fruits will always grow. There's no need to care about this one time."

Planning in his heart, Su Zhou smiled slightly. He directly raised his hand, ready to pluck a fruit from the branch and eat it.

"Stop!"

Suddenly, Yala shouted loudly, interrupting Su Zhou's action. This immediately made his hand retract, and he looked at the snake spirit with suspicion.

"Do you know how to pick the fruits of a Divine Tree? You just reach out and grab it like that?"

"Oh, right, right."

Yala shook her head with a look of disappointment, which immediately made Su Zhou feel ashamed—putting aside other things, the Ginseng Fruit was a very obvious example! It had to be touched by gold to fall. Reaching out to take it so rashly was really inconsiderate!

And just as Su Zhou was about to ask what taboos and techniques were involved in picking the Wisdom Fruit, he saw Yala gracefully leap onto the branch of the Wisdom Tree, and then stretch out her tail, twisting the fruit off.

The snake spirit hung on the tree, extending its tail, and the fruit, as if condensed from light, was handed to Su Zhou.

"……?"

Su Zhou blankly stretched out his hand, took the fruit, and felt a gentle warmth, as if placing his hand under the sunlight. He lowered his head, looked at the fruit, then raised his head and looked at Yala, who had a serious expression, several times.

After a long while, he finally reacted, suddenly realizing, his eyes twitching.

"Wait, you just wanted to do it again, cosplay yourself again?!"

"Otherwise?"