Chapter 1 The End of the Ritual

The ritual was over.

The final tide of spiritual power was constrained within the old house by the array. Aside from a faint and almost imperceptible ripple spreading outwards, there were no further unusual phenomena.

Under Shao Qiming's gaze, Su Zhou walked out of the shadows. The awakened youth cautiously observed his surroundings before muttering to himself, "‘Devouring Evil Demon Lord’... This kind of innate divine power sounds like a villain, no matter how you slice it, doesn't it?"

Believing himself to be a righteous individual, Su Zhou squatted down, biting his thumb in frustration. He racked his brains, unable to figure out where he had gone wrong. "Yala, did something go wrong during the awakening process? Isn't 'Evil be damned' the most righteous belief? No matter how I think about it, I have the mindset of an ultimate righteous hero! How, how could I awaken a 'Demon Lord' divine power?!"

"Righteous? Su↑Zhou↓, you just said the word 'righteous,' didn't you? As your guide, I must shatter this ridiculous delusion of yours!"

The crimson snake popped its head out from Su Zhou's temples and loudly reprimanded him, "Su↑Zhou↓, you neither deliberately do good, nor do you pursue fairness and justice – frankly, you just want to have your revenge and eliminate karma through killing. Do you know what that's called? That's called abuse of power, fighting evil with evil! Someone like you, no matter what dynasty or era you're in, would be caught and judged. Do you really think you're a good person?!"

"Good and evil have no standard, and your ability as the Devouring Evil Demon Lord is based on your own subjective judgment – whatever you think is evil, is evil. This terrifying, wicked, and extremely self-righteous chaotic divine power, and you still say you're not an evil character?!"

But halfway through her tirade, Yala suddenly changed her tone and began to praise him, "In any case, worthy of being my contractor, this divine power awakened perfectly, wonderfully!"

"Wh-what… Could it be that 'Evil be damned' doesn't even count as justice…" At this moment, Shao Qiming helped the squatting Su Zhou up. With his help, he sat shakily on a nearby chair, his face blank and his eyes dazed. "Impossible… I'm actually not a righteous person…"

As he spoke, countless memories flashed through his mind…

—‘This power is enough to pull a person's head off along with their spine!’

—‘With a little force, I can apply pressure from both sides and crush the skull!’

—‘This long pole, maybe I can string people up and wave them around in the air!’

—‘Worthy of me! (Cracking sound of cheekbones being crushed with laughter)’

……

"Could it be that I'm truly an evil character by nature?!"

Most people, at this point, would have their Dao heart shattered, or doubt whether their choices and thoughts had gone wrong somewhere.

But Su Zhou was not an ordinary person. After a moment of thought, he immediately cheered up again, "Whatever, it doesn't matter. Being a villain is fine too. Thinking about it carefully, it's actually pretty great."

"Perfect, then I don't have to pretend to be a gentleman anymore. I can eliminate evil however I want!"

"My old man always tells me to send robbers I meet on the road to the police station, not to break their hands and feet. Kidnappers, even more so, I have to spare their lives, can't just end them on the spot… I've been holding back for a long time!" As he said this, the chaotic youth, ignorant of good and evil, revealed a cheerful smile. He smiled and said to his friend beside him, "Right, Qiming?"

"Of course." Shao Qiming shrugged and smiled as well. But after a moment of thought, he added kindly, "Remember to make it a little more miserable, sprinkle chili powder on their wounds before they die."

"No problem."

Su Zhou, giving his guarantee, excitedly closed his eyes and began to experience his new power.

"Let me see what new abilities I have."

From Yala's words, he learned that among the many worlds, including the sealed door, there was a universal ranking system applicable to almost all worlds, with a total of seven major tiers.

First tier: Mortal. From the average individual to the physical limit of that race, as long as they don't have spiritual power, they belong to this tier.

Second tier: Awakened. Able to control spiritual power, but only within their own body. An Awakened one in the general sense can break cement walls with their bare hands and twist steel bars into pretzels. The strongest among them can even slightly induce celestial phenomena.

Third tier: Transcendent. Able to maturely control spiritual power, and even connect to the great source of spiritual power outside the body, triggering various phenomena and abilities. The most powerful can even induce changes in the weather within a certain range.

Fourth tier: Leader, Chieftain, or Overlord. Generally the rulers of mid- to high-level wild Transcendent groups, special creatures like Beast Kings. Compared to their own kind, the life essence of creatures of this level has undergone a certain sublimation, their lifespan is greatly extended, they are difficult to kill, and they can even cause real meteorological changes, creating thunderstorms, hurricanes, and landslides.

The last three stages were basically impossible to appear in the early to mid stages of the spiritual recovery era, so Yala felt it was unnecessary to say more. Su Zhou was too lazy to know. But the Chieftain alone could act as a leader and establish an organization in most worlds.

And 【Sacred Geometry · Holy Triangle】 corresponded to the second tier: Awakened cultivation method.

As for the differences between the various abilities…

Simply put, the Perfect Body was a racial talent, Sacred Geometry was a career talent bonus that required certain bloodline conditions, and the Devouring Evil Demon Lord was an awakened divine power based on personal characteristics, a passive ability that came with the true spirit template.

And the three major career abilities that Su Zhou obtained based on Sacred Geometry, even in the Awakened stage, or even the Transcendent stage, were considered top-tier.

【Dragon Serpent Might】

As the name implies, it gave the holder the power of a dragon and a serpent. To be honest, Su Zhou couldn't even test his strength right now. When he had the Perfect Body, the average gym was far from enough for him to use. Now, even more so… However, Su Zhou tentatively squatted down and grabbed a handful of the concrete floor beneath his feet, only to crush it into a handful of dust.

Ordinary buildings would probably be like fragile cookie houses made of tofu boards to him.

"Does this count as turning iron into mud…" Su Zhou blinked. He felt that if he encountered the wood centipede again, he might really be able to engage in close combat. If he had a suitable weapon, killing it would probably only take two moves.

As for ordinary people, in the face of such power, they were really just plastic bags filled with blood…

【Celestial Circulation】

Su Zhou couldn't test this one out for the time being either, because the spiritual energy was not dense enough. According to Yala, this was an ability that could only exert its greatest effect in the era of spiritual recovery, and could greatly increase the spiritual power recovery speed of Transcendent beings.

At the very least, he could only use spiritual vision a few times a day, but now he could maintain a permanent state, and could even see more clearly – and his physical exertion had also decreased. It should be because spiritual power was participating in the operation of the spiritual organs in his body.

As for 【True Spirit Immortality】…

"Actually, it just adds a trace of immortality to your soul and body, greatly enhancing your regenerative ability. It's not very useful to you."

The spirit snake's words were quite truthful: "After all, there aren't many people in this world who can beat you to the brink of death in a one-on-one fight – and if it's not one-on-one, it doesn't really matter if you die once or twice."

"What do you know!" High school student Su Zhou retorted, "This name is so cool, I'd like it even if it was just an empty shell!"

The three major abilities of the Holy Triangle were comprehensive enhancements to the body, spirit, and soul. Each one, taken alone, was a top-level ability, yet Su Zhou had three in the initial stage. God knows if more abilities would continue to be added after the Sacred Geometry.

And most importantly, 【Devouring Evil Demon Lord】.

Su Zhou calmed his mind and experienced this 'divine power' awakened by his true spirit.

The ability of the Devouring Evil Demon Lord was actually very simple.

It granted Su Zhou the ability to devour the souls of evil-doers, obtaining the strongest aspect of their power… To put it simply, after winning against a worthy opponent, his stats would increase depending on the type of opponent.

In addition, he could also choose not to devour the evil soul, but to condense it into a 'spirit essence', which could be attached to existing weapons to strengthen them, or use a special method called 'soul forging' to directly transform the spirit essence into weapons, equipment, or special skills to learn.

For example, if Su Zhou killed the wood centipede now, he would obtain a 'gloomy wood centipede's soul'. He could eat it directly to gain a certain physical boost, but he could also convert the power of this soul into enchantment through various methods.

But soul weapons, or even special skills, were out of the question. The wood centipede's soul was not qualified enough.

Su Zhou could vaguely sense that most evil souls did not have the 'quality' to be forged into weapons, let alone skills. That required the qualities of a peerless villain, a world-destroying demon king.

"I'll try it first."

Because there were no evil souls to consume for the time being, Su Zhou could only stand up and experiment with his spiritual power first.

With a thought, he mobilized the spiritual power stored in every 'triangular spiritual energy structure' throughout his body and condensed it in his right hand.

Visibly, light dust-like spiritual matter manifested in the real world, instantly transforming into a blazing cyan-purple flame. This temperatureless flame spread in the air, seemingly wanting to condense into a phantom long spear. Sensing this terrifying aura, all the slightly intelligent spirits within a few miles around fled as if their lives depended on it, fearing even the slightest contact. The various enchanted items around him cracked, as if they would completely shatter in the next moment.

"Ouch."

But the condensation had only just begun when Su Zhou felt a burst of dizziness and slumped back into his seat, causing Shao Qiming, who had been watching with great interest, to quickly get up and ask with concern, "Are you alright, Zhou?"

"…Ver-very alright!"

Shaking his head, Su Zhou endured a wave of fatigue from the deepest part of his body, and said through gritted teeth… But at this moment, 【Celestial Circulation】 took effect!

With trails of cyan mist spontaneously gathering in his spiritual vision and entering his body in Su Zhou's surprised gaze, he immediately felt much better and his spiritual power recovered somewhat!

"Is the recovery speed of 'Celestial Circulation' so fast?!" Su Zhou opened his mouth, unable to close it. "If it's in a place with abundant spiritual energy…"

"Wait, Zhou."

Just then, Shao Qiming, who had been quietly watching Su Zhou experiment with his power, frowned and said softly, "I didn't see it clearly just now, but now, the color of your eyes has changed."

"Oh, right!"

Only then did Su Zhou realize that he had been in a state of spiritual vision ever since the end of the ritual.

He quickly walked to the corner of the basement, a glow lighting up his hand, and observed himself in a mirror that was 'rumored to have a reflection that moved on its own'.

Naturally, the mirror didn't dare to move. Su Zhou met his own gaze in the mirror.

Sure enough, he saw that his pupils had turned cyan-purple, and even faintly tended to turn into vertical pupils.

After awakening, his spiritual vision ability had solidified – he could cancel it if he wanted to, but he couldn't change the color.

"Looks like I have to buy contact lenses to cover it up, sigh."

With a sigh, Su Zhou felt things were getting a little troublesome and was speechless. Shao Qiming smiled, picked up his phone, and sent some information.

"Now that the awakening is over." After sending the message, he looked up and patted Su Zhou on the shoulder, "Which restaurant should we go to celebrate?"

He knew Su Zhou's preferences very well.

But this time, he was wrong.

"What are you talking about?"

Su Zhou looked at his friend with a puzzled expression and said, "Now that the awakening is successful, the first thing to do, of course, is to expel the curse for you and Aunt Wen!"