——In the heavens and earth, there exist monsters known as 'Fiends'.

They are neither wraiths nor magical beasts. They bear no relation to the typical yokai, yet possess appearances and wills similar to the former three.

Fiends can dwell within human hearts or wander the wilderness. Their essence lies in the power of otherworldly deities, gestating and being born from spiritual energy, manifesting as demonic entities in the mortal realm.

"Fiends are bizarre and diverse, with billions of classifications. Some possess intelligence, while others are merely wisps of souls dwelling within human hearts—but one thing they all share is that all fiends are kin of otherworldly gods."

Yala's earlier words still echoed in Su Zhou's ears: "In other words, they are all 'god-created races'! Especially the 'first generation fiends' gestated by the power of the Great Demonic Tide, all possess the divinity of the first generation of creation gods."

Divinity. That was the method to distinguish fiends from ordinary demons, monsters, and ghosts.

As a key for otherworldly realms to connect with Earth, fiends could also serve as Su Zhou's key to activate the Celestial God Scale and travel to other otherworldly realms. Conversely, if he did not hunt fiends to activate the Celestial God Scale, the silver pocket watch would likely teleport him randomly, potentially throwing him into outer space, or even the accretion disk of a black hole.

Therefore, if he wanted to utilize the Celestial God Scale, it would be best to slay fiends and use the aura from them as a more reliable teleportation foundation.

And the optimal targets among all fiends were those that had information disturbances with the present world, those with 'works' as reflections in the world.

This way, by targeting them for hunting, he could not only travel to worlds similar to their 'corresponding works', but also understand the overall background of that world in advance, and even the 'plot' and 'character relationships' that were most important to transmigrators! This was far better than transmigrating without knowing anything.

Moreover, according to Yala's words, the uses of fiends were not limited to these.

As god-created kin with extremely rich spiritual energy and spirituality, the blood of fiends could be used as offerings to restore the serpent spirit's power. Of course, it could also be used as nourishment to water the Wisdom Tree bonsai and cultivate 'Fruits of Wisdom'.

And the 'fiend core', which contained high-quality divinity, spirituality, and spiritual energy, was also a necessary means for Su Zhou to rapidly accumulate power and complete his 'awakening' before the spiritual energy revival.

Even, fiends could gestate 'extraordinary materials' before the era of spiritual energy revival!

"Fiends are treasures from head to toe!" When saying this, the serpent spirit vigorously slapped the floor with its tail, revealing the gaze of an old farmer looking at a bountiful field.

Although the truth was such, hunting fiends was also a very difficult task, simply finding them was difficult enough… But fortunately, now was before the era of spiritual energy revival.

"Speaking of which, this is also our luck. Now is before the era of spiritual energy revival, everything is just beginning, half-awake… The general sense of demons, monsters, ghosts, and goblins have not yet awakened, so those who can cause trouble at this time and create 'extraordinary events' are basically all 'fiends', or 'mysterious organizations' that believe in otherworldly void gods."

Coiling above Su Zhou's head, who was collecting and listing tasks, planning his next actions, the serpent spirit's tone was quite emotional: "Hunting at this time, you'll catch them accurately with one grab. After the spiritual energy revives, the fiends will hide among the groups of demons and monsters, and it will be difficult to catch them… This is also why I want you to take action as soon as possible, the opportunity is rare!"

"Yeah, I understand everything."

Su Zhou nodded, his fingers flashing rapidly on the phone screen, quickly recording all the targets, then replied: "Hunting fiends, preparing all the materials for the 'Perfect Spirit Awakening Ritual'... ok, done."

Pressing the confirm button to save the task, Su Zhou felt full of motivation: "I can start preparing the materials now!"

The materials for the spirit awakening ritual required liquid gold and silver, blessed mercury, and various special gemstones. In simple terms, it required money.

If it were for ordinary people, simply preparing these most basic ritual materials would probably be an extremely difficult problem, after all, not everyone could take out so many precious metals and gemstones.

But for Su Zhou, this was the easiest part.

After all, he had a brother named Shao Qiming!

Shao Qiming's father, Shao Nantian, was a well-known entrepreneur in Hongzhou and even the entire Zheng country, the founder of 'Shao's Photovoltaics'.

Shao's Photovoltaics was a cutting-edge technology company researching solar energy, wafers, and various high-tech technologies. It had very deep partnerships with the local Hongdu government and academies. It was also a member of the 'new energy industry' strongly supported by the Zheng country government, with a bright future and rich assets.

And Shao Qiming, as Shao Nantian's eldest son—he also had a younger sister Shao Shuangyue—was deeply loved, had excellent grades, and was regarded as the future heir. He had recently come of age, and if he didn't lack a driver's license, Shao Nantian even planned to give Shao Qiming a sports car as a birthday gift.

The amount of gold and silver required for the ritual was not large, and the gemstones did not need to be particularly precious. It didn't matter if they had impurities. After all, except for almost 100% pure 'perfect gemstones', even man-made gemstones possessed a certain mysterious efficacy, it was just a matter of quantity.

"Scraps of man-made diamond fragments, igniting the pure fire of creation."

"1200 grams of silver, the pure order of the moon's radiance, melted into liquid, blessed and poured into a circular sheet, as the foundation of the magic circle, connecting the great source of spiritual energy."

"350 grams of gold, originating from the noble light of fire, sanctified and melted into gold threads, outlining the magic circle's base and runes, activating spirituality."

"Finally, add a bucket (20 kilograms) of mercury, the flowing source substance, after blessing it, just pour it directly into the magic circle, representing the ubiquitous spirituality of all things."

Reconfirming the materials again, Su Zhou subconsciously complained to Yala: "Speaking of which, why is mercury counted by the bucket? And the ritual is so casual!"

"You can't buy mercury one gram at a time—and mercury is really cheap in your era, so naturally there's no need to be too frugal."

Checking the current prices of various materials online, it would cost almost 190,000 RMB. Adding the gemstones and other scattered materials that needed to be ordered according to Su Zhou's own fate and characteristics, a perfect spirit awakening ritual actually required a price of more than 200,000 or even close to 300,000!

However, it was just within the range that Shao Qiming's allowance could solve.

What? Embarrassed to ask for money? Please, who was he? He was Su Zhou! As long as things could be solved with money, it was nothing to his brother!

"Before my brother's money runs out, I don't have to worry about this problem!"

Without hesitation, Su Zhou directly took his bag and went out, preparing to go to Shao Qiming's house—in addition to discussing transcendent matters, he could also copy his homework by the way. Studying and exercising, killing two birds with one stone.

While running downstairs, Su Zhou made a phone call to Shao Qiming: "Hello? Qiming? I'll go to your house later, let's do our summer homework together."

"...I finished my summer homework a long time ago." On the other end of the phone, a rather speechless voice came from his friend, but Shao Qiming also knew the implication in Su Zhou's words, so he agreed: "Alright, when will you arrive approximately? My mom and sister are at home, I'll have my aunt make five more lunches."

"That's great! As for the time, I'll ride my bike over, about thirty-four minutes… See you then!"

"See you."

Hanging up the phone, Su Zhou had already gone downstairs, bringing his bicycle to the residential area.

It was Friday noon, most people were at work, only some old men and women were walking by the fountain in the garden in the center of the residential area, but most of them were also preparing to go back to cook, the entire residential area was almost silent except for the sound of cicadas.

Su Zhou did not go directly to Shao Qiming's house. He made a detour and came to a comprehensive potted flower and fruit shop at the entrance of the residential area.

[Zhi Cheng Flowers and Fruits]