An invasion from the Abyss? I, a demonic cultivator, laughed.

Chapter 146 Foundation Establishment! Super Strong Class Boost!
"Finally, a fierce-level one!"

As the notification sounded that the trial was over, Chu Xiu felt an extremely powerful force surge into his body, transforming his limbs and bones. Every cell in his body was undergoing a tremendous transformation!
This is a completely different feeling from leveling up. If leveling up is just about making your muscles stronger and bigger through exercise, then advancing to a higher level is like being injected with Captain America serum, where your entire life level is undergoing a transformation!

His strength was greater, his reflexes were sharper, and his senses were clearer! More importantly, the life force surging from his heart was far more powerful than ever before!
Chu Xiu felt a surge of blood energy coursing through his body, and he couldn't help but roar to the sky. The roar resounded through the clouds, like thunder, and like waves, lasting for half a minute before slowly subsiding.

In the distance, Song Linchuan and Bian Guanyue, who heard the howl, were both horrified. Even from a distance of a thousand meters, they could feel the terrifying pressure contained in Chu Xiu's howl.

After the howl, Chu Xiu felt refreshed and full of energy. The flow of his magical power and blood energy within his body was incredibly smooth and free, as if it had formed a kind of endless cycle.

He looked down, and a panel appeared before his eyes.

[Name] Chu Xiu

[Rank] Rank 1 (0/200)

Current Rank: Outer Disciple of the Holy Sect (Early to Mid-Foundation Establishment)

[Class Bonus: Energy recovery speed +200.0/h, Qi Refining skill additional power bonus +120%, Qi Refining skill cultivation speed +150%, mental resistance to the influence of killing merits +500%, gain the talent "Divine Sense", gain the talent "Jade Liquid".]

[Current cultivation speed bonus for killing merits: 284%]

[Constitution] 504.22
[Mental State] 211.09
[Energy Level] 1465.32
[Equipment] Vampire Earl's Wings (Legendary), Undying Corpse King's Amulet (Legendary), Great Sun Guardian Shield (Legendary), Blood Curse Piercing Nail (Premium), Spirit Flesh Storage Pouch (Premium)
[Item] Heavenly Blood Vine (Mythological)

[Skills] Perfected Azure Poison Corpse Fire, Perfected Demonic Qi Infusion, Corpse Fire Tempering, Unjust Death Substitute

[Divine Abilities] Demon Eye - Beginner Level, Heavenly Demon Hand - Perfected
【Characteristics】Tough Skin (Completely Integrated)
After entering the Ferocious Rank, the significant increase in his basic attributes goes without saying, but what surprised Chu Xiu even more was—

"No wonder I felt that my magical power had taken root; it turns out I've successfully established my foundation!"

After reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, his mana recovery speed under the [Class Bonus] increased by more than sixty times! His mana, while not inexhaustible, was at least much more enduring than before.

What caught his attention most were the last two items in the [Class Rank Bonus].

Talent: Divine Sense! Talent: Jade Elixir!
Can you gain talents after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage?

Chu Xiu quickly closed his eyes and carefully felt the changes in his body.

He soon discovered that after establishing a foundation within his body, his soul underwent a qualitative change.

Originally, his soul only resided in his spiritual platform, like a floating duckweed. But after he established his foundation, a part of it took root firmly in Chu Xiu's body. It was like a kite with a string, able to extend the rest of its body in all directions without worrying about it completely leaving his body!
After these divine senses dissipated, Chu Xiu felt as if he had unlocked a completely new sense. Even without seeing with his eyes or hearing with his ears, he could clearly visualize the things around him in his mind!
[Divine Sense (S): Extends the soul to hundreds of meters in all directions, increases Spirit by 80, and increases mental attack resistance by 120. The effect increases with level. Cultivating Divine Sense techniques can improve their grade.]

The description before him made Chu Xiu's eyes light up with even greater surprise!

“Mental attributes are inherently difficult to increase, and I haven’t unlocked the relevant inheritance yet, so before I was only equivalent to an S-rank mage class of the same level.”

"But after the upgrade, it skyrocketed to over two hundred! Only an SSS-rank mage can probably compare!"

He had been wondering why his mental state had increased so much; it turned out to be the effect of his divine sense talent.
"Besides amplifying basic attributes, divine sense has many other uses!"

For example, it can be used for reconnaissance or to manipulate magical artifacts.

Previously, Chu Xiu could only shoot the Blood Curse Bone-Piercing Nail like a bullet, but after gaining divine sense, he could control its deviation or turn halfway through its flight.

High-level magical artifacts like flying swords cannot be controlled without divine sense!
Furthermore, if he were to inherit a soul-attack technique in the future, he could even use his divine sense as a means of combat!

This talent is absolutely incredibly powerful, and what's even more outrageous is that it can grow!

If he reached the SSS rank, Chu Xiu didn't even dare to imagine how strong he would become!

As for the other talent, it's equally outrageous!
【Jade Elixir (A): Energy level +650, spell power increased by an additional 30%】

The magical power within Chu Xiu's body directly transformed from a gaseous state into a liquid state, becoming even more condensed!

This is also why his energy level and mental attributes have both skyrocketed.

This made Chu Xiu sigh in admiration. The Demonic Path Successor was indeed a MAX-level profession. Its strength was truly abnormal. Other professions would at most gain some new skills when they advanced one level, but he directly gained two powerful talents!

To be honest, he used to think that although this profession was strong, it was far from being MAX, especially in the early stages when he hadn't fully developed.

But now, he finally realized how terrifying the MAX profession was.

At the same time, Chu Xiu also gained some insight.

"If I'm not mistaken, the other professions of cultivators are probably similar to mine. Their initial strength is not particularly strong, or even weak! But as their rank increases, they will have a rank bonus that is far stronger than other professions!"

"The two talents, [Divine Sense] and [Jade Liquid], should be obtainable once you reach the Foundation Establishment stage."

"However, cultivators who practice ordinary cultivation techniques may have relatively low-level talents in [Divine Sense] and [Jade Liquid] after Foundation Establishment, such as only B, C or even D."

On Earth, there are cultivators, and quite a few of them.

After all, according to official speculation, the cultivation world should be one of the largest worlds among all the worlds swallowed by the abyss, with a large number of inheritances scattered in the abyss.

Unfortunately, like the mechanic, cultivators are late-stage professions. During the Qi Refining stage, they have to cultivate everything themselves. Without a large number of karmic points, they are much weaker than other professions. They need to reach the Foundation Establishment stage before they can begin to show their true power and demonstrate the superiority of the cultivator profession.

However, being weak in the early stages means falling far behind others in the initial competition, which makes it very rare for a cultivation profession to reach the fierce level.

After all, most people only receive ordinary inheritances and cannot possess the overwhelming combat power of other professions at the Qi Refining stage like Chu Xiu.

This also shows just how powerful the Holy Sect's lineage is.

Thinking of this, Chu Xiu couldn't help but feel full of anticipation for the three newly unlocked inheritances.

Without further hesitation, Chu Xiu focused his mind, and a brand-new inheritance appeared before him.

First and foremost is the automatically unlocked Supreme Demon Lord's Legacy.

[Blood Fiend Banner: A top-grade magical artifact that condenses blood energy into an extremely evil and ferocious blood fiend, thereby creating powerful vengeful spirits.]

[Note 1: The power of the Soul-Slaying Banner increases with the number of vengeful spirits. When the number of vengeful spirits reaches one hundred and a ghost general is successfully cultivated, it will transform into the Hundred Soul Banner.]

[Note 2: A vengeful ghost with the potential to become a Ghost General can advance to the rank of Ghost General by absorbing enough blood and evil energy and then a large amount of Yin energy.]

The panel that appeared before him caused Chu Xiu's expression to shift slightly.

To be honest, although he chose the path of the supreme demon lord, the combat power of his fierce demons could no longer keep up with his combat level.

In the previous battle against the Baron, Chu Xiu sent out a full three hundred fierce ghosts, but they could only use self-destruction to have a slight restraining effect.

There's no way around it. No matter how many fierce ghosts there are, they're still only at the Warrior rank. Their basic attributes are far inferior. It's like trying to shoot a tank with a pistol—what's the use of having a lot of them? This is also because Chu Xiu didn't deliberately develop in the direction of a summoner, lacking the means to enhance the attributes of ghosts.

A fully developed Summoner class needs at least five or six pieces of equipment similar to the [Oubre's Charge Horn], along with numerous skills that boost summoned creature attributes. They also need to consume resources to specifically enhance their summoned creatures in order to compete with other combat classes of the same tier.

In short, summoning-type classes require gradual development, unlike other classes that can be simply and directly built up by allocating causal points.

"If this new inheritance is just about upgrading a few vengeful ghosts, I'm afraid it won't be of much help to me."

When Chu Xiu was at the Warrior rank, he single-handedly fought three high-level Generals. After advancing in rank, his main opponents will undoubtedly still be at the General rank, and he may even encounter Kings!

If his guess is correct, the vengeful ghost should only be of the fierce-level combat power.

However, compared to the previous two levels of Soul Banners, the Wraith Banner has a special annotation.

"Even fierce ghosts can be upgraded to ghost generals!"

"Furthermore, once the number of vengeful spirits reaches one hundred and a ghost general is acquired, they can continue to transform!"

Now Chu Xiu was starting to look forward to it.

"However, we'll have to do some experiments to find out the specifics."

Knowing what was going on, Chu Xiu immediately headed towards the town center.

There, the alluring crimson blood vines stood tall, having absorbed the flesh and blood of the Blood Angels and the Baron. They had grown even taller, now exceeding forty meters, with each root thicker and even revealing streams of blood flowing beneath.

"The so-called Blood Fiend is a special form of flesh and blood after it has been refined."

“My Sky-Reaching Blood Vine is a perfect match.”

With a thought, the enormous, towering blood vine in front of him began to wither and shrink at a visible speed. In just half a minute, it completely turned into a grayish-brown withered vine, leaving only the core seed that still retained its vitality, which Chu Xiu then collected.

The immense vitality of the Heavenly Blood Vine transformed into a visible blood mist in the air!
Chu Xiu waved the Fiend Soul Banner in his hand, and a large amount of blood mist surged towards it. The Fiend Soul Banner greedily absorbed this boundless life energy, just like parched land finally receiving rain.

As a large amount of life energy was absorbed, the Fiend Soul Banner was visibly stained with a layer of bright red. Chu Xiu could feel that both its volume and material were undergoing some kind of qualitative change!

Soon, after reaching a critical point, the Blood Fiend Soul Banner was born.

At this point, less than a quarter of the blood mist had been consumed, after all, the blood vine had absorbed the lives of two generals, dozens of fierce beasts, and hundreds of warriors!
As the blood mist continued to pour in, the fierce ghosts in the soul banner roared and their skin bulged. The process of fusing with the blood evil seemed extremely painful, but after refining the blood evil, the souls of these ghosts swelled up as if they had taken a powerful tonic!

In the previous battle with the Baron, Chu Xiu lost more than 150 fierce ghosts, directly halving the size of the ghost army.

However, he always knew that those he sent to self-destruct were mostly low-level fierce ghosts with no potential to advance into vengeful spirits.

So although on the surface they lost half their forces, in reality they retained most of their elite troops.

At this moment, these ferocious ghosts, which had devoured a large number of souls, began to advance in rank.

Soon, the first vengeful ghost was born.

Compared to before, its body has become taller, its bone spurs are thicker and longer, its skin has turned bright red, and it exudes a violent aura, like a demon crawling out of a hellish cave!
[The Vengeful Ghost]

[Rank] Fierce Rank 1

[Attributes] Constitution 0, Spirit 74.8, Energy Level 129.5
[Skills] Blood Binding Technique (Proficient), Soul-Taking Technique (Proficient)
[Trait] Level 3 Soul Body (Greatly reduces physical damage; spells cast gain an additional 50% power bonus.)
[Talent] Manifestation (transforms into physical form, Constitution +153.4), Blood Fiend (the attached Blood Fiend can cause a large amount of corrosive damage, while greatly increasing self-destruct damage)
Just as Chu Xiu had thought, the vengeful ghost was a ferocious-level creature.

Compared to the ferocious ghost, its basic attributes are naturally greatly improved, and its various skills, traits, and talents have also evolved.

But the biggest change is the addition of two advanced skills: [Life-Taking Technique] and [Blood Binding Technique].

Chu Xiu glanced at it. [Life-Taking Technique] was a skill that could inflict both physical and spiritual damage simultaneously, and its power was considerable. [Blood Binding Technique] was an advanced skill of [Earth Binding Technique].

"I was right before. The path of ghosts should eventually lean towards the mage type, with the soul body used to enhance self-protection and high spell power to assist in output."

If it comes to open melee combat, a physique of 153.4 is not outstanding for a fierce-rank character; in fact, it can be described as quite ordinary.

However, the two brand-new advanced skills, Blood Binding and Soul Reaper, are surprisingly powerful after being boosted by 50% spell power!

With these two skills, it's not difficult to solo kill ordinary level 3 or 4 monsters.

After the blood mist was completely absorbed, a total of twenty-one fierce ghosts were born!
This is already enough to provide Chu Xiu with considerable assistance!
Furthermore, there are still nearly fifty souls left that have the potential to evolve into vengeful ghosts!

What surprised Chu Xiu the most was that the soul information of the blood angel he killed indicated that it had the potential to become a ghost general!

This means that as long as he has enough flesh and blood to nourish him and souls to devour, he will soon be able to complete the Hundred Soul Banner!
"Looks like another massacre is about to begin."

Chu Xiu was very much looking forward to seeing what kind of power the Hundred Soul Banner would eventually possess!
Of course, he has more important things to do now.

Chu Xiu shifted his focus to the remaining two inheritances.

[Golden Muscles and Dark Bones (Innate God and Demon): The third chapter of the Golden Embryo Dark Technique, it causes a transformation in the skin, muscles, and bones, greatly enhancing physical constitution, defense, and energy level upon completion.]

【Eight Desolate Netherfire Array (Duobao Demon Lord): After being set up, it can summon Netherfire to fight enemies. The second chapter of "Source Qi Cleansing" is unlocked at level 4 of the Ferocious Rank. After mastering it, Netherfire can be used to refine and strengthen equipment.】

Both of these inheritances are quite good. The Golden Muscle and Nether Bone Inheritance is simply a way to further strengthen one's physique, while the Eight Desolate Netherfire Array combines combat and subsequent weapon crafting.

Their quality has reached the [True Inheritance] level! It can be said that even within the Holy Sect, they can be considered core inheritances.

Each requires 4,000 causal points to unlock.

This would be an astronomical figure for other professions, but for Chu Xiu now, it's nothing.

With just a thought, a large number of causal points surged into Chu Xiu's body, unlocking the two.

Because he monopolized all the city's resources and had received a large number of karma points as a reward from the previous world mission, Chu Xiu still had more than 50,000 karma points even after unlocking the two inheritances!

Then the next step is simple.

Add more causal points!

Note: The protagonist's base constitution of nearly 400 at level 9 of the Warrior rank is calculated based on a large number of equipment bonuses, but the actual amount is not that much, which is why the increase in constitution upon leveling up seems small.

Note: The characteristics and skills of the malevolent ghosts are also present in the vengeful ghosts, and even stronger, but to avoid padding the word count, they will be omitted.



(End of this chapter)