# Chapter 11: Basic Passive: Spirit Tenacity (Soul-Basic Passive) Lv.50
...
At first glance, Su Xiao's abilities seemed numerous, a full 26 types, but upon closer inspection, most were passive skills. During combat, he didn't need to divert attention to consider these abilities. In fact, Su Xiao only used two active abilities in battle: 1. At the start of combat, he would empower himself with Cyan Steel Shadow Energy; 2. Dragon Shadow Flash for advancing or evading attacks.
The remaining abilities were all self-created or derivatives of Cyan Steel Shadow Energy. Among them, the self-created abilities became more and more convenient to use the more he employed them.
Su Xiao's combat system was quite simple and straightforward. Various passive abilities supported him from behind, highlighting the power of three Grandmaster abilities in battle.
Su Xiao activated the Skill Upgrade Pod, and a prompt appeared.
[Welcome to Skill Upgrade Pod No. 1163. Please select the ability you wish to enhance.]
Su Xiao had a [Skill Upgrade Pod Free Use Permission]. He attempted to activate this permission, and on the skill list before him, three abilities could be enhanced using this permission, namely:
「Aura Release, Lv.50.」
「Basic Passive: Awakening, Lv.27.」
「Basic Passive: Spirit Tenacity, Lv.50.」
Su Xiao didn't want to die during the ability enhancement process, so he ignored the Spirit Tenacity ability, took out a pill used to stabilize mental strength, swallowed it, then took out a suppression potion. This item was originally developed to seal off others' perception, but he never expected to use it on himself.
As Su Xiao chose to use the [Skill Upgrade Pod Free Use Permission] to enhance Basic Passive: Awakening, the Skill Upgrade Pod began to operate. Strands of semi-transparent thread-like energy spread out from the surroundings, entering every part of Su Xiao's body, with the most going to his head.
Su Xiao's vision went blank white, and the invading pain surged like tidal waves. In the end, he truly felt as if he had fallen into a vast expanse of white water.
After an unknown amount of time, Su Xiao opened his eyes. His pupils rapidly contracted, then returned to normal. Various sounds came from all around—mechanical operations, low conversations, even the friction of skin against clothing. All these sounds accumulated, becoming exceptionally noisy.
This was severe sensory overload. Su Xiao picked up the suppression potion and injected it into his body. The chaotic sounds around him quickly subsided and faded away.
Su Xiao let out a long breath. The enhancement of perception wasn't about meaninglessly accepting all kinds of external information. The current change was discomfort caused by a sudden surge in perception. It would subside after adapting for a dozen or so hours. With the aid of the potion, it would probably calm down in a few hours.
[Basic Passive: Awakening has been enhanced to X.]
[Basic Passive: Awakening, X.]
Skill Effect 1: Perception +157 points.
Skill Effect 2: Physical perception potential limit +10.
Skill Effect 3: Efficiency of perception ability, meditation, comprehending nature, ability development, etc., increased by 551% (this is a 551% increase on top of all existing bonuses combined).
...
Su Xiao adapted for a moment before regaining his previous feeling. He still had several other abilities to enhance. With his current physical endurance, it was best to finish enhancing all the skills and then adapt to them together.
[Do you wish to enhance Basic Passive: Spirit Tenacity: Lv.50? Enhancing this ability requires consuming 4,800 Soul Coins (originally required 6,000 Soul Coins, but the Reincarnation: Glory Medal has reduced the usage fee by 20%).]
Su Xiao checked his current number of Soul Coins. The items on Beini's side were relatively easy to sell, leaving only [Dark Soul Flame (Skill Scroll)].
The [N Command: Pseudo-Biological Mechanical Body: Nervous System: Golden Viper] listed on the auction platform eventually sold for 10,570 Soul Coins.
After a moment of deliberation, Su Xiao decided to push Basic Passive: Spirit Tenacity to Lv.70. Not to mention anything else, Basic Passive: Spirit Tenacity could both increase soul damage and raise the rank of his own soul energy. After acquiring the 「Soul Severing Shadow」 ability, both of these were crucial.
After paying a total of 108,000 Soul Coins, the Skill Upgrade Pod began to operate and stopped only after more than two hours.
It was worth mentioning that with the [Reincarnation: Glory Medal] obtained from Tuanzhang, this enhancement of Spirit Tenacity saved a full 27,000 Soul Coins, equivalent to a huge profit.
Su Xiao's sensation this time wasn't very intense. The feeling of soul energy expanding was mysterious and easy to adapt to, but one shouldn't be fooled by this feeling. Enhancement in this area, once it exceeded the body's endurance peak, would cause instant death.
For this reason, Su Xiao enhanced his soul-type abilities step by step. As for raising Basic Passive: Spirit Tenacity by 20 levels in a single go, his 620 points of Soul Strength weren't just for show. As long as he didn't try to max out this ability in one breath, he could withstand it.
[Basic Passive: Spirit Tenacity has been enhanced to Lv.70.]
[Basic Passive: Spirit Tenacity, Lv.70.]
Skill Effect 1: Soul damage dealt increased by 90% (increased by 39%).
Skill Effect 2: Soul energy rank +7 (increased by 2 ranks).
Skill Enhancement Requirement: Soul Strength above 580 points.
...
Considering that he would be exploring Dead Silence City, survivability naturally couldn't be neglected. Su Xiao began using Golden Skill Points to enhance 「Basic Passive: Body Soul, X」. This ability didn't need to worry about physical limits or the like; rather, it was an ability that enhanced physical limits.
After adding a few Golden Skill Points, an invisible energy quietly entered Su Xiao's body, causing some untappable potential within him to begin rapidly increasing.
Steam mixed with blood mist drifted from Su Xiao's body. The whole body burning sensation made him furrow his brows, but fortunately, this feeling subsided after more than an hour.
[Basic Passive: Body Soul has been enhanced to X.]
[Basic Passive: Body Soul, X.]
Skill Effect 1: Total base health increased by 100%.
Skill Effect 2: Physical potential limit rank +15 (increased by 5 rank potential limits).
Skill Effect 3: Resistance to all abnormal attributes such as poison, erosion, paralysis, dizziness, etc., +170 points (increased by 32 points).
Skill Effect 4: Each point of your True Stamina attribute will additionally generate 0.35 points of physical defense.
Skill Effect 5: Your maximum stamina limit increased by 45% (this refers to stamina endurance value, not stamina attribute or health).
...
The discomfort caused by enhancing 「Basic Passive: Awakening」 and 「Basic Passive: Spirit Tenacity」 receded like a tide, and even the suppression potion was rapidly metabolized.
His perception returned to normal, no longer indiscriminately accepting external information. The whole world became quiet, leaving him refreshed and clear-headed. Su Xiao expanded a perception circle with a diameter of 10 meters. An astonishing scene appeared—when he fully opened his perception, a spherical perception circle with a diameter of 10 meters, faintly tinged white, actually materialized.
Da~
Su Xiao's hand unconsciously rested on his sword hilt. This feeling of extremely high perception strength, where everything within the perception circle was under control, was the 「Full Concentration」 that blade users pursued—concentrating everything about oneself, then delivering a single slash. This slash would surely be as swift as a startled swan.
Facts proved that this risky use of [Nightmare's Beginning] to go to the Alien Star battlefield was worth it; otherwise, the current improvement wouldn't have been possible.
There were still 8 Golden Skill Points left. Su Xiao estimated that he could probably push one more X-level ability to X.
After weighing the options, he decided to enhance the Azure Shadow King ability rather than pushing some ability to X.
The reason was simple: after Azure Shadow King was raised to Lv.31, the boost that appeared was War Soul Shadow.
「War Soul Shadow: Passive: Physical strength increased by 3%.」
Physical strength wasn't just about physical defense. Physical defense generally referred to skin and muscle—the external defense of the body.
Physical strength, however, encompassed the strength of skin, muscles, bones, organs, and even the nervous system—everything included.
Using Golden Skill Points to enhance the Azure Shadow King ability would certainly bring a huge boost to survivability. Having almost been instantly killed by the Great Emperor earlier made Su Xiao somewhat doubt his own survivability.
Thinking of this, Su Xiao took a deep breath and chose to continuously enhance the Azure Shadow King ability by 8 levels. As the Law Destruction faction's ultimate skill ability, the process of enhancing Azure Shadow King was very fast—at least, Su Xiao's feeling every time he enhanced it was very fast.
Su Xiao chose to enhance, whole body excruciating pain, immediately fell unconscious, woke up three hours later, enhancement complete.
For Su Xiao, enhancing Azure Shadow King was indeed fast. His mind went blank with a buzz, and after dazedly waking up, the enhancement was done. One could only say that the Law Destruction faction's ultimate move was really thoughtfully developed.
Su Xiao leaned against the pod wall and rested for over half an hour before recovering. As he had estimated, enhancing the Azure Shadow King ability by 7-8 levels in a short time was something he could withstand. He checked the Azure Shadow King ability.
[Azure Shadow King: Lv.39 (Ultimate Skill)]
Effect 1 (War Soul Shadow: Passive): Physical strength increased by 27%.
Effect 2 (Azure Shadow King: Active): Immediately consume 6,500 points of Cyan Steel Shadow Energy to construct a weapon of any form within 0.01 seconds. This weapon can only attack once, dealing damage equal to the enemy's lost Mana Points × 2.7 + 7,200 points of True Damage.
...
The active effect of Azure Shadow King was becoming increasingly terrifying. Combined with the Blood Qi Shadow that Su Xiao had developed, its lethality was further enhanced, transforming from a melee ability to one that could be used at both long and short range, and was clean and decisive to use.
As preparation for going to Dead Silence City, attack alone wasn't enough. At present, Su Xiao had stored 437% Soul Energy through the Law Destruction talent: Shadow Hunt, which meant he could enhance the Cyan Steel Shadow ability by 4 levels.
Su Xiao now had a full 864 Soul Crystals (Complete). Since his Grandmaster abilities had all been raised to Lv.60, he no longer had a need for Soul Crystals (Complete). As for selling them, he really couldn't bear to part with them.
In that case, using Soul Crystals (Complete) to enhance the Cyan Steel Shadow ability, which couldn't be enhanced in the Skill Upgrade Pod, was a very good choice.
Don't forget, Su Xiao could use the Law Destruction talent: Shadow Hunt ability to absorb Soul Crystals (Complete). One crystal could convert into 1% Soul Energy. With over 800 crystals, he could enhance the Cyan Steel Shadow ability by 8 levels.
As long as he could enhance his own abilities, there was no such thing as loss or gain. Su Xiao always firmly believed that resources that could be used on oneself were the most important.
One by one, Soul Crystals shattered around Su Xiao. The soul energy within them was completely absorbed by him. The Soul Energy in the Devouring Core within his body grew wildly, then converted into a colorless energy that surged into his body, quickly absorbed by the Cyan Steel Shadow Energy, which in turn began to expand.
[Cyan Steel Shadow has been enhanced to Lv.59.]
Su Xiao only had 1 Soul Crystal (Complete) left. There was no need to keep it this time. Either he would survive the Dead Silence City trial, or he would die there—no third option.
After successively enhancing several abilities, although he still hadn't enhanced Blood Qi and Blade Grandmaster, this needed to be done slowly.
After leaving a message in the team channel, Su Xiao left the Skill Upgrade Hall and headed straight for the eastern block. Arriving at a quiet and clean small street, he saw Bubu Wang, Amu, Baha, and Beini all already there. When it came to tasting delicious food, they arrived quickly.
Ding ling~
Pushing open the shop door, Su Xiao saw Xia sitting at the dining table, waiting bored. Hearing the door open, Xia's eyes lit up.
"What strange ingredients did you bring this time?"
Xia was very much looking forward to this, even to the point of tossing and turning before sleep in recent days. Her cooking ability didn't improve quickly when cooking other ingredients, but when cooking the unknown strange ingredients Su Xiao brought back, her proficiency increased faster than Xia's heartbeat.
Su Xiao didn't speak. After sitting down, he poured himself a cup of clear tea. Amu beside him began taking out ingredients one by one. First was a large strip, estimated to be several dozen jin of tenderloin, then some mushrooms, and what seemed to be wild boar ribs. The already segmented ribs were larger than the entire dining table.
Before long, the dining table was covered with a dazzling array of ingredients. Sweat beaded on Xia's forehead; she felt the pressure was a bit high.
While waiting for Xia to cook in the back kitchen, Su Xiao received a communication from Kaisa. He left the restaurant and went to a general store on the adjacent street.
For this trip to Dead Silence City, Su Xiao naturally had to trick Kaisa into coming. When first mentioning this matter, Kaisa shook his head like a rattle-drum.
After Su Xiao revealed that there was a secret treasure inside Dead Silence City, Kaisa immediately agreed for the sake of 'friendship.'
As for whether there was a secret treasure in Dead Silence City, of course there was. Even if there wasn't, Su Xiao could find a place, toss a 150-ounce bottle of Space-Time Power there—wasn't that a secret treasure? Who said secret treasures had to be purely natural?
After meeting with Kaisa and discussing, Kaisa was very pleased. Su Xiao originally invited Kaisa to dine together, but Kaisa actually declined. This clearly meant he really had urgent business, otherwise, with Kaisa's personality, he would never miss an opportunity to have someone treat him to a meal.
At Xia's restaurant, all kinds of delicacies were already on the table. Su Xiao returned and sat down, saying, "Eat."
Hearing this, Amu was the first to start devouring everything like a whirlwind. Bubu Wang and Baha's eating manners weren't much better. Across from them, Beini and Xia were noticeably more elegant.
Su Xiao picked up a piece of Evil God Sweet and Sour Tenderloin, chewing slowly. The taste was quite good, especially with rice.
After a hearty meal, Su Xiao arrived at the 「Material Exchange Office」 near the 「Adventure Group Guild.」
This place was a spacious hall with only a few scattered people present. Su Xiao approached a machine that resembled an automatic teller machine, raised his hand, and pressed it to complete identity verification.
[Please select the type of material you wish to exchange.]