# Chapter 3: Damage
Continuously increasing the sharpness of the Law-Annihilating Blade, along with the true damage attached to the Cyan Steel Shadow ability, after approaching an enemy, one slash breaks defense, two slashes seal the throat, three slashes take the enemy's life.
Aside from the enhancement of Cyan Steel Shadow, there was also a sealed letter. On the cover of this letter was the emblem of Death Paradise.
Opening it, Su Xiao found it was from a merchant of Death Paradise. The content was an invitation to meet at the Great Gathering Place to conduct the transaction of "Technique Soul: Blood." This was clearly one of the intermediaries from the Demon Race within the Paradise faction, and the connection between the two sides had only been established not long ago.
Seeing that Su Xiao was about to go out, Bubu Wang quickly followed. Baha, having nothing better to do, also followed. After leaving the Exclusive Room, Su Xiao noticed that there were far fewer people in Reincarnation Paradise than usual. Thinking about it, it made sense; at this time, the Contractors were all inside mission worlds. He estimated it would take at least a few more days before the Contractors began returning one after another.
Over ten minutes later, Su Xiao arrived in front of a mist wall. Walking through it and crossing the entire Trade Street, he reached a somewhat old and ancient building. Entering it, a stone platform came into view. He followed the steps around the platform and stepped onto the stone platform, which was over ten meters in diameter. The next moment, his vision blurred as a teleportation was completed.
Stepping out of the building, Su Xiao arrived at a vast circular plaza. The plaza was very large, surrounded by buildings on all sides.
[You have arrived at the Great Gathering Place.]
[While at the Great Gathering Place, you can rent stalls...]
Compared to the last time he was at the Great Gathering Place, there were far fewer people here now. This allowed Su Xiao to encounter the Death Paradise merchant before even reaching the predetermined meeting spot.
This person wore a black hood, wrapped themselves tightly from head to toe, and even wore a voice modulation device, as if afraid of being identified.
Su Xiao took out a wooden box containing the Black Maple Tree yield, while the other party brought out a crystal case. After exchanging, the newcomer opened it to check, and finally nodded to Su Xiao before walking away quickly.
"..."
Su Xiao watched the figure's back and frowned. Even though the other party was wrapped tightly, the unmistakable feeling of both allure and restraint made Su Xiao think of someone.
"Lilim?"
Su Xiao spoke. The 'merchant' walking briskly ahead suddenly paused in their steps, then quickened their pace.
Seeing this, Su Xiao felt a slight confusion. He really couldn't figure out how the Demon Race had managed this. Did the scope of Death Paradise's recruitment of Contractors include Void races? Or perhaps, at great cost, the Demon Race had successfully gotten Lilim into Death Paradise?
What was even more puzzling was that Lilim entering Death Paradise wasn't something that needed to be kept so secret. So why was she wrapped up so tightly this time?
"Don't make a sound. You've definitely been watched recently. This time, we've teamed up with the Devil Race to prepare some things. My current identity can't be exposed yet."
Lilim's voice came from behind.
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak.
"Is there a problem?"
Lilim, wrapped tightly, looked at Su Xiao suspiciously.
"..."
Su Xiao snapped his fingers, activating the identity concealment function of the Great Gathering Place, which he had never activated before. The next moment, he was shrouded in hazy mist, making it impossible to perceive anything beyond his humanoid form—his appearance, figure, and so on.
"How did you do that?"
Lilim's tone revealed envy.
"You pay 2 Soul Coins, and I'll help you activate this function."
Baha spoke.
"Well... alright."
Lilim hesitated a bit, but thinking that 2 Soul Coins was very cheap, she agreed.
"It's like this. Activate your Brand Authority, then find the Great Gathering Place section. Yes, yes, in the free permissions, select White Mist Disguise. Mm, yes, that's it. Don't look at me like that. My time is very precious. Damn it, don't pinch my neck. Ah! My spatial feath..."
Ignoring Lilim and Baha, Su Xiao returned the way he came. He had previously thought that Arcane Eternal Star might make a move against the Demon and Devil races, and the old fellows of those two races must have thought the same.
After returning to Reincarnation Paradise via the teleportation array, Su Xiao headed straight for the Skill Upgrade Hall. Out of his current 436,178 Soul Coins, he needed to reserve 117,000 for upgrading Dragon-Slaying Flash. The rest could all be used to enhance his own abilities.
Half an hour later, Su Xiao entered the Skill Upgrade Pod. The pod door closed behind him, and a prompt appeared.
[Welcome to Skill Upgrade Pod No. 1103. Please select the ability you wish to enhance.]
Su Xiao currently had two abilities to enhance: "Basic Passive: Spirit Toughness" and "Basic Passive: Blood Awakening." The former had already been developed to lv.70, while the latter hadn't even been leveled up from level 1.
Regarding which world progress to go to next, Su Xiao had already decided. In the next world progress, he would retrieve the "Awakening Stele" while also hunting traitors. Those who could betray the Ancestral Law Destroyers were definitely not weak, so improving combat power took priority.
Su Xiao attempted to enhance "Basic Passive: Blood Awakening." From the characteristics of this ability being recorded by Reincarnation Paradise, it was clear that he was the first person in history to master a negative Charm basic passive ability. This also meant that the cost of enhancing "Basic Passive: Blood Awakening" was likely not low.
[Yes/No to enhance Basic Passive: Blood Awakening lv.1. Enhancing this ability requires consuming 480 Soul Coins (enhancement cost reduced by 20% via Reincarnation: Glory Medal).]
This price was the same as "Basic Passive: Spirit Toughness." Fortunately, the [Reincarnation: Glory Medal] given by the Tuanzhang reduced the enhancement cost by 20%.
Su Xiao had always had a habit when enhancing abilities: as long as his physique could withstand it and he had enough Soul Coins, he would focus on one ability and push it to a high level as much as possible. He planned to adopt this strategy now.
Three hours later, Su Xiao, with faint blood energy emanating from his entire body, let out a long breath. Even with his physique, he needed a moment to recover before continuing to enhance other abilities.
In these three hours, at the cost of 277,920 Soul Coins, Su Xiao pushed the "Basic Passive: Blood Awakening" ability from lv.1 to lv.80. This was only possible because he had been stacking various passives all along, making his physique extremely robust. Otherwise, such a massive ability enhancement would be very dangerous.
[Basic Passive: Blood Awakening, lv.80.]
Skill Effect 1: When killing enemies, there is a certain probability of causing a terrifying fear effect on surrounding enemies, and enemies entering the fear state will have their comprehensive defense reduced by 65% and movement speed reduced by 92.5%.
Skill Effect 2: Blood Qi potential rank +9 (increased by 8 ranks).
Skill Effect 3: Blood Qi penetration characteristic +440 points (increased by 437 points), Blood Qi damage dealt increased by 285% (increased by 280%).
...
Apart from the Soul Coins reserved for buying the Immortal-rank longsword, Su Xiao only had 41,258 Soul Coins left to use. Moreover, he would need Soul Coins later to enhance Blood Spear Grandmaster.
The feeling of never having enough Soul Coins no matter how many he obtained had returned. This feeling had become more frequent ever since Su Xiao decided to develop the three Grandmaster abilities.
Having consumed such a large amount of Soul Coins, Su Xiao naturally gained significant improvements. Not to mention anything else, the 440 points of Blood Qi penetration characteristic had enhanced his blood-type abilities to an exaggerated degree. For example, the "Blood Smoke Cannon" ability had been enhanced to an extent that could only be estimated temporarily and would need to be measured through actual combat.
It was worth noting that the original attack power of Blood Smoke Cannon was already very strong. Even the strongest Eighth Rank Ancient God, Sin God, didn't feel good after taking it. Now, Blood Smoke Cannon had received an unprecedented enhancement.
Furthermore, due to the enhancement of "Basic Passive: Blood Awakening," Su Xiao's blood-type blade techniques had also been greatly improved.
After resting for a while, Su Xiao took out 90 Soul Crystals. With the previous two lv.70 Grandmaster abilities paving the way, enhancing Blood Spear Grandmaster now was a familiar process.
[Yes/No to enhance Blood Spear Grandmaster to lv.70. This enhancement requires Soul Crystals × 90 + Technique Soul: Blood + 32,850 Soul Coins.]
The path to all three Grandmaster abilities reaching lv.70 was right before him. Su Xiao chose to enhance without any hesitation. All the Soul Crystals shattered, turning into Soul Energy that merged into his body. [Technique Soul: Blood] turned into a stream of crimson energy that merged into his heart.
Boom!
Blood Qi erupted from Su Xiao as the center point inside the Skill Upgrade Pod. Due to damaging the Skill Upgrade Pod, Su Xiao was immediately deducted 160 Soul Coins, making his already strained financial situation even worse.
Two hours later, Su Xiao sat cross-legged inside the Skill Upgrade Pod. Faint blood smoke drifted from his body before dissipating into the air.
[Prompt: Blood Spear Grandmaster has been enhanced to lv.70.]
[Blood Spear Grandmaster: lv.70 (Passive)]
Skill Effect: Blood Qi attack power increased by 577%, body energy control greatly increased (Cyan Steel Shadow/Blood Qi).
Blood Qi Intensity: 135 points.
lv.10 Ultimate Ability: Killing Spear Blade (Passive), all your Blood Qi attacks carry a life force recovery suppression effect (the degree of suppression depends on the enemy's Stamina value).
lv.20 Ultimate Ability: Ruthless Spear Blade (Passive), all your Blood Qi attacks carry a defense-weakening characteristic.
lv.30 Ultimate Ability: Iron Blood Spear Blade (Passive), all your Blood Qi attacks carry a defense/armor penetration characteristic (high amount).
lv.40 Ultimate Ability: Death and Rebirth (Passive), when your HP drops to a near-death state, your Soul Power will be fully activated. During this period, all your melee attack damage is increased by 65% (increased by 15%).
lv.50 Ultimate Ability: Blood Passing (Passive), after your Blood Qi ability attacks an enemy, the enemy will suffer a total of Hunter's Agility attribute × 3.5 true bleeding damage over the next 10 seconds...
lv.60 Ultimate Ability: Blood Soul Resonance (Passive), Blood Spear Grandmaster can devour the aura-type abilities you have already mastered...
lv.70 Ultimate Ability: Blood Soul Cohesion (Passive/Active), you can consume 20% of your maximum Blood Qi value to form a "Blood Soul" floating behind you. This "Blood Soul" will receive a dual bonus from your Blood Qi Intensity and Soul Strength. This Blood Soul has two effects in total: Explosion and Enhancement.
Explosion Effect: When this "Blood Soul" explodes, it deals ultra-high Blood Qi damage to enemies within a 10 to 300-meter radius (the smaller the range, the higher the Blood Qi damage dealt).
Enhancement Effect: If you use this "Blood Soul" to empower yourself, your "Blood Smoke Cannon" or "Blood Beast" abilities will receive an enhancement effect for the next 30 seconds. If you empower your longsword with this "Blood Soul," your "Blade Path: Blood Shadow," "Blade Path: Slaughter," "Blade Path: Blood Blade," or "Blade Path: Blood Explosion" abilities will receive an enhancement effect for the next 50 seconds.
Prompt: A maximum of five "Blood Souls" can exist simultaneously, lasting 20 to 25 natural days without effect or power decay. They can be concealed and integrated into any equipment you are wearing (the equipment volume must meet a certain standard; equipment such as the Black King Bracer or Wild Hunt Night you are wearing can serve as temporary carriers). All five "Blood Souls" can explode simultaneously, but when used for enhancement, the enhancement effects of multiple "Blood Souls" cannot stack.