Calculating it all, the newly acquired Evil God Points were once again flowing out like water.
Chen Zhou sighed. "One step at a time. No need to rush. Fortunately, everything is moving onto the right track."
Aside from the Evil God Points, the second gain from the Northern Region trip was the realm earthworm eggs.
He had already given them to Wu Gou to hatch slowly. Once the little earthworms grew up, they would represent a strategic capability to travel between realms—an extremely important trump card for the future.
Thirdly, his Ghost Domain had evolved once, achieving a qualitative leap in power.
If he encountered another evil spirit with its own domain, like the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows, he would likely be able to crush them directly during a domain clash instead of wasting time in a stalemate of mutual erosion.
Finally, and most importantly.
Chen Zhou reached into the Ghost Domain and pulled out a cluster of light from his palm. It emitted a desolate, decaying aura yet pulsed with a terrifying pressure.
This was the item dropped by the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows upon his demise, and the complete divinity Chen Zhou had been longing for—【Filth】.
Following the previous patterns, where three broken divinity shards synthesized into one condensed divinity and three condensed divinities formed a complete one, this was equivalent to obtaining nine identical broken divinity shards at once.
"The Ksitigarbha of Great Vows was generous after all. He certainly didn't waste those five hundred years of accumulation."
A sharp light flashed in Chen Zhou's eyes.
"This is perfect as material for my breakthrough."
In the face of the impending descent of the Golden Buddha, he had to take a step further.
Breaking through with a complete divinity would undoubtedly be far stronger than using broken or condensed shards.
Chen Zhou opened the system panel. The sacrifice progress was already full, and the Evil God Points had been submitted previously. All that was missing was the crucial divinity.
Everything was prepared; all that remained was the final spark.
With a thought from Chen Zhou, the Filth divinity in his hand instantly disintegrated.
The cluster of light turned into a thick, ink-like current of air, surging madly into his body through his arm.
Simultaneously, the countless piles of flesh, blood, and soul essence accumulated on the sacrifice panel ignited. They transformed into pure energy and poured into the Bone Altar.
Boom—!!!
A muffled roar echoed, sounding like a heartbeat from the depths of the earth.
In that instant, the light within the City of the Wrongfully Dead darkened completely.
The magnificent clouds hanging at the horizon were torn apart by a domineering force. The setting sun was obscured, and a pale white bone moon appeared in the sky.
As the bone moon hung high, endless ashes drifted down from it.
The ashes covered every inch of the City of the Wrongfully Dead.
The ground began to mutate, transforming into grey-white defiled earth.
Crack! Crack!
Countless pale bone arms reached out from the defiled earth. They seemed to be struggling, yet also appeared to be cheering, swaying to the rhythm of Chen Zhou's aura.
Such a world-shaking phenomenon immediately alarmed all the residents in the city.
The citizens eating in the dining hall cheered wildly, dropping their bowls where they stood.
Some citizens with slightly higher cultivation levels showed expressions of joyful surprise. They looked at the bone moon in the sky, feeling a shiver from the depths of their souls.
"This is... the Lord's aura!"
"Has the Lord become even stronger?"
"The Lord's divine power is peerless!"
"Shut up! Who are we to discuss the Lord? The Lord is a god descended to the mortal world!"
Someone shouted first, and soon, everyone followed. Whether it was the flower demons and snake demons planting flowers and fields, the paper people of the Sword Sect on patrol, or even the new believers just brought back from the Southern Region who understood nothing, everyone knelt toward the Bone Altar.
Their eyes were filled with fanatical devotion.
At the top of the Gathering Fortune Pavilion.
Wu Gou was drinking at the height of his enjoyment when he suddenly felt a terrifying pressure descend. He nearly dropped the wine cup in his hand.
He leaned against the window frame, looking at the massive bone moon outside and the bone arms continuously emerging from the ground. He couldn't help but click his tongue.
"Good heavens... this is quite the commotion."
Wu Gou's eyes held a complex mix of envy and awe.
"How long has it been? The death qi on him has actually become this dense."
"The alternation of life and death, the cycle of mortality... these are the eternal constants of the Heavenly Dao."
"Such a phenomenon, favored by fortune and graced by merit... it is truly extraordinary."
"He walks the path of the most evil and filthy, yet he practices the Way of the most kind and true."
He raised his wine cup toward the desolate bone moon in the sky and offered a remote toast.
"This monk has sat withered by the side of reincarnation, observing the flow of a hundred lifetimes, cultivating a single thought of compassion, and seeking to ferry all beings across the sea of suffering to reach the shore of purity."
"Yet I am not as pure as this Infinite Hell you have created on a whim."
Having said that, he spilled the wine out the window, as if in sacrifice or blessing.
Upon the altar.
Chen Zhou was bathed entirely in the pillar of light from the Filth divinity. Massive amounts of flesh-and-blood energy and Filth divinity washed through his body, reforming every single one of his bones.
This breakthrough was once again a natural progression, devoid of any bottlenecks.
It was as if this body had been born to contain these terrifying powers.
As the last bit of divinity was completely absorbed, Chen Zhou opened his eyes.
The system panel refreshed instantly before him.
【Breakthrough Quest Completed!】
【Current Level: Calamity Grade (first contract of Symbiosis)】
【Calamity Grade: The fifth level for evil spirits. You have preliminarily acquired the divinity of an evil god. Wherever you pass, misfortune follows. You are no longer merely a powerful individual; you are a walking calamity.】
【Bone Forging Progress: sixth-stage flesh 0/10,000】
【Skin Painting Progress: sixth-stage blood 0/10,000】
【Body Refining Progress: sixth-stage souls 0/10,000】
【Your ability White Bone Ghost Domain has been upgraded】
【Ghost Domain radius expanded to 1,000 li.】
【New Ability — Domain of Defiled Earth】
【Within the coverage of your Ghost Domain, the ground turns into defiled earth, and the laws are rewritten by you. The souls of all beings will be forcibly imprisoned by filth. All enemy skills related to soul escape, reincarnation, or possession are forbidden.】
【Those who die within this domain cannot be reborn; their souls belong to you.】
【Congratulations on successfully promoting to Calamity Grade! You have taken a massive step toward becoming a world-destroying evil god!】
【You have gained one opportunity to enter a deep fallen dream.】
Chen Zhou looked at the information on the panel, feeling the power surging like a vast sea within him, and nodded in satisfaction.
"Calamity Grade..."
He clenched his fist. Power welled up within him, and his death qi was incomparably turbulent.
It felt quite good.
The new ability was also very practical. He still vividly remembered how annoying the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows had been during their fight in the Northern Region.
Future enemies might be even harder to kill; many high-stage demons possessed methods for soul projection, military release reincarnation, or possession-based rebirth.
But with this ability, as long as they were within his domain, death meant true death. They couldn't even become ghosts; they could only become his nourishment.
It was true eradication.
Having reached the seventh-stage strength, the system rewarded him with another chance to enter a deep dream.
"Is it the Immortal-Slaying Shrine again this time?"
Chen Zhou stroked his chin. "Perfect. I left in a hurry last time. This time, I'll go back and reel in a big fish."
Rate on N.U.
