419: Chapter 418 Is this actually a person?

Neural reaction speed is crucial in combat.

It primarily concerns the coordination and rapid response capabilities of the human nervous and muscular Systems.

This directly impacts an individual's ability to react swiftly to an opponent's movements, thereby executing effective attacks or defenses.

Furthermore, it significantly enhances the ability to guard against surprise attacks and assassinations.

The previous rewards for neural reaction speed came from killing the Azure Dragon and the exclusive mission to save the Child of the World.

Aside from those, it had never appeared, even after multiple kills of S-rank Specters.

But now, not only had it appeared again, it was a three percent reward.

"One is equivalent to increasing survival and escape capabilities, while the other is equivalent to boosting combat power..."

Chu Xuan weighed his options for a moment and ultimately chose the second reward.

[Shadowless] was certainly good, but Chu Xuan himself didn't have many other stealth or concealment skills, so he wouldn't be able to maximize the advantage of this trait.

On the contrary, many of his skills—be it the Fire of Nirvana, Hundred Weapons One Heart, Teleportation, and so on—were all geared toward direct combat.

Rather than improving his means of escape, it was better to continue stacking his combat capabilities.

If one's strength was great enough, there would be no need to flee.

As Chu Xuan made his choice, the System immediately popped up a notification:

[Your base neural reaction speed has permanently increased by three percent.]

In that instant, Chu Xuan's brain hummed, but it soon returned to normal.

But now, Chu Xuan clearly felt that his perception of sound and light had become slightly sharper.

All in all, he had obtained a total of five percent permanent bonus to his neural reaction speed.

It didn't look like much, but Chu Xuan understood that with equal physical attributes, his adaptability was undoubtedly a cut above ordinary people.

Suddenly, Chu Xuan felt something.

Unnoticed, the darkness behind him had already drawn near.

At this moment, Chu Xuan had a faint feeling that within this darkness, some entity was peering at him.

It wanted to pull him in, yet it didn't dare step out of the darkness to face him.

Meanwhile, Chu Xuan's sensing of the night cloak and the paper effigy within became clearer, as if they were luring him to step into the darkness.

Chu Xuan reached out his hand, but stopped about ten centimeters away from the darkness.

"You seem to be very eager for me to go in?"

Chu Xuan spoke indifferently, but there was no response, only the ink-like darkness slowly closing in.

"What are you afraid of?" The corners of Chu Xuan's lips curled slightly, and just as he was about to touch it, he withdrew his hand.

He turned back and looked up; he had now covered about half of the mountain path.

Chu Xuan didn't delay any further. With his back to the darkness, he climbed the mountain, took out the greed tank again, and drank deeply.

To Chu Xuan, the high-grade life essence was now like drinking water or juice; he felt no hint of intoxication.

It was merely refreshing.

On the other hand, its effect on Chu Xuan was getting weaker and weaker, but fortunately, there was plenty of it, so he could drink as much as he wanted.

And unlike the barbarian soul fruit, where the more one ate, the more damage it did to the body.

As he continued to drink, under the pressure of gravity, more bloody water was forced out of the pores all over his body.

Chu Xuan felt as if he were undergoing a complete transformation, as if the filth all over his body was being washed away.

His stamina and spirit attributes were increasing slower and slower.

The amount of liquid he drank grew more and more.

Chu Xuan had completely become a man of blood.

The bloody water flowed down the mountain steps and then disappeared into the darkness.

Faint licking sounds seemed to emanate from the darkness.

Chu Xuan's sensing of the night cloak and the paper effigy also grew stronger and stronger.

Especially the night cloak.

By the time the life essence in the entire greed tank had nearly run dry, with less than ten liters remaining, Chu Xuan's stamina and spirit attributes both broke through to 200 points.

For these two base attributes, whether breaking through to 180 points or 200 points, there were no System rewards at all.

"Could it be that whichever attribute breaks through to a certain value first is the one that gets the related reward?"

Chu Xuan was not disappointed.

Because at this very moment.

He felt as if he had broken free from a cage.

Although he hadn't unwrapped his bandages and the bloodstains were still on him, they didn't affect him at all; instead, he felt completely renewed.

Even though the surrounding pressure remained, to Chu Xuan, it felt as light as nothing, its impact negligible.

"Gravity pressure of this level has a negligible training effect on me now..."

Chu Xuan's eyes looked deep as he gazed at the darkness that had been following him all along.

Even though he couldn't see anything inside right now, he could clearly sense an entity within raising its hands, about to pounce on him.

At the same time, it was also luring him inside.

But similarly, Chu Xuan also realized that the inexplicable sense of palpitations didn't come from the entity that had been following and spying on him.

It came from the darkness itself.

"Is this a crisis sense from the spirit attribute reaching a certain value..." Chu Xuan's eyes flickered as he murmured, "If I go in now, I'm afraid I'll violate some kind of rule."

In a flash of thought, Chu Xuan turned around and strolled up the mountain steps.

He didn't quicken his pace but continued with his back to the darkness.

Because right now, drinking high-grade life essence, while no longer able to increase his base stamina and spirit attributes, could still continue to increase his maximum health points.

At this time, Chu Xuan's base health points were already 2000.

But the additional increase to his maximum health points had reached 2800.

Total health points: 4800!

Compared to an ordinary Level 10 Transcendent, even with enough spirituality value to max out their stamina attribute, they would only have 1000 points.

Yet Chu Xuan had reached nearly five times that.

Such an opportunity was rare, and Chu Xuan still had plenty of high-grade life essence.

Even excluding what hadn't finished brewing in the Life Tree House, Chu Xuan still had two full greed tanks of high-grade life essence.

A full 600 liters!

As he finished the emerald liquid in this greed tank, Chu Xuan's health points reached 4850.

He took out another tank.

Chu Xuan opened the lid and tilted his head back to drink again.

The pleasure of his health points constantly rising, along with a slight tipsiness, made Chu Xuan's body and mind feel happy and extremely refreshed.

Screech—

Suddenly, a rift appeared out of thin air on the mountain steps.

Bang!

"Ouch, that hurts!"

A soft cry rang out as a loli wearing a Gothic gown and twin-tails fell from mid-air.

"Who am I? Where am I?"

"Oh right, my name is Xuan Xuan... Huh? What luck! I actually ended up directly at a Place of Gloomy Convergence, and it's the level-clearing type I'm best at. The requirements for individual combat power aren't too high, and I basically won't encounter any too-ferocious Specters. I'll definitely make a fortune this time..."

"An S-rank mission evaluation is a sure thing!"

The little loli rubbed her head, and as if sensing something, she suddenly turned her head to look at Chu Xuan below, her eyes instantly widening.

"This, this, this..."

The little loli's face turned pale, and she slumped onto the ground, her voice trembling. "stamina 200? Strength 200? agility 200? spirit 200? health points... 4850?!"

"What kind of monster is this? To have such attributes before even advancing in rank?"

"Did I teleport directly next to the final boss?!!"

The little loli was shaking like a leaf, screaming inwardly, "Why are so many Exclusive Skills all question marks?"

"Why are the Transcendent Skills all question marks too?"

"There are even regular skills... Huh? Tongue of Lotus and Kato Taka's Hand... What on earth are these?"

Suddenly, her mouth fell wide open. "Wait... am I seeing this right? This is actually a person?!"

At this moment, Chu Xuan stood with his back to the darkness, his body wrapped in blood-stained bandages, a pool of blood flowing beneath his feet. In her eyes, no matter how she looked at him, he didn't seem human.

"Is it really a person? Not a disguise?" The little loli rubbed her eyes hard, only to see Chu Xuan suddenly put down the tank and glance over.

The little loli immediately trembled and gave a dry laugh. "Please continue, please continue. I'm just passing through..."

As she spoke, she suddenly turned around and scrambled upward on all fours, as if she wished she had been born with two extra legs.