451: Chapter 450 mission completed! Select your reward!

Standing on the roof of the ancient castle, Chu Xuan could still see the stone steps of the cliff below.

However, when he leaped down, the surrounding scenery changed unpredictably in an instant, becoming blurred and difficult to discern.

His body continued to fall!

[Third Trial: Nightfall, Cleared!]

[The current mandatory mission "Passing Three Passes" has been completed! Basic reward of 100 contribution points is being issued...]

[You have obtained 100 contribution points.]

Accompanied by the System prompt, Chu Xuan was still falling until nearly ten seconds had passed. His body felt heavy, and he finally had the sensation of standing on solid ground.

When he regained his senses from the trance, he found himself on a hilltop, surrounded by lush, leafy trees.

The morning sun rose slowly on the horizon, casting mottled spots of light through the gaps between the leaves.

The sounds of birds and insects in the forest were constant.

In the distance, a stretch of highway wound its way away.

"I'm out..." Witnessing this scene, Chu Xuan breathed a long sigh of relief, then looked around but found no one else.

"Scattered to other places?"

Chu Xuan frowned slightly; he remembered clearly that everyone else had jumped off the castle roof with him and hadn't encountered any further obstructions.

He looked around, and just as he turned toward the southwest, his pupils suddenly constricted.

More than ten kilometers to the southwest, the sun was shining brightly.

Further in, however, was a boundless black fog that cut off the sky and earth.

Even with Chu Xuan's current eyesight, he could not see its end.

At this moment, the boundless black fog was rapidly writhing and receding, continuously exposing large swaths of mountain forest to the sunlight.

What was particularly strange was that in the newly revealed forest, there seemed to be an illusory scene overlapping with it, like a mirage.

Chu Xuan narrowed his eyes and immediately identified that the illusory scene was a peak covered in spiraling stone steps.

And at the top of that peak, a towering ancient castle was brightly lit.

After a few seconds, the scene began to distort illusorily and gradually faded away until the spiraling peak and the castle completely vanished, fully revealing that patch of forest.

At the same time, Chu Xuan also saw a small section of highway there, as well as the collapsed cave marked "Qianchuan Tunnel."

At this point, the black fog stopped receding, still appearing boundless.

[Detected that you have left the Dark Place; beginning settlement of mission rewards...]

Mission Name: Passing Three Passes

Difficulty Rank: 8~?

Mission Overview:

First Trial, Mountain Road: You went through hardships, undaunted by the pressure of gravity, remained steadfast and persevered until the very last moment to reach the summit;

Second Trial, Mysterious Castle: Your Mental Energy was exhausted as you exhausted your ingenuity, eventually seeing through the Rule-Breaker's scheme and killing one of them, successfully unlocking the twelve mechanisms of the castle.

Third Trial, Nightfall: You gave your all, surviving several life-and-death situations, finally slaying the Specter hidden in the night and successfully leaving within the allotted time.

In this mission, under your control, no one died at the hands of a Specter, and there were no blood sacrifices to the evil god.

Comprehensive Evaluation: S; you have obtained an additional 450 contribution points!

In this mission, you have obtained a total of 550 contribution points.

You may use contribution points to exchange for the following rewards:

1. spirituality value (Exchange price: 1 contribution point for 50 spirituality value; a maximum of 15,000 spirituality value can be exchanged this time.)

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2. Soul Crystal (Exchange price: 5 contribution points; a maximum of 50 Soul Crystals can be exchanged this time.)

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3. exclusive skill synthesis crystal

(Exchange price: 100 contribution points; a maximum of 1 can be exchanged this time. Note: This item is only obtainable if personal Rank is LV.10 or below.)

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4. extraordinary skill promotion scroll (Using this scroll allows you to break the limits of the God-Ascension Sequence and increase a skill's level once.

Exchange price: 50 contribution points; a maximum of 2 can be exchanged this time.)

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5. Transcendent Skill: Clone LV.1 (Authority from the Lord of All Spirits, exchange price: 100 contribution points)

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6. Transcendent Skill: Imitation Skill LV.1 (Within 72 hours, you can choose one Transcendent Skill from a person you have killed to mimic. The effect is 10% of the original owner's, and the effective Imitation Skill duration is 24 hours.

Authority from the Final Phantom God, exchange price: 100 contribution points)

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7. Transcendent Skill: Damage Reflection LV.1 (When you suffer physical damage, you can return the attack to the inflictor by consuming spirituality value, spirit, or health points. The intensity of the returned physical attack cannot exceed 30% of what you yourself can perform.

Authority from the Life Broodmother, exchange price: 100)

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8. spirituality value upper limit increase of 100 points (Exchange price: 10 contribution points; a maximum of 1,000 points can be increased this time)

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9. health points upper limit increase of 100 points (Exchange price: 10 contribution points; a maximum of 1,000 points can be increased this time)

[Note: Unused contribution points can be retained.]

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Chu Xuan originally felt that the contribution point reward this time was quite generous, but as the many exchangeable rewards appeared one by one, he instantly felt that his current contribution points were too few.

Far from enough.

Chu Xuan simply had no way to clear out all the rewards currently available for exchange.

Taking a deep breath, Chu Xuan cleared his mind and began to focus on the reward exchange.

Chu Xuan skipped the first item, the spirituality value reward, directly.

Although it was a necessity and a guarantee for Rank advancement, his current spirituality value had already reached over 16,000 points.

This spirituality value was already completely sufficient for him to advance his Rank.

It was no longer urgently needed for the time being.

With his current strength, slaying a Specter was not difficult, and obtaining spirituality value through that method was a more appropriate choice.

It would be a pity to consume precious contribution points right now.

"soul crystal, it's you!"

The corners of Chu Xuan's mouth curled slightly as he first spent 250 contribution points to exchange for all the soul crystals currently available.

This was a necessity for increasing the level of an Exclusive Skill and was normally impossible to obtain. Chu Xuan's [All-Cutting Slash] skill had been stuck at LV.3 for some time.

As it stood, its single-target power was actually somewhat lacking; it basically relied entirely on stacking the Fire of Nirvana in quantity to cause damage.

But doing so resulted in an excessively high consumption of spirituality value, making it somewhat difficult to sustain.

However, if upgraded, whether it was the power intensity or the number of slashes that could be stored, it could be raised to another level.

This was the most direct means of increasing combat power.

[You have obtained soul crystal X50, which has been stored in your Exclusive Space.]

Immediately after, Chu Xuan spent another 100 contribution points to exchange for an "exclusive skill synthesis crystal."

This was an extremely rare item that could fuse two regular skills into an Exclusive Skill that matched oneself, effectively making it custom-made.

[All-Cutting Slash] was obtained this way.

Chu Xuan hadn't obtained this item again since completing the Great Buddha mission in Yinshan Village. Seeing it now, he naturally had to take it immediately.

He was very much looking forward to what kind of skill would be synthesized next.

[You have obtained exclusive skill synthesis crystal X1, which has been stored in your Exclusive Space.]

There were 200 contribution points left.

Without hesitation, Chu Xuan spent 50 contribution points to exchange for the [extraordinary skill promotion scroll].

This was also a rare treasure.

It was even far stronger than the Fusion skill scrolls he had obtained before.

It didn't require consuming other skills for Fusion at all; it could directly break the limits of the God-Ascension Sequence to increase the level of a Transcendent Skill.

With this item, Chu Xuan's [Teleportation], which had been stuck at Level 4 for a long time, could achieve a Breakthrough, allowing his combat power to increase.

[You have obtained extraordinary skill promotion scroll X2...]

Next, Chu Xuan focused his attention on the three skills: [Clone], [Imitation Skill], and [Damage Reflection].

Before this, everything Chu Xuan had encountered were one-time-use skills; now that he finally saw permanent skills, they were extremely rare.

His current contribution points were limited, with only 100 remaining. Since each of these three skills required 100 contribution points to exchange, Chu Xuan could only choose one of them.

However, Chu Xuan did not feel regretful about this; this was his predetermined choice, and he only intended to exchange for one of the skills anyway.