53: Chapter 53 The Final Choice

At this moment, Chu Xuan couldn't help but recall the words Qin Qing had once said to him.

If one were exposed to the erosion of The Gloom for too long, humans would gradually become strange; was his current abnormal state caused by this very reason?

Chu Xuan had originally thought that by drinking a life recovery potion and restoring his vital signs to their Peak, he would be able to think normally, but this clearly wasn't working.

There were only 1 minute and 20 seconds left.

Rubbing his temples hard, Chu Xuan closed his eyes in deep thought, enduring a nauseating wave of dizziness as he forced his stiffened brain to work and began to deliberate.

"The three God-Ascension Sequences correspond to the Tyrant of Destruction, the Final Phantom God, and the Master of All Thievery. These so-called gods and the King of the Endless Soul Abyss sacrificed to by the Night Demon don't seem to belong to this world. They have no connection to the Buddha and Guanyin of Buddhism, the Three Pure Ones of Daoism, or the God and Jesus of the Western world... they come from the Dark Place..."

"With those strange and bloody sacrificial rituals, aren't they just evil gods?"

Chu Xuan muttered to himself, instinctively feeling a sense of repulsion, but inexplicably, another voice emerged in his mind.

"Or perhaps, gods themselves have no concept of good or evil; it's only the believers who differ, just as Buddhism advocates compassion yet has no shortage of evil monks who Steal and philander... Perhaps even the Dark World is not as I see it..."

Chu Xuan shook his head vigorously. He wanted to focus his attention and make a critical choice, but for some reason, other thoughts kept popping up in his mind.

Chu Xuan took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and think.

"The skills on the God-Ascension Sequence have an 'LV1' tag, which means there are Rank divisions. This is completely different from one-time Transcendent Skills and can clearly be upgraded and strengthened. In that case, the [Berserk] skill is very strong. Though simple and crude, if leveled to the maximum, one's personal combat power would soar to an exaggerated state, truly a case of 'one force breaking all laws'."

Chu Xuan was just about to choose the Berserker path, but in an instant, another thought surfaced in his heart.

"But this is ultimately too crude. The mental state after going Berserk might be unstable. For instance, those parasitized by the Night Demon Clones all have hideous expressions, as if they've lost their minds."

"Furthermore, during the sacrificial ritual, the Night Demon was clearly prepared to abandon this path to seek the true authority of [Clone], suggesting this ability might not be as strong as I imagined."

"Conversely, the one controlling the Night Demon is very likely an S-Rank Strange Creatures that believes in the Final Phantom God, so the Illusionist path should be more powerful. If [Heart Bewitchment] is leveled to the maximum, one might be able to toy with others in the palm of their hand. For now, this path clearly seems to counter the Berserker."

Chu Xuan felt that the [Illusionist] path wasn't bad either.

With over forty seconds left, he planned to deliberate further, so he turned his attention back to the description of the [Thief] on the System page.

Especially the final prompt.

"'He who Steals a pearl is a Thief, but he who Steals a kingdom is a lord.' Is there a way to Steal the rules of the world? This is already a very obvious hint! Although the Thief's initial skills don't directly help with combat power, if this path reaches the Late Stage, it might become incredibly broken!"

Chu Xuan felt he had roughly grasped some of the System's hidden rules.

Some hints given by the System might not be as simple as they appear on the surface; they hide critical information that needs careful consideration.

For example, the task to prevent the Night Demon's promotion had a time limit of before 4:00 AM, and the critical node for the Night Demon's final promotion happened to be exactly at 4:00 AM.

Now, the description of the Steal skill provided by the System specified 'physical items.' As the God-Ascension Sequence progressed, would it be possible to Steal non-physical items?

For instance, stealing thoughts? Stealing attribute points? Stealing luck? Stealing skills? Or even, as the prompt suggested, stealing the rules of the world?

"Since I've already given up on the simple and crude violence-focused path of the Tyrant of Destruction, I might as well go with the steady thievery style. After all, my talent is [Precognitive Dream], which offers many possibilities for trial and error. Plus, I can communicate with [Future Tang Zheng], so the operability is very high."

Thinking of this, Chu Xuan immediately prepared to choose the Thief path, but just then, another thought popped into his head.

"The future of the Thief path is ultimately just my speculation. Even if it is as I think, there might be many restrictions. Otherwise, the Night Demon and that mysterious S-Rank Strange Creatures wouldn't honor their respective gods as the only True God—why wouldn't they all believe in a God of Thieves?"

"Overall, the Illusionist path is more reliable!"

"[Heart Bewitchment] this ability: initially sensing surface emotional fluctuations can be used for social interaction and lie detection, equivalent to a weakened version of [Mind Reading]. Influencing sight, hearing, cognition, and mental consciousness is like an enhanced version of hypnotism... so, could I perform self-hypnosis and psychological suggestion?"

"Facing the threat of Specters, it's inevitable to deal with official organizations. Whether it's various special items targeting Specters or powerful armed forces, at this stage, an individual cannot compare to an official organization..."

"But official organizations are complex and sprawling; there might be internal issues. If I want to hide some secrets, I might only be able to try using [Heart Bewitchment] to forcibly hypnotize myself to resist probes from abilities like [Mind Reading]..."

Chu Xuan's brain still throbbed with pain, but at this moment, as if by a stroke of inspiration, his thoughts moved exceptionally fast, as if they had returned to normal, and he thought of various benefits of [Heart Bewitchment].

Not only that, Chu Xuan suddenly discovered that beneath the Illusionist path, another note had appeared at some point—

[A woven illusion, a cradle of fantasy; reality and falsehood are but a thought away. All your hatred is false; all your beautiful dreams can come true.]

Reality and falsehood are but a thought away?

This is simply Heaven-Defying!

Chu Xuan's heart skipped a beat with excitement.

Seeing that only three seconds remained for the choice and the pain in his head suddenly became unbearable again, Chu Xuan no longer hesitated and immediately chose the Illusionist path. (Note 1)

[You have successfully obtained the Sequence: Illusionist]

As if having gained some insight, various thoughts flashed through Chu Xuan's mind. These were all methods of using the [Heart Bewitchment] ability, just waiting for him to practically operate and verify them.

He opened his personal panel to check his various attributes.

[Name: Chu Xuan]

[Rank: LV1]

[stamina: 10]

[Strength: 10]

[agility: 10]

[spirit: 10]

[Charm: 8]

[Talent: Precognitive Dream]

[Sequence: Illusionist]

[health points: 100 (Base health points are stamina × 10)]

[spirituality value: 0]

[attribute points: 1]

[skill points: 0]

[Common Skills: Mixed Martial Arts LV.MAX (Perfect), Basic Swordsmanship LV.MAX, Tongue Blooming Lotus LV.2 (Proficient), Kato Takas Hand LV.3 (Expert)]

[Transcendent Skills: Heart Bewitchment LV.1, Clone (Uses remaining: 1)]

The Illusionist skill [Heart Bewitchment] was categorized under Transcendent Skills. Chu Xuan wasn't surprised, but to increase the skill level, he would likely need a large amount of spirituality value.

With this, Chu Xuan's strength had been significantly improved.

Whether it was his own illusion or because the tension he had just felt had relaxed, after completing the choice of the System reward, a strong sense of fatigue swept over his entire body, and his head throbbed as if being drilled by an electric drill.

Chu Xuan believed this might be related to his extreme mental exhaustion.

Whether it was performing Mind Reading on the Night Demon or later being disturbed by the S-rank Specter's chanting, it had all taken a significant toll on his spirit.

"Go home... go home... I want to go home too..."

Chu Xuan raised his hand and pounded his head several times. His consciousness was blurred again, but the strong urge to go home kept him from collapsing and falling asleep on the spot.

He staggered out of the residential area, walking toward the direction of home in his memory.

"I really want to sleep and rest."