193: Zhixuan's death caused his attributes to skyrocket again

Ultimately, Ye Xiao still decided to modify his attributes.

Anyway, if it didn't work out, he could always reset them later.

As for where to allocate them, there wasn't much choice. Given the negative effects, Ye Xiao could only choose to put them into Agility.

After all, adding to Strength and Constitution was completely useless. The former had the Rookie King's blessing, and the latter was supported by the endless chain of life.

Intelligence provided damage and was linked to the Strength attribute, so it definitely couldn't have negative effects. If it reduced damage by another 30%, he wouldn't be able to deal any damage at all.

Therefore, it could only be Agility.

After making his decision, Ye Xiao poured all 2730 free attribute points into Agility in one go.

Instantly, Ye Xiao's Agility attribute surged to 23203 points, already close to his Intelligence attribute.

However, Ye Xiao wasn't very concerned about this. He immediately checked his panel.

Finally, he found a negative status icon in the corner of the panel.

---

【Corroded by Black Spirit Power, your Evasion rate is reduced by 50%】

---

"Reduced Evasion rate?"

Ye Xiao looked at the negative status and let out a sigh of relief.

Thankfully, he had anticipated that the negative effects would be linked to the chosen attribute.

Attributes linked to Agility included Movement Speed, Casting Speed, Hit Rate, Evasion Rate, etc.

If it was truly unavoidable, among these attributes, Evasion Rate was the most useless for Ye Xiao.

After all, he had nearly 50 million Health Points.

Did he need to evade?

Who could instantly kill him?

As long as he couldn't be instantly killed, he had countless ways to mitigate damage.

Even if someone could truly deplete his Health bar, Nourishment of the Earth and the ring of resentful souls could both revive him.

A mere 30% Evasion rate, compared to 2730 Agility points, was an incredibly good deal.

Not to mention he also had the divine skill Absolute Evasion.

When Dragon God Descent was active, the cooldown for Absolute Evasion was only 90 seconds.

After some analysis, Ye Xiao decided to keep the robe's mutation result.

He then glanced at the remaining 5000 Black Spirit Power and chose not to continue the mutation.

He said it was the last time, and it would be the last time.

Ye Xiao still had that much self-control.

What's more, he planned to save the remaining 5000 points for the super-divine equipment Boqi was crafting for him.

At this moment, only 10 minutes remained until the half-hour Zhou Yi had mentioned.

Ye Xiao was also curious about what Zhou Yi could do to bring Zhi Xuan before him within half an hour.

After all, the other party was from the Zhi Family. If he was unwilling, Zhou Yi could only resort to force, but that would completely sever ties between the Zhou Family and the Zhi Family.

The question was, would Zhou Yi be a match for the Zhi Family?

Moreover, based on his understanding of Zhou Yi, this cunning old fatty was unlikely to be so impulsive.

Shaking his head, Ye Xiao looked at Zhou Wan and Zhou Ling beside him.

After Zhou Yi left, the two women had been silent, though Zhou Ling, being naturally lively and active, occasionally glanced at Ye Xiao.

If Zhou Wan hadn't been holding her back, Zhou Ling might have rushed over already.

Ye Xiao didn't have any negative feelings towards the two women. After all, they had fought side-by-side before, and Zhou Wan was currently his personal piggy bank.

All the profits from the Forest of Curses were on her, so maintaining a good relationship with his 'tool person' was also very necessary.

Thinking this, Ye Xiao was about to speak.

Just then, there was a commotion outside.

Immediately after, Ye Xiao saw Zhou Yi, covered in blood, striding in.

At the same time, in his hand, he held a dripping head.

Ye Xiao saw clearly that the head was none other than Zhi Xuan.

At this moment, Ye Xiao was also somewhat surprised.

Zhou Yi actually killed Zhi Xuan?

Before Ye Xiao could ask, Zhou Yi entered, casually tossed Zhi Xuan's head aside, and then looked at Ye Xiao with a beaming smile.

"Night Shadow Brother, this kid was very uncooperative. Half an hour probably wouldn't be enough to invite him over, so I could only bring his head."

As soon as these words came out, Zhou Wan and Zhou Ling, who were beside him, were both dumbfounded.

Zhou Wan asked, somewhat incredulously, "Uncle, you killed Zhi Xuan?"

Zhou Ling's brain completely short-circuited, unable to even speak.

At this point, Ye Xiao spoke.

"If you killed him, there's no turning back. Have you thought it through?"

Zhou Yi heard this, his expression unchanged, still smiling.

"The moment Zhi Mingyue died, my Zhou Family already had no way out."

Ye Xiao curled his lips. This guy hadn't said that before.

Zhou Yi said seriously, "In fact, although I mentioned earlier that I had a way to distance Night Shadow Brother and appease the Zhi Family's anger."

"But the price to pay for that would be too great, so great that all the Zhou Family's efforts over the years would go to waste."

"If it were just that, it wouldn't be much. But my Zhou Family knows better than anyone the nature of the Eight Great Families. At that time, whether it's the Zhi Family or other families, as long as they have a chance, they will slowly devour my Zhou Family's resources step by step."

"In the end, it would just be a slow death, and my Zhou Family would find it very difficult to rise again."

He paused, and a chilling killing intent emanated from Zhou Yi.

"Since that's the case, why not take a gamble."

"Are you so sure I can help you?" Ye Xiao retorted.

The seriousness on Zhou Yi's face disappeared, replaced by his usual genial smile, "I know Night Shadow Brother is not a reckless person. You dared to kill Zhi Mingyue, so you must have confidence, right?"

Looking at Zhou Yi's confident demeanor, Ye Xiao chuckled, "Actually, after I killed her, I originally planned to leave directly. The outside world wouldn't know it was me who killed her. Even if you exposed me, the Zhi Family would just see it as your Zhi Family's clumsy excuse."

"And no one knows that having you bring Zhi Xuan here was my idea, so I could completely remain uninvolved."

Zhou Yi's expression stiffened.

Ye Xiao looked at Zhou Yi with a half-smile, "I don't like people who scheme against me."

Now Zhou Yi understood, and his tone immediately dropped a few notches, "Night Shadow Brother, I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to scheme against you. If I offended you because of this, I'm willing to offer a generous gift as a token of my sincerity. I hope you won't take it to heart."

"Alright, help me collect some Skill Stone that increase and restore Magic PointUpper limit. The type and quantity are unlimited."

Ye Xiao didn't hesitate at all and spoke decisively.

However, Zhou Yi didn't hesitate either. "Wan'er, go to the black market immediately and buy all the Skill Stone Night Shadow Brother needs. Don't worry about the price, buy as many as you can, and be quick."

"Zhou Ling, contact the head of the merchant guild and bring all the Skill Stone in our Zhou Family's inventory. Be quick."

Although Zhou Wan was still in shock, she would not disobey Zhou Yi's command and walked out first.

It was Zhou Ling, after a moment of daze, who stammered, "Fifth Master, did you say *all* Skill Stone?"

Zhou Yi raised an eyebrow, a hint of displeasure in his expression, "That's right, all of them, regardless of type. Now go quickly."

"Oh, oh..."

Zhou Ling left in a daze.

Only Zhou Yi and Ye Xiao remained on the scene.

Ye Xiao was very satisfied with Zhou Yi's attitude.

Originally, he only wanted some Skill Stone that provided Magic Points, but this Zhou Yi was indeed good at dealing with people, actually offering to bring all the Skill Stone from the Zhou Family's merchant guild.

For this alone, Zhou Yi was certainly worth cooperating with.

In fact, what he had just said was not to bluff Zhou Yi.

At first, he really intended to kill Zhi Mingyue and then leave.

But in the end, he chose to stay. The reason was that although his combat power surged extremely fast, it was almost entirely dependent on gains from the wild, with virtually no resource assistance.

If he encountered bad luck in the future and didn't find good gains, it would greatly affect his growth.

Therefore, a large amount of resources became something he urgently needed.

To get a large amount of resources, forming a faction became an inevitable prerequisite. However, Ye Xiao was well aware that his current situation was not suitable for forming a faction.

Moreover, forming his own faction could easily give enemies leverage.

So, finding a faction to cooperate with was the best method.

Anyway, it was just cooperation. Even if the other party was completely wiped out by enemies, Ye Xiao wouldn't feel the slightest bit of pain.

Of course, if he could easily help without trouble, he wouldn't mind assisting his cooperation partner.

After all, repeatedly finding factions was also a very troublesome thing.

Although the Zhou Family appeared to be a second-rate force on the surface, based on Ye Xiao's observation of Zhou Yi, plus their ancestor's ancestral teachings, they probably had quite a bit hidden.

Thus, the Zhou Family was clearly the best choice.

Recalling his thoughts, Ye Xiao took the initiative to speak this time, "Alright, now we can talk about the benefits I can get from cooperating with your Zhou Family."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yi secretly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that his performance just now had satisfied him.

Composing himself, Zhou Yi then said seriously, "If we take Liyue City, all the resources here will be split fifty-fifty between the Zhou Family and Night Shadow Brother."

Fifty-fifty?

This Zhou Yi was quite bold to propose that.

Once it involved benefits, he completely lost his fawning demeanor from before.

However, Ye Xiao wasn't angry; instead, he thought more highly of Zhou Yi.

Seeing that Ye Xiao didn't react, Zhou Yi explained seriously.

"Night Shadow Brother, don't think I, Zhou, am greedy. Even if the Zhi Family handed over the enormous Liyue City to you, you are, after all, only one person. You wouldn't be able to manage it all, and thus wouldn't be able to obtain many resources."

Ye Xiao nodded, feeling that Zhou Yi made a lot of sense.

Seeing this, Zhou Yi continued to explain, "But my Zhou Family has been planning in Liyue City for a long time. As long as we can drive out the Zhi Family, the Zhou Family can take over everything here in the shortest possible time and avoid too much resource waste."

"In fact, the most reasonable distribution should be a four-six split, you four, me six, but considering that without Night Shadow Brother's help, the Zhou Family would have to wait at least another ten or twenty years for this opportunity, so I took the liberty of giving Brother Ye Xiao an extra ten percent."

He paused, and Zhou Yi finally said, "If it's lower than this proportion, then our cooperation will be difficult to achieve, and those few old ancestors in the clan will not agree."

Ye Xiao's eyes flickered twice, "So what do your Zhou Family need me to do?"

"Naturally, it's to go all out and kill all the Zhi Family members in Liyue City."

Although Zhou Yi was grinning, his words were full of killing intent.

Ye Xiao was silent for a moment before speaking, "Okay."

Zhou Yi was overjoyed at the news, and at the same time, an unprecedented sense of boldness erupted within him.

He knew that Ye Xiao's strength was very strong, and no one in the Beginner Zone should be his opponent.

But Zhou Yi couldn't guarantee how far they could go with Ye Xiao's help; this was a huge gamble.

If they won, his Zhou Family could barely gain a foothold in the Beginner Zone. As for the Advanced Zone, the Zhou Family naturally had ways to avoid the difficulties from the Eight Great Families.

If it really didn't work, they would first go underground and hide, waiting until Ye Xiao entered the Advanced Zone before making further plans.

Of course, if they lost... Since Zhou Yi chose to trust Ye Xiao, he wouldn't think about that problem; it was meaningless.

At this moment, Zhou Ling had already returned, holding a large box in her hands.

"Fifth Master, these are all the Skill Stone our merchant guild currently has, a total of 237. More than half of them are Advanced Skill Stone, you know."

Zhou Yi didn't answer, took the box, and handed it to Ye Xiao.

Ye Xiao glanced at Zhou Ling, knowing that the latter half of her sentence was directed at him.

However, he said nothing. After taking the box, he scanned its contents.

Two-thirds of them were damage skills, but the types were varied and couldn't form a cohesive set.

Ye Xiao didn't mind, considering them all as means to increase his attributes.

He pretended to put the box into his backpack, but in reality, he secretly learned all the skills.

Just then, Zhou Wan also returned with a pile of Skill Stone, right behind her.

There were only 149 of them, but Ye Xiao had made a specific request earlier.

So all 149 Skill Stone were related to Magic Points.

After Ye Xiao took them, he learned all these Skill Stone in the same manner.

In just a few minutes, Ye Xiao directly gained 386 new skills.

Not to mention the boost these skills brought to Ye Xiao.

Just the 386 skills alone, under the effect of his Super-Divine Talent, brought Ye Xiao 1158 Intelligence points. Including all the special effect bonuses on him.

Ye Xiao's Intelligence also increased from the previous 25574 points to 27313 points, once again widening the gap with his Agility.

And Strength, under the effect of the Rookie King title, increased from 43053 points to 45663 points, a full 2610 points more.

What Ye Xiao was most satisfied with was his maximum Health Points.

Before learning the skills, his Health Points were 46,770,122. Now, they were 53,718,122.

This wave of skill learning brought Ye Xiao a Health Point increase of 6,948,000, and also allowed Ye Xiao's maximum Health Points to break through the 50 million mark.

Ye Xiao couldn't help but sigh, the benefits brought by his trip to the Xiling Ruins were truly unimaginable.

Next, Ye Xiao briefly tallied the effects of the skills he had just learned.

Excluding 117 useless active damage skills.

The remaining Skill Stone also brought Ye Xiao a significant boost.

Of course, the biggest boost among them was naturally related to Magic Points.

Originally, Ye Xiao's maximum Magic Points were only a little over 260,000. If you included the boost from his Intelligence attribute, at most it would only be 280,000.

But now, Ye Xiao's maximum Magic Points directly soared to 479,945 points, an increase of nearly 200,000.

And Magic Point recovery, under the boost of these skills, also reached a terrifying 2394 points per second on average.

Among them, there were also several skills that increased Magic Point recovery rate by varying proportions based on lost Magic Points.

Ye Xiao calculated it briefly.

Assuming his Magic Points were consumed by more than half, under the blessing of these skills, his average recovery per second could increase to 4732 points.

Although there was still a significant gap from the consumption of Black Dragon's Wrath, it greatly extended the Black Dragon's Wrath's sustainability.

As long as he found some more Magic Point-related Skill Stone, he believed he would soon be able to make his Black Dragon's Wrath consume no Magic Points.

Thinking this, Ye Xiao's heart was filled with anticipation.

Closing the skill panel.

Ye Xiao's gaze returned to Zhou Yi.

"I have many other things to do and can't delay here for too long. Since we've agreed on the terms, I'll go to the Zhi Family now. You can start preparing and arranging your people."

Zhou Yi was stunned, "Night Shadow Brother, don't rush. Let me tell you the detailed intelligence on the Zhi Family first."

Ye Xiao shook his head, "No need for such trouble. I'll just go to the City Lord's Mansion, and those scattered Zhi Family members outside will naturally come looking for me."

"But..."

Zhou Yi still wanted to say something, but Ye Xiao had already left directly.

Zhou Wan, beside him, was somewhat astonished, "U-Uncle, what is he trying to do?"

Zhou Yi was clearly also a bit bewildered, "He seemed to say he was going to the City Lord's Mansion."

After speaking, Zhou Yi suddenly reacted, and his heart immediately grew anxious.

This Ye Xiao was too impulsive. The City Lord's Mansion was the Zhi Family's territory in Liyue City, with countless high-level Professionals inside.

If Ye Xiao rashly broke in like that, wouldn't it be dangerous?

Thinking of Ye Xiao asking him to prepare people, Zhou Yi shivered and hurriedly left.

He hoped it wasn't too late to provide support.