Chapter 447: So Many Passive Points, How to Spend Them?

"Wow!"

Joy has returned.

Xu Xiaoshou, who had slept until deep into the night, felt all the lingering fatigue from the banquet completely vanish. This was the most exhausting banquet he had ever attended. He hadn't eaten much, fighting the entire time. After dealing with the younger ones, he even challenged the elder to a fight outside, which nearly left him drained. Fortunately, the outcome was delightful. He hadn't fallen, but his opponent had. This was the most commendable part.

"Although Zhang Taiying is dead, the assassins from Three Incense won't necessarily stop in the short term," Xu Xiaoshou pondered, lying on the soft bed with the quilt clutched between his knees. "Perhaps that guy paid the full amount, not just a deposit? However, once Zhang Taiying's death and the news of the Zhang family's collusion with ghost beasts spread, and the Zhang Manor declines, probably no one will be willing to make a move against them anymore."

Xu Xiaoshou understood the principle of a 'whale fall' (meaning a great power's demise leads to its resources being scavenged). A major power like the Zhang Manor, no matter how strong it was when active, couldn't avoid the fate of being carved up after its decline. He wouldn't even need to act; only the passage of time was needed. Limited by the City Lord's Mansion, even if the Zhang family still had two King-level experts, they would certainly not be able to rise again.

"Ghost beasts..." Xu Xiaoshou murmured. With just the crime of colluding with ghost beasts, Fu Zhi could even conclude that after the banquet, there would be no more Zhang family. It was imaginable how terrifying this crime truly was. Zhang Taiying was indeed innocent. But he himself was genuinely involved with this matter!

"Xingugu, Greedy God..." For a moment, Xu Xiaoshou wondered if he could still enjoy himself happily. The best way to cut his losses right now was to sever ties with the ghost beasts immediately after using them. He believed that in the coming days, with his own abilities, even the Red-Clothed Guards would find it hard to find any trace of him. But dark thoughts like 'burning the bridge after crossing' only flashed through Xu Xiaoshou's mind. If he were truly asked to do it, it would be very difficult. "No man is without feeling." Even knowing that Xingugu's existence could be a nightmarish calamity for this continent, who could easily abandon the camaraderie forged through fighting together?

"Ugh, joy disappeared so quickly..." The adult world always had many worries. Xu Xiaoshou chose to temporarily put them out of his mind. He redirected his attention to the red interface of his Origin Mansion.

Information Bar.

Passive Points: 317959.

"One, two, three, four..." Xu Xiaoshou squinted and counted, and after finally confirming he wasn't mistaken, he leaped off the bed.

"Holy crap, three hundred thousand?!" He rubbed his eyes and looked again. No illusion! "A new record, it really is three hundred thousand!" Xu Xiaoshou vaguely remembered the last time his passive points peaked at 280,000, which was at Black Falls Cliff. But the method of acquiring them back then was far less comfortable than at the banquet! "Indeed, only large crowds and high-profile events suit me best."

Xu Xiaoshou calmed his emotions and sat back down. This banquet was incredibly satisfying. Not only was Zhang Taiying, the thorn in his side, removed, along with the battle for the White Cave quota, but it also brought him an incredible amount of passive points. Xu Xiaoshou knew well that these 300,000 passive points would boost his combat power far more effectively than those eighteen Exquisite Stones.

"How should I spend so many passive points?" Did he even need to think about it? When he had no money, he spent sparingly. Now with 300,000, it was definitely going to be a full service: lottery, upgrades, and awakenings! "Oh my god." Xu Xiaoshou was so excited that he couldn't sit still, squatting on the bed. "'Berserk Giant' and 'Explosive Stance' are too strong. This time, I must reserve at least one more awakened ability. And Awakening Stones are 10,000 each, so I'll reserve 100,000 first!" Xu Xiaoshou unceremoniously earmarked one-third, planning to go 'play with pebbles' in the Awakening Pool. Theoretically, 100,000 should definitely yield one... Ptooey! "Can't say things like that carelessly." He wasn't in a hurry to awaken immediately. Because a ten-pull only required 50,000 passive points. What if some good stuff appeared from there? Upgrade on the spot, max out, then awaken directly. "Tsk tsk." Xu Xiaoshou was practically drooling. "But currently, the best method is actually to upgrade all existing skills to Grandmaster level as much as possible. After all, they've been accumulating for too long."

Xu Xiaoshou deliberated. He didn't choose the lottery immediately either. This thing easily gets to your head. What if several ten-pulls yielded nothing, and he only came to his senses after going all-in? At that point, he wouldn't even have a place to cry.

"First, spend 100,000!" A tangible increase in combat power was the most important. Xu Xiaoshou thought, directing his attention to his stats panel.

Mastery Passive Skills:Sword Mastery (Grandmaster Lv.1)Cooking Mastery (Grandmaster Lv.1)Textile Mastery (Innate Lv.10)

His first glance focused on the mastery passive skills, as these were always what could instantly and significantly boost his combat power in all aspects. "That 'Innate Lv.10' really stands out!" Xu Xiaoshou frowned. The last time he upgraded, he was just short of passive points, preventing this skill from reaching Grandmaster. This meant his use of the nested spirit array in the sea of flowers was merely transformed into a stealth array that could conceal fire seeds. Its true offensive potential was not utilized at all. "What a shame." This time, no matter what, he had to upgrade it first.

"Textile Mastery (Grandmaster Lv.1)." Without hesitation, he gestured with a sweeping motion, and that familiar swelling sensation filled his mind. Although it was only Level 1, the knowledge brought by "Textile Mastery" was truly a qualitative leap from Innate to Grandmaster. Xu Xiaoshou familiarized himself with it for a moment, then abruptly opened his eyes.

"Heavenly Secrets Art!" As expected, he had thought at the time that "Textile Mastery" at Grandmaster level would perfectly align with the heavens and earth. And what happens to the way of spirit arrays after they align with the Heavenly Dao? The answer was self-evident: Heavenly Secrets Art! With this influx of experience, the knowledge within, if interpreted through the Heavenly Secrets Art, made perfect sense. In other words, if he encountered a situation like Fu Zhi again, he wouldn't need to specifically explain that he cultivated "Textile Art" anymore. Because "Textile Art" also encompassed "Heavenly Secrets Art."

And as a larger concept, did Grandmaster-level "Textile Art" only bring these things? Xu Xiaoshou shifted his attention to another aspect. When "Textile Mastery" first upgraded to Innate, he had already comprehended the methods of "Split-Mind Control" and "Multi-Needle Spirit Embroidery." Using these two, he could instantly set up arrays. At that time, the rudiments of two other things also appeared. One was "Spirit Control Finger," and the other was "Puppet Control Threads." The former was used to manipulate spirit threads. Innate-level "Spirit Control Finger" only allowed Xu Xiaoshou to set up arrays with specific spirit threads. But upon reaching Grandmaster level, this ability could be directly controlled with flexibility. He could freely switch the thickness, length, and toughness of the spirit threads. He could even attach a trace of his spiritual will through the Spirit Control Finger to perform absolute micro-manipulation on living organisms.

The more Xu Xiaoshou looked, the more excited he became. Because of the evolution of "Spirit Control Finger," the pinnacle of his "Textile Mastery"—Puppet Control Threads—could now be implemented! He remembered entering the illusion, where every living and inanimate object he saw actually had traces of the Grand Dao spirit. And their actions seemed to be freely performed according to the designated Heavenly Dao rules. And what came after the Heavenly Dao? A pair of hands! Human hands! Grandmaster-level "Textile Mastery" could perform simple manipulation of people or objects through "Puppet Control Threads," based on "Spirit Control Finger."

"No, it should be called interference." Xu Xiaoshou knew well that his current passive skill level couldn't support absolute control over others. But if "Puppet Control Threads" were used at a critical moment in battle, just a gentle pull could cause the opponent's actions to falter. Or, directly jam them at the crucial point of their skill release... "Whoa, wouldn't this just take off right there?" Xu Xiaoshou was startled. He could no longer suppress the impulse in his heart; his mind returned, and his gaze fell upon a teacup on a nearby table.

Whoosh! A subtle beam of light shot out. Smash! The teacup directly exploded. "Hmm, a bit over the top, this thing actually has so much impact?" After gaining some understanding, Xu Xiaoshou withdrew some power. With a flick of his hand, another spirit thread flew out. As it approached another teacup, the thread's tip miraculously dispersed into seven or eight fine strands, which then stuck to the teacup. It was steady and didn't break.

Xu Xiaoshou was stunned. He lightly raised his hand, and the teacup was pulled towards him. "This..." His eyes suddenly lit up, and Xu Xiaoshou became ecstatic. "Isn't this just..." He inexplicably stopped flicking his finger, instead bending his middle and ring fingers and shooting a thick spirit thread from his wrist.

Thwip! The spirit thread shot directly through the windowsill, and as it approached the wall of the adjacent house, its tip instantly split into fine lines. However, these fine lines no longer dispersed but intertwined, forming a spiderweb. "Yo-ho!" Xu Xiaoshou let out an excited cry, feeling the spiderweb's end had inserted and stuck to the opposite wall. He no longer pulled the wall towards him but used the momentum to propel himself forward.

Whoosh— The whistling wind rushed past his ears. Xu Xiaoshou's whole body was flushed with excitement. "Spider-Man! So this is what it feels like to be Spider-Man? Oh my god, this is too much fun!" As he neared the wall, Xu Xiaoshou bent his other wrist again, and another spiderweb-like spirit thread shot out, piercing into a higher part of the wall with a 'thwip' sound. Using this force, he leaped vigorously again, directly bypassing his own room and moving freely through the street.

Whoosh... Whoosh... "Yo-ho!"

"Xu Xiaoshou?" Before long, a soft call gently echoed.

Suspicion received, Passive Points +1.

If not for his amazing "Perception," Xu Xiaoshou would have barely heard his junior sister's call amidst the howling wind. He turned his head and saw the young girl, astonished, peering out the window, looking at him swirling around at such a height in disbelief.

"What's up?" Xu Xiaoshou turned and chuckled.

"What are you... what are you doing?" Mu Zixi's mouth hung open.

"Flying."

"That's not flying, that's not flying at all!"

"If this isn't flying, then am I walking?" Xu Xiaoshou laughed.

Cursed, Passive Points +1.

Mu Zixi didn't believe this was flying at all, as the only spiritual energy fluctuation she could sense from Xu Xiaoshou was from the spirit thread in his hand. But to perform such delicate control with such a spirit thread? How was that even possible?

Whoosh! Xu Xiaoshou flew into Mu Zixi's room through the window. The young girl hadn't even realized how Xu Xiaoshou could instantly bypass and enter, given that her room's defensive spirit array was already at maximum due to fear of explosions. At this moment, her mind was filled with Xu Xiaoshou's freely transformable spirit threads. With her combat mindset, she could immediately see the terrifying potential of this spiritual technique. As long as there were many obstacles, possessing this spiritual technique allowed for inertia-free, agile flight! This was simply a divine skill! And places with many obstacles... Mu Zixi thought to herself that she was wood-attributed! With a press of her small hand, a forest could appear. Combined with this spiritual technique, wouldn't her enemies be utterly disoriented by her movements in the future?

"Teach me!" Mu Zixi stepped forward and directly hugged Xu Xiaoshou's leg. She loved this spiritual technique too much. It was incredibly cool and highly practical. How did Xu Xiaoshou know this? Master was too biased!

"Let go!" Xu Xiaoshou felt uncomfortable for a moment and quickly said, "I'd like to teach you, but you can't learn it."

"I can!" The young girl was very stubborn.

"This thing requires extremely precise spiritual energy control, let alone you..." Xu Xiaoshou figured that if his "Textile Mastery" hadn't reached Grandmaster level and he hadn't received that instantaneous influx of vast experience, he probably couldn't learn this fine control even after three or five years of practice.

"Stop talking, teach me, I want to learn." Mu Zixi said nothing else, just looked at Xu Xiaoshou with tearful eyes.

Request received, Passive Points +1.

Xu Xiaoshou suddenly got a headache. Indeed, he couldn't be too flashy; trouble always came with being flashy. But he wasn't angry; he simply extended his hand again, and spiritual energy instantly gathered, forming a rose with a scorched aura. "For you."

"Huh?" Mu Zixi was suddenly startled. So sudden? Wasn't she asking to learn a spiritual technique? How could... Had Xu Xiaoshou suddenly become enlightened? Shyly and timidly, she took the spiritual energy flower. Before the young girl could speak, Xu Xiaoshou's words immediately shattered the mood. "When your spiritual energy can instantly carve out a similar flower, then you'll be qualified to learn this spiritual technique."

Mu Zixi: "..." So that's how it was!

Cursed, Passive Points +1.

Taking advantage of her distraction, Xu Xiaoshou quickly pulled his leg away, then extended his hand again, and with a 'whoosh,' he was gone. "Flower?" The spiritual energy flower, having lost control, lasted less than a few breaths before dissipating. Mu Zixi felt a bit regretful but didn't dwell on it. She stubbornly pouted and extended her small hand. Hiss! Spiritual energy emerged, turning into mist. But even with all her might, she could only form it into a shapeless oval, far from a flower. To make it as lifelike as Xu Xiaoshou, with petals and stamens, was incredibly difficult. Mu Zixi immediately felt disheartened. "Stinky Xiaoshou, when did you learn to make roses? Why didn't you use it before?"

Xu Xiaoshou, who had fortunately managed to slip away, no longer dared to show off and returned to his room. "Textile Mastery" was too powerful. Not only did it allow him to become Spider-Man, but he could also effortlessly discern and subtly dismantle the inn's spirit arrays. And even... "Puppet Control Threads!" Xu Xiaoshou hadn't dared to test it on living people yet. But with his experience of swinging like a spider, he already understood the principle of thread manipulation. When a spirit thread shot into a person's body, injecting his spiritual thought for brief control... no, at this stage, it should be called interference. It would definitely succeed!

Suppressing his excited heart and trembling hands, Xu Xiaoshou quietly absorbed this profound understanding of qualitative change. Just one skill point, yet it brought such a huge transformation. It could be said that this move, to a large extent, could completely rewrite his usual combat style. "And this is just the beginning."

Xu Xiaoshou looked at the information bar again.

Passive Points: 312959.

"Still three hundred thousand," Xu Xiaoshou murmured softly, examining his spiritual sea. The recent rampage, seemingly effortless, but in reality, the compressed and condensed spirit threads had indeed consumed most of his spiritual energy. Although "Full of Vitality" was still recovering, its recovery speed seemed unable to keep up with his pace. The same went for the Emberlight Fire Seed. As his "Cooking Mastery" level increased, each instance of compressing or nesting fire seeds would actually drain Xu Xiaoshou significantly. After all, he was only at the peak of the Origin Court realm; his cultivation level was there, and the quantity of spiritual energy was indeed a bit low. Fortunately, he didn't often use spiritual energy.

"Relying solely on 'Full of Vitality' might be enough for battles requiring little spiritual energy, but if I need to use a lot of spiritual energy, like using 'Spider Spirit Threads' for inertia-free maneuvers, or compressing a large number of fire seeds... Not enough!" Xu Xiaoshou resolutely exchanged ten skill points and immediately maxed out the ability.

"'Full of Vitality' (Grandmaster Lv.1)." When this message appeared, his depleted spiritual sea visibly expanded inch by inch. Xu Xiaoshou could even feel the spiritual energy of heaven and earth being drawn to him, directly pulled in and integrated. Hiss, hiss. Faint sounds echoed around him. In less than a dozen breaths, his spiritual sea was full!

"Terrifying." Xu Xiaoshou was filled with awe. The recovery speed of Grandmaster-level 'Endless Vitality' was truly astonishing. But 'Full of Vitality' at the same level seemed even more unwilling to be outdone? "No." Xu Xiaoshou suddenly realized that perhaps it wasn't that "Full of Vitality" was faster. Rather, it was because he currently only had Innate cultivation, yet he was matched with Grandmaster-level spiritual energy recovery speed. At first glance, this naturally appeared as a much greater relative improvement. "Very strong, indescribably strong. This is a basic passive skill, too basic, an outrageously strong basic skill. From now on, I estimate that as long as I don't need to instantly expend spiritual energy beyond the peak of the Origin Court realm, I can practically cast skills non-stop."

Xu Xiaoshou pondered for a moment and finally found a suitable term to describe himself. "Infinite firepower?" "If that's the case, then a dozen breaths of recovery time, in other words, is... cooldown time?" Thinking of this, Xu Xiaoshou slumped onto the bed. "Too strong, this is just too strong! Others are just starting to farm and develop, while I'm already in infinite firepower mode. How can they even fight this?" He had already begun to worry for his enemies. This wasn't just invincible at the same level. At this rate, even if he challenged someone of a higher realm in the future, as long as the opponent wasn't someone who could also challenge across realms, there would absolutely be no way for them to deal with Xu Xiaoshou!

"Three basic passive skills, two Grandmaster, and 'Breathing Technique' left." Xu Xiaoshou also intended to upgrade it. But honestly, his current cultivation progress was truly too fast. In just one night at the banquet, he broke through two minor realms. Too fast! The true power of "Breathing Technique" was actually not in passive breathing at all. Xu Xiaoshou felt his brimming peak Origin Court realm strength. He was originally at the mid-Origin Court realm. Why could he break through to the peak Origin Court realm with one of Fu Zhi's pills? That wasn't the case at all. In fact, when he was rearranging the spirit array in the sea of flowers at that time, Xu Xiaoshou had already noticed that his "Full of Vitality" was simply insufficient to support him in deploying thousands of fire seeds in a short time. So, he resorted to using pills. To kill Zhang Taiying, Xu Xiaoshou didn't even care about his own cultivation. In that half an hour of setting up the spirit array, he himself didn't know how many Origin Court pills and how many drops of Spirit Refining Fluid he had consumed or absorbed. It was truly normal that he couldn't suppress his realm.

And through this battle, Xu Xiaoshou finally understood. The true meaning of "Breathing Technique" lay in its side-effect-free method of consuming pills. This passive skill wasn't originally a cultivation method; it was just used as one before. It actually possessed the ability to rapidly increase cultivation. It could be said that as long as he had enough resources and insights, Xu Xiaoshou could truly break through to Grandmaster in a short amount of time! "Of course, it's not entirely without side effects..." Why were there only a thousand fire seeds in the sea of flowers, instead of ten thousand or a hundred thousand? Xu Xiaoshou shivered abruptly, his body trembling. This was a past too painful to recall. Better not to mention it.

"I could upgrade it, but there's no need. Three hundred thousand passive points are a lot, but to use them all for upgrading skill levels, it's still relatively few. Must deliberate." Xu Xiaoshou shifted his gaze to the "Extended Passive Skills."

Extended Passive Skills:Robust (Grandmaster Lv.1) — Berserk GiantAgile (Grandmaster Lv.1)Sharp (Innate Lv.1)Perception (Innate Lv.6)Rebound (Grandmaster Lv.1) — Explosive StanceResilience (Innate Lv.1)

"Three Grandmaster, three Innate." Xu Xiaoshou squinted, staring intently at "Innate Lv.6." To be fair, he had OCD. He himself had forgotten when he leveled it up, but stopping at "6" meant he was very poor at the time. This was a divine auxiliary skill. Xu Xiaoshou couldn't *not* upgrade it.

"'Perception' (Grandmaster Lv.1)." A qualitative change! The moment it reached its peak level, Xu Xiaoshou immediately felt different. The images transmitted to his mind were no longer from a god's-eye view; instead, he could directly shift his perspective to any location he wished. "This is practically a peeping superpower!" Xu Xiaoshou was shocked. Not only that, he found that his "Perception" had transformed from an oval, clear in the middle and blurry at both ends, directly into a sphere. Its range had expanded from one li to ten li away. The visuals were of original-art quality, incredibly clear. This time, even the microorganisms beneath, Xu Xiaoshou could easily see them if he wished.

"Oh my goodness." "This is too terrifying." Xu Xiaoshou was genuinely scared by the first images he saw; there were too many disgusting things, he nearly vomited. Subconsciously filtering out some things, he was then surprised to discover that he could even change the shape of this spherical range. Flatten it, stretch it, lengthen it. Xu Xiaoshou's eyes suddenly widened. He found that his "Perception" had changed shape. Not spherical, but an extremely elongated oval. The range exceeded ten li! Like a satellite scanning, he scanned once and suddenly froze.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo, whoo-hoo-whoo." Who knew how far away, there was a completely naked old man, humming a tune while taking a bath. Beside him, there was an alchemy cauldron. "Looks a bit familiar?" Xu Xiaoshou's eyes were strange; he glanced outwards. A signboard, inscribed with "Alchemist Association." "Alchemy Tower?" Xu Xiaoshou was shocked. From his inn, at such a distance, he clearly manifested the image of the Alchemy Tower? Looking back inside, the image, completely without spirit array protection, nearly blinded Xu Xiaoshou.

"President Shi Ti?" Shi Ti, who was bathing, suddenly froze, then abruptly turned his head, his eyes shooting directly towards the direction Xu Xiaoshou was peeking from.

"Who?!"