Eye of Evolution

Chapter 23: Awakened Threshold

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

In the tunnel of the hidden chamber.

Bai Xiaowen picked up the gray bead.

Notification: “You have obtained an unknown Soul Stone. This item will definitely drop. It is not included in the list of spoils of war.”

“Soul Stone! It’s actually in the stomach of this Elite Zombie Rat. I really didn’t expect it!” Bai Xiaowen exclaimed.

He was pleasantly surprised. No wonder he could not find the Soul Stone in the hidden chamber.

Bai Xiaowen tried to check the attributes of the Soul Stone, but all he got was a string of notifications.

“The Soul Stone has been sealed by a powerful force.”

“The energy of the Soul Stone has been exhausted.”

“Please remove the seal and charge it before checking its attributes.”

Needless to say, the energy of the Soul Stone had been absorbed by Falca.

Bai Xiaowen had rejoiced too soon. He sighed as he put away the Soul Stone. Suddenly, a dim light flashed across the surface of the Soul Stone, and a weak singing voice seemed to echo in Bai Xiaowen’s ears.

“Oh?”

Bai Xiaowen picked up the Soul Stone again and examined it closely.

The singing voice was indistinct, but the melody had an indescribable beauty that made one want to listen carefully.

All of a sudden, there was a loud boom, and the tune ended. Terrifying wails of vengeful spirits and vengeful ghosts rose and fell, attacking Bai Xiaowen’s mind!

“Damn it, it really is an ‘evil’ Soul Stone!” Bai Xiaowen cursed.

Thankfully, he had been mentally prepared. Otherwise, he would have been caught off guard by the sudden change in the beautiful and terrifying voice.

The wailing continued, and an illusory image of a banshee appeared on the surface of the Soul Stone. Her pale lips opened and closed, and she let out a banshee howl. Her red eyes stared intently into Bai Xiaowen’s eyes as she tried to erode his spirit step by step.

However, Bai Xiaowen’s Spirit was as high as 7.9, which was even higher than ordinary Awakened! This meant that Bai Xiaowen’s resistance to Spirit-type attacks had exceeded the banshee’s expectations. More importantly, the energy of the Soul Stone had been exhausted, so the power of the banshee’s Howl had been greatly reduced.

A red light flashed in Bai Xiaowen’s left eye, and his normal eye suddenly turned into a blood-red eyeball!

The blood-colored eyeball was filled with a majestic aura as it stared at the banshee illusion on the surface of the Soul Stone impassively.

“No!”

The banshee let out a sharp cry and suddenly retreated into the Soul Stone. Her vitality had already been greatly damaged.

At the same time, Falca—who was fighting fiercely—let out a miserable roar. His originally agile steps became much slower, and his attacks were not as fierce as before.

Gloria, the female royal knight who had been through hundreds of battles, would naturally grab hold of this opportunity. She stepped forward with her left foot and swung her twohanded sword with ease, cutting a gorgeous arc through the air.

This was her combat skill called Sword Arc Slash!

There was a horrible gurgling noise.

Blood spurted from Falca’s chest. The fight drained most of his energy, and he was already exhausted. Gloria had dealt him such a heavy blow that he sustained a serious injury. If Gloria had not wanted to capture him alive and interrogate him about the whereabouts of the Soul Stone, that move earlier would have been enough to kill Falca.

Falca was breathing heavily, his chest heaving. The madness in Falca’s eyes gradually disappeared. He looked in the direction of the hidden chamber begrudgingly.

“Hand over the Soul Stone!” Gloria shouted sternly.

Falca smirked. “Gloria, the Soul Stone is not with me.”

“You’re lying!” Gloria pointed the tip of her sword at Falca’s throat.

“I’m not lying,” Falca said laboriously. “I suggest you go to my lab and find your partner… Hehe, if you’re even a second late, he’ll take the Soul Stone away.”

Gloria snorted. She grabbed Falca’s collar with her left hand, which had spiked gauntlets covering her fists, and walked straight into the hidden chamber.

In Falca’s hidden chamber.

Bai Xiaowen shook his head. The blood-red eyeball vanished, and his left eye returned to normal. When the blood-red eyeball appeared just now, his thoughts seemed to have stagnated. He did not know what had happened, nor did he understand why the banshee had retreated. Bai Xiaowen could only attribute it to the banshee’s lack of energy.

He thought, “Phew… In Margaux’s journal, he kept saying that this is an evil Soul Stone. He was indeed telling the truth. Fortunately, I immediately got my guard up when the song started.”

Prompt information:

“You have passed the Spirit test of the Soul Stone and obtained a reward.”

“Your Basic Spirit has increased by 2 points.”

A simple notification caused Bai Xiaowen’s expression to change drastically.

The reason was simple. Bai Xiaowen’s total attributes had already reached 18.7. Now that it had increased by 2 points, his total attributes had reached 20.7!

The next second, another notification came.

“Your basic attributes are Strength 4.5, Agility 4.2, Physique 2.1, Spirit 9.9, Total Attributes 20.7. You have reached the Awakened threshold.”

“Your basic attributes have been locked. You can’t raise them again before the Awakened test.”

“Please enter the Spiritual Realm within a week of Earth time and undergo the Awakened test. If you fail to do that, you’ll be deemed to have failed the test. The difficulty of the next test will increase by 50%.”

Bai Xiaowen composed himself and sighed inwardly.

“I originally wanted to allocate the last two attribute points to Physique… If it really doesn’t work, Strength and Agility will do too! But it just had to be added to my Spirit… My Spirit is already close to 10 points. When I first enter the Spiritual Realm without any skills, its effect is far less than Strength, Agility, and Physique!” he complained inwardly.

Strength increased physical damage dealt to enemies. His punches and kicks would be full of power.

Agility would increase one’s attack speed and movement speed. That was also useful. Just by looking at the Elite Zombie Rat, which had a 10.4 Agility and could attack Bai Xiaowen to the point where he could barely fight back, one could see how terrifyingly agile it was.

After entering the Spiritual Realm, one’s Physique would be “completely digitized”. It would become the basic attribute that determined one’s “health”! Hence, the higher one’s Physique attribute was, the higher one’s health points (HP) would be. That was used to denote the life level of all creatures. When a person’s health fell to zero or below, his life would have come to an end.

Therefore, a high Physique could increase the margin of error. It was a crucial attribute for all those who underwent the Awakened test.

As for Spirit… it determined the power of spells and his recovery speed. The question was, did Bai Xiaowen have any active skills? No! That meant that his 9.9 Spirit was practically useless!

In other words, Bai Xiaowen’s “effective combat attribute” was only 10.8, which was about half of the other quasi-Awakened. It was obvious how challenging the Awakened test would be for him, especially with such a high elimination rate.

Bai Xiaowen took a deep breath and shook his head.

“I won’t think too much about it first. There’s always a way out. I’ll think of a way to pass the Awakened test after I enter the Spiritual Realm. Now, Gloria or Falca should be coming soon. I’d better retreat first.”

Of course, Bai Xiaowen would not go back the way he came. If he did that, he would only face Gloria head-on. He followed this tunnel and walked even deeper.

Indeed, Bai Xiaowen firmly believed that the other end of the tunnel would lead to the outside world.

This was not a blind guess, but a conclusion deduced from known information.

Margaux’s journal described that they had sealed the entrance to the cave with stones and lived in it for a long time. They could not have been hiding in the rat hole all this time, could they?

Putting aside the fact that they had to eat and drink, if they had to relieve themselves, they had to find a place with clear mountains, clear water, and air circulation to avoid polluting the air in the basement that they had painstakingly dug.

Therefore, there must be another hidden exit that only the master and servant knew about.

According to the universal law—when in danger, the leader would retreat first—it could be determined that the tunnel leading to the outside world was in Falca’s hidden chamber, which was the tunnel where Elite Zombie Rat Blacktooth was hiding.

“Stop right there!” The female knight’s shout came faintly from the entrance of the tunnel.

“It seems that the royal knights are indeed much more skilled. Falca, you’re such a noob and so lousy at battling!” Bai Xiaowen muttered.

Falca was so lousy at fighting, yet he was so overconfident in his abilities.

Bai Xiaowen cursed silently. If Falca was the victor, it would be more advantageous for Bai Xiaowen. After all, Bai Xiaowen was holding onto the Soul Stone, which was a weakness and an Achilles heel for Falca. Moreover, he knew Falca better than Gloria did.

After Bai Xiaowen checked and confirmed that he could enter the Spiritual Realm at any time, he became much calmer.

Behind a low bush, Bai Xiaowen pushed open the stone cover that was covered by weeds and crawled out of the tunnel. He was in no hurry to leave. Instead, he stood dozens of meters away and waited.

Boom!

Half a minute later, the female royal knight—Gloria—appeared. Her angry attack sent the stone slab flying ten meters high, exploding into countless rocks in the air.

“What a grand entrance,” Bai Xiaowen commented and pursed his lips.

“Hand over the Soul Stone… This is your last chance!” Gloria warned. She dragged Falca—who was looking very much like he was on the brink of death—with her left hand, while she pointed the sword at Bai Xiaowen with her right hand.

They were about 30 meters apart. For the powerful female royal knight, she could easily catch up to Bai Xiaowen in a few breaths.

Although Gloria was a little angry, she was not nervous. The difference in their strength was obvious. Looking at the endless wilderness that surrounded them, she knew that it was impossible for the cunning Earthling to escape.

“Let me ask you a question.” Bai Xiaowen’s eyes scanned her bosom which was covered by the impenetrable steel armor. “Miss Gloria, is your chest at least a C-cup?” he asked.

Even though Gloria did not understand the word “cup”, she could still tell that Bai Xiaowen was taking liberties with her. With a cold face, she stabbed the huge sword into the ground with one hand and pulled out a thin rapier from her waist.

“Go to hell!” she roared.

A stream of light shot out.

There was a faint smile on Bai Xiaowen’s face, but his body glowed and turned into specks of light that dissipated. The stream of light charged toward Bai Xiaowen, but it only passed through the phantom image or an illusion of him.

Bai Xiaowen took one last look at the Plague Rat Cave.

“Mr. Xiao, Jiang Wen… I’ve tried my best to stall for time as long as it’s within my capabilities. You are on your own now. Good luck,” he murmured.

Gloria’s angry and indignant roar echoed in the empty field.

“Despicable Earthling, I swear on the glory of the royal knights that even if I have to chase you to the ends of the earth, I will make sure that you are brought to justice for what you’ve done!”