"I sure hope the guy survives this…" Xu Xiaoshou prayed inwardly.

"Well, I guess it serves him right for daring to mess with Jie here. Seems like he doesn't quite get the concept of 'never judge a book by its cover.'"

​​

After seeing Zhou Tianshen disappear inside the portal, Xu Xiaoshou was feeling rather flattered.

"That thing opened right here to pick me up instead of appearing somewhere near the gate, huh?" he thought. "Is this some kind of reward for those who go out of their way to get things done?"

"Jie!" Xu Xiaoshou looked at the puppet child, and his mouth twitched for a bit. "We're leaving."

Jie looked at the portal, a flicker of doubt in its eyes. "Mama…"

"Shrink!" Xu Xiaoshou didn't bother yapping with it. Judging from the information he'd learned earlier, it would be very difficult to maintain that portal, even if it was Ye Xiaotian doing it.

Jie hesitated briefly before shrinking into a metal ball and hovering over to him. Xu Xiaoshou immediately grabbed hold of it.

"Remember. After we get outside, do your best not to take your original form in places with lots of people. Only attack when I give the order.

"Don't go about stirring trouble, understand?"

The two red dots on the ball flickered, and Xu Xiaoshou nodded with satisfaction, yet he nonetheless had to add, "If you do something wrong and get sent here again, I won't be able to do anything to save you."

"Mama…"

"Be a good boy, and I'll get you a girlfriend someday."

"…"

The metal ball didn't respond. Xu Xiaoshou stuffed the metal ball into his shirt and flew toward the portal and walked into it.

There was a flicker of light, and he disappeared.

The Tianxuan Gate was finally quiet again.

It'd only taken two days for the situation to go from abundant spiritual energy to looking like it was doomsday. He wondered what would've happened if the place had stayed like that for one more day.

It was fortunate that the Sky Tree had been sent there in time and that he did his best to salvage the world.

All in all, everything had turned out fine in the end.

With the exception of some poor, lost dude, and those world-stabilizing treasures that had been lost…

Whoooshh.

The winds howled, and it started to snow again. The sky was patching together, and the world seemed to be on the right path again.

…

The portal flickered, then flashed in the Council Hall.

"Hahaha, I, Xu Xiaoshou, am finally home!"

He was slightly disoriented, yet he recovered by just shaking his head for a bit and opened his arms to hug the sun that was setting in the mountains.

Watched, Passive Points +472.

"Holy sh**!" he thought.

He was immediately startled, feeling rather dazed by the fact that he was being watched, yet the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch when he saw the three digits behind the notification.

"I'm still best suited to places with lots of people, after all." he thought. "Having just that little sister cursing me all the time would not only cause a slow increase in passive points but would probably get me in deep sh*t if one of those curses actually worked."

There were hundreds of men in black below starting at him intently. The faces were rather familiar.

"Huh?"

"All those people just to pick me up?" he thought.

There was a peculiar expression on his face as he recalled a certain scene, wanting to say something like "I shall rule over all from here on out," but he suppressed the impulse in the end.

His eyes roamed over the scene, and he saw the others from the Tianxuan Gate at a pavilion elsewhere. They all made it out.

He then turned his attention to the steps. The dean, Elder Qiao, and what was that…

"Oh sh**," he thought. "That girl really is something else altogether. At the very least, she's at the pinnacle of Innate Level like Luo Leilei.

"Hmm. But if she's suppressing her powers, that would most likely mean she's actually at Master Level.

"And that one… that's her dad, eh? His power level should be at Sovereign Level, around the level of the dean."

His view had broadened considerably at present. Furthermore, with his "Sense" leveled up, he could now basically accurately tell the level of anyone he met, so long as it wasn't someone like that grey mist figure.

"Ma…"

Ehemm!

There was a soft cry from inside his robes all of a sudden, and Xu Xiaoshou immediately coughed several times to mask it.

"Ma… good boy, don't go about talking when you're not supposed to."

He almost ended up cursing right there and then, yet it would be inconvenient of him to do so, seeing how many out there were watching. As such, he went about trying to communicate with that metal ball telepathically.

He didn't know if it worked, but at least Jie was silent.

Everyone had initially turned their eyes away from Xu Xiaoshou, waiting for the last person to emerge, but Xu Xiaoshou's coughing attracted their attention again.

The young man hovering midair was growing rather uncomfortable from being watched like this again. He flicked his robe and said, "What are you all looking at? Never seen a handsome guy before?"

Doubted, Passive Points +472.

The very disciplined hundreds of men in black under the pagoda tree got somewhat riled up by that one man in the air.

"Hehehe…" Yu Zhiwen covered her mouth and chuckled. "This guy sure is bold, daring to joke before so many people. He really is a lot better than the few who were trembling with fear before."

"Joke?"

Despite the girl having lowered her voice, Xu Xiaoshou was able to hear her all the same. He turned to look at her and added seriously, "Do I look like I'm joking?"

Yu Zhiwen was speechless.

Cursed, Passive Points +1.

"You're interesting." She'd never met someone so shameless before.

"Heh, you're not being honest, woman!" he thought.

Xu Xiaoshou turned his attention away from the Information Bar and added with sincerity, "Thank you. your eyes look very pretty."

"Who doesn't know cheap flattery, eh?" he thought.

But then again, that wasn't actually just flattery. He noted that the girl's eyes looked like they had stars in them. They were very bright, very dazzling, and very charming.

Yu Zhiwen blushed a little, but fortunately, her veil covered enough of her face to conceal it. She turned her head around and said nothing else.

She'd met a lot of dashing men before, and quite a few had expressed their love and admiration for her, but none had spoken to her like this.

She was unable to come up with a comeback and could only stay silent for the time being.

Xu Xiaoshou was feeling amused, yet his grin froze the very next second.

Cursed, Passive Points +1, +1, +1, +1…

Man, just how dishonest could the girl get?

Looking embarrassed on the outside and cursing like mad deep down?

Wait, hold on…

The frequency of the curses…

He turned his attention to the pavilion back there. Some Inner Yard participants had emerged earlier, guarded by a group of men in black. Mu Zixi was among them.

"What?"

The girl innocently blinked her large eyes when Xu Xiaoshou's eyes locked onto her own.

Xu Xiaoshou checked the Information Bar again.

Cursed, Passive Points +1, +1, +1, +1…

"…"

"Well, no one can curse like you. I guess I have a lunatic for a little sister indeed," he thought.

Everyone saw him slowly descend from the sky, feeling that something was off with him, but they couldn't say what.

Qiao Qianzhi was the first one to note his peculiarity and asked, feeling surprised, "Xu Xiaoshou, you've broken into Innate Level, eh?"

Everyone was stunned. It was only then that they recalled that Xu Xiaoshou had only been at Spiritual Cultivation level nine before entering the Tianxuan Gate.

That meant he'd made a breakthrough first into level 10 and then into Innate Levels in just two days. Furthermore, despite being at early Origin Court Level, it didn't seem like the ordinary early Origin Court Level...

His training seemed to have solidified his cultivation foundation, and he looked like he could break into the middle stages of Origin Court at any moment.

"Oh, h*ll…"

Doubted, Passive Points +472.

Doubted, Passive Points +365.

"…"

Xu Xiaoshou was very pleased. This was why he liked places with many people, as those people would always end up racking up a lot of Passive Points for him.

Despite having shown up mere moments before, he'd already racked in nearly 2000 points.

"Yeah, I'm at Innate Levels now."

He flapped his sleeves, behaving as if he were invincible.

He'd had a dream a while back, and that dream was going to a place with 10000 people and shouting "I'm at Innate Level," then racking up 10000 points from doing just that.

At that time, he'd been worried people would gang up on him and pummel him to death just for doing that. It didn't take long for that dream to be reduced to something that could never be realized.

It was indeed a pity.

Qiao Qianzhi noted Xu Xiaoshou's smug look and couldn't help but flash a grin at him. "Hahahahahaha… hmm, looks like you've gained quite a lot in the Tianxuan Gate, then."

Gain?

He couldn't help but cradle his chest as he recalled the 28000 passive points he'd gotten at the Black Waterfalls and the three treasures currently with him.

Well, not quite. Counting Jie, he'd gotten four treasures.

He landed with a tap, feeling solid ground under his feet. There was an uncontrollable grin on his face.

"Well, when it comes to gains, I did gain quite a lot…"