Perhaps it was precisely because of Jiang Yuan's piety, his face covered with heartfelt lascivious... smiles, that attracted several gazes.
They paused on him for a few seconds before moving away.
At this time, Jiang Yuan had no mind to pay attention to these gazes.
Thick and massive demon power suddenly descended, enveloping him. The terrifying corrupting force madly eroded his soul.
His soul strength of 60 points was plummeting rapidly.
Dropping at a rate of almost 5 points per second.
But fortunately, this soul strength was already high enough and still within Jiang Yuan's tolerance range.
And with the accumulation of these days, plus the Survival Points from killing that early-tier second-grade fanatic last time, Jiang Yuan now held 618 Survival Points in his hand.
He wasn't worried at all.
He allowed the demon power to erode his soul, while he unhurriedly used Survival Points to recover.
Every time it dropped by 5 points, he would immediately recover.
It basically had no effect at all.
With his thinking soul not needing to expend effort to resist the demon power's erosion, Jiang Yuan's disguise showed no fear, and he was ready to begin breaking through at any time.
When the Faith Praise Ceremony was halfway through, suddenly!
One of the young believers closest to the Shan Min Demon statue suddenly had a surge of demon power emerge from his body, and his face was immediately filled with joy.
Obviously.
He belonged to the category with quite good talent, enough to be called a genius.
Simply relying on this Faith Praise Ceremony, he directly completed the leap from believer to fanatic!
Following closely behind.
Three more young believers completed their breakthroughs one after another.
Ninety-nine percent of the youths here were ordinary believers. The few, five or six who had entered the tier of fanatics were all from families with power and influence who had directly captured or obtained personnel from imprisoned Awakeners to provide for their sacrifice and complete their breakthrough.
Only Jiang Yuan alone had 'broken through during the devotion ceremony.'
Anyway, Jiang Yuan wasn't the least bit embarrassed. He was a super genius, so what!
Seeing that the timing was about right.
Jiang Yuan no longer hesitated. With a thought, 100 Survival Points were immediately consumed.
Instantly.
An incomparably vast scarlet power emerged from his body. The power was so vast that it directly overshadowed those few believers who had entered the tier.
Drawing the gazes of the surrounding young believers, shocked, envious, jealous.
At this time, from the depths of the castle, those few gazes from before once again gathered toward Jiang Yuan's direction.
They stared at Jiang Yuan for a few seconds, then finally moved their gazes away and stopped paying attention.
Salvation Power and Demon Power were originally from the same source. Demon Power just had the demon's will that could erode the human soul, that was all.
But this kind of power with eroding capability, even the demon itself probably couldn't distinguish. Therefore, there was no need to worry about Salvation Power leaking and being suspected after being discovered.
And Jiang Yuan was also completely immersed in the powerful feeling after breaking through.
To speak of the greatest feeling from breaking through from early-tier third-grade to early-tier second-grade, it was definitely the Salvation Power that was five or six times thicker.
And not only was the quantity increased by five or six times, but the quality was also increased by five or six times!
Simply explained, it was different density.
Or different concentration.
At early-tier third-grade, it was extremely diluted gas mixed with a lot of impurities.
Then at early-tier second-grade, it was gas with fewer impurities, compressed by five or six times.
Naturally, with higher density, the strength was naturally higher!
And the higher the strength, the tougher the container needed to hold it. This was also why the higher the three attributes, the easier it was to break through.
Otherwise, if your three attributes were poor and the container didn't meet the standard, how could you possibly hold that much material of such high quality?
Just like that, after a while longer, the Faith Praise Ceremony finally ended.
This Faith Praise Ceremony consumed a total of 190 Survival Points from Jiang Yuan!
This kind of ceremony really wasn't something ordinary Awakeners could withstand.
Of course, it was also because Jiang Yuan's soul strength wasn't actually particularly high.
If his soul strength could break through the current level, say reaching 100, or even 200, then the soul power consumed per second would probably only drop by 1 or 2 points.
In the end, it was still insufficient soul strength.
This was also why the top infiltrators were so rare.
Fortunately, it was finally over.
Jiang Yuan immediately checked his new stats.
Name: Jiang Yuan
Strength: 30
Endurance: 30
Speed: 30
Soul: 60
Divine Power: lv1
Strength Level: Early-tier Second-grade
Survival: 328
Actually, not much had changed; just Divine Power and Strength Level had changed.
For the three attributes, increasing 1 point now still cost 20 Survival Points.
For soul, each point increase was still the same, 100 points for 1 point.
As for Divine Power, each increase of lv1 required 200 points.
Doubled.
Meaning, to break through to early-tier first-grade, he needed 2000 Survival Points.
Not bad, acceptable!
Jiang Yuan didn't rush to improve his three attributes.
First, he didn't have enough Survival Points.
Second, he had to keep a basic reserve of Survival Points for emergencies.
Even 300 Survival Points was very few; Jiang Yuan felt very insecure.
Keeping 1000 Survival Points as a reserve would be enough.
No rush, take it slow. His breakthrough speed was already shockingly fast—just a month in total.
Very fast already.
"Congratulations to everyone for receiving your own blessing. Maintain your faith and loyalty. The Shan Min Sacred God will never forget you."
"Shan Min."
The hoarse, gender-neutral voice sounded again. He had been reciting the demon's scriptures just now, using himself as a medium to communicate with the demon statue to descend demon power.
Now that his task was complete, he naturally wouldn't stay longer. As his voice fell, light footsteps could be heard gradually fading away, eventually disappearing.
The main doors of the hall were also opened, and those waiting outside entered one after another, expectantly walking toward their respective juniors and relatives.
But these youths all directed their gazes toward Jiang Yuan.
Especially those young believers in the middle area; they paid the most attention to Jiang Yuan.
Ignoring their family elders who had come over, the youth who had broken through first pondered for a moment, then proactively walked toward Jiang Yuan.
And with him taking the lead, the remaining geniuses couldn't resist and came over one after another.
Jiang Yuan was just about to go toward Jiang Yue. Seeing their actions, he stopped.
He actually very much hoped to have more contact with these geniuses.
The more contact, the more intelligence he could obtain.
Then he could kill them and their families with greater precision and accuracy.
Really something to look forward to!
The actions of these young believers made those professionals who had walked in startled, and they all looked at Jiang Yuan in unison.
They weren't anxious either, wanting to see what they wanted to do.
After all, they didn't know what had happened in the hall just now.
"You're very strong, so you qualify to be my friend. My name is Cao Zilu, but just because you're strong now doesn't mean you will be in the future. I'll surpass you!"
The youth who had broken through first walked up to Jiang Yuan, saying with a haughty face.
Jiang Yuan was dumbfounded.
What kind of routine was this???
Demon believer version of Dragon Proud Sky?
No, what era was this, how could there still be such chuunibyou people!
And freaking 'qualify to be your friend,' if you're so awesome why don't you kill the Shan Min Demon and take over yourself?
Read too many chuunibyou dog-blood power fantasies???
While Jiang Yuan had a strange expression, the young believers beside him exclaimed one after another.
"Cao Zilu? Surname Cao?"
"No way? Is he really Grand Elder Cao Lieguang's grandson?"
"It must be, no wonder his talent is so strong!"
Jiang Yuan was stunned.
Cao Lieguang... Cao Lieguang...
Shan Min's third strongest, peak super-tier powerhouse?
Also the Second Elder of the Shan Min Demon organization!
The Cao Lieguang who was second only to the Grand Transmitter and the Great Elder???
This status... this background...
Jiang Yuan immediately revealed a smile as bright as the blazing sun. He suddenly stepped forward and, under Cao Zilu's stunned gaze, threw his arm around Cao Zilu's shoulder with such affection, as if he had finally found a long-lost brother.
What chuunibyou Dragon Proud Sky, pah!
Slander! Defamation!
This was clearly his good brother, his iron buddy Brother Zilu!
Perhaps someday in the future, his good brother and iron buddy Brother Zilu would personally take him to kill his grandfather!
This brother, Jiang Yuan was making this friend!!!