Xu Xiaoshou comforted the source of his soul and emerged out of the Origin Court, his face deadpan.

He could curse and yell all he wanted. It wouldn't change anything.

But, he nonetheless noted, that was the first time he'd seen the System do something like that.

“There has to be some reason for it…”

The System usually didn't do anything besides make messages pop up in the information bar.

The rest of what the System did was just that wheel and allowing him to buy skill points in the mall. Hmm, the System could also mess up his rate at drawing prizes.

There was one thing undeniable about the system—it had too little presence. Its presence was so unbelievably low that he'd almost forgotten that it was called the “Pa.s.sive System,” not “Information Bar.”

Yet, it did that outrageous thing today…

But, before he could further mull it over, the System, which had gotten full from the “meal,” popped up again through the Information Bar.

[Pa.s.sive System] upgrading. Please do not interfere.

He was stunned by what he read.

Upgrade?

His eyes lit up, and he wondered if the System had repented after eating up his two-fold Innate Elemental Powers and was about to compensate for it by upgrading his success rate at draws.

But his heart soon sank. “No, no, judging by the System's habits… it'll probably lower the success rate of the draws instead.

“No, don't!”

He wanted very badly to get in the way of the System's upgrade, but it didn't give him the chance to do so. As soon as the line appeared, the entire red interface subsided from his mind.

Just when it was about to disappear completely, a line appeared below the Information Bar, catching his attention.

Pa.s.sive Points: 66666.

The very “lucky” string of numbers caught him off-guard and almost blinded him, figuratively speaking.

Why that many?

He recalled the last time he'd seen such a string of numbers. It had also appeared to be all sixes. Yet, there'd only been four digits then.

There were five digits this time?

He rubbed his eyes and peered at it again, yet the red interface had completely gone.

He was so fl.u.s.tered he immediately took out Hiding Pain and stabbed his hand. He pulled the blade out and the wound healed.

“Good thing the pa.s.sive skills are still around…”

From the looks of things, the System had truly gone somewhere else for upgrades.

It became clear that there was no point mulling over it, so he ignored the matter entirely after that.

He recalled what he'd last seen—his Pa.s.sive Points at over 60 thousand—and calculated the time, thinking he'd only been at the Black Waterfalls for about six to seven hours.

He recalled that he'd spent most of those hours getting hit, resting, resting more, then getting hit again.

“I managed to wrack up that many Pa.s.sive Points through all of that?

“Well… not actually that many. If I were to calculate the number of Pa.s.sive Points at the rate of 30 to 50 points a second, being at it for six to seven hours would mean… around a million points!”

He jumped at the result of his calculations, but calmed down before long.

“That's just insane!”

He noted that it'd be impossible for him to stay standing in the waterfalls and let the sword aura cut him up the whole time. Generally speaking, even if he were to remain there for just half a minute, he'd end up with cuts all over his body.

He'd spend a good deal of time recuperating, as it took almost half an hour every time.

“But!”

He then chuckled all of a sudden, recalling that inside the Pa.s.sive System's mall there was a “Level Two Skill Point” that had been around for a long time but was greyed out, thus making it unavailable for purchase.

“That means I could probably buy it after the upgrade, right?” he thought.

He'd wanted that thing very badly for a long time now, and thought of upgrading “Eternal Vitality” after that.

“Hehehe, wouldn't that mean a continuous flow of Pa.s.sive Points, then?” He giggled sheepishly.

“Yeah…

“Right, the upper limit of pa.s.sive skills is at 'Innate, Lv.1' before the upgrade. So with the upgrade… 'Master, Lv.1' then?

“Master Level!?

“Holy sh**!” His eyes immediately lit up at the thought.

“'Strengthen' at Innate Level brought me Innate Level Physique. Does that mean that at Master Level it would become the 'Master Physique' that Elder Sang told me about in his story?

“That's a limit the entire continent has a hard time breaking through!

He got extremely excited, thinking that it was alright for the System to gobble up his two-fold Innate Elemental Powers. So long as it was able to upgrade his current powers, he could even give the source of his soul…

“Ptuih! No, not that one!”

Vooom!

His head felt like it'd been pulled, and it hurt, as if his brains had been twisted into a knot. The pain immediately snapped him out of his thoughts.

He peered inside his brain, finding nothing around.

He willed and sent his spiritual sense into the Origin Court, and the red interface suddenly appeared above his source of the soul again.

The Pa.s.sive System.

“Upgrade completed?” He gauged the system with antic.i.p.ation, but was stunned the next second.

Well…

Wasn't it going for an upgrade? So why did it look the same as before, like something you could pick out of a street stall? Was this so-called upgrade just a change in location?

His bright eyes darkened. This could be bad news!

He went on to check the Information Bar, which was the only medium the System used to communicate with him.

The Information Bar read:

Congratulations. Upgrade of [Pa.s.sive System] successful.

New module unlocked: Awakening Pool.

Special Pa.s.sive Skill acquired: Pa.s.sive Fist.

Three lines and one filled with bullsh**.

The word “special in the line “special pa.s.sive skill” immediately caught his attention.

There were only three major types of pa.s.sive skills that he currently had at his disposal: basic, extension, and expertise.

So, from the looks of it, this was also a type in itself?

“Special pa.s.sive skill…”

He took a look at the red interface, and a new module actually appeared below. There was only one message:

Pa.s.sive Fist (upgrade unavailable).

Ehem!

Upgrade unavailable?

“Well, well, isn't this something? A pa.s.sive skill that helps save me points. This is quite a bargain.”

He then scanned with his spiritual sense and immediately acquired detailed information regarding that pa.s.sive skill.

Pa.s.sive Fist: Real Damage.

Pa.s.sive Fist: Charges when attacked, depletes all charged points when unleashed. You can't just stay on the defensive all the time. When one has to take the initiative, one takes it. When patience no longer suffices, there's no need for patience.

Pa.s.sive Fist (charge points: 0.00%)

Xu Xiaoshou didn't know what to say.

“I get it. All the pa.s.sive skills I drew before were meant to get me prepared, and now you're just giving me a reason to get myself pummeled, eh?

“What the h*ll is with that 'When patience no longer suffices, there's no need for patience' anyway?

“You stupid System, what the h*ll are you really trying to get me into, man?”

Regardless of what he thought about it, however, he tried to figured what “real damage” meant.

“Real damage like how it is in games? Does it negate defense altogether?

“If that's the case, then this pa.s.sive skill really is quite formidable.”

He clenched his fist and punched the ground.

Boom!

A ma.s.sive crater resulted.

That was his Innate Level Physique at work.

He took a deep breath and berated, “Pa.s.sive…

“Why the h*ll does it sound kind of dumb?…

“Whatever… Pa.s.sive Fist!

“Hah!”

Boom!

A ma.s.sive crater resulted again.

The resulting crater was hardly different from the one before.

He was flabbergasted.

“Is it because there are no charge points to it? 0.00% charge points, so no amplification in damage potential, then?”

He shook his fist and looked at the Black Waterfalls. The place was capable of hurting him, so it should be able to add to his charge points.

But, instead of heading to the waterfalls right away, he looked at the second line in the Information Bar instead.

New module unlocked: Awakening Pool.

He searched for a bit, but didn't find anything on the red interface. Suddenly, he recalled that red wheel from the mall and immediately went inside the mall.

There was indeed a pitch-black, small pool lying quietly below that red wheel.

“Awakening Pool!”