An invasion from the Abyss? I, a demonic cultivator, laughed.

Chapter 111 The Soul of Apoptosis
"It's finally complete!"

Looking at the skeletal armor undergoing astonishing changes before him, Chu Xiu's eyes flashed with joy.

He's fed countless corpses into upgrading this skeletal armor.

The number of corpses consumed at this level alone is probably enough to forge five perfect sets of bone armor.

He didn't even refine the giant bear into a resurrected corpse in order to upgrade it.

Of course, there was also the reason that the giant bear was too large to keep up with Chu Xiu.

"Hopefully, the armor's effectiveness will do justice to all these corpses!"

As the corpse of the ferocious giant bear was completely refined, the skeletal armor underwent a complete transformation, with more armor plates that fit Chu Xiu's body more closely.

A panel appeared in Chu Xiu's eyes, attracting his attention.

[Exquisite Skeleton Armor +10]

[Level: Scholar]

【Quality: Supreme】

"Ultimate Quality!"

Chu Xiu's eyes lit up.

This is an extremely rare quality, meaning that every detail of this item has been polished to perfection!

Generally speaking, "Supreme" quality equipment is rarely dropped directly; it is usually enhanced and upgraded by auxiliary professions such as "Blacksmith" and "Weapon Master" in the later stages.

In terms of stats alone, equipment of this quality is no worse than [Legendary] equipment, and may even be stronger in terms of base stats!

However, the "Ultimate" quality is still crafted by ordinary people, and it will have fewer extraordinary features compared to legendary equipment.

More importantly, the vast majority of [Legendary] equipment has the attribute of [upgradeable]. Each of them contains powerful energy, but they will temporarily adapt to the Awakened's rank, allowing them to equip them ahead of time.

As the rank of the awakened one increases, their power will gradually be unlocked, which is why [Legendary] equipment is so precious and rare!

Even so, a piece of "Ultimate" equipment is worth several times, or even ten times, more than a piece of "Perfect" equipment!
Chu Xiu looked at it and saw that each piece of the skeletal armor was now harder than before, and its defensive power had exceeded forty points!
This is an extremely terrifying number. Even the best armor of the warrior class, even the heavy armor type, usually only has a defense of 25 points!

After reaching perfection, all three restrictions on the skeletal armor were upgraded, increasing its power by about 30%, and a fourth restriction was also unlocked!
【Soul of Death: Can consume energy to create life-stealing souls that can be stored in armor, up to a maximum of ninety-nine.】

Chu Xiu narrowed his eyes and activated the restriction directly.

Immediately, the energy in his body began to be consumed. When the energy consumption reached about five points, an invisible soul appeared in front of him.

Like the ghost, this creature also possesses the [Soul Body] trait, but unlike the ghost, it has no consciousness, only countless chaotic and violent thoughts. Once forged, it attached itself to one of the plates of the skeletal armor.

Chu Xiu pondered for a moment, then looked around and quickly found a forgotten level 9 mortal corpse ghost. With a thought, Chu Xiu sent out the withered soul. Its speed was not particularly fast, but it could automatically track and was extremely difficult to stop because of the characteristics of the soul body!
The ghoul sensed the approach of the withering soul and brandished its claws to try to stop it. While this did cause some damage to the withering soul, it could not completely annihilate its soul body. After the withering soul burrowed into the ghoul's body, accompanied by a scream, the ghoul's flesh withered at a speed visible to the naked eye. In just two or three seconds, it had turned into a skeleton!
Chu Xiu took a deep breath; this restriction is quite strong!

He estimated that the power of this withered soul was roughly equivalent to standing in the area with the greatest power of the withered domain of the skeletal armor for six seconds.

Don't be fooled by the mere six seconds; it's an incredibly terrifying number. Keep in mind that even before the upgrade, the Bone Armor was enough to overwhelm Wei Shan, an S-rank melee class! And that's with this guy protected by Holy Light!

The maximum number of Apoptosis Souls that can be stored is a full ninety-nine! If they all hit, it's almost equivalent to throwing the opponent into the maximum power area of ​​the Apoptosis Domain and controlling them for ten minutes!
Even with the life force of that ferocious giant bear, it would be sucked to death!

"The only drawback is that the Soul of Apoptosis is a one-time use item; it will disappear once it's used up, and the energy required to condense one is quite high."

But overall, this is still an extremely powerful offensive restriction!
"It was worth consuming so many corpses." Chu Xiu revealed a satisfied smile.

He turned around, ready to leave, but just then, Chu Xiu suddenly felt a gaze fall on him!

This gaze wasn't a physical gaze, but rather it acted directly on the soul! It made Chu Xiu's hair stand on end instantly, and he whirled around!

But at the top of the central tower, a blurry, ghostly figure was staring at him with cold eyes!
The instant their eyes met, Chu Xiu felt a chill run from his spine to the top of his head. They hadn't actually made eye contact; it was a feeling that penetrated deep into his soul!

From the gaze of the creature opposite him, he felt an icy chill that seemed to freeze his blood. He could sense that the creature watching him was incredibly strong—far stronger than any other creature he had ever encountered!
Suddenly, the feeling of being watched disappeared, and the blurry figure on the tower slowly turned around and returned to the tower.

"call--"

Chu Xiu let out a long breath, only to realize that the few seconds of staring had caused cold sweat to break out on his forehead.

"That guy, could he be the Corpse King? Is it because I killed the Ferocious-rank Corpse Demon that the giant bear, as its superior, sensed him?"

"But why doesn't he make a move?"

In fact, Chu Xiu had already prepared for the possibility of being hunted down by even stronger beings before he killed the Fierce-Rank creature. The place where he finally killed the giant bear was very close to the outer city wall. If a powerful creature came to hunt him down, he could hide in the outer city at any time.

Unexpectedly, the powerful being atop the tower merely glanced at him a few times before falling silent.

But this did not make Chu Xiu lower his guard at all; on the contrary, his gaze became even more serious.

"It's not taking action right now, probably because of some special restrictions."

"But there is no denying that it was an extremely powerful creature."

"I need to level up faster."

This eye contact gave Chu Xiu a sense of urgency. He had originally wanted to take another day to calm down before searching for the [Legendary] equipment, but now he decided to set off immediately.

Currently, Chu Xiu is only able to kill a few ferocious-level enemies. As for those who are agile or have special abilities, even if they can't beat Chu Xiu, he has no chance to escape.

After all, the Berserk Heavenly Demon Hand, the only weapon capable of reaching the ferocious level of attack, has a questionable hit rate.

Therefore, he needs to acquire the [Legendary] equipment as soon as possible to further enhance his strength and turn all the fierce-level enemies in this central city into nourishment for his growth!
After that, Chu Xiu did not go out hunting again, but silently recovered his condition, while using the excess energy to produce the Soul of Death.

Relying on the powerful recovery speed of the Golden Embryo, by the afternoon he had produced a full twenty withered souls.

Chu Xiu glanced at the sky, then, without further hesitation, headed towards the location mentioned by the tongue.

He soon discovered that the location indicated by the tongue was near the mall where Shen Tu Hu was trapped. It seemed that this guy really was on the same hidden mission as him.

From a great distance, Chu Xiu spotted the silver-white knight on patrol.

This guy seems to only move around within a certain area, as if he's guarding something.

Chu Xiu observed from a distance for a while and discovered that the silver-white knight would emit a strange buzzing sound every now and then to detect any living creatures nearby.

As soon as a life form that poses a sufficient threat appears, the Silver Knights will immediately move out to kill it. Within a radius of three or four miles, not even a single ghoul can be found.

It's like a tireless guardian. "And I don't even know the principle behind this detection, so trying to avoid it is unrealistic."

Chu Xiu had been very cautious, but he was still found by walking through the wall.

Although his strength has greatly improved, he doesn't want to fight this thing again. After thinking for a moment, Chu Xiu sent out several Yin Ghosts, which entered the Silver Knight's protective range at a certain distance from each other.

Chu Xiu himself went around in another direction.

His plan was to use these ghosts to distract the Silver Knight while he went around them.

The operation went smoothly. During another life detection, the materialized Yin Ghosts were discovered, and the Silver Knight rushed over immediately. However, these Yin Ghosts, which were quite far apart, transformed into spirit bodies and fled in all directions. It was not easy to kill them all at once.

Chu Xiu then took the opportunity to sneak in.

Even with the location indicated by the tongue, it was still a fairly large search area. In addition, Chu Xiu's location was not a precise locator, which further expanded the search area.

But when he arrived near the target location, he spotted his target at a glance.

Behind the shopping mall is a large stadium, and in the very center of the stadium grows a towering tree.

This giant tree is nearly 100 meters tall, with lush foliage and a thick trunk, covering almost half of a football field.

"At the feet of the giant, is the giant referring to this large tree?"

Chu Xiu scanned the area from afar with his Demon Eyes, and finding nothing unusual, he didn't delay. He leaped several times and arrived at the base of the tree.

The berserk demon hand appeared behind him, grabbed the roots of the giant tree and pulled hard, tearing off a large section of the root.

But strangely, a large amount of blood gushed out from the broken tree root! It was as if Chu Xiu had torn off not a tree root, but a human hand or foot!
He frowned, but didn't think much of it. Just as he was about to activate the Heavenly Demon Hand to continue digging, a huge gap suddenly split open in the tree trunk, and countless extremely long, pale arms shot out and grabbed Chu Xiu!
Before he could react, he was pulled directly into the tree trunk!
"Kakakaka."

With a sound like gears turning, the gap in the tree trunk slowly closed, like a predator closing its jaws.

Only after being wrapped in the tree trunk did Chu Xiu realize that the trunk was not made of wood, but rather of long, thin arms like giant earthworms! These pale arms wrapped Chu Xiu tightly all over his body and tightened continuously, like pythons coiling around him.

"So you're also a creature of the abyss."

This large tree has a strong ability to disguise itself; when Chu Xiu used his Demon Eyes to investigate before, he couldn't detect any information.

However, he wasn't flustered, because he could feel that the arms wrapped around him were exerting all their strength, yet the skeletal armor remained completely still.

Forty points of defense is no joke.

And
"Big brother, if you just swallow me whole, won't that mean the Apoptosis Domain will be completely devoured from every angle?" Chu Xiu chuckled.

Sure enough, before long, the strangulation force of those arms wrapped around him weakened, and in the end, they retreated in fear.

"Who gave you permission to leave?"

Chu Xiu grabbed an arm, which struggled violently, but Chu Xiu remained unmoved. Other arms wrapped around the arm, trying to rescue their companion, but Chu Xiu pulled hard, severing more than a dozen arms and spurting out a large amount of blood.

At this moment, the strange tree seemed to sense something was wrong, and the arms inside the trunk began to wriggle, trying to push Chu Xiu out.

But Chu Xiu didn't want to leave. With a thought, several withered souls rushed out, and his arms around him withered at an extremely fast speed, eventually turning into hard lumps like dead wood. Chu Xiu could easily shatter them with a light touch.

The space was torn open, and the Heavenly Demon Hand emerged from it. This time, Chu Xiu did not make it transform into a berserk form. Instead, in its normal form, it held Shen Tu Hu's horse-slaying saber in one hand and Wei Shan's giant sword in the other, and frantically slashed around.

Under the power of two perfect-quality weapons, any arm that tried to approach Chu Xiu was severed, the entire giant tree swayed, and Chu Xiu seemed to hear a soul emitting a painful scream!
However, Chu Xiu naturally showed no mercy. At this moment, he had already vaguely sensed the core area of ​​the tree, and immediately swung the Heavenly Demon Hand to kill towards the target location.

Soon, Chu Xiu found the face of a middle-aged man among the countless packages. He looked like an honest and unassuming programmer, but his eyes were lifeless and his lips were slightly parted, but no sound came out.

Chu Xiu hadn't expected the core of the giant tree to be such a thing, but he didn't think much of it and slashed it down with his sword!
As the giant sword pierced the man's head, the entire giant tree collapsed with a deafening roar, its outer shell shattered, and a torrent of human hands poured out.

Some of them weren't quite dead yet, and they twitched reflexively like snakes, which looked extremely disgusting.

[Professional Experience +233]

[Causal Points +464]

"The abyss is home to all sorts of strange creatures."

Chu Xiu sighed, and a wisp of flame fell from his fingertip. The moment it touched his arm, it spread rapidly and burst into flames as if it had taken a powerful tonic. Before long, the entire tree was engulfed in flames.

This creature isn't particularly strong, and its rank doesn't seem high, but it possesses an extremely vast divine soul and life energy, making it very suitable for both nurturing ghosts and enhancing items.

Chu Xiu pointed his finger, and countless ghosts surged out, frantically tearing at the soul of the strange tree. At the same time, a Blood Curse Bone-Piercing Nail was ejected and tempered in the corpse fire.

Because Chu Xiu did not use the highest-grade materials, the Blood Curse Bone-Piercing Nail was only of rare quality. Its power was entirely due to the strength of the demonic inheritance.

At this moment, under the scorching of the corpse fire, the material of the Blood Curse Bone-Piercing Nail visibly became stronger, and the energy contained within it also increased!

After the entire giant tree was refined, the quality of the Blood Curse Bone-Piercing Nail was directly upgraded to [Perfect], and its power increased by 150%!

Now, the Blood Curse Bone-Piercing Nail is fired, enough to directly penetrate the side armor of a heavy tank!
Moreover, the remaining energy was used to further enhance the second Blood Curse Bone-Piercing Nail by half.

This pleased Chu Xiu quite a bit.

With the enhanced Blood Curse Bone-Piercing Nail, his offensive capabilities have been elevated to a whole new level!
At the same time, the giant tree's powerful divine soul directly added seven more ferocious ghosts to Chu Xiu's body.

Including his previous accumulations, he now has an astonishing total of thirty-four ferocious ghosts!

After the entire giant tree was refined, an iron gate that had been hidden by it was revealed on the ground.

The iron gate wasn't large, only two meters long and one meter wide, and it was now covered in rust. Chu Xiu grabbed the doorknob and pulled hard, and the entire iron gate was flung open, letting in a cloud of murky air that had been sealed for many years.

Just as Chu Xiu was about to take a closer look, a loud whooshing sound came from behind him. He turned around and saw that the silver-white knight was rushing towards him like a madman!

Without further hesitation, Chu Xiu leaped into the shelter. Almost the instant he entered, the silver knight's greatsword struck the spot where he had been standing, the sword energy carving a huge trench in the ground!

The silver knight let out a furious roar of resentment and slammed his fist into the ground!

It looked up at the scattered branches and leaves, and its eyes revealed an extremely human-like anger and sadness.

But this feeling only lasted for a moment.

The next second, it regained its composure, shouldered its greatsword, and walked into the distance to begin its daily patrol.

Just like it has been doing for the past thirty years.

(End of this chapter)