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

Chapter 134 Abyss and the Past

"Evidence from the past".

Ye Junlin silently murmured this unfamiliar term.

Qin Xiang asked, "Have you ever thought about this question: what exactly is the Abyss? And why does it help Awakened Ones grow? Killing monsters can level up and drop equipment and karma points, and participating in the Awakening Trial will even give you a complete world, as well as various quest rewards. Is the Abyss some kind of benevolent philanthropist?"

Qin Xiang's words left Ye Junlin momentarily speechless. He had certainly considered this question, and in fact, everyone who comes into contact with the Abyss for the first time should have the same question.

But the Abyss is far too mysterious to everyone. Even the top awakened ones know very little about it, and no one can give an answer.

Ye Junlin shook his head, and Qin Xiang continued, "This is because only by going deep enough into the abyss can the abyss devour us. As we grow stronger by relying on the power of the abyss, we are also constantly going deeper into the abyss."

As he spoke, Qin Xiang took out a document and tossed it over: "You must have come across the concept of deep-sea diving when you were undergoing the Warrior-level Trial, right?"

"This is a statistic from relevant departments on the depth of the warrior-level trials over the past two decades."

Ye Junlin took a look and was shocked to find that the number was constantly increasing. Twenty years ago, the average deep-sea diving depth was only 412, but this year it has become 917!

"Not only that, there's also this," Qin Xiang took out another document, "This is the success rate of world missions over the past thirty years."

Ye Junlin took a look and found that it was roughly in the shape of a convex arc, which reached its peak thirteen years ago and then gradually declined.

"When people first entered the abyss, they were unprepared, so the success rate was very low. Later, as the government established unified management measures, centralized intelligence analysis agencies, and improved the overall training and equipment levels, the success rate rose rapidly."

"But thirteen years ago, it seemed to have reached a critical point and began to slowly decline."

"I can tell you with certainty that the overall elite level of our students has been rising every year, never declining. So there's only one explanation: the difficulty of the world missions is also increasing! And the rate of increase is faster than our rate of progress!"

Qin Xiang's words finally made Ye Junlin realize the seriousness of the matter.

In the abyss, the deeper the depth, the greater the difficulty and the greater the danger. In other words, for the past ten years or so, Blue Star has been sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss!

At that moment, Ye Junlin thought of something: "Those extraterrestrial demons."

“That’s right,” Qin Xiang nodded. “This may mean that Blue Star has already ventured into a completely new region.”

"In the future, we may also become like those lifeless, apocalyptic worlds swallowed up by the abyss, completely swallowed by the abyss."

Now Ye Junlin finally understood why Qin Xiang, an A-level operator, and his parents had such solemn expressions.

If we cannot stop the Blue Star from continuing to decline, one day, the Blue Star will become like the apocalypse in the world of the corpse demons!
"But what does this have to do with the Dark Night King?" Ye Junlin was still puzzled. "Could he possibly stop Blue Star from entering the Abyss?"

"Junlin, let me ask you another question," Qin Xiang didn't answer directly, but instead posed another question: "What do you think constitutes a world being swallowed by the abyss?"

Ye Junlin was taken aback. Recalling the information he had read about various worlds, he was momentarily stumped by the question.

Life extinguished? No, life exists in many worlds, just without humans.

Are they occupied by abyssal creatures? That doesn't seem right either. For example, in the world of transcendent evolution, there aren't many abyssal creatures; they are mostly native animals and plants that are constantly evolving.

Finally, Qin Xiang provided the answer: "It is the disappearance of 'civilization'."

"civilization?"

"That's right, let me give you an example."

As he spoke, Qin Xiang casually crumpled a piece of paper into a small ball and threw it forward. The ball traced a precise parabola before landing on the ground.

"If I throw the same ball in the same direction and with the same force, assuming it is not subject to any other external forces, will its landing point be any different if I throw it a hundred times?"

Ye Junlin shook his head.

"What about ten thousand times?"

Ye Junlin shook his head again.

Qin Xiang nodded and said, "That's right. In the world of classical physics, everything is a calculable constant. This is the 'clock theory' that was very popular among 19th-century physicists. It means that everything is like a clock, with a definite law of development. We humans can hardly predict it, it's just that our calculation ability is not strong enough."

"Of course, we now know that the world is full of uncertainty. Quantum mechanics tells us that randomness may be the underlying logic of the world."

"But from a macroscopic perspective, the development of everything is still based on classical physics. It's just that the real world is too complex and full of countless variables. Any tiny change can lead to huge changes in the outcome. With human capabilities, even basic weather forecasting can only be simulated and estimated, not calculated precisely."

"But the Abyss is different. The Abyss is powerful enough to make precise calculations about the real world! In other words, the Abyss can completely predict every change in a world over the next thousand years, without the slightest error!"

"When it achieves this, although the creatures in the world will still be moving and reproducing, everything will be determined. There will be no more variables in that world, and the abyss will be able to completely digitize it and devour it as food!"

"Civilization, on the other hand, can greatly increase the complexity of the world and prevent the abyss from swallowing it up!"

"The actions of a tiger are quite predictable; it's simply a matter of hunting and resting. The behavior of a human is also not particularly complex. But when a group of people come together to form a civilization, when music, literature, and art are born, and when sparks of thought collide and exchange, the difficulty of prediction increases exponentially!"

"Human thought is vast and complex. Countless thoughts arise at every moment, intermingling and influencing each other. A sentence you saw unintentionally ten years ago, even if you have forgotten it, may still be imprinted in your subconscious and influence your actions ten years later. It is this tiny deviation that makes the abyss unable to be completely predictable, and as long as it cannot be completely predicted, it cannot devour us."

Qin Xiang's words left Ye Junlin feeling confused and disoriented.

“For example, our world is a constantly evolving process. As long as the Abyss can control all the parameters and complete the evolution of the next tens of millions of years for us, it can devour us. The emergence of civilization will increase the difficulty for it to devour us,” Father Ye explained.

Now Ye Junlin understood a little: "So, civilization is the natural enemy of the abyss, and we should develop civilization as much as possible?"

“That’s right,” Qin Xiang nodded, “but this requires the proof of the past.”

"The Proof of the Old Days can only be obtained when a single person's contribution to the world reaches 50% or more. It can guide the awakened to the Old Days."

"The so-called 'old days' are civilizations that have not been completely annihilated but are isolated in another dimension of time and space. When the flame of civilization is small enough but not completely extinguished, the abyss will isolate it in order to complete its devouring of the world ahead of time."

“Those who possess the proof of the past are called ‘civilization envoys.’ As long as the flame of civilization is rekindled in the past, that civilization can be rescued from the past. The emergence of civilization will allow the outer world to completely escape from the abyss and be put into our hands.”

"Only by collecting, strengthening, and gathering these scattered sparks of civilization, and igniting a torch strong enough to illuminate the darkness, can we possibly fight against the abyss!"

Qin Xiang's words made Ye Junlin understand completely.

The number of Awakened Ones is too small. Even if they conquer the world of the Corpse Demons, they will only be a group of passersby and plunderers. They will have no chance of thriving and establishing a civilization in this world.

Therefore, we must ignite the flame of local civilization in order to truly conquer the world.

"Civilization is extremely important. In addition to restoring civilization, there is also a chance to find information about the superior beings who destroyed this world in the past."

"In battles between high-level awakened beings, intelligence is crucial, which is why the eight Heavenly Kings have been nurturing disciples with the potential to become civilization envoys."

"But so far, there are only five people, and I have just inquired and found that the Dark Night King is not a disciple of any of the top awakened ones we know."

"Therefore, we must find a way to contact him!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Junlin fully realized the seriousness of the situation and nodded solemnly. Meanwhile, Chu Xiu, completely unaware that he had attracted the attention of a group of important figures, returned to Blue Star.

As his body slowly solidified, he landed on the plaza.

Because he had lingered in the Awakening Space for a while, he returned relatively late. By the time he returned to Blue Star, there were only a few people left in the square.

Then he immediately saw Zhang Qingshan running towards him excitedly.

"Achu, you're still alive!"

He shouted in surprise and delight, rushed over and gave Chu Xiu a bear hug.

Chu Xiu was slightly taken aback, then chuckled and said, "Why are you so agitated? I'm not that easy to kill."

Zhang Qingshan's eyes reddened slightly: "I went to the stronghold earlier and couldn't find you. I thought something had happened to you."

Upon hearing this, Chu Xiu immediately realized what was going on.

When Zhang Qingshan went back to rescue the support professions, he must have deliberately looked for me, but naturally I couldn't find him.

Therefore, in his view, since he, as a support class, was not in the stronghold, he was likely already dead in the abyss, which naturally made him extremely sad.

However, perhaps because he was unwilling to give up, he waited in the square for a long time. The longer he waited, the more desperate he became. Unexpectedly, he actually saw Chu Xiu at the last moment. How could he not be excited?
Thinking of this, Chu Xiu couldn't help but feel a little moved. He apologized and said, "I'm sorry, I was still unwilling to just be a support class, so I secretly ran away."

Zhang Qingshan patted Chu Xiu on the shoulder: "It's good that you're alright. I'll support whatever decision you make, Chu."

Then a smug yet mysterious smile appeared on his honest face: "By the way, Chu, guess what place I got this time?"

Chu Xiu found it amusing, but pretended not to know and said, "Seeing how happy you are, you must be ranked very high. Did you make it into the top three?"

"second!"

Zhang Qingshan said excitedly, "We got incredibly lucky at the last minute and racked up a lot of points in one go."

"You wouldn't believe it, but just as I was about to return, the demons of the Dark Night King suddenly surged up, which startled me! Luckily, I remained calm and deduced that it was the appearance of the Corpse King's offspring that alerted them."

"Although the Dark Night King's ghouls were watching us like wolves, I still acted decisively and led my men to kill all of their offspring, successfully snatching food from the tiger's mouth and grabbing a large amount of contribution points."

Chu Xiu couldn't help but chuckle as he watched Zhang Qingshan talking with great interest.

This guy thinks he can just brag like that just because I'm not around, huh?
He was calm and decisive my foot! He was so frightened by his own monster that he ran around the tower in a panic, forcing Chu Xiu to order the fierce ghost to drive the corpse prince's offspring and forcefully feed it to his friend before he could eat it.

However, Chu Xiu didn't expose him, but instead offered plenty of emotional support: "Awesome! It's already good enough that you didn't run away in that situation, but you actually dared to take the initiative to attack? Impressive!"

This praise made Zhang Qingshan feel embarrassed, and he just stood there grinning foolishly.

Suddenly, as if he had just thought of something, he said, "It's funny, but I have a feeling that this opportunity was specially given to me by the Dark King."

Chu Xiu chuckled twice: "How could that be?"

“That’s true,” Zhang Qingshan murmured, then turned around excitedly without thinking further, “By the way, I got such a high ranking this time, which is enough to help our team gain a foothold in the early stages of future explorations. Moreover, one of my team members was lucky enough to find a well-preserved map in a basement, which has detailed information about several neighboring cities!”

"How about joining my team? Let's explore together, brothers! There are definitely plenty of ghouls and hidden opportunities in other cities!"

In response to Zhang Qingshan's invitation, Chu Xiu smiled and said, "Let's talk about it later. Anyway, we still have to wait two weeks for the cooldown period before we can re-enter. I also need to think about the future development."

"it is good!"

Zhang Qingshan didn't say much, but instead chatted with him about future plans. This guy had obviously thought about it for a long time and was very well prepared, including detailed plans on where to choose the initial base, how to start developing, how to go to other cities, and so on.

Chu Xiu listened quietly. This plan was very well thought out and could not have been made by Zhang Qingshan alone. Although he was upright enough, he did not have such a good mind.

"It seems there are quite a few talented people in the Qingshan team," Chu Xiu thought to himself, also happy for his friend.

Afterwards, the two walked to the exit of the playground and were separated by staff members, who took them away to report the news.

Chu Xiu knew that the fact that the Dark Night King was an Awakened One should not be difficult for the country to guess, so before returning, he spent 6,000 Karma Points to upgrade his Qi Concealment Technique by two levels and cultivate it to perfection.

Sure enough, as soon as he approached the designated room, he saw a burly man at the door scanning the passing students.

This was at least a fierce-level Awakened One. Chu Xiu calmly activated his Qi Concealment Technique and walked past him expressionlessly.

The burly man glanced down at Chu Xiu, then, without a hint of suspicion, turned his attention to the others.

The process that followed went smoothly. Chu Xiu was just an ordinary one among the hundreds of surviving Awakened. After the routine record-keeping was completed, he was quickly allowed to leave.

Back home, his parents had prepared a sumptuous meal to celebrate his safe return from the world of Shiki.

The two elders were very happy because it meant that Chu Xiu would be well-off for the rest of his life. As a support profession, he could easily earn hundreds of thousands or even millions a year just by staying safely in the stronghold and doing odd jobs!
Of course, what the two elders didn't know was that Chu Xiu looked down on these small sums of money.

Chu Xiu's spirit and flesh storage pouch is now filled to the brim with hundreds of pieces of equipment!

In particular, they obtained a large number of high-quality equipment and items from those extreme individuals and Lin Wanyue.

Lin Wanyue alone has three pieces of [Perfect] equipment!
The only downside is that there aren't many causal points, since any normal person would use them up before the final battle against the Corpse King.

Even so, if all of these items were sold, the minimum profit would be 500 million!

It's worth mentioning that Chu Xiu also discovered the trump card that the Lin family had prepared for Lin Wanyue: a [Premium] quality item called the [Charged Hand Cannon]. This item seemed to be a piece of equipment that the Lin family had specially commissioned a powerful mechanic to tailor-make for Lin Wanyue, exchanging extreme power for the price of only being able to be used three times.

Chu Xiu estimated that, in terms of the power of a single shot, it was even greater than Ye Junlin's floating heavy cannon!

Such a good item has now come to Chu Xiu, which can be considered as making up for his lack of ranged attack methods.

"The Lin family's investment has all gone down the drain; they must be heartbroken," Chu Xiu thought to himself.

The initial investment alone was worth hundreds of millions. The trump cards and causal points prepared for Lin Wanyue were probably worth close to a billion. Even with the Lin Group's wealth, this was not a loss that could be ignored!

"I wonder if they will send someone to investigate."

Thinking of this, Chu Xiu went to the special website of the Corpse Demon World and found that the Lin family had only issued a bounty notice for clues about "Extreme Path" in a lukewarm manner, with a pitiful reward of only three million.

It's unclear whether they're investigating secretly or simply don't want to invest any more time in this matter.

Perhaps to the businessmen in the Lin family, Lin Wanyue was just an investment, and investment failures are common.

Chu Xiu clicked his tongue lightly, but didn't think much of it.

Just as he was about to shut down the website, a post suddenly popped up and was immediately pinned to the top!
[Shocking! The Dark King might actually be an Awakened One?! The National Bureau of Investigation is offering 500 million for clues about the Dark King!!!]

(End of this chapter)