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

Chapter 147 The Ascension Sequence
Without the slightest hesitation, Chu Xiu directly invested a massive amount of causal points into the Golden Muscle Nether Bone!
As the causal point burned, he felt a dense surge of demonic energy flowing into his body!
Unlike the corrosive effect of demonic energy infusion, this demonic energy was gentler and combined with Chu Xiu's body, causing his entire body to undergo another astonishing change!

Dark gold patterns appeared on his skin, his muscle density increased exponentially, and his bones turned as black as ink, like steel forged to the extreme through countless hammer blows!
[Consuming 5415 Karma Points, the first level of Golden Muscle and Nether Bone cultivation is complete!]

[Consuming 11665 Karma Points, the second level of Golden Muscle and Nether Bone cultivation is complete!]

[Consuming 24872 Karma Points, the third level of Golden Muscle and Nether Bone cultivation has been completed!]

After consuming most of his causal points, he directly cultivated this innate divine and demonic secret technique to the third level!
Dark golden runes appeared on Chu Xiu's face, and as he stood there, he seemed to be imbued with a sense of divinity.

With a gentle clench of his fist, a terrifying power, far greater than before, surged from his palm!

[Golden Skin and Dark Bone Third Layer: Constitution +680, Energy Level +360, Skin Defense +58, Bone Defense +244, Skin's heat insulation, acid corrosion resistance, and impact absorption are all greatly enhanced.]

This terrifying attribute made Chu Xiu's eyes light up with wild joy, and he once again marveled at the abnormality of the demonic path inheritance!
His physical abilities have more than doubled! And after the modification, his muscle cells can even store energy! Even his energy level has increased!

Even more astonishing is the terrifying increase in defensive power brought about by this secret technique!

It is important to know that human skin is very fragile; even a tiny wood shaving can pierce it. Although the physique of the awakened has been enhanced many times over, the skin is still a weakness.

This time, his skin defense increased by 58 points, and his various resistances were greatly improved, making it impossible for even rockets strong enough to penetrate tanks to break through Chu Xiu's skin! His super heat insulation also allows him to walk in flames of thousands of degrees Celsius without getting hurt!
The improvement in his bones was even more terrifying, making his bone strength even higher than that of the Berserk Demon Hand. If he were to fight the Blood Angel again now, Chu Xiu could simply stand there and let it chop at him, and its giant sword would get stuck in Chu Xiu's bones!

"Even with all my equipment, my physique is only 1200, but with the powerful defense of my Golden Muscles and Nether Bones, I wouldn't be afraid to fight a notary with a physique of 2000 in hand-to-hand combat!"

"Only in this way can one barely be considered a primordial god or demon!"

A smile involuntarily appeared on Chu Xiu's face.

He felt his body was truly transforming into a god or demon.

What's most terrifying is that the Golden Embryo Netherworld Technique's foundational cultivation method, the Golden Muscle Netherworld Bone Technique, has six levels!
After entering the Foundation Establishment stage, the cultivation of each inheritance is no longer as superficial as it was during the Qi Refining stage. Instead, the difficulty and complexity increase dramatically!
"Based on the information I obtained from the inheritance, those who can master this secret technique to perfection during the Foundation Establishment stage are all core disciples of the Holy Sect. Ordinary inner disciples who can reach the third level are considered to be exceptionally talented body refiners."

"By directly adding a large number of causal points, I was able to reach the third level in the early to mid-stages of Foundation Establishment!"

"Unfortunately, to reach the next level, it will probably require close to 50,000 karma points."

The cultivation of Golden Muscles and Dark Bones becomes increasingly difficult and consumes more energy as you progress.

This is a foundational cultivation technique that spans the entire Foundation Establishment stage and lays the foundation for the path of innate gods and demons. Even Chu Xiu wasn't so greedy as to intend to perfect it at the Fierce Rank.

Of course, the more you invest, the greater the return. If you continue to upgrade, perhaps one day he will become a terrifying being that remains immortal even at the epicenter of a nuclear explosion.

The incredible effects of the Golden Muscle and Nether Bone technique also made Chu Xiu very much looking forward to the power of the other inheritance, the Eight Desolate Netherfire Array!

He stared intently at it. The [Eight Desolate Netherfire Array] consisted of eight Netherfire Array Flags, each of which was of the [Top-Grade Magic Weapon] quality. When combined, they reached the [Low-Grade Spiritual Weapon] quality.

It should be noted that the Fiend Soul Banner is only a top-grade magical artifact.

Chu Xiu has now basically figured out the patterns of the three paths. The Supreme Demon Lord needs to spend time devouring flesh and blood and slowly cultivating his army of summoned creatures. The Innate God and Demon is simply a matter of adding points. The Treasure Demon Lord, on the other hand, needs to collect materials and craft equipment to achieve a qualitative leap in power.

Although the process was tedious, almost every magical artifact was incredibly powerful. Take the Blood Curse Bone-Piercing Nail, for example, which was a Warrior-level artifact. Although Chu Xiu had never detonated the Blood Curse before, he could sense that the power of the Blood Curse after being tempered and upgraded with corpse fire was definitely enough to injure a General-level enemy, meaning he could directly fight against an enemy two major ranks higher! And the Blood Curse Bone-Piercing Nail that Chu Xiu crafted wasn't even made with the most premium materials!
"Although the path of the Demon Lord of Myriad Treasures is not particularly helpful to my combat at the moment, none of the three inheritance paths are weak! As long as I can refine them, it will greatly improve my combat power."

"However, the materials alone are probably priceless, and it's not certain that we'll be able to collect them all."

"Let's look for it when we get back."

With his mind made up, Chu Xiu no longer delayed. After refining the corpses of the Baron and the Blood Angel into resurrected corpses, he began to leave the instance.

He had used up almost all the contribution points he could this time, and he couldn't wait to return to the Awakening Space to see the rewards!

As his body gradually became ethereal, Chu Xiu felt himself being pulled away by an invisible force, slowly leaving this world.

The moment his body completely dissipated, a mechanical notification sound rang in his ears.

[Currently undergoing trial evaluation]

[Evaluation complete. Your contribution to this trial is 8347]

Overall rating: Unprecedented (+1200%)

【特殊成就奖励：无视规则（+150%）、直面死神（+250%）、赌徒克星（+350%）、单杀首领（+550%）、男爵宝藏（+650%）、一网打尽（+900%）】

[Rewards being settled]

[Rewards settled!]

[Item Obtained: 33200 Causality Points]

[Item Obtained: Upgrade Flame (Legendary)]

[Occupation Obtained: Scammer (A)]

[Obtained Class: Trickster Clown (A)]

[Bonus Reward: Ascension Sequence 657 (Mythical)]

First, there was the standard causal point reward. With the extremely high task contribution bonus, he was given a full 33200 points! That's almost as much as the reward for a world quest.

You should know that the basic reward for the Fierce Rank Trial is only 800. Most people who pass the trial can get two or three thousand and that is considered an excellent performance. Chu Xiu directly increased it by ten times!
Of course, the basic rewards are the least noteworthy part of the rewards for the Fierce Trial; the more important ones are the item rewards!

The rewards for high scores are indeed amazing; they immediately gave me two A-level professions related to gambling.

The value of high-level professions goes without saying. Although Chu Xiu doesn't need them, he can still exchange them for a lot of good things.

But what really caught his attention were the last two rewards.

[Upgrade Flame (Legendary): Can upgrade any class below S rank by one level]

[Ascension Sequence 657 (Myth): An Ascension Sequence exclusive to the God of Gamblers. A Heroic Spirit Awakener can use this sequence to unlock related Ascension stages.]

Both of these props made Chu Xiu stare wide-eyed in shock.

Upgrade Flames, needless to say, can directly increase a class's level, and each one is extremely precious. Legendary quality upgrade flames can even directly upgrade an A-rank class to S-rank! Those are extremely rare and absolutely priceless!
The next prop made him gasp in shock.

"Used by a Heroic Spirit Awakener? Ascending to the Divine Rank?"

In schools, awakened individuals are usually described as belonging to five ranks: Mortal, Warrior, Fierce, General, and King.

The higher realms are extremely mysterious because so few people can reach them, and related information is very scarce. They are a level that ordinary people simply cannot access.

However, occasionally, one can still obtain some unsubstantiated information from the internet, such as the realm above the King Rank being called the "Heroic Spirit Rank"!
It is said that reaching this level is extremely difficult. First of all, just to unlock the advancement trial, one must be an S-rank class; those below S-rank are simply not qualified! More accurately, they lack the potential to become a Heroic Spirit!

The difficulty of the advancement trial will be far greater than the previous trials! And failure will mean certain death!

"Upgrading the Flame Seed can raise an A rank to an S rank, and countless King-rank Awakened will fight tooth and nail for it. The Ascension Sequence is an item used only by Heroic Spirits!"

Although he didn't know exactly what they were used for, Chu Xiu could sense just how terrifyingly valuable the two items he had obtained were.

It was worth the huge price he paid!

However, the joy on his face soon faded, and he frowned slightly instead.

These two items are extremely valuable, but they are useless to Chu Xiu himself. To convert them into cash, he must contact someone at a higher level.
"It seems it's time to make contact with the government."

Chu Xiu recalled that before the trial, government officials had contacted him, requesting to discuss the matter of the Proof of the Past.

Now that he had cleared the Ferocious Trial, Chu Xiu felt confident enough to meet with these people, not to mention he still had a large amount of equipment that needed to be exchanged promptly. Without further thought, Chu Xiu followed the guidance of the anchor point and returned to Blue Star.

The first thing he did upon returning was to go out and have a big meal at a restaurant reserved for Awakened Ones, and then go home for a good night's sleep.

When I woke up, almost all my fatigue had been washed away.

Chu Xiu turned on his computer and got down to business.

He first looked up the various materials needed to refine the Eight Desolate Netherfire Array.

As Chu Xiu had expected, each of the alternative materials was extremely expensive.

Unfortunately, although different worlds may seem vastly different, the principles behind many things are the same. For example, submarines swim in the water and fighter jets fly in the sky, but both require extremely high-strength steel and metals.

The same applies to the extraordinary world. The various materials it needs are also needed by other professions. For example, blood is needed for drawing array patterns, and mages also need it to draw magic arrays.

"Heavy Water Nether Sand, one grain costs five million, and at least twenty grains are needed to refine one array flag, which is one hundred million. Spirit Wood Heart, one piece costs over one hundred million, and it must be at least of the General rank, requiring Yin attribute beast hide with excellent mana permeability."

The more Chu Xiu calculated, the more his scalp tingled.

And these materials that can be bought with money are considered good; there are also many high-level materials, and the sellers are not short of money at all! They can either barter with high-level equipment or use causal points!

"So causality is the hard currency of this world."

Leaving aside others, he himself was also extremely short of karma points. Even after receiving a large number of trial rewards, he was still nearly 10,000 karma points short of cultivating the fourth level of Golden Muscle and Nether Bone. Naturally, he could not use karma points to exchange for these materials.

He does have quite a bit of equipment, but those who sell these materials are mostly Awakened Ones of General rank or higher. Apart from legendary equipment, they generally don't care about other equipment.

"We need to make contact with the major powers."

Once he made up his mind, Chu Xiu immediately took action.

He put on his gear, concealed his identity, and carefully avoided cameras as he went until he reached the vicinity of the school.

A vengeful ghost silently crept in and placed a rolled-up piece of paper on the desk of the Investigation Bureau's office.

The content above is very simple, consisting of only one line of small print: 【City of Abyss No. 3, BD07483AH8S—King of the Night】

This was just a temporary office, not well-prepared, so the ghost did it easily. However, Chu Xiu knew that while he was away, the investigation bureau had been searching for him non-stop. As soon as the note was discovered, it would be immediately passed on to his superiors.

After doing all this, Chu Xiu returned home and took out the [Information Body Clone] item that Song Linchuan had given him.

He was also quite interested in this mysterious Yuan City.

As the prop was used, Chu Xiu felt a wisp of his will merge into the humanoid doll in his hand, and then a magical link seemed to be established between him and the doll.

To his astonishment, the puppet's body, starting from its head, gradually dissipated as if transformed into streams of invisible data, and a part of Chu Xiu's consciousness also vanished into the void.

It was a very strange feeling; he could feel his consciousness being swept along by the doll's data, rapidly traversing through a pre-programmed "pipeline."

Chu Xiu didn't know why he used the word "pipeline" to describe it. Perhaps his consciousness was tightly bound, and no matter which direction he wanted to move, he would encounter a hard barrier. He could only move along a predetermined route in this distorted space where there was nothing.

"Am I being transmitted as data through the network cable?" Chu Xiu thought with amusement.

Fortunately, the strange feeling did not last long. In less than a minute, the distorted space around him stopped, and Chu Xiu found himself in a space completely "stacked" by data.

In this space, there are no physical entities; everything is just pure data, yet this data has transformed into physical entities.

For example, Chu Xiu could sense that there was a house in front of him, but the walls of the house were not made of stone or any physical material. Instead, they were made of strings of code, which introduced Chu Xiu to the hardness, density, weight, and color of the walls.

In short, in this world, he no longer perceives the world through his "senses," but is able to directly acquire the properties of any substance!
This made him quite uncomfortable, because all his familiar senses had been taken away, and Chu Xiu felt as if he had become a cold, rigid robot without any emotions.

"What a peculiar feeling. No wonder Song Linchuan said that Yuancheng is a difficult place to describe, and only by entering it in person can one understand it."

Chu Xiu suppressed his discomfort and began to study it carefully.

Before long, he figured out the basic usage of the information body.

Here, his physical form is just a string of data. Apart from the most core information, his identity, which cannot be changed, things like his appearance, name, and gender can be set freely. You can even change it to a Walmart plastic bag.

His original name was "Little Taoist of Longhu Mountain," and he was a handsome young man.

In fact, Chu Xiu didn't know what the original owner looked like. He only knew that his appearance data contained strange descriptions such as handsome appearance, high nose bridge, phoenix eyes, height of 185 cm, and eight-pack abs.

This made Chu Xiu a little flustered. He thought to himself that Song Linchuan looked so serious, but he was actually quite flirtatious.

After thinking about it, he simply deleted all the appearance data. Now, in other people's eyes, he is a human black hole whose gender is unknown.

As for the name, after a slight hesitation, I chose [Dark Night Monarch].

To be honest, Chu Xiu really disliked this name; it felt like the nickname of a male protagonist in an old-fashioned online novel from the last century. However, he set it up this way to make it easier for government officials to contact him.

Chu Xiu continued to wander around the city, encountering many data entities like himself. These entities were mostly mysterious, coming and going in a hurry without communicating with anyone. Chu Xiu tried to greet them a few times, but most of them only glanced at him and then ignored him.

Chu Xiu didn't pay any attention and continued to tour the main buildings in the city, quickly understanding the purpose of Yuan City.

Just as Bian Guanyue said, this is a large anonymous forum.

Chu Xiu can exchange information, contact friends, and so on here.

For example, he has just received a friend request with the name "Cherish Life, Stay Away from Gambling", which should be Song Linchuan.

This guy is quick on the uptake; he's already created another ID.

Chu Xiu agreed to the application, and soon he felt that he had established a connection with an information entity on the other side of Yuan City. At the moment the connection was established, information was immediately transmitted.

Brother Chen, you've finally arrived! I've been waiting for you for so long!

Immediately, Song Linchuan pulled him into a group chat with eight people, who were presumably all powerful upper-class children.

Chu Xiu gave a perfunctory reply, and Song Linchuan seemed to only want to befriend him. After becoming his friend, he quickly left Yuancheng.

Chu Xiu, on the other hand, continued to stroll around the city.

He discovered that there were many "information vendors" in the city, including individual stalls and large shops.

Here, there are a large number of strange items that can never be seen in the outside world, and even the trade of various contraband items that are completely prohibited by law!

This place is practically a dark web exclusively for awakened beings!

Drugs, slaves, and items belonging to evil gods—Chu Xiu also saw an S-level talent awakener who had been captured and was being openly sold like a pig.

The more Chu Xiu looked, the more his brows furrowed. Many shocking pieces of information made him realize that the world of the Awakened might be far darker than he had imagined!

Kidnapping, poisoning, assassination, human transmutation.
"It seems that there is no shortage of demonic cultivators in any era," Chu Xiu sighed.

This is normal, since when people possess extraordinary powers, their dark side is amplified infinitely.

Just as he was secretly shocked, a friend request came through.

He's a government official.

(End of this chapter)