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

Chapter 161 Colonel
In less than five minutes, the noisy forest returned to tranquility.

It was even quieter than before; not a single bird could be heard chirping.

Chu Xiu's Soul-Slaying Banner became even more vibrant, as if it had absorbed the life force of the entire mountain forest into its body.

He could sense that an extremely powerful life was about to be born from it.

But, there’s still a little bit to go.

When Chu Xiu refined all the corrupted soldiers and flew back unhurriedly, Su Jinyu's expression had become extremely strange.

She originally thought that Chu Xiu had backed down because he was wary of Huang Guohua's strength. After all, a "summoning class" like him was indeed countered by classes with strong single-target attacks.

But now it seems that it's a completely different story. Chu Xiu's close combat skills are in no way inferior to Huang Guohua's! They might even be stronger! At least in terms of performance, he's much more brutal!
This shattered Su Jinyu's worldview.

A Berserker-rank Awakener is stronger than a Rank 9 General-rank veteran Martial Artist, and is even a Summoner! Is that even reasonable?

If she knew that Chu Xiu was only a level 3 Ferocious Rank, this girl's already nearly collapsed worldview would probably crumble even further.

She opened her mouth as if she had many questions, but in the end she didn't ask anything and swallowed back the words that were about to come out.

However, Chu Xiu took the initiative to answer her question: "The reason I was floating in the sky was because I had some information. An extremely powerful corrupted creature had crawled out from the bottom of the pit. The corrupted awakeners called it 'Colonel'."

"I've been patrolling high in the sky to guard against it."

He thought highly of this girl, believing that her intelligence and knowledge might bring him unexpected help. Since she had revealed all her information without reservation, he readily shared the information he knew as well.

"I see," Su Jinyu said with a look of sudden realization, but then a new question arose: "Then why aren't you afraid anymore?"

Chu Xiu revealed a gloating smile: "If I were the calamity underground, I would definitely send out my strongest forces to eliminate the most difficult enemy and retrieve the most difficult-to-retrieve [contaminants]."

Upon hearing this, Su Jinyu immediately realized what was happening and gave Chu Xiu a deep look.

It turns out that Chu Xiu's reason for readily letting Xue Li and the others leave was not because he feared their strength, but because he wanted to use them as bait!

For a calamity capable of sensing the existence of [contaminants], the [contaminant] that was carried away by multiple powerful awakened individuals and quickly moved away is undoubtedly the top priority!
He asked who had the pollutants earlier to confirm this!
However, Su Jinyu wasn't offended by Chu Xiu's behavior; she was just pretending to be a good person, not actually one.

Besides, these are just Chu Xiu's own speculations.

However, what she didn't know was that this wasn't just Chu Xiu's guess, but that he was absolutely certain of it.

When he commanded the strange bird to land, his divine sense had already detected the so-called "colonel".

After advancing to the level 3 of the Ferocious Rank, the range of divine sense has expanded to nearly 150 meters. As an S-rank talent, divine sense has extremely strong detection capabilities, just like 3D scanning. As long as it is within range, even the slightest movement will be captured, and even mosquitoes can be sensed.

Aside from special stealth skills like blending into a shadow, few can evade divine sense detection.

The "colonel" was about 100 meters away from the group.

It was a humanoid creature about 1.75 meters tall. Although it tried its best to conceal its aura, Chu Xiu could still feel the immense power contained within it, which was far stronger than any of the corrupted awakeners!

Although Chu Xiu showed no outward expression at the time, he was actually so frightened that he almost wanted to run away immediately.

However, he soon discovered that the colonel had no intention of attacking; he was simply hiding nearby, silently observing everyone.

This puzzled Chu Xiu, but after thinking about it carefully, he understood.

The colonel has refrained from taking action, likely to avoid alerting the enemy.

He wasn't sure who had the [contaminant]. While he could kill one person instantly with his strength, he wasn't confident he could wipe out the entire group, especially Chu Xiu, who had a flying mount.

If Chu Xiu wasn't mistaken, he should have arrived near the battlefield much earlier, perhaps even before the group of corrupted awakened beings besieged him.

However, Chu Xiu remained cautiously flying high in the sky, and he was afraid of scaring Chu Xiu away, which was why he hadn't made a move.

This discovery sent a chill down Chu Xiu's spine. He thought to himself that he was lucky he was cautious enough, otherwise he might have been seriously injured by that colonel the moment he landed!
Once you understand this section, the rest is simple.

Having learned from the previous battles that the Corrupted Awakened are capable of communication, he used the discussion of payment to point out that the [Contaminant] was actually in Huang Guohua.

It was not a "certainty" as Su Jinyu thought, but a premeditated "framing".

He left immediately without delay, and as he expected, the "colonel" did not care about his departure and immediately followed the others.

This is the reason why Chu Xiu acted so recklessly.

"Then what's next"

"It's all about taking advantage of the jungler's absence to farm properly!"

His gaze drifted into the depths of the cave, where he could sense that a large number of underground humans were still searching for [pollutants].

Without much thought, he took the Blood Demon and immediately headed towards the location of the [contaminant].

At almost the same moment, on the other side of the mountain range, Xue Li and his companions were speeding through the forest.

They were incredibly fast, like eight cheetahs running at top speed.

However, for those who have entered the transcendent realm, this speed is not much different from taking a walk.

At this moment, Xue Li's expression was somewhat complicated, as if he was struggling with something.

After a long silence, he finally couldn't help but ask, "Uncle Huang, are we really going back like this?"

"We've encountered a calamity that has just awakened and hasn't yet recovered its power! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"

"Didn't my parents just eliminate a calamity, thus gaining the resources to advance to [Heroic Spirit]?"

As the son of a high-level Awakened, he knew many secrets unknown to ordinary people and was all too aware of what this meant.

As Su Jinyu said, after the world escapes the abyss, the total amount of power in the abyss remains unchanged.

In other words, no matter how much the calamity grows in the future, whether the number of underground humans increases a hundredfold or a thousandfold, the total amount of causal points, equipment, items, and experience points that are generated will not change in the slightest.

Of course, in contrast, no matter how weak the calamity becomes, these benefits will remain unchanged!

At this moment, the Calamity, which has just awakened, is at its weakest! It may only need the strength of a General to drop King-level treasures!
Even if they couldn't directly kill the calamity beneath the earth, the countless abyssal creatures alone would be a huge resource. Although Xue Li was afraid before, looking back after surviving the crisis, he felt somewhat unwilling.

Upon hearing this, Huang Guohua shook his head regretfully.

"Young master, my [Martial Artist (A)] class is extremely strong in one-on-one combat, but lacks area-of-effect skills."

“If it were just me alone, then of course it wouldn’t matter, but I really don’t have the confidence to protect your personal safety from so many abyssal creatures.”

"Besides, back then, Master and Miss were both at the King level when they went to challenge the calamity. The danger of these high-level creatures is far greater than you can imagine."

"Young master, you are still young and there is no need to take risks. What you need to do now is to be steady and pragmatic. In the future, more and better opportunities will naturally await you."

Huang Guohua spoke slowly and deliberately, his face showing concern for Xue Li.

"But if we go back like this, my parents will be disappointed."

Xue Li seemed to want to say something more, but at this moment Huang Guohua's eyes suddenly narrowed and he looked sharply behind him!

This startled Xue Li, who swallowed the rest of his sentence and looked at the old man with suspicion: "Uncle Huang, what's wrong?"

"Someone is following us. It's probably the Dark Night King who's still upset and is looking for trouble."

A cold glint flashed in Huang Guohua's old eyes as he said disdainfully, "Your concealment skills are not bad for a fierce-level opponent, but unfortunately, you're far from being able to fool me!"

"Since this brat is so arrogant, I'll teach him a lesson. Although the abyss has allowed him to increase his strength rapidly, power that hasn't been tempered by time is like a rootless duckweed, utterly vulnerable in the face of a true powerhouse!"

After saying that, he stopped and looked back coldly.

The others also adopted a fighting stance of joining forces against the enemy.

Just then, seemingly realizing that he had been discovered, a dark figure suddenly rushed out from the bushes not far away at an extremely fast speed!

"Well done!"

Huang Guohua shouted and assumed a fighting stance, with a yin-yang symbol appearing on the soles of his feet!
The signature skill of the Martial Artist class, [Martial Artist Domain (Superior General Rank)], can detect everything within the domain's range, greatly enhancing perception and reaction speed, and automatically launching a counterattack the moment an enemy enters the domain!

Skip the thought process and let your body's instincts, honed thousands of times, deliver the best counterattack!
The moment that figure stepped into the area, Huang Guohua unleashed a powerful punch without any hesitation!

His fist flashed with blue light, also a high-level skill: [Hundred Battles Mountain Crashing Fist (Advanced Fierce Rank)]!
This punch was extremely fast. Huang Guohua was confident that, let alone a mere Dark Night King, even any melee class of the same level would not be able to easily withstand it!
However, in just a moment, his expression changed drastically!

His extremely fast counterattack, though unsurprisingly, struck the oncoming figure. However, instead of coughing up blood and flying backward as he had expected, the opponent felt a sharp pain in his fist!

The next moment, to his disbelief, a crisp "crack" sound rang out, and his wrist was broken by the enormous impact!

"How can this be?!"

Huang Guohua was horrified. His punch had the power to split mountains and shatter rocks, and could even destroy a heavy tank. Even if the opponent was wearing high-quality armor, it would at most reduce the damage. How could it possibly break his wrist in return?
He felt that he was not hitting a human body, but a monster with extremely high density, as if hundreds of tons of steel had been compressed into a human shape!

Before he could even recover from his shock, the "person" stretched out its arms with lightning speed, and the next instant, accompanied by a scream, Huang Guohua didn't even have time to react before his other arm was dislocated!

The intense pain cleared Huang Guohua's mind, and he finally saw clearly that this was not the Dark Night King at all, but a strange man about 1.75 meters tall, wearing a military uniform, with eerie silver-white skin and an expressionless face!

"you!"

At the critical moment, Huang Guohua reacted extremely quickly. He crossed his legs and kicked the strange man's chest with his right foot, his toes exploding with tremendous energy in an instant!

This was also a very powerful martial art, but the person was like a man of steel in a movie, only swaying for a moment before remaining motionless in place!

However, Huang Guohua didn't intend to hurt him. Instead, he used the recoil to escape quickly, shouting at the same time, "Young Master! Use all your trump cards, then run!!!"

Before Huang Guohua could finish speaking, Xue Li had already reacted. He wasn't a complete fool. After seeing the figure dislocate Huang Guohua's left arm in an instant, the danger of death suddenly shot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head!

He took out a ball of green light and threw it at the figure's feet. The next moment, the surrounding scenery changed instantly. The original lush green mountains disappeared and were replaced by countless twisting and turning withered branches and vines that looked like the white bones of a dead person!
Legendary item: [Garden of the Dead]!
It can drag the target into the domain in a short time, while simultaneously enduring the double blow of [reality] and [spirit]! As long as either physical or mental weakness exists, the target will be unable to escape the garden and will eventually be slowly devoured by it, becoming nourishment for the undead plants within!
The moment the domain unfolded, without any verbal communication, everyone tacitly scattered like birds and beasts, fleeing in different directions for their lives!

Seconds later, with a loud bang, the entire area shattered, and countless withered branches fell in all directions.

The colonel's body, without any signs of injury, appeared in the same spot.

However, it seems to be relatively weak in the [Spirit] attribute, so although the Garden of the Dead did not damage it, it still managed to hold it off for a few seconds.

In that short time, a high-level awakened being could escape very far.

The colonel stiffly turned his neck for a moment, as if sensing something, and finally locked onto the direction Huang Guohua had left in.

The next moment, it shot out like a cannonball and disappeared into the depths of the dense forest.

"boom!"

At the same moment, on a distant peak, Chu Xiutian stretched out his demonic hand, grabbed the last corrupted soldier rushing towards him, and then crushed him with a "snap".

Beside him lay the mutilated corpses of corrupted creatures, including many high-ranking corrupted soldiers.

Knowing that the colonel could return at any time, Chu Xiu wasted no time. Just half a minute after entering the cave, he cleared out the corrupting creatures and found the abandoned [pollutants] at the confluence of an underground river.

After putting it away, he didn't leave. Instead, he took it directly to the most conspicuous mountain peak nearby and, with the help of the Blood Demon, used a special method to greatly spread the aura of [contamination].

This action directly attracted all the corrupted creatures that had been searching for within a radius of several miles.

Then came a massacre that was a foregone conclusion.

In this battle, he killed at least 20,000 corrupted residents and a little over 1,000 corrupted soldiers.

The only regret is that we don't know where those corrupted awakened ones went; we haven't seen any trace of them.

But even so.
"That should be enough."

Chu Xiu smiled and waved his hand.

As the surrounding corpses began to burn, countless souls were absorbed into the Soul Banner, making the banner's color increasingly vibrant!

The level of each ghost began to soar, and in the very center of the Soul Banner, the ghost transformed from the Blood Angel, surrounded by countless blood demons, once again attempted to advance to a higher level!

(End of this chapter)