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

Chapter 210: The End Difficulty
"Disaster? The end?"

The words that appeared on the panel in front of him made Chu Xiu's eyes narrow slightly.

He had already heard Qin Xiang and Ya Zi talk about the first three options, but he didn't expect that there would be two more levels afterward!
Chu Xiu concentrated his mind and immersed himself in the panel. Soon, detailed information flooded into his mind.

[1. Four-player (Standard Ancient Trial; upon completion, each player will receive at least one legendary item or piece of equipment.)]

[2. Two-player mode (Abyss difficulty increased by 20%, total drop rate increased by 20%, and at least one Mythic item will be obtained upon completion.)]

[3. Solo (Abyss difficulty increased by 30%, total drop rate increased by 30%, drop item rarity increased, and at least one Mythic equipment or item will be obtained upon completion.)]

[4. Calamity (Abyss difficulty increased by 100%, total drop rate increased by 100%, drop item rarity further increased, upon completion you will receive at least one Mythic equipment and item, and have a chance to obtain a special reward.)]

[5. The End (Abyss intensity increased by 200%, total drop rate increased by 200%, one of nine random killing modes will appear, a special reward is guaranteed, and the tier of the special reward is increased.)]

The information that appeared before him made Chu Xiu look thoughtful.

With his current strength, clearing the single-player mode should be no problem for him; in fact, it's highly likely he can clear it with overwhelming power.

Then the problem is coming.

Should we take the risk and challenge the next level?

"If I fail the challenge, I will lose the Proof of the Ancients. Not only will I lose the privileges of a Civilization Envoy on Blue Star, but I will also completely lose the qualification to challenge the Trials of the Ancients and obtain high-level rewards."

Therefore, if the increase in rewards is just more equipment, Chu Xiu might actually play it safe, given his personality. After all, although he is currently strong enough to easily clear the level, the Abyss is unpredictable, and no one knows what will spawn.

The Abyss is a real world. Although it has certain limitations, theoretically speaking, it is not impossible to encounter high-level monsters in low-level dungeons, or even dungeons where death is certain.

However, the special reward mentioned at the end piqued Chu Xiu's curiosity.

What will the special reward be? Could it be even more valuable than mythical equipment?

Although it's not explicitly stated in the description, the Abyss doesn't play word games, so it's highly unlikely that any so-called special rewards will be nothing more than useless trifles.

Since it appears in the rewards for higher difficulty levels, it's highly likely that its value is no less than that of mythical equipment, and may even be better!
"This involves calculating risks and returns."

Chu Xiu stroked his chin, quickly thinking to himself.

During this time, Qin Xiang also gave him a lot of information about the old trials, as well as detailed experiences of past civilizations in passing the trials.

This also gave Chu Xiu a deeper understanding of the trials of the past.

"Generally speaking, the minimum requirement for the four-person trial is that the total strength of the four-person team reaches the high-level king level. However, this is only the minimum requirement. To pass the trial safely, either the team composition is very reasonable and the four people have excellent psychological qualities, intelligence, and analytical abilities, or they need to reach a higher combat power."

"To be on the safe side, our total combat strength still needs to reach the level of a low-level King-rank Awakener."

"The difficulty of the two-player mode is not much higher, only 20%. A total combat power of a high-level King-rank Awakener can easily handle it. The single-player mode is similar."

"And now, even just looking at my physical strength, I am undoubtedly a high-level King-rank Awakened! I can even fight against the top-tier King-ranks!"

Not to mention, Chu Xiu also has a Blood Demon incarnation.

Based on this calculation, clearing the Calamity level should at least not be a problem.

Chu Xiu hesitated about whether to challenge the last difficulty level.

If it were merely an increase in the strength of the Abyss, it would still be within Chu Xiu's ability to cope, since the Blood Demon Avatar possesses strength far exceeding that of an ordinary King-level being.

The key is——

Kill Mode

This unknown term brings too much uncertainty!

Who knows what this "Kill Mode" is?
But the rewards are also extremely tempting.

Unlike the chance to obtain special rewards during calamities, you are guaranteed to receive them during the End! Furthermore, the tier of the reward will increase!

After a moment of internal struggle, Chu Xiu licked his lips, a madness unique to gamblers appearing in his eyes.

"Give it a try!"

"Select the [End] difficulty!"

Although he has always analyzed things rationally, it must be said that deep down, Chu Xiu has always carried the radicalism of a demonic cultivator.

As he made his selection, a new prompt appeared.

[Trial in progress]

[Added Kill Mode: Eternal Hunter]

[Eternal Hunter: An alien civilization will descend as a hunter. The hunter's success is determined by killing the trial participant.]

The Hunter's health regeneration rate is greatly increased. Any damage received will permanently increase resistance to the corresponding damage type. If killed or near death, the Hunter will be resurrected on the spot with full health after three hours, and their base attributes will be doubled. The Hunter can choose to die at any time, in which case their base attributes will still be increased, but the resurrection time will be extended to four times. The resurrection location will be randomly selected within the mission area.

Successfully completing the Hunter's Quest will reward you with "Legendary" equipment. Failure will result in the loss of Ancient Tokens. If an Ancient Token was used during the Quest and its Ancient Level was reduced to zero, the user will be instantly eliminated.

[Note: Hunters are only allowed to attack trial participants and must not interfere with the mission progress.]

[The trial has been generated. Please enter within three days.]

The reappearance of those words made even Chu Xiu gasp slightly.

"The Eternal Hunter! An Envoy of an Alien Civilization?"

"Do other races also have envoys of civilization?"

Although Chu Xiu knew that the abyss contained countless worlds, at least hundreds of billions, and there were definitely a large number of intelligent life forms other than humans.

But this was the first time he had ever heard of an envoy from a foreign civilization!
"If the alien civilization envoy and the human civilization envoy are of similar strength, does that mean I will be hunted down by one of the civilization envoys?"

If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad. Although a Civilization Envoy is the pinnacle in the eyes of ordinary geniuses, it's nothing to Chu Xiu.

Without being immodest, Chu Xiu could kill them with a mere wave of his hand now.

What he really cared about was this terrifying mode of pursuit!

"Taking any damage will increase your resistance accordingly, and you will revive even after being completely killed! Your base attributes will even double after reviving!"

"Even if you trap them, they can still commit suicide! What's even more outrageous is that suicide also has attribute-boosting effects???"

Looking at the description before him, Chu Xiu was speechless.

Isn't this just a Doomsday that can be resurrected?

According to past records of the trials, they usually last for several days. That's enough time for the opponent to revive a dozen times.

Based on this exponential growth rate, let alone Chu Xiu, even a [Heroic Spirit] wouldn't be able to withstand it!

He had expected this last difficulty level to be extremely challenging, but he hadn't imagined it would be this extreme!
"No wonder it's called the End, the difficulty is really..." Chu Xiu could only manage a wry smile now.

However, having already made the decision, Chu Xiu would not regret it or feel remorse anymore, but instead began to carefully analyze the countermeasures.

“A head-on confrontation is definitely not an option. Killing the opponent three times will cause their base attributes to skyrocket to eight times. Even if their equipment and skills don’t update accordingly and their combat power doesn’t increase eightfold, it’s enough to give me a headache, not to mention that the opponent will adapt to my attack methods.”

"Even if we could win, we wouldn't have the energy to complete the mission in order to deal with this constant harassment."

"Therefore, we must try our best to avoid the other party and complete the trial mission as quickly as possible. We must not delay until seven days."

In seven days, even if the other party keeps committing suicide, they can still be resurrected thirteen times. That's an eight-thousand-fold increase in basic attributes. They could crush Chu Xiu with a single finger!

"Fortunately, this trial mission still has some humanity, which prevents the illusionary body from interfering with the mission's progress. Otherwise, if they were determined to slaughter the local residents to force me out, it would be an unsolvable dilemma."

Somewhat speechless, Chu Xiu shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

In the following time, he arranged practical matters, said goodbye to his friends, and made a reasonable excuse to leave his parents to go out and have fun. After settling everything, Chu Xiu no longer hesitated and officially began the trial.

[Trial begins, currently in deep dive.]

[Deep dive complete, current depth: 5079]

Chu Xiu felt a chill run down his spine.

He still remembered that when he first advanced through the trial, his depth was only a little over a thousand, and the second time it was less than a thousand five hundred.

This time, it reached five thousand!
"At this depth, who knows what kind of strange things might appear."

Chu Xiu composed himself and began to examine the specific task description.

[Trial Name: Eight Heavenly Dragons]

Basic Tasks:

[1. Preserve as much of the spark of civilization as possible. Current progress: 100%/100%]

[2. Bring the spark of civilization back to the world of the dead. Current progress: 0/100%]

[Trial Mission: Survive for seven days or bring back more than 50% of the existing remnants of civilization to the world of the dead.]

[Trial Description: In a secluded refuge, the power of the abyss is descending, and you must help the humans within escape their inevitable annihilation.]

[Trial Duration: Seven Days]

[Basic Trial Rewards: 11800 Karma Points + Item and Equipment Rewards]

The task description before him made Chu Xiu look thoughtful.

"It seems that in terms of the mission, the difficulty of the End is not much different from that of the ordinary Old Trials."

Before coming, Qin Xiang gathered all the information from past trials, including the trial participants' status at the time, the process of the mission, and so on.

Their basic missions are the same: to protect the spark of civilization and to bring it back to its original world.

The so-called sparks of civilization are the humans of the Trial Grounds, the ancient trials of the fierce level, usually ranging in scale from hundreds to thousands.

As for the two tasks, the former is self-explanatory—simply kill and repel the abyss monsters—while the latter requires the trial participants to gather information and devise a strategy.

It's like a trial. The shelter is located three thousand meters underground. The trial participants need to dig a passage to the surface and transport 50% of the surviving humans out to complete the mission.

Of course, there's a sneaky little trick here: when you're in a desperate situation, you can deliberately abandon most of the people and let them die. For example, if only ten people are left, you only need to take five out to complete the mission.

However, this would naturally result in ridiculously low mission scores and rewards, offering no real help to humans, though it would still be useful for saving lives in critical moments.

In Chu Xiu's memory, it seems that among all twenty-seven civilization envoys, only one person has ever used this method. It was during an old trial for generals, in which only three out of tens of thousands of humans survived. It was of almost no help to humanity.

Of course, this person would never admit to having done such a thing; it was only through subsequent analysis by agents from the Investigation Bureau that this was deduced.

It is said that something else happened afterward, which caused this person to have his preferential treatment as a Civilization Envoy revoked even though he still possessed the Old Days Certificate, and the Bureau even issued an arrest warrant for him.

Without thinking further, Chu Xiu began to consider his mission.

"It shouldn't be difficult to open a passage to the world of the undead. With the army of undead around, I can dig a passage from thousands of meters underground in less than a day. Even if the location of the shelter is in other extreme environments, it probably won't be a problem."

"What I need to focus on is minimizing human loss as much as possible."

"In addition, the name of this trial is also worth noting."

The Eight Devas and Dragons refer to eight kinds of divine monsters in Buddhism, namely, the Devas, the Nagas, the Yakshas, ​​the Gandharvas, the Asuras, the Garudas, the Kinnaras, and the Mahoragas.

Could it be that this trial is related to Buddhism?
Chu Xiu stroked his chin, lost in thought.

However, he didn't dwell on it for too long. Thinking too much in advance was pointless; specific countermeasures could only be formulated after understanding the actual situation.

Chu Xiu's primary goal was to quickly ascertain the number, strength, technological level, social structure, and dangers faced by the humans in the trial grounds.

With his mind made up, Chu Xiu no longer hesitated, entered the Awakening Space, and began the trial.

A familiar gravitational force pulled him into an unknown, chaotic space.

All around was nothingness, and the orbits of space and time were distorted and deformed. Chu Xiu completely lost his perception of time and space. After an unknown amount of time, his body was suddenly captured by a familiar gravitational force.

"Clap."

With a soft thud, Chu Xiu's feet landed on solid ground, and the distorted and chaotic space around him gradually solidified. Light re-entered his eyes, forming new images in his mind.

He was in what appeared to be a passageway in an underground shelter.

The passageway is quite wide, enough to accommodate three pickup trucks side by side, and is nearly five meters high. It is surrounded by steel structures filled with concrete, but it seems to have been there for a long time. The steel is covered with a thick layer of rust, which, mixed with the soil, gives it a dirty, yellowish-gray appearance.

"This shelter seems to be quite old, thirty years? Fifty years? No, it feels like it's been there much longer."

Chu Xiu stroked the wall, then gently squeezed it, and his fingers dented the sturdy steel structure.

"These walls must have been repaired later."

Chu Xiu made a general judgment in his mind, and then he spread his divine sense, and instantly the situation within a five-hundred-meter radius around him entered his mind.

(End of this chapter)