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

Chapter 219 Will
"Oh?"

The notification that appeared made Chu Xiu's eyes light up slightly.

Three [Legendary] items dropped! One for each person!
"Trials can drop equipment?"

In ordinary trials, all items and equipment are converted into mission contribution points for unified calculation. Therefore, even though Chu Xiu almost completely wiped out the dungeon in his previous two trials, he did not obtain any equipment.

However, the Trials of the Past are special, which is why the identity of a Civilization Envoy is so valuable.

Especially in the End difficulty, the drop rate will be greatly increased.

However, Chu Xiu did not expect the drop rate to be so high, and he casually got three legendary items!
"Judging from the names of the equipment, these three [Legendary] items should be exclusive equipment for these three 'gods' and are guaranteed drops. It seems that the difficulty of the End is indeed as I expected. Corresponding to the extremely high difficulty, there are a lot of extra surprise rewards."

He suddenly gained three extra pieces of [Legendary] equipment, not to mention the generous quest contribution points from the three "gods," which instantly surpassed the contribution points he had earned from slaughtering the entire city in the previous trial. Even with Chu Xiu's temperament, he couldn't help but smile.

After checking the specific attributes of the equipment, his smile widened.

"Three [Legendary] items, all of them King-rank!"

You should know that his only King-tier Legendary equipment was obtained after painstakingly defeating the final boss, Calamity!

This made him exclaim again, "As long as you're strong enough, there are so many good things in the Old Trials!"

These three pieces of equipment were not only of high rank, but their effects also satisfied him greatly.

The Yaksha Halberd is a very powerful offensive weapon. As long as you wield it, you will be blessed with the power of the Yaksha, gaining a significant boost to your constitution and health regeneration speed. It also has additional [Armor Penetration] and [Thunder] attributes, making it far superior to the Dagger of the Unjustly Dead in direct combat.

In addition, it comes with an active skill called [Void Concealment]. After use, the body will partially disappear into the void, increasing the stealth ability while also gaining additional movement speed and damage reduction.

"This is practically the essence of Yaksha's abilities."

Chu Xiu was very satisfied. When he fought Yaksha before, Yaksha's elusive methods made him very difficult to deal with.

Of course, the skills that come with the equipment are definitely not as strong as the Yaksha's own supernatural powers, and its current rank is only the Fierce Rank, but even so, it can still provide Chu Xiu with some assistance.

The remaining two items are also very useful.

The Great Serpent God's Head greatly enhances resistance to mental attacks and comes with the skills [Phantom Serpent Eyes] and [Serpent God's Guardian].

This piece of equipment has average base stats, but it provides Chu Xiu with much-needed resistance to mental attacks, and because it specializes in this attribute, the value is very high.

Now he has three [legendary] items to help him defend, greatly making up for his weakness.

The key point is the skills. It comes with two skills: [Phantom Serpent Eyes] is the move used to control Chu Xiu, which is basically a weakened version of the Burning Blood Golden Eyes. [Serpent God Guardian] summons a giant python with extremely high physique.

The other item, the Horn of Tranquility, has the opposite basic attribute to the Head of the Great Serpent God. It can amplify the power of mental attacks, further enhancing the power of the Bloodstained Golden Eyes. The attached skills are [Symphony] and [Requiem], both of which are mental control skills.

Overall, these three legendary equipment pieces will definitely enhance Chu Xiu's strength to some extent, but they won't be enough to give him a leap in combat power, since his rank is only Fierce.

The more crucial aspect lies in its future growth potential. Once you advance to the general rank, the power of all three pieces of equipment will increase significantly.

Even if you don't need it anymore, you can still get exchange resources.

It can be said that although this wave directly forced out the Blood Demon's trump card, the income was also extremely astonishing.

but
Chu Xiu shifted his gaze to the end of the prompt.

You've attracted the attention of Forbidden Item 917!

This caused the smile on his face to freeze slightly.

Every forbidden object is an extremely special existence, generally of a very high rank, because they represent the power of a certain "rule," and often a forbidden, destructive rule.

Therefore, even though forbidden equipment and items are extremely rare and powerful, Chu Xiu has no desire to get involved with them. No one knows when he might suffer a backlash. This is why, even though he obtained the Evil Eye Codex, he didn't even glance at it before throwing it into a corner of his storage space, let alone use or study it.

He was also familiar with the code name 917, as it appeared in the description of the Evil Eye Buddhist scriptures!

[Note 1: It contains a portion of the consciousness of the forbidden object 917. There is a very small chance of encountering it when using Buddhist supernatural powers.]

[Note 2: There are four other Buddhist artifacts; collecting all of them can unlock the forbidden item 917 through a special ritual.]

"Does the fact that I've attracted the attention of Forbidden Item 917 mean that this trial is actually related to this Forbidden Item?"

"This aligns with my previous assumptions. After all, the calamity likely stems from the possession of Buddhist scriptures, and this place may also be influenced by similar rules and forces."

Although Chu Xiu had no desire to get involved with forbidden items, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue in order to pass the trial.

Without further thought, he patted his spirit and flesh storage pouch and put away the corpses of Mahoraga Kinnara and the Great Serpent God.

At the same time, he held the souls of both of them, as well as the soul of the Yaksha, in his hands.

Creatures at this level possess souls so powerful that they can survive even after their physical bodies are completely destroyed. Nourished by the Hundred Soul Banner, they can even maintain their consciousness from their previous life.

In particular, the vitality of these three "gods" is among the best in the King rank, and Chu Xiu has not yet destroyed their cores. Theoretically, they may even be able to revive over time. "Now I will ask a question, and you will answer it."

"Don't try to hide anything or lie to me. Your souls will expose any lies. Of course, if you don't believe me, you can try it. I will let you experience pain that directly affects your soul, pain that you can't even imagine."

As Chu Xiu's calm words fell, the three souls trembled violently. Yaksha seemed to be on the verge of collapse, Mahoraga repeatedly begged for mercy, while Kinra was barely able to maintain his composure, emitting a wave of energy: "I am willing to tell you all the information I know, but I hope that you will..."

Before he could finish speaking, a ghostly fire suddenly ignited in his soul, followed by a heart-wrenching and extremely shrill scream. When the flames disappeared, his soul was much smaller than before, shriveled up listlessly, and groaning in pain.

Yaksha completely broke down, and Mahoraga fell silent, not daring to breathe loudly, as if he had been completely swallowed by fear and had lost the will to resist.

"These three guys are so weak-willed. Can they really be called 'gods'? They seem no different from ordinary people." Chu Xiu was a little doubtful. He originally thought he would have to manipulate them a bit more to break down their psychological defenses.

However, this saved him trouble, and he didn't dwell on it much, directly asking his question.

There are roughly three points: the worldview of this place, their purpose, other tribes, and information about the powerful people in this place.

From the fragmented descriptions of the three individuals, combined with the information he had seen in the military camp, Chu Xiu finally pieced together a rough outline in his mind.

Just as he had suspected, these three "gods" were not ancient beings who were born with great power, but rather "mortals" who had accidentally gained power.

As for how exactly they obtained it, the three of them were not clear. Yaksha was originally a rich young master, but after a night of fighting with three prostitutes, he woke up to find that he had undergone a strange change. Mahoraga, on the other hand, found a tavern in a narrow alley that few people frequented one day, and after drinking two large bowls of fine wine, he felt a strange change in his throat.

Kinona's experience was quite ordinary; she gradually gained the power of the God of Song after being bitten by an insect while tending to flowers and plants. It sounds like there's absolutely no connection between them.

The changes in the three were similar. At first, they only possessed some special abilities. As time went by, these special abilities became stronger and stronger, and their appearances began to change. Furthermore, the supernatural powers and memories of the three gods began to appear inexplicably in their minds until they were completely digested.

This transformation process is very long, sometimes lasting up to ten years.

"So you're actually just ordinary people who somehow gained power?"

Chu Xiu asked with some surprise, "When ordinary people gain power, they either seek power and wealth or harbor great ambitions. Even if they have no great ambitions, they still live a good life as ordinary people. What are you seeking now?"

After saying this, the three souls looked at each other, all revealing bitterness.

“My lord, you are unaware of the truth. After obtaining this power, we are no longer ourselves.”

"Ok?"

"Because while gaining power, we are also bound by a mysterious force. It seems that we can do whatever we want, but whenever I want to do something, I am always inexplicably blocked. In the end, I even lost the 'desire' itself."

"No, it's not dissipation, it's a different kind of feeling that's hard to describe. I can feel that the desire still exists. The Buddhist songstress I used to long for but couldn't have, I still want now. It's just that every time I try to act on it, I always fail for various reasons, just like..."

Yaksha thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a suitable expression.

That conflicted look gave Chu Xiu a sudden intuition that the force restricting them was probably very important and the key to passing the level.

He looked at the other two and said, "Do you have a more appropriate way of putting it?"

Kinrana shook his head, while Mahoraga thought for a moment and then said, "My lord, let me tell you something about myself, which may be of some help to you."

"When I was still human, I had a childhood sweetheart. We had already pledged our lives to each other, but she was spotted by a bald monk from a Buddhist sect during one of her outings and was forcibly recruited into the sect to serve him. During that time, I was devastated and drowned my sorrows in alcohol every day. It was at that time that I coincidentally gained power."

"The moment I gained Mahoraga's power, I couldn't wait to find her and rescue her from the Buddhist sect. But for some reason, the road that day suddenly became different from my memory. I searched for a long time but couldn't find the Buddhist sect. When I finally managed to find the way and broke in, my body started to inexplicably become unresponsive. My senses in my hands and feet were as blurry as if I were in a dream, and a voice in my head kept telling me to leave."

“But I still gritted my teeth and forced my way into the Buddhist temple. Many bald monks tried to stop me on the way, but I forced myself to fight my way through and killed one of them. When I finally managed to fight my way to the other courtyard, I finally found her. At that moment, all I could see was her face. Then a bald monk pounced on me from behind, and I tore him in half. But in that brief moment when my gaze shifted away, she was gone.”

“I turned around to look for her, and not only her, but the bald monk I had just torn to pieces was also gone, and even the bloodstains on the ground were gone. It was as if someone had stopped time and cleaned everything up from beginning to end. I searched for her in the yard like a madman, and killed another batch of bald monks. Finally, I found an old woman in the woodshed whose eyes and eyebrows resembled hers.”

"The old woman wasn't afraid of me like the others. She just stared at me blankly, a tear falling from the corner of her eye. I don't know why, but a sense of sorrow welled up in my heart. But suddenly the old woman disappeared, and even the woodshed vanished. I didn't feel so bad anymore. It was as if all the sadness and anger had been dismantled and scattered to the corners of my body, leaving only a faint sadness."

"I walked out of the courtyard in a daze and found that everything outside was different from what I remembered. I overheard people talking at the food stalls and learned that two hundred years had passed."

“Since then, I have entered Paradise Lost, growing and developing by devouring hungry ghosts like a wild beast, until recently my sanity has been restored.”

At this point, Mahoraga's soul was filled with an overwhelming sadness, and even his will to live was no longer so strong.

The story of Mahoraga also silenced the other three. Although Chu Xiu remained outwardly calm, he was inwardly shocked.

If what he said is true, then this method of changing perceptions is truly terrifying.

Yaksha couldn't help but sigh, "I don't have your strong obsession. When I felt a will blocking me, I stopped. I never thought that if I forcibly went against that will, something so terrible would happen."

"However, I later became like you, my consciousness gradually sank, and I eventually entered the lost paradise, completely falling into an animalistic life of hunting and surviving. I have been living like this for at least three hundred years."

Chu Xiu stroked his chin thoughtfully as he listened to their conversation: "So, although you have gained power, there is a force that has been interfering with and reducing your autonomy. Then your current attack on humanity is also an order from that will?"

"No," the Yaksha replied, expressing his disapproval.

"On the contrary, we are now united precisely because the will that oppresses us has weakened."

(End of this chapter)