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

Chapter 270 Strength improvement
"Boom!"

As soon as he returned to Earth, a series of noises reached his ears.

Chu Xiu turned his head to look out the window, where fireworks rose high into the sky in the distance, bursting into dazzling flames.

A light, fine snow began to fall from the sky. Looking down from the hotel's high-rise building, the streets were brightly lit and decorated with red lanterns, creating a festive atmosphere.

"It's almost Chinese New Year," Chu Xiu muttered to himself.

Suddenly, as if he had thought of something, he flew out of the hotel and his gaze fell on an old residential building several kilometers away.

The parents were chatting and laughing with the Blood Demon's kin disguised as themselves, their faces beaming with genuine smiles.

Qingshan's parents were also there, as were Chuqin's parents. A small cell phone was placed between them, through which Zhang Qingshan's face could be vaguely seen.

Soldiers fighting on Mars cannot return even for the Lunar New Year; they only get one rare opportunity to communicate with their families.

Chu Xiu thought for a moment, then took out his communication bracelet. Sure enough, after connecting to the network, he received a message from Zhang Qingshan not long afterward.

There was only one entry, but it was written in over a thousand words, recounting his experiences and encounters during this period in its entirety.

After joining the military, he was quickly granted permission to enter Mars due to his S-class profession.

but
"Achu, the environment on Mars is much worse than I imagined."

According to Qingshan, even these fierce-level awakened beings need to rely on life support equipment to survive on Mars for a long time. His dragon was specially made by the military industry department with a special life support system and protective armor.

If survival is already so difficult, there's no point in even mentioning quality of life.

Going a month without a shower is commonplace. Sometimes, after fighting abyssal creatures, the blood on the inner lining hasn't even dried yet, and he has to rush to the next mission location without stopping.

The abyssal creatures are endless; no matter how many you kill, you can't get rid of them all.

"You absolutely cannot imagine the scene. As far as the eye can see, the black tide stretches out in a line like the Qiantang River tide. It is incomparable to the zombie hordes in the World of Corpses. Using tactical nuclear weapons here is commonplace, otherwise there would be no way to stop them."

Even so, we still frequently hear news of neighboring bases falling.

Although he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Zhang Qingshan's description still left Chu Xiu speechless.

Has the battle on Mars become this intense? Why can't the people on Earth feel it at all?

In this high-intensity combat environment, Zhang Qingshan's strength also improved rapidly.

He passed the General Rank Trial two months ago and is now a Level 7 Awakened General. Even Chu Qin plans to start the General Rank Trial soon.

Chu Xiu wasn't surprised by his good brother's rapid leveling up. Although the two didn't seem to be that far apart in level, the gap in their actual strength was widening.

For a demonic cultivator, level is nothing; his overflowing experience alone is more than enough for ten max-level generals.

It's worth mentioning that, due to the potentially fatal environment on Mars, Qingshan and Chuqin got married a month ago with the blessings of their comrades. In about two or three months, they will have a longer rest and recuperation vacation, at which time they will return to Jiangcheng to hold another wedding.

"I can try to bring Aoyama and his wife back to the Corpse Demon World to be my bodyguards later. The front line is still too dangerous," Chu Xiu thought to himself.

After thinking for a moment, Chu Xiu also shared some of his recent situation and offered his blessings.

After doing all this, he settled down to cultivate in the luxury hotel.

Its main purpose is to refine the ghosts within the Soul Banner and to help the Blood Demon incarnation repair its body.

The continuous hunting over this period has accumulated a large amount of soul power within the Soul Banner. However, without Chu Xiu's [Perfect Training] assistance, the ghost's cultivation speed is very slow on its own.

In the past, it was quite normal for demonic cultivators to spend several years refining soul banners.

As for the Blood Demon Avatar, it has recovered about half of its power after being continuously nurtured for the past six months.

This transaction included a portion related to life energy, and Chu Xiu planned to fully restore the power of his Blood Demon Avatar before entering the King-level Trial.

"Although the combat power of my main body and the ghost army has increased, and I no longer need the Blood Demon Avatar as much in direct combat, its diverse skills can still provide a lot of help."

Putting aside other issues, at least it can somewhat compensate for the shortcoming in movement speed.

Chu Xiu recalled that during a previous hunt, his slow movement speed had almost allowed a king-level ghost to escape.

It was only in the end, with Jiang Miaoyin's intervention, that the ghost was finally killed.

Fortunately, the woman didn't suspect anything; she simply thought that Chu Xiu was too lazy to move and asked her to do such a trivial task.

After that, the two changed to a hunting method of combined attack and ambush. Each time, Chu Xiu would first use control skills to control the enemy before attacking to kill them.

Without thinking further, he focused on his cultivation.

Half a month later, seven more ghost generals and one high-ranking ghost general were born.

Chu Xiu now has a total of eleven high-level ghost generals, seventy-four ghost generals, and more than five thousand fierce ghosts!
"A battle formation composed of so many ghosts should be enough to withstand heroic spirits, right?" Chu Xiu smiled.

The cooldown period had ended, and with a thought, he entered the world of corpse demons.

As the surrounding space changed drastically, when he opened his eyes again, he had arrived at the cave where he had previously secluded himself for cultivation.

Before making a transaction, Chu Xiu first gave his civilization a general overview.

After the religious indoctrination was lifted, a large number of truly talented individuals were discovered. With the management and guidance of the Chinese government, everything was handled in an orderly and stable manner, and things were improving steadily.

There are even people who specialize in teaching them advanced scientific ideas and guiding them on the path of cultivation for awakened individuals.

Chu Xiu glanced at the panel. Both the Civilization Development Index and the Evolution Index had seen a huge increase. Moreover, after more than half a year of accumulation, the Civilization Points had reached 7.8 points. It should be noted that when the civilization first arrived, the accumulation rate of Civilization Points was only 5.7 points per year, which shows how rapidly the civilization has developed during this period.

After a while, he will be able to try to unlock things in the Civilization Treasury.

Having made up his mind, Chu Xiu rushed to the trading location without stopping. The new year brought new exchange limits for Karma Points, which was why he was in such a hurry to return.

With these funds, he could gather enough causal points to upgrade the final level of the Demon Qi Condensation Weapon.

The transaction went smoothly; he handed over the equipment and materials he had obtained from the Hundred Ghosts Forge world, as well as the two unused legendary greatswords and gloves.

This wave of activity directly maxed out the new year's Karma Points exchange quota, reaping 530,000 Karma Points!
Combined with the points accumulated from directly killing monsters, Chu Xiu's total causal points exceeded 700,000!
They also acquired quite a few high-density life energy items to restore the Blood Demon Avatar. With Chu Xiu's perfect refinement, the Blood Demon Avatar should be able to be restored to its strongest state within a week.

Having obtained what he needed, Chu Xiu couldn't wait to go into seclusion.

This time, he didn't go into the wilderness but stayed at the camp. That way, if anything unexpected happened, he could help resolve it. Although this brief protection would only last for about ten days, he would leave after leveling up.

"It sounds like a father who works away from home all year round and only spends time with his children occasionally." Chu Xiu shook his head with a smile.

Without thinking further, he took out the causal point.

Start adding points!
As a large number of causal points were consumed, a large amount of demonic energy involuntarily overflowed from Chu Xiu's body and became more and more solid. Weapons flashing with a sharp and cold light appeared around Chu Xiu and then quickly decomposed and reconstructed.

Each reconstruction makes it stronger and sharper than the last.

But soon, this enhancement reached its limit.

In fact, Chu Xiu realized this problem when he mastered the sixth level of Demonic Qi Condensation Weapon. He seemed to have reached the ceiling of this technique. No matter how much he practiced, he could not make the strength of the demonic weapon undergo a qualitative change.

But at this moment, catalyzed by a large number of causal points, a sudden realization arose in his mind.

He no longer focused on further enhancing the cohesion of demonic energy, but instead began to pay attention to the specific arrangement of each wisp of demonic energy when forming the weapon.

Excessive rigidity leads to breakage. If a newly forged longsword is used without proper tempering, it will break very easily. It must be quenched to significantly improve the strength, toughness, and fatigue strength of the metal, making it a qualified weapon.

Quenching doesn't change any material, but it alters the internal structure of the metal during rapid cooling, resulting in a more orderly molecular arrangement and fewer defects, thus achieving higher strength.
However, even if one understands this principle, it is extremely difficult to actually put it into practice. All Chu Xiu can do is practice again and again to improve his control over demonic energy!
10,000 causal points, 20,000 causal points, 100,000 causal points, 610,000 causal points!

Finally, after investing a total of 610,000 causal points, it was as if quantitative changes had led to qualitative changes, and an extremely terrifying aura surged out from his body!
Chu Xiu suddenly opened his eyes, and a large amount of demonic energy surged out. This demonic energy could have engulfed an entire city in a few breaths, but at this moment it was all condensed in a small house, constantly gathering! The vast energy fluctuations, as boundless as the sea, surged back and forth in this small wooden house, but not a single trace of them escaped!
When the turmoil subsided, a suit of dark armor appeared on Chu Xiu's body.

"Is this the highest level of demonic energy condensing into weapons?!"

A look of joy flashed in Chu Xiu's eyes. He could feel that after cultivating to the seventh level, the physical strength of the demonic weapon had doubled! And it still retained its ever-changing characteristics!
Chu Xiu now doesn't need to rely on any equipment at all. The magical weapon he can casually assemble has even stronger basic attributes than the [Legendary] weapons of the same rank!
Moreover, the qualitative change brought about by perfection goes far beyond this!
As soon as Chu Xiu had a thought, the jet-black armor merged into his body without any hindrance, just like water merging into the sea!
This is where the true qualitative change occurs after the demonic energy condenses into a weapon at its peak!
After altering the structure of demonic energy, all demonic energy can be integrated into Chu Xiu's body in a special way. This not only greatly increases the total amount of demonic energy he can store, but also acts like having a layer of subcutaneous armor built in, allowing the reaction speed of demonic energy when attacked to leap forward!
With the perfect Golden Embryo Forging God and Golden Muscle Nether Bone, Chu Xiu even felt that he could now fight against Heroic Spirits with his own body alone.

At the same time, he also had some realizations: "No wonder the Demon Qi Condensation Weapon is a prerequisite skill for the Heavenly Demon Incarnation. Perhaps the so-called Heavenly Demon Incarnation is to further change the form of the body with demonic energy, and eventually even the blood contains demonic energy, thus reaching the so-called 'Heavenly Demon' realm."

Letting out a long breath, Chu Xiu stopped thinking about it. Although the huge increase in strength made him happy, he quickly returned to his cultivation.

He took out the item containing a high concentration of life energy that he had previously obtained from the exchange and began to use [Perfect Refinement] to repair the Blood Demon Avatar.

Once the repairs are complete, Chu Xiu's strength will have reached its current limit.

"After that, go to the Bloodstained Arena to get a high-level blessing, and then you can participate in the King-level Trial."

"With my current strength, even the End difficulty level should be easy for me to clear," Chu Xiu said with a smile.

The subsequent repair work proceeded without any unexpected incidents.

Under the influence of massive life energy and perfect refinement, the Blood Demon's avatar's body rapidly improved at an astonishing speed.

Five days later.

A huge blood sphere floated in front of Chu Xiu, like a sun made of flesh and blood, and the body of the Blood Demon incarnation was shrunken inside the blood sphere.

Suddenly, the blood sphere began to shrink, and the flesh visibly shrank, as if all the life energy had found a breakthrough in an instant, and rushed madly toward the blood demon avatar at the center!
"Thorn."

After almost all the flesh and blood had been drained, the Blood Demon avatar extended its sharp claws and emerged from the blood sphere.

At this moment, it seemed to have undergone some kind of transformation. Its body was slender, and its proportions were as if they had been carefully sculpted by the Creator. Although it was still made of flesh and blood, it exuded a kind of divinity that surpassed that of ordinary creatures.

"Thank you, Lord."

Rasputin walked up to Chu Xiu and slowly knelt down.

Chu Xiu carefully examined Rasputin and a faint smile appeared on his face.

"good."

After all the items were used up, the Blood Demon Avatar had completely recovered to its peak state, and was even stronger!
Through their mental connection, Chu Xiu could sense the seemingly endless life energy surging within Rasputin's body.

The current Blood Demon incarnation is only one step away from becoming a true Heroic Spirit!
"If I encounter Asura, I should be able to hold my own," Chu Xiu thought.

However, the moment this thought arose, he seemed to suddenly discover something and let out a soft "hmm," a look of astonishment appearing on his face.

"He's actually here?"

With a grim expression, Chu Xiu rushed out of the house, soared into the sky, and after scanning the area, locked onto a man wearing a hood.

At that moment, the man was standing in front of a materials stall, chatting and laughing with the owner as he negotiated the price.

As if sensing Chu Xiu's gaze, the man suddenly turned around and met Chu Xiu's calm eyes.

The next instant, without the slightest hesitation, he turned and ran, while Chu Xiu snorted coldly, and the Blood Demon avatar beside him rushed towards the man at high speed. At the same time, a huge blood-red palm formed in mid-air, ignoring the terrified screams of the camp residents, and grabbed down towards him!
The Blood Demon Avatar showed no mercy in this attack, but the next moment a horrifying scene unfolded. The man simply swung his fist, and the enormous blood-red palm was shattered by the powerless punch!
"interesting."

Chu Xiu's expression shifted slightly as he watched this scene, looking down at the man from his elevated position.

"I didn't expect you to escape too."

"Long time no see, Asura."

(End of this chapter)