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

Chapter 362 Stone Beads
Although he had explored for nearly three days, the area he had actually explored was only a fan-shaped area of ​​about ten degrees compared to the entire secret cave.

The area that this passage led to was completely on the other side of the road he had previously explored. He had no idea what was there or how long the passage was.

As Chu Xiu charged forward at top speed, covering more than ten miles in one breath, that faint, ethereal feeling reappeared, like a wisp of scent hidden in a deep alley, which could be lost if one lost focus for even a moment.

Chu Xiu's eyes narrowed, and he decisively activated Garuda's spatial teleportation ability. Regardless of the road conditions, he teleported along, and during the cooldown period, he simply smashed through the rocks!

He kept adjusting his direction, and after rushing for another ten miles, the feeling of emptiness finally stabilized, which made Chu Xiu happy, knowing that he had found the right place.

However, his expression soon turned serious.

He discovered that the concentration of death energy in the area had become increasingly concentrated.

He had previously ventured at least a thousand miles deeper, yet he hadn't sensed much change in the deathly aura. Now, after only chasing this far, such a change had already occurred.

After a moment's thought, Chu Xiu used a high-level recovery item he had obtained from the Blood Pool and continued his pursuit into deeper waters.

He was incredibly fast; in less than a quarter of an hour, he had covered a straight-line distance of over a hundred miles.

At this moment, the feeling of nothingness enveloped him like the sea.

Furthermore, Chu Xiu discovered something strange.

He caused such a commotion, yet not a single carrion eater or dead spirit came knocking.

This unusual scene made him slow down and more carefully probe the information emanating from that cold feeling.

After walking for nearly a hundred meters, the feeling suddenly began to weaken. Chu Xiu realized that he was going in the wrong direction and had begun to move away from the source of the aura.

He wasn't in a hurry; he calmed down and kept adjusting the direction.

Another hour later, Chu Xiu suddenly changed his expression, abruptly stopped, and leaned against the wall, suppressing all his aura.

In his consciousness, two carrion eaters were rapidly approaching!
Soon, the two figures appeared in front of him.

In appearance, they were almost identical to the carrion eaters Chu Xiu had seen, except for faint purple patterns on their skin. However, the feeling they gave off was quite different. The two carrion eaters walked side by side without any wariness of each other, just like colleagues who had worked together for many years.

Previously, the carrion eaters that Chu Xiu had encountered were all loners and had no sense of cooperation whatsoever.

Their eyes did not resemble those of ferocious beasts, but rather those of scouts on a mission, scanning their surroundings.

They arrived beside Chu Xiu and swept past without pausing. Although Chu Xiu was not good at hiding, he was still not someone that two King-level beings could detect.

Chu Xiu frowned as he looked in the direction the two carrion eaters had gone, which was exactly the same direction he had come from.

"Was it the commotion earlier that drew their attention?"

After a moment's thought, Chu Xiu continued to delve deeper.

Soon, he encountered several more patrolling carrion eaters. These carrion eaters were on average much stronger than those outside. The carrion eaters outside were roughly between King Rank 1 and 3, but their threat level was greatly increased due to their strange abilities and the special environment of this place.

The carrion eaters here are all at King Rank 4 or higher.

The deeper you go, the stronger the carrion eaters become.

When the cold, empty feeling of the abyss had become omnipresent and tightly enveloped Chu Xiu, a carrion eater with golden markings on its forehead appeared.

These carrion eaters are at the King Rank 9!
Furthermore, their aura is far stronger than that of a typical level 9 King!
"According to the Abyss's standards, these carrion eaters should be considered [elite] monsters."

Furthermore, Chu Xiu also sensed the power of the domain.

Although it is only a prototype and an open field with no restrictions on entry and exit, it is indeed a field.

This reminded Chu Xiu of the [Leader] monsters he had encountered when he first entered the Abyss and explored the City of Corpses. These monsters were accompanied by [Guards] who were different from their kind and had clearly been specially modified.

"Could it be that there is also a [leader] here?"

Chu Xiu, relying on his formidable strength, was not afraid. Even if he encountered some insurmountable danger, he could use the [Deep Diving Safety Rope] to escape this hellish place.

With this in mind, he continued to delve deeper, but this time he didn't search for long. Only about five minutes had passed when he suddenly trembled and felt a chilling aura of death rushing towards him! He felt as if he were once again in the moment when he was blocked by the abyss during his breakthrough!
Although the aura of the abyss here is many times smaller than the [Abyssal Malice] that prevented him from breaking through, its essence is exactly the same, without any deviation!

Chu Xiu stared intently at what lay before him. There was a huge downward passage, pitch black inside, from which nothing could be seen.

Under Chu Xiu's divine sense scan, he could clearly sense that the passage led to a huge cavern, inhabited by countless carrion eaters—it was practically a massive carrion eater nest!
In the very center of the lair, an incredibly powerful aura sat enthroned!

Heroic spirits and ghosts!

That chilling abyssal aura emanated from that creature!
Chu Xiu's expression hardened slightly. He took a deep breath, concealing his aura to the extreme, and cautiously ventured into the cave.

However, the moment he stepped into the downward passage, the heroic spirit that was entrenched in the center of the nest and absorbing death energy to cultivate seemed to sense something, and suddenly raised its head and quickly reached out to grab the void!
The next moment, Chu Xiu felt a huge suction force coming from below! He snorted coldly, realizing that he had been exposed. There was nothing he could do. After all, he was not good at hiding. His ability to hide was not much stronger than that of an ordinary awakened heroic spirit. Moreover, he was in the other party's domain, so it was not surprising that he was discovered.

However, he was not about to let the other party have his way, so he immediately mobilized his magic power to resist the suction force and retreated rapidly!

Although the suction force was considerable, it was naturally not enough to control Chu Xiu. However, in the next instant, a look of horror suddenly appeared on Chu Xiu's face. His back suddenly hit the hard ground, and when he looked closely, he found himself in the center of the cave!

Spatial magic!
Chu Xiu's expression became extremely solemn as he looked up at the heroic spirits and ghosts not far away.

It resembles a scavenger in appearance, but is several times larger. Most strangely, its entire body is covered with golden patterns. Despite its ferocious face, the golden patterns give it a divine and noble air.

Like the king of carrion eaters!
It stared silently at Chu Xiu, its eyes filled with fury at the intruder.

The next instant, Chu Xiu felt a blur before his eyes, and a gust of wind carrying a foul stench rushed towards him!

Chu Xiu snorted coldly, and demonic energy surged out of his body, forming barriers like city walls in front of him. But with a loud bang, the demonic energy barrier, which was comparable to a legendary King-level armor, was blasted open with a single punch!

Not only that, but a mutated death aura, condensed to its extreme, emerged from the shattered barrier and lunged at his body like a venomous snake!

However, before the deathly aura could even get close, it was swallowed up by the surging demonic energy.

It's not that the mutated death energy is weak, but rather that the two are simply not on the same level!
For Chu Xiu now, ordinary heroic spirits are nothing.

With a mere flicker of his body, driven by the power of gods and demons, he unleashed incredible speed, appearing behind the King of Carrion like a shadow traversing space. The [Star Ring Pulse Gauntlets] appeared in his hand, and he immediately unleashed a punch!
"boom!!!"

Azure pulses erupted in the field, and the King of Carrion, like a colossus blocking the railgun, was mercilessly destroyed and melted by the torrent of energy!
When the beautiful, dazzling fluctuations disappeared, the upper body of the Carrion King had completely vanished.

In an instant, it was a kill!

This is the difference between Chu Xiu and ordinary heroic spirits!

He himself was quite satisfied with the power of this new artifact.

When used as a primary weapon, he can wield the sword in his right hand and his fist in his left, relying on the dual enhancement of the magic weapon's essence and the power of gods and demons, both of which can exert extremely strong attack power.

It can also be used as an auxiliary to further amplify the power of the Chiwen and unleash even more massive high-energy sword energy.

However, just as Chu Xiu was secretly pleased, he suddenly let out a soft "Eh" and looked at the Carrion King whose upper body had been destroyed.

But where his heart was originally, there was now only an ancient stone bead floating, which at first glance looked like a pebble that could be found anywhere by the roadside, but had been polished into a round shape.

Even the polishing technique was quite crude.

But at this moment, as Chu Xiu stared at this ordinary stone bead, his heart began to pound uncontrollably!

He clearly sensed that within that stone bead surged a power identical to that of the abyss, a power that seemed capable of turning everything into nothingness!
Just by getting close to the stone bead, Chu Xiu felt the flow of his magical power almost come to a standstill. Before he could figure out what was happening, something even stranger occurred.

But the Carrion King, whose body had been blasted to pieces, was now rapidly regenerating!
This restoration was not due to rebirth through powerful vitality, but rather the bodies that Chu Xiu had shattered into basic particles were automatically returned to their pre-injury positions, as if time had been reversed!
"The laws of space and time?"

Time and space are not two completely different realms, but rather interconnected and interdependent forces. To understand one, one must also have some knowledge of the other.

The scene before him reminded Chu Xiu of the strange space here and the shattered golden core he had created during his breakthrough.

The power that instantly turned his golden core gray was less like death and more like "time"!
In a sense, isn't the point of cause and effect also a kind of power of time?

Chu Xiu vaguely felt that he had grasped something, but before he could think about it, the King of Carrion had already completed his rebirth.

Although his body was reconstructed, the opponent seemed to still retain the memory of being killed. Seeing Chu Xiu's obvious fear, he flashed away more than a hundred meters away. At the same time, he tapped his hands repeatedly, and streams of condensed mutated death energy attacked him like snakes!

At the same time, the King of Carrion let out a sharp howl, and the other carrion, upon hearing the howl, charged towards Chu Xiu fearlessly as if they had received some kind of command.

Chu Xiu was not afraid at all. In fact, even if these minor monsters didn't come, he wouldn't let go of this batch of cause and effect points.

With a flick of his wrist, a burst of azure pulses, resembling a sea of ​​stars, erupted, instantly obliterating the dozen or so carrion eaters around him!
[Slaying a creature grants +31 experience points]

[Gained 3712 Causal Points]

[Slaying living beings grants experience points.]

Having done all this, he charged toward the King of Carrion again without hesitation.

He was very curious about the limit of the stone bead's power, and whether it could be reborn indefinitely!

However, this time, the Carrion King, who was clearly prepared, was much harder to kill.

Two new arms suddenly sprouted from its back. As soon as the two arms came together, Chu Xiu felt the mutated death energy around him tearing at his demonic energy barrier as if it had gone berserk. The two arms that were originally there also kept slapping out in the air. It was unclear what kind of supernatural power they were using. Every time they slapped out, a wall of energy would form to block Chu Xiu.

"It's quite interesting."

"Unfortunately, you ran into me."

With a flick of his wrist, the heavy sword Chiwen was already in his hand!

With the power of the Star Ring Pulse Gauntlets, this mythical equipment couldn't help but let out an excited roar!

Terrifying energy accumulated within the sword; even the slightest overflow of energy terrified the King of Carrion!
Under his terrified gaze, Chu Xiu swung his sword down!
In an instant, the intense light illuminated the entire cavern, as if everything in the world had disappeared, leaving only this dazzling white light and this fierce sword energy!
"boom!!!"

The raging energy, like thousands of ancient ferocious beasts, brutally smashed through everything in its path.

Once the sword energy dissipated, the winding passage had vanished, replaced by a massive void that stretched for thousands of meters!
All living things in the vicinity were pulverized into basic particles, and in the void, only a rough stone bead floated silently.

Chu Xiu calmly gazed at the stone bead. This time, he wouldn't just stand by and watch. If the King of Carrion showed even the slightest sign of resurrection, he would not hesitate to destroy it once again.

Perhaps because the power of Chu Xiu's sword strike was too overwhelming, the stone bead remained completely still this time. After a while, a notification sound appeared in Chu Xiu's mind.

[Slaying a creature grants +1821 experience points]

[Level Up! Current Level: King Rank 3 (Tenth Reincarnation)]

[Item Obtained: 47218 Causality Points]

【Items Obtained:】

Killing the Carrion King provided Chu Xiu with a wealth of experience, allowing him to reach the tenth level without even realizing it.

Although he has already achieved the Flawless Golden Core, further advancements seem pointless. However, Chu Xiu can sense that the "foundation" brought by these excess experience points can help him fight against the Abyss to some extent.

As for this Heroic Spirit-level boss, the loot was also quite substantial, giving him a King-rank Legendary item and a Heroic Spirit Perfect item.

However, for Chu Xiu now, these equipment are already too much and are of little use.

"What's important is..."

Chu Xiu looked at the round bead, and after thinking for a moment, he reached out and grabbed the stone bead in his hand.

But for some reason, at this moment, the bead seemed to have lost all its mystique, completely lacking the cold and empty feeling of the abyss, and instead truly became no different from a small pebble.

The most bizarre thing is that when Chu Xiu used the Awakened's reconnaissance ability to investigate, he found no information about the items, as if the items in front of him did not belong to the data-driven world constructed by the Abyss.

"It's strange."

After pondering for a while, Chu Xiu finally decided to simply go and ask the people in the Heavenly Palace.

The fact that the other party is so interested in this carrion-eating cave is very likely because of this round bead. If that's the case, the other party must know the origin of this object.

Of course, the other party might also be hostile to him, but Chu Xiu's strength gave him the confidence to ask directly.

He doesn't have time to dawdle here.

With his mind made up, Chu Xiu waved his hand, and a large number of ghosts surged out, beginning to sweep away the nearby living carrion eaters.

He hasn't forgotten these resources.

The shriek of the King of Carrion just now was like some kind of summons, which has summoned all the carrion eaters outside back.

This actually made things convenient for Chu Xiu.

An hour later, he killed nearly two hundred carrion eaters in one go.

"In this way, there will be more than enough resources to refine magical artifacts."

"We've also gained quite a few causal points."

This exploration directly yielded over 300,000 causal points, which can be considered a considerable gain.

Chu Xiu hadn't expected things to go so smoothly, and he left the cave satisfied.

Outside the gate, the ghostly general guarding the place was somewhat surprised to see Chu Xiu return so quickly. He came up to him and asked, "Fellow Daoist, you're out already? Are you resting for a while or have you finished your mission?"

"I'm preparing to return to Youcheng," Chu Xiu said.

The ghost laughed and said, "That's good. Being able to get out of the secret cave safely is the greatest blessing. How much you gain is not important."

Clearly, it mistook Chu Xiu for someone who feared carrion eaters and dead souls, and was ready to give up after exploring for only a short time.

Chu Xiu had no interest in explaining; he simply flipped his wrist, and the stone bead appeared in his hand.

"By the way, does anyone know anything about this item?"

He intended to ask the immortal directly, but it seems that immortals are not easy to meet. This general ghost is quite powerful and has been guarding the secret cave for a long time, so he may know some of the secrets.

The ghost was slightly taken aback when it saw the stone bead, and then a strange expression appeared on its face.

His expression was hard to describe; it was as if a highly expressive artificial intelligence had suddenly lost power.

However, in just a moment, the ghost came to its senses and shook its head, saying, "I don't see anything strange about this stone bead."

"Is it."

Although Chu Xiu felt that the ghost's expression was a bit off, since the other party was unwilling to say more, he let it go and turned to leave.

However, just as he was about to take a step, he suddenly felt a weight on his back, as if he had been punched twice, and stumbled forward!
Chu Xiu turned around abruptly, and a hideous, twisted, and malicious face zoomed in rapidly!
The ghostly general lunged at Chu Xiu, letting out a venomous shriek: "Give me back my things!"

(End of this chapter)