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

Chapter 372 Black Lightning
"Boom!"

The vortex in the sky resembled a giant cloud of calamity, devoid of lightning but emitting muffled thunder.

"This is the calamity!"

On the surface, it was composed of the mutated death energy that Chu Xiu was familiar with, but Chu Xiu could sense that after the concentration of these mutated death energies reached a certain level, they had undergone a deeper evolution and given birth to a higher level of power.

That kind of power, perhaps, is what can be called a true calamity!

Meanwhile, the formation formed by Qingyunzi and the eight immortals had already penetrated more than ten miles into the distance, and Chu Xiu followed far behind to observe.

After reshaping their immortal bodies, they seem to have lost the ability to resist the power of the tribulation. They must, like Chu Xiu, use absolute strength to confront the power of the tribulation without any tricks.

However, these were nine powerful heroic spirits, and they also had the assistance of formations and magical artifacts. Even though they were close to the vortex and the concentration of death energy was comparable to the highest point of the Death Energy Waterfall, the Nine Demons still seemed to be in complete control.

But the solemn expression on Kuki's face did not lessen in the slightest; on the contrary, it became even more pronounced!

Chu Xiu also focused his divine sense and observed carefully. He knew that the other party's caution was definitely not without reason!

Suddenly, from within the thick fog of calamity, the faint roars of wild beasts could be heard!
The next second, without warning, one after another, the beasts that Chu Xiu had seen before rushed out from the nearby mist and attacked Jiu Gui!

Chu Xiu could see clearly that these calamity beasts were not originally there, but as the calamity mist rolled and swirled, they materialized out of thin air in less than a few breaths!

This caused a look of shock to flash in Chu Xiu's eyes. These beasts had flesh and blood, and even metallic scales, yet they were born from the rolling mist!

Where do these substances come from? Are they merely a manifestation, or can the calamity itself transform into different substances?

Witnessing the extraordinary nature of the calamity, Chu Xiu's expression turned solemn.

These beasts are many times more powerful in the Calamity Mist than outside, and they can quickly recover from any serious injury they suffer in the Calamity Mist.

Qingyunzi possesses power that is almost demigod-like, but the fighting style of the ghosts is completely countered by these calamity beasts, which means that they have to use several times their strength to barely kill a single calamity beast.

At first, the overwhelming power of the nine heroic spirits was enough to cope, but the closer they got to the core, the faster these calamity beasts were generated and the stronger they became. The formation formed by Qingyunzi and the other ghosts gradually became strained.

"However, these beasts are not much of a problem for me." Chu Xiu stroked his chin, weighing the situation in his mind.

With his current demigod-level power, he could easily sweep through the area.

However, it should be noted that a calamity can suppress the flow of magical power.

Even the deathly waterfall formed by combining with Daoist energy would strain Chu Xiu, let alone the pure tribulation here.

Chu Xiu estimated that to reach the core of that calamity under these circumstances, relying solely on his own strength, he would probably need to use the power of the [God-Given Living Armor].

Currently, this artifact still contains about two-thirds of its power. As long as it doesn't get bogged down in a protracted battle, it should be able to fight another battle without much trouble.

Having made up his mind, Chu Xiu prepared to call Qingyunzi and the others back.

They are currently about five miles away from the core of the vortex, but it is already almost impossible for them to move forward. There is no need to let them continue.

But just as Chu Xiu was about to transmit the information with his divine sense, a huge thunderclap suddenly rang out from within the vortex of tribulation clouds!

There had been thunder before, but it was like a muffled rumble that kept echoing from within a thundercloud. But now, it was like a sudden, deafening thunderclap, as if power had been accumulating to its limit and then erupting!
Before Chu Xiu could react, a bolt of lightning, resembling a black dragon, flashed through the tribulation clouds, its target clear: Qing Yunzi and the others!

Qingyunzi was shocked. All the magical artifacts around him shone brightly, but those artifacts, which were specifically designed to overcome tribulations, seemed to have lost all their power in the face of the dark lightning, and could not stop it in the slightest!
The lightning was incredibly fast; the first immortal lord didn't even have time to make a move to escape before being struck by it!
The next instant, amidst a shrill scream, the soul body of that Immortal Lord-level hero was as if it had been forcibly shattered by an irresistible force, instantly exploding into basic particles!
This terrifying scene caused the nearby ghosts to change color drastically, their eyes filled with uncontrollable fear!
But that was far from over. Under the terrified gazes of the ghosts, two identical bolts of lightning shot out from the exploding soul body and struck the two ghosts closest to each other!

Perhaps after the first encounter with the ghost, the power of this lightning was weakened. This time, others were able to see the attack process of this lightning. After hitting the soul body, it spread outwards from the point of impact, creating countless tiny lightning bolts. Wherever these lightning bolts passed, it was as if all chemical bonds were broken, and all structures disintegrated into the most basic particles!
In less than a fraction of a second, most of the soul of one of the Immortal Lords who was struck scattered and shattered. Another bolt of lightning struck an Immortal Venerable, whose more solidified soul gave him more time to react. He decisively abandoned the half of his body that had been struck by the strange lightning and charged backward with the remaining half!

But that calamity was like a leech clinging to a bone. After half of its body was shattered, countless tiny lightning bolts formed a large net and enveloped it at a speed many times faster than that of the immortal venerable one!

"what!!!"

The immortal sage let out a terrifying scream and hurled his magical artifact, which formed a green barrier. This barrier had previously been able to easily block the calamity, but in the face of the lightning, it was like air, unable to even delay for a moment!

"boom!"

Surrounded by that dense electric grid, the immortal venerable, with only half of his body remaining, was completely destroyed in the blink of an eye!

This terrifying chain reaction was far from over. After easily annihilating one Immortal Venerable and two Immortal Lords, more tiny bolts of lightning surged from their shattered bodies, rushing towards their next target!
Upon discovering that even these weakened, tiny lightning bolts could not be stopped by any means, the group of ghosts could no longer suppress their fear and fled backwards at top speed, disregarding even the formation!

There was no way to escape the pitch-black lightning, but if you could escape faster than the other ghosts, you might survive!

"Bang bang bang!"

Another ghost was struck, its body disintegrating piece by piece starting from its arm. These powerful heroic spirits tried everything they could, but they couldn't even slow down for a second, let alone resist the dark lightning! The dark lightning was like a causal weapon rooted in cause and effect, impossible to dodge, impossible to stop, and destined to hit!
Qingyunzi was so frightened that he immediately took out his trump card to save his life. He threw out a banana leaf fan that was as green as jade, which expanded from the size of a palm to the size of a small boat in the blink of an eye.

It clung to the banana leaf fan, transforming into a streak of emerald light that instantly left the other ghosts far behind.

"Bang bang bang!"

One ghost after another exploded, but after all eight heroic ghosts were annihilated, several streaks of lightning still shot out and hurtled toward Qingyunzi!

Even though these remaining bolts of lightning were countless times smaller than the first one, in Qingyunzi's eyes they were still like the Grim Reaper's scythe, capable of destroying and taking lives!
It fled for its life, but was horrified to discover that no matter how fast it ran, the lightning bolts seemed to be closing the distance between them at a constant rate! This filled Qingyunzi with horror, and his heart turned ice-cold!
In despair, Qingyunzi suddenly threw something backward, which turned out to be an extremely condensed ball of immortal energy!

Long before the ghosts set off, Chu Xiu had already obtained the immortal energy they possessed. It was common knowledge that immortal energy could restrain tribulation, and Chu Xiu did not want to waste his resources for a mere test.

However, it is quite obvious that Qingyunzi has also secretly hidden a piece of immortal energy!
And the interaction between the immortal energy and the black lightning actually worked! The lightning bolts seemed to have encountered a natural enemy, abandoning Qingyunzi and engaging in a fierce battle with the immortal energy!
The two are like water and fire, evaporating and dissipating from each other!
Unfortunately, Qingyunzi didn't dare to hide too much. This ball of immortal energy, which he used as a life-saving trump card, was still not enough to exhaust the power of the black lightning!

"laugh!"

A bolt of lightning consumed all the immortal energy, and it rushed out at high speed!
In the blink of an eye, those lightning bolts were about to strike Qingyunzi's back!
Despair appeared on Qingyunzi's face, but at this critical moment, a cloth bag suddenly fell from the sky, opening its mouth and blocking Qingyunzi's way!

It is indeed the Bag of Returning All Impurities to Their Origin!
But Chu Xiu intervened in time to save them.

He was still thinking about the Taiyin Treasure Vault, so naturally he couldn't let Qingyunzi die here. At the same time, the sudden appearance of black lightning also piqued Chu Xiu's curiosity.

That power was extremely strong and terrifying, far surpassing any power he had ever seen before. Just looking at it from a distance gave him a chilling feeling. This was a warning from his spiritual sense. Even Meng Xuan Shu's law of gravity had never given him such a terrifying feeling. Under normal circumstances, Chu Xiu would have avoided it like the plague, but now, in order to obtain the Tribulation Pearl, it was necessary to study it.

And seeing the strange lightning being weakened in multiple ways, he couldn't help but have a thought.

If only I could take this power for myself.
Thinking of the terrifying power of the black lightning, Chu Xiu decisively chose to give it a try.

To his astonishment, the Myriad Filth Returning to Origin Bag, which could easily devour even death energy, was completely oblivious to the black lightning. The black lightning bolts seemed to exist entirely outside this space, passing straight through the Myriad Filth Returning to Origin Bag and continuing their pursuit of Qingyunzi!
"What a mysterious power!"

Chu Xiu was secretly alarmed, but he had already prepared a backup plan. With a wave of the soul banner in his hand, a high-level ghost general appeared in front of him!

That tribulation ignored any inanimate objects, but as expected, it was attracted to living things and directly burrowed into the body of a high-level ghost general. Just as it entered, Chu Xiu waved the Soul Banner again to collect the high-level ghost.

As the high-ranking ghost general was taken away, the calamity also subsided. Chu Xiu focused his attention on the Soul Banner and saw that the black lightning was constantly destroying the high-ranking ghost general's body. However, within the Soul Banner, not only were other ghosts sharing the damage, but a large amount of divine soul power was also replenishing it. It was able to barely hold its own against the pitch-black lightning, which was now less than one percent of its initial power.

And so, Chu Xiu managed to preserve that miraculous lightning bolt using a strange method.

Of course, as the ghosts are constantly being consumed, the power of the calamity will also be continuously depleted. Although Chu Xiu has tried his best to avoid battle, he cannot preserve it for long.

However, this was already astonishing enough. When Qingyunzi saw that the deadly lightning was simply taken away by Chu Xiu with a flick of his hand, he was so shocked that his eyes almost popped out.

He inherited some of the scattered memories of the ancient cultivators. Although they were fragmented and unsystematic, they came from a higher being. Therefore, even though he was no match for Chu Xiu, he always had a vague sense of superiority over him. However, this sense of superiority had vanished at this moment.

After a long pause, he coughed lightly and said, "On this journey, all eight of my fellow cultivators perished. I wonder if this counts as fulfilling your conditions, fellow cultivator?"

What he fears now is that Chu Xiu might back out at the last minute after witnessing the terror of the calamity, which would mean a complete loss for them.

Moreover, without the eight immortals to jointly resist the calamity beasts, Penglai will probably only be able to hold out for a few more years before being breached.

Fortunately, after a moment's thought, Chu Xiu said, "I will try my best, but if the power of the tribulation exceeds expectations, then please don't blame me for breaking the formation and leaving."

Upon hearing this, Qingyunzi sighed softly. With Penglai breached, the awakened ones could leave at their leisure, but he had nowhere to go. Qingyunzi was filled with regret, but he had no other choice but to place his hopes on Chu Xiu.

Next, Chu Xiu gave Qing Yunzi a burst of immortal energy, allowing him to heal the four members of the Heavenly Machinery Guild.

This ethereal aura accounts for approximately one-sixth of the total.

Chu Xiu carried the remaining immortal energy with him, just in case.

After doing all this, he signaled the others to leave, as he needed some time to figure out how to deal with Jie.

Everyone obeyed the order. Qingyunzi took a few steps, then turned back and said, "Those fellow Daoists who were devoured by the abduction may have left behind some relics. Fellow Daoists can go and investigate."

He didn't actually want Chu Xiu to gain an advantage, but he also knew that the stronger Chu Xiu was at this moment, the greater the possibility of him seizing the Tribulation Pearl.

Chu Xiu didn't say anything more, just nodded, and then his figure flickered and entered the depths of the domain filled with mutated death energy.

He spread his demonic energy to isolate the surrounding mutated death energy, and arrived at the place where several immortals had died. He was surprised to find that there were scattered causal points on the ground.

Chu Xiu seemed to understand where those causal points in the Inheritance Immortal Stele came from.

"Both the Calamity Pearl and the pitch-black lightning seem to have the effect of devouring objects and then transforming them into causal points."

Chu Xiu waved his hand, collecting all the causal points nearby, and a crisp notification sound rang in his ears.

[Item Obtained: 1638521 Causality Points]

"Oh?"

Chu Xiu raised an eyebrow, somewhat pleasantly surprised. This wave of gains had yielded over 1.6 million karma points!

Meanwhile, scattered around were numerous magical artifacts crafted by the eight ghosts, as well as precious materials they carried.

Normally, killing eight Heroic Spirits, even the pure abyssal creatures that drop the most Causal Points, would not reach this number, almost twice as many.

Chu Xiu felt as if he had touched upon some fundamental secrets once again.

However, he didn't think much of it; there were more pressing matters at hand.

After putting away the causal points and materials, he turned his gaze to the huge vortex of death energy in the distance.

After the jet-black lightning bolt was fired, the vortex of death energy seemed to shrink a bit. Although it was still enormous, Chu Xiu could feel that the terrifying aura within it was significantly weaker than before.

"That dark lightning bolt earlier, even I would probably have had a hard time withstanding it. If I had been hit by it, I would have been seriously injured even if I hadn't died!"

Moreover, this serious injury is not the traditional kind of losing two arms or spitting out a few mouthfuls of blood, but rather a large-scale collapse of the body, which can be considered a fatal injury for a high-level awakened person!

Although Qingyunzi had already weakened the death energy vortex, Chu Xiu still dared not advance rashly.

Even if he only had half the strength he had before, he didn't want to force it.

With a thought, the Myriad Impurities Return to Origin Bag appeared in his hand.

Chu Xiu planned to use this treasure to absorb the mutated death energy and further weaken the power of the central vortex. He also wanted to take this opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanism of the First Tribulation and see if he could find a way to deal with it.

However, Chu Xiu did not rush to open it. Instead, he sat cross-legged and initiated the perfect refinement of this magic weapon!
Previously, Chu Xiu used it to absorb a large amount of death energy falling from the Death Energy Waterfall.

However, as a secret treasure included in the supreme inheritance of the demonic path, it naturally has more than just this ability. Its true power lies in refining and purifying!
As the Perfect Refinement was activated, the death energy stored in the Myriad Filth Returning to Origin Bag seemed to ignite out of thin air, rising with eerie, pitch-black flames! The Myriad Filth Returning to Origin Bag also expanded violently, its body vibrating incessantly, as if it were about to explode at any moment!
Chu Xiu's brow twitched, realizing that the death energy was too powerful. Condensing such a high-level energy would put immense pressure on the Myriad Filth Returning to Origin Bag, so he immediately focused his mind on refining it.

Fortunately, with the assistance of [Perfect Refinement], Chu Xiu's control ability reached near perfection, and the refinement was completed without any major incidents.

A day later, a drop of extremely viscous liquid, so black it seemed to devour all light, appeared in the Myriad Filth Returning to Origin Bag.

(End of this chapter)