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

Chapter 374 Tribulation
"Boom."

The swirling clouds in the sky surged and churned, as if brewing some kind of world-destroying power.

Chu Xiu lowered his body and cautiously approached the tribulation clouds.

The [God-Given Living Armor] had already appeared on his body and could be activated at any time. Facing this terrifying tribulation lightning, he dared not be careless in the slightest and made all the necessary preparations.

Soon, he surpassed the area that Qingyunzi and the others had previously ventured into, but the tribulation lightning still did not descend. Clearly, the effect of Qingyunzi's first wave of lightning and Chu Xiu's continuous refining of death energy had taken hold, and the tribulation clouds in the core area had been weakened considerably.

But Chu Xiu did not relax his vigilance in the slightest. Layers of barriers unfolded around him, cautiously probing towards the core area.

Just when they were less than three miles away from that huge cloud of tribulation, a bolt of lightning suddenly flashed through the cloud, followed by a thunderclap that seemed to pierce the sky!

"Boom!"

Amidst the deafening roar, Chu Xiu's expression suddenly turned serious.

"coming!"

The moment the thought crossed his mind, a bolt of pitch-black lightning shot out from the tribulation clouds at an unbelievable speed, hurtling towards Chu Xiu!

The speed of that lightning bolt far exceeded anything Chu Xiu had ever seen, not even Astrid's speed. In the blink of an eye, it covered a distance of several thousand meters and almost reached Chu Xiu's eyes!

Fortunately, Chu Xiu was prepared. Facing this thunderous attack, he remained calm and composed. He raised his hand, and a large amount of ghostly energy rose in front of him, forming multiple protective shields!

This ghostly energy is the foundation for the Ghost King's domain. Although it is far from comparable to the power of gods and demons or the origin of magical treasures, it is still a high-level power.

Previously, Chu Xiu had used ghost energy to trap several strands of tribulation lightning inside a ghost, which shows that ghost energy can block tribulation lightning.

With the support of tens of thousands of ghosts, the layers of ghost energy that these two ghost kings unleashed through the battle formation formed Chu Xiu's first barrier!
"laugh!"

However, to Chu Xiu's expectant gaze, the tribulation lightning was like a hot knife slicing through tofu, directly piercing through layers of ghostly energy!
Chu Xiu felt a chill run down his spine, realizing that the tribulation lightning, which had not been weakened in the slightest, was far more powerful than the few strands he had trapped!

However, Chu Xiu was not flustered. He had not expected to block the tribulation lightning with this. It would be enough if he could consume a little bit of it.

To withstand the tribulation lightning, one must rely on their own strength!

With a low shout, the Hellfire Corpse appeared beside him, its soul chain directly linking to Chu Xiu's body. At the same time, the Blood Demon Avatar also appeared, with countless tentacles surging out from its body, like veins, and flowing into Chu Xiu's back!
With the help of these two powerful creatures, Chu Xiu's life force reached a new level!

His entire body surged with magical power, establishing countless connections between his palms and body. At the same time, divine and demonic power and the essence of magical treasures, like an elite army ready for battle, had already been deployed in his palms.

Chu Xiu let out a low shout and struck out with both palms, as if catching a lead ball falling from the sky, lifting it towards the tribulation lightning!

The next instant, as the lightning struck his palm, a dazzling burst of light illuminated the entire world!
"boom!!!"

Countless bolts of lightning raged along Chu Xiu's body, the terrifying energy causing his skin to crack inch by inch!
Despite the excruciating pain coursing through every part of his body, Chu Xiu showed no panic whatsoever; instead, his eyes gleamed with joy!

Although his body was undergoing massive disintegration, this disintegration was controllable and dispersed. He looked down and saw that although his palms were a bloody mess, the bones were still intact! He had successfully dispersed the power of the tribulation lightning throughout his body, and by connecting his entire body, he greatly increased the consumption of energy used to destroy the tribulation lightning! Instead of collapsing at the first touch like the previous ghosts!
This proves that his previous theory was correct, and after completing this most difficult step, Chu Xiu was already prepared for the rest.

"It seems that even the Golden Embryo Origin and the [God-Given Living Armor] don't need to be used."

Chu Xiu smiled faintly, and suddenly a large number of ghosts appeared around him!
In the next instant, these ghostly creatures exploded and shattered into the most basic particles!
This is a divine skill that Chu Xiu mastered long ago: the Unjust Death Substitute!
This skill allows the surrounding ghosts to help him share the damage. Although he mastered this skill when he was at the Fierce Rank, as the core inheritance of the Supreme Demon Lord, its effects and functions are extremely powerful and heaven-defying. Moreover, as the user's strength increases, the effect of this skill will become stronger and stronger!
At this moment, under the precise control of Chu Xiu's powerful divine sense, he activated hundreds of "Wrongful Death Substitutes" simultaneously in less than 0.1 seconds!

These unjustly killed substitutes can further transmit the damage they suffered by using the battle formations between ghosts!
"Wow!"

As sharp, ghostly wails rang out, a massive black cloud rose from the spot, its immense power even forcing back the surrounding deathly aura! Chu Xiu, having continuously trained, strengthened, and absorbed the ghostly army of thousands of horned demon powerhouses from the Battle of Pengcheng within the Hundred Ghosts Furnace, manifested in the mortal world for the first time in its complete form!
Even if there are no high-level experts among the ghosts, in terms of total energy, Chu Xiu himself is far inferior!

At this moment, this terrifying legion, led by two ghost kings, constructed a vast ghostly domain. Dark lightning surged within the domain, eventually engulfing it in the endless ghostly aura.

The electric lightning on Chu Xiu's body gradually subsided, and the disintegration of his body gradually stopped. In fact, with the continuous infusion of life energy from the Purgatory Demon Corpse and the Blood Demon Avatar, he began to recover!
"We withstood it." A smile appeared on Chu Xiu's face.

He withstood the attack of the tribulation lightning with his own body!
Not only that, Chu Xiu could also feel that his body was undergoing some kind of transformation, becoming stronger than before, and also developing some kind of resistance to tribulation lightning!
"This must be a trait of my body that has undergone tribulations; its completion rate has been greatly improved."

Thinking of this, Chu Xiu's smile deepened. This trip to the Hundred Ghosts Furnace was an incredible opportunity, one that others wouldn't even dare to dream of, just to obtain the special qualities of the Tribulation Body.

However, just as Chu Xiu was secretly delighted, a loud bang suddenly came from the dome again!
Chu Xiu was taken aback at first, then his expression changed drastically!

The black tribulation clouds overhead seemed to be enraged by Chu Xiu, spinning rapidly, and some kind of huge change seemed to be taking place inside.

What's terrifying is that the mutated death energy that was originally spewing out from the tribulation cloud is now flowing back into the tribulation cloud, as if it has suddenly become a vortex that devours everything!
The death energy in the entire death energy domain began to surge violently, rushing towards the tribulation clouds overhead at an astonishing speed. No, it wasn't just the death energy domain, but the entire Penglai, and even the mutated death energy outside of Penglai, was being swallowed up by the tribulation clouds!
Chu Xiu felt an extremely dangerous premonition and turned to run without the slightest hesitation!
He was incredibly fast, covering several miles in the blink of an eye, but the tribulation clouds were even faster! Chu Xiu only saw a flash of light in the corner of his eye as a bolt of tribulation lightning shot out from the tribulation clouds, heading straight for him!

Chu Xiu was horrified. No matter how fast he was, how could he outrun the tribulation lightning? He decisively stopped and once again deployed his army of ghosts. Just like last time, he held up the lightning with both hands and caught it!
The terrifying power raged through Chu Xiu's body once again. Fortunately, although he was in poor condition, he had gained experience and managed to withstand the tribulation lightning.

However, before he could even catch his breath, another loud bang echoed in the sky!
To Chu Xiu's horror, the second bolt of tribulation lightning struck him like a sword of light descending from the sky!

"boom!"

Chu Xiu's hands shattered with a crash, and to his horrified gaze, the remaining force of the tribulation lightning continued unabated, chasing straight towards his heart meridian along his arms!

Not long ago, in the distant Penglai Wonderland.

A wisp of immortal energy lingered between Qingyunzi's fingers, and finally, as if it had a life of its own, entered Chen Lengqiang's body.

As the celestial energy dissipated, something seemed to change within Chen Lengqiang's body.

After a while, he opened his eyes, his eyes filled with joy.

"It's done!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the other three members of the Celestial Machinery Guild cheered.

"That's great! Now all four of us are completely alive again!" Shen Tianxie said excitedly.

The four had fought side by side for many years, and their friendship was beyond question.

"Not only that, we also have an unexpected bonus." Chen Lengqiang's face revealed an undisguised smile.

The other three also laughed.

A prompt silently floated in front of each of them.

[Body Forged Through Tribulation (Pseudo) (SS): All attributes +3700, slight increase in resistance to tribulation lightning.] A direct increase of 3700 to all attributes! For a King-rank character, this is an absolute leap forward!

The improvement in basic attributes is terrifying, not to mention that physique, spirit and energy are not independent of each other. An increase of 3700 in all attributes can directly give an ordinary king-level a combat power of a top king-level!
How could the four of them not be overjoyed?
With this trait, their chances of passing the Heroic Spirit Trial increase exponentially!
Even Su Jinyu and Jiang Miaoyin, who were in the distance, showed envious expressions, and even had the urge to draw in death energy and experience becoming a living dead.

But in the end, they held back, knowing that this was a special opportunity for the four of them.

Not all dead people become living dead.

Although the bottom of the Hundred Demon Furnace had special rules under the shroud of death energy, the four people's condition was only achieved by chance. First, it required the kind of precise spatial cutting that killed demons, so that while causing fatal injuries, the integrity of the body could be preserved to the greatest extent.

The people killed by the murderer don't even look any different from before.

In addition, one must be in a place where the concentrations of death energy and yin energy coexist in just the right ratio in order for the consciousness of the original body to be preserved after the physical body is revived by death energy. It can be said that the right time, place and people are indispensable.

Of course, if one were to truly imitate, there would be a 40-50% chance of replicating it, but one must know that failure could mean certain death and destruction, so how many people would dare to take that risk? Therefore, one can only stand by and admire from the sidelines.

The four who had turned misfortune into good fortune were all very happy, but there was still one last step before the danger truly turned into an opportunity.

That means returning to Earth.

The group looked toward the distant expanse of deathly energy, from which muffled sounds could be heard from time to time, as if a monster was devouring something.

"I wonder when Senior Qin will set off to attempt the challenge," Shen Tianxie sighed.

For the past two weeks, there have been constant disturbances emanating from the distant deathly aura domain, but the tribulation clouds above the dome have remained calm, and no one knows what Chu Xiu is up to inside.

"Could it be that they backed down after witnessing the power of the calamity?" Qingyunzi's expression was somewhat gloomy.

The others were alright; even if Chu Xiu didn't want to obtain the Tribulation Pearl, he could leave by forcibly breaking through Penglai's barrier.

But Qingyunzi will be in trouble, as he will inevitably have to fight Chu Xiu.

However, as an old monster who had been operating in this place for two thousand years, he could not possibly leave no tricks up his sleeve. He was completely dominated by Chu Xiu and secretly planned that if Chu Xiu broke the agreement and tried to forcibly break it, he would have no choice but to use his trump card and fight him to the death.

As everyone waited with their own thoughts, another three days passed.

On this day, the previously calm calamity clouds finally began to stir.

As the deafening rumble of thunder rang out, everyone's spirits lifted!
"Senior, have you finally started the challenge?!"

Everyone used their skills, looking expectantly into the distance, but the layers of mutated death energy prevented them from seeing what was happening inside.

But soon, everyone sensed that something was wrong.

Because after the first bolt of tribulation lightning descended from the sky, the tribulation clouds began to brew a second, and even a third!

And what's most terrifying is that all the mutated death energy in Penglai is surging towards that vortex! It's like a king summoning his army!

"What exactly did the senior do?" The crowd couldn't hide their shock.

At this moment, Qingyunzi suddenly realized something, his expression became extremely solemn, and he muttered to himself, "Could this be what will happen next?"

Jiang Miaoyin turned her head and asked, "What do you mean?"

Qingyunzi said, "In my guess, Fellow Daoist Qin must have successfully withstood that strange lightning."

"However, before Fellow Daoist Qin, no one had ever been able to escape unscathed from that lightning. In fact, we had never even dared to approach that death energy vortex before, let alone seen that lightning. It was only recently that we learned that such a terrifying method had evolved from the source of this death energy."

"It seems that Fellow Daoist Qin has successfully withstood the lightning, but this has only angered the source of death energy, which is now unleashing more lightning to kill Fellow Daoist Qin."

Qingyunzi's words caused the rest of them to change their expressions.

Everyone had witnessed the scene where the pitch-black lightning had successively annihilated the heroic spirits and ghosts.

In an instant, eight heroic spirits were slain! This terrifying power sent chills down everyone's spines.

Even Chu Xiu would likely find it difficult to withstand this power.

In fact, judging from Chu Xiu's serious expression afterward and the amount of time he spent preparing, this conjecture is probably correct.

Therefore, they believed that Chu Xiu could withstand a lightning bolt!
But they were blocked by two, three, or even more in succession. They didn't believe it!

Right now, the mutated death energy within hundreds of miles is being swallowed up by the tribulation clouds, and more than three bolts of lightning have been unleashed.

Under these circumstances, no one can say for sure how long Chu Xiu can hold on!

If Chu Xiu dies under the tribulation lightning, Qingyunzi will never let them leave! Wouldn't everyone be trapped here for the rest of their lives?

"Let's hurry and help our senior escape this predicament!" Jiang Miaoyin whispered. "My cursed spirit, Sister Su's ancient god relic, and the traits you all just acquired should all come in handy!"

"Are you crazy?!" Before Jiang Miaoyin could finish speaking, Shen Tianxie whispered, "Haven't you seen the power of that tribulation lightning? Even heroic spirits couldn't withstand it for a moment. What makes you think you can help? You'll only make things worse!"

"We can't just stand by and watch! If our senior dies, we'll all be trapped here!" Jiang Miaoyin immediately retorted, and a quarrel broke out.

But just then, Qingyunzi suddenly said, "Stop arguing, look over there!"

As he spoke, he pointed to a spot.

Everyone was taken aback when he suddenly spoke, and then they were taken aback again when they looked in the direction of the voice.

But a thousand miles away, a magnificent palace appeared out of nowhere, suspended in the clouds, like the abode of a god.

"This is."

"This is the Taiyin Treasure Vault!" Qingyunzi's voice trembled, his face filled with excitement. "After the death energy was absorbed, the path to the treasure vault appeared!"

He looked at the others, a strange expression on his face: "I'm afraid we don't need the eighth Calamity Pearl to reach the treasure vault now."

(End of this chapter)