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

Chapter 378 Return
"Hahahahahaha!"

In response to Chu Xiu's question, Qing Yunzi, who was in the distance, let out a triumphant laugh.

"With the help of a few young friends, I managed to succeed by sheer luck."

At this moment, he was surrounded by a dense black aura, and the yin energy around him was swirling around him, as if his every move could mobilize the power of heaven and earth.

This made Chu Xiu's face show an extremely solemn expression.

The mental attack just now was some kind of supernatural power that could instantly strip him of all his senses!
If it weren't for the enhancement of all his attributes after the tribulation lightning, it would probably have taken him at least a second to recover! That's enough time for the opponent to launch countless attacks!
"Fortunately, I had completed the cultivation of the six internal organs in advance."

Chu Xiu looked down and saw that the injury on his waist was healing. If it were Chu Xiu before his tribulation, this attack would probably have shattered most of the flesh and blood in his waist! It was definitely a genuine demigod-level attack!
However, Qingyunzi was not good at physical attacks, and Chu Xiu's physical strength had reached an astonishing level, so he only suffered minor injuries.

Even so, his expression became extremely serious. Qingyunzi had accumulated two thousand years of experience, but he had been trapped in Penglai and dared not break through. Once he broke through, his strength would be far beyond that of an ordinary demigod. Moreover, the opponent was a mental demigod whom he was least adept at dealing with!
What Chu Xiu didn't know was that Qing Yunzi, who seemed arrogant, was actually more shocked than Chu Xiu!

"Just how much strength is this kid hiding? He actually survived the bombardment of that tribulation lightning, and even when I attacked with all my might, I only managed to inflict minor injuries on him!"

Although the exchange just now lasted only a moment, Qingyunzi had already used his killing move!
His mental attack was called "Blazing Sun." Don't be fooled by the fact that Chu Xiu's perception was only disturbed by a group of white lights. If it were an ordinary heroic spirit, its entire soul would be burned to ashes by the blazing light!

Although this wasn't Qingyunzi's trump card, it was still one of his most powerful mental attack methods. However, Chu Xiu not only escaped unscathed, but also recovered quickly!

The most outrageous thing is that his demigod-level attack only managed to create a small hole in the opponent's waist and abdomen. That's just too exaggerated!
He originally thought that after becoming a demigod, he would be able to kill Chu Xiu instantly in a sneak attack, but he did not expect that he would only cause minor injuries to the other party.

The two stared at each other, wary of one another, and neither made a move for the time being.

Finally, Qingyunzi broke the silence: "Now that you have escaped, you can leave. There should be no more spatial barriers here that are bothering you, right?"

Chu Xiu didn't reply, but simply glanced around and asked, "Where are the other two?"

"Miss Jiang did not wish to stay any longer and departed first, while Miss Su voluntarily stayed by my side," Qingyunzi said with a smile.

Chu Xiu understood: Jiang Miaoyin had escaped, but Su Jinyu was being held captive because of the restrictions placed on her.

He sneered, "You promised to share the Taiyin Treasure Vault with me, but do you know where it is?"

Qingyunzi's smile remained unchanged: "Then I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you, fellow Daoist. The palace outside is just an illusion; there are no treasures here."

Chu Xiu nodded: "Okay."

As soon as he finished speaking, a claw suddenly shot out from a distance!
Qingyunzi was stunned. Before he could figure out what was happening, he felt his soul being pulled uncontrollably toward Chu Xiu by a tremendous force!

Even more terrifying is that his core consciousness, which seemed to be encased in layers of solid soul body, was showing signs of breaking free!
This terrified Qingyunzi. His body shone with spiritual light as he tried his best to stabilize his soul. The terrifying spiritual power of a demigod erupted, instantly freezing his soul in place.

However, before he could even catch his breath, he felt everything go black, and an aura that made him tremble swept over him!

In the real world, it was just a flick of Chu Xiu's finger, but in his soul's perception, it was as if a pitch-black giant club that occupied the entire world was smashing down on him!

"Drink!"

Qingyunzi roared, his soul power trembling, forming thousands of giant swords that rushed towards the sky, like a cultivator defying the heavens. However, the moment those giant swords touched the black rod, they seemed to have their entire structure shattered instantly and were directly scattered!
Qingyunzi could clearly sense that his spiritual power surpassed that of his opponent, and by a considerable margin! But the giant staff seemed to be specifically designed to counter him, and his thousands of giant swords were utterly powerless against it!
"What kind of supernatural power is this???"

Qingyunzi was utterly horrified!
At this moment, he could no longer care about hiding his trump card. With a flick of his wrists, a huge golden palm rose into the air and slammed into the Ghost Cry Staff, which had been weakened by thousands of giant swords. He finally managed to block the attack.

Then, without stopping, he continuously struck the ground with hand seals. As the hand seals materialized, the ground trembled violently, and in the next instant, eight enormous stone tablets rose from the ground!

"You want to know where the treasure vault is? I'll show you right now!"

Qingyunzi grinned maliciously. As the energy within his body vibrated, eight giant steles, like eight guardian deities, surrounded him, each radiating a terrifying aura capable of destroying the world!
"Go away?"

However, just as Qingyunzi was about to activate the eight stone tablets to attack the enemy, he was slightly taken aback.

Chu Xiu was nowhere to be seen.

"call out!"

As the surroundings changed, Chu Xiu returned to the Awakening Space after a long absence.

"I'm finally back."

Looking at the familiar scenery around him, Chu Xiu let out a long breath.

Although the Ghost Cry Staff was powerful, Chu Xiu was not arrogant enough to think he could kill a demigod ghost directly with it.

After all, their base stats are several times worse.

Even after undergoing tribulation, Chu Xiu's spiritual attributes were only at the level of a top-tier heroic spirit, still one level away from becoming a demigod. Not to mention that Qing Yunzi was a ghost demigod who had accumulated two thousand years of spiritual power, and his spiritual attributes were incredibly strong.

So after his first attack failed, Chu Xiu stopped pursuing and decisively left.

His decision proved to be quite correct.

"So, those last eight stone tablets really do possess a portion of the power of the Taiyin Treasure Vault?"

Although it was just a fleeting glance, Chu Xiu still felt the terrifying power emanating from those eight stone tablets, which was probably no less than the strike of a powerful demigod.

"I can only go back and take a look after my strength has improved further."

Chu Xiu didn't dwell on it too much. His gains from this trip had already far exceeded his expectations, and being greedy would only lead to disaster.

Chu Xiu decided to first use up this year's quota of Karma Points from the government, then dispose of some unused items he had acquired on this trip, and finally make a final push to boost his combat power.

Then he broke through to become a Heroic Spirit and began his tribulation.

"If I can successfully form my core, even if I still can't compare to the Heavenly King, I'm afraid I won't be far off," Chu Xiu thought to himself.

Having made up his mind, Chu Xiu did not delay and prepared to take action.

But just then, as if he had suddenly discovered something, he let out a soft exclamation.

In his awakening space, there is an ancient altar, which is the old altar he obtained before, and at this moment, items are quietly placed on the altar.

Chu Xiu quickly realized that this must be the harvest that the old shadows he had sent out earlier had returned with.

He had previously released both his ordinary and elite-level Old Soul Remnants to collect Aurora's remnant souls, but he didn't know what the final outcome would be.

Chu Xiu picked up a piece at random; it was just a perfect piece of equipment for a general-level character.

"It seems that even if they don't find the target item, the Shadows will still bring back something." Chu Xiu knew this in his mind.

He scanned the items with his divine sense and quickly organized them all.

Unfortunately, most of the items were just scattered pieces of equipment. The rarer ones had S-rank traits and class attributes, but they were all at the general or king level. Fusing them would increase their mutation rate, which was of no use to Chu Xiu. He could only sell them for money. As for the fragments of Aurora's soul, only three pieces were found.

You should know that Chu Xiu sent out dozens of them at once.

With a gentle squeeze, the three fragments merged with the previous ones, and a blurry phantom appeared in front of Chu Xiu.

【Aurora's Soul (King-Rank Legend) (4/7): A soul lost in the abyss. As the head of Qingyan Base City, she led several large-scale defense battles and successfully killed a Blood Demon.】

[As beings blessed by civilization, once all the necessary elements are collected, they will exist in spirit form and will gain some of the civilization's traits.]

After the three fragments were combined, a lot more information was added.

"Huh, I didn't expect this girl to actually kill that Blood Demon in the real world."

Chu Xiu was a little surprised, but after thinking about it for a while, he didn't find it strange at all.

The Blood Demon army's sheer size was amplified by the extremely high difficulty of the ancient trials.

As for the final civilizational characteristics, Chu Xiu took a second look. He remembered what Zhao Jie had said about the path to godhood. Even without a master of civilization, the power of civilization would spontaneously gather, and perhaps some of that power had gathered on this woman.

After a moment's thought, Chu Xiu stopped pondering and activated the escape mechanism, returning to Earth.

Next, just as planned, he contacted the head of the Investigation Bureau in Yuan City and arranged to trade causal points in the Corpse Demon World fourteen days later, after the cooldown period ended.

He sorted out what he had gained from the trip, as well as a whole bunch of good stuff he had obtained from the killer.

Even after consuming six powerful pieces of equipment to cultivate the "Myriad Weapons Return to the Source Technique", three legendary king-level items and seventeen perfect heroic spirits were still left behind, all of which were extremely valuable.

Chu Xiu roughly calculated that the materials and equipment he obtained in the Hundred Ghosts Furnace alone were enough to meet the need for exchanging three million Karma Points, since the exchange price was only about one-third of the normal transaction price.

There were even quite a few left over.

Chu Xiu thought for a moment and decided to keep the high-level equipment for now, but he put all the unnecessary and highly sought-after items up for auction in exchange for karma points.

He sold off the less sought-after items, since no one would use causal points to buy them, and converted them into Chinese Yuan.

Although the Chinese currency is not popular in transactions among high-level awakened individuals, it is still possible to purchase a large number of high-tech weapons from the military, which would be perfect for arming the Titan mechs.

Once he made up his mind, Chu Xiu acted swiftly.

The process went quite smoothly. Half of the auction items, totaling approximately 1.5 million causal points, were sold within just two weeks. The same was true for Huaxia coins, which directly brought in over 100 billion.

The transaction with the government went smoothly without any problems, and the more than three million karma points were successfully obtained.

With these, Chu Xiu's total number of causal points returned to nearly seven million.

"Seven million karma points! Even among demigods, few are that wealthy," Chu Xiu exclaimed.

The three officials responsible for trading cause and effect points with Chu Xiu were also filled with envy.

Those who can liaise with Chu Xiu now are all powerful individuals at the Heroic Spirit level.

But for them, three million causal points was an unimaginable astronomical figure, and what was most terrifying was that Chu Xiu had only awakened his power a little over two years ago.
"Alright, Chen, let me tell you about the current situation in the camp."

After the transaction was completed, a refined-looking middle-aged man spoke up.

Chu Xiu clasped his hands in greeting: "Brother Zhao, what brings you here?"

This person was none other than Zhao Jie! He was also the contact person between the Investigation Bureau and Chu Xiu for this meeting.

Now that Yazi is tracking Astrid, he naturally needs a second-in-command to take over.

Zhao Jie smiled faintly: "Student Chen, you saved my life, so I naturally have to repay you in kind."

Upon hearing this, the eyes of the other three leaders nearly popped out of their sockets. Had they heard correctly? Chu Xiu saved Zhao Jie's life? Zhao Jie, who had already entered the Heroic Spirit realm, could foresee the future, and was ranked third on the Dragon and Phoenix Ranking?
To save a Heroic Spirit, one must at least be a Heroic Spirit, a Heroic Spirit who has been a Hero for two years.
The three of them did not know that Chu Xiu was Qin Yu from the Battle of Pengcheng; they only felt that Chu Xiu's talent was truly unbelievable.

If they knew that Chu Xiu's current strength had even reached the level of a strong demigod, I wonder what they would think.

Of course, Chu Xiu had no time to show off in front of irrelevant people, and simply clasped his hands and said, "Thank you for your trouble, Brother Zhao."

Zhao Jie pushed up his glasses and got straight to the most important thing: "There are no problems with Senior Ya Zi. Let me tell you about the camp's preparations for battle first."

"In the past six months, we have recalled almost four-fifths of the Awakeners who passed the Awakening Trial back then, and half of them have successfully passed the Warrior Rank Trial, and quite a few have reached the Fierce Rank and General Rank."

"At the same time, we have also collected all the anchor points scattered outside and produced over the past few days, and are recruiting high-level support professions in a targeted manner."

"With everyone's core efforts, the construction of the Titan machine is more than half completed."

Zhao Jie waved his hand and displayed a projection map: "The outer minefield and close-in weapon machine guns go without saying, but there are over eight hundred rapid-fire artillery pieces alone! There are also fifty heavy artillery pieces, all of which are advanced weapons from the last three generations of the military! At the core, there are also four super-heavy electromagnetic railguns, which can output kinetic energy at the level of one billion joules in an instant, and can be fired more than five times in one minute!"

Chu Xiu was secretly astonished as he listened to Zhao Jie's introduction. In his previous life, his research on electromagnetic railguns had only reached a muzzle energy of tens of millions of joules. This kinetic energy of billions of joules would probably seriously injure even a powerful hero spirit.

Not to mention it can fire more than five times per minute, making it a suitable main weapon for Titan machines.

just
We're still far from being able to defeat an enemy like Astrid!

And whether it's conventional artillery or electromagnetic railguns, there's a recurring problem: accuracy!

Let alone fighting Heroic Spirits, even King-level or General-level opponents! Which one is so easy for you to aim and hit?
There's nothing we can do about it; that's the limit of modern weaponry.

Seemingly seeing through Chu Xiu's thoughts, Zhao Jie said, "The Titan Machine is not used to fight against high-level creatures, but to prevent the enemy from using tactics of large-scale invasion by low-level creatures to weaken the power of civilized domains, just like what you did back then."

Chu Xiu nodded, and Zhao Jie continued, "Also, the Heavenly Divine Light you gave us is being built according to the blueprints. It is indeed an excellent weapon for dealing with high-level enemy experts, but..."

"Just what?"

Zhao Jie paused for a moment and said, "There are three problems. First, the budget is insufficient! Although the government allocated you several hundred billion yuan and later increased it to more than two hundred billion yuan, it is still difficult to meet such a huge expenditure. And our investigation bureau really can't find any reason to apply for more subsidies for you."

"Secondly, the Titan machine you gave us is only of the King rank. Whether it is the hardness of the mountain body, the usable space inside, or the energy transmission patterns, there are limits! Even if the Heavenly Light is completed, it will at most reach the power to kill heroic spirits."

"While the above two issues are troublesome, they are not insurmountable. The real problem is the last one."

"What is it?" Chu Xiu knew that Zhao Jie wouldn't make things up without reason, so he quickly asked.

Zhao Jie's expression also turned serious, and he said in a deep voice, "Then it's a lack of manpower!"

(End of this chapter)