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

Chapter 387 Imitation Rules
"you"

Chu Xiu stared wide-eyed at the man before him, scanning him with his divine sense. All the information confirmed that this was indeed Zhu Jiu!

But the person in front of me clearly has no face!
And it's not just that he lacks facial features; the man's face has a strange vortex that draws your mind in just by looking at it!
"What exactly are you?"

Chu Xiu's expression was solemn as he asked in a deep voice.

However, all he received in response was a low, eerie laugh.

The next instant, "Zhu Jiu" pointed forward, and an invisible wave spread outward!

The fluctuation was invisible and colorless, extremely difficult to detect, and its speed was incredibly fast. By the time Chu Xiu realized the existence of the fluctuation, he only had time to dodge to the side!
"Buzz!"

His movements were still a step too slow. The ripple swept across Chu Xiu's right hand, and he felt a piercing pain. Looking down, he saw that his right hand was engulfed in flames!

Chu Xiu snorted coldly and exerted all his power to suppress it, but the flames were like an annihilating fire that devoured everything. Chu Xiu's magic power was directly burned away and continued to burn his flesh like a maggot clinging to his bone!
After the flames exhausted their energy, Chu Xiu's entire right arm was a bloody mess, with bones even faintly visible!

He looked at the motionless man in the distance, his face extremely grim.

"The power of rules!"

This power is undoubtedly the Law of Destruction that Zhu Jiu once used!
Previously, on the Star Leap Ship, he used this move to annihilate all the Cataclysmic creatures. At the time, Chu Xiu was only slightly surprised, but now that he has become the target, he clearly realizes how terrifying this power is!
Before he could catch his breath, "Zhu Jiu" pointed again!
The wave symbolizing destruction surged through the space once again. This time, Chu Xiu did not sit idly by and wait for his death. Instead, he roared and slashed down with the Chiwen sword in his hand, unleashing equally terrifying destructive energy!

"Boom!"

The destructive torrent surged forth, turning the area in front of Chu Xiu into a purgatory of thousands of degrees Celsius. However, in the face of this turbulent force, the spreading ripples were only slightly blocked before sweeping towards him once more!

Fortunately, Chu Xiu was prepared this time and managed to dodge the attack by using the moment when the Chiwen sword energy was used to defend.

The destructive ripples swept past Chu Xiu's hair, instantly pulverizing several strands into basic particles. An unprecedentedly solemn expression flashed in Chu Xiu's eyes.

"The power of rules is like a killer's spatial cutting, which can greatly reduce the gap in power!"

Is flooding with energy useful? Yes! But it's extremely inefficient!

Just like facing a killer's spatial cutting, it might take ten or even a hundred times the defensive power to barely withstand it!
"Is this the power of rules? Truly domineering!"

However, despite the terrifying power of the Law of Destruction, Chu Xiu felt somewhat at ease after their two encounters.

Because when he fought Meng Xuanshu last time, he was almost powerless against the rules.

But this time, with his divine sense many times stronger than before, he managed to capture the "traces" of the moment the rules were activated.

Even though he managed to catch it, the "trace" was still so fast that he could hardly dodge it, but at least he realized that the rule was not a completely unavoidable forced hit.

And even after being hit, they are not entirely powerless to resist.

Although the rules of destruction could have shattered his body, Chu Xiu managed to withstand it thanks to his abnormal physique.

What he feared most was this rule, which could completely ignore the difference in energy levels. Even a simple mortal-level destructive rule could instantly kill him. If that were the case, he would be helpless, and any civilization envoy could easily defeat him!

He had a vague feeling that the reason he was able to withstand this law of destruction might not be due to his abnormal physique, but rather his [Body that has undergone tribulation].

He could sense that he seemed to possess some kind of fundamental resistance to breaking those rules.

“This strange ‘Candle Nine’ should be no match for me, after all, our basic attributes are too different.”

"But there is still a lot of intelligence to be gathered."

"For example, what is the trigger for activating this power of rules? Is it really like it is now, requiring no prerequisites and activating with just a thought?"

"For example, is the power of rules unrestricted and can be used an unlimited number of times?"

This can be said to be the first time Chu Xiu has faced the power of the rules head-on. He dared not be careless in the slightest. His figure flickered and disappeared from the spot. He mobilized the power of gods and demons in his body at full speed, accelerating his movement speed to the extreme. He turned into afterimages and kept wandering around "Candle Nine"!
Invisible waves of destruction surged around "Zhu Jiu," but Chu Xiu's divine sense was now powerful enough to detect these traces of the rules. He quickly discovered that the mobilization of the power of the rules was not without warning. However, this power was hidden within the user's body, making it difficult for ordinary people to even sense it, let alone predict it.
However, after cultivating the Yama Sutra and forming his core, Chu Xiu's soul strength was no weaker than that of a strong demigod. With the help of his powerful divine sense, he managed to barely catch a trace of it!
With a reaction speed far exceeding that of his peers, he managed to precisely dodge every attack by relying on that barely perceptible movement!
Clearly, the power of the rules is not inexhaustible. After a few breaths, the frequency of "Zhu Jiu" launching destructive waves slowed down significantly.

"It's now!"

Chu Xiu's divine and demonic power surged, and his figure disappeared like a ghost in the destructive waves. When he reappeared, he was already behind "Zhu Jiu"!
"die!"

The dragon-like creature, carrying unparalleled power, slammed down with tremendous force!

"boom!"

Even though Zhu Jiu dodged at the first moment, the violent sword energy still shattered most of his body, and the remaining energy continued to break down his shattered body, preventing his body from repairing itself.

Having suffered such a severe injury, unless he possessed some kind of secret technique to revive himself, he was almost certainly doomed to die.

However, knowing that his death was imminent, "Zhu Jiu" showed no fear on his face, only muttering to himself, "Hmm, it's still not good enough that I couldn't replicate the blood of Zhulong."

As soon as he finished speaking, the remaining half of his body suddenly disintegrated into a cloud of black sand, scattering all over the ground.

Chu Xiu bent down, picked up a wisp of fine sand, frowned and examined it for a while, unable to figure out what this suddenly appeared thing was.

Is it some special supernatural power of Zhu Jiu? Or something else entirely?
Just as he was pondering, he suddenly felt a connection in his arms. It was a communication tool that Mao Qi, Zhu Jiu, and Xie Xuanzhao had given to the others when they parted ways earlier.

Chu Xiu channeled a wisp of magic power into it, and instantly Zhu Jiu's voice rang in his ears: "Brother Chen! Have you encountered anything amiss on your end?"

Chu Xiu was taken aback for a moment, and after a slight hesitation, he answered truthfully: "A faceless man attacked me, and his aura was very similar to yours."

Upon hearing this, the person on the other end quickly asked, "How are you now? Are you alright?"

Chu Xiu said, "I suffered some minor injuries. That person actually knew your Law of Destruction, but fortunately, I escaped unharmed in the end."

"What exactly is going on? Is the Faceless Man related to you, Brother Candle?"

Upon hearing that Chu Xiu had only suffered minor injuries and had already dealt with the faceless man who possessed his aura, Zhu Jiu was silent for a moment before smiling bitterly and saying, "To be honest, we also encountered three faceless men. Fortunately, Brother Mu recognized that this was their civilization's [Imitation Rule], so we easily dealt with all three of them. One of them was even manipulated by Brother Mu and became his puppet."

Zhu Jiu's words startled Chu Xiu. It turned out that the person who ambushed him was actually formed from the rules! He was equally surprised that Muto could control the Faceless Man! This made him realize the biggest difference between rules and ordinary skills!

"I used to regard rules as a very powerful supernatural ability, but now it seems that the characteristic of rules is that they do not belong to anyone! That is to say, if you encounter someone who has a stronger understanding and control of the rules, your own rule power may even turn against you!"

Just as Chu Xiu was secretly keeping this in mind, Zhu Jiu's voice rang out again: "Unfortunately, Brother Cat and the others were not so lucky. According to him, the three faceless men who attacked them belonged to Miss Xuan Zhao and the Remnant Demon respectively. Miss Xuan Zhao's rules are very strange. Although the imitation faceless man could not fully exert his strength, he still caused them great losses."

"Of the three, only Brother Cat is unharmed, Brother Tuoba is seriously injured, and Brother Shagu is so weak that he is almost on the verge of death!"

Zhu Jiu's words greatly surprised Chu Xiu. Brother Tuoba was the same person who came from the Domain of Life Law and mastered the [Law of Life], just like Zhu Jiu. As for the other one, he came from the Thousand Illusions Divine Domain, just like Mao Qi.

These two are not to be underestimated, but unexpectedly one was seriously injured and the other was on the verge of death!
Moreover, perhaps because Muto, who is proficient in the law of imitation, could not replicate it, only two people attacked Cat Seven and the other two, but they achieved the greatest results. Just how strong is Xie Xuanzhao's rule?

Just how powerful must the person who can replicate Xie Xuanzhao be?
Just as this thought arose in his mind, Zhu Jiu's voice continued:

“I asked Brother Mu, and although his understanding of the rules seems to be superior to that person behind the scenes, the fact that he could simultaneously replicate so many civilization envoys and maintain such strong basic attributes for each of them is something even he could not do.”

"Not to mention, the person behind it all can even reproduce the [Power of Rules]! Although it's not at its full strength, as far as he knows, only their civilization's god could do that!"

Only a god could do that!

Now, Chu Xiu's expression became more solemn than ever before. There was no doubt that only one person could do this, and that was the incarnation of the tribulation lightning, the final boss of this dungeon!

As if Chu Xiu's shock wasn't enough, Zhu Jiu continued, "Brother Chen, there's another strange thing I must warn you about."

"That was Brother Shagu, who was severely injured by those faceless men. The power of rules within his body was also stripped away by some unknown means!"

Candlelight Nine's words are another bombshell!
The attacks from those faceless people were not just simple attacks; they could even destroy the power of rules within the bodies of civilized beings!
The methods of this tribulation lightning incarnation are simply unbelievable, and the most troublesome thing right now is that Chu Xiu doesn't even know where its true form is!
This made him extremely uncomfortable. In the past trials, no matter how difficult the challenge or how abnormal the rules, the enemy was always out in the open, and he only needed to find a way to break the deadlock.

But right now, the enemy has completely concealed themselves, leaving Chu Xiu completely clueless about how to proceed!

"Is this the tribulation whose difficulty far surpasses that of the old trials?"

Even with only the tip of the iceberg shown, Chu Xiu could already vaguely sense its incredibly abnormal difficulty!

“This tribulation seeker’s methods are extremely strange. I suggest we gather immediately to avoid giving the tribulation seeker an opportunity.”

At this moment, Cat Seven's voice interrupted.

Through the communication device, Cat Seven's voice lost its ever-changing effect compared to when they were face-to-face; it became a somewhat high-pitched male voice.

His voice no longer sounded as calm as it had at the beginning; after all, one member of their group was seriously injured and the other was on the verge of death, greatly reducing their ability to resist danger.

In response to his suggestion, Zhu Jiu said, "The ability to break the rules is quite similar to the strange creatures we encountered before. Although my Law of Destruction annihilated them all, I could also feel the strange power within them resisting my laws, and there was even a faint tendency for them to rival me."

"This may not be the work of the one who underwent the tribulation; rather, it seems to be the work of some creature that originally existed in this instance."

Although Zhu Jiu appeared to be a somewhat effeminate young man, his intuition was extremely sharp, and he immediately discerned the truth, which surprised Chu Xiu.

"So what?" Cat Seven's irritable voice rang out. "You've told everyone the situation, so the Tribulation Bearer naturally knows that my situation is dire! Do you think he'll let this opportunity pass him by?"

Cat Seven's voice sounded rather displeased, as if he was complaining that Candle Nine hadn't thought things through.

Zhu Jiu chuckled dryly twice: "Brother Mu and Brother Canmo are both by my side. Right now, only Brother Chu and Miss Xuanzhao are missing."

Chu Xiu found it somewhat amusing: "If Miss Xuanzhao hasn't received our messages, then Brother Zhu must have specifically asked me to join. My attitude has remained unchanged, but now that the situation has changed, we should intensify our efforts to collect the divine artifacts."

"If Brother Cat is afraid, you can hide far away. This Starship is so big, I have no ability to find you."

Cat Seven clearly understood Chu Xiu's veiled sarcasm, and gave a soft snort before falling silent.

Zhu Jiu quickly smoothed things over, saying, "We already know the characteristics of the divine artifact, and its importance is self-evident."

"However, we should indeed gather as soon as possible to avoid being defeated one by one. After all, no matter how powerful a divine artifact is, if it does not have the corresponding user, it is just an ordinary mythical equipment."

"How about this: we should collect the artifacts we're currently using as quickly as possible, and then head to the vicinity of the central area to rendezvous. If we haven't found any artifacts within a short time, then we'll head there directly. What do you think?"

Candlestick Nine sent a location coordinate.

"The central area?" Cat Seven asked, puzzled.

“That’s right,” Zhu Jiu nodded. “Internal strife is pointless when we lack intelligence. It’s necessary to explore the central area. Putting that aside, Miss Xuan Zhao is also a combat force that we urgently need right now.”

Cat Seven nodded in agreement, clearly impressed by Xie Xuanzhao's clone.

After thinking for a while, he said, "A quarter of an hour is too long, ten minutes at most."

Zhu Jiu asked, "What did Brother Chen say?"

Chu Xiu said, "I have no problem."

This agreement perfectly aligned with his plan; if he could obtain intelligence with the help of the civilization envoy, that would be even better.

Zhu Jiu said, "Then it's settled."

Once the agreement was reached, the three teams immediately got to work without stopping.

Chu Xiu grabbed the jade statue in front of him and then rushed to the location of the third artifact.

He used the same trick again, pushing his magical power to its limit, and finally obtained the third artifact within ten minutes.

It was a four-legged cauldron engraved with many ferocious beasts.

After doing all this, Chu Xiu didn't linger and flew directly towards the agreed location.

(End of this chapter)