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

Chapter 401 Guess
"Crack!"

To everyone's astonishment, the ghostly figure bit down on Chu Xiu's shoulder. With a crisp sound, Chu Xiu's crystal-clear soul, condensed with life force, shattered instantly! A large chunk of it was bitten off!

He let out a painful groan, while the Six Desires Demon swelled up again as if it had received some kind of powerful tonic! The dark and terrifying aura emanating from its body became even more immense, and even the civilization envoys watching from thousands of meters away could feel its terrifying power!

"What kind of monster is this?"

Zhu Jiu's face turned pale. He couldn't help but put himself in the creature's shoes, and then he was horrified to find that even if he used all the hidden trump cards given to him by his teacher, it would be in vain in front of this unreasonable creature. He could only watch helplessly as he was devoured piece by piece!
"ended."

Cat Seven was also somewhat disappointed; she couldn't think of any way for Chu Xiu to turn the tide.

Although it would be ideal to complete the task and receive the reward smoothly, all the civilization envoys frowned.

Those who become civilization envoys are all the pride of their respective civilizations. Their arrogance led them to defeat their enemies and pass the test fairly and squarely, but in this trial, they discovered with despair that the strength of the two sides was far beyond their reach. Even if they used the trump cards given to them by their elders, they could only barely influence the course of the battle, and it was still not the core of victory or defeat!
The fact that they were forced to pass the game in such a helpless manner was unbearable for their pride.

The tribulation lightning incarnation revealed a faint smile of complete control, stretched out its hand, and more Six Desires Heavenly Demons rushed out from Chu Xiu's soul body!
"ended."

As soon as he finished speaking, he reached out and clenched his fist, and all the Six Desires Demons simultaneously lunged at Chu Xiu's spiritual platform!
However, at this moment, the tribulation lightning avatar suddenly sensed something, turned around with a drastic change in expression, and at the same time, its body suddenly flashed to the side!

A sharp claw grazed his body, and then a black shadow swept past. The figure was tall and slender, with sharp claws and a violent aura that carried a hint of monarchical majesty. It was the Ghost King!
The tribulation lightning avatar turned around in surprise, only to find that a dense ghostly mist had formed behind it! Countless fierce ghosts formed a battle formation and rushed towards it with shrill cries!

"Did they hide the ghost within the demonic energy?"

The tribulation lightning avatar frowned, somewhat surprised but not flustered.

Having acquired all of Chu Xiu's memories, the tribulation lightning incarnation clearly understood the strength of the ghost army. The two ghost kings, with the support of the battle formation, could reach the level of demigods, and with Chu Xiu's Nether Chains, they were only at the level of a strong demigod!

With a cold snort, Chiwen simply waved its sword lightly, and the violent sword energy easily killed hundreds of charging ghosts, along with the leading ghost general!

Amidst the wails and screams of countless ghosts, the second ghost king roared angrily and leaped from the ground like a missile toward the tribulation lightning incarnation. At the same time, the ghost that had missed its attack earlier turned around behind it, and the two joined forces to attack!
The tribulation lightning incarnation remained calm and composed, as if everything around him was under his control. Without the slightest pause, he unleashed a massive amount of demonic energy with his left hand, which transformed into countless sharp blades that instantly dispersed the ghostly energy surrounding the Ghost King!

Strong demigods like the Ghost King, who rose to power through battle formations, underworld chains, etc., may have reached the required energy level, but the degree and quality of their energy condensation are too poor, and they are ultimately no match for genuine strong demigods.

The two combined are not entirely without fighting power, but to think they can injure him in a short time and relieve Chu Xiu's urgent crisis is wishful thinking.

"An interesting attempt, but still a long way off."

The avatar of the tribulation lightning showed a faint smile, but at that moment, two figures suddenly rushed out from the surrounding ghostly mist!
On the left is a swordsman dressed in gray, who looks unremarkable, while on the right is a general clad in heavy armor, wielding a halberd.

A scene flashed through the mind of the tribulation lightning avatar. Having all of Chu Xiu's memories, it naturally knew that these two were the two powerful souls that the killer had obtained from the God of Suffering during the battle!
These two ghostly beings, formed from souls, possessed only the power of heroic spirits, yet they had honed top-tier combat skills over thousands of years! When they joined forces, they actually caused Chu Xiu to suffer a great loss!
Although those two ghosts were aided by the Killer Ghost Domain back then, and Chu Xiuyuan at that time was not comparable to him now, he was at least a strong demigod-level fighter! This shows how strong their combat abilities were.

The two ghosts before us were exactly the same as those in my memory, but for some reason, they were incredibly fast and exuded an aura that made the tribulation lightning incarnation extremely wary!
The tribulation lightning avatar let out a low roar, and a large amount of demonic energy surged out. However, his main power had been concentrated on the two ghost kings, and only a portion of his power was redirected. The swordsman and the general were like two bolts of lightning, changing direction dozens of times in the blink of an eye, weaving through countless demonic swords! Their speed then increased to another level!
The tribulation lightning incarnation's expression changed drastically, and a look of surprise beyond his control flashed in his eyes. However, since he and Chu Xiu came from the same origin, he quickly calmed down and waved the Chiwen in his hand to meet the attack!

"clang!"

The general's halberd steadily withstood the attack of the Chiwen. The violent sword energy shattered his heavy armor like paper, but his expression remained unchanged. He released his hands and his figure had already ghost-like moved behind the tribulation lightning incarnation. At the same time, he drew the short blade from his waist and stabbed diagonally!

The tribulation lightning incarnation knew these two powerful ghosts quite well, but for some reason their current speed and power far exceeded its expectations. At this moment, it could only rely on instinct to summon the [Heroic Spirit Myth] naginata to block, while the [Imperial Five Dragon Crown] on its head also shone brightly to form a shield.

However, at this moment, another flash of light appeared, and it was the seemingly ordinary swordsman!
His hands remained firmly on the hilt of his sword, his dark gray eyes fixed intently on the tribulation lightning incarnation, like a bowstring stretched to its limit, ready to be released!
At this moment, the blade was drawn, and the intense white light instantly illuminated the entire sky, as if only this blade's light remained in the world!
Before the tribulation lightning avatar could react, the blade light shattered the shield of the [Imperial Five Dragon Crown] and then struck it heavily!

"squeak--"

An extremely sharp, ear-piercing, and teeth-grinding metallic scraping sound rang out as the [God-Given Living Armor] appeared on the surface of the tribulation lightning avatar, colliding with the blade light and erupting into a huge burst of fire!
"Oh!"

The figure of the tribulation lightning incarnation flew backward and crashed heavily into the wall of the starship. A terrifying crack appeared on his chest, and the [God-Given Living Armor] was shattered from the crack, revealing the bare white bones.

However, this was, after all, an extremely powerful artifact. The wounds on its surface quickly healed, and the immense life energy began to heal the body of the tribulation lightning incarnation.

The difference in strength between the two was too great. Even if the tribulation lightning avatar took the blow almost without any defense, it would not be able to kill him. In fact, it could not even seriously injure him. It only forced him to reveal a trump card.

After all, the tribulation lightning avatar was a complete copy of Chu Xiu. His endless array of trump cards would give even Chu Xiu's original body a headache!
However, after receiving this wave of attacks from the ghosts, the face of the tribulation lightning avatar, which looked exactly like Chu Xiu's, showed no joy. Instead, it revealed an extremely solemn expression, which was rare for it.

It stopped looking at the distant ghost and instead looked at Chu Xiu, who was being entangled by the Six Desires Demon, and said in a deep voice, "You found out?"

At this moment, the Six Desires Demon was already tearing apart Chu Xiu's soul core, but for some reason he was not afraid. Instead, his expression returned to its usual calm, and he said indifferently, "Don't forget, you and I come from the same source. You can guess my thoughts, and I can also deduce your weaknesses based on your methods!"

Upon hearing this, the face of the tribulation lightning incarnation became even more gloomy!
The two seemed to be speaking in riddles, but for them, they had actually explained everything to each other!
When Chu Xiu first encountered the Six Desires Demon, he was indeed completely stunned. Especially after discovering that even his Void God Mode, which was his trump card, could not get rid of the opponent, he felt an overwhelming sense of despair.

This is human nature, but what makes Chu Xiu different from ordinary people is that even when he is in dire straits, as long as he still has a breath left, he will instinctively think of a counterattack!

The tribulation lightning incarnation was right; they came from the same source, so they had anticipated all of Chu Xiu's counterattack methods before the battle even began.

But it was precisely based on this point that Chu Xiu discovered the opponent's weakness!

Because if the roles were reversed, given Chu Xiu's personality, he would never leisurely make sarcastic remarks when he had the upper hand. Instead, he would definitely take advantage of the situation and try to kill the enemy as quickly as possible!

The tribulation lightning incarnation and Chu Xiu share the same origin, so there is only one possibility for its actions: it has some kind of limitation!

Following this line of thought, Chu Xiu continued to work backward.

If the Six Desires Demon is truly unsolvable, and given that its base attributes are ridiculously high, how would it act from the perspective of being a tribulation lightning incarnation?
Without a doubt, the plan was to take advantage of the initial period when the Civilization Envoy and Chu Xiu were still on guard against each other, wait for Chu Xiu to be alone, and then directly appear and kill him!

At that time, they hadn't even collected all the divine artifacts. Even if they couldn't wait for Chu Xiu to be alone, and even if the civilization envoys lost their minds and still wanted to help Chu Xiu, they still couldn't possibly stop the tribulation lightning incarnation.

But it didn't do that. From this, we can deduce that, in the eyes of the Tribulation Lightning Incarnation, the two deadly moves—the ambush by the Tribulation and the corpse of the god—had a higher success rate than taking action personally!

In summary, this operation is by no means foolproof for the Tribulation Lightning Incarnation; on the contrary, it has an extremely high failure rate!

"That's why it would first eliminate one person through a sneak attack, and then try to win over and divide other civilizations to isolate me."

"If you have enough strength to completely overwhelm your opponent, why bother with psychological tactics?"

Once Chu Xiu understood this, he was certain that the other party definitely had a weakness that he hadn't discovered, otherwise they wouldn't be acting the way they were now!
Following this line of thought, the true form of the Tribulation Lightning incarnation, which hadn't made a move while the Six Desires Demon was entangled with him and had only been nagging and playing mind games on the sidelines, became highly suspicious.

"Could it be that he can't move or his physical form is greatly weakened when he activates the rules?"

This was Chu Xiu's first thought.

But he immediately rejected it.

Similarly, thinking in reverse, if he were the incarnation of the tribulation lightning, with such a significant hidden danger, he would definitely hide in the shadows and launch a long-range sneak attack. The fact that he dared to appear among Chu Xiu and the group of civilization envoys suggests that, given Chu Xiu's own personality, he must at least possess some ability to protect himself.

With doubts in his mind, Chu Xiu used the Demon Sword to test the waters. At the same time, just like when he faced the Crimson Mist, he hid the ghosts inside the Demon Sword. This way, even if he returned empty-handed, the ghost army could still get close to the Tribulation Lightning Incarnation and continue to delay.

He then discovered that his opponent remained completely unfazed by his demonic sword attacks. Although the opponent did not move, their divine sense, identical to his own, had firmly locked onto each of his attacks.

So Chu Xiu simply pretended to be disturbed by the Heavenly Demon and unable to control his power, letting the Demon Sword scatter randomly around him so that the ghosts could quickly form an array.

Chu Xiu originally intended to have the ghosts surround and test the waters, to gather more information and find the weakness that the other party had been hiding. However, he was surprised to find that the tribulation lightning avatar was completely unprepared for the falling demonic sword!

This greatly surprised him, because if the other party was a complete copy of himself, there was no reason why he wouldn't know that he could hide ghosts in demonic energy.

Two ghost kings and two ghosts with unparalleled combat experience, working together with the support of the soul chain, make this a combination that should not be underestimated.

Not to mention, in his current [Virtual God Mode], all his power is converted into soul power, and the effect of the [Soul Chain] is naturally enhanced accordingly. The strength of these four ghosts will surge to an unprecedented level! Even if they are still no match for Chu Xiu's main body, they shouldn't be completely ignored, right?

The opponent seemed completely unaware of his move, and didn't even scan the inside of the demonic sword with their divine senses!

Chu Xiu knew himself; he would never be so careless as to make such a mistake. Even if he was absolutely confident in dealing with the encirclement of ghosts, he would not have completely failed to scan the area with his divine sense and was unaware of this move.

That means the tribulation lightning incarnation was unaware that Chu Xiu possessed this ability!

Does this mean that it may not possess all of its own memories?

Just then, Chu Xiu had a sudden flash of inspiration and thought of a question.

The Tribulation Lightning Incarnation is a copy of itself, but how does the Abyss copy itself?

Logically speaking, this shouldn't be a problem at all. The power of the abyss is unimaginable; it can even reproduce things that have disappeared in history. Copying a mere heroic spirit like you would be a piece of cake.
But for some reason, Chu Xiu had this idea inexplicably arise in his mind: the Abyss can reproduce historical figures by digitizing everything, so reproducing a piece of data is naturally easy, but in the prompts for his tribulation, there was a prompt that the digitization was decreasing!

Is it possible that the Abyss cannot simply extract data from the "database" like it can replicate others, but requires more advanced methods to replicate itself?

This speculation itself is meaningless. Regardless of how the abyss replicates itself, the tribulation lightning avatar is standing right in front of Chu Xiu.

However, another speculation derived from this is very important: if the Abyss needs to meet certain conditions to copy itself, is it possible that the Abyss is not copying Chu Xiu when it entered the trial, because the Abyss cannot copy immediately, but needs to prepare in advance, so what it is actually copying is Chu Xiu from a previous time period?

This explains why there is an information gap between the two sides.

For some reason, Chu Xiu inexplicably recalled the "tribulation lightning" that had appeared to prevent him from forming his core when he was forming his core.

"Was the Abyss Tribulation Lightning from that time?"

Could it be that what the Abyss copied was actually itself before it formed its core? After forming its core, since all the tribulation lightning that served as the Abyss's "hands and feet" disappeared, the Abyss no longer had the ability to copy itself?

This crazy idea was completely unsupported by any evidence and was purely wishful thinking on his part, but it struck him like lightning, dispelling all the fog in his mind!
This baseless speculation perfectly explains why the other party was not prepared for his methods of concealing ghosts within demonic energy, because this is something he could only do after cultivating the [Flawless Golden Core] and greatly increasing his control over the magical power within his body!
After acquiring the flawless golden elixir, Chu Xiu's internal magical power circulated smoothly and continuously. This not only directly amplified the power of his supernatural abilities and spells, but also allowed him to perform operations that were previously difficult to achieve through various precise controls.

This also explains why the opponent hasn't taken the initiative to attack. Once he does, it will immediately reveal that although his actual strength is still above that of the Civilization Envoy, it is far inferior to that of Chu Xiu! At that time, he might not be able to withstand Chu Xiu's desperate fighting!

Although the Six Desires Demon was strong, Chu Xiu's body had already completed more than 60% of its tribulation-tested form and he had experience in fighting against the rules multiple times, so it wasn't that he couldn't even buy a little time.

With this fatal weakness, it is indeed safer to launch a calamity first and ambush with the corpse of a god than to take direct action. After all, every Chu Xiu has gone through extremely dangerous situations, and the slightest carelessness could result in being directly hit with the [Free Deep Dive Scroll]!
Then he remembered something else.

When he fought against the tribulation lightning avatar before, he was at a disadvantage and was being suppressed, so Chu Xiu directly assumed that the other party had not only copied him but also had the added power of the abyss.

But now that he had doubts, Chu Xiu realized that although the energy level of the tribulation lightning avatar was above his own, its control over the divine power was actually not as precise as his! The opponent had most likely used the power of the rules, such as using the [Rules of Change] to transform into some kind of race that amplifies the power of the divine power.

This is why, despite having a significant advantage, the Tribulation Lightning Incarnation proactively changed its battle strategy. After all, it was better to put on a show to make everyone realize the difference in combat power and then turn the Civilization Envoy against them. If the fight continued, Chu Xiu might discover the clues!
This made sense, so Chu Xiu decisively launched a siege against the ghost army to verify his guess, and the result of the battle was exactly as he expected!
Because the clone was of himself before he formed his core, the strength of the [Mythical] equipment of the tribulation lightning incarnation was directly limited to the King rank! The shield of the [Imperial Five Dragon Crown] was as fragile as paper! On the contrary, under [Void God Mode], Chu Xiu's [Nether Chain] provided a significant boost, allowing him to actually land a successful blow!
Although the strength of the [Divinely Blessed Living Armor] did not depend on its own rank, it was not able to severely damage the Tribulation Lightning Avatar in one go, but at least it verified its conjecture.

Now that we know the opponent's weakness, what's next?

"This is the decisive moment!"

Chu Xiu narrowed his eyes, and suddenly his soul body exploded!

The terrifying power surge directly impacted the Six Desires Demon's body, causing it to tremble violently, while Chu Xiu's core took the opportunity to break free from it!
Having gained experience in defying the rules, he had already used the power of gods and demons and the origin of magic treasures—two high-level powers—to build a defensive line around his soul body. At this moment, he decisively and cleanly detonated those soul bodies temporarily formed by life energy, successfully blocking the Six Desires Demon for a moment, just like when he escaped by self-destructing his physical body!
His core soul emerged intact from the explosion, while a complete physical body rapidly took shape in mid-air!
Even with Chu Xiu's current physical strength, it would be impossible for him to achieve such a rapid healing speed, even if he consumed the Golden Embryo's essence. However, what he was using now was the power of rules that he had transformed during his previous tribulation! Under the influence of the Law of Life, his body rapidly took shape almost in the blink of an eye! At the same time, his aura almost simultaneously rose to its peak!
The next instant, a vast and violent sword aura descended from the sky, like a world-destroying energy torrent, pouring down on the tribulation lightning incarnation!

(End of this chapter)