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

Chapter 78 Jiang Yu
Chu Xiu would not have wanted to do such a thing unless he was forced to.

He also wanted to pass the warrior-level trial smoothly.

He went through all the possible solutions in his mind, but still couldn't come up with a way to pass the level.

Even if he risked his life and managed to kill the remaining two elders after using all his trump cards, he still wouldn't have time to stop the hunting operation that had spread throughout the entire village.

Chu Xiu glanced at the progress of the ceremony; in the short time it took him to kill the elder, it had already increased to over 80%.

"In this situation, my only priority is to protect myself."

There are only two ways to survive: either steal Jiang Xue's escape item or hide until the trial period ends, at which point he can escape on his own.

There is no punishment of being wiped out for failing a mission in the Abyss, just like in reality, failing a breakthrough rarely results in immediate death, especially at lower ranks.

The problem is that it is very difficult to hide until the end of the trial.

The trial has only been going on for a little over half an hour, and once the ritual is complete and the evil god descends, no one knows what will happen!
It's possible that the evil god only had a thought to lock onto Chu Xiu's location, and then with a gentle flick of his finger, Chu Xiu would be crushed into powder without any resistance.

Just as Jiang Xue said at the beginning, if the game drags on until the deadline, the outcome will almost certainly be a total wipeout!

Therefore, stealing Jiang Xue's escape tools is the best strategy!
A hint of guilt flashed in his eyes, but it only lasted for a moment before turning into determination!
Chu Xiu is not cold-blooded or ruthless, but he can suppress his emotions with absolute rationality when necessary and take actions that best serve his interests without hesitation.

Concealing his presence, Chu Xiu continued to approach Jiang Xue, searching for an opportunity to seize her.

At this moment, Jiang Xue was clearly exhausted. She was casting a strange spell, and the enemies hit by it immediately collapsed to the ground. However, she did not seem to have mastered any large-scale destructive spells. Under the onslaught of wave after wave of steel cans, she was finally forced into a corner!
"Chen Ce! Are you done yet?" she called out in a hoarse voice.

Chu Xiu felt a little guilty, but he still didn't move. Instead, he focused intently on Jiang Xue's every move.

She narrowly dodged an attack from a guard, but as she got up, a two-handed greatsword came crashing down on her head!

"Chen Ce, I can't hold on any longer!" she shouted again.

Just as she spoke, a sword blade grazed her hair, almost leaving a scratch on her face. Jiang Xue looked flustered, but then she seemed to have made up her mind. Suddenly, she raised her hand, and spiritual light gathered in it.

"coming!"

Chu Xiu's legs were tense, and he was gathering power in his feet with the Great Perfection of the Mysterious Step. The moment Jiang Xue activated the escape device, he would rush out and snatch it away!

However, at this moment, Chu Xiu seemed to see a scene from a fairy tale and suddenly froze on the spot.

But instead of any escape prop, Jiang Xue raised her hand and her entire palm grew wider and longer at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then she grabbed the incoming sword blade!
The next moment, with a crisp sound, the guard's two-handed greatsword was broken in two by those perfect hands!
At the same time, Jiang Xue's body was undergoing amazing changes. Her height began to increase rapidly, growing more than ten centimeters in a short time. Her chubby little face became more angular, her shoulder-length hair grew to her waist, and her originally cute almond eyes became majestic phoenix eyes, with the color of her pupils turning into a cold dark gold.

In just one or two breaths, she transformed from an adorable little girl who was less than 1.6 meters tall into a cold-faced mature woman who was nearly 1.8 meters tall!
The once loose robe now clung to her curves like a tight-fitting cheongsam, and her two large breasts were impossible to hide.

Looking at the guards surrounding her, Jiang Xue's panic had vanished, replaced by a disgust akin to looking at ants.

She stretched out her slender finger and pointed to the sky. A lightsaber rose into the air and split into dozens of blades, descending from the heavens like divine punishment!

"Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!"

Those lightsabers were like the sharpest blades in the world, piercing through the guards' plate armor without any hindrance, and the intense heat melted their armor and bodies together.

With a series of clanging sounds, the guards fell one after another, turning into more than a dozen cold corpses in the blink of an eye.

This astonishing scene left Chu Xiu wide-eyed in shock!

He had anticipated various scenarios and made contingency plans, but he never expected things to develop this way.

What the hell? A sudden, unexpected transformation?
If you're so strong, why didn't you do this earlier!
Chu Xiu felt a strong urge to complain, but then he thought about it and it made a lot of sense. The equipment was not cheap, and it was only for disciples of Ye Junlin's level. There was no reason for Jiang Xue to be weak.

"Come out." Just as Chu Xiu was thinking to himself, "Jiang Xue's" voice, as cold as a mountain spring, rang out.

Her dark golden eyes turned to Chu Xiu: "If I'm not mistaken, you're hiding there trying to steal my sister's escape tool, aren't you?"

Chu Xiu fell silent.

After a long pause, he slowly emerged from the shadows, a nonchalant smile on his face: "So what if it is?"

But the hand hidden beneath the black robe gripped the bone spear tightly, his eyes fixed on "Jiang Xue's" every move.

But to everyone's surprise, she smiled calmly and said, "It's a rational choice. Let me introduce myself. My name is Jiang Yu."

Chu Xiu: "Hello."

Although the other side seemed not to be planning to attack him, Chu Xiu did not let his guard down at all.

Jiang Yu turned her head away from him and gently placed her hand on her forehead: "Wait a moment, let me process my memories."

A few seconds later, she frowned her pretty brows.

"I see, that does seem troublesome."

"Not only are the enemy's ranks very high, but it's also required to avoid taking damage?"

"Hmm, to break this deadlock, we still need to figure out the rules of the ritual. Every time a trial participant is injured, the ritual progress increases, and the wound will also cause mutations. So, is the rule 'injury'? Or 'fire'? 'destruction'? No, it should be..."

“It’s pain,” Chu Xiu replied.

"If we only look at the manifestations, both injury and destruction are possible, but the villagers here gave us a clue: they have traces of self-harm. Whether it is burning or needle pricking, it will bring extreme pain. They are not simply self-harming, but intentionally torturing themselves to obtain extreme pain."

Burning is the highest level of pain. As for needle pricks, imagine a toothpick stuck in your thumbnail and then kicking it hard against a wall.

“The fact that my summoned creatures don’t mutate also proves this point, because they can’t feel pain,” Chu Xiu continued.

"This is a world where pain can cause mutations and grant power."

"However, not everyone can have such obvious effects. The common people in this village gain very little power and mutation after self-harm, while the elders can gain amazing power through self-harm. This should be related to [Inspiration]. The higher the [Inspiration], the easier it is to sense the evil god and the easier it is to receive his blessing."

“The trial participants are all highly inspired, so we are excellent sacrifices, which is why they are so relentlessly hunting us down.”

Chu Xiu's words brought a look of surprise to Jiang Yu's beautiful eyes. She seemed not to have expected that Chu Xiu could understand the rules before her, even though she had only recently gained her memories.

In fact, Chu Xiu had never stopped thinking about the "rules" of this village. When he saw the elders sitting on the torture chairs in the prison, deliberately torturing themselves, he had already roughly confirmed his speculation.

However, the difficulty of this trial does not lie in the rules.

Even if they never understood the rules of the ritual, they would instinctively avoid pain. In practice, it was just a debuff that required the trial participants to pass the trial without taking any damage.

Understanding the rules won't help at all.

Jiang Yu, sitting opposite, also showed a knowing expression.

"I understand. In other words, there are two real difficulties at present."

"First, find a way to disrupt the ritual or prevent it from progressing further."

"Second, devise a countermeasure against the Grand Elder's skill that causes immediate distortion once it is pointed at."

(End of this chapter)