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

Chapter 95 Initially Taking Shape
Chu Xiu truly believed that there was no more perfect summoning creature in the world than a fierce ghost.

Not only are they efficient at killing monsters, but they also proactively bring the corpses back for him to refine afterward, which is incredibly thoughtful.

Upon reaching the Warrior rank, the efficiency and precision of perfect refining have both increased significantly.

Refining such an elite creature at the mortal level would take at least one or two minutes, but now it only takes a dozen seconds.

This meant that even though he was refining the materials along the way, his movements were hardly hindered.

He did the math and realized that he now had a total of five malevolent ghosts and thirty-one yin ghosts.

Among these evil spirits, six possess the potential to advance into more ferocious ghosts.

"It's taking shape."

Chu Xiu sighed, then looked at the map in his hand and fell into deep thought.

"Who drew this lousy map? The inaccuracies are too huge!"

He couldn't help but complain.

Chu Xiu walked for a long time and realized that he seemed to be going around in circles.

However, the government staff cannot be blamed for this. They have never been to the Shiki world, and the map was drawn entirely based on the various accounts of the awakened beings. It would be strange if it were accurate.

Moreover, on the day of the Blood Moon Ritual, the chaotic battle among the warrior-class creatures altered the terrain considerably, and many buildings were destroyed.

After comparing various landmarks, he finally found a barely recognizable landmark and determined his location.

"We're less than ten miles from the meeting point."

After thinking for a moment, Chu Xiu waved the Yin Soul Banner, collecting all the Yin ghosts and evil spirits.

Once you get close to the gathering point, there's no need to be so conspicuous anymore. First, the ghouls in the vicinity have already been mostly cleared out by the awakened ones at the gathering point. Second, the density of awakened ones increases dramatically here, which could easily cause unnecessary trouble.

His judgment was correct; not long after, he discovered a building with a bright red flag flying at the top.

"arrive."

Chu Xiu removed his mask and robe and went inside.

There were two Awakened guards at the main entrance. The hall was simply furnished with a table and chairs, where a bored young man sat.

He looked up at Chu Xiu: "Name?"

"Chu Xiu".

The boy looked down and rummaged through the pages. He quickly found Chu Xiu's information in a booklet. After comparing the photo, he handed Chu Xiu a small metal tag and said, "Go directly to the twentieth floor. Sister Qin has been waiting for you for a long time. She specifically told me to notify her as soon as you arrive."

Chu Xiu took it and walked upstairs. As soon as he reached the twentieth floor, he saw Chu Qin standing in the corridor.

Her long, grayish-brown hair was simply tied into a ponytail at the back of her head. She was dressed in a black flying fish uniform like that of the Imperial Guards, with a long sword hanging at her waist. At this moment, she was having a low-key discussion with a bespectacled, refined-looking young man.

Upon seeing Chu Xiu, Chu Qin's eyes lit up, and she breathed a sigh of relief: "You've finally come. I thought something had happened. If you had been any later, I would have come looking for you."

Chu Xiu smiled and said, "You don't need to worry about me. Just go about your business."

“Hey, why are you being so formal?” Chu Qin put down the documents in her hand and said to the bespectacled boy next to her, “You’re the analyst appointed by the government, so the rest is up to you.”

As she spoke, she strode towards Chu Xiu and said with a smile, "Come on, let me show you around the base."

Chu Xiu did not refuse.

Because of the high mortality rate in this society, people get married and have children at a young age. The legal marriage age has been lowered to 18, and many couples get married right after graduating from high school.

Chu Qin and Qingshan's relationship is very stable. Although she is called his girlfriend, she is no different from his wife. Therefore, Chu Qin has always been very good to Chu Xiu. Like Zhang Qingshan, she is an extremely loyal girl.

Chu Xiu knew that Chu Qin wouldn't feel at ease unless he made sure he was well taken care of.

She led Chu Xiu through the corridor and continued upstairs, explaining as they went: "There are two warriors in this stronghold, me and a rich second-generation named Shen Tu Hu. He is the overall person in charge of this stronghold, so your tasks and rewards will be arranged by him. I cannot make decisions on my own and break the rules."

Chu Xiu nodded, then asked, "What about the others? How much information does the base have about the monsters?"

Hearing his question, Chu Qin paused for a moment, hesitated slightly, and then said, "There are eighteen professionals of grade B or above. As for intelligence, the government has only provided information on monsters within a 20-mile radius of the stronghold. We can confirm eleven warrior-level creatures and two nests. Of course, there are bound to be many omissions. We are currently sending people to explore and collect intelligence. We will officially take action tomorrow after we have made full preparations."

"After all, our goal is to take these resources as little as possible without causing any damage."

After a pause, Chu Qin glanced at Chu Xiu and added, "But you don't need to worry about these things. As a support class, you can stay in the camp. Don't worry about being taken advantage of. Support classes are well paid, and their income won't be worse than that of team members fighting outside."

Clearly, Chu Xiu's question alerted Chu Qin. She was afraid that Chu Xiu was not content with being a support class and wanted to go out with the combat team to hunt ghouls, so she quickly offered her advice.

Chu Xiu did not explain this, but simply pondered it silently in his heart.

"There are two warrior-level warriors in each stronghold. Combined with some information I gathered before, there are at least twenty warrior-level warriors who have entered the abyss this time."

The reason there are so many people is that there is no necessary connection between rank and talent.

For example, Guan Ke, with her A+S combination, is definitely a talent worthy of the Seven Knights, but she's only around level 7 so far. Unless she's ruthless enough to reach level 9 before the last day and start the Warrior Trial directly, and then luckily pass it, she might have a chance to get a share of the rewards. Otherwise, the [Positioning Anchor] is almost out of her reach.

Take Shen Zhuo for example. His B-grade profession and D-grade talent are only average among the upper class. But if Chu Xiu hadn't been there, and he had chosen a more aggressive exploration strategy, he could have reached level 7 after devouring the ghouls near the apartment building. Then, he could have found someone to help him reach level 9, and it wouldn't be surprising if he had finally advanced to the warrior rank.

With the help of their families, it's much easier for those rich kids to enter the warrior rank, even if they're not very talented.

In other words, the opponents he needs to be wary of are not just the king, queen, and seven knights.

Like Chu Qin, who has both A-level talent and profession, although she can't compare to Qingshan, she is still very talented. After successfully entering the warrior rank, her combat power should not be underestimated.

“I’ve also heard of Shen Tu Hu. His family is even richer than Shen Zhuo’s, but his talent is average. He probably bought a high-grade profession and reached the warrior rank with the help of his family.” Just as Chu Xiu was thinking to himself, Chu Qin led him to the top floor, where a simple office had been cleared out, complete with a wooden desk. Although Chu Xiu didn’t understand why such a thing was necessary in the apocalypse, the boy sitting at the desk was clearly quite satisfied with it.

He put his feet on the desk and leisurely flipped through a stack of documents. He was a big man with broad shoulders and a round face. He was wearing a black armor and looked just like an ancient general, except that he had no beard and looked a little immature.

Chu Qin approached and said, "Student Shen Tu, this is the student Chu Xiu that I told you about."

Shen Tu Hu glanced at Chu Xiu, somewhat displeased, and said, "Why are you only arriving now? Your teammates arrived long ago."

"I prefer to act alone," Chu Xiu said, neither humble nor arrogant.

"A support class acting alone?" Shen Tu Hu smiled disdainfully, then rebuked, "Do you know that I ordered the reconnaissance team to bring back as many bodies as possible because Chu specifically asked me to look after you? If something happens to you on the way, wouldn't all our time and energy be wasted?"

Chu Xiu: "."

"Forget it," Shen Tu Hu waved his hand impatiently, "The corpses are all stored in the basement. Go and forge them all into armor."

"Don't sleep tonight. Get a few more suits of armor. We need to start the operation first thing tomorrow morning."

Chu Xiu didn't seem to care about his overbearing, commanding attitude; he simply asked, "And the reward?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Tu Hu's impatience deepened: "Of course I'll give you the reward. Do you think I'm short of your little bit of money?"

"How much exactly?" Chu Xiu pressed on.

This clearly showed displeasure on Shen Tu Hu's large face.

Most rich kids hate it when people try to bargain with them. They prefer to give orders and have others do them immediately, then they reward them afterward.

As for how much the reward would be, that would depend on the rich kid's mood and usual behavior at the time.

However, after glancing at Chu Qin, he didn't react. He just snorted and said, "A piece of armor of [Excellent] quality costs 100,000. I'll give it to you once we leave the Abyss. I won't take anything of lower quality. Don't talk to me about market prices. This price is already very high in the Abyss. I'm only giving you this price because of Chu Qin."

This time, Chu Xiu didn't refute it, because there were indeed quite a few, after all, even the corpses were collected for him by others.

To be fair, while each rich kid has their own annoying traits, they're generally not stingy and are quite generous with their money.

But after thinking about it, Chu Xiu still said, "I want karma points."

Upon hearing this, Shen Tu Hu immediately became furious: "What do you, a support class, need Causality Points for? Do you know how precious Causality Points are right now?"

“Equipment is also valuable,” Chu Xiu shrugged. “A piece of [Excellent] equipment can only be dropped by elite monsters, and the drop rate for armor is even lower.”

"Ten karmic points for one body, that's a very fair price."

Shen Tu Hu stared at Chu Xiu, seemingly surprised that he was so ungrateful. In Shen Tu Hu's view, without combat professions like them, support professions were useless. Bargaining was one thing, but now he dared to ask for causal points that could directly increase strength.
But Shen Tu Hu eventually held back and turned to Chu Qin with dissatisfaction, saying, "Chu Qin, you should explain to him. We need to make the most of every resource to enhance our strength. How could we possibly give him a support class with our causal points?"

Chu Qin was also a little conflicted for a moment, but after seeing Chu Xiu's firm attitude, she turned her head without hesitation and said, "I think Chu Xiu has his own plans. Exchanging one causal point for a [superior] armor is not a loss for us."

She didn't know what Chu Xiu wanted the causal points for, and she wondered if giving them to Chu Xiu was too wasteful. But just like Zhang Qingshan, as long as it didn't violate her principles, she would always respect her friend's decision and stand on his side.

If there's anything, ask in private; you still need to maintain appearances in front of others.

Seeing that Chu Qin had said this, Shen Tu Hu had nothing more to say. Finally, he waved his hand in annoyance and said, "Do as you please, but I will report this matter truthfully."

Chu Qin was a little embarrassed, thanked them, and then pulled Chu Xiu out.

After leaving, she rubbed her forehead, turned around and asked, "Achu, what do you need the karma points for? Ten karma points can only be sold for seventy or eighty thousand when you get back. Don't tell me you're thinking of making a private deal? Don't even think about it! The country is very strict about this. There are all kinds of items in the Abyss. You can't imagine how powerful the supervisory departments are."

Chu Xiu smiled and said, "Don't worry, Sister Qin, I'm not that stupid."

"That's good," Chu Qin said with an "Mm," and then added, "Shen Tu Hu is a petty guy. You offended him, so try not to provoke him for a while."

Chu Xiu smiled and agreed.

Chu Qin didn't say anything more. The operation was to begin tomorrow, and she had many things to arrange. After pointing out the place to store the body to Chu Xiu, she hurriedly left.

The latter obediently went to the underground parking lot. Shen Tu Hu did not lie to him; a lot of corpses had indeed been collected here, and most of them were well preserved, including many high-level corpse demons.

Chu Xiu roughly calculated that he could easily forge thirty +4 White Bone Armor pieces.

"That's quite a workload. No wonder Shen Tu Hu told me not to sleep tonight."

If he were still at the mortal level, refining so many corpses would probably take more than an hour, but for Chu Xiu now, it's just a matter of moments.

but
"I really don't plan to sleep tonight."

A strange smile appeared on Chu Xiu's face.

With a wave of his hand, he quickly finished forging all the armor.

Then he found a place to sit down and quietly waited for night to fall.

Four hours later, at midnight, while everyone was sound asleep, conserving their energy for tomorrow's battle, Chu Xiu donned a black robe and silently arrived at Shen Tu Hu's office.

"Click."

With a barely perceptible click, the lock was broken. Chu Xiu strode in, rummaged through a pile of documents, and soon found the nearby map.

Looking at the marked locations in front of him, Chu Xiu couldn't help but smile from the bottom of his heart.

Bargaining with Shen Tu Hu was just a way to earn some extra money on the side.

His real goal was to operate at night and take advantage of the rest of everyone else to sweep up all the resources in one go!
"Eleven warrior-level creatures, two nests—I will take all these resources for myself!"

(End of this chapter)