From the Abyss Invasion to the Blasting Star.

Other, lower-level civilizations might not understand the meaning of "Sword Bearer".

Although the Star Realm Merchant Civilization has a small remaining population, it has carefully studied humanity and everything around Lu Heng.

Therefore, Azik certainly knew about the Swordholders, and when he heard Lu Heng ask this question, he immediately agreed: "I am willing to join the Swordholders."

"Wait a minute, don't rush."

Lu Heng didn't expect him to react so quickly, but the Swordholders don't accept just anyone, otherwise their ideals wouldn't be pure.

"Since you know about the Swordholders, it's easy to explain. The Swordholders are a group of people who come together for a common goal."

"We wield our swords for our respective civilizations, seeking ways to defeat the abyss."

"The reason I bring this up is because I see a similar brilliance in you and Galmavi."

"They made tremendous efforts to save civilization. The process may have had flaws, but it was not a heinous crime."

“I see similarities between you and the Swordholders, so I hope we can come together for the same cause.”

"Of course, the Swordholder will not force any civilization or individual to join; he only hopes to bring together like-minded people."

"Therefore, you do not need to make joining the Swordholders a condition for saving your people."

"Now that I have said this much, I will help you achieve your goal of saving your race, but there is one condition: after your race is resurrected, it must not, in any form or for any reason, be hostile to humanity."

"Including, but not limited to, establishing an organization similar to a creator, this request is not excessive."

Azik nodded in agreement: "Yes, this request is very reasonable. It can even be put into a written agreement. We astral merchants value our reputation and will definitely abide by any agreements we sign."

"Alright, I choose to believe you, and I hope my choice is right."

After Lu Heng finished speaking, he took a few steps back, raised his hand and released source energy to help him accelerate the effect of the reincarnation source energy.

……

Upon witnessing this, Bai Guang angrily rebuked, "Human, do you know what you're doing? You're destroying our Zero Civilization to rescue the Astral Merchant. You don't think you're doing something noble, do you?"

Lu Heng turned his head to look in the direction of the white light and replied, "I don't think there's anything noble about this. Just like your methods, luring humans into the Abyss Demon Nest to help you compete for the Reincarnation Source Essence, do you think what you're doing is noble?"

The first group of human superhumans who ventured into the Abyss Demon Nest have entered the cavern, awakening the abyssal monsters within and sparking a fierce battle.

The monster levels in the Abyss Nest are not fixed; some are low-level, while others have no level cap.

Therefore, when encountering high-level abyss monsters, the casualties among ability users will be extremely heavy.

The wages of avarice is death.

In both lifetimes, it is the same: in order to obtain rich rewards, there will inevitably be people with supernatural abilities who will enter the Abyss Demon Nest to participate in the competition.

Those who were initially observing may also develop a sense of complacency and follow suit after seeing others enter.

Therefore, this incident involving the Abyss Demon Nest will inevitably result in bloodshed.

Not only that.

Driven by the power of a demigod, the energy ripples of the Reincarnation Source Essence spread faster and faster.

As the energy of the Reincarnation Source Essence was depleted, the Zero Civilization became increasingly anxious, opening more stargates and increasing bounties to allow more human superhumans to enter the Abyss Demon Nest and compete for the Reincarnation Source Essence.

The Zero Civilization, in order to reclaim the Reincarnation Source Essence, didn't care how many humans died or were injured.

Lu Heng's clone remained outside the Demon Nest Cavern, witnessing the increasing number of star gates and the growing influx of superhumans into the Abyss Demon Nest, making the conflict with the Zero Civilization increasingly difficult to resolve.

Bai Guang angrily retorted, "You are forcing our Zero Civilization to die, and you are also forcing your human superhumans to come in and die."

Lu Heng frowned and questioned, "There's one question that has always puzzled me: the main mission issued by the Summoning Will is to help the Zero Civilization break free from its stagnant state."

"What your civilization calls stagnation is the cycle itself; the continuous cycle is itself a form of stagnation."

"The will to be summoned hopes that you will break the cycle, so why waste resources to continue the cycle?"

Bai Guang: "You don't understand anything. The only way to continue civilization is to enter the next cycle. Otherwise, you will be swallowed by the abyss and disappear into the river of time, just like you low-level civilizations."

Lu Heng continued to question, "Can't you put your energy into fighting the abyss? How many times have you gone through this cycle? How long has it lasted? Do you just plan to keep going in this cycle endlessly, without any purpose? What's the point of this kind of continuation?"

Bai Guang: "Ignorant! I'll tell you the answer directly: because the Abyss cannot be defeated. Only by restarting the world and starting everything from scratch can it continue."

Lu Heng: "How do you know the Abyss is invincible if you haven't tried?"

Bai Guang: "How do you know I haven't tried? The Zero World has reincarnated 267 times, each time searching for a way to fight the Abyss, but there's no way, absolutely no way. 267 reincarnations have only proven one thing: the Abyss cannot be defeated!"

Lu Heng's heart skipped a beat when he heard this answer.

The Zero Civilization has already cycled 267 times. Assuming each cycle lasts 60 years, the Zero Civilization has spent 16,000 years in this cycle.

After such a long period of time and hundreds of attempts, no way to defeat the abyss has been found. It would be reasonable to say that the abyss is invincible.

If we calculate it this way, the Zero Civilization is the civilization that survived the longest during the Abyss invasion.

In other words, the earliest appearance of the abyss can be traced back to 16,000 years ago.

This time is older than the recorded history of human civilization.

……

As the Reincarnation Source Takes Effect, the environment of the Ecosphere Begins to Change in Reverse Time.

Weathered rocks begin to recover, and dead plants begin to revive.

Plants that grow upwards begin to shrink.

The dead astral merchants began to rise again, one, two, three...

Azik watched as his people were resurrected one by one, his eyes filled with tears.

The resurrected astral merchants were unaware of what had happened, but they knew who among their people had changed.

“Azik…”

The resurrected leader of the Astral Merchants looked at Azik, who was very different from the one in his memory, with a puzzled expression.

Azik extended fluorescent tentacles, which collided with the tentacles of the tribal leader.

In just a few seconds, the events that had happened were communicated.

Upon learning of their predicament, the leader of the Star Realm Merchants bowed deeply to Lu Heng and then led his people to evacuate.

The number of astral merchants is not as large as one might imagine; there are probably only about three hundred individuals.

Because the Astral Merchants' civilization level is high enough, all three hundred-plus Astral Merchants are of a very high level.

Led by their tribal chief, they began to charge outwards.

at this time.

The ground shook, the slime lake below churned, and the surrounding cave walls twisted and squeezed inward.

The cave walls pressed down, crushing the half-revived ecosphere in the blink of an eye. Lu Heng's gaze sharpened, and he drew his Aurora Blade, slashing it into the cave wall.

From the opening in the cave wall, a foul-smelling, sticky liquid was flowing out.

It was only then that Lu Heng realized that this underground space was inhabited by living beings.

Immediately afterwards, thick tentacles shot out from the churning slime lake, entangled the astral merchant, and dragged him into the slime.

The slime is highly corrosive; any astral merchant who comes into contact with it will have their body rapidly corroded into a pool of blood.

Lu Heng swung his sword, severing the tentacles and saving a Star Realm merchant. He shouted, "Something's not right! This looks like... the stomach of an Abyssal behemoth!"

Inside this space, you can't tell what things are at all. All you know is that the cave walls around you are inhabited by living things, and tentacles will shoot out from the slime lake below.

In this strange environment, one has no idea what is going on.

Lu Heng knew this was the stomach of the abyss behemoth because the entire Demon Nest Cavern shook.

The ground cracked open with many holes, which were the mouthparts of the abyssal behemoth, like giant man-eating flowers.

Countless tentacles shot out from the mouthparts, dragging the superhuman into them.

The entire Abyss Demon Nest is the lair of this abyss behemoth, and the ground beneath your feet is the skin of the abyss behemoth.

Its rough skin, covered by rocks, makes it completely undetectable.

The Demon Nest Cavern is the esophagus of the abyssal behemoth, while the location of the slime lake is its stomach.

This can only be seen from outside the Abyss's lair.

Su Muyu was the first to notice the abyssal behemoth awakening, letting out a cry of alarm to alert Lu Heng's clone.

Lu Heng then realized that the deepest part was the stomach of a giant abyss beast, and the slimy lake beneath his feet was the beast's gastric juice.

Roar!
With hundreds of mouthparts open, the abyssal behemoth began its hunt, its tentacles shooting out indiscriminately preying on any creature within its line of sight.

Even the abyssal monsters that were kept in captivity became its food.

"Hurry! Get out of here first!"

Lu Heng turned to Azik and asked, "You've been planning this for so long, don't you have any other backup plans?"

Azik had been plotting for so long to save his people, he must have planned a way to escape from the Abyss Nest. Otherwise, saving these Astral Merchants would only have made them taste death again.

“Yes.” Azik raised his arm and released a spatial energy fluctuation.

In the next instant, space trembled violently, and a cone-shaped object tore through space, crashing into the slime lake from the outer space.

The cone-shaped object pierced through space and grew longer and longer, eventually reaching a length of 200 meters. At its widest point, it had a diameter of 30 meters, making it look like the ramming horn of a warship.

The leader of the astral merchants waved his hand and ordered, "Get on the ship!"

More than three hundred astral merchants rushed forward and squeezed into the astral merchant ship through the holes in the ram.

Azik stayed behind last and asked, "Are you coming with us?"

"Azik! Hurry!" came the voice of the Astral Merchant leader from the ramming horn.

"I still have companions here. You guys go first." Lu Heng waved for him to leave.

Without hesitation, Azik turned and jumped into the ram.

The ram of the astral merchant ship began to retreat, back into the astral rift.

Roar!
The abyssal behemoth roared, its thick tentacles piercing through space and extending into the astral rift, wrapping around the astral merchant and preparing to drag the astral merchant ship into its stomach.

Lu Heng was very surprised to see this.

The tentacles released by this abyssal behemoth could actually penetrate the spatial barrier.

The kilometer-long astral merchant ship was entangled by more than a dozen thick tentacles and could not break free.

Seeing this, Lu Heng could already imagine how the ecosphere, which was submerged in the slime lake, had fallen in.

This abyssal behemoth is a spatial predator lurking in the demon's lair, preying not only on creatures inside the lair but also on prey in the outer space.

The astral merchant's ecosphere must have drifted to the vicinity of the outer space of the Abyss Nest, and then been pulled into the nest by the tentacles of the Abyss Behemoth.

The astral merchants probably tried to resist at first, but by the time they realized the situation was dire, it was too late to escape.

In the end, only two astral merchants escaped, which led to the events that are unfolding now.

Now, although Azik has managed to pick up his people using the Astral Merchant Ship, the ship has not had time to speed up its escape and has once again been entangled by the tentacles of the Abyss Beast.

The astral merchants on the ship fought desperately against the giant beast's tentacles, breaking off several, but more tentacles broke through the spatial barrier and began to entangle the astral merchant ship.

The terrifying number of tentacles nearly coiled the astral merchant ship into a cocoon.

Upon seeing this, Lu Heng drew his sword and rushed into the astral rift, gathering the power of a demigod to unleash a sword strike called [Mountain Range].

The sword light, stretching for thousands of miles, severed all the tentacles extended by the abyssal behemoth.

The astral merchant, given the chance to escape, did not hesitate and immediately activated the power of his astral merchant ship, fleeing at high speed.

Tentacles continuously tore through the spatial barrier around the astral rift, reaching in to try and entangle the astral merchant ship.

Azik was indeed prepared. After the Astral Merchant Ship accelerated, its speed increased, and the tentacles of the Abyss Beast could not keep up with its speed.

After a chase lasting several minutes, the astral merchant ship finally escaped the range of the Abyss's lair.

……

After the astral merchant's ship escaped, the abyssal behemoth vented its anger on Lu Heng, with terrifying tentacles turning back to coil around him.

Lu Heng flashed back to the slime lake like lightning, saw the Reincarnation Source Essence being pulled into the slime by the tentacles, slashed out with his sword, and retrieved the Reincarnation Source Essence.

Then, using Void Blink, he returned to the ground of the Abyss Nest and reunited with his teammates.

Seeing Lu Heng return, Su Muyu finally breathed a sigh of relief: "You're finally back. What do we do now? More and more superhumans are coming in. What do we do now?"

Lu Heng opened a stargate and said, "Go back first and notify the war zone headquarters to issue a ban, prohibiting anyone from entering the stargate."

Su Muyu frowned and asked, "What about you? Are you going to stay here?"

Lu Heng urged, "Do as I say first."

Xie Shi'en remained calm and said, "I'll go back and contact the war zone headquarters first."

Lu Heng nodded in agreement, thanked his master, and then passed through the star gate to return to Blue Star to contact the war zone headquarters.

The Great Xia military immediately issued a ban, prohibiting anyone from entering the stargate.

However, since the Stargates were opened in different countries and regions, the ban could not completely restrict the behavior of people with superpowers.

However, some greedy individuals disregarded the prohibition, crossed the star gate, and entered the abyss's lair to their deaths. (End of Chapter)