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

Chapter 97 is gone, all gone!

As the notification sound rang out, a surge of new power flowed into Chu Xiu's body, causing him to comfortably close his eyes.

The minor injuries on my body gradually healed, the bruises disappeared, and the tiny wounds healed and scabbed over.

After fully absorbing the power, Chu Xiu opened his eyes, pushed off with his legs, and the cement ground beneath his feet immediately cracked. Chu Xiu then leaped up and easily crossed a distance of nearly 100 meters.

After landing, his smile widened.

"After this upgrade, my physique has exceeded 50!"

"This makes me powerful enough in close-quarters combat even without relying on the Heavenly Demon Hand!"

What Chu Xiu lacks most right now is basic attributes, and every bit of improvement is precious.

"This value should be similar to, or even slightly less than, that of an A-grade melee class of the same tier."

"I can only hope that the next inheritance unlocks a body-refining technique that can enhance my physique."

And this is already very close. Although Chu Xiu doesn't get much experience from killing low-level monsters now, the sheer number of monsters is overwhelming. He devoured this huge nest all by himself, and the experience he gained not only leveled him up to level 3, but also brought him close to level 4.

Chu Xiu stopped thinking about it and began to examine the other gains.

First of all, I finally got a piece of equipment of perfect quality.

[Mutant Venomous Longbow (Perfect)]

Chu Xiu examined it and found that the longbow had excellent attributes. When fully drawn, its range could exceed one thousand meters, just like a sniper rifle. Moreover, as long as it hit, it would inflict a large amount of poison damage, which perfectly made up for Chu Xiu's lack of long-range attack ability.

After all, the power of the Yin Wind Banner diminishes too quickly; after reaching a hundred meters, it loses less than half its original power.

Of course, accuracy still needs to be practiced, but with Chu Xiu's current physique and mental attributes, he will get the hang of it quickly. He can try shooting a few when killing corpses next.

Besides the final boss, the other monsters also dropped a lot of items.

However, most of the equipment and items are of quality below [Treasured]. Occasionally, a [Treasured] item will drop, and like the Blood Demon's Touch, it is useful but not plentiful.

For example, he once obtained a [Mutant Ovary]. Although its quality reached [Collector's Edition], its effect was that after a period of cultivation, it hatched a mutated ghoul of mortal rank 9 to serve as a henchman, which left Chu Xiu both amused and exasperated.

It's not entirely useless, but it's definitely a bit of a letdown.

Chu Xiusai has put all these equipment and props into his storage space, planning to sell them for some money when he gets back, or see if he can find some rich second-generation suckers to exchange for karma points.

"The biggest takeaway is still the concept of cause and effect!"

This is the key point. Right now, Chu Xiu needs more causal points than equipment and items!
Whether unlocking new skills or upgrading existing ones, a large number of causal points are required.

The income from killing so many corpse demons in one go was astonishing!

"This one nest alone has generated over 1,500 causal points!"

Including the monsters he killed and the rewards for completing challenge missions, Chu Xiu now has nearly five thousand Karma Points!
And this was only what he gained in less than a day!

"As expected, completing the entire world quest yields higher rewards. No wonder those major powers are willing to pay such a high price to conquer world quests!"

"Not to mention, unlike others, I don't suffer losses when fighting monsters; I only get stronger as the battles go on, like a snowball rolling downhill!"

Chu Xiu smiled sincerely and waved his hand. The corpses on the ground began to be refined, and countless souls began to wail and struggle, but they were unable to resist being taken into the Fiend Soul Banner!

In this battle, Chu Xiu lost a total of twenty-one Yin Ghosts.

But it doesn't matter, these large numbers of high-quality living souls will become nourishment for the Fiend Soul Banner!

One by one, Yin ghosts were born, and many of them began to evolve into ferocious ghosts!

After all the living souls were refined, Chu Xiu gained five more ferocious ghosts and fifteen more yin ghosts! Furthermore, the Ferocious Soul Banner also leveled up!
Increasing the level of the Evil Soul Banner not only expands its capacity, but also helps the Yin Ghost advance more effectively and reduces energy loss when devouring divine souls.

"Now I have a total of eleven fierce ghosts and thirty-nine yin ghosts!"

While other forces were still racking their brains to recruit even one warrior-level fighter, Chu Xiu already had eleven.
If other summoner classes saw this, their eyes would probably pop out!
If you include the remaining Yin ghosts, the ghost army alone could sweep through an entire faction.

However, Chu Xiu still felt insecure!

"I must not become arrogant and complacent just because I am currently slightly ahead of others. Others will also hunt ghouls to level up and increase their strength! I still have a lot to improve!"

"More importantly, the opponent I really need to consider is the Corpse King!"

The danger level of this city is three. Even with an optimistic estimate, the Corpse King is at least a fierce-level elite, and there is even a possibility that a fierce-level leader will spawn!
Not to mention, since his name is Corpse King, he's bound to have a large number of ghouls under his command.

If Chu Xiu wants to ensure that he can seize the core anchor point, he must have the strength to fight against the Corpse King and other forces at the same time. Only in this way can he be absolutely sure of success!
"Eleven warrior-level warriors? That's too few, far too few!"

"Let's set a small goal first: one hundred ferocious ghosts!!!"

With a wave of his hand, Chu Xiu collected all the ghosts and, without resting, rushed towards the next lair.

Keep working hard!
While Chu Xiu was heading towards the next lair, inside the gathering point, Song Zhiwen was organizing the latest intelligence by the moonlight.

His talent and career were average, but he was very intelligent and always ranked at the top of his class. After passing seven rounds of government interviews, he was successfully selected as a government-appointed analyst.

His responsibility is to integrate information, coordinate the planning of operations with other strongholds, and formulate the most appropriate combat strategy.

So while everyone else was resting and conserving their energy for tomorrow's battle, Song Zhiwen was still working late into the night, trying his best to optimize the action plan for tomorrow and minimize the losses in destroying the nest.

After fixing the last minor issue, Song Zhiwen stretched and a smug smile appeared on his face.

"I'm such a genius."

"If he had been born in ancient times, he would have been a strategist of at least the caliber of Guo Jia!"

He was very satisfied with the operation he had devised. He had assigned the most suitable task to each of the hundreds of awakened individuals and dozens of combat team members at the stronghold.

Song Zhiwen was confident that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, he could reduce the casualty rate of the extermination operation to below 10%!
However, just as he was about to go to bed, someone suddenly rushed in!
"Brother Song! Something terrible has happened! Something horrific has occurred at the lair!"

"What's the rush? Tell me slowly," Song Zhiwen calmly took a sip of water. "Have the nearby ghouls gathered together? Or has another mutated ghoul been born? Don't panic, I've made contingency plans for all of these."

After saying this, Song Zhiwen smiled smugly again.

Ordinary people wouldn't understand. For these people who make a living with their brains, the depth and breadth of their thinking are beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. Many things that seem earth-shattering to ordinary people are simply part of what they had already foreseen. "No, it's not that. The nest is gone!"

Song Zhiwen's smile froze on his face.

He stammered, "No, that's all? What do you mean by 'that's all'?"

"It means exactly what it says," the man swallowed hard. "Five minutes ago, the operatives monitoring the lair discovered that a strange horde of corpses appeared out of nowhere and wiped out all the ghouls in the lair! Not a single one was left!"

The intelligence officer's words left Song Zhiwen completely stunned, even doubting his own ears.

Gone? Such a huge nest just vanished like that?

Is this some kind of joke?
Song Zhiwen felt his mind was completely rejecting this fact, constantly searching for other possibilities.

But reason told him that these intelligence agents were trustworthy elites who wouldn't make such a pointless joke at this time.

The abyss, however, is full of all sorts of unexpected variables.

After a long pause, he slowly put down his water glass and said, word by word, "You mean, half of all the work I did tonight is going to be wasted?"

The intelligence officer cast a sympathetic glance at him and patted him on the shoulder: "It's okay, Brother Song. You won't be shortchanged on the money. Just consider it a free ride off the government."

Song Zhiwen knew, but he still felt a tightness in his chest.

After taking several deep breaths, he managed to calm himself down and rubbed his forehead, saying, "You're right, plans can never keep up with changes, and many options were meant to be abandoned anyway."

"What I should do now is consider this sudden new 'variable'."

"Tell me in detail all the information you have received."

"Yes!"

The intelligence officer relayed the key points from the monitoring agent. They were afraid of being discovered by the horde, so they kept a great distance and could only vaguely see some images. But one thing was certain: these suddenly appearing "new type of ghouls" were very strong, extremely strong! Dealing with ordinary ghouls was simply a one-sided massacre!

This reminded Song Zhiwen of a similar report he had received that evening. He immediately dispatched a high-level squad to investigate, but they found nothing unusual. There wasn't a single ordinary ghoul, let alone a new type of ghoul.

In the end, he treated it as an exaggeration when he was frightened.

But now it seems that the horde of zombies that attacked the nest is very likely the same one that the team encountered at dusk!
"But where did this horde of corpses come from? Why can't we track them down?"

"Could it be that, like when we entered the abyss last time, something like the 'Blood Moon Ritual' will happen?"

Song Zhiwen frowned.

At this moment, the intelligence officer seemed to remember something and added, "Oh, right, there's one more thing, but the agent in charge of observation at the time didn't see it clearly either, so we can't be sure."

"what's up?"

"There seems to be someone standing among that group of new ghouls!"

"people?"

Song Zhiwen's brows furrowed even more.

He certainly wasn't foolish enough to think that anyone could appear unharmed among the horde of corpses.

A horde of zombies capable of wiping out an entire nest cannot possibly have any survivors.

More likely, it's a humanoid ghoul!

According to reports, these new types of ghouls clearly exhibit a high degree of discipline and cooperation. Could this indicate that their leader possesses intelligence far exceeding that of ordinary ghouls?

"If that's the case, then we're in trouble," Song Zhiwen murmured.

His face was more serious than ever before: "Xiao Sun, immediately call all the commanders! Have them come to this meeting! I need to revise all the action plans!"

"This sudden horde of zombies could introduce too many variables and greatly increase the risk of the operation! If necessary, I will request support from other strongholds or even postpone the operation!"

"We've already lost one nest; the remaining one absolutely cannot afford any more mishaps!"

"Yes, sir!" The intelligence officer received the order and prepared to leave, but at that moment, another person barged in.

"Brother Song! Something terrible has happened!"

"Something's happened again?!" Song Zhiwen's expression tightened.

"The nest, the nest is gone!" the newcomer gasped.

Song Zhiwen breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed: "I already know about this. Xiao Sun just reported it to me."

"No, Brother Song," the man said with a bitter face, "it's the second one, the second nest is gone too!"

Song Zhiwen: "."

"Snapped!"

He slumped into his chair, the only sound the shouts of his two intelligence officers.

"Brother Song! Brother Song, pull yourself together!"

"On the bright side, you might become the only analyst with a zero mortality rate, wouldn't you!"

At the same moment, inside the underground lair, Chu Xiu looked with a smile at the enormous mutated corpse that was now a bloody mess and barely clinging to life.

As the berserk demon hand slammed down again without mercy, a pleasant notification sound rang in his ears.

[Professional Experience +413]

[Level Up!]

Current Rank: Warrior Level 4

(End of this chapter)