From Abyssal Invasion to Bursting Stars with a Single Sword

"The Flame Demon shattered into a pile of coal slag, releasing three Skill Crystal Cores, a piece of Black Crystal Ore, and a fiery red Source Material."

"Having cleaned up the battlefield, the two teams had no time to slowly study the items they had obtained."

"Because the mission was still incomplete, the most crucial task remained to locate the rift points and destroy them."

"Even though they had killed the Flame Demon, they had not yet investigated whether there were rift points within the Sandstone Hill."

"Therefore, the two teams immediately returned to the Sandstone Hill to carry out their search."

"The Sandstone Hill was not large, merely a small hill made of sandstone with crisscrossing rock caves on it."

"The combined teams had six Perceivers who together conducted the search, and it didn't take long to make a discovery."

"'Found it, I see a peculiar space,'" said a Perceiver from Jian Qing's team, who was the first to spot something."

"Lu Heng advised, 'The others should finish surveying their assigned areas to avoid the possibility of multiple rift points.'"

"Abyss Rifts are created when two world spaces overlap."

"Once a rift point appears, the likelihood of multiple nearby rift points is substantial."

"Several minutes later, the six Perceivers finished their search, ultimately locating two rift points."

"Both rift points were inside the rock caves of the Sandstone Hill, one of which was particularly tricky to access."

"Lu Heng entered the cave and used the Second Transition Class Skill 'Rift Slash' to destroy the rift point."

"If it weren't for Lu Heng's presence, destroying the rift point would have been quite difficult."

"Because an Abyss Rift is formed by the overlapping of two worlds' spaces due to compression."

"This is an issue at the spatial level; ordinary Strength can't affect an Abyss Rift."

"Lu Heng's 'Rift Slash' happens to possess a spatial attribute, allowing him to destroy the rift point with a single strike."

"To resolve an Abyss Rift, it is commonly necessary to bring a Superpower User with space department abilities."

"However, space department abilities are extremely high-level powers and were very rare during the early stages of the Abyss Descent."

"Even now, six months into the middle phase of the Abyss Descent, the number of space department Ability Users remains a minority."

"If you lack space department abilities, your only option is to forcibly destroy the rift point with explosives."

"When the explosive power reaches a critical point, it can indeed affect the space, but whether it can successfully destroy the rift point also depends on luck."

"If you simply cannot destroy the rift point, blowing up the cave to bury the rift point can temporarily solve the problem with the fog."

"You can always send a space department Ability User later to deal with the rift point."

"After destroying one rift point, Lu Heng waited for his Source Material Energy to fully restore before destroying the second rift point."

"During the process of destroying the rift points, a group of six or seven Abyssal Aliens came closing in."

"Now that the two teams had merged, setting up the weapons made dealing with the Abyssal Aliens much simpler—just keep the formation and sweep with machine guns."

"With both rift points destroyed, this perilous mission was finally accomplished."

"Jian Qing and Chen Zihang started to use their abilities to blow away the surrounding fog."

"A fierce wind arose, swirling the fog around Sandstone Hill towards the sky, drifting into the distance."

"In an instant, the wind had cleared several hundred meters of fog."

"Everyone finally saw the blue sky and took a deep breath of fresh air."

"After breathing the acidic fog in the mist for about seven or eight days, several people in the team had swollen respiratory tracts."

"Breathing fresh air felt as though they had been reborn."

"With the nearby fog dispersed, the communicator finally could receive satellite signals, allowing them to contact Liu River's military base and request a helicopter for pickup."

"Liu River's military base sent two 20-series helicopters, retrieving both teams and sending the injured for treatment."

"The completion of this mission also meant it was time for everyone to part ways."

"Everyone would rest at the military base for one night before leaving the next day."

"In the evening,"

"the two teams gathered."

"Wu Weibing took out all the spoils of war they had obtained, preparing to divide them."

"They would soon part ways and thus needed to distribute the items."

"As to how to split them, that had to be discussed together."

"The spoils needing distribution included three Skill Crystal Cores, five regular Crystal Cores, a piece of Black Crystal Ore, and a fiery red Source Material dropped by the Flame Demon."

"Lu Heng had already examined the attributes of this Source Material, which was a Second Transition Class 'Flame Messenger's' Source Material."

"For the Ability Users who had not acquired Second Transition Source Material, absorbing this piece would allow them to obtain the 'Flame Messenger's' Class Ability prematurely and initiate the Source Material battle."

"Lu Heng already possessed the Second Transition Class 'Swordsman's' Source Material, so absorbing this piece would increase his Source Material Fusion Degree."

"Therefore, this Source Material could be used by all twenty people present, depending on who it was given to."

"Usually, Class Source Material should be given priority to those who need that Class."

"'Does anyone need this piece of Source Material?'" Wu Weibing picked up the Source Material and asked everyone."

"Indeed, if talking about usability, everyone could use it, but suitability was another issue."

"If it were a wild team, regardless of suitability, they would fight over it first."

Most of the superpower users present were from the special forces, so they were highly disciplined.

Jian Qing raised her hand and said, "There's a flame ability user in my team who can use this. Let me know if you have any need for it. If the Source Material is allocated to our team, we won't take any other Crystal Cores."

As the team captain, Jian Qing tried her best to secure the Source Material for her teammates.

In fact, there was also a flame ability user in Lu Heng's team, who had primarily dealt with the fungal blanket previously.

Lu Heng looked at him and asked, "What about you? Do you need it?"

The Flame Demon had also derived other flame skills that would suit flame ability users.

It was all about making a choice.

The flame ability user in Lu Heng's team was named Tao Yalun, who was also interested in the Source Material of the "Flame Messenger."

This Tao Yalun was a member of Chen Zihang's squad and had previously entered a Wasteland Planet of the Sikes Civilization with them.

Although Lu Heng was temporarily his commander, if Tao Yalun wanted it, Lu Heng would definitely help him secure it.

However, acquiring Source Material had its benefits as well as risks.

Once one absorbed the Source Material, it would mean the start of a Source Material battle, with the possibility of being attacked by other superpower users.

Tao Yalun thought for a moment and said, "I can do without the Source Material, but I want a Skill Crystal Core."

He then pointed to the Skill Crystal Core named "Fiery Flame Amplification."

This skill, once activated, could increase flame power by 30% for a duration of one minute.

The skill was indeed strong, boosting flame power by 30% directly.

The teams discussed and finally decided: the "Flame Messenger" Source Material would go to the flame ability user in Jian Qing's team.

The "Fiery Flame Amplification" Crystal Core would go to Tao Yalun.

Besides that,

The Flame Demon had also dissociated two other Skill Crystal Cores.

"Fiery Flame Shield: Releases a flame shield around the user that lasts for 180 seconds, increases flame resistance by 50%, absorbs 500 points of flame damage, and causes 20 points per second of flame damage to any target that touches the shield. Skill energy consumption: 30 Source Energy; Skill Level: C."

There was also a C-Level "Blast Fireball" Skill Crystal Core.

Lu Heng discussed with Su Muyu and Lin Zeyu for a bit before reaching out, picking up the "Fiery Flame Shield" Crystal Core, and the Black Crystal Ore, saying, "We'll take these two, you guys divide the rest. This Black Crystal Ore is a forging stone, I can pay the difference."

Chen Zihang waved his hand and said, "No need, the rest are just fine for us."

The remaining ordinary Crystal Cores were also distributed, and thus the spoils were divided.

Then, everyone gathered to drink and chat, and when tired, they dispersed and went to rest.

The "Fiery Flame Shield" Crystal Core was very useful, and its skill effect was strong, but it only added a shield to the user.

This means it isn't a support skill but a defense skill.

If it were used by Su Muyu, this skill could only add a shield to herself.

So, Lu Heng planned to use it for the Mechanical Tiger.

The liquid metal shell of the Mechanical Tiger was basically immune to physical attacks unless the impact was so powerful that it could bulldoze through a Class A Mechanical Beast.

However, the Mechanical Tiger still had a weakness—it was vulnerable to flames.

Extreme high temperatures could melt its metal shell into molten iron.

Just like in the Abyss Battlefield before, a high-energy beam from a Sikes Technology Light Prism Tank had melted its shell into molten iron.

Considering this weakness, Lu Heng chose this "Fiery Flame Shield" Crystal Core for the Mechanical Tiger.

With this Crystal Core, which could absorb 500 points of flame damage and increase its flame resistance by 50%,

With this skill, coupled with the "Metal Enhancement" effect, it could now withstand high-temperature burns.

The skill was named "Fiery Flame Shield," meant to block flame damage, but its true effect was to shield against high temperatures.

High-energy lasers caused the same type of scorch damage as flames.

Therefore, this "Fiery Flame Shield" could also protect against heat-based laser weapons.

After feeding the Crystal Core to the Mechanical Tiger, it now possessed three skills.

These were the C-class "Metal Enhancement," B-class "City-Breaking Charge," and C-class "Fiery Flame Shield."

Combined, this hulking beast could be considered Blue Star's number one armored bulwark, nearly immune to physical attacks, and now its resistance to flames had also improved.

Plus, with the reckless "City-Breaking Charge," it could even face a tank head-on.

Talking about combat power, the Mechanical Tiger's abilities were already on par with a Level 25 superpower user.

Especially when facing the Flame Demon or Abyssal Aliens, where ordinary superpower users would hesitate to confront directly, the Mechanical Tiger could.

After resting in Liu River for one night, the next morning,

The two teams of twenty people formally split up, each heading home or back to their unit.

Lu Heng and his two companions returned to Coastal, rested well for a day, and prepared to take a Black Crystal Forging Stone the next day for an attempted upgrade of the Aurora Blade.

Before heading to Quenching Castle, he received an international message from Lin Zeyu.

Ten days ago, Kashima Shintou Sword Saint Saito Takeji was expelled from the country.

Following that, Fusang propagated a narrative that said all swordsmen from Da Xia were despicable and cowardly, fearing to face a challenge and using official power to expel the Sword Saint from Fusang.

This was the situation, but framed differently, it sounded entirely distinct.