From Abyssal Invasion to Bursting Stars with a Single Sword

After the news of the second Quenching Furnace appearing in the Western countries spread, it caused a significant shock.

This meant that Quenching Castle was no longer the only quenching channel, and it also meant that Western countries could rapidly enhance the combat power of Superpower Users by relying on the Quenching Furnace.

The multinational corporations originally focusing on Coastal instead began to invest in the quenching industry of the Lion Heart Empire, training Quenching Masters.

After obtaining the Quenching Furnace, the Western World began to widely report the news, making the whole world aware of it within a day.

Lin Zeyu handed an English newspaper to Lu Heng.

"Take a look. The foreign media are all reporting this news as if they were the only ones with a Quenching Furnace."

Lu Heng took the newspaper and glanced at it, saying, "It looks very similar to the Quenching Furnace in Quenching Castle."

Previously he hadn't paid much attention, but now seeing the photo of the Quenching Furnace in the newspaper, it felt almost identical to the one inside Quenching Castle.

"It is quite similar, maybe Quenching Furnaces all look this way," Lin Zeyu added.

"Not really, Quenching Furnaces come in all shapes and sizes." Lu Heng had seen various styles of Quenching Furnaces; not all of them were cut from the same mold.

"That's not important. I want you to look here," Lin Zeyu said, pointing to a section of the news article, his tone full of indignation, "They are slandering us, claiming that we control the Quenching Furnaces and hinder their access to this enhancement pathway. They even say that after their relentless efforts, they finally broke through our blockade."

Actually, Lu Heng did want to block them, but the real reason the Western countries had a hard time obtaining weapon quenching was due to the scarcity of quenching materials.

As the levels of Superpower Users increased, this situation would gradually improve.

Lu Heng, uninterested in this type of media squabble, casually set the newspaper aside.

Just then.

Both Lu Heng and Lin Zeyu focused their attention as they both noticed the same Abyss Battlefield alert.

[Abyss Battlefield: Summons countdown 7 days.]

"The summons has been issued."

Following that, Su Muyu sent a message in the team group: "The summons alert has been issued, should we gather now?"

"We are at the Flame Emblem, come over," Lu Heng replied.

It didn't take long.

Su Muyu arrived at the Flame Emblem Building; nowadays, she hardly needed any transportation.

Turning on Invisibility, she spread her Sky Dome Lord Wings and flew in the sky, much faster than most transportation means.

The reason for using Invisibility was mainly because flying in the sky was too conspicuous.

She didn't want to be seen by too many people.

After the trio met, they started the meeting to discuss the summons.

While Su Muyu was heading over, Lu Heng had already pondered over this issue.

He speculated which Abyss World might be calling for this summons.

Since the inherent purpose of the Abyss Battlefield summons was actually to support other civilizations encountering an Abyss invasion.

Based on these civilizations' developmental trajectories, aside from the Bansel Clan that was significantly influenced by Lu Heng in a previous timeline, the encounters of other civilizations should be similar to those in the previous life.

This meant if a civilization required support at this time point, then it was very likely to be summoned to that civilization's world.

Besides that.

Lu Heng also noticed a pattern in the summonings, which was that within a certain period, the same Abyss Battlefield could undergo multiple summonings.

The reason for this was simple.

If the first group of Superpower Users who were summoned could not complete the task and clear the Abyss Pollution Source,

then a second summons would occur within a short period.

For example, the Bansel Clan was summoned to participate in the Soul Capturing Monster event, and, according to the events of the previous lifetime, the Bansel Clan's efforts were likely unsuccessful.

Thus, a second summons was carried out over a month later,

and during the second summons, the Soul Capturing Monster event was exposed.

However, this life was different.

With Lu Heng's intervention, he helped the Bansel Clan eliminate the Soul Capturing Monsters and the Abyss Gate, completing the event in the first summons.

Therefore, the Soul Capturing Monster event would not have a second summons.

Lu Heng carefully recalled the significant information that occurred during Abyss Descent in November of the past life.

However, after thinking it over, he couldn't come up with anything.

Because at this time point, the most shocking event was the Lion Heart Empire obtaining a Quenching Furnace.

The White Eagle Federation and the Lion Heart Empire, already allied, joined hands to invest in the quenching industry, spending heavily to train Quenching Masters and compete in the market.

This caused the prices of quenching materials to skyrocket once again, reaching a level where ordinary Superpower Users could no longer afford weapon quenching.

Of course, if a Superpower User obtained a piece of quenching material in the Abyss Battlefield and sold it immediately, they could make a significant amount of money to purchase other resources.

…

While analyzing, Lu Heng shared the patterns of the Abyss Battlefield summonings.

After hearing the pattern, Su Muyu pondered and proposed an idea: "You just said that the summons of the Abyss Battlefield are related to significant events occurring in the target civilization.

"Do you think this summons could be related to the Quenching Furnace of the Lion Heart Empire? This event must be the biggest thing that has happened recently."

Lin Zeyu waved his hand and responded, "You should focus on significant events in the target civilization, not what's happening here."

Su Muyu gave him a sidelong glance, emphasizing, "Many events are interconnected."

Lu Heng agreed, "That's indeed possible, but I'm not sure how likely it is. For now, we should just prepare—weapons, survival supplies, all these need to be ready."

Lin Zeyu snapped his fingers, saying, "I'll take care of that, ensuring everything is well-prepared."

Lu Heng continued, "Also, before we teleport, we should try to maximize our combat power. I resolved a bank robbery a few days ago, and they gave me a Grade B forging material, perfect for a second forging of Mu Yu's crossbow."

Lin Zeyu showed a face of envy, "When will it be my turn? I want a high-grade weapon too."

Lu Heng glanced at him and said, "Sniper rifles can't be upgraded through forging, you'll need to find a way to get a higher-level sniper rifle."

Lin Zeyu said in frustration, "Then were the quenching materials and spiritual injection materials for my sniper rifle wasted?"

Lu Heng explained, "Not all will be wasted. I can help you melt down the materials, but there will be some loss."

Lin Zeyu sighed, "That's still a loss though."

Lu Heng corrected him, "Not really a loss. You don't need to forge the weapon a second time, which means you don't need forging materials. Forging materials are sky-high in price and also scarce."

Thinking it over, Lin Zeyu felt that made sense and nodded, "You're right, losing some quenching materials is acceptable. How much will be lost?"

"Hmm... usually more than half. The exact amount depends on the Quenching Master's skill." Lu Heng had never performed the process of weapon melting to extract quenching materials, so he wasn't sure how much could be retrieved.

"The quenching materials aren't the most critical. The spiritual injection materials are key," Lin Zeyu remarked as he took out his SVD sniper rifle and caressed it.

He was quite fond of this sniper rifle since it had accompanied him through life and death many times.

However, the basic level of this sniper rifle was B-Level. To enhance it further, he would need a higher-level sniper rifle.

"Also, try to improve your basic martial arts as much as possible these next few days. That's real strength. Once your proficiency is full, you won't need divine energy to grasp higher realm abilities," Lu Heng reminded.

After their discussion, the three of them acted separately to prepare for the upcoming conscription.

...

In the following days, Lu Heng, while practicing his swordsmanship, pondered another issue.

That was the defection of agent 027.

Lu Heng had always wondered what had driven 027 to defect.

Was it an unacceptable mission assigned by the Creator Organization?

That seemed very likely.

In fact.

Lu Heng's first official mission was to submit Sikes Technology data.

This mission was hard for Lu Heng to accept, and he ultimately resolved it with some trickery.

But it was only a temporary solution. It was like a ticking bomb.

As long as someone from the Creator Organization got hold of genuine Sikes civilization technology data, they would realize that the biological technology data with traps was fake.

By then, Lu Heng would also have no choice but to defect.

Back when he was at the Coastal Commercial Bank, Lu Heng saw 027 and wanted to catch up with him to find out the real situation.

But he vanished in the blink of an eye.

Lu Heng had been wondering for days whether 027's appearance in the bank was related to the bank robbers?

After careful consideration, Lu Heng thought it unlikely that 027 would participate in a bank robbery.

With his strength, there were many ways to get money; robbing a bank was too crude.

Besides, if he really wanted to rob a bank, he wouldn't use such brutal methods.

With his ability to arrive and leave without a trace, there were countless ways to steal money from the bank, even encashing whenever he needed.

In fact, Lu Heng was in a similar situation.

If he truly wanted to take the gold bars from the bank's vault, he could just use Shadow Traversal.

However, Lu Heng didn't lack those gold bars now; he could earn many "gold bars" simply by accepting a single quenching order.

Moreover, what he needed most now were advanced resources, which were hard to buy with money.

Tired from training, Lu Heng lay on the training ground, watching as night fell.

At that moment.

A black crow flew across the sky.

Lu Heng frowned and said, "Don't keep hovering above my head, or I'll shoot you down."

This black crow seemed to understand human speech and circled twice before descending, landing five meters in front of Lu Heng. It began to expand and moments later transformed into a person cloaked in a black feather cloak; it was 013.

"What's it?" Lu Heng asked directly.

"Here's the organization member list you requested last time. This is the first one, number 031."

013, wearing the black crow wings, flung a data card.

Lu Heng caught the card and glanced at the information. His expression darkened immediately.

The card had a photograph of a black person.

"You guys are also recruiting this chimpanzee?" Lu Heng asked, holding up the card, somewhat speechless.

"This person has the highest recovery ability detected recently. His body can heal from bullet wounds within ten seconds. He also gained a special bloodline in the last Abyss Battlefield and achieved a noteworthy Bloodline Class, the Dark Werewolf. Do you think he qualifies?" 013 explained briefly.

Judging solely from the combat data, Lu Heng had to admit, the black person did indeed have impressive combat performance.

What was most crucial was the possession of a special Bloodline Class, the famous Dark Werewolf from past times, which ranked at the top of the Transformation Series.

Paired with an extraordinary self-healing ability, his combat strength was indeed strong.

013 continued, "I recommend you invite this Dark Werewolf to join your team."

Lu Heng's eyes emitted a chilly glare, "Are you forcing me to kill him?"

013 changed the topic, "Now for your new mission, you are to track down 027. This Dark Werewolf's ability is specifically to counter 027's. So, bring 031 with you to track and capture 027 alive."

"What about 027's information?" Lu Heng asked.

"None."

"How could there be none? Didn't you invite him to join?"

"No one has seen his true face, including me."

"Then you're asking me to track him? Are you kidding?"

"The Dark Werewolf's sense of smell is acute, and he's already memorized 027's scent, so with him, you can find 027."

After speaking, 013 spread his arms, transformed back into a black crow, and flew into the sky, disappearing from sight.