Demon Cultivator in Abyssal Era

At the same time, Liang Zhan and his men also approached the Divine Dragon and began to persuad the crowd attempting to leave.

"Li Tiefu, your wife and children are here. Are you really going to abandon them? Think carefully, if..."

"Shut up! Shut up! You can’t deceive me! This is all a test from the Buddha!"

"Brother! You don’t even believe your own brother now? I saw the Buddha’s might with my own eyes on the front line. If it weren’t for the Buddha’s intervention, I would have died there, never to see you again!"

"Second Brother, stop speaking. Though we are siblings in this world, your faith is weak, deceived by evil demons. To me, you are no longer a brother."

"Brother, you..."

The soldier, looking at his resolute brother, never expected to hear such words. Remembering their younger days of supporting each other, his face was full of bitterness.

Similarly, such conversations were occurring repeatedly but unfortunately, no matter how much Liang Zhan and others appealed with emotion or logic, even bringing in family to persuade, the effect was minimal.

Those still choosing to stand by the Buddhist Sect at this time were those who had been thoroughly brainwashed, such people were hard to reason with.

Hours passed, yet fewer than a hundred people agreed to return. The more they were persuaded, the firmer their faith became.

"I guess this is the best we can do."

Chu Xiu sighed softly.

His mindset was balanced; given the difficulty level of the Apocalypse Trial, being able to clear it was already good. Rescuing 80% of the people earned a decent evaluation, so why desire a perfect run?

After all, while Demon Cultivator legacies are the most advanced, they excel later in cultivation, where other top professions can match them early on. The ones challenging [Doomsday] difficulty are all geniuses of top-tier civilizations, carrying at least [Myth] grade equipment and artifacts.

Though losing out on the top reward is regretful, Chu Xiu reaching this stage is already impressive and satisfactory.

"If we delay any longer, the Alien Civilization Envoy will resurrect."

At this point, the refining of the Earth Dragon was nearing completion, so Chu Xiu was preparing to leave with those who believed in him, to avoid extra complications from the eightfold-strengthened Chi Lei.

With this thought, Chu Xiu cast several techniques, and the Earth Dragon lying on the ground emitted a faint glow from its scale armor, its massive body slowly moving with loud roars, opening its mouth towards the crowd.

Liang Zhan knew it was time to leave. He regrettably glanced at those still stubbornly ignorant and, instead of continuing to persuade, turned around and shouted, "Everyone, enter the Divine Dragon immediately!"

Under his command, the crowd began to move into the Earth Dragon.

Behind the Earth Dragon’s throat, Chu Xiu had prepared small compartments serving as "carriages" for the crowd, equipped with balancing handrails and restraining "seatbelts".

Once seated, people would sink into the "flesh walls", minimizing the impact of acceleration changes.

Chu Xiu spent most of his time refining the Earth Dragon on these measures to ensure the safety of the residents.

"With this, we should return safely."

Looking at the orderly entry into the Earth Dragon, Chu Xiu thought silently.

Although he couldn’t complete the trial perfectly, he passed the Apocalypse Trial, acquiring many [Legend] equipment, fulfilling the mission’s objectives.

Just as he thought the trial was settled, suddenly a faintly contemptuous laugh echoed in the venue:

"My followers, come to me."

With that voice, many residents walking into the Earth Dragon suddenly halted, and then uniformly turned and walked towards the Celestial Dragon!

Not just the residents, but several soldiers in the army lost their divine wisdom, mechanically following the crowd!

Only Liang Zhan and a few Buddhist Elders and Martial Dao experts barely maintained conscious clarity!

"?!"

Chu Xiu’s face changed dramatically, he quickly looked up at the Celestial Dragon, where a smug human face was appearing on its neck.

"The deity’s divine technique is mastery! If it can manipulate other minions, controlling these mortals is no problem."

"Moreover, deep in their hearts, they are loyal Buddhist believers, which makes manipulating them effortlessly!"

"I told you long ago, I would never allow so many people to leave the Abyss!"

With the deity’s words, Chu Xiu’s expression became extremely grim.

He never anticipated the deity had such a trick!

Stirring the populace earlier was just a ruse to mislead Chu Xiu into thinking the deity’s abilities were limited to this. In reality, the deity was waiting for the Celestial Dragon to restart so it could leave promptly without giving Chu Xiu any time to react!

"Indeed, it is always the compromisers who fail."

This brought a saying to his mind.

"If you fight for peace, peace remains; if you compromise for peace, peace vanishes."

Chu Xiu always remembered this, hence he seldom negotiated with enemies, preferring to extract information through negotiation only to eliminate them by any means necessary!

His earlier decisive move against the deity was for this reason.

However, later, the Celestial Dragon’s divine techniques proved exceedingly difficult to handle, which led to his fleeting hope for compromise. He didn’t expect the opponent to teach him a stern lesson.