Chapter 314: The Black Demon Cult

"He must have hidden it inside a Space Item," Lu Yu muttered to himself. "No rush, I'll take him back first."

As he spoke, he grabbed Gong Wu by the shoulder, and after a swift dash, the two returned to the front of the injured man.

"Thump."

Seeing the mask on Lu Yu's face, the man was so frightened he sat down on the ground, his face filled with extreme terror.

This guy actually came back?

Right, he must have failed to catch up to Gong Wu, so he returned to cause trouble for him.

So be it; he had long since prepared himself for death, as long as...

Another "thump" sounded as a figure was tossed onto the ground.

He looked over subconsciously and was instantly struck as if by lightning, his entire being shocked to the extreme.

"Gong... Brother Gong? You... how are you..." His mouth hung wide open, enough to swallow a basket of eggs.

Yet Gong Wu on the ground rolled his eyes, turning a deaf ear to his cries.

"Brother Gong, Brother Gong, what happened to you? Brother Gong!"

"Enough, stop shouting." Lu Yu glanced at him impatiently and said, "He has been controlled by me, can't you tell?"

"Controlled by you?" The injured man was stunned.

He looked at Gong Wu's current state and couldn't help but swallow hard.

It seemed... it really was true. Wasn't Brother Gong's current appearance exactly the same as those who had been controlled by them before?

"You..."

The next moment, he felt an aura of death shroud him, and then his body tilted, and he completely lost consciousness.

"So noisy." Lu Yu withdrew his finger.

Since he had already captured this man surnamed Gong, there was no need to keep the remaining one; he would just kill him with the Soul Extinguishing Finger.

"What is your name?" Lu Yu looked at Gong Wu lying on the ground.

"Gong Wu," the other replied honestly.

"Who are you people? Why are you here? And what is that Black Ball you had in your hand earlier?" Lu Yu fired off a series of questions.

"We are from the Black Demon Cult. We sensed a large amount of death energy here, so we rushed over. The Black Ball in my hand is something that can absorb the energy of dead creatures."

Gong Wu said each word clearly. Although he didn't speak very fluently, the meaning was expressed very clearly.

"Black Demon Cult?" Lu Yu frowned.

He felt as if he had heard this name somewhere before.

Right, hadn't he flipped through a booklet while bored when he took Qin Hai to participate in the Awakened Association assessment?

There were many wanted posters on the front page, and wasn't the Black Demon Cult founded by a guy with the nickname "Sacrificer"?

"What do you do with the energy you absorb?" Lu Yu pressed.

"We take this energy back and give it to the Bishop. He will grant us power and make us stronger," Gong Wu said.

"Grant you power and make you stronger? Is that all it does, nothing else?" Lu Yu asked again.

"There is. I heard the Bishop say that the more energy collected, the more of the Black Demon Lord's subordinates can be summoned, and one day, we might even be able to make the Black Demon Lord descend here directly."

Lu Yu suddenly understood.

Summoning monsters from another dimension to descend was likely the true purpose of the Black Demon Cult.

And granting the cultists supernatural power was merely giving them a little sweetness to make them willingly sacrifice others.

In other words, their power all originated from that so-called Black Demon Lord. No wonder he felt their actions were strange.

After roughly understanding the ins and outs of the matter, Lu Yu's expression became very ugly.

In that case, the influence of these guys had already infiltrated this area?

One had to know that this place was only four or five hundred miles away from Yongan City and Lu Family Fort.

If he hadn't happened to run into this group today, who knew when they might have targeted his Zhai.

"Where is the Black Ball you had earlier? Take it out."

"Yes."

Like a marionette, Gong Wu obeyed Lu Yu's words implicitly.

He lightly brushed his hand over a ring, and the next moment, a Black Ball appeared in his palm.

Lu Yu took the Black Ball directly. As soon as it touched his hand, a bone-chilling coldness and a bloodthirsty intent surged into his heart. He snorted coldly, and in an instant, both sensations vanished without a trace.

Suddenly, a few lines of information appeared in his mind.

【Collection Orb discovered, large amount of death energy detected】

【Due to a significant difference in energy attributes, this type of energy cannot be absorbed for the time being】

【Destroying the Collection Orb will grant 320,000 Experience Value; note that the death energy contained within will dissipate upon destruction】

Lu Yu's eyes widened, his gaze fixed tightly on the third line of information.

So this thing was called a Collection Orb? But the name wasn't important; the key was that as long as he destroyed it, he could immediately obtain 320,000 Experience Value.

320,000!

He had worked hard for half a day previously and only obtained less than 50,000 Experience Value.

But now, just by destroying this thing, he could get 320,000!

Of course, judging from these three lines of information, this should be a last resort, a move taken only when absolutely necessary.

According to the meaning of the first line of information, this death energy was not useless to him; it should be convertible into a large amount of Potential Points.

But the second line of information mentioned a difference in energy attributes.

Clearly, although this absorbed death energy belonged to the category of energy and was similar to True Qi, he, who cultivated True Qi, could not absorb this type of energy at the moment.

After all, one was True Qi related to life, and the other was energy originating from dead things.

Perhaps there will be a way to resolve this in the future; after all, the information used the word "temporarily," which means there must exist a method to convert other energies into energy that living people can absorb. It is just unknown when that can be realized.

Converting it into Experience Value is much simpler; just destroying it will do, which is somewhat similar to the way he kills prey to obtain Experience Value.

"I'll choose Experience Value," Lu Yu thought to himself.

As the saying goes, gold tomorrow is not as good as copper in hand, especially in this apocalypse, where converting resources into one's own strength as quickly as possible is the top priority.

"Crack!"

The Collection Orb shattered in response, turning into countless fragments that splashed in all directions.

【Experience Value increased by 320,000 points】

Seeing this information prompt in his mind, a satisfied smile appeared on Lu Yu's face.

320,000 points of Experience Value is enough for him to raise more than ten or twenty Internal Energy cultivation methods to their maximum level. If used on martial arts techniques, the number of upgrades would be even greater.

Afterwards, his gaze fell on Gong Wu again, and he asked, "Do you have any more of these Black Balls on you?"

Upon hearing this, Gong Wu shook his head, "Each of our squads only carries one when we go out, and we only return after the energy collection is full."

"Is that so." Lu Yu nodded, then asked again, "Then do you know where the other squads are right now?"

Even if he did not know their specific locations, destroying the Collection Orb could yield a large amount of Experience Value; more importantly, he knew well that these demons who sacrifice others would stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

If he were to sit idly by, they might one day reach out to his family and bring them a catastrophe. Therefore, he would never show the slightest mercy to these people.

"I don't know." Gong Wu shook his head, "Each of our squads operates independently; after each collects enough energy, we return to the secret Base and then set out again."

"Oh?" Lu Yu's eyes lit up, and he instinctively wanted to ask for the location of their lair, but after a moment of thought, he changed his question: "What is the defensive strength of your secret Base like? How strong is the most powerful person there?"

"There is a Bishop in the secret Base; he is a B-Class Awakened and is highly favored by the Cult Leader, so I hear his strength is very great."

"B-Class." Lu Yu gasped.

Moreover, I am afraid that the so-called mysterious and evil Lord Black Demon has also bestowed some special abilities upon this guy, right?

In that case, his strength is likely far beyond that of an ordinary B-Class Awakened.

It really wasn't that simple. Lu Yu grew vigilant in his heart.

After asking a few other questions, Lu Yu nodded, feeling that he had obtained the information he wanted. Keeping Gong Wu around seemed to have no further use.

"No, perhaps... there is still some use." Lu Yu pondered for a moment, and a bold idea suddenly popped into his mind.