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*****
There was no doubt that, for soul beasts, devouring the Abyss would bring tremendous benefits.
The Silver Dragon King was the true hope of the soul beast race.
If she could be aided in recovering her strength during the process of devouring the Abyss, even without returning to her peak condition, she would still possess power on par with a first-tier god.
Moreover, as time passed, once the Silver Dragon King regained her mobility and some of her strength, her recovery would only accelerate.
However, the drawbacks were equally clear—the benefits to the soul beasts would be limited to just that.
If the Silver Dragon King failed to gain enough from the process, the soul beast race would come out worse for wear.
As Di Tian weighed the pros and cons, a ripple of energy emerged from a small space at the bottom of the Lake of Life.
Su Yu's eyes gleamed—he had sensed the fluctuation.
Di Tian's expression shifted as well, his gaze turning complex as he looked at Su Yu.
"Come. Our Lady wishes to speak with you personally."
Su Yu wasn't surprised by Di Tian's words, nor did he refuse. He followed Di Tian straight into the Lake of Life.
The Lake of Life lived up to its name, brimming with an intense aura of vitality.
Though it didn't quite compare to the legendary sacred lands Su Yu had seen that were steeped in the attribute of life, it was still an incredibly rare place in the world.
More importantly, the Lake of Life's strength lay in its abundance. This place served as the core where all the natural energy of the Douluo Continent gathered—excluding treasured lands like the Fortune Basin.
One could say that the Lake of Life, located at the heart of the Star Dou Great Forest, was the true Lake of Life for the entire Douluo Continent.
Su Yu even suspected that, under normal circumstances, the Golden Ancient Tree should have been rooted deep within the lake's depths.
Within the Lake of Life, a vast amount of life force naturally blended into the surroundings.
The life energy here carried a deep sense of nature. It gave off a refreshing and soothing feeling.
Su Yu's gaze swept across the lakebed.
His perception and vision were far beyond that of an ordinary soul master. With just a casual sweep, he could sense the entire distribution of life force at the lake's bottom. The direction they were heading clearly held the densest concentration of that energy.
"Living Gold..."
Su Yu could feel it—this immense life force came from the Living Gold, the material used to forge the Blade of Vitality that he had fused with.
Di Tian brought Su Yu close to the source and directly opened a rift.
"Let's go."
With the prompt, Su Yu stepped through the rift alongside Di Tian, entering a small, independent realm.
Though referred to as an independent space, the internal rules and structure of this pocket world were far from complete.
In fact, they weren't just incomplete—the environment was extremely hostile. The space was highly unstable, with spatial cracks constantly forming throughout.
If not for an unknown force constantly working to repair it, this dimension likely would have collapsed long ago.
Living Gold could open a space like this, but the realm's tolerance had its limits. Housing the Silver Dragon King here placed immense pressure on the space itself—especially since her aura couldn't be fully restrained. A powerful, murderous sword intent lingered around her at all times, releasing invisible waves that constantly pressed against the fabric of the realm.
At the same time, the Silver Dragon King was drawing enormous amounts of life force from the Living Gold used to create this realm. That, too, contributed to the instability.
Fortunately, the Silver Dragon King controlled the element of space. She could constantly manipulate spatial power to stabilize and repair the realm, preventing it from shattering entirely.
But Su Yu's attention wasn't caught by the space for long.
What truly held his gaze was the massive silver dragon glowing brilliantly with light.
The dragon's body was covered in deep wounds, each one emanating a terrifying killing intent imbued with sword energy. Even more concerning—Su Yu could clearly sense that these injuries weren't superficial. The dragon's very essence, its life origin, had been damaged.
"The Silver Dragon King's current focus should be on repairing her life origin."
In fact, she was unable to heal her external wounds immediately.
It would take ten thousand years to fully restore her origin, which spoke volumes about the severity of her injuries.
However, Su Yu believed that the greater issue was actually tied to the original story: as soul tools developed and the ecology of the Star Dou Forest deteriorated, the energy source of the Living Gold—the substance forming this space—was depleted, slowing the Silver Dragon King's recovery even further.
Regardless of the cause, one thing was certain: the life force needed for the Silver Dragon King to recover would be unimaginably vast.
"You're the Silver Dragon King, right?" Su Yu asked, his gaze tinged with a hint of awe.
She was strong.
Even while severely injured, the Silver Dragon King's energy essence was at the level of a god-king. Both she and the Golden Dragon King, after splitting from the Dragon God, had god-king-level power in their prime—and not just at the entry level of that tier.
Su Yu quietly immersed himself in the sword intent radiating from her—the killing aura sharpened his understanding. Within his spiritual sea, the sword rune continued to refine and evolve.
"You may call me Gu Yuena."
The Silver Dragon King didn't take offense at Su Yu's bluntness—or perhaps she simply hadn't sensed any true offense.
True powerhouses didn't nitpick trivialities.
At least, not under normal circumstances.
Besides, Su Yu's act of sensing and understanding had been silent and subtle—she wasn't even fully aware of it.
However, despite the slight reverence in his tone, Su Yu hadn't shown overt respect in his wording.
Still, that didn't seem to affect Gu Yuena's opinion of him.
Just as Su Yu was observing the Silver Dragon King, she too was sizing him up—and clearly recognized how monstrous he was.
Whether in terms of spirit power, blood vitality, or mental strength, he had already reached the peak of what was possible for someone at his current level.
Moreover, rumors said Su Yu had achieved great things in the field of soul tools, developing what was now known as the battle armor system. Though according to the information Di Tian had received, the current level of this armor only reached the super battle armor tier, it was still a system created under Su Yu's lead.
Su Yu hadn't even reached the Titled Douluo stage yet, and already he had developed super battle armor usable by Titled Douluos. If he ever stepped into the divine realm, could god-tier battle armor be far behind?
No one knew for sure—but one couldn't deny the possibility.
"Tell me everything you know about the Abyss's invasion of the Douluo Continent—all the details," Gu Yuena said at last.
She was well aware that while Su Yu's words outside had not necessarily been lies, they may not have revealed the full picture either.
"Well, it's like this…"
Su Yu proceeded to explain the entire series of events, from beginning to end. Both Gu Yuena and Di Tian fell silent afterward.
"So what you're saying is… this whole attempt for the Douluo Continent to devour the Abyss might actually be backed by those gods in the Divine Realm?"
"Not backed—they're just there to clean up if anything goes wrong," Su Yu said seriously, correcting her word choice.
Wasn't that basically the same thing?
Gu Yuena was speechless. She couldn't understand why Su Yu was so insistent on the distinction.
Su Yu went on to clarify, "Originally, it was part of the Sea God's plan. He turned a blind eye when the Abyss began eyeing the Douluo Continent, which only made the Abyss bolder. After I grasped the power of fate, I accidentally sensed the presence of that dimension. So I asked the God of Destruction for assistance. Since then, the connection between the Divine Realm and the Douluo Continent has been temporarily severed—giving the Abyss a window of opportunity."
So, if you wanted to say a god was behind all of this, then the Sea God was the one who had orchestrated it. But Su Yu had no interest in being the Sea God's pawn—he wanted to claim the benefits for himself. That's why the gods were merely standing by, not pulling the strings.
"You're backed by the God of Destruction?"
Gu Yuena's massive head tilted slightly, seemingly acknowledging Su Yu with a bit more approval.
As long as it wasn't the Sea God—the one who constantly meddled in the lower realms and schemed against the soul beast race—then it was fine.
The God of Destruction and the God of Life were both among the first-generation deities—true primordials born from the two original energy sources when the Divine Realm was first formed. Strictly speaking, they were neither human nor soul beast, and thus could be considered neutral.
Their allegiance was determined solely by the interests of the Divine Realm itself.
Knowing that Su Yu was backed by the God of Destruction brought Gu Yuena a small measure of relief.
But only a small measure—because the Divine Realm, regardless of which god, shared a unified stance toward soul beasts: suppression.
"During this process of devouring the Abyss, as long as we don't make any mistakes, the Divine Realm won't interfere," Su Yu said.
In other words, as long as they could complete the devouring independently, all the benefits would be theirs to claim.
"Of course, if the goal were merely to repel the Abyss, we wouldn't need to go to such lengths. But since we intend to devour it, we'll need to show strength far superior to the Abyss—vastly superior, in fact."
"Vastly superior?" Di Tian looked puzzled.
Wouldn't it be enough to simply be stronger than the Abyss, as long as they could outmaneuver it?
"Our strategy can only be a reverse invasion—entering the Abyss and forcibly devouring it. We can't rely on luring them in," Su Yu sighed.
He still didn't know what had emboldened the Abyss enough to act so quickly and connect with the Douluo Continent. But the one thing the Abyss clearly feared most was the existence of the Divine Realm.
If Su Yu remembered correctly, even after the Divine Realm vanished in the original story, the Abyss waited over a thousand years before establishing a connection to begin invading the Douluo Continent.
But now? The Divine Realm had only just severed its connection with the continent—and was still functioning normally—and yet the Abyss had already started constructing spatial channels.
"No matter the reason, we have to prepare for every possibility. For all we know, the Abyss might have support from some unknown entity. Even if they don't, and this was just a bold move on their part, they still wouldn't dare to throw too much force into the invasion later on. If we want to gain anything substantial, we have to take the initiative—perhaps even enter the Abyssal plane ourselves."
Back when the Divine Realm was gone, the Abyss still waited centuries. Now that the Divine Realm was intact and operational, even if the Abyss saw an opening, it would likely just take a quick sip and flee.
And that was what Su Yu feared most.
That was why he had to keep the Abyss greedy—tempting it deeper—so he could crush it at the final moment.
"The main issue now is this: the Abyss is an energy-based plane, and every trace of its energy carries the imprint of that plane's laws. To devour and absorb it, we'll need a special method. Gu Yuena, with your broader perspective, do you know of anything?"
"Hmph. So after all that talk, you don't even have the basic ability to devour their energy," Di Tian muttered, finally understanding. Su Yu couldn't even absorb the Abyss's energy—no wonder this immense opportunity had ended up with the soul beast race.
"Di Tian," Gu Yuena cut in, halting his mockery. She remained silent for a while, clearly deep in thought.
Could it be true that Su Yu lacked the ability to refine Abyssal energy?
She didn't quite believe it.
Even though this was their first direct meeting, the two had already crossed paths indirectly.
Through the bloodline of the Auspicious Beast, Su Yu had directly grasped the power of fate. Could someone like that really have no method of refining Abyssal energy?
The Abyss was undeniably tricky—that was its ticket to roaming freely across the universe. But that didn't mean it was invincible.
The core of a plane could indeed refine the energy of other energy-based planes. However, a plane's core rarely exposed itself. In fact, not only would it never be exposed, even if a practitioner within that plane obtained it—or even if the entire plane was destroyed—the core might never manifest any active devouring ability.
What's more, a plane's core posed little threat to something like the Abyss.
Its devouring power was limited to its own plane. Unless the Abyss poured significant energy into the Douluo Continent, the plane core wouldn't be able to absorb much.
As for the idea of bringing the plane core into the Abyssal plane? That was even more dangerous.