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*****
While stalling for time, Su Yu was fully aware that the Abyssal Lord wasn't cooperating out of foolishness, but because he too was preparing something and needed time.
Su Yu was also thinking about what the Abyssal Lord might be planning.
As a transmigrator who knew a bit of the plot, Su Yu clearly remembered one of the Abyssal Lord's methods—possessing the Demon Emperor's body in order to descend upon the Douluo Continent.
He had long been on guard against this possibility.
After all, if the Abyssal Lord really did descend upon Douluo Continent, it would spell true disaster.
Even if that would allow them to completely consume the Abyss, the cost to Douluo Continent would be catastrophic.
The Abyssal Lord could sever the spatial passage between the Abyss and Douluo Continent and quickly flee from its coordinates. That process could be completed before the Divine Realm could react and dispatch a God King to Douluo.
However, once the Abyssal Lord set foot on Douluo Continent, though a connection with the Abyss would remain, controlling it would no longer be so easy—especially if he had to abandon the body he descended in to return to the Abyss. The pressure on the passage would become immense, and additional issues would arise.
This would be enough to prevent the Abyssal Lord from returning to the Abyss while a God King descended.
It also meant that as long as the Divine Realm stayed alert and moved the moment the Abyssal Lord descended, he would have no escape.
Of course, the Abyssal Lord was surely aware of this as well, which was why he had never attempted to enter Douluo Continent, nor even considered it. In fact, it could be said he had discarded that strategy from the start.
Su Yu understood this clearly.
But he couldn't afford to take the risk.
If such a scene were to unfold, the Abyss might indeed be completely devoured, but the losses to Douluo Continent would be unimaginable.
After all, a fully manifested first-level god, especially one wielding the super divine weapon, the Holy Abyss-Splitting Halberd, would be capable of inflicting catastrophic damage across the entire continent if he went all out.
So even though he knew the Abyssal Lord wouldn't dare descend, even though he knew the Lord had the means to descend but wouldn't use them, Su Yu still chose to take every possible precaution.
He had given specific instructions during the battle regarding the corpses of the Demon Emperor and the other three.
Do as much damage as possible.
But also preserve them as much as possible.
In other words—partial destruction.
This way, even if the Abyssal Lord personally descended, at most he could only restore their corpses to the quasi-god level.
Under such conditions, any descent should come from other quasi-god-level Abyssal Emperors, not the Abyssal Lord himself.
This approach aligned with Su Yu's mindset of ensuring the minimum possible risk.
The mutilated corpses of the Demon Emperor and the other three were already saturated with Abyssal energy.
Their flesh seemed to have dissolved, refined into pure energy, and then recondensed into energy bodies.
Long ago, the four had fused with a portion of Abyssal energy, boosting their strength while also making them compatible for the transformation happening now.
The Abyssal Lord no longer bickered with Su Yu.
Boom!
The four damaged corpses suddenly released a massive surge of energy.
Su Yu's expression shifted slightly, but he didn't attempt to block the four powerful wills rushing out from the spatial passage.
Since they were just wills, the pressure on the passage was greatly reduced. However, because these four were all Emperors of the first layer of the Abyss, they had absolute control over Abyssal energy. They quickly absorbed the scattered Abyssal energy from the battlefield and strengthened themselves.
Simultaneously, the Abyss erupted with a tidal wave of energy, as a vast amount of Abyssal energy surged through the passage, breaking through Su Yu's blockade.
Even the Devour Word Inscription could only absorb about one-tenth of it.
Devour: "It's too much—far too much! I can't absorb it all! I just can't!"
This was purely an energy overflow—a flood of Abyssal energy pouring into Douluo Continent. Because it was just raw energy, the load on the passage was significantly reduced.
After all, this was the most basic form of energy. It carried no will, no marks of any powerful being, nor the immense pressure that came with the more cohesive, high-grade energy forms mastered by true experts.
With the influx of this energy, the depths of the Extreme North were completely submerged. The entire battlefield seemed to have become the Abyss's home ground.
Fortunately, even with the massive Abyssal energy flooding in, the surrounding air still retained a rich concentration of ice-element spiritual energy. After all, this was still Douluo Continent's territory.
However, the overwhelming Abyssal energy did make the local environment much more favorable for Abyssal creatures.
Visibly, all Abyssal beings became stronger in combat, their power significantly enhanced.
Naturally, the bulk of the Abyssal energy was being absorbed by the four forming energy bodies of the Demon Emperor and his companions.
Su Yu and the others also noticed the four energy forms beginning to take shape.
However, they all cooperated by not attempting to intervene.
From the very beginning of the confrontation, Douluo Continent held a distinct advantage—namely, in terms of top-tier combat power.
Eight top-level powerhouses faced only four Abyssal Emperors above the Limit Douluo level who had entered Douluo Continent.
In particular, Su Yu, Gu Yuena, and Electrolux, who had freed themselves from other duties, became an overwhelming force against the Abyssal army—a true dimensional suppression.
While Gu Yuena mobilized vast elemental power to launch wide-range attacks, she also wielded the Silver Dragon Spear to completely suppress the Black Empress. By now, the Black Empress had already been drained of an enormous amount of energy. If not for the current energy tide, she might have been utterly defeated—perhaps even completely devoured.
Electrolux was, without a doubt, the king of large-scale combat. After killing Abyssal creatures, he absorbed their energy and could quickly convert it into undead within the semi-undead realm. Though these undead weren't as strong as the original Abyssal creatures, they were only about half a tier weaker—for instance, a level-60 Abyssal creature would yield an undead soldier around level 55. A level-53 creature's death would result in a resurrected being just under level 50.
Su Yu was even more monstrous—he directly blocked the exit of the Abyssal passage and had already begun sealing it, attempting to cut off the Abyss's support for its army.
With these few powerhouses freed up, even though Douluo Continent was outnumbered nearly ten to one in overall troops, they still managed to hold the line effectively.
Three ninth-grade fixed soul-guided shells were launched, resulting in the deaths of two thousand Abyssal creatures. Combined with two explosive rounds from Gu Yuena and Electrolux, nearly a thousand more were killed, and Electrolux's undead army also held back a large number of Abyssal enemies. This greatly stabilized the situation for Douluo Continent.
The Hongchen siblings managed to pin down several hundred more Abyssal creatures. Meanwhile, Xuan Ziwen unleashed the power of a Super Douluo, constantly rescuing soul engineers facing desperate situations elsewhere on the battlefield, doing his utmost to preserve the lives of his allies.
As long as a soul engineer wasn't instantly killed before Xuan Ziwen could react, Su Yu's domain of life allowed them to quickly recover their combat ability.
It was the perfect grindstone.
Su Yu regarded the Abyssal invasion as a trial for the soul master world of Douluo Continent and a baptism for the newly rising battle armor system. And it wasn't without reason.
With his domain of life and all the favorable conditions he'd created, if this still failed to produce a strong generation of battle armor masters—or to further refine the battle armor system—then the problem clearly wasn't with Su Yu.
He had already done everything he could.
"If we handle this first battle well, then when we recruit free soul masters in the future, the front lines won't just be about giving existing battle armor masters opportunities—it'll also be about giving aspiring soul masters who don't yet have battle armor a path forward."
Since they held the advantage in top-tier combat strength, they naturally needed to capitalize on it as quickly as possible.
As for stopping the formation of those four energy bodies?
At the moment, it appeared that these were merely vessels for quasi-god-level Abyssal Emperors preparing to descend.
So why interfere?
Su Yu and the others intended to draw the Abyss into investing even more of its resources.
Securing their "safety net" was essential.
At this stage, it was more beneficial to use the remaining time to let Gu Yuena and Electrolux maximize their advantages on the lower-end battlefield and compensate for the disparity in basic fighting strength between the two sides.
"Elemental Tide!"
With her right hand gripping the Silver Dragon Spear, Gu Yuena fought the Black Empress. At the same time, she extended her left hand, summoning elemental forces—water, fire, earth, wind, light, darkness, and space—all converging at once. Using the power of space as a catalyst, water, fire, earth, and wind combined to form a pseudo-spatial domain. Then, the opposing forces of light and darkness violently clashed, triggering a massive elemental explosion.
One wave of this elemental tide swept through the rear of the Abyssal army, causing devastating losses.
The Abyssal Emperors could only watch helplessly as their side suffered tremendous casualties.
The four Abyssal Emperors preparing to descend seemed to sense the situation as well. They began condensing their energy bodies at a faster pace, the Abyssal energy surging violently as they accelerated the process.
Su Yu quickly mobilized the surrounding elemental energy to repair the rune formation.
"Damn it!"
The Black Empress roared in fury and launched a ferocious attack at Gu Yuena.
However, Gu Yuena's greatest strength lay in her ability to devour all kinds of energy, making her extremely difficult to deal with in combat. Unfortunately for the Black Empress, she was utterly suppressed by Gu Yuena.
Even if she felt insulted by the fact that Gu Yuena had the leisure to launch such large-scale elemental attacks while fighting her, there was nothing she could do.
She was furious.
She roared.
Unfortunately, Gu Yuena blocked the attack with the Silver Dragon Spear and prepared to unleash another Elemental Tide.
A massive surge of life energy flowed into Gu Yuena, replenishing the energy she had just expended.
"Su Yu's mastery over life force is truly on an extraordinary level," she thought.
Such a large-scale Elemental Tide wasn't without its cost.
Yet, Su Yu was able to provide real-time support, which was her greatest confidence.
Even the energy devoured by the Silver Dragon Spear couldn't be replenished as quickly as Su Yu's life energy.
Of course, this was partly because Gu Yuena deliberately controlled the energy absorbed by the Silver Dragon Spear, timing it so that she first used Su Yu's life force to recover her state, while reserving the energy devoured by the spear to enhance her power limit. This was, after all, the true way to utilize the Silver Dragon Spear.
After her first sneak attack on the Black Empress, Gu Yuena took over the task of dealing with her, while the previously assigned Poison Immortal had already withdrawn from the battle and plunged into the Abyssal army.
Poison Immortal didn't collaborate with the battle armor division. Instead, he unleashed his unique bloodline power, swiftly slaughtering Abyssal creatures.
During the battle, his strength seemed to rise imperceptibly.
Of course, this was still thanks to Su Yu's energy support.
Recovery-type soul skills had no paradoxes.
By consuming a certain amount of energy, the soul skill would channel the surrounding elemental energy to rapidly restore the target's soul power and state.
This was simply an application of elemental energy.
If such a soul skill were applied to oneself, and the recovery rate exceeded the consumption, it would result in an almost perpetual state of restoration. But Su Yu didn't convert the energy to restore his own soul power. Instead, he used his soul force to guide external energy to replenish his own consumption.
This was only possible because Su Yu had the ability to swiftly convert external energy into his own.
Su Yu sketched out one formation after another, mending the final gaps in the array.
Finally, a large number of runic projections appeared around him, weaving together the rules.
Each rune activated a rule, and in the rift torn open by the Abyss, the laws of Douluo Continent began to manifest.
Boom!
The death and life runes appeared, causing the space itself to tremble.
"What!"
The Abyssal Saint King, observing from the other side of the rift, stared at the two runes, his gaze trembling.
What were these?
A strange sensation washed over him.
It… it was irresistible.
Devour it!
If he could devour Su Yu, devour those two runes, his power would undergo a radical transformation!
Damn it, what is this?
The Abyssal Saint King felt an indescribable pull, a temptation he couldn't shake.
What was this?
Damn it, it's so… alluring!
Su Yu didn't expect the immense allure these death and life runes would have on the Abyssal Saint King.
It had to be said, the Death and Life runes had grown to become one of the most unique among all of Su Yu's runes.
As Electrolux had said, these two runes had already become the "Way" that Su Yu had spoken of. They had transcended their previous nature and evolved into something far more advanced, approaching an entirely new form of enlightenment.
Since the moment Su Yu comprehended the cycle of life and death, these two runes had undergone a metamorphosis.
Now, even though other runes were becoming increasingly refined, developing their own spirit, and growing incredibly powerful, none had reached the level of these two runes.
This was a state of connection with the rules themselves.
The moment the death and life runes manifested, not only was the Abyssal Saint King drawn in, but all four Abyssal Emperors turned their heads, their gazes fixed on Su Yu's two runes.
Truly, they too wished to devour those two runes.
They didn't understand why, but their instincts told them that devouring those two runes would be beneficial, perhaps even allowing them to break through their current limits and reach godhood.
Gu Yuena's expression shifted, her gaze flickering as she looked at the two runes. She seemed equally stunned.
"Godhood's embryonic form? How could this be? So fast!"
Su Yu was moving too quickly.
The formation was coalescing too quickly.
Had he already condensed the embryonic form of a divine position?
"How long has he been cultivating? And yet, he's already formed the embryonic shape of a divine position? And it's… another type of embryonic form."
This didn't seem like the usual process for condensing a divine position.
A divine position was a converter between a god and the rules, or in simpler terms, it was the tool through which a god wielded the rules.
To condense a divine position, one would typically gather immense faith, using the will within that faith to gradually gather the rules of heaven and earth related to that faith. Eventually, this would connect the power of faith with those rules. Once the connection was made and the power of faith could be consolidated without scattering, it would be considered the embryonic form of a divine position.
Over time, as the divine position solidified, it would become a bridge between the god and the rules, and even assist the cultivator in reaching new heights, leading to a transcendence of their dimension, marking the true ascension to divinity.
But Su Yu's two death and life runes had no trace of faith power. Perhaps there was some latent faith power hidden within their spirituality, but the runes themselves were entirely the result of Su Yu's step-by-step comprehension through the study of the rune system.
This already could be considered the embryonic form of a divine position.
As long as Su Yu continued to comprehend further, or used immense amounts of faith to accumulate the necessary power, the divine position would be within his grasp.
"Life and death, the cycle… Is this Su Yu's divine position?"
Gu Yuena, as the Silver Dragon King, was no stranger to the ways of power and saw the terrifying nature of Su Yu's embryonic divine position.
To master the cycle of life and death—that alone was astonishing. But to also control the transformation between life and death? That was downright monstrous.
Di Tian and Xue Di both sensed the extraordinary nature of the two runes.
However, they had already forged their own paths.
Di Tian had long been preparing to condense his Beast God position, and Xue Di had only recently found the inspiration for the Ice God position. She was feeling the subtle divine influence and had already made some progress.
Most importantly, they had lived long enough to benefit from the faith accumulated around their respective soul beasts, allowing them to gather the power necessary to condense their divine positions.
However, none of them had Su Yu's ability to directly manifest his comprehension as runes—an extraordinary method that was unable to be externalized like theirs.
And because of this manifestation, the two runes, which were nearly independent entities in their own right, had sparked a primal hunger in the Abyssal energy creatures.
"Hm?"
Su Yu sensed that something was wrong. Looking around, he saw numerous hungry, wolf-like gazes fixed on him, as if they wanted to devour him.
"No, it's not me they want. They're eying my death and life runes," Su Yu quickly realized the core of the problem.
He sensed the Abyss on the other side and, using his destiny power, clearly felt the presence of the Abyssal Saint King.
"They're eyeing my death and life runes!" Su Yu's eyes lit up.
This was good news.
The bait had become even more enticing.
But it also meant he had to be more cautious.
"If the bait is too big, it might provoke the Abyssal Saint King into making a reckless move." Su Yu was on high alert, ever wary of the Abyssal Saint King's next move.
Despite his concerns, Su Yu didn't stop. He continued to use the rules activated by the two runes, with the aid of countless other runes, to merge the previous formation with the surrounding space.
Once merged, Su Yu continued to use space as a foundation, constructing the rune formation and making it more complete, extending toward the direction of the passage.
At this point, the formation had only fused with the space around the vortex. It still needed to extend further to merge with the spatial passage.
"Not good!"
The Abyssal Saint King also realized the situation was becoming dire.
The moment Su Yu merged the formation with the space, the Saint King panicked.
"Damn it, this Su Yu actually controls such power!"
No. He couldn't let this happen.
With a furious roar, the Abyssal Saint King unleashed an even more terrifying energy tide.
A massive influx of Abyssal energy poured into the Douluo Continent.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The entire northernmost region seemed to surge with an increased layer of vitality and energy.
Under the pressure from the Abyss, while the will of the plane was enduring the pressure of Tang Hao's soul possession, it instinctively controlled the power of the plane to gather in the extreme north, directly confronting the Abyssal forces.
The collision of the two great planes created more possibilities in the battlefield of the extreme north.
Danger also brought opportunities.
In this place where the two planes collided, a thick aura of luck began to form. The chance of a genius being born grew immensely. The gathering of energy wasn't just from the two planes; it seemed to also draw on the cosmic luck itself.
The tidal energy surged into the Douluo Continent, and Su Yu maintained the structure of the formation, continuously reinforcing it.
"This Abyssal Saint King unleashed such a massive energy tidal wave that it's actually shaking the seal. Looks like it still isn't secure enough."
Su Yu needed to keep reinforcing it.
The suppression was enough for now, but the strength of the formation itself still needed to be strengthened.
Su Yu tapped into the power of space, manipulating the omnipresent forces of space to shield every part of the formation.
The recovery of the four energy bodies was incredibly fast.
In just three minutes, two waves of energy tides had rapidly coalesced the four energy bodies.
During these three minutes, on the side of the Douluo Continent, thanks to the efforts of Gu Yuena and Ileks, the Abyssal army had been struck hard again.
Poison Immortal's indiscriminate massacre was also highly efficient.
Mirror Red Dust's strength utterly crushed Ba Huang's, and amidst the battle, they were also raining down long-range bombings on the Abyssal army.
Together, the Abyssal army, which once numbered in the tens of thousands, had been reduced by 6,000, thanks to the combined efforts of the level-9 soul-guided cannons and other methods.
Meanwhile, on the Douluo side, casualties were minimal—less than 10 percent, to be exact. Only 13 of the Douluo Armored Division had fallen.
The armored suits' reactive soul-guided shields, combined with Su Yu's life domain, were able to ensure survival.
But the most crucial factor was the army of undead creatures under Ileks, now numbering 3,000.
This 3,000-strong undead army had effectively neutralized the lower-tier Abyssal creatures among the remaining forces.
Now, out of the remaining 5,000 Abyssal creatures, 3,000 were at the Soul King and Soul Emperor levels and were kept in check by the undead army.
The remaining 2,000—stronger Abyssal creatures—were the next targets for the Douluo Armored Division.
Red Dust and her brother, Xuan Zhiwen, with the support of the Soul Mentor Corps behind them, led the charge.
"This battle is ours to win!"
"Victory is certain!"
"Victory!"
"Victory!"
The Douluo Armored Division, the Soul Mentor Corps, and the Federation Army's three layers of forces all shouted their unwavering declarations of victory.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As if to celebrate the dawn of this new situation, three level-9 fixed soul-guided artillery shells were launched from the Federation Army outside the extreme northern region.
These three shells were targeted at the four energy bodies that were being formed.
(End of Chapter)