"Where did it go? Why vanish into thin air?"
Spirit Masters from the Douluo Plane definitely couldn't achieve this. Could it be deities from the Douluo God Realm taking action?
No!
The Abyssal Sage King couldn't sense any trace of the Douluo God Realm.
Nor could he sense divine power.
If they took action, they certainly wouldn't take only such a minuscule amount of energy.
The Abyssal Sage King exerted his full power to perceive all auras around, feeling nothing. Trying to look back in time, he could only sense an unfathomable power blocking him.
"Could it be the Universe's Will targeting me?"
The Abyssal Sage King's expression darkened.
"The Crimson Domain expanded that much before gradually being targeted by the Universe's Will. My Abyss, in comparison, is still in its infancy. How could it be targeted?"
His eyes flickered wildly with uncertain light, various conspiracies surfacing in his mind.
One must understand, the Abyss's volume wasn't that large to begin with. He pursued the path of quality, distinctly different from the Crimson Domain's development. Moreover, while focusing on quality, he used the excess quantity to nurture a Super Divine Artifact—the Heaven Saint Abyss-Cleaving Halberd—precisely to prevent being utterly powerless when targeted by the Universe's Will.
"Could it be that she left a contingency plan? Planning to use me as a shield to lessen the pressure on the Crimson Domain?"
At its current stage of development, the Abyss shouldn't be targeted!
The Abyssal Sage King remained in place, pondering for a long time. He closed his eyes as if in deep thought, countless thoughts flashing through his mind. The entire Abyss fell silent at this moment.
"Continue sensing. If it's the Universe's Will targeting, this targeting will be persistent."
Sure enough, not long after, another chunk of Abyssal energy silently disappeared.
The Abyssal Sage King, controlling the entire plane, summoned planar power to descend, yet still couldn't find any culprit.
"Even deities shouldn't be able to achieve this. So, it really is the Universe's Will targeting? What kind of targeting is this? Weakening my volume out of thin air? How long will it last? It can't possibly be targeting me forever, right?"
"Again?"
The Abyssal Sage King felt it—the amount of disappearing Abyssal energy was growing larger. The Universe's Will was becoming greedier.
"Damn it, must find a way to locate the loophole, resist the Universe's Will's erosion. Otherwise, even the Abyss's large volume can't withstand such energy loss."
The Abyssal Sage King looked towards the Abyss's core, grasped the Heaven Saint Abyss-Cleaving Halberd, and closed his eyes, carefully perceiving the entire plane.
Holding the Heaven Saint Abyss-Cleaving Halberd, his control over the entire Abyss ascended a level.
However, at that moment, the Universe's Will's erosion ceased.
"Coming periodically? Or did it reduce me below a critical threshold?"
The Abyssal Sage King sank into contemplation.
"Let's see how long it goes without reducing me."
After waiting several days, the Abyssal Sage King breathed a sigh of relief.
"Good, as long as it's not a slow knife cutting flesh every moment. At this speed, it's completely manageable. Once I devour Douluo Planet, I'll certainly advance another level. By then, perhaps I can locate the source."
"Fortunately, Douluo Planet has that Demon Empress. She's quite a figure."
Su Ming was full.
"The Abyssal Sage King's vigilance is quite high. He could detect it immediately. That's much stronger than Tang Hao."
Back on Douluo Planet, even when Su Ming was deceiving A Yin, Tang Hao was like an incompetent husband, completely unaware. The Abyssal Sage King was completely different; Su Ming stole just a sesame seed from behind him, and he could feel it.
"That's just damn ridiculous."
Compared to the Abyss's total volume, the energy Su Ming stole was minuscule.
"Up to now, I've only stolen energy equivalent to ten ninth-tier Abyssal creatures combined. I haven't even touched an Abyssal Sage King yet."
Su Ming grinned, showing his teeth.
The tier he was in was high; the Abyssal creatures here had higher ranks and generally stronger power.
The Abyss had a total of 108 layers, each with an Abyssal Sage King, like a secondary Lord of the Plane. The first 36 layers' Sage Kings had the lowest strength, roughly equivalent to Douluo Planet's Titled Douluo. The middle 36 were equivalent to Super Douluo. The final 36 layers' Abyssal Sage Kings were all equivalent to human Spirit Master Limit Douluo, especially the last 18 layers, all being Demigod-level or above existences.
Don't think Su Ming hunted the energy of ten ninth-tier Abyssal creatures; their combined energy wasn't even one percent of the weakest layer's Abyssal Sage King.
An Abyssal Sage King of a layer controlled the core energy of the entire layer.
Being weak was their own problem, not the power they controlled.
Su Ming avoided hunting such Abyssal Sage Kings precisely to avoid angering the Abyssal Sage King, so he directly came to the 32nd layer.
"Sigh, hunting ninth-tier creatures like this will be discovered sooner or later."
For now, the Abyssal Sage King only thought energy was being cut off, not yet discovering Abyssal creatures were being hunted and devoured.
Once discovered, Douluo Planet would bear the pressure.
Although Su Ming came in to cause trouble, he hadn't reached the point of dumping the pressure onto Douluo Planet after causing trouble.
"Better leave first. This Abyssal energy is enough for me to digest for a while."
Su Ming said it wasn't enough, but he was actually stuffed.
He could borrow the River's power to some extent, but the River wasn't his home. Using it was strenuous; he couldn't possibly take away the power of an entire Abyssal layer.
Crossing the seal, Su Ming breathed a sigh of relief.
"Back so soon?"
Cao Dezhi also breathed a sigh of relief.
"Was the environment over there very harsh? Your Spirit Power is still too weak. Enter again when your Spirit Power is stronger. Relying solely on spiritual power to resist Abyssal energy erosion is too taxing. With stronger Spirit Power, even if you can't mobilize it within the Abyss, you can still stabilize yourself."
Seeing Su Ming looked weary, he didn't blame him for ignoring his earlier advice.
Su Ming returned to the legion and directly announced seclusion.
"Abyssal energy is much more troublesome than I imagined."
Although troublesome, Su Ming digested this power with great delight.
Because he discovered digesting Abyssal energy was also a form of cultivation.
Unlike Tang Wulin and Gu Yuena who relied on divine artifacts to devour, Su Ming's devouring relied on himself.
Making violent, chaotic power orderly and docile—this was refinement, which was devouring.
Initially, Su Ming indeed followed his previous idea, using Qi and Blood Power to forcibly digest, imprinting the Abyssal energy with his own origin imprint, slowly assimilating this power.
But the efficiency was too low.
So he began intervening with spiritual power, helping to sort it out.
Through this sorting, he discovered the benefit of digesting Abyssal energy.
"As long as I can suppress the Abyssal energy, calming it down, then it becomes blank sheets of paper. I can arbitrarily add the laws I conceive onto them."
And suppressing Abyssal energy wasn't difficult; Su Ming just needed to permeate it with River Water.
Although manipulating River Water was strenuous, this part could be handled by the Light Sphere.
As for the Light Sphere's enthusiasm?
Su Ming had already seen it happily sneakily eating the River Water.
On one hand, pretending to work strenuously; on the other, sneakily eating River Water.
Saying it's unwilling, but the body is honest.
***
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