Abyssal Plane

Within the Spirit Sea, starlight still flowed slowly, like shattered diamonds scattered across the sky.

The enormous Starlight Tree stood quietly, its leaves swaying gently in an invisible breeze and shedding specks of golden light.

Eighteen pillars of sealing light stood in the distance, runes flowing across them as they gave off a steady, weighty aura.

Tang Wulin sat cross-legged beneath the Starlight Tree, wrapped in a faint golden glow.

The spiritual power he had exhausted in the earlier battle was recovering at an astonishing speed within the Spirit Sea. Even the lingering sting from the wound on his abdomen had vanished without a trace.

He shook his head and felt completely refreshed, without the slightest hint of fatigue.

"By the way, when can I wake up?"

He raised his head and called out to Jin Qiu, who was leaning against the tree trunk.

Jin Qiu leaned lazily against the trunk, one leg bent and the other dangling in the air. He spun a golden leaf between his fingertips, looking utterly relaxed.

"Your body outside recovered a long time ago."

He lifted his chin and said casually, "The snake venom's been cleared out, the wound has healed, and most of your soul power has returned. You can leave now."

"Really?"

Tang Wulin's eyes lit up. He immediately stood up and patted the nonexistent dust from his backside.

"Then, Brother Jin, send me out now."

They were still on the train outside. His sister was facing the last Evil Soul Master alone, so he could not keep lying here forever.

And so many passengers had been injured. He needed to see how they were doing as well.

"This is your own Spirit Sea. Leave whenever you want."

Jin Qiu merely waved his hand.

"We're not stopping you. Just think about it and you'll be out. What's so difficult about that?"

Tang Wulin gave an "oh" and did not think much of it.

He silently recited, Return to my body, then focused his mind and sank downward.

The starlight around him instantly faded away. His consciousness seemed to slide down a warm passage, and faint sounds gradually reached his ears.

There was the smell of disinfectant, along with the steady beeping of instruments.

His consciousness quickly sank completely and returned to his body outside.

The Spirit Sea suddenly fell quiet.

The leaves of the Starlight Tree rustled softly, while the sealing pillars in the distance continued to float silently.

Tang San stood beside the Starlight Tree with his hands behind his back. His aqua-blue robe draped down around him, and though his aura was gentle, it carried an unshakable heaviness.

He watched the direction in which Tang Wulin's consciousness had vanished. After several seconds of silence, he suddenly spoke.

"Do you know about the Abyssal Plane?"

Jin Qiu's swinging leg paused.

The golden leaf between his fingers stopped in midair. He turned to Tang San and raised an eyebrow.

"I do. Why?"

One of the central plotlines of the third part of Douluo Continent was the invasion of the Abyssal Plane. How could he possibly not know?

In the later stages of the original story, the Abyssal Sacred Lord descended and turned the Douluo Plane upside down. In the end, Tang Wulin and Gu Yuena had only managed to kill him after using Dragon God Transformation, with Tang Hao, the Plane Lord, delivering the finishing blow.

Seeing that Jin Qiu truly knew, Tang San skipped the introduction and went straight to the point.

His voice was several degrees heavier than before, carrying a rare seriousness.

"From those Evil Soul Masters just now, I sensed a strand of energy.

It shares the same origin as the Abyssal Plane's source aura, but its level is higher, and it is colder and more sinister."

"I can be certain that they came from the same source, yet it is at least one major level above the known Abyssal Plane."

The carelessness on Jin Qiu's face slowly disappeared.

He sat upright, and the leaf at his fingertips silently dissipated.

He frowned and thought back.

When Tang Wulin had fought the Evil Soul Masters earlier, he had indeed sensed an aura that made him deeply uncomfortable.

It was sticky and cold, like grime clinging to the skin that could not be washed away. Even the Golden Dragon King's Dragon Power instinctively rejected it.

At the time, he had not thought much of it. He had simply assumed it was the miasma that came with the Evil Soul Masters' twisted cultivation techniques, disgusting by nature.

But since he had never encountered the Abyss or anything related to it, he knew nothing about what the Abyss was like.

Unless Tang San mentioned it, he would never have considered that possibility.

"So you mean..."

Jin Qiu's tone became solemn as well.

"A plane that shares the Abyss's origin but stands at a higher level has set its sights on Douluo Star?"

"That should be the case."

Tang San nodded, his brows slightly furrowed.

"This energy was hidden extremely deeply. It clung to the Evil Soul Masters and revealed only the slightest trace. If my divine sense were not especially sensitive to planar auras, even I would have found it difficult to detect."

Jin Qiu's heart instantly sank.

This was bad.

Before transmigrating, he had only finished the third part of Douluo Continent. He had never read the later storylines.

He only knew that in the original story, the Abyssal Plane's ruler, the Abyssal Sacred Lord, had already reached the level of a First-Level God and was only one step away from touching the threshold of a Half-Step God King.

If even the Abyss only had a First-Level God, then how powerful would the ruler of a same-origin plane one level above it be?

Jin Qiu did not dare estimate low.

So his conservative guess was that it was most likely at the God King level.

At his peak, he had indeed been somewhat stronger than ordinary God Kings, but that had been at his peak.

Now, he was merely a spiritual entity residing within Tang Wulin's Spirit Sea.

With only the first of the eighteen seals released, he had less than one percent of his full strength.

If a God King-level enemy really came, forget resisting—even being used to fill the gaps between their teeth would not be enough.

He remained silent for a long while before finally raising his head to look at Tang San.

"Brother Tang, did you know long ago that the Abyssal Plane was invading?"

His tone was direct, without any beating around the bush.

Tang San was a God King, and the Abyssal Plane's invasion in the original story had happened long ago, so Jin Qiu was certain Tang San most likely knew.

"Yes."

Tang San did not deny it. He nodded calmly, his tone without the slightest ripple.

"Starting 6,400 years ago, the Divine Realm detected the Abyssal Plane as it made its way toward the Douluo Plane.

It has been expanding slowly all these years and has never stopped."

"Then why didn't you act?"

Jin Qiu suddenly stood up and stared directly at Tang San, his tone carrying a hint of accusation.

"With the strength of your Divine Realm, sending down any god would be enough to seal the Abyssal passage completely. You could even break through and destroy the Abyssal Plane outright. It would not be difficult at all.

Why did you just watch it expand step by step, watch Evil Soul Masters use the Abyss's power to wreak havoc everywhere, and watch ordinary people die?"

He was no saint, but the thought of everyone on the entire continent being treated as chess pieces in a game left him deeply unsettled.

Tang San did not become angry at his questioning. He merely sighed before continuing.

"The Douluo Plane was originally a low-level lower plane. Its innate source was never abundant."

His voice was soft, yet filled with heavy helplessness.

"For ten thousand years, humanity developed soul guidance technology and frantically mined the planet's leyline resources, hollowing out its foundation. High-level Soul Masters constantly ascended, and each one who left took away a portion of the soul power source. On top of that, soul beasts have nearly gone extinct, the ecological cycle has collapsed, and the plane's ability to heal itself can no longer hold on.

Even without the Abyss, if this continued, this planet would wither and collapse on its own within ten thousand years, becoming a dead star."

He paused before continuing.

"Simply sealing the Abyssal passage, or sending gods down to destroy the Abyssal Plane directly, would indeed remove one external enemy.

But that would only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.

The enormous gap in the plane's source could not be replenished, and its decline could not be stopped.

At most, it would delay death by a few thousand years. The ending would still be the same."

Jin Qiu opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end, nothing came out.

He knew Tang San was telling the truth.

He also knew that the soul beasts of Douluo Continent were nearing extinction and that the ecological environment was declining. From that, he could infer that the world's source outside was weakening. This was an unsolvable dead end.

The Abyssal invasion was both a disaster and an opportunity.

"So you want to use the Abyss's hand to let the Douluo Plane devour the Abyss's source in return?"

Jin Qiu spoke slowly, voicing the answer hidden beneath the greater good.

Tang San nodded lightly, his back carrying a trace of exhaustion.

"I know that many people will die in the Abyssal invasion.

Countless families will be shattered. Cities will become ruins. Ordinary people like the passengers on today's train will die for no reason.

I know this is cruel."

Tang San's voice involuntarily lowered.

"But I could not think of a better method. I could only do this.

The Divine Realm can barely protect itself now. Swept away by the Spacetime Turbulence, it is drifting through space. It cannot spare the power to descend to the Douluo Plane for long-term assistance, nor can it reach the Douluo Plane at all.

Leaving behind this strand of divine sense to protect the most crucial inheritance is already my limit.

If I directly used divine power to destroy the Abyss, its source would completely collapse. Not only could Douluo not absorb it, but it would also shatter the passage and affect all of Douluo Star. In the end, even more people would die.

Only by allowing the two planes to naturally collide and devour each other, allowing the Douluo Plane to completely digest the Abyssal Plane's source, could the gap be filled and the plane's level possibly rise.

This is the only path that can truly allow the Douluo Plane to survive."

After he finished speaking, the Spirit Sea fell into a long silence.

Jin Qiu leaned back against the tree trunk and said nothing more.

He could not accuse Tang San of being wrong, because he could not think of any better solution either.

From the perspective of the entire plane's survival, this was the best choice between two evils—a helpless solution.

But from Tang Wulin's perspective, and from the perspective of the innocent passengers and crew who had died on the train, this "greater good" was too heavy, so heavy that it had to be filled with countless lives.

He disliked the feeling of dragging everyone into a game of chess, but he could not offer a better plan.

After an unknown amount of time, he finally lifted his eyes and said flatly.

"I hope everything you said is true.

I hope that in the end, you really can protect this continent, protect these people, protect this planet.

Rather than invoking the greater good and ultimately failing to contain the situation, dragging the Douluo Plane down along with every person and soul beast on it."

Tang San did not argue, nor did he explain further. He merely let out a helpless sigh.

Tang San had also concealed the fact that he was the one who had drawn the Abyssal Plane here. After all, he truly had no moral ground to stand on in this matter.