Dragon-Suppressing Pass

Biodata

Power Progression

History

Lan Shuang proposed the fortress after Abyss punished Ao Lie and bound him to guard its outskirts. She intended it to turn the prince’s punishment into a permanent warning that Abyss could resist the Dragon Clan. 9

Lu Chen initially opposed the name, fearing that it would provoke the Dragon Clan. Lan Shuang persuaded him that the site already lay within the Abyssal Womb Membrane’s expanded boundary and that a fortification would stabilize Abyss’s existing territory rather than expand it. Lu Chen approved construction only on the conditions that the pass remain defensive, avoid provoking the Dragon Clan, and never initiate conflict. 10

Abyss’s clans completed the pass in thirty years. Its construction was their first major joint project, and its completion made it Abyss’s outer defensive node. Seven days later, seventeen refugee clans arrived at its gate seeking protection from Dragon Clan conscription. 10

The pass became the front line of Abyss’s first war with the Blackwater Dragon Palace. It held against three thousand Blackwater Dragon Army soldiers, while Lu Chen’s Abyss Dharma Body used the surrounding formations and Abyss Sea Eye to defeat the Blackwater Dragon King. The victory established the pass as a symbol that the Dragon Clan could be resisted. 12 15 16

After the battle, the Black Tortoise Sea-Calming Formation absorbed the conflict’s aftermath and increased in power. The Abyssal Womb Membrane also absorbed Blackwater Law released from the Blackwater Dragon Pearl, making its boundaries tougher. Northern Sea clans subsequently brought congratulatory gifts to the pass, and Ancestor Xuan Jia arrived with the Black-Shelled Turtle Tribe. 16 17

After the Black-Shelled Turtle Tribe joined Abyss, Lu Chen divided the fortress into an outer gate and an inner gate. Ao Lie took responsibility for scouting and confronting threats from the Northern Sea, while Ancestor Xuan Jia and the Turtle Tribe reinforced the inner gate near the Abyssal Womb Membrane. The Northern Sea-Calming Stele Fragment linked the two sections into a single defensive structure. 18 19

The pass also served as the assembly point for Abyss’s expedition to the Northern Dark Water Palace. After the expedition secured the Black Tortoise Sea-Calming Pearl and Abyss expanded, the fortress’s connection to the Abyssal Womb Membrane strengthened its defenses and stabilized Ao Lie’s Outer Gate Array Imprint. 20 26

When the Dragon Clan Main Lineage issued its thousand-year ultimatum, Abyss entered the Calamity-Avoidance State and concentrated its resources on the pass. The completed second defensive layer expanded its Outer Sea sensing range, but Ao Cang’s Great Luo Late Stage cultivation still cracked the first barrier with two strikes. Lu Chen avoided exposing his true body and compelled Ao Cang’s withdrawal through the Great Dream Black Tortoise Technique. 27 28 29

The Ancestral Dragon subsequently sent a True Dragon Decree inviting Lu Chen to the Eastern Sea Ancestral Dragon Palace. Lu Chen refused to leave seclusion and instead offered to receive an envoy outside Dragon-Suppressing Pass. Abyss maintained heightened defenses for the following century. 30 31

The Ancestral Dragon’s Dao Thought later descended directly upon the pass to examine Abyss. The encounter ended with the Ancestral Dragon leaving half of his Reverse Scale there as a controlled refuge token for endangered young Dragon Clan bloodlines. Lu Chen sealed the scale with the Heaven-Deceiving Tortoise Shell, preventing its residual perception from becoming a means of observing Abyss. 31 32

The pass subsequently became the site of a Phoenix Clan attempt to reclaim Feng Li and the Frost Phoenix Lineage. Elder Zhu Yan attacked after demanding their return, but Feng Li repelled him with frostflame strengthened by Lu Chen’s Northern Darkness Water Aura. The Water Qilin Branch later arrived under Lin Yue, accepted examination by the Book of Cause and Effect, and entered Abyss under its rules. These arrivals brought branches of all three great clans together at Abyss’s frontier. 34 36

As the Dragon-Han Cataclysm worsened, Dragon-Suppressing Pass shifted from a military frontier into a large-scale rescue and intake center. Abyss prepared healing resources, causality-illuminating arrays, interception formations, and records for incoming wounded before survivors of the three clans and numerous minor races began crowding the Three Lives Gate. 45 51

The first large gatherings of wounded threatened to become another battlefield because of the survivors’ old hatreds. Lu Chen imposed a three-day prohibition on settling grudges after entering Abyss, allowing its staff to register grievances and provide treatment. More than seventy percent of the first batch survived the initial three-day truce. The Three Lives Gate was subsequently built behind Dragon-Suppressing Pass, linking it to Abyss Outer City. 45 47

Youdu later brought a vast army of vengeful souls to the pass and attempted to force Abyss to close the Three Lives Gate. Lu Chen instead ordered the dead registered and purified. Many souls chose to protect surviving children and became Realm-Guarding Yin Soldiers, turning the attack into a reinforcement of the pass’s defenses. 49

During the mass refugee intake, Han Jue deployed three thousand Realm Guards in ten teams to maintain order. Children received priority screening, the severely wounded entered the rescue area, those carrying killing tribulations entered observation, and survivors with especially deep grievances were registered separately. Lu Chen established the Three Lives Gate’s binding rules against killing within its boundary. 51

Three hundred years after the Three Lives Gate opened fully, the pass remained crowded with refugee convoys and operated continuously as Abyss’s first line of reception. When Luohou’s demonic shadow attacked, the pass survived without damage after the Three Lives Gate dismantled the incoming demonic spear. 55

Ten years after Luohou’s demonic thought withdrew, the pass remained on its highest alert while continuing to admit refugees. Hongjun nevertheless appeared outside it without triggering the Bureau of Realm Patrol, the Black Tortoise Sea-Calming Formation, or the Book of Cause and Effect. He praised the Three Lives Gate and identified Abyss’s preservation of the three clans’ young lineages as an anomaly within the Great Tribulation. 56

Following the Dragon-Han Cataclysm, Ao Lie was repeatedly asked to help restore the Dragon Clan but continued returning to Dragon-Suppressing Pass. His gatekeeping position evolved from punishment into a duty he consciously chose over the prestige of the Dragon King Seal. 64 66 68

The fortress later served as a reception point for diplomatic approaches from the rising Demon Clan and Demon Court. Di Jun’s Dharma Form arrived without an army or coercive pressure, so Abyss did not enter war preparedness. After Lu Chen later rejected the Demon Court’s offer of the Northern Sea Emperor title, a demon marshal arrived at the pass carrying the Register of Ten Thousand Demons and questioned the registration of Abyss’s inhabitants. 81 100

During the ensuing clarification of Abyss’s independent registry, Lan Shuang asked Dragon-Suppressing Pass to state its position first. Ao Lie affirmed that he remained a dragon but would place the Abyss Edict first while guarding the outer gate. The Ancestral Dragon’s Reverse Scale lightly trembled and released watery light rather than rejecting his declaration. 102

Gonggong later brought Xuanming and Houtu to the pass. Despite Gonggong’s familiarity with Abyss, Han Jue required the visitors to use the Three Lives Gate. Xuanming observed the multiple formations anchoring the surrounding waters, while Houtu’s passage revealed her earth-vein restoration and care for living beings. 105

The Three Lives Gate continued to receive prominent visitors and cultivators seeking guidance. Nuwa passed through it before her Sainthood, and more than a dozen Great Luo cultivators and two Quasi-Saints later gathered outside to ask Mysterious Abyss about attaining Primordial Unity without Primordial Purple Qi. 114 133

As Three Lives Post Stations spread through the Northern Sea, Dragon-Suppressing Pass remained fixed in place. A Demon Court official comparing maps observed that neither the pass nor the Three Lives Gate had moved and that Abyss had not increased its troops. The post stations extended Abyss’s reach along waterways while the intervening waters remained under their original tribes. 139

Appearance

Dragon-Suppressing Pass is a black fortress built on Abyss’s outskirts, facing the Northern Sea’s black tides. Its walls are ten thousand zhang high and carry a faint mystical-water sheen. 10

• Three ancient characters—“Dragon-Suppressing Pass”—are carved above its gate. 10
• The Black Tortoise Sea-Calming Formation is integrated into its walls and formation nodes. 10
• The Northern Sea-Calming Stele Fragment hangs between the inner and outer gates, linking the fortress’s defensive aura. 19
• The outer gate faces the Northern Sea, while the inner gate stands near the Abyssal Womb Membrane’s entrance. 19
• Ao Lie coils around black reefs and the outer gate’s pillars, using his Blackwater dragon aura to sense movements beyond the fortress. 19
• The Three Lives Gate stands behind the pass, connecting outward to the fortress and inward to Abyss Outer City. Beyond it lie the Northern Darkness Sea, Abyss City, and Northern Darkness Dao Palace. 47
• The Three Lives Gate later operates at the pass’s refuge-entry area, where its stone stele bears Abyss’s rules for incoming survivors. 51
• Realm-Guarding Yin Soldiers appear as dark-golden soul-shadows in tattered battle armor, initially standing within the pass and later guarding both sides of the Three Lives Gate. 49 51
• During the Dragon-Han Cataclysm, rescue-zone spirit lamps extended from within the pass toward the Northern Darkness Sea as the surrounding intake facilities expanded to accommodate refugees. 55
• The apparently ordinary Blackwater around the pass is anchored by multiple formations and connected beneath the surface to the Northern Darkness Sea within the Abyss Minor World. 105

Defenses & Functions

Black Tortoise Sea-Calming Formation

The pass serves as a major anchor for the Black Tortoise Sea-Calming Formation and draws on Abyss’s defensive power. 10 12

• Abyss Heavy Water — Makes water overwhelmingly heavy, restricting invaders and dragging manifested attacks into the depths. 13 14
• Black Tortoise Soul Suppression — Targets an enemy’s Primordial Spirit. 13
• Formation integration — Reinforces the Abyssal Womb Membrane and provides a stable outer defensive line. 10
• Supporting water veins — Reinforcement from the Xuanshui Water Vein and Abyssal Womb Membrane helped the newly completed outer gate survive the Blackwater Dragon King’s Dragon Pearl strike. 14
• Post-battle absorption — The formation grew stronger after absorbing the Blackwater Dragon Army battle’s aftermath, while spilled Blackwater Law toughened the Abyssal Womb Membrane. 17
• Sea-Calming Pearl connection — When the pearl entered Abyss and the inner realm expanded, the pass’s linked defenses and Ao Lie’s Outer Gate Array Imprint became more stable. 26
• Second defensive layer — Completed during the Calamity-Avoidance State, it extends the formation’s sensing range across thirty thousand miles of the Outer Sea. 28
• Mystic Water Pearl nodes — Thirty thousand Mystic Water Pearls supplied by the Mystic Clam Tribe supported the reinforced pass; Lady Mingzhu activated them together during Ao Cang’s attack. 28 29
• Frostflame support — The Frost Phoenix Lineage supplied Frostflame to freeze Outer Sea undercurrents and slow the Dragon Clan’s advance into the formation. 28
• Limit — Great Luo Late Stage cultivator Ao Cang cracked the pass’s first defensive barrier with two palm strikes, demonstrating that its defenses cannot indefinitely withstand overwhelming realm-based force. 29
• Detection limitation — Hongjun later appeared outside the pass without triggering Abyss’s defenses or warning systems, demonstrating the inability of its ordinary detection measures to perceive certain supreme beings. 56

Cause-and-Effect Judgment

The pass became a place where Abyss’s laws were enforced against refugees, infiltrators, and Dragon Clan soldiers. 11 13

• Refugee screening — The Book of Cause and Effect screened seventeen refugee clans before entry; fifteen were admitted, while the Blood Loach and Black Toad Tribes were rejected for prior crimes. 11
• Battlefield judgment — During the Blackwater Dragon Army’s invasion, Lan Shuang used the book to expose individual dragon soldiers’ massacres, enslavement, and other karmic crimes, increasing their suppression within the formation. 13
• Universal standard — Abyss’s principle at the pass is that entrants are judged by cause and effect rather than clan origin or bloodline. 31 32
• Water Qilin admission — The book approved the Water Qilin Branch for Abyss Outer City after revealing both its wartime killings and its Merit from repairing earth veins and saving smaller clans. Lin Yue was approved for a guest official seat. 36
• Three-day rescue truce — Wounded arrivals were initially forbidden to settle grudges for three days after entering Abyss, allowing treatment and grievance registration before old conflicts could resume. 45
• Three Lives Gate rules — Incoming survivors must have old grievances recorded, learn Abyss’s rules, and refrain from killing within the gate before they may enter Abyss. 51
• Registry jurisdiction — Long-term residents who pass through the Three Lives Gate may retain their original racial and external affiliations, but Abyss’s laws take precedence within the gate and cannot be overridden by outside decrees. 102
• Outer-gate declaration — Ao Lie explicitly affirmed the priority of the Abyss Edict while serving as the pass’s defending general, without renouncing his Dragon Clan bloodline. 102
• Visitor procedure — Returning visitors are still expected to use the Three Lives Gate; Han Jue enforced this requirement when Gonggong brought Xuanming and Houtu. 105

Dual-Gate System

Lu Chen divided the fortress after Ancestor Xuan Jia joined Abyss, converting a potential conflict between Ao Lie and the Turtle Clan into a layered defense. 18 19

• Outer Gate — Guarded by Ao Lie; monitors the Northern Sea, detects Blackwater Dragon Palace scouts, and benefits from his knowledge of Dragon Clan communications and military formations. 19
• Inner Gate — Guarded by Ancestor Xuan Jia and the Black-Shelled Turtle Tribe; protected with Black-Armor Array Runes and positioned near the Abyssal Womb Membrane. 19
• Stele link — The Northern Sea-Calming Stele Fragment connects both gates and stabilizes the pass’s sea-calming power. 19
• Command discipline — Lu Chen forbade private fighting between Ao Lie and Ancestor Xuan Jia, threatening offenders with a thousand years of meditation in the Abyss Sea Eye. Their rivalry subsequently made both more diligent in their duties. 18 19
• Emergency formations — The outer gate has Dragon Clan formation patterns, while the inner gate maintains its own defensive formation. Both were activated during Luohou’s demonic spear attack. 55
• Post-cataclysm role — Ao Lie continues to command the outer gate even while personally assisting Dragon Clan reconstruction, ensuring that his outside authority does not become an instrument of Abyss expansion. 66 68

Three Lives Gate and Refuge Processing

The Three Lives Gate was built behind Dragon-Suppressing Pass and transformed it from a conventional fortress into the principal controlled entrance for refugees fleeing the Dragon-Han Cataclysm. 47 51 55

• Causality Illumination — Reveals the causes and karmic ties behind an entrant’s past. 51 56
• Heart-Nature Examination — Examines an entrant’s heart-nature and suppresses madness, hatred, and demonic influence. 49 56
• Killing-Tribulation Severance — Cuts an entrant’s immediate link to battlefield killing tribulation and bars those still intent on contending for supremacy. 51 56
• Young-lineage guidance — The gate’s outer layer incorporates the Ancestral Dragon’s Reverse Scale aura to welcome young Dragon Clan bloodlines while preventing reverse sensing by the Dragon Clan. 47
• Dead-soul processing — Vengeful souls may have their deaths and grievances recorded, demonic corruption cleansed, and battlefield Demonic Sha stripped away. Willing protectors can enter the Dead-Soul Register as Realm-Guarding Yin Soldiers. 49
• Dangerous obsessions — Souls unwilling to enter may be temporarily sealed on the Northern Darkness Sea’s shores; those attempting to harm the living are bound by the Book of Cause and Effect and sent to the Calamity-Resolution Hall’s Soul-Examining Formation. 49
• Intake priorities — Children receive priority screening, the severely wounded are directed to rescue facilities, those carrying killing tribulations enter observation, and especially deep grievances receive separate registration. 51
• Demon suppression — When Luohou’s demonic spear struck toward the pass, the three gates stripped its causal power, cleansed its demonic intent, and severed its connection to battlefield killing tribulation. 55
• Limit — The gate and Book of Cause and Effect could not fully perceive or judge Hongjun’s immense karmic ties. 56

Realm-Guarding Yin Soldiers

The pass gained a dead-soul garrison after Youdu’s attempt to overwhelm Abyss with vengeful souls. These soldiers originated from battlefield dead of the Dragon, Phoenix, Qilin, and smaller clans who accepted purification and registration rather than remaining under demonic control. 49

• Voluntary protection — Many chose service after seeing that their surviving children or clan fireseeds were sheltered in Abyss. 49
• Gate defense — The first registered soldiers stood within Dragon-Suppressing Pass; during later refugee intake they guarded both sides of the Three Lives Gate and helped calm surviving soldiers. 49 51
• Defensive deployment — Lu Chen ordered them not to leave the Three Lives Gate when tightening Abyss’s defenses before Luohou’s arrival. 55
• Soul reception — During the demonic spear attack, they received resentful souls stripped from the weapon beneath the Book of Cause and Effect. 55

Construction

The fortress was built collaboratively by Abyss’s resident clans. 10

• Mystic Clam Tribe — Supplied Northern Darkness Mystic Pearls to stabilize formation cores.
• Cold Whale Tribe — Transported massive construction stones.
• Ice-Scaled Tribe — Carved defensive formation patterns into the walls.
• Sea Spirit Clan — Managed the overall formation layout.
• Black-Shelled Turtle Tribe branch — Provided turtle-shell formation patterns.
• Water Ape Tribe — Constructed the outer walls.
• Ao Lie — Was compelled to assist while serving his gate-guard punishment.

Later Reinforcements

• Cold Whale Tribe — Offered to transport Abyssal Northern Stone to reinforce the walls before the Blackwater Dragon Army’s arrival. 12
• Cold Sand Clan — Offered its city-building arts to strengthen the outer city during the same preparations. Its cultivators later helped restrain suppressed dragon soldiers with Cold Sand chains. 12 13
• Black-Shelled Turtle Tribe — Integrated Black-Armor Array Runes into the pass walls, greatly increasing their resistance to impact. 19
• Mystic Clam Tribe and Treasury Bureau — Supplied thirty thousand Mystic Water Pearls for the reinforced wall formations during the thousand-year countdown. 28
• Frost Phoenix Lineage — Contributed Frostflame to freeze undercurrents and impede enemy movement through the Outer Sea. 28

Three Lives Gate Construction

The Three Lives Gate was built behind the fortress under Lan Shuang’s supervision, joining Dragon-Suppressing Pass to Abyss Outer City. 47

• Ancestor Xuan Jia — Constructed the gate’s foundation. 47
• Lin Yue — Channeled Mysterious Peak Mountain’s earth veins. 47
• Lady Mingzhu — Supplied the treasury’s finest Sea-Calming Water Jade. 47
• Feng Li — Contributed a wisp of the Frostflame Parasol Tree to purify fire balefulness within the gate. 47
• Ao Lie — Introduced the Ancestral Dragon’s Reverse Scale aura into the outer layer while retaining only its young-lineage reception function and blocking reverse sensing. 47

Guardians and Administrators

• Lu Chen / Mysterious Abyss Emperor — Authorized the pass as a strictly defensive installation and employs its formations through the Abyss Dharma Body. 10 12
• Lan Shuang — Proposed the pass, directed its formation layout, and repeatedly organized its defenses and refugee screening. She also supervised construction of the Three Lives Gate and coordinated the registration and purification of battlefield dead. 9 10 11 47 49
• Ao Lie — Outer-gate guardian; initially a prisoner, he later chose to remain and uphold Abyss’s rules against the Dragon Clan. He continues to return to this post after assisting the recovering Dragon Clan and explicitly places the Abyss Edict first while guarding the gate. 15 19 24 66 68 102
• Ancestor Xuan Jia — Inner-gate guardian; reinforces the fortress with Black-Armor Array Runes and Turtle Clan defensive arts. 18 19
• Han Jue and the Realm Guard — Lead the pass’s active defenders and formation troops during major attacks; the expanded three-thousand-member Realm Guard later maintained order among Three Lives Gate refugees. 12 13 28 51
• Black-Shelled Turtle Tribe — Stabilizes the inner gate and Abyss’s surrounding earth veins. 19
• Feng Li, Lin Yue, and Abyss’s rescue staff — Support post-war operations by treating fire poison, repairing damaged meridians, recording grievances, and caring for wounded arrivals. 45
• Realm-Guarding Yin Soldiers — Established from purified and registered battlefield souls during Youdu’s assault; remain stationed within the Three Lives Gate as part of Abyss’s later refuge-defense system. 49 55
• Bureau of Cause and Effect and Calamity-Resolution Hall — Register living and dead arrivals, record old grievances, and restrain souls whose obsessions threaten the living. 49 51

Major Conflicts

Blackwater Dragon Army invasion

The Blackwater Dragon King led three thousand elite soldiers to demand the return of Ao Lie, punish Abyss for sheltering refugees, and destroy Dragon-Suppressing Pass. 12

The fortress’s formation disrupted the invading army, and Abyss’s defenders used the Book of Cause and Effect to identify and suppress soldiers burdened by killing karma. Lu Chen’s Dharma Body ultimately drove the Blackwater Dragon King into the seabed twice, compelling the army’s withdrawal. 13 14 15

The battle also demonstrated the limits of the ordinary fortifications. The Blackwater Dragon Pearl caused fine cracks in the formation’s first layer, and Lu Chen recognized that repeated Great Luo-level impacts would eventually overwhelm the pass. The Realm Guard fed power into the wall formations while Mystic Clam cultivators replenished their nodes with spiritual pearls. 14

Dragon Clan Main Lineage ultimatum

The Dragon Clan Main Lineage ordered Lu Chen to report to the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace within a thousand years. Abyss responded by restricting outside activity, reinforcing the pass, expanding the Realm Guard, and building a second defensive layer. 27 28

When Ao Cang arrived at the deadline, the pass’s full defenses delayed him but could not hold him indefinitely. Lu Chen used the Great Dream Black Tortoise Technique through his Dharma Body to force Ao Cang’s retreat without revealing his true body. 29

Ancestral Dragon’s Dao Thought

The Ancestral Dragon’s Dao Thought descended directly upon Dragon-Suppressing Pass, overpowering the surrounding sea and formations through sheer authority. Lu Chen answered with his Dharma Body and defended Abyss’s rule that all entrants, including Dragon Clan bloodlines, are judged by cause and effect. 31 32

The encounter ended with the Ancestral Dragon leaving behind half of his Reverse Scale. The scale was sealed within Dragon-Suppressing Pass as a controlled token intended to guide endangered young Dragon Clan bloodlines to Abyss. 32

Phoenix Clan reclamation attempt

Elder Zhu Yan arrived at Dragon-Suppressing Pass and demanded that Feng Li and the Frost Phoenix Lineage return south to the Phoenix Clan, accusing them of abandoning the war. Feng Li and Lan Shuang invoked Abyss’s protection and rules rather than accepting his authority over those sheltered within its boundary. 34

Zhu Yan attacked with Southern Bright Fire. Lu Chen empowered Feng Li with Northern Darkness Water Aura, strengthening her frostflame enough to drive him back. Zhu Yan warned that Yuanfeng would learn of the resistance, after which her phoenix cry sounded across the Northern Sea and her divine sense descended. 34

Youdu’s vengeful-soul army

Youdu brought countless battlefield souls to Dragon-Suppressing Pass and threatened to continue sending them unless Abyss closed the Three Lives Gate. His attack sought to overwhelm the refuge with resentment while making the destruction of the souls carry further karmic consequences. The Realm Guard moved refugees into the pass as Abyss’s leaders assembled to respond. 49

Lu Chen refused to close the gate and declared that the living could enter while the dead would be registered and cleansed. Sea Devourer removed the outer demonic mist, the Frostflame Parasol Tree purified frenzied killing intent, and Mysterious Peak Mountain’s earth veins provided temporary rest for broken souls. The three clan rulers’ fireseed tokens also helped calm their respective dead. 49

The Three Lives Gate processed the souls rather than destroying them. Those willing to protect Abyss’s young and weak entered the Dead-Soul Register and became Realm-Guarding Yin Soldiers. Youdu withdrew after his army became a defensive force stationed within the pass, and the Three Lives Gate upgraded. 49

Luohou’s demonic shadow

Three hundred years after the Three Lives Gate opened, Luohou sent a Quasi-Saint-level demonic thought to the Northern Sea and demanded that Abyss close its gates to refugees. The shadow launched a demonic spear directly at Dragon-Suppressing Pass after Lu Chen refused. 55

Lu Chen ordered the frontline defenders to withdraw rather than confront the demonic thought. The Three Lives Gate, empowered by the Abyss Minor World, dismantled the spear’s causal power, demonic intent, and killing-tribulation connection; Sea Devourer and Abyss’s other defensive anchors disposed of the remnants. The pass suffered no damage, and Luohou’s shadow withdrew after threatening a future personal visit. 55

Story Role

• Serves as the first visible boundary between Abyss and the outside world, transforming Abyss from a hidden refuge into a defensible homeland. 10 16
• Provides sanctuary to refugee clans fleeing conscription, persecution, and the escalating Dragon-Han conflict. 10 11 45
• Embodies Abyss’s defensive doctrine: shelter the vulnerable, enforce impartial laws, and avoid expansion or unprovoked war. 10 31
• Becomes a political symbol after the Blackwater Dragon Palace’s defeat, proving to Northern Sea clans that Dragon Clan power is not invincible. 15 16
• Functions as the principal staging point for Abyss’s preparations against the Dragon Clan Main Lineage and later receives survivors of the Three-Clan War. 28 45 50
• Brings branches of the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Clans under a common system of refuge and karmic judgment rather than their original clans’ wartime commands. 31 34 36
• Becomes the operational entrance for the Three Lives Gate, where refugees from the three clans and other races are processed, protected, and separated from old battlefield grievances. 51 55
• Extends Abyss’s refuge principle to the battlefield dead by converting willing, purified souls into guardians of the living rather than destroying them indiscriminately. 49
• Demonstrates that Abyss’s refuge system can resist threats beyond the Three Clans when it survives Luohou’s demonic spear without damage. 55
• Represents Ao Lie’s transformation from a punished Dragon Clan prince into a guardian who places duty, Abyss’s laws, and the safety of refugees above royal status. 24 66 68
• Supports Abyss’s independent jurisdiction by ensuring that external clan commands and Demon Court decrees cannot be enforced within the Three Lives Gate. 102
• Serves as a controlled reception point for powerful visitors without suspending Abyss’s ordinary entry procedures. 81 105
• Remains a fixed territorial boundary while the Three Lives Post Stations extend Abyss’s connections across the Northern Sea without annexing the waters between them. 139

Trivia

• Lu Chen disliked the name “Dragon-Suppressing Pass” because he believed it would antagonize the Dragon Clan. 10
• Ao Lie’s coiled dragon form outside the completed fortress became its most conspicuous symbol of security. 10
• Lan Shuang interpreted Lu Chen’s practical decision to separate Ao Lie and Ancestor Xuan Jia as a profound long-term strategy of “dragon restraining dragons” and “defense securing the foundation.” 19
• Ao Lie and Ancestor Xuan Jia’s continued bickering improved their diligence because neither wanted the other to find fault with his gatekeeping. Han Jue sometimes watched their arguments while eating spirit fruits. 19
• Ao Lie refused the Dragon King Seal’s prestige until he had fulfilled Ancestral Dragon’s final instruction to guard the outer gate. 66
• The Ancestral Dragon’s Reverse Scale was deliberately sealed with the Heaven-Deceiving Tortoise Shell so that its residual perception could not observe Abyss. 32
• Han Jue jokingly thanked Youdu for a “grand gift” after the vengeful souls brought to attack Abyss became its gatekeepers. 49
• Gonggong treated his second arrival at the pass like a homecoming, but Han Jue still insisted that he use the Three Lives Gate. 105

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