There was no sunlight; the sky was a turbid, gloomy purple-black, and heavy demonic mists hung low like chunks of lead, pressing down on the entire firmament so tightly that not a breath of air could get through.
The air was permeated with a sticky, decaying aura, filled with energy possessing destructive and erosive properties. With every breath, one's throat felt parched, as if even Spirit Power would slowly dissolve under the erosion of this environment.
Beneath their feet was a shattered and desolate wasteland of skeletal remains, littered with fractured dark purple demonic rocks and countless scattered skeletons that piled up layer upon layer to cover the earth.
Huge ravines and fissures crisscrossed like wounds repeatedly slashed by sharp blades, with the dark red glow of magma surging in their depths, venting boiling turbid Qi.
Looking as far as the eye could see, not a blade of grass grew; no plant could survive on this land, and only ubiquitous remnants of flesh and blood adhered between the cracks of stones and bones, exuding a nauseatingly corrupt aura.
Gu Yuena looked at this purgatory-like scene and slightly knitted her brows. " Here... is the Abyss Plane? "
Huo Yuhao nodded, his gaze sweeping across the shattered skeletons and cracked ground around them, and said in a deep voice, " This place is filled with the most primitive aura of slaughter. It seems that this Abyss Plane maintains its own operation by constantly devouring other planes. "
" Otherwise, with such an extreme erosive environment and violent energy consumption, it would have collapsed on its own long ago. "
Behind the two of them, Tang Hao, bound up like a rice dumpling, also rolled his eyes and sized up the scene of the abyss.
His complexion was ashen, the corners of his mouth were tightly pursed, and complex light surged in his eyes.
He knew that he was already powerless to stop everything before him, and could only be bound like this, watching helplessly as Huo Yuhao step by step ruined his son's plans.
Just at this moment, a deep and sonorous voice suddenly resounded across the entire sky, " Humans, how dare you venture deep into our abyss hinterland? You're simply courting death! "
Obviously, the powerhouses of the abyss had already discovered Huo Yuhao and the others.
Before the voice had even faded, a tyrannical mental force that was suffocatingly powerful swept over Huo Yuhao and the other two like a landslide and tsunami.
That mental force surged like a tide, carrying intense slaughter and malice. If it were replaced by an ordinary Limit Douluo, I'm afraid that this single impact alone would have caused their Soul to tremble and blood to spill from their mouth and nose.
However, Huo Yuhao and the other three simply hovered steadily in place, their faces entirely devoid of ripples.
The strength of any single one of the three of them had long surpassed the scope of a Limit Douluo.
That overwhelming and tyrannical mental force came quickly and went just as quickly, abruptly contracting like a storm and dissolving completely into nothingness in the blink of an eye.
Clearly, its owner had already realized that these three were opponents who could not be shaken simply by mental force.
Huo Yuhao raised his eyes and looked over, only to see a figure silently materialize in mid-air opposite them.
That was a man in human form with exquisite facial features, a handsome face, and wearing a large black robe.
This person was none other than the monarch of the second layer of the abyss, Lingdi.
During the times when the Abyss Monarch was asleep year-round, almost the daily affairs of the entire Abyss Plane were managed single-handedly by him. He held a high position of great authority, and his strength was not to be underestimated either, being especially renowned for his formidable mental force.
Yet at this moment, Lingdi's expression was exceptionally heavy.
He calmly and quietly sized up the three people before him, and the more he looked, the more suspicious and uncertain his heart became—he actually couldn't see through the depth of cultivation of any single one of them.
How could this be? When did such a level of powerhouses ever appear among humans?
Moreover, this was the hinterland of the abyss. Under the environmental erosion, any human coming here would have their strength greatly discounted, yet they seemed not to be suppressed in the slightest.
Alarm bells rang wildly in Lingdi's heart, and he had already secretly sent out a call for help to the other monarchs, yet on the surface he tried his utmost to maintain calm, tentatively opening his mouth to ask, " Who are you people? "
This posture was completely different from the arrogance of shouting about fighting and killing just a moment before.
Huo Yuhao had no mind to waste time with these abyss creatures; he merely glanced casually at Lingdi, his gaze indifferent.
The next moment, Lingdi's body disintegrated silently. Without even being able to let out a miserable scream, his entire person completely dissipated on the spot, leaving not a single trace behind.
Tang Hao, watching clearly from the rear, saw his pupils suddenly constrict.
He could naturally tell that Lingdi had not escaped, but had been obliterated by Huo Yuhao in a single instant.
Without even the chance to counterattack or struggle, as clean and neat as crushing an ant to death.
Following Lingdi's demise, the entire Abyss Plane trembled violently.
Much like an earth-turning dragon, the earth cracked, demonic mists surged, space shook, and the entire heaven and earth emitted a dull and oppressive roar.
The structure of the abyss was extremely special, divided into a total of one hundred and eight layers, stacked layer upon layer and linked ring by ring, with each layer possessing an independent ecology and energy loop.
And that very instant just now, the second layer of the abyss completely collapsed.
The entire layer of space was like pulverized colored glaze—disintegrating, dissolving, and turning into powder, along with all the living beings and buildings within it turning into nothingness, leaving no trace behind.
The abyss energy that originally belonged to the second layer lost its bearing vessel and began to frantically spread toward other abyss layers, surging everywhere like an out-of-control undercurrent and stirring up the energy balance of the entire plane.
All the abyss creatures felt the anomaly in this violent shock; low-level demonic monsters fled in all directions, while the high-ranking monarchs changed expressions drastically, rushing out from their respective territories one after another and hurrying toward the direction of the epicenter.
In just a brief moment, one powerful figure after another successively appeared around Huo Yuhao, faintly surrounding the three of them in the center.
They were all monarchs from the first few layers of the abyss, varied in form and fierce in aura, with their cultivation all reaching an extremely high level.
Yet at this moment, these people merely hovered in mid-air with tense expressions, staring at Huo Yuhao with fearful gazes, yet not a single person dared to rashly make a move.
Lingdi's strength was second to none among them, yet he had died in an inexplicable manner.
Even though they had strength in numbers, who would dare to stick their neck out as the first bird?
Just at this moment, a majestic aura abruptly erupted from the depths of the abyss.
Above the abyss, a huge vertical pupil slowly lit up, occupying more than half of the firmament.
That was a blood-red eye, the depths of its pupil seeming to churn with endless slaughter, while countless smaller red eyes opened around the pupil, densely covering the entire sky like hundreds of millions of bloody stars simultaneously gazing down below.
" Who is it?! "
A low and cold voice simultaneously sounded from all directions, as if the entire abyss were speaking, carrying an irresistible majesty and sense of oppression.
As this voice spread outward, the entire Abyss Plane instantly quieted down.
The surrounding Abyss Monarchs lowered their heads simultaneously, bowing in unison and shouting with awe born of instinct, " Welcome, Monarch! "
The owner of that voice, the possessor of that giant pupil, was none other than the supreme Master of the Abyss Plane—the Abyss Monarch!
The instantaneous collapse of the second layer of the abyss, that violent energy shock penetrating layer after layer of space like a startled thunderclap, directly awakened the slumbering Abyss Monarch.
He opened his eyes amidst the Chaos in the deepest part of the plane, his consciousness rapidly spreading outward to lock onto the three figures before him who had broken into the abyss hinterland.
His line of sight first swept across Gu Yuena and Tang Hao, and within a brief moment he had already judged the strength of the two.
That silver-haired woman was roughly equivalent to the level of a divine official, while that bound human male possessed the cultivation of a Level 2 Divinity.
The Abyss Monarch's heart trembled slightly; with the Divine Realm vanished, the Douluo Continent was actually still able to nurture an existence of this caliber, which truly exceeded his expectations.
However, trembling aside, these two people were still far from enough to make him truly take them seriously.
Because he was within the Abyss Plane, this heaven and earth had long since merged into one with him, and in this place he could display Peak strength comparable to a Level 1 Divinity.
Be it a divine official or a Level 2 Divinity, neither counted as any threat before him.
However, when the Abyss Monarch's gaze finally fell upon Huo Yuhao, that huge vertical pupil suspended above the firmament abruptly constricted, and the surging light in the depths of the pupil instantly stagnated.
He discovered that he actually couldn't see through this young man's cultivation; the other party stood there with their aura restrained like an abyss, neither possessing externalized coercion nor traces of deliberate convergence.
Yet it was precisely this calmness of seeming to be "non-existent" that caused a long-absent chill to well up in the heart of the Abyss Monarch.
He exhausted his mental force to probe repeatedly, yet it was always like reaching into a bottomless deep pool—he could neither touch the bottom nor feel the edges.
Then there was only one possibility: this human's strength was above his.
But... how could this be?!
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A/N:
I hope all of you are enjoying this story so far. I would appreciate some Power Stones if you can spare any. Leave a review if you like the story. Thank you.