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Is this fate?
No, this is deliberate planning.
Xu Yuan sensed the thin fortune and faith hovering above the Dragon Plane's oceans and couldn't help but feel Tang San's actions had been ruthless.
However, this wasn't the Douluo Plane, nor was it part of the Douluo God Realm. Even the former Divine Dragon Realm hadn't encompassed this Dragon Plane. Tang San's merciless actions here weren't something Xu Yuan could fault him for.
In Xu Yuan's eyes, some planes were simply vast resource repositories. If the opportunity arose, it wasn't unthinkable to devour some of their essence.
"Xiao Jia once mentioned that the Dragon Plane experienced a major upheaval, causing the entire plane's environment to deteriorate. It seems this aligns with the Sea God absorbing faith."
Xu Yuan suddenly recalled another great change in the Dragon Plane's history. According to Xiao Jia, the oceans had also been affected during that time.
"Could it be that Tang San harvested from the Dragon Plane even before the God Realm fell into disarray?"
The more Xu Yuan thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
After all, Tang San had only ascended to godhood a few thousand years ago. Even though the Sea God rank approached the God King level, his progress still required enormous resources—resources that normal accumulation might not have provided.
Thus, it was entirely possible that Tang San had sought out nearby planes to harvest the oceans' faith.
Moreover, he had controlled the God Realm's core for an extended period.
And if Tang San hadn't absorbed such resources before, how could Tang Wulin have done so now?
Old Tang was merely a fragment of divine consciousness. He shouldn't have been able to mobilize the faith and fortune of an unfamiliar plane unless his divine power already encompassed this plane's faith and fortune.
"I wonder if this counts as a form of foresight. If a God King truly masters time, did he foresee the changes my arrival would bring to the future?"
Xu Yuan pondered.
After sensing the essence, he gained a new understanding of time.
The essence of a plane, it turned out, referred to its timeline—spanning the plane's past and future.
This realization confirmed for Xu Yuan that time existed, and the past and future weren't entirely unknowable. They simply required a higher level of comprehension.
"Is there another dimensional leap between a God King and a 1st Class god? Or do gods themselves experience dimensional leaps?"
Xu Yuan began to analyze.
Previously, his understanding of why the 1st Class gods performed poorly during the Gods Battle twenty thousand years ago was because Tang San, Qian Renxue, and others had just ascended to godhood. Their soul power had barely reached Level 100, and they could only wield the power of their divine positions, performing at the level of 1st Class gods.
Now, however, it seemed that dimensional issues might also have played a role.
Upon breaking through, it wasn't just that their soul power was insufficient—it was also that their dimensions weren't yet sufficient to fully utilize the divine position's power.
Thus, twenty thousand years ago, the 1st Class gods underperformed.
Between different ranks, the difference wasn't just in power—it was also in dimension.
2nd Class gods struggled to unleash 1st Class god-level strength, but there were exceptions. For instance, the fusion technique of the Netherworld White Tiger might have transcended certain dimensions. Similarly, the Sausage Spirit's mimicry simulated a higher-dimensional state. But what about Ma Hongjun? How could he, as a 2nd Class god, unleash 1st Class god-level strength?
Xu Yuan was puzzled.
Was there something special about the Phoenix God?
Or were these thoughts purely speculative? Perhaps the gap between gods wasn't as large as he imagined, and only the God King represented a new evolution. The leap from ordinary life to godhood was one transformation, while the leap from godhood to God King was another.
Though Xu Yuan's thoughts might not have been entirely logical, he noticed a key point in his line of reasoning.
Did the fusion technique transcend dimensions?
"The amplification of the soul fusion technique remains effective even at the god level. Its essence must be incredibly powerful—perhaps explaining it in terms of dimensions makes perfect sense."
Xu Yuan had split his two original martial souls into three. However, he knew that eventually, he would have to fuse these three martial souls—not by merging them into one, but by finding a point of resonance to achieve the Triple Martial Soul Fusion Technique, integrating essence, energy, and spirit.
But now, despite being at Level 97, he still had no clue how to explore this fusion technique.
He had studied Hu Jie's secret method, and Long Yeyue had insights on combining twin martial souls. However, both approaches required a prerequisite: balance between the twin martial souls. As for Xu Yuan's three martial souls, there was no need to say—they were far from balanced.
"Hu Jie's method starts with the True Form of the martial soul, relying on the complementarity of the primary martial soul. I can't blindly copy it—I need to approach it from a functional perspective. But the catalyst for martial soul fusion is too abstract; I wouldn't have known where to begin before."
Now things were different.
"Martial souls, stacking, fusion, and dimensional elevation!"
Xu Yuan felt that if he could grasp the essence of this, achieving the Triple Martial Soul Fusion Technique would become possible.
Ten days later, Xu Yuan and Yun Ming left the Dragon Plane.
"Based on Xiao Jia's progress, the Dragon Plane will remain in a state of recovery for at least the next year. The continent will re-evolve, and the oceans will stabilize. Within three to five years, he may truly become the Plane Lord."
"Let's go. It's time to return to Douluo Planet."
Yun Ming sealed the Demon Gate of the Dragon Plane and left behind a spear-shaped imprint of condensed soul power before departing.
Shrek Academy.
Yun Ming, Ya Li, and Cai Yue'er emerged from the Demon Gate.
Cai Yue'er's aura began to fluctuate.
"While I'm here, the two of you should break through together. I'll help conceal the disturbance," Yun Ming said.
Ya Li nodded and stepped forward, radiating a holy glow.
Behind Cai Yue'er, a silver moon appeared.
Various phenomena manifested across the heavens and earth, and their spirits began to materialize.
Xu Yuan had witnessed Limit Douluo breakthroughs before, but he was still captivated.
He observed carefully—the state of their martial souls, the connection between them and their martial souls.
The secrets of Limit Douluo were no longer mysteries to him.
If he wanted, breaking through to the Limit level would only require overcoming the challenge of condensing the third soul core. Ya Li and other Super Douluos who had been stuck at Level 98 for many years had long since deduced the process of condensing the third soul core. Xu Yuan simply lacked the time.
Shrek Academy gained two more Limit Douluos.
However, Ya Li and Cai Yue'er had no immediate plans to join the Blood God Legion.
If the frontlines became urgent, they would naturally go. But for now, the situation at the front was stable, and there was no pressing need for them to head there. After all, even during wartime, stability in the rear was crucial, and the internal operations of various factions still needed to be secured.
This time, Xu Yuan stayed on Sea God Island for three months.
Primarily, Yun Ming was about to break through, and after doing so, he might not return for quite some time. These three months were a time for Xu Yuan and Ya Li to spend together.
During these three months, Xu Yuan meditated within the Ancient Golden Tree, deepening his understanding of dimensions and gaining some insights into martial soul fusion techniques.
"The fusion of my three martial souls is based on conceptual complementarity, not morphological changes. As for the form of fusion, I initially plan to use the domain format."
The fusion nature of the Blood Essence Domain inspired Xu Yuan.
The Blood Essence Domain was the Heavenly Origin Five Elements Spear, and the Heavenly Origin Five Elements Spear was the Blood Essence Domain. Thus, martial soul fusion could also be viewed as the fusion of the other two martial souls with the Blood Essence Domain.
"The Brain-type martial soul can fuse with the Dream Space, using the Dream Space as an alternative domain."
In fact, this was a method he had already figured out.
A year ago, he had already been able to achieve this—fusing the Blood Essence Domain with the Dream Space, integrating the starry map within his spiritual sea, and simultaneously merging various other domains. This allowed him to completely dominate the area covered by his Blood Essence Domain.
That state truly was miraculous.
In fact, at that time, he had already achieved martial soul fusion.
However, that was only the fusion of his Brain-type martial soul and the Heavenly Origin Five Elements Spear martial soul. Since both were primary martial souls, the fusion wasn't too difficult, and the overlapping of reality and illusion was relatively straightforward.
But the Heavenly Origin Brush martial soul would be more troublesome.
"Moreover, my method of fusion is too crude and forceful—it still needs refinement."
The overlapping of reality and illusion should also involve techniques. When truly overlapped and fused, it might be even more exaggerated than when he devoured Ba Huang before.
Three months passed, and Yun Ming prepared to leave.
"Teacher, I want to try constructing a teleportation array between the Academy and the Endless Mountains."
"A teleportation array?"
Xu Yuan explained, "It's about creating a spatial channel between two points on the plane to facilitate travel."
Yun Ming shook his head.
"It's very difficult. Spatial teleportation technology is something even the Federation is researching, and they've made no real progress. Even though my understanding of space is quite deep, I still can't solidify spatial power to create a shorter spatial channel between two points within the same plane.
This is different from establishing a channel with the Demon Plane.
Establishing a Demon Gate is between two planes. You can think of it as there being a distance between two spheres with massive influence. We use spatial power to construct a channel, and the two spheres themselves will attract each other under the influence of the channel, causing the plane itself to push the formation of the channel. Of course, the plane will also control the intensity of the channel.
However, the principle behind a spatial channel between different regions of the same plane is different. It's like creating a channel between two points on the surface of a sphere that's shorter than the pure material distance. This kind of manipulation will stimulate the plane's laws and provoke rejection."
This involves twisting the internal space of the plane, which is very difficult to achieve.
"However, if you want to save time on traveling, you can tear open space and traverse through the spatial layers. That way, you can move between two points."
As long as you don't solidify a fixed channel, the difficulty remains manageable.
Yun Ming taught Xu Yuan many spatial techniques.
After finishing, he tore open the space in front of him with his soul power and disappeared into it.
Following Yun Ming's instructions, Xu Yuan attempted to tear open the space in front of him and entered the spatial layer.
"This is the spatial layer. Every point around here can be considered a node. Don't recklessly stimulate the spatial power here."
Yun Ming reminded Xu Yuan.
After speaking, he activated his soul power.
In the distance, a part of space resonated with him.
"Tearing space for travel requires coordinates. This direction leads to the Endless Mountains. I've roughly calculated the position and distance. The area resonating with me is the Endless Mountains."
With that, Yun Ming swiftly traversed through the spatial power, arriving at the designated area in the blink of an eye.
Xu Yuan also hurried toward that location.
Space tore apart.
The two stepped out of the spatial rift, and the crack behind them quickly dissipated.
"There's a slight deviation, but the principle is correct. You can follow the method I taught you to locate coordinates. With practice, your precision will improve."
Yun Ming assessed their position and flew toward the Endless Mountains.
In just a few minutes, they arrived at the Endless Mountains.
This time, Yun Ming had openly declared his identity upon arrival.
His presence shocked all the Limit Douluos present.
Has the strongest person on the continent really come here?
When Xu Yuan killed Scorching Sun (Lieyang) Douluo, he had said that if Yun Ming arrived, he would naturally hand over command. Everyone thought he was just making a threat to intimidate the other Limit Douluos.
No one expected that Yun Ming would actually come here and participate in the fight against the Abyss.
It could be said that Yun Ming's arrival alone demonstrated Shrek's sincerity. Other Shrek members, like Zhuo Shi and Long Yeyue, could return to the academy without any gossip or complaints.
"Has the situation within the Stellar Phenomenon changed so drastically in just four months?"
Xu Yuan learned about the situation within the Stellar Phenomenon from Zhang Huanyun and felt a headache coming on.
The Abyssal Sage King was the Plane Lord. His descent to Douluo Planet via the Stellar Phenomenon had a significant impact, completing the Abyss' infiltration into the phenomenon.
Although the soldiers of the Blood God Legion could still use their martial souls and soul power, they were under some level of suppression.
Over time, especially recently, this suppression had shown signs of increasing—a development Xu Yuan hadn't anticipated.
If the Abyss' suppression continued to increase to the level seen during the initial Abyss channel, the Blood God Legion would truly struggle.
"Is this the work of the Ghost Emperor and the others?" Xu Yuan frowned and asked.
"No, it shouldn't be related to the Ghost Emperor. This should be the Abyssal Sage King's test."
The increase in suppression naturally reflected the Abyss' attitude.
What the Abyssal Sage King feared most was Xu Yuan destroying the opportunity presented by the Stellar Phenomenon.
If Douluo Planet had no room to resist, Xu Yuan would definitely destroy this opportunity. Therefore, the Abyssal Sage King had to give Douluo's side hope.
There was suppression, but not complete suppression, leaving the Blood God Legion with room to struggle.
However, as Douluo's side had already gathered a large number of powerful individuals and was at a critical juncture, the Abyssal Sage King increased the suppression further, forcing the Blood God Legion to adapt to this harsher pressure.
He was testing Xu Yuan's limits.
Zhang Huanyun looked at Xu Yuan, waiting for his response.
Xu Yuan didn't answer but instead turned to Yun Ming.
"Let me handle this issue." Yun Ming spoke with natural confidence, as if he didn't consider the Abyss' laws to be a concern at all.
Zhang Huanyun cast a slightly hesitant glance at Yun Ming.
Cao Dezhi was also somewhat hesitant.
"Yun Ming, are you sure you can solve this problem?"
Yun Ming chuckled lightly and replied, "Just introduce Douluo Planet's laws into it. The two planes' laws are currently competing within the Stellar Phenomenon. The Abyssal Sage King has intentionally strengthened the influence of the Abyss' laws, but solving it is simple. All we need to do is infiltrate more of Douluo Planet's laws into it."
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