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After learning that Na'er would also be coming to the Demon Plane, Xu Yuan decided not to rush leaving the base. Instead, he waited at the base for Na'er's arrival.
Two days passed, and Shrek's gains in this area continued to increase.
One by one, the senior students from the inner court returned from their missions, reporting on their respective tasks.
Not everyone was like Xu Yuan, exploring without a specific purpose or acting as a vanguard. Whatever they encountered during their explorations counted as their findings.
Most of the senior students had specific objectives for their investigations, such as the surrounding terrain, environment, and even geological features, which were all subject to specialized analysis.
The geological analysis was particularly important, as it determined whether Shrek could use unique plants from the Douluo Plane to rapidly alter the environment here.
Of course, some seniors had engaged in combat, but capturing enemies alive was still rare.
For the most part, what the seniors brought back were the corpses of demons, which were studied alongside the bodies of the demonic creatures that had invaded Sea God Island.
This was the nature of inter-plane warfare.
Within a plane, there were nominal distinctions of good and evil between Shrek and organizations like the Spirit Pagoda or the Holy Spirit Sect. However, between planes, there was no absolute concept of good or evil.
Even the Abyss followed its own principles—consuming the weak to strengthen itself.
It was only from the perspective of the planes being consumed that this appeared as an unfathomable evil.
Now, with Shrek counter-invading the Demon Plane, there was no clear right or wrong.
From Shrek's perspective, they were entirely justified. They were securing benefits for themselves and preparing measures to deal with the potential crisis posed by the Godslayer missiles.
"The ambient energy of the Demon Plane is astonishingly effective for cultivation. Even my body has been noticeably tempered."
In fact, cultivating in areas where the golden ancient tree hadn't filtered the ambient energy provided the best tempering effect for Xu Yuan's body. This was one of the reasons he wanted to venture out.
During his previous outing, due to the unclear situation around him, he didn't dare to cultivate recklessly.
This time was different.
Having learned about the distribution of Tyrants from Kaye and Sass, Xu Yuan felt confident enough to find a safe spot to cultivate for a while.
"An interesting point is that even after I refine the ambient energy to enhance my soul power and blood energy, the energy I consume will still remain within the Demon Plane."
Energy was conserved.
However, after soul power was consumed, it would exist in another form within this world.
If consumed in the Demon World, it would return to the Demon Plane.
And if consumed on the Douluo Continent, this energy would naturally integrate into the operations of the Douluo Plane, becoming part of its foundation.
By absorbing the ambient energy of the Demon Plane to cultivate and then returning to the Douluo Continent, whether the energy was expended in battle or dissipated upon a soul master's death, it would add to the total energy of the Douluo Plane.
This was how a plane advanced.
Aside from energy planes like the Abyss, all material planes operated in this manner.
"The development of planes isn't limited to this."
Xu Yuan found it hard to believe that if the only way for a plane to grow was by consuming external energy and digesting it within the Douluo system, the advancement of the entire plane would be incredibly slow.
Even though planes naturally absorbed vast amounts of stellar energy, surely it couldn't compare to the amount of energy the Abyss had drained through its parasitic consumption?
Over thousands of years, the Abyss had sucked away an unimaginable amount of blood energy.
Such a massive influx of energy couldn't solely be attributed to the plane's natural advancement.
"Cultivators like soul masters must also play an essential role in the process of a plane's advancement."
Could a plane capable of supporting cultivators at the limit beneath the god level truly progress if it lacked cultivators of that caliber?
Could it break through to become a god-level plane, capable of nurturing god-level beings?
"The stronger the cultivators, the more they act as catalysts, driving the plane to instinctively absorb more stellar energy. It's like an organ in the human body—once it becomes stronger, it prompts the body's instincts to absorb more energy. If it's not enough, the person eats more."
"Cultivators absorb energy from the plane to grow stronger, but in doing so, they also encourage the plane to absorb more stellar energy from the universe. Whether or not the exchange is equal doesn't matter. What matters is that when cultivators die, the energy they absorbed returns to the plane. During that time, any additional energy the plane absorbed from the outside becomes pure profit."
"In this way, the plane enters a positive feedback loop."
Why had the Douluo Plane remained standing despite being leeched by the Abyss for so long?
It was because, although the environment of the Douluo Plane was deteriorating, it never lacked powerful individuals. In fact, the strength of soul masters was increasing, reaching new heights.
Unfortunately, during such an era, when the plane's total energy should have rapidly increased, prompting its advancement, the Douluo Plane instead harbored a parasite—the Abyss. For thousands of years, it had been gnawing away at the plane, causing no progress and even leading to an overall decline in energy.
Thankfully, the cultivation system of soul masters was well-developed. Even as the plane regressed, the stability of the cultivation system remained unaffected, preventing the entire framework from collapsing.
Xu Yuan had much to ponder.
"Elder Brother Lan Muzi, you've returned?"
As Xu Yuan snapped out of his thoughts, Lan Muzi had already returned.
With him were Elder Sister Tang Yinmeng and Tang Wulin.
Tang Wulin looked terrible. His entire body was covered in blood, and Xu Yuan could confirm it was his own.
His aura was also weakened, and his blood energy fluctuations were alarmingly low.
Had he overexerted himself?
Xu Yuan was somewhat surprised.
He hadn't expected Tang Wulin to be pushed to this extent, even with Old Tang's presence.
Thinking back to Old Tang's reluctant intervention in the Dragon Valley, Xu Yuan understood.
Old Tang's opportunities to intervene were limited. If he could avoid using them, he wouldn't waste what was essentially his last chance.
Moreover, if Xu Yuan remembered correctly, Old Tang's three interventions were strictly speaking only intended to prevent accidents.
The second intervention, while also aimed at preventing accidents, seemed to have a greater purpose—to initiate the Sea God's divine trial for Tang Wulin. This further positioned Tang Wulin while giving him a boost to rapidly increase his soul power and catch up with the absorption of the Golden Dragon King's seals, aiding him in better assimilating the Golden Dragon King's power.
Now, at just Level 50, Tang Wulin was not yet ready for the remote initiation of the Sea God's divine trial. Even if Old Tang wanted to activate it now, he would have to endure.
"Wulin's situation was similar to yours. He encountered a demon Tyrant about a hundred kilometers from our location, was discovered, and pursued. With no other choice, Wulin detonated the level-nine fixed-installation soul-guided missile he carried."
Lan Muzi hadn't brought back any captives this time.
Clearly, the demon Tyrant he encountered wasn't someone who could be captured and was instead slain on the spot.
Tang Wulin scratched his head and gave an awkward smile.
On the way back, he had heard about Xu Yuan's encounter from Lan Muzi.
The difference was that Xu Yuan had planned to use Nalundo as a means to hone himself, while Tang Wulin had no such plan.
He had spent the entire time fleeing.
Even after Tang Yinmeng arrived, he hadn't engaged the Tyrant in battle. Instead, he quickly retreated to the rear to recover.
If Lan Muzi hadn't arrived in time, Tang Yinmeng might have been dragged down by him, potentially damaging her meridians.
"I won't wander too far from the base anymore," Tang Wulin said sheepishly.
He had lost his confidence.
There was only one share of the level-nine fixed-installation soul-guided missile, which had already been used. Now, relying solely on himself, Tang Wulin had no guarantee of escaping another Tyrant.
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