"I understand! I'll make sure to protect myself."

Blood One nodded in response. "Go on, I wish you a smooth journey."

After extending another military salute, Tang Wulin turned around before rising up into the air. The dragon wings on his suit of battle armor spread open, and he glided toward the east.

Sima Jinchi, A'Ruheng, Ling Wuyue, Ma Shan, Jiang Wuyue, Long Yuxue, and the 20 other Blood Dragon Squad members also rose up into the air before flying into the distance behind him.

Cao Dezhi looked on at their departing figures with a faint smile on his face. "A supreme prodigy will complete their metamorphosis to become a dragon as soon as they rise up into the heavens. Wulin, I wish you all the success in the world. We can only give you a helping hand, but how far you can go will depend on you."

Zhang Huanyun sighed, "You know what? I'm a little sad to see him go."

Cao Dezhi chuckled, "You're just sad that he's taking so many of our legion's elite young talents, right?"

"Ahem!"

Light began to shimmer in Cao Dezhi's eyes as he mused, "It's about time these young people take over the Douluo Continent; let's see just how brightly they'll shine."

Zhang Huanyun's brows furrowed slightly. "You don't seem to be concerned at all. You should be well aware of just how powerful his future enemies will be."

Cao Dezhi replied in an indifferent voice, "How will he continue to improve without powerful opponents to test him? Besides, he's never been fighting alone. Do you really think that just two Godslayer missiles can truly destroy the Tang Sect and Shrek Academy, both of which have stood at the pinnacle of the continent for over 20,000 years?"

Zhang Huanyun's expression changed slightly, and he seemed to have gleaned the implications behind Cao Dezhi's words.

"Let's go back, I have to further examine the seal. I'm sure the abyssal plane will remain dormant for quite a while after this. That so-called Holy Lord has most likely been severely wounded, and according to our past experience, there may not be another abyssal tide in the next few centuries."

Indeed, the abyssal plane had been dealt an extremely heavy blow during this recent battle. Three of the 108 planar seeds had been completely destroyed, thereby shaking the entire foundation of the plane. Even more abyssal emperors had perished in order to force open the seal, and even though they could be revived in the abyssal plane, their resurrections would take a very long time.

It could be said that this was the heaviest blow that had been dealt to the abyssal plane, second only to when they had first invaded the Douluo Continent over 6,000 years ago.

After that battle, the abyssal plane hadn't attacked the Douluo Continent for over 1,000 years, so the Blood God Legion should be given a long time to rest and recuperate following this battle. Furthermore, it was important to remember that the Blood God Legion could enter the abyssal plane through the abyssal passageway at will.

Another reason that Cao Dezhi had agreed for Tang Wulin to depart was in order to prepare for the complete eradication of the threat posed by the abyssal plane in the future.

Tang Wulin required more growth and development. He was already a Soul Sage now, but in the eyes of truly powerful beings, there was still a lot of potential for him to improve.

With Tang Wulin's current situation, once he became a Titled Douluo, Hyper Douluo, and even Limit Douluo, he would pose an extremely potent threat to the abyssal plane. After he reached that level, the threat of the abyssal plane could truly be eradicated for good.

They didn't need to destroy the entire abyssal plane; all they had to do was force them to cut off the passageway, and by extension, the connection to the Douluo Continent.

……

A heavy aura was permeating throughout a greyish-white world, striking all of the abyssal creatures with a sense of asphyxiation.

This situation had already persisted for three abyssal days. Every single abyssal level was trembling as the ruler of the entire abyssal plane, the Holy Lord, was in a maddened state of fury.

They had failed!

Even after making such massive sacrifices, the abyssal plane had still failed in their invasion of the human world; they didn't even manage to kill that man who posed a fundamental threat to the entire abyssal plane!

When the Ant Emperor's planar seed had been completely devoured, causing that abyssal level to be destroyed, tremors had run through the entire abyssal plane, and this had happened twice in quick succession! The complete destruction of the two planar seeds struck all of the abyssal emperors with an extremely urgent sense of peril. They finally understood why the Holy Lord was determined to find that human and kill him at all costs.

That human really was posing a threat to the survival of the entire abyssal plane.

The Holy Lord sat on his massive lofty chair with an unmatched aura radiating from its body. The entire abyssal plane was trembling in the face of his peerless might. To the Holy Lord, who was the true ruler of this plane, it was an extremely simple matter to destroy any of the abyssal levels.

The 108 abyssal levels were like parts of its body, and the deepest level was the level where its essence lay.

At this moment, all of the other abyssal emperors were standing before the Holy Lord. Aside from the Holy Lord, only 84 of the 107 abyssal emperors remained. In order to facilitate that final attack from the Holy Lord, 20 abyssal emperors had to sacrifice themselves in order to produce enough energy to temporarily open up a spatial passageway.

The Holy Lord's power was indeed unmatched. However, as the ruler of the abyssal plane, it had to face enormous pressure from an entire plane when it tried to attack an alternate plane.

Tang Wulin was able to draw upon so much natural energies through the Blood God Array and avoid overexertion despite wielding far more power than he was capable of, and this was exactly because the entire Douluo Continent plane had been protecting him at the time. Otherwise, how could a mere Soul Emperor like him have played such a significant role during that battle?

Despite the heavy price that had been paid by the abyssal plane, Tang Wulin was still alive, and the Holy Lord had even been injured in its attempt to kill him; this was simply unimaginable.

The Holy Lord had already been sitting in silence for three abyssal days, and no one dared to utter a single sound as a grave atmosphere settled over all of the abyssal emperors.

They had always regarded the human world as prey that could be hunted down to elevate the abyssal plane into a divine realm, but could it be that the human world now truly possessed the power to destroy the abyssal plane instead? This was something that they were simply unable and unwilling to accept.

"That was the power of a god; it was true godly power!" The Holy Lord's voice was very calm and completely emotionless. However, all of the abyssal emperors heaved a collective sigh of relief upon hearing this. At the very least, the Holy Lord had eased the tense atmosphere by breaking the silence.

However, was that really the power of a god? How could a godly being exist in the human world? Gods should be entities that existed outside of all of the planes. They were higher life forms that all beings on all planes strove to become.

The Holy Lord could've become a god a long time ago if it had intended to so. However, as the ruler of a plane, it had many innate advantages, but also extremely severe disadvantages.

With the Holy Lord's power, there would be no issue for it to become even a godking if it were willing to ascend into the divine realm of its plane. It possessed absolute power, and all it required was a godseat.

However, as the ruler of a plane, it had to face an issue that no other living beings had to face during their journeys to ascension.

A planar ruler was the core of an entire plane and ruled over everything within that plane. If the Holy Lord wished to do so, it could even make the entire abyssal plane self-detonate and destroy all of the abyssal creatures within it. The Holy Lord could bend the entire abyssal plane to its will, but due to the fact that it was a planar ruler, it was completely integrated with the entire abyssal plane. In a sense, it could be said that it and the abyssal plane were the same inseparable entity.

As such, if it wanted to become a god, then it would have to transform the entire abyssal plane into a brand new divine realm. Setting aside whether that would result in clashes with other existing divine realms, just the energy required to elevate a plane to become a divine realm was downright immeasurable.

As such, only through devouring the power and life force energy of other planes could the abyssal plane become more powerful than other divine realms, thereby giving the Holy Lord a chance at ascension.

As for the abyssal emperors and abyssal sovereigns, no matter how powerful they became, they wouldn't be able to become godly beings. As long as the abyssal plane didn't become a divine realm, they would never have any hope for ascension. In this regard, the abyssal plane was completely different from the Douluo Continent.

The Douluo Continent didn't have a true planar seed, and all of the planar power had transformed into all types of resources on the Douluo Continent, including martial souls, soul beasts, Soul Masters, humans, plants, oceans, mountains, rivers, etc.

These were all constituent parts of the Douluo Continent's planar power, and any living being could earn themselves a chance at becoming a god as long as they could cultivate to the human peak using these resources.

Of course, the prerequisite to this was the existence of a divine realm.