The level of an ordinary Title Douluo is already incredibly strong, you know?
Across the entire Douluo Continent, with such a vast number of soul masters, how many can truly reach the rank of Title Douluo?
And even among Title Douluos, how many can reach level ninety-four?
King-level Abyssal creatures are basically able to suppress a ninety-fourth-level Title Douluo.
To kill a King-level Abyssal creature, only Super Douluo-level experts stand a chance.
"I understand what you're saying. Even though the greatest threat now is limited to King-level Abyssal creatures, we still maintain this massive military presence here year-round and endure immense pressure." Long Yuxue sighed bitterly. "Although we've sealed the passage, the other side constantly tries to break through the seal. While they always fail, their attempts allow one or two Abyssal Emperors to occasionally slip through into our world."
Any single Abyssal Emperor poses a tremendous threat.
"The power comparisons I mentioned earlier are under normal circumstances. In reality, most of our battles against Abyssal creatures occur within the Abyssal passage. Even though luring them out makes them easier to deal with, we can't do that."
Xu Yuan looked at Long Yuxue curiously.
"There's a Plane Lord on the Abyss side. His existence alone puts enormous pressure on us. If he intervenes to break the seal, our Blood God Legion would suffer nearly fifty percent casualties."
"He can manipulate the Abyss's power. If we lure a King-level Abyssal creature out of the passage, the Abyss Lord will inevitably use his power to attack the seal from the outside."
In truth, King-level Abyssal creatures were relatively manageable.
The real challenge lay with Emperor-level Abyssal creatures.
Even inside the Abyssal passage, not even Limit Douluos could confidently handle Emperor-level Abyssal creatures.
If an Emperor-level Abyssal creature were lured out of the passage, the Abyss Lord's ability to mobilize forces would become even more terrifying, potentially exceeding the limits of the seal's endurance.
If the seal were completely destroyed, the sacrifices made by those six thousand years ago would have been in vain, and the Blood God Legion's six-thousand-year vigil would be nothing but a joke.
"Therefore, when fighting Abyssal creatures, we must account for not only their inherent strengths but also consider raising our estimates by at least one rank. Additionally, we need to factor in the suppression and restrictions on our soul power, and in some cases, the complete inability to use martial souls. That adds up to at least two ranks we need to compensate for when dealing with them."
"You're an exception. Your blood essence seems to function normally within the Abyssal passage, and combined with your spear martial soul, you can maintain near-peak performance."
"Alright, enough storytelling. Let's get to the practical lessons." Long Yuxue stopped discussing abstract concepts and began teaching Xu Yuan specific knowledge.
"Ba An."
"Mo Mei."
"Bomb Bees."
Long Yuxue pulled up images of various Abyssal creatures from her computer, showing them to Xu Yuan while explaining their characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses.
". . ."
By the end of the day, Xu Yuan's mind was filled with a wealth of knowledge about Abyssal creatures.
With his brain as his martial soul, his learning ability needed no elaboration. Anything Long Yuxue mentioned, he remembered instantly, never forgetting.
This once again left Long Yuxue slightly amazed.
"When dealing with Abyssal creatures, we primarily rely on soul-guided weapons. Although our soul power is restricted, we've developed a method to convert it into a special type of energy stored within soul-guided weapons, allowing them to be used within the Abyssal passage. Though the energy still dissipates over time, it's sufficient to unleash extraordinary abilities and hunt Abyssal creatures."
Long Yuxue looked at Xu Yuan, unable to hide the anticipation in her eyes.
"You're one of the few who can fight Abyssal creatures with your own strength, so I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing your future performance. If you weren't a researcher, your rate of accumulating merit points and advancing in rank wouldn't be slow."
"Speaking of researchers, countless people have already studied the project you're working on. They all ended in failure due to insufficient methods. At its core, the problem lies in the Abyss's fundamental imprint embedded in the energy that constitutes the bodies of Abyssal creatures. To delve into this field requires technology far beyond our current capabilities."
Long Yuxue sighed, clearly skeptical of Xu Yuan's chances.
"A cure often exists near poison. Before coming here, I encountered Sand Demon Worms. Could their devouring ability also work on Abyssal creatures?" Xu Yuan asked curiously.
"This has already been attempted by researchers. They even extracted the Sand Demon Worm's fluid, further purifying it to enhance its corrosive effects.
However, even then, it only added a layer of contamination to the energy mass left behind after an Abyssal creature's death. This contamination is akin to poisoning—it doesn't mean the body has been completely consumed.
The contaminated energy still returns to the Abyss, and the toxins in the Sand Demon Worm's fluid have negligible effects on the Abyss as a whole."
Xu Yuan understood.
So this was the process of previous researchers studying the Sand Demon Worm's energy-devouring mechanism?
"Without the Sand Demon Worm's absorption mechanism, even if the Abyssal energy is contaminated, it doesn't count as being devoured by us. Naturally, there were further studies, but unfortunately, they all failed. They even brought in a ten-thousand-year-old Sand Demon Worm, but it had no effect either. After devouring the Abyssal energy, the Sand Demon Worm's body exploded."
"That was caused by the conflict between the two types of energy. The Sand Demon Worm is ultimately a spirit beast of the Douluo Plane, and all its power originates from soul power. Researchers then shifted their focus to studying the structure of the Sand Demon Worm's mouthparts. Eventually, they achieved results, developing an energy extraction technique that was integrated into our soul-guided weapon technology, allowing our weapons to replenish energy by killing Abyssal creatures.
Of course, this still doesn't count as fully devouring Abyssal energy. The corrupted Abyssal energy absorbed by soul-guided weapons still dissipates upon leaving the Abyssal passage, quietly returning to the Abyss. The absorbed energy can only be used within the Abyssal passage."
Long Yuxue continued to explain the progress of previous research to Xu Yuan.
Xu Yuan stroked his chin thoughtfully.
From the results of previous researchers, it was clear that the Sand Demon Worm's mechanism did have some utility, but ultimately, it couldn't remove the Abyss plane's fundamental imprint on its energy.
That was the crux of the matter.
"Afterward, the energy extraction technology used in soul-guided weapons continued to improve, but it hasn't changed the overall situation between our two planes."
Douluo Star was still losing energy.
The Abyss continued to devour Douluo Star's power, without its own energy truly leaking out.
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