In the following days,
Chu Hao first waited for the Endless Abyss to absorb all thirty-plus worlds from the Hayes motherworld.
Then, once the Endless Abyss exceeded one hundred layers, he began the second phase of his work.
This second phase was to create new Demon Princes.
With the experience of Fa Buti, Chu Hao had greatly simplified the process of using the essence of the Endless Abyss to create Demon Princes this time.
He discovered that regardless of a demon's strength, as long as its individual power reached the legendary stage, it qualified to become a Demon Prince, a puppet of the Endless Abyss.
He also noticed a second trait of these Demon Princes.
No matter the power gap between the chosen demons, once they became Demon Princes, their strength would become remarkably even.
Although each demon's appearance and temperament varied greatly, their power was almost identical in Chu Hao's view.
This struck him as extremely strange.
But realizing that these demons were forged by the Abyss itself, Chu Hao had little doubt about it.
He even speculated that as the Endless Abyss expanded and strengthened, the Demon Princes' powers would grow accordingly.
However, this speculation required time and practice to confirm.
---
After finishing all this, Chu Hao separated his consciousness from the Endless Abyss and returned to the misty secret realm.
"Phew…"
He tallied his gains.
Though only a short period had passed in the external world, his acquisitions were staggering.
Over thirty divine worlds, including the Hayes worlds and the natural world he originally planned to invade, provided him immense wealth.
Beyond high-value secret realm rules, he had nearly doubled the area of the Endless Abyss.
Though the Abyss had grown in power, its expansion meant it needed time to populate these lands and restore the number of demons.
In other words, the Endless Abyss was now less suited for invading other worlds.
Chu Hao planned to take advantage of this rare "rest" period to visit the trading district.
He intended to exchange temporarily unused rules for resources more necessary for the Endless Abyss.
He prepared to follow his "Divine Fire markers" to leave.
But when he turned around, he froze.
"Why are so many Divine Fire markers missing?"
Like last time, most of the markers he left behind had vanished.
And it wasn't just the quantity that was alarming.
He realized something else: the number of secret worlds in the region had drastically decreased.
It mirrored his previous visit to the misty realm.
It was as if a greedy monster had been hunting everything in the secret realm, even devouring markers left by deities.
Chu Hao felt that something was off.
Yet he couldn't determine the cause.
He relied on the few remaining Divine Fire markers to exit the secret realm embedded in the void.
Fortunately, the initial markers he set remained. He successfully left the area.
Chu Hao turned to look at the misty realm in the void.
"…"
From his view, the misty realm still appeared as usual, filled with countless secret worlds and vast fog-like matter.
Its appearance had not changed.
"Something feels strange," he thought.
"After completing this trade, I should leave. Better to keep a distance from a strange region."
Though Chu Hao loved exploring the unknown, he was not completely reckless.
He maintained basic caution toward anything unusual.
---
He pushed open the door to the trading hall.
Several perfect-looking traders immediately approached.
"Ah, sir, what would you like to trade? Sell or buy…"
Unlike last time, Chu Hao, already familiar with the process, wasted no words.
He calmly materialized dozens of world rules and placed them in the trader's hands.
"Appraise them and sell them," he said.
Then, in the trader's stunned expression, he took the trading manual and began reading.
The trader quickly realized who he was.
She glanced at him a few times and finally confirmed.
This was the same lower-ranking deity who had sold dozens of rules so boldly last time.
"Prepare to purchase fifty resource continents," Chu Hao said calmly.
"Deliver them as soon as possible."
Unspoken was: "The Abyssal Incubation Pool will be full this time."
---
While scanning the trading manual, a piece of information suddenly caught his eye.
It was a listing for a secret world coordinate for sale in the latest manual.
Such coordinate trades were not uncommon.
Many valuable secret worlds were hard to find, and their high-level difficulty made them nearly impossible for ordinary deities to conquer.
Even if discovered, their treasures were difficult to fully plunder.
Some traders would scout these worlds, then sell the coordinates as commodities.
The listing read:
"For sale: Rare secret world coordinates."
"World description: Survey indicates this world is a new world formed from the remnants of a mid-tier divine difficulty secret realm. Its strength is below mid-tier deities but above lower-tier deities."
"In this nascent secret world, several rare rules may allow divine beings to greatly surpass their current limits."