It was an indescribable sense of emptiness, like a drowning person who had just grabbed a piece of driftwood, only for the wood to suddenly swerve away and float off on its own.
The nine-colored halo dimmed.
The Black Emperor was stunned. She raised her hand, looking at her palm.
The suppression from the Douluo Continent plane was receding at a pace visible to the naked eye.
"This is..."
She suddenly looked up at the Blood God Grand Array.
Cao Dezhi sat in the primary seat; a trace of bewilderment flashed through his eyes, which then turned into shock.
"Not right."
He whispered.
"Not right!"
The second time, his voice suddenly spiked.
The nine-colored light was still circulating, but the Nine Great Origins that had been drawn in...
They were no longer submissively pouring into the Formation, but were instead returning to where they came from.
"This is impossible!" Cao Dezhi looked at this scene in disbelief. He had presided over the Blood God Grand Array for many years and had never seen such a situation.
Unless.
Unless the plane did not allow it.
But how could that be possible?
The Blood God Grand Array was originally the guidance given to them by the plane over six thousand years ago when facing the abyssal invasion.
"Why..." Cao Dezhi's voice was hoarse as he turned his head with difficulty to look at the Douluo Continent behind him.
His gaze pierced through the Void Realm, falling upon the land he had protected his entire life.
He didn't understand.
Cao Dezhi's voice carried an unmaskable panic; the backflow of the Nine Great Origins was completely out of control.
He pushed the Formation with all his might, wanting to pull the dissipating Origins back into the circuit, but that power originating from the depths of the plane completely ignored him.
"Pfft—!"
Blood Nine, on the far right, had the weakest cultivation and was the first to succumb to the backlash, spraying a mist of crimson blood directly onto the disc.
The halo of the Space Origin, which was already extremely faint, was on the verge of extinguishing instantly.
Immediately after, the platforms of Blood Eight and Blood Seven shook in succession, and the halos representing the Time and Darkness Origins beneath them dimmed at a visible rate.
The nine rings were interlinked; if one ring collapsed, every ring was in danger.
On the main platform, Cao Dezhi felt a heart-wrenching backlash surge through the Formation's pathways directly into his mind. A metallic taste welled up in his throat, but he gritted his teeth and swallowed the blood back down.
"Damn it!" Cao Dezhi's eyes were nearly bursting, but he could only watch as the nine-colored halo grew fainter and fainter. The cracks in the Seal that had just begun to mend let out a tooth-aching sound of fracturing once more.
On the other side of the abyss, the Black Emperor was first stunned, then a crimson light of wild joy erupted in her eyes.
She believed she had figured out the key, thinking the battle between the Abyss Saint Lord and the Douluo plane consciousness had reached a conclusion, and she laughed wildly: "Our Lord has triumphed!"
A sense of despair permeated the Blood God Legion.
Because the Blood God within the array could not move, Zhang Huanyun, who was acting as their Protector, roared: "Old Cao, what's going on?!"
But Cao Dezhi no longer had any spare energy to answer him.
Within the legion, despair flooded the hearts of every Blood God Legion soldier.
Some gripped the spirit tools in their hands.
Some had eyes rimmed with red.
Yet not a single person retreated even half a step.
Even if the great array collapsed, they would use their own flesh and blood to block the abyss for one more step.
Long Yuxue also gripped the spirit tool in her hand, her muscles tensed all over, and her previously relaxed expression was instantly replaced by solemnity.
She looked at the tottering light shield, her heart feeling as if it were being squeezed hard by a giant hand.
Beside her, Arthur slowly chewed the remaining half of a compressed biscuit, his lowered eyelids concealing the golden light in his eyes.
Although he was also puzzled as to why, he could solve this problem.
His right hand, hanging at his side, twitched slightly in the shadows where no one noticed.
There wasn't even a shred of aura fluctuation.
Between heaven and earth, the nine Origins converged once more.
Strangely, the nine Origins that had just receded were still dissipating.
One set of Origins arrived, while another set retreated.
Those two sets of Origins, identical in source but moving in opposite directions, silently crossed each other within the Void Realm.
One side consisted of the Innate Spirits, retreating toward the depths of the plane with indifference.
The other side consisted of the nine Innate Origins summoned by Arthur, whose plane Origin aura was not off by even a fraction—even more compatible with the flow of the great array—which surged accurately and submissively toward the nine vibrating platforms.
Simultaneously, Arthur communicated with the plane consciousness, which was currently intercepting the Abyss Saint Lord in the Outer Heavens, to ask what was happening.
"Gah?"
The plane consciousness was merely a consciousness after all, and was being frantically beaten by the Abyss Saint Lord.
However, no matter how much of a beating it took, the plane consciousness remained very resilient, showing no signs of weakness.
At this moment, sensing Arthur's confusion...
It cast its gaze down slightly, saw the anomaly at the battlefield, and instantly understood everything.
It flew into a towering rage.
"Tang Hao, even killing you a thousand times! Ten thousand times! Would not be enough!"
Tang Hao really was the type to cause trouble if not disciplined for even a day.
The plane consciousness decided that once this was over and it returned, it would definitely work harder to deal with him.
That fury came from an extremely high distance, piercing through layers of the Void Realm and entering Arthur's perception.
Tang Hao?
Receiving the response, Arthur was surprised, but then he figured some things out.
So that's how it is.
Then it's not surprising.
The Blood God Grand Array appeared six thousand years ago.
At that time, Tang Hao had already seized great power, and the plane centered around him.
Six thousand years ago, the Douluo Continent was able to block the abyss naturally because he took action.
The great array must have been provided by him as well.
But it went no further than that.
Because of Tang San's bullshit ten-thousand-year plan, Tang Hao had secretly helped Seal the passage and then played dead, ignoring everything else.
Now that Cao Dezhi was using the Blood God Grand Array left behind back then, the plane power being used was also Tang Hao's.
The plane consciousness making a comeback now was the true Dominator of the Douluo Continent.
Tang Hao was likely trying to preserve himself, or perhaps had some other ideas, and was unwilling to waste his own plane power.
So he took the Origins back.
It was that simple.
It was that ridiculous.
Arthur kept his eyes lowered and swallowed the last bite of the compressed biscuit... The nine platforms that had already dimmed to the extreme once again lit up with steady and brilliant halos with Arthur's help. Space, Time, Darkness, Light... the nine Innate Origins began to circulate smoothly once more, interlinked and seamless, without the slightest hesitation.
A continuous stream of power surged back into Blood Nine's previously depleted Meridians, and his unfocused pupils instantly regained their luster.
Blood Seven and Blood Eight also stabilized their forms at the same time, and the previously weak Origin halos became bright once more.
Cao Dezhi felt a weight lift from his entire body; the backlash that was about to tear his mind apart vanished instantly, and the Nine Great Origins once again submissively followed his guidance, cycling perfectly within the Formation.
He was stunned for a moment, then a wild joy and excitement from surviving a disaster erupted in his eyes. His previously hoarse voice became passionate and high-pitched again as he once more chanted the incantation loudly: "Innate Spirits, follow my guidance! Soul of Douluo, forge the Foundation!"
The Blood God Grand Array radiated light once more.
Zhang Huanyun was first delighted, then waved his hand, commanding: "Protective shield prepare, shockwave prepare."
"All personnel, fight to the death and do not retreat!"
Zhang Huanyun, who had previously gone to the depths of the Abyss Passage with Cao Dezhi, understood that the recovery of the Blood God Grand Array only allowed them to hold on for a little while longer.
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