Chapter 99: A Long Devouring, Lei Chen's Choice
The heart of the Star Dou Great Forest, the Lake of Life.
The center of the lake, originally as calm as an emerald mirror, saw space ripple like water, spreading soft concentric circles.
In the next moment, a tall figure and a towering Golden Ancient Tree, flowing with a seven-colored halo, emerged silently from the center of the ripples.
It was Lei Chen and the Golden Ancient Tree that had been rooted in the mountain range at the plane's boundary.
Leveraging his absolute control over the plane's space, Lei Chen had directly teleported himself and this Life Core of the plane back to the place with the densest life energy in the Star Dou Great Forest.
Compared to the boundary that had just experienced the flames of war and energy turbulence, this place was undoubtedly more suitable for the Golden Ancient Tree to undergo a long period of deep hibernation and transformation.
Under the guidance of Lei Chen's will, the thick roots of the Golden Ancient Tree naturally spread downwards, like a thirsty traveler greedily rerooting into the silt at the bottom of the Lake of Life, which contained vast life energy.
"Buzz—"
As if receiving rain after a long drought, the Golden Ancient Tree emitted a pleasant, slight hum. Its branches and leaves stretched out, and the seven-colored brilliance flowing on its canopy seemed to brighten slightly, creating a deeper resonance with the life aura of the entire Star Dou Great Forest.
Lei Chen stood suspended before the ancient tree, his gaze falling on the physical light sphere in his palm. It had been compressed to the limit by spatial power, remaining only the size of a fist with a color as deep as a blood diamond. This was the final remains of the Abyss Plane, condensing all the matter, energy, and law fragments of eighty percent of its volume.
"Begin."
Lei Chen no longer hesitated. Holding the light sphere in his right hand, he gently pressed it against the rough and warm trunk of the Golden Ancient Tree.
The moment the light sphere touched the trunk, a strange scene occurred. The hard surface of the trunk turned into liquid water, rippling with seven-colored waves, and slowly "swallowed" the heavy light sphere inside.
The moment the light sphere completely vanished into the trunk, the entire Golden Ancient Tree shook violently!
"Boom—!"
A terrifying aura, far more majestic, heavy, and chaotic than the energy from the self-detonation of the three Second-Tier Gods previously digested, erupted from within the Golden Ancient Tree!
The originally gentle seven-colored halo instantly became piercing and rapid, as if under immense pressure.
On the tree's body, those naturally formed profound patterns shone with unprecedented brightness, operating frantically in an attempt to harmonize and guide this sudden influx of violent energy with diametrically opposite attributes.
The dark red Abyss Origin power and the pure life radiance of the Golden Ancient Tree itself engaged in a direct collision inside the tree, producing a tooth-aching "sizzling" sound.
The water of the entire Lake of Life began to boil, and dense white life mist was stirred up, soaring into the sky and shrouding the core area in a hazy blur.
Lei Chen's brow furrowed almost the moment the devouring began.
The reason was simple: through his perception as the Plane Master, he clearly sensed that the initial speed of devouring and refining was... too slow!
It was slower than his initial estimation.
In his divine sense, the Golden Ancient Tree was like a child with a limited appetite, desperately gnawing on a rock that was incredibly hard and far larger than itself.
Although the Golden Ancient Tree had done its best, mobilizing the life energy of the entire Star Dou Great Forest and even the Douluo Plane to assist in the transformation, the speed at which the dark red light sphere was being dissolved, stripped, and purified was still agonizingly slow.
"At this rate..." Lei Chen rapidly calculated in his mind, "to completely devour and refine the remains of the entire Abyss Plane and transform them into pure Life Origin to nourish the Douluo Plane, it will take at least... several thousand years!"
This conclusion made Lei Chen's brow furrow slightly.
Several thousand years—this was far too long.
But on second thought, he understood that this wasn't due to a lack of effort from the Golden Ancient Tree, but rather an objective reality.
The Abyss Plane was, after all, a powerful plane with deep foundations and a complete structure; its volume was even a notch stronger than the Douluo Plane before it merged with the Undead Demi-plane.
The current Douluo Plane, though its foundation had strengthened due to successive victories, found it no easy task to completely devour the remains of a plane of the same level, or even slightly stronger than itself.
While it wasn't quite as exaggerated as "a snake swallowing an elephant," it was definitely a long and arduous battle of "assimilation" that could not be accomplished overnight.
A digestion time of several thousand years might be considered within an acceptable range for plane-level operations, but for Lei Chen, who had many plans and a desire for rapid improvement, it seemed somewhat lengthy.
"I can't just wait like this." Lei Chen's eyes narrowed as he made a decision.
He slowly closed his eyes, sinking his mind completely into his connection with the Douluo Plane.
In the next moment, a vast and majestic power, containing the will of the entire plane, surged out from within Lei Chen's body like an invisible bridge, tightly linking him with the Golden Ancient Tree before him.
Lei Chen began to personally empower the Golden Ancient Tree using his authority as the Plane Master!
This time, it was no longer just about guiding and providing an environment, but directly intervening in the core process of devouring and refining with his own divine power and status will!
"Buzz—!"
Receiving Lei Chen's full empowerment, the Golden Ancient Tree seemed to be injected with a stimulant. The light from its trunk surged again, and the phantom outline of the entire Douluo Plane even faintly appeared above its canopy.
The speed at which those seven-colored patterns operated suddenly increased several times over, and the efficiency of eroding and stripping the dark red light sphere climbed significantly along with it.
In Lei Chen's divine sense, that stubborn dark red light sphere was now like a block of ice placed under a blazing sun, its melting speed clearly accelerating.
The process that would have originally taken several thousand years was forcibly compressed to... several hundred years under Lei Chen's personal intervention!
"Several hundred years..." Sensing this new speed, Lei Chen's brow relaxed slightly.
Compared to several thousand years, this time span was undoubtedly much shorter. Relatively speaking, it was a speed he could accept.
If it only took a few hundred years to completely digest the foundation of a powerful plane and allow the Douluo Plane to complete a leap in growth, this deal was worth it no matter how one looked at it.
However, a new problem followed.
Lei Chen soon discovered that to maintain this efficient devouring speed, he had to constantly pour the vast majority, if not nearly all, of his mind and energy into the process of empowering the Golden Ancient Tree and harmonizing the two types of origin energy.
This meant that during these several hundred years, it would be difficult for him to attend to anything else. He would be almost the same as being "tethered" to the side of the Lake of Life.
"This won't do..." Lei Chen's brow furrowed again.
The coming time was crucial for him.
Although the threat of the Abyss was gone, the internal integration of the Douluo Continent, the further development of Soul Tool Technology and the Alchemy System, and the advancement of the God Position recasting... this series of plans and arrangements all required him, the Plane Master, to maintain a certain level of attention and guidance.
If he could only stay here like a stone statue for hundreds of years, throwing himself heart and soul into the devouring work while ignoring the changes in the outside world, it would undoubtedly disrupt his overall layout. He might even miss certain key development points or emergencies, which was also unacceptable to him.
Now, it seemed there were only two choices before him:
First, give up the efficient empowerment and let the Golden Ancient Tree devour at its original "natural" speed. The advantage was that he would be free to move; the disadvantage was that it would take several thousand years, which was too long and full of variables.
Second, he could personally act in exchange for efficient devouring. The advantage was that the time would be significantly shortened and the plane would grow faster; the disadvantage was that several hundred years of his own time would be completely bound here, leaving him no time for other matters.
Should he choose a free but long wait, or an efficient but freedom-losing closed-door cultivation?
Lei Chen hovered in the air, his gaze deep as he watched the Golden Ancient Tree before him, which was glowing and fiercely "fighting" the Abyss remains. He fell into deep thought. Both options had their pros and cons, and neither was a perfect choice.
He pondered for a long time, his fingertips unconsciously tapping lightly in the void as if calculating some possibility. Suddenly, his tapping motion paused, an imperceptible flash of inspiration crossed his eyes, and his tightly furrowed brow slowly relaxed.
"Perhaps... I have a third choice."
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