290: Stalemate

A day passed.

The confrontation between the great universe consciousness and the Abyss saw no significant changes; both sides remained in a stalemate.

Occasionally, the Abyss could expand outward a short distance, and occasionally, the great universe consciousness could push the Abyss back a certain distance.

On the boundary of their confrontation, numerous Foundation Levels also gave their all, striving to gain an advantage for the great universe consciousness and weaken the power of the Abyss.

Lin Chen still hadn't found a solution.

This wasn't his mission, but he simply didn't want the Universe he was familiar with to be destroyed, nor did he want the Human Race to wander the Void Realm and retrace the path they had come from.

The current Universe was Lin Chen's comfort zone.

Breaking out of one's comfort zone is always painful.

"Perhaps the future me has a way to solve the problem."

"But if the future me hasn't acted, is it because this catastrophe won't develop in the direction I anticipate?"

Lin Chen didn't know if his guess was correct.

However, the current situation was that the Abyss and the great universe consciousness were locked in a stalemate, with neither able to overcome the other.

Without the intervention of an external force of the same level, the two would likely remain in this state for a long time.

Yet, in the end, it was the great universe consciousness that would suffer.

In confronting the Abyss, the great universe consciousness was consuming the power of the entire Universe; if the problem couldn't be solved now, even if the Universe didn't shatter, it would enter a state of chronic death, gradually heading toward the Dharma-Ending Age.

Just then, the Abyss reversed the momentum of the confrontation.

A surging devouring force extended from the Abyss, consuming the power of the great universe consciousness.

While the Abyss was reversing its power attributes, the great universe consciousness took the opportunity to suppress the Abyss in one go, compressing its volume by one-tenth.

The cost was that the great universe consciousness permanently lost a portion of its power, which was devoured by the Abyss, increasing the Abyss's mass.

As the Abyss began to devour power outward, the great universe consciousness had no choice but to change its confrontation mode, switching from suppression to defense, using the power of the entire Universe to condense a solid barrier to isolate the Abyss and withstand the terrifying devouring force.

It was unknown whether the Abyss possessed consciousness.

After the devouring force proved ineffective, it continued to reverse its power and expand outward again, forcing the great universe consciousness to switch from defense to offense, suppressing the Abyss once more to counter its expansion.

After this repeated several times, the great universe consciousness suffered no loss, but the Abyss gained no advantage either.

Ultimately, the Abyss settled into a constant devouring mode to avoid continuously losing power during the confrontation with the great universe consciousness.

Another half-year passed like this. The Abyss maintained its devouring mode, and the great universe consciousness did not lower its guard, remaining ready at all times to respond to any change in the Abyss's tactics.

When the Abyss devoured, the great universe consciousness defended, holding onto its own power.

When the Abyss expanded, the great universe consciousness suppressed it, countering the Abyss with unparalleled power.

The supporting Foundation Levels only needed to use the power of rules to annihilate the Abyss's energy when it expanded; when the Abyss was devouring, they would stop to rest and recover.

The Abyss, fixed in devouring mode, began its second phase of changes.

Unable to push back the great universe consciousness in one breath and unable to completely break free from the shackles of This Universe, the Abyss began to release mobs, which bypassed the barrier built by the great universe consciousness to invade the Universe and destroy its Foundation.

Since the Abyss itself could not expand, it dispatched minions to cause destruction, continuously damaging the power Foundation of the great universe consciousness and weakening it.

In a situation where both sides are evenly matched, this is a very common rhythm for a cosmic invasion.

Although the Abyss appeared to be a product of This Universe, it was actually in a hostile relationship with it; thus, it could be said that the Abyss was invading This Universe.

The living races within This Universe naturally needed to repel the invasion, slaying the Abyss Creatures to help the great universe consciousness resist the intrusion and protect their home.

The Abyss Creatures appeared, erupting from the Abyss like a tide and landing on the energy barrier set up by the great universe consciousness, their condensed Abyss power corroding the barrier.

Abyss Creatures whose energy was exhausted would also be devoured by the Abyss, not going to waste; they were more like a Zerg race than the Zerg themselves.

Or rather, in any war mode within a limited space that operates with massive numbers as an advantage, the capacity for battlefield resource recovery is always maximized.

Abyss Creatures were extremely deformed.

They had two main characteristics.

First, they lacked conventional vision.

Second, their forms were deformed, appearing as if they had grown haphazardly.

(An analogy would be the bizarre-looking fish in the deep sea, but even more abstract, with very few being aesthetically pleasing.)

Their basic strength was at the Demigod level, with some organizational ability. Node creatures at the Ascension to God level served as low-level commanders, while Abyss Creatures at the God level were hero units responsible for breaking through defenses.

Although Foundation Level Abyss Creatures had not yet appeared, based on the characteristics of Abyss Creatures, they certainly existed, likely as behind-the-scenes controllers similar to a Broodmother.

No one knew what lay in the depths of the Abyss.

But the current Abyss felt quite dangerous even to those old fellows at the Peak of the Foundation Level; going deep into it gave them a strong sense of impending doom.

Since the Abyss had made its move and wanted to wage a full-scale invasion war, the great universe consciousness accepted the challenge.

Rather than letting Abyss Creatures crawl all over the energy barrier and corrode it, pointlessly consuming the power of the great universe consciousness...

...it was better to go to war. At least they could kill the Abyss Creatures and snatch their corpses back from the Abyss's maw, which would also deplete the Abyss's power.

Since the top-level struggle between the Abyss and the great universe consciousness could not produce a winner, they could only fight this kind of mutually destructive war of attrition; whoever couldn't hold out first would die.

The great universe consciousness personally appeared to negotiate with the leaders of the seven super great races, ordering them to dispatch troops. No matter what, the Abyss Creatures had to be kept out of cosmic space to prevent them from attacking from within and wreaking havoc on the entire Universe.

It seemed like a negotiation, but it was actually a forced assignment of tasks.

Each of the seven great races was responsible for a section of the defensive line.

Between the defensive lines of the great races, there were isolation zones.

These isolation zones were the battlefields for top-tier great races and medium-sized races, serving as buffer lines between the two super great races to prevent any friction between them from erupting.

Since the super great races had to send troops to fight the Abyss Creatures, the other races in the Universe couldn't just watch; they naturally had to take the field and contribute to the survival of the Universe.

Internal conflicts within the Universe were temporarily set aside, as everyone needed to unite as one to face the Abyss.

The great universe consciousness wasn't a heartless exploiter either; it established a military merit system, with the highest level of reward being a quota for Attaining the Dao without an examination.

One quota for Attaining the Dao was equivalent to one Foundation Level.

In the entire Universe, there were countless Main Gods, but very few Foundation Levels. This showed how difficult Attaining the Dao was; not only did one need excellent personal conditions and some luck, but one also required the favor and attention of the great universe consciousness.

Furthermore, many good things in the Universe were under the control of the great universe consciousness; this time, the great universe consciousness would release them to be exchanged for by the various participating races.

The great universe consciousness was so dedicated...

...first, for its own Foundation, not wanting to be burst by the Abyss and suffer a drop in status.

...second, it craved the power of the Abyss, hoping to devour it and completely turn it into a part of itself, establishing a Foundation for transcendence.

The great universe consciousness had long set its sights on the Abyss, but it had never been confident in devouring it, so it could only suppress and slowly digest it.

Now that the Abyss was rioting, the great universe consciousness had no choice but to take up arms and fight it out, putting the plan to devour the Abyss on the agenda.

However, preparations were not quite sufficient, and there was a risk of failing the devouring and being dismembered itself. Therefore, the great universe consciousness could only do its best to make arrangements and strive to achieve the ultimate goal of devouring the Abyss.

After the tasks were assigned by the great universe consciousness, the Foundation Levels of each race—except for those staying behind—returned to their respective groups to begin assembling forces and head to the Abyss for battle.

While each race prepared, the great universe consciousness was also opening up a battlefield, actively contacting and eroding the Abyss to forcibly establish the Tian Yuan Battlefield.

The Abyss's resistance was intense.

But the great universe consciousness also became ruthless, investing its core Origin to evolve the Tian Yuan Battlefield and forcibly suppressing the Abyss, making it so that the Abyss, which had started the conflict, was forced to fight back.

Clearly the aggressor, it had now been reduced to the passive side.

This was the difference between having wisdom and lacking it.

The great universe consciousness possessed wisdom; although it followed established rules, it could also exploit bugs.

The Abyss had no wisdom, operating only in a rigid manner. As long as it didn't kill the great universe consciousness in one wave, it would become the great universe consciousness's resource.