Free Web NovelChapter 341: Chapter 339: Rose: Just Wait for Them to Beg You
"The Abyss Gate event can be divided into three phases."
"In the first phase, after it’s opened, it sucks in all living things nearby to attract the attention of demons, alerting them to the opening of the Abyss Gate. After that, demons will pour out from the gate continuously."
"Normally, during the suction phase, demons will already start appearing, blocking mages from the outside so the Abyss Gate can harvest more prey. But maybe there are fewer demons in the Abyss now—only now are some starting to emerge."
"The second phase is the demon invasion phase. They use the Abyss Gate as a foothold, launching indiscriminate attacks on the area around it, letting demonic qi seize territory and gradually conquer the entire continent."
"If you manage to fend off the demon assault, you enter the third phase—drawing the resistance line back to the vicinity of the Abyss Gate, where people must keep purifying the gate’s demonic qi, slowly weakening the gate. During this period, demons can emerge to attack at any time, and it’s likely that an extremely powerful demon—the final boss—will appear as the climax."
Rose was explaining the chain of Abyss Gate events to Hilia.
He looked at the two Abyss Gates above and below, both being attacked by Gerard and Adrian, and couldn’t help but shake his head: "Those two idiots. You can only purify an Abyss Gate; attacking it does nothing, and they don’t even know that! All they can do is unleash their impotent rage and keep pounding away, thinking that’ll break the Abyss Gate. Wishful thinking. If you want to shatter the Abyss Gate, you’d at least need the power to destroy a Star Spirit Tree."
Hilia asked curiously, "Is the Abyss related to the Star Spirit Tree?"
Rose had mentioned that the Star Spirit Tree could cause corruption, but hadn’t elaborated on what the Abyss actually was.
"The Star Spirit Tree is tied to the entire old gods’ system. Divinity’s authority is largely drawn from the Star Spirit Tree. Once the authority is claimed, matching demonic qi is produced. The Abyss is the destination for all demonic qi. Maybe the first generation of old gods suffered badly from demonic qi, so they joined forces to create the Abyss and poured all demonic qi into it."
"Originally, the Abyss might have just been an ordinary subspace, but after being influenced by demonic qi for so long, it’s become a stable world intimately linked to our reality."
While they spoke, the demons on the field had already clashed with Adrian and Gerard.
Those two mages were currently furious.
Adrian’s fury stemmed from knowing that, after the tournament, he would probably end up in a special prison—and not just that. He’d become the object of ridicule, the hot topic across the entire Starfall Continent.
Gerard’s rage came from the fact that he’d intended for his son to place in the top sixteen, but got distracted by the Skyborne Abyss Gate and failed to notice what was happening on the ground, causing his child to be sucked into the Abyss—life or death unknown.
As for himself, he’d been disrupted by a distant attack, preventing him from rescuing his son in time; he could only watch helplessly as the boy vanished.
He and Adrian had now switched places: Gerard was fighting down below, Adrian above, together with other Tier Four mages from the Northern Alliance, clearing demons and attacking the Abyss Gate.
Meanwhile, the other delegations from the Empire... had already left. The remaining high-tier mages were all...
Standing by coldly.
Some even pointed and laughed, openly mocking them.
What?
Lend a hand?
Oh, no, wouldn’t dare—what if our own qualification for the tournament gets revoked?
Hilia watched the arena shift from a low-tier mage battle to high-tier mages hunting monsters and couldn’t help but feel something was off.
"Things have gotten to this point—can this year’s tournament even go on?"
Rose chuckled, "An Abyss Gate of this size would take about a month to purify—unless you step in and use the Purification Skill I taught you. In that case, it’ll take just half a day."
Half a day versus an entire month—was the difference really that huge?
Hilia was stunned.
"It’s a massive difference. The Purification Skill I taught you is tailor-made for abyssal demonic qi. The Abyss Gate is formed of demonic qi and has regenerative abilities. That’s why conventional purification takes a month: during the process, it keeps fixing itself, dragging out the timeline."
"The Purification Skill I gave you isn’t just ten times stronger; it also blocks the Abyss Gate from self-repairing. Half a day is only because you’re not powerful enough—if a Tier Four or above used it, it’d take maybe two or three hours."
Hilia sounded a little regretful: "Looks like this Mage League will have to be interrupted after all."
Rose replied, "If it’s interrupted, the Northern Alliance will lose all face. They’ll do everything they can to solve the problem quickly and resume the tournament. If this many incidents keep happening and they just follow procedures, and the high-tier mages can’t even maintain order... Well, then they’re hopeless—might as well treat the place as a sect stronghold."
Not long after Rose finished, several figures swooped in from afar, landing on the battlefield to join Adrian and the others in exterminating the demons from the Abyss.
Hilia couldn’t help but mutter when she saw the abyssal demons getting wiped the instant they appeared: "Kinda seems like the Abyss Gate is overrated—every demon that comes out gets killed immediately."
Rose grinned, "A manually summoned array is mediocre at best—only a handful of demons come out each time; it’s nothing compared to a naturally formed array. Besides, this is just the beginning. In about ten days, the strength of this particular Abyss Gate will peak—by then, Tier Six demons will appear. Heck, if you’re unlucky, maybe even a Tier Seven demon will show up."
"What about naturally formed Abyss Gates? What are those like?"
"They’ll let a hundred-plus demons through in one go, and as soon as they’re fully formed, they always have two Tier Seven demons to guard the gate. The other demons spill out to invade. When an area accumulates too much demonic qi, a second Abyss Gate forms, bringing two Tier Six demons to guard, and there’s no upper limit to how many gates can form—eventually, the whole world could be overrun."
Hilia couldn’t imagine such a sight, but just picturing it sent a chill down her spine.
And Rose said he had once lived through such an invasion.
If Rose hadn’t been strong enough back then...
"About what you’re thinking—I was Tier Six when the invasion began, and by the time I drove the demons back, I’d reached Tier Eight."
Truth was, Rose liked crushing victories. He’d deliberately leave the last Abyss Gate open to grind monsters, and only beat the final boss after reaching Tier Eight.
"Let the Northern Alliance deal with this for now. Let them waste their time for a while—when they realize they can’t fix it, they’ll calm down."
Hilia looked at Rose, "Then should I tell them I can purify the Abyss Gate?"
"No need yet—tell your mentor first. Let him know this Abyss Gate comes from the Abyss. I’m not sure if your mentor knows about Abyss Gates, but maybe he’ll relay the message to the Northern Alliance. When that happens..."
"Wait for the Northern Alliance to come begging to you."
"And if they don’t?"
"Then ignore them."
"Alright!"
