Chapter 282: Four Law Rings, the Return of the Lord of Truth (23)

Boundless void.

A huge mass of deep blue light and shadow glided silently, just like a giant blue whale swimming in the sea.

It was the Lord of Truth, De Rui Tan.

To his left, in the direction he was heading, was an enormous law ring that constantly surged with violent energy.

That law ring was so enormous.

It was so large that it became the backdrop of the entire void.

De Rui Tan had been advancing in the void for at least a month, but it had only grown slightly.

It was also so violent that, despite being extremely far away, De Rui Tan could still clearly feel the power fluctuations emanating from that law ring.

This was the Solar Law Ring.

It was the most dangerous existence in the void.

No life could approach it, otherwise they would be destroyed by its violent magical fluctuations.

It was also the source of almost all power in the void, the mother ring of all law rings.

Any life, any plane, cannot do without it; otherwise the plane's law rings would gradually shatter, and all plane worlds would fall into icy darkness.

De Rui Tan hasn't had enough of life yet, so the Solar Law Ring is certainly not his destination this time.

His destination was a life plane that he once ruled and named after himself.

As a void-born lifeform, he cannot use law rings for phase shifts, so he can only 'swim' through the void all the way.

This distance is still very long.

This is because the outer void corresponds to the starry realm as seen by mortals.

The star realm is immensely vast and bathed in sunlight.

The outer void is also immensely vast and constantly bathed in the grace of the Solar Law Ring.

Precisely because the void is vast, traveling from the Goddess of Life's divine court, swimming through the void to De Rui Tan's plane, requires a considerable amount of time.

The journey, however, would not be particularly boring.

He often encounters souls drifting in the void, like fish in the deep sea, which are his main food.

Occasionally he also encounters large clumps of chaotic energy, drifting in the void like huge clouds of mist.

These chaotic forces are the prototypes of law rings, or rather, incomplete law rings that have not fully grown.

Most have stopped growing; a few still evolve, but the evolution is extremely slow—detectable change requires units of a hundred thousand years.

Defective law rings correspond to small celestial bodies such as comets and planets in the Elemental World.

Within defective law rings hide countless void 'wandering souls,' equivalent to fishing grounds in the void ocean.

If lucky, one can also find some strangely attuned materials that can be forged into powerful magical artifacts.

De Rui Tan often tries his luck in defective law rings, and indeed he has found some good things, but more often he encounters other gods and demons also seeking fortune.

In such situations, both sides quickly assess each other's strength, then the weaker side flees immediately; few stand their ground to the death.

Moreover, defective law rings can also be used to construct divine courts.

Ade'er's Sky City was built inside a defective law ring.

In the void, De Rui Tan just flies along, replenishing his strength while also remotely controlling his mortal servants in his plane.

His mortal servants are countless; counting by souls, they exceed two billion, but counting by elemental bodies, the number is about five hundred million.

Among them, the servant he values most is a mortal named Duola.

It's not that Duola is exceptionally strong or wise; simply because he devoted the most effort to improving her body, she is his most satisfactory creation.

Unfortunately, the distance between them is great; De Rui Tan can contact Duola via magical artifacts, but it consumes considerable power.

Therefore, unless necessary, he avoids frequent contact.

He flew on like this for about four months, when a tiny bluish light appeared ahead in his field of view.

This was the law ring enveloping De Rui Tan's plane.

Law ring and plane are one entity.

The plane constantly moves around the sun, and the law ring naturally moves around the Solar Law Ring as well.

"Thank goodness, I didn't get the direction wrong."

In the vast, boundless void, aside from the blinding Solar Law Ring which cannot be mistaken, other law rings are inconspicuous; a slight mistake in direction or missing their trajectory would cause a long delay.

Sometimes De Rui Tan envies those elemental beings, for they can use law-ring resonance to achieve rapid transfers between worlds.

Unlike him, who needs at least half a year just to travel to another plane.

Although he has sighted his goal, reaching it still requires at least another month.

"I wonder what the plane looks like now."

De Rui Tan felt a hint of urgency and slightly sped up.

As the distance closed, the bluish spot in his view grew larger, gradually filling over half his field of vision.

At the same time, a huge mass of chaotic energy appeared.

This naturally was a defective law ring, corresponding to the moon in the elemental plane.

De Rui Tan once built a divine court on the moon as his daily retreat.

But that was over five thousand years ago; now that divine court is either occupied by others or completely abandoned.

"Once I arrive, I'll build another one."

"That's not urgent; first I'll carefully examine my plane."

He passed the defective law ring and continued toward the plane's law ring.

To avoid causing too great a disturbance that would ripple the law ring and attract mortal attention, he deliberately reduced his speed.

Thus, he spent a full two days before reaching the eleventh law ring of the plane.

The spatial concept of the law ring is somewhat different from that of the mortal realm.

Exactly how it differs is hard to explain in mortal language, because only those who have truly entered the void can truly understand this.

In short, being in the eleventh law ring and looking down allows one to clearly oversee the situation within the elemental plane.

The stronger the power, the finer the perception, the more concrete the view, and the larger the observable range.

De Rui Tan floated at the top of the eleventh law ring, gazing down at the plane, his thoughts myriad.

In the eyes of void beings, law rings actually come in four types.

The defective law ring counts as one, the solar law ring as another, and the plane law ring before us is the third.

This kind of law ring has ten complete rings plus one defective eleventh ring, thus it is called the 'lower law ring'.

Similar lower law rings, seventeen have been found in the void.

What's peculiar is that they are almost identical in appearance, as if artificially set.

Having 'lower law rings', naturally there are also 'upper law rings'.

Upper law rings total twenty-three layers, their structure extremely stable and inward. Whether the corresponding elemental world or the law ring itself, both are extremely hard to observe.

It is said that this kind of law ring has three, and once entered, it is very hard to leave.

Anyway, De Rui Tan has never entered it, nor has he ever seen anyone emerge from a twenty-three-law-ring world; the related information is still what Adele told him, and he sometimes even suspects it is false.

'What are you thinking about? Look carefully at the plane!'

After gathering his thoughts, De Rui Tan slowly moved within the eleventh law ring while slowly observing the plane. First seen was the forest sea of the Holy Elf Empire.

'Atlasen, World Tree, Duola, Osera basically haven't changed.'

'Not bad, really not bad.'

He liked this familiar feeling.

His gaze gradually slid out from the forest sea, heading east all the way, and he saw two empires built by mortals.

'Oh, this change is really quite big, and the number of mortals is truly too many to count.'

'With so many mortals, so many souls, so many brand-new elemental bodies, there's plenty to play with.'

'Huh~~ Why is there fog everywhere?'

Under normal circumstances, a law ring occasionally produces fog that blocks sight due to fluctuations of mortal forces, but if one patiently waits for the fluctuations to subside, the law ring will become clear again.

But the fog before him is not quite the same.

It persists, in patches east and west, greatly obstructing De Rui Tan's view, making it almost impossible for him to see the situation inside the law ring.

After observing carefully for a while, De Rui Tan understood.

'The prototype should be Nawat's secret technique barrier, but in both scale and intensity it far exceeds a secret technique barrier.'

Without the fog, given his ability he could sense a range over 300 kilometers in diameter, but with the fog his perception range sharply shrinks to less than 500 meters in diameter.

After circling the Radiant Empire, he discovered that the major cities of those empires were all shrouded by the 'fog'.

Especially, the fog in the capital Mei Da Xilin is the thickest, reducing his perception range to less than 200 meters! In such a godforsaken place, he is almost like a blind man.

'These mortals are truly hateful!'

De Rui Tan thought hatefully, continuing to rush toward the northeast.

Northeast of the Radiant Empire is the newly founded Natural Empire, less than three years old.

The empire's emperor Luosen is the most unrestrained fellow in the mortal world.

'You puny mortal, constantly causing trouble in my plane—I'll see today just what you're capable of.'

He made up his mind: once he found the opponent, he would kill him outright! Although he knew the opponent had slain several demons, in his view those demons were about as insignificant as ants.

Thus, he also completely disregarded this mortal's power.

Not long after, he arrived at the territory of the Natural Empire.

Upon arrival, De Rui Tan sensed something was off.

The Natural Empire's 'fog' is even thicker than that of the Radiant Empire!

Not only is it thick, its range is especially large.

The Radiant Empire merely shrouded its major cities, whereas the Natural Empire almost envelops every town, leaving only some scarcely visited wilderness.

Fortunately these wildernesses exist; otherwise, De Rui Tan felt he would surely get lost.

According to Duola's description, he knew the capital of the Natural Empire was built on a huge island called Weilan.

He felt his way along and finally found the target island.

The moment he saw the island, De Rui Tan felt a huge surge of anger well up from his chest.

'Damn it, this fog is way too much!'

The Radiant Empire's fog at most shrouds a single city.

Meanwhile, the fog before him directly shrouds most of the island, and visibility is extremely low, all under 300 meters.

After advancing a while in such a godforsaken place, De Rui Tan actually felt as if he were walking through a maze.

Let alone finding that mortal named Luosen, just locating the Natural Empire's capital would be a stroke of explosive luck for him.

He was quite puzzled in his heart.

'A secret technique barrier of such enormous scale must consume tremendous power—where do these mortals get their power?'

'Could it be all from burning Black Stone?'

'How much Black Stone would have to be burned?'

He really couldn't figure it out.

But regardless, being in the eleventh law ring, even if he couldn't see clearly, he should still be safe.

If he can't see the way, just feel around a bit longer and he'll eventually reach his destination.

That's what he thought, and that's what he did.

But after groping around for about half an hour, a huge warning suddenly sprang up in his heart.

"What's happening?!"

His heart greatly startled, and the demon god's ultra-fast reaction speed allowed him to immediately distance himself from the Eleven Law Rings and, at the fastest speed, escape into the Huan Wai Xu Kong.

At the moment he fled, he felt a soul tide rising from the thick mist of the mortal realm.

The tide's power was not great, yet it made De Rui Tan's heart alarm grow stronger.

He immediately understood that after this tide, a deadly killing move must be hidden.

Thus, without hesitation, he ran at full speed while constructing a thick soul-defense barrier on his body's surface.

This barrier, which he had developed with great effort, is called the Wall of Perfect Truth.

When defending, its main method is guiding deflection, enabling the weak to overcome the strong and the few to overcome the many.

His running speed was also very fast; absolutely not as fast as the soul tide, but the difference was not large.

Ten seconds later, he was far away from the Eleven Law Rings, and finally the soul tide caught up with him.

At the instant he was caught up, De Rui Tan felt a jolt to his mind and spirit; before he could react, he saw the light on his soul-defense barrier flare violently.

An extremely violent soul force attacked him through soul resonance! He actually felt his power draining like an avalanche, and in the blink of an eye it was depleted by more than ten percent.

"What a powerful attack!"

If he hadn't run away and been hit face‑to‑face by the opponent, he might not have been able to block this strike.

De Rui Tan dared not pause, and continued running toward the outer void.

He ran for a full hour, and only after confirming safety did he stop, turning his head back with lingering fear to look at the Natural Empire.

Boundless thick mist, within which a terrifying deadly move lay hidden.

"The one who just attacked me is very likely Luosen!"

"This guy really does have some skill."

I originally thought I could kill him as soon as I came back, but now it seems I was oversimplifying things.

After staring at the thick mist for a long time, De Rui Tan turned away unwillingly.

"If the thick mist does not disperse, the plan to launch a sneak attack from the void will be useless. To defeat these two mortal empires, the only way is to build an elf army and launch a frontal assault from the mortal realm."

But because the thick mist exists, he cannot gauge the war potential of the mortal empires.

"Never mind; first go find the elves and bring out the good things I have prepared."

The Golden Warrior is his ultimate killing move, but although the Golden Warrior is formidable, it is not yet mature.

And this time, with the help of the goddess of life, Adele, he forged a more mature, more powerful, near‑perfect golden seed.

"Once I have formed the Golden Legion, I want to see how these short‑lived mortals full of defects can stop me!"