Hand over Godzilla, and countries will beg me to eat nuclear waste.

Ok!

The bones are all gone.

The skull was chewed clean.

The body of the Great Old One, accumulated over 47,000 years, passed through Godzilla's mouth and vanished into nothingness.

Abaddon stood by the lake.

Looking at that body of water where their mortal enemies once slept.

The water surface returned to calm, and the purple-gold light continued to flow, but the area was almost half the size of before. The remains of the ancient rulers freed up a lot of space at the bottom of the lake, but the natural sealing formation that had once suppressed the skeleton also collapsed.

in other words,

There were no more objects suppressing the lake.

The obstruction to the flow of energy has disappeared.

Deep within, some springs that had been suppressed by sealing formations for tens of thousands of years were now slowly regaining their activity, with thin, purplish-gold energy seeping upwards from the cracks in the rocks.

It's very slow.

It's so slow that the changes are almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

But it is indeed recovering.

Abaddon silently noted this information down.

Luo Yu noticed it too.

The system displayed a notification.

[The Abyss Core Energy self-healing mechanism has been activated.]

[After the remains of the Old Ones were cleared, the seal on the bottom spring was broken.]

[Energy reinjection rate: extremely low (approximately 10.2 tons/year equivalent of original liquid energy)]

10.2 tons of water were recharged annually.

According to Luo Yu's estimation, the lake originally contained several hundred thousand tons of water. Godzilla drank half of it, and with the rest lost by the Old Ones, the rest...

Luo Yu did the math.

In other words, without external intervention, this energy pool would take approximately—

Ok.

Hundreds of thousands of years.

"hiss."

Godzilla looked down at the lake again.

It still wants to drink.

The remaining half is still a massive amount of pure primordial energy. For planetary Titans that are striving for a higher stage of evolution, the allure of these things is no different from that of food placed in front of a hungry person.

The mouth opened.

He lowered his head two inches.

"Wait a minute." Luo Yu slapped the edge of the corner groove.

Godzilla stopped.

His vertical pupils swept over, carrying a hint of confusion and even more reluctance.

"Stop eating."

"hiss??"

The intonation rises, and the final sound rises.

Translation: By what right?

Luo Yu stood up from the corner, walked to Godzilla's nose, squatted down, and looked directly at the golden vertical pupil.

"Brother, think about it, if you drink this stuff dry, where will you get such pure stuff next time you're hungry?"

Godzilla tilts its head.

"There is no more nuclear waste on Earth, and you have almost eaten up the moon. Eggs of higher-dimensional beings are extremely rare. This lake is currently the only known renewable and ultra-high-purity energy source."

Luo Yu held up one finger.

"Drink half, and keep the other half. The half you keep will slowly recover. Once it has recovered to a certain extent, then you can drink the newly grown part. Keep this cycle going."

"hiss?"

"Yes, the buffet is unlimited, but you can only eat half a portion each time."

Godzilla's vertical pupils blinked twice.

A golden light swirled in its pupil; it was contemplating.

then.

The mouth closed.

"hiss."

His tone returned to normal, becoming flat and straightforward.

Translation: Okay, fine, I'll do as you say. But don't stop me next time you come.

Luo Yu patted its nose: "Eat whatever you want next time."

This conversation was received by the three kings through a spiritual connection; every word was heard.

Abaddon's seven broken horns stopped trembling.

Beria opened his tightly closed eyes.

Azathoth's six eyes... the three injured eyes on the right side have stopped oozing fluid.

The three kings exchanged glances.

There was no emotional exchange, but the content of their eyes was highly unified.

They had already prepared for the worst: that the new Lord of the Abyss would drink the core lake dry, then leave, leaving behind an empty shell of a world depleted of energy.

The ecosystem of the abyss will collapse. The gravity anchors at the bottom will fail. The spatial barriers will thin. Tens of thousands of low-level behemoths will die from the loss of energy.

They were already planning how to negotiate with Luo Yu: Could he drink less? Even just a third of it would be fine?

result.

They stopped on their own.

It wasn't because I couldn't eat. Nor was it because I was soft-hearted.

It's because of... sustainable development.

Abaddon suppressed a complex emotional fluctuation and sent a message through the mental link.

The signal has been carefully tuned, removing all elements that could be interpreted as flattery or fawning, retaining only the most neutral semantics.

"Master, the bottom springs in the core lake have regained activity. We will regularly inspect the seepage status to ensure that the restoration mechanism is not disturbed by external forces."

Luo Yu didn't even look up.

"Um."

One word.

But Abaddon understood all the meaning behind the word: acquiescence, approval, and a nascent form of trust that "I trust you to do things my way."

For a former High Sovereign of the Abyss who had just lost his rule of 47,000 years, this word was more effective than any promise.

Beria relaxed the taut muscles at the base of the broken wing.

The purplish-black flame behind Azathoth, which had previously shrunk to half its original size, quietly grew back to two-thirds its original height.

Gratitude is something the abyssal behemoth will never express.

But their actions will betray them.

While the three kings were silently resigned, Mothra somehow flew above the core lake, spreading its wings and scattering a layer of pale golden scales. The power of light touched the purplish-gold lake surface, without any repulsive reaction; instead, it produced a gentle resonance, and faint halos of light rippled across the lake's surface.

Luo Yu glanced at it a couple more times.

The system displayed a line of small text.

[A positive resonance was detected between Mothra's Light Purification ability and the Abyss's primal energy.]

[Effect: Increases the healing speed of the bottom spring by 0.03%]

0.03%.

better than nothing.

But something is better than nothing.

"Little Bai did a good job."

Luo Yu praised Mothra.

Mothra's wings trembled, and two more layers of golden scales fell.

After being praised, he worked even harder.

Pandora slipped back from the lakeside and climbed onto Luo Yu's wrist, wrapping herself into a bracelet.

One-Eyed glanced at Mothra. While it was eating bone meal scraps, Mothra had been preening its wings. Now that Mothra was doing its job, One-Eyed had come back to rest.

"Don't just sit there either," Luo Yu flicked Pandora's head.

"hiss?"

"Your energy conversion ability can help the spring to undergo secondary purification. Go lie down at the bottom of the lake and stop using it as an ornament on my hand."

Pandora slowly slipped off her wrist and into the lake.

Once in the water, it swam quite fast. Its dark green body turned in the purplish-gold liquid before diving to the bottom of the lake.

Luo Yu stood atop Godzilla's head, surveying his surroundings.

The three kings stood around the lake, their postures bowed.

The two ninth-tier behemoths, who had survived the ordeal, huddled in the farthest corner.

Mothra hovered in the air, scattering light powder.

Pandora is working at the bottom of the lake.

Godzilla yawned at his feet.

The scene looks somewhat ironic.

Forty-seven minutes ago, this place was a top-secret restricted area, the core of the highest power in the Abyss World, and the lifeline that the Three Kings of the Abyss had jointly protected for forty-seven thousand years.

Now, it has become Luo Yu's private ranch.

The communicator rang.

Su Qingxue's voice came through: "Luo Yu, intelligence from the bridgehead direction: Abyssal behemoths in various regions of the Abyss World have exhibited large-scale abnormal behavior."

"What's wrong?"

"They are retreating, completely retreating. All life signals of level six and above are withdrawing outward from the bridgehead, and their path of advance has been completely cleared."

Luo Yu glanced at Abaddon.

Abaddon lowered his dragon head slightly: "I have issued an order that all living beings in the Abyss must not take any hostile actions against the human expeditionary force."

Luo Yu: "When did you download it?"

"When you eat the second level nine."

That was about twenty minutes ago.

In other words, Abaddon had already made arrangements on his own before Luo Yu had even formally made any demands.

What's this called?

This is called initiative.

Forty-seven thousand years of management experience is not for nothing.

"Sister Qingxue."

"exist."

"Have the expeditionary force deploy mining stations along the advance line. I will retrieve the coordinates of the ore veins from the Three Kings later via mental link and send them to you together."

"What are the specifications of the collection station?"

"The highest-grade abyssal ore vein has an energy concentration hundreds of times that of any nuclear facility on Earth. Standard mining equipment cannot withstand it, so heavy-duty radiation-proof mining modules are airlifted from the rear."

"Understood. There's one more thing—General Zhan Kuang has urged you three times, asking when you're going back."

"Tell him to wait a little longer." Luo Yu glanced at the numbers on the system panel.

Spiritual power: 12,800,000,000,000.

One hundred and twenty-eight billion.

Evolution level: 71.4%.

The next stage of evolution requires 100%.

The difference is 28.6 percentage points.

Not urgent.

Luo Yu turned off the communicator and sat down again in the corner.

Godzilla had shrunk back to its compact 300-meter size, lying on the lakeside with its front paws on the water's surface, occasionally licking the lake water with its tongue.

Luo Yu didn't stop him.

You can't drink much by just licking it.

"Zhiruo".

"Hmm?" Su Zhiruo walked to his side.

"The first thing I'll do when I get back is have the research institute analyze those high-dimensional armor fragments."

"The second thing?"

"The second thing is to tell Lao Zhan to reissue my graduation certificate from Shanghai University. After all, I was a student there, so it's just a formality."

Su Zhiruo's lips twitched slightly.

The youngest marshal in human history, the lord of the abyss, and the controller of the Titan king.

I'm still thinking about my graduation certificate.

not far away,

Abaddon grasped the meaning of the words "graduation certificate" through mental connection, but could not understand them at all.

It paused for a few seconds, then asked Beriar via private channel, "What is that? A weapon? Or some kind of authority token?"

Beria's eagle head shook: "I don't know, the social systems of lower-dimensional beings are too complex."

Azathoth's six eyes stared at Luo Yu and Su Zhiruo, who were squatting in the corner chatting, for a long time.

Then it came to a conclusion.

The relationship between these two carbon-based life forms is essentially the same as the relationship between Godzilla and Mothra.

Ok.

spouse.

Azathoth felt he was increasingly able to understand the lower-dimensional world.

Above the lake,

Mothra was still diligently sprinkling light powder.

At the bottom of the lake, Pandora lay beside the spring, her one eye squinting, idly purifying the energy.

Godzilla stretched and rested its head on its front paws, its golden vertical pupils slowly closing.

I took a nap.

The core area of ​​the abyss was quieter than ever before.

It wasn't the kind of tense, undercurrent-filled quiet.

It's the kind of quiet that comes after everything has settled down, and all the characters have found their place.

Luo Yu leaned against Godzilla's warm scales, looking up at this underground world without a sky.

The purplish-gold lake light reflected on the crystalline layer of the dome, refracting into mottled spots of light.

The silhouettes of three colossal beasts were projected onto the rock face, silently guarding the area around the lake.

"From now on, this place..." Luo Yu muttered softly.

Su Zhiruo tilted her head: "What?"

"It's nothing. I'm just thinking about how much to charge for the entrance fee when I bring people here for tourism in the future."

Su Zhiruo glanced at him but ignored him.

Godzilla exhaled a puff of hot air from its nostrils, ruffling a small patch of lake surface in front of it.

He's probably still eating in his dream.

Five hours later,

The purplish-gold lake surface was as smooth as a mirror.

Mothra landed back on top of the crystal pillar, folded its wings, and the light powder stopped falling.

Luo Yu leaned against the scales and closed his eyes.

next to

Su Zhiruo lowered her head to adjust the communicator's frequency band, the screen's glow illuminating her profile.

Godzilla underneath is fast asleep.

Between breaths,

The hot breath exhaled from his nostrils created shallow ripples on the lake water.

The three kings stood on the lakeside.

Abaddon buried his head under the broken wing.

Belial used his remaining intact claws to preen the feathers on his neck. Azathoth had five of his six eyes closed, leaving one half-open as a watchful eye.

Everything was quiet.

It lasted for twenty minutes.

The change came out of nowhere.

First came the sound.

An extremely low-frequency hum. It comes from the deepest depths of the earth. This sound does not travel through the air; it acts directly on physical matter.

A fine fold appeared on the surface of the purplish-gold lake water.

Luo Yu opened his eyes.

Su Zhiruo stopped what she was doing and looked up at the center of the lake.

Azathoth's half-open eye suddenly widened, and the purplish-black flames abruptly rose several meters higher.

"There's something." Su Zhiruo only said three words.

The buzzing intensified.

The crystalline rock beneath our feet began to tremble. The tremors were extremely rapid.

In the center of the lake, where the water had been calm, a sudden depression appeared. A funnel-shaped vortex formed, and a purplish-gold liquid swirled and poured downwards.

Pandora burst out of the water.

The dark green snake traced an arc in mid-air and landed with a thud at Godzilla's feet. It then scrambled up the scales and disappeared into Luo Yu's sleeve, refusing to show its face.

Luo Yu tapped his wrist: "What's going on down there?"

Did Pandora send back a chaotic mental fluctuation, all of it gibberish?

The translation is the same: You've seen a ghost, run!

The vortex expanded.

The diameter expanded from ten meters to one hundred meters, and then to five hundred meters.

The lake's water level is dropping at a rate visible to the naked eye.

That's not the speed at which Godzilla drinks water.

The bottom is leaking.

Abaddon pulled its head out from under its wings, its nine broken horns standing upright. It stared at the vortex, its body involuntarily taking a half step back.

Beria raised his eagle head high and let out a sharp hiss from his throat.

"What happened?"

Luo Yu stood up from the corner and looked down at the three kings.

Abaddon did not answer.

Its mental connection transmitted extremely chaotic signals, mixed with incredulous horror.

"This shouldn't be..." Abaddon's voice echoed in Luo Yu's mind, his tone completely changed. "The remains of the Old Ones have been consumed, the seal has been broken, and the geyser should have regained its activity. Why is it leaking down there?"

"You're asking me?" Luo Yu asked back.

Azathoth picked up the thread: "Master, we only know the basics of the Abyss's core structure. Forty-seven thousand years ago, when we killed the Great Old One, it desperately sank itself to the bottom of the lake. We always thought it was trying to resurrect itself using primordial energy."

"Isn't that right?"

"Now it seems that it sank itself to the bottom of the lake, partly for resurrection," Azathoth said, his six eyes fixed on the ever-growing whirlpool, "and partly perhaps to block the entrance."