Essence Devouring Art

Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Trigger

CRACK!

The scorching sun was blinding, and the long whip whistled through the air.

”Ah, I won’t do it again...”

”Damn you, you worthless bastard! You can’t even push a cart right. What’s the use of keeping you around!”

Before Wu Dao’s eyes could adjust to the bright sunlight outside the mine, his ears were assaulted by piercing screams and the sounds of curses and whiplashes.

He looked up.

On the mine path, a wooden cart had overturned, sending ore scattering everywhere. A young boy, his ribs clearly visible, writhed on the ground under the supervisor’s whip, wailing in helpless despair.

The whip was a tough, leather bullwhip.

The supervisor wielding it was brawny and thick-waisted, with bloodshot eyes and bared teeth. A hideous scar on his right cheek twitched like a centipede. With every swing of the long whip, his muscles bulged, cracking it through the air like a sudden storm.

With that kind of force, even a beast of burden would collapse from a single strike, let alone a man. It was clear he was whipping to kill.

And that was indeed the case.

In less than a minute, the boy stopped moving. Face down, he coughed up mouthfuls of blood. His back was a mess of torn flesh, with gashes so deep they exposed bone. He twitched uncontrollably.

”Pah! Truly a worthless life, can’t even take a beating!” The scar-faced supervisor spat fiercely. His eyes showed no guilt, only a sense of unfinished satisfaction.

Wu Dao looked away, his heart unstirred. Over the past three months, he had grown accustomed to such sights.

It was no exaggeration to say the Four Seas Gang didn’t treat its Mining Slaves as human.

The supervisors were as vicious as wolves and tigers, most of them brutally tempered. They patrolled the mines with whips in hand every day. The moment they saw a Mining Slave make the slightest mistake, the punishment was a flaying at best, or being beaten to death on the spot at worst.

Even if you made no mistakes and worked diligently, they could find any excuse to give you a vicious lashing, simply to satisfy their twisted, sadistic urges.

「For the past three months.」

Wu Dao had personally witnessed no fewer than fifty people die under the supervisors’ whips.

Counting those who were worked to death, starved to death, or died of illness, at least a hundred people had died in this hellish mining camp.

But no matter how many died.

At the beginning of each month, the Four Seas Gang would always manage to find new Mining Slaves from the outside world to replace the dead, keeping the total number of slaves in the entire camp at a constant three hundred.

As for why the Four Seas Gang was so rampant.

Over these past few months, Wu Dao had pieced together the reasons from the newly arrived Mining Slaves.

Generally speaking, after six hundred years of glory, the Great Li Imperial Authority’s fortune was now in decline, nearing its twilight.

The Four Seas Vassal Kings commanded their own armies, the local Government Offices were corrupt and inept, and factions of every stripe ran rampant, preying on the common folk. Refugees were everywhere, painting a clear picture of a chaotic era.

In such a climate.

It was only natural that the Four Seas Gang, a top-ranking gang within a Prefecture, would act so unscrupulously. In their eyes, human life was truly no different from grass.

CLATTER!

Ore was dumped into the wooden cart.

Wu Dao paid no more attention to the poor wretch from before, preparing to head back down into the mine.

In the mines, from dawn till dusk, there was no such thing as rest. The only chance for a moment’s respite was deep inside the tunnels, where the supervisors couldn’t see.

’My wings have yet to fledge. My strength is lacking. It is fitting that I endure this suffering!’

’I don’t have the right to challenge the rules of this mine. The only proper path is to endure in silence, lower my presence, and quietly accumulate power.’

”Hey you, get over here and drag this little bastard to Mine Tunnel One and toss him in. What an eyesore!”

Just as Wu Dao was about to descend, the scar-faced supervisor pointed his whip and singled him out.

He frowned slightly, thinking of some unpleasant things, but in the end, he walked forward without a word and began dragging the unlucky man’s corpse toward Mine Tunnel One.

Mine Tunnel One.

It was an ominous place in the Red Fire Mine, known to the Mining Slaves as the Gate of Hell.

The reason was simple.

It didn’t produce any ore. It was a natural Earth Abyss located in the heart of the mountain, a pit of the dead used exclusively by the Four Seas Gang to dispose of the corpses of Mining Slaves!

The Red Fire Mine had been established for about five or six years, and in that time, the number of bodies tossed into the Earth Abyss had long surpassed a thousand.

The cave was filled with a deathly, chilling air all year round. It was so horrifying that even from a distance, it made one’s hair stand on end. Even the physically robust members of the Four Seas Gang were unwilling to get too close.

Therefore, whenever someone died in the Red Fire Mine, it was almost always a Mining Slave who was sent to dispose of the body.

Upon returning, they would be dazed and disoriented at best. At worst, they would contract a terminal illness and become the next poor soul to be thrown in.

Over time, Mine Tunnel One became a taboo subject among the Mining Slaves, a place they spoke of with dread, shrouded in an eerie aura.

In his three months here, Wu Dao had only heard of the infamous Mine Tunnel One; he had never been there himself.

「Seeing it today.」

It was indeed permeated with an unsettling and bizarre atmosphere.

First, the silence!

A deathly silence!

Outside, the mining camp was a hive of noisy, bustling activity.

But just a few steps into the cave, it was as if one had been cut off from the world. The clamor from outside instantly faded into a faint, distant murmur.

It felt as though the world was about to forget you entirely in the next moment, and one’s Spiritual Will would instantly become unsettled.

Second, the cold!

It was the peak of summer, with the sun scorching the earth.

Yet inside the bright cave, a winter-like chill was everywhere. Even though Wu Dao’s Physique was at the Expert Domain, he still shivered the moment he stepped inside.

Finally, the blackness!

A profound darkness, thicker than ink!

It wasn’t that the cave tunnel was dark, but rather the Earth Abyss used for disposing of the Mining Slaves—a vertical shaft, so black it was heart-stopping.

This was not due to a lack of sunlight.

On the contrary...

Wu Dao glanced at the wide, bright opening above the Earth Abyss, which resembled a volcanic crater. Through it, he could see the midday sun hanging high in the azure sky.

However, the moment bright sunlight entered the Earth Abyss, it was immediately devoured by the profound darkness, leaving visibility at less than a meter.

This clearly defied Wu Dao’s understanding of physics.

However, the thought that this was an Extraordinary World put him at ease. In such a place, some strange and unusual phenomena were not worth being surprised about.

WHOOSH!

The mangled, bloody corpse plummeted into the abyss, swallowed by the darkness in an instant.

Wu Dao leaned over, staring into the bottomless abyss. The vigorous heat of his vital energy and blood resisted the sinister chill rising from within, yet his heart remained calm.

’Even if Gods and Ghosts exist, they are merely another form of life. With enough Martial Power, all things are equal. There is nothing to fear.’

’Are there demons and monsters in this world?’

Wu Dao suddenly thought of this question, one he had ignored from the very beginning. A strong yearning for the mysterious world beyond the high walls surged within him once more.

’Tsk, I should focus on getting out of here alive first.’

He shook his head.

Wu Dao suppressed the restlessness in his heart, gave the depths of the Black Abyss one last look, frowned, and quickly turned to leave.

This abyss seemed to possess a kind of Demon Nature. It made his currently weak lifeform’s genetic instincts inexplicably wary, as if facing a natural predator.

The longer he stayed,

The colder the strange, chilling air became, seeping straight into his bones. Not even the blazing sun overhead could disperse it.

The wailing cries that echoed from the abyss when the wind blew would make one drowsy and depressed if heard for too long, even creating the impulse to dive in and end one’s life.

WOOOO~

The wind blowing in from outside the cave suddenly intensified, and the howling from the Black Abyss behind him grew even more unsettling.

Wu Dao’s brow furrowed. An inexplicable unease in his heart made him quicken his pace toward the cave entrance. His intuition told him that if he stayed here any longer, something terrible would happen.

He had always trusted his intuition.

But at that very moment.

In the viscous, muddy depths of the darkness, unseen by Wu Dao.

As another corpse fell, it seemed a quantitative change had triggered a qualitative one. The eternal, deathly silence began to churn and roil.

A shadow even more profound than the darkness itself was born. It swam swiftly like a snake, detaching from the muddy mire and drifting silently toward the top of the abyss.

「A few breaths later.」

Under the blazing sun.

A distorted, blurry, humanoid phantom, invisible to the naked eye, slowly appeared at the edge of the Earth Abyss. It hunched over and, riding the whistling wind, rapidly approached Wu Dao.

WHOOSH—

A fierce gust of cold wind whipped Wu Dao’s tattered clothes and sent his disheveled hair flying.

Urk...

The sudden cold, a chill that pierced his very bones and soul, made Wu Dao grunt in pain. The hairs on his body stood on end, and he froze on the spot. His outstretched right foot halted mid-air, and his eyes glazed over.

A tranquil village, farming by day and resting by moon; a scorching sun during a great drought; a beggar on a street corner; a ferocious face; the sting of whips and clubs; a collapsing mine tunnel; a bottomless black abyss...

Joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness; howls of despair...

One after another, strange, crimson images and grief-stricken screams brutally and barbarically drilled through his flesh and bone, stabbing deep into his brain.

In just two or three seconds.

Wu Dao’s head felt like it was about to split open. The bone-deep cold was agonizing, a fate worse than death, yet he couldn’t make a single sound.

His consciousness drifted further and further away amidst the endless, maddening torment. The blood in his body felt like it was freezing solid, coming to a standstill.

HUFF—

INHALE—

A deep, heavy sound of breathing, with a mysterious rhythm, began.

The will he had forged through countless trials in the abyss allowed the crisis-stricken Wu Dao to instantly use the Essence Devouring Art to hypnotize his brain and enter a state of extreme Potential Release.

In an instant, his brain’s protective mechanisms were unlocked. His Brain Domain went into overdrive. His Spiritual Will became highly condensed and focused, rising like a Celestial Blade to shatter the endless vexations and slay the whispers of ghouls and demons!

”Ah, I hate you!!”

Following a final, unwilling, and venomous shriek.

The sky became clear, the earth bright. His spirit was tranquil, his qi serene!

As if waking from a long dream, Wu Dao’s consciousness finally returned to him!

But it wasn’t over.

After regaining control of his mind, the nerves in his Brain Domain immediately sent frantic signals of resistance throughout his body.

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!

His heart, which had been gradually stopping under the erosion of the cold air, began to pump furiously like a mechanical engine. Hot blood surged and galloped wildly through his veins.

Wu Dao’s exposed skin and muscles suddenly tensed and began to vibrate strangely, rising and falling as if breathing. In a matter of seconds, his skin turned as red as a cooked shrimp.

Invisible to the naked eye, wisps of black energy were constantly being forced out of his pores by the scorching furnace of his flesh and blood, evaporating until nothing was left.

Haaa...

He let out a long, turbid breath.

Thud~

Wu Dao’s right foot landed heavily on the ground. The god-like, sacred clarity and absolute reason in his eyes gave way to the seven mortal passions and six carnal desires. The scorching redness of his body also gradually returned to normal.

”Hah... hah... Ghost... ghost possession?”

Wu Dao’s voice was weak. He was hunched over, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for breath, a result of the immense physical toll from his extreme state.

His composure, which had remained unshaken even if the sky were to fall since his transmigration, was finally stirred for the first time after this bizarre incident, rapidly shifting.

Surprise, lingering fear, anger, curiosity...

Until.

Without any warning, a piece of information from beyond his own thoughts suddenly appeared in his Sea of Consciousness—

”Teleportation Points +0.1.”

The expression on his face froze. He closed his eyes slightly to analyze and digest the information in his mind.

「A moment later.」

He opened his eyes, his breathing gradually steadying. A look of sudden understanding appeared on his face. ”So that’s how it is.”

The information that had appeared in his mind had already clarified the purpose of the attribute panel—all that lies outside the Human Dao is anomaly. By feeding on anomalies, one can achieve a teleportation-like evolution, becoming infinite and limitless.

Anomaly, Teleportation Points...

Wu Dao straightened up, mulling over these two terms. He was now certain he had just experienced what legends in his past life called a ”ghost possession.”

But it seemed the ghosts in this world were far too vicious!

They were formless and intangible, unafraid of the blazing sun. Their method of possession wasn’t simple manipulation, but something akin to directly annihilating one’s consciousness to seize control of the body.

Faced with such a bizarre and terrifying creature, an ordinary person would surely die instantly. Even someone with a Physique at the absolute human limit would have no way to resist!

The reason he was able to turn the tables just now.

Was mainly because he had used the Essence Devouring Art to hypnotize his brain, forcing himself into a state of ”Unity of Heaven and Man, Subduing the Heart.”

In this state, all distracting thoughts vanished. His consciousness was perfectly clear and his mind highly focused. He had instinctively treated the invading ghostly consciousness as a Heart Demon or a stray thought and eliminated it.

And thus, he had officially activated the attribute panel.

[Physique: Expert (Great Success)]

[Extraordinary: Essence Devouring Art (35% Potential Release) +]

[Teleportation Points: 0.1]

Looking at the attribute panel again, the previously unchanged Teleportation Points had increased by 0.1 units.

A gray plus sign had also appeared after the Essence Devouring Art.

At the same time, a notification message appeared:

Five units of Teleportation Points are required for one leap.

Wu Dao stared at the gray plus sign after the Essence Devouring Art, licked his dry lips, and his gaze toward the Earth Abyss became tinged with greed.