Essence Devouring Art

”No grudge, no feud, you just bully the weak because you’re strong? Hahaha!!”

But at Xu Sheng’s words, Wu Dao burst out laughing as if he had just heard the world’s greatest joke, his tone dripping with scorn.

”Putting everything else aside, let’s just talk about the founder of your Jingzhe Bureau—the Demon Suppression Emperor, the Great Li Ancestor.

Back when he was conquering the nations, he plundered enemy states, slaughtered entire cities, and buried alive far more than a million of those ’innocents’ you speak of. The families he destroyed and the lives he ruined are simply innumerable.

Was *that* preying on the weak?

After Dali was founded, its laws became exceedingly harsh.

Countless crimes were punishable by the extermination of three, or even nine, generations of one’s clan.

Were those caught up in collective punishment innocent?

The rigid order of ruler and subject, father and son.

Morality, etiquette, speech, conduct, status high or low—all are bound by strict rules laid down by the Royal Family.

Under these iron-fisted laws, backed by Celestial Might...

Those at the bottom are born as worthless peasants, to be trampled on by their betters. The slightest transgression or show of disrespect means a prison sentence at best, and losing your head at worst.

Is that fair?

And you, who pledge allegiance to such a dynasty, now have the gall to ask a victor to show what you call ’kindness’?

Does a tiger ask a jackal to go vegan?!”

”...”

Wu Dao’s voice boomed like Celestial Thunder, echoing in all directions, yet Xu Sheng was silent.

He wanted to retort.

But he didn’t know how to begin, or what to even argue against.

Wu Dao was no Demon Suppression Emperor.

But everything he’d said was true.

To refute him would be to deny the Demon Suppression Emperor who brought peace to the world, to deny the very Dali Dynasty he had sworn his life to protect.

BOOM!!

ROAR!

The roaring torrent of dragon-like vital energy, surging toward the heavens, shattered Xu Sheng’s silence.

BOOM—

A surging torrent of Red Gold Yang Flame erupted as if a golden Divine Furnace had exploded. Vast patches of ground instantly melted into magma, and its core burned with a brilliance so blinding it was impossible to look at directly.

Faintly, within the blaze...

One could perceive a terrifying creature, like a God and Demon, standing at the center of the Divine Sun. The horrifying aura jetting from its pores was enough to crush and obliterate the very air around it.

Faced with this green-robed, middle-aged man who radiated a dangerous aura, Wu Dao instantly unleashed his Dragon Whale Dominating Body and even his Divine Ghost Heaven. His cellular friction frequency skyrocketed, and he released two hundred percent of his Magnetic Field’s rotational power!

CRACKLE!!

Myriad bolts of Crimson Gold lightning erupted like frenzied serpents. Wu Dao truly resembled a God and Demon descending upon the world, his might pressing down on all of creation. His roar was like an exploding Thunderbolt:

”Don’t bother thinking. You can’t answer me!

Because the world has never been fair. Right and wrong are always decided by the victor!

The victor is always fair, always right!

Defeat me!

Trample me!

Stand on my corpse, and then right and wrong will be for you to decide!”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!—

The Yang Flame surged, and gale-force winds raged like a hurricane.

An utterly tyrannical might enveloped the world. The earth cracked and exploded relentlessly, and the surrounding landscape turned crimson, like a vision of Purgatory.

SCREEE!!

Waves of a boundless ocean surged as a Divine Whale’s cry shook the world.

The Divine Manifestation Fist Intent of the Overlord Whale Fist, unleashed at two hundred percent, erupted like a volcano, blotting out the sky!

In an instant, it transformed the world within a thousand-meter radius into a semi-corporeal sea of crimson Purgatory. As the Divine Whale thrashed within, its boundless power stirred up terrifying, monstrous waves.

WHOOSH~

An unprecedentedly heavy pressure came in wave after crushing wave.

Xu Sheng’s robes whipped about him. He slowly exhaled a turbid breath, standing firm within the Purgatory, as unyielding as a thousand-year-old cyan pine on a mountain peak, refusing to bend in the slightest to the storm.

He stared at Wu Dao, who stood like a world-ending Demon God in the heart of the Purgatory.

His expression was indifferent, without shock or fear. He bent his knees slightly, slowly pulling back into a bow-and-fist stance.

RUSH~

As he drew his fist back, the sound of mighty rivers surging echoed from within his Dantian’s Qi Sea.

A magnificent Fist Intent, one forged through countless trials and tribulations, soared to the heavens without holding anything back!

The Fist Intent was heavy and immense, like a rainbow piercing the sun, and it instantly tore the sky of the Purgatory asunder!

A spiritual phenomenon manifested behind Xu Sheng, taking the form of a massive cyan pine standing atop a snowy peak, its branches holding up the very heavens.

The cyan pine rustled its needles, soothing the raging storm. It stood in a remote standoff against the enormous Divine Whale on the other side of the sky, which leaped from the waves of the crimson ocean, its body blotting out the heavens.

Wu Dao was right.

But Xu Sheng’s sincere desire to protect the weak was not wrong, either.

Who was right and who was wrong...

It was up to their fists to decide.

BOOM—

The punches flew!!

SCREEE!!

RUSH—

The Overlord Whale howled at the sea! The Cyan Pine held up the heavens!

BOOM!!

The heavens shook, the earth quaked, and Thunderbolts shattered!

One crimson gold, one snow white!

The instant the two great phenomena collided, the world dissolved into a blur of brilliant, incomprehensible Chaos.

The next instant—

BOOM!

With the point of impact as the epicenter, a shockwave with the combined force of a titanic hurricane and a cataclysmic earthquake, bent on total destruction, swept across heaven and earth!

From a high mountain outside the city, one could see a red-and-white Divine Sun had ignited in the core of Qingyuan City, its brilliance illuminating the entire world.

The moment the Divine Sun exploded, the sound of the blast echoed for dozens of miles, terrifying all living creatures.

BANG! BANG! BANG!—

Concentric rings of earth collapsed and exploded, flinging massive chunks of rock into the air. A hundred-meter-high curtain, a tidal wave of black earth, expanded rapidly outward.

Every building in its path was instantly torn to shreds by the compressed, hurricane-force winds and swallowed by the sky-blotting tsunami of earth.

After that single exchange!

The world fell silent, and all life seemed to hold its breath!

Viewed from the heavens, the core of Qingyuan City now resembled a meteor impact zone. A massive crater, nearly a mile in radius, had been blasted into the earth, with fissures hundreds of yards long spiderwebbing out from its edges.

Beyond the crater, the tsunami of earth and stone had completely submerged the entire Inner City, reducing it to a wasteland of rubble. Not a single building remained intact.

In the center of the crater!

Wu Dao’s god-like, demon-like Dragon Whale body stood tall, still frozen in the posture of his punch. However, a hideous, terrifying hole, half a meter in diameter, had been punched clean through his chest, a wound glowing with a crimson-gold light.

CRACKLE~

The Magnetic Field rotated, and electric sparks shot out.

At the edges of the wound, countless Crimson Gold filaments, like writhing worms, wove together with incredible speed, knitting new organs and regenerating his flesh.

”Number one on the Martial Roll... a well-deserved reputation indeed.”

Wu Dao muttered to himself, ignoring the horrific injury on his chest, his gaze dark as he looked at the empty crater before him.

The moment the prototype for his sky-supporting Cyan Pine Fist Intent manifested, he had recognized Xu Sheng’s identity.

Number one on the Guangqing Prefecture Martial Roll!

The Jingzhe Bureau’s Xiaoman Commander!

More importantly—

A Half-Step Land Immortal!

At the Land Immortal Realm, one’s Primordial Qi and Spiritual Qi have already turned from astral energy to liquid, and that liquid gathers to form a great river. The Power of Heaven and Earth they can command is terrifying!

Comparing a Grandmaster to a Land Immortal...

To put it vividly...

It’s like comparing a stream to a great river. They are not in the same league at all!

Although Xu Sheng was only a Half-Step Land Immortal, the Primordial Qi within his Dantian had already begun to turn to liquid, condensing into the prototype of a great river and granting him the preliminary power of a Land Immortal.

Not to mention...

The prototype of his Fist Intent!

This technique, where one’s True Boxing Dao achieves Divine Manifestation to attack, provides a terrifying boost to one’s combat strength!

In this world’s Cultivation system, only true geniuses can master it.

Because it’s not simply a matter of Divine Soul strength, though Divine Soul strength is also very important.

The most important thing is the harmony, resonance, and fusion of one’s own will with the myriad Daos of heaven and earth.

My will is as heaven’s will; my fist changes the world!

With will alone, one can change heaven and earth!

If one’s talent and Comprehension are insufficient, even if you enter the Heavenly Human Realm, you might not be able to step through the threshold of the Boxing Dao Realm.

Xu Sheng, who had grasped the prototype of True Boxing Dao while only at the Half-Step Land Immortal realm, was clearly a genius among geniuses.

Against such an opponent, Wu Dao naturally wouldn’t underestimate him in the slightest.

Therefore, that punch of his held nothing back; it was the peak strike he could deliver in his current state.

Unfortunately...

He won.

And yet, he didn’t.

Because Xu Sheng hadn’t died!

At the last moment, he seemed to have used some secret treasure.

His entire person instantly vanished from the world, as if he had evaporated into thin air, leaving no trace, not even a hint of an aura to be found.

”A great power that has stood for six hundred years... its foundations are truly beyond what a third-rate power can compare to.”

Wu Dao exhaled a turbid breath and slowly retracted his fist. The hideous hole in his chest had recovered, and with a crackle of bone and flesh, his body returned to its normal state.

”Heh...”

As a thought occurred to him, a chilling smile once again touched the corners of his lips.

Although that punch didn’t kill Xu Sheng, the lingering damage from his own Fist Intent prototype—one forged from six hundred years of the Overlord Whale Fist’s Divine Manifestation—was not something Xu Sheng’s fledgling Cyan Pine Fist Intent could possibly withstand.

Even if he survived, for a long time to come, he would be nothing but a cripple!

”You’re welcome to come find me to ’reason’ again!”

Grinning wide, he gave a savage smile.

Wu Dao lingered no longer, sprinting off in the direction where he had previously thrown the Golden Flood Dragon Python.

「Meanwhile.」

Dozens of miles outside Qingyuan City, amidst the mountains.

THUD!

Covered in blood, his flesh and bones mangled, his eyes unfocused, Xu Sheng suddenly materialized out of the empty void and collapsed to the ground.

CRACK~

With a shattering sound, a Concealment Jade Talisman on his body, which had been glowing with a colorless light, shattered into tiny pieces, its purpose fulfilled.

”Commander!”

Ding Bai and the others, who had been waiting for a long time, their eyes instantly turning red, rushed forward to support him, fumbling to pull out various Elixir Pills from their robes.

”My Divine Soul is gravely injured... it’s... it’s useless... G-go... Hurry up and go!”

Xu Sheng spat out the words, utterly weakened. His voice was filled with lingering fear and apprehension as he urged Ding Bai and the others not to linger.

Wu Dao was too terrifying.

He was an absolute monster!

The might of the Fist Intent in that strike was infinitely close to True Intent. It had nearly shattered him completely, inflicting a catastrophic injury on his Divine Soul!

A monster like that can’t be measured by common sense at all!

If he has some way to track us, none of us will escape!

”That bastard... If I ever succeed in my cultivation, I’ll definitely...”

Ding Bai sprinted with Xu Sheng on his back, gritting his teeth. He couldn’t understand how someone could be so black-hearted.

”Forget it... We can’t afford to provoke a monster like that right now.”

Xu Sheng cut off Ding Bai’s angry curses. His gaze was unfocused as he said with self-mockery:

”Just take it as a lesson. From now on, you should remember this too... If your fists aren’t hard enough, don’t you ever try to reason with people. Otherwise, they really will beat you to death!

Might makes right...

Heh.

The wisdom of a thousand books, the teachings of ten thousand scriptures...

Before those three words, all of it is as insignificant as dust and ants!”