Essence Devouring Art

”Where is he? Lead the way!”

Wu Dao retracted his Spiritual Perception. Finding the body wasn’t in the hall, he cut Shi Xiuyi’s brown-nosing short.

”Yes!”

Shi Xiuyi had long heard of Wu Dao’s decisive and uncompromising nature. He quickly got up to lead the way, saying at the same time:

”He managed to say a few words after he escaped back here, then he breathed his last. The state of his body was just... UGH.”

As he spoke, Shi Xiuyi gagged instinctively, goosebumps breaking out all over his skin. ”I feared there might be some hidden danger, so I had him moved outside the city.”

Wu Dao glanced at the still-shaken Shi Xiuyi, and a flicker of curiosity rose in his heart. ’What on earth could make even someone in the Divine Power Realm this disgusted?’

Just as evening fell, he had received an urgent hawk-post report from Luoshan County.

After casting his net for so long, he finally had a catch!

Starved for action after so many days, Wu Dao immediately gave Zhao Jianji a few instructions and then rushed to Luoshan County.

Based on the letter’s description, he had a feeling.

This was definitely a big one!

「Outside Luoshan City.」

「Inside a dilapidated local deity temple in the mountains.」

”Gods, I’ve never seen anything so creepy in my life. What in the world did Chen Hong and the others get involved with?”

”What else could it be? It’s got to be one of those inhuman things.”

”Blinded by greed. Even Breaking the Cocoon Martial Artists wouldn’t mess with those things, but they went right ahead... Did they really think 10,000 taels would be that easy to get?”

A dozen or so stationed hall members were murmuring amongst themselves, shivering as they periodically glanced back toward the main hall of the temple.

”Quiet! The Alliance Leader is here!”

At that moment, a minor leader outside the temple barked a command to those inside, straightened his clothes, and hurried over to greet Wu Dao and his companion.

’Interesting.’

Wu Dao ignored the awestruck gazes around him. The moment he stepped into the temple, his Spiritual Perception locked onto the corpse lying in the main hall, and he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

It wasn’t Demon Qi.

Nor was it a spectral energy.

It was a completely new scent.

WHOOSH~

A mountain breeze swept through, filling the temple with a fragrance somewhat like malt.

Wu Dao looked down at the horrifying human corpse on the ground, wisps of Crimson Gold lightning-fire flaring in his eyes.

Calling it human was a bit of a stretch, actually.

Because this corpse had no flesh or bone.

From the inside out, it was a human form forcibly pieced together from countless, layered, and sticky grains of blood-red wheat.

Each and every grain of wheat writhed, swelled, and contracted as if alive, looking as though it was about to sprout.

At a glance, the sight was dense, abstract, and grotesque. An ordinary person would faint just from looking at it. No wonder Shi Xiuyi and the others were so nauseated.

RUSTLE~

With a stir of his Magnetic Field, the grains of wheat began to peel away.

They revealed a honeycomb-like structure beneath, reminiscent of a mille-feuille pastry.

Once all the layers of wheat were gone, what remained was a pile of shelled wheat grains. They were the size of peanuts—some fragmented, some whole, and already sprouted—resembling red agate and emitting a strange, sweet fragrance that induced hunger.

Clearly, this pile of bizarre wheat grains was the culprit that had turned Chen Hong into a man of wheat.

But...

’Does it lose its properties once separated from the source?’

Wu Dao picked up a grain of wheat. Under his Spiritual Perception, he couldn’t detect any abnormal aura; it seemed to be just an ’ordinary’ grain.

He had never encountered a situation like this before.

Because whether it was demons or wraiths, after an object was tainted by their aura, it would be contaminated to some degree, suffused with either Demon Qi or a spectral aura.

But this wheat...

’Looks like I get to try something new today.’

Wu Dao licked his lips. A wisp of Crimson Gold electric fire shot from his pupils, incinerating the pile of wheat into black smoke. He then rose and walked outside.

Not a demon.

Not a wraith.

Then it had to be a Fierce Monster!

He’d been in this World for a long time and had his fair share of dealings with the abnormal.

As for what a Fierce Monster was, though Wu Dao had never truly encountered one, he had gathered a lot of useful intelligence from the Black Dragon Commerce Association.

In short, a Fierce Monster could be considered a kind of Exotic Celestial Treasure.

Between Heaven and Earth, through a confluence of fate and the weaving of rules, a weapon, a house, a shoe, a book, a person, or even a natural phenomenon... anything and everything could gain sentience and grow into a strange, grotesque alternative lifeform possessing all sorts of Mighty Power and characteristics—a Fierce Monster.

This type of abnormal being is very similar to a Celestial Treasure, but there is a fundamental difference:

one is a living being with self-awareness.

The other is purely an aggregate of the Heaven and Earth Rules.

So, what were the characteristics of the Fierce Monster in Harvest Village, and what was its true nature?

’Wheat?’

Wu Dao felt it wasn’t that simple.

Because in the intelligence revealed by Chen Hong before he died, it seemed the entire village had a strange feeling about it.

That was rather terrifying.

Although Fierce Monsters had no specific realm delineations and were judged only by the strength of their characteristics, a Fierce Monster that could affect an entire village? Its Power would be at the Land Immortal level, at the very least!

This was more than just a big fish!

This was a great white shark—plenty of meat, but with razor-sharp teeth!

However... this was exactly his kind of prey!

The more challenging the prey, the more he craved it. What thrill was there in a dead piece of meat that couldn’t fight back?

”Alliance Leader, should I call for backup?”

Waiting outside the hall, Shi Xiuyi saw Wu Dao walk out with an air of confidence and quickly asked the question.

His eyes, however, unconsciously darted toward the blood-red wheat covering the floor inside, and he couldn’t help but shiver, clearly terrified in his heart.

”No need. Give me the map.”

Wu Dao glanced at the nervous Shi Xiuyi. Of course he knew what the man was thinking, but he couldn’t be bothered with it.

A dangerous place like Harvest Village... anyone below the Innate realm would be completely useless there.

”Yes, yes, of course.”

Shi Xiuyi breathed a silent sigh of relief and quickly took a sheepskin map from his robes to present to him.

Wu Dao gave the map a quick glance, imprinting its contents onto his mind. Without any intention of lingering, he activated his Magnetic Field, defying gravity and launching himself into the sky amidst a furious gale.

BOOM—

After getting his bearings, Wu Dao immediately accelerated into low-altitude supersonic flight. With a thunderous sonic boom, he vanished from Shi Xiuyi’s sight in a matter of blinks.

At supersonic speed, the scenery of the ochre-yellow earth flew backward, and one mountain peak after another was left behind him.

In just a short while, a rather conspicuous dark-red hillside appeared within his line of sight. Harvest Village, located behind Red Mountain, also came into full view.

RUMBLE—

Above him, dark clouds roiled across the sky. Snakes of lightning flashed and crackled as a torrential downpour brewed, threatening to inundate the world at any moment.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH—

Amidst the howling wind, Wu Dao stood poised in the sky above the deathly silent Harvest Village, not descending immediately.

This whole affair reeked of abnormality from start to finish.

In such a desolate, uninhabited place. ’Travelers?’

’What a joke!’

Not to mention, Harvest Village wasn’t even on the map!

And the most important point...

’From a Fierce Monster that can affect an entire village... how could Chen Hong, someone merely at the level of Nourishing Power Great Success, possibly have escaped?’

One suspicious point after another. It seemed as though something had deliberately allowed the Overlord Whale Alliance to discover Harvest Village, all for the sole purpose of luring him, Wu Dao, here.

Of course, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that it was all just a coincidence.

But Wu Dao had never been the careless or reckless type; in fact, one could even call him paranoid.

Even if there was just a sliver of uncertainty, he wouldn’t choose to ignore it and just charge in recklessly.

VMMMM~

His vast Spiritual Perception swept over the entirety of Harvest Village.

It was completely empty, deathly silent.

The houses were clearly free of dust and grime, as if someone had been maintaining them for a long time.

Yet within the hundred-odd houses, all seemingly cast from the same mold, he could detect no signs of life.

The wheat in the fields, when swept by his Spiritual Perception, also lacked that particularly appetite-inducing sweet fragrance.

The entire Harvest Village, aside from that dissonant, strange feeling, Wu Dao found nothing else out of the ordinary. It seemed to be just a lost, secluded paradise.

”Heh, you’re quite good at hiding!”

Wu Dao retracted his perception with a cold sneer, still not preparing to enter.

’When in doubt, level the map!’

Once the map is destroyed, the monsters within will have nowhere to hide. There was no need to play some hide-and-seek puzzle game with them.

No sooner said than done!

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The grinding sound of a war machine assembling echoed out.

Wu Dao directly unleashed his Dragon Whale Dominating Body, which towered ten meters tall like a god or a demon. His internal Magnetic Field began to spin, his dragon-like blood and qi surged and roared, and torrents of Crimson Gold lightning-fire erupted, scorching a vast swathe of the sky red.

The next moment...

”ROAR!!”

True Dragon Breath, to incinerate the heavens and boil the seas!

A wave of Crimson Gold energy as thick as a water bucket shot out from his volcano-like mouth. Carrying a terrifying, Supreme Yang heat, it lit up a huge portion of the sky and, like a Celestial Punishment, slammed right into the cluster of buildings in Harvest Village.

BOOM!

A violent explosion erupted. Countless tons of earth and rock shot skyward as building after building burned to ash. The very air turned red and distorted, creating a scene like a fiery Purgatory.

But Wu Dao didn’t even spare it a glance.

As if playing a coloring game, he continuously spewed his dragon’s breath, sweeping left and right to scorch the entire length of the oblong village.

After reaching Overlord Great Success, his Horizontal Refining Fourth Gate had also reached Great Success. The sheer abundance of his blood and qi was endless, no less than that of a young True Dragon.

Such a small expenditure of energy was nothing to him at all.

Not to mention, he was only burning some ’mundane objects.’

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The earth continued to explode as the sea of fire spread across the entire village.

As if a flame dragon were bringing about the apocalypse, the entire village transformed from a secluded paradise into a Purgatory of molten rock in moments. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but red-hot magma.

But... the Fierce Monster still hadn’t appeared!

More importantly!

WHOOSH~

A gentle breeze swept by, carrying the scent of wheat.

Harvest Village was restoring itself!

At the edges, the sea of fire and magma dissipated, and vast fields of wheat rapidly reappeared on the land as if being painted into existence.

”Heh, I told you, I hate puzzle games!”

Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed, but he still didn’t enter the village. A ferocious light appeared in his gaze as he instantly unleashed Divine Ghost Heaven.

CRACKLE! POP! SIZZLE!

ROOOOAR!!

With his bodily functions unleashed to two hundred percent, currents of his Magnetic Field shot from his pores like a frenzy of golden snakes, crackling across the sky. His irrepressible blood and qi manifested as a Red Gold Blood Dragon that soared nearly three hundred zhang into the air!

”ROAR!!”

An even more explosive True Dragon Breath, so dense it was almost tangible, shot down vertically, connecting heaven and earth. The moment it struck, it detonated in the center of Harvest Village like a nuclear bomb, creating a massive fireball and a mushroom cloud that billowed into the sky.

RUUUUMBLE—

In the next instant, layer upon layer of ring-shaped shockwaves carrying terrifying heat compressed, crushed, and displaced everything in their path. The surrounding mountains were torn asunder by the concussive force, and the newly restored Harvest Village was once again wiped off the map.

This time, it seemed to have taken a serious hit. The speed at which Harvest Village restored itself was much slower.

”ROAR!”

”ROAR!”

”ROAR!”

But before Harvest Village could recover, the furious breaths rained down on Harvest Village like mad, world-ending pillars of light, setting off a continuous chain of brilliant fireballs that illuminated the heavens. The very earth was shattered and beaten down by several tens of meters.

’You wanna play these games with me?!’

’I’ll fucking blast you to kingdom come!!’

Wu Dao sneered inwardly. Transforming into a Destructive Demon Dragon, he incessantly roared out brilliant, cataclysmic divine punishments, churning up layer after layer of sky-high magma waves.

After bombarding it like this for a while, Harvest Village was no more. In its place was a gigantic, crater-like Abyss, where nothing could be seen but boiling magma.

Still, Wu Dao did not descend.

’Just keep blasting. Just keep playing. Let’s see who breaks first!’

”Enough!!”

Finally, just as Wu Dao was preparing to unleash another breath, an ancient roar filled with boundless frustration echoed from within the Abyss.

It was immediately followed by a somewhat chilling voice, which was also flustered and exasperated:

”This is too damn frustrating! I can’t take it anymore! Let’s fight him out in the open!!”

And after that, came another voice, cold and mechanical, devoid of any human emotion, but its tone was clearly furious:

”This is all your fault, you two animals, and your rotten idea! ’Trap the dog and beat it?’ In my eyes, you’re the ones with the brains of a dog!”