Essence Devouring Art

After the battle at Luotou Mountain.

Wu Dao enjoyed a rare period of ’peace and quiet,’ beginning a short-term hibernation.

Aside from his extreme training in the heavens, the only thing he needed to keep an eye on was the movements of the Corpse God Palace.

The Bai Ze Bureau and the Overlord Whale Alliance joined forces.

Their reach extended across the Nine Prefectures of the South Border.

Wanted posters for the Corpse God Palace were plastered on the walls of every human settlement, large or small, making it common knowledge.

The Jianghu powers, both On the Mountain and off, especially those belonging to Prince Nanyang’s faction, all accepted the Jianghu kill order, contributing men and resources to fully cooperate with the investigation.

The official reason given to the public was that

the Corpse God Palace was a perverse organization that refined humans and corpses, endangering the Human Race.

The involvement of the Celestial King was not publicized.

Whether in unofficial histories or official records, the Celestial King was depicted as a violent, lawless madman who reveled in slaughter. His reputation alone was enough to make children stop crying at night, to say nothing of the fact that this madman possessed the power of the Celestial Human Tenth Floor.

The impending resurrection of such a Killing God was naturally not something to be made public. Doing so would inevitably cause panic and chaos among the common people and in the Jianghu.

Some might think this was making a mountain out of a molehill, taking the Celestial King too seriously.

’He’s only at the Celestial Human Tenth Floor, not above it. Can’t they just send a top-tier expert to deal with him when the time comes?’

Such thinking was rather naive.

First, the Celestial King’s power at the Celestial Human Tenth Floor was based on records from six hundred years ago. Now that he was resurrecting from a corpse, no one knew how strong he truly was.

Second, the Celestial King might be insane, but he wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t going to appear and start screaming at the world, ’Here I am! Come and kill me!’

The further a living being evolves, the more acute their perception of danger becomes.

Unless an expert at the Celestial Human Tenth Floor or above was actively seeking death, killing them was incredibly difficult.

To put it vividly:

Imagine a madman, his mind filled with hatred, strapping countless nuclear bombs to his back and sneaking into an enemy country. This madman can also conceal himself and has premonitions of danger.

With that in mind, one could understand just how dangerous the Celestial King truly was.

As long as such a madman was not eliminated, everyone, whether they had a grudge against him or not, would be unable to eat or sleep in peace.

For this reason, Wu Dao constantly maintained a state of vigilance during this time. His Spiritual Perception was active twenty-four-seven, monitoring the changes in the surrounding Magnetic Field.

The grudge between him and the Celestial King was immense.

He had swallowed alive the Celestial King’s one true love, his final source of tenderness, the Celestial Empress.

Putting himself in the Celestial King’s shoes, he knew that if he were the Celestial King, the first thing he would do upon reappearing would be to find a way to crush him. He had to be on guard.

...

「Ten days after the battle at Luotou Mountain.」

WHOOSH~

The north wind howled, and the land was frozen solid.

The weather itself seemed to be affected by the state of the world, turning strange and bizarre. Not long after autumn began, a heavy snow started to fall like goose feathers.

High in the sky, thunder rolled all day long. It was so dark and gloomy that the sun was blotted out, casting a cold, grim, and murderous atmosphere over everything.

Outside Lancang County City.

The world was wrapped in silver, a vast expanse of white.

The ever-flowing Lancang River had frozen over. Snowflakes drifted down, and occasionally, one could see people in twos and threes, chiseling through the ice to fish.

The thousands of households within the city had mostly ceased their daily activities, huddling in their homes to escape the severe cold.

BOOM!!

「At noon.」

A deafening clap of thunder suddenly erupted from the depths of the sky, shaking heaven and earth. All living things trembled, looking up in horror.

Vaguely, at an extreme height, one could see four overlapping seas of purple thunder churning.

Faintly visible amidst the chaos, one could dimly make out mountain-sized Divine Whales, seemingly constructed from countless purple bolts of thunder, galloping and swimming through the electric sea. They radiated an infinite pressure that demanded the submission of all things, as if passing judgment on the world.

Fortunately, the strange phenomenon appeared and vanished in a flash. Within a few blinks, it disappeared into the depths of the sky, and the view from the mortal world was once again obscured by thick, dark clouds and the vast falling snow.

Huuu~

In the heavens, ten thousand meters high, Wu Dao let out a slow breath. The crackling Crimson Gold currents on his skin subsided. Ignoring the surrounding Gangfeng Thunderbolt, which was strong enough to tear apart a Celestial Human Third Floor expert, he opened his eyes, which shone with a divine radiance.

With a thought, he opened his attribute panel—

[Physique: Human Extreme (Minor Achievement)]

[Extraordinary: Essence Devouring Art (87% Potential Release) +

Thunder Punishment Dominating Whale Fist 3000 Years (True Intent Fourth Floor) +

Divine Desolate Transformation 3000 Years (Horizontal Refining Sixth Gate Great Success) +]

[Teleportation Points: 35,115]

His thoughts swept over the new and improved Thunder Punishment Dominating Whale Fist, now at the Fourth Floor.

A look of satisfaction appeared in Wu Dao’s eyes.

After his Overlord Whale Fist had entered the realm of True Intent, he had noticed the technique’s shortcomings.

Its Mental Realm was too low-level and monotonous.

In a battle between equals, his methods were limited to the moves of the Overlord Whale Fist. To put it bluntly, the Overlord Whale Fist was merely a ’foundational’ martial art with a ceiling at the Meticulous realm.

Its ability to reach the level of True Intent was entirely due to the attribute panel’s forced enhancement.

True Intent was a manifestation of one’s spirit and mettle. The greatness of one’s spirit determined the influence of their will on the world, and thus the Mighty Power of their True Intent.

Even at the same level of True Intent, the will and spirit cultivated by the Dog-Beating Fist versus the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms would be worlds apart.

To compensate for this weakness, Wu Dao had contacted the Black Dragon Commerce Association after returning from the Thousand Cave Mountain Range to purchase a True Intent-level fist technique manual.

Although the Black Dragon Commerce Association didn’t sell Cultivation Techniques for advancing one’s realm after becoming a Celestial Being, they had no restrictions on selling techniques with limited realms. They had a wide variety, and they were relatively cheap.

Among them was a manual called the ”Thunderous Killing Fist.”

Wu Dao was most satisfied with this one.

Once cultivated to the level of True Intent, its Fist Intent would manifest. It unleashed majestic Celestial Thunder, a torrent of thunderbolts, making one seem like the Thunder God incarnate, judging all things and exterminating all that was dark and evil.

Of course, the main reason he chose it was that the attributes of the Thunderous Killing Fist were highly compatible with his Primordial Magnetic currents, making the fusion process twice as effective with half the effort.

Coupled with the daily beatings from Celestial Thunder in his excellent training location, it took him only five days to fuse the Overlord Whale Fist and the Thunderous Killing Fist, transforming them into the even more powerful Thunder Punishment Dominating Whale Fist.

And after another five days, he broke through from the Third Floor of True Intent to the Fourth Floor.

Thunder Strike Dominating Whale Fist Intent!

The sea of blood became a sea of electricity; the Overlord Whale became a Thunder Whale!

A single punch was like a whale’s ram and a clap of celestial thunder!

The Mighty Power of his True Intent had skyrocketed!

At this moment, if one were to dissect Wu Dao, they would discover that his entire being, both body and soul, was filled with supremely hard and tyrannical Primordial Magnetic currents and majestic Celestial Thunder.

Hmm...

He was like a magnetic blast Thunder King, cultivating both body and soul.

Besides the Thunder Punishment Dominating Whale Fist, over the past ten days, Wu Dao’s strength had also seen a significant increase.

The main reason was due to his Human Extreme Domain, which allowed his Primordial Magnetic Field to control and absorb all kinds of high-energy magnetic fields from the world.

This saved Wu Dao the time needed to replenish his Energy and rest.

He could maintain his Divine Ghost Heaven State for extreme Cultivation around the clock, day and night, without ever worrying about Energy consumption.

In fact, that was exactly what he did.

For ten days, he did not rest for a single second.

His body and soul were constantly being destroyed and battered by the Gangfeng and Celestial Thunder, shattering and reforming again and again.

Heaven rewards the diligent!

In just ten days of cultivating like a madman possessed, his Potential Release progress increased by 2%, reaching the 87% Potential Liberation Domain.

In the Human Extreme Domain, every 1% increase meant the body had been tempered and refined five times over.

87% Potential Release!

Twenty-Turn Undying Extreme Gold Body!

With these factors complementing each other, the Power of his Divine Desolate Transformation also increased by five hundred years, and his physique reached the Great Success stage of the Horizontal Refining Sixth Gate.

With such a powerful physique, the range of influence his Primordial Magnetic Field—generated by the force of his cellular currents—had on the external Earth and Heaven Magnetic Field Power was naturally even more terrifying.

’My combat power has increased by at least two floors.’

Wu Dao activated his Primordial Magnetic Field, leveraging the Earth and Heaven Magnetic Field Energy in a radius of nearly twenty-five li, giving him a rough estimate of his current strength.

During the battle at Luotou Mountain, his normal state was at the limit of the Third Floor. After unleashing his Divine Desolate Dominating Body and Divine Ghost Heaven, he could instantly kill a Fourth Floor expert. With the ultimate burst of his Godlessness Heaven state, he could step into the Fifth Floor.

But now...

in his normal state, he could control the Earth and Heaven Magnetic Field Energy in a radius of nearly twenty-five li, which was already the Limit of Heavenly Human Fourth Floor.

If his various enhancements were taken into account, he could instantly kill a Fifth Floor expert. And by activating his Godlessness state, he would even stand a fighting chance against a Sixth Floor expert!

’Huuu... Time to continue.’

Putting away the attribute panel, Wu Dao looked up at the even more violent thunderbolts and Gangfeng higher above, stretched his body slightly, and activated his Divine Ghost Heaven state before charging in.

After his Potential Release had increased by 2%, the cost to advance from Human Extreme Minor Achievement to Great Success had been reduced from 50,000 to 40,000.

He was still short by over four thousand points.

With no big fish to catch in the short term, he couldn’t use the attribute panel. He could only rely on himself.

The thorn in his side that was the Celestial King felt like a fishbone stuck in his throat.

Until it was removed, he couldn’t allow himself the slightest bit of complacency.

RUMBLE—

CRACKLE! POP!

Thunderbolts bombarded him, and the Gangfeng was sharper than any blade.

The moment Wu Dao charged into the destructive zone above, his entire body was blasted into a charred husk, which was then blown away by the fierce Gangfeng, leaving only a shattered skeleton behind.

His soul and consciousness felt as if they were being pierced from all directions by countless steel needles, shaking violently as if about to shatter at any moment.

If an ordinary cultivator were to suffer such pain, even a Celestial Being would be crying for their mother and father.

But Wu Dao’s consciousness was hidden within his very bones.

In his Divine Ghost Heaven State, he didn’t even know the meaning of pain. He devoured the Energy of the Earth and Heaven Magnetic Field like a whale, quickly restoring his physical body.

Although he couldn’t even last for a few breaths before being destroyed again, this was exactly what he wanted.

Essence Devouring, Essence Devouring.

To devour the celestial secret on the very brink of life and death.

Only the great terror found on the ultimate edge between life and death could stimulate the body’s Potential Release, tear apart the shackles of the Creator, and achieve a transcendent rebirth.

While Wu Dao was risking his life to cultivate, some rats in dark places began to stir.

...

Wang ManCang, a resident of Linqing County in Wanshan Prefecture, had been wearing a worried frown and sighing constantly these past few days. He couldn’t eat well, nor could he sleep well.

The reason for this was that the granaries he depended on for his livelihood had been robbed.

Wang ManCang’s family had been merchants for generations.

They had always been the biggest grain merchants in Linqing County.

By his generation, although times were tough, he had managed to hold on to his family’s business and live a comfortable life by being slick, smooth-talking, and using a few clever tricks to keep everyone happy.

After autumn began this year, there were continuous heavy rains followed by a major cold snap. Wang ManCang keenly smelled a business opportunity. He built additional storehouses and began hoarding grain on a massive scale, just waiting for times to get a little harder before opening his stores to sell grain and make a huge profit.

At first, Wang ManCang spent his days humming tunes and sipping wine, pleased with himself. Every few days, he would personally inspect his granaries, feeling as if he could see mountains of gold and silver beckoning to him. He was in an excellent mood.

But four days ago, Wang ManCang’s good mood came to an abrupt end.

His largest granary, located in the eastern part of the county seat, had five of its grain cellars robbed overnight. He lost tens of thousands of pounds of grain, and the rage nearly made him sick.

Furious, Wang ManCang immediately reported it to the Government Office.

After Prince Nanyang unified the Nine Prefectures, the Government Offices in Wanshan Prefecture had managed to recover some of their former authority and were no longer powerless puppets in name only.

The loss of tens of thousands of pounds of grain was no small case. The Linqing County Yamen gave the matter high priority. Constables quickly surrounded the granary, secured the guards, and began searching and interrogating them.

But the final result greatly surprised Wang ManCang.

It wasn’t an inside job, nor was it the work of outside thieves. The tens of thousands of pounds of grain had vanished as if they had grown wings and flown away, leaving no clues behind.

Since even the County Yamen could find no clues, Wang ManCang could only swallow this silent loss. He assumed the thief’s methods were simply too brilliant and subsequently increased his defensive forces.

But he never expected that over the next three days, more grain would be stolen, and in greater quantities each time.

As of today, he had lost a total of nearly two hundred thousand pounds of grain. The ’thief’ seemed to have latched onto him, determined not to stop until they had stolen him dry.