Essence Devouring Art

「The next day.」

A light autumn rain was falling, and the sky was overcast.

A hundred miles outside Lancang County City, beneath a region ravaged by thunderbolts.

WHOOSH—

Wu Dao sat with his eyes closed atop a sea of black clouds, carefully nurturing his spirit. Blade-like gales tore past him, yet he remained completely still.

DONG—

DONG—

DONG—

Within the world of his Heart Lake.

An alarm bell would occasionally ring, sending ripples across his spiritual sea. A sense of immense crisis, growing with the quickening pace of the bell, was gradually taking over his mind.

It was like the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head, or as if he were being watched by the Hell Death God.

The sword could fall at any moment.

The scythe could emerge from the darkness and press against his neck at any time.

That feeling of having one foot in the realm of the living and one foot in the realm of the dead was a constant, unsettling anxiety.

Had it been anyone else, they would have likely been driven mad by this sensation.

But Wu Dao’s expression remained as impassive as iron, his Divine Soul and consciousness as calm as still water.

The terror of life and death was something he experienced tens of thousands of times a day.

It no longer caused the slightest emotional ripple within him.

Since morning, his keen sense of danger had detected an extremely chilling malice lingering in his mind, impossible to shake off.

Until...

it transformed into that tolling alarm bell!

He knew in his heart.

’The Celestial King is about to make his move.’

That was why he hadn’t ventured deeper into the sky since morning. Instead, he sat upon the sea of clouds like a living target.

Quietly waiting for the Celestial King.

’I already know you’re coming to kill me.’

’But I dare to look down on you, and I’ll wait right here for you to try!’

’If you’ve got a problem with that, then come and fight!’

’Let’s see if you have the guts!’

His strategic contempt had been pushed to the absolute extreme.

RUMBLE—

Below, ink-black clouds churned and rolled.

Streaks of thunderbolt, like snakes or dragons, exploded into violet, tree-like diagrams that connected heaven and earth.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH—

The Gangfeng winds grew stronger.

DONG DONG DONG—

The alarm bell in his Heart Lake began to ring with increasing urgency.

Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed slightly, but his expression didn’t change in the slightest.

His Primordial Magnetic Power was constantly active, sensing the subtle changes in the magnetic field of the world for forty to fifty miles around.

This was the greatest difference between him and the other Extraordinaries of this world, and also his greatest advantage.

Other Extraordinaries’ spiritual senses could be deceived by all sorts of treasures and Cultivation Techniques.

But for him...

whether it was an Escape Form from a Cultivation Technique or a Hidden Breath from a treasure, they all required the support of magnetic field energy. They couldn’t be created from nothing.

As long as the Celestial King entered a forty to fifty-mile radius, no matter how well he was hidden, he couldn’t escape his perception!

For instance, those little rats that had appeared in and around Lancang County City these past few days.

They thought they were well hidden.

In reality, their every move was within his perception. He had only refrained from acting because he didn’t want to alert the primary target.

BUZZ—

At a certain moment, a deeply hidden, violent, and dangerous aura broke into Wu Dao’s magnetic field perception.

Like a leaf falling onto the surface of a lake.

Or a gently plucked spider’s thread.

It was almost imperceptible.

But within Wu Dao’s Divine Soul, it was louder than the Celestial Thunder.

’He’s here...’

The corners of his lips curled up slightly.

With a thought, Wu Dao sent a message into his Communication Jade Talisman.

DONG DONG DONG DONG—

The very instant he sent the message, the alarm bell in his Heart Lake suddenly rang like a furious storm, like three thousand thunderbolts, frantically shaking his spiritual sea and stirring up monstrous waves.

DONG!!!

Finally, the tolling of the bell merged into a single, continuous sound, transforming into a vast and resonant sound wave like the collision of heaven and earth, shaking both his Divine Soul and his physical body.

It was as if he were being stared down by a Primordial Fierce Beast.

The pressure of a superior Hunter, originating from the depths of his genes, made his body instinctively tense up. His heart beat like a Divine Drum, and his scorching hot vital energy, like Great Sun Liquid, began to race through him.

WHOOSH—

A strong gust of wind carrying a heavy, majestic aura blew over.

Wu Dao opened his abyss-dark eyes and slowly raised his head. He looked toward the end of the black sea of clouds at the tall, formidable figure striding forward, crushing thunderclouds underfoot, his wild golden hair flying. A savage, shark-like grin spread across his face.

RUMBLE—

The sea of clouds exploded, and the thunderbolts shattered.

He stopped a thousand meters away!

The Celestial King’s towering frame was draped in a thin black robe. His bare chest revealed perfectly sculpted muscles of Golden Jade, and his fluffy, flying golden hair added a touch of wild abandon.

His body showed no heaven-shaking phenomena.

He was just standing there, yet he had already become a Divine Pillar supporting heaven and earth. The heavy pressure he naturally exuded caused the churning sea of clouds and the oncoming Gangfeng winds to constantly shatter and annihilate, forming a vacuum around him.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH—

The Gangfeng Qi Flow continuously slammed against the barrier of pressure, compressing and detonating.

The Celestial King gazed at Wu Dao a thousand meters away, who smiled like a Purgatory Demon God without a hint of fear. His face didn’t hold the crazed, savage expression one would expect when meeting a mortal enemy.

Instead, his expression was one of appreciation and admiration.

He could feel the unparalleled, tyrannical aura radiating from Wu Dao—an aura cultivated as if by climbing to the apex of billions of lives and dominating thousands of hunting grounds.

He clapped his hands and praised:

”Wu Dao, ’Without the Way.’ A good name, even more arrogant than this old man. I thought you were just some snot-nosed brat who got lucky. But seeing you today, with an aura like this... you’re not half bad!”

The era when the Celestial King made his name was the grand stage of the Warring States period, where heroes vied for supremacy.

He had witnessed far too many brilliant and stunning heroes and had dealt with all kinds of tyrants and Overlords.

But in all honesty, aside from the Demon Suppression Emperor, this was the first time he had ever felt such an unparalleled aura from someone—the aura of standing atop the world and looking down upon all living beings.

Wu Dao was a rising star.

In the short span of half a year at most, he had gone from making a name for himself to dominating two Prefectures, and in that time, he had cultivated such an aura. This truly made the Celestial King see him in a new light.

But appreciation was one thing.

A feud to the death was another.

Therefore...

”So what the fuck are you so arrogant about?”

RUMBLE—

The Celestial King’s tone suddenly became incomparably vicious. The aura he released, mixed with seven hundred years of suppressed fury, erupted all at once. It was like a Category 10+ hurricane, battering the heavens and the earth, so strong it made Wu Dao’s very flesh ripple.

That terrifying aura, like an unrivaled Overlord in a rage, made his very soul tremble—tremble with excitement!

’But this isn’t enough!’

’I need the Celestial King to go completely insane, to lose his mind! Only then will it be exciting enough!’

So... facing the Celestial King’s infinite rage, the flesh on Wu Dao’s face rippled as his lips curled back to his ears, like a crazed Fierce Beast. With a mocking glint in his eyes, he spat out four words:

”The Celestial Empress... very satisfying!”

As these four words were spoken,

VMMMM—

in an instant, the world seemed to lose all sound and color, falling deathly silent.

The Celestial King, who had been erupting with the infinite, furious flames of an unrivaled Overlord, looked stunned for a moment. One could clearly see his golden pupils being gradually consumed by a boundless sea of blood.

The next instant—

BOOM!!

Thunder exploded across the Nine Heavens! A Celestial God was enraged!

In his perception, the entire world seemed to be filled with an endless, ferocious, and violent aura, like a volcanic eruption!

Within a radius of forty to fifty miles, the Gangfeng Cloud Sea! The thousands of strands of fine rain! And even the continuous mountain ranges and the earth below!

The moment that indescribably vast, destructive aura erupted, everything—like all matter at the point of a nuclear detonation—was instantly compressed, shattered, and annihilated into countless particles as the energy exploded and expanded!

A terrifying Mighty Power that could shatter heaven and earth.

Even Lancang County City, over a hundred miles away, was shaken by the seismic waves that reached it in an instant. Cracks appeared in the ground, and thousands of houses swayed nonstop.

One could clearly see a massive black fireball exploding in the distant sky. It expanded and spread at extreme speed, its shockwave carrying a sky-blotting, ochre-colored tide. The violent gales instantly submerged and tore apart everything in all directions.

Another instant later, an even more terrifying phenomenon occurred.

”Three suns in the sky! Is heaven trying to end the world?”

Within Lancang County City.

Countless common folk had yet to recover from the earthquake when they saw an even more brilliant light illuminate the world, accompanying the explosion of the black fireball in the distant sky.

Two black and one gold!

Three great suns hung high in the sky!

They radiated boundless light and heat, dispelling the gloomy weather and evaporating the vast curtain of rain. They illuminated the surrounding hundreds of miles in black and gold, making it impossible to tell if this was Purgatory or the mortal world.

”Six Yang Celestial Light, Twin Suns!”

In Lancang County City, Tong Yi, the Elder Sword Cultivator from Zige Mountain who had first come to see Wu Dao as his protector, stood high in the air. He stared at the three Divine Suns that brightly illuminated the vast world in the distant sky.

To be precise, it was the two black suns!

His face instantly filled with absolute horror!

’The Horizontal Refining Eighth Gate—’

’Six Yang Celestial Light!’

’This gate has three steps!’

’One Step creates two Divine Suns of vital energy!’

’Just the first step is a guaranteed Twelfth Floor combat power!’

’Its limit is said to be comparable to the Dao Embryo!’

’What a Celestial King!’

’He truly is worthy of being a figure who could contend with the Demon Suppression Emperor back in the day!’

’Wu Dao... is in danger!’

Tong Yi stared at the golden Divine Sun in the sky, which had grown dim and was shaking unsteadily under the pressure of the two other Divine Suns.

His heart was filled with extreme worry.

The Horizontal Refining Seventh Door and the Eighth Door.

One has a limit at the Celestial Human Tenth Floor!

The other grants Twelfth Floor power right from the start!

’The difference...’

WHOOSH—

Tong Yi suppressed the worry in his heart and looked in all directions. He could sense several figures with incredibly powerful auras rushing over at extreme speed, approaching the battlefield of the three suns in the blink of an eye.

They were the Supreme Elders of Zige Mountain and Martial King Mountain. With cultivation at the King Realm of the Military Dao and the Dao Embryo Realm of the Martial Dao, they were all top-tier experts who possessed Great Divine Techniques.

’With them here,’

’the Celestial King won’t be able to stir up any trouble!’

’I just hope...’

’...that Wu Dao can hold on for the first few breaths.’

RUMBLE!

But just as that thought crossed Tong Yi’s mind,

”KILL! KILL! KILL!”

”FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!!”

the world around the three suns in his vision suddenly, without any warning, churned with boundless seas of blood and fire.

Mixed with the heaven-shaking roars and cries of slaughter, a Red Jade Banner could be faintly seen snapping and fluttering in the center of the bloody flames.

As the great banner danced, the sky-filling blood and fire evolved into all sorts of terrifying scenes of cosmic slaughter and hellish carnage. It sealed off heaven and earth, blocking the approaching Supreme Elders of Zige Mountain and Martial King Mountain from the battlefield!