Essence Devouring Art

Wu Dao had never been the reckless type, something Prince Nanyang should have known.

Yet he had still made a point to warn him.

This meant that some danger specifically targeting him alone might occur during the future Great Tribulation.

Lay low, and the storm will pass.

Press forward, and you risk life and death.

That was the general idea.

’I hate people who talk in riddles!’

Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed. He was certain Prince Nanyang knew something, but for some unknown reason, he hadn’t disclosed it.

But this feeling—where heaven, earth, and he all knew something...

...while he alone was left in the dark.

It was truly suffocating.

”Whew... but it’ll be soon. The Dragon Mud Cave Heaven will open in a year at most. What needs to be known will be known.”

Looking up at the boundless ocean beyond the Primordial Forest, Wu Dao let out a soft sigh, suppressed the thoughts in his mind, and quickened his pace.

The Dragon Mud Cave Heaven.

It was one of several strange pocket worlds from outside the Divine Wilderness that collected its worldly fortune, only manifesting when a tribulation was about to begin.

Among all the tribulations of the past,

the opening of the Dragon Mud Cave Heaven signaled the start of the tribulation. Its closing meant the Great Tribulation had fully descended.

The Great Divine Power Users of this era had calculated...

...that the Dragon Mud Cave Heaven would open in one year.

In other words,

the Tribulation Experiencers of this age, including Wu Dao, had only one year left!

This amount of time,

might not be enough for a normal Cultivator to complete a single session of secluded cultivation. It would pass in the blink of an eye, making it difficult to achieve anything significant.

But for Wu Dao,

it was more than enough.

He was confident that in this one year, he could reach a level high enough to face the Great Tribulation!

The source of his confidence...

...was twofold. First was the Essence Devouring Art.

With the combined experience of two lifetimes,

his path forward, just like the Celestial Treasure Master’s, was completely unobstructed until he reached 100% Potential Release.

The other was his attribute panel.

The hundreds of thousands of Teleportation Points required for future advancements was indeed a huge number.

But this number wasn’t set in stone.

Through his own diligent training, he could drastically reduce the number of Teleportation Points required to advance.

One year.

Gathering enough Teleportation Points was not an impossible task.

When the time came,

even if he couldn’t break through the shackles from his previous life at the Peak of Human Extremes on his own, he still had the attribute panel as a backup.

SWOOSH...

The Southern Border Land’s End, the boundless South Sea.

The rolling, azure sea stretched to the ends of the earth, its vastness spanning thousands upon thousands of miles. The deep, immense ocean made one feel truly insignificant.

Upon reaching the coast,

Wu Dao activated the Magnetic Field and discovered that the various Extraordinary energies between heaven and earth had thinned to the point of being nearly nonexistent.

In the South Sea,

although rich in species, all of them were mundane, mortal creatures.

He intentionally flew low, skimming over the surface.

Within a thousand miles, he found only one or two scattered Sea Demons that were just beginning to develop Spirituality. The surface appeared prosperous, but a deathly stillness lay beneath.

This situation grew more severe the closer he got to the Ends of the Earth.

Eventually,

even living creatures disappeared entirely.

It was a truly barren wasteland, with no life at all aside from the gradually darkening seawater.

After flying for an unknown number of miles,

Wu Dao finally stopped.

He could go no further.

RUMBLE—CRACK!

Dozens of miles ahead,

black clouds darker than ink connected the sky to the sea. They roiled ceaselessly, stretching to the ends of the world and seeming to envelop the entire Divine Wilderness.

Within the black clouds,

streaks of destructive, white Thunderbolt gales periodically erupted with a howl. Even from a distance, they radiated an aura that made Wu Dao’s blood run cold, as if he had arrived at the gates of Eternal Hell.

A round heaven, a square earth—a cage of the Great Dao!

Gazing from afar at the endless, roiling black clouds and the flashing white lightning gales, Wu Dao took a deep breath. The last of his doubts vanished into thin air.

According to the information Prince Nanyang had revealed,

the Divine Wilderness World had once been a part of the Hongyuan Great World.

But then,

the Slaughter Emperor had gathered the fortune of the Divine Wilderness to leverage the Great Dao. He failed in his attempt at Dao Attainment and suffered a backlash from the Great Dao itself.

The entire Divine Wilderness World...

...was completely erased from the map of the Hongyuan Great World. It was exiled beyond Hongyuan, suffering the ceaseless corrosion of Celestial Punishment and earthly malevolence.

For thirty thousand years,

the Divine Wilderness’s territory had been shrinking at an alarming rate under the corrosion of Celestial Punishment and earthly malevolence.

And now,

the sun, moon, and stars were all illusions, and its people were trapped for eternity in a cage.

The edge of the sky and the corner of the sea—

these formed the very walls of the cage.

Endless gales of Celestial Punishment’s Thunderbolts filled the barrier.

Throughout history,

over the course of thirty thousand years and the Nine Tribulations, although the Mighty Power of this worldly cage had been constantly weakening, it was still enough to drive all beings to despair.

Countless Celestial Prides and heroes had tried to shatter the barrier and escape.

But no matter how astonishingly talented or powerful they were, they all perished in the storms of lightning, without the slightest chance of escape!

Before, Wu Dao had clung to a sliver of hope, believing that with enough effort, anything was possible and that no barrier was truly absolute.

But now, actually facing the wall of the cage,

the last shred of that hope vanished.

With his current Cultivation at the Horizontal Refining Eighth Gate, his physical body was already unimaginably powerful.

But even so,

even from twenty or thirty miles away,

he could feel the dangerous aura emanating from the cage wall—an aura that threatened to devour all life. If he dared to get any closer, he would instantly be torn to nothing!

And this was just the periphery!

Go any deeper, and its Mighty Power would surely increase exponentially!

’How strong would one’s body have to be to cross it?’

’The Ninth Daoist Sect?’

’Or the Tenth Daoist Sect?’

’Or even higher?’

The current Wu Dao had no way of knowing.

In such a ”fish in a barrel” scenario...

...and with neither celestial timing nor geographical advantage...

...and being hopelessly outmatched in strength...

...it was no wonder the Divine Wilderness had been defeated in all Nine Tribulations.

’If Heaven itself doesn’t want you to win, what could you possibly use to achieve victory?’

’The saying, ”My fate is my own, not for the heavens to decide”...’

’...is often nothing more than the desperate cry of the weak.’

”Despair-inducing, isn’t it? When I was young and saw this cage wall for the first time, I was just like you.”