Essence Devouring Art

Somewhere in the outer regions of the Southern Border.

Vast mountains, primitive and wild.

Baiyue Mountain, the Ancestral Land of the Fox Race.

The Central Royal Palace.

Outside the Cultivation Secret Land deep within the royal palace.

”Has the Saint King not yet emerged from his seclusion?”

Su Junyan, the beautiful and graceful Clan Leader of the Fox Race, approached the entrance of the secret land and inquired of the three elders present.

”Rest assured, Clan Leader Su. The Saint King possesses boundless Magical Power and is mighty in his Divine Techniques. Nothing will happen to him.”

One of the three, a grim-faced elder, replied nonchalantly, his eyes filled with fanatical reverence.

These three elders.

Were all old monsters at the Divine Techniques level, figures of ancestral standing within the Demon Race.

They hailed from the Fox Race, the Rat Race, and the Snake Race, respectively.

They were believers the Saint King had subjugated during this recent period.

After the Celestial King’s defeat,

the Saint King, Lu Hongye, had learned his lesson. He decided to lie low and build up his strength, vowing not to show his face again until he was truly invincible.

With the Celestial King’s help,

he quickly subdued the various Heavenly Human Demon Kings of the Southern Border, and his strength advanced by leaps and bounds.

Once he possessed a certain degree of power,

Lu Hongye’s ambition grew. He then set his sights on the old Demon Emperor ancestors of the Three Great Demon Races who had been left behind from a bygone era.

Because they had once been severely wounded by the Demon Suppression Emperor, most of those Demon Emperors had yet to fully recover their strength.

This gave Lu Hongye an opening to exploit.

In just over a month,

he subjugated five Demon Emperors. As for the Demon Kings, Great Demons, and Transformed Demon Species under a thousand years old, their numbers were even greater.

Baiyue Mountain was nearly overflowing with demons.

Bolstered by a large number of high-quality believers,

Lu Hongye’s cultivation level skyrocketed as if he were riding a rocket, and he soon touched the threshold of a Great Divine Power User.

Had he continued to develop normally,

it wouldn’t have been long before he fully stepped into the ranks of Great Divine Power Users.

Unfortunately...

due to a moment of impatience,

he devoured something he shouldn’t have. It nearly cost him his life, and he had been in seclusion for many days now.

Outwardly, he claimed to be breaking through to a new realm.

In reality, only he knew the true extent of his agony.

Deep within the secret land,

waves of blood surged, dyeing the sky crimson.

Countless phantom heads of Demon Beasts swarmed into the sea of blood from all directions, only to be devoured by a devilishly handsome, naked young man at the center.

But his expression held not a trace of joy.

On the contrary,

his brows were tightly furrowed in extreme pain.

He seemed to be expending his power to suppress something.

”AH! Bastard!!”

At a certain moment,

Lu Hongye’s eyes turned blood-red. Gritting his teeth in pain, he cursed under his breath, his face unusually pale.

But bizarrely,

the very next instant,

his pained, twisted expression suddenly became one of manic glee. As if his personality had split, he sneered mockingly:

”Heh heh, I’ve lived for over a thousand years. I’ve walked more roads than you’ve eaten meals. You, a little fox who hasn’t even fully grown his fur, dare to plot against me? This is the price!”

”Shut up!”

RUMBLE—

The sea of blood churned, and a myriad of beasts roared!

The crazed expression vanished.

Lu Hongye regained control of his soul and said sinisterly, ”Go on, laugh. You won’t be laughing when I grind your soul to dust.”

Though his words were harsh and confident,

Lu Hongye was already regretting it to his core.

After reaching the Absolute Peak of Divine Power Four Transformations,

the immense increase in his strength

had inflated his confidence. He no longer gave the Celestial King any regard and had tried to forcibly suppress and subjugate him.

Unsurprisingly,

faced with absolute power,

the Celestial King had no chance to resist. His True Self was directly enslaved, becoming one of the thousands of believers controlled by the Celestial Treasure.

But for all of Lu Hongye’s calculations,

he had never expected this!

The Celestial King had actually hidden a trump card within his soul.

Upon being enslaved,

the Celestial King had directly abandoned his physical body and appeared in Lu Hongye’s soul like a Heart Demon, fighting him for control of his body.

What horrified Lu Hongye the most was that

his soul, at the Absolute Peak of Divine Power Fourth Transformation, was actually unable to eliminate the Celestial King who had transformed into a Heart Demon.

Like a maggot clinging to a bone,

he had tried every method, even using the authority of the Celestial Treasure, but he could not get rid of him.

Fear stems from the unknown.

The various unknown dangers posed by the Celestial King plunged Lu Hongye into an abyss of terror.

He didn’t dare to take any chances.

He immediately gathered all his believers and used the Power of Faith to suppress the Celestial King around the clock with the Celestial Treasure.

But even so,

the Celestial King remained like an immortal parasite. The moment Lu Hongye’s state of mind wavered, he would immediately pop out to fight for control.

Against such an enemy, unless one was a heartless, emotionless stone man,

there was simply no solution!

During their struggle over the past few days,

Lu Hongye had also discovered something.

The essence of the Celestial King’s soul was still at the level of the Celestial Human Twelfth Floor.

But within the Celestial King’s soul, there was a trace of an ancient, magnificent aura that made him tremble, an aura as vast as the starry cosmos.

It was precisely this terrifying aura

that protected the Celestial King’s soul, allowing him to resist the Celestial Treasure’s control and fight for possession of the body without being diminished or consumed.

”Hahaha, grind me to dust?”

After just a moment of quiet,

the Celestial King popped up to cause trouble again, causing Lu Hongye’s face to twist once more as he sneered:

”I’m not afraid to tell you, you bastard. The moment I sensed you were about to make a move on me, I consumed an Immortal Soul Crystal!

Do you know what an Immortal Soul Crystal is?

Its essence is a treasure formed when the souls of the Great Powers who Crossed the Universe thirty thousand years ago tainted a strange stone after their deaths.

Forget a Divine Ability User like you. Even someone Above Divine Techniques, and even higher than that, couldn’t dream of wiping out my soul and consciousness!

So!

Just accept your fate!

Don’t worry, I won’t actually kill you. After all, you’re the esteemed Celestial Treasure Master, hahaha!”

Seven hundred years ago,

the Celestial King had been a legendary figure of his era.

In just over a decade,

he had ascended to the realm of the Celestial Human Tenth Floor.

Destiny, fortuitous encounters, Creation...

he was second to none in his time. Naturally, he had some trump cards that ordinary people could hardly imagine.

The Immortal Soul Crystal.

In truth, this was a name he had fabricated to deceive Lu Hongye.

The thing he had consumed.

was, strictly speaking, a soul particle left behind by a powerful expert from thirty thousand years ago.

Its consciousness had already been extinguished.

Over the long eons, it had transformed into a Supreme Treasure that could protect a living being’s soul from being destroyed.

Of course,

its effects were certainly not as exaggerated as the Celestial King claimed.

How long was a period of over thirty thousand years?

No matter how magnificent and vast a being once was, after death, they would return to dust. It was impossible to retain their complete essence from when they were alive.

But it didn’t matter.

Unless Lu Hongye did absolutely nothing

and simply wore him down around the clock,

otherwise, the moment Lu Hongye’s mental state slackened or fluctuated, he would transform into a Heart Demon and make Lu Hongye’s life a living hell.

After a long period of torment,

Lu Hongye’s mind and spirit would surely be damaged, revealing a flaw. That would be the time for him, the Celestial King, to live out his third life!

Just how heaven-defying Lu Hongye’s Celestial Treasure was,

was something the Celestial King had come to deeply understand during this time. Once he seized dominance over the soul, he too would be able to control this Celestial Treasure.

At that time,

he would no longer give a second thought to the likes of Wu Dao. Revenge would be effortless; he could crush him at will.

”Immortal Soul Crystal, pfft! Aren’t you afraid of spraining your tongue with such big talk!”

Lu Hongye seized back control of his body and said coldly, ”The Divine Wilderness has seen Nine Tribulations over thirty thousand years. With each tribulation, the Great Dao suppresses all living things in heaven and earth, sealing the path forward.

Now is the Tenth Tribulation.

The upper limit for all beings is Divine Power Nine Transformations. Unless this Immortal Soul Crystal you speak of is a Celestial Treasure, then, heh!

Do you really think that by holding me back, I can’t grow stronger? Don’t forget, I have plenty of Divine Celestial Beings under my command. Why would I need to act personally?”

”Hahaha, so what if you know? That dog bastard Zhou Yuan was so breathtakingly talented back then, but didn’t he still get trapped and die at the Ninth Transformation!”

The Celestial King sneered contemptuously:

”Who do you think you are? Just some mutt of a fox who got a lucky break and has a bit of petty cunning. Hiding your head and showing your tail, scrambling about like a fly, you’ll never amount to anything great!

Forget one year,

you couldn’t break through the Ninth Transformation even if I gave you a hundred years!”

”Heh, you’re right about everything.”

But Lu Hongye didn’t fall for the Celestial King’s heart-piercing insults. He said calmly, ”A living expert is a true expert.

Your so-called ’amounting to something great’ just ended with you being a rat scurrying across the street, beaten until your soul shattered and your courage broke.”

”Pfft, better than kneeling and kowtowing to someone.”

”Your wife was with someone...”

”Shut your mouth! You are not worthy to speak of her!”

”Tsk, what a disgrace. And you call yourself the Celestial King. I’m blushing for you.”

”Heh heh, a kowtowing Saint King is indeed something to blush about.”

...

Within the sea of blood,

Lu Hongye was like a single fox playing two roles, trading insults and exposing each other’s weaknesses, openly and secretly fighting for control of the body.

As the fight wore on,

the man and the fox simultaneously gritted their teeth and venomously shouted the same name—

””Wu Dao!!””

Everything had come back to the starting point.

They discovered that

their misfortunes, both direct and indirect, all seemed to be caused by Wu Dao. They had reached a rare consensus, and their souls even showed a tendency to merge.

”This is bad! Don’t you dare think about that animal!”

”If you weren’t thinking about him, why would I be? Stop it!”

”Let’s go back to talking about your wife.”

”Bullshit! Let’s talk about you kowtowing.”

And so,

after reaching a brief moment of unity only to discover that simply thinking of Wu Dao brought them misfortune, ’Lu Hongye’ began to exhibit even more intense signs of a split personality.

...

「Meanwhile.」

In a stretch of wilderness somewhere in the Southern Border,

’Hm? Are there more bastards thinking about me?’

high above a forest thick with snow,

Wu Dao was holding a recently Transformed Snow Leopard. His brow suddenly furrowed as he felt a premonition, a sense of thick malice.

’Heh. The impotent rage of the weak.’

He scoffed.

Ignoring it, he used his Magnetic Field to compress the Snow Leopard in his hand into a meatball and swallowed it, flesh, core, and all.

Afterward,

he resumed his search for Alien Species in the wilderness.

This method used to be time-consuming and laborious.

But now that he had a clone, he might as well put the idle time to use.

This clone’s strength was not to be underestimated.

It was at the Divine Power First Transformation level.

The range of its Magnetic Field sense covered a radius of a hundred li, making it a walking Alien Species detector.

The Southern Border was vast, and the Alien Species were well hidden,

but under his search,

he could still occasionally find one or two small snacks to tide him over.

Coupled with the efforts of the Bai Ze Bureau and the Overlord Whale Alliance,

his Teleportation Points increased every day.

It wasn’t much,

but the progress bar was constantly moving toward its end, and that was enough.

BZZZT—

After crossing the snowy wilderness,

the Communication Jade Talisman in Wu Dao’s robes began to vibrate. He sent his consciousness inside, and Zhao Jianji’s voice rang out:

”Alliance Leader, Wanshan Prefecture sent over a fish, but there’s a problem with it. Would you like to come back and take a look?”

’There’s a problem?’

’And they need me to look at it personally?’

Wu Dao’s interest was suddenly piqued. He put away the Communication Jade Talisman and flew toward the Overlord Whale Alliance headquarters in Lancang County City.

...