Essence Devouring Art

Wanshan Prefecture.

The reason it has been named Wanshan since time immemorial...

...is that the vast majority of the prefecture is covered in dense mountains, thousands of peaks, and overlapping forests.

Over sixty percent of the land consists of a wild, primordial landscape.

Only a small portion of the region is suitable for human habitation.

However, as the old saying goes...

...the unique environment of a place nurtures a unique kind of people.

Even in these savage, treacherous mountains, there exist a few primitive human tribes, isolated from the world and living by the rules of nature.

The Sun Flame Race.

They are a large, primitive tribe that has lived for generations within the Ten Thousand Peaks Forest Sea.

During the Warring States Era.

To escape the chaos of war...

...this race migrated to the Sunset Cave, deep within the Ten Thousand Peaks Forest Sea. There, they lived underground as cave dwellers, worshiping the Great Sun Flame God and living a self-sufficient, secluded life for generations.

The Sunset Cave is enormous.

Its scale is comparable to that of an entire county in the outside world.

Veins of Sunshine Stone on the cave’s ceiling emit light and heat, providing ample illumination and a pleasant temperature. With a climate like eternal spring, it is a small subterranean world with its own unique ecosystem.

Having adapted to the ecosystem of the Sunset Cave, the Sun Flame Race has grown over hundreds of years to a population of tens of thousands, forming a small-scale social system.

The Sun Flame Race’s belief in the Great Sun Flame God...

...was not created from nothing.

According to the legends passed down through the generations...

...during the Warring States Era...

...when the ancestors of the Sun Flame Race migrated to the Ten Thousand Peaks Forest Sea, they encountered a terrifying ten-thousand-eyed monster in the Forest Sea.

The monster, its entire body composed of thousands of eyeballs, had grown powerful after devouring an entire tribe. It occupied the Forest Sea, and any who passed through would meet a terrible fate.

The ancestors of the Sun Flame Race...

...were merely a group of ordinary people. They had no way to fight such a monster and were instantly slaughtered, their numbers cut in half.

As they cried out in despair...

...six great golden suns suddenly lit up the sky. A sacred, ultimate-yang light shone across the world, dispelling all evil and darkness. A Divine Being threw a punch, instantly burning the ten-thousand-eyed monster to ash.

Having narrowly escaped death...

...and witnessing such a divine miracle...

...the people of the Sun Flame Race, once they had settled down, were filled with gratitude. They deified the being who controlled the six golden suns, making it their Divine Spirit and tribal totem, to be worshiped and offered sacrifices for generations to come.

To this day...

...the legend of the Sun Flame God continues to be passed down in the Sunset Cave.

Every year...

...on the anniversary of their encounter with the Sun Flame God, the Sun Flame Race holds a grand festival with singing, dancing, and various activities to worship him.

While worshiping the Great Sun Flame God...

...the ten-thousand-eyed monster that had nearly devoured their ancestors naturally became the ’star’ of various exorcism rituals, a target for symbolic flagellation.

This year, although the outside world was frozen solid and ravaged by blizzards...

...the Sunset Cave, with its veins of Sunshine Stone, was largely unaffected.

The Festival of the Sun Flame God was held as usual.

There was singing, dancing, and joyous laughter.

It was not until sunset in the outside world that the boisterous Sunset Cave gradually quieted down and fell into darkness.

Sunshine Stone is a peculiar type of mineral.

It grows bright when the world outside is light and dark when it is dark.

Basically, life in the Sunset Cave is not much different from life on the surface.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK~

A knock came from the wooden door of a brightly lit cave dwelling.

”Who is it?!”

Inside the cave house...

...a paranoid Yan Xiaoshi scrambled up from his bed. His eyes were bloodshot, and he shivered as he barked the question.

”Xiaoshi, the bonfire dance is about to start. Are you sure you’re not coming?”

”Xiaoya doesn’t have a partner yet.”

”Hah, just leave the coward alone. He’s no fun.”

Several young, teasing voices came from outside the door. They didn’t sound like close friends, but more like people looking to make fun of him.

”I... I’m sick... I’m not going.”

An orphan since childhood, the timid and insecure Yan Xiaoshi pictured a beautiful figure in his mind. But then a thought made his face turn pale, and he stammered out a reply.

”Heh heh, what did I tell you?”

”Pay up. You lost the bet.”

”Hah, boring. Let’s go, let’s go.”

The mocking laughter faded into the distance.

The entrance to the cave fell silent once more.

Inside, it was frighteningly quiet. The only sound was Yan Xiaoshi’s gradually slowing heartbeat.

Letting out a long breath...

...Yan Xiaoshi sat on his empty stone bed, staring blankly into space.

He wasn’t wearing a single piece of clothing.

Just like his room.

There was no furniture, no decorations, and certainly no tools for work or living.

It was completely bare, utterly empty.

So clean there wasn’t even a scrap of wood.

Not only that...

...if one were to look closely...

...they would discover something else.

Throughout the entire empty stone room...

...every crack and crevice had been plugged up with mud, wooden boards, or pieces of clothing.

Even the gap around the door...

...had not been spared.

He had sealed it completely shut.

It wasn’t that Yan Xiaoshi was suicidal and trying to suffocate himself. It was because...

HISS!

Suddenly, Yan Xiaoshi, who had been sitting dumbly on the bed, shuddered violently. His eyes filled with terror, and his whole body began to tremble.

’It’s back!’

’That feeling of being watched is back!’

’Where is it?!’

’Where is the crevice?!!’

Yan Xiaoshi’s eyes were bloodshot. His frantic, terrified gaze swept across the empty room, finally landing on the frame of the main door.

The mud he had used to plug the gap...

...had been shaken loose by the earlier knocking. Through the newly formed crack, he could faintly see the firelight from the grand bonfire party outside.

And...

...the watching gaze that existed within that crack!

’Damn it!’

’Damn it!!’

Yan Xiaoshi’s heart pounded with fear and anger. He forced himself to look away from the crack in the doorframe, grabbed a handful of wet mud from the floor, and ran to the door, his trembling hands plastering the gap shut again.

WHOOSH~

After the crack was gone...

...the feeling of being watched also disappeared.

Yan Xiaoshi let out a long sigh of relief and collapsed onto the bed, exhausted in both mind and body, curling into a ball.

Fear, helplessness, terror...

Tormented by these negative emotions...

...he soon began to sob quietly.

He didn’t know why this bizarre thing was happening to him. The old Clan Leader had always said that if you do no wrong, you have nothing to fear in the night.

He didn’t even dare to speak loudly.

’How could I possibly have done anything bad?’

’So why did it have to find me, to latch onto me?’

’When did it start?’

’It seems...’

’...it was after I went to that one cave, five days ago.’

’At the time, I just remember it smelled so fragrant, so good.’

’I couldn’t control myself and went down into it.’

’After I came back... ’

’...the nightmare began.’

Whenever there was a crack, a crevice nearby...

...no matter how small...

...Yan Xiaoshi could feel that icy, deathly silent gaze, like a beast hiding in the shadows, ready to leap out and devour him alive at any moment.

It was inescapable, impossible to drive away.

For five whole days...

...Yan Xiaoshi hadn’t dared to step outside. His sleep was plagued by endless nightmares, and the torment had driven him to the brink of a mental collapse.

”Phew... As long as there are no cracks... no cracks, it’ll be fine...”

Overwhelming exhaustion washed over him.

Yan Xiaoshi muttered to himself, his eyelids heavy. Listening to the lively, boisterous bonfire party outside, he felt a sliver of security and soon fell into a deep sleep.

WHOOSH~

A cold wind from outside the Sunset Cave swept in.

In the dark subterranean world...

...the bonfire had been extinguished at some point, and most of the Sun Flame Race members, tired from a full day of celebration, had entered the land of dreams.

Inside Yan Xiaoshi’s room...

...the Sunshine Stone on the ceiling glowed dimly. In the hazy light, a scrawny young man could be seen lying on the stone bed, his brow furrowed and his body trembling as if in the grip of a nightmare.

”The cracks... all filled... heh heh...”

At a certain moment...

...Yan Xiaoshi’s furrowed brow relaxed. His expression softened as he mumbled in his sleep, much of the fear that had haunted his face dissipating.

’All the cracks are filled.’

’That watching feeling won’t appear.’

’I can finally rest for a while.’

But what Yan Xiaoshi didn’t know was...

...he could plug the cracks in the world around him.

But how could he plug the crevices of the human body?

SHH SHH SHH—

In his deep slumber...

...Yan Xiaoshi didn’t notice.

In the darkness of the gap outlining his body against the stone bed...

...tiny, rice-sized, crimson eyeballs appeared without any warning.

The eyeballs blinked incessantly.

They glowed with a faint, bloody light, deathly silent and chilling, devoid of any emotion.

A moment later...

...more eyeballs appeared.

In the gaps between Yan Xiaoshi’s ten fingers, his toes, and his eyelids, more crimson eyeballs emerged.

Another moment passed.

Within the countless gaps between the thousands of malnourished, yellowish-black strands of his hair, innumerable blinking eyeballs were now packed tightly together.

Then...

...every external crevice of his body was occupied by a dense mass of crimson eyeballs, blinking, constantly squirming and multiplying.

Finally...

”Hkk—Hkk—”

Yan Xiaoshi’s mouth flew open as he gasped for breath. It was as if his nostrils and windpipe were blocked, making it impossible for him to breathe.

Inside his wide-open mouth...

...like a swarm of squirming ants...

...a dense mass of eyeballs rapidly filled his nasal cavity, his mouth, and his trachea, then squirmed deeper into his body, quickly occupying every available space.

FLAIL—FLAIL—

Choking on the bed, Yan Xiaoshi felt countless insects crawling, growing, and nesting inside his limbs and organs, causing his entire body to slowly bloat.

The slits of his eyes...

...had long been crammed full of countless eyeballs.

He couldn’t see anything, nor could he scream, because his vocal cords had been blocked as well.

His soul sank, bit by bit, into a crimson Abyss.

Down...

...and down...

Finally...

...he vaguely saw a red moon—a crescent moon formed from countless eyeballs—staring at him coldly with that familiar, watching gaze.

An unknown amount of time passed.

CREAK~

The door, shut tight for five days, finally opened.

Yan Xiaoshi’s figure appeared in the doorway. Looking out at the Flame Sun Tribe in the darkness, he blinked his crimson eyes.

All over his naked body...

...pairs of eyes were blinking in unison.

...

「Ten days later.」

CRUNCH—SPLAT!

The springy eyeball in his mouth burst.

Juice squirted and splattered everywhere.

”Pah! That’s gamey as hell.”

Wu Dao’s face twisted in disgust as he spat out the crushed eyeball and all the red fluid along with it.

It was too gamey.

It was like the gaminess of untreated mutton multiplied by ten thousand. You could use it as a chemical weapon.

’If you’re curious about every flavor, you’ll eventually disgust yourself.’

CRACKLE~

A flicker of Primordial Magnetism current shot from his finger.

It incinerated the abstract monster on the ground into ash.

Wu Dao then looked at Zhao Jianji, who was pinching his nose, and asked, ”Have you confirmed the location?”

This monster, constructed from countless eyeballs...

...he had already confirmed its type.

It belonged to the Fierce Monster category.

But it was merely an infected host, similar to the incident in Harvest Village, and held little value.

Only by finding the Fierce Monster’s main body...

...would it have any culinary value.

WHOOSH~

After the monster turned to ash...

...Zhao Jianji finally took a deep breath and said:

”Alliance Leader, this monster escaped from the Ten Thousand Peaks Forest Sea. By the time we caught it, it had already infected a primitive tribe on the outskirts.”

”It was suppressed by our brothers in town when it tried to attack.”

”Attacking a town? Pretty bold!”

Wu Dao was slightly surprised to hear this.

He had encountered two Fierce Monsters before.

Whether it was the monster from Harvest Village or the Luotou God, both had been cautious and wary, never daring to wreak havoc in large human settlements.

But this red-eyed Fierce Monster was different.

It directly commanded its infected host to attack a town.

It had some serious guts.

’I hope all its meat didn’t go to its gall bladder!’

BZZZ~

As his thoughts churned...

...the Communication Jade Talisman in Wu Dao’s robes buzzed. He sent his consciousness into it, and a voice, faint as a gossamer thread, sounded out:

”Alliance Leader... Sunset Cave... a big... a big one...”

The final words were never finished.

The Primordial Demon on the other end had already perished, its spiritual imprint dissipating.

”Heh~”

Wu Dao withdrew his consciousness and rolled his neck. A ferocious, cruel light flickered in his eyes.

The Primordial Demon who sent the message...

...was one of the few Grandmaster Primordial Demons in the Wanshan Sub-Alliance.

After unleashing its Demon Embryo...

...it could hold its own against a Land Immortal for a short while.

But even with such power...

...it still fell in that blasted Sunset Cave.

Tsk~

’Looks like...’

’...I might get to have a proper meal after all.’