Essence Devouring Art

The unexpected happened.

The records left behind by the patriarch of Martial King Mountain never mentioned the Eye of the Gap possessing such an ability.

BOOM—!!

In the instant before Wu Dao’s thought could even fully form, a brilliant scarlet Celestial Pillar erupted from the Abyss, piercing through and illuminating the chaotic world.

Wielding destructive Power no weaker than his own previous attack, it brutally smashed through his Primordial Magnetic Gang Shield and struck his body.

Wu Dao’s reaction was anything but slow.

In that hair’s breadth of a moment,

he teleported away like a flash of lightning.

But even so.

Half of his body was instantly blasted into nothingness!

The residual Magnetic Field of the Fierce Monster began to corrode him frantically.

Innumerable eyeballs sprouted from the mangled flesh of his remaining half, greedily draining his Life Force.

CRACKLE—

Arcs of Primordial Magnetic electricity shot out,

countering the Fierce Monster’s Magnetic Field that was eating away at his flesh.

Yes, countering!

Not cleansing!

In such a short time!

The Eye of the Gap’s strength seemed to have risen by a whole new level. Wu Dao was actually unable to cleanse the contaminating Magnetic Field it released!

And...

’Just now, was that...’

’A transfer of Magnetic Field Energy?’

Wu Dao was certain that the blow the Eye of the Gap had just delivered was his own Power from before!

Furthermore,

the method it used to absorb Energy earlier...

...was remarkably similar to how he used his own control over the Magnetic Field to warp and transfer its Energy.

’How did it do that?’

Wu Dao had been manipulating the Magnetic Field of all creation and was sure the Eye of the Gap lacked the ability to control it.

But in that instant,

his Magnetic Field Energy had indeed been absorbed and redirected.

’It was like...’

’...the combined effect of the Absorption Star Technique and Star Shifting from wuxia novels.’

’Divine Techniques!’

’It has to be Divine Techniques!’

The Eye of the Gap possessed the strength of a Third Transformation Divine Ability User. In addition to its Lifebound Divine Techniques that contaminated life, it also had other Divine Techniques!

And it only acquired them...

...after reviving in this era.

Because the last time it was suppressed by the patriarch of Martial King Mountain, it had never displayed such a method.

”Insect.”

As these thoughts churned in Wu Dao’s mind,

a cold voice, like that of a Divine Spirit looking down upon all of creation, echoed eerily behind him.

At some unknown point in time,

the scarlet moon formed by countless eyeballs at the bottom of the Abyss had vanished.

And at some even more imperceptible moment,

the Eye of the Gap had transformed into a young boy and appeared behind Wu Dao, silent and motionless, as if it had been standing there all along.

BOOM—

Before the sound of the Eye of the Gap’s voice could even travel through the air, it was torn apart by a Divine Fist wrapped in Primordial Magnetic currents, shining as brilliantly as a great sun, which then smashed viciously into its head.

But...

The expected tremor across the Ten Directions...

...the scene of a shockwave ravaging the land for hundreds of miles, did not appear.

Horizontal Refining Eighth Gate Minor Achievement!

Divine Ghost Heaven State.

Power enough to hold up a world hundreds of miles wide!

When it struck the head of the boy the Eye of the Gap had transformed into, it didn’t even create a single ripple. It was like a pebble dropped into a vast lake, causing no stir at all.

What was even more terrifying was...

”I told you, you are nothing but an insect.”

The instant that cold voice sounded,

the Eye of the Gap’s head pulsed slightly.

It was a barely perceptible movement, yet it unleashed a counter-shockwave with a force no less than that of a thousand mountains crashing down at once.

BANG!!

Wu Dao’s body—built from fifty rotations of Immortal Extreme Gold Cells and fortified by the Horizontal Refining Eighth Gate Minor Achievement—was like paper. It instantly exploded into a shower of fragments!

CRACKLE—

Primordial Magnetic currents bound the scattered, flying pieces of his body, rapidly pulling them back together into a human form in the distance.

But before Wu Dao could fully recover,

TAP~

A cold fingertip.

...tapped the spot between his brows.

The boy that was the Eye of the Gap had once again silently crossed space to appear before Wu Dao.

’An Evil Domain...’

Understanding dawned in Wu Dao’s mind.

’Within their own Evil Domain, a Fierce Monster...’

’...can indeed achieve instantaneous movement.’

’But when...?’

He recalled the ominous, malevolent light that had filled the world when the Eye of the Gap first appeared.

’So,’

’I had already fallen into its Evil Domain before the fight even began?’

’And...’

’...during the battle,’

’I didn’t notice anything amiss at all. It felt no different from the real world.’

’This could only mean one thing!’

’This Fierce Monster’s true strength...’

’...is far greater than my own.’

’It can even deceive my current level of perception!’

’Tsk~’

’I was careless.’

BANG!!

The boy who was the Eye of the Gap lightly tapped Wu Dao’s brow.

But the Power it unleashed...

...was no less than the impact of a falling meteor.

It instantly blew his newly restored body into a cloud of bloody mist and fragments once more.

CRACKLE—

The Primordial Magnetic currents rapidly converged.

Wu Dao’s figure reformed again in the distance.

”Era after era.”

The eerie, cold voice echoed through the world.

The Eye of the Gap’s hand, its palm covered in a dense cluster of blinking eyes, floated lightly towards Wu Dao’s chest. For the first time, its voice carried a trace of human-like world-weariness.

”Did you think it was mere foolishness that I exposed myself time and again before reaching my full potential, inviting crises and suppression?”

BANG—

A shower of crystalline, bloody mist exploded outward.

This time,

the Eye of the Gap paused for a moment, giving Wu Dao time to fully recover.

It was like a Seeker of the Dao who had been lonely for countless years, who had finally achieved something after endless suffering and now had much to say to the world.

Standing at the pinnacle of the void,

the Eye of the Gap watched Wu Dao recover in the distance and said with a touch of emotion:

”In this world, the Human Race is the primate of creation, born with a natural affinity for the Great Dao. Any Cultivation they undertake yields twice the result with half the effort.”

”We Alien Species, however, have it far more bitter.”

As it spoke,

it casually reached out and caught Wu Dao’s world-shaking punch. It absorbed all the Power, squeezed its five fingers slightly, and once again blasted Wu Dao into a mist of blood.

But its expression remained unperturbed, and it continued indifferently, ”Those of the Fierce Monster ilk have no Dantian, nor are we acknowledged by Celestial Treasures.”

”Although we are born and nurtured by the heavens and earth, this blessing is exhausted when we are weak. To advance even a single step further is fraught with immense difficulty.”

At this point,

the Eye of the Gap’s expression took on a nostalgic hue. ”Over ten thousand years ago, when I hung high in the sky, looking down upon the land, creatures like you were less than blades of grass, not even worthy of being called insects.”

”Alas...”

”The Great Dao showed me no favor. I stagnated, unable to progress, and was then suppressed by the Human Race, nearly perishing completely.”

DONG!

A punch that lit up the heavens and earth came flying.

It shattered the sound waves emanating from the Eye of the Gap.

After realizing the gap in their power,

Wu Dao directly unleashed his Divine Five Heavens, stepping into Four Transformations Battle Power. His Celestial Essence Magnetic Burst Fist drew upon the Magnetic Field Power of all things, tore through the void in all Ten Directions, and once again slammed into the Eye of the Gap’s head.

DONG!

This time,

there was finally the sound of an impact.

On the Eye of the Gap’s head, the tissue rippled like a beaten drum, collapsing slightly and sending out faint shockwaves.

But that was all.

BANG—

The next instant,

as the Eye of the Gap’s brow furrowed,

an even more majestic counter-shockwave erupted, blasting Wu Dao directly into a state of countless cells.

”Incredible!”

The Eye of the Gap gently stroked its already-healed brow. Watching Wu Dao, who was recovering much more slowly in the distance, it exclaimed in admiration:

”Across so many eras, many cultivators far stronger than you have suppressed me. But no matter how strong they were, I am certain that in the same realm, none could match you.”

”A pity...”

”...you are still an insect.”

A large hand, covered with countless blinking eyes, reached out.

Wu Dao, who was still recovering in the distance, was instantly seized by the Eye of the Gap from across space. An irresistible Power suppressed him as the hand slowly closed, as if intending to crush him into nothingness.

As the invisible hand slowly tightened,

the Eye of the Gap merely sighed at Wu Dao’s frantic struggles. Like a Divine Spirit lamenting the fate of a tiny creature, it spoke mercilessly:

”Reversed Celestial Spirit, a Great All Heavens Divine Technique!”

”It defies convention, opposes all, reverses all!”

”Only by defying the Great Dao and defying fate through countless extreme life-or-death situations, unyielding in the face of tribulation, can one plant a Golden Lotus in the fire and cultivate this Divine Technique.”

”From the moment I obtained this Divine Technique in my first life-or-death crisis, I have endured ten thousand years, thousands of brushes with death, seeking life from within death’s grasp, just to arduously master it.”

”You, favored by the Celestial Dao!”

”You insect who knows nothing of suffering!”

”On what grounds!”

”On what grounds do you dare to defeat my ten thousand years of effort!!”

Great All Heavens Divine Techniques!

This category of Divine Techniques...

...perhaps not many in the current world know of their Mighty Power.

But before the Initial Tribulation,

any one of the Great All Heavens Divine Techniques was renowned throughout the Hongyuan Great World, the number one Dharma Gate beneath the attainment of the Dao, something countless cultivators would fight to the death for.

If one could cultivate any Great All Heavens Divine Technique to its Absolute Peak, Crossing the Universe and roaring through the Star River would be a simple matter.

Ten thousand years ago,

the Eye of the Gap was a true Fierce God, its strength completely beyond the imagination of the creatures of this era.

But its identity as a natural-born Alien Species...

...doomed it to be hunted by all, unable to die a peaceful death.

In a moment of carelessness,

it was suppressed and nearly killed by a top-tier Human Race cultivator of that era. It only managed to escape with its life at the cost of near-total annihilation.

Between life and death lies great terror,

but also great Creation.

And because of that life-or-death calamity, the Eye of the Gap obtained an immense Creation in the Abyss beneath what is now the Ten Thousand Peaks Forest Sea.

A drop of essence blood from an unimaginably powerful expert!

And a Great All Heavens Divine Technique that could allow one to traverse the universe!

But mastering this Divine Technique...

...was a monumental task.

It could only be cultivated by defying fate time and again in the crucible of life and death.

To master this Divine Technique,

in the ages that followed,

the Eye of the Gap revived again and again, deliberately exposing itself to be hunted down and killed by human cultivators.

Each time,

it could be said that nothing was left of it but the core protected by that drop of essence blood—it was ninety-nine percent dead.

But it was through this tempering,

in this very era,

that it finally mastered the Great All Heavens Divine Technique, ’Reversed Celestial Spirit’.

It had gained the initial ability to defy convention,

the Mighty Power of a Divine Technique that opposes and reverses all suffering.

That was why.

It was able to absorb Wu Dao’s attacks and return them in an even more explosive fashion, causing Wu Dao to suffer from the reflected damage.

CRACKLE~

The invisible hand tightened rapidly.

The Primordial Magnetic currents struggled wildly in resistance, but the more intense the resistance, the more terrifying the reflected damage became.

After spitting out the words it had held in for ten thousand years,

the Eye of the Gap returned to its cold, merciless, godlike demeanor. It held back no longer, intending to crush Wu Dao to death in its palm.

But even in such a desperate situation,

what surprised it was that...

...not only did Wu Dao show no trace of panic or fear, he actually burst into mocking, scornful laughter:

”Ten thousand years! Hahaha, it took you ten thousand years just to master one Divine Technique!”

”You piece of trash! What a waste!”

”And thousands of life-and-death trials?”

”How dare you...”

”How dare you say something so pathetic and embarrassing in front of me!!!”

That last derisive roar...

...did not come from the Wu Dao in the Eye of the Gap’s palm.

But from...