Essence Devouring Art

ROAR!!

Changyuan Prefecture, outside Wusheng Pass.

A glorious, world-illuminating True Dragon soared through the sky. Its roars shook the eight wildernesses and overwhelmed the heavens.

The True Dragon coiled its tail and struck.

An expanse of fifteen hundred li of empty space could not withstand the vast might of the dragon. It twisted, collapsed, and exploded, as if it were the time of Heaven and Earth Creation, when the entire world was being reduced to Chaos.

”Zhan Qian, you old thief! Don’t you get so arrogant!”

As the True Dragon’s might bore down...

A fierce cry echoed through the chaotic world.

From within Wusheng Pass walked a woman clad in Three-Colored Fire Armor. She had wheat-toned skin, a tall and heroic bearing, and a peerless, magnificent beauty.

Her crimson hair flowed behind her, and her eyebrows were like searing flames.

She was like a Female War God born of fire.

”Refine!”

The Female War God stood tall against the wind, imperious and domineering. With a fiery temper, she snorted coldly and thrust out a palm wreathed in green, gold, and red Divine Fire, pressing it down upon the vicious, attacking True Dragon.

As the woman’s palm shot forward...

BOOM!

A thousand-li-wide gash tore open in the sky. The Three-Colored Divine Fire surged forth like a bursting Celestial River, transforming into a Divine Furnace that slammed shut, trapping the True Dragon inside. It then produced blossoms of Three-Floral Divine Fire, seeking to refine the True Dragon to death within.

”Three-Floral Divine Fire... Fen Ruyu.”

Inside the Divine Fire Furnace...

The Second Generation Martial King of Martial King Mountain, Zhan Qian, looked out through the endless Divine Fire. His ancient eyes held a complex expression as he gazed upon the domineering woman in the sky above Wusheng Pass. He tried to persuade her, his voice ringing out.

”Ruyu, the fall of Dali is inevitable. Why not stand aside? I do not wish to fight you.”

Fen Ruyu.

One of the three Nine Transformations Supremes of the True Martial Hall.

She practiced the Great Divine Technique, ”Three-Floral Divine Fire.”

The flames of this Divine Technique were exceptionally tyrannical.

They could incinerate a living being’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit. Anyone touched by them, if their strength was insufficient, would be reduced to ash.

After a thousand years of Cultivation...

Fen Ruyu had already cultivated this Great Divine Technique to the Second Step of the Ninth Transformation. Below the Absolute Peak, she was considered among the ranks of the powerful.

Of course,

as the Second Generation Martial King of Martial King Mountain,

Zhan Qian’s strength was not to be underestimated. The True Dragon Arm Great Divine Technique he cultivated was also at the Second Step of the Ninth Transformation.

The reason for his complex expression...

was because...

Fen Ruyu was a figure from his own era, and they had interacted quite a bit in the past.

A thousand years ago,

Fen Ruyu’s beauty was unmatched in the Divine Wilderness. Her talent was world-shaking, and she was widely recognized as one of the leaders of the younger generation.

Countless admirers and suitors from across the Central Plains and the four territories pursued her.

Zhan Qian was one of them.

Unfortunately...

judging by how Fen Ruyu called him an ”old thief,” refusing to even say his name, it was clear that things hadn’t ended well between them a millennium ago.

”Shut your mouth!!”

BOOM—!

The Divine Furnace rumbled to life. The Three-Floral Divine Fire surged violently, its flames causing the True Dragon’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit to steadily weaken.

Fen Ruyu’s crimson eyebrows were sharp as blades. She rebuked him coldly, ”During the Warring States period, Martial King Mountain was nothing more than a third-rate sect. The First Generation Martial King was fortunate enough to receive the Great Ancestor’s grace, which led to Martial King Mountain’s later Creation.

And now,

you shameless old thief, you’ve forgotten your roots and collude with the southern rebels! When the day comes, what face will you have to see the Martial King and the Great Ancestor?”

”Ruyu, you... sigh.”

Zhan Qian felt no shame, merely shaking his head and sighing.

”The Great Tribulation is coming, and all living things are fighting for their own survival. In the current state of affairs, even if the Martial King Ancestor returned, he too would fight for that sliver of hope. Who is right and who is wrong has no meaning.”

Over the thirty thousand years of the Nine Tribulations,

the lessons of repeated failure...

had taught the Cultivators of the Divine Wilderness one thing.

Stagnant peace does not bring hope.

Water that is too clear has no fish.

A world too peaceful has no heroes.

When Dali was not in chaos, how prosperous was the world?

The fortune of all lands was gathered in one person.

But how many Peak Masters were there?

Only the Demon Suppression Emperor.

When fortune gathers in one, the Absolute Peak stands alone.

When fortune scatters across the world, many can reach the Absolute Peak.

It was precisely because he understood this principle...

that the Demon Suppression Emperor allowed Dali to decline into turmoil. Before the Great Tribulation arrived, he scattered fortune, giving the ambitious a chance to vie for it and ascend.

Otherwise,

with the supreme power the Demon Suppression Emperor possessed back then, even if he needed to cultivate his Divine Techniques, there would have been no need to feign death and go into complete seclusion.

With his power alone,

he could have ensured Dali’s prosperity for One Tribulation.

Of course,

this secret was unknown to most people.

In the current age,

it was estimated that only the Four Kings and One Emperor,

and the few people close to them, knew the true breadth of the Demon Suppression Emperor’s vision.

”Hah. Enough talk. Let’s see who’s stronger.”

A glint flickered in Fen Ruyu’s eyes; it seemed she also knew a thing or two about these secrets.

But just as Zhan Qian had said,

they had placed their bets on different sides, their factions were different, and both were fighting for their own survival. Who was right and who was wrong had no meaning.

In the end, after all the grand principles had been spoken,

it still came down to a contest of strength.

The conversation at Wusheng Pass...

was not an isolated incident along the front lines of the Three Prefectures’ various Garrison Cities.

After Dali unified the Warring States,

there were no more wars in the World.

When Peak Master Cultivators met, they could generally greet each other as fellow Daoists, and many had deep friendships.

Their different stances...

now had them drawing weapons on one another, fighting to the death. A mix of complex emotions stirred in everyone’s heart.

But regardless,

following the battles outside Jade Dragon Pass and Wusheng Pass, world-destroying, epochal wars erupted one after another along the thousand-li-long circular battlefront surrounding the Three Prefectures.

If the sky of the Divine Wilderness were truly endless...

and one were to look down from beyond the heavens at this moment...

they would discover a rather spectacular scene.

Outside Dali’s last Three Prefectures,

in the no-man’s-land thousands of li wide that formed a ring around the Three Prefectures, lights of all colors flashed ceaselessly.

It was as if a series of Divine Suns were continuously exploding, forming a circular curtain of Chaos that connected heaven and earth. Their radiance was so brilliant it illuminated almost the entire Central Plains.

The reason for such a magnificent sight...

was because the current battlefield...

had become an arena exclusively for the Ninth Transformation.

Once the fighting began,

those below the Ninth Transformation didn’t even have the right to participate.

In this war,

whether it was the four territories or the Central Plains,

every faction had revealed its full foundation, holding nothing back.

The most terrifying among them...