Essence Devouring Art

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

The sky and earth grew dim as a ravaging gale swept the world.

「Three days later.」

The Divine Wilderness World was plunged into complete darkness.

RUMBLE—

Above the Nine Heavens, thunderbolts and celestial gales rolled and thundered, unleashing countless flashes of lightning. Below the earth, the Earthly Fiend Miasma surged and boiled, drowning the entire world like a tidal sea.

The continent was shattering.

The mountain ranges that had stood for eons were collapsing.

The long-flowing rivers of civilization were evaporating.

All that had ever been.

The light of life from countless races was rapidly extinguished.

Darkness descended, destroying heaven and earth!

The apocalypse had officially arrived!

”No!!”

”Damn you, cruel heavens!”

”Master!”

”Mother...”

Throughout the lands of the Divine Wilderness.

Wails and shrieks, indignant roars, heart-wrenching despair...

Beneath the Divine Techniques.

No one was spared.

The final roars of billions of living beings.

Resentment and the aura of death.

Threatened to shake and permeate the entire world.

Above the skies of the Da Xu Realm.

Chenjing Emperor stood silently, his eyes closed.

He listened to the shattering of the world that had nurtured and given him Creation.

To the wails and cries of the countless members of the Human Race.

He clenched his fists so tightly they trembled, his grief so overwhelming he could barely breathe.

’This is the world where I grew up.’

’These are countless people of the Human Race, who share my blood and my origins!’

When the world collapsed and his race faced extinction,

when all that was once vibrant and colorful turned to ruin and gloom,

and when he was utterly powerless to stop it...

No matter how tenacious one’s will,

no matter how profound one’s cultivation,

how many could watch on with cold indifference, completely unmoved?

”The Great Dao is merciless! Merciless my ass! Why should the descendants pay for the mistakes of their ancestors?! Fuck your mother!!!”

Zhan Qian, the second-generation ancestor of Martial King Mountain, roared in a frenzy. His cry shattered the Celestial Thunder and fiendish miasma for a thousand miles as he glared at the heavens, his eyes threatening to tear open as he demanded an answer.

But the only response he received...

...was an even more violent, dark tide.

”They’re here...”

The secluded ancestor of Zige Mountain, his great sleeves fluttering and his white hair flowing, stared with blood-red, trembling eyes at the sole pillar of sacred golden light in the world. Vaguely visible within it were figures descending like Immortal Gods.

Yes.

To the Divine Wilderness,

they were indeed on the level of Immortal Gods.

But they hadn’t come to save the world...

CLANG CLANG CLANG—

Weapons were drawn from their sheaths.

Divine Techniques of every color and brilliance lit up the darkness.

All the Divine Ability Users and Great Divine Power Users of the Southern Border,

had gathered in the Da Xu Realm.

Grief turned to silence.

And in that silence, a heaven-scorching killing intent was brewing.

No one was afraid, and no one backed down.

Because it was meaningless.

Fear would not bring them pity.

Retreating would not allow them to eke out a meager existence.

There was only battle!

A fight to the death!

Only then was there a sliver of a chance for survival!

RUMBLE—

The sound of wind and thunder in the sky intensified, like the beating of war drums on a battlefield, shaking the land for hundreds of millions of miles.

A new change occurred.

Across the various lands of the Divine Wilderness,

pillar-like beams of golden light shot down from the sky.

They enveloped every Great Divine Power User and Divine Ability User present.

’A reception?’

’Ascension?’

’No, it’s a mark!’

”You’re trying to hunt us to extinction! A complete extermination, you bastards!!”

In a secret location at the ends of the earth,

a certain Great Divine Power User had been clinging to a sliver of hope,

attempting to hide from the Great Tribulation. His enraged roar shattered the clouds and blew his hiding place to pieces. Bathed in golden light, he roared at the heavens in a hysterical frenzy:

”I’m not hiding anymore! You sons of bitches, come and kill me!!”

He wasn’t the only one.

As the pillars of golden light pierced through the universe,

throughout the Divine Desolate Heaven and Earth,

more hidden Divine Ability Users and Great Divine Power Users—whether in fear, anger, or madness—were all revealed, with no Escape Form left to them. They shone brightly in the darkness like great suns.

There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

All that was left...

...was a fight to the death!

”Hahaha, a bunch of cowards and weaklings!”

「Northern Lands.」

At the end of the Eighteen Layers of Purgatory, a place deeper than darkness itself,

Zhou Prison eagerly welcomed the golden light, sneering at the gutless rats who didn’t dare face the Great Tribulation and instead chose to hide and skulk.

Within his eyes, which swirled with visions of mountains of corpses and seas of blood,

was only boundless Battle Intent.

He spread his arms, embracing the dark and ruined world, not with anger but with joy, his madness perverse and deranged:

”Hahaha, excellent, excellent! Destruction! Let it all be destroyed! I am the Lord of Hell! Which of you Celestial Beings dares to descend into my domain!”

Life Hell.

A Hell on Earth!

The more the world became a purgatory of darkness, the stronger his Life Hell grew.

Now, with the heavens crumbling, the earth splitting, and all things perishing,

it was practically the world of his dreams!

「Western Desert.」

”Why should I regret dying in battle, when it is to sweep away the wicked for the sake of the living...”

King Long Qian of Ten Thousand Victories also calmly accepted the golden light. He wiped his Ringed Dragon Halberd, his magnificent figure standing like a sky-supporting pillar in the heart of the thunderstorm as the battle-blood in his veins began to boil.

「Central Plains.」

”Today I shall test my blade against this gloom. Who will join me in righting the fallen heavens?”

The silhouette of a Saint rose to prop up the heavens, his resonant voice echoing to the eight corners of the world. A sea of ten thousand scrolls enveloped Celestial Fate County.

”True Martial Hall, fight to the death!”

”Taihua Immortal Sect, fight to the death!”

...

One by one, the Great Li Peaks and Divine Ability Users let out resounding, metallic roars. Their divine radiance shone in the darkness as they resisted the Celestial Spirits and Earthly Fiends, sheltering the last of the common people.

「East Sea.」

Endless treasured light shone, illuminating the universe.

Pill, Array, Talisman, Artifact.

All sorts of worldly treasures, rarely seen, formed a multicolored ocean filled with world-destroying Energy. King Bao Tong stood at its center, holding the Treasure Basin. His gaze burned brightly in the darkness as he muttered coldly:

”Repay one tribulation with ten... You sons of bitches! I’ll blow you unscrupulous merchants to smithereens!”

「In an unknown, dark land.」

The most brilliant golden Celestial Pillar shone down.

CLANG—

A figure woven from multicolored divine light reached out into the world. Nine Emperor’s Swords pierced through the darkness, surrounding and carving up the eight wastelands.

Behind him, in the darkness,

a colossal, heaven-supporting Dharma Aspect slowly opened its eyes. Its golden pupils, devoid of any emotion, gazed at the dome of the sky, like a Divine Being descending to look down upon the world.

At the moment the Great Tribulation descended,

the Five Directions Five Emperors, the Human Dao Emperor—

regardless of their reasons,

not a single one chose to retreat.

All of them unleashed the radiance of an Emperor,

illuminating the dark lands around them.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

Deep within the crumbling, annihilated Great Snow Mountain,

a blood-colored, fragmented scripture slowly dissipated.

Within the crimson light, a voice filled with excited anticipation echoed faintly:

”You enjoy slaying demons and devils... Hehe, I wonder if the True Demons refined in the Mud Hell Sea will be to your liking?”

RUMBLE—

The heavens and earth shook, the war drums beat incessantly.

In a world submerged by a dark, raging tide,

no one noticed.

An intensely brilliant golden Celestial Pillar, which had been shooting from the sky toward the border of the Divine Wilderness, vanished without a trace upon touching a certain domain, like a clay ox entering the sea.

BUZZ~

As all parties in the Divine Desolate Heaven and Earth watched nervously, the golden wells in the skies of the five regions finally began to change.

They started to ripple like water.

Like a mirage, they projected figures shrouded in divine brilliance into the world.

The various Emperors, Great Divine Power Users, and Divine Ability Users...

all held their breath, their focus absolute. Their Battle Intent climbed to its peak as they stared intently at the figures that were gradually solidifying from illusion, gripping their weapons tightly.

The first place the people of Hongyuan descended upon

was the former Southern Border.

Now the capital of the Da Xu Realm!

A group of more than ten figures.

The moment they arrived,

a heavy and vast pressure swept across tens of thousands of miles of the dark world.

Gales raged and thunderbolts roared!

The surrounding scenery rapidly receded, faded, and was annihilated, unable to withstand the pressure. It nearly became a Vacuum Domain.

”Such a gap! Such a gap in power!!”

Prince Nanyang, his body surging with divine light to block the pressure, gritted his teeth and stared, his eyes seeming to split, at the thirteen figures shimmering with the light and color of immortal techniques.

Ninth Transformation!

They were all at the Ninth Transformation!

Thirteen people!

And all of them were at the Ninth Transformation Third Step or higher!

Especially the one leading them...

an old man with slightly dark skin, dressed as a woodcutter, with a pair of unremarkable straw sandals beneath his rolled-up trouser legs!

The instant he appeared,

the Heart Lake Alarm Bell in Zhou Chen’s mind rang wildly, stirring up gale-force winds and monstrous waves. Every hair on his body stood on end!

Pseudo Dharma Aspect!

A Pseudo Dharma Aspect from Hongyuan!

”Young friend, we meet again. Still interested in buying this old man’s Gourd?”

The old man raised an eyebrow slightly, flashing Zhou Chen a simple, toothy grin as he shook the Yellow Jade Gourd in his hand.

Within the Gourd, on which profound and esoteric talismans spun, so complex they made one’s head swim, one could faintly see a world of mortal life taking shape, rising and falling like waves in the sea.

”It must be fate.”

The old man showed no hint of killing intent or violence. He put away his Gourd and sighed. ”Meeting in the Dragon Mud Cave Heaven was fate. Seeing each other again in the Divine Wilderness is also fate. Oh, and there is one final fated connection.”

As he spoke,

the old man glanced at Zhou Chen’s Emperor’s Robe and his own restrained imperial aura, then said with a faint smile:

”Young friend, you are the Emperor of a dynasty, and as it happens, I am the National Preceptor of a dynasty. Wouldn’t you say that’s quite a fated connection?”

National Preceptor!

Zhou Chen suppressed the turmoil in his heart. He now knew the old man’s origins, and he understood the weight of those two words even better.

’As expected...’

The old man’s next words...

...confirmed Zhou Chen’s suspicions—

”Lv Shengxin of the Dayan Imperial Dynasty, from the Profound Yellow World. I am truly ashamed to be bullying the weak with my strength today. Young friend, you may use any means at your disposal. There is no need to hold back.”

The Profound Yellow World, the Dayan Imperial Dynasty!

The moment these words were spoken,

everyone present, including Zhou Chen and all the Divine Ability Users of the Southern Border, felt a heavy, towering Divine Mountain pressing down on their hearts!

The word ”Emperor.”

It held different meanings in different worlds.

In the Divine Wilderness,

the ruler of a nation could be an Emperor.

But in Hongyuan!

Only a figure on the level of the Slaughter Emperor was qualified to be called Emperor!

An Imperial Dynasty!

Without a doubt,

it was an absolute peak Human Dao dynasty that currently had, or once had, a figure like the Slaughter Emperor!

Within such a power,

to serve as National Preceptor...

this old man’s true cultivation,

was, for the current Divine Wilderness, absolutely and immeasurably high.

The old man’s status was so lofty.

The twelve Tribulation Descenders who followed him must also be kings among men, Heroes in Hongyuan.

Even though they were veiled by divine light and the colors of techniques,

Zhou Chen and the others could still sense their restrained, yet supremely noble auras. They were probably Overlords of their own territories, or Princes and princesses of the Imperial Dynasty.

Whether they were clones or their Main Body was not important.

What was important was that they were all at the Ninth Transformation Third Step or higher!

But in the Southern Border...

there was only Zhou Chen, at the Fourth Step!

Of the rest, only the Zige Mountain ancestor was at the Absolute Peak; everyone else was below the Third Step.

Such a disparity...

’The strong bullying the weak?’

’This is more like a higher-dimensional strike!’

This battle,

before it had even truly begun,

the immense gap in power had already crushed eighty percent of the Southern Border’s morale. One could even call it despair!

After truly facing the Tribulation Descenders,

any lingering hope in their hearts was instantly trampled into the dust.

They also finally understood.

Why, in the thirty thousand years spanning the Nine Tribulations,

out of all the countless Celestial Prides and Heroes,

not a single one had been able to withstand the Great Tribulation!

To win even once!

Because there was never any possibility of winning!

A heavy atmosphere.

It didn’t just shroud the Southern Border.

At the same moment.

「Northern Lands.」

another group of beings with immense pressure descended from the golden light.

”Hmph.”

Like Celestial Immortals from the Nine Heavens descending upon the mortal world,

they showed their revulsion for the barren, thin spiritual energy of this realm.

Compared to the smiling tiger in the Southern Border,

this group of Tribulation Descenders who arrived in the Northern Lands showed their disgust openly.

Especially,

when the Goddess leading them—clad in iridescent palace robes, her immortal figure ethereal, and her body wreathed in five-colored lightning—pierced the darkness with her gaze.

After noticing the Eighteen Karmic Obstacles Purgatory rumbling in the darkness, her voice became detached and Sen Leng, like an ancient, frigid current:

”It is indeed a land of sin, a foul heaven that breeds such malevolent and fiendish creatures. To annihilate it would be no exaggeration.”