Essence Devouring Art

”Hah. If you already know, why ask?”

Prince Nanyang exhaled a turbid breath. All his Divine Power and the might of his Celestial Treasure retracted back into him. He looked Lv Shengxin straight in the eye and said with a smile, ”This is my final strike. If you can reproduce it, then I will accept my defeat wholeheartedly.”

Hm?

Lv Shengxin frowned, a light flashing in his eyes. He then sighed helplessly and said,

”Why bother? You know this is meaningless.”

”Yes, it is meaningless.”

Prince Nanyang’s clouded eyes swept over the shattered mountains and rivers. Scenes from the once briefly peaceful life in the Great Xu Country surfaced in his mind. The vivid faces and smiles of elders and peers seemed to appear right before his eyes.

”But...”

He withdrew his grief-stricken gaze.

Prince Nanyang looked up at the turbulent sky, filled with gales of thunder, and murmured to himself:

’When the nation is shattered and its mountains and rivers turn to ash, when the ship capsizes, the sovereign sinks with it... When the country is destroyed and its people perish, a ruler must naturally die with his nation. How could it be meaningless?’

”Is that so?”

Hearing this, Lv Shengxin nodded in appreciation for the first time. He promised, ”Rest easy, little friend. My Profound Yellow World has many dynasties. I will be sure to pick a wise and benevolent ruler for you.”

”Hah. You people.”

Prince Nanyang sneered and shook his head. ”The stronger you are, the more hypocritical and disingenuous you become. You speak of mass murder as if it were a great kindness. I’d love to slap that old face of yours raw, just to see how thick your skin really is.”

”If you have the ability to do so.”

Lv Shengxin was neither annoyed nor angry. He continued to smile faintly, the gap in their fundamental essence of life making it seem as if he were watching a tiny insect baring its fangs on the ground.

”Someone will.”

Cracks began to appear on Prince Nanyang’s physique. An extremely violent energy, brilliant and condensed, shot out from the fissures, causing even Lv Shengxin to narrow his eyes slightly.

His ears...

...still echoed with Prince Nanyang’s faint whisper:

”Have you ever seen... a real monster?”

Monster?

BOOM—

The doubt had just arisen.

An energy, as if an entire world, the collective fate of countless beings, had been condensed into one point, exploded violently.

A light of ultimate splendor.

Like the first ray of sunlight when spring returns to the earth, it dispelled the biting cold, illuminating the vast world.

One last time.

It lit up the lands of Da Xu.

A torrent of blazing divine radiance.

Scenes from a life flashed by.

The lonely, shivering child deep within the Imperial Palace.

The busy young man who rejoiced with his people.

The tiny figure gritting his teeth to climb the Divine Mountain.

The shadow of a king, in his prime, commanding armies and overlooking the battlefield.

The Emperor’s oath, watched by all, as he performed the rites to ascend to the heavens.

And in the deepest part of it all.

A pavilion tent by a small lake, with warm wine and brewing tea.

”Alliance Leader Wu, if one day the heavens should fall and the earth overturn, if it is within your power, would you support the sky for the Divine Wilderness?”

”If the heavens wish to destroy me, I shall perform my own Heaven Opening.”

”Alliance Leader Wu... the heavens have come to destroy you...”

KACHA—BANG!

The visions of light shattered, and all thoughts dissipated.

The country falls, and the king dies with it!

The Great Xu Country Lord.

Chenjing Emperor.

Prince Nanyang.

Zhou Chen.

Even the greatest heroes eventually turn to dust—

Fallen!

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

Violent gales of energy ravaged the world in all Ten Directions. After briefly illuminating Da Xu, it was swallowed by an even deeper darkness.

Lv Shengxin stood tall in the eye of the storm. His clothes were slightly disheveled, and his body was covered in a dense network of cuts, but they healed within a single breath.

”Monster? Hah.”

He mulled over Prince Nanyang’s final words.

Lv Shengxin shook his head and chuckled in spite of himself. ”I have served as a national preceptor for thousands of years. What kind of breathtaking genius have I not seen? In such a dilapidated place... hmm?”

Before the words could even fade,

Lv Shengxin’s brow furrowed sharply. Sensing the various auras surging and swarming through the world, he abruptly looked up towards the deepest part of the Dark World. ”Another expert?”

「At the same time.」

In an unknown, dark place.

CLANG!

The Godslaying Blade returned to its gourd.

Cyan Yu Celestial Venerable glanced at the sword mark on his chest, which had torn his robes and was seeping blood. He shook his head slightly in self-mockery:

”I haven’t made a move in ten thousand years, and I’ve grown careless. To be wounded by a mere Mao God... if word of this got out, those old coots would laugh at me for a thousand years.”

As he spoke,

Cyan Yu Celestial Venerable weighed the colorful lotus, which glowed with a hazy divine light, in his hand. Thinking of Yaya’s mischievous smile, he said nostalgically,

”Grandmaster Qing has brought a gift to pick you up. Where is Little Yaya... huh?”

A surprised sound escaped him.

Cyan Yu Celestial Venerable’s eyes narrowed as he peered into the distant darkness. He said with great interest,

”Hah, can’t hide anymore, can you? This venerable one would also like to weigh you and see just what gives you such confidence.”

「Central Plains.」

RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE~

The pages of ten thousand scrolls fluttered.

At the moment of ultimate brilliance,

a black Ruler Longsword pressed down.

All the shadows of Saints, all the knowledge of ancient and modern laws and principles, dimmed into insignificance, cowering in shame. They withdrew back into a Golden House, like heretical Sinners awaiting punishment.

”Golden House. Not bad.”

The Luotian Sword Realm’s Life Destruction Domain Master, Bai Wuhen, nodded slightly. Wielding the Ruler Longsword, his large hand reached for the colorful lotus that was fading into the Golden House.

Celestial Treasure.

No matter the World,

they are always a first-class Supreme Treasure of heaven and earth.

Without the permission of the Great Dao or some heaven-defying method, it’s basically impossible to plunder and claim one.

During every Tribulation,

only the top leaders of the various heavens are qualified to divide the Celestial Treasures.

”This aura...”

After storing the lotus, Bai Wuhen also frowned. Following the surging tide of change in the world’s aura, he gazed coldly into the deepest darkness.

There,

a terrifying, faintly dangerous monster seemed to be emerging into the world!

「Western Desert.」

The gatekeeper of the Daluo Celestial Sword Abyss, Wang Fu Jian, cradled the Blood Evil Lotus in his hand. The abyss-like longsword in his other hand, which had not been drawn from beginning to end, also trembled fiercely.

「Northern Lands.」

”To kill is to save, to trade one prison for peace... Peace my ass! I’m dead! But, HA HA HA, it was worth it!!”

RUMBLE!

Zhou Prison loudly chewed on a piece of fragrant, snow-white meat, roaring madly. He and the Eighteen Layers of Hell exploded into an endless, filthy black light amid the furious five-colored lightning.

WHOOSH~

Amid the filthy tide,

the Goddess from the Cyan Nether Heaven’s Thunder Emperor Palace was the most disheveled of the Tribulation Descenders. Her clothes were tattered, her immortal skin exposed. There was even a sunken patch on her chest. Her face was like frost as she muttered to herself with a Sen Leng chill:

’What a madman!’

Zhou Prison’s strength,

with the amplification of the current Purgatory environment,

was in no way inferior to the Demon Suppression Emperor.

What was even more insane

was that this madman had stuffed the hundreds of millions of living beings from the Northern Lands—every single Celestial Being and Divine Ability User—into his Life Hell to expand its power.

Prince Nanyang and the others had been completely suppressed for the entire fight.

Yet Zhou Prison, relying on his Life Hell, had traded blows with the Goddess from the Thunder Emperor Palace. He withstood the Five Thunders Bombing the Top and, unbelievably, held a slight advantage!

Even when he was later surrounded and attacked,

he fought and killed two of the Four-step Surrounders.

He even nearly tore the Goddess to pieces.

At the final moment,

he burned the countless Evil Ghosts in his Life Hell,

and ferociously bit a piece of fragrant meat from the Goddess’s body!

At the cost of his own life!

He had brutally humiliated the Goddess, causing even her, with her Immortal Stone Heart, to lose her composure and fly into a rage on the spot.

”Madman? HAHAHA, you’re about to meet a real madman, and he won’t be satisfied with just one bite of you...”

RUMBLE—

The jet-black ’Demon Thunder’ from within the Five Thunders, a force that annihilates essence and spirit, poured into the core of the Life Hell, instantly obliterating Zhou Prison’s last remaining soul fragment.

A black lotus fell.

The Goddess did not reach for it; one of her attendants naturally collected it.

In her mind,

only Zhou Prison’s last words echoed.

’The Divine Wilderness’s trump card?’

VMMMM—BOOM!

The spiritual energy of the world and of spacetime itself began to boil.

Her thoughts had just begun to churn.

The Goddess’s gaze shifted.

Her immortal eyes pierced through the endless darkness.

In the far, far distance,

she saw a brilliant golden Celestial Pillar that seemed to cover ten thousand li of heaven and earth!

The wider the range of the Celestial Pillar,

the stronger the marked creature.

The Zhou Prison she had just slain,

his was only close to a thousand li.

But this ’fish that escaped the net’ that had just appeared...

its golden light was a pillar ten thousand li wide!

From any corner of the entire Divine Desolate World,

it was clearly visible!

Haaa~

The Goddess let out a slow, turbid breath. For the first time, her expression grew focused. She contacted the other Tribulation Descenders and sped towards the golden Celestial Pillar.

「East Sea.」

”It has a clone? Hah, you think it can escape?”

Han Chong, the Supreme Elder of the Supporting Light Ten Thousand Solutions Emperor Sect, looked at King Bao Tong, who had died under his palm but had not transformed into a lotus. He shook his head and chuckled.

Just as he was about to trace it back to its source and pursue it,

his expression changed slightly. He narrowed his eyes and looked towards the golden Celestial Pillar that was shaking the World Qi and covering the land for ten thousand li.

”A little interesting.”

After sending a message for his disciples to pursue King Bao Tong, Han Chong, holding the Peakless Short Blade, flickered and crossed a vast expanse of darkness, approaching the ten-thousand-li golden light.

Such a grand and powerful display.

The creature marked by that golden light was definitely a walking Treasure Mountain!

If this were a game,

then a world boss had just appeared.

Of course,

the various Tribulation Descenders did not think this way. In their hearts, the Divine Wilderness was just a dilapidated Wilderness, incapable of birthing any heaven-defying miracles.

At most,

it would just take a little more effort.

How to divide the spoils afterward...

...now that was the real problem.

RUSTLE RUSTLE~

Within the golden light that enveloped the land for ten thousand li,

the simple and unadorned Bitter Dust Robe

slowly retracted along with a deep and dreamlike starry sky. At the end of that river of starlight, the figure of Wu Dao, having undergone a Rebirth, took form.

VMMMM~

A pair of eyes, like black holes born from stars, slowly opened. They were anciently dark, as if they could devour the entire World.

HAAA~

A hurricane-like torrent surged.

Within a single breath,

all kinds of auras carrying information rushed towards him.

The events that had transpired between heaven and earth

flashed through his mind like a fast-forwarded film.

When the vision of Prince Nanyang’s death appeared,

the light and shadow paused for a moment,

then dissipated completely.

There was no need to see any more.

The other endings would be the same.

”In the end...”

Wu Dao slowly rose to his feet. There was no grand aura around him; he was utterly plain and unremarkable. His expression was indifferent, without a trace of sorrow, only a hint of melancholy:

”A fleeting guest in the vastness of the world, you came and went without a trace.”

As his words fell,

RUMBLE—

His step was a thunderous explosion,

one kick overturning the Sea of Celestial Punishment.

The universe was like a mirror.

Where his foot landed, a white point appeared,

rapidly spreading into a spiderweb of cracks ten thousand li wide.

BANG!!

It shattered violently,

exploding into countless fragments of scenery.

Amidst the fragments of the universe falling from the sky,

a storm of black void filled the vacuum, forming a hurricane vortex of a World-Ending Level.

WHOOSH~

He exhaled a breath of Primordial Magnetism, electric currents, and starlight.

In the center of the world-ending hurricane,

KRUNCH KRUNCH—

the dense sound of divine stars rolling and colliding could be heard.

Wu Dao’s Heaven-Supporting Physique stood alone in the center of the ruined world. He cracked his neck.

His black-hole eyes scanned the enemies approaching from all eight directions.

The curve of his lips grew wider and wider,

growing more ferocious, like an Evil Ghost.

Until...

...a voice, Sen Leng and cold as Purgatory, the voice of an untamable Demon God,

rumbled and shook the heavens and earth:

”You think you’re good fighters? Alright then. I say the Five Days of Primordial Chaos are all sons of bitches! Who agrees, and who objects?!”