Essence Devouring Art

SPLASH~

Inside the core treasury.

A miniature Sea of Chaos churned, thrumming with the heavenly music of the Great Dao. Between the rise and fall of its waves, the phenomena of All Heavens seemed to be born and annihilated.

Chaos Mother Liquid!

The origin of all things in the universe, Cultivation Food for Great Emperors, and the energy source for powering an Emperor’s Weapon!

Judging by the phenomenon of this small Sea of Chaos, it had reached the level of All Heavens Chaos Mother Liquid. It was likely derived from the residual Life Origin of the Heaven-Burying Emperor’s corpse.

The Slaughter Emperor had set a trap. He had broken down the Heaven-Burying Emperor’s corpse and, along with the Extreme Dao Bell, offered it as a prize for a future victor. Though the reserves weren’t vast, they should be enough to revive the Extreme Dao Bell a few times.

’What a waste of the Heaven-Burying Saber.’

As Wu Dao used the Qiankun Bell to activate the Extreme Dao Bell Fragment and collect all the Chaos Mother Liquid, he thought of the Heaven-Burying Saber that the Heaven-Burying Emperor had wielded.

With his current strength, he couldn’t activate a Supreme Treasure on the level of the Extreme Dao Bell at all. He couldn’t even fully revive its Great Saint’s Battle Power. Only a Saint Master might be able to.

The Heaven-Burying Saber, which was a level lower, would be no problem.

As long as he stepped into the Great Saint realm, activating it wouldn’t be much of a burden.

However, the Heaven-Burying Emperor seemed to be shouldering some kind of mission given to him by the Slaughter Emperor. He hadn’t fought Wu Dao to the death and had vanished without a trace, taking the Heaven-Burying Saber with him.

Wu Dao guessed that this so-called mission was likely related to the Slaughter Emperor’s return.

Although that madman wasn’t completely dead, his situation wasn’t good either. Making a full return wouldn’t be so simple.

After collecting the Chaos Mother Liquid, Wu Dao dug three feet deep, thoroughly plundering the Emperor’s Tomb and Emperor’s Temple. In the end, he even dismantled the temple’s two great doors.

He didn’t spare the floor tiles in the Emperor’s Temple either.

They were all made of Holy Spirit Mother Gold, a Supreme Treasure of All Heavens that could be used to forge an Emperor’s Weapon. It would have pained his conscience to see such a treasure go to waste.

After his thorough plundering, the once magnificent and sacred Emperor’s Temple was reduced by Wu Dao to a scene of dilapidated ruins. The Heaven-Burying Emperor probably wouldn’t even recognize it if he came back.

WHOOSH~

Satisfied, Wu Dao took out a stack of Grand Thousand Shifting Talismans, dusted himself off, and left, rapidly traversing away from the Abyss.

The Mighty Power released by the Extreme Dao Bell’s revival was too terrifying. This Little Cosmos, which was already on the verge of collapse from the great battle, along with the Red Dust Realm outside, had been completely annihilated, leaving only a scarlet Abyss.

Wu Dao used up all his Grand Thousand Talismans before finally exiting the scarlet Abyss and arriving in the Burial Realm, where the aftershocks were still raging.

”Oh gods, the Red Dust Realm is gone in an instant!”

”The Heaven-Burying Alliance, which stood for ten thousand years, is actually...”

”What in the world happened?”

”A Supreme Treasure must have emerged. Should we go down and take a look?”

Outside the scarlet Abyss, many daring Demon Cultivators had gathered. They were shocked and horrified, yet at the same time, they were itching to head down into the Abyss to hunt for treasure.

This was the nature of Demon Cultivators. Profit above all else.

For them, the destruction of countless worlds in the Burial Realm Jun Tian’s Red Dust Realm inspired fear and shock, but not an ounce of empathy or sorrow.

Just like the Black Mountain Demon Saint and the others. They knew it was a near-certain death, but they couldn’t suppress the greed in their hearts, ultimately meeting a tragic end where their bodies were destroyed and their Daos were extinguished.

Perhaps this was related to the Burial Realm’s environment.

The concentrated Three Tribulations Tribulation Qi of an entire Celestial Domain would subtly influence and amplify the various desires of the cultivators living there.

Wu Dao didn’t pay them much mind.

He had already cleaned out the Emperor’s Tomb, the kind of cleanout where not a single brick or tile was left behind.

After leaving the Abyss, he headed straight for Nirvana Valley.

The Heaven-Burying Alliance was destroyed, and all the Saints of the Burial Realm had died inside the Emperor’s Tomb.

Next, as the news spread, Nirvana City would become the only Holy Land in the Burial Realm, attracting Demon Cultivators from the Ten Directions of the realm. He could still harvest one last batch of leeks.

But Wu Dao estimated that these peaceful days wouldn’t last long. The emergence of the Extreme Dao Bell had attracted prying eyes.

There was also the inexplicable great purge. The Overlords of the Daluo Celestial Domain had definitely discovered something in the Burial Realm that they felt compelled to eliminate. Once confirmed, the Burial Realm would become a land of conflict.

Although the Burial Realm was the source of the Daluo Heaven’s Tribulation Qi, and those in the Emperor Realm dared not make a move within it lest they detonate the source of the calamity, even those below the Emperor Realm would have no problem sweeping through the Burial Realm.

Under these circumstances, Wu Dao’s best choice should have been to leave the powder keg that was the Burial Realm, find another way, and continue his cautious development.

However, he wasn’t prepared to leave so soon.

Because... another Extreme Dao Bell Fragment was still within the Burial Realm!

After activating the Extreme Dao Bell, Wu Dao had obtained some precise information. Back then, the Extreme Dao Bell had shattered into three pieces.

Two pieces were hidden in the Burial Realm.

The location of the last piece, which involved the Extreme Dao Bell’s core array diagram, was unknown. The Slaughter Emperor had not given the slightest hint about it.

Even the information about the other piece in the Burial Realm was vague.

It involved another ancient titan.

Wu Dao prepared to see if he could find that place and complete the Extreme Dao Bell before the Daluo Celestial Domain made its move.

As expected, the great catastrophe in the Burial Realm Jun Tian spread throughout the entire Burial Realm within a matter of days!

The Heaven-Burying Alliance, which had stood in the Burial Realm for ten thousand years! Along with Jun Tian’s billions of worlds! They had encountered an unknown, ominous disaster and were instantly blasted into an empty abyss, without so much as an ant left behind!

This news was too terrifying! It alarmed many of the old Demons of the Burial Realm.

They risked entering the Abyss to search for the truth, or rather, to find the so-called Supreme Treasure.

The result was somewhat surprising and deeply disappointing.

They discovered the legendary Emperor’s Tomb from which the Heaven-Burying Alliance had risen, but it had been completely emptied. Not a single brick or tile remained, infuriating them to the point they cursed the bandits responsible.

At the same time, another piece of news stirred up a storm.

About fifty percent of the Burial Realm’s Demon Saints, led by the Black Mountain Demon Saint, were suspected to have explored the Emperor’s Tomb with All Saints of the Heaven-Burying Alliance. But they had all died inside!

This matter had been very secretive.

The various Holy Lands had only vaguely heard from their respective Demon Saints that they were going to venture into a Creation Land.

But unexpectedly, forget about finding any Creation, not even their bones could be found.

For a time, many Holy Lands in the Burial Realm fell apart due to internal strife, causing considerable chaos. Many Demon Cultivators, seeking to escape the turmoil, all fled to the Land of Zige, Nirvana City.

In a short time, Nirvana City’s population swelled.

While Wu Dao happily harvested his big crop of leeks, he also sent out a large number of avatars to search the Burial Realm for the location of the second Extreme Dao Bell Fragment.

However, what Wu Dao didn’t expect was that before he found any information on the second fragment, he first encountered a very interesting ’fellow countryman’.

...

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

Baleful blood-qi surged as heaven and earth shattered.

Burial Realm. Black Mountain Realm, Black Mountain Demon Sect.

”Kill them!”

”I am the patriarch’s eldest disciple! This is rebellion!”

”Heh, and I was the patriarch’s Back Mountain Child! Enough nonsense!”

...

Due to the fall of the Black Mountain Demon Saint, the various factions of the Demon Dao in the Black Mountain Realm started a bloody war over his legacy, a conflict that shattered mountains and rivers and blotted out the sun and moon.

But what no one noticed was that inside the core treasury...

CREAK~

Space rippled like water, and a bronze Profound Sect door opened. A refined-looking young man with long eyebrows, dressed in the formal attire of the Black Mountain Demon Sect, stepped out.

’I had planned to hide my identity and take things slow. I never expected the Black Mountain Demon Saint to have such a short life...’

The mysterious long-browed youth sighed. He plundered the treasury of all its treasures, opened the bronze Profound Sect door again, and vanished from the Black Mountain Realm without a sound.

Somewhere outside the realm, the long-browed youth stepped out of the Profound Sect door. He looked up at the dim, crimson Nine Heavens Cloud Sea of the Burial Realm, his expression complex.

In a daze, he seemed to once again see the familiar world of his homeland turning to ash amid the same world-ending Tribulation Qi.

’Profound Yellow, Cyan Nether, Fu Guang, Daluo... Alas, the will is there to slay the enemy, but the strength is not.’

The long-browed youth sighed in sorrow.

The hatred from the destruction of his world was rooted in his very bones.

But what was the use of hating?

He was just a fish that had slipped through the net, lucky to have survived a tribulation. Forget revenge; he didn’t even dare reveal the slightest hint of his identity.

He spent his days skulking in the shadows, living in constant fear.

He had clearly arrived in a golden Great Era, yet he could only eke out a miserable existence in a filthy, dirty place like the Burial Realm, enduring in silence.

In over twenty years, his spirit had been almost completely worn down. He just wanted a peaceful and stable life and no longer thought about those distant dreams.

Unfortunately... with the death of the Black Mountain Demon Saint, the safe haven he had worked so hard to find was gone. He would have to continue his wandering life.

The world was vast, yet he was utterly alone.

The torment of it was something an ordinary person could never understand.

’I hear Nirvana City is a place of peace, a Land of Zige. Perhaps it’s a good place to go, but...’

The long-browed youth pondered his next move. The first place that came to mind was Nirvana City, which had been gaining much fame in the Burial Realm recently.

A Land of Zige in the Demon Realm. It could indeed be called a paradise, a shelter from the storm. But the truth behind the peace was somewhat cruel, violating some of the youth’s deeply-held beliefs.

’Ah, I’m overthinking it. As long as I don’t stoop to their level, it should be fine.’

Shaking his head with a self-deprecating laugh, the youth no longer hesitated. He took out a spatiotemporal map of the Burial Realm, opened the bronze Profound Sect door, and began traversing continuously toward Nirvana City.

He didn’t dare set foot outside the Burial Realm.

The scale of his enemies was too vast to imagine.

And it was a blood feud, the kind where they would hunt him to the ends of the earth!

There was no possibility of reconciliation or lucky escapes.

He didn’t dare gamble with his life.

Without the cover of the Tribulation Qi, would he be exposed to the eyes of those enemies?

He didn’t even dare to grow stronger without restraint, fearing that his enemies possessed some unfathomable means of surveillance.

Call him powerless, call him a coward.

Right now, he just wanted a stable life, to hide carefully and grow slowly, hoping that one day he would fear nothing and be able to step into the light.

’I wonder if that monster is dead. If he isn’t, and he entered Hongyuan, he probably wouldn’t be as powerless as I am.’

As he traversed through spacetime, the long-browed youth once again found himself unconsciously recalling the final moments, seeing that magnificent demonic figure battling the heroes of All Heavens in the center of the world.

It was strange.

Although there was a feud between them for the death of his father, in the twenty years that had passed, he found he could no longer muster any hatred. Instead, it was replaced by deep regret and admiration.

In the Hongyuan All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds, with its countless beings and rising Celestial Prides, even to this day, the youth had never heard of anyone as stunningly brilliant or with such unparalleled spirit as that monster.

If that monster wasn’t dead, the so-called Celestial Prides of Hongyuan wouldn’t even be worthy of carrying his shoes!

For some reason, an irrepressible sense of pride and reverence welled up in the youth’s heart, only to be shattered an instant later by a deep sorrow.

In such a hopeless situation, unless Heaven ’left one side of the net open’ for him, as it had for the youth, there was simply no possibility of survival.

「A few days later.」

The youth finally arrived at Nirvana City.

It was a vast, colossal city, teeming with countless Demon Cultivators.

Even though he was long accustomed to the vastness of Hongyuan, he was still shaken by the majestic atmosphere of this giant city.

In particular, the sight of the roiling layers of thunder from the Celestial Tribulations being swallowed voraciously by the forbidden zone of Nirvana Valley left him both shocked and terrified.

’I wonder what kind of being that Nirvana True Lord is, to be able to devour even the Celestial Tribulations of the Great Dao.’

BUZZ~

As the youth discreetly entered Nirvana City, deep within Nirvana Valley, Wu Dao, whose Magnetic Field information network spread throughout spacetime, felt something and ended his Cultivation.

His consciousness focused on the somewhat familiar long-browed youth. He sorted through many memories from the Divine Wilderness and muttered to himself in surprise:

”The Heaven and Earth Profound Sect... Nangong Li?”