Essence Devouring Art

’Great Freedom Celestial Demon...’

「In Nirvana Valley.」

Wu Dao’s consciousness stirred as he mulled over the intelligence he’d obtained from the Divine Ruins Realm.

His Primordial Demon Incarnation hunted throughout the All Heavens.

The Divine Ruins Heaven, occupied by the Innate Divine Race, was naturally within its hunting grounds. He possessed a Divine Vein, allowing him to practice the unique Emperor Scriptures of the Divine Race.

Speaking of which...

The Divine Ruins Heaven was the most peculiar Celestial Domain Wu Dao had ever seen. It was saturated with pure Innate Divine Dao Laws, and new members of the Innate Divine Race were constantly being born from the rules within the natural world.

The Extraordinary nature of that Celestial Domain was somewhat extreme.

It was only suitable for the Cultivation of the Innate Divine Race.

It seemed to have preserved the environment from before the Path of Transcendence for the Ten Thousand Races had appeared. The Divine Format replaced the Dantian as the sole ticket to becoming Extraordinary, making it difficult for races other than the Divine Race to practice Cultivation there.

This unique environment naturally gave rise to a different kind of Divine Race civilization.

Its form of civilization was somewhat similar to a faith-based Divine Sect.

Each region had different Pantheon-based societies that followed primitive, natural laws, where weaker Divine Spirits submitted to and relied on stronger ones to survive.

The Common Lord of the Divine Ruins Heaven was the Divine Court, which had once ruled for Several Hongyuan Tribulations and possessed many ancient Yin Gods and Yang Gods. However, it was supplanted by the Celestial Court after the Second Tribulation and could only reside in a remote corner.

Wu Dao’s source of intelligence was a Divine Child of the Divine Court captured by his Incarnation. Along with obtaining the Divine Dao Emperor Scripture, he learned a great secret—

The Great Freedom Celestial Demon would return in the Burial Realm!

That’s right.

The Great Freedom Heavenly Demon King, one of the major figures of the Three Tribulations, had not died. Or rather, hadn’t died completely.

According to the historical records of the All Tribulations, the Great Freedom Celestial Demon was a Postnatal God born from faith, having no connection to the Innate Gods.

This claim, however, wasn’t entirely accurate.

Because according to the secrets of the Divine Race, the Great Freedom Celestial Demon was, in essence, an Innate God who had controlled the extremely high-ranking ’Free’ Divine Format since birth.

What was ’Free’?

Unrestrained, following one’s heart and desires.

As long as desire and delusion did not fade, ’Free’ could not be extinguished.

During the Three Tribulations, the Great Freedom Celestial Demon’s Mighty Power was nearly on par with the Slaughter Emperor of the Five Tribulations. Moreover, it controlled the Free Divine Format, making it almost impossible to kill within the bounds of the Great Dao.

’The Divine Race... the Daluo Celestial Domain...’

Wu Dao’s consciousness stirred. He sensed that this matter was becoming troublesome and thorny, because another Extreme Dao Bell Fragment was related to the Great Freedom Celestial Demon.

As for the Divine Race, they were making frequent moves, secretly sending many forces to infiltrate Daluo Heaven, seemingly in an attempt to seize control of the Great Freedom Celestial Demon’s Divine Format.

The Daluo Celestial Domain, needless to say, would never allow the Great Freedom Celestial Demon to return and would do everything in its power to intercept and kill it.

The Burial Realm would soon be ravaged by a storm.

The eye of the storm would undoubtedly be the location of the Great Freedom Celestial Demon’s Divine Format.

’Should I give up, or...’

Wu Dao’s thoughts churned as he weighed the pros and cons.

For him, the place where the Great Freedom Celestial Demon fell not only held an Extreme Dao Bell Fragment, but also potentially contained a great deal of Ancient Divine Fire.

The Divine Format was the core of his Primordial Dao Wheel.

To this day, he still hadn’t escaped the promotion restrictions of his Divine Format. To advance quickly, he needed a massive amount of Divine Fire, or Dao Stones.

The Dao Stone Vein he’d acquired on the Emperor Star wouldn’t last much longer.

To continue improving, he needed a large quantity of Divine King-level Divine Fire, or to find a sufficient number of Dao Stone Veins.

As for the Power of Faith, he certainly had the ability to gather a sea of believers to worship him and increase his Power of Faith, but that method was too slow. He looked down on it.

In the end, Wu Dao looked at the dormant Extreme Dao Bell, his turbulent thoughts solidifying into resolve. He decided to wade into these muddy waters and take a gamble.

It wasn’t as if he had no advantages.

As the place where the Tribulation Qi of the Three Tribulations Daluo Celestial Domain gathered, even a Great Emperor wouldn’t dare to strike with full force for fear of detonating this ’tribulation nest’ and affecting Daluo Heaven. It could only be breached from within.

Otherwise, the Daluo Celestial Domain wouldn’t need an exact location. It had plenty of ways to obliterate the Burial Realm.

Under these circumstances, his chances increased greatly.

’I can’t stay in Nirvana Valley any longer.’

Based on the increasingly frequent movements of the Daluo Celestial Domain, Wu Dao judged that a large army would soon enter the Burial Realm, and a purge would inevitably follow.

His alias, Nirvana True Lord, was connected to the Celestial Tribulation. It would definitely be on the Daluo Celestial Domain’s purge list.

Therefore, Wu Dao prepared to flee. Well, not flee. It was a strategic retreat.

”Star Mother, what is the status of the Primordial Realm’s transformation?”

After preparing to leave, Wu Dao ended his Cultivation. With a single thought, he contacted the Star Mother in the deeper recesses.

In the domain approaching the Seven-Colored Thunderfire, a Dreamy Star Vortex bloomed, a Two Hundred-Grade Starlight Evil Lotus spinning continuously. The Star Mother’s childlike voice sounded out:

”Father God, the transformation of the Primordial Magnetic Dragon Veins in two thousand realms is complete. They can now meet the requirements of your plan.”

Upon hearing this, Wu Dao cast his gaze into the Star Mother’s Small Thousand Inner World. Within the Three Thousand Realms, two thousand of the Primordial Magnetic Dragon Veins had transformed into a Primordial Magnetic root system, corresponding to his current two thousand branch veins.

These roots had sprouted countless tentacles.

Their ends formed large cocoon-like culture dishes, resembling sci-fi gaming pods, waiting for ’players’ to move in.

’Primordial Dao Wheel 3.0.’

Wu Dao already had the complete blueprint in his mind.

The currently modified Primordial Realm was just a prototype, a version 2.5 of sorts, and was still somewhat crude for now.

The principle was simple: turn the Primordial Magnetic Dao Source into the Great Dao cultivated by living beings. With the root network interconnected, as these beings grew stronger through their Cultivation, the Primordial Magnetic Dao Source would strengthen in turn.

A trinity.

A bottom-up feedback loop nourishing the Dao Source.

The Dao Source would then provide top-down feedback to the branch veins.

The transmission nodes for this version were the Three Thousand World Dragon Veins interconnected by the Star Mother. The future version 3.0 would require the coordination of a Divine Format that could ignore the distance of space-time.

To put it bluntly, version 2.5 was a combination of versions 2.0 and 1.0.

’The World Dragon Vein is constructed from the convergence of the magnetic field networks of all things within a world. As long as I control the World Dragon Vein, I can transform it into the branch veins of all things. The Cultivation of the people within that world will then be the Cultivation of my branch veins.’

As Wu Dao imagined the wonderful fourth stage, the corners of his lips curled up slightly. He stepped out of the valley and walked toward the magnificent and vast Nirvana City.

For now, he still needed to perfect his three thousand branch veins.

Only after stepping into the Realm of All Things would his Primordial Magnetic Dao Source possess the Great Dao authority of creation and derivation, allowing him to realize his ambition.

Nirvana City.

It was magnificent and vast, with an incalculable population.

After news of the great purge spread, aside from a few Saint Level factions capable of establishing themselves in a foreign land, most of the Demon Cultivator factions in the Burial Realm had gathered in Nirvana City. They were waiting for the Nirvana True Lord to lead them in a migration to a new home.

Wu Dao, who was always happy to help, naturally granted every request.

BOOM!

On this day, the peace of Nirvana City was shattered.

The Nine Heavens crumbled and the Star River swirled like a vortex.

Unfurling her complete form, the Star Mother transformed into a dreamy Star Sea vortex, like a Grand Cosmos turned upside down.

Without any warning, she sealed off the entire, vast Nirvana City and, like a vacuum cleaner, sucked the countless Demon Cultivators within into her Inner World.

”Believe in Primordial, and achieve transcendence!”

Beneath the Star Sea vortex, Wu Dao spread his arms. He looked like the Father of Heaven descending upon the world, his eyes filled with benevolence.

”Dammit, we’ve been tricked!”

”Primordial? Isn’t he the Nirvana True Lord?”

”No! Spare me!”

Countless Demon Cultivators were horrified, but they couldn’t break free. They were transformed into a torrent, endlessly swallowed up as they ’ascended’ into one Primordial Realm after another.

The smile on Wu Dao’s lips grew even more sinister.

The Star Mother was now a Holy Soldier.

No one in Nirvana City had the power to resist, so catching these fish was naturally unobstructed.

In the span of a few breaths, not a single one of the over a quadrillion Demon Cultivators in the great Nirvana City was left. The city fell into an unprecedented, dead silence.

SNAP.

After all the fish were in the net, Wu Dao snapped his fingers.

It was like a true word, a Celestial Decree.

The Nirvana Thunder Fire of six colors and below surged out from Nirvana Valley, rolling backward.

It vastly flooded the entire space-time of the Nirvana Valley forbidden area, incinerating all information about the once-flourishing Nirvana City and transforming it into a pure Purgatory of thunder and fire.

WHOOSH...

Amidst the roiling thunder and fire, Wu Dao finished his business and brushed off his sleeves, leaving. With a wave of his hand, he brought out Nangong Li.

”Greetings, Daoist Venerable!”

After nearly half a year of transformation, Nangong Li’s disposition was completely different. He was no longer dejected and gloomy. There was a light in his eyes and strength in his heart. His voice was sonorous, like thunder.

”Mm, not bad.”

Wu Dao sized up Nangong Li. With him personally manipulating the Celestial Treasure Ceremony, the current Nangong Li had already grown to the Grotto Heaven Perfection realm.

Moreover, he was at Forty-five Circulations. In just a few short months, he had caught up to the progress of the Primordial Demons.

The Primordial Demons hadn’t neglected their Cultivation while carrying out their missions. When they weren’t hunting, they were using the Dao Wheel to cultivate rapidly. Basically all of them had reached Grotto Heaven Perfection.

Now that he had entered Grotto Heaven Perfection, and at Forty-five Circulations no less, they mutually enhanced one another. The Mighty Power of the Heaven and Earth Profound Sect that Nangong Li controlled became even more absurdly potent; he could now quickly pull back a cultivator who was already at the Ghost Gate.

If it continued to grow stronger, it might even be able to resurrect the dead in the future.

A polymer of Dao Rules, a conceptual-grade treasure of the heavens. In a sense, its ultimate form was comparable to a Dao Artifact.

’If I use the Heaven and Earth Profound Sect to constantly restore those Demon Cultivators, wouldn’t their usable lifespan be... limitless?’

As the thought occurred to him, Wu Dao looked at the respectful Nangong Li, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but curl upward again.

”Let’s go. Time to move.”

Suppressing the whimsical idea in his mind, Wu Dao nodded and told Nangong Li their next destination.

BOOM!

Flesh and blood splattered as thunder and fire churned. Without a second word, Nangong Li directly self-destructed!

Under the threat of grievous injury, the bronze Heaven and Earth Profound Sect’s owner-protection mechanism triggered, instantly teleporting Wu Dao and Nangong Li across a vast distance of space-time.

’This is far more useful than a Grand Thousand Talisman.’

Wu Dao estimated that in a life-or-death crisis, the Heaven and Earth Profound Sect could probably unleash a super Dubhe Level space-time traversal ability, allowing them to cross an entire Celestial Domain in an instant.

No. It definitely could.

Back then in the Divine Wilderness, Nangong Li had been so weak, yet the Heaven and Earth Profound Sect had been able to bring him directly to the Hongyuan Great World. How much more powerful must it be now?

The so-called ”moving” was, of course, moving from Nirvana Valley to another forbidden area in the Burial Realm.

Until the matter of the Great Freedom Celestial Demon was concluded, Wu Dao would have to spend a considerable amount of time in the Burial Realm, and he needed a ’cozy haven’.

The Burial Realm had eight major forbidden areas. Of course, this referred to the eight most dangerous regions that had been explored.

Nirvana Valley was just one of them.

OMMM!

The Black Abyss, one of the eight major forbidden areas of the Burial Realm. It swallowed heaven, devoured earth, and decomposed all things.

In the center of the shattered space-time, a ’black sun’ like a great attractor rumbled as it rotated, unleashing an unimaginable gravitational pull. Its Chaos Color accretion disk extended for tens of billions of light-years.

That’s right. The Black Abyss Forbidden Area was a supermassive black hole in the Burial Realm’s space-time system!

’An aggregate of rules?’

Wu Dao stepped out of the Heaven and Earth Profound Sect. He put away the barely breathing Nangong Li, anchored his Magnetic Field to the outer edge of the Black Abyss’s accretion disk, and cast his gaze toward the ’black sun’ at the center.

He discerned the true nature of the Black Abyss.

In his previous life, a black hole was a terrifying celestial body in the universe with such extreme density and mass that its gravity prevented even light from escaping.

But the ’black hole’ before him was not made of matter. Instead, it was a super-magnetic field turbine formed by some kind of fusion that occurred after all sorts of Heaven and Earth Rules and order were compressed to the extreme.

It could only be observed from the level of the rules. Those below the Creation Realm could not observe it at all.

’It’s said that during the Three Tribulations, the Black Abyss was a meat grinder for Saint-realms, burying a massive number of Divine Race and Ten Thousand Races Saint-realm experts.’

Wu Dao reviewed the information on the Black Abyss, forming a rough guess in his mind about its formation process.

A massive number of rule-based magnetic fields had gathered together. After the masters of these rules died, the fields became chaotic. Large magnetic fields devoured smaller ones, gradually forming the Black Abyss of today.

One piece of strong evidence for this was that Wu Dao could capture some jumbled and fragmented information about ancient Saint-realm Cultivation Techniques and Divine Techniques from the magnetic field information in the ’accretion disk’.

’Too bad it’s not a Great Emperor’s Black Abyss.’

’Otherwise, I’d have struck it rich overnight.’

Wu Dao had a whimsical thought, then shook his head with a smile. If it really were a black abyss of that level, he wouldn’t even have the qualifications to stand here and explore it.