Essence Devouring Art

While the outside world was fraught with worry and intrigue.

Inside the Zizai Celestial Kingdom.

WHOOSH~

Auspicious clouds drifted by, and the wind bent the grass low.

On a boundless prairie.

Wu Dao opened his eyes to survey the vast world. It was real and tangible; the gentle, pleasant Magnetic Field proved it was no illusion.

It was a real and tangible Inner World within the Zizai Celestial Kingdom.

To be precise...

Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed as he agitated the magnetic Particles permeating the space between heaven and earth. As they rubbed and collided, they revealed the world’s Extraordinary essence.

FWOOSH~

Pink Divine Fire billowed.

It was a scene of enchanting beauty, filled with flirtatious voices and alluring figures.

An aura of primal carnal desire transformed the once serene, cloud-strewn prairie into a paradise of ecstasy, designed to stoke the fires of lust.

WHOOSH~

Strands of dark hair caressed his face, carrying with them a warm, intoxicating fragrance.

”Life is short. Why not enjoy it?”

A peerless beauty, whose allure defied description, whispered fragrant breaths into Wu Dao’s ear. His towering, majestic physique was draped in seductive sirens, each uniquely captivating, their sole purpose to stir the heart.

Within the boundless world, an enchanting pink haze surged like fire and billowed like mist. It stirred the most primal desires within a creature’s soul, an inescapable miasma that defied purification. It was said that even Saints and Buddhas would fall to depravity here.

’God of Sinful Desire...’

Wu Dao ignored the little sirens clinging to him, his dark, abyssal eyes tracing the source of the Magnetic Field network.

In the center of the pink world, he discovered a perfect goddess. She reclined on a soft pink bed, her body veiled in light gauze, possessing a beauty that inexplicably appealed to the aesthetic sensibilities of every race and creature imaginable.

It was a Magnetic Field manifested by Divine Fire.

Not a living thing.

But even after countless eons, it still possessed the terrifying corrupting power to make even a Great Saint fall. In life, this God of Sinful Desire had been, at minimum, a Great Saint-level god.

SNAP!

He reached out and seized a restless, delicate hand.

Wu Dao recalled the information he had on the Zizai Celestial Kingdom.

During the time of the Three Tribulations, the Great Freedom Celestial Demon forged the Other Shore Celestial Kingdom. Those who entered were said to be completely unrestrained; by unleashing their innate nature, they could become gods, escape the five skandhas and eight sufferings, and attain eternal, carefree freedom.

Intelligent beings.

All possess an innate, primal self and an acquired, social self.

The primal self is unrestrained.

The social self adapts to its environment’s rules, restraining the primal self to maintain a clear, guarded mind.

If the primal self were without restraint...

Whether that was true freedom, Wu Dao didn’t know.

He only knew that without the power to afford such indulgence, one would only lose oneself in depravity and head toward destruction.

This was a trial.

Or perhaps a test?

Wu Dao communicated with his many Primordial Demon Incarnations through his network of faith and discovered they were all in the same situation. Ancient Divine Spirits were stirring their various innate, primal selves.

Guiding them toward indulgence and destruction.

In a scenario like this, strength was a secondary concern.

The primary factor was the ability to restrain one’s primal self; it was a test of willpower.

”Star Mother, take control of the Primordial Demons’ Divine Souls.”

Seeing the number of sirens clinging to him increase and the power of sinful desire steadily rise, Wu Dao gave the direct order. Puppets, after all, have no concept of a primal or social self.

These minions of the Great Freedom Celestial Demon.

They didn’t just target a specific aspect of one’s primal self.

Rather, any attachment or obsessive thought could be used to stir desire. The Primordial Demons’ willpower was not yet strong enough to withstand such a test.

As for Wu Dao...

...never mind his indestructible will, forged by crossing the Bitter Sea Nirvana and honed through countless trials of life and death.

His triggers for excitement alone...

...were far from ordinary.

”Is it working?”

Wu Dao’s gaze was dark as he looked down at the Charming God, whose strenuous efforts were proving utterly useless.

He sneered in contempt, ”A pack of cheap harlots like you... what can you do besides drool all over me?”

VMMMM~

RUMBLE—

The moment the words left his mouth!

Countless microscopic magnetic Particles rubbed and collided.

With Wu Dao at the center, innumerable black Thunderbolts as thick as Divine Peaks erupted, unleashing a tide of destruction that shredded the Charming Gods into nothingness.

KRACK-KRAK~

Wu Dao rolled his neck, producing a sound like innumerable Worlds grinding against one another. With a single step, he remade heaven and earth!

CRACKLE—

The friction between the magnetic Particles grew even more frantic.

Their permutations gave rise to an ocean of billions of world-ending Celestial Tribulations. With Wu Dao’s every step, this ocean began to submerge and replace the pink world, transforming it into a vortex of Celestial Tribulation that carried the wrath of the Great Dao!

When one’s cultivation of the Magnetic Field reached Wu Dao’s level, manipulating the arrangement and movement of fundamental magnetic Particles to influence the Macroscopic world’s immutable laws from a microscopic level—and thus effortlessly altering all phenomena—became a simple matter.

With a single thought, he could transform the World into any form he desired!

If the World were only a mid-sized realm, it was no exaggeration to say that, by controlling all its fundamental magnetic Particles, Wu Dao would be an omnipotent god within that World!

Or perhaps, even a god could not compare to his greatness.

Because the ”little cutie” before him had once been a god—

She was astonished, terrified, and horrified, as if witnessing something beyond her comprehension.

RUMBLE!!

The ocean of billions of Celestial Tribulations, at Wu Dao’s downward glance, descended with the fury of the Great Dao itself, completely submerging the entire World.

”You...”

The God of Sinful Desire looked up at the condescending figure of Wu Dao.

She opened her alluring mouth.

She found she couldn’t summon a trace of Divine Power. Her indulgent, primal self deflated as if punctured, rapidly reverting to her true self—a terrified self.

”Oh, I know how to have fun,”

Wu Dao said gently, reaching out a large hand to pat the God of Sinful Desire’s head. In his eyes, however, a desire called Gluttony flickered to life.

VMMMM~

The instant the words left his mouth, the Celestial Thunder that tore through the sky, the roiling sea of tribulation, the drifting gauze veils, the horrified God of Sinful Desire...

...it was as if a pause button had been pressed.

Everything fell still.

After gaining control of the fundamental magnetic Particles, stopping the motion of all matter to achieve a state of stopped time within a closed space was not difficult. The challenge lay in the range of influence and the Macroscopic duration of the stasis.

This was related to the scale of one’s own being.

If Wu Dao’s personal scale was comparable to the Primordial Path, the influence of his personal Magnetic Field would naturally be limitless; he could even bring the entire Hongyuan to a standstill.

If he were to become Transcendent to Hongyuan, he could render Hongyuan eternally silent, reverse time, alter the Primordial Rules, rewrite the fundamental laws of the Extraordinary, unleash the energy of every Particle, and create or destroy all things with ease.

SNAP~

The silence did not last long.

With a snap of Wu Dao’s fingers, the sea of billions of tribulations dissipated.

White clouds and grasslands returned.

A pleasant and peaceful world spread out from one corner, ”painting” over and replacing the apocalyptic hellscape of the moment before.

”Yes, this is much easier on the eyes.”

Wu Dao put away the pink Divine Format in his hand with satisfaction. He looked toward the Space-Time Channel that had appeared in the center of the World and, with a single step, vanished into it.

His arrangements in the outside world were already complete.

In his perception, they were like small Suns scattered across the eight corners of the Burial Realm, ready to be activated at any moment. It made little difference whether anyone was there to physically control them.

Therefore, this move by the Great Freedom Celestial Demon, though it had caught him off guard, had caused no real damage.

On the contrary, he had to thank the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon King for personally delivering him to a Treasure Mountain, saving him the trouble of sneaking in and searching for it himself.

The path of the Divine Dao...

...was the original Extraordinary path in Hongyuan.

It was extremely special. Wu Dao had not yet found a way to be self-sufficient on this path; he still needed to hunt Divine Fire and Divine Formats for rapid advancement.

Perhaps, only by waiting for the fourth stage, the birthing of all things, when the Primordial Magnetic Dao Source gained the authority of a Dao Root Source, could he finally break free from this limitation and shift from relying on external objects to self-accelerated growth.

The shackles of the fourth stage...

Wu Dao estimated that to shatter them, he would need, at minimum, for his three thousand Dao Source branches to reach Great Saint Perfection, and for his combat power to reach Saint Master Perfection.

Before then, he would still need a large number of High-Level Divine Formats or Dao Stones to pave the way.

His reserves of Dao Stones, were already substantial after plundering numerous top-tier Creation Lands. But to reach the perfection stage of a Great Saint-level god, the deficit was still considerable.

The Great Freedom Celestial Kingdom.

It might just be able to fill this gap for him.

Because, those who had entered the Zizai Celestial Kingdom...

...wasn’t just him, this lone Taotie.

There was also a pack of hungry wolves—his Primordial Demon Incarnations. Through Descent of the Divine, he could easily handle any Great Saint-level god beneath the Third Heaven.

Of course, Wu Dao also hadn’t forgotten the matter of utmost importance: the second fragment of the Extreme Dao Bell. Upon entering the Zizai Celestial Kingdom, the Extreme Dao Bell had begun to hum and tremble, having sensed the fragment’s location.

If he followed this direction, as long as he didn’t run into any obstacles, obtaining it would only be a matter of time.

..._

While Wu Dao dealt with the God of Sinful Desire...

”Hahaha! Kill! Kill! Kill! I am invincible! I’ll kill anyone I please!”

In a certain Divine Realm, a Great Saint from the Daluo Celestial Domain sat upon the supreme throne of All Heavens. He was wanton and arrogant, slaughtering endless living beings with a wave of his hand, unleashing the violent and murderous karma in his heart.

At the peak of the Divine Realm, a blood-red Divine Format greedily devoured the obsessions released by the Great Saint, gradually coming to life as Divine Fire began to kindle within.

”Vile god, how dare you disrupt my Dao heart!”

CLANG!

In another, universe-sized Divine Realm, the eyes of Quasi-Emperor Ye Changgeng of the Luotian Sword Realm were like ice. The Killing Sword in his hand blazed as he slashed toward a tempting Great Emperor Dao Fruit at the center of the cosmos.

A Quasi-Emperor.

Second only to a Great Emperor.

Only one emerges from among beings as numberless as the sands of the Ganges.

They have experienced countless tribulations; the story of their life is enough to fill a mythological epic.

The firmness of their will...

...naturally goes without saying. They are not so easily defiled.

However, everything is relative.

if the one trapping the Quasi-Emperor was a Quasi-Emperor Divine Format, it would not be a simple matter for Ye Changgeng to escape, either.

In short, from the moment they were transferred into the Zizai Celestial Kingdom, both the older and younger generations of the Daluo Celestial Domain had entered a trial of life and death.

If they could not restrain their primal selves, the only fate that awaited them was to become nourishment for the return of the Heavenly Demon Evil Gods of old.

However, it was foreseeable that...not many would survive.

For intelligent beings, their most precious qualities are their seven emotions and six desires, their very ability to think. To be without thought is to cease to exist.

In this scheme by the Great Freedom Celestial Demon, every Divine Format had the ability to turn any thought into an obsessive attachment. Without a will truly tempered by the elements, the chances of passing were slim.

The most direct sign of this... was that outside the Zizai Celestial Kingdom, the expressions of the assembled Great Saints and Quasi-Emperors of the Daluo Celestial Domain grew increasingly grim. Clearly, many of their people had met with disaster.

These were meaningless losses.

For the Luotian Sword Realm, who had a method to find the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon King’s Divine Format, any loss would be worthwhile once they succeeded.

But what about the others?

Their old and young were dying in droves, yet in the end, they wouldn’t even get a taste of the spoils. They were being played for absolute fools.

”We will wait three more days. If your esteemed realm still cannot find the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon King’s Divine Format...”

With the successive casualties, the tempers of the Daluo Celestial Domain’s various Emperor’s Lineages and Daoist Lineages flared, and they joined forces to pressure the Luotian Sword Realm.

”Agreed.”

The Quasi-Emperors of the Luotian Sword Realm exchanged glances, consulted with their various Domain Masters, and finally agreed to the demand, clearly not wishing to incur public wrath.

As for Ye Xuan, with the life-saving measures left behind by the Domain Masters, there was no need to be overly concerned.

Their previous decision... had indeed been too domineering and unreasonable on the part of the Luotian Sword Realm. It had been ill-considered.

In other words, in three more days, if the Luotian Sword Realm’s people could not break through the obstacles and find the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon King’s Divine Format, then the assembled Emperor’s Lineages and Daoist Lineages would use their Emperor’s Weapons to forcibly assault the Zizai Celestial Kingdom!