Essence Devouring Art

The Seven Celestial Passes of Mountains and Seas.

Chen Tian.

Everything was a hazy, somber blur.

Like a faded old photograph.

The sun, moon, mountains, and rivers were all dim and gray. A heavy, oppressive aura, different from the other Celestial Gates, permeated the decaying landscape.

This heaviness...

It wasn’t merely gravity.

It was an all-encompassing pressure on a being’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit, as if one were trapped in a wasteland at the End of the Dharma, unable to suppress the encroaching feelings of despair and silence.

’In the clash of civilizations, the victor’s Dao survives while the loser’s is extinguished. If Mountain and Sea wins this tribulation, then perhaps the Chen Tian of today will be the Hongyuan of tomorrow.’

Strolling through the main city of Chen Tian.

Wu Dao took a deep breath of the dead, murky Extraordinary Particles. Gazing into the gray distance, he could feel the decay and corruption of the Seventh Celestial Gate’s domain.

The Ten Celestial Passes of Shanhai Pass.

The closer one got to the Mountain and Sea Realm, the harsher the spatio-temporal environment became—a clear sign that Hongyuan’s Great Dao was being eroded by the realm’s invasion.

The Seventh Celestial Gate still had its Star River Mountains.

But the Ten Celestial Passes, the very front line, had already devolved into Chaos when the war began three years ago!

’The Great Dao Celestial Punishment is almost nonexistent here.’

At the same time.

Wu Dao also noticed that the Celestial Punishment’s restraints in the Seventh Celestial Gate had weakened from inflicting heavy injuries in the Six Celestial Passes to being little more than a tickle.

This meant...

Within the Seventh Celestial Gate.

Even internal strife would not incur the wrath of Hongyuan’s Celestial Punishment. The only deterrent left was the Commander’s Law Enforcement Team.

But...

In certain special environments.

The Commander’s Law Enforcement Team was probably not very effective either.

Wu Dao scanned through the information on the Seventh Celestial Gate. The Six Celestial Passes only had a few scattered Mountain and Sea fortresses; not much territory had been lost.

But the Seventh Celestial Gate...

The situation was no longer a simple contest of attacking and defending Garrison Cities!

Because Mountain and Sea occupied far too much territory!

If the space-time of the Seventh Celestial Gate was divided into Ten Domains, then Mountain and Sea had already seized three of them!

In the Eight Celestial Passes, it was four domains!

The Nine Heavens Pass was split in two!

And the Ten Celestial Passes...

According to current intelligence.

Cultivators at the Celestial King level were privy to some of the inside information. Even with two waves of reinforcements from Hongyuan, the main battlefield at the Ten Celestial Passes was still at a disadvantage!

Back at the Six Celestial Passes.

Mountain and Sea had only needed to occupy a single fortress in the Dragon-slaying Battlefield to force Hongyuan to secretly deploy a Great Emperor to eradicate it.

And now, in the Seventh Celestial Gate!

Three-tenths of the land was lost!

One could only imagine how vast the Space-Time Channels were in the territories occupied by Mountain and Sea. Strictly speaking, those lands already belonged to the Mountain and Sea Exotic Realm and had nothing to do with Hongyuan anymore.

This meant...

Once a battle with Mountain and Sea began in the Seventh Celestial Gate...

After crossing the ’Han and Chu Rivers’ that formed the border...

The Power of the Great Dao of Hongyuan would vanish, and one could encounter enemies of any level!

One might even be backstabbed by their own side!

The Commander’s Law Enforcement Team relied on the Dao Celestial Stele in the Garrison Cities to monitor the battlefield. Out in the borderlands, there were no Garrison Cities of Hongyuan!

’Heh, the Three Lives Battlefield. Let’s see what tricks you have up your sleeve...’

After reporting in at the main city of Chen Tian.

Wu Dao let out a cold laugh. Without much hesitation, he used the Super Star Hub and traveled alone to the Three Lives Battlefield, where Long Chen was stationed.

The Celestial Mandate’s grand scheme.

He was now completely clear on it.

His predecessor had been partitioned and devoured.

Numerous ”lucky ones” were meant to engage in a brutal showdown at a certain juncture to determine the final victor, who would then inherit everything from the losers and fully bear this era’s Celestial Mandate.

If nothing had gone awry...

Long Chen, this pioneer at Shanhai Pass.

In the original plan of the All Heavens, he was supposed to become the final boss, the great stepping stone for the second-to-last ”lucky one” to conquer.

The ultimate Celestial Mandate would have been born at Shanhai Pass.

Because Long Chen had the weakest background!

Unfortunately...

Wu Dao, the debt collector, had entered the picture.

The script had been torn up and the chessboard flipped.

Mo Chen was put on ice, Su Chen was blasted into the ashes of tribulation, and Ye Xuan followed in their footsteps...

Well.

In a way.

Long Chen should probably thank him.

He was saved from becoming a destined, villainous clown.

...

「Meanwhile.」

At the Seventh Celestial Gate, in the Three Lives Battlefield.

Within the Military Affairs Hall of the main city, Sansheng City.

The towering figure of Long Chen, clad in silver battle armor, sat upon the City Lord’s throne.

His slanted brows reached his temples, and his eyes were like cold stars.

A head of blood-red hair was draped casually over his shoulders.

A noble, majestic, crimson Rising Dragon mark was etched between his brows. Years of warring at Shanhai Pass had forged him into a domineering, iron-willed man who rarely showed his emotions, possessing none of the rashness typical of his peers.

If the other Heaven’s Chosen Ones like Mo Chen...

Were like freewheeling heroes gallivanting through the mortal world...

Then Long Chen was a monumental general who commanded armies and held the border, tempered in the crucible of endless war, mountains of corpses, and seas of blood!

Whether in Essence, Qi, and Spirit...

Or in strength...

The likes of Mo Chen and the others from before simply couldn’t compare.

This was perhaps related to his environment and the education he had received since childhood.

In that Celestial Domain, the Profound Yellow World.

A myriad of dynasties vied for fortune, and the flames of war never ceased.

Throughout the All Tribulations, it had fragmented and unified time and again, its Common Lord changing frequently. Even the current Common Lord of Profound Yellow, the Rising Dragon Celestial Dynasty, faced the constant possibility of being replaced and eliminated by a successor.

Just like fifty thousand years ago.

The Rising Dragon Celestial Dynasty had eliminated and replaced the Great Tai Celestial Dynasty. There was no eternal Common Lord, only the endless cycle of the new generation replacing the old.

Living in such a high-pressure environment.

As the Crown Prince of the Rising Dragon Celestial Dynasty.

Long Chen had been instilled with a sense of crisis and self-reliance from a young age. He understood that only if the new blood of the empire was strong enough could they hold onto the territories they had conquered.

For these reasons and more...

The moment he reached the Dharma Aspect realm.

Long Chen, without any Guardians, went against all advice and entered Shanhai Pass alone to temper himself, taking one step at a time to become a Quasi-Emperor, capable of holding his own.

In comparison.

The other ”lucky ones” had it far too easy.

The powers behind them were either behemoths like the Celestial Court, which had spanned All Tribulations, or colossal entities like the Luotian Sword Tribulation, which had produced Daoists who achieved Attainment Dao.

Even the weakest of them, Su Chen.

Had Chaos City, a Dao Artifact, at his back.

Its legacy had stood for two tribulations, and its foundation was immensely stronger than the Rising Dragon Celestial Dynasty, which had only been founded a mere fifty thousand years ago.

The Celestial Mandate’s grand scheme.

To this day, Long Chen knew nothing of it.

He only knew...

That since he was a child, his father the Emperor, his Grand Tutor, and his mother had told him that in the future, he would have an unavoidable confrontation with the Sons of Revival from the worlds of several other Common Lords.

His foundation was inferior.

His background was also inferior.

If he wanted to win, his only choice was to get a head start.

While his other competitors were tempering their Dao Foundation and disposition in a greenhouse, he took extreme measures, using the life-and-death crucible of war to force himself to grow rapidly!

In less than fifty years of Cultivation.

He stepped into the Quasi-Emperor Realm.

He had indeed succeeded.

But he never met the rivals he was waiting for.

To be precise.

Someone came, but it wasn’t the person who was supposed to.

Primordial.

From the moment this name entered his sight during the first King conferral, Long Chen had felt an intense sense of crisis.

It was an indescribable feeling.

A sense of unease and foreboding that made it difficult for even his iron-willed Dao heart to find peace.

In an extremely short time.

The second conferral as a Heaven-Sealing King only intensified that feeling of revulsion and aversion.

Long Chen was no arrogant fool.

The first time he sensed something was wrong, he contacted the Rising Dragon Celestial Dynasty behind him, but even the great figures’ divinations came up with nothing.

They only told him.

Once karma is set in motion, it’s better to act sooner rather than later.

If the opportunity arose, he must strike early and eliminate the threat!

The Rising Dragon Celestial Dynasty would provide its full support.

’No matter who you are, those who disrupt my Dao shall be executed...’

Long Chen’s gaze was frigid. The Primordial Heavenly King’s growth rate was terrifyingly fast. He had reached the level of a Great Venerable Heaven King in less than half a year since entering Shanhai Pass!

If he was allowed to continue...

The consequences would be unimaginable.

However.

What Long Chen couldn’t figure out was this:

Did the Primordial Heavenly King feel the same karmic link between them? If so, why would he agree to come to the Three Lives Battlefield?

An order from a superior.

For someone with outstanding merits, they possessed certain special privileges to raise objections. It wasn’t absolutely necessary to come to the Three Lives Battlefield.

The Primordial Heavenly King’s merits were more than sufficient.

But he seemed to have not noticed anything amiss. He raised no objections and immediately set out for the Three Lives Battlefield upon receiving his orders.

Willingly delivering himself into the enemy’s den.

’Is he truly unaware?’

’Or is he confident enough to ignore it?’

’A simple test will reveal the truth!’

At this thought, Long Chen instructed one of his Vice Army Masters to receive Wu Dao. He didn’t plan to show his face or take immediate action.

That battle in the Dragon-slaying Battlefield.

He had long since received the detailed report.

He knew that as a Great Venerable, the Primordial Heavenly King could slaughter those of the same realm like dogs, and that he possessed numerous trump cards, including the Holy Spirit Emperor’s Plate and a Quasi-Emperor Weapon.

His Physique was also exceptionally special.

He walked some unknown, powerful path, one that the Mountain and Sea Realm seemed desperate to get its hands on.

This information and more...

All of it pointed to the fact that the Primordial Heavenly King was no simple character. If one were to judge his strength by conventional standards and act rashly, there was a high chance of being killed in return!

Shanhai Pass.

A gathering place for the peak talents of two realms.

Long Chen had seen and experienced far too many instances of people being undone by underdogs because of their own overconfidence.

Until he had a clear grasp of Wu Dao’s true capabilities.

He would not make a move lightly.

And when he did strike, it had to be to crush him in one go!

He knew all too well the principle that giving an aberrant monster like this an opening was tantamount to suicide—because he himself had grown up by surviving against all odds time and time again.

Evidently.

At this moment, Long Chen.

Already considered Wu Dao an equal opponent in his heart!

...

”Miasma Abyss City?”

Outside the Super Star Hub in Three Lives Main City.

Wu Dao raised an eyebrow slightly when he heard the assignment given to him by the Vice Army Master from the battlefield.

The state of war in the Seventh Celestial Gate.

Was very different from the Six Celestial Passes.

With Mountain and Sea occupying three-tenths of the territory, the roles of attacker and defender were subtly beginning to reverse.

Territory that was conquered naturally had to be defended.

And when expanding territory.

One couldn’t just launch expeditions without regard for the rear.

Therefore.

Mountain and Sea’s attacks were often a process of attrition, slowly pushing the borderline forward bit by bit.

Much of the time.

The wars were like the one in the Dragon-slaying Battlefield.

The Hongyuan side would dispatch troops to attack territories occupied by Mountain and Sea to reclaim them, or Mountain and Sea would gather a large army to expand their own territory.

Major battles were relatively infrequent.

But when one occurred, it was an all-out mobilization.

The result was either Hongyuan losing territory or Mountain and Sea seizing more. It wasn’t like the Celestial Gates in the rear, where each Territorial Battlefield fought its own separate war.

During the Vacuum Stage between major battles.

The Hongyuan side would accept missions from the Dao Celestial Stele—such as assassinating a Marshal, scouting for intelligence, eliminating fortresses, or launching surprise attacks—to earn battle merits.

Among these.

The missions were graded according to their level of danger.

The most dangerous were the Abyss Tasks, where one wrong step meant death and the destruction of one’s Dao. These tasks usually involved deep infiltration behind enemy lines for assassinations, or small-scale battles to slaughter the enemy’s elite forces against overwhelming odds.

The risks were anything but ordinary.

But the rewards were equally generous.

Completing a single Abyss Task could yield battle merits comparable to a large-scale victory.

And in the Seventh Celestial Gate or higher.

There were unique Garrison City Dao Celestial Steles that exclusively issued Abyss Tasks. The City Lords presiding over these Garrison Cities were known as ’Abyss Hunters’.

Some turned pale at the very mention of them.

Terrified of being assigned to one of those Garrison Cities.

Others, however, relished the opportunity, loving the challenge of pushing their limits between life and death to advance quickly.

Miasma Abyss City.

Was one of the Three Lives Battlefield’s Abyss Cities.

It specialized in issuing Abyss Tasks, and just before Wu Dao arrived at the battlefield, it had just seen off a Great Venerable Heaven King.

”Haha, that’s right! Miasma Abyss City!”

The Vice Army Master receiving Wu Dao was a jade-faced middle-aged man with a noble temperament and a royal air. He jested:

”Before Military Lord Gu let you go, he asked us to give our Fellow Daoist Yuanshi a good workout, saying you get restless if you don’t fight for a day.

After thinking it over.

Only the recently vacated Miasma Abyss City seems suitable for Fellow Daoist Yuanshi.”

’A recommendation from my old superior, Gu Tianhuang.’

’A position that just happened to open up.’

’And it fits my established persona of being battle-hungry.’

’Flawless!’

’Not a single trace of it being a setup.’

More importantly.

This Vice Army Master who received Wu Dao was from the Rising Dragon World, a confidant of Long Chen, yet he was treating him with warmth and showed no hostility.

If not for the great karmic link between him and Long Chen.

Wu Dao might have actually believed it was all just a coincidence.