Essence Devouring Art

The night was deep.

Over a hundred li outside Lancang County City.

RUMBLE—

A hurricane-force wind tore through, shattering grass and trees.

Deep within the old mountain forest, Qi Canghai, who was rushing on his journey, suddenly detected a strange new aura within the Immortal Family presence inside him. His expression changed. He stopped abruptly, sat cross-legged on the spot, and spoke with fear and trepidation:

"Chief Eunuch Qi Canghai welcomes the Upper Immortal."

"I need an explanation for what happened at Joyful Forest!"

It was the same seductive female voice as last time.

But this time, the laziness was gone, replaced by endless, furious killing intent.

She had clearly learned, through some method, that the foxes of Joyful Forest were dead.

"Upper Immortal, please forgive me! This matter is my fault, a result of my incompetence!"

Qi Canghai didn’t rush to make excuses or shift the blame. Instead, he took the initiative to admit his mistake. One had to admit, he was a shrewd man.

"What exactly happened?"

Sensing Qi Canghai’s still-subservient attitude, the female voice on the other end softened considerably.

"It was the work of that Celestial Treasure Master, Wu Dao, the one I have repeatedly mentioned."

Qi Canghai breathed a sigh of relief and said resentfully, "Relying on his immense power, he stormed into Joyful Forest without any warning to cause trouble, and he went straight for the members of the Immortal Family.

By the time I arrived, Joyful Forest was already destroyed, and the members of the Immortal Family were already..."

"Wu Dao? Could he be one of the Jingzhe Bureau’s people?"

The female voice finally took the Wu Dao that Qi Canghai had repeatedly mentioned seriously. Her tone was laced with chilling killing intent, as well as a hint of fear and disgust.

Hearing this, Qi Canghai was inwardly delighted and quickly replied:

"Replying to the Upper Immortal, although that Wu Dao is immensely powerful, he has no connection to the Jingzhe Bureau. He’s just rootless driftwood."

"Rootless driftwood. Good. Very good!!"

The seductive female voice instantly ground her teeth, her killing intent surging to a new level.

Afterward.

A brief silence followed.

Just as Qi Canghai was growing uneasy...

The seductive female voice finally spoke again:

"The Mountain Master has agreed to your proposal, but it will take some time. At the latest, within a month. Before then, you must keep a close watch on Wu Dao’s movements!"

’Just as I expected.’

’Be they human or demon, once their personal interests are threatened, they feel the pain.’

’Only when it hurts will they think of pulling out the thorn!’

A flicker of triumph flashed through Qi Canghai’s eyes.

He immediately promised to keep a close watch on Wu Dao’s movements.

But Qi Canghai’s triumph didn’t last long.

"There is one more thing..."

The seductive female voice spoke again, her tone now eerie and cold:

"Don’t think you’re the only clever one. If there is a next time, the Mountain Master wouldn’t mind replacing the Guangqing Chief Eunuch!"

"Ugh—"

The moment her voice fell, blood poured from Qi Canghai’s mouth and nose. He let out a pained grunt, his face instantly turning as white as funeral paper.

He felt as if ten thousand frigid steel needles had appeared inside his body. The bone-chilling pain was so intense he nearly shattered his teeth, and he began to beg frantically for mercy:

"Upper Immortal, spare me! Spare my life! It wasn’t that I didn’t try to stop him or rescue them, it’s just that Wu Dao’s power is unfathomable..."

"If that weren’t the case, do you think you’d still be alive? A mere half-breed like you should have the awareness to sacrifice yourself when necessary. Don’t think you’re so important!"

With a cold huff of warning, the female voice vanished without a trace.

Disappearing along with it...

...was the endless torment of his body and spirit.

HUFF... HUFF... HUFF...

Having survived the ordeal, Qi Canghai was drenched in sweat. He lay spread-eagled on the ground, gasping for breath, his eyes filled with venomous hatred.

"Wu Dao!!!"

He didn’t dare blame the Immortal Family.

He could only attribute all his suffering and torment to Wu Dao, and the hatred in his heart surged to its Limit.

After a long while of regulating his breathing...

Qi Canghai finally recovered. He got his bearings and once again sped toward his destination.

Even a lion uses its full strength to catch a rabbit.

Since he had decided to eliminate Wu Dao, he had to use every means at his disposal and give him no quarter!

Relying solely on the Immortal Family behind him...

...he felt it wasn’t a sure thing. After all, Wu Dao was a Celestial Treasure Master; no one knew how many trump cards he held.

Therefore.

This trip was both to escape disaster and to seek external help!

’The world is in chaos now, with black and white all muddled. Master, you don’t need to hide anymore.’

The wind whipped against his face, blurring the light and shadows.

Scenes of himself playing at his master’s knee in his youth emerged in his mind.

A touch of nostalgia appeared in Qi Canghai’s eyes.

Lost in his thoughts.

He activated a barrier of Primordial Qi and shot forward at supersonic speed, disappearing completely into the vast mountains in just a few blinks of an eye.

As for keeping an eye on Wu Dao...

...there was no need.

Though their interactions were few, Qi Canghai had gained a profound understanding of Wu Dao’s vengeful and thorough nature—he would always cut the weeds and pull up the roots.

As long as he, this "great threat," was not eliminated...

...he didn’t believe Wu Dao would ever leave Guangqing Prefecture.

...

The next day.

Evening.

Inside the meeting hall of the Tan County Branch.

Wu Dao held an ancient scroll in his hands, studying it carefully.

The scroll was very thin.

Only two pages.

But these two pages were worth one million taels, and it was a rubbing requisitioned from the Black Dragon Commerce Association headquarters in Guangqing Prefecture.

It was treated with such care...

...because it recorded an ancient historical secret unknown to 99.9% of all Jianghu People!

And now, it was all laid out before Wu Dao’s eyes!

This was the advantage of having money and power.

If you wanted to know secrets that ordinary people didn’t...

...you just had to open your mouth...

...and throw some money around.

The answer would be delivered right into your hands.

If you were poor and powerless, working alone, investigating like a fool, who knows how many detours you’d take and how much time and energy you’d waste.

The thin, two-page scroll.

It contained very few words.

Wu Dao took in all the information with a few glances, engraving it in his mind.

But the intelligence it contained was immense!

SLAP!

The scroll snapped shut.

Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed slightly. He tapped his fingers on the table as streams of ancient history flowed through his mind.

「One thousand years ago.」

The Extraordinary Energy in this world was not as thin as it is today.

Outstanding individuals emerged in droves, and heroes rose one after another.

Within the Demon Race, Great Demons would occasionally appear to wreak havoc upon the world.

That era...

...was known as the end of the Prosperous Technique Age. Although the world was in turmoil, the splendor of the Extraordinary far surpassed that of the present day. It was the last golden age of cultivation.

At that time, the lands of Dali...

...were still in a chaotic era of warring states. The Human Dao was not unified, and between the calamities of war and evil demons, the people suffered immensely.

「Until eight hundred years ago.」

A formidable man descended from the heavens.

The Great Li Ancestor, Zhou Yuan, burst onto the scene!

Drawing on the legacy of five generations, he displayed great ambition and strategy over a hundred years. Through alliances and political maneuvering, he raised the Li Country from the dregs of the Warring States to a place of glory.

Fifty years later.

He campaigned north and south, conquering the various nations and pacifying the world. At Wanding Mountain in the Central Plains, he built an altar for the Feng Shan sacrifices, abandoning the title of king to become emperor.

From then on.

The great Dali was born, and the world was unified!

After unifying the world...

...that Great Li Ancestor did not sheath his sword. On the contrary, he did something that shocked the world.

Exterminate the demons, suppress the evil, and cleanse the mortal realm!

The Jingzhe Bureau was founded at that very time.

Zhou Yuan was the first Palm Seal of Jingzhe.

He personally took command and led expeditions, gathering all the capable people in the world to attack the demonic evils of the five lands. He slaughtered the Alien Species to the brink of extinction.

Decades later...

...there were no more demonic evils plaguing the world. Heaven and earth were clear, and the nation was prosperous and at peace.

Having personally ended the chaotic era and purged the demonic evils, the prestige of the Great Li Ancestor, Zhou Yuan, reached its zenith.

The common people, grateful for his benevolence, erected temples to worship him, honoring him as the "Demon Suppression Emperor." To this day, even with Dali in decay, the incense in his temples has never ceased.

As for the Alien Species that had survived the calamity...

...their vitality was greatly wounded. They avoided his spearhead.

They could only hide here and there, concealed in the dark corners of the mortal world, no longer daring to bare their fangs.

After pacifying the world...

...the Great Li Ancestor, in order to restore the golden age of the Human Dao as soon as possible, established another law— 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Abolish profane worship, stop demonic rumors, burn strange records, and enlighten the people’s minds."

Once this law was enacted...

...it could be said that it stripped the demonic evils and Alien Species of their last patch of fertile ground.

Bound by strict laws...

...and suppressed by the Human Dao’s luck, which was at its zenith...

...as the years passed...

...the world quickly returned to normal.

The topic of demons, ghosts, and other such things, due to the formation of an ’information cocoon,’ gradually became taboo, mentioned by few.

A few hundred years later...

...the taboo became legend, and the legend became myth.

To this day...

...aside from a few truly old monsters and some ancient records preserved from that time...

...very few people in the world know...

...that there was once an era where demons danced wildly and evil ran rampant.

"A matter of ebb and flow?"

Wu Dao’s thoughts returned to the present, his eyes glinting.

The state of the world today...

...was not much different from a thousand years ago.

When the Human Dao is weak, demonic evil flourishes.

When the Human Dao flourishes, demonic evil wanes.

Yin and Yang alternate, one ebbs as the other flows. In a sense, it’s a kind of Reincarnation.

So this time...

...who will be the savior?

’Hah, it sure won’t be me.’

Wu Dao shook his head and smiled.

He had no interest in interfering with the laws of nature. He couldn’t wait for the world to fall into chaos; the more demonic evils and Alien Species there were, the more excited he became.

Call it selfishness.

Call it a lack of conscience.

The heavens are vast, the earth is wide.

But nothing is more important than the ’rice’ in my own bowl.

Rather than go against the heavens...

...it’s better to strive to adapt, to constantly evolve and grow stronger, until I can conquer nature itself!

WHOOSH—

The stray thoughts in his mind dissipated.

Wu Dao recalled the information about the Southern Border’s Demon Race recorded in the scroll and considered his next move.

Setting aside the other four lands, or other Alien Species...

...a thousand years ago, the Southern Border Land had five great Demon Race Overlords—

The Fox, the Yellow, the White, the Willow, and the Gray!

They were known as the Five Great Immortal Families.

To put it bluntly...

...they were foxes, weasels, hedgehogs, snakes, and rats!

In their heyday...

...the Five Races had once enslaved over half of the Human Race in the Southern Border. They stood high above, feasting and drinking, and the experts of the Extraordinary Human Path paled at the mention of their names, rarely able to resist them.

Seven hundred years ago...

...that Demon Suppression Emperor burst onto the scene, and only then were the Five Races knocked from their Divine Altars.

Among them, the Yellow and White races were directly exterminated, disappearing completely into the river of history.

The remaining three races...

...also had their vitality severely wounded and could only hide in unknown dark corners, barely surviving to this day.

As the Human Dao declined...

...they began to rear their heads and run rampant once more.

However...

...as the saying goes, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse.

Although the Demon Suppression Emperor had broken the spines of the three races back then, the power they had preserved was not to be underestimated.

The scroll recorded...

...that among the three races, it was highly likely that Demon Kings with over three thousand years of cultivation still existed!

A Great Demon with three thousand years of cultivation!

This already surpassed a Land Immortal of the Innate Third Step, comparable to a Martial Arts Celestial Being, an Immortal Daoist Zhenren, or a Military Dao’s War Immortal from the Human Race.

As for the Great Demons below the rank of Demon King...

...needless to say, there were certainly many more of them left.

This was undoubtedly bad news for Wu Dao.

Although he had achieved some success now...

...his achievements were limited.

He might be able to contend with a Great Demon equivalent to the Innate First Step.

Any higher than that...

...and it would be asking too much of him.

Because the gap between each step of the Innate realm was enormous.

As for a three-thousand-year Great Demon that surpassed the Innate realm...

...it wasn’t that he had no chance.

It’s just that they could crush him with a single pinch.