Essence Devouring Art

RUMBLE!

Luoyang Plateau, the Red Hill Slope.

Thunderbolts from the Nine Heavens exploded as a torrential downpour cascaded from the sky.

The world should have been plunged into darkness.

But thanks to the man-made volcanic crater Wu Dao had created, it was now bathed in an orange-red glow. The churning heat waves warped the air for thousands of meters around.

GURGLE GURGLE~

BOOM!

As three monstrous sounds shook the heavens and the earth,

it was as if three behemoths were awakening within the lava lake. Millions of tons of magma swelled up as if inflated, then shattered, exploded, and blasted in all directions.

Amidst the fragments of lava that scattered like Celestial Fire Meteors, three mountain-sized figures burst through the air, their sheer mass generating thunderous sonic booms with every movement.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

A savage Demon Qi and a fierce aura surged like a flood from an open dam, pressing down on the atmosphere until the air currents grew as heavy and turbulent as the deep sea.

In the blink of an eye,

the three mountain-like figures formed a triangle, their auras locking down every escape route as they surrounded Wu Dao.

The collision of their profound, heavy auras seethed, the resulting pressure pushing everything away and forming an egg-shaped vacuum that spanned thousands of meters.

The torrential rain falling from the sky evaporated into white steam before it even came within a thousand meters, striking a curved, transparent barrier.

Wu Dao’s Spiritual Perception swept in all directions.

The three colossal figures appeared clearly in his mind.

To his left rear was a golden, three-tailed fox, about fifty meters long. It had an aged look about its eyes, and its golden Demon Qi was tinged with the air of twilight years.

To his right rear was a Unihorned Dragon Snake. At nearly two hundred meters long and as thick as a house, it dwarfed the Flood Dragon Python from Qingyuan City. Its entire body was a crystalline, translucent white, and churning icicles swirled around it. Its Cold Control Ability far surpassed that of the Cyan Yuan Flood Dragon Python.

As for the one directly in front of him...

It was the largest of all!

It was a village!

That’s right.

A humanoid village.

It was too abstract; that was the only way Wu Dao could describe it.

It was as if the original Harvest Village had shrunk by a factor of ten, then all its components had been pieced together to form a monstrous, sky-scraping humanoid nearly five hundred meters tall.

Its head was made of houses, with trees for hair. Its body was constructed from swaths of churning wheat fields, and the dark-red tongue lolling from its mouth was the road that ran through the village.

Normally, when Wu Dao unleashed his Dragon Whale Dominating Body,

his ten-meter-tall physique, as robust as a God and Demon, was terrifyingly oppressive.

But in front of these three sky-scraping monsters,

he seemed as "weak" as a babbling infant.

Of course,

sheer size meant nothing on its own.

A whale is massive,

but an ordinary person can still slaughter one with ease.

The most crucial thing was Power!

Each of these three monsters had an aura that far surpassed someone of Xu Sheng’s level. The vast, high-level Energy in their bodies was like a surging river, and their every move could bring disaster upon the world.

Land Immortals...

Three of them!!

And they were two demons and one fierce monster, whose strength couldn’t be measured by the standards of the Extraordinary Human Path!

The Snake Race and the Fox Race!

Wu Dao’s Spiritual Perception swept over the snake and the fox. ’So, the Snake Race and the Fox Race!’ he sneered inwardly.

How could he not know? This was clearly a death trap set for him by the Snake Race and Fox Race, in collusion with the Fierce Monster of Harvest Village.

’Corner the beast and beat it...’

He recalled the information he had just heard.

Wu Dao focused his attention on the humanoid Fierce Monster from Harvest Village, wondering about its intrinsic nature.

’To trap and kill someone of my level, the first problem to solve is how to prevent me from escaping.’

’This Fierce Monster from Harvest Village... it must have that ability.’

’But what is it?’

"Wu Dao, when you slaughtered my clansmen, did you ever imagine this day would come?"

As his thoughts raced,

the crystalline giant snake to his right rear, wreathed in icicles, hissed as it spoke.

The icy shards and cold air it exhaled extinguished a large swath of the roiling lava below, and in the distance, the thousands of falling rain lines froze into solid icicles.

"What, you think you’ve got me cornered?"

The face of Wu Dao, a blend of God and Demon, twitched. He shook his Dragon Whale head as the Magnetic Field within him spun at high speed. His dragon-like Qi and Blood Power surged and roared as he said ferociously,

"But if you’re asking if I’ve ever thought about it... I’ve been dreaming of this day and night!!"

BOOM!

The moment the words left his mouth, Wu Dao erupted into motion, moving at supersonic speed and blasting through layers of air, leaving a man-shaped vacuum tunnel in his wake.

Before the sound of his voice even arrived, he was already above the Cold Ice Giant Snake, gathering a force that could move mountains and fill seas. Crushing the astral winds, he clenched his fist and brought it crashing down!

’Courting death!’

The Cold Ice Flood Dragon Python was startled by Wu Dao’s speed.

But its reaction was also incredibly fast.

VMMMM!

In the span of a finger snap,

the ten-foot-long icicle horn on its forehead glowed brilliantly. It devoured the nature’s spiritual energy and unleashed a ghastly white, shimmering, dragon-shaped torrent of cold that could freeze all creation.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Wu Dao’s fist smashed down. It collided head-on with the ghastly white, dragon-shaped cold current. Like a sledgehammer striking an icicle, the impact sent countless shards of ice flying. Although his momentum was fierce, it was blocked by the dragon’s head.

Wu Dao wasn’t surprised by this.

’The Extraordinary path is a ladder, with each rung leading higher. The rungs are inextricably linked.’

’A Half-Step Land Immortal can liquefy Heaven and Earth Energy into a river ahead of time. As a Land Immortal, a step below the Celestial Being, the ultimate goal of cultivation is to constantly approach the Celestial Being realm.’

’Once you reach a certain height, you can begin to integrate the power of natural laws and attributes into your Energy, truly mastering the power of heaven and earth!’

Not to mention, this Flood Dragon Python seemed to have an innate power to control the ice attribute. With both factors combined, the Cold Ice Qi it released was naturally terrifying.

Although Wu Dao had currently unleashed his Divine Ghost Heaven, the amplification only released two hundred percent of his body’s functions. It didn’t mean he could jump to the next realm and instantly kill an opponent of the same level.

At the Land Immortal level, the gap within the same realm could be enormous!

For the Demon Race to reach this level, it required a minimum of two thousand years of arduous cultivation.

Two thousand years of foundation!

How terrifying was that?

For this very reason, the Demon Race was stronger than the Human Race at the same realm. Unless they were some kind of freak, it was difficult for Human Dao Cultivators to contend with Demon Race members of the same level.

Most importantly, this Flood Dragon Snake before him was a true ancient being. Its strength was completely incomparable to the Land Immortals of the current era.

If it couldn’t even take one of Wu Dao’s punches, then it truly would have wasted its several thousand years of life.

"Don’t hold back and give it a chance! Broken God Sword Nest, out!!"

As Wu Dao and the Cold Ice Flood Dragon Python were locked in a struggle,

the giant golden fox moved.

It roared at the sky, its golden fur shimmering like countless golden needles. The river of Spiritual Qi in its body, carrying an indomitable Geng Metal Qi, erupted like a volcano.

BOOM!!

In the next instant,

a large swath of the world flashed with light.

The giant fox spewed a brilliant rainbow wave of Geng Metal from its mouth, forming countless Geng Metal Swords that swarmed out like bees from a hive, cutting and shattering the void.

On the ground below, mountain after mountain was split and blasted apart by the sharp Geng Metal Qi. The golden tide of swords, carrying the thunderous momentum of repeated sonic booms, crossed space to slam into Wu Dao.

SHLICK SHLICK SHLICK~

At the same moment,

the Harvest Village Fierce Monster also moved.

The wheat fields covering its body churned as blood-red grains of wheat detached and gathered. It raised its hand, creating a sonic boom cloud as it struck out with its palm. A bloody, fierce light illuminated the world as it, too, blasted out a blood-red rainbow wave.

From a distance,

the heavens themselves seemed to change, and sonic booms echoed repeatedly.

Three pulsing beams of light—gold, red, and white—pierced the sky, carrying an aura of infinite destruction as they blasted toward the tiny figure of Wu Dao from three different directions.

"Primordial Magnetic True Gang, open!!"

Unflustered in the face of danger, Wu Dao withdrew his fist and roared. The countless cells in his body began to rub together frantically like generators, producing an electric current.

CRACKLE—

Thick serpents of Crimson Gold electricity shot out from his pores, dancing wildly. Then, under the restraint of his Life Magnetic Field, they compressed and condensed into a brilliant, blinding little Golden Thunder Sun!

VMMMM!!

The Golden Thunder Sun exploded and expanded, repelling all surrounding matter, disrupting and distorting the Earth and Heaven Magnetic Field, and forming a solid, twenty-meter-thick Primordial Magnetic Gang Shield.

In the next instant,

the three rainbow-shaped tides of energy—gold, red, and white, each with a radius exceeding five meters—traversed hundreds of meters of space and slammed squarely into the Primordial Magnetic Gang Shield.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!—

Like three high-pressure water jets hitting a boulder, they kicked up layer after layer of tri-colored, disc-shaped energy shockwaves that shot from the earth to the sky.

CRUMBLE! CRUMBLE! CRUMBLE!

The moment the rippling tides blasted out from the Geng Metal Flying Swords, the blood-red wheat grains, and the Cold Ice Qi struck the ground,

the earth for several miles around began to shake violently. Explosions rang out ceaselessly as millions of tons of earth and sand were blasted into the sky, only to be disintegrated and vaporized.

It was no exaggeration to say that if these three energy waves had hit a city, the resulting disaster would be no less than three small-yield nuclear bombs detonating.

The actual destructive power

would be even more terrifying.

Ice, Geng Metal, and ferocious evil!

The explosion of these three types of pure Heaven and Earth Energy could instantly turn a city into a Purgatory!

But!

"Isn’t this scoundrel a Body Treasure Master? Why..."

The two demons and one fierce monster stared in shock at the Crimson Gold Gang Shield woven from countless golden electric snakes around Wu Dao’s body.

According to the intelligence they had received,

Wu Dao did not have a Dantian!

He shouldn’t be able to control Heaven and Earth Energy at all!

The Celestial Treasure he possessed only enhanced his physique. He was a pure Body Refiner, capable of using only Qi and Blood Power.

But...

what was the deal with this Electromagnetic Shield?

’Dual Celestial Treasures?’

’Impossible!’

’Celestial Treasures are unique, and a single body can only house one. There has never been a Celestial Treasure Master who controlled two Celestial Treasures!’

Besides that,

what shocked them even more was that the Mighty Power of that strange, Crimson Gold Electromagnetic Shield was completely unreasonable. It seemed capable of repelling, distorting, and redirecting their Energy!

It wasn’t a simple head-on defense!

Their three full-power attacks had struck it, but they had barely damaged the Primordial Magnetic Gang Shield.

This was because most of the Energy they output had been "turned traitor" and redirected by the shield’s field. They were essentially attacking themselves!

This was somewhat terrifying.

There were countless types of Heaven and Earth Energy, with a dazzling array of attributes.

Although likes attract and opposites repel, even for Energy of the same attribute, once it was imbued with an Extraordinary’s will, it became their own personal Power.

Unless one’s cultivation level was so high that they could completely crush their opponent, it was impossible for one’s power to be arbitrarily manipulated by another.

’Are you kidding me? If the power you’ve cultivated so hard for doesn’t even listen to you, then what’s the point of cultivating?!’

But something this absurd was now happening right before the eyes of the two demons and one fierce monster.

They, of course, did not know. The Life Magnetic Power Wu Dao mastered was primordial in nature. It could ignore attributes and, from a fundamental level, control the countless, bizarre types of Magnetic Field Power generated by all things in the universe.

Spiritual Energy, Elemental Energy, various high-energy gases, Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth...

The Magnetic Fields produced by all sorts of Energy.

As long as it entered Wu Dao’s Magnetic Field domain!

He could use his Primordial Magnetic Power to distort and control it. Eventually, he could even turn an enemy’s Power into his own!

Unless...

one could use absolute, overwhelming force to instantly shatter his Primordial Magnetic Gang Shield!

Otherwise,

the two demons and one monster could fight until they dropped dead from exhaustion and still not be able to harm Wu Dao in the short term, because they were simply attacking themselves!

The only drawback was that it was currently limited by the progress of his Human Potential Release.

The Primordial Magnetic Field was restricted to the twenty-meter radius covered by the Gang Shield.

Furthermore, the cost of maintaining the field was enormous.

Every second drained a massive amount of Wu Dao’s life energy. Compounded by the consumption from Divine Ghost Heaven, he couldn’t maintain it for long.

But...

today was different!

A thunderstorm!