Essence Devouring Art

A night wind blew past.

Beneath the veil of night.

Above Stone Village, several hundred heads trailing long, red threads swelled by several sizes. They detached completely from their shriveled bodies and flew deep into Luotou Mountain.

It wasn’t just Stone Village.

In all the villages, large and small, near Luotou Mountain, swarms of "bees" dragged necks like jellyfish tentacles, flying toward Luotou Mountain under the moonlight.

It was a terrifying, horrifying scene.

If an ordinary person were to see it, they would surely die of fright on the spot.

WOO WOO~

Somewhere deep within the undulating sea of trees on Luotou Mountain.

A moaning, echoing wind gusted out from the mouth of a cave. It looked like the giant maw of a Fierce Beast, a bottomless abyss with a red glow emanating from its depths, inspiring dread in all who saw it.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

Swarms of large heads flew in from the distance, their eyes closed in deep sleep. They wore warm smiles like young swallows returning to their nests as they dove into the ominous red glow deep within the cavern.

「A few more days passed.」

The dozen or so villages in the Luotou Mountain Range area became lands of the dead. Amidst the vast, wild forest, the last signs of human activity vanished, leaving not a single trace of life.

BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ~

On this day, the moonlight was exceptionally bright.

The sound of a swarm emerging echoed from the cave deep in Luotou Mountain. Head after head, each with sharp fangs and trailing a red thread, flew out of the cave and scattered throughout the Primordial Forest to begin their hunt for food.

High in the sky.

A group of men in blood-red robes, exuding an aura of death, frowned as they witnessed this terrifying scene.

"I didn’t expect it to grow to this extent in less than half a month."

Elder Qi of the Corpse God Palace withdrew his gaze, a solemn expression on his face.

Then, he turned to the three elders beside him, whose auras were even more profound than his own, and said, "Grand Elder, Second Elder, Third Elder, there’s no time to lose. We must set up the array.

That abomination is only at the Celestial Human Second Floor. If it senses it’s outmatched tomorrow, it will definitely try to escape. Moreover, this Fierce Monster has already matured; it’s impossible to take it down with normal methods."

"Heh, relax. It’s merely at the Celestial Human Second Floor. Even if it had three heads and six arms, it couldn’t possibly defy us!" 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The Grand Elder, who led the group and was as withered as a dried corpse with blackened fingernails, sneered. He then looked down at Luotou Mountain with a hint of regret.

"It’s a pity the Supreme Elder and the Palace Master can’t get away. They’re fully focused on reviving the Celestial King. Otherwise, we could take down this Fierce Monster without lifting a finger."

"You have to give to get."

The Second Elder, who was so chubby his flesh seemed to ooze a nauseating oil, licked his lips and chuckled.

"A Celestial Level Fierce Monster and a Body Treasure Master—what an immense Creation. No price is too high to pay for this."

"Alright, enough nonsense."

The Third Elder, his expression cold and stern, said, "The three Celestial Corpse Slaves being used for the Array Plate are my nest egg. Afterwards, if anyone tries to compete with me for that Treasure Master, don’t blame me for getting nasty!"

With that said, the Third Elder didn’t wait for the others to react.

With a wave of his great sleeve, he shot toward Luotou Mountain, the three blood-colored coffins behind him in tow.

"Hah, as if we aren’t contributing."

The Grand Elder and Second Elder scoffed but didn’t argue. They took out various sinister Array Plates that dripped with black liquid and led Elder Qi and the other disciples off in different directions.

「At sunset the next day.」

RUMBLE—

Thunderclaps echoed from the distant sky. The sound of sonic booms reverberated through heaven and earth, shaking the entire region and leaving clouds of condensed vapor in their wake.

Wu Dao sped through the air, crossing the distance.

In a short while, he crossed an entire prefecture and arrived in the airspace above the vast Luotou Mountain Range shown on the map, his immense Spiritual Thoughts spreading out to cover the area below.

Hm?

As his senses swept over Stone Village, Wu Dao raised an eyebrow. Within the village of over a hundred households, there wasn’t the slightest trace of a living person. Inside the houses, only shriveled, headless corpses remained.

Another portion of the bodies did have heads, but they had been completely drained, leaving only skin stretched over skeletons.

BUZZ!

He reached out and grabbed.

The power of the Earth and Heaven Magnetic Field converged.

A shriveled, headless corpse appeared before Wu Dao.

Upon closer inspection, he could feel a type of malevolent magnetic field Energy lingering within it.

It was just a tiny, scattered trace, but it was enough to see the whole picture.

This was on a completely different level from the Fierce Monster he had encountered back in Harvest Village!

’A Celestial Level Fierce Monster?’

Wu Dao’s eyes flickered as he came to a realization.

After his contact with the Bai Ze Bureau, he had gained a general understanding of how the strength of Fierce Monsters was classified.

The lowest was Strong Level. They weren’t very dangerous and could be handled by someone at the Breaking the Cocoon realm.

After that were Fierce Monsters that had their own domains.

This was the Domain Level.

Their strength was between the Innate First Step and the Third Step.

But a top-tier Domain Level monster could only be handled by a Celestial Being. For example, the monster from Harvest Village, relying on its Harvest Village Evil Domain, was something even Land Immortals were powerless against.

After the Domain Level was the Celestial Level.

Fierce Monsters of this level were terrifying.

Their Evil Domains had already formed a small world of their own. Anyone who entered the Evil Domain’s range would be corrupted. If left unslain, their destructive potential as they grew was unimaginable.

To kill a Fierce Monster of this level required a cultivation base of at least the Celestial Human Third Floor.

’If I had come alone, I really would have fallen into your trap!’

Wu Dao looked toward the distant Luotou Mountain and gave a cold smile. With a thought, he used a Communication Jade Talisman to transmit the information he had just gathered.

A Celestial Level Fierce Monster.

It wouldn’t be easy to capture one.

If the Corpse God Palace wanted to kill two birds with one stone, they would have to lay a Grand Array to ensure that neither he nor the Fierce Monster could escape.

It wasn’t hard to guess, then. A Heaven and Earth Net had surely been laid across Luotou Mountain, just waiting for Wu Dao to walk into it.

But...

"Like hell I’m walking into that!"

Wu Dao grinned, deciding to use his old trick to force out both the Fierce Monster and the people from the Corpse God Palace.

At that thought, Wu Dao’s Magnetic Field enveloped Stone Village. The headless corpses flew into the air, where they were compressed and refined, extracting the residual Fierce Monster’s magnetic field within them. Finally, it all condensed into a Magnetic Field seed that only he could see.