Essence Devouring Art

Beyond Human Extreme.

His Life Primordial Magnetism could now drive the Earth and Heaven Magnetic Field.

Primordial Qi, Spiritual Qi, Soldier Qi—all the high-level energies in this Extraordinary World capable of transforming the human body were now his sustenance.

From now on, even without the attribute panel, his cultivation speed would skyrocket. The notion that he’d become useless without external aid was simply untrue.

A hundred thousand, a million, ten million?

Or even more unattainable sums—none of these would be his primary objective any longer.

He would use external power when available and rely on his own strength when not.

This had always been his guiding principle.

From the very beginning,

Wu Dao had never intended to rely on the attribute panel, so he naturally wouldn’t agonize over the ever-increasing costs for advancement.

During the life-and-death struggles of his past life, he had faintly glimpsed the path beyond the Peak of Human Extremes. He just needed to return to that pinnacle to put his theories to the test.

RUMBLE—

The sky boomed with thunder.

Wu Dao didn’t linger in the Thousand Cave Mountain Range. Activating his magnetic field, he shot high into the air and sped back toward Lancang County City.

He tore through the sky at lightning speed.

Before long, the majestic sight of Lancang County City, sprawling across the plains below, came into view, and he slowed his flight.

Hm?

Just as he was about to enter the city’s airspace, Wu Dao’s brow twitched. He descended from the sky, landing on a nearby mountaintop.

A moment ago, he had sensed a bizarre fluctuation in the magnetic field.

It felt like trickling streams, a thousand interwoven threads,

converging on this very mountaintop from all directions.

It wasn’t the magnetic field of Spiritual Qi, Primordial Qi, or Soldier Qi, nor did it belong to any demon, evil spirit, or other strange entity.

It was...

HUMMM~

Wu Dao reached out and, drawing upon the magnetic field of all things, made a grasping motion in the air. A few wisps of the strange magnetic energy landed in his palm.

He sent his consciousness to probe them.

"May the Great Emperor bless me with peace, health, and good fortune."

"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH... Oh, Great Emperor, please take pity. I have three children; I don’t want to die so young."

"Bless me and protect me, let my luck be good tomorrow. If I strike it rich, I’ll be sure to make a generous offering to you, Great Emperor."

The voices of pious prayers instantly echoed from within the three wisps of strange magnetic energy.

’This is...’

’Power of Faith?’

Wu Dao frowned slightly and released the three wisps of strange magnetic energy from his hand.

He allowed them to join the others constantly streaming in from the surroundings, all flowing toward a distant temple where the scent of incense never faded.

To be precise, they flowed into the gilded statue enshrined within the temple’s main hall—a statue with an imposing air that could swallow mountains and rivers as it gazed down upon the world.

The Demon Suppression Emperor!

’Power of Faith...’

Wu Dao let out a soft breath, staring at the nearby Demon Suppression Emperor’s Temple. He felt as though he had stumbled upon an incredible secret.

Because

he recalled a piece of ancient history.

Back then, after the Demon Suppression Emperor pacified the nations and purged the world of demons, he did something that risked universal condemnation—

He abolished heretical worship, destroyed divine halls, demolished temples, and eradicated all other faiths, forbidding the existence of any non-official belief system!

And what was considered "official"?

The Demon Suppression Emperor himself, of course!

From that day forward, throughout Great Li, only the Demon Suppression Emperor was permitted to have temples. Any other temple was deemed a place of heretical worship for an Evil God, and its discovery was a crime punishable by the extermination of one’s entire clan!

As a result, not a single organized faith existed in the Great Li World. The only temples the common people ever saw were those dedicated to the Demon Suppression Emperor.

Under this new order, after generations of legal enforcement and ideological conditioning, the people’s beliefs had changed centuries ago, becoming deeply ingrained.

The common people, good or bad, came to accept the Demon Suppression Emperor as the one and only "True God" in the mortal realm. Whenever they faced trouble, they would pray at his temples, ensuring an unending stream of incense and faith.

Although this world had no Divine Dao, and Wu Dao had never heard of a Cultivation Technique capable of utilizing the Power of Faith, it seemed that when it came to such power, the Extraordinary World was a complete blank slate.

But the existence of Celestial Treasures turned the impossible into the possible.

For a recent example,

the figure behind the Saint King Dao, suspected of being a Celestial Treasure Master, was able to use the Power of Faith.

A figure like the Demon Suppression Emperor would never act without reason.

Destroying temples and religions to make himself the one true god!

’Could it have been merely for vanity?’

’Absolutely not.’

’He must have also mastered a way to harness the Power of Faith from all that incense.’

According to ancient records, the Demon Suppression Emperor had accumulated injuries over many years of conquest. A century after ascending the throne, he failed to achieve a breakthrough and finally succumbed to his wounds.

In other words,

to this day,

the Demon Suppression Emperor had been absorbing and accumulating the world’s Power of Faith from incense for over six hundred years!

’This Power...’

WHOOSH~

Wu Dao gave the Demon Suppression Emperor’s Temple on the nearby mountain one last, deep look. He decided not to dwell on it further, activated his magnetic field, and returned to Lancang County City.

It was best to mind his own business.

The Demon Suppression Emperor had been a peerless expert who once subdued the entire world. Whether he was truly dead or merely faking it,

the schemes of such a figure were not something he could afford to pry into right now.

Meddling and excessive curiosity would only get him killed.

After Wu Dao departed,

inside the Demon Suppression Emperor’s Temple on the mountain,

the statue on the divine altar opened its eyes. Its gaze seemed to pierce the void, fixing on Wu Dao’s retreating back as a hint of humanlike surprise flickered across its face.

An outworlder?

His supreme Three Dantians and noble Celestial Mandate are completely gone, yet he has achieved so much.

Interesting.

It seems this tribulation will be more eventful than those of the past.

HUMMM~

The statue closed its eyes, and the incense smoke continued to curl upwards.

Outside the Divine Temple, wisps of the Power of Faith—invisible to mortals and even most cultivators—continued to gather, drawn into the statue’s nostrils with each breath.

「Meanwhile.」

Deep within the Southern Border Soul-Nurturing Wilds.

CRACKLE!

Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed across the sky, endlessly striking this forbidden zone of life.

POP~

At a certain moment, the void rippled like water.

A grayish-white human skull, its flesh and bone seemingly pieced together like a bizarre edifice, flew out. It opened its mouth and spat out the elders and disciples of the Corpse God Palace one by one.

HUMMM~

The next moment, the grayish-white skull streaked across the dark sky and plunged into an abyss at the core of the Soul-Nurturing Wilds.

Finally, it was caught at the bottom of the Abyss by a stark-naked, emaciated old man with pale eyes, who reached out a hand like a chicken’s claw to receive it.

Surrounding the white-eyed, emaciated old man were other elders, their bodies thick with profound Yin Sha Qi but utterly devoid of any life aura, like living corpses.

In the Abyss before them,

illuminated by the occasional flash of lightning, a headless corpse could be seen. Its physique was as majestic as a mountain, and it radiated a world-dominating aura. It was clad in Golden Scale Armor, and great Dapeng Wings grew from its back.

SSSZZZZT~

At the headless corpse’s severed neck, streams of majestic and tyrannical golden light relentlessly suppressed the corpse’s Life Force.

The brilliant golden light formed into chains that locked down its vitality from the inside out, binding both body and soul. Like an edict from an Emperor gazing down upon the mortal realm, it completely suppressed any sign of the corpse’s revival.

"Palace Master!"

Yin Wuchang flew in from outside the Abyss and struggled to bow to the naked, white-eyed old man. He was nothing but a thin layer of skin stretched over bone, like a candle in the wind, liable to be extinguished at any moment.

"Worthless!"

The naked, white-eyed old man didn’t even glance at Yin Wuchang as he rasped out the single word, causing Yin Wuchang’s face to turn ashen.

Worthless!

Once the Palace Master judged a subordinate with that single word, it meant...

"Palace Master, please, let me explain! That bastard hid his cultivation level, and he even joined forces with Bai Ze... AHHH!!"

Yin Wuchang kowtowed desperately, begging for his life.

But he couldn’t even finish his sentence.

An invisible Power bound him, crushing his body and soul together and forcing an inhuman scream from his throat.

And then...

POP!

The sound of him bursting echoed through the Abyss.

Yin Wuchang was reduced to a spray of hot blood and soul fragments, which showered down upon the headless corpse at the bottom of the Abyss.

GULP, GULP, GULP~

The flesh of the headless corpse seemed to form countless gaping maws,

which greedily devoured the showering blood and soul. As if it had consumed a Great Nourishing Pill, its muscles swelled and contracted, pulling the golden chains taut, yet they refused to snap.

"Not enough! Not enough!"

A furious, crazed roar, thick with monstrous hatred, exploded from the Abyss:

"I can feel it... I can feel it... Zhou Yuan isn’t dead! He’s still not dead! Faster, faster!"

Above the Abyss,

"Rest assured, Celestial King. The seal is already more than half broken. With your subordinates giving their all to shatter it, it won’t be long before you are reborn."

The white-eyed elder listened to the familiar, supremely arrogant voice echoing from below. His body trembled, and his raspy voice was filled with reverence.

Then...

BOOM!

The Palace Master of the Corpse God Palace thrust out his withered right palm. It transformed into a massive hand of roiling Yin Sha Qi that blotted out the sky, grabbing all the disciples and elders above and dragging them down into the Abyss.

"No, Palace Master, spare me!"

"You madman!"

"Celestial King, go fuck your mother!!"

Pleas, curses, and furious roars instantly filled the Abyss. Set against the wrathful thunder of the Nine Heavens, the scene was like a slaughterhouse in Purgatory.

"Silence!"

The Palace Master of the Corpse God Palace remained unmoved. He moved the great hand of Yin Sha Qi, which clutched the mass of people, over the Celestial King’s corpse and snorted.

"I created the Corpse God Palace and trained you for so long without asking for anything in return. Today, I merely wish to borrow your lives for a moment, yet you resist so fiercely. You are truly a pack of ungrateful rebels. What use are you to me?"

"You old bastard, did a Corpse Puppet eat your brain? I’ll say what I..."

POP!

The sound of something bursting cut off the defiant roar.

The disciples and elders of the Corpse God Palace trapped in the giant hand all exploded, their flesh and souls disintegrating into clouds of pure Essence Qi.

ROAR!

Like a shark smelling blood, the Celestial King at the bottom of the Abyss reacted instantly. Its chest split open to form a cavernous maw that seemed capable of swallowing heaven and earth. With one fierce inhale, it sucked all the immense essence from above into its body.

BOOM!

Instantly, like pouring oil on a fire, a terrifying volcanic eruption of black qi and blood surged from the Abyss. It formed a black sun in the sky, shattering the dark clouds above.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG—

The sound of chains snapping echoed from the bottom of the Abyss.

The golden light at the Celestial King’s severed neck melted away like snow in spring. Its Mighty Power rapidly diminished by more than half, and it seemed it could no longer suppress the Celestial King.

CLATTER, CLATTER~

The chains rattled violently as the Celestial King struggled. A tide of black qi, carrying with it an infinite killing intent, surged from the Abyss and transformed into a crazed roar that swept across heaven and earth:

"Zhou Yuan, you son of a bitch! For six hundred years of suffering the death of a thousand cuts, I will repay you a hundred times over!!"

And Wu Dao!

That damn, filthy insect!

Bullshit Prince Nanyang!

Bullshit Great Li!

Hahaha!

I’m going to devour you all, bite by bite!!

Just you wait for me!

I’m coming to eat you all very soon!!!"