Essence Devouring Art

The Red Armored Bat Foxes were endless.

Hundreds, or maybe thousands of them, poured in ceaselessly. The more they killed, the more appeared. One had to wonder what the hell these things ate to breed in such numbers.

Even Wu Dao could no longer afford to slack off. He was covered in scratches, fighting back-to-back with Zhao Wei. Both were drenched in the unbearably foul stench of shredded flesh and blood.

Ordinarily, no one would want to be the one to break the stalemate. The best course of action would be to stop playing this game, fight their way out, and return after everyone else had finished fighting.

But Wu Dao didn’t do that.

He wasn’t sure if the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui would allow anyone to leave the field.

If it didn’t, the moment he made a move, he would instantly become the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui’s primary target, making him a fool for nothing.

For now, it was a waiting game to see who would break first.

’Anyway, I’ve broken my body’s limits twice and have the enhancements from the Overlord Whale Fist Body Refinement. As long as I don’t have to get serious... this "little skirmish"... I, Wu Dao, can keep this up all night without breaking a sweat!’

Finally...

About ten minutes later, when the ground was littered with corpses and the blood and guts had formed a veritable swamp...

Wu Dao’s eyes lit up.

He noticed that the green light surrounding Mao Ba was starting to dim, and his expression was growing uglier by the second.

It seemed he was at his limit.

’These damned creatures!’

Atop a pile of corpses, Mao Ba’s face was as foul as if he’d eaten shit. He cursed viciously in his heart, though it was unclear if he was cursing the people or the monsters.

In any case, he was not having a good time.

An Immortal Family’s Foundation Establishment focused on spiritual cultivation: meditation, studying sutras, and practicing slow, quiet techniques. It was about self-cultivation, attuning with heaven and earth, and nourishing life. Their physical bodies were consequently a notch weaker.

This was unlike the Martial Dao or Military Dao, which focused on dynamic Body Refinement techniques. They trained through the hottest days of summer and the coldest of winter without a single day of rest, resulting in abundant vitality, powerful physiques, and immense stamina.

After all this exertion, Mao Ba was already starting to feel restless and impatient. His breath was becoming unstable, his organs felt constricted, and his strength was failing.

’If I really keep trying to outlast these brutes... I’ll be taken care of long before we even get to the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui.’

At this thought, Mao Ba gritted his teeth and shouted to Mengqingshan, who was busy hacking his way through the horde, "We’ll kill the Bat King, you kill the Tai Sui! If we drag this out any longer, we’re all finished!"

That’s right!

Mao Ba had known where the Bat King was all along but had been unwilling to act.

Why?

Because the moment he moved on the Bat King, every single Red Armored Bat Fox would swarm him to protect their king.

Hundreds, even thousands of Red Armored Bat Foxes.

Even if he didn’t die, he’d be flayed alive.

So even when he decided to act, he played a little trick, specifically saying "we."

Everyone was battered, exhausted, and burning with anxiety. In a situation like this, people’s wills are easily swayed by a leader. For the sake of survival, they would unite as one.

"Haha, Daoist, I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me!"

Mengqingshan tore a Red Armored Bat Fox apart with his bare hands, his dark form dyed crimson with blood. He seemed to have been waiting for those words for a long time. He immediately roared, "Mr. Ya, now!!"

BOOM!

The swamp of flesh and blood exploded!

Having received the order, Eagle Shark shot out like a cannonball fired into the sky, erupting with a power far greater than anything he had shown before.

In just an instant, a Sen Leng gleam flashed without pause, and dozens of Red Armored Bat Foxes in his path were shredded into a rain of flesh and blood.

But even more Red Armored Bat Foxes swarmed him, threatening to once again surround him so tightly he couldn’t move an inch.

"Damned beast, die!"

At this critical moment, Mao Ba kept his word. His Celestial Banner Ruler bloomed with a faint light. With a cold glint in his eyes, he leaped into the air and locked onto a seemingly unremarkable Red Armored Bat Fox within the swarm. It was only the size of a house cat, but it was grey-furred and had dark golden eyes.

"SKREEE!!"

The killing intent washed over it, and the grey Bat King let out a piercing shriek.

The Red Armored Bat Foxes that had been surrounding everyone else all turned to swarm Mao Ba. In the blink of an eye, his figure was completely obscured.

"Yun, help me!!"

The last thing anyone heard was Mao Ba’s desperate cry. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Huff... you two... hmm?"

Cloud Heaven Flow, his green robes torn and his appearance disheveled, heard Mao Ba’s cry for help. He was just about to call for Wu Dao and Zhao Wei to help fight their way through.

But to his surprise, the two of them were already gone.

"Truly the actions of petty villains!"

He cursed under his breath. Cloud Heaven Flow took a shallow breath, then resolutely charged into the swarm of bat foxes, sword in hand.

There were some things others could do, but he could not.

The code of chivalry and justice forged in him since childhood, his very principles as a man, would not allow him to act in such a way.

Otherwise, he would be plagued by a Heart Demon in the future. His convictions would be compromised, and his Sword Dao would stagnate.

This thing called a "Dao heart" was different for everyone, a thousand different faces for a thousand different people.

Different people had different pillars of belief. Often, you might think someone else is a fool, while they think you’re an even bigger one. Those who walk different paths cannot conspire together.

Just as Cloud Heaven Flow couldn’t understand how people like Wu Dao could be so shameless and dark, Wu Dao couldn’t understand why Cloud Heaven Flow was so stupid.

However, it was as he’d thought before. Wu Dao’s personal creed was to never care about the means, only the results.

’If I can profit like the fisherman, why would I fight to the death?’

CRUNCH~ CRUNCH~

「A hundred meters from the battlefield.」

Wu Dao sat at the top of a towering, ancient tree, holding a Red Armored Bat Fox the size of a mutt. His bloody maw opened and closed, tearing and chewing with great relish.

His gaze pierced through the gaps in the leaves, staring at Eagle Shark and Mengqingshan, who were locked in a fierce battle with the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui not far away, as if he were watching a play in a theater.

"Want some?"

Noticing Zhao Wei land beside him, Wu Dao grinned and offered him a piece of meat.

"Th-that’s alright. But, Brother Wu, you... you shouldn’t eat the head..."

Zhao Wei’s face twitched. Even for someone as unfussy as him, he found Wu Dao’s savage, blood-drinking manner a bit hard to stomach.

"Already took the head off."

Wu Dao replied nonchalantly and continued to feast.

Although the attribute panel hadn’t classified this Red Armored Bat Fox as an Alien Species, and its meat was tough and gamey, the Energy within it was still quite good. It couldn’t compare to medicinal cuisine, but it was better than ordinary animals and very useful for restoring stamina.

The battle just now had taken its toll. Although it wasn’t a major drain, Wu Dao always made sure he was in peak hunting condition at all times. You could call it a compulsion.

"Demons and Spirit Monsters... truly beyond the reach of Mortal Power..."

Zhao Wei suddenly sighed as he watched the battle.

Wu Dao, still swallowing, nodded slightly. For the first time, a hint of gravity appeared in his eyes.

In the distant battlefield, Eagle Shark was fighting the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui head-on, with Mengqingshan providing support from the flank. One was forceful, the other sharp, their attacks as dense as rain, yet they couldn’t do a thing to the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui.

The Flesh and Blood Tai Sui, originally less than a meter tall, had now taken root. It had transformed into a ten-foot-wide, fifteen-foot-tall fleshy tumor. Eyes grew on all its sides, and root-like tentacles attacked relentlessly, forming an impenetrable defense.

Even when they managed to break through the tentacle blockade, their fists and claws would strike its body, only for the crimson flesh to immediately suck them in like a mire.

Several times, Mengqingshan’s entire arm was swallowed. If not for his overwhelming strength, he wouldn’t have been able to pull free.

What was even more terrifying was that the creature was like a mass of extremely sticky putty. One moment they would tear a gash in its body, and the next, the gash would seal itself shut. It was utterly disgusting and tenacious.

Wu Dao admitted to himself that he would be in the same sorry state if he were in their shoes. Against such a cheap, rule-bending enemy, there was no good solution short of playing a trump card and crushing it with absolute power.

Right now, although Mengqingshan and his partner were trading blows with the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui in what looked like a furious battle, it was far from a true life-or-death struggle. It was clear they were both still holding back, still testing the waters.

But Wu Dao knew this situation wouldn’t last for long.

The Red Armored Bat Fox Group couldn’t possibly trap Mao Ba and Cloud Heaven Flow to death.

Perhaps those two were deliberately delaying killing the Bat King, just to let Mengqingshan and his group fight the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui to the death.

What’s more, he and Zhao Wei were watching from the sidelines like tigers stalking their prey.

In this kind of situation, if Mengqingshan didn’t end this fight quickly, the longer it dragged on and the more energy he spent, the more likely it was that even if he killed the Flesh and Blood Tai Sui, he would only be setting the stage for someone else to reap the rewards!

The problem was simple enough for Wu Dao to see. How could Mengqingshan, who was in the thick of the fight, not realize it as well?

So, after a round of probing, he had a grasp of the situation and decided to get serious and end it quickly.

"Hah!!"

The moment the thought crossed his mind, Mengqingshan let out a deep roar. He planted his feet, and like a beast from the Primordial Chaos exhaling, a stream of white vapor shot from his mouth, solid and un-dispersing.

CRACKLE-POP...

As he exhaled this turbid breath, the bones throughout Mengqingshan’s body began to pop and crackle like roasting soybeans. His body grew taller, section by section. From up close, you could even hear the drumming of his heart and the rushing of his blood like a torrential river.

Visibly, his muscles, hard as black iron, seemed to come alive. They swelled as if being inflated, and the bulging veins that popped out on his skin writhed like dragons and pythons.

In the span of a few breaths, Mengqingshan, who was originally just over seven feet tall, transformed into a nearly eleven-foot-tall mountain of black iron flesh!

His limbs became as thick and long as steel beams. Huge, tumor-like, misshapen muscles covered his entire body, even enveloping his distorted facial features. His whole form was pitch-black and reflective, a truly terrifying and horrifying sight.