Essence Devouring Art

WHOOSH—

The fog surged like gauze, like water.

Wu Dao stepped into the old site of Lin Village.

It was as if space and time had shifted. His Spiritual Perception instantly went from being a vast lake to a small pond, limited to a radius of just a few meters around him. The feeling was incredibly stifling.

"Kill them!"

"Kill them!"

"Kill them!"

Before Wu Dao could even adjust to this drastic change, a boiling roar filled with gnashing teeth suddenly echoed by his ears.

Wu Dao’s brow furrowed slightly.

He looked up.

Without him even realizing it, the world around him had transformed. His view was no longer of a dilapidated village shrouded in fog, but of the new village at the foot of the mountain, bathed in bright sunlight.

On the threshing ground.

A sea of people surged, their emotions running high. It looked like a public trial was being held.

In the center.

A large group of people had placards listing their crimes stuck to their backs, like criminals on the execution ground awaiting their autumn execution. They were covered in rotten vegetables and smelly eggs, their faces ashen as they awaited the verdict.

This group of people...

...was none other than the people from the Tan County martial arts branch.

Zhao Jianji, Lv Tiezhu, even the injured Chen Ergou, along with all the Stewards and Vice Instructors—every big shot was there except for Wu Dao himself.

However.

Were those two strangers among them?

Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed, his gaze falling upon the two middle-aged men kneeling at the very front.

One wore green robes, the other black.

They had broad frames, looking powerful and majestic, but now their faces were filled with remorse and pleas for mercy. In front of them lay a great crimson, dragon-scaled spear, broken into several pieces.

Their faces were very familiar.

Memories surged in Wu Dao’s mind, past scenes appearing with crystal clarity.

In an instant, he recalled the two mysterious experts carrying greatspears whom he had encountered a month ago at the Bridge Entrance after dealing with a group of bandits upon entering Lancang County City.

To think...

...they were actually from the Jingzhe Bureau.

"Wu Dao, you fiend! Surrender and admit your guilt at once!"

An angry shout, like a clap of spring thunder, interrupted Wu Dao’s thoughts.

’Surrender and admit my guilt?’

Wu Dao grinned ferociously, his dark eyes looking past the crowd to the impostor ’Lin Zongwen’ sitting on the judge’s platform in the center of the threshing ground. A crimson light began to glow in his pupils.

"Heh, and what are you supposed to be?!"

THUD!

Wu Dao took a single step, and the earth shook, houses trembling. Wide cracks spread across the ground. His heart beat like a war drum as the magma-like qi and blood in his body circulated at high speed, roaring like a great river.

"You think you’re worthy of judging me?"

BOOM!

He stomped his foot again.

The ground shattered and rocks split as the surrounding houses collapsed in droves!

In the space of a breath—

Wu Dao fully unleashed his Heroic Great Success Domain Physique. Like an engine revving to life, he was a steel war beast emerging from a volcano, reawakening here and now.

His nine-foot-tall, imposing body glowed a scorching red. The great human furnace radiated heat madly, and surging, searing Yang Qi howled in all directions, scorching the ground and distorting the very air.

"The people demand it! Surrender to the law!"

"The people demand it! Surrender to the law!"

"The people demand it! Surrender to the law!"

Beneath the scorching heat of the human furnace, on the black-and-white, twisting threshing ground,

the figures of the people morphed into Evil Ghosts, twisting and swaying. They opened their mouths wide, revealing red flesh and white teeth as they roared and shrieked.

A spiritual tide, as grim as a frozen sea, crashed down, trying to extinguish the furnace and force Wu Dao to submit and confess his crimes.

"What a mess! Disperse!"

Murderous light exploded from Wu Dao’s eyes. He dispelled the Spiritual Contamination of remorse and self-blame from his mind, his explosive shout like a clap of rolling spring thunder.

THUD!

He took another heavy step. The earth dragon turned over. The human furnace, now at full power, elevated his qi, blood, and Yang Qi to a new level as he stepped through the Horizontal Refining Second Door.

BOOM!

The moment Qi and Blood Burning Prison unfurled,

the void distorted and Yang Fire spread everywhere.

It was as if a small, crimson sun had bloomed on the threshing ground, radiating light and heat.

The searing, roiling Yang Flame burned the people and objects within the Spiritual Illusion, causing them to flicker like a staticky television screen as they let out shrill shrieks.

CRACK!

When a certain limit was reached,

the sound of shattering ice echoed in Wu Dao’s mind.

The venomous, bewitching, and hateful roars that had been drilling into his very soul vanished, washed away as the Spiritual Illusion dissipated.

The world in his vision shifted from light to dark, finally returning to the grim, dilapidated, and abandoned village shrouded in Yin Fog.

Haaa—

He let out a long breath of scorching blood-fire.

Like the Crimson Flame Demon Monarch, Wu Dao glanced behind him with eyes that shot out crimson flames. The sky-blotting fog had completely obscured the path he had taken.

After unleashing his Physique, the suppression on his Spiritual Perception was greatly reduced, and he could now sense things within a hundred-meter radius.

CRASH!

The sound of a house collapsing rang out.

Wu Dao glanced to the side. From the three steps he had just taken, the environment for dozens of meters around him had turned to rubble, the earth cracked and houses collapsed as if an earthquake had struck.

This meant...

...that the illusion he had just experienced was limited to the spiritual perception level.

’That makes sense,’ he thought. ’If the Fierce Gu in the village could alter physical reality at will, it would have broken through the Daoist’s restrictive seal long ago and been roaming free.’

Still,

even so, its Soul Power was not to be underestimated.

That illusory world, so vivid and lifelike, blending truth and falsehood... if Wu Dao’s strength hadn’t improved so drastically, he might not have been able to escape, given his condition a month ago.

He wondered if those two Jingzhe Guards had escaped the illusion, or if they had already...

"Cough, cough..."

A weak cough suddenly echoed through the deathly silent, abandoned village, interrupting Wu Dao’s thoughts.

BOOM!!

The instant the sound was made,

Wu Dao’s Spiritual Perception immediately locked onto the source. In a flash, he crouched, exerted his strength to shatter the ground beneath him, and blasted through the Gangfeng Qi Flow, transforming into a crimson meteor that streaked across the area.

BANG!

Earth and stone exploded outward.

In less than the blink of an eye,

Wu Dao appeared a hundred meters away, having crashed through an adobe house. His eyes, spitting Blood Flame, scanned the surroundings, and his expression suddenly darkened.

There was nothing there!

It seemed the cough had just been a trick to taunt him!

"Cough..."

"Cough, cough... cough, cough..."

"Cough, cough, cough... cough, cough, cough..."

But before Wu Dao could get angry, more coughs rang out.

From all directions.

From every house in the village.

Growing more and more rapid, more and more desperate.

The resulting Spiritual Contamination grew increasingly terrifying.

It was the sound of flickering candles in the wind, of life on the verge of decay and death.

It was as if countless patients, about to return to the Yellow Springs, were making their final, feeble struggles on their deathbeds.

An inexplicable sorrow welled up in his heart.

He felt that this world was utterly dark and defiled, without a single speck of light. A desperate, suicidal urge flooded his soul like a tsunami, making him want to end his own life immediately.

"Sir, calm your mind, quickly! Don’t fall for its trick!"

Just as the violent look in Wu Dao’s eyes was growing stronger, a weak voice of warning suddenly came from a house nearby.

BOOM—

Blood Flame howled and the earthen wall exploded.

Wu Dao’s terrifying furnace-like Physique, wreathed in Blood Flame, instantly appeared inside the house where the voice had originated.

"It’s you?"

Amidst the rising dust and smoke and tumbling rubble, the person inside seemed to recognize Wu Dao and let out a surprised cry.

’Barely hanging on?’

Wu Dao’s Blood Flame-spitting eyes swept the room and found the two Jingzhe Guards in a corner. They were not in good shape.

He didn’t know if they had used a Talisman or some other treasure, but they were sheltered within a Flowing Light Shield that glowed with a faint golden light, radiating a righteous aura. Cracks were already faintly visible on its surface.

Inside the shield, the black-robed Jingzhe Guard was unconscious, bleeding from his mouth and nose. It seemed he had suffered immense spiritual torment before passing out.

The other one was perhaps strong enough to endure.

He was still barely holding on, but judging by his deathly pale face, he wouldn’t last much longer.

’Horizontal Training Second Gate: Qi and Blood Burning Hell... this person...’

Inside the Golden Light Shield,

Ding Bai felt the sudden spike in Yang Qi, as if he’d been plunged into a burning prison. He looked again at the Crimson Flame Demon Monarch-like Wu Dao, and his eyelids twitched violently.

Although he had only caught a brief glimpse of Wu Dao during their meeting a month ago, Wu Dao’s bloody slaughter had left a deep impression on him.

However,

at that time, Ding Bai hadn’t paid Wu Dao much mind. He was just a Second Rebirth cultivator, after all, incapable of making any significant waves.

But only a month had passed!

Meeting again,

the pressure radiating from Wu Dao’s Physique was enough to make him, a Third Rebirth Xiaoqi of the Jingzhe Bureau, feel a sense of dread.

Qi and Blood Burning Prison!

The second gate for a pure Body Refining Martial Artist!

Once one stepped through this gate,

a Body Refiner, even one at only the Dark Force cultivation level,

could contend with a Transformed Martial Artist of the Third Rebirth—one whose Powerful Spiritual Thoughts permeated every tiny fiber of their being, had Returned to the Essence, and could turn iron to mud with a touch—relying solely on their terrifying Physique!

’A month...’

’Just one month!’

Ding Bai gave Wu Dao a deep look, mentally adding him to his list of extremely dangerous individuals.

Wu Dao’s personality was too brutal and extreme.

Coupled with this terrifying cultivation speed, if in the future...

Ding Bai didn’t dare to think any further.

However,

for now, the three of them were in the same boat, their lives intertwined. He still had to give the necessary warning:

"That big hedgehog is hiding behind the scenes, using the properties of the Yin Fog to amplify its Divine Soul contamination and drive people to suicide. If it doesn’t show itself and the Yin Fog doesn’t disperse, there’s no way to deal with it."

’Yin Fog?’

Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed. He extended his senses and confirmed that the omnipresent coughing did indeed originate from the Yin Fog blanketing the village.

It was as if every wisp of fog contained hundreds or thousands of dying patients, all radiating a sense of despair.

Haaa—

He exhaled a breath of turbid fire.

Wu Dao frowned. The Divine Soul contamination, carried by the incessant coughing, was becoming terrifyingly intense, causing waves of pain in his head.

Hiss...

Wu Dao rubbed his gums. He was having a hard time withstanding it too. He adjusted his breathing, released the limits on his mind, and entered the emotionless, desireless, and divinely clear Celestial Human State!

The sounds in his ears instantly quieted down significantly.

However, this could only protect his own soul from being infected. The Yin Fog beyond the range of his Spiritual Perception remained turbid and defiled, making it impossible to pinpoint the big hedgehog’s hiding place.

His emotionless and desireless eyes swept over the ethereal fog in the village. An idea immediately formed in Wu Dao’s mind, and he said indifferently:

"Since it’s using the power of the Yin Fog, then I just have to blow it away!"

???

Ding Bai was stunned for a moment, unable to follow Wu Dao’s train of thought.