Essence Devouring Art

He waited quietly for several seconds.

The small snake he’d just swallowed vanished from his stomach.

A message immediately surfaced in his mind—

"Teleportation Points +0.25."

’After the ’deceit’ fused with the ’abnormal seed’, a single abnormal creature provides 0.25 Teleportation Points!’

By that logic,

it seemed like he only needed twenty of them for one transition.

But Wu Dao suspected it wouldn’t be that easy.

He had just broken through the limits of the human body through his own efforts. His Physique had improved, his strength had undergone a qualitative transformation, and he had entered a whole new realm. The rules for improving his attribute panel were bound to have changed as well.

He opened his attribute panel.

[Physique: Beast King (Minor Achievement)]

[Extraordinary: Essence Devouring Art 45% Potential Release+]

[Teleportation Points: 0.4]

As expected.

The gray plus sign after the Essence Devouring Art gave different feedback. The Teleportation Points required for an upgrade had changed from 5 to 10.

’In other words, the stronger I get, the more Teleportation Points I’ll need for each upgrade. If I want to keep getting stronger through the attribute panel, does that mean I have to devour increasingly powerful creatures?’

He closed the attribute panel.

Wu Dao now had a deeper understanding of the attribute panel, yet he felt no fear.

In his past life, he’d dared to face down a bio-destruction bomb just to break his limits. Now, on a much grander stage, he wouldn’t resign himself to mediocrity—with or without an attribute panel.

Having understood the rules of the attribute panel’s transitions,

Wu Dao didn’t dwell on it. He tossed the two dark-colored Snake Eggs into his mouth. His two rows of saw-like teeth ground them up, and he quickly swallowed them down.

"Teleportation Points +0.37 +0.37."

Each of these provided 0.12 more Teleportation Points than the previous Snake Egg.

The reason for this change,

was likely because they had absorbed the blood essence of two ordinary Deceit Slaves, as well as the deceitful creatures possessing them.

’If I let them keep devouring, could I create a creature worth a full Teleportation Point?’

Wu Dao picked his teeth with his tiger-claw-like nails. Listening to the monstrous screeches of slaughter echoing from all around the shantytown, an idea took root in his mind.

The moment he moved,

he shot forward like a black panther, blasting through the curtain of rain and charging toward the nearest shack.

’Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth.’

Since the Four Seas Gang had sealed the shantytown’s gates and were waiting outside, it meant they wouldn’t enter until the gladiatorial pit was over.

This was his time to act.

RUMBLE!

The storm that night was relentless. As time wore on, it showed no signs of stopping, instead growing even more violent. Sheets of rain mixed with scarlet blood, flooding the grounds of the entire shantytown.

"ROAR!"

Inside one of the shacks, roars echoed amidst a scene of carnage. Severed limbs and bits of flesh flew through the air, making it look like a slaughterhouse.

BANG!

Wu Dao kicked the wooden door off its hinges. His thick, messy hair whipped about in the wind. A flash of lightning illuminated his towering, powerful frame, which filled the doorway like that of a War God.

His eyes swept across the room.

The fighting inside this shack had already ceased. The large communal sleeping platform was a gruesome, blurry mess of flesh and blood. A tall, mutated Deceit Slave was hunched over a relatively intact corpse, devouring it like a leech.

"Such ferocious combat strength? You’ll do!"

Wu Dao gave the creature a once-over, then tossed the emaciated Deceit Slave he was holding inside. Its limbs were broken, but it was still smiling eerily. It landed squarely on the mutated Deceit Slave’s back.

ROAR!

The mutated Deceit Slave reacted instantly, like a wild beast disturbed during its meal. It whipped its head around and bared its zombie-like fangs at Wu Dao.

But in the next moment,

its attention was captured by the grotesquely grinning Deceitful Mining Slave beside it. It immediately bent down and tore into the carotid artery.

"Hee hee hee..."

"GULP... GULP..."

One was laughing, and the other was eating the one who laughed.

A grotesque and bizarre scene.

Seeing this, Wu Dao nodded in satisfaction. With a push of his foot, he shot away again like a gale of wind.

SWOOSH~

The wind howled and the rain poured.

The shantytown, now a bloody slaughterhouse, continued its grim work, devouring flesh and soul.

Between buildings flickering in and out of the darkness,

Wu Dao moved like a hunting leopard, appearing from the shadows. The moment he met a Deceit Slave, he would twist its limbs and continue his ’feeding’.

After doing this a few times,

after ’feeding’ it five Deceit Slaves, Wu Dao finally stopped.

The mutated Mining Slave had stopped eating. It lay motionless on the sleeping platform, still as if in hibernation, its belly swollen as if ten months pregnant.

’Is five the limit of its appetite?’

Wu Dao tossed aside the Deceit Slave with the broken limbs and stepped forward to observe the mutated Mining Slave’s drum-tight belly.

’I thought this was a game of Snake.’

’I didn’t think there’d be a fullness gauge.’

’But it didn’t matter. There were still forty-nine other mutated Mining Slaves in the shantytown. Once they were full, they would also represent a handsome profit.’

A minute later.

As Wu Dao watched, the mutated Mining Slave’s ruddy skin rapidly withered. Its flesh shriveled and shrank, all of its essence concentrating in its belly, which began to emit a faint, shimmering green light.

Seeing this, Wu Dao smiled with the satisfaction of a farmer at harvest. He raised his tiger-claw-like right palm. Backlit by a flash of lightning and framed by the room full of gore, the sight was utterly terrifying.

A moment later.

Wu Dao walked out of the shack. In his hand was a new Snake Egg, like a piece of green agate, that pulsed with an emerald light. Looking closer, he could see a small, curious creature with a human face and a snake’s body swimming within.

As if it were a broad bean,

Wu Dao tossed it into his mouth. His steel teeth clamped shut. A burst of pulp filled his mouth, and he swallowed it down in a few quick gulps, just like that.

A few seconds later.

"Teleportation Points +0.85."

He opened the attribute panel again.

[Physique: Beast King (Minor Achievement)]

[Extraordinary: Essence Devouring Art 45% Potential Release+]

[Teleportation Points: 1.99]

’A ’mature’ mutated Mining Slave was worth a whopping 0.85 Teleportation Points. He just needed about ten more to get enough for another transition!’

Wu Dao licked his lips. In his past life, it had taken him a good decade and countless near-death experiences, pushing himself to the Limit, to master the Essence Devouring Art. He was genuinely curious what it felt like to have a cheat.

Of course, that didn’t mean he was getting complacent.

In truth, it made no difference to Wu Dao whether he had the attribute panel or not. With his own talent and effort, he was confident he could reach great heights.

However,

since there was a shortcut, why not take it? He wasn’t some kind of purist. He had no time for such rigid, old-fashioned ideas.

He only cared about the results. As long as it made him stronger, the means were irrelevant.

"HEE HEE HEE..."

Just as Wu Dao was considering which direction to start his ’harvest’, an eerie laugh echoed from the dark, rainy curtain.

A Deceit Slave, the corners of its mouth split to its earlobes and its eyes curved into crescent moons, charged toward him with its head lowered.

All three hundred Mining Slaves in the shantytown had been possessed by the ’deceit’. The entire area had long since descended into chaos. The slaves were either being devoured or were scurrying about aimlessly.

"So you like keeping your head down? Then never lift it again."

Wu Dao stood his ground. As the Deceit Slave approached, he grinned sadistically. He raised his right fist high, the muscles in his arm knotting and tensing. With a blow that seemed to shatter the very rain, he brought his fist down on the Deceit Slave’s skull like a sledgehammer.

CRACK!

CRUNCH—

The sickening crunch of breaking bone sounded like firecrackers.

The overwhelming, beastly force caved in the Deceit Slave’s skull, leaving a perfect Fist Seal. Its neck collapsed as if in a game of whack-a-mole, a mangled pile of flesh and bone shards settling onto its shoulders. Its bloodshot eyes bulged as its body fell rigidly to the ground.

THUD!

Muddy water splashed up.

Wu Dao wiped the splattered blood from his face. In a flash of lightning, he looked down at the pathetic creature on the ground, his gaze tinged with surprise.

Because,

the Deceit Slave’s body had already shriveled, becoming nothing but skin and bones. All of its flesh and blood seemed to have vanished.

’Was this the result of the ’deceit’ possession?’

Wu Dao mused, having gained another piece of information about the Extraordinary aspects of this World.

’When the ’deceit’ possesses someone, the host becomes brain-dead and their consciousness vanishes. The ’deceit’ then controls their body.’

’The ’deceit’s’ movements consume the host’s flesh and blood essence, and it only stops moving once the host is completely drained. It’s uncertain whether the ’deceit’ itself dies at that point.’

’However, one thing is certain: a ’deceit’ can only possess a host once, and when the host is killed, the ’deceit’ dies with it.’

He mentally filed away this information.

Wu Dao didn’t linger. Following the sounds, he headed for the nearest shack.

One mutated Mining Slave could be sated with five Deceit Slaves. With over three hundred ordinary Mining Slaves in the shantytown, and given the devouring speed of the mutated ones, the time he had spent on his little experiment should have been enough for the others to get their fill.

Next up,

he had to race against time. The Four Seas Gang could enter the fray at any moment.

There was no need to search for them.

Among the dozens of shacks in the area, each now housed one or two mutated Mining Slaves on average.

Although these mutated Mining Slaves possessed astonishing strength after their transformation, each one like a circus strongman,

in front of Wu Dao, who had already broken through the Limit of the human body and possessed the Beast King Physique, they were utterly crushed in a single encounter.

He was like the Hulk rampaging through a slum. Everywhere he went, shacks collapsed and gore flew. He killed and ate his way through it all, his mouth never stopping. It was more exhilarating than any all-you-can-eat buffet.

Ten-odd minutes later.

Wu Dao emerged from the darkness of a shack, his body draped in bits of flesh and gore, a more terrifying sight than any Hell Asura.

"BURP~ That’s about enough. It would be rude to eat any more."

He swallowed the last of the Snake Egg fragments.

Wu Dao burped. The roars throughout the shantytown were gradually dying down. The hunters outside the Poisonous Insect Fighting Arena were about to enter. He had to take this time to convert his gains into strength.

More importantly,

He was absolutely stuffed!

It seemed the attribute panel only absorbed the small snake-like embryos from the eggs. The rest—the whites, yolks, and shells—ended up in Wu Dao’s stomach.

The bizarre things were incredibly difficult to digest and packed with a startling amount of energy and heat. After twenty-five of them, Wu Dao felt as if he had swallowed a handful of tiny Suns; he was burning up and felt incredibly bloated.

’They’re pretty good for restoring stamina, though.’

Wu Dao circulated his Essence Devouring Art. Without even needing to enter his Limit state, the heat in his stomach immediately converted into Healing Fluid that surged through his entire body.

His slightly fatigued body was instantly revitalized, and the various scrapes and cuts he’d gotten from smashing through buildings with brute force began to heal at a visible rate.

The effect was no different from the Red and Blue Medicine in video games.

"With this stuff, I can finally use my Limit Release state without worry," Wu Dao said, patting his stomach with a grin. He then got his bearings and sprinted in the opposite direction of the shantytown’s exit.

After devouring three ’immature’ and twenty-two ’mature’ abnormal Snake Eggs,

his attribute panel showed his Teleportation Points had reached 19.84. The ’+’ sign after Essence Devouring Art was glowing brightly. He could now undergo a Life Transition.

Before a five- or six-meter-high vertical wall,

Wu Dao took a deep breath. The striated muscles and tendons in his legs tensed and bulged.

He crouched, then launched!

He shot forward like a cheetah!

THUMP THUMP THUMP!

His heavy footfalls made the rain-soaked, muddy ground explode like a string of small bombs, leaving a trail of craters in his wake.

BOOM!

At the base of the wall, Wu Dao coiled his legs and leaped. He shot up four or five meters in an instant, like a wildcat, straight into the pouring rain.

His ten eagle-like talons dug into the stone bricks, and with another push, he easily vaulted over the top of the wall.

CRACK!

Just then, a bolt of lightning split the sky, illuminating the entire Red Fire Mine. Wu Dao stood atop the wall, his tall, imposing figure silhouetted against the flash. His gaze pierced the curtain of rain, clearly seeing the opposite wall.

CREAK~

The heavy gates creaked open. The figure of Meng Qingshuang, holding an umbrella at the head of a group, came into view.

"Thanks for the meal. I’ll be back for more."

Wu Dao gave a bloodthirsty smile. Without another moment’s delay, he leaped from the wall, his body quickly swallowed by the darkness.