Essence Devouring Art

Yellow Dragon Temple.

A glorious light enveloped its peak, with colorful clouds streaming like ribbons.

Inside the Daoist Lecture Hall.

Sandalwood smoke drifted, calming the heart and clearing the mind.

The Yellow Dragon Daoist, with his white hair and youthful face, sat in the lotus position upon the high lecture platform. Clad in a golden Daoist Robe, he was explaining the Qi Refining Dao to his disciples:

"The Qi Refining Dao is like great waves sifting sand, removing the worthless to keep the essential. Its core principle lies in the word ’refine.’ You must seize the impure spiritual qi from nature’s spiritual energy and cleanse it with Dao Fire until it is pure, which in turn nourishes the body and the Divine Soul..."

BANG!

The Yellow Dragon Daoist was abruptly cut off by the sound of the main doors being violently slammed open.

"Master... save... me!"

A stumbling "Guang Shen" suddenly burst in, his Bloodstained Daoist Robe a testament to his wretched and battered state. He took only a few steps before collapsing, unconscious, in the center of the hall.

UPROAR—

"Senior Brother Guang Shen?"

"This is... That bastard! Who did this!"

"Quickly, save him!"

Cries of alarm, shouts of grief and indignation, the gnashing of teeth, calls for help...

The once-quiet Daoist Lecture Hall instantly erupted into a clamorous uproar.

"Hold on!!"

But just as the crowd was burning with anxiety,

the Yellow Dragon Daoist on the lecture platform’s eyes sharpened. With a shout like thunder, he stopped the disciples who were approaching "Guang Shen."

"This..."

"Master, please, save him!"

"Senior Brother Guang Shen is clearly on his last breath."

The disciples didn’t understand why, but they dared not disobey their master’s command. All they could do was fret anxiously in place.

The Yellow Dragon Daoist exhaled slowly, his expression utterly grim. He ignored his disciples’ pleas, his clear eyes fixed on the prone, face-down figure of "Guang Shen" as he spoke coldly:

"Who exactly are you? Your spiritual and physical disguise is brilliant, but... my disciple does not possess such exuberant vitality!"

This "Guang Shen" before him.

Although his disguise was flawless, from his physical body to his spirit,

the Immortal Dao Qi Refining focused primarily on the Power of the Divine Soul. Having cultivated for many years, the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s spiritual faculties were far beyond those of his peers, and he could still tell that something was amiss.

His vitality and blood aura were terrifyingly immense!

Even though it was well-hidden, the Yellow Dragon Daoist still detected a faint yet violent aura, like that of a Primordial Fierce Beast.

At the same time,

a dark premonition surfaced in his heart.

This person was wearing Guang Shen’s Bloodstained Daoist Robe and had come in disguise. He was most likely here with ill intentions.

Moreover,

Guang Shen and his two companions...

’My three disciples... they might have met with disaster.’

At the thought, killing intent burst from the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s eyes.

The silence

did not last long.

"Tsk, what a shame..."

A deep voice, not loud but resonant like the clash of fine steel, spoke with a hint of regret.

As the many disciples of the Yellow Dragon Temple watched in bewildered shock, and as the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s gaze grew ever more wary,

the "Guang Shen" in the center of the hall slowly straightened up. His muscles and bones issued a series of clangs, like metal striking metal, as if a war machine were roaring to life and assembling itself.

The candlelight flickered.

As the figure slowly rose, it grew ever more imposing and inhuman. The shadow it cast upon the hall floor became increasingly terrifying.

A vast, tyrannical aura crashed down like a tsunami, ravaging the room. In an instant, the entire Daoist Lecture Hall felt as if it had been plunged into the depths of the sea.

The air grew incredibly heavy. The pressure of an apex predator bore down on them, layer upon layer, constricting their chests until they could barely breathe.

CLANG CLANG—

Under everyone’s watchful eyes,

Wu Dao cracked his neck. After unleashing his Giant Whale Dominating Body, his towering frame, nearly seven meters tall, looked down upon them all. His eyes, like small black lanterns, swept over the terrified faces of the surrounding disciples.

Finally,

his gaze locked onto the Yellow Dragon Daoist, who was seated on his mat on the lecture platform. Wu Dao grinned, revealing a gaping maw filled with inhuman, black Fine Steel Shark Teeth.

"I hear you’ve been looking for me?"

...

In the Daoist Lecture Hall,

the air was as thick as a swamp.

The towering Giant Whale Dominating Body cast a sinister silhouette upon the ground.

Within that shadow, an Ancient Barbaric Whale seemed to slither like a serpent, its ancient, boundless will seizing the souls of all who watched.

HUFF... HUFF... HUFF...

A suffocating pressure enveloped the entire hall. Disciples below the Dao Fire realm gasped for breath, their mouths agape. They were completely paralyzed, as if drowning from a lack of oxygen, on the verge of death at any moment.

"I hear you’ve been looking for me?"

Wu Dao’s dark eyes stared at the Yellow Dragon Daoist, who was still seated on his mat at the top of the dais. He stretched his limbs, cracking his knuckles.

"So I came."

"So..."

BOOM!!

Like a Divine Whale Collides with the Sea, a thunderous roar erupted!

Wu Dao took a single step, and a terrifying Power erupted, blasting wide fissures into the ground. The Clearing Spirit Stone Plates buckled like waves, instantly tearing the entire Daoist Lecture Hall apart!

"How do you want to die?!"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The violent crackle of the Gangfeng Qi Flow, compressed and detonated by his Power, drowned out the sound of the collapsing building. Swirling dust blew out one window after another.

BOOM!

A raging Blood Flame shot toward the heavens.

The scorching-hot blood and qi, long suppressed within his physique, erupted from his countless pores. It howled and lashed out, the terrifying heat vaporizing the air and instantly turning the entire Daoist Lecture Hall into a fiery inferno.

The erupting Blood Flame was so intense and explosive

that it formed a pillar of smoke like a signal beacon. It shot more than ten meters into the sky like a volcanic eruption, burning a vast swath of the flowing clouds crimson.

’Giant Whale Dominating Body?’

’A pillar of blood and qi?’

The Yellow Dragon Daoist’s pupils constricted. His knowledge was vast, and he instantly recognized the level of Wu Dao’s power.

’The Third Gate of Transverse Cultivation!’

’A physique capable of challenging the Innate Qi Refining realm!’

’No wonder he has the audacity to act so brazenly in the Yellow Dragon Temple!’

However.

’Giant Whale Dominating Body?’

’Could this be an old grudge left behind by that Innate expert from the Giant Whale Sect I killed decades ago?’

BOOM!!

Even as the thoughts raced through the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s mind,

Wu Dao, wreathed in a pillar of blood and qi like an ancient Evil Beast, had already appeared in mid-air above the lecture platform.

CLANG CLANG CLANG—

He clenched his fist!

The muscle fibers in his right arm, woven from innumerable strands of Ninety-nine Refined Steel Wire, bulged and tightened like a great tendon drawing a bow. Torrents of Power converged wildly into his giant fist, which was shaped like a whale’s head!

SCREEE!!

Within his shadowy silhouette, an Ancient Barbaric Whale simultaneously surged forth. It gathered the power to overturn the seas, crashing through the waves as it moved in unison with his fist!

"Insolence!!"

As the terrifying gale assailed him,

the Yellow Dragon Daoist stopped pondering. His hair and beard stood on end, and his Daoist Robe billowed in the fierce wind. His eyes flew open as he let out a furious roar that sounded like the first thunder of spring. He was utterly enraged.

’So what if he’s at the Third Gate of Transverse Cultivation?’

’Does he really think being able to "challenge" me makes him my equal?’

WHOOSH!

The Dao Fire in his Purple Mansion blazed to life, and his immense Spiritual Power washed over the entire hall.

The Yellow Dragon Daoist’s eyes shone like lightning, erupting with invisible Divine Soul Dao Fire. Within his perception, the world became preternaturally clear.

The thousands of falling stones and debris from the ruins, the speed of the collapse itself—it all seemed to slow down. Wu Dao’s descending fist moved as if in slow motion, frame by frame.

ZWING ZWING ZWING—

The ringing of swords was as frantic as a swarm of bees emerging from a hive.

SWISH SWISH SWISH!

In that thunderous instant,

the six Spirit Swords hanging on the wall behind the Yellow Dragon Daoist burst with radiant light. Controlled by his Divine Soul, they shot from their sheaths like lightning, locking onto Wu Dao’s vital points.

But...

in the next instant,

the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s pupils suddenly contracted to pinpricks.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Amidst the fierce clash of metal on flesh,

the low-grade Spirit Swords, each capable of cutting through iron as if it were mud, struck Wu Dao’s massive physique... but failed to even break his skin!

They only managed to burst into dazzling showers of sparks against his skin before shattering into pieces, like ice sculptures crashing against a mountain of iron!

’What kind of body is this?’

The Yellow Dragon Daoist was stunned.

’Is a body at the Third Gate of Transverse Cultivation really this durable?’

’The Spirit Swords were no better than toys!’

WHOOSH!

A gale howled as the pressure from the fist descended like a falling mountain!

Wu Dao was not the least bit surprised.

’How could mere Spirit Swords possibly compare to muscles tempered through ninety-nine refinements?’

"Die!!"

While the Yellow Dragon Daoist was still in shock,

Wu Dao let out a deafening roar. His mountain-shattering, earth-splitting fist crushed through layers of the Gangfeng Qi Flow, howling with blazing hot Blood Flame as it hammered down toward the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s face!

BZZZZ!!

The air rippled like the surface of a disturbed pond.

In a fraction of a second,

the Yellow Dragon Daoist snapped back to his senses. A hazy light bloomed from his body as he mobilized his internal Spiritual Qi to resonate with nature’s spiritual energy, forming an egg-shaped Spiritual Energy Shield of a Chaos Color that enveloped him completely!

DONG!!

A sound like a Divine Being beating a Divine Drum resounded across the mountaintop.

Vast shockwaves rolled out in concentric rings, carrying the surging Blood Flame with them to ravage and destroy everything in the vicinity.

"AAAAHHH!!!"

Screams rose one after another!

The Yellow Dragon Temple disciples fleeing in all directions were struck as if by lightning and fire. They screamed and spat up blood. The weaker ones were instantly set ablaze like human torches and sent flying, their fates unknown.

RUMBLE—

The Gangfeng Qi Flow continued to detonate.

As his mountain-shattering, earth-splitting punch landed,

Wu Dao felt as if he had struck a Divine Drum. It wasn’t simply hard; it was resilient and elastic, like hitting a rubber ball!

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!!

Not only that,

the High-energy Spiritual Energy Fluid on the shield’s surface was spinning and vibrating madly, grinding against Wu Dao’s fist like countless chainsaws and throwing off showers of sparks!

’What a tough shell!’

Wu Dao realized he had underestimated the strength of a high-energy substance like Spiritual Qi.

He had unleashed his Giant Whale Dominating Body, augmented by the Power of the Heroic Limit and the strength of Nine Ancient Barbaric Whales. His Power was immense.

A full-power punch!

The Power behind it was enough to obliterate the earth in a radius of over two hundred meters!

Yet even with such terrifying Power concentrated into a single point, he still couldn’t break the Spiritual Energy Shield!

’No wonder it’s always been said that one step into Qi Refining is the difference between a mortal and a Celestial Being!’

’With this Spiritual Energy Shield alone,’

’an Extraordinary at the Innate Qi Refining Level can face lower-level Extraordinaries as easily as slaughtering chickens and dogs!’

However,

Wu Dao felt no panic.

’Because this punch of mine is not just about brute force!’