Essence Devouring Art

From the moment he began to fight the Yellow Dragon Daoist, Wu Dao had sensed a faint yet persistent malice locked onto him.

This malice was extremely well hidden.

If his Overlord Whale Fist hadn’t reached the Realm of Divinity, causing his perception of the world to skyrocket, he might never have discovered it.

He knew then and there that someone was targeting him, hoping to reap the spoils and take his life!

To lure out this ’rat,’ he had given the Yellow Dragon Daoist a chance to play his trump card.

That tattered, purple Thunder Talisman.

Wu Dao had sensed it the moment it shattered the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s Protective Spiritual Energy Shield.

He hadn’t known what kind of technique it was at first, only vaguely sensing a dangerous fluctuation of Energy emerging from within the Yellow Dragon Daoist’s body.

It could threaten him, but it would only injure him severely at most. It wouldn’t be fatal.

If he unleashed Divine Ghost Heaven,

his bodily functions would be amplified to two hundred percent. Even taking the blow head-on, he could reduce a severe wound to a minor one.

And so, Wu Dao decided to play along with the scheme.

The instant the Thunder Talisman exploded, he willed his body’s tissues into a temporary dormancy, retracted his entire aura, and entered a state of feigned death.

Five minutes later, he finally hooked the ’rat’!

However, what surprised Wu Dao was that...

this ’rat’ was bizarre. It was neither human nor fox; Demon Qi and human qi coexisted, with the former masking the latter. And it was quite powerful.

The high-energy gas forming its protective qi shield was mixed with a dense, black blood-qi, somewhat resembling the Primordial Qi of an Innate Martial Artist.

A demon and a human in one body!

’An Innate Martial Artist?’

’The Gang Leader of the Four Seas Gang?’

’Seeking revenge?’

Thoughts raced like lightning. In the span of a finger snap,

Wu Dao had his first suspect.

The Four Seas Gang, which he had encountered when he first arrived in this World, seemed to be colluding with a Snake Demon.

However, now was not the time to dwell on this.

No matter who it was, he had plenty of ways to find out after he beat them to a pulp!

BOOM!!

The instant his head snapped back,

Wu Dao’s physique, like a dormant volcano, erupted with explosive force. With the Divine, Ghostly, Celestial Blessing, his body was amplified to two hundred percent, and the pillar of his qi and blood shot more than twenty meters into the sky!

BAM!!

His arm twisted in a way that defied logic!

Condensing Strength, he met fist with fist!

BOOM—

It was like two charging Whale Kings colliding head-on in the middle of the vast sea!

The immense Power exploded, creating concentric shockwaves. The very air seemed to twist and distort as the Gangfeng Qi Flow howled and crashed like a tidal wave!

The ground in a several-hundred-meter radius beneath their feet instantly collapsed and exploded. Countless fragments of earth and rock, shrouded in clouds of dust, billowed into the air.

’Ngh...’

After trading a blow with Wu Dao, the mysterious fox-headed person, unable to retract his Power in time, let out an involuntary groan of pain.

Under the crushing force of that mountain-and-sea-like Power, his Primordial Qi shield cracked under the strain, and his entire right arm went instantly numb!

Even more terrifying,

SCREECH!!

an incomparably unyielding and domineering Fist Intent transformed into a giant whale, smashed through the Primordial Qi shield, and slammed into his very soul. He was instantly overcome with an agony worse than death, as if being sliced by a thousand cuts.

’Yelp!’

Even the consciousness of the Immortal Family dwelling within his body was struck by the Fist Intent, and it let out a pained shriek.

’Such a terrifying physique!’

’And...’

’the embryonic form of a Fist Intent?!’

The mysterious fox-headed person was horrified. He finally understood why a Qi Refining Grandmaster like the Yellow Dragon Daoist had been so thoroughly dominated by Wu Dao’s brute force.

He had thought Wu Dao and the Yellow Dragon Daoist had taken each other out, allowing him to swoop in for an easy kill.

He never expected,

that Wu Dao’s physique would be this terrifying!

He was nothing like a normal practitioner of the Third Gate of Transverse Cultivation. Instead, he was like an Ancient Fierce Beast, his Life Force flourishing to an unbelievable degree.

After that huge battle, and after taking a high-grade Thunder Talisman head-on, not only was he completely unscathed and unwearied, but he had actually grown stronger!

An endless sense of dread and shock flooded his heart.

The mysterious fox-headed person lost all will to fight. He released his Power, using the force from Wu Dao’s punch to push himself back. With another fierce stomp on the ground, his body turned into a supersonic phantom and vanished over the mountaintop.

"Hmph. Trying to escape?"

BOOM!!

Wu Dao snorted coldly. He bent low, stomping so hard the ground exploded. With his Divine, Ghostly, Celestial Blessing, his movement speed instantly surpassed the Heroic Limit of Mach 3, coming infinitesimally close to Mach 4!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!—

A series of sonic booms, like rolling thunder, shook Fuguang Mountain.

The waves of Gangfeng Qi, exploding from the intense compression of the air, were as sharp as a thousand blades. They swept up all the plants, earth, and stone in his path, tearing them to shreds and turning everything into a storm of dust!

RUMBLE—

Under the silver moon of the night sky,

one fled while the other pursued.

The two supersonic figures became a pair of man-made natural disasters, ravaging everything in their path. One moment they were over a kilometer away; the next, they had appeared in a different location entirely.

Viewed from high above,

one could clearly see the path they carved through the mountain forest. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

One moment, it was pristine.

The next,

BOOM!!

it looked as if it had been plowed through by the shockwave of a furious dragon.

Countless tons of earth, stone, and vegetation exploded skyward. Before the debris could even land, the two figures had vanished, leaving only a wide, deep furrow rapidly plowing its way forward.

"Die!!"

A few breaths later,

Wu Dao had closed the distance, catching up to the mysterious figure. His eyes blazed with drifting ribbons of Blood Flame as his giant, Divine Iron fist punched through the turbulent air, hammering down on his quarry’s head!

CLANG!!

But in that instant,

a single white hair shot out from the back of the mysterious fox-headed person’s head. It reeked with a foul stench that not even a hurricane could blow away, and it slammed into Wu Dao’s fist like a bolt of lightning.

BAM!

The mountains shook and the earth trembled amidst a blinding flash of white light.

The white hair was only as thick as a steel needle,

yet the Power it contained was far beyond Wu Dao’s expectations.

The moment it exploded,

it released an amount of Energy no less than the high-grade Thunder Talisman from before. It sent Wu Dao’s speeding figure flying, his entire body blasted open and his flesh torn to ribbons.

SPURT!!

The mysterious fox-headed person, still speeding ahead, also spat out a large mouthful of black blood. It seemed using that white hair had come at a great cost.

However, the result was worth it.

It had stalled the frenzied Wu Dao for a single instant.

And that single instant was enough.

RUMBLE!

His raging black Demon Qi flared up as if doused in hot oil, suddenly surging more than ten meters into the sky!

The mysterious fox-headed person’s physique, Essence, Qi, and Spirit surged. His speed increased dramatically, and in a flash, he tore through the mountain forest and vanished completely from Wu Dao’s sight.

THUD!!

His heavy, mountain-like body crashed to the ground.

Torrents of hot blood gushed from the countless wounds covering his body. It was so scorching that it burned the earth and stone beneath his feet black.

Wu Dao paid no mind to his ’horrifying’ injuries. To a Heaven Stealer, physical pain was meaningless.

RUMBLE!

The moment he landed,

Wu Dao, wreathed in the rumble of sonic booms, accelerated once more and vanished. If you don’t kill a snake, you’ll suffer its venom. He would not allow any hidden threat to persist!

But it was no use...

A few breaths later,

Wu Dao stood upon the hurricane-swept earth, his wound-riddled body rapidly healing.

His eyes, which seemed to spew bloody fire, stared at the empty end of the plowed furrow. He frowned slightly, his immense perception of Essence, Qi, and Spirit sweeping across the land.

In the end, he only found a faint trace of residual Demon Qi lingering low in the air, but it was so weak that a single gust of wind dispersed it completely.

’I lost him...’

’Who in the world was that?’

Wu Dao’s expression soured. He hated this feeling of being targeted by a hidden ’rat’.

But the Fox Beastman was too good at hiding.

The only sign of the Human Dao was the Primordial Qi shield, confirming that he was an Innate Martial Artist.

In all other respects, even when trading blows with Wu Dao, he had used pure brute force, revealing no trace of any specific Martial Arts.

’An Innate Martial Artist...’

As his body returned to its normal state, Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed. ’There aren’t many Innate Martial Artists in Guangqing Prefecture who have a grudge against me and a reason to attack.’

’Let alone at this specific moment...’

The image of Qi Canghai suddenly surfaced in his mind.

Wu Dao unconsciously ground his teeth, his suspicion mounting.

’And...’

’if I remember correctly,’

’when that bastard ambushed me, he looked at me with a hungry gaze.’

’Wants to eat me?’

’Little does he know, I want to eat *him* even more!’

’We’ll see whose bite is worse!’

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!—

His upper and lower rows of Fine Steel Shark Teeth clashed together.

A great shower of sparks burst forth.

RUMBLE!

Amidst a deafening sonic boom,

Wu Dao rode the wind, rushing toward Yellow Dragon Temple at top speed. This ’meat’ was fully cooked, but he hadn’t eaten his fill yet!

...

「An hour later.」

Fuguang Mountain.

The main peak.

Within the ruins of Yellow Dragon Temple,

dozens of massive, cargo-laden carriages stood in a long line.

The Inner Strength experts from the Tan County Branch were covered head to toe in grime, looking as if they had just been digging through a garbage dump, yet none of them could suppress the broad smiles on their faces.

As for the hundreds of disciples of Yellow Dragon Temple,

most of them were insignificant ants who had not even reached the Dao Fire Realm.

Back in the Daoist Lecture Hall,

during Wu Dao’s initial outburst,

they had been suppressed by the Fist Intent of Divine Arrival, unable to move, and were burned directly to ash by the raging Blood Flame.

The few remaining practitioners at the Dao Fire level who had managed to escape in the chaos

couldn’t possibly stir up any trouble in the near future.

"We’re rich! Hall Master, we’re rich!"

After Chen Ergou finished tallying the last carriage, he scrambled over, his legs moving like a blur as he rushed toward the carriage in the center of the convoy.

Inside the luxurious carriage,

the curtain was left open.

Wu Dao sat with perfect composure, engrossed in an old, black, leather-bound book. Hearing the shout, he turned a page and replied without looking up,

"Recite."