Chapter 3045: Devour
The pain was overwhelming.
It felt as though his soul itself was being torn apart, every wave of Ferrin’s spiritual assault chewing deeper into his consciousness. Emery hovered on the edge of collapse, his spiritual power trembling beneath the relentless pressure, yet something deep within him still refused to surrender.
Instead, he watched the enormous plague spreading through his Sea of Consciousness.
And despite the agony, a strange realization began to take shape.
There was something terrifyingly beautiful about it.
This was genuine Supreme-level mastery of the Law of Devour, refined to a level of understanding Emery had never encountered before. Ferrin wasn’t simply overwhelming him with spiritual power; he had transformed the law itself into a living plague that could consume almost anything placed in its path.
Emery’s eyes sharpened.
He was enlightened.
"This could be my way out."
His thoughts reached inward, toward the Star Devouring Beast.
Through the connection he had established with the Stellar Beast Core, Emery reached deep into the savage beast’s consciousness and called upon its assistance.
His seven-tier pagoda trembled violently.
Then, behind him, a vast cloud of darkness slowly gathered, twisting and condensing until an enormous silhouette began to emerge from within it.
The Star Devouring Beast appeared in all its savage glory, its enormous body filling the surrounding darkness as its jaws opened toward the approaching plague. Its presence alone caused the surrounding spiritual energy to tremble.
It couldn’t strengthen Emery’s pagoda itself.
There were no additional tiers for it to draw upon, and Emery’s spiritual foundation had already reached its current limit.
But it brought something else.
Savagery.
The plague that had devoured Emery’s defenses suddenly encountered something driven by the same fundamental instinct.
The rats devoured.
The Star Devouring Beast devoured them in return.
Its enormous jaws swept through the swarm, consuming entire clusters of rats and tearing apart the spiritual energy supporting them. Wherever the plague tried to spread, the beast followed.
For the first time, Ferrin’s endless swarm encountered something that refused to simply be consumed.
Devouring the Devourer.
Two opposing laws of consumption collided within Emery’s Sea of Consciousness.
The difference in mastery made it impossible for Emery to truly consume the plague. However, the clash was enough to create chaos within the swarm, greatly diminishing its rate of consumption and giving Emery the opening he needed to endure.
Ferrin’s shock was impossible to hide.
Even outside his spiritual realm, his expression changed as he realized what was happening. By the time he finally regained his composure, the ten-minute limit had already been reached.
Still somewhat stunned by what he had just witnessed, Ferrin withdrew his spiritual assault.
Silence returned.
Ferrin stared at Emery for several moments before finally speaking, his voice carrying none of its earlier confidence.
"You... you passed."
Privately, Ferrin was relieved he had set the limit at ten minutes. If Emery had somehow continued enduring the assault beyond that point, the Rat Supreme might have seriously considered retreating into his secluded caves for the next few centuries out of sheer shame.
The entire chamber remained stunned.
The moment the pressure disappeared, Emery swayed where he stood before quickly dropping into the lotus position. He steadied his mind and immediately began circulating his spiritual energy, slowly working through the damage Ferrin’s assault had left behind.
The pain had been worth it.
Not only had he survived the ten-minute spiritual duel, but he had gained an unexpected reward from the experience.
[Your comprehension of the Law of Devour has increased.]
Emery’s eyes flickered slightly as he absorbed the message.
Around the chamber, murmurs of disbelief rippled through the watching representatives. Some were still trying to understand how a young Two Cosmos Grand Magus had managed to endure a Supreme’s spiritual assault, while others had already begun reassessing him entirely.
Then, without warning, a heavy pressure descended upon the chamber.
The air itself seemed to grow heavier.
Everyone immediately knew where it had come from.
Kaelgor.
The Raging Sun Supreme’s amber eyes burned with anger as his Supreme aura spread across the room.
"To be outplayed by a junior..." His gaze shifted between Ferrin and Grendel, his voice carrying undisguised contempt. "Shame on you both!"
Kaelgor continued without giving him a chance to respond. "I will never accept this."
His gaze swept across the chamber before finally settling on Emery.
"The share is far too important to the races. His faction isn’t even a half-blood faction. Why should they be given a share at all? They dont deserve one."
His amber eyes locked onto Emery, burning with such intensity that they felt like blazing comets descending from the heavens.
Emery’s body suddenly trembled.
An invisible force pressed down upon him, driving him toward the ground. He gritted his teeth and fought back with everything he had, but the pressure wasn’t merely physical. It struck at his mind, his spirit, and even his very blood.
Then Emery felt something he hadn’t experienced in years.
Bloodline suppression.
His eyes widened slightly.
So it was true.
There really was a shared lineage between the Tiger and Wolf races, much like the ancient connection between the Dragon and Serpent bloodlines. Kaelgor’s bloodline naturally suppressed his own, and the difference in their cultivation realms only made that suppression more overwhelming.
Emery’s physical strength was crushed.
His primal power was suppressed.
Even his willpower seemed to weaken beneath the oppressive aura.
For a brief moment, it felt as though everything he possessed had been stripped away by the Tiger Supreme’s presence.
"What do you think you’re doing?!"
The Nine Heaven Supreme was already preparing to intervene, but Kaelgor’s attention shifted to him immediately, his expression still burning with anger.
"Don’t you dare tell me the Dragon Clan is going to support this!"
Kaelgor didn’t wait for an answer, raising one hand as immense pressure gathered around his palm. The surrounding air visibly warped beneath the condensed Supreme power, and the entire chamber seemed to tense once more.
Ronan finally stepped in.
The easygoing expression disappeared from his face completely as his pale eyes narrowed, their pupils transforming into vertical slits like those of a serpent. An ominous aura surged from his body, and the spiritual energy throughout the chamber began to tremble as though the Serpent Supreme were preparing to fight.
"You dare speak so boldly?" His voice sharpened, carrying a dangerous edge that made the temperature of the chamber seem to drop. "Many of your Tiger bloodline found in bed with the Dark Elves. Perhaps we should redistribute your percentage instead!!"
The accusation wasn’t baseless.
Several members of the Tiger clans had been caught secretly collaborating with the Dark Elves. The offenders had eventually been captured and punished, but the stain left behind had never completely disappeared, and the incident remained a sensitive subject within the Halfblood Alliance.
Even so, the Tiger race remained one of the Alliance’s strongest powers. Their position wasn’t based on reputation alone; the sheer number of powerful warriors under their banner, combined with their formidable bloodline, was enough to maintain their status as one of the Alliance’s dominant races.
Kaelgor’s expression darkened.
Then he roared.
The sound shook the entire chamber as his Supreme aura exploded outward with terrifying force, sending waves of pressure through the surrounding space.
At the same time, Ronan’s aura surged in response.
Behind the Serpent Supreme, several enormous spectral hydra heads slowly emerged from the darkness, their serpentine bodies still hidden within the swirling shadows. Each head opened its jaws, revealing rows of gleaming fangs as cold, murderous energy spread across the chamber.
The two Supremes stood facing one another.
The atmosphere became so tense that even the watching Grand Magus instinctively held their breath, knowing that the slightest movement could turn the confrontation into an all-out battle.
Emery was surprised that Ronan actually dared to challenge the Tiger Supreme. Kaelgor, the Raging Sun Supreme, was known to be one of the strongest Supremes in the Halfblood Alliance, a burning torch supreme with at least two halo forms, while Ronan had only recently regained his Supreme body,
The entire facility shook beneath the pressure, while the protective barrier created by Nine Heaven Supreme domain trembled visibly around them.
Without that barrier, the sheer force of the clash between two Supremes would have been enough to destroy the entire facility.
The confrontation seemed inevitable.
"Wait...."
A single word suddenly brought everything to a halt.
The voice was calm and carried no obvious force, yet the moment it entered the chamber, the oppressive auras of both Supremes seemed to vanish as though they had never existed.
Then the doors opened.
An old man walked through at an unhurried pace, his long white hair falling loosely over a pair of simple robes that made him look more like a wandering scholar. Yet the instant he stepped across the threshold, the entire atmosphere of the chamber changed.
Kaelgor’s oppressive aura disappeared.
Ronan’s serpentine presence vanished as well.
Even the Nine Heaven Supreme’s calm expression became noticeably more solemn.
Emery stared at the old man, unable to comprehend the level of power surrounding him.
And yet, strangely enough, Emery recognized him.
His eyes widened.
The fortune teller.
The mysterious figure he had once assumed was a Dragon Clan Supreme.
The moment the old man entered the chamber, every Halfblood Grand Magus rose from their seats, and even the Supremes showed proper respect as they lowered their heads.
"Greetings, Senior White Sage."
Emery remained silent, staring at the old man as the truth finally settled in.
The fortune teller was the Turtle Emperor Supreme.
The oldest and strongest Halfblood.