Essence Devouring Art

The void is infinite, and the cosmos, boundless.

In the depths of the endless, infinite void.

A behemoth, radiant with divine light of every color, rumbled as it turned. It ceaselessly devoured the profound mysteries of the Chaos, giving birth to All Heavens and nurturing infinite life.

It was too vast, too boundless.

So much so that the collapse of an entire starry sky would be but a single splash in its waters.

At the same time, it was also exceedingly prosperous.

In any given World, one could see vast, fertile lands where Divine Mountains and ancient trees towered into the Star River, spewing forth cataclysmic Essence Qi. Auspicious mists and immortal light streamed down from the Nine Heavens, illuminating the countless mortal realms.

BUZZ!

At a certain moment, atop the peak of Qing Yu Heaven in the Nine Heavens,

a Daoist in a green robe, who had been reclining atop the Celestial Domain Daoist Palace, slowly opened his eyes.

Dao light of every hue radiated far beyond the Celestial Domain. His gaze illuminated the truth and falsehood of All Heavens, pierced through layers of spacetime dimensions, and fixed upon the depths of the chaotic void.

"Divine Wilderness."

With a flick of his fingers, he sent tremors through the layers of the Celestial Domain.

The green-robed Daoist spoke to himself through his Divine Thought, retracting his gaze from the chaotic void. He pinched his fingers together in a calculation, and as the auras of karma and fate flowed between them, an imperceptible ripple stirred in his eyes.

’Not within the Dao?’

Within the thought that had returned to him,

that figure was hazy and indistinct, like an infernal phantasm, present yet not. He could grasp a part of it, but not the whole picture.

This was strange.

The Divine Wilderness had been exiled to an outer space by the Great Dao; it was true that none but a Daoist could divine its Celestial Secrets.

But that avatar of the green-robed Daoist...

...had, after all, made the journey in person. After its consciousness returned, he should have known everything it had seen and heard in the Divine Wilderness.

But the reality was...

The Celestial Secrets and karma were obscured.

Knowing one part of it...

...referred to the period from the beginning of the battle to its end.

There was indeed an unbelievable Demon, born of the Divine Wilderness.

Not knowing the full picture...

...had both a literal and a deeper meaning. He had no detailed information about that Demon, only a shadowy silhouette, like viewing flowers in a fog.

’Did someone interfere, or...?’

This unpredictable appearance made a solemn expression surface in the green-robed Daoist’s eyes.

Although it was like seeing flowers in a fog,

the thought that returned to him...

...carried an unmistakable determination to slay the Demon at all costs.

Given his station,

even an avatar he casually created, a mere wisp of thought, possessed a perspective and understanding that overlooked All Heavens.

And with such a perspective,

it still deemed it necessary to act ’at all costs’.

This was enough to prove what that True Demon from the Divine Wilderness signified.

Although at the final moment,

the indistinct Demon seemed to have used some kind of martial dissolution technique to self-destruct and perish.

But the appearance of this unpredictable unknown...

...once again cast doubt on whether it was truly dead or alive.

’If it’s truly not dead...’

BZZZ~

The Daoist closed his eyes. His mind ascended, climbing to the Heaven beyond the heavens, above the Nine Heavens—to within the Profound Celestial Heaven, which symbolized the supremacy of the Celestial Court.

The Great Dao encompasses all.

The ebb and flow of all things will trigger various karmic chains. When they become intense enough, they will spawn a tribulation.

As long as something exists,

it can never be said to be absolutely outside the Dao.

If that Demon was not truly dead,

and had ascended in the Divine Wilderness,

the moment it created a tribulation,

the Celestial Court had its own methods to monitor the Tribulation Qi of All Heavens.

「At the same time.」

As the Daoist ascended to the Profound Celestial Heaven,

within the Hongyuan Heavenly Realms below the Nine Heavens,

with the return of one Great Power and Patriarch after another,

the news of the fall of the world-conquering Celestial Prides...

...naturally reached the ears of the Peak Masters of the Celestial Domains.

BZZZ~

Within the four great heavens,

supreme existences seated at their pinnacles all opened their eyes. The sun sank, the moon shattered, and stars collapsed, striking terror into infinite living beings.

The other great worlds of the Hongyuan Heavenly Realms...

...also began to whisper in shock and uncertainty after sensing the Divine Thoughts from the four great heavens searching across All Heavens.

"Profound Yellow, Fu Guang, Cyan Nether, Daluo, and the Celestial Court are all sending out their thoughts at once..."

"Did something happen in the Divine Wilderness? The Celestial Court participated in this tribulation too. If you count the days, it should be right around the time the tribulation was supposed to descend."

"The five great heavens, Celestial Venerables, patriarchs, and world-conquering demonic prodigies all teamed up to bully a desolate world. If something went wrong, hehe, that would be quite the spectacle."

The Divine Thoughts sent out simultaneously by the experts from the five heavens...

...startled countless old monsters of the Hongyuan Great World.

Doubt, surprise, apprehension, and cold sneers.

All kinds of thoughts surged and intertwined.

Those who sent out their thoughts...

...had not yet attained the Dao,

but every one of them possessed peerless Creation, with cultivation that ranked at the Absolute Peak of Hongyuan.

What in the world had happened?

What caused them to raise such a ’great commotion?’

There are no walls in the world that don’t let wind through.

And there was never a shortage of people who would break the pot to get to the bottom of the matter.

「Some time later.」

A piece of news that shook All Heavens began to spread from a major Hongyuan power that dealt in information—

The five great heavens of Hongyuan had crashed and burned in the Divine Wilderness!

No specific details were revealed.

But the information that was known was enough to make jaws drop.

In the Divine Wilderness of the Ten Tribulations,

a True Demon had appeared!

The five heavens joined forces, and their entire army was annihilated!

Not only did they fail to harvest the Creation of the final tribulation, but they also lost a whole batch of monstrously talented prodigies with Pseudo Dharma Aspects from the four great heavens!

The total number was nearly sixty!

This number wasn’t large.

But if all sixty of them were the kind of existence like a Son of Revival, cultivated with immense effort and high hopes by a single power, then it was a completely different matter.

It was said that...

among those Celestial Prides who had died prematurely,

many even possessed Emperor Grade Dharma Aspects and were seedlings with the potential to become saints and emperors!

They all died in one fell swoop.

A generational gap had appeared in the cultivation of talent. No one could accept such a loss, so it was no wonder those figures at the Absolute Peak had all sent out their thoughts at the same time.

The matter of the Divine Desolate Tribulation Demon...

...had an enormous impact, affecting the four great heavens and even the existences upon the Ninth Layer.

Spread by various parties,

it kicked up a hurricane in the Hongyuan Great World, and the discussions about it never ceased.

There were those who were curious about the details of the "crash."

There were those filled with righteous indignation.

And there were also those who sneered mockingly, laughing at how the four great heavens had disgraced themselves, stumbling in such a desolate place.

Hongyuan had never been a monolith.

After the Fifth Tribulation,

the Celestial Court had gradually become high and mighty. The four great heavens curried favor with it, and there were faint signs of them banding together to unify Hongyuan and control the destinies of all living beings.

’We are born free, who dares to stand high and mighty above us?’

The words were old, but the reasoning was not.

Everyone playing together as equals was no problem.

But if someone wanted to be the ’king of the kids’ and set the rules of the game,

looking down on others and ordering them around, then besides the compliant, there would naturally be rebels.

Among the current nine great heavens,

aside from the four that participated in the Divine Wilderness tribulation, the remaining four—Buzhou Heaven, Heaven-Burning Fire, Divine Ruins Heaven, and Chaotic Star Heaven—

were, for various reasons, mutually disgusted with the Celestial Court. They simply couldn’t piss in the same pot.

They were naturally happy to watch the show, fanning the flames from behind the scenes until the joke was known by almost everyone.

BOOM—

In a certain great heaven within the Hongyuan Great World.

Deep within a vast, primordial wilderness.

The heavy sound of a collapsing mountain shook the land as a tragic, bloody stench rolled out like a tide, steaming into the sky and condensing into a cloud of blood.

BANG!

The belly of a behemoth reeking of baleful aura exploded from a powerful blow, and out jumped a peerlessly beautiful girl—untouched by a single speck of blood, with white hair that reached her ankles, tall and nimble.

HUUU~

The girl exhaled a breath of turbid air. Her crimson pupils, different from those of an ordinary person, were dreamlike and enchanting, yet held a fatal, ferocious danger.

"Boring."

Glancing at the mountain-sized corpse of the Fierce Beast, the girl commented listlessly.

After a lazy stretch,

the girl rubbed her small belly, as smooth as mutton-fat jade, and was just about to eat.

But just then,

WHOOSH~

The void rippled like water.

A middle-aged man with a terrifying aura stepped out. He wore a black python-patterned robe and radiated immense dignity and majesty. His vertical pupils, different from an ordinary person’s, and the faint, abyssal Demon Qi around him proved his non-human identity.

However,

after seeing the white-haired girl, the middle-aged man retracted all of his oppressive aura. His vertical pupils even held a hint of ingratiation as he praised and flattered her:

"Your Highness has excellent skills. An adult Golden-eyed Dominating Ape’s physique is strong enough to fight a Great Divine Power User. It’s considered a powerful existence even in our clan’s Grotto Heaven Hunting Ground."

"Oh."

The white-haired girl showed not a shred of pride at the middle-aged man’s compliment, merely replying with a single, flat word. Then, as if a thought occurred to her, she casually asked, "Has anything interesting happened in the outside world recently?"

"Replying to Your Highness, there is indeed one thing."

The middle-aged man seemed accustomed to the girl’s indifference and replied respectfully, "Some time ago, the five great heavens of Hongyuan jointly..."

The middle-aged man told the girl everything about the recent, sensational matter of the Divine Desolate Tribulation Demon, holding back no details.

"Mutual destruction, heh."

When the girl heard that the Tribulation Demon and the Tribulation Descenders from All Heavens had perished together, a slight ripple appeared in her calm, crimson pupils, and she let out a meaningful, derisive laugh.

Although their time together was short,

she had felt a sliver of that monster’s terror—the tip of the iceberg.

’It wasn’t just his strength...’

Thinking of the scene when the monster was forging his weapon,

a long-lost tremor reappeared in Yaya’s eyes, and she didn’t know whether it was out of relief or regret.

’The Mud Hell Sea of Suffering...’

She murmured to herself in her mind.

The girl now had a goal for her future.

If she wanted to catch up to the monster,

the only possibility was to retrace and replicate the monster’s path.

After all,

she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t stop thinking about him.

Her ’good father,’ who had taught her all sorts of survival rules, also harbored the thought of holding her in his mouth to dote on her properly.

Before they met again,

she had to sharpen her fangs and claws until they were sharp enough.

...

「Meanwhile.」

"For the Alliance Leader, kill!!"

In a world where a blood moon hung high in the sky,

nearly a hundred terrifying figures, like Hell Asuras, were joining forces to attack a forbidden treasure ground, fighting the ominous Fierce Beasts guarding it with frenzied abandon.

Each one of them attacked like an Ancient Demon, their bodies erupting with blood and qi like a sea, or holding aloft blazing, glazed great suns.

Their baleful aura was boundless, their wills like Divine Iron.

They constantly stomped, unleashing power that blasted the Ten Directions.

The surrounding landscape shook and collapsed from their blows. They engaged in close combat, ignoring pain, and savagely tore the Fierce Beasts to shreds, even swallowing them alive. It was exceptionally brutal.

"Hahaha, you eat me, so I’ll eat you too!"

Having unleashed his Divine Desolate Dominating Body, Zhao Jianji was like a Thunder Demon God. His physique was like a mountain, and his fists and palms summoned a Thunder Sea of Celestial Punishment.

He glanced at the shattered half of his own torso and grew even more excited. He bit a Fierce Beast in half at the waist, and with a gulp of his throat, swallowed it whole.

After a month of hellish training,

he and the Primordial Demons had long since moved beyond low-level physical pain. Their souls and wills were as tough as their bodies.

The Demon Embryo had completely fused with their souls and bodies.

They had preliminarily gained an Undying Body. The mere pain of their bodies exploding didn’t even count as a flesh wound. Even if only a single piece of flesh remained, they could grow fangs and continue to fight.

While Yaya and the Primordial Demons were rapidly growing stronger for their respective beliefs, the major events happening in Hongyuan also reached some unknowable places.

An unknown land.

Atop a Divine Mountain wreathed in the divine light of Chaos, which soared into the depths of the universe and embraced the endless space and time of the Star River, lay the deepest part of a majestic and sacred palace.

As if there, yet not; as if real, yet illusory.

A perfect figure sat quietly in the center of the Chaos. Its aura was majestic and vast, encompassing all information of all existence. To look upon it was like looking upon the Great Dao and All Heavens.

At a certain moment,

a string that should have vanished seemed to reappear. The perfect figure’s gaze pierced through boundless spacetime dimensions to observe the distant depths.

"Wu Dao..."

After a brief moment,

the perfect figure’s expression remained unchanged as it murmured faintly, "An unintentional act has borne unexpected fruit...

However,

"...having gotten involved with that madman, whether he can truly amount to anything will depend on his future Creation."

As its voice fell,

the perfect figure closed its eyes once more.

Karma originating from the Great Dao...

...its blessings and curses were hard to predict.

For now, it was merely a single splash in a vast, calm sea, a trivial ripple not yet worthy of much attention.