Essence Devouring Art

The Celestial Prides within the Boundless Sacred Land.

All told, they could be cultivated into sixty Primordial Sub-wheel Artifact Spirits.

The long-term deficit was huge.

After all, Wu Dao not only needed to forge all 365 Dao Wheels for his own Cultivation, but he also had to equip the Seventy-Two Primordial Demons.

As for the main bodies of the Primordial Dao Wheels,

he wasn’t lacking materials for their future growth. His treasury was filled with mountains of Celestial Soldiers and all kinds of rare minerals.

What he truly lacked...

...were the Divine Soul Materials needed to nurture the Child Artifact Spirits.

If he were to use ordinary materials for the refinement, the required quantity would be immense. Higher-quality Celestial Prides would reduce that number.

’If I keep refining them like this, will I ’reform’ all the Celestial Prides in the All Heavens to extinction?’

The thought suddenly occurred to Wu Dao.

It seemed the further he walked this path, the more it resembled the Demon Dao, twisted and sinister. It required him to periodically "reform" large numbers of geniuses from All Heavens to keep his Dao Wheels operational.

’If I grow to a certain level...’

Tsk.

Thinking of that outcome,

Wu Dao’s gaze grew distant. His state of mind was as placid and indifferent as ever. He did not fear a difficult path, only having no path to walk at all.

’Hoo... No need to rush for now.’

He dismissed the attribute panel.

Wu Dao’s consciousness swept over the thousands of colorful cocoons within the Primordial Celestial Demon Circulation, preparing to refine the first fifty Sub-wheels.

As for the Boundless Ancestral Land,

although he had erased all traces,

the demise of so many Celestial Prides at once would surely alert the All Heavens, making them wary. It wouldn’t be wise to strike again anytime soon.

Comprehending over fifty Heaven-Opening Techniques.

Fusing the Mixed Lotus Extreme Path with the Essence Devouring Art.

Refining and nurturing the Sub-wheels.

Perfecting fifty-five circulations.

There was much to do.

He could actually take a rare break.

"Star Mother, operate at full computational power and comprehend the Heaven-Opening Techniques."

After tossing the fifty-plus newly acquired Heaven-Opening Techniques to Star Mother, Wu Dao retrieved fifty-two Celestial Soldiers from his treasury and began assimilating them with Elemental Field contamination.

Celestial Soldiers forged from magnetic materials were considered rare in the All Heavens. None of the ones currently in his treasury had this property, so they had to be converted.

Fortunately,

Wu Dao’s Power of Primordial Magnetic Contamination had already reached a terrifying level.

Celestial Soldiers comparable to the Grotto Heaven realm couldn’t last more than a few rounds in his hands before being completely tainted with his color. The progress was extremely fast.

While he was refining the bodies of the Primordial Sub-wheels,

the Primordial Star Mother’s terrifying computational abilities also began to run.

At every moment, vast amounts of information from the Emperor Scripture Great Divine Techniques, thoroughly comprehended and broken down, were poured into Wu Dao’s mind, clearing the obstacles on his path forward.

At the same time,

the Incarnations cultivating in the depths of the Evil Abyss also began to practice the new Heaven-Opening Techniques that the Primordial Star Mother had comprehended. Aided by the Sub-wheels, their progress was gratifying.

As for the Primordial Demons,

they had not yet been equipped with Primordial Sub-wheels.

Wu Dao only passed on the comprehended Infinite Golden Body to them, enhancing their Transverse Cultivation mastery.

The Infinite Golden Body was a Transverse Cultivation Technique.

Its insane power was perfectly demonstrated by the Infinite Saint Master; even when besieged by over twenty World Heavy Artifacts, his Golden Body was difficult to break.

If all the Primordial Demons cultivated the Undying Golden Body, they could tear their way out of a siege of Heavy Artifacts during future hunts.

However,

everything had its pros and cons.

Each stage of cultivating the Infinite Golden Body required consuming a massive amount of precious minerals or weapons, melting them down and forging them into the body to modify its microscopic structure—it was a method of refining a person like a weapon!

This destined all cultivators of the Infinite Golden Body to become like Taotie Giant Beasts. An ordinary faction simply could not afford to support them.

Fortunately,

Wu Dao was now disgustingly rich.

He possessed a sea of Desolate God Ancestor Essence Blood, and his Heavenly and Earthly Treasures and rare materials were piled up into mountains. He could spend extravagantly without fear of bankruptcy.

The unique nature of their Primordial Magnetic Demon Bodies

also meant that the Primordial Demons would have a much easier time cultivating the Infinite Golden Body. They could easily assimilate the magnetic field of the materials and complete the process of forging weapons into their bodies.

It turned what was originally like chewing on iron

into something as easy as drinking porridge.

HULALA~

The Shura Bone Sea churned and surged.

In the depths of the Evil Abyss, beams of primordial magnetic light flickered in and out of existence as the Incarnations and Primordial Demons trained relentlessly between life and death.

Inside the Ancestral Hall,

Wu Dao quietly refined one Primordial Sub-wheel after another in perfect peace.

「Several days later.」

The material reserves were depleted.

Sixty brand-new Primordial Dao Wheels were integrated into the Star Mother’s network, causing her overall computational power to soar once again.

「Another half a month later.」

The fifty-two newly acquired Heaven-Opening Techniques had all reached the Dharma Phase Heaven Opening stage!

His original Heaven-Opening Techniques were also all perfected!

WHOOSH—

In the depths of the Evil Abyss,

a sacred primordial magnetic star sea rose and fell. The aura it emanated was like the breath of an ancient Demon God, affecting a vast expanse of the forbidden zone.

Within the Star Sea,

strands of the Infinite Golden Body’s undying golden light were also mixed in.

Huge quantities of hard, precious minerals

were melted down and then devoured by Wu Dao.

This process constantly changed and strengthened the microscopic structure of his Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles,

while at the same time,

he was also evolving by adapting to the destructive Magnetic Field Power of the Evil Abyss.

This method of improvement—directly altering the body’s microscopic magnetic structure to influence the macroscopic form—

was countless times more efficient than simple breathing exercises that tried to influence the microscopic from the macroscopic level.

This was also why the growth rate of the Essence Devouring Art was so ridiculous.

Now, with the Infinite Golden Body, which specifically trained one’s microscopic structure, it was like adding wings to a tiger.

Of course, the risks were also immense.

Only someone who had experienced countless life-and-death situations and possessed an unyielding will could attempt it.

Otherwise,

a single moment of mental instability could lead to an error in the recombination of the body’s microscopic structure, triggering a chain reaction that would result in immediate collapse and death.

BUZZ—

Within the origin of the Star Sea,

Wu Dao’s will stirred. After sensing the significant increase in his Primordial Magnetic Power, he calmly opened his attribute panel—

Physique: Sacred Spirit

Extraordinary: Essence Devouring·Opening the Sky (130/365)

...

One hundred and thirty primordial magnetic circulations opened!

Even though the seventy-five newly "devoured" circulations had only just been opened, the resulting power boost was terrifying.

This was because his original fifty-five circulations

had now all reached the level of Thirty-Three Heavens Perfection, which was also a significant power increase.

Wu Dao was confident.

If he were to face the Infinite Saint Master again,

he could fight him head-on without being at a disadvantage, even without the Primordial Demons suppressing him with World Heavy Artifacts.

As for killing him solo,

that would still be difficult. Perhaps it would be no problem at all once he had devoured half of the Grand Circulations.

The source of his confidence

came mainly from the new Mixed Lotus Double Heaven Secret Technique he had fused and created!

BUZZ—

At this thought,

Wu Dao’s gaze shifted to the space above the Sea of Origin.

Countless root-like strands of Primordial Magnetic Power intertwined to form a Mixed Lotus, which was devouring the Magnetic Field Power from the Ten Directions.

Compared to Su Chen’s Holy Chaos,

Wu Dao’s Mixed Lotus was abstract and sinister, its entire body seemingly composed of countless colorful mosaics.

Amidst the menacing roots, lotus leaves, and flowers, one could see writhing faces of gods and ghosts and tableaus of ultimate slaughter.

A powerful, contaminating magnetic demonic nature

filled every inch of space. Weaker individuals wouldn’t even need to fight; just seeing this Evil Lotus would drive them mad and cause them to suffer qi deviation on the spot.

The Mixed Lotus Extreme Path.

Its scriptures and mysteries were as vast as a sea of smoke.

At its core, it was actually a type of Outer Pill Technique.

The Mixed Lotus carries the Dao, the Extreme Dao breaks the limit!

The cultivated Mixed Lotus was a Heaven and Earth Grand Dantian existing outside the body, used to shatter one’s own limits and amplify the Inner Dantian’s Dao techniques by a factor of ten.

To put it more vividly,

the Mixed Lotus was like a tenfold ’Loudspeaker.’ The higher the decibel level of the sound shouted into it, the greater the amplified volume would be.

The amplification limit depended on your "voice-breaking" threshold—in other words, the limit of what your own body and soul could endure.

Most amplification techniques in the world

were based on this general principle.

However, the Mixed Lotus Extreme Path achieved a certain degree of amplification without injury or backlash.

It could disperse the backlash into the Heaven and Earth Grand Dantian instead of being borne by the user. This was the core reason it became one of the Ten Great Supreme Divine Techniques.

’That little bastard’s purity was too low.’

Wu Dao recalled his clash with Su Chen in the Infinite Ancestral Hall. Su Chen had to damage his own Dao Foundation just to bloom a fifth Mixed Lotus—and a Void Lotus at that. He couldn’t help but feel contempt.

’Flesh and soul tearing apart, essence blood drying up, and Dragon Veins getting damaged... that’s a Dao injury?’

’So delicate.’

’To me, these so-called Dao injuries aren’t even flesh wounds. Only when my body is tormented to the point of breaking down into microscopic particles can I feel a hint of stimulation.’

After mastering the Mixed Lotus Extreme Path,

he had used its amplification once without any restrictions. He achieved the Ten Grades of Flowering, a tenfold amplification, and the backlash only turned him into a pile of mush—it was like being tickled.

Now, for him,

only the unlimited, irreversible, self-destructive amplification of the Divine Image Heaven constituted a true backlash.

However,

the Divine Image Heaven was uncontrollable.

He couldn’t use it lightly without absolute certainty.

Ever since leaving the Divine Wilderness, Wu Dao had been contemplating how to add a tier of power below Divine Image Heaven but above Divine Skyless.

The Primordial Double Heaven, fused with Star Mother,

was the fruit of his labor.

But the amplification from Primordial Heaven wasn’t domineering enough. He could maintain his human form without any issues; it couldn’t even injure him.

What he needed

was an amplification that pushed him right to the brink of self-destruction—

the state of becoming the most fundamental microscopic existence of a magnetic field, just before assimilating the magnetic field of the Great Dao. An alternative, controllable version of Divine Image Heaven.

The appearance of the Mixed Lotus Extreme Path

happened to solve his problem, finally allowing him to feel a long-lost thrill and excitement.

After fusing the Double Heaven Secret Technique with the Mixed Lotus Extreme Path, he mastered two even more extreme and domineering amplification techniques—

Mixed Lotus: Divine Ghost Heaven!

The Ten-Grade Flowering of the Mixed Lotus combined with Divine Ghost Heaven!

This completely shattered the limit of the tenth grade, allowing the flower to bloom to the twentieth grade for a twentyfold amplification!

In the Mixed Lotus: Divine Ghost Heaven state alone,

the Primordial Star Mother, who was fused with him, couldn’t handle it at all. Yet, Wu Dao himself was only reduced to a composite mass of Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles.

Mixed Lotus: Divine Skyless!

The Mixed Lotus bloomed another twenty grades!

A fortyfold amplification!

Amplifying his already freakish foundation by that many times wasn’t just monstrous—it was utterly insane!

After unleashing Mixed Lotus: Divine Skyless,

Wu Dao exploded into an even more microscopic structure than the Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles. One more step would have been the fundamental microscopic level—complete self-destruction.

’For ordinary people, the tenth grade is the limit for an Outer Dantian, but for me, it’s just the foundation. In other words, as long as I keep increasing the strength of my microscopic structure, even the foundational tenth grade can be broken!’

The many profound principles of the Mixed Lotus Extreme Path surfaced in Wu Dao’s mind. It was said throughout the All Heavens that the Extreme Dao limit of this strongest amplification Divine Technique was the tenth grade.

But the Cultivation Technique Creator’s original concept was that the amplification varied from person to person. It was only because even existences beyond the Monster Level could only reach the tenth grade at their absolute limit after mastering it.

That was how the saying "Ultimate Ten Grades" came to be.

After fully comprehending the Mixed Lotus Extreme Path

and fusing it with the Essence Devouring Art’s Double Heaven Secret Technique, Wu Dao could clearly sense that if his microscopic structure grew just a bit stronger, the foundation of his Mixed Lotus would surpass the tenth grade.

’The Infinite Golden Body and the Mixed Lotus Extreme Path... they’re truly a match made in heaven. No wonder that little bastard had his eyes on the Infinite Inheritance.’

Wu Dao’s thoughts stirred. In Su Chen’s memories, he possessed a Transverse Cultivation technique whose grade reached all the way to the Chaos Body, yet he still chose to pursue the Infinite Golden Body, which was merely Saint Grade.

Most likely, he also had aspirations of breaking the tenth grade limit

and becoming the number one person of all time.

A pity...

Once karma was set in motion, disaster followed.

The cause once sown by his predecessor had become the fruit that Wu Dao now reaped.

’Mo Chen.’

Thinking of his predecessor’s karma,

Wu Dao was reminded of that so-called grand-nephew of his.

In the memories of the Celestial Prides from All Heavens,

he learned that this grand-nephew had also entered the Emperor Star and had made quite a name for himself!

Most importantly,

as for which region he was in now...

Wu Dao had confirmed it!