Essence Devouring Art

WHOOSH~

In the dark, deep expanse of the cosmos.

A small, Grotto Heaven Level Star Shuttle warped the void, fleeing at top speed.

Inside the Star Shuttle.

A pale-faced Human Immortal from the Big Horn Star Domain kept sensing the cosmos behind him, as if the soul-reaping King Yama was in hot pursuit.

"A catastrophe! This is a catastrophe!"

Ning Zhu muttered in terror, his mind replaying the desperate last words he had received from his close friend back in Lost Star City:

"The Primordial Celestial Demon... Run... Don’t look back... Run!"

The instant he received those desperate final words,

Ning Zhu had fled for his life in his Star Shuttle without a moment’s hesitation, leaving everyone else staring in bewilderment.

After traveling tens of millions of miles,

he risked a glance back.

The sight nearly scared the soul from his body.

A colossal, starlight-colored hand, resounding with innumerable demonic chants, rose from the forbidden area, tore Lost Star City out by the roots, and dragged it into the darkness.

And as for the hunting grounds...

Gone! It was all gone!

The Yong Bird, the various Overlords, the numerous Dharma Aspects—it was as if they had all been swallowed whole by an unknown Demon God, vanishing from the face of the universe.

From start to finish,

not a single piece of news had escaped.

Only at the very last moment

had he received that one desperate, final message.

It was impossible to imagine

what kind of sinister, terrifying fate they had met in the forbidden area.

However,

that last message had allowed the Human Immortal to catch a glimpse of the great horror within the forbidden area—

A Celestial Demon that called itself Primordial!

In the Hongyuan of the post-Five Tribulations era, most cultivators were relatively unfamiliar with Celestial Demons.

But anyone well-versed in the history of the tribulations

would understand just how terrifying of a creature a Celestial Demon was.

Celestial Demons.

The most vicious and merciless of the Evil Gods.

They were one of the main players in the God-Slaying War of the Third Tribulation.

In that tribulation, Evil Gods ran rampant across Hongyuan.

A certain Near-Dao Evil God proclaimed himself the ’Great Freedom Celestial Demon.’ He commanded countless Celestial Demons and Evil Gods, forcibly enslaving the living beings of All Heavens as his followers and instigating civil war within the Hongyuan Alliance.

At the peak of his power,

the Great Freedom Celestial Demon transformed an entire Celestial Domain into a Celestial Demon Paradise, titled himself the Great Freedom Celestial Venerable, and possessed a might that rivaled the Lord of the Divine Court of that age.

After the Third Tribulation,

the Great Freedom Celestial Demon fell.

The Divine Race also fell from its dominant position in the world, facing suppression and control from all sides. Evil Gods were treated like vermin; only Faith Gods, pure of distracting thoughts, found any room to survive.

For this reason,

True God Celestial Demons

are now virtually unseen in All Heavens. Any that are discovered are hunted down and completely exterminated.

Evil Gods grow far too quickly.

Moreover, they are unfettered by the constraints of faith. To fuel their growth, they constantly incite chaos to forcibly harvest believers. Their methods are more demonic than the Demon Dao itself, making them a target to be killed on sight by all.

But now...

A Celestial Demon of at least the Upper-Rank True God Level had appeared in the Border Wilderness of Chaotic Star Heaven!

This was a monumental event.

Neither the righteous nor the wicked would permit a Celestial Demon’s existence. Even the great powers in the outer regions would be enraged and investigate this matter to the very end upon learning of it.

"Damn that Celestial Demon! So audacious! It’s courting death!"

Thinking of his close friend’s final despair,

Ning Zhu wiped the tears from his eyes. As he fled, he transmitted the information to the outer regions of Chaotic Star Heaven.

「Several days later.」

OMMMM~

A majestic, brilliant golden starlight rose from the depths of the cosmos, piercing through countless Star Realms to scan every corner of the Star Ruins.

From other directions,

more golden starlight emerged, leaving no inch of the Border Wilderness unexamined and filling the surrounding Star Realms with apprehension.

"The Holy Artifact Cosmic Observation Mirror? Haven’t seen that in a thousand years. What are they searching for?"

"Rumor has it a Celestial Demon appeared in a cosmic forbidden area. Over a hundred Dharma Aspects and nearly one hundred thousand Divine Ability Users all perished, alarming the great powers of the inner region’s Jiaoxu Star Palace. They must be searching for that Celestial Demon."

"A Celestial Demon? *Hiss*... Seriously?"

The appearance of the Holy Artifact Cosmic Observation Mirror

immediately sent shockwaves through the outer regions of the Jiaoxiu Star Sea and the Border Wilderness.

The threat posed by a Celestial Demon was simply too great.

Both righteous and wicked alike hoped it would be found and slain quickly, nipping the potential catastrophe in the bud.

Unfortunately,

after committing its earth-shattering crime, the ’Celestial Demon’ of the Star Ruins seemed to have vanished into thin air.

The Cosmic Observation Mirror could not find it.

The powerful experts who came to search the Star Ruins afterward also failed to find a single clue.

No one knew

where the ’Celestial Demon’ had fled, or when it might strike again. For a time, panic reigned, and an invisible gloom settled over this part of the Star Sea.

But what no one could have possibly imagined was that

the Celestial Demon they sought had not gone anywhere. It had remained at the scene of the crime the entire time.

OMMM~

Another majestic holy light swept across the sky and land of the Star Ruins, probing everything from the vast to the infinitesimal, from the outer edge to the core.

WHOOSH~

Wu Dao, who was making his way toward the ’Gate of Hell’ deep within the Star Ruins, paused for a moment and blended into the Magnetic Field.

Then,

he calmly raised his head, watching as the golden Celestial Pillar that enveloped the vast expanse of spacetime swept past him, completely oblivious. The mirror’s light continued onward, probing the depths.

Imperial Artifacts, Celestial Soldiers, Heavy Artifacts, Sacred Artifacts, Emperor’s Artifacts...

Although the Cosmic Observation Mirror could perceive the Grand Cosmos,

it was still just a Sacred Artifact.

Naturally, it could not see through the Bitter Dust Robe, a fully effective Emperor’s Artifact, nor could it pierce the Power of the Heavenly Treasure Concept, which Concealed Celestial Secrets and causality.

This was precisely why Wu Dao dared to remain in the Star Ruins, calm and unhurried, after committing such a heinous crime.

’A starved camel is still bigger than a horse, after all,’

Wu Dao thought, his black pupils fixed on the golden beams of holy light searching the cosmos. The image of the masters behind this light surfaced in his mind.

Chaotic Star Heaven had no Common Lord.

However, it had many Overlords. Among them, confined only to Chaotic Star Heaven, the strongest was the Daoist Lineage of the Star God Hall, left behind by the Taiyi Star Emperor who fell during the Four Tribulations.

The Star God Hall had persisted through two tribulations without decay.

To this day,

it remained the rule-maker at the apex of the hierarchy, its influence felt in every corner of Chaotic Star Heaven.

The Lunar and Solar Star Masters reigned supreme.

Beneath them

were the Four Directions Star Emperors, the Twenty-Eight Constellation Palace Masters, the Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Domain Masters, the various Star Lords...

The tendrils of their power extended from the Central Jun Tian to the inner and outer regions, and even to the Border Wilderness, making them the undisputed leaders of Chaotic Star Heaven.

(Juntian: The focal point of a Celestial Domain’s fortune; not a geographical direction.)

From the memories Wu Dao had acquired,

he knew that Lie Huang, the Star Lord of Tyrant Flame Star, was one of the Star God Hall’s many Star Lords, with the Great Horn Domain Lord as his superior.

To strike the dog without heeding the master.

This was likely the reason Jiaoxu Star Palace was raising such a commotion.

’Star God Hall, the Emperor Star...’

Wu Dao’s gaze flickered. From Lie Huang’s memories, he had learned that a major event had recently taken place within the Juntian of Chaotic Star Heaven.

The Taiyi Star Emperor’s Taoist Soldier.

The ’Taiyi Emperor Star,’ a peak Emperor’s Artifact that once hosted the battlefield between two races during the Four Tribulations of Chaotic Star Heaven, was now open to those below the Grotto Heaven realm.

During the Four Tribulations, when the Star Emperor fell, the Taiyi Emperor Star was also struck down, and its internal Emperor Dao order was shattered.

After the Great Tribulation,

the Taiyi Emperor Star, polluted by the baleful aura of its internal battlefield, sealed itself away and vanished into the void, becoming a terrifying forbidden area.

However, every million years,

the Taiyi Emperor Star would vent the baleful qi it had spent that time refining, reappearing in the Chaotic Star Celestial Domain. Once a stable passage was found, one could enter the Four Tribulations battlefield within the Emperor Star to seek their fortune.

Desolate God remains, inheritances from Great Powers, Unparalleled Divine Weapons, Supreme Treasure Medicines, Immortal Divine Crystals, and even Emperor Scriptures...

The battlefield had buried far too many world-shaking treasures from the Four Tribulations. For someone with Great Fortune, soaring to the heavens was no longer just a dream.

Most importantly,

the Taiyi Emperor Star did not restrict anyone from entering.

During the Four Tribulations,

the Great Powers and Saints who died on the Emperor Star Battlefield came from all across the Nine Heavens of Primordial Chaos.

The implications were far too broad.

Even the Star God Hall, the orthodox successor of the Taiyi Star Emperor’s lineage, would not dare to defy the world by claiming it exclusively.

Therefore,

once the Taiyi Emperor Star opened,

top-tier Celestial Prides and Demons from all over the Nine Heavens of Primordial Chaos would flock to it. They would hunt for treasures and compete against one another, making it a grand gathering of geniuses that occurred once every million years.

’The second stage of the Essence Devouring Art requires as many Heaven-Opening Techniques as possible. I might as well catch the tail end of this event.’

Wu Dao muttered to himself.

The second stage of the Essence Devouring Art was Heaven Opening.

It shifted from excavating the potential of one’s own body to excavating the potential of the All Heaven Circulations.

The opening of each circulation

was equivalent to a 1% Potential Release from the first stage.

As of now,

not including the Grand Circulation of the Essence Devouring Art itself,

he possessed thirty-two Heaven-Opening Techniques, including his Main Path, but this was not the limit of his Dao Body’s potential at this stage.

Before unlocking the third stage,

Wu Dao estimated that the upper limit for his Dao Body was to devour three hundred and sixty-five perfected All Heaven Circulations.

Of course,

it wasn’t that he absolutely had to achieve the perfection of three hundred and sixty-five circulations before he could enter the third stage.

In fact, if Wu Dao wanted to,

he could advance to the third stage with even a single perfected circulation, but that was a choice for the incompetent and mediocre.

As someone who pursued the perfect limit,

he would naturally never entertain the thought of compromising.

These hundred-odd circulations...

no matter what method it took later,

he would excavate and open them one by one, just as he had in the first stage, forging an unparalleled Dao Foundation.

Therefore,

a trip to the Taiyi Emperor Star, which entombed the inheritances of countless Great Powers and Saints from the Four Tribulations, was absolutely necessary.

Wu Dao’s luck wasn’t the best.

The Taiyi Emperor Star opened for a hundred years at a time, and fifty years had already passed.

Over a decade ago,

the passage for Dharma Aspects had already opened.

But he was not in a hurry.

The Taiyi Emperor Star was a top-tier Emperor’s Artifact. Its internal space-time was boundlessly vast, with battlefields scattered across innumerable Grotto Heavens and folded dimensions.

Over tens of millions of years,

it had opened nine times and still hadn’t been fully explored. Many peerless treasures remained undiscovered, so there was no need to worry about arriving late and having nothing left to eat.

More importantly,

his current strength, while seemingly heaven-defying, was mostly due to his means of controlling Magnetic Fields. At best, he was at the King Grade, Eighth Step.

Across All Heavens,

only those with Emperor Grade potential

were universally acknowledged as peerless, world-shaking Celestial Prides.

King Grade, Eighth Step,

was at most equivalent to Saint Grade, Fifth Step, or Emperor Grade, Second Step.

The gap was immense.

With his current strength, if he wanted to compete with those little monsters from across the heavens for opportunities, it wasn’t that he didn’t stand a chance, but he would be nothing more than a Little Kalami.

’Hmph, the gap is only temporary. Once I’ve digested today’s gains, catching up will be easy.’

With his thoughts settled,

Wu Dao dragged his heavy body onward toward the core of the Star Ruins Forbidden Area, while his consciousness sank into the circulations of his Sea of Origin.

Within the Celestial Prison Cage Circulation,

all external Magnetic Fields were isolated and sealed, like a distant world abandoned by heaven and earth.

At this moment,

the circulation had transformed into a Silk Cave. Within the central cage, dense threads of Primordial Magnetism suspended one unconscious, human-shaped cocoon after another.

Over one hundred and twenty Dharma Aspects.

Nearly one hundred thousand Divine Ability Users and Great Divine Practitioners.

Within a few days,

their initial transformation was complete. Their Life Magnetic Fields had been completely corrupted by Wu Dao, achieving magnetic field synchronization.

But that was all.

His current Divine Format was only at the Lower True God Level. Even though it was born from his Dao Body and its potential surpassed the former Primordial Divine Monarch, reaching the Emperor Grade, he had only just become a True God.

If he wanted to convert Lie Huang, the Qianzai Alliance Leader, and so many Dharma Aspects and Divine Ability Users, forcibly establishing a Faith Channel,

his Divine Fire would need to advance at least two more steps.

To reach King Grade, Eighth Step; Saint Grade, Fifth Step; or Emperor Grade, Second Step.

But he was getting close.

Over the past few days,

Wu Dao had been refining the Mother of the Void’s Divine Fire while traveling. Not only had he successfully opened up a Divine Dao Circulation within his body, but he had also taken one step as a Lower True God.

Once he had completely refined the Mother of the Void’s Divine Fire, he could take at least another half step.

As for the final half step...

With a thought from Wu Dao, the balance on his attribute panel appeared—

"Teleportation Points: 15,000,000."

Fifteen million!

More than enough to upgrade his Divine Format.

If not for the fact that the bulk of it had to be spent on enhancing his One Origin, Ten Thousand Transformations to carry out his subsequent cultivation plans,

Wu Dao would have upgraded his Divine Format immediately and then taken his time refining the Mother of the Void’s Divine Fire.

Aside from the large batch of believers and the Divine Fire,

Wu Dao’s greatest harvest from this battle was the corpse of the Yong Bird.

His consciousness swept across the various heavens of his Sea of Origin.

He could clearly see

that in the six circulations besides the two used for refining Divine Fire and converting believers,

a crimson, liquid sea of fire, suffused with the aura of an Ancestral Sacred Spirit, churned and roiled. Occasionally, mountain-sized bones could be seen shattering under the pressure of the Magnetic Field, breaking down into pure bone essence.