Essence Devouring Art

SPLASH~

Within the collapsing, exploding Thunder Sea, the surging Yellow Springs River rushed rapidly upstream.

"We tried to get a little something and ended up losing a fortune! Kid, get ready to fight for your life!"

The Big Black Wolf felt its scalp tingle with fear. It quickly retracted the Yellow Springs River, its voice heavy with solemnity and dread.

It suspected that the mysterious man before them...

...was possibly an Incarnation of a Supreme Giant.

If that wasn’t the case, you could beat it to death and it would never believe that someone in the Creation Realm could possess a will that even Yellow Springs Holy Water couldn’t corrupt in the slightest!

No, that’s not right!

He might not even be in the Creation Realm!

From start to finish, the Big Black Wolf hadn’t sensed the mysterious man channeling any Power of Creation.

Instead...

It was more like a lower-tier Extraordinary Energy, below that of a Grotto Heaven, but the amount he controlled was simply terrifying!

Dharma Aspect?

The moment this absurd idea formed, the Big Black Wolf, an ancient being of unknown age, was terrified to its core—a fear no different from a mortal seeing a ghost.

"Fight for our lives? We won. Why should we?"

Suffering from the backlash of his grievous Dao injuries, Wuchen couldn’t even maintain his human form and was reduced to a mere wisp of his origin. Yet after the initial shock, he had calmed down.

The rules of the game...

Or rather, the condition for victory was that he successfully took one punch.

The methods didn’t matter.

And in the end, he had done it.

If the man refused to acknowledge it...

Recalling how his Yellow Springs Holy Water trump card had just failed, a chill ran through Wuchen’s heart, and a dark cloud formed over his thoughts.

Fight for our lives?

What would they even fight with?

The rules of the Emperor Star constrained all things Extraordinary.

No matter how heaven-shattering the Abi Saber’s origins were, it was now just a fragmented blade. It couldn’t possibly turn the tables in the face of such absolute, crushing power.

However...

If it really came to that...

...he, Wuchen, would not simply offer his neck to be slaughtered!

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

The shattered Chaos Storm raged.

Wu Dao watched as Wuchen, in the distance, quickly regained his composure, unaffected by negative emotions. A flicker of admiration passed through his eyes.

An ordinary person, after suffering such a series of blows...

...all their pride ground into dust, would have their mental state affected, no matter how resilient. They might even begin to doubt themselves.

But Wuchen’s Dao heart remained unshaken.

He had not given up the will to resist.

He was indeed a piece of fine, uncarved jade.

HUM!

He reached out a hand and pressed down.

The raging, turbulent Chaos Storm shifted from chaos to order, and the fabric of spacetime stabilized once more.

Then, Wu Dao flicked his finger. He did not go back on his word. The golden Thunder Pool, which had remained untouched high in the sky, flew toward Wuchen, who had passed the test.

"You weren’t bound by the means and focused only on the result. You have indeed passed."

HUM~

Wuchen scanned it with his Divine Thought. Finding no tricks, he calmly accepted the Thunder Pool into his origin Grotto Heaven and began gulping down the Thunder Liquid like a whale to heal his injuries.

As he recovered...

...he asked a serious question.

"If this junior had stubbornly stuck to convention and taken that punch, would Senior truly have killed me?"

By now...

...how could he not understand?

That punch just now...

...wasn’t a test of his brute courage at all, but of his ability to adapt and survive in a crisis.

A person’s temperament...

...determines their ability to think and adapt.

Different temperaments lead to completely opposite responses to the same problem.

It’s like a brain teaser.

The question can be very simple.

Many people get it instantly, while others could rack their brains and never find the answer.

As for that punch...

...if Wuchen’s disposition was truly rigid, his thinking inflexible and straightforward, he would have had absolutely no chance of withstanding it!

"Whether it’s external power or your own, it is all power. The willingness to use any means necessary—that is true power. Without that realization, you would indeed have died."

Wu Dao nodded with a faint smile.

Killing a useless failure who’d gone astray was of no consequence; to him, it would have been no loss at all.

’Such a law of survival...’

A chill went through Wuchen’s heart. The familiar, cruel logic and the familiar, casual dominance reminded him of a certain exchange in Broken Clothes Alley twenty years ago.

Could it be...?

’Kid, since he admitted you won and gave you the Thunder Pool, why don’t you ask about the Divine Techniques?’

Wuchen’s mind was a maelstrom of complex emotions.

This maelstrom had just begun to churn when it was interrupted by the Big Black Wolf’s eager, curious voice.

It was truly curious.

If this ridiculously overpowered, mysterious man before them...

...truly fulfilled his promise and bestowed a Taoist Magic and Divine Technique, just how astonishing would it be?

HUFF~

Suppressing the complex emotions in his heart,

Wuchen had more or less come to a conclusion about the mysterious man’s identity, but a strange revulsion and dread deep inside kept him from acknowledging their connection.

There was another reason.

From the very beginning,

his master had always given him an impression of being unknown and mysterious. He had only ever shown a fraction of his true self and had never even revealed his name.

Clearly, he didn’t want him...

...or anyone else, for that matter, to know his true origins.

If Wuchen were to expose him,

it would be a sign of his own immaturity.

’My daughter is going through a rebellious phase, and now my disciple is too. Sigh...’

Seemingly sensing the rejection in Wuchen’s will, Wu Dao felt a strange pang in his heart. It was the bittersweet ’heartache’ of a father, yet he also felt a sense of relief.

A little rebellion is a good thing.

At least he won’t come crying to his guardian when he gets beaten up.

Yes...

...and if he gets into trouble, it will have nothing to do with me!

With this in mind,

Wu Dao flicked his finger, sending a gleam of wisdom—a spiritual light interwoven with the information of myriad laws and Dao Patterns—flying toward Wuchen.

"Since you have passed the test, it proves that we are indeed bound by fate. I will not go back on my word regarding the Thunder Pool and the Divine Techniques."

HUM~

Inside the Grotto Heaven,

the Big Black Wolf opened its divine eyes, channeled a trace of the Abi Saber’s power, and scanned the incoming gleam of wisdom. It breathed a sigh of relief and said:

"It’s clean. I don’t know what kind of Divine Technique it is, but there are no hidden traps in it."

HUFF~

After hearing the Big Black Wolf’s words, Wuchen cautiously inspected it himself. Once he confirmed there was no danger, he finally stored the gleam of wisdom away.

But he didn’t examine it immediately.

"Thank you... Senior, for granting me this Technique. This junior will not disappoint your efforts."

Instead, to the Big Black Wolf’s astonishment, he bowed respectfully to the mysterious man, performing the rite of thanking a master.

’So eager to sever the karmic ties.’

Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed slightly. He understood the meaning behind Wuchen’s words. This wasn’t rebellion; it was wary, deliberate detachment.

But it didn’t matter.

He wasn’t some lonely, empty-nester starved for affection. From the very beginning, his relationship with Wuchen had been nothing more than a transaction.

What happened today...

...was just an experiment.

A slight increase in his investment.

If Wuchen could truly sever their ties, all the better.

If not, he could serve as a pathfinder, allowing Wu Dao to accumulate experience and be more certain in his future endeavors.

However...

...the Twenty-four Heavens were still not enough to probe Celestial Destiny and Fortune.

Wu Dao’s gaze swept over Wuchen’s origin, his achievements as clear as the lines on a palm. He was stronger than the Little Thunder King, but still fell short of a Son of Revival like Su Chen.

Let alone...

...Mo Chen, who was blessed with abundant Celestial Mandate and Fortune.

Between the two of them,

there was certainly a significant gap.

But that didn’t matter.

With some brutal training to force out his potential and raise his limits, the gap was not insurmountable.

As for how to train him...

VMMMM—CRACKLE!

Wu Dao reached out and grabbed. The vast network of the Magnetic Field from the Celestial Thunder Sea outside the Primordial Magnetic Celestial Prison Cage gathered in his palm. The newly stabilized spacetime erupted once more with crackling arcs of lightning, as brilliant Celestial Might bore down from all Ten Directions.

At the peak of the billion-layered black Thunder Sea,

the Magnetic Field intertwined and converged.

It rapidly constructed a majestic Celestial Thunder Punishment Phase, formed from countless Celestial Thunder Magnetic Field pathways. It wore an Emperor’s Crown, and its Divine Power was as oppressive as a prison!

"Not good, he’s going back on his word!"

Inside Wuchen’s Grotto Heaven,

the Big Black Wolf, who had just been urging Wuchen to inspect the Divine Technique, felt all its fur stand on end. It subconsciously gripped the Abi Saber.

Wuchen, who had barely managed to reform his human shape,

felt his eyelid twitch as he stood amidst the vast pressure, which felt like the sky itself was collapsing. He had no idea what his "good" master was planning now.

"Regarding that last punch, you must be well aware that your current cultivation has yet to reach its absolute, perfected Limit."

Atop the billion-layered Thunder Sea,

Wu Dao stood in the palm of the Celestial Thunder Punishment Phase, looking down on Wuchen and stating indifferently:

"The Technique I have granted you can temper and elevate your Limit at every stage of your cultivation. If you master it, you can escape. If you fail to master it, our fated connection will be truly over."

CLANG CLANG CLANG—

As his voice fell,

the Primordial Magnetic Celestial Prison Cage fully sealed itself, severing all connections to the external Magnetic Field. Inside, apart from the immense Celestial Might and the destructive Thunder Sea,

every single Extraordinary Factor...

...vanished completely. It was now impossible to absorb even the slightest bit of energy!

HUFF~

After doing all this,

Wu Dao showed no intention of lingering. He took a single step and vanished from Wuchen’s sight without a trace.

Only the stimulus of an extreme environment...

...can shatter a living being’s Limit!

The Divine Technique he had given Wuchen was, in some ways, similar to the Essence Devouring Art. It, too, had the effect of allowing one to break through their limits through life-and-death refinement!

He also wasn’t worried about Wuchen ’starving to death’.

That golden Thunder Pool...

...was enough to sustain him.

Of course, if he only consumed without making any progress,

he would still end up trapped, starving to death inside the Primordial Magnetic Celestial Prison Cage.

As for the Black Wolf in Wuchen’s Grotto Heaven,

Wu Dao had, of course, noticed it long ago.

By comparing information from the Star Mother’s Magnetic Field,

he had also confirmed...

...that Wuchen had indeed obtained the Reincarnation Emperor’s inheritance.

However,

Wu Dao didn’t pay it much mind.

He had no intention of exposing this or getting involved.

You have your schemes, and I have mine. As long as we stay out of each other’s way, it’s fine.

It was best to feign ignorance.

But if the Black Wolf tried to use that saber to break the stalemate, the Primordial Magnetic Celestial Prison Cage would be powerfully stimulated and immediately collapse in self-destruction!

’Did he recognize me?’

Inside the Grotto Heaven,

the Black Wolf recalled the meaningful look the mysterious man had shot its way as he left, and a shadow of worry crossed its brow.

However glorious it had once been,

that’s how wretched it was now in its decline.

It was far too weak now. Thankfully, the mysterious man had shown no ill intent. Otherwise, its fate would have been that of a Dragon Playing in Shallow Water, helpless and vulnerable.

"Stop thinking about it. That man is extremely strange, but he truly intends to grant you a great fortune. Whether you can seize this Creation is up to you."

After pulling itself from its thoughts,

the Big Black Wolf noticed Wuchen staring in the direction the mysterious man had vanished, his expression complex. It couldn’t help but offer some heartfelt words of comfort.

In this situation,

they had to accept it, whether they wanted to or not.

The Big Black Wolf could clearly sense...

...that after the mysterious man left, the pocket of spacetime imprisoning them had deliberately leaked a sliver of information—

Dare to make a wrong move, and we all go down together!

Since they couldn’t resist, they could only accept and adapt. Besides, fortune and misfortune are two sides of the same coin; at least it wasn’t all bad.

"A Divine Technique for tempering and elevating one’s Limit... It couldn’t be..."

As it comforted itself,

the Big Black Wolf mulled over the Divine Technique the mysterious man had gifted. Suddenly, its eyes flew wide as a possibility struck it, and it began to pant with excitement.

"Quick, quick, quick! Hurry up and see what Divine Technique it is!"

HUFF~

Wuchen withdrew his gaze at the Big Black Wolf’s urging. Though he was reluctant to deepen his karmic entanglement with his master, he couldn’t help but feel a flicker of curiosity.

This master of his,

while mysterious and extreme in his methods,

was also truly generous. Take the Reversed Celestial Spirit he had been taught twenty years ago.

After leaving his home in Dragon Gate Town,

and having his horizons broadened, Wuchen finally understood just how immense a fortune he had received.

One of the Seventy-two Heavenly Great Divine Techniques!

A heaven-defying opportunity that countless cultivators could only ever dream of had been given to him as casually as if it were some common, insignificant trinket.

And now...

HUM~

After calming his mind and steadying his spirit,

Wuchen’s consciousness delved into the small, multi-hued sun that hung high in his Grotto Heaven—a sphere condensed from countless Dao Patterns and esoteric principles.

The next moment...

BOOM!!

Chaos parted, and a Mixed Lotus soared upward!

The sheer, boundless volume of information made Wuchen’s Divine Soul ache and swell to the point of bursting.

But this pain was completely overwhelmed, drowned out by the tempestuous waves of shock that crashed through his mind and Divine Soul!