Essence Devouring Art

BOOM!

The Ancestral Land shuddered as if the heavens were collapsing!

The might of a top-tier Celestial Soldier was already terrifying, capable of obliterating countless Grotto Heavens. It instantly blasted away a layer of the malevolent aura, but an even more horrifying, world-shaking fluctuation erupted from within.

Worlds were being born and destroyed within it!

From inside, one Shadow of a God and Demon after another emerged, their auras ancient and powerful. They roared, shaking the heavens and the Ten Directions, and charged toward the Profound Yin Saint Child and the Daylight Saint Child, carrying with them the boundless killing intent of the primeval Wilderness.

"Hmph. Mere remnants of shadows. Be refined!"

The two Saint Children were completely unafraid.

The two Celestial Soldiers above their heads engaged in a great slaughter with the Shadows of God and Demon.

These Shadows of God and Demon were not real; they were just manifestations of the resentment from enemies slain by the Heaven-Opening Divine Axe in the past. They had long lost their former power.

BOOM!

The two Saint Children wielded their Celestial Soldiers, clashing with the malevolent aura of the Giant Axe. The resulting waves of destruction were utterly terrifying.

The surrounding world was shattered into an Abyss, and farther away, one Divine Mountain Continent after another was blasted into nothingness by the sweeping shockwaves. It was truly a clash of Gods and Demons.

Even the far-flung regions were affected.

A hidden Grotto Heaven shook unceasingly as large cracks continued to form across it.

Wu Dao walked within it, ignoring the Energy sweeping in from the distance, sensing the fluctuations of the Magnetic Field in all things.

’Found you!’

Finally.

The light in Wu Dao’s eyes focused.

In the depths of the Grotto Heaven, he saw a towering, majestic structure. Most of it had collapsed and decayed, but inside, the past sages of the Giant Axe Sacred Land were enshrined.

As well as...

The Giant Axe Ancestral Order!

BOOM—

With a wave of his hand, Wu Dao commanded the power of heaven and earth.

A Magnetic Field storm swept away the decaying structure and countless memorial tablets, revealing a man-high Stone Axe standing unshaken by the storm on the central Divine Altar.

The Stone Axe was gray all over, simple and unadorned.

Its material was indeterminable.

But after eons of change, only its surface had weathered away; a core of the world seemed to exist within.

It exuded a supreme, tyrannical aura of absolute dominion and was connected to the innumerable Magnetic Field ley lines of the Ancestral Land.

Although the Heaven-Opening Divine Axe had become a malevolent weapon...

...it was, in essence, an artifact forged with the lifeblood of the Giant Axe lineage’s ancestors. It had once gathered the destiny of the Holy Land for generations, and the two shared an inseparable karmic bond.

’If I want to obtain the Divine Axe... the best way is to gain the recognition of the Giant Axe Ancestral Order and become the inheritor of the Giant Axe lineage!’

CLANG CLANG CLANG—

With a thought, Wu Dao deployed the Primordial Magnetic Celestial Prison Cage, completely sealing and concealing this Grotto Heaven to ensure he would not be disturbed.

In truth, this was an unnecessary precaution.

The Slaughter Emperor had already hidden this Grotto Heaven long ago. Without his guidance, it was impossible to find.

But there was no harm in being cautious.

After doing all this...

Wu Dao sat cross-legged before the Axe Order.

He calmed his mind and centered his spirit.

His vast Spiritual Consciousness probed into the Stone Axe.

Within the Giant Axe Ancestral Order...

...lay the supreme inheritance of the Giant Axe lineage: the foundational principles of the Great Divine Technique, ’Heaven Opening and Earth Splitting’.

Only by fully comprehending them...

...could one receive the Ancestral Order’s recognition.

BZZZT~

The moment Wu Dao’s Spiritual Consciousness entered the Giant Axe, his brows furrowed. There was no inheritance, only a profound darkness.

’Did something go wrong?’

"Tsk, we meet again."

As Wu Dao was pondering this...

...a hauntingly familiar, faint bloody glow appeared in the depths of the darkness. From within it came a domineering voice, ancient and weathered by time.

’Slaughter Emperor...’

Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed slightly, but his Heart Lake remained as calm as still water, just as it had been when they first met. He showed no sign of panic.

’Something from a madman like Slaughter Emperor... was naturally not going to be so easy to take. It’s not hard to understand that he would leave a contingency behind.’

A being at the Near Dao level.

With a single thought that persists...

...their True Self is immortal and omnipresent.

Even a wisp of a thought left behind tens of thousands of years ago as a contingency would share all future information. It was no surprise that it recognized Wu Dao.

"Not bad. Still so calm and composed, unperturbed even if the heavens fell. You are indeed the one this Emperor has his eyes on."

The bloody light floated faintly.

Just as in their first meeting, the Slaughter Emperor’s voice was filled with admiration and praise. Then, his tone shifted, tinged with a hint of madness:

"Come, let this Emperor see how much you’ve grown over the years.

Same old rules.

Win, and you take everything here.

Lose, and this Emperor will live on for you!"

BZZZT~

The bloody light surged like a tide.

In an instant.

It grew from a single point to cover the sky, filling the entire dark space. Like a colossal, sky-blotting wave, it crashed down on the minuscule, sand-like Wu Dao, carrying with it terrifying visions of universes collapsing and Gods and Demons weeping blood.

Between heaven and earth...

...aside from the roars of countless Gods and Demons...

...there was also the Slaughter Emperor’s ferocious voice, which was like a maddened demon, a maggot clinging to the bone:

"Don’t worry about me bullying you with my power. This wisp of obsession was left behind when this Emperor was in the Saint Realm. After hundreds of thousands of years of erosion, what remains is an Emperor Grade Dharma Aspect of the Thirty-Third..."

"You talk too much!"

Wu Dao’s eyes shot up, his face twisting into a ferocious snarl. In a state of Godlessness, he interrupted the Slaughter Emperor’s monologue, raising his hand with fingers joined like a blade and slashing at the sky-blotting sea of blood.

RUMBLE—

One slash, and Gods and Ghosts were terrified!

The Forty Celestial Magnetic Vortex Wheel inside him erupted with vast power, like a series of Magnetic Field abysses. Layer after layer of his Dharma Celestial Realm spun and ground together at extreme speeds, awakening trillions of Primordial Magnetic crystals into a frenzy!

CLANG!!

The Primordial Magnetic Celestial Saber was not radiant, yet it was magnificent.

It unleashed a Severed Communication, an aura of returning-to-nothingness that severed all existing Magnetic Field energies. It seemed that even if the Azure Abyss and Yellow Springs, along with all the Divine Buddhas in the heavens, were to press down, they would be annihilated into nothingness by this single slash!

SHRIIIP!

Like a sharp blade slicing through torn cloth.

The moment the Primordial Magnetic Celestial Saber fell, the terrifying, sky-blotting sea of blood and slaughter stirred up by the Slaughter Emperor’s remnant will could not hinder it in the slightest. It was split in two and rapidly evaporated into oblivion!

’A Dharma Aspect?’

’Fighting me at the same realm?’

’Hilarious!’

Admittedly.

For a peerless figure like the Slaughter Emperor...

...being invincible within his realm and fighting across realms were as natural as eating and drinking when he was alive.

’But the game has changed, old man.’

’Do you really think I’m still the same version of Wu Dao from back when I was trapped in the Mud Prison Abyss and the Endless Sea of Suffering, with no path forward?’

It wasn’t that he looked down on the Slaughter Emperor.

Within the same level.

If it were a truly fair fight.

He could beat the shit out of the Slaughter Emperor with just one cycle!

What’s more.

He currently had forty such cycles, and he would have even more in the future!

But one couldn’t blame the Slaughter Emperor for underestimating him.

The Celestial Treasure Bitter Dust Robe, a 100% Emperor’s Artifact.

In terms of rank alone...

...it was no different from the Slaughter Emperor at his peak. Had the Emperor been fully alive, he might have noticed something.

As for a remnant will after death...

Whatever strength Wu Dao displayed...

...was the strength the Slaughter Emperor’s remnant will observed!

When his consciousness entered the Axe Order...

...the aura he leaked was indeed above that of the Twenty-four Heavens.

The Slaughter Emperor’s remnant will, by initiating a battle at the same realm with its Thirty-Three Layers of Heaven Dharma Form, had already shown it took Wu Dao seriously, admitting its own inferiority at the same level.

Unfortunately...

...it had still underestimated just how freakish Wu Dao was.

WHOOSH~

After the Primordial Magnetic Celestial Saber fell...

...the sea of blood was destroyed, and the remnant will dissipated.

The dark space turned over like the page of a photo album, transforming into the Inheritance Space beyond the Giant Axe Ancestral Order.

BOOM!

An immeasurable Chaos Divine Light Sea surged.

Like a lone island in the sea, Wu Dao was shaken relentlessly by the impact of the Inheritance Space’s Divine Dao Profound Meaning. He fully unsealed his Power of the Divine Soul to stabilize his existence and observe the Sea of Chaos.

CLANG—BOOM!

In the center of the Sea of Chaos...

...countless Dao Patterns and scripture principles manifested, outlining the vague, majestic, and peerless Shadow of a God and Demon that bisected Chaos.

"HAH!!"

The majestic God and Demon opened its eyes and roared, wielding the Heaven-Opening Divine Axe, its wild hair dancing madly. Its strength surpassed all the Heavens.

A single swing of the axe split Chaos, stabilized the boundless Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind, gathered the order of the Great Dao’s Rules, and forcefully brought the Three Thousand Great Worlds into Creation.

BOOM!

As the God and Demon raised and lowered its axe...

...a vast sea of information rushed forth.

All the profound principles of the foundational outline for the Great Divine Technique of Heaven and Earth Creation surged into Wu Dao’s soul like a roaring tsunami.

Comprehend it...

...and he would receive the Axe Order’s recognition.

He would become the inheritor of the Giant Axe lineage after tens of millions of years, wielding the Divine Axe and obtaining the complete Great Divine Power of Heaven and Earth Creation within it.

Back then, for the Slaughter Emperor to comprehend the outline...

...it took him a month!

But for Wu Dao, who had comprehended all sorts of Great Divine Power Emperor Scriptures and even the Strongest Divine Techniques...

WHOOSH~

Wu Dao let out a faint, turbid breath.

Sitting cross-legged amidst the tides of Chaos, he observed the God and Demon of Heaven and Earth Creation swinging its axe, his consciousness connecting to his Main Body.

RUMBLE—

In a forbidden zone unknown to anyone...

...deep within the Red Thunder Abyss, a place filled with endless, destructive Thunderbolt, Wu Dao—who had disintegrated into an ocean of particles—paused his Cultivation and comprehension.

He altered the Primordial Dao Wheel above him.

He took all the computational power from the Dao Wheel’s three thousand nodes, freed up from what the Divine Ghost Celestial Empress had provided, and channeled it entirely to his Incarnation in the Giant Axe Sacred Land, who was currently comprehending the Great Divine Technique’s outline.

BZZZZZT!!

The instant the Dao Wheel’s computational power was applied...

...the eyes of his Incarnation inside the Giant Axe’s Ancestral Order erupted with a boundless, brilliant light of Divine Buddha Wisdom. His Comprehension soared to its peak.

The mysteries of the Laws of Heaven and Earth seemed almost tangible. The once-abstruse outline of the Great Divine Technique became completely clear, and an invisible progress bar instantly shot up by a huge chunk.

While Wu Dao was comprehending the Giant Axe’s outline...

「Deep within the Taiyi Emperor Star.」

In a mysterious space that seemed to exist outside the history of the world...

"Haha, good! What a good Wu Dao!"

The crimson light surged.

The Slaughter Emperor, who had just been ’slain’ by Wu Dao’s slash, was laughing with wild abandon.

He didn’t show the slightest bit of anger or humiliation from having been so thoroughly defeated. On the contrary, he grew even more excited and satisfied by how freakish Wu Dao was.

"With a Pseudo Dharma Aspect, he can strike down the Great Powers and Celestial Prides of All Heavens. With his Dharma Aspect, he can cross realms to slay your obsession with a single slash. A monster like this... are you sure you can control him in the future?"

From the depths of the dim space...

...a point of starlight flickered erratically.

A time-worn voice, seemingly crossing from antiquity, spoke. It was very placid, yet it carried a trace of the supreme majesty of one who had once looked down upon the All Heavens and Universe and proclaimed themselves sovereign.

"Control?"

The Slaughter Emperor restrained his laughter and said faintly:

"Only uncertainty can break the constant. Once he reaches the step you and I took back then, it won’t matter whether he has guidance or not."

"After the calamity of the Divine Wilderness, the karma he carries is not small. That one from Mountain and Sea has also cast their gaze upon him."

The ancient starlight flickered.

It seemed to disapprove of the Slaughter Emperor’s hands-off approach.

"Tch."

The Slaughter Emperor sneered.

"A flower in a greenhouse, no matter how delicate, can’t withstand the wind and rain. Look at the one the Celestial Court invested in. They wished they could have a Great Emperor accompany him as a guardian. And what was the result?"

The starlight fell silent.

Its light shifted like flowers in a mirror or the moon on the water.

Within it appeared the image of a disheartened young man, trapped and hesitating in an illusory forbidden zone.

Then it shifted again.

It seemed to be looking for a target for comparison.

Unfortunately, all it found was a blur.

Thinking again of the two’s achievements...

...the difference in their caliber was immediately obvious!

"Aren’t you afraid he’ll kill you first to make a statement in the future?"

The starlight, having returned to its calm state, asked again.

"Hahaha!"

The Slaughter Emperor laughed maniacally. "If he can do it, wouldn’t that be even better? Do you think I can’t afford to lose?"

"Madman..."

Such an attitude.

It made the starlight recall that same crazed, untamable demonic figure from hundreds of thousands of years ago who had made enemies of All Heavens. It sighed, then vanished from the mysterious space.