Essence Devouring Art

While the storm surrounding the Dragon Hunting Tower raged.

Deep within the Taiyi Emperor Star.

SPLASH~

A vast, dusky yellow river flowed endlessly. Within it, all of mortal life’s passions and desires were like smoke and passing clouds, rising and falling with the waves.

In the center of the great river.

A colossal, fearsome physique sat amidst the gloom, stirring the water into a great vortex as it devoured and refined the dusky river.

The physique, like an abyss of Reincarnation, was continuously destroyed and reassembled under the river’s current, as if undergoing a cycle of rebirth.

Within the vision of Reincarnation, True Dragons, Gods and Demons, and ghastly fiends of the Netherworld roared through cycles of life and death. It was as if the Lord of Purgatory, master of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, had descended upon the world.

But the figure was not in a good state.

His body and soul seemed to be experiencing endless cycles of life and death. His aura would surge powerfully one moment, only to wither and decay the next.

PHEW~

After reaching a certain limit.

The surging, dusky yellow river contracted and flowed back into his Grotto Heaven.

Wuchen, having finished his Cultivation, had a look of lingering fear in his eyes, but also the excitement of his increased strength. As he clenched his five fingers, surrounding ghostly fiends roared and the world shattered like a mirror.

’It’s a pity I can’t train like this for long, or I risk being completely lost in Reincarnation.’

Wuchen sighed with a hint of regret.

"Kid, you should be content."

In the Dantian Grotto Heaven, the Big Black Wolf, its fur sleek and glossy, was sitting on a black, broken blade with its legs crossed, speaking with considerable pride:

"The Yellow Springs Holy Water originates from the Eighteen Netherworlds. It is tainted with an endless Purgatory aura and possesses the power to make all things cycle through life and death. It’s a top-tier Supreme Treasure in all the All Heavens for Body Refinement, Soul Refining, and Refining God!

If you weren’t cultivating the Great Emperor’s Reincarnation Saint Body, giving you a natural affinity for the Yellow Springs, you wouldn’t have been able to withstand it before your Divine Demon Body reached the Twenty-four Heavens.

Not to mention,

the Netherworld Water also has the properties of the Eighteen Netherworlds, which specifically target one’s will and Divine Soul. Without a supreme, indestructible will, forget refining it—just being tainted by it would cause you to lose yourself and become an empty shell."

"Are the Eighteen Netherworlds that terrifying?"

Wuchen was astounded. Just the Yellow Springs Holy Water, tainted with a mere trace of its properties, had nearly caused him to lose himself and deny the meaning of his own existence several times.

It was hard to imagine

just how horrifying the source, the Eighteen Netherworlds, must be.

"Tsk, just terrifying?"

The Big Black Wolf looked at Wuchen as if he were a country bumpkin. "In its complete state, the Eighteen Netherworlds is a Dao Artifact!

Do you know what a Dao Artifact is?

A weapon that carries the might of the Great Dao!

That guy who started the Five Tribulations was powerful and fierce enough, right?

A peak Mixed Yuan Tao Emperor, just half a step away from Attainment Dao and transcendence.

A figure that tyrannical tried to claim ownership of the Eighteen Netherworlds back then, and he was still nearly refined to death in the seventeenth layer!"

"Oh? What about your master?"

Wuchen’s interest was piqued.

Although this Big Black Wolf was flippant, he knew many ancient secrets. He was like a walking encyclopedia and had undeniably helped him a great deal along the way.

"The Great Emperor? He’s different..."

At the mention of his master, the Big Black Wolf’s usually impertinent expression became melancholic and sad. He sighed emotionally.

"Everything in this world is governed by fate. If you are fated, you will receive the fruit; if not, it is hard to obtain. The Great Emperor was born of the Netherworld’s fortune and was the one most likely to become master of the Eighteen Netherworlds.

Unfortunately.

He took one wrong step and boarded the wrong ship, and who knows what’s become of him now...

That damned Sla... *cough cough*."

A mysterious chill, carrying a sense of taboo, made the Big Black Wolf shiver and shut its mouth.

It was all too familiar with that person.

A complete and utter madman.

If he wasn’t completely dead and heard its muttering, it would definitely get entangled in karma.

"Ha, so there are things you’re afraid of."

Wuchen shook his head in amusement. Ever since this Big Black Wolf started following him, it had always acted with an arrogance that said, ’Heaven is number one, my Great Emperor is number two, and I’m number three.’

This terrified reaction was quite a contrast.

It was a rare sight indeed.

"If you met him, you’d probably wet your pants."

The Big Black Wolf didn’t try to act tough. It rolled its eyes and changed the subject.

"By the way, kid, you need to be extra careful during this time. That Dragon Hunting Tower faction is extremely mysterious; it existed even before the Four Tribulations.

They’ve harvested countless Celestial Prides from the Body Cultivation Lineage over the eras. Who knows what earth-shattering conspiracy they’re plotting.

Back when the Great Emperor achieved the Chaos Body, they even dared to hunt him. Their power and foundation are terrifying beyond measure.

You’re cultivating the Reincarnation Saint Body, which makes you a monstrous Demon in the Body Cultivation Lineage. If they set their sights on you, it will absolutely be a near-death struggle."

"The Dragon Hunting Tower..."

Wuchen’s expression also grew serious.

These past few days, the Dragon Hunting Tower had been stirring up trouble on the Emperor Star. Countless Emperor’s Sons and Daoist Children from various factions had been hunted, casting a pall of paranoia over the Emperor Star and completely changing the landscape.

It had even gotten to the point where tapping someone on the shoulder from behind had become an unwritten, unlucky taboo on the Emperor Star.

Because...

those hunted Daoist Children...

were all silently approached by people from the Dragon Hunting Tower. A tap on the shoulder, and their souls were gone. Some people even called ’them’ the "Shoulder-Tapping Reapers."

As long as they were tapped on the shoulder,

it didn’t matter if you were a Daoist Child or a monster—your soul would be reaped.

After nearly a year of adventuring on the Emperor Star,

Wuchen had not only closed the potential gap between himself and the other monsters but had also obtained many opportunities and Creations. Coupled with the Big Black Wolf’s guidance, his strength had advanced by leaps and bounds.

All three of his Daos had entered the Grotto Heaven realm.

And all were at the Fifteenth Layer or higher.

But a person must know their own limits. Compared to those Daoist Children and monsters who had met with disaster, he was still a notch below them, so he naturally harbored no illusions of being lucky.

He hadn’t forgotten

that a Son of Revival from Chaos City had fallen in the Boundless Ancestral Land not long ago!

However...

Wuchen always had a strange feeling in his heart.

This series of major incidents might not have been the work of the Dragon Hunting Tower. It could be someone else using their name to carry out some unspeakable plot.

’Could it be them?’

He thought of the mysterious faction related to his master that he had encountered in the Dao Stone Mine six months ago.

Wuchen’s brow furrowed slightly.

That group was also entirely composed of accomplished Transverse Cultivation practitioners. If they wanted to impersonate the Dragon Hunting Tower, they had a natural advantage.

If it really was them...

...then the image of the domineering yet gentle master in his memory would become extremely terrifying.

Although Wuchen never considered himself a good person, he was by no means monstrously evil or anti-human. He still had a bottom line as a human being.

’I find it hard to accept the things the ’Dragon Hunting Tower’ has done—actions that place them in direct opposition to the Human Race.’

’Master...’

Wuchen’s gaze flickered. His feelings toward the master who had given him a new life, yet also plotted against him, were now complicated.

He was not a Primordial Demon.

Nor was he a puppet living for someone else.

Although his thoughts had been influenced by Wu Dao’s enlightenment during his childhood,

he was ultimately a person with the ability to think independently and with his own values. Faced with a master whose image was becoming more and more terrifying,

he felt for the first time that he should keep his distance. His intuition told him he could no longer be entangled in karma with his master, or his future would be fraught with unpredictable danger.

"...Hey, kid, do you think someone might be impersonating the Dragon Hunting Tower to do these sinister deeds? Why else would they suddenly change their tastes?"

The Big Black Wolf’s eyes darted around as it speculated aloud, pulling Wuchen back from his thoughts.

"Perhaps."

Wuchen exhaled a breath of turbid air, suppressing the chaotic thoughts in his mind. He summoned the Yellow Springs River and resumed his arduous Cultivation, an urgent desire to control his own destiny burning within him.

"Kid, you don’t have to push yourself so hard."

The Big Black Wolf sensed the change in Wuchen’s mood and frowned.

"Too much of anything is a bad thing. There’s still some time before Huanwu Mountain fully opens. A balance of tension and relaxation is the key to better progress."

Wuchen said nothing.

He merely endured the pain of his soul and body cycling through life and death as his Original Purgatory Nether Light flared. To the Big Black Wolf’s cry of alarm, he chose to sink directly into the Yellow Springs River to cultivate.

...

RUSTLE~

In another part of the Emperor Star.

Within the Immortal Light Holy Realm, branches and leaves swayed.

Profound Daoist Teachings emanated from the Ancient Bodhi Tree atop the Holy Land High Mountain. The sound was enlightening, clearing the mind and opening the heart as if one had been suddenly awakened.

THUD!

At the top of the mountain-climbing steps, beneath the Bodhi Tree.

A bloody hand slapped onto the stone step.

Mo Chen, his body withered and his spirit exhausted, tumbled onto the ground beneath the Bodhi Tree. His slightly dim eyes glanced back at the cloud-wreathed steps behind him before he closed them and let out a long, turbid breath.

"The Bodhi Enlightenment Tree..."

Gazing up at the Bodhi leaves interwoven with the patterns of the Great Dao, Mo Chen recalled the dreamlike illusions he had faced on his ascent and couldn’t help but give a bitter, self-mocking smile.

It is said that cultivating strength and body is easier than cultivating the heart.

It is easy to overturn heaven and earth, but difficult to achieve a luminous heart.

Bodhi.

To awaken wisdom, to understand the truth.

The trial of the Bodhi Enlightenment Tree.

It was largely a process of clarifying the Dao Heart, freeing it from obstacles and attachments.

From childhood to adulthood,

through constant exposure and the guidance of good teachers and friends,

he had learned too many of the world’s great principles, the rules of how to conduct oneself.

But when the Bodhi Tree questioned his heart,

what was right?

And what was wrong?

Was he truly right?

Were others truly wrong?

...

He found himself lost between the principles of light and the selfish, evil roots of human nature. He hesitated before each and every voice, his Dao Heart suffering as if in a furnace.

"A True Master has seven emotions and six desires; one who is selfless and desireless is but a stone man. To be too attached to the light is, in itself, a form of demonic obsession. In this lesson, you have rediscovered your humanity, and that is enough."

A gentle, appreciative voice spoke within his Heart Lake,

pulling Mo Chen back from his state of confusion.

"I do not seek flawless light, only a clear conscience..."

The gloom in Mo Chen’s eyes faded. As he muttered to himself, the light returned to them, and he sat down calmly beneath the Bodhi Tree.

’Alas, a clear conscience...’

The being in his Heart Lake sighed. Some matters involved too much karma. Once fate intervened, the path of a clear conscience would become a joke.

It had guided Mo Chen onto the path of the Bodhi Tree’s questioning precisely to solve this problem. It needed Mo Chen to become a true human.

To thereby escape the destiny planned for him by others.

Self-realization versus forced correction.

The former was always better.

From the looks of it now...

...there was still a long way to go before Mo Chen could truly possess a complete humanity.

’The Dragon Hunting Tower...’

A flash of insight.

A piece of information surfaced in its consciousness.

’I hope you do not bring about your own ruin.’

The aura of the unknown existence in Mo Chen’s Heart Lake grew several degrees more domineering and sharp.

Whether it was karma or schemes,

it was ultimately bound to Mo Chen’s future. Before Mo Chen could truly mature, it would naturally be protective and shield him from the storm.

A pity about the Innate Chaos Body.

In that scheme back then,

Mo Chen, having had a true name and Celestial Destiny and Fortune transplanted onto him, had undoubtedly occupied the dominant position in terms of karma.

In the deeper layers of the plot,

many of the "devourers" would become Mo Chen’s companions, while others would become his fated enemies—fodder for his growth in a battle royale.

The Chaos Body, Su Chen.

He was supposed to become Mo Chen’s fated rival in the future.

But the world is unpredictable, and fate is fickle.

The Chaos Body had died prematurely.

Several old monsters in Chaos City had been so furious lately that their hair stood on end.

But the Dragon Hunting Tower was utterly mysterious, existing in some unfathomable space-time. From ancient times to the present, no one knew the location of its lair, nor could they even deduce any information about its members.

Chaos City could only suffer the loss in silence.

If Wu Dao knew about this,

he would probably feel that he and the Dragon Hunting Tower were fated to be connected.

He had the Bitter Dust Robe to conceal the Celestial Secret.

The Dragon Hunting Tower also had methods to shield itself from the karmic calculations of the All Heavens. The two were too similar; they were the perfect scapegoat.