Essence Devouring Art

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

The sky was dim, the earth dark, and black snow fell like a waterfall.

The border of the Great Xu Country in the Southern Border.

Deep within a now-endless snowy plain that was once grassland, ripples distorted the void. Two figures, one large and one small, materialized from nothing, appearing upon the snow.

BZZZT~

Almost in the very instant they appeared.

CLANG CLANG CLANG—

The sound of shattering chains from his magnetic field rang out. It was like a treasure, sealed for millennia, being opened, its dazzling, brilliant light so piercing it threatened to illuminate the heavens and the earth.

BZZZT~

Just before the incomparably condensed, brilliant light could fully erupt.

Wu Dao opened his mouth and inhaled.

He swallowed the Bitter Dust Robe—which, cleansed of all its plainness, now resembled a patchwork kasaya, each patch shimmering with iridescent light—into his stomach. His magnetic field stirred, suppressing the brilliant beams.

With a thought.

On his attribute panel, the various sealed Divine Techniques and cultivation methods were all unsealed now that he had left Dragon Mud, the Celestial Treasure Bitter Dust Robe included.

It was just...

This Celestial Treasure Ceremony?

Wu Dao raised an eyebrow, a strange look on his face.

No wonder.

When he had sensed the Bitter Dust Robe earlier.

He had felt an uncontrollable desire, a trembling hunger. He knew he had to obtain it, that he would regret it for the rest of his life if he missed this chance.

Bitter Dust... Bitter Dust...

In anyone else’s hands.

Even as a Celestial Treasure, it would have been all but useless.

But in his hands...

It was practically tailor-made for him!

’Hoo... phew...’

A cute, sleepy snore sounded from his arms.

Wu Dao lowered his gaze to Yaya, who had fallen asleep during the bizarre and colorful teleportation. His eyes grew a little more profound.

Previously, the Dragon Mud Cave Heaven had suppressed the Extraordinary.

He had been but a mortal with ordinary eyes.

He couldn’t see how remarkable she was, only guess that Yaya’s origins were extraordinary.

But now, having left Dragon Mud.

When he observed her bloodline with his divine eyes.

It was fantastical and colorful, a rolling Star River.

Every single droplet of blood.

Seemed like a condensed galaxy.

Ancient, vast, mysterious, and supremely noble.

Within it lay dormant the aura of a supreme ancestral progenitor of her race.

Natural-born Holy Spirit Blood!

No wonder those old monsters in Longni Town valued Yaya so highly, trying by every means possible to keep her by Mo Chen’s side.

Although Wu Dao was now on the Saint Spirit Path.

He seemed to be only a single step away from becoming a supreme Innate being, born not from a womb but nurtured by the Great Dao itself.

In reality, the distance was vast.

Regardless of the strength of their Power.

In terms of status alone.

Even if he stepped into the Yang God Realm.

The purity of his Holy Spirit Blood would still not compare to Yaya’s.

It was a very simple principle.

A snake becomes a python, a python becomes a jiao, a jiao becomes a dragon, and a dragon undergoes Ancestral Return to become an Ancestral Dragon.

The path of a Yang God.

Is a path of reverse evolution, of Ancestral Return.

It is fraught with a thousand hardships and ten thousand difficulties.

One might barely manage to become a ’dragon.’

But for a race of Innate Sacred Spirits like Yaya, one is born with an ’Ancestral Dragon’ bloodline. The starting line is completely different.

Of course.

Ultimately, the Extraordinary Realm respects the strong.

A noble bloodline is merely a fast pass to becoming powerful; it doesn’t guarantee that those of noble blood will become powerful.

Take Yaya, for example.

Her body is a Treasure Mountain she possesses but cannot use.

She doesn’t know how to develop it.

Even after leaving the Dragon Mud Cave Heaven, she’s at most just a little girl with great strength.

How great?

Hmm.

Wu Dao estimated.

In terms of sheer Power alone.

Even a Horizontal Refiner of the second gate probably couldn’t match the current Yaya.

Dragons beget dragons, and phoenixes beget phoenixes.

There was truly no mistake in that saying.

The advantages brought by one’s racial bloodline.

Some powerful races were innately strong, even without any postnatal development.

"Sacred Spirit..."

A thought occurred to him.

Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed, and his vast Spiritual Consciousness invaded Yaya’s soul.

But a moment later.

Wu Dao grunted and withdrew, his heart still pounding with fear.

A supreme aura, similar to that of the old monster!

Anyone who dared to invade Yaya’s soul.

Would absolutely encounter a great calamity more terrifying than the Mud Hell Sea, and might even be targeted by the clan behind Yaya!

No wonder the faction behind Mo Chen.

Hadn’t forcefully subdued Yaya. So there was such a huge complication behind her.

What a pity...

Originally, Wu Dao had wanted to obtain the final Holy Spirit Technique from Yaya.

But now it seemed.

It involved the core heritage of her race.

It was most likely bound by layer upon layer of shackles. Even if Yaya wanted to tell him, she probably couldn’t bypass them.

"Mmm~ So comfy."

It seemed his recent actions had disturbed Yaya.

She was like a little white kitten just waking up.

She stretched with sleepy eyes, her somewhat hazy crimson pupils looking up at Wu Dao, then at the surrounding dim, snowy plains.

Suddenly.

She opened her mouth and took a deep breath. Her little belly glowed faintly, and her face was filled with the delight of a girl who had just tasted a new candy.

From Wu Dao’s perspective.

He could see clearly.

Just as Yaya had opened her mouth to inhale.

The sparse strands of Spiritual Qi in the surrounding world, as if drawn into a spring, flowed into Yaya’s mouth without any resistance.

"Huh? There’s so much."

After savoring the taste, Yaya.

Her crimson pupils swept over the snowy plains where flakes were falling, and her eyes lit up.

"Heave-ho~"

With a kick of her little feet.

Yaya jumped out of her ’baby pouch’ like a little mouse that had fallen into a jar of candy, chasing and gulping down the Spiritual Qi in the air.

"It smells so good! Woo woo, it’s so yummy!"

Wu Dao watched Yaya silently as she cheered and danced about like a snow sprite, leaving little footprints in the snow.

As if noticing Wu Dao’s silence.

Yaya, her face previously full of happiness and satisfaction, suddenly felt an inexplicable, bone-chilling cold that seemed to freeze the very marrow in her bones. She couldn’t help but stop in her tracks.

WHOOSH~

Amid the dim, snowy wind.

Yaya turned around, shivering. Her ankle-length silver hair fluttered, her cuteness tinged with the budding charm of a peerless beauty. She waved a small hand at Wu Dao, whose face was obscured by the darkness, and urged him on with naive charm:

"Wu Dao, it’s so cold here, and not fun at all! Let’s go some—"

SCHLICK!

The cold wind howled as a flower of blood bloomed.

A fleeting, beautiful moment.

Delicate petals, as splendid as a star river, scattered across the ground along with the swirling black snowflakes.

THUMP~

In the biting, snowy wind.

The small figure swayed for a moment before collapsing into the black snow, her silvery-white hair splaying out, gradually stained a tragic, beautiful crimson.

GASP! GASP!

Heavy gasps, like a fish out of water, rose and fell.

A pain more intense than anything she had ever experienced.

Overwhelmed the nerves that would have made her scream.

Suffocation, searing pain, disbelief, fear, anger, and grievance...

The light in Yaya’s crimson pupils rapidly dimmed into a vacant darkness as she shifted her gaze in disbelief, staring at where her right arm had vanished at the shoulder.

All her emotions.

Melted into a single, infinite question.

W... why?

CRUNCH—CRUNCH—

The sound of candy shattering in a mouth echoed, accompanied by the heavy crunch of footsteps on snow.

A tall figure, both familiar and strange.

Appeared before Yaya.

GULP~

The sound of swallowing was heard.

A large, warm hand caressed Yaya’s blood-stained cheek, carefully brushing aside the tangled, damp strands of her hair. He spoke in a soft, gentle voice:

"Lesson one: never trust anyone. There is no such thing as kindness without a reason in this world. Every gift from fate has a price already marked on its back."

The same tender indulgence.

But in this moment.

Yaya felt not a trace of warmth, as if she had been plunged into the bottom of a frozen abyss.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH~

The chewing sound started again.

The ’candy’, that token of tenderness, was gone.

The last trace of light in Yaya’s eyes vanished, and an endless, icy darkness completely consumed her silent heart.

BZZZT~

A large hand reached out.

The magnetic field stirred slightly.

Silently.

A dark, deep, vertical shaft, a hundred meters in diameter, appeared in the snowy plain.

Wu Dao grabbed the deathly silent Yaya by her calf, dangling her upside down over the edge of the shaft. Looking into her dim crimson pupils, he grinned.

"I’ll give you five days. If you can’t climb out, then you can sleep forever."

As his words fell.

Wu Dao loosened his grip.

WHOOSH~

The tragically beautiful, one-armed sprite plunged into the deep shaft.

Her resentful eyes, beginning to glow with red light, stared death at Wu Dao at the mouth of the well before being quickly swallowed by the darkness.

BANG~

A moment later.

The distinct sound of a falling body shattering echoed from the darkness.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

At the mouth of the well, the wind and snow raged.

"Three months."

Wu Dao muttered to himself. His back bulged, a cocoon shattered, and two clones, one strong and one weak, emerged.

With his physical Cultivation having reached this stage.

His Holy Spirit Transformation was just one step away from the Yang God Realm, and he had long since broken free from the constraints of the ’Black Tortoise Incarnation’.

His intelligence permeated every cell.

If he didn’t care about quality.

He could even replicate Sun Monkey’s Lawless Clone Technique, creating clones as numerous as the hairs on an ox.

WHOOSH~

The clone at the ordinary Peak Domain quickly vanished into the snowfield, heading for the Western Desert as it recalled the previously recorded clues about the Saint King.

His main body, meanwhile, sped toward the outer regions.

The last remaining clone, at roughly the level of an eighth transformation Great Divine Technique.

Sat down on the ground, bathed in the wind and snow.

It waited quietly for Yaya to awaken the beastly nature of her bloodline.

More than ten years of suppression by the Grotto Heaven’s rules.

Celestial Destiny and Fortune, and the corruption of human nature.

No matter how noble the bloodline.

It had been tainted by postnatal filth, like a pearl covered in dust.

Wu Dao didn’t have time to wait for Yaya to slowly realize her true nature, so he could only resort to drastic measures.

Just as he had said.

There is no principle in the world that can bring about a sudden, profound enlightenment.

Only bone-deep, unforgettable pain.

Can touch the soul, force out one’s potential, and change one’s very essence.

Innocence, liveliness, mischievousness...

Yaya possessed the virtues and flaws of a human child her age.

But for her, humanity was nothing but poison.

Because her essence was that of a primeval Fierce Beast, an absolute peak predator that dominated the food chain.

Humans have the Human Dao, and beasts have the way of the beast.

A beast walking the Human Dao.

Would have its beastly nature annihilated and its bloodline suppressed.

No matter how strong it became, it would be nothing more than a tamed pet dog, never able to compare to a wolf king forged in the cruel wilderness.

Wu Dao didn’t need a pet.

Nor did he need a well-behaved, docile daughter.

He wanted a true Fierce Beast with sharp fangs and claws, one adapted to the dark and cruel laws of nature.

Upon Yaya.

Lay a good omen for his own future.

But no matter what kind of help that might be.

It could never be given by a naive, mischievous good-for-nothing who only knew how to rely on others.

Only when Yaya truly grew up.

Could she realize her greatest value in the future.

Even if it meant raising an enemy.

Or perhaps...

Wu Dao’s true intention was to raise an enemy who hated him to the bone, one who thought of killing him at every moment!

Because.

Compared to an illusory and uncertain fate.

He preferred tangible benefits.

An Innate Sacred Spirit.

And one with an Ancestral Bloodline, no less.

If she were to mature...

Tsk.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

The wind and snow were a hazy blur, dim and lightless.

In the even deeper darkness.

The little sprite, like a piece of shattered porcelain, was deathly still.

Only the red glow in her crimson eyes grew stronger.

Piercing the darkness.

Staring death at the ’good father’ at the mouth of the well who had personally pushed her into the dark abyss.

In this world.

There is no pain.

That can compare to someone giving you light with their own hands, only to personally snuff it out and push you into an even deeper darkness!

Noticing Yaya’s gaze.

Wu Dao remained unmoved. He merely opened his mouth and spoke, his words even more cruel and heartless:

"Have you forgotten what Daddy taught you before?

Don’t be angry, and don’t complain.

Only the powerless and weak complain.

Show me with your actions.

Your glare will never be able to kill me."

With that.

Wu Dao closed his eyes and entered a meditative state, speaking no more.

His main consciousness returned to his main body.

A descendant of a Sacred Spirit.

Needless to say, her Life Force was tenacious.

An injury like this.

Aside from the physical pain.

Was not life-threatening to Yaya.

Of course...

If, after five days.

Yaya still hadn’t managed to awaken her bloodline’s potential, adapt to the cruel darkness, and climb out of the deep well.

Wu Dao would absolutely do as he said.

He had no need for a good-for-nothing!

And a good-for-nothing didn’t even have the right to be his enemy!

In the outer celestial dome.

Within an ocean of Celestial Punishment that resembled pure white tribute syrup.

Wu Dao, in a state of cellular micro-particles, sent his Primordial Magnetic currents like thousands of tentacles into the Celestial Treasure Bitter Dust Robe while simultaneously opening his attribute panel—

[Physique: Peak of Human Extremes]

[Extraordinary: Essence Devouring Art (99% Potential Release) +

Three-Phase Divine Punishment Fist - 28,000 Years (Nine Fist Transformations) +

Pseudo-Sacred Spirit Transformation 4/5 - 28,000 Years (Horizontal Refining Ninth Gate, Eighteen Extreme Yang Heavens, Limit) +]

[Great Divine Techniques:

Primordial Magnetic Celestial Saber, Ten Directions Divine Slaughter, Primordial Magnetic Tribulation Finger, Celestial Essence Magnetic Burst Fist, Primordial Magnetic Celestial Prison Cage, Primordial Magnetic Demon Embryo, Black Tortoise Incarnation, Qiongqi’s Karmic Fire, Juntian Sacred Armor, Chaos Heart Monkey.]

[Great All Heavens Divine Techniques: Immune to All Laws (Ninth Transformation) +]

[Celestial Treasure: Bitter Dust Robe (Mortal Artifact 0%)

Celestial Treasure Advancement Ceremony: Suffering Dust Mortal Transformation.

Celestial Treasure Law: Concealing Celestial Secret, Cause and Effect Immunity.]

[Teleportation Points: 432150]