Essence Devouring Art

When the Primordial Demons snapped out of their trance, their faces all held a look of wanting more.

Then, they began to sense the functions of the Dao Wheel that had fused with their bodies...

"Hiss... Unbelievable! With the Dao Wheel’s aid, I can definitely reach the Twentieth Heaven of the Divine Demon Body in half a month at most!"

Zhao Jianji’s expression was one of thrilled excitement. Realizing what an immense gift and Creation this was, he quickly dropped to one knee again and praised loudly:

"Alliance Leader, your Mighty Divine Power is immense and your grace is boundless! Even across ten thousand lifetimes of Reincarnation, we swear to follow you to our deaths!"

"That’s enough!"

Wu Dao raised a hand, stopping the other Primordial Demons from following suit. His voice boomed:

"You all now understand the Mighty Power of the Dao Wheel and the Star Mother. Before Huanwu Mountain opens, there is no need for you to be distracted with missions.

Select suitable Divine Power Emperor Scriptures.

Focus all your efforts on your Cultivation and developing the potential of your Divine Demon Bodies!"

The current potential of the Primordial Demons’ Primordial Magnetism bodies was Forty-five Circulations. Excluding him, the King of Monsters, this potential was already unrivaled across All Heavens.

There was no need to upgrade it further.

What he needed were enforcers who could charge into the fray and generate benefits for him.

Not a group of freeloaders.

He wasn’t raising pigs; he didn’t want a group of Ascetic Cultivators who did nothing but focus on developing their own potential.

Forty-five Circulations.

Once fully developed.

Any one of the Primordial Demons would be able to crush any so-called monstrous Daoist Child in All Heavens. Fighting above their realm would be effortless, and they would be more than capable of holding their own.

""We will not betray the Alliance Leader’s trust!""

Zhao Jianji and the other Primordial Demons accepted the command with a resounding cry. After shouldering their Primordial Sub-wheels and downloading their chosen Divine Power Emperor Scriptures.

Each of them activated their Dao Wheel.

They eagerly leaped into the Evil Abyss and began an accelerated Cultivation that made them howl in excitement.

"You can take your time with the others, but the Divine Technique, One Origin, Ten Thousand Transformations, will determine the pace of your future development. You must master it completely."

Wu Dao’s voice rang out with a reminder.

One Origin, Ten Thousand Transformations.

It was the Incarnation Technique he had created.

If the Primordial Demons also mastered it, they too could be like him, outsourcing their Cultivation to their Incarnations and greatly accelerating their progress. ’It’s just a matter of setting up a few more connections, after all.’

WHOOSH~

The sea of clouds surged, and the stars shone with brilliant light.

After the Primordial Demons departed.

Wu Dao, who was at the summit of the Infinite Golden Stele, also stood up and stretched his body. With a thought, he opened his attribute panel to check his progress.

The Great Divine Power Emperor Scriptures he now possessed could open a total of 340 Primordial Magnetism Circulations.

Among them.

The fifty-five Circulations he had before the battle at the Boundless Ancestral Land had all reached the Thirty-Three Heavens Perfection state for their Dharma Aspects.

After his time in the Boundless Ancestral Land.

The Heaven-Opening Technique he had acquired could open seventy-five Circulations. He had only just recently opened their Dharma Image Heavenly Cycles, so reaching perfection would still take some time.

As for the Emperor Scriptures and Great Divine Techniques he’d obtained by hunting across All Heavens, they accounted for a total of 210 Circulations, which he had yet to tap into.

However, Wu Dao estimated...

...that bringing them all to perfection wouldn’t take more than two months!

Because.

After his fifty-five Circulations had reached perfection.

He no longer needed to push his Cultivation to the Limit in pursuit of higher realms. All he had to do was retrace his steps to strengthen his foundation and power.

In addition.

He had the assistance and acceleration of over three hundred Primordial Dao Wheels!

For him, Cultivation was like launching a rocket on a wide, open highway!

If all 340 Circulations reached perfection.

An ordinary Creation Realm expert...

...wouldn’t even be worth his notice.

RUMBLE—

The Evil Abyss was bottomless. Its boundless baleful qi formed deep-sea vortexes, evolving into one semi-illusory Four Tribulations Asura Battlefield after another.

At a certain moment.

It was as if vast heavens had plunged into the depths of the Evil Abyss, stirring up immense, surging waves that then crashed back with even greater ferocity, submerging one towering figure after another.

Within the deepest reaches of the Evil Abyss.

Wu Dao stood firm and unmoving, the Primordial Star Mother on his back, his physique like an ancient, immovable boulder in a raging torrent.

Heavens formed from Divine Power Emperor Scriptures manifested around him, and within the grinding temper of the Asura’s baleful qi, he cultivated one Heaven-Opening Technique after another.

In other locations above him.

Identical phenomena could be seen.

They were his hundreds of Incarnations. Each Incarnation was focused on a single Divine Power Emperor Scripture, and the cultivation gains they fed back to him every moment were causing Wu Dao’s Primordial Magnetic Origin to soar.

...

"Hm?"

「Half a month later.」

Wu Dao, who had been immersed in his Cultivation, suddenly opened his eyes. His expression was profound as his consciousness descended upon the Incarnation monitoring Huanwu Mountain.

Core of the Four Tribulations Battlefield, Taiyi Emperor Star.

The depths of space were desolate, with only faint stars twinkling.

’Huanwu...’

Atop a smooth meteor.

Wu Dao, dressed in a black Daoist Robe, stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing into the cosmic depths.

Before him, in the center of the cosmos.

A vast, brilliant Star Sea, with countless stars revolving around a hazy, sacred land bathed in immortal light, stood out like a cosmic lighthouse.

That place.

That was the Huanwu Mountain Ancestral Land, the soon-to-be-unsealed Ultimate Creation Land of the Taiyi Emperor Star, also known as the All Heavens Martial Vault!

This cosmos.

Was once the imperial cosmos of Huanwu Mountain!

Before the Four Tribulations, Huanwu Mountain...

...had been incomparably brilliant and prosperous. Even after its decline, it was second only to the Star God Hall, having nurtured numerous Emperor Realm experts over the ages.

Any who had become an Emperor...

...possessed true Mighty Divine Power and boundless Taoist Techniques. For them, refining an entire cosmos into a dojo was a simple matter.

This particular cosmos.

Judging by the residual space-time Magnetic Field.

Wu Dao estimated that in its complete, peak state, it was likely second only to the outer Star Divine Domain.

Unfortunately...

After tens of millions of years of erosion from Tribulation Qi...

...only a core Star Sea surrounding the Ancestral Land was left, orbiting forlornly in the center of the desolate cosmos.

In the eyes of an ordinary person, it was still boundless.

But to those with accomplished cultivation, it was truly insignificant.

However.

Even if it was insignificant.

It was still the Ultimate Creation Land on an Emperor Star, once blessed by the Taoist Techniques of Huanwu Mountain’s many Emperors.

From across the vast expanse of space-time.

Wu Dao could still clearly sense the interconnected Magnetic Fields of the Star Sea’s innumerable stars, protecting the Core Ancestral Land like a Grand Array of All Heavens.

Before it was time for it to open.

Even an attack with a complete Saint Master Divine Weapon couldn’t hope to shake it in the slightest.

’The periphery has already opened. It won’t be long before the core does too.’

Wu Dao’s divine eyes pierced through space-time.

He could see many cultivators searching for Creation among the Star River Mountains in the outer regions of the Cosmic Mountain’s ancestral continent.

The sealing power of the Star Sea Array.

...would gradually weaken as the Taiyi Emperor Star spewed forth and wore away the Tribulation Qi, until the Core Ancestral Land was completely open. This was a truth gleaned from the experience of generations of cultivators who had entered the Emperor Star over millions of years.

’It’s been twenty years. I wonder if my dear disciple still remembers his master?’

The corners of Wu Dao’s mouth curved up slightly. Following a familiar fluctuation in the Magnetic Field, he locked onto a shattered continent on the edge of the Star Sea, then took one step and vanished from the meteor.

Cosmic Mountain.

The Ultimate Creation Land of the Taiyi Emperor Star.

And compared to other areas.

The Tribulation Qi in the Little Cosmos where Huanwu Mountain resided was much weaker, and the Star Sea contained numerous safe zones in the form of All Heavens Dojos.

When the Taiyi Emperor Star opened several decades ago, it attracted countless cultivators from All Heavens, who teleported into the Huanwu Cosmos.

To this day.

With the opening of the Huanwu Ancestral Land imminent.

Every dojo in the Star Sea was packed to the brim. An outsider who didn’t know the truth would likely mistake it for a prosperous interstellar civilization.

As Wu Dao journeyed across the starry sky.

Along the way, he occasionally saw fleets of warships and groups of cultivators crossing the galaxy, moving in and out of the Pocket Worlds on the periphery like swarms of bees gathering nectar.

Occasionally.

He could also see some extreme cultivators fighting fiercely over opportunities for Creation, shattering stars and collapsing the space-time of the Ten Directions.

A cultivator with a majestic physique, who saw stars as mere dust, swallowed a Pocket World whole and tried to flee, only to be beaten so badly the next moment that he spat it back out. His blood splattered across the Star River as he died, his Dao extinguished.

Natural selection, the law of the jungle.

On the lawless Taiyi Emperor Star, this reality was clearly amplified a hundred, even a thousand times over.

WHOOSH~

Taking in the scenery along the way.

After crossing the Nine Heavens Gang Cloud Sea, Wu Dao finally arrived at his destination: the hinterlands of a vast and boundless continent.

RUMBLE—CRACKLE! POP!

Boundless scarlet thunderclouds surged majestically across the sky.

Myriad layers of electrical arcs from the Thunder Sea exploded into tree-like patterns, tearing through the Nine Heavens and spreading into the cosmos, annihilating star after star.

"WUUUU—"

Within the lightning storm at the heart of the Thunder Sea.

A peerlessly domineering Fist Dao Will was tenaciously rising.

It transformed into Ancient Barbaric Whales whose bodies blotted out the sky. Constructed from endless scarlet Celestial Thunder and pitch-black hellfire, they swam through the storm, shattering the Thunder Sea with swings of their tails and crushing the heavens of the Ten Directions.

’Thunder Punishment Dominating Whale Fist...’

The familiar Fist Dao Will.

The vast and mighty Celestial Might of the thunderbolts.

...caused Wu Dao’s eyes to flicker. It was as if he was seeing himself back then in the Divine Wilderness Heavenly Thunder Sea, using the Celestial Thunder to temper his body at the threshold of life and death.

However.

This little fellow seemed to have broken the mold, forging his own path on the foundation of the Thunder Punishment Dominating Whale Fist.

A Dual Dao within a single fist!

Celestial Thunder and...

Purgatory Karmic Fire?

Wu Dao observed the Overlord Whales spewing pitch-black scarlet Karmic Fire, his eyes narrowing slightly. The familiar aura reminded him of the second level of the Eighteen Netherworlds: the Heart-Burning Fire Sea.

Hellfire to burn the body, Karmic Fire to incinerate the heart.

He could still recall that exquisitely painful sensation with a certain fondness.

Zhao Jianji had mentioned before.

Wuchen seemed to have obtained an extraordinary inheritance.

Judging by the Purgatory Karmic Fire...

...it was most likely related to the Netherworld, the location of the Eighteen Netherworlds.

During the era of the Five Tribulations.

The Netherworld was an independent Great World that, while belonging to the Primordial Heavenly Dao, did not exist within the Nine Heavens Space-Time.

And the Common Lord of the Netherworld—

The Reincarnation Emperor!

During the Five Tribulations, for some unknown reason, he had sided with that madman, the Slaughter Emperor.

The result...

...goes without saying.

Due to his karmic ties to the Slaughter Emperor, the Reincarnation Emperor died in the reckoning that followed the Great Tribulation. The Netherworld shattered, and the whereabouts of the Dao Artifact, the Eighteen Nili Abysses, became unknown.

However.

Given the precedent set by the Slaughter Emperor...

...Wu Dao figured the Reincarnation Emperor probably hadn’t died completely either. After all, the Reincarnation Emperor’s cultivation at the time had been just a sliver shy of the Slaughter Emperor’s, the one who had initiated the tribulation.

Wuchen.

Was likely a pawn of the Reincarnation Emperor.

’After all this, I still can’t escape that old bastard...’

Wu Dao’s thoughts churned. The higher his cultivation, the more profoundly he felt the unseen hand of karma and destiny—an immutable, inviolable iron law.

For example, the karma of his body’s previous owner.

Even if he didn’t actively seek it out, it would find him for various reasons—a tangled mess that couldn’t be cut or unraveled. No matter how many variables he introduced, the outcome remained the same.

The same was true for the Slaughter Emperor’s karma.

From the moment he had become entangled in it.

No matter how he tried to avoid it, it was inescapable. He was bound to be drawn into the grand game as a pawn.

’The world is a chessboard, and every game is new...’

His thoughts settled.

Wu Dao’s expression became calm and indifferent. The Bitter Dust Robe continued to conceal his presence as he calmly strode into the Thunder Sea.

If a chess piece is an unknown.

...and can move freely across the board, then the game is no longer controlled by the players.