Essence Devouring Art

The Primordial Divine Monarch’s Divine Country.

Two days flashed by in an instant.

HUMMM—

The humming vibration of the Divine Country Cave Heaven pulled Wu Dao’s consciousness out from his Divine Sea, where he had been deducing various Heaven-Opening Techniques.

"Whew. As expected of a Near-Path Technique."

Wu Dao let out a slow, turbid breath. Simultaneously deducing twenty Heaven-Opening Techniques, even with Divine Ghost Heaven activated, caused his Divine Soul to throb with a painful fullness from the sheer volume of information.

Great All Heavens Divine Techniques, Taoist Scriptures, Creation Divine Techniques...

Every single Heaven-Opening Technique

carried an amount of information that could be described as all-encompassing, as vast as an ocean.

Although he had the aid of memories from the Great Powers and Celestial Prides of the All Heavens, which annotated all sorts of profound mysteries,

with his current processing power, simultaneously comprehending them all to the Dharma Phase Level of the Thirty-Three Heavens was still an incredibly arduous task, destined to be a massive undertaking.

The main reason was...

...the consumption.

In the state of Divine Ghost Heaven, he achieved Unity of Heaven and Man, was untouched by Heart Demons, and untainted by distracting thoughts. His Comprehension and wisdom were unleashed to two hundred percent of their capacity.

But while this brought him immense processing ability,

the consumption of his Divine Soul and Energy also far exceeded normal levels.

In his current barren environment,

with no external replenishment,

he could only consume his own reserves.

It was essentially a form of self-harm.

’The deduction of the Heaven-Opening Techniques can be paused. The primary goal is to bore through the Divine Country... To do that, I’ll need to take at least one step in every Dao and formally open the heavens.’

Wu Dao simulated the magnetic field of the Divine Fire, perceived the strength of the Divine Country’s barrier, and estimated the power needed to break through and escape.

’Don’t disappoint me.’

He sensed channels appearing on the Divine Country’s barrier, their transmission capacity far exceeding that of a mortal’s Faith Channel.

The Divine Fire blazed around Wu Dao’s body. His consciousness passed through a Wish Power channel and ’saw’ True Monarch Guangming and a crowd of half-hearted Primordial Sect Disciples inside the Divine Hall.

’May the Great Dao protect us. The Divine Monarch is unharmed.’

’A hundred years of Faith and Willpower. If only it were all for me.’

’The Divine Monarch has been dead for ages. The Sect Leader is being completely unreasonable.’

’The Jinxiao Sect promised me an elder’s position. That’s a much better future than what I have here.’

’The innocent man gets into trouble for the treasure he carries. Heh. The Divine Monarch’s revival is a calamity. Senior Brother, you can’t protect it.’

With the enhancement from his status as Divine Monarch,

Wu Dao listened to the various mental activities of the followers, a strange look on his face.

’This batch of disciples...’

’...is not very devout.’

Of the nearly one thousand disciples in the Divine Hall,

aside from the thirtieth Sect Leader, True Monarch Guangming, those with pure intentions were few and far between.

Most of them only held reverence in their hearts,

not the piousness of true disciples.

Another portion was busy thinking about how to find a new master.

The most outrageous ones were a few of the elders.

They were actually betraying the sect from within, secretly colluding with heretics in the Primordial Cave Heaven and plotting to seize the Primordial Divine Monarch’s Divine Fire.

But it didn’t matter.

Wu Dao would teach them the meaning of "worship a god for a day, dedicate your life to that god for an eternity."

Since they had worshipped him, Wu Dao,

it was only right that he teach his disciples the true meaning of loyalty.

The Faith Channels of mortals were too narrow.

But these Extraordinaries, who possessed Dantians, had much wider ones. It was the difference between a drinking straw and a water pipe.

And as for True Monarch Guangming, who was in the Divine Power Domain,

he was a great stream.

’So...’

’...offer up your faith quickly.’

’I will bestow my power upon you.’

A faint smile touched Wu Dao’s lips as his consciousness focused on the violet-gold gourd in True Monarch Guangming’s hand, which was swirling with a massive amount of Incense Fire Wish Power.

’A hundred years of accumulated faith.’

’It can temporarily build a wide channel. I can use this opportunity to radiate a large amount of my magnetic field and transform these heretics.’

The genes of life strive for perfection.

And Wu Dao, with his current Sacred Spirit foundation and Innate Dao Body, was that perfect lifeform.

The same was true for his Life Magnetic Field.

If he weren’t constrained by the Divine Country, he wouldn’t even have to do anything to become a life-polluting Evil God of legend.

For any being whose fundamental nature was inferior to his,

the longer they were directly exposed to his magnetic field,

the more their own life magnetic fields would be subtly and silently assimilated by him, turning them into a kind of Polluted Body subordinate, similar to a Primordial Demon, and becoming his tentacles from the inside out.

He could do it inside the Divine Country as well.

It would just take a little more time.

HUMMM—

As his thoughts fluctuated,

True Monarch Guangming, standing before the divine statue, opened the Wish Power Gourd—and with it, Pandora’s Box.

The hundred years of faith accumulated by the Primordial Sect...

...when it surged into the Divine Country,

it created a wide channel that surpassed that of any single believer.

Wu Dao immediately rotated his magnetic field,

furiously devouring the Wish Power to clear the pipeline.

The oblivious True Monarch Guangming,

thinking the Primordial True Monarch’s Divine Fire had been ignited, immediately led the disciples in endless kowtows, tears streaming down his old face.

Once all the Wish Power was devoured,

the pipeline was fully cleared.

Just before it could be sealed off,

Wu Dao’s vast, perfect Life Magnetic Field poured into the channel, gushing out like a high-pressure water jet and spreading, silently kicking up a storm of magnetic radiation in the Divine Hall.

In that moment,

the thousand-odd disciples in the Divine Hall,

like flawless pieces of white jade being soaked in pitch-black ink, began to be dyed from the inside out with a color that belonged exclusively to Wu Dao.

Of course,

shielded by the Primordial Divine Monarch’s Divine Fire,

those who had at least some foundation of faith in their hearts didn’t notice anything amiss.

They only thought the Divine Monarch had returned and was revealing his holy presence.

All their distracting and errant thoughts

were rapidly cleansed by the pollution of Primordial Magnetism. Their Life Magnetic Fields began to synchronize with Wu Dao’s frequency, and an irrepressible, fanatical piety was born within them.

"From cosmic chaos, the Primordial is born; by one qi, Creation opens the Great Dao. Immeasurable wonder, immeasurable origin; all beings in the sands of the Ganges are Primordial..."

Inside the Divine Hall,

as the magnetic field’s assimilation continued,

the sounds of praise and worship grew ever louder and more fervent. Everyone stared with fanatical expressions at the statue of the Primordial Divine Monarch in the shadows of the Divine Altar, its sanctity gradually twisting into something demonic.

A crazed, possessed look appeared on their faces, their eyes gradually turning vacant. In the dark shadows, only the droning sounds of seated meditation and chanting remained.

"The Sect Leader and the others..."

"Hiss... Why does it feel like they’re worshipping an Evil God?"

"Don’t be insolent."

More Primordial Sect disciples, having received the summons, gathered outside the Divine Hall.

Before they even entered,

they heard the crazed sounds of praise. Looking at the figures in the shadows with their backs to them, like chanting machines, they felt an inexplicable sense of ominous, demonic nature.

"All beings in the sands of the Ganges are Primordial..."

But as Wu Dao’s magnetic field spread outside the Divine Hall, the gazes of the initially uneasy disciples gradually became vacant and fanatical.

One by one, they strode into the Divine Hall like puppets, their minds purified and emptied, and also began to sit in meditation and chant.

The number of people grew and grew.

The sound of chanting also grew louder, echoing eerily between the peaks of the Divine Mountain, as if some evil ritual were being conducted.

Within the Divine Country.

The curve of Wu Dao’s lips grew even more sinister.

In the end,

all three thousand disciples of the Primordial Divine Sect

joined the evil ritual. They sat from inside the Divine Hall all the way out to the square, selfless and thoughtless, their minds filled with nothing but the demonic statue in the shadows of the Divine Altar.

GURGLE GURGLE GURGLE—

The sound of waterways being cleared rang out continuously.

From Wu Dao’s perspective,

as the minds of the Primordial Divine Sect disciples submitted and they became fanatics, Wish Power channels like water pipes were opened one after another.

Primordial Magnetic Power flowed through these channels,

pouring into the Dantian in each disciple’s Purple Mansion between their brows. Wu Dao then began his ’surgery’.

Mortals did not have Dantians.

The amount of Earth and Heaven Magnetic Field they could absorb was very limited.

But these Immortal Dao Cultivators, who possessed Dantians, were different. He could drastically modify their Dantians into large-scale magnetic pumps.

As long as he left just enough magnetic field power to keep them alive, he could drain them however he wanted, without any concern for damaging the pumps.

However,

he first had to empty their Dantians.

WHOOSH—

At this thought,

Wu Dao rotated his magnetic field and took a fierce pull.

RUMBLE—

Instantly,

a swirling black hole appeared inside the Dantians of the three thousand Primordial Sect disciples.

Its immense gravitational force,

in a single moment, rapidly squeezed out and emptied all the Essence Qi, Primordial Qi, Spiritual Qi, Magical Power, and Divine Power from within their Dantians.

It flowed like a high-pressure jet of water through the Faith Channels,

and was then converted by Wu Dao into Primordial Magnetic Power and swallowed whole.

"Nngh—"

"Argh!"

"CREAAAK—"

At the same time,

stifled grunts of pain sounded from inside and outside the hall.

’I think I pulled a little too hard.’

Wu Dao watched as the disciples’ bodies suddenly shriveled and contracted as if squeezed by an invisible hand, their flesh and bones compressed until they were a full size smaller. He quickly adjusted the gravitational pull.

’These are my precious tools for escape.’

’I can’t just kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.’

BZZZT—

After all their Dantians were emptied,

strands of Life Magnetic Field currents began to generate within their souls and physical bodies. The disciples’ Extraordinary forms began to formally assimilate with Wu Dao from the inside out.

CLANG CLANG CLANG—

After a round of drastic modifications,

the assimilation was complete.

The divine light in the disciples’ eyes vanished.

They had completely merged with Wu Dao, becoming his tentacles.

Within their gaunt, skin-and-bones physiques,

their cells rubbed against each other at high speed.

Electrical currents of varying purity shot out from their pores as if they were operating generators. Their lifeforms had completely transformed into magnetic Polluted Bodies.

What their Dantians could absorb

was no longer limited to Spiritual Qi, but rather all sorts of Magnetic Field Power from between heaven and earth.

This also meant

that Wu Dao now possessed three thousand Primordial Magnetic water pumps that could operate nonstop, twenty-four hours a day.

RUMBLE—

The Primordial Magnetic Vortex Wheel turned.

One revolution.

Five revolutions.

Ten revolutions.

...

Wu Dao continuously increased the revolutions of the Primordial Magnetic Vortex Wheel, testing the different power limits of the three thousand water pumps.

CRACK—

The sound of a physical body shattering rang out.

Wu Dao stopped increasing the power and also determined the combined upper power limit of the three thousand Primordial Magnetic generators—

Fifty revolutions!

Their combined magnetic field power was equivalent to his own when he had first entered the Divine Power Domain.

This level of power

was far from the two hundred revolutions he currently needed. The cultivation effects would be very poor; it could only be used to recover from his injuries.

But it didn’t matter.

As long as there was a path,

even a narrow one,

Wu Dao could widen it into a Heaven-Reaching Great Dao. As for time, time was not valuable to him right now.

At the same time,

Wu Dao also had another idea.

’Simply using the Polluted Bodies as water pumps seems a bit too wasteful.’

’It doesn’t align with the principle of using things to their fullest potential.’

’So, what other residual value can be extracted from these three thousand people?’

’Wisdom!’

’Their souls’ processing power!’

Wu Dao’s eyes lit up.

’Since my own wisdom is currently limited, I can’t quickly comprehend the twenty Heaven-Opening Techniques to the Dharma Phase Level.’

’In that case, I can just break down this massive project into smaller parts.’

’And subcontract it out.’

’I’ll build the wisdom of these three thousand souls into a super magnetic field computer array. A change in quantity will lead to a change in quality. Three cobblers with their wits combined equal one Zhuge Liang.’

’Even if their Comprehension is poor,’

’once they are combined and sparks of wisdom collide, they can create a Dao-comprehending computer at the Genius Level.’

’And if the numbers were even greater...’

’it would be useful for far more than just deducing Heaven-Opening Techniques. It would be of great use for my own future cultivation path as well.’

’It’s practically a man-made cheat engine!’

’This has a ton of potential!’

’However, while the idea is great,’

’the first thing I have to overcome is synchronizing the soul-consciousness of these three thousand people into one.’

’The thoughts and souls of living beings,’

’are each unique.’

’Annihilating or controlling them is easy.’

’But merging them into one entity, without distinction, is actually quite difficult using normal methods.’

’But this is just a small problem.’

’It’s nothing difficult for me.’

’The activity of soul-consciousness is also a form of magnetic field.’

’Merging them at the magnetic field level’

’is no different from deducing and merging a cultivation technique. With my current Primordial Magnetic Mastery, it will just take a bit of time at most.’

’Whew... I’ll focus on recovering to my peak state first.’

Suppressing the various wild ideas in his mind,

Wu Dao’s expression returned to one of indifference. He pushed the Magnetic Energy conversion rate of the three thousand Polluted Bodies to its limit and began to ravenously devour the external magnetic field energy.

RUMBLE—

As Wu Dao activated his technique,

the pores of the three thousand Polluted Bodies began to spew arcs of electricity. A powerful magnetic attraction erupted from the Dantians between their brows, and in the void above the Primordial Divine Sect’s Divine Hall, a rumbling, rotating eye of a magnetic storm was born.

To avoid being disturbed,

Wu Dao spread his magnetic radiation to its maximum extent through the Faith Channels, blanketing the thousand-li region of the Divine Mountain where the Primordial Divine Sect was located.

If any intruder were to appear,

he would be able to detect them instantly.