Essence Devouring Art

’Mortal Artifact...’

Wu Dao’s consciousness focused on the Tribulation grade listed after the Bitter Dust Robe, his mind neither happy nor sad.

Any Celestial Treasure.

Before it truly acknowledged a master, it was merely an Elementary Mortal Artifact.

Only when a Celestial Treasure Master completed the promotion ceremonies step-by-step could the Mighty Power of the Celestial Treasure’s conceptual law be enhanced.

Mortal Artifact, Spiritual Artifact, Dharma Artifact, Royal Artifact.

These were the Artifact Dao Tiers of the Ten Tribulations of the Divine Wilderness.

It was said that during the Nine Tribulations,

there were even Imperial Artifacts above Divine Power Royal Artifacts, possessing the Mighty Power of a Dharma Strongman.

”If it were anyone else, given the current state of affairs, it would be utterly impossible to upgrade the Bitter Dust Robe to its full potential.”

Wu Dao’s thoughts stirred as he muttered to himself.

The ceremony for the Bitter Dust Robe was the Suffering Dust Mortal Transformation. It required one to seal their Divine Power, hide within the mortal world, and experience all sorts of hardships and tribulations to complete the ritual.

It was time-consuming and exhausting.

Each stage of promotion,

required time measured in hundreds, even thousands of years.

Later on, the number of difficult mortal lives required would surely demand an unimaginable amount of time.

That was why Wu Dao considered the Bitter Dust Robe to be quite useless to other cultivators. Even if they obtained it, they likely wouldn’t invest much effort into it.

With that kind of time,

what kind of arduous Cultivation couldn’t they undertake to improve themselves?

There was no need to stubbornly fixate on a useless item whose only function was self-concealment.

But in Wu Dao’s hands, it was a completely different story.

SPLASH—

Memories rose and fell in his consciousness.

Waves churned in the Endless Sea of Suffering.

Every drop of seawater was a life of misery and despair.

The protagonist in each one,

was Wu Dao!

HUM—

As the Sea of Suffering ebbed and flowed,

the Bitter Dust Robe also bloomed with a gray light. It revealed a scene of mortal hardship that resonated with the Sea of Suffering, and the Power of Law it carried released a sense of ravenous hunger.

”The ceremony to advance to a Mortal Artifact only requires one life of suffering?”

Wu Dao’s consciousness observed the images of worldly suffering manifested by the Bitter Dust Robe’s laws, and he instantly understood. This life of suffering was the ceremony for the Bitter Dust Robe to advance to a Mortal Artifact.

To put it bluntly,

it was role-playing.

Once he finished playing the part of a specific life of suffering,

the Celestial Treasure would naturally be promoted.

SPLASH—

The Sea of Suffering, restored from his memories, churned.

A single drop of seawater that matched the Bitter Dust Robe’s ceremony,

carrying an identical scene of a miserable life, was injected into the famished Bitter Dust Robe through a ’Primordial Magnetism IV drip’.

Within the Endless Sea of Suffering,

Wu Dao had tasted every imaginable and unimaginable life of suffering. There was no ’most tragic,’ only ’more tragic’.

No matter what kind of life the Bitter Dust Robe required,

he could find it in his Sea of Suffering.

He controlled the Bitter Dust Robe’s Magnetic Field, channeled memories through the Primordial Magnetism conduit, and rapidly simulated the ritual process, ’tricking’ the Bitter Dust Robe into growing at an incredible speed.

Of course,

this was all on the premise that he had genuinely experienced it all himself.

Otherwise,

trying to conjure something from nothing to deceive the Dao Laws carried within a Celestial Treasure was basically impossible.

BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ—

As the ’Nutrient Liquid’ was injected,

the Bitter Dust Robe began to greedily devour it, glowing brightly. It flickered between ethereal and real, and the progress bar on its attribute panel began to rise rapidly.

Faintly,

an indescribable,

unknowable, unobservable, and untraceable divine quality—one that existed in the World yet was not seen by the World—began to emanate from it.

”A treasure of the Great Dao... truly extraordinary.”

Wu Dao quietly savored the transcendent aura that the Bitter Dust Robe exuded as it grew. He felt as though he had grasped something, yet it was like viewing the ocean through a dense fog—vast and boundless, but ultimately inscrutable.

A Celestial Treasure was also known as a Dao Treasure.

Its essence was forged from the rules of the Great Dao.

His current level was far too low. To think he could comprehend anything from it was just a pipe dream.

However, Wu Dao was merely dabbling.

After confirming that his method worked,

he paid it no more mind.

He simply diverted a sliver of his consciousness to continuously ’feed’ the Bitter Dust Robe through the drip.

Concealing Celestial Secret, Cause and Effect Immunity.

This Mighty Power...

It was the perfect tool for murder, mayhem, and everything in between!

It would be extremely useful for his future.

It was worth investing a portion of his energy to cultivate.

”Three months... Haaah.”

While multitasking,

Wu Dao also felt a sense of urgency.

What he had seen and heard in the Dragon Mud Cave Heaven,

was but a glimpse of the bigger picture.

It had shown him just how terrifying the power structure of Hongyuan was outside the Divine Wilderness.

And how unfathomably high the Dao of past Tribulation Descenders had been.

The Grand Scholar crushing Scholar Tong,

was a complete and utter rout.

Just thinking about it was enough to inspire a sense of despair and helplessness.

Wu Dao never thought too highly of himself,

but he never sold himself short, either.

Compared to the other beasts trapped in this tribulation, his advantages were undeniable.

His All Dao Nine Transformations was already complete.

He was just one step away from the Holy Spirit Transformation.

He just needed to reach completion.

A one hundred percent Potential Release.

Unrivaled in his realm, past or present.

This was no empty boast.

”Time waits for no man. I’ll have to kill the chicken to get the egg. Saint King!”

WHOOSH—

His consciousness shifted.

Wu Dao’s awareness descended upon his clone. He looked up. Beneath a somber sky, a boundless sea of golden desert undulated, stretching to the ends of the earth.

This was the Western Desert.

It was also the last place his clone had detected traces of the Saint King while roaming the world.

RUMBLE—

In the farthest reaches of the sky,

a massive black fissure that tore through the heavens spewed forth astral winds and thunderbolts. It gathered the Magnetic Field, greedily devouring the providence of this land.

Compared to when he had entered the Grotto Heaven,

the spatial fissure had shrunk considerably, as if a great beast was slowly closing its massive jaws.

Wu Dao, who understood the secrets of the Great Tribulation, knew very well,

that when the fissure devouring the Divine Wilderness’s providence was reduced to a mere sliver, it would mean the providence of this era had been completely consumed.

During All Tribulations past,

the Great Dao would always leave the Divine Wilderness a thread of life, allowing it to recover so it could be harvested again.

But this time...

This was the final tribulation!

The Divine Desolate Extraordinary Realm would have no chance to rise from the ashes ever again!

”I’ve let you graze for so long. Just how much meat have you put on?”

His profound gaze swept toward the depths of the sandy sea.

Wu Dao lifted his foot slightly. His Magnetic Field sensed the changes in the world for thousands of miles around. He took a single step and vanished silently from beneath the sky.

...

「Two days later.」

In a no-man’s-land deep within the boundless sea of the Western Desert.

The void rippled like water.

A crimson figure flickered into view.

The Saint King stepped out of the void with a smile on his lips, his face filled with the joy of someone who had just obtained a Supreme Treasure. He had clearly reaped a fine harvest in the Dragon Mud Cave Heaven.

He opened his palm.

Resting quietly in his morbidly pale hand was a tile covered in mysterious patterns.

After its disguise was washed away,

it transformed back into a Blood Jade Scale, radiating a sea of Life Force.

For this ’tile’,

Lu Hongye had gotten himself covered in dirt and grime in the old district of Dragon Gate Town, and had even been buried by cave-ins several times.

But it was all worth it.

With this scale from a powerful being of some unknown era,

he could draw upon the sea of Essence Qi within it.

He would no longer lack Cultivation Resources. He wouldn’t have to cannibalize his own kind and could temper his physique to an extremely high level before the Great Tribulation arrived.

Besides this scale,

he had obtained something else.

It was also a very powerful treasure, adding another layer of security to his life.

”We can’t stay in the Western Desert any longer.”

The Celestial King seized control, his expression grave. ”Before we entered the Grotto Heaven, Wu Dao’s clone appeared in the Western Desert. Knowing his cunning nature, he will inevitably find us through the slightest clue.

During this tribulation,

the Tribulation Descenders will emerge from the Dragon Mud Cave Heaven in four months at most. In the time we have left, we must go all-out to reach the Absolute Peak and not get entangled with Wu Dao.”

”You think the Absolute Peak is so easy to achieve?”

Lu Hongye’s joy vanished, and he said grimly, ”Among the current Five Emperors and One King, besides that monster Wu Dao, even the Celestial Treasure Masters took decades to take the third step.

In just a few short months,

it’s absolutely impossible unless we can complete a huge number of Celestial Treasure Ceremonies.”

”We go to the Northern Lands.”

The Celestial King Prince said coldly, ”Zhou Prison is a madman. His Celestial Treasure is very peculiar; it seems the more the world becomes a fiery Purgatory, the more he likes it.

After establishing the Yellow Springs Country,

his lands are filled with wailing and misery. The rule of law is nonexistent, chaos is endless, and sin and filth are everywhere. If you want to complete your ceremonies quickly, that would be the best... ”

His voice suddenly cut off.

”The Yellow Springs Path is long. How about I see you off?”

A domineering, cold voice that seared itself into his very bones.

It rang out between heaven and earth.

The endless ink-black clouds in the sky shattered and split apart. The aura of the universe grew as heavy as a boundless sea, as if it couldn’t bear the visitor’s immense pressure.

”Wu Dao!!!”

Lu Hongye (the Celestial King) felt the tyrannical, abyss-like aura crashing down on him. He instantly panicked like a mouse that had seen a cat, his hair standing on end in terror.

It was at this moment,

that Lu Hongye realized one of his clones in the Western Desert had vanished!

But...

why hadn’t he sensed it just now?

THUD!

Before he could even process his confusion and terror,

the sound of a foot stomp, more transcendent than colliding stars, shattered the eight corners of the universe.

A thousand miles away,

Wu Dao came to a halt, his black robes whipping in the wind.

His presence was like that of a God and Demon descending upon the world.

His abyssal sea of blood and qi erupted forth, like a dozen great suns appearing in the sky. The world for thousands of miles around blazed with a blinding light, as brilliant as a Star River.

Without any nonsense,

he reached out, splayed his five fingers, and then clenched them into a fist.

RUMBLE—

The moment his large hand closed,

the sea of clouds exploded, and the heavens and the earth shook.

It was as if he had seized the very lifeblood of the world and all its beings. The weight of the vast land, the mountains, the rivers, the entire world, and all its auras were gathered into his palm!

VMM!

The utterly dazzling and blinding Divine Fist,

carrying the rumbling sound of Divine Drums and thunderstorms, crashed down like a toppling sky upon Lu Hongye’s horrified gaze!

It wasn’t a Divine Technique!

Nor was it a grand posture!

It was just pure, physical brute force!

Yet the Mighty Power it unleashed was comparable to the peak of all Divine and Taoist Techniques in the world, bringing Lu Hongye an all-encompassing pressure of death!

Unbeatable!

Unstoppable!

Inescapable!

Beneath this one punch,

it seemed the only option was to stretch out one’s neck and accept slaughter!

After stepping into the Divine Power Peak,

this was the first time Wu Dao had made a move.

Even though it was only a clone,

and even though it was just the pure, brute force of his Transverse Cultivation,

the Mighty Power it unleashed far surpassed the Limit of those at the Second Step of the Ninth Transformation!

RUMBLE—

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A splendid ocean of blood and qi, like a Star Sea Breach, rolled down with the force of a collapsing heaven. It illuminated the Nine Heavens, threatening to fill the Ten Directions and the eight corners of the world.

In less than the time it took to form a thought,

the Divine Fist continued its descent.

The pure, oppressive brute force, incomparable even to an Ancient Primordial Fierce Beast, was truly like the collision of an entire world from beyond the heavens.

The atmosphere and the void were madly compressed,

becoming completely solid.

They were like stacked panes of colored glass.

And under the pressure of the fist, they shattered, layer by layer!

This created massive black fissures that stretched to the ends of the earth, unleashing the ultimate world-ending might.

”AHHH—!”

A crazed, do-or-die roar had just begun,

BOOM!

The golden sea of sand, thousands of miles wide, seemed to have been struck by a meteorite. Towering dunes and hills on this sandbox were uprooted, shaken, and suspended in mid-air!

Then they exploded into dust and motes.

This kicked up a world-covering, murky tsunami of sand,

accompanied by concentric shockwaves, a shaking continental shelf, and sonic booms that echoed for ten thousand miles, filling and ravaging the Ten Directions.

RUMBLE...

A pitch-black Abyss, a thousand miles in diameter, howled with the cries of ghosts and gods amidst the swirling hurricane of sand. In the lands beyond, the murky tidal wave blotted out the sky, leveling everything in its path.

”Heh. A scapegoat doll? You’re lucky.”

At the apex of the Abyss,

Wu Dao sneered grimly. He swallowed the cloth doll in his palm, which looked like a child’s toy, infused it with Primordial Magnetism to activate his Magnetic Field, and instantly locked onto the direction in which the Saint King had fled after faking his death.

”The more you resist, the more excited I get!”

BOOM!

A thousand miles of void was pierced like layers of glass.

Before the sonic boom could even erupt,

Wu Dao had already vanished down the end of the pitch-black vacuum tunnel.

Once he, Wu Dao, set his sights on a prey,

he was like a maggot clinging to the bone.

Until the hunt was over,

they couldn’t hope to escape, even if they fled to The Ends of the Earth!