Essence Devouring Art

RUMBLE!

The universe was thrown into chaos, consumed by utter darkness.

Muffled thunder from the primordial chaos rumbled from the Ten Directions. Layer after layer of the void collapsed into a vacuum, and the forbidden zone, spanning hundreds of millions of miles, trembled and began to break apart.

The Profound Yin Saint Child attacked in a fury.

Three abyss-like, pitch-black Grotto Heavens hung high in the sky. Within them, Dragon Veins spewed forth a terrifying Creation Qi of life and death, wielding the power of rules and order. It was as if a God and Demon was performing Heaven and Earth Creation.

Wherever the massive hand of dark light passed, it was like ten thousand dragons bursting from their nest to crush everything in their path.

Grotto Heavens were continuously created and annihilated, while the sun, moon, and Star Rivers plummeted from the sky. The sight was absolutely horrifying.

Space and time were thrown into disarray.

The Netherworld Pocket Realm enveloped Wu Dao and the others. Its three Mixed Caves unleashed immeasurable pressure, spewing Creation Qi of Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind in an attempt to refine him to death on the spot.

This was the might of the Cave Heavens Realm.

Once a Mixed Cave Domain was unfurled, it was just like the Divine Country that had once trapped Wu Dao.

Within the domain, the Pocket World Master was an absolute god, controlling the power of Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind, and the great power of life, death, and Creation.

An ordinary Dharma Phase Practitioner stood no chance against it.

Only those with Twenty-four Heavens or more—to be precise, only a Daoist Level Dharma Celestial Pride at the level of the Thirty-Three Heavens—possessed the strength to fight a King Grade Grotto Heaven expert across realms.

But the Profound Yin Saint Child possessed a Saint Grade Grotto Heaven.

A Triple Cave Heaven, at that!

This made fighting him across realms even more difficult.

Unless one was a true monster, a cultivator would need to be at Dharma Perfection with at least Thirty Layers of Heaven to even be qualified to contend with him.

As for those with an Emperor Grade Cave Heaven, they were transformed monsters in a league of their own. It was practically impossible for a Dharma Aspect cultivator to defeat one by fighting up a realm.

’A Saint Grade Triple Cave Heaven... It really is something else.’

In a flash, Wu Dao’s thoughts raced.

The power the Profound Yin Saint Child was displaying made him feel the presence of an unprecedentedly formidable foe.

His Main Body might not be afraid.

But this Incarnation...

”Profound Yin, you’ve insulted me time and again. Do you really think I’m afraid of you?”

BOOM!

Just then, the Daylight Saint Child did not disappoint Wu Dao.

With a dark expression and a cold snort, he stepped forward. His body radiated the brilliance of the morning dawn, blazing like the sun itself. This majestic daylight pierced through the darkness spewing from the Profound Yin Saint Child’s Grotto Heavens.

He was already extremely annoyed with the Profound Yin Saint Child’s arrogant attitude of looking down his nose at everyone and meddling where he wasn’t wanted.

And now, the Profound Yin Saint Child had attacked with the intent to kill one of his top generals, holding nothing back.

After all, Wu Dao’s sword strike earlier hadn’t killed the old man.

It was merely a painful lesson, born from an ’eagerness to protect his master,’ for someone who didn’t know his place.

Although it was an extreme action, his motive had been to defend the honor of him, the Daylight Saint Child.

If he didn’t protect Wu Dao now, he would become nothing more than a cowardly laughingstock.

”Fine, fine! We’ll see how long you can protect him!”

In the end, the Profound Yin Saint Child shot Wu Dao a vicious, ice-cold glare. Instead of starting an all-out fight with the Daylight Saint Child, he yanked back the heavily injured old man’s Dharma Aspect and chose to stand down.

The matter of the Giant Axe Sacred Land was too important.

He and the Daylight Saint Child were evenly matched. Before they secured the treasure, there was no need to fight to the death over a mere servant.

However, everyone knew that the Profound Yin Saint Child now bore a deep grudge against Wu Dao.

Given the chance, he would surely unleash a devastating, thunderous attack to kill him and erase this humiliation.

’Heh.’

Wu Dao sneered inwardly, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He didn’t enjoy fighting and killing.

But if someone was actively courting death, that was another matter entirely.

”Don’t be so reckless in the future.”

The Daylight Saint Child retracted his aura, turned back, and patted Wu Dao on the shoulder. He wore a look of admiration, assuring Wu Dao that as long as he was around, he wouldn’t let the Profound Yin Saint Child do as he pleased.

The strength Wu Dao had just displayed was, frankly, extremely formidable.

Crippling a fellow Tenth-Heaven Emperor Grade Dharma Aspect with a single sword strike had significantly raised Wu Dao’s value in the Daylight Saint Child’s eyes.

Until he had squeezed every last drop of value out of him, he naturally wouldn’t let anything happen to Wu Dao.

After the brief interlude, the two parties set off once more, each piloting a massive Pocket World Battleship and traversing deeper into the forbidden zone.

However, because of the commotion Wu Dao had caused, the tension between the Daylight Saint Child and the Profound Yin Saint Child was palpable along the way.

The two sides didn’t communicate at all, nor did they discuss any plans for cooperation.

The Daylight Saint Child did, however, secretly send a message to Wu Dao and a few of his most loyal followers, plotting how to deal with the Profound Yin Saint Child and his entourage once they entered the Holy Land.

Wu Dao, naturally, had no objections.

He was more than happy to see the Daylight Saint Child and the Profound Yin Saint Child fight to the death inside the Giant Axe Sacred Land.

The ruins of the Emperor Star Battlefield were vast and boundless.

The two massive Grotto Heaven Level Immortal Ships avoided pockets of void turbulence and terrifying Tribulation Qi Forbidden Areas, passing through layer after layer of folded space.

「Half a day later.」

They finally arrived at the ruins of the Giant Axe Sacred Land.

WHOOSH~

The surging Tribulation Qi roiled and parted.

The two star-sized warships sailed into a fractured, crimson World, casting a shadow that blotted out the sky.

”For a World like this to be shattered and destroyed... If it weren’t for the Taiyi Emperor Star, I fear the entire Chaotic Star Heaven would have been annihilated in the Four Tribulations.”

On the deck, the Daylight Saint Child stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze filled with awe as he looked out at the vast, ruined World. His face was etched with deep emotion.

’A Great Thousand World...’

Wu Dao looked up at the shattered and desolate Star Sea in the Nine Heavens, and at the countless Small and Middle Thousand Worlds flickering in and out of existence within the surrounding field. He knew they had entered a dead Great Thousand World.

Moreover, this Great Thousand World had not been formed by the Great Dao.

It had been created by a mortal hand!

The path of Cultivation was to emulate the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.

The small world of the human body simulates the greater world outside, allowing one to transform their body into a great world, step by step, and achieve the Attainment Dao.

The Mixed Cave opened in the Cave Heavens Realm is, in essence, a world seed.

In the Creation Realm, one gains initial control over the Power of Rule of the Grand Cosmos, allowing them to open a complete World.

Above that are the three steps of the Saint Realm.

The First Step: open Three Thousand Worlds, also known as Small Thousand Worlds. This is the Saint Realm.

The Second Step: transform the three thousand Small Thousand Worlds into a Middle Thousand World. This is the Great Saint Realm.

The Third Step: transform the three thousand Middle Thousand Worlds into a Great Thousand World. This is the Saint Master Realm.

The Giant Axe Sacred Land was destroyed at the height of its glory.

The Giant Axe Commander of that generation was at the Saint Master Peak and wielded the ”Heaven and Earth Creation” Great Divine Technique, so opening a Great Thousand World was naturally an easy task for him.

But from dust we come and to dust we must return.

After tens of millions of years of erosion from the Tribulation Qi, this Great Thousand World—the Giant Axe Ancestral Land—had completely fallen into ruin. Most of its constituent Worlds were destroyed by the Tribulation Qi.

All that remained was a battle-scarred ruin filled with destructive Tribulation Qi. Its scale had shrunk to less than that of a Small Thousand World, to the point where even someone at the Grotto Heaven Level could explore it completely.

VMMMM—

After a brief pause, the two battleships set off again, warping space-time to begin a long-distance spatial jump.

Their destination was the core of the Giant Axe Ancestral Land. Any fortunes in the outer regions had likely succumbed to the Tribulation Qi and been destroyed long ago, making them unworthy of the time it would take to explore.

But what Wu Dao failed to notice was that not long after they had departed, a dozen or so even more luxurious and massive battleships had intruded into the void.

They were arrayed like a constellation, and the auras they released as they moved were powerful enough to collapse the broken Small Worlds in their vicinity.

On each warship was a totem depicting countless stars in the universe revolving around a brilliant, central Emperor Star.

Such a conspicuous symbol could only mean one thing.

This fleet was from the current supreme Overlord of the Chaotic Star Heaven—the Star God Hall!

Inside the flagship, which shone with brilliant starlight, stood Meng Zheng, the Emperor’s Son of Xuanwu Hall, one of the Star God Hall’s Four Symbols Sub-Halls.

He was tall and imposing, standing with his hands clasped behind his back, his aura as deep as an abyss and as oppressive as a prison. Staring at two points of light on the Starship’s detection array, he sneered.

”The Giant Axe Sacred Land is not a place for country bumpkins like you to covet. Just be good little pawns and scout the way for me.”

The Star God Hall was founded before the Fourth Tribulation.

For tens of millions of years, it had sat firmly on the supreme throne of the Chaotic Star Heaven. They knew the secrets of the Celestial Domain better than anyone, especially those concerning the Taiyi Emperor Star, which had originally belonged to the Star God Hall.

The Giant Axe Sacred Land involved the inheritance of a Divine Technique that ranked among the top of the Seventy-two Heavenly Great Divine Techniques, as well as a Saint Master Level Sacred Artifact.

For tens of millions of years, the Star God Hall had expended vast resources searching for it each time the Emperor Star opened. But because the space-time within the forbidden zone was constantly shifting and unpredictable, they had never been able to pinpoint its exact location.

However, the tentacles of the Star God Hall’s influence reached into every corner of the Celestial Domain’s various factions.

If any one of them made a move, the Star God Hall would be the first to know.

Key figures nurtured by the Ten Thousand Laws Alliance, such as the Daylight Saint Child and the Profound Yin Saint Child, were under the surveillance of the Black Tortoise Dao Sub-Hall.

Upon learning that the Giant Axe Sacred Land had appeared, Meng Zheng, the Emperor’s Son from the Xuanwu Hall closest to Ten Thousand Laws City, immediately gathered his forces, fully armed, and tailed Wu Dao’s group all the way into the Holy Land.

He didn’t plan to make a move right away.

After tens of millions of years of infestation by Tribulation Qi, all sorts of unpredictable and deadly dangers had surely been born within the Giant Axe Ancestral Land.

Under these circumstances, having free cannon fodder to scout the path was the best possible scenario. There was no need for him to take any risks himself.

Of course, the reason Meng Zheng dared to play the role of the fisherman waiting to reap the rewards was the confidence he had in his own strength—

Emperor Grade, Cave Heaven Second Layer!

It was enough to fight and kill an expert at the Fourth Layer of a Saint Grade Grotto Heaven.

Saint Child, Emperor’s Son, Daoist Child.

The difference was just a single word, but at the same realm, the gap in their foundational power was as vast as heaven and earth. Meng Zheng paid no mind to the likes of the Daylight Saint Child and the Profound Yin Saint Child, who were merely at the Third Layer of a Saint Grade Grotto Heaven.

Not to mention, his own retinue included several Grotto Heaven Saint Children who followed him. The advantage was so stacked in his favor that it would be difficult to lose even if he tried.

”Hm?”

Within the warping Space-Time Channel, Wu Dao, who had been sitting quietly on deck to rest his spirit, suddenly furrowed his brow.

He opened his eyes and glanced back at the deep, distorted void behind them.

Having cultivated the Primordial Magnetic Dao to his level, any change in the world’s Magnetic Fields, any causal link, was like a drop of rain falling on a still pond. He could trace the source of any chain reaction caused by the spreading ripples.

Even across a vast distance of space and time, he could capture the ripples spreading through the ocean of Magnetic Fields and analyze the general information they carried.

After closing his eyes again, the world in Wu Dao’s perception transformed into a colorful ocean of Magnetic Fields.

Ripples from a distortion in the space-time Magnetic Field were spreading from far behind them.

After tracing them back to their source, an image appeared in his mind: a dozen or so battleships, far superior to the Daylight Ship and the Profound Yin Ship, were tailing them from a great distance.

’People from the Star God Hall?’

He recognized the Emperor Star totems on the warships and confirmed the identity of their pursuers. As for any more detailed information, the distance was too great for him to observe.

’How troublesome.’

After retracting his senses, Wu Dao let out a soft breath. He felt the situation was gradually slipping beyond his control.

As the Overlord of the Chaotic Star Heaven, the power the Star God Hall wielded within the Emperor Star was naturally not something the Ten Thousand Laws Alliance could hope to match.

Whoever was coming, they at the very least possessed the strength to crush both the Daylight Saint Child and the Profound Yin Saint Child. That meant they were above the Third Layer of a Saint Grade Grotto Heaven.

If he had to face them alone, he wasn’t very confident in his current state.

However, before they set off, the Daylight Saint Child had returned to the outside world once. It seemed he had brought back some kind of Big Killing Artifact...

’Tsk. Don’t disappoint me, my lord.’

Wu Dao’s profound gaze shifted to the Daylight Saint Child, who was standing at the front of the deck.

He could feel it.

Hidden within the Saint Child’s body was a faint yet extremely dangerous aura.