Essence Devouring Art

It had been over a year since he descended upon Hongyuan.

Wu Dao hadn’t actually encountered any monsters yet.

The strongest Celestial Pride he had met was probably Meng Zheng from the Giant Axe Sacred Land.

But Meng Zheng was far from being a monster.

His Transverse Cultivation was only at the Body Image Yang God level, a huge gap from a Main Path Cave Heaven, and his Soul Cultivation was even more lackluster.

Wu Dao truly hadn’t expected it.

A chess piece he had casually placed, a person he had guided on a whim, had actually received such great Creation and achieved the status of a monster.

Speaking of which, he had a real eye for people.

Wuchen, Zhao Jianji, Lv Tiezhu, Chen Ergou, and even the Primordial Demons—after being given the freedom to soar, not a single one had disappointed him.

And the mysterious Yaya.

As long as she didn’t die prematurely, her future would certainly be bright.

’Birds of a feather flock together?’

Wu Dao raised an eyebrow slightly. All he could say was that fate and karma were truly wonderful and mysterious.

”However...”

After speaking of Wuchen’s accomplishments, Lv Tiezhu added with some regret, ”We have your Divine Embryo, Alliance Leader, so the restraints on our potential aren’t too desperate.

But that little guy has had it much harder.

It seems his potential was built up entirely by piling on Dao Stones. Who knows what he went through to achieve what he has today.”

”The Path of Transcendence is all about the struggle. Only a blade forged in blood and sweat can possess the brilliance to contend with the world.”

Wu Dao commented with admiration in his eyes, then asked:

”From the sound of it, he isn’t with the alliance’s main forces right now?”

”He’s not, Alliance Leader. That little guy is very cautious.”

Lv Tiezhu grinned awkwardly and scratched his head. ”He doesn’t completely trust us.

I don’t know what kind of technique he used, but he silently took a Dao Stone Vein right from under our noses and then bolted.

The Vice Alliance Leader and Er Gou’s group...

When I led the team away to explore the restricted zone,

they were still excavating the vein. I reckon they should be done by now.”

There was a hint of complaint in his voice.

If Wuchen had told them his method,

the main force wouldn’t have had to waste so much time at the Dao Stone Vein.

”Haha, it would be strange if he had opened up to you so easily.”

Wu Dao shook his head and chuckled, not surprised at all.

That Wuchen fellow, even when he was humble and insignificant at their first meeting, was sharp-minded and good at sizing up situations. He wasn’t some short-sighted person who would act rashly.

Having grown and survived until now,

he had surely become cautious and cunning to the bone.

’Putting myself in his shoes...’

’If I were the cautious Wuchen...’

’...faced with the Primordial Demons’ friendly gestures...’

’...my first thought would definitely be about what this group was plotting.’

’Since my power isn’t their match...’

’...I’d feign civility, grab the benefits, and get out immediately.’

After all,

Wu Dao had never revealed anything about the Divine Wilderness to Wuchen back then,

and the Primordial Demons’ memories only contained a vague image of him, so they couldn’t explain things clearly.

Under such circumstances,

if Wuchen could still build trust,

his brain must be flooded.

WHOOSH~

The sea breeze churned, and the air currents echoed.

As Wu Dao and Lv Tiezhu continued their conversation, the group had already arrived before the core treasury of Golden Immortal Island.

Wu Dao looked up.

Within the depths of the vast, desolate, and profound hall, a small, mud-colored sun quietly bobbed, leaking wisps of Creation Mother Qi.

It was a Heavy Artifact!

A special artifact refined by Golden Immortal Island to store Creation Mother Qi. However, after tens of millions of years, the Heavy Artifact had developed numerous cracks from the erosion of time.

The Creation Mother Qi leaking from the cracks...

...filled the treasury like divine, rosy clouds.

It formed the Power of Rule of the world’s origin, spontaneously spreading into the void, opening up Jiezhi Spaces, and evolving illusory small heavens and earths that faintly showed an impulse to solidify.

Creation Mother Qi...

...is, in essence, the origin of a World.

If no one interfered...

...perhaps in another few tens of thousands of years...

...the leaked Creation Mother Qi could truly nurture real Worlds, flourishing with all things and complete with their own rules of order.

In a sense,

the power source of a World Heavy Artifact is essentially burning Worlds!

A peak Emperor Grade Heavy Artifact...

...the Creation Mother Qi it burns in a single battle...

...could even nurture a complete Small Thousand World, equipped with a sun, moon, star river, and continents.

As for Holy Soldiers and Emperor’s Artifacts...

...that was even more unimaginable.

Without an expert of a corresponding level to wield them, even major powers wouldn’t dare to use them lightly.

Because the supply and consumption were completely disproportionate. A Creation Realm expert would need to absorb Heaven and Earth Energy for many years just to accumulate enough Creation Mother Qi to use a Heavy Artifact once.

If it was used too excessively...

...the Creation Realm expert’s Inner World would be drained dry by the Heavy Artifact, resulting in an incurable Dao injury.

One could just imagine...

...how terrifying the full Mighty Power of an Artifact of Celestial Soldier grade or higher was, and just how important of a strategic resource Creation Mother Qi was.

When the benefits generated by demand are great enough, someone will naturally take the risk and be the first to try.

During the time of the Four Tribulations...

...Golden Immortal Island destroyed and refined one World after another, causing the death of countless living beings and accumulating monstrous killing karma.

Why didn’t this attract a joint suppression from the All Heavens?

Because their customers and protectors were those behemoths. Ordinary powers couldn’t afford Creation Mother Qi at all.

”Alliance Leader, we are ashamed.”

Two Grade Seven Celestial Master Primordial Demons, whose power was comparable to the Grotto Heaven realm, stepped forward with faces full of shame and began to explain the situation to Wu Dao:

”The Little Grotto Heaven storing the Creation Mother Qi is connected to the magnetic field network of the entire Golden Immortal Island. It’s a ’pull one hair and the whole body moves’ situation. Brute force will only lead to losing everything, and unraveling the network takes a very long time, which is why we just now...”

They didn’t finish their sentence.

Because Wu Dao had already seen what had befallen them. If he hadn’t come today, it was hard to say what would have become of these ten or so Primordial Demons.

’Qimen Dunjia?’

Wu Dao’s gaze swept over the two bowing Primordial Demons, and he discovered dense Heaven and Earth Law Patterns within their Divine Souls.

They faintly formed a mysterious and profound Grotto Heaven. The embryonic Dragon Vein within the Grotto Heaven was also composed of countless golden Talismans, resonating with the grand trend of the universe’s magnetic field.

Qimen Dunjia.

The treasure of the Array Dao among the Seventy-two Heavenly Great Divine Techniques.

If mastered to the stage of Great Success...

...one could become a Grade One Celestial Master, no inferior to the Emperor Realm.

They would command the Dragon Veins of the cosmos and the grand offensive and defensive trends of the Ten Thousand Realms. In the truest sense, a single stomp of their foot would make the Grand Cosmos tremble.

This point...

...was somewhat similar to how Primordial Magnetism controls magnetic fields.

However, Array Dao borrows power.

Primordial Magnetism wields power.

A one-word difference, but a fundamental distinction.

Array Dao requires one to comprehend the mysteries of the world’s network and field rules step by step in order to learn and use them. In a field that is a blind spot in one’s knowledge, one would be helpless.

The domination of Primordial Magnetism...

...however, depends entirely on the scale of one’s own power.

The magnetic fields that exist everywhere...

...regardless of type or depth, once one’s Primordial Magnetism reaches a certain scale, one can perceive their patterns as if on one’s own palm, fusing with and mastering them until they become one’s own power completely.

Just like the Grand Array of the treasury before him.

In Wu Dao’s eyes, it was merely a ’sphere’ connected to numerous intricately structured magnetic field networks, with different changing keyholes where the links interlocked.

If one were to solve it incorrectly...

...or attack with brute force...

...and the thousands of magnetic field networks sealing and linking the Little Grotto Heaven of Creation Mother Qi were to break in the wrong sequence, it would trigger a self-destruct sequence.

However,

Wu Dao didn’t need to solve the array at all.

”Stand back.”

He said faintly.

After the Primordial Demons had scattered in awe...

CLACK~

Wu Dao gently lifted his foot and stepped down.

OMM~

Like a drop of ink falling into clear water.

Starting from beneath Wu Dao’s feet, the dense and shifting threads of the magnetic field network within the grand treasury were rapidly dyed his color, becoming a part of him.

And then...

...his will was naturally as the will of heaven!

With a single thought,

the magnetic field networks, as if gaining Spirituality...

...proactively lifted the connected Little Grotto Heaven of Creation Mother Qi and respectfully delivered it before Wu Dao like fawning lackeys.

This scene...

...instantly left the two Grade Seven Celestial Master Primordial Demons outside the treasury staring blankly, even rubbing their eyes fiercely.

How could the treasury’s magnetic field network, which had been so fiercely chaste in their hands...

...ready to defend its purity with death at the slightest touch, immediately turn into a simp the moment the Alliance Leader’s mighty body trembled?

Isn’t this a bit absurd?

However,

they quickly came to their senses.

The Alliance Leader is invincible, his Magical Power boundless!

As long as it was done by their beloved and worshipped Alliance Leader, then no matter how outrageous, it was reasonable and only to be expected!

OMM~ SPLASH!

Wu Dao reached out and held up the Heavy Artifact containing the Creation Mother Qi. It felt like holding a Hollow Divine Iron Ball, loaded with embryonic worlds, and was somewhat heavy.

He sent his consciousness inside to probe it.

After being sealed in the Grotto Heaven for tens of millions of years...

...the Creation Mother Qi that originally filled the Grotto Heaven had been compressed and condensed into a liquid ocean, its reserves astonishingly large.

Ripples spread across the multicolored Divine Water, which was suffused with a monstrous amount of Creation Essence Qi. All sorts of world laws and orders had transformed into the phantoms of dragons, phoenixes, Immortal Saints, suns, moons, stars, plants, and all living things.

Without a specialized Heavy Artifact to seal it...

...once this Creation Mother Qi came into contact with the Heaven and Earth Path, it would definitely evolve back into real Worlds over time.

However,

now that it was in Wu Dao’s hands...

...it would only serve as an energy source to power his ’Nuclear Weapons’. There would be no more chances for it to evolve into Worlds.

”Alliance Leader, what are the reserves like?”

Lv Tiezhu walked into the treasury with a look of worship, staring at the mud-colored little sun in Wu Dao’s hand and rubbing his palms together hungrily.

Creation Mother Qi was good stuff.

It was the fuel for the alliance’s Big Killing Artifacts, the World Heavy Artifacts. Over the years, it was by relying on the Mighty Power of these World Heavy Artifacts that they had conquered one restricted zone after another.

As for Sacred Artifacts,

they required an even higher grade of World Mother Qi.

An entire Small Thousand World had to be refined to produce enough Energy to reactivate a single Sacred Artifact.

It was extremely precious.

In all these years, the Primordial Demons had only obtained a single portion, which they kept as a last resort, unwilling to use it unless it was a matter of life and death.

OMM!

Wu Dao stored the Heavy Artifact, Muddy Sun, which contained a massive amount of liquefied Creation Mother Qi, into his Furnace Abyss Gourd. Turning to the expectant Lv Tiezhu, he said with a slight curl of his lips:

”How much? A hundred Emperor Grade Heavy Artifacts could burn for a month straight and still not use it all!”

He had just used an Emperor Grade Heavy Artifact,

so he knew exactly how much Creation Mother Qi was needed for a single use.

With the reserves of Creation Mother Qi inside the Muddy Sun Heavy Artifact completely liquefied into a vast ocean, it was practically a rich oil field!

A hundred Emperor Grade Heavy Artifacts burning for a month.

That was a conservative estimate.

It was enough for a peak Emperor Grade Heavy Artifact to burn nonstop for three to five months.

Such astonishing reserves.

It wasn’t hard to imagine just how many Worlds Golden Immortal Island had refined back then!

A pity.

Before they could even use it, Golden Immortal Island met with a cataclysmic disaster.

Judging from the fossilized remains of the Golden Immortal Island members beneath the earth, they had likely been caught in the aftershocks of a Desolate Race Great Power, their Divine Souls and wills instantly obliterated, leaving only their physical husks to turn into fossils.

And for this reason,

their accumulated Creation Mother Qi ended up benefiting the Overlord Whale Alliance tens of millions of years later.

”Damn, that’s so much! We’ve struck it rich!”

Hearing about such terrifying reserves, Lv Tiezhu’s face flushed red, and he was ecstatic. The surrounding Primordial Demons were also grinning from ear to ear.

Having gotten used to fighting meticulously planned battles on a tight budget...

...now that they were suddenly rich and had the capital to be extravagant, they couldn’t wait to activate the Heavy Artifacts and blast away for three days and three nights!

”Haha, don’t be impatient. You’ll get to blast away to your heart’s content soon enough.”

Wu Dao looked at the crowd of Primordial Demons rubbing their fists and eager to go, and he too gave a ’benevolent’ grin.

In his treasury, including the Furnace Abyss Gourd...

...he possessed a total of ten Heavy Artifacts of at least Saint Grade.

The Primordial Demons had fewer.

After all, their Mother Qi was basically depleted. Including the Sealing Evil Seal in Lv Tiezhu’s hands, they had brought a total of three Saint Grade and two Emperor Grade Heavy Artifacts to the Emperor Star.

In other words,

the Overlord Whale Alliance now possessed a full fifteen World Heavy Artifacts on the Emperor Star, each capable of unleashing world-ending Mighty Power.

And they didn’t even have to worry about consumption!

Once they rendezvoused with Zhao Jianji...

...the Overlord Whale Alliance would absolutely be—

Unstoppable and utterly without scruples!