Essence Devouring Art

While Jia Baocai was inwardly celebrating, he never would have guessed that as soon as Wu Dao left his side, another of his Incarnations had already found Liang Chen.

He produced another five ’Heaven-Burying Steles.’

He told the same story.

Similarly, Liang Chen was led to believe that those five Realm Masters were now his men, ready to follow his every command.

Of course, the Heaven-Burying Steles Wu Dao gave to Liang Chen were from different Realm Masters than the ones for Jia Baocai. This was to prevent the two from ever being able to cross-reference their accounts.

During the transaction, Liang Chen, flushed with excitement, tried to subtly curry favor and latch onto this powerful figure, but Wu Dao’s cold indifference shut him down completely.

After receiving five portions of Grand Thousand Mother Liquid, Wu Dao didn’t linger.

He left the Ten Thousand Dragons Realm immediately. When the time was right, he would naturally return for another ”charitable donation.”

As for the matter of the Ten Great Demon Saints, although the Heaven-Burying Alliance had hidden it well, there are no walls in the world that don’t leak. Wu Dao had long since learned of the Heaven-Burying Alliance’s trump card from some of the old Demons in Nirvana City, who were even older than the Alliance itself.

It was for this very reason that he hadn’t handed over all the Heaven-Burying Steles to Liang Chen and Jia Baocai at once. He had to prevent the two from getting impatient in their power grab and opening the Emperor’s Tomb prematurely, which would expose his scheme.

The day he delivered all the goods would be the day he was powerful enough to feast to his heart’s content.

For now, he had to keep stringing Jia Baocai and Liang Chen along.

...

「Half a month later.」

With ample resources and the assistance of the Star Mother, the two Emperor Scriptures Wu Dao had obtained from Liang Chen and Jia Baocai were officially converted into branch paths.

The Supreme Primordial Magnetic Dao Source saw a small improvement.

Stage two of the Essence Devouring Art reached 382/3000.

At the same time, the growth of the other branch paths hadn’t fallen behind. The combined improvements caused the three fundamental Extraordinary Dao Sources to advance by a single layer.

Reflected in his strength, this also further solidified Wu Dao’s foundation, allowing him to reach the Twenty Layers of Heaven in the Creation Realm of the Hongyuan System.

Hooo~

In the deepest part of Nirvana Valley’s Five-Colored Thunderfire, Wu Dao dismissed the attribute panel in his Sea of Consciousness. In that short time, he had perfectly adapted to the explosive increase of hundreds of thousands of trillions of new Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles within his body.

He was compensating for quality with quantity.

It was precisely this massive increase in Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles and the Primordial Magnetic Vortex Wheels within them after each upgrade that guaranteed his strength could always ignore the shackles of cultivation realms.

However, Wu Dao felt it was still too slow.

’To be precise, I have too few branch paths. A single upgrade has a limited effect on the growth of the Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles at the end of the Tree Diagram.’

In any Extraordinary system, the gap between levels inevitably widens the further one progresses.

’An upgrade from 382 branch paths only allows my combat power to advance one layer within the Creation Realm, and the effect is constantly diminishing. One can only imagine how much greater the gap becomes later in the Creation Realm, not to mention the Saint Realm.’

If all three thousand branch paths were complete, the situation would be completely different.

’Every time the three fundamental Extraordinary Dao Sources advanced a level, my strength would undergo a world-shaking transformation.’

”Hm? Has something happened?”

As these thoughts rose and fell in his mind, Wu Dao casually scanned the goings-on in Nirvana City, right on his doorstep, and noticed that his second disciple, Jiang Han, hadn’t been to the city in half a month.

After Nirvana City’s founding, it had become a gold rush town in the Border Wilderness of the Burial Realm.

Soul Coins, a simple, crude, yet easily earned universal currency, had fueled Nirvana City’s rapid economic development. Its daily transaction volume across all industries was enough to make even a Holy Land drool with envy.

As a result, many professional Soul Coin Hunters had emerged.

Jiang Han was one of them.

Over the past few months, Wu Dao had occasionally glanced his way.

He’d noticed Jiang Han would go out hunting periodically. Although he always returned in a wretched state, his hauls were substantial. He would then post bounties in Nirvana City for genius Dao Sources to cultivate the Exquisite Method.

His strength was advancing by leaps and bounds.

Wu Dao had to admit it.

The kid, Jiang Han, was a true schemer, able to conjure a thousand plots with a single turn of his eyes. In every hunt, he managed to defeat stronger opponents and emerge as the final winner.

In just a few short months, he had made a name for himself in Nirvana City.

Though his true identity was unknown, billions of Demon Cultivators knew him as the Heaven-Stealing Demon Monarch—a sinister and ruthless figure who would scam people and dig out their Dantians without anesthetic, his demonic might renowned.

His reputation wasn’t good, but because he hid himself well, no one discovered that Jiang Han was the Heaven-Stealing Demon Monarch. He had been quietly making a fortune.

Logically, with such a favorable cultivation environment, Jiang Han had no reason to suddenly relocate.

There was only one possibility: he had encountered an unforeseen variable that had trapped him, preventing his return to the fertile grounds of Nirvana City.

However, Wu Dao wasn’t the least bit worried.

’To put it bluntly, Jiang Han is just an investment. If he dies, there’s no loss. If he rises, it’s all profit with no initial cost.’

’If he can land a big fish like Yaya and Wuchen did, that would be the best possible outcome.’

’It all depends on whether the kid’s luck is good enough to reach that level.’

BUZZ~

Just then, the Primordial Star Mother’s information database stirred.

Wu Dao received the first message in half a month from Zhao Jianji:

”Alliance Leader, reconnaissance is complete. Targets are basically locked. Shall we make our move?”

Upon hearing this, Wu Dao’s consciousness descended through the Faith Channel, viewing the world through the eyes of the Primordial Demons.

After half a month of scouting, the Seventy-Two Primordial Demons were now scattered across the All Heavens and Myriad Realms—everywhere except Buzhou Mountain—and had locked onto isolated and vulnerable Daoist Children from various Imperial Influences.

”If there are no issues, you may proceed.”

Wu Dao sent a unified reply. To be safe, he added a reminder:

”Self-destruct immediately after you succeed. Leave no information behind.”

The Seventy-Two Primordial Demons had all cultivated One Origin, Ten Thousand Transformations.

Although their Undying property couldn’t compare to Wu Dao’s, they could still be reformed using backup Incarnations.

Even if they were trapped in a perilous situation and unable to transfer their consciousness and Divine Soul, the Primordial Star Mother served as a safety net. The Star Mother stored their Divine Soul information, making it easy to reconstruct and reform them.

””Understood!””

The Seventy-Two Primordial Demons replied in unison.

Under Wu Dao’s watchful eye, they launched a grand hunt that swept across the Imperial Celestial Prides of the All Heavens and Myriad Realms.

As the Primordial Demons began their hunt, Wu Dao’s Incarnations, which had traveled to the farthest reaches of Buzhou Heaven, also locked onto their targets and began to act.

...

A corner of Martial Arts Buzhou Heaven, within the Nine Heavens of Primordial Chaos.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~

Astral winds howled fiercely as a great sun rose and set.

Atop the Nine Heavens Divine Mountain, where red clouds churned, a seated Wu Dao opened his eyes and gazed down at the surging, undulating sea of clouds.

Through the sea of clouds, one could see a forbidden zone below where mountains and rivers were stained with blood, and the space-time of the continent was shattered. Martial Artists, who had unfurled their Body Image heavens and earths, maneuvered and slaughtered their way across the landscape without pause.

Their fierce and blazing vital energy was like countless Immortal Furnaces in operation, burning the world in the Ten Directions until it twisted and evaporating billions of mountains and rivers.

At the heart of the battlefield, two figures, like gods and demons, were the most prominent. Their physiques were as magnificent as pillars holding up the sky, and the God and Demon aura spewing from their pores formed rainbows that pierced through the cloud sea of the Ninth Layer of heaven.

Looking down from on high, it was clear that the battlefield where the two clashed had completely exploded into a blurry Chaos. Beams of multicolored divine light shot out, piercing through layer after layer of space. Stars from beyond the Celestial Domain fell in unison, shaking Grotto Heaven worlds one after another.

’Two perfect Divine Demon Bodies, and their combatants are almost all Ten Yang Gods. Truly worthy of being the Buzhou World, the origin of the Transverse Refining Dao.’

Wu Dao’s gaze was fixed on the battlefield where space-time was shattering and the center had erupted into Chaos, while in his mind, he sifted through information about the Buzhou World.

Buzhou. The name itself implied incompleteness.

Among the Nine Heavens Celestial Domains, the Buzhou World was the only one that had direct contact with the Endless Chaos Sea beyond the world’s borders, a world eroded by Chaotic Qi Flow.

This Chaos was not just any chaos. It was the primordial state before the Heaven Opening of Hongyuan—disordered and chaotic, a time before the myriad things were born. It was endless, infinite, lawless, and lifeless—the first forbidden zone where life truly ceased to exist.

After Hongyuan was established, a ”shell” barrier, forged by the Great Dao, formed to keep the Chaos of the Endless Chaos Sea at bay. From this, the All Heavens were born, and civilization was able to flourish.

Buzhou Heaven happened to be the only gap in that shell, the very opening through which the Chaotic Qi Flow poured in. After the Heaven Opening, All Tribulations still filled it with chaos and disorder. Its environment was far harsher than the other eight Celestial Domains.

The gestation of life there also occurred far later than in the other Celestial Domains.

The history of All Tribulations recorded: ”Incompleteness of the Universe, a Divine Mountain fills the gap!”

During the Initial Tribulation of the Heaven Opening, the Three Thousand Great Paths and endless Dao Rules unconsciously competed for authority over Hongyuan for countless eons.

The final victors, after the end of the initial era and the preliminary formation of Hongyuan’s structure, became the Innate Divine Race and the world’s first batch of mysterious Dao Treasures.

The struggle between Yin Gods and Yang Gods during the Second Tribulation shattered the ”barrier” of the Buzhou Celestial Domain, causing Chaotic Qi Flow to pour in through the gap in the heavens and earth, nearly destroying the entire Primordial World.

As Hongyuan was on the verge of collapse, great fortune was born from the Great Tribulation. The Buzhou Celestial Domain, bearing endless Dao Essence and spiritual opportunity, gave birth to the Hongyuan Great World’s very first Dao Artifact—Buzhou Mountain!

The mountain was so majestic and sacred that even an Emperor would find it difficult to measure or fully comprehend.

Upon its birth, it received the Celestial Mandate to suppress the disordered and rampaging Three Thousand Great Paths of Hongyuan.

It plugged the gap in the Buzhou Celestial Domain.

The torrent of Chaotic Qi Flow that had been pouring in like a reversed sea was reduced to mere trickles that even a Great Power could withstand.

From then on, life in the Buzhou Celestial Domain began to flourish.

Buzhou Mountain also became the foremost Divine Mountain of the Buzhou World, and indeed of all Hongyuan—the very source of life.

Because without Buzhou Mountain holding the gap in check, the later prosperity of the Ten Thousand Races would never have come to be.

Therefore, to this day, Buzhou Mountain remains independent. No power has ever dared to try and seize control of it, for to do so would be to shake the very spine of the Primordial Heaven and Earth.

To get back on topic.

The reason the Buzhou World became the world of the Martial Dao, the birthplace of the Transverse Refining Dao, was that although Buzhou Mountain suppressed the Chaotic Qi Flow, the Buzhou Celestial Domain was still the area most severely eroded by Chaos.

Its Dao Rules became relatively primitive and wild. Its various creations and mysteries, and its Extraordinary Factors, were closer to the original form of the Extraordinary.

In the beginning of the Extraordinary, living beings were ignorant of the Laws of Heaven and Earth. They could only cultivate by developing the power of their physical bodies, practicing the Martial Dao and Transverse Cultivation to enhance the essence of their life.

The environment determines the form of life.

For this reason, the Buzhou Celestial Domain later became the source of the Martial Dao and Transverse Cultivation, and it was of the highest purity, with almost no other ”colors” mixed in,

Throughout the history of All Tribulations, Buzhou Heaven had never given rise to any major powers or powerful experts of the Military Dao or the Immortal Dao besides the Martial Dao. The environment simply wasn’t suitable for the growth of these other paths.

”Beyond Buzhou Mountain is Shanhai Pass.”

Wu Dao murmured to himself, his thoughts drifting to the end of the Buzhou Celestial Domain, to Shanhai Pass—the two-realm battlefield that lay beyond the gap.