Essence Devouring Art

A new round of sacrifices began.

In every perilous land, varying numbers of unlucky souls became stepping stones for the Saints’ advance.

Eventually, Liang Chen, Jia Baocai, and Tao Chuan were also targeted. However, they were no ordinary First Layer Saints. Possessing numerous life-saving trump cards, they avoided becoming sacrificial offerings.

The further they went, the more treacherous the layout and domain of the Emperor’s Tomb became.

Mere sacrifices were no longer enough. Even the Black Mountain Demon Saint had to temporarily suppress his killing intent toward Su Xiuqi’s group and focus on preserving his strength.

BOOM!

After they broke through another perilous land, the suffocating, oppressive environment suddenly changed.

Spacetime stretched out, endless and vast. Their previously suppressed senses could no longer find any boundary, as if they had arrived inside a cosmos!

And that was indeed the case!

The Saints had truly entered a universe!

But this was a dead universe!

The Star Sea was bleak, its great stars shattered.

Countless Worlds and Grotto Heavens were desolate and dark, devoid of all Divine Power. Not a single trace of Extraordinary matter could be detected.

The overall environment was similar to the spacetime where Cosmic Mountain resided.

This was because at the center of this dilapidated, heat-dead Little Cosmos stood a black mountain of indescribable majesty—or to be precise, a tomb!

Separated by an unknown number of light-years and eroded by the passage of hundreds of thousands of years, the Emperor’s Might that had once reigned over the All Heavens and Myriad Realms still surged like a tide. It swept through the Grand Cosmos, making all who trespassed into this World feel as if they were facing the Supreme God of the Nine Heavens, overcome by the urge to kneel and prostrate themselves in worship!

”The Imperial Tomb Vault!”

After his initial fear, an endless, greedy light erupted from the Black Mountain Demon Saint’s eyes. It was as if he could see the path to becoming a Great Emperor beckoning to him.

The burial goods of a Great Emperor!

The sheer amount of Creation within was simply unimaginable!

A Great Saint? A Saint Master?

If he could obtain the treasures within and receive the inheritance, the Black Mountain Demon Saint even dared to imagine becoming a Great Emperor himself!

’Ancestor...’

Liang Chen’s bloodline roared. All his arrogance and ferocity dissipated, and tears welled in his eyes as he felt the aura of his ancestor, the Heaven-Burying Emperor!

’My Great Saint Realm!’

An endless fervor also burned in Su Xiuqi’s eyes. He had sacrificed his Great Saint Realm for the sake of the Creation in this Emperor’s Tomb, but as long as he obtained the treasures, it would all be worth it!

”Go!!”

After a moment of shock, Su Xiuqi waved his hand and produced another Grand Thousand Shifting Talisman. Taking the Demon Saints of the Heaven-Burying Alliance with him, he tore through spacetime and vanished, rapidly approaching the Emperor’s Tomb.

”He still has more?”

Even the Black Mountain Demon Saint was startled.

A single Grand Thousand Shifting Talisman was incredibly expensive; even an ordinary Great Saint couldn’t afford one!

However, he too had bet everything this time. He had naturally purchased a Grand Thousand Shifting Talisman as well. He immediately activated it, teleporting with his Demon Saints across a vast expanse of spacetime in hot pursuit.

”Star Mother...”

Wu Dao, however, was in no rush. After giving the Star Mother some instructions, he plucked one from a huge pile of Grand Thousand Talismans in his treasury.

These single-use consumables, unlike true Holy Soldiers, didn’t require a massive amount of World Mother Qi to activate, as their internal Array Patterns contained their own energy source.

RUMBLE—

The closer they got to the Heaven-Burying Emperor’s Tomb, the more immeasurably majestic the black, Divine Mountain-like tomb became. It stood within its own collapsed, independent spacetime, and the pervasive Emperor Dao and Celestial Might grew ever more world-shakingly immense!

WHOOSH—

FWOOSH—

It was as if a colossal beast from the All Heavens was breathing.

The Heaven-Burying Path roared like boundless Heaven-Opening thunder, forming cosmic tides whose fluctuations caused the entire desolate universe to rise and fall!

Great rifts tore through the starry sky. Countless shattered stars plunged in swaths into tempests of spacetime. The order of the Dao Rules wailed, unable to withstand the baptism of the Emperor’s Might!

By the time they reached the edge of the independent spacetime, blood was spurting from the mouths and noses of some of the weaker Demon Saints. The pressure from the Emperor’s Might was so intense it felt capable of annihilating the All Heavens and Myriad Realms, and they felt as if their Inner Worlds might explode at any moment!

’Not even hundreds of thousands of years could erase it!’

For the first time, Wu Dao’s expression grew solemn.

’Emperor Level beings are just monstrous.’

Hundreds of thousands of years after its death, a mere trace of Emperor’s Might lingering in its tomb was still powerful enough to tear apart the Grand Cosmos and bury the myriad Daos of the All Heavens!

It was hard to imagine just how peerlessly magnificent the being buried within had been at its peak!

And to think that the Heaven-Burying Emperor buried in this tomb was merely a follower of the Slaughter Emperor...

Wu Dao took a deep breath.

He steeled his nerves, his mind on high alert.

Whatever contingency the Slaughter Emperor had left behind would be revealed when the Emperor’s Tomb opened. And he was fully prepared to face any possibility!

”My heavens, what is this...”

The Saints of the Heaven-Burying Alliance, the first to arrive before the tomb-mountain, suddenly stopped dead. They stared at the scene before them, their mouths agape, while Jia Baocai couldn’t suppress a gasp of astonishment.

At the foot of the black tomb-mountain!

There stood a magnificent and sacred Emperor’s Temple!

Its gateway was forged entirely from Cosmic Immortal Treasures, giving rise to auspicious phantoms of soaring dragons, dancing phoenixes, and circling Sacred Spirits. Billions of brilliant, divine rays cascaded downward. It looked like the very gate to the Divine Court of the Nine Heavens, making the Star Sea seem like mere grains of sand in comparison!

”Holy Spirit Mother Gold! It has to be Holy Spirit Mother Gold—the Cosmic Immortal Treasure used to forge Emperor’s Weapons! What extravagance! This is a heaven-defying display of wealth!”

Jia Baocai’s eyes went bloodshot. He roared, completely losing his senses, wishing he could swallow the entire gateway of the Emperor’s Temple.

But then, they discovered an even more heaven-defying form of Creation!

The gateway of the Emperor’s Temple was open a crack!

Through the crack, a Cosmic Essence of the highest purity was seeping out!

It had even liquefied and crystallized—a concentration of the entire universe’s essence, containing unimaginable Divine Power!

This massive amount of Cosmic Essence had nurtured vast swaths of Great Medicines and rare Heavenly and Earthly Treasures. Wreathed in endless immortal splendor, most had even developed Dao Rule patterns and formed entire Worlds within them. The lowest-grade among them was Saint Level!

Deeper inside...

Faint images of celestial scriptures could be seen flipping their pages. The myriad Daos roared as a Great Emperor preached, the very sound of it a deafening, enlightening sermon!

An Emperor Scripture inheritance!

It was definitely the inheritance of an Emperor Scripture—and more than just one!

”That’s...”

Suddenly!

A chill ran down Su Xiuqi’s spine.

What did he see?

At the far end of the Chaotic Qi Flow, deep within the Emperor’s Temple, an Ancient Celestial Saber floated, wrapped in billions of layers of a malevolent Emperor Dao aura. If unleashed, it could surely bury the All Heavens and Ten Thousand Realms!

An Emperor’s Weapon!

One of the All Heavens Emperor’s Soldiers!

The Heaven-Burying Emperor was a Soldier Cultivator!

This Celestial Blade must be his Emperor’s Weapon!

So many heaven-defying forms of Creation!

It was a world-shaking treasure trove. Even a Great Emperor would be tempted to fight for it, to say nothing of a group of Saints like Su Xiuqi and the others!

”Hahaha! Such a heaven-defying treasury is destined to be the source of my, the Black Mountain Demon Saint’s, enlightenment!”

The Black Mountain Demon Saint and his followers had also arrived. The instant they discovered the heaven-defying treasures in the Emperor’s Temple, they nearly lost all reason and charged madly toward the crack in the temple gateway!

”Black Mountain, you’re courting death!”

Su Xiuqi and his group flew into a rage, unleashing waves of the Power of Slaughter as they too charged for the crack.

They still hadn’t figured out how to use the Heaven-Burying Stele or found its corresponding lock. Until then, ownership of the treasures inside the Emperor’s Temple was paramount!

While the Heaven-Burying Alliance and the Black Mountain Demon Saint’s followers swarmed forward like hornets, vying to be first, Wu Dao remained calm. Though tempted, he did not rush to enter the Emperor’s Temple.

Because the Star Mother had already finished analyzing the Magnetic Field of the Heaven-Burying Emperor’s Realm-Slaying Blade.

Furthermore—

”Father God, the source of the Realm-Slaying Blade’s Magnetic Field is reawakening deep within the Emperor’s Tomb. There is a fifty percent chance it is a Grand Array of Divine Techniques, and a fifty percent chance it is coming from the Heaven-Burying Emperor himself!”