Essence Devouring Art

’Saint Master Level. Not bad.’

By analyzing the magnetic field’s radiation, Wu Dao confirmed the strength required to enter the central black hole. It was a level that would allow him to remain submerged for a very long time without being drained into a worn-out husk.

At the same time, the Black Abyss was also the perfect cultivation ground for the Primordial Magnetic Dao Source. It contained countless types of regulated magnetic fields, which grew richer and more fertile the deeper one went.

Unlike Nirvana Valley, its properties were far too monotonous, consisting only of Nirvana Thunder Fire. Absorbing other magnetic fields to cultivate branch paths would require further conversion.

The only similarity was that the Black Abyss, like Nirvana Valley, was a pure forbidden zone of life with no value for exploration.

This would guarantee that Wu Dao would not be disturbed.

However, to be on the safe side, Wu Dao still dispatched many low-level incarnations to construct a magnetic field monitoring network, keeping watch on the spatiotemporal magnetic field fluctuations around the Black Abyss.

After finishing his preparations, he eagerly began exploring toward the center of the accretion disk. The deeper he went, the more terrifying the black hole’s magnetic pull became, threatening to break Wu Dao down into basic magnetic particles.

However, at this point, he had cultivated two thousand branch paths.

His magnetic field had nearly reached the perfection of the Saint Realm. Once the two thousand branches reached Creation Perfection, becoming a Great Saint would be just around the corner. Naturally, he wouldn’t stop at the periphery.

Leaping through spacetime, Wu Dao finally stopped just outside that vast, black sun on the regulatory level. It was like facing a dead-silent, black sea of Hell, its full form impossible to perceive.

One step further, and the pull of the rules would exceed his limit.

He could be completely disintegrated and assimilated.

BZZZT—

Starlight shone brilliantly, ethereal and dreamlike.

As if launching a satellite, Wu Dao released the more powerful Star Mother. Shimmering with starlight, it entered the black sun to be tempered by the impacts of a higher-level magnetic field.

’Haaa... Let’s begin.’

With the preparations complete, Wu Dao’s consciousness entered the Inner World of the Star Mother’s main body, its Dao Wheel.

Of its three thousand nodes, two thousand had been transformed into Primordial Realms.

Inside the Primordial Realms, there was no other scenery—only an intricate tree diagram formed by a Star-colored Primordial Magnet Dragon Vein growing from the world’s spine. It resembled a towering tree with countless branches.

Such giant trees numbered two thousand in total.

Each tree was modified from one of Wu Dao’s branch paths, like countless veins extending from the source of a Great Dao, with their ends connected to massive cocoon-like culture dishes.

Within these culture dishes, even finer, invisible branches grew, connecting to the Demon Cultivators sleeping inside the cocoons.

There were too many of them.

Even if Wu Dao were drained dry, he couldn’t convert them all into Primordial Magnetic Demon Bodies.

He could only settle for the next best thing: transforming them into lower-level Polluted Bodies with magnetic fields exclusive to the branch paths, then building Faith Channels to consume their innate potential.

”Father God, the first batch of one hundred trillion Demon Cultivators has been mostly converted and is ready for use.”

The Star Mother manifested a humanoid form within its database and reported its progress.

”Mm, begin.”

Wu Dao nodded.

The first batch of Demon Cultivators had all been converted into physiques with magnetic fields suitable for cultivating the branch paths.

Once they began cultivating at full power, the Great Dao they cultivated would no longer be the Primordial Path. Instead, through the network of nodes and veins, they would become extensions of Wu Dao, their small contributions accumulating to enhance his Dao Source.

”Begin infusing the Creation Liquid.”

After receiving the command, the veins of the towering trees began to swell, pumping pure Creation Liquid into the culture dish spaces.

The Creation Liquid then diluted the magnetic fields, transforming into Extraordinary Factors suitable for Demon Cultivators of all realms to absorb. A mist of these factors filled the entire culture dish space.

BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ—

Once the nutrient infusion was complete, the one hundred trillion previously slumbering Demon Cultivators opened their eyes and awoke. Mechanically, some moving and some still, they began to operate the single Emperor Level Cultivation Technique and started their cultivation.

Viewed from outside the trees, it was as if the sky were filled with shimmering stars for fruit.

GURGLE GURGLE GURGLE—

A moment later, the magnetic field essence, enhanced by the cultivation of the hundred trillion Demon Cultivators, was transported through the culture dish veins into the higher-level branches.

The branches transmitted it to the Dragon Vein trunks.

The roots of the Dragon Veins, in turn, were linked to the Star Mother’s central hub. Through the Faith Channels within the hub, everything was fed back into Wu Dao’s Primordial Magnetic Dao Source.

After the Supreme Primordial Magnetic Dao Source was enhanced, it would, in turn, feed back down the chain to the three basic Extraordinary Dao Sources and the three thousand Great Dao sources in the tree diagram, ultimately improving the quantity and quality of his Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles.

From the bottom up, and from the top down. A trinity. A perfect, fully-automated cultivation machine.

’Not bad. ”Many hands make light work.” The old saying is true.’

Wu Dao nodded in satisfaction as he felt the ever-increasing number of Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles within his body.

One Demon Cultivator was insignificant. But one hundred trillion of them produced a noticeable improvement.

Adding the Second Generation Primordial Dao Wheel on top of that... with two generations of Dao Wheels joining forces, his cultivation speed would reach a new peak.

”Simulate a limit-pushing magnetic field environment. Operate at full power. Disregard attrition.”

After confirming the 2.5 Dao Wheels were operating normally, Wu Dao issued another command. The improvement under normal conditions wasn’t significant enough; only by unleashing their limits could he ’mine’ them to the fullest extent.

”Understood.”

The Star Mother loyally executed the command. Its terrifying computational power allowed it to monitor the status of every single Demon Cultivator in real time, tailoring their training to push each one to their absolute limit.

RUMBLE!

The Star Mother’s main body began to operate. A tiny, swirling speck immediately appeared on the periphery of the Regulated Black Hole, ravenously devouring the aggregated magnetic field energy and channeling it into the two thousand Primordial Magnetic Mother Trees.

In an instant, the environments inside the culture dish spaces began to deteriorate as deadly magnetic field environments of various attributes were simulated.

Then, the Star Mother began manipulating each of the ”batteries,” increasing their cultivation efficiency, unleashing their Divine Ghost Heaven and Shen Wutian, and even making them bloom first- and second-grade Mixed Lotuses.

Immediately, Wu Dao felt the stream of magnetic field essence flowing into his Primordial Magnetic Dao Source transform from a small creek into a raging river.

The rate at which his Primordial Magnetic Crystal Particles increased grew by several orders of magnitude.

This method was a bit like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. It would rapidly consume the lifespan and potential of the ”batteries,” causing all sorts of incurable, major injuries. It wouldn’t be long before they were completely scrap.

However, this problem was easy to solve.

’Why not just assign a repairman to the two thousand Primordial Magnetic Mother Trees?’

”Ah, Nangong.”

Wu Dao’s consciousness turned to Nangong Li, who was cultivating in the Star Mother World. He said earnestly,

”Saving those in suffering is the undeniable duty of us cultivators. A hundred trillion of our fellow Daoists are in deep water. Can you really stand by and do nothing?”

”...”

Nangong Li’s mouth twitched.

He felt that something wasn’t quite right.

But he was now a Primordial Demon. Executing the Daoist Venerable’s command was his sacred duty and his honor.

”I will not fail the trust you’ve placed in me, Daoist Venerable!”

And so, in the days that followed, Nangong Li began to act as the Savior Celestial Venerable.

Whenever the ”fruit” on a Primordial Magnetic Mother Tree was about to burn out, he would open the Heaven and Earth Profound Sect, bringing light, hope, and salvation.

Presumably, the Demon Cultivators were surely filled with gratitude toward him.

’The boy can be taught.’

Seeing Nangong Li get to work, Wu Dao retracted his gaze in satisfaction and formally entered a state of cultivation.

With Nangong Li acting as a medic, although he couldn’t restore the ”batteries” to their peak state, he could greatly extend their service life.

A dozen or so batches of ”batteries”... even if the required number increased as his strength grew, it would be enough to last him until the next stage.

The disappearance of Nirvana City did not cause a stir in the Burial Realm.

Because, strictly speaking, the Burial Realm had essentially become a dead land. All the major forces with the ability to migrate had long since left.

The small fry left behind were also trying every means possible to cross over and leave.

Basically, no one was paying attention to Nirvana City in the Border Wilderness of the Burial Realm.

The various Great Realms and Grotto Heavens were desolate and shattered, their people gone and their realms empty.

The Burial Realm, overrun with demonic evils, fell into a deathly silence for a time.

However, this dead silence did not last long.

「One month later.」

Wu Dao discovered that many Innate Divine Race members had arrived in the Burial Realm. He didn’t know what kind of Supreme Treasure they had used to appear directly inside, but they seemed to be searching for something.

Outside the Burial Realm, in the various parts of the Daluo Celestial Domain, massive warships also traversed spacetime. They came from the major Overlord Forces of the Daluo Celestial Domain, blotting out the sky from all directions and practically surrounding the Burial Realm completely.

A grim atmosphere, like the calm before a storm, suddenly filled the entire Burial Realm.

Outside the Burial Realm, immortal light and auspicious clouds glowed, and a white sea surged.

Compared to the dark and ominous Burial Realm, it was the difference between an Immortal Realm and Hell.

「In a certain region of spacetime.」

Astral winds raged as a fleet of ships hung in the sky.

”Fellow Daoist Wu, you truly are diligent. We are put to shame.”

An incarnation of Wu Dao, who was resting with his eyes closed at the bow of a ship, heard the teasing voice from behind him.

He couldn’t help but open his eyes. His indifference softened into a placid expression as he rose to face the young man in white, who was walking toward him with a sword on his back.

”Fellow Daoist Li, you flatter me. I was just idle and passing the time.”

Li Xun. The Grotto Heaven Daoist of the Daluo Celestial Domain’s Huishi Sect.

The Huishi Sect was an Emperor Sword Cultivation Force in the Daluo Celestial Domain with a long lineage. Its founder was the Huaisi Sword Emperor, who had attained his emperorship at the Five Tribulations level.

According to legend, when the Huaisi Sword Emperor was still weak, he had obtained a Divine Stone. From it, he extracted the Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique, a Great Divine Technique of the Military Dao. He then rose through the ranks, forged his own path, and created his own Taoist Scripture, the Huaisi Sword Scripture, attaining emperorship in a single stroke.

To commemorate the fateful Divine Stone from his youth, he took the emperor title ”Huaisi.”

He then founded the Huaisi Emperor’s Lineage. Which has been passed down to this day.

In the Daluo Celestial Domain, a realm dominated by pure Sword Cultivators, the Huishi Sect was considered an Overlord, qualified to participate in the joint operations of the domain’s top forces.

That’s right. This cleansing of the Burial Realm, the matter of intercepting and killing the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon King, was initiated by the Luotian Sword Realm, the Heavenly Domain Lord of the Daluo Celestial Domain. Many forces participated, most of them at least at the Emperor’s Lineage level.

The Huishi Sect was just one of them.

To mobilize on such a massive scale, dispatching so many high- and mid-level powers and gathering both the older and younger generations, couldn’t possibly be just for killing the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon King.

To put it bluntly, those below the Great Emperor level weren’t even qualified to be cannon fodder.

Younger generation Sword Cultivators like Li Xun were entering the Burial Realm simply to compete for the Creation hidden within it.

The Burial Realm was the Three Tribulations Ancient Battlefield. In the past, because its Tribulation Qi was too terrifying, no one was willing to touch this ”poison pit,” even though the outside world knew it might hide countless opportunities for Creation.

After hundreds of millions of years, the Tribulation Qi had gradually dissipated, making it safe. With the Heavenly Domain Lord of the Daluo Celestial Domain leading the charge to ”drain the pond and catch the fish,” everyone knew this cleansing would surely unearth one sealed Treasure Basin after another. The top forces would naturally not miss out on this feast.

Wu Dao’s incarnation had hitched a ride with the Huishi Sect. Besides wanting to fish in troubled waters for some benefits, his main purpose was to be the first to confirm where the Great Freedom Heavenly Demon King’s Divine Format was hidden.

This information was hidden very deeply.

The Divine Race was still running around like headless chickens.

The Daluo Celestial Domain wasn’t much better off. It was estimated that only the Luotian Sword Realm, the Heavenly Domain Lord, knew any clues.

”Shameless thief, where do you think you’re going!”

As Wu Dao was dealing with Li Xun, a sharp cry suddenly rang out between heaven and earth.

In the distance, astral winds billowed and howled, rocking the fleet from side to side. A flash of azure sword light annihilated the Nine Heavens Celestial Sea, illuminating a handsome, black-clad youth fleeing beneath it, his face covered in dust.

”Senior Sister Qingyu? Ye Xuan... It’s that heartbreaker again!”

Seeing this, Li Xun’s expression darkened. He immediately drew his sword and, along with many other disciples from the Huishi Sect, charged toward the black-clad youth as if chasing a rat across the street.

’Hm?’

Amidst the overlapping world-destroying sword lights, the handsome, black-clad youth, who had seemed to be fleeing but was actually handling the situation with ease, suddenly had an impulse. As if sensing something, he whipped his head around to look into the distance.

But that strange, familiar feeling came and went in a flash. In an instant, all causal connection was lost, and it vanished from the world.

Not only did he fail to find its source, but the distraction cost him, and he took a solid blow from the azure sword light!

”Yu, are you for real!”

Ye Xuan grimaced, forgetting the strange feeling from before as he scrambled away, covering his head. He howled in pain as the devastatingly beautiful Female Sword Immortal in azure robes, who was chasing him with gritted teeth, hacked away at him.

’Ye Xuan...’

Wu Dao’s eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the black-clad youth fleeing in the distance. He suppressed a surge of memories, and a gentle, sunny smile graced his lips.

He then checked on Jiang Han’s status.

The smile on his lips grew even more pleased.

’The Burial Realm is a grand stage, with no shortage of good shows.’