Devouring

Meanwhile, at the Star River Martial Academy, the Life School...

Chen Fan's figure quietly appeared in front of his secluded private courtyard.

He didn't even bother to look at the Student Badge, which contained a huge amount of credits and rewards awarded for completing the SSS+ mission—enough to drive any student crazy.

Those things were far less substantial than the heavy bundle of Kindling in his hands.

Beside the stone table in the courtyard, Senior Fellow Apprentice Wen Yuan was leisurely holding a cup of tea, the aroma of which filled the air.

He seemed to have anticipated Chen Fan's return at this moment, and upon seeing him, he smiled gently.

"You're back? Did the trip go smoothly?"

Chen Fan casually tossed an ordinary Golden Body Realm Devouring Locusts Life Core between his fingers, as if playing with an ordinary pebble, and calmly replied:

"It's alright, just a bit noisy."

He paused, then added.

"However, the main course was of good quality."

As he finished speaking, he gently placed the Mother Empress Core, which shimmered with a dark golden luster and seemed to contain a galaxy of stars, onto the stone table.

Thump.

A soft sound.

The moment the core made contact with the stone table, a life force as deep and powerful as a mountain rippled outwards!

Wen Yuan's hand holding the cup suddenly paused in mid-air.

A deep look of astonishment flashed across the depths of his eyes.

"Life Origin that is infinitely close to the Seventh Grade Immortal Realm..."

He put down his teacup, his gaze falling on the core, and exclaimed sincerely, "What a fine piece of Kindling!"

Chen Fan nodded, and without further ado, said, "We can begin. I'll trouble you, Senior Fellow Apprentice, to protect me."

The protector he sought was not someone who feared failure.

Rather, he didn't want to be disturbed by any unimportant people or things at this crucial moment in his cultivation.

"That's how it should be."

Wen Yuan's expression quickly returned to normal, but deep in his eyes, there was an unprecedentedly strong sense of anticipation.

He stood up, led Chen Fan through several quiet corridors, and arrived at a simple, ancient Quiet Chamber deep within the school, specifically used for secluded cultivation.

The Quiet Chamber was built of unknown black rock, with no patterns on its surface, yet it exuded a heavy atmosphere of isolation from everything.

Wen Yuan raised his hand and unleashed several complex Hand Seals in succession.

One after another, beams of Light Screen lit up, enveloping the entire Quiet Chamber layer by layer, before finally returning to nothingness, completely isolating it from the outside world.

After doing all this, he turned to the side and gestured for Chen Fan to proceed.

"Go ahead, junior Junior Fellow Apprentice."

"Let me see what kind of fire you, this piece of Kindling, can start."

Chen Fan stepped into the Quiet Chamber, and the stone door slowly closed.

The Quiet Chamber was completely empty, filled only with the purest, most deathly stillness.

Chen Fan sat cross-legged, a thought forming in his mind.

Splash!

The Life Cores, piled up like a small mountain, appeared before him in an instant, radiating an alluring life energy.

Especially the dark golden Mother Empress Core at the very top, whose energy is almost tangible.

He slowly closed his eyes.

The next moment, the golden Undying Divine Fire that had been dormant within him for a month seemed like an ancient Taotie awakening from its slumber, smelling the most exquisite delicacies in the world.

It emitted a silent yet incredibly joyful cry from within Chen Fan 'Qi Sea Dantian.

Immediately afterwards, a greedy golden flame rose from Chen Fan's body, carrying an overbearing will that could burn everything and melt Ten Thousand Dao things, and pounced fiercely towards the mountain of Kindling!

It was no longer a docile flame, but under Chen Fan's will, it suddenly rose and transformed into a golden divine beast phantom constructed from his will, letting out a silent yet Divine Soul -shaking roar towards the outside world!

For ordinary Golden Body Realm cultivators, taking the step of Adding Fuel is like walking on thin ice.

One must carefully draw upon a trace of the Life Core's energy, like feeding a newborn infant, slowly and tentatively allowing the Divine Fire to adapt to and absorb it. The slightest carelessness will result in a violent backlash from the energy, causing the Divine Fire to go out of control and the Golden Body to be burned away.

However, Chen Fan opened his eyes.

A slight smile appeared in those clear, childlike eyes.

A simple Divine Thought transformed into a command, echoing in the Quiet Chamber.

"Dinner's ready."

Boom!!

The phantom of the Taotie, formed from the golden Divine Fire, suddenly burst forth from Chen Fan's body the moment it received the command!

Instead of cautiously biting at a particular core as Wen Yuan had anticipated, it opened its enormous maw, which seemed capable of swallowing Stars, and devoured the entire mountain of Kindling composed of tens of thousands of Life Cores in one gulp!

Outside the Quiet Chamber.

Senior Fellow Apprentice Wen Yuan was leisurely holding a cup of tea, his expression calm, his eyes slightly closed, like a jade sculpture that blends into the world and nature.

Protecting his junior Junior Fellow Apprentice was, for him, nothing more than changing the location to enjoy tea and sit in meditation; it should have been a calm and uneventful affair.

However, just as Chen Fan started eating...

Wen Yuan's hand holding the cup suddenly paused in mid-air, and the ever-present gentle smile on his face froze instantly!

In his perception, the gentle, controllable energy fluctuations he had anticipated did not appear inside the Quiet Chamber.

Instead, a terrifyingly large energy vortex appeared!

A black hole that is devouring and annihilating everything at a speed that violates the law of conservation of energy!

The massive amount of Life Cores that would take ten Golden Body Realm Perfection cultivators a hundred years to exhaust is now disappearing at a terrifying rate, almost like evaporation!

"This..."

Wen Yuan's lips parted slightly; the usually composed man was now somewhat speechless.

The Divine Fire Taotie did not engage in a brutal act of devouring.

Under the command of the will to forge Ten Thousand Dao in the "Myriad Dao Furnace Scripture," all Life Cores that were drawn into the Taotie maw were forcibly decomposed, purified, and crushed the moment they came into contact with the Divine Fire by an invisible yet irresistible force!

They were stripped of all their impure wills and attributes, transforming into torrents of the most Origin Source and purest life essence, which were then greedily devoured by the Divine Fire Taotie.

The entire process was as violent as the collapse of Stars, yet as precise as a god sculpting the most perfect work of art.

It is full of contradictions, yet also full of harmony.

Time slips away unnoticed.

One day.

Five days.

Ten days.

When the morning light of the tenth day shone through the gaps in the array Quiet Chamber, the tens of thousands of ordinary Devouring Locusts Life Cores that had once piled up like a mountain had completely disappeared.

In the Quiet Chamber, only the Mother Empress Core, the size of a fist and shimmering with dark gold, remained suspended at the very top, all alone.

The phantom of the Divine Fire Taotie had grown more than a hundred times larger, almost filling the entire Quiet Chamber room. The golden flames burning around it were condensed as if they were flowing divine metal, and the pressure it emitted was enough to make any Golden Body Realm expert tremble with fear.