You Call This Stuff Sha Qi? Smells Pretty Good

Above the Northern Land, ominous black clouds continued to churn.

Lu Yuan kept drawing in breath, and the Fierce Sha Qi within a million miles poured into his mouth in an endless stream.

At first, he had been somewhat cautious.

After all, this was the Primordial World.

Fierce Sha Qi that countless living beings avoided like the plague could hardly be ordinary, no matter how he looked at it.

But as soon as the first wave of Fierce Sha Qi entered his body, Lu Yuan had put his concerns to rest.

The moment the black Sha Qi entered his belly, it swiftly lost its original violent, turbid nature, then transformed into an exceptionally pure stream of energy that spread throughout his body.

His scales, flesh, bones, and internal organs all absorbed it.

Although each increase was extremely slight, Lu Yuan could clearly feel his body growing stronger bit by bit.

At the same time, a few lines of simple information appeared in the depths of his consciousness once more.

[Devouring Fierce Sha Qi.]

[Growth progress: 0.03%.]

A moment later.

[Growth progress: 0.05%.]

Seeing that the progress really was rising steadily, Lu Yuan felt a rush of satisfaction.

Simple.

Direct.

As long as he devoured energy he could withstand, he could keep growing.

The higher the level of the energy, the better the effect would naturally be.

His current body also had a limit to what it could withstand.

If he swallowed power far beyond that limit in one gulp, his flesh wouldn't be able to transform it in time, and he would still suffer the impact.

Lu Yuan quickly committed this rule to memory.

Caution was one thing.

The Fierce Sha Qi before him was clearly still nowhere near his limit.

"Since it won't make me sick, I might as well eat more."

Lu Yuan continued drawing it in.

Rumble!

The black vortex in the sky expanded once more.

The Fierce Sha Qi that had blanketed the area visibly thinned.

The ferocious beasts lying prostrate on the surrounding ground were utterly dumbfounded.

Though their intelligence was limited, they were extraordinarily sensitive to changes in Fierce Sha Qi.

A six-legged ferocious beast nearly a thousand zhang in size cautiously raised its head, its scarlet eyes fixed on the sky.

The Sha Qi in this area had originally been dense.

It had occupied this place for tens of thousands of years and had long grown accustomed to being surrounded by Sha Qi at all times.

Yet after a mere moment, its surroundings were beginning to feel unfamiliar.

The air had cleared.

The outlines of the distant peaks had also become unusually distinct.

More ferocious beasts gradually noticed it too.

"Roar?"

A ferocious beast with three heads let out a puzzled growl.

It lowered its heads to sniff the ground, then raised them to sniff the sky. All six eyes on its three heads showed bewilderment at once.

There really was less Fierce Sha Qi.

This discovery stirred up the nearby beasts once again.

To them, this change was even harder to understand than the sudden appearance of a powerful enemy.

They had seen powerful living beings before.

They had also seen plenty of creatures that devoured other ferocious beasts.

But the colossal beast before them was actually devouring the Fierce Sha Qi of the entire world around them!

A short-tempered flying ferocious beast suddenly beat its wings and took off.

It seemed unable to accept that Lu Yuan was swallowing all the power it relied on to grow. It beat its enormous wings, whipping up billowing black winds as it charged toward his head.

Many of the surrounding beasts fell silent at the sight.

They didn't charge after it.

But pair after pair of scarlet eyes remained fixed on the flying beast.

Lu Yuan naturally noticed it too.

The difference in their sizes was simply too great.

The flying beast, several hundred zhang long, really did look little different from a rather large flying insect to him.

Lu Yuan stopped drawing in Sha Qi for the moment and watched it charge toward him.

"You still dare come at me?"

The flying beast couldn't understand him at all.

It had already reached Lu Yuan. Gray-black Sha Qi curled around its sharp claws as it viciously raked them toward his eyes.

Lu Yuan instinctively shut his eyes.

Bang!

A dull impact rang out.

The beast's sharp claws struck Lu Yuan's eyelid.

Then its entire body shuddered.

Most of its sharp claws snapped the instant they struck, and the force of the rebound sent its enormous body flying backward.

"Aooo—!"

A piercing scream rang through the sky.

The surrounding beasts all stepped back in unison.

Some that had originally wanted to charge forward immediately flattened themselves, the ferocity in their scarlet eyes swiftly replaced by fear.

Lu Yuan opened his eyes again.

His eyelid itched a little.

He felt nothing else at all.

The flying beast had been left dazed by the impact. Its body wobbled in the sky as blood dripped steadily from its broken claws.

Lu Yuan looked at it, and hunger welled up in him again.

Lu Yuan's gaze followed the beast as it moved.

He could eat Sha Qi, so what about meat that carried Sha Qi?

He opened his mouth and sucked.

The flying beast had just steadied itself when the wind behind it pushed it forward. It hurriedly spread its wings, trying to use the wind to turn aside, but once it did, it was dragged along even faster.

Only then did it cry out.

Its broken claws scrabbled wildly in the air, and its wings nearly folded back on themselves. A stone peak swept past below it. It desperately stretched out a hind claw, but its tips had barely touched the rock when they scraped off a trail of chips.

A few breaths later, the cry stopped.

Lu Yuan closed his mouth and smacked his lips twice.

He hadn't tasted much meat, but an earthy, gamey flavor lingered in his mouth. The flesh he had swallowed quickly dissolved, and the vital essence it sent into his body was indeed denser than the scattered Sha Qi.

"This meat is way too tough."

His words rolled across the wasteland, and the nearby beasts scattered in a rush.

They couldn't understand what Lu Yuan was saying, but they could see how the flying beast had disappeared. A few had still been craning their necks to watch moments ago, but now they had turned around and were fleeing headlong.

A small beast ran too slowly and was knocked over by a larger one behind it, rolling several times down a slope.

It didn't dare stop. Scrambling to its feet, it darted between two boulders. The beast behind it crushed a corner of one rock underfoot and brushed past its tail.

The broken stones were still falling when the small beast shot out the other side.

Lu Yuan watched the herd flee farther and farther away without giving chase.

The earthy, gamey taste hadn't faded from his mouth, yet the hunger in his belly had scarcely diminished.

He had originally wanted to see how long eating meat could sustain him. Now he had some idea.

A beast that big, and after it went into his belly, that was all it amounted to.

The Fierce Sha Qi before him was more convenient.

With that thought, Lu Yuan opened his mouth again.

The black vortex reappeared.

The surrounding Fierce Sha Qi continued to diminish rapidly.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but the sky for a million miles around had become completely clear.

A ray of golden sunlight pierced the clouds and shone on the barren northern land.

Several ferocious beasts that had already fled a great distance couldn't help stopping and looking back.

One of them, a four-armed ferocious beast, raised a hand and stared blankly at the sunlight falling on it.

The Northern Land was shrouded in ominous black clouds year-round.

From the time it was born until now, it had hardly ever seen sunlight so clearly.

The four-armed beast soon raised its head again.

Far away between heaven and earth, the enormous figure lay there silently.

Sunlight illuminated the dark golden scales on his body, and the star patterns on their surface shimmered faintly. Great masses of rock and dust had piled up on his back, making his body look like an ancient mountain range stretched across heaven and earth.

The four-armed beast's throat moved.

Most of the ferocity in its eyes had faded.

In its place was profound awe.

Lu Yuan naturally had no idea what the distant beasts were thinking.

He had already turned his attention back to himself.

After devouring such an enormous amount of Fierce Sha Qi, his once-intense hunger had finally eased considerably.

But it had only eased.

He was clearly still a long way from being truly full.

Lu Yuan glanced at his growth progress.

[Growth progress: 0.27%.]

Sha Qi that had accumulated over who knew how many years within a million miles had ultimately given him only this much.

"Looks like I'll have quite an appetite from now on..."

Lu Yuan was quite satisfied with that.

Eating a lot meant he had plenty of room to grow.

The Primordial World was so vast; it couldn't possibly be short of energy.

He closed his eyes again and carefully sensed his surroundings.

The Fierce Sha Qi in the air had grown much thinner. If he stayed here and kept slowly drawing it in, it would clearly become less and less efficient.

Lu Yuan was just about to move elsewhere when his nose suddenly caught a much stronger scent.

That scent didn't come from the sky.

It came from underground.

Lu Yuan slowly opened his eyes.

His enormous golden pupils turned toward the ground beneath him.

Beneath the surface rock and soil, there seemed to be a deposit of vicious Sha energy far denser than that in the air.

He sniffed carefully for a while.

The scent grew clearer and clearer.

Lu Yuan's eyes gradually lit up.

"There's more underground?"

His head slowly lowered.

His gaze fell on a stretch of rolling mountains below.

The hunger that had just eased began to stir again.