The History of the Taotie Clan

"Earth Devouring?"

Lu Yang bent down, picked up a piece of mud from the ground, resisted the urge to eat it, and threw it back.

The Immortal Fairy exclaimed "Hey!" and jumped up from the ground. "That's right, 'devouring the earth' means eating dirt, is that so hard to understand?"

The Immortal Fairy thought that although Lu Yang's intelligence was not as high as hers, figuring out this kind of thing should be quite simple, right?

Lu Yang: "..."

So, your "eating the earth" means exactly what it says?

Seeing that Lu Yang was still completely confused, the Immortal Fairy sighed softly, feeling fortunate that she was there to offer him advice in the mental space; otherwise, Lu Yang's mind would easily be deceived if he went out into the world.

She further explained, "Although Taotie is one of the Four Fiends of High Antiquity, that's a reputation they earned later. In the beginning, the whole family was in a pretty bad situation. They had big appetites but no skills, and they were always hungry. When they weren't hungry, they didn't have the strength to hunt, creating a vicious cycle."

"The gluttonous race cannot Grain Avoidance; they eat their entire lives."

"When they're really hungry, they'll eat tree bark and leaves, but tree bark and leaves don't last long."

"Later, it must have been a stroke of good luck that the ancestral graves of the Taotie clan emitted auspicious smoke, for a genius emerged from the clan, a talent for cultivation and a clever mind."

The gluttonous beast thought, "What difference does it make what I eat? I can eat tree bark and leaves, so why can't I eat the soil on the ground?"

"It secluded itself for three days, without a drop of water for three whole days, and was on the verge of starving to death. Its entire life flashed before its eyes one by one. It thought it was going to perish, but then it thought of its people, its family, its emaciated brothers and sisters, and their earnest expectations."

"It felt it couldn't just give up; it had to rebel!"

"It saw hope in death, and its instinct for survival combined all the knowledge it had acquired in its life, finally leading it to a miraculous Divine Ability —the Devouring Heaven and Earth technique!"

"This great Divine Ability transformed into the power of the bloodline and merged into the Taotie bloodline. From then on, the Taotie clan automatically learned this Divine Ability and began to compete to eat dirt."

"Wait a minute, I've heard that the Taotie clan devours the heavens and the earth, and can even tear space apart. But from what you're saying, it doesn't sound like they can tear space apart." Lu Yang was puzzled; that's not how it's written in the books.

The Immortal Fairy glared at Lu Yang, "Hey, you're so impatient! Let me continue!"

"Please continue."

The Immortal Fairy, beaming with pride, said, "That's more like it," and continued her tale:

"In the past, the Taotie clan fared poorly, with generally low cultivation levels, because they lacked the energy to cultivate. Once they are full, they will have extra energy to cultivate."

"Their cultivation talent is comparable to that of top-tier Demon Beast clans, such as the Dragon Clan, Phoenix Clan, Kunpeng Clan, Qiongqi Clan, and so on."

"There's another reason why they cultivate so quickly: eating soil really does make them stronger, and the better the soil, the faster they cultivate. There was a time when the price of black soil skyrocketed, and that was all because these guys ate it."

"The soil in the Ask Dao Sect's herb garden is of a high quality. If you're interested, you can give it a try; it's guaranteed to improve your cultivation speed!"

"Give me some time to think about it."

While Lu Yang pretended to consider, the Immortal Fairy said, "As the Taotie clan's cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds, they began to show their prowess among the Demon Races. In the end, not only their talent, but the strength of their entire race could be compared with that of the top clans."

"This is what established their reputation as the Four Fiends."

"Once the Taotie clan prospered, they realized that as a major clan, it wasn't right for them to just eat dirt all day. So they modified their Devouring Heaven and Earth skill, turning it into Devouring All Things, just like what you see now."

Lu Yang paused for a moment, then asked, "Why didn't you teach me the later technique of Devouring Heaven and Earth, Fairy?"

The Immortal Fairy looked at Lu Yang strangely, not understanding why he would ask such a question, "Isn't this what you requested? You wanted the most ancient skill, and one that's obviously from High Antiquity times?"

"This is a genuine ancient skill, something very old even to me. I only learned about it from ancient books, and then listened to the Qilin Immortal embellish his account."

"Let me tell you, this move is almost lost. The entire Taotie clan might not even know it anymore. If you hadn't begged me, I wouldn't have taught it!"

Lu Yang: "..."

Thank you.

"Is the only effect of this move to make us eat dirt?" Lu Yang asked, clinging to a sliver of hope.

"Of course not."

"Really?" Lu Yang was overjoyed, thinking that the fairy was indeed reliable.

"Try eating a mouthful of soil; it'll definitely be dry and hard to swallow. If you drink water, it'll turn into mud, which is also difficult to swallow and will stick to your throat."

"This is where 'Swallowing Heaven' comes in. Swallowing Heaven allows you to eat soil and then use Spiritual Qi as water to absorb the surrounding Spiritual Qi, shoveling the soil down your throat and swallowing it all in one gulp!"

"... So this is a combo?"

"That's a good point. The founder was, after all, a genius among the Taotie clan. Isn't it normal for him to have come up with perfect moves?"

"Of course, the Devouring Heaven can also be used alone, specifically to absorb Spiritual Qi."

"I'll give it a try."

Lu Yang silently recited the incantation, opened his mouth, and sure enough, a massive amount of Spiritual Qi poured into his mouth and entered his limbs and bones.

"Cough cough." Feeling like he was choking, Lu Yang felt his breathing was not smooth and instinctively closed his mouth and coughed.

"You're absorbing Spiritual Qi energy too quickly. At your current level, you shouldn't be able to absorb it that fast."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yang circulated his Cultivation Method to calm the spiritual energy within his body, opened his mouth, and deliberately slowed down the rate at which he absorbed Spiritual Qi.

The Spiritual Qi is like sweet dew, delicious and refreshing. It is digested in the stomach and spreads throughout the body, bringing immense comfort.

"Ah, that feels so good!" Lu Yang exclaimed.

"Wait a minute, now that you mention it, the feeling of absorbing Spiritual Qi just now felt just like using Spirit Gathering Formation?"

"You guessed right, our human race's earliest Spirit Gathering Formation was created based on this skill," the Immortal Fairy revealed another High Antiquity secret.

The various arts of cultivation, such as talismans and formations, were all High Antiquity humans who imitated nature and mythical Demon Beast.

Among these Demon Beast is the Taotie clan.

"No wonder... wait, even if I mastered this version of Devouring Heaven and Earth, it wouldn't be of any use. Who knows about this history of the Taotie clan now? Even if I started eating dirt right away, the Nine Nether Sect wouldn't recognize it as Devouring Heaven and Earth!"

Lu Yang suddenly realized that while the skill was indeed ancient, it was problematic if it was too ancient—no one would recognize it.

He even suspected that in the era of the Immortal Fairy, very few people knew about these things!

The Immortal Fairy hesitated. "So you want to learn the current Devouring Heaven and Earth technique?"

Lu Yang nodded vigorously.

The Immortal Fairy breathed a sigh of relief, "That makes things easier."

"How so?"

"I won't."

If she doesn't know how, then Lu Yang doesn't need to learn—it's a very simple principle.

I got home late, the second update will be around 11 PM.