A Hearty Feast

He waited quietly for a few seconds.

The little snake he had just swallowed rapidly vanished in his stomach.

A message immediately surfaced in his mind—

"Evolution Point +0.25."

After a ghost fused with an Anomaly Seed, a single Anomaly Creature could provide 0.25 Evolution Points!

By that calculation—

It seemed he only needed twenty of them to evolve once.

But Wu Dao guessed things would not be so simple.

After all, he had just broken through the limits of the human body through his own efforts. His physique had improved, his strength had undergone a qualitative transformation, and he had entered an entirely new realm. The Attribute Panel's upgrade rules should change as well.

He opened the Attribute Panel and took a look.

[Physique: Beast King (Minor Accomplishment)]

[Transcendent: Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique Potential Liberation 45%+]

[Evolution Points: 0.4]

Sure enough.

The information conveyed by the gray plus sign behind the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique had changed. The Evolution Points required for one upgrade had risen from 5 to 10.

(To keep people from saying I'm suppressing the protagonist's strength because they weren't reading carefully, a reminder: the previous five points were for an Expert Realm upgrade; the current ten points are for a Beast King Realm upgrade.)

In other words, the stronger I become, the more Evolution Points I'll need for upgrades. If I want to rely on the Attribute Panel to grow stronger in the future, will I have to devour increasingly powerful anomalies?

He put away the Attribute Panel.

Wu Dao had gained a deeper understanding of the Attribute Panel, yet he felt no fear whatsoever.

In his previous life, in order to break his own limits, he had dared to face Bio-Destruction Bombs head-on. Now that he had come to a greater stage, even without the Attribute Panel, he would never choose to drift into mediocrity.

Having understood the Attribute Panel's evolution rules—

Wu Dao did not dwell on it any longer. He directly tossed the two dark-colored snake eggs in his hand into his mouth. His two rows of serrated teeth continuously opened and closed, chewing them before quickly swallowing them down.

"Evolution Points +0.37, +0.37."

Compared to the previous snake egg, these two had provided 0.12 more Evolution Points.

The reason for this change—

Was likely that they had absorbed the Essence Blood of two ordinary Ghost Slaves, as well as the ghostly entity possessing their bodies.

If I keep feeding them, could an anomaly with one whole Evolution Point be born?

Wu Dao picked at his teeth with tiger-claw-like nails. Listening to the slaughter and monstrous cries rising from all around the Shanty District, an idea formed in his heart.

The moment his feet moved—

He blasted through the rain curtain like a black panther, charging toward the nearest shack.

Practice was the sole criterion for testing truth.

Since the Four Seas Gang had shut the Shanty District gates and were waiting outside, it meant they would not enter before the Gu Fighting ended.

During that time, he had plenty to do.

Rumble!

Tonight's rainstorm was thoroughly exhilarating. As time passed, not only did it show no sign of stopping, it only grew heavier. Drifting rainwater mixed with scarlet blood, flooding the ground throughout the Shanty District.

"Roar!"

Inside one shack, roars came one after another. Severed limbs and mangled flesh flew through the air, making the place seem like a slaughterhouse.

Bang!

Wu Dao kicked the wooden door flying. His thick, disheveled hair whipped in the gale, and beneath the flashing lightning, his towering, powerful physique stood blocking the entrance like a war god.

He swept his gaze over the room.

The fight in this shack had already ended. The communal bed was covered in grisly mangled flesh, while a tall Mutated Ghost Slave lay sprawled over a relatively intact corpse, feeding like a leech.

"Such ferocious fighting power? You'll do!"

After sizing it up, Wu Dao tossed in the skinny Ghost Slave whose limbs he had snapped, even though it was still cackling eerily. It landed on the Mutated Ghost Slave's back.

Roar!

The Mutated Ghost Slave instantly reacted like a savage beast interrupted during its meal, turning its head and baring zombie-like fangs at Wu Dao.

But the next moment—

Its attention was drawn to the cackling Ghost Mine Slave beside it. It immediately lowered its head and bit through its carotid artery.

"Hee hee hee..."

"Gulp~ gulp~"

One was laughing, while the other was eating the one who laughed.

A bizarre and grotesque scene.

Yet Wu Dao nodded in satisfaction. With a tap of his foot, he swept out again like a violent gale.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~

The wind howled and the rain poured.

The Shanty District, that bloody slaughterhouse, continued operating, devouring flesh and souls.

Among the buildings that flickered between light and darkness—

Wu Dao moved like a tiger or leopard out hunting. He came without a shadow, snapped Ghost Slaves' limbs the instant he met them, and continuously fed them to the creature.

After several rounds like this—

Once he had fed it five Ghost Slaves, Wu Dao finally stopped.

Because that Mutated Mine Slave had stopped eating. Like a hibernating beast, it lay motionless on the bed with a belly swollen as though ten months pregnant.

Five is the limit of its appetite?

Wu Dao tossed aside the Ghost Slave with all four limbs broken and stepped forward to examine the Mutated Mine Slave's drum-like belly.

He had thought it would be in endless-devouring-snake mode.

Who would have thought it had a fullness meter?

But it did not matter. There were still forty-nine Mutated Mine Slaves in the Shanty District. Once they were full, they would likewise bring him a substantial haul.

One minute later—

Under Wu Dao's observation, the rosy skin of the Mutated Mine Slave rapidly withered. Its flesh began to shrivel and contract as well, all its essence condensing into its belly, which started to emit a faint blue-green glow.

Seeing this, Wu Dao smiled with the contentment of an old farmer at harvest. He raised his tiger-claw-like right hand. Amid lightning and thunder, against the flesh strewn across the room, he looked exceptionally terrifying.

A moment later—

Wu Dao walked out of the shack with a snake egg resembling green agate in his hand. It glowed blue-green, and when he looked closely, he could see a tiny, peculiar human-faced, snake-bodied thing swimming inside.

Like eating broad beans—

Wu Dao tossed it straight into his mouth. His steel teeth snapped shut, filling his mouth with bursting pulp. He swallowed it whole, and it went down after a few chews.

Several seconds later—

"Evolution Points +0.85."

He opened the Attribute Panel again.

[Physique: Beast King (Minor Accomplishment)]

[Transcendent: Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique 45% Potential Liberation+]

[Evolution Points: 1.99]

A mature Mutated Mine Slave was worth as much as 0.85 Evolution Points. With ten more, he could evolve once!

Wu Dao licked his lips. In his previous life, it had taken over a decade of countless brushes with death at the limit to push Stealing Heaven's Secret to its pinnacle. He truly was a little curious what it felt like to use cheats.

Of course, that did not mean he had grown slack.

In truth, to Wu Dao, it made no difference whether he had the Attribute Panel or not. With his own talent and effort, he could still climb very high.

However—

Since there was a shortcut, why not take it? He was not some 1080p, and did not have any of those pedantic notions.

He only cared about results. So long as he could grow stronger, the means did not matter.

"Hee hee hee..."

Just as Wu Dao was considering which direction to begin harvesting from, strange laughter rang out from the dark rain curtain.

A Ghost Slave with the corners of its mouth split all the way to its ears and eyes curved like crescent moons charged toward him with its head lowered.

All three hundred mine slaves in the Shanty District had been possessed by ghosts. By now, the place had long since become a pot of porridge—either they were being eaten, or they were running about in every direction.

"Since you like keeping your head down so much, don't ever raise it again."

Wu Dao did not move. Once the Ghost Slave approached, he gave a sadistic grin, clenched his right hand into a fist, and raised it high. The muscles in his arm knotted and tightened as he smashed through the rain curtain, delivering a forceful, rapid hammer blow to the Ghost Slave's crown.

Bang!

Crack, crack, crack—

The bone-breaking sounds that made one's teeth ache rang out like beans being stir-fried.

Under the crushing force of Tiger-Bear Strength, a fistprint sank into the Ghost Slave's skull. Its neck collapsed inward as though it were a whack-a-mole target, flesh, skin, and bone fragments piling atop its shoulders. Its bloodshot eyes bulged outward, and its body fell straight back.

Bang!

Rainwater splashed up.

Wu Dao wiped the blood spattered across his face. By the lightning's glow, he looked down at the poor little creature on the ground, surprise flickering in his eyes.

Because—

The Ghost Slave's entire body had already withered, reduced to skin stretched over bones. No one knew where all its flesh had gone.

Was it caused by the ghost's possession?

As Wu Dao pondered it, he gained another piece of information about this world's transcendent side.

After a ghost possessed someone, the host suffered brain death and lost consciousness, while their body was controlled by the ghost.

What the ghost consumed during its actions was the host's flesh essence. It would not stop moving until that essence had been completely drained. It was uncertain whether the ghost would die then.

But one thing was certain: a ghost could only possess someone once, and once its host was killed, the ghost would die as well.

He silently committed this information to memory.

Wu Dao did not linger. Following the direction of the sounds, he headed for a nearby shack.

One Mutated Mine Slave's fullness was equivalent to five Ghost Slaves. There were over three hundred ordinary mine slaves in the Shanty District. Given the Mutated Mine Slaves' devouring speed, the time he had spent experimenting should have been enough.

Next—

He had to race against time, because the Four Seas Gang could enter at any moment.

There was no need to search deliberately.

Among the several dozen shacks in the Shanty District, each one had an average of one or two Mutated Mine Slaves.

Though these Mutated Mine Slaves possessed astonishing strength after being affected by anomalies, each one seemingly a strongman—

Before Wu Dao, who had broken through the human limit once and possessed the Beast King Physique, they would basically be smashed apart in a single exchange.

He was like a green giant charging into a slum. Wherever he went, houses collapsed and flesh flew. He killed and ate all the way through, his mouth never stopping, happier than at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

More than ten minutes later—

Wu Dao emerged from the darkness of a shack, covered in scraps of flesh and looking even more terrifying than a hellish asura.

"Burp~ That should be enough. It would be rude to eat any more."

He swallowed the fragments of snake egg in his mouth.

Wu Dao burped. The roars within the Shanty District were gradually fading, and the hunters outside the Gu Fighting Arena were about to enter. He needed to make time to turn his gains into strength first.

More importantly—

He truly could not eat another bite!

What the Attribute Panel seemed to absorb was only the tiny snake embryos within the eggs. The remaining egg white, yolk, and shell all went into Wu Dao's stomach.

Those ghostly things were extremely difficult to digest, and they contained shocking amounts of energy and calories. Twenty-five eggs in total made Wu Dao feel as if his body contained tiny suns, one after another—hot and swollen.

"They're pretty good for restoring stamina, though."

Wu Dao circulated the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique. He did not even need to enter his limit state before heat immediately surged up from his stomach, transforming into Myriad Healing Fluid and flowing throughout his body.

His slightly fatigued body immediately became full of vigor, while the scratches and bloodstains scattered over him from demolishing buildings with brute force rapidly healed.

The effect was no different from the red and blue potions in a game.

"With this stuff, I can activate Limit Liberation without worry." Wu Dao shook his belly and grinned. He then identified his bearings and ran in the direction opposite the Shanty District's exit.

After devouring three immature and twenty-two mature Anomaly Snake Eggs—

The Evolution Points on his Attribute Panel had already reached 19.84. The plus sign behind the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique flashed brightly. He could undergo one Life Evolution.

Before a vertical wall five or six meters high—

Wu Dao took a deep breath, the thick, corded tendons in his legs tightening and swelling.

He bent low and exerted force!

In an instant, he shot forward like a cheetah!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

His massive feet pounded down, and the muddy ground soaked by rain burst apart in rapid succession beneath his brute strength like a string of bombs, blasting open small craters.

Thud!

At the foot of the wall, Wu Dao completed his buildup, bent at the waist and knees, then leaped. Like a civet cat, he rose four or five meters in an instant through the pelting rain.

His ten eagle-claw-like nails slapped against the stone bricks and hooked in. Borrowing force once more, he easily vaulted onto the wall.

Crack!

Just then, lightning struck, illuminating the entire Red Fire Mine. Wu Dao's tall, majestic physique stood atop the wall, his gaze piercing through the rain curtain as he clearly saw the wall on the other side.

Creak~

The heavy gates opened, and Meng Qingshuang's umbrella-holding figure appeared at the forefront.

"Thanks for the feast. I'll be back soon."

Wu Dao gave a bloodthirsty smile. Without lingering, he leaped from the wall, and his body swiftly vanished into the night.

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