Monster

[As you vanished from the continent, the major powers began to forget you. Their attempts to assassinate you grew halfhearted, until eventually, no assassins came at all.]

[The Soul Power on Douluo Star was recovering. That was good news for the many powers there. But just as it was slowly rising, it suddenly began to fall again. No one knew why, and the decline was almost a straight line down.]

[In just a few decades, even the last traces of Soul Power would hit rock bottom, plunging the world fully into the End of Dharma Age.]

[You knew nothing of what was happening outside. You simply slept and dreamed a long, long dream. It held countless memories, and you lived through them bit by bit, as though experiencing them all over again.]

[In the 160th year of the Simulation, an Emperor Auspicious Beast was born to the Soul Beast Clan. A host of Ferocious Beasts guarded her at the Lake of Life.]

[As the continent's Soul Power dried up, the Tang Sect was the first to rise. In an age when Soul Power reigned supreme, Hidden Weapons might have been cast aside as relics of their time. But this was the End of Dharma Age. Every bit of Soul Power someone used now was a bit of their life spent. The advantage of Hidden Weapons came fully to the fore, while Soul Tools fell out of favor.]

[The decline in Douluo Star's Soul Power affected the Soul Beast Clan, but not the Ferocious Beasts at the Lake of Life. If any Soul Power remained on Douluo Star, it was there.]

[In the 170th year of the Simulation, the Silver Dragon King noticed something wrong with Douluo Star. She could not understand it. From what she knew, either something was forcibly draining the planet's Soul Power, or Douluo Star was nurturing some kind of monster.]

[In the end, the Silver Dragon King chose to watch and wait without interfering.]

[In the 180th year of the Simulation, vines from all kinds of herbs had wrapped around you. They drew on your life to nourish themselves, but the life energy they absorbed was a drop in the ocean to you.]

[In the 190th year of the Simulation, you were still submerged, while an energy signal sphere drifted in from beyond Douluo Star.]

[The Abyss Plane still had use for the depleted Douluo Star. The exhaustion of Soul Power did not mean the world itself was exhausted. Given enough time, Douluo Star's Soul Power could return to its former peak.]

[And now, with its Soul Power depleted and its strength diminished, Douluo Star would be a tremendous boon to the Abyss.]

[Douluo Star was now so weak that the Abyss could send Abyss Emperors there in great numbers.]

[In the 195th year of the Simulation, humans and Soul Beasts could barely resist the Abyss's assault. It was a one-sided slaughter of Douluo Star.]

[In the 200th year of the Simulation, the final line of defense held by the human–Soul Beast alliance fell. Only a handful of humans and Soul Beasts remained, clinging to life across Douluo Star.]

[You woke with many memories restored. Over sixty-three years, your Foundation had leaped forward again. At 800%, it brought you ever closer to the level of a god.]

[You looked over the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, then at the many Immortal Herbs within it. You tore their vines from your body, walked up to the Aromatic Silk Beauty, and pulled it up by the roots. Beneath it, you found an incomplete copy of the Mysterious Heaven Skill.]

[One quick read was enough for you to fill in the missing parts of the Mysterious Heaven Skill and master it in its entirety.]

[You went to Ah Yin. By now, the Immortal Herbs had divided her among themselves and devoured her. You did not grow angry. You merely raised a hand, and a dark blue-black vortex appeared in your palm. Without exception, the Immortal Herbs became nourishment for you.]

[You improved the Mysterious Heaven Skill. It ought to be called the Heaven Devouring Demon Skill now.]

[You had built the Heaven Devouring Demon Skill by combining your wind and Evil Qi. It had only one effect: converting everything you devoured into nourishment for your mind, Soul Power, body, and Foundation.]

[You devoured the entire Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well as well. Your Foundation rose slightly, to 813%.]

[You gathered Ah Yin's remaining seeds, then turned into wind and left the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. The wind brought you news that the world was on the brink of collapse. You did not care. The world meant nothing to you. You only wanted to become a god, then take your revenge.]

[You killed your way onward. Every Abyss creature you encountered was devoured without putting up the slightest resistance. You had no need to worry about expending Soul Power; the energy you gained from devouring them restored it. Besides, your Soul Power was nowhere near full. Your current capacity equaled the total Soul Power of three Douluo Stars at their peak.]

[That might sound like a vast leap, but it was true. Absorbing nearly two hundred years of Soul Power produced by Douluo Star itself had filled less than a third of your capacity.]

[You reveled in the killing. As the Abyss creatures swarmed you, a trace of red appeared in your black hair, as though it had been stained with blood. You did not care. Only killing could release the pain you had carried for nearly two hundred years.]

[In the 201st year of the Simulation, humans and Soul Beasts saw you as the signal for a counterattack. Then you slaughtered the few living beings left on Douluo Star with your own hands. Its only survivors were several Ferocious Beasts at the Lake of Life, the Silver Dragon King, and a few insignificant stragglers.]

[You killed for so long that you no longer knew what you were doing. Your mind held nothing but blood. Perhaps because the words for "blood" and "snow" sounded alike, you remembered the Snow Empress. You shouted at the Abyss Emperors coming to kill you, "Blood—snow—snow! Why did it have to be them who died? Why not you? All of you, die!" You appeared behind the thirty-eighth-layer Emperor, smashed him into a mist of blood with one palm strike, and devoured him.]

[Seeing this, the other Emperors took you for a madman and moved to surround and kill you together.]

[Two splits opened at the corners of your mouth, and your grin stretched toward your ears. "Hahahaha! You're not afraid of me? Then die!" You covered your face with both hands, your body trembling with sheer excitement.]

[You twisted off the seventy-second-layer Emperor's limbs, then pinned down his massive, bull-like body. One by one, you pulled out his heart, liver, spleen, and lungs and ate them in front of him, as casually as if you were eating beef offal.]

[The seventy-second-layer Emperor screamed. His screams stirred no sympathy in the others.]

[As far as they knew, an Emperor would resurrect after death. But if they had known that an Emperor you killed and devoured would only become your nourishment and would never return, they would most likely have raced one another to flee.]

[You looked at the Emperors who still did not fear you, and your grin grew wilder, the corners of your mouth nearly splitting past your ears to the back of your head. You looked like a monster wearing human skin.]