Kunpeng Devouring

Her voice was clear and resolute.

It was as though she were swearing an oath to heaven, and as though she were severing all her lingering attachments and sorrows, her past life and this one.

Now, her name was Li Qingyue.

She did not know whether this truly was the Shrouding the Heavens World.

It resembled it, yet was not quite the same.

At the very least, she was not the legendary Ruthless Great Emperor. She had merely been handed an extraordinarily similar script.

This seemed more like a similar world reflected from the Shrouding the Heavens World.

"The road, in the end, is mine to walk!"

She tucked the Ghost Face Mask into her bosom with the utmost care, then sat before the grave mound.

For the first time, she turned her awareness toward the glowing words flickering in her mind.

A system!

It seemed to be standard equipment for anyone who crossed into another world.

Yet this system of hers was not quite what it seemed.

It felt more like something imagined into being through a mutation of her soul after crossing worlds.

Survival System: Li Qingyue.

Constitution: Waste Body.

Strength: none.

Cultivation arts: none.

Evolution: survival points can be consumed to evolve any scene.

Survival points: 1,000. (Automatically increase upon surviving calamities.)

"A person seeking death ends up with a Survival System... how laughable!"

Li Qingyue turned her awareness toward those survival points. She had earned them during the Fierce Beast calamity that befell her mountain village all those years ago.

Over the past eight years, her brother had taken far too good care of her.

She had never encountered a mortal peril.

And so they had never increased again.

Nor had there been the slightest improvement, until she had almost forgotten about it.

"Evolution? Enlightenment?"

Li Qingyue knitted her brows as memories flashed through her mind. She knew all too clearly that a Waste Body could not cultivate.

There were powerful figures who had risen against the odds with Mortal Bodies, but their talent was far beyond anything she could compare with.

Besides, she was not even the equal of someone with a Mortal Body.

She knew even more clearly that she was not truly the Ruthless Great Emperor, nor did she possess that woman's extraordinary gifts.

At most, she was a flower that had undergone similar experiences.

With her Waste Body in this world, she was destined to be unable to open her Bitter Sea and cultivate.

Then she could only forge a path of her own.

And the Ruthless Great Emperor's path was like a guiding lamp!

"The Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art... isn't it really just eating?"

"Devouring? If I can't cultivate this world's arts, I'll start with martial arts!"

"The Northern Darkness Divine Art? Evolution... Kunpeng Devouring!"

With a single thought from Li Qingyue, her thousand survival points instantly fell to zero.

She seemed to arrive above a vast ocean in an instant, its boundless blue stretching to meet the sky.

It was clearly an illusion, yet it felt utterly real.

Even the seawater carried its briny smell, and every rise and fall of the waves unfolded before her eyes with perfect clarity.

Suddenly, a tiny whirlpool appeared in the seawater and began slowly spreading.

The undulating surface of the sea sank little by little into that whirlpool.

The shadow of an unimaginably enormous beast faintly emerged beneath the water.

Rumble...

Suddenly, the seawater roared as it surged into the giant beast's body. From a single point, the whirlpool gradually spread across dozens of kilometers.

Even the white clouds in the heavens began to turn.

At last, it formed an immense vortex connecting heaven and earth.

Seawater and air currents swarmed toward it.

Huge storms and waves erupted across the ocean's surface.

It was as though a terrifying beast were churning heaven and earth.

"This is Kunpeng Devouring!"

Li Qingyue's bright eyes shone, as though she meant to brand every change indelibly into her mind.

It was even more as though she meant to merge herself into that enormous vortex.

Bang!

Suddenly, Li Qingyue's body seemed to burst apart, transforming into air currents and seawater that merged with the vortex.

She even became one with the giant beast beneath the sea.

Feeling the might of its devouring pull and the movement of the vortex, she performed the devouring technique again and again, almost by instinct.

After an unknown length of time, every image vanished.

Li Qingyue's figure appeared upon the bluestone once more.

The breeze still blew, and the sun hung high overhead.

The grave beside her remained quiet and deathly still.

Yet within Li Qingyue's clear, dark eyes, vortex after vortex seemed to spin without cease.

"Qi!"

Li Qingyue murmured softly, sensing what seemed to be a faint, elusive current of qi within her.

It circulated through her body at the direction of her thoughts.

With her dantian as its center, it slowly gathered into a barely perceptible vortex.

Wisps of vital essence seemed to seep into her body from between heaven and earth.

Yet it also seemed as though there was nothing at all.

Like an illusion.

"Without opening my Bitter Sea, I can't cultivate."

"Then I won't open it. I'll practice the martial arts in my memories."

"I'll use true qi to nourish my body and soul, and devour everything that can help me grow."

"If I don't have the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art, I'll create it myself!"

"I'll keep walking, one step at a time!"

"Grrr..."

Suddenly, a strange sound came from Li Qingyue's stomach.

"Without my brother, I'll have to hunt for myself!"

Li Qingyue gave a bitter smile. She had been so immersed in her own world before that even survival had become a problem.

Without her brother, she was a woman with a Waste Body—a body inferior even to a Mortal Body!

Surviving would indeed be difficult!

She slowly rose and looked toward the grave, saying softly, "Brother, I'll come see you again after a while and tell you everything I've seen!"

With that, Li Qingyue made her way down the mountain path, scrambling along with slightly unsteady steps.

At last, she disappeared into the mountains.

Half a month later, deep within the Hundred-Thousand Mountains.

A frail, petite figure crouched halfway to the ground, watching a wild rabbit in the distance.

Her eyes were alert and focused.

Suddenly.

Rumble...

An enormous foot descended from the sky like a small mountain, trampling countless trees and rocks before moving away amid thunderous crashes.

The earth shook as though an earth dragon were turning over beneath it.

Then it vanished in an instant, as though it had all been an illusion.

When the dust settled, Li Qingyue was covered in blood, her face pale, her body curled miserably behind a boulder.

As that foot had stomped down, the rocks had shattered, and a small stone had shot through her shoulder like a bullet.

She felt a pain that tore through her heart and lungs. Even her bones seemed to have shattered into fragments.

You survived beneath a Fierce Beast's foot. Survival points +100.

A line of words seemed to drift before her eyes, but Li Qingyue ignored it, surveying her surroundings with eyes as clear and bright as the moon.

Around the footprint that enormous foot had left, quite a few Fierce Beasts had likewise died with their bodies pierced through.

Li Qingyue gritted her teeth against the pain and walked over, leaning against an enormous beast's corpse as she tore into it with her teeth.

Like a savage.

At the same time, she instinctively began visualizing herself as the Kunpeng in the depths of the sea.

As mouthful after mouthful of Fierce Beast flesh and blood entered her stomach, color gradually returned to Li Qingyue's pale face.

Even the wound on her shoulder rapidly sealed into a scab.

The flesh and blood of Fierce Beasts were inherently filled with the essence of heaven and earth.

Thump, thump, thump...

The more flesh and blood she ate, the more powerfully her heart beat.

As she visualized Kunpeng Devouring, the flesh and blood in her stomach seemed to be broken down by an invisible force.

They transformed into streams of energy that circulated throughout her body with her blood.

"It really works!"

Li Qingyue's eyes shone clearly. After half a month of ceaseless visualization, imitation, and attempts, she had finally glimpsed a ray of light.

She stayed beneath the Fierce Beast's body, eating whenever she grew hungry.

After eating, she visualized Kunpeng Devouring, concentrating on her cultivation.

Because of the imposing might of that enormous foot, no Fierce Beast dared approach this place.

Seven days passed.

Li Qingyue was still covered in blood, but waves of heat rose from her body.

Even with winter drawing near, she felt no cold at all.

Her heartbeat grew slower, yet stronger and more powerful. As blood flowed throughout her body, it was like surging rivers.

"My body is the rivers and oceans; my mind is the Kunpeng."

"Fierce Beast flesh and blood are all provisions for my cultivation!"

"All I need to do is eat, and keep eating!"

Li Qingyue could feel her frail body steadily growing stronger, her strength continually increasing.

Though she still could not sense her Wheel of Life or Bitter Sea.

Her vitality had nevertheless grown more vigorous.

Suddenly, Li Qingyue's eyes lit up. Amid the flow of blood within her body, she sensed a new current of qi under the control of her will.

It was pleasantly warm, like a ball of flame.

It could even make her blood flow faster.

"Is this... true qi?"

"True qi born from vigorous blood and vitality?"