Devouring

The city had descended into chaos. The order of days past had been smashed to pieces.

Talismans, Law Artifacts, and formations flashed with light. Fighting raged everywhere.

With a Swift Movement Talisman affixed to himself, Zhou Ning used his lightness skill and ran toward the valuable shops he had noted before. He searched several corpses along the way, but not one had a Storage Bag.

He also accidentally brushed against a devil corpse, getting filthy Sha Qi wrapped around one hand. The pain made him curse.

At last, he reached the nearest shop, the Heavenly Craft Studio. He took a look with the Spirit Eye Technique and saw that its formation had been broken, and the glazed tiles on the roof had been ripped away with it. Only crumbling walls remained, lit by the glow of a searing fire.

A heap of corpses lay inside, giving off a pungent, charred stench. The counters and display cases were in complete disarray.

Two groups of Devil Cultivators were fighting. A bare-chested man among them had more than a dozen Storage Bags tied around his waist. Wielding a great copper-colored cudgel, he had beaten seven or eight Devil Cultivators until they spat blood and were on the verge of defeat.

In his other hand, he held a mirror. Whenever anyone tried to flee, he shone it on them, and their movements immediately slowed.

The bare-chested man swung his copper cudgel down, smashing one person into a pulp.

Zhou Ning guessed that the others were all in the Qi Refining Realm, while the man probably had a cultivation at Late Qi Refining.

After killing his opponent, the bare-chested man found time to curse at Zhou Ning, whose eyes were shining. He said:

"Little bastard, what the fuck are you staring at? Get lost!"

Zhou Ning flew into a rage. Did the man really take him for some nobody off the street?

He flicked out his last attack talisman and said coldly, "I wonder if you can withstand this Condensed Gold Shattering Slaughter Talisman of mine."

The Devil Cultivators, who had been beaten into a miserable state, had long since been crying out in distress. They could neither win the fight nor escape.

Hearing Zhou Ning's words, they were overjoyed. A Shattering Slaughter Talisman was a First-Tier Superior-Grade talisman, enough to turn the tide.

One Qi Refining Devil Cultivator spat a mouthful of blood onto his shield-shaped Law Artifact and seized the chance to shout:

"Grandfather, save me! This grandson will reward you richly!"

The bare-chested man saw the others begin to fight desperately, and his heart grew anxious.

The little bastard was at the Qi Refining First Layer, and who knew where he had gotten a Shattering Slaughter Talisman?

If the man took a hit from the talisman, all those fat sheep might get away!

"Fucking rotten luck!"

He took a Storage Bag from his waist and tossed it over. "Get lost, or I'll let them go if I have to, just to kill you!"

Zhou Ning knew when to quit while he was ahead. Using his lightness skill, he swiftly vanished.

The Devil Cultivators could no longer contain themselves and burst into furious curses!

On his way to the next shop, Zhou Ning suddenly saw the sky darken sharply. The sunlight and clouds were completely blotted out.

A powerful sense of dread gripped him. He looked up, and his gaze instantly went blank.

"So it wasn't the sky that darkened..."

Above him, a face covered the heavens and blotted out the sun. Its outlines were hazy, but he could faintly make out that it was a woman.

She faced the city, her lips parted in a strange smile.

Most terrifying were her two eyes. They were beautiful, but they were as huge as suns, and their pupils turned slowly amid the grayish white. The sight was horrifying.

The cultivators who had been fighting stopped one after another. Someone cried out in alarm:

"A Golden Core Dharma Aspect! It's a Golden Core Dharma Aspect!"

Several cultivators put away their Law Artifacts and tried in vain to escape, only to find they could no longer even ride the wind.

"Where are the Foundation Establishment experts?"

"There are no Foundation Establishment experts. They withdrew long ago!"

A middle-aged man slumped to the ground as if he had lost both his parents. "We fought over everything for so long, only to end up as someone else's rations!"

"I said it long ago. The Wu Household has a Purple Mansion patriarch, so how could they have let us burn, kill, and plunder? Our minds were clouded all along!"

"We should have known!"

Well, now no one was fighting.

The void split open, and an old man in white appeared, looking down at the city.

"It's the He Household's Purple Mansion patriarch!" The cultivators were wild with joy.

The old man in white reached out and grasped at the air. Several figures shrouded in spiritual light shot into the sky and were escorted away.

One cultivator clutched at this lifeline and cried himself hoarse: "Patriarch, save me! I've bought pills from the He Household!"

Yet the old man in white paid him no heed and left with the figures.

He Zhuoran was among them. As dashing and spirited as ever, he looked back at the city and glimpsed Zhou Ning. He gave a faint smile.

How could a mere remnant hope to take advantage of a Purple Mansion clan?

Several more Purple Mansion cultivators appeared in succession, each taking people away.

After a long while, there was no further sign of them.

Only the two enormous eyes in the sky remained, turning from time to time.

The city was deathly silent and oppressive. Only despair remained.

Zhou Ning sat in a corner beneath the eaves, silently watching the scene.

Just now, a cultivator had tried to use a Purple Mansion descendant as leverage. The Purple Mansion cultivator had glared at him, and he had instantly exploded into a mist of blood.

"The gap between higher and lower cultivators is as vast as an abyss..." he murmured.

"Purple Mansion..."

Even with the sky-covering face looming above them, Purple Mansion cultivators could still save people. They truly were formidable.

The other cultivators were fit only to become rations.

"And here I thought Gazing Immortal Port was a paradise. Now it seems I was completely wrong!"

Zhou Ning could not help searching his heart: born into such an absurd world, how could he defy the heavens and change his fate?

"Hahaha!"

An old man in the street burst into wild laughter.

Zhou Ning looked over. The old man wore a tattered Daoist robe, had a goatee, and held a horsetail whisk.

His expression was filled with grief and indignation as he shouted at the heavens, "Ridiculous! How ridiculous!"

"I, this old Daoist, cultivated the Pure Yang Dao all my life for the sake of an immortal foundation. To this day, I've never tasted a woman. Which of you understands? Who understands?"

The cultivators around him stared dumbfounded and edged away from him. This man's state of mind was terrifying.

"Since death is unavoidable today, why should I keep holding back?" The old Daoist's face twisted savagely.

With that, he grabbed a female cultivator by the roadside and rushed toward a cave abode!

The female cultivator screamed and struggled wildly. "I cultivate the Dao of Hehuan! I'm a man, a man!"

Unfortunately, the old Daoist would not listen and carried her straight off.

A middle-aged man gazed at the sky, blood seeping from his eyes, and muttered on and on.

"Once we enter the cycle of reincarnation, let's have a good birth in our next lives. Either become pigs or dogs, or become disciples of sects and clans!"

Someone tore open his Storage Bag, spilling Spirit Stones all over the ground, and shouted, "I don't want them anymore! Hahaha, I don't want them!"

Zhou Ning quietly picked up a stone that had rolled to his feet.

A man of strong feeling gave himself a slash. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he said ruthlessly, "Even if I die, I won't let those higher cultivators have me!"

In the sky outside the city.

"Old ghost Wu, why haven't you acted? If you ruin Lone Slaughter of All, I'll wipe out your Wu Household."

The Wu Household patriarch had no choice but to reveal himself. He looked down from on high at the Rogue Cultivators in the city, knowing the time was about right.

The Wu Household patriarch's voice shook the heavens. "I have come to save all living beings!"

The cultivators below felt as though a heavenly voice had descended upon the world. Their faces lit up with wild joy, and they cried out one after another:

"Patriarch, please act!"

"Patriarch, please act!"

The cultivator who had just slashed himself went red-eyed, his heart and guts feeling as though they were being torn apart. "What? I don't have to die?"

Unfortunately, his throat had already been cut, and his head fell to the ground with a clatter.

The cultivator who had torn open his Storage Bag scrambled over on his hands and knees to pick up his things.

Other cultivators were doubtful and uncertain. "We really don't have to die?"

The Wu Household patriarch stood in the sky and answered in a ringing voice, "Of course not."

There seemed to be whispers behind him. A group of Purple Mansion cultivators waited in the void, watching the show.

"How hateful!"

The Wu Household patriarch felt aggrieved. He was a dignified Middle Purple Mansion cultivator with two Divine Abilities, yet he was being humiliated like this.

A moment later, he circulated his Qi, and a black ring lit up around him, eerie and beguiling.

A pair of withered hands emerged from his sleeves. A spectral light shone down, enveloping the entire city.

His Divine Sense pierced the void, and he unleashed the Divine Ability All Dream.

Golden words appeared in the seas of consciousness of every cultivator in the city: "Only one person in this city shall live, and that person may build the Lone Slaughter of All immortal foundation."

Zhou Ning saw the words as well and understood at once.

He found it absurd.

Yet the cultivators beside him seemed to have fallen into a frenzy. Overjoyed, they laughed and shouted:

"Thank you, Patriarch! Thank you, Patriarch!"

"We will never forget your grace, Patriarch!"

"Ah, an immortal foundation!"

They pulled out their Law Artifacts and talismans and began fighting to the death.

Tears brimmed in the Wu Household patriarch's eyes, and he seemed a little mad. "Saving the people from fire and flood, bringing peace to a world in chaos, I am... a great benefactor!"

The Purple Mansion cultivators behind him fell silent for a while before someone spoke.

"No wonder the old ghost managed to cultivate this Divine Ability. He even fools himself?"

"His attainments run deep. This man is terrifying."

A moment later, white light flashed above the Wu Household patriarch's head. The second stage of the Divine Ability, Alone Awake, activated, and he returned to normal.

He stood alone in the sky, coldly watching the ants slaughter one another throughout the city.