Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

Boom!!

A crushing impact sounded, causing debris of dust, wind, and energy to violently fly about. In the epicenter of this impact was a beast. This beast was hellish-looking! No, it would be better to say it looked as if it was born from a mistake in the heavens!

It had the body of a burly ape, the head of a tiger, and the wings of a dragon. Its arms had claws as sharp as a tiger’s, but its feet were like palms of an ape. It had patches of random black scales and silver hair on its body.

A figure flew out of this energy impact, a trace of blood leaving his lips and a limp arm. It distanced itself a far enough away, eyes as bright as the sun itself.

"Incredible!" Yan Zaizen exclaimed. Earlier, he had been flying about as a bolt of lightning when a sudden shadow with ill-intent bore crushingly in his path. It flew at a speed that Yan Zaizen himself couldn’t compare to and smacked him out of the sky.

During that clash, he couldn’t react! Yan Zaizen had never experienced such a sensation where he was so thoroughly caught off-guard by anything or anyone since his path of cultivation. There had always been an instinctual indicator warning him in some form or way of danger. Based on that sensation, he would make a decision.

Sometimes, it led to fortune. Other times, he simply avoided it altogether.

After a period of fierce engagement, Yan Zaizen had nearly had his body completely shattered. If it wasn’t for his fifth-floor Heavenly Genesis Realm cultivation and his comprehension into the law of rebirth, he was almost certain that he could’ve died.

After all, this was a Yaoguai! Not just any Yaoguai, but a Guai! A member of royalty or can be considered an aboriginal that embodied various world laws. This particular Yaoguai embodied death and destruction, causing its might to be fearsome beyond belief.

Yan Zaizen measured its strength to be at the Ninth-Floor! At least...

"It’s strength is amplified by the laws of this zone...but..." Yan Zaizen felt somewhat stupefied by the course of events. It felt like his prophetic intuition had vanished. He couldn’t even since an inkling of threat or danger, nor even feel the fearsome of this beast...as if his entire natural instincts had been suppressed.

"Could it be the Dao Heart?" He wondered.

Woosh!

The abomination of a beast jumped relentlessly towards Yan Zaizen. Its speed was beyond measure, and despite the initial distance between them, in a flash, it was before him with its claws slashing forth. Those claws emitted dark and violet light that seemed intent on destroying all forms of light on existence.

Yan Zaizen couldn’t react! It was too fast. The claw made contact with him as he hastily created a barrier of death, hoping to siphon off the energy of the strike to weaken it, but alas, it offered very little protection. The claw penetrated the barrier like tofu and barely weakened.

"Ah!" A painful grunt sounded as Yan Zaizen felt his body turn almost into ribbons, his lifeforce being destroy as the energy within the claws penetrated his everything. The sheer force from the claw sent him tens of kilometers away, smashing heavily into the ground. A deep and vast crater formed with his body as the epicenter. The wounds on his body profusely bled as claw marks formed.

A surge of life and death to its extreme exploded from his body, transforming the deathly aura into life! As it did, it fiercely combated the remnant destructive energies until it ceased. His body slowly recovered. With heavy breathing, Yan Zaizen felt like he was going to lose his mind and his life.

Roar!!

This roar from the beast felt like a taunt. And indeed, it was. Yaoguai, particularly Guai, were highly intelligent despite their appearances. They were as smart as humans, cunning and aware.

"You filthy beast!" Yan Zaizen stood up, eyes as sharp and imperious as ever. A light of amber-gold effused from his eyes as he clenched his fist. "I’ll eat your heart for breakfast!" With his Dao Heart-influenced heavenly might, he punched forth a fist that contained the essence of death. This deathly essence wished to devour creation, devour the heavens, and devour this filthy beast!

However, the epic clash and comeback that was expected didn’t happen. Instead, the beast roared fiercely before jumping towards this deathly essence with its wings spread and mouth open.

The next event caused Yan Zaizen to open his eyes wide in shock!

The beast sucked in a breath of air, consuming all the deathly aura into its body as if it was oxygen. It took a brief moment before all of the aura had been eaten. Afterwards, it sneered with its tiger mouth and its eyes were full of mocking.

"It..." Yan Zaizen was absolutely stunned. He had the thought that the beast targeted him because of his deathly aura...if so then...

The thought of being considered a meal left him feeling at a loss. Should...he....run?

As this thought came to his mind, he couldn’t help but shudder. However, he didn’t immediately take off. Instead, his eyes brightened.

It was truly unfortunate that his Dao Heart art was only at its most basic level, the increase of his dao was only minimal. As for his soul strength, it was far too weak. There was also the issue that Yaoguai did not have daos to affect, making it essentially worthless as it currently was.

Regardless, he wouldn’t simply take off. At least, not yet. Recalling the incident with the giant mouth-balls in the Border Expanse, he had no fear of retreating in insurmountable odds or the deeply unknown, but this monster...

If this beast considered Yan Zaizen a meal, then what did Yan Zaizen consider this beast? Was it not the same?

Yan Zaizen licked his lips as his eyes became greedy and hungry. If he obtained this Yaoguai’s royal heaven heart, then wouldn’t his cultivation base rise by leaps and bounds?!

Not to mention, "Let’s see if my death laws can reach Sovereign-Level...here and now."

Suddenly, his body erupted with a profound law of death. The aura seemed to have its own intent! This intent was set on siphoning the essence of all creation! The world around him begun to fall to death. The ground dissipated into nothing as the heavenly components that naturally formed it was siphoned in its entirety. The air surrounding them died down! The moisture, heat, dryness of the immediate surroundings seemed to vanish into the deathly aura.

"Come!" With eyes as black as night, Yan Zaizen bellowed out a roar. His entire body became like a shadow, covered in the essence of death! The only bit of life in his entire body was the pale, white flame in his heart.

The Yaoguai was initially shocked, but soon its eyes revealed an even greater greed. With a roar of excitement and its strength that could rival the Ninth-Floor Heavenly Genesis Realm, it jumped into the deathly aura with no fear!!

Boom!

With his fifth-floor heavenly cultivation, Yan Zaizen would normally stand very little chance, but was fights always determined by cultivation bases? No!

Like a shadow, Yan Zaizen turned into a black light aimed at the Yaoguai’s mouth.

It didn’t hesitate as it opened its mouth wide and accepted Yan Zaizen’s suicidal actions. If he wanted to enter its body and serve as nutrients, then so be it!

The beam of light and all the deathly aura its possessed entered its mouth and disappeared from this world. After devouring the light, the Yaoguai smirked and gave off a strange laughter. Then, it leaped away with content.

-----

A skyship that was hidden by a unique camouflage that even Yan Zaizen hadn’t noticed appeared. It was as if it was always there. On the side was the old man from earlier, his eyes were dim and filled with a little confusion.

"He...just killed himself?" As someone who knew about aboriginal Yaoguai, he knew that many of them could easily consume the laws of others to strengthen themselves. Yan Zaizen’s meeting with it wasn’t coincidental as he was being hunted due to his black lightning that emitted a deathly aura.

It still felt somewhat shocking to see someone be directly devoured by a Yaoguai due to their own stupidity.

The man who had reported earlier walked up to the old man, his eyes were indifferent. "Captain, what are your orders?" To him, Yan Zaizen was destined for death or worse after gaining this old man’s interest.

The captain was still confused, unable to process what had just happened. Only after a while did he speak, "follow the Yaoguai." After receiving his command, the man promptly left.

"I refuse to believe someone who comprehended a world law to that level would just choose suicide! There must be more...but even if there isn’t, I should still retrieve that soul in his spatial storage."

-----

Inside the Yaoguai, Yan Zaizen had transformed into a black orb the size of a fist. "Haha! You may be stronger than me, but...sometimes, the winner isn’t always decided by strength."

As those words left his mind, his body started to reform. Suddenly, a black hole formed at his glabella. "I’ll let you see how it feels to be devoured!"

The black hole started to swirl.