Chapter 402 - Flames of Voracity

“What the...”

Tai Wuji’s expression froze. Something changed once the monster, who had barely been able to maintain his form, placed his hand over his heart.

‘What happened?’

Tai Wuji stared at the monster incomprehensibly. Once he stopped attacking, the monster slowly returned to his human form. Nothing had changed about him, at least in outer appearance.

Tai Wuji gulped. His teeth were clacking and his hands and feet were trembling. He could barely even breathe properly. He was sure that nothing had changed; he had been one-sidedly driving the monster into a corner, but for some reason, he was feeling extremely scared.

“Haaa, haaa,” Tai Wuji panted heavily.

He bit his lip while tightly gripping his slightly melted sword blazing with dark blue flames. He lowered his stance anxiously. He thought that his emotions had completely dried up, but at this moment, he couldn’t breathe as if he was a frog that had come face to face with a snake.

“Hah, aaaahh.” The monster raised his head.

The clear sounds of bones cracking rang out from his body. The monster touched himself all over and then smiled.

“The second one is manageable too, I guess. I wonder if it’s because my Deific Essence rose?” Oh Kang-Woo mumbled.

Tai Wuji could not understand what the monster meant by the second one, but he was able to understand what he said after.

‘His Deific Essence... rose?’

That was impossible. Tai Wuji shook his head as if there was no way. The monster had eaten the Constellation of Fear and stolen his Deific Essence. However, he had done nothing this time that could have raised his Deific Essence. If his Deific Essence rose despite that...

‘It means that he...’

It was only possible if the monster was of the same rank as him or beyond that.

Tai Wuji bit his lip anxiously. He focused Qi into his eyes and scanned the monster. “Hup!”

Tai Wuji opened his eyes widely. After seeing into the monster’s body, he could see a black sea as endless as the abyss.

‘No, that’s not the important part.’

Tai Wuji trembled and gulped in pallor. The black sea was not the issue. He could see the monster scrunched up at the center of the black sea, and he was burning— no, he was not burning.

‘He’s... becoming fire itself.’

The monster was becoming a voracious fire that could burn down the entire world.

“What in the...” Tai Wuji could not finish his sentence.

His thought process paused due to the sense of fear running down his back. Just then, the monster’s mouth split open.

“Now then, let’s get back to it.” The monster smiled.

Tai Wuji hurriedly raised his sword and enveloped the blade in dark blue flames.

Crack.

Black fragments of bone flew out from the monster’s body along with the chilling sounds of bones breaking. Countless bone fragments enveloped the surroundings like a tsunami.

“This is...”

Tai Wuji looked around with shaking eyes. Black bone fragments covered everything around them. He felt like he was inside a giant beast’s stomach. He gripped his sword tighter.

Clack, clack.

Each fragment was about the size of an index finger. Seeing countless bone fragments wriggling as if they were alive was unimaginably grotesque. It felt like they were surrounded by millions of cockroaches.

“This time... you won’t be... able to run,” someone stammered.

Tai Wuji turned to the source of the voice and saw a mouth.

“What the f...” Tai Wuji swore unconsciously.

The monster was covered in black bone fragments. White teeth could be seen between the wriggling bone fragments. It looked as if the monster had become one giant mouth.

Chills ran down Tai Wuji’s back. He quickly adjusted his grip on his sword.

“Heavenly Dragon...”

He raised the sword over his head and focused his entire Qi on his sword. The condensed sword energy lengthened by a few hundred meters and clashed with the bone fragments around him.

Crackle—!!

Sparks flew from the fragments. Tai Wuji condensed the sword energy even further into a single point; the sword contained enough power to split the entire continent in half.

He shouted while swinging the sword down, “Flash!”

Rumble—!

The slash containing immense power traveled in a straight line, vaporizing the smoke storming around them due to the intense heat. Even space itself was distorted. It was truly apt to call the attack an absolute slash that was able to cut anything in the world, and that very attack with everything Tai Wuji had was shot at the monster who had turned into a giant mouth.

And then... It disappeared.

“What?”

Tai Wuji’s eyes widened. Something incomprehensible had happened before his eyes. His sword slash that not even Demon God Bauli had been able to take lightly back in the era of myths had disappeared as if it had evaporated. It was as if it had never been used in the first place.

“No... No,” Tai Wuji mumbled as he trembled uncontrollably. He continued in a voice filled with fear, “It didn’t... disappear.”

Tai Wuji stared at the monster with shaking eyes.

Crunch, munch.

The monster was chewing in delight. Tai Wuji’s face was dyed in shock.

“He... ate it?”

How could someone eat the attack of Heavenly Dragon Tai Wuji, one of the gods of the Triad along with Gaia and Seraph, and an attack performed with all his might, no less?

“How could...”

Chills ran all over Tai Wuji’s body. He panted heavily as he stared at the monster.

“

Munch, gulp.

” The monster in the form of a giant mouth turned back into a human. He smiled and pounded on his stomach as if he had enjoyed a lavish feast. “

Burp.

Dayum, that was delicious. I love this refined taste of Qi so much.”

Kang-Woo licked his lips with a grin.

Tai Wuji was not able to close his mouth from the shock. “You... bastard. How did you...”

He had seen the monster eating the Constellation of Fear whole, but this was a different issue entirely. Eating a physical body and eating an attack made of pure energy were completely different. All forms of power were fundamentally physical; if the monster was able to eat power such as Heavenly Dragon Flash that could distort space itself, it meant that there was practically no way to kill this monster.

“What the fuck?!” Tai Wuji swung his sword like a madman, launching a mass of dark blue sword energies at Kang-Woo.

“Nice,” said the monster. His body split in half from his collarbone area to his belly button, and from there came out a giant mouth. “After the main dish comes dessert.”

The dozens of condensed sword energies disappeared into the monster’s mouth.

“Kurgh!” Tai Wuji grunted.

He leaped toward the monster and stabbed him directly with the dark blue sword.

Crunch.

Half of the Heavenly Dragon Sword, the blade that Tai Wuji had used since the era of myths, was eaten by the monster. Tai Wuji’s face was dyed in shock.

“Impossible...”

He lost strength in his legs and his arms fell to his sides lifelessly. The fact that the monster didn’t die was not the issue; the issue was that attacking the monster itself was meaningless. Whatever attack he poured at the monster, they simply disappeared into the monster’s mouth.

Tai Wuji turned around in fear and began to run away.

“Shit! Shit!”

However, there was nowhere for him to go since he was surrounded by black bone fragments. The monster slowly walked toward him.

“What’s wrong? I’m sure there’s more you can do,” said the monster in a voice filled with madness, like the growls of a starved beast.

His eyes were blazing with desire, and he was staring at Tai Wuji as if criticizing and reproaching him.

“Fight harder. Drive me deeper into a corner. Go past your limits and try to trample me until the very end.”

The monster was staring at Tai Wuji in desperation. Tai Wuji clenched the broken Heavenly Dragon Sword and bit his lip. The words of the monster gave him goosebumps rather than humiliation. He was scared.

“Haaa,” the monster sighed deeply and shook his head in disappointment.

He slowly raised his hand, and black bone fragments gathered on top of it.

‘That’s...’

Tai Wuji’s eyes widened. Each of the bone fragments gathered on top of the monster’s hand contained power. Tai Wuji knew what those powers were.

‘Demon... Authorities?’

Authorities that only select demons possessed were imbued within each of the bone fragments.

“How...”

How could one possess that many Authorities?

Crack, crunch.

The bone fragments collided on top of the monster’s hand. Tai Wuji gulped.

‘There are at least over six hundred of them.’

It was an absurd number. The hundreds of bone fragments each imbued with a different Authority gathered while colliding violently against each other. And then...

Fwoosh—!

The united Authorities turned into flames; the voracious fire that Tai Wuji had seen with the monster that could engulf the entire world whole.

‘Flames of Voracity.’

Those words popped up in Tai Wuji’s head unbeknownst to himself. He believed that there was no better name for flames that could set the entire world ablaze. The Flames of Voracity burning on top of the monster’s hand traveled up his arm and then spread throughout his body. Just like that, the monster became one with the flames of gold and black.

Tai Wuji stepped backward. The monster had become fire itself, and only the monster’s teeth remained within it.

‘I can’t win.’

Tai Wuji could not see himself winning no matter how many times he constructed an image of that monster with his transcendent senses.

‘In that case...’

Tai Wuji loosened his grip on his sword.

“Huuu,” he exhaled deeply and bit his lip.

He could no longer fight or run.

‘I have no choice.’

He had sworn to himself that he would never use it even if he were to die, but there was no way to face that monster other than to become a monster himself.

“You wanted to fight some more, correct?” Tai Wuji asked coldly.

The monster, who had been walking toward Tai Wuji, stopped in his tracks and stared at Tai Wuji in anticipation.

“I will fulfill your wish,” said Tai Wuji as he placed his hand over his chest and closed his eyes.

He knew that there was no other choice, but he was still reluctant to do it. He was about to abandon the martial arts that he had trained his whole life and become a monster.

‘In the end...’

Tai Wuji slowly opened his eyes again and raised his head in sorrow. He had walked down the path of martial arts for ages, but he had not managed to reach the end of the path.

‘Kim Si-Hun, was it?’

Tai Wuji wondered if that human would be able to overcome the insurmountable wall that he had been stuck on and reach the end of the path of martial arts. He had no idea, but it was now pointless to wonder. After all, the moment he made this choice, he would never be able to reach it for the rest of his life.

Tai Wuji let go of his sword. “Unleash.”

Rumble—!!!

The Demon God’s Deific Essence was unleashed, and immense demonic energy stormed around Tai Wuji’s body.

Crack, crunch!

Goat horns appeared on Tai Wuji’s forehead, bat wings sprouted from his back, and a reptilian tail grew from above his butt.

“Hurgh, argh.” Tai Wuji trembled from the immense power surging from himself. “A-Aaaahh.”

Irresistible pleasure ran down his back and throughout the rest of his body.

“Why did I...”

Why had he denied this power for all this time? He had been turning his back on such great power because of his moronic resolution of wanting to reach the end of the path of martial arts.

“Haha... Hahahahaha!!” Tai Wuji burst into laughter while grabbing his stomach.

He was boiling with immense desire, and the world around him felt different. He felt so much joy that he had no idea why he had not become a demon this entire time.

“Die!” Tai Wuji shouted while clenching his fist ecstatically.

He had a feeling that he would be able to defeat the inexplicable monster in front of him with this immense power.

Boom!!

Tai Wuji leaped forward, and the bone fragments that he stepped on exploded. He punched the monster in the face, and then...

Crunch.

“Huh?”

Tai Wuji’s arm disappeared. He looked down blankly at his arm which had become a stump from the elbow down. His mind was a mess after experiencing something incomprehensible.

“

Munch, munch...

Huh?” The monster who had been chewing spat and frowned in displeasure. “The hell?”

The monster extended his arm and aggressively grabbed Tai Wuji’s horn while narrowing his eyes.

“Why did the taste change?”

‘Did he go bad?’