Swallowed Star: Lord of the Wolf

The selection criteria for the six princes were extremely strict. Each prince would ultimately only select two guest advisors to represent him in the Thunder Punishment Abyss to compete for the Thunder Source Heart.

These three notorious, cunning, but obviously flawed veteran rulers were clearly not on the princes' list of "high-quality cannon fodder."

"The Heart of Thunder Source... Heh, it seems there's no hope of getting in." The Blood Prison Great Sage's smile turned extremely ferocious, like a savage beast ready to devour its prey. "But the journey to the Abyss is fraught with danger and unpredictable! The princes are eating meat, so why can't we... also lick some bone scraps, or even... snatch a piece of fatty meat?"

The fire of greed in the eyes of Venerable Ten Thousand Souls and Venomous Lord of Corrosive Bones also ignited fiercely. They had always been outlaws, skilled at self-preservation, and their methods were bizarre. In the past, they only committed crimes in their own fiefdoms, while remaining well-behaved in other places. However, this did not mean that they dared not, but simply that the rewards were not enough to make them take the risk.

As peak Chaos Realm cultivators, even a second-level God King Realm expert couldn't completely annihilate them instantly; it would require at least an Ultimate Realm expert or even an Emperor to personally intervene... and they knew they didn't have the face to anger such a powerful being.

"You mean... intercept and kill those selected individuals?!" The Bone-Eating Poison Lord instantly understood the Blood Prison Great Sage's idea, his voice trembling with excitement, "Make a move outside the Abyss?!"

"Make a move outside the Abyss? Don't drag me into your death!" The Blood Prison Great Sage interrupted the Bone-Eating Poison Lord with a laugh, his eyes flashing with venomous calculation. "Ambush and kill princes and guest ministers within the territory of the Ancient Kingdom's Holy City? Do you think you have too many chances to reincarnate?!"

His scarlet fingernails scraped across the stone table, making a piercing noise: "What I mean is—hunt down those losers like us... who failed to be chosen!"

"A loser who failed to be selected?" The soul fire in the eye sockets of the Venerable Ten Thousand Souls flickered violently, and then he fell into deep thought.

The Bone-Corroding Poison Lord also frowned.

"Exactly!" The Blood Prison Great Sage's voice was full of reason. "How rigorous is the selection of the princes? Apart from a few truly outstanding individuals, most of those who make it to the final selection are already among the best of the Chaos Rulers! Ordinary Chaos Realm cultivators don't even have the qualifications to persevere. And now, these Chaos Rulers, who were once considered figures of their own, are giving their all on the arena, revealing all their trump cards, all for that slim chance of a spot! Their divine body strength, defensive methods, attack characteristics, origin biases, and even their most treasured life-saving escape techniques... have all been exposed to us right before our eyes!"

He suddenly stood up and paced around the small, enclosed room, his scarlet cloak billowing like a surging wave of blood.

"Think about it, what was the Thunderfire Venerable who barely survived for two days in Lei Hao's Thousand Thunder Purgatory by relying on some kind of substitution technique, but was still eliminated in the end? Didn't we see his defense, his limit, and his trump card?"

The art of substitution is a trump card for any powerful individual, but the Thunderfire Venerable revealed it to his superiors in order to gain an opportunity...

"For example, there's that guy in Lei Xuan's Myriad Machines Thunder Tower, whose soul deduction ability was astonishing, cracking all the way to the middle level, but was blasted by a sudden 'Soul-Splitting Thunder Sound' and was vomiting blood and seriously injured! What are his strengths and weaknesses in his soul?"

"And those who were under the Zhenshan Platform of Lei Yue, who couldn't hold on until the sixth or seventh level, their divine bodies on the verge of collapse and were ejected! What are the weaknesses of their divine bodies? Where is the limit of pressure they can withstand?"

The Blood Prison Great Sage stopped, his blood-red eyes fixed on the other two, his voice carrying a chilling allure: "These losers, aren't they all wealthy? They are at their weakest and most disheartened right now! And—"

He grinned, revealing his gleaming white teeth: "I'm afraid we're not the only ones who think this way... In the end, they'll be a bunch of naked, fat sheep!"

The fire of greed in the eyes of the Soul Lord and the Bone-Eating Poison Lord was completely ignited, and their breathing became heavy.

Blood Prison's analysis was like parting the fog, revealing a glittering yet bloody shortcut before them! Accumulating resources honestly was nowhere near as satisfying as plundering.
And why bother with those tough nuts to crack? Why risk being hunted down by the ancient kingdoms in the abyss? The holy city before us is a huge, newly opened hunting ground piled high with "defective" treasures.

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!" The Bone-Corroding Poison Lord rubbed his hands excitedly, poisonous mist swirling at his fingertips. "The selection process has lasted for nearly a hundred epochs, and the number of Chaos Rulers who are eliminated will only increase! We can take our time to pick them, choosing those who are the most lucrative, the most severely injured, and whose methods we can see through the most!"

"Find those who can be restrained!" Venerable Wanhun added hoarsely, his soul fire flashing with cunning. "Find those whose souls are restrained by my Way of Vengeful Souls! Those whose divine bodies are restrained by the Poison Lord's Way of Poison! Those whose wills are restrained by your Blood Prison's Way of Blood Fiend! Pick on the weak, make sure to kill them with one blow, and don't give them a chance to struggle."

“That’s right.” The Great Sage of Blood Prison nodded in satisfaction. “The three of us working together, each using our strengths, and taking advantage of the situation, will be able to deal with a lone Chaos Ruler who has just suffered a severe blow during the selection process, has revealed all his trump cards, and has been thoroughly studied by us. It will be as easy as cutting melons and vegetables. As long as we act quickly and ruthlessly enough, we won’t even be able to get the news out.”

He walked to the wall of the secret chamber, where a simple map of the outer area of ​​the holy city was hanging.

I watched quietly for a long time.

He turned around, his face revealing undisguised cruelty and greed: "As for the consequences? Worried about retaliation? Worried about our relatives?"

"A piece of trash we could kill so easily, how powerful could the forces behind him be? Are they worth being wary of?"

"As for reincarnation and rebirth? Hahaha! By the time he regains his status as the Chaos Ruler and retrieves his past life memories, we'll have already used the resources we seized to either advance further or escape into the depths of Chaos and live a carefree life! Who would care about him then?"

"As for relatives? Ha..." Blood Prison Great Sage's eyes were filled with naked coldness and indifference. "The struggle for the Great Dao is paved with the bones of billions! For our path, for the wealth of hundreds of billions of cosmic sands, what are mere relatives? What if they all die?! As long as it makes us stronger, it's worth it to climb to the top by stepping on their corpses! Which Chaos Ruler didn't climb up by stepping on mountains of corpses and seas of blood? Womanly compassion will only lead to a faster death!"

The last trace of hesitation on the faces of the Bone-Eating Poison Lord and the Ten Thousand Souls Venerable vanished completely, replaced by a fanatical agreement that bordered on the wild.

For demons like them, who have long abandoned all moral principles and only believe in the law of the jungle, the Blood Prison is the most naked and real way to survive.

With prey worth hundreds of billions of cosmic sands right before your eyes, within easy reach, what could be more tempting than this?
"Let's do it!" the two men said in unison, their voices filled with a bloody resolve.

"Then, we can begin searching for targets." The Blood Prison Great Sage licked his lips, his scarlet eyes seemingly piercing through the walls of the secret chamber, greedily scanning the dejected and forlorn figures on the outskirts of the Holy City.

"Let's start with the 'Thunderfire Venerable'. His 'Substitute Blood Jade' that saved his life in Purgatory, and his Fire Source Banner worth at least 5 billion, I... am very interested in them!"

The door to the secret chamber opened and closed silently, and three figures, blending into the shadows like the most cunning hyenas, stealthily slipped into the night sky of the holy city, a night interwoven with clamor and lightning.

……

While the Thunder City was in turmoil, in the distant Xuanhu City, the city maintained its prosperity and order as a super city on the surface, but in the shadows, another unknown "devouring torrent" was surging.

Deep within the city lord's mansion, a spatial treasure floats in a secret chamber, containing a vast and expansive world. At this moment, a chilling scene is unfolding in that space.

"Ow—"

A "Winter Ice Armor Dragon," over ten thousand feet long, resembling a giant lizard, covered in heavy ice armor, and possessing an aura reaching the mid-stage of an Eternal True God, let out a desperate wail. Its massive body was tightly bound by countless viscous, slippery black tentacles radiating a dark, devouring power. These tentacles emerged from the deepest darkness of space, like greedy pythons, digging deep into the gaps in the Ice Armor Dragon's scales, frantically sucking and devouring everything within it!
Flesh and blood, bones, the origin of laws, fragments of the soul... even the life force contained within the heart of the true god within it, were all forcibly extracted, crushed, and assimilated by a domineering and unreasonable force.

The Ice Armor Dragon's frigid breath, powerful enough to freeze the earth for thousands of miles, was sprayed onto its tentacles, but it was instantly swallowed up like a mud ox entering the sea, leaving not even a trace of ice. Its proud, thick ice armor groaned under the weight of the tentacles' grip, rapidly dimming and melting as if corroded by strong acid.

And the cause of all this is, of course, Guji's true form—

A colossal beast, its form shifting between a monstrous grotesque monster and a writhing mountain of flesh, blotted out the sky, lay prostrate in the center of space. It was no longer in its pure and holy holy form, but rather a writhing abyss composed of pure annihilation and devouring. A gigantic maw, covered in spiraling teeth and seemingly capable of swallowing galaxies, occupied most of its "body," uttering a silent roar at the dying, armored ice dragon.

Countless tiny tentacles wriggled and extended from all parts of his enormous body, greedily capturing and devouring every bit of energy and matter particles that dissipated in the space.

"Gurgle...delicious...origin...growth..." The primal desire to devour transformed into a simple and brutal thought, churning within Guji's immense will.

This is the third Eternal True God Beast he has devoured today!
It was also one of the "trophies" that many Eternal True God cultivators risked their lives to bring back after he issued the "Beast Hunting Mission" in the official name of the Xuanhu City Lord's Mansion!

Since Xu Yang went into seclusion, he has entrusted the daily management and some authority of Xuanhu City to Guji and Jiu Wuye. Guji, a world beast that has been suppressed for too long and whose nature is to devour everything, has finally found a "legal and compliant" and extremely efficient path to evolution.

[Decree from the Lord's Mansion of Xuanhu City: To maintain the stability of the territory and eliminate the threat of ferocious beasts in the wilderness, we are now offering high prices for the following types of exotic beast carcasses (must be at least 70% intact)]

1. The initial stage of the Eternal True God, 'Crimson Scale Fire Python': 3 cosmic sands per head!

2. Mid-stage Eternal True God 'Winter Armored Dragon': 8 Cosmic Sand per dragon!

3. Late-stage Eternal True God 'Earth Vein Stone Spirit': 22 cosmic sands per spirit!

4. Peak Eternal True Gods such as the 'Golden Eagle of Sky Rift' and the 'Shadow Leopard of the Netherworld': 40 units of cosmic sand each!

The mission is valid indefinitely. You can deliver your prey to the 'Hunting Division' at the City Lord's Mansion for immediate settlement!

—From the Xuanhu City Lord's Mansion, Bureau of Mysterious Hunting.

This mission notice from the City Lord's Mansion, personally stamped and issued by Guji, attracted Eternal True Gods from the surrounding areas of Xuanhu City, and even further afield, to come and deliver their prey.

A peak-level Eternal True God beast amidst 40 cosmic sands?!

This price is outrageously high!
Under normal circumstances, hunting beasts of the same level is extremely risky, and the rewards are often only a fraction of the value of the materials, not to mention the costs of combat and time.

Furthermore, it should be noted that Xuanhu City, being a force under the command of the Mother River of Life, does not have the Flame Wind Guild or the Thunder Merchant Guild within its borders. In the past, selling materials was extremely troublesome, requiring either selling to local merchant guilds or venturing out into the wilderness to sell them, which offered little guarantee of success.

The City Lord's Mansion's mission offered cosmic sand worth several times the market price! And the only requirement was a corpse with "more than 70% integrity"? This meant that cultivators could freely use secret techniques and consumable treasures to bombard the area, as long as they could bring back a relatively intact corpse in the end.

There must be a brave man under the heavy reward!

In an instant, a large number of hunting teams and solo adventurers of the Eternal True God level rushed into the depths of the wilderness like sharks smelling blood. Places such as "Frozen Abyss", "Shadow Leopard Wasteland" and "Molten Rift", which were usually considered forbidden areas, ushered in an unprecedented hunting frenzy.

The roars of battle, the howls of strange beasts, the shouts of cultivators, and the screams of the dying echoed throughout the wilderness.

Blood stained the earth red, and the light from the collision of laws tore through the sky.

Powerful Eternal True Gods and Beasts or Eternal True Gods kept falling, and their corpses were quickly sent back to the "Hunting Bureau" of Xuanhu City.

The Bureau of Hunting Strange Things was established in the City Lord's Mansion area, and several trusted Eternal True Gods were selected by Jiu Wuye to be responsible for inspection and settlement.

As he watched the mountains of various alien beast corpses being continuously delivered, and as massive amounts of cosmic sand were being paid out like flowing water, even Jiu Wuye, who was used to seeing big scenes, couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his eye.

"Guji... This consumption... is astonishing!" Jiu Wuye looked at the rapidly changing expenditure figures on the light screen in his hand and couldn't help but send a message to Guji through the City Lord's Mansion core token, "Only four eras have passed! Nearly 80% of the cosmic sand accumulated through taxation has already been paid out! The alien beasts in the wilderness must be on the verge of extinction!"

No matter how vast the wilderness or how fast the beasts multiply, it can't keep up with the speed of slaughter.

"Not enough... I need more... stronger... the source..." Guji's thoughts returned with an even deeper longing.

Cosmic sand?
Before his seclusion, his master told him that this was a better way to obtain the essence of the alien beasts than to personally take action and risk exposing the beasts' methods. This tax, which would be an astronomical sum for most Eternal True Gods, was nothing to a powerful Chaos Ruler like his master.

Moreover, he could sense that as he devoured more and more Eternal True God Beasts, especially those at the peak level, the origin of the Beast within his body was being awakened, nourished, and stirring.

He's about to break through!

"I understand... I'll make sure the mission continues." Sweat beaded on Jiu Wuye's forehead; he dared not say another word. He knew all too well that Guji's position in his master's heart was far beyond his own. (End of Chapter)