Adrian opened his eyes, his gaze sharpening as he took in the chaotic environment around him. The Devour concept continued to throb within his Source Seed, restless and strained, but he knew better than to let it act freely.
Silence.
He did not speak aloud. The thought itself was directed inward, pressing down on the Devour chamber until its restless pulsing finally ceased.
No matter how powerful it seemed, Devour was still only an arcane concept. If he attempted to consume the chaotic energies around them using it directly, the result would be inefficient at best and dangerous at worst. The energies saturating this land were not simple mana; they were warped mixtures of divine essences, broken formations, and corrupted rules. However, Adrian already knew the solution to this limitation.
If the limitation was that Devour was arcane, then the answer was obvious. If he elevated it into a divine concept, its effectiveness against divine-level energies would increase dramatically.
With that thought, Adrian turned his focus inward.
Within the Source Seed, the Devour chamber pulsed again, almost as if it sensed his intent and responded eagerly. Adrian paused, considering his next step carefully. He did not want to involve concepts like space or void. Including those would immediately raise the tier of the resulting concept, and while that was tempting, creating such a concept would demand an excessive amount of willforce, which he could not afford to expend right now. In this situation, efficiency mattered more than power. Even a low-tier divine concept would be sufficient.
His consciousness swept across the chambers within his Source Seed. He possessed only over thirty arcane concepts comprehended to the advanced galactic level, but after his recent experiments, he had realized something important. Full comprehension was not required when forming a divine concept. After all, divine concepts are made only with specific fragments.
This was not a secret, and any cultivator in the universe knew about this. But they could not afford to experiment like Adrian. They had only a single opportunity with their Essence Seeds. Every attempt carried irreversible consequences. Adrian, however, was not bound by such limitations.
As he continued scanning the chambers, an idea began to take shape.
He willed the creation of a new empty chamber, and one immediately formed within his Source Seed. He then turned his attention back to the Devour chamber.
As Adrian examined the rule structure within the Devour chamber, he noticed that even hunger itself was encoded as a rule. It was not an emotion or instinct, but a command written directly into the concept. That realization clarified why Devour behaved the way it did.
Hunger drove consumption without restraint, inevitably twisting its wielders into monsters like the Demon Emperor. Adrian wanted control, not obsession.
He deliberately avoided the hunger fragment and instead extracted only the rules governing consumption itself. Those fragments detached cleanly, sliding into the new chamber. They pulsed faintly, restrained, obedient.
Next, his consciousness moved again. From other chambers, he drew fragments that governed separation, purification, and stabilization. Rules that dictated reduction, removal of impurities, preservation of essence, and refinement of energy. These fragments came from many different concepts that Adrian had only at the basic galactic level, but that was enough. He just needed these fragments.
One by one, these fragments entered the new chamber. He adjusted them carefully, discarding excess, repositioning others, fine-tuning balance.
Minutes passed.
Then the resonance shifted.
The fragments began to intertwine, aligning naturally as if they had always belonged together.
When the structure stabilized, Adrian felt it immediately. A quiet pulse echoed through the Source Seed, followed by a steady expansion within his Mana Sea. The increase was modest but undeniable. This was a low-tier divine concept, and it granted him roughly fifteen hundred additional Mana Units.
Adrian observed the new chamber. It glowed with a dark crimson hue, but unlike the original Devour concept, its essence was not hungry. Instead, it carried a refined intent, one that consumed and purified rather than devouring indiscriminately.
Satisfied, he opened his eyes and stood.
The disciples still rested nearby, some sitting cross-legged whilst others leaned against rubble, eyes closed in meditation. Lara watched the perimeter with Maelis, their divine essence flickering faintly as they maintained vigilance. Torvain stood apart, arms crossed, his eyes scanning the desolate horizon where storms of corrupted mana twisted.
None of them noticed Adrian's brief absence from awareness. To them, he had simply been sitting still, another cultivator conserving energy whilst the disciples recovered.
Adrian walked toward the edge of the group.
The elders glanced at him, unsure of his intentions. Then a thought occurred to them. Adrian was stronger than they were, so his perception should also be superior to theirs, right?
Given Adrian's superior perception, they assumed he had detected danger or movement beyond their range. They focused on him, ready to react.
At that moment, a dark crimson domain expanded outward from Adrian, spreading rapidly and enveloping the entire area. It covered everyone within its bounds, enveloping the elders and disciples alike.
The disciples reacted instantly. Those who had been resting snapped their eyes open, sensing themselves suddenly inside another cultivator's domain. Mana flared reflexively as combat instincts kicked in before recognition settled. Seeing that it belonged to Adrian only deepened their confusion. Expanding a domain in this environment should have been wasteful, even reckless. Fighting the chaotic energies directly would drain mana and willforce rapidly.
Yet something felt different.
The elders sensed it first. There was no authority being exerted, and despite that, the domain held. Not only did it resist the chaotic energies, but it even expanded without struggle. No violent clash occurred from the chaotic energies pressing inward. The boundary simply existed, undisturbed.
And more than that, they sensed something else. This was not the same divine concept Adrian had used before.
Lara's eyes widened, "He has another divine concept."
Shock rippled through the elders. A cultivator possessing three divine concepts was rare even among major sects, and yet Adrian had just revealed another.
Before anyone could speak more, the environment changed. Within the domain, the chaotic energies began to break apart.
Amalgamated divine essences separated cleanly. Corrupted mixtures unraveled into their constituent components, and impurities dissolved. The turbulence vanished as the energies stabilized into distinct divine concepts and streams of pure mana.
Even the disciples could see it now. The air within the domain no longer churned with chaos. It was clear, ordered, and calm.
"What is this?" Kaya whispered, her elongated ears twitching as she sensed the transformation.
Then something even more shocking occurred. The separated divine essences began drifting toward Adrian.
One by one, the separated divine essences and pure mana streams were drawn into his body, absorbed effortlessly. Dark crimson light flickered across Adrian's skin as the energies vanished into him without resistance.
Torvain's eyes widened in horror, "Devour."
The word echoed like a curse. The Devour concept was infamous throughout the universe. Its reputation was soaked in blood, tied to cultivators who treated others as nothing more than nourishment. Those who wielded it were said to be brutal, unpredictable, and utterly devoid of restraint.
Seeing Adrian absorb energy like this, Torvain was certain. This was a divine concept forged from Devour.
"Step back," Lara commanded quietly, her voice tight.
Within moments, the space around them was emptied completely. Not even pure mana remained in the air. The environment within the domain became eerily still, as though existence itself had been stripped bare.
The disciples felt the difference immediately. The oppressive pressure was gone. Some even stopped coating themselves in divine essence, realizing it was no longer necessary within this isolated pocket. The relief was palpable, yet none dared celebrate.
Their gazes never left Adrian. Devour was terrifying. A cultivator wielding it could not be predicted, reasoned with, or trusted easily. Histories spoke of entire sects consumed, populations drained, worlds left barren.
Adrian turned to face them. A faint dark crimson tint lingered in his eyes, and when his gaze passed over the disciples, a primal fear surged within them. Standing within his domain, they felt exposed, vulnerable, as though they were prey before a predator.
Several disciples unconsciously stepped back. One stumbled over rubble, catching himself against a collapsed pillar. Another's hand trembled as divine essence flickered weakly around his palm.
"Elder Torvain," a disciple whispered, voice cracking. "What do we—"
"Quiet," Torvain snapped, though his own expression betrayed unease.