The outer sect burned under moonlight.
Crimson clones tore through streets like a plague of fangs and shadow.
Screams mixed with the crack of shattered meridians.
Chu Yao stood at the eye of the storm—human form, barefoot in the dust, eyes glowing like molten rubies.
Fifty blood puppets danced around him, each a perfect copy down to the scar on his left cheek.
A Core Formation enforcer descended on a golden lotus, robes fluttering with suppression runes.
"Demon spawn! Kneel and—"
CRUNCH.
A clone leapt thirty meters, jaws unhinging to swallow the man's head.
Golden blood sprayed like fireworks.
[Devoured: Core Formation Stage 1 – Enforcer Liang]
[Bloodline Evolution: Stage 7 → Stage 8]
[New Ability: Lotus Devour – nullify formation arts on contact]
Chu Yao's skin split.
Black-draconic scales erupted across his arms.
Wings of blood unfurled—twenty meters wide, dripping acid.
The remaining enforcers faltered.
"Activate the Heavenly Net!" one shouted.
Runes flared across the sky—golden chains raining down to bind him.
Chu Yao laughed.
He inhaled.
The chains turned crimson, withered, and crumbled into dust.
[Lotus Devour activated – Heavenly Net Array neutralized.]
Panic.
Enforcers scattered.
Then—
A flash of white.
Liu Ruyan landed between Chu Yao and the fleeing enforcers, sword drawn.
Her robes were torn, the Devour Mark glowing through the rip at her collarbone.
"Ruyan?!" an enforcer barked. "Step aside! The Sect Master ordered—"
Her blade moved.
SHNK.
The enforcer's arm hit the ground.
Golden Core blood hissed on stone.
"Orders?" Liu Ruyan's voice was ice. "My only order comes from the Mark."
She spun, sword singing, and carved a bloody arc through three more enforcers.
Chu Yao's clones froze.
Even the puppets tilted their heads.
"…What are you doing?" he asked, genuinely curious.
Liu Ruyan didn't look at him.
"Buying time. The Mark… it talks to me. Shows me your memories."
She slashed again—another enforcer down.
"I saw you selling blood essence for my pills. Saw you taking night patrols so I could sleep. Saw you die for a lie I helped spread."
Her sword trembled.
Not from fear.
From rage.
"I owe you a debt," she whispered. "And debts are paid in blood."
Chu Yao's wings folded.
The clones dissolved into mist.
"…You're choosing me over the sect?"
Liu Ruyan finally met his eyes.
"I'm choosing the truth. The sect can burn."
A distant horn blared—reinforcements.
Hundreds of Qi signatures converging.
Chu Yao grinned, fangs glinting.
"Then let's give them a show."
Outer Sect Plaza – Midnight Massacre
The plaza was packed—disciples, enforcers, even curious inner sect geniuses.
They formed a circle, weapons drawn.
In the center: Chu Yao and Liu Ruyan, back-to-back.
"Traitor!" Elder Mo roared from a flying chariot. "Liu Ruyan, you dare—"
She flicked her wrist.
A jade talisman shattered.
BOOM.
The plaza's suppression array exploded—runes reverse-engineered by the Devour Mark's connection.
"NOW!" Chu Yao roared.
He activated Beast Fusion + Thunder Devour.
His body exploded into scale and lightning.
A Crimson Thunder Wyrm—forty meters long, twin heads crackling with stolen storms.
Liu Ruyan leapt onto his back, sword merging with his scales like a rider on a dragon.
"KILL THEM ALL!" Elder Mo screamed.
The wyrm roared.
Thunder fell like judgment.
Devouring Spree
12 Foundation Stage disciples → +312 Devour Points
4 Core Formation enforcers → +1,600 Devour Points
Elder Mo's prized spirit crane → [Trait: Wind Dominion – control air currents]
[Total Devour Points: 5,849]
[Evolution Threshold: Stage 8 → Stage 9]
[UNLOCK: CALAMITY TRANSFORMATION (Partial)]
Chu Yao's wyrm form shrank, condensing into a humanoid-dragon hybrid—ten meters tall, six arms, crown of blood horns.
The plaza fell silent.
Elder Mo's chariot cracked under the pressure of his aura alone.
"Monster…" the elder whispered.
Chu Yao's six arms moved.
Each palm held a different devoured art:
Thunder Fist
Lotus Devour
Blood Puppet
Wind Dominion
Soul Devour (newly purchased)
Crimson Regeneration
He pointed at Elder Mo.
"Your turn."
Elder Mo's Last Stand
Elder Mo was Core Formation Stage 7—peak of the sect's enforcers.
He summoned his life-bound treasure: the Nine Heavens Mirror.
Golden light flared, locking Chu Yao in a cage of reflective chains.
"Die, demon!"
The mirror fired a beam of pure Yang Qi.
Chu Yao didn't dodge.
He opened his mouth.
Soul Devour activated.
The Yang beam twisted, funneled into his jaws like noodles.
[Devoured: Nine Heavens Mirror (Spirit Treasure)]
[Bloodline Evolution: Stage 9 → Stage 10]
[New Ability: Mirror Calamity – reflect any attack x10 power]
Elder Mo's face drained of color.
Chu Yao exhaled.
The mirror's own beam shot back—amplified, crimson, demonic.
KABOOM.
The chariot exploded.
Elder Mo's body was vaporized from the waist up.
His golden core floated, cracked but intact.
Chu Yao caught it.
Crushed it.
[Devoured: Core Formation Stage 7 Golden Core]
[CALAMITY TRANSFORMATION UNLOCKED: 1/3]
[Partial Dragon Form – 100 meters, 10 minutes duration]
The plaza trembled as Chu Yao's body exploded outward.
Scales.
Wings.
A 100-meter Crimson Calamity Dragon coiled into the sky, blotting out the moon.
Disciples dropped their weapons and ran.
Liu Ruyan stood on his snout, hair whipping in the storm of his breath.
"Chu Yao," she shouted over the wind, "the sect's Spirit Medicine Vault—take it! I know the back entrance!"
He rumbled, voice like an earthquake:
"Lead the way."
Spirit Medicine Vault – 3:00 AM
The vault was a fortress—array upon array, guarded by automated puppets.
Liu Ruyan's sword flashed.
She carved a bloody path, the Devour Mark guiding her to weak points.
Inside: thousands of jade bottles.
10,000-year ginseng.
Dragon marrow crystals.
Phoenix blood essence.
Chu Yao reverted to human form, naked and glowing.
[Detecting 3,892 devourable spirit medicines.]
[Warning: Over-devouring may trigger Heavenly Tribulation.]
He grinned.
"Good."
He inhaled.
Bottles shattered.
Liquids, pills, roots—everything funneled into his mouth like a tornado.
[Mass Devouring in progress…]
[Devour Points: +28,471]
[Bloodline Evolution: Stage 10 → Stage 11]
[CALAMITY TRANSFORMATION: 2/3 COMPLETE]
The vault trembled.
Outside, the sky cracked.
Tribulation clouds gathered—black, laced with blood lightning.
Liu Ruyan grabbed his arm.
"We need to leave—NOW!"
Chu Yao's eyes glowed.
"No. This is dinner."
He stepped outside.
The first bolt struck.
BOOM.
It hit his chest—and was absorbed.
[Thunder Devour + Mirror Calamity = Tribulation Fuel]
[Evolution accelerating…]
Bolt after bolt.
Each one made him stronger.
By the ninth bolt, his body was a silhouette of pure crimson light.
ROAR.
The tribulation clouds shattered.
Chu Yao stood in the crater, dragon wings folded, a second heart beating in his chest—the devoured tribulation essence.
[CALAMITY TRANSFORMATION: 100% UNLOCKED]
[True Form: Crimson Apocalypse Dragon – 300 meters, city-level destruction]
He looked down at Liu Ruyan.
She stared up, awe and fear mixing in her eyes.
"…You're a god now," she whispered.
"No," he said. "I'm the end of gods."
Sect Master Peak – Emergency Council
Sect Master Huo Tian crushed a jade slip.
His face was ashen.
"Elder Mo—dead. Vault—empty. Outer sect—gone."
An ancient voice crackled from a shadow:
"Activate the Blood Sacrifice Array. Feed the ancestor's corpse. We end this tonight."
Huo Tian hesitated.
"That array will kill half the sect…"
"Better half than all."