The sky above the Myriad Spirit Realm was not merely air; it was a barrier of violent astral winds that could shred a Foundation Establishment cultivator to ribbons.
But today, the sky was being torn apart.
VROOOOM.
A streak of black lightning pierced the clouds. It was the Spirit Vessel (the Sports Car), drifting through the stratosphere.
Inside, the Sovereign held the steering wheel with one hand, his elbow resting on the open window. The wind, which should have been deafening, was silenced by a barrier of soft spiritual pressure.
"The handling is a bit loose on the turns," the Sovereign critiqued, tapping the dashboard. "Unit Alpha, adjust the suspension runes."
"Understood, Master," Alpha's voice came from the dashboard speakers.
The Sovereign looked down at the passenger seat. There sat a glowing, pulsating orb of jagged red light. It hissed and crackled, occasionally forming the shape of a distorted, pixelated raptor before collapsing back into a sphere.
This was a Glitch.
While playing his game earlier, the Sovereign had encountered a coding error in the reality matrix he had created. Instead of deleting the code, he had simply ripped it out of the console, manifesting the error into physical form.
"Annoying thing," the Sovereign grumbled. "You're cluttering my perception."
He looked down at the world below. They were passing over the Southern Region. Dense forests covered the land like a green ocean.
"This seems like a good trash can."
The Sovereign picked up the jagged red orb. He didn't bother to check if anyone was below. To a god, the location of ants is irrelevant.
He tossed the orb out the window.
"Be free, little error."
The Sovereign floored the accelerator, and the black car vanished into a ripple of space, leaving only a sonic boom that shattered the clouds for a thousand miles.
Mist-Shrouded Mountain Range. Outer Periphery.
Lin Fan crouched in the underbrush, his breathing shallow.
Three hours. He had been out here for three hours, and he had learned the first harsh lesson of the Heaven-Devouring Art.
In front of him lay the corpse of a Steel-Tooth Boar, a low-level savage beast. Its body was shriveled, turned into a dry husk.
Lin Fan wiped a streak of black blood from his mouth. He felt... sick.
"Ugh..." He clutched his stomach.
A burning, chaotic heat was rampaging through his meridians. His eyes were bloodshot, and a violent urge to kill everything in sight pounded in his brain like a war drum.
[System Warning: Impurity Levels Critical.]
[Analysis: The Heaven-Devouring Art absorbs everything—Essence, Qi, and Waste. The target beast was low quality. Absorption Efficiency: 12%. Waste Accumulation: 88%.]
[Advice: Host must purge the impurities, or risk Qi Deviation (Madness).]
"You... you didn't tell me... it came with side effects," Lin Fan gasped.
He sat in the lotus position, forcing himself to circulate his Qi. He had to expel the chaotic energy. For every hour he spent hunting, he had to spend two hours vomiting out black sludge and calming his murderous heart.
The Heaven-Devouring Art was powerful, yes. It allowed him to grow without pills or spirit stones. But it made him a garbage disposal. If he ate trash, he became trash.
"I need... higher quality targets," Lin Fan grit his teeth. "But I'm too weak to hunt Spirit Beasts."
He stood up, feeling slightly better but still heavy. He was currently at the Peak of Qi Condensation Stage 1. He needed just a little more energy to break through to Stage 2.
SCREEEEEEE!
A piercing sound, unlike anything natural, tore through the forest. It sounded like metal grinding on glass, amplified a thousand times.
The sky flashed red.
BOOM!
Something crashed into the forest clearing just fifty meters away. Trees were obliterated. Dirt and rock sprayed into the air.
Lin Fan was thrown back by the shockwave, hitting a tree trunk.
"Enemy attack?" He scrambled to his feet, hiding behind the tree.
Dust settled over the crater. In the center of the impact zone, something was rising.
It was a beast, but it was... wrong.
It stood on two legs, shaped like a raptor, but its skin wasn't flesh or scales. It was made of jagged, glowing red polygons. Parts of its body flickered in and out of existence. Its roar wasn't a growl; it was a static screech of corrupted audio.
[System Alert: Anomaly Detected.]
[Target: Unknown Lifeform.]
[Energy Signature: Extremely High. Purity: 100%.]
Lin Fan's eyes widened. "Purity... 100%?"
The beast—the Glitch Raptor—twitched. It didn't have eyes, just empty sockets of white light. It turned its head mechanically, scanning the area. It locked onto Lin Fan.
It moved.
It didn't run; it lagged forward. One moment it was in the crater, the next frame it was ten meters closer, leaving a trail of red afterimages.
"Shit!"
Lin Fan didn't think. He rolled to the right just as the Raptor's claw swiped through the space he had occupied. The air distorted where the claw passed, leaving black tear marks in reality.
This thing isn't biological!
"System! Weakness!" Lin Fan screamed mentally.
[Analyzing... Target instability detected. The entity is leaking pure spiritual essence from its joints. Strike the nexus point on its chest to destabilize its form.]
The Raptor screeched and teleported again, appearing directly above Lin Fan.
Lin Fan had no time to dodge. He had to gamble.
"Heaven-Devouring Art: Iron Skin!"
He channeled all his erratic, impurity-filled Qi into his left arm. It turned grey and hard as stone. He raised it to block.
CRACK.
The Raptor's digital claw smashed into his arm. Lin Fan's bone fractured, but the arm held. The pain was blinding, but Lin Fan forced his eyes open.
He was inside the monster's guard.
He saw it. A glowing white cube embedded in the creature's red polygonal chest.
"Eat this!"
Lin Fan's right hand, wreathed in the black vortex of the Heaven-Devouring Art, thrust forward.
He didn't punch the creature; he plunged his hand into the data stream.
The moment his fingers touched the white cube, a sensation of ecstasy washed over him. It wasn't the muddy, bloody taste of the boar. This energy was crisp, cold, and sweet like spring water. It was Divine Essence.
"DEVOUR!" Lin Fan roared.
The Glitch Raptor shrieked as its form began to unravel. It wasn't bleeding; it was being deleted. Streams of red code and white light rushed up Lin Fan's arm, bypassing his stomach and going straight to his dantian.
The beast tried to bite his head off, but its jaw dissolved into pixels before it could connect.
In three seconds, the monster was gone.
Lin Fan stood alone in the crater, his arm glowing with a celestial blue light.
Crack. Pop.
The barrier in his body shattered instantly.
[Energy Absorbed. Purity: Perfect.]
[Impurities Expelled via override.]
[Congratulations.]
[Level Up: Qi Condensation Stage 2.]
[Level Up: Qi Condensation Stage 3.]
Lin Fan fell to his knees, panting. He felt light. He felt incredible. The pain in his broken left arm was already fading as the pure energy repaired the bone.
"What... what was that thing?" Lin Fan whispered, looking at the empty spot where the monster had been. "It gave me two levels in seconds. And no waste?"
He looked up at the sky, where a faint trail of black clouds marked the path of the Sovereign's car.
"Did... did the Heavens send that?"
He clenched his fist. The power of the 3rd Stage coursed through him. He was no longer just a servant. He was now stronger than most Outer Disciples.
"I don't know where it came from," Lin Fan grinned, a savage light returning to his eyes. "But I hope the Heavens drop more."