Chapter 1563: The World-Devouring Beast

By this time, the commotion emanating from deep underground had become extremely obvious. Throughout the Clear Wind Sector, many True Lake cultivators had sensed it, and each was filled with doubt and surprise, unsure of what was happening.

Beneath the abyss, Lu Ye continued to descend. This abyss was exceedingly deep; wide at first, it grew narrower the further he went. By the halfway point, it was almost impossible for a person to pass, and beyond that, there was no path at all.

Lu Ye had no choice but to draw his Pan Mountain Blade, violently breaking through obstacles ahead, making his way unimpeded.

After descending for tens of thousands of zhang, Lu Ye suddenly felt the obstruction vanish. A searing hot aura assailed him, and he tumbled into an open space.

Looking around, magma churned and flowed in this place, with bubbles of various sizes emerging from within and constantly bursting.

This was clearly the core of the Clear Wind Sector.

Even though the Clear Wind Sector was only a True Lake level realm, the harshness of the environment here was such that ordinary cultivators could not remain. Not to mention the dense and chaotic geomagnetism, even the scorching high temperature could not be withstood by anyone below the Star Constellation realm.

Yet, Lu Ye felt as if bathed in a spring breeze. He could even, if he wished, fully activate the power of his Talent Tree to devour the surrounding heat, transforming it into fuel to store within the Talent Tree.

However, doing so would cause damage to this realm. Moreover, the heat here was not of a high grade, so even if Lu Ye devoured it, the benefits would be limited.

The thudding sounds became increasingly distinct, coming precisely from within the magma. Standing here, the sensation of the realm's essence flowing away and diminishing became even clearer, as if there was a bottomless pit beneath the magma, frantically devouring the essence of this realm.

Could it be that thing?

Lu Ye had a faint suspicion in his heart, but he couldn't confirm it before seeing it for himself.

Without hesitation, he plunged directly into the magma. His Talent Tree protected him, invisible roots enveloping him and keeping the scorching magma isolated.

Lu Ye continued to descend deeper. A moment later, he frowned, because from the depths of the magma, he sensed a strange vitality.

Following the vitality, it wasn't long before Lu Ye arrived at the source of the anomaly.

Gazing intently, what appeared before him was an oval-shaped egg, roughly three zhang tall. Its shell looked like stone, but was clearly not real stone, and its surface was covered in intricate and complex patterns. As the Clear Wind Sector's essence was continuously devoured, the patterns on the shell flickered incessantly, and the vitality within the egg steadily increased.

It really was that thing! The moment Lu Ye saw this egg-like object, he knew his guess was correct. After all, only this type of creature in the world would rely on devouring a realm's essence to hatch its offspring.

Realm Devouring Beasts, a very peculiar type of star beast.

Generally speaking, star beasts posed no great threat to realms; regardless of their strength, most only lived in the starry sky, as low-level realms didn't interest them and offending high-level realms carried risks.

However, not all star beasts were like this; some always posed a great threat to realms.

Just like the Heavenly Desire Demonic Spiders Lu Ye encountered previously, the reproduction of such star beasts required a large amount of flesh and blood as a host. Therefore, once it was time for them to reproduce, they would seek out suitable realms to invade.

The inexplicable destruction of many realms was greatly related to these types of star beasts.

The reproduction of Realm Devouring Beasts did not require flesh and blood as a host; instead, they needed to devour the essence of a realm as nourishment, which meant they had to seek out realms with vitality and essence.

Once a suitable realm was found, the Realm Devouring Beast would place its egg inside the realm, silently devouring the realm's essence to allow its offspring to hatch.

This process was very secretive and generally difficult to detect.

When Lu Ye first arrived at the Clear Wind Sector, although he noticed that something was off about this realm, he couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong, precisely because of this reason.

By this time, the Realm Devouring Beast's egg was about to hatch, causing a significant commotion, which was why he finally detected it.

According to the records in the Breath Abyss Pavilion, even if he left it alone, this realm would not suffer a major catastrophe; at most, it would lose a portion of its essence, and once the Realm Devouring Beast's offspring hatched, it would naturally leave this realm.

It could be said that Realm Devouring Beasts were the natural enemies of all realms that were not strong enough. The essence devoured by the hatching Realm Devouring Beast would very likely take hundreds, thousands, or even more years to accumulate.

Lu Ye could leave it alone this time, but what about next time? What if this Realm Devouring Beast, once grown, set its sights on the Nine Provinces or its subsidiary realms?

Therefore, in the starry sky, cultivators of any race would exterminate a Realm Devouring Beast if they encountered one, to prevent its reproduction from hindering the growth of their own star-system realm.

Moreover, compared to other star beasts, the core of a Realm Devouring Beast was extremely valuable, far surpassing that of ordinary star beasts.

Lu Ye could sense that the Realm Devouring Beast inside the egg had already formed and was about to hatch. Seemingly sensing his hostility, the beast within the egg was wriggling uneasily, desperately pressing against the shell, causing cracks to appear on it.

Just as Lu Ye was observing the Realm Devouring Beast's egg, a star boat was slowly approaching the Clear Wind Sector from outside. This star boat was quite substantial in size, with two decks, and carved onto its hull were four large characters, clearly spelling "Azure Dawn Dao Realm."

This was clearly an Azure Dawn Dao Realm star boat.

Three figures stood on the deck: two men and one woman. One of them, a middle-aged man, had a late-stage Star Constellation cultivation, while the other man and woman were younger, both with mid-stage Star Constellation cultivation.

These three had come from the Azure Dawn Dao Realm to the Clear Wind Sector to welcome promising cultivators, each belonging to one of the three top powers in the Azure Dawn Dao Realm.

Calculating the time, they had arrived a day early, as the Clear Wind Sector's grand competition had not yet ended. However, this was not a problem, as navigating the starry sky made it difficult to precisely control arrival times.

"So this is the Clear Wind Sector?" The female cultivator gazed at the realm ahead, her face full of curiosity. Although she had known about the Clear Wind Sector since she began cultivating and was aware of other realms, this was truly the first time she had seen such a vibrant and life-filled realm; what she had seen before were mostly barren or dead planets.

"Is this your first time here, Junior Sister Tang?" The mid-stage Star Constellation cultivator standing beside the woman smiled faintly. "Although the Clear Wind Sector is a small realm with limited essence, it still has its own unique local customs and charm. Since you're here this time, you should take a good look around."

The female cultivator chuckled, "It is indeed my first time here, but Senior Brother Li told me a lot about the Clear Wind Sector before we came, so I'm quite familiar with it."

The Senior Brother Li she mentioned was originally from the Clear Wind Sector, brought into the Azure Dawn Dao Realm over three hundred years ago, and entered her sect to cultivate. He is now a late-stage Star Constellation cultivator with exceptionally good aptitude.

There were still quite a few people like Senior Brother Li in the Azure Dawn Dao Realm, all scattered among the various major sects.

While the two were talking, the leading middle-aged man remained silent and only spoke after they finished. "The rules for the Clear Wind Sector's grand competition were set by the Moonshine Ancestors nearly a thousand years ago. Regardless of any instructions you received from senior brothers or sisters in the sect before coming, our selection this time will only consider the competition results, and there shall be no personal favoritism, understood?"

There was also personal sentiment in the cultivation world. Cultivators who were once brought into the Azure Dawn Dao Realm and now possessed considerable cultivation often wished to bring some people from their old sects in the Clear Wind Sector to the Azure Dawn Dao Realm. However, this kind of thing could not set a precedent; otherwise, if everyone privately brought people to the Azure Dawn Dao Realm, it would defeat the original purpose of selecting outstanding talents from lower realms.

It was precisely because of such considerations that the cultivators sent for selection each time were all natives of the Azure Dawn Dao Realm, to prevent favoritism.

"Understood, Senior Brother Zhou!" the two responded in unison.

Senior Brother Zhou was about to give further instructions when his expression suddenly changed. He turned his head and looked in one direction, sternly shouting, "What monster dares to trespass!"

As he spoke, he raised a hand and struck out with a palm, from whose center a dazzling golden light burst forth.

This sudden change startled the two mid-stage Star Constellation cultivators. As they instinctively looked, they saw where the golden light shone: a thick, long tail eerily appeared, silently coiling towards their star boat.

Both were aghast, clearly not expecting to encounter an attack even at this location. If Senior Brother Zhou hadn't been vigilant enough to detect it early, they might have truly fallen into the opponent's trap.

That tail was not an ordinary tail; its thick, long body suddenly fanned out at the back, as if turning into a fish tail. The fish tail slammed down heavily, scattering the attack Senior Brother Zhou hastily launched and causing the star boat to shake violently.

The two mid-stage Star Constellation cultivators were about to lend aid, but Senior Brother Zhou exclaimed, "Watch out, there's more than one!"

The moment his words fell, another tail eerily appeared, seemingly larger than the previous one, and slammed onto the star boat again.

Only then did the three Azure Dawn Dao Realm cultivators finally get a clear look at what was attacking them.

They were clearly two star beasts that looked like stingrays, immense in size, with flattened bodies, a hideous gaping maw on their undersides with interlocking fangs, and a long tail extending from their backs like a colossal dragon spanning the sky.

Senior Brother Zhou, being more experienced and knowledgeable, instantly recognized what these two star beasts were and exclaimed in surprise, "Realm Devouring Beasts!"

And they were two late-stage Star Constellation Realm Devouring Beasts!

He immediately knew that this was a huge problem!

If they were ordinary star beasts, cultivators would generally not fear fighting them at the same level. But Realm Devouring Beasts were different; they possessed the ability to constantly shift between solid and illusory states. The reason the few people hadn't detected their presence earlier was because the Realm Devouring Beasts were in an illusory state, invisible to the naked eye and impervious to ordinary attacks.

Although his own strength was considerable, dealing with just one Realm Devouring Beast was already very challenging, and even if the other two accompanying him joined forces, they might not be a match for the other Realm Devouring Beast.

What puzzled him was why the Realm Devouring Beasts were here. It seemed either they were preparing to lay eggs here, or they had already laid eggs and their offspring were hatching now, prompting them to come and welcome their progeny.