Chapter 182: Ultimate Devouring Lord

Wang Shan greedily drew energy from the Sheng Ming Quan; that long-awaited relief felt almost enough to make him moan aloud. The violent force inside him that made him wish for death, before this pure energy, was like a tamed wild dog—still baring its teeth, but daring not to run rampant.

Success! It really succeeded!

As long as we have this pool of spring water, combined with the Soul-Suppressing Beast Forging on the stone tablet, not only himself, even Wang Zhitao's strange poison could be completely eradicated.

He glanced back; Wang Zhitao was soaking in the spring water, his complexion restored to a healthy rosy hue, his breathing steady and strong. Meanwhile, on the other side, his little grandson Wang Zhize crouched by the spring, stretching out his small hand to play curiously with the emerald spring water, his clear laughter echoing in the Cave.

Everything was moving toward a better direction.

Just as this thought rose in Wang Shan's mind, an unprecedented sense of steadiness relaxed his entire spirit.

But just at this moment of his utmost relaxation.

"Beep——!!"

A piercing, distorted alarm blasted without warning deep in his mind!

This sound was nothing like the system's usual flat alert tone; it was a shrill wail that seemed able to tear his soul apart, making Wang Shan's vision go black instantly, his body—just relaxed by the spring's nourishment—tensing up in an instant, almost toppling into the spring.

"Master!" Li Hu and Zhang Mei were startled by his sudden reaction.

Wang Shan had no time to pay them heed, for the system's warning flooded his entire consciousness in a frenzy of scrolling, blood-red text.

【Alert! Alert! Detected extinction-level will fluctuation!】

【The seal deep within the Beast Source Core has been triggered! The ancient will of the Myriad Beasts Ancestor is awakening!】

【Target locked: Zhuren Wang Shan!】

【Determination: The opponent is attempting a willful possession!】

【The final stage of the Myriad Beasts Devouring Sovereign—'Divine Descent'—has been activated!】

Divine Descent?

What the hell is this crap?!

Wang Shan hadn't even had time to think it over when he felt the whole world change.

An indescribable cold crept up his spine—not the chill of the spring, but a dead silence as if his soul were frozen. Then, a will vast beyond imagination, like an endless black tide, surged violently into his sea of consciousness.

That will had no emotion, no thought, only the purest, ancient, hungry instinct. It was like a king who had slept for myriad ages, discovering in his own domain a slightly stronger ant, and naturally extending his foot to crush that ant into his shadow, making it part of himself.

Vessel!

The last line on the stone tablet exploded in Wang Shan's mind like a thunderclap!

It turned out the person who carved those words was not engaging in alarmist exaggeration!

This is fundamentally not a legacy at all—it is a sheer fraud! A bloody trap set for who knows how many myriad years to select a "vessel"!

"Roar——!!"

"No——!!"

"I don't want to die…… I don't want to become a monster……"

"Kill! Kill everything!"

Almost simultaneously, countless chaotic, violent, desperate howls, like a breached flood, erupted in his mind. These voices belonged to different people, different eras, but they shared one trait—they were all failures who had cultivated the Myriad Beasts Devouring Sovereign!

Their resentment, their unwillingness, their madness—over tens of thousands of years, they did not dissipate but were gathered and fused by some force, ultimately condensing into the terrifying will collective before us—the so-called Myriad Beasts Ancestor!

This is fundamentally not a possession!

At best, a possession is a soul seizing another's body; but this thing seeks to utterly crush, devour, and digest Wang Shan's soul and spirit, making him part of that vast resentment collective—turning him into the next wailing spirit of despair!

"Ah——!!"

Wang Shan clutched his head and let out an uncontrollable pained howl. The muscles on his face twisted, veins bulged from his forehead and neck, and the dark-gold light beneath his skin flickered wildly, as if something were about to burst out.

What frightened him further was that the beastly counter-devouring force, which the Sheng Ming Quan had just suppressed inside him, now—like seeing his own father—did not resist but instead boiled over, resonating internally and externally with that external will, accelerating his bodily transformation.

He felt his bones shifting, his flesh reorganizing, and his reason swiftly drowned by a pure impulse to destroy everything.

"Master, what's wrong with you?!" Zhang Mei's voice trembled with tears as she tried to step forward to support him, but Li Hu grabbed her.

"Don't go over!" Li Hu's eyes bloodshot, he stared fixedly at Wang Shan, "Master's condition is not right!"

They watched helplessly as Wang Shan's body changed at a visible pace—his stature seemed to elongate, his fingernails turned black and sharp, and in his eyes, human emotions rapidly faded, replaced by a cold, bestial arrogance that looked down on all beings.

The Sheng Ming Quan's energy continued to flow into his body, but this pure life force, before such a terrifying mental onslaught, was like pouring a cup of water onto a raging inferno—utterly futile. It could mend flesh, but could not block the invasion and assimilation of his soul.

This is the true taboo of the Beast Taming Sect! This is the root of their downfall!

This is also the most deadly crisis Wang Shan has ever faced in history!

"Get…… out…… get out!!"

Wang Shan squeezed out a few words from between his teeth, using the last sliver of clarity to forcibly steady his collapsing mind. He knew that if he completely lost control, he would not only die but become a monster tens of thousands of times more terrifying than any demon beast he had ever encountered—the first to kill would be his own kin and subordinates before him.

He abruptly lifted his head, his eyes already beginning to glow with bestial red light, locking onto his grandson Wang Zhize, who was still playing by the spring.

That was his grandson.

That was the hope he had fought desperately to protect.

That thought, like a thunderbolt, forcibly split a crack in his consciousness, which was about to be swallowed by darkness!

You want to treat me as a new house to live in? Even if I die today, I'll tear out your foundations!

An unprecedented ferocity surged from Wang Shan's depths. He abandoned resisting the force's remaking of his body, instead gathering all his mental power, condensing it deep in his sea of consciousness, preparing to wage a deathless soul battle with that ancient monster who knows how many years it has lived.

"System!" he almost roared with his soul, "Analyze! Give it your all, old man! What the hell is this thing?! Weakness! I want its weakness! No matter how many Spirit Plant Points it costs, find it for me, old man!"