Chapter 254: Metamorphosis

Wang Zhize was concentrating fully on helping grandpa with the "renovation," when Wang Zhitao's stomach untimely growled again.

"Brother."

"Speak." Wang Zhize didn't even lift an eyelid; his fingers traced invisible lines in the air, and unseen commands traveled through jade tablets to every corner of this space.

"I'm hungry again," Wang Zhitao said, his voice tinged with grievance and a hint of bewilderment, "Something's off; this hunger is different from before."

Before it was an empty stomach; now… it feels like a huge hole in the soul, cold wind rushing in, starving to panic, starving to the point of heart palpitations.

Wang Zhize's movements halted, and he finally allowed his gaze to leave the altered area and fall on his younger brother. He scanned Wang Zhitao up and down a few times, his brows slightly furrowing.

"Come here."

Wang Zhitao darted a few steps to stand before his brother.

Wang Zhize extended a finger, touching Wang Zhitao's forehead. A cool divine thought entered, whirling rapidly once.

"I see," Wang Zhize withdrew his hand, his expression somewhat complex, "Your Devouring Primordial Overlord Body is overloaded and also corrupted."

"What does that mean?" Wang Zhitao scratched his head.

"What you previously devoured was the Shadow Guard's purest energy source, a refined high‑grade sustenance," Wang Zhize explained. "But just now, to help grandpa stabilize the Core, you swallowed too much tangled Law Poison. Though you refined out the toxicity, your body… or rather your Overlord Body, tasted the Law for the first time."

He paused, then chose a phrasing Wang Zhitao could grasp: "It's like you've always eaten plain rice, and suddenly you're forced to bite a stone. Even if your teeth are strong enough to crush and swallow it, your stomach rejects it. Now it wants stone and refuses rice."

Wang Zhitao opened his mouth wide: "I... I want to eat Law?"

That sounds utterly absurd.

"Exactly," Wang Zhize's expression grew serious. "It's both a boon and a massive trouble. The boon is your Devouring Primordial Overlord Body is beginning to metamorphose into its true form. The trouble is... where will I find that much Law for you to eat as food?"

As soon as the words finished, deep within the space a newly "tamed" area erupted in turmoil. It was the remnants of the Termination Law left by the Shadow Guard captain, forcibly twisted by grandpa's Core, which should have become a driver for material circulation. Now, it raged like a maddened wild bull, smashing the freshly formed stable structures around it.

The space emitted a sour‑tooth buzzing, countless newborn Light Spots flickered erratically in that area, as if ready to collapse at any moment.

"Bad!" Wang Zhize's face turned pale, his divine thought surged at full force, attempting to repress that area again.

But the Termination Law seemed to possess its own will, fiercely resisting alteration, intent on destroying everything.

Wang Zhize's divine thought was like a massive net; just as it enveloped the law, the razor‑sharp will of destruction tore a hole through it.

"Brother, I'm coming!"

Wang Zhitao's eyes reddened, not from fear but excitement, like a wolf starved for three days and nights spotting a fat lamb.

He didn't care how dangerous it was; he only knew that thing... smelled "really good"!

"Don't act recklessly! That's not energy, it's pure Law; you can't..."

Before Wang Zhize could finish, Wang Zhitao had already transformed into a streak of black‑gold light and surged forward.

He used no technique, merely the most savage, direct head‑butt into the core of the Law upheaval.

"Ugh—!"

A suppressed, painful roar burst from Wang Zhitao's throat.

If previously devouring energy was like drinking scalding molten iron, now it's as if a whole red‑hot iron anvil were forced into his brain and hammered repeatedly with a ten‑ton hammer.

Countless chaotic, icy information streams bearing deathly silence and the sense of Termination slammed wildly at his spirit.

"Stay true to your heart! Treat it as an enemy, smash it, chew it up!" Wang Zhize's booming shout rang in his mind like a thunderclap.

Wang Zhitao trembled violently all over; on his skin, the faint black‑gold patterns that had only hinted before were now re‑scorched by a red‑hot branding iron, becoming strikingly clear and deep. Those markings ceased being simple lines, twisting and interlocking into ancient, mysterious runes that spread from his chest to his cheek.

Each rune lit up, and his internal Devouring Primordial Overlord Body emitted an earth‑shaking roar.

"Eat! I eat! I will eat you to death!"

Wang Zhitao went completely berserk, abandoning thought and letting instinct drive his Overlord Body. It was no longer devouring, but a war raging inside him. His Overlord Body was a meat grinder, and the Termination Law was the stubborn iron block tossed inside.

"Crunch... Crunch..."

It seemed something shattered deep within his body.

Immediately, an unprecedented force erupted explosively from those newborn runes!

Outside World, Wang Zhize watched the silhouette wrapped in black‑gold light anxiously. Suddenly, he sensed the raging Termination Law's aura... seemed to weaken?

It no longer attacked proactively; it was like a thug pressed to the ground, rubbing, now howling and begging for mercy.

The black‑gold light on Wang Zhitao's body intensified, the newborn runes seemed to come alive, flowing slowly over his surface. He snapped his eyes open, and in his pupils reflected two tiny, continuously rotating black‑gold runes.

He opened his mouth and gently inhaled the dying remnants of the Law.

The Law that had previously left Wang Zhize helpless, unable even to struggle, turned into a gray thread that he sucked into his mouth.

"Burp..."

Wang Zhitao let out a satisfied belch, a contented smile spreading across his face.

He felt no longer empty, but filled with a strange energy. This energy was not as docile as mana; it bristled with edges and a rebellious will, yet inside him it was as tame as a kitten.

"Brother, I... I think I tamed it?" Wang Zhitao asked uncertainly, feeling the changes within.

Wang Zhize gave no reply, merely staring intently at another restless area nearby. It was the Withering Law left by another Shadow Guard, also resisting alteration.

"Zhitao," Wang Zhize's voice was a bit hoarse, "aim at that spot, use the feeling you just had, and throw a punch."

"Okay."

Wang Zhitao didn't think further, and casually swung a punch toward that direction.

He used no force, and no mana clung to his fist.

Yet as his fist flew, a ripple composed of countless tiny black‑gold runes spread silently outward.

Where the ripple passed, the previously chaotic, twisted Withering Law was instantly smoothed as if by an invisible giant hand. All violence and destructive desire vanished in an instant, becoming gentle and compliant.

It was tamed.

Not destroyed, not suppressed, but its will fundamentally altered.

Wang Zhitao stared blankly at his own fist.

Wang Zhize stared dumbfounded at the now‑calm area, and after a long pause slowly uttered a few words:

"You didn't... tame it..."

"You... pulled out its 'soul' and replaced it with your own."

He looked at his younger brother, his eyes filled with shock.

From today onward, Wang Zhitao was no longer merely an energy refinery.

He had become a true "Law Devourer." This nascent divine kingdom, formed by Grandfather, his elder brother, and himself, had finally gained its most violent and most indispensable... engine core.