Devouring The Heavens Chapter 15 – Greedy old bugger

Just when Xuanyuan let out a long sigh for getting off the hook, a black light - in the shape of a man - formed in front of him.
"He must have been suicidal! I spent a very long time looking for this body, a body formed by all of creation. How dare he try to touch it?" The face of the black shadowed man was blurry and his features unclear, but he possessed a power much stronger than Wu Dong. The shadow turned to Xuanyuan and nodded with satisfaction. "Not bad. Only a body formed by all of creation could be my master. You are good! You not only have the previous body’s determination but also intelligence and cunning. Only someone like you could create a better destiny. I didn't waste my strength merging my soul with your body.”
Xuanyuan was struck by the shadow's words. He couldn't believe that he was the master of this shadow. Many details of his previous life flashed in his mind. Xuanyuan was a very smart boy in his previous life. He always had the best grades, and earned a full scholarship. In a few seconds, he understood everything.
"You were behind this. The fighting Qi I distilled from twenty days of hard work was absorbed by you, and the one who sucked out the old man's power and gave it to me was you. You enhanced my strength, correct?" said Xuanyuan.
"Not bad, smart boy. The soul-merging spell almost put me into deep slumber. I didn't fall into slumber because I absorbed the power from the magical bear. Only the body born from all of creation could improve so quickly when training. You would have been dead if you didn't refine all of that fighting Qi." The shadow laughed.
"Bullshit! If you didn't eat all that Qi, I would have entered the master realm already. Then even if my master left, that old man would bring me back to the Yun Family as an apprentice. Then I would meet my master again. You ruined everything!" Xuanyuan rolled his eyes and yelled at the shadow. When he was done, he sat straight on the ground and felt very tired. The shadow couldn't react.
"The knowledge of the Yun Clan cannot be compared to that of the Devouring Emperor. Techniques are divided into various classes: Yellow, Black, Di, Tian, Xian, Shen and Tao. The knowledge that your beautiful master taught you was merely of Tian class. That's nothing compared to the great technique of the Devouring Emperor! It's much greater than the technique of the Yun Clan." The shadow was so angry at Xuanyuan's scolding it started laughing.”
"The Devouring Emperor? Sounds cool!" Xuanyuan's eyes brightened.
The shadow was satisfied to see his excitement. It nodded and said, "Of course it is. Will you learn it or not?"
Xuanyuan stood up energetically.
"Of course I will! Which class does this technique belong to? Is it really more powerful than the Yun Clan’s technique taught by my master?"
The shadow nodded in slight embarrassment.
"So far, it's yellow class."
Xuanyuan almost passed out from anger. "The Devouring Emperor…” The shadow made it sound like some divine technique, but it was only in the yellow class! He wanted to strangle the shadow. He yelled,
"Are you kidding me?"
"Show some respect! I'm old enough to be your great-great-great-grandfather. Do you know how many people would die to learn this higher knowledge? Only the body born of all creation could study my technique. Otherwise, why would I bother to look for you?" The shadow was also furious.
"Then don't. I don't give a shit." Xuanyuan stood up to leave, but the shadow stopped him.
"The great knowledge belongs to the yellow class right now, but it could become a tao class technique. But you have to keep devouring in order to achieve that. Think! Why do you think that you are different from normal people when you train? Why are you stronger? Why do you eat more? I dare say, if you don't learn what I have to teach, you'll never find your beautiful master again." The shadow was desperate. It was scared that if the boy did not understand then he would leave. So it told him of the benefits and tried to take advantage of the admiration he held for his master.
Xuanyuan stopped and said confusedly,
"This technique, will it make me strong enough to find my master and defeat her?"
"Haha, of course. Not everyone can learn it, only the body born of all creation. The body born of all of creation can absorb everything. If someone without this special physique tried to practice this technique, they wouldn't be able to tame the devouring power. They would be incompatible, and the person would implode and die. The body born of all creation is much stronger than an ordinary body, so it is best suited to train by using my technique." When the shadow regained Xuanyuan's attention, it started to explain.
"I don't get it. What's so special about your technique? Explain." Xuanyuan demanded.
The shadow explained patiently,
"The scripture your master taught you aims at distilling your flesh, which is good. However, you can't practice multiple techniques in a lifetime, because most techniques are incompatible with each other. But it's different for the devouring technique. You have the body born from all of creation, and thus can practice even the best of techniques. However, if you don't practice the devouring technique, then you can learn the technique of the Heavenly Dragon but that is all. Your body would be wasted with this technique. The mildest consequence would be that you are stuck in a lower realm, the worst would be death. Do you understand now? Even a pig could understand this."
Certainly, Xuanyuan understood immediately, he tried to give examples,
"What you meant is that even though the devouring technique appears to be a lowly ranked technique, there's no limit to its growth. However the technique of the Heavenly Dragon taught by the Yun clan would only be Tian class. That’s the limit for the person's strength development? If that's so, then I can find those with the strongest techniques and devour their power. Then I can use the devouring technique to learn the knowledge of every clan. Then I'll become the strongest man in the universe?"
"Hahaha, nice. You are indeed, quite smart. It was worth it to spend my power merging into your body. Even though you have already trained the Heavenly Dragon with Burning Scales and The Five Taloned Dragon, you can still learn the devouring technique. Fighters refine their skin, warrior refine their flesh, masters refine their bones, spirituals refine their veins. When you have your veins refined, then you can learn the method to release your fighting Qi. The more fighting Qi a technique can contain is determined by its class. You only need to devour other techniques to improve your own after you reach the wild realm."
The shadow was very happy with Xuanyuan. It is difficult to find someone like him. It took a step forward and put its hand on Xuanyuan's head and said,
"I am going to teach you the first few parts of the devouring technique, 'The Way of Absorption', 'The Way of Refining Flesh', 'The Way of Refining Bones', and 'The Way of Refining Veins'. These were all created by the first body born of all creation, the first Devouring Emperor. After I give the knowledge to you, my power will be exhausted. I will absorb part of the fighting Qi you refine, which will slow down your process, but this is the only way. Every time I show myself, it will take up a lot of my power. Unless you can find fighter stones, jades, crystals or something even purer, I won't be able restore my power quickly."
The shadow shone with a black light and merged with Xuanyuan's mind. The four ways of training suddenly appeared within his mind.
After that, the shadow became more transparent, Xuanyuan was worried asked,
"Are you okay?"
"I am fine. I will live. Work hard and go to the School of Yuehua. It'll be safer for you." The shadow smiled and summoned the sword lying on the ground. It looked at it and nodded.
"It's a nice sword and a spiritual instrument. Sacred instruments were also divided into many classes. The lowest is just a sacred instrument, the next class is spiritual instruments. This spiritual instrument is called "Sword of Swimming Dragons". The Swimming Dragon is a branch clan of the Heavenly Dragon. This sword was made from the bones of a swimming dragon. It lacks some refinement, otherwise it would have become an earthly instrument. You can use this for now."
Then it looked at the ring and released the binding on the ring. The shadow nodded and said,
"There are quite a lot of things here. You can put all of your money into this ring, it had about a single room worth of space inside. The best thing about the devouring technique was that it was made for your body. So you can train anytime. With that pearl given to you by your master, your training will be more efficient. Your master was really kind to you. The pearl is still a very useful thing even to someone of her rank, yet she gave it to you. It shows how much you mean to her."
When Xuanyuan heard that, his heart felt warm and fuzzy.
He took the sword. His blue-edged sword was shattered by Wu Dong, but it's worth it to exchange it for a much better sword, the Sword of Swimming Dragons. He also put the ring on his finger.
Too many things happened today, but Xuanyuan was sure that he now obtained all the necessities to survive. Given the time, he would grow into someone great.
"What's your name?" Xuanyuan looked at the thin shadow and asked.
"Me? Call me Greed...Hahaha..." Greed slowly merged back into the dagger. Xuanyuan nodded heavily,
"Good, I'll call you ‘Greedy Old Bugger’."
The dagger trembled and the shadow screamed,
"I'm not old...."