As the cataclysmic roar reverberated, Wang Lin’s face drained of color. Within his nascent soul, a pain as though it were being torn asunder echoed. Previously, protected by the ancient god’s hide armor, this sensation was muted. But now, the agony erupted, causing blood to trickle from his seven orifices.

In this moment of dire peril, Wang Lin offered a bitter smile. With a swift gesture, he retrieved the ancient god’s hide armor from his storage pouch. With a sigh of resignation, he draped it once more over his nascent soul. Instantly, it was as if a world had been silenced. Though the thunderous clamor remained potent, its impact upon his soul was diminished, rendered bearable.

However, the aura emanating from the ancient god’s hide armor ignited a frenzy within the host of lesser Wang Yue lurking within the colossal beast. Their tendrils writhed, and they surged toward Wang Lin’s location with unbridled savagery.

A chilling dread seized Wang Lin. He found himself ensnared in a cruel dilemma: to remove the armor would spell the dissolution of his soul under the onslaught of the monstrous roars, yet to don it was to invite the ravenous hordes of lesser Wang Yue.

With a heavy heart, Wang Lin’s countenance hardened. A wave of frigid energy radiated from him, and before him, the earth cracked open. From the fissure, a Wang Yue, no less than a score of feet in length, burst forth as if in joyous greeting. It lunged directly at Wang Lin, its gaping maw promising more than mere consumption of the armor’s aura.

A millennium of cultivation had robbed Wang Lin of the self-deceptive illusions of youth. He held no fanciful notions that this Wang Yue would recognize him as master due to the aura of the ancient gods.

His expression grave, a steely glint flared in his eyes. He retreated swiftly as the immense Wang Yue hurtled toward him, its abyssal jaws relentlessly devouring the energy emanating from his form.

This energy, undetectable to any ordinary cultivator, elusive even to the primeval beasts of ancient lore, was uniquely discernible to the Wang Yue, save for a few rare exceptions like the Star Fragment Messenger. Their sensitivity to the ancient god’s aura was unparalleled.

The iciness in Wang Lin’s gaze intensified. It was clear: this Wang Yue intended to not only consume the hide armor’s aura, but to devour him whole!

As Wang Lin backpedaled, an even more intense wave of chilling energy engulfed him. His face darkened further. Without so much as a glance backward, he veered sharply in a new direction.

In the earth behind his previous position, a new chasm ripped open. A Wang Yue, a hundred feet long, erupted with a deafening roar. Tendrils coiled around its body, and its gaping maw dripped with an unctuous fluid, a grotesque display of anticipation as it lunged to engulf Wang Lin.

Each time Wang Lin shifted, a chorus of cracking sounds echoed around him. A dozen more fissures appeared, and from each emerged a Wang Yue of varying size, all converging upon him.

A cold determination settled in Wang Lin’s eyes. As he retreated, he channeled the vital energy of his nascent soul, unleashing a swirling vortex of collapsing force. With a resounding boom, it propelled him backward at an even greater pace.

A swarm of Wang Yue pursued him relentlessly, their eyes gleaming with a manic fervor. But beneath the surface of their excitement lurked a chilling, predatory hunger.

They desired to feast upon the aura of the hide armor, but even more, they yearned to devour Wang Lin himself, so that the exhilarating aura might be theirs forever.

Harried by such a multitude of Wang Yue, Wang Lin felt his scalp prickle with dread. Yet, as he hastened onward, his expression faltered, replaced by a rueful grimace. He halted abruptly, for in the earth before him, a hundred new fissures rent the ground. A horde of Wang Yue surged forth, their numbers swelling the ranks of his pursuers until he was encircled by a writhing, ravenous mass.

Just as these creatures surged forward, poised to devour him, Wang Lin gritted his teeth. A ruthless determination flickered in his eyes, but before he could act, a deafening roar erupted from within the very bodies of the Wang Yue themselves.

The resonating bellow sent the lesser Wang Yue recoiling, the ring of ravenous bodies parted, creating a pathway through their ranks.

Wang Lin’s gaze narrowed, but even as he did so, a rapid series of cracking sounds echoed. From the newly formed passage, a colossal Wang Yue, ten thousand feet in length, burst forth. Its speed was unmatched, and it exuded an aura of power rivaling that of a Blood Ancestor. Wang Lin’s face contorted in shock.

The gargantuan Wang Yue hurtled toward him, and with astonishing speed, engulfed him whole. With a swift contraction, it sealed its maw, then plunged into the earth, disappearing into the depths.

In its wake, the remaining Wang Yue followed, streaming away into the distance.

The grey-skinned, ten-thousand-foot Wang Yue moved with relentless purpose. Its progress unhindered in the vast, living body of the Mother. With a fluid grace it traversed the beast in less than half an incense stick’s time, to a peculiar destination.

Here, there was no earth, only a vast vortex, rotating slowly. With each revolution, it emitted waves of frigid energy that permeated the surroundings.

Were Wang Lin able to witness this vortex, he would recognize it, after a moment of consideration, as the Wang Yue’s brain, the very source of its lunar essence.

Having reached its destination, the titanic Wang Yue opened its maw and disgorged Wang Lin. He was expelled with tremendous force, powerless to resist. He plunged into the vortex, vanishing from sight.

Outside, the multitude of Wang Yue prostrated themselves, motionless.

Within the vortex, the moment Wang Lin entered, a strange energy permeated his being, immediately halting the flow of his vital energy as if severing it from his physical form. He was no longer a cultivator, but a mere mortal.

This sudden shift sent a jolt of terror through his very core, but then, he felt the ancient god’s hide armor on his nascent soul draw on all this foul energy, the armor’s hunger appeased by the malign energy, and thus restoring his ability to exert his control over his body.

Now, ejected into this maelstrom, Wang Lin beheld his surroundings and gasped, deeply moved by what he saw.
A narrow chasm stretched before Wang Lin, swallowed in shadow. From the nothingness, thick, glistening tendrils writhed and pulsed, extending like the searching limbs of some monstrous beast. Before him loomed a colossal cauldron, its bronze surface nearly obscured by the grasping tentacles. They clung to it with ravenous hunger, drawing forth some unseen essence, their fleshy bodies bubbling and throbbing as the vital energy flowed back into the void.

This cauldron…it was an artifact of the Gluttonous Wolf!

The vessel itself elicited a sharp intake of breath from Wang Lin. But it was the sight of the tendrils that truly horrified him. For each of those writhing appendages was entwined with a soul!

They were all emaciated, bodies withered and gaunt, men and women, old and young, a macabre tapestry woven from human despair. On almost every tentacle, a victim was bound, lifeless eyes sealed shut, their forms devoid of any spark of life. The tendrils fed upon them relentlessly, draining the essence of their very being.

Wang Lin recognized none of these poor souls. Yet, a chilling sense arose within him. Not all were cultivators. Amidst the dead were mortals, ordinary men and women dragged into this nightmare.

His gaze snagged on a child, no older than six or seven. The boy’s skin clung to his bones, a grotesque parody of youth. Though utterly drained and shriveled, the shape of his body betrayed his tender age. His face, a mask of frozen horror, spoke of unimaginable suffering and utter hopelessness.

A wave of icy dread washed over Wang Lin, enveloping him in its chilling embrace.

He peered into the depths of the chasm, into the endless expanse where he knew more tendrils awaited. He could only imagine the countless souls entwined upon them, each a silent testament to the Gluttonous Wolf’s insatiable hunger.

“The Devouring Moon…” Wang Lin breathed, a name heavy with dread.

He understood now. These were the remnants of centuries devoured, souls consumed to fuel the life of the monstrous entity.

A terrifying thought took root in his mind.

“The Cloud Haze Star, once formed from this very Devouring Moon…” He recalled the ruined cities he had seen there. “Before the Cloud Haze Star, there were cultivators and mortals living there. Were they truly evacuated… or did they meet this fate?” Wang Lin inhaled sharply, his eyes filled with grim contemplation.

He could not tear his gaze from the boy.

Suddenly, the void erupted. Countless tentacles lashed out with blinding speed, aimed directly at Wang Lin. He knew that without the protection of his Ancient God armor, he would be as helpless as a mortal, caught in their deadly embrace, his life force ripped away until only a husk remained.

But within Wang Lin, a cold fury ignited. Without touching a single tentacle, he dodged and weaved, his movements swift and precise, a dance with death. His destination was the massive cauldron.

He dared not destroy these tendrils unless absolutely necessary. To alert the Devouring Moon to his presence would invite a swift and terrible retribution.

The tentacles lashed past him, grasping at empty air. Wang Lin, like a wisp of smoke in the wind, twisted and turned until he stood before the cauldron. An aura of ancient power emanated from the artifact, filling the space around him with a palpable sense of age and primordial might.

Within the cauldron, the aura was even stronger. The tendrils, though many, only clung to its exterior, as though unwilling to penetrate its depths.

Behind him, the void writhed once more, a fresh wave of tendrils lunging toward him. Without hesitation, Wang Lin plunged into the heart of the cauldron. As he disappeared within, a surge of power erupted from the swirling vortex at the entrance, an expulsion of raw, malevolent energy.

Then, a fragile form materialized within the vortex, a woman’s silhouette. Her face was deathly pale, her eyes sealed shut in unconsciousness. As soon as she appeared, a portion of the tentacles that had sought Wang Lin turned on her, seizing her and beginning the terrible work of draining her life.

In that fleeting moment before the cauldron swallowed him, Wang Lin recognized the woman: Yao Bingyun.

Her garments began to dissolve beneath the touch of the tendrils, and even her storage bag crumbled to dust.

Yao Bingyun’s clothing was ripped and tattered, exposing her skin to the horrors that surrounded her. Then, her eyelids fluttered, and she opened her eyes…