Devouring the Heavens (ATG)

A/N: Yo! (Insert Kakashi here).

Did ya miss me?

Firstly, I would like to start by apologising for the delay in posting. I had hoped to be back in full swing by mid-September at the latest but 'no plan ever survives contact' and all that lark, so here we are at the start of October instead.

While I am still quite busy, I have managed to find more motivation to make extra time to start planning, writing and re-reading again over the last couple of weeks and I have to say, that is mostly down to you guys.

Words of support, comments and questions still continue to pile up at the end of chapters and even occasionally someone will find me through a comment on another novel to ask how everything is going. Knowing there is still support from a frankly awesome reader base, regardless of the time since I last posted a chapter does go a long way towards motivation.

Secondly, this chapter will hopefully mark my return to regular posting. While I can't promise multiple chapters a week, there should be at least one a week from now on.

I hope you guys can be understanding of the content while I work out some kinks in my writing after being away from Devouring the Heavens for so long and slowly manage to slip back into the same style. I just need to regain my Mojo a bit and everything will be gravy.

Lastly, I have another fic on my tablet that I have been working on while my PC was inaccessible. It's a Danmachi Gamer start that I had been playing around with where I have attempted to bring a realistic touch into the city of Orario. It also has an incredibly powerful, lecherous and sarcastic Gamer system along for the ride who loves to take a back seat and snark at everything.

The chapters are longer (around 7-8k words) and will be posted every 7-10days. The fic also has a lot of numbers and stats in it (mostly as I was trying to brush up on my excel knowledge for a new work contract at the time), which I know isn't a lot of people's favourite thing but in my opinion, the finished status screens are easy to understand.

Then again, I did create them... moving swiftly onward.

The only problem is that there is no option for bold nor italics in the Webnovel creator's section and I use a LOT, like a LOT a LOT of both of those. It was hard enough just changing all the Bold and Italic texts I originally used in DtH let alone a novel where one of the main characters only communicates through Bold text.

Sigh, but I digress. For anyone who is interested, I will keep y'all updated on where it will be posted in the near future.

Without further ado, the chapter...

-----------------------------------

Cue Game of Thrones opening theme tune...

RECAP: Last time on Devouring the Heavens… Shane and his adventuring party of four did a week-long training montage which saw all of them rapidly raising their cultivation realms and combat experience.

By day, the party trained their combat senses as they fought battles with Profound Beasts in the forest while at night they ingested Shane's 'cultivation pills' and cheated their way through solidifying their foundations as they moved towards the small mountain range while scouring for precious herbs and resources.

In the midst of the rocky mountainside, they were nearly ambushed by a deadly Earth Profound Realm centipede! However, it was ultimately slain through a combination of Shane, Qingyue and Dusty's swift and decisive blows.

The centipede severely injured our poor protagonist with a deadly venomous talon and scared our heroine witless yet it was ultimately but a trifling matter.

Apart from that; Qingyue killed Profound Bugs with extreme prejudice, Lingxi finally 'ate' up her nephew, Dusty and Coral were as always, cute as fuck and Shane still used that Goddess damned Warhammer!

After filling up his inventory with thousands of Profound Beast corpses from Elementary Profound all the way to Earth Profound, a multitude of rare and precious medical herbs and literal tonnes of valuable ores, Shane took his party for a trip to The Black Moon Merchant Guild in New Moon City.

Party Strength after training montage:

Shane reached the peak of the [10th of Spirit Profound] in both Standard and Body Cultivation.

Qingyue reached the peak of the [7th of Spirit Profound]

Xiao Che and Xiao Lingxi both reached the peak of the [5th of Nascent Profound]

Dusty reached the [2nd of Earth Profound]

Coral reached the [1st of Earth Profound]

-----------------------------------

After following the attendant into the most majestic and grandiose building, Shane and his group were led up to the top floor of the tower where a smiling old man at the peak of Earth Profound was waiting for them.

He introduced himself as the manager of the New Moon City's Black Moon Merchant Guild Manager, Elder Pu He. After exchanging a few pleasantries, including some compliments to Dusty and Coral they were finally seated in a lavishly decorated albeit welcoming and comfortable room.

A servant brought out some fine tea and delicate snacks which were decimated by the two little beasts in no time at all.

Shane took out five peak Spirit Profound Cores of exceptional quality and the old man began looking them over, his surprise and excitement further building with each subsequent core he inspected.

The quality was nearly perfect, with almost no efficacy lost. This was due to Shane's practice of selectively devouring a beast while protecting the core with his Will that had borne fruit over the last few days.

So as the corpse of the beast erupted into that familiar cloud of energy, the core was left nonchalantly floating in the air

When the final core was again rested on the desk in front of him, Elder Pu He looked incomparably happy and directly opened his mouth to offer a price. "Esteemed guest, this Pu has never seen such exceptional purity in consecutive cores of this level!"

"This old man will gladly offer you 7000 Purple Coins for each one of these cores." he said

Shane was quite happy, he was definitely expecting less than this and so without hesitation "Deal." The word was said and the two men shook hands.

Shane leant back in his chair and sipped some tea while observing the smile on the man's face over the rim of his cup, seemingly contemplating something.

In a flash, the cup was empty and while humming contentedly at the mellow flavour, his crimson eyes shone. "Elder Pu, I wonder if you would be interested in a slightly larger deal?"

The old man leaned forward expectantly and said. "This is Black Moon Merchant Guild, no deal is too large, esteemed guests can be frank with this Pu!"

Shane waved his hand nonchalantly and a large sandalwood chest appeared on the table even while Qingyue dutifully refilled his teacup on the side. He held her little hand and raised it to his mouth, amidst the eye-rolls of Xiao Che and Lingxi, never missing a chance to flirt with her.

Elder Pu however was busy appreciating the dense sandalwood aroma of the heartwood box for a moment before opening the lid and gasping. Inside, still fresh and dripping with an acrid, fishy-smelling liquid were some of the larger shards of the serrated, blade-like mandibles from the centipede beast.

These pieces had been found frozen near the original impact site on the following day and were still somehow able to constantly produce very small amounts of their own venom.

"Esteemed guests are indeed impressive! To be able to take down the Earth Profound, Ten Venoms Rocky Centipede, even with your capabilities..." He gestured at Shane, Qingyue and the two little beasts.

"Is no easy task, this Pu truly feels inferior! Would esteemed guests mind my asking where the rest of the beast corpse is?" Elder Pu He acted as if he was simply asking but he was a wily old fox and thought he had seen the avenue for further profit.

He didn't doubt that they had killed the beast, oh no, he had mingled around in these waters for decades and could easily identify the vast majority of the Profound Sky Continent's high ranking fauna and flora.

The Ten Venoms Rocky Centipede was a fast and vicious ambush predator, it would never let a prey escape, especially after they had injured it to this extent and it certainly wouldn't allow them to pick up pieces of its body at their leisure.

Shane's eyes narrowed slightly for a second but then his hands raised and he showed a wry smile while shrugging. "Completely consumed, bones and all. Aiya, who am I to argue with a forty-meter long Wyrm and a huge bird that can breathe fire?"

The two beasts let out a few small sounds of grievance before snuggling up to Lingxi and Qingyue and Elder Pu He chuckled a little. "It seems as if Esteemed Guest also has his own troubles. This Pu will offer 20000 Purple Coins for the shards here, that is my most generous offer out of respect for your strengths."

Shane held his chin for a second and nodded. "Throw in the Smoky Red Fairy Dress that's on display downstairs and you have a deal."

The old man nodded and took out a sound transmission jade, presumably to send for an attendant. Shortly after, the man from before returned with a beautiful fiery red dress on a cross-shaped standing hanger.

The dress was clearly made for someone of much shorter stature than Qingyue, and her colours were white and blue anyway so she raised an eyebrow at Shane, only to receive a Spirit Sound Transmission in English saying that he would explain later.

The attendant placed the cross-shaped hanger down and bowed before leaving the room. Elder Pur gestured towards the dress and said. "Esteemed Guest truly has good eyes, this Smoky Red Fairy Dress was made with heavenly silk chiffon and embroidered with eighty-one blood-red crystal tassels.

It can also ward off evil spirits, help to improve blood flow and in the entire New Moon City, there is not a single other one like it!"

After praising the dress to the high heavens and back again, Elder Pu gently and obsequiously, with a tough of unconcealed regret, handed it over to Shane who put it away into his inventory with a genial smile.

The dress was indeed rather breathtaking and he was sure the perfect little Murder Loli would be happy with it even if she pretended not to be.

After that, the atmosphere of the room again turned serious as Shane and Elder Pu He began discussing a deal to buy a multitude of low-level Profound Herbs, huge lengths of a wide range of fabrics in many different colours, a few tonnes of metal ingots and some fine jades.

There was already a lot of Gold, Silver and Platinum in Shane's inventory and after finding out how well these metals conducted not only electricity and electrons but profound energy too, he would absolutely use them for more permanent formation runes and array disc crafting in the future so it was still better to buy more now.

As for jades… Well, let's just say every cultivation novel Shane had ever read in his past life got one thing completely correct! Jades were easily the best material for inscribing formation runes onto.

That was without mentioning the amount of Profound Energy each piece was able to store relative to their size and the ease with which the material accepted said energy in the first place.

So, after negotiating a fair price with Qingyue's help, Shane's inventory now contained thousands more Profound Herbs, many large bolts of fabric, literal tonnes of steel ingots, nearly a tonne of good quality jade, a large amount of Gold, Silver and Platinum ingots, and a pair of Space rings for the kiddos.

Much to his absolute delight, he was also able to get hold of some hundred, thousand and even ten thousand mile communication talismans as well as a primitive book on formation runes and a pair of Sound Transmission Stones.

With those treasures in his possession, Shane firmly believed it wouldn't be long before he was able to understand the formations inside them and manufacture his own with little effort.

Just as the deal had been completed and Shane received the remaining 31000 Purple coins into his 'storage ring' he shook.

His pupils shrunk to the size of pinpricks and his senses were all going absolutely haywire. A terrible pressure was approaching rapidly from the sky, birthing dread in Shane's heart and although almost indiscernible, it was locked onto the very room they were standing in.

Although immense compared to the current him, the approaching Spirit Sense was still but a drop in the ocean compared to his little Star God Princess and so Shane had the leeway to at least use his mind to think of a solution.

Countless thoughts flashed through Shane's head, countless plans and strategies unfolded although none of them would likely work, he calmly continued, ready to stake everything for a chance for the others to at least escape if the person eventually proved to be hostile.

Shane knew he was in no way a match for this being and in the face of absolute strength, all schemes had very little meaning, the person swiftly approaching them was VERY strong after all.

However, he wouldn't just give up! A fierce and crazed light appeared in his striking crimson eyes as he stood tall, glanced to his right and clenched his fists in determination.

Qingyue was here, and nothing in this world was more important to him, not even his own personal safety or secrets. If needed, he would use everything he possibly could to distract the approaching person while she escaped.

It had taken less than a second for all of these thoughts to flash through his head. Only Qingyue, who was always watching him, and his beasts who had a permanent connection to his psyche had realised something was wrong.

Shane gave her a small helpless smile that conveyed more than a thousand words, preparing to order Coral to take her and the kiddos away as fast as possible and her eyes widened a margin but all was for nought.

The pressure intensified for a split second, enough to announce its presence to all occupants of the room but not enough to hurt any of them, before it abruptly disappeared.

What happened next caused Shane's panic to abate slightly but made him sigh and groan endlessly inside.

A cloud of flower petals that brought along with it a sweet-smelling and fragrant wind materialised in the centre of the room, right next to Shane and enveloped him within!

The petals swirled around for a few seconds, forming a cocoon before bursting out in all directions, completely blanketing the room in whites, reds and yellows. As the petals landed they rapidly dissipated, revealing an endlessly charming figure.

There, dressed in pure white robes with hair as black as midnight, porcelain white skin shining as if the finest milky jade, thin red lips, an alluring effeminate face and draped all over Shane's body like a summer jacket was… a man?

"This one has never seen such a wild and handsome boy! This one has truly lived for nothing all these years! Tell this one your name wild boy!"

Elder Pu He froze, Xiao Che froze, Dusty froze, her forked tongue still comically hanging in mid-air, Coral's eyes went wide and little Lingxi the pervert, her cheeks went bright red.

Qingyue's lips instantly pressed into a thin line and she frowned.

"...It's ...Shan Long…" He replied in an exasperated tone through gritted teeth. This was certainly not as hopeless a situation as it could have been but neither was it ideal.

Never before had Shane been so incredibly... conflicted over his handsomeness. If he wasn't extremely handsome, then the… person In front of him may have even killed him outright but then again said person would not currently be draped all over his body.

Death or whatever this INCREDIBLY uncomfortable situation was… honestly the choice was a pretty difficult one.

The… man? Reached out a ridiculously delicate hand and caressed Shane's muscular chest through the gap in his outer robe his coquettish eyes lighting up.

His ruby red lips parted, releasing a pleasant orchid-like fragrance he spoke, his words like flowing water. "So robust and smooth! little Shanshan, whatever do they feed you?"

Shane shivered, feeling like a little mouse in front of a playful cat and while endlessly cursing his bad luck inwardly he firmed his resolve. Taking a deep breath, he mentally crossed his fingers and activated Appraisal ...only to let out a short sigh of relief.

[Ji Qianrou: Supreme Ocean Palace, Elder: Tyrant Profound 10(peak)]

He had a good idea of the character of the man? who was currently molesting him and so he was prepared to forcefully remove the roving hand from inside his robe when a loud sound and a powerful energy fluctuation from next to him attracted everyone's gazes.

*Crash!*

Qingyue had risen to her feet, her teacup had frozen into a block of ice and shattered as a ripple of profound energy obliterated it entirely. Ever so slowly, she closed her eyes, her whole figure shook once and an oppressive aura began emanating from her body.

Shane stared at his wife incredulously with his jaw hanging open as her profound strength continued to soar before his very eyes.

The profound energy from hundreds of metres in every direction was attracted to Qingyue's ethereal figure as if it were a black hole and her cultivation swiftly approached the peak of Spirit Profound. However, it didn't stop there.

No, it wavered for a split second before a much stronger wave of profound energy emanated from her as she almost immediately broke through to the Earth Profound Realm.

From there, to everyone's amazement, her speed of advancement actually increased and within a scant few seconds, she had stepped into the middle stages of Earth Profound.

Only then did Qingyue's surge of strength begin to slow and her profound realm stabilised at the peak of the [6th of Earth Profound]. It was then that her eyes opened again, revealing an extraordinary splendour even as they flashed with an intense amount of heavy killing intent.

Her sword, [Clear-Shard] appeared in her hand and hummed happily as it greedily absorbed the surrounding profound energy, desperately attempting to match its wielders new realm.

Fortunately, Shane had enough foresight to realise that this was a huge opportunity for his wife and released the shattered pieces of the Jade Tempest Scorpion, along with its intact core, into the air for the greedy little growth weapon to absorb.

Ji Qianrou, for all his playfulness, had also realised that this was a fortunate encounter for the girl before him and similarly allowed her to continue, his eyes flashing with interest along with a slight teasing light. As if a snake, he wrapped himself around Shane tighter and got ready to watch the show.