The Devourer of Gods

Chapter 1:

"Sign the divorce decree, Austin," Vivian said, her voice as cold as the snow falling outside the ancestral hall. She didn't even look at him. Instead, she kept her hand resting arrogantly on the shoulder of Leon, Young Master of the rival Tiger Clan.

Austin lay flat on the freezing stone floor, gasping for air, his robes soaked through with his own blood.

An hour ago, Vivian’s father—the very Patriarch Austin had served faithfully for three years—had ruthlessly pierced Austin’s dantian with a cursed spike, shattering his cultivation and forcefully extracting his Grade-9 Astral Phoenix beast soul. They had ripped his soul right out of his flesh to graft it into Vivian.

"A broken dog is no longer worthy of the future Empress," Leon sneered, tossing a silver coin onto Austin’s bloody back. "Consider this your tip for keeping my fiancée’s new soul warm all these years. Now, crawl out of the city before I feed your useless flesh to my hounds."

Austin’s fingers clawed into the stone, cracking his fingernails until they bled. The sheer, suffocating betrayal burned hotter than the physical agony in his chest.

Three years ago, Vivian’s family was on the brink of extinction. Austin had sacrificed his own blood, fought through deadly dungeons, and elevated their clan to royalty. The moment they achieved power, they butchered him like livestock.

"Father," Vivian murmured, turning toward the shadows where her father stood. "Should we leave him alive? If he survives..."

"He is a cripple with a shattered dantian, daughter," the Patriarch’s voice boomed with chilling indifference. "He won't make it past the city gates. The blizzard will claim him. Guards, throw this trash into the Ashen Graveyard."

Two armored enforcers stepped forward. They dragged him face-down across the jagged gravel path, letting sharp rocks tear the flesh from his cheeks, throwing him like a bag of garbage into the valley of bones outside the city walls.

Austin lay among the skeletal remains of dead monsters and forgotten cultivators. The freezing wind numbed his pain, and darkness began to edge into his vision. Is this it? Is this how the top genius of the continent dies?

As his heart gave one final, desperate thump, a freezing, pitch-black liquid welled up from the deepest, hidden recesses of his broken lineage.

A voice, sounding like millions of ancient demons whispering in unison, echoed directly inside his soul:

CRITICAL INJURY DETECTED. HOST SOUL DETACHED FROM WORLD LAWS.

TABOO BLOODLINE AWAKENED: THE COSMIC DEVOURER.

SYSTEM CORE INITIALIZED: YOU NO LONGER TAME BEASTS. YOU EAT GODS.

CURRENT LEVEL: 1 (ABYSSAL MONARCH STATUS)

Austin gasped as a violent surge of jet-black, chaotic energy slammed into his broken dantian. It didn't just heal the fracture—it reconstructed his spiritual center into a swirling, infinite vortex of pure gravity. He stood up, the snow around him instantly vaporizing into steam.

But the System's awakening tore open a massive spatial rift directly above the graveyard.

ROAR!

The sky cracked. A massive, skeletal claw wrapped in emerald spirit-fire forced its way through the rift. It was a Tier-10 Ghost Emperor Dragon—a mythical entity that hadn't walked the mortal plane in ten thousand years. The sheer aura of the creature caused the surrounding mountains to tremble.

WARNING: AWAKENING OF THE MONARCH HAS ATTRACTED A TIER-10 PLANETARY DISASTER.

SYSTEM NOTICE: CURRENT HOST SURVIVAL RATE AGAINST TIER-10 ENTITY: 0.00%.

EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE ACTIVATED: CONVERTING THE LAST OF YOUR MORTAL LIFE FORCE INTO ONE GOD-KILLER SOUL GACHA ROLL. IF YOU DRAW A TRASH COMPANION, YOU WILL BE CONSUMED INSTANTLY.

The skeletal dragon locked its burning emerald eyes onto Austin, opening its jaws to release a torrent of hellfire that would turn the entire valley—and the city behind it—into absolute ash. A countdown appeared in floating numbers of black fire:

GACHA ROLL INITIATED...

Austin stood his ground, his eyes flashing with a terrifying, absolute madness. He had been betrayed by humans, stripped of his destiny, and now a primordial god was trying to eat him. "Roll it," Austin hissed, spitting blood onto the snow. "If the heavens want me dead, I'll swallow the sky first!"

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE DRAWN THE MYTHIC ANOMALY: THE BOUNDLESS VOID SLIME.

Before the dragon could unleash its hellfire, a tiny, translucent speck of pitch-black slime materialized on Austin’s shoulder. It looked utterly pathetic, no larger than a pebble.

Yet the moment the Tier-10 Ghost Dragon saw it, the mountain-sized monster froze mid-air. Its emerald flames flickered and died. The terrifying dragon began to violently tremble in absolute, submissive horror.

"Eat," Austin commanded coldly.

The tiny slime opened its mouth—and its jaw stretched wide enough to swallow the entire horizon. A localized black hole erupted in the valley. With one terrifying, silent vacuum surge, the Tier-10 Ghost Dragon was sucked entirely into the slime’s tiny body.

GULP.

DEVOURING COMPLETED.

HOST HAS ABSORBED THE SOUL OF THE GHOST EMPEROR DRAGON.

CULTIVATION LEAP: REBORN REALM... ASCENDED REALM... GOLDEN CORE REALM!

YOU HAVE UNLOCKED UNLIMITED SKELETAL DRAGON SUMMONS.

Austin stood in the absolute silence of the graveyard. In less than ten minutes, his power had bypassed ten years of standard cultivation. He clutched his fist, feeling the raw, world-crushing dragon qi swirling in his veins.

He looked back toward the glowing lights of the city walls, where the Tiger Clan and Vivian’s family were currently celebrating their new alliance and his death.

As he took a step forward to march back and slaughter them all, system text boxes flashed a warning shade of crimson across his vision.

ALERT: THE ENERGY EXPULSION OF THE GHOST DRAGON HAS REVEALED YOUR POSITION TO THE UPPER REALM.

THE GOD-HUNTING TRIBUNAL HAS DETECTED THE AWAKENING OF THE DEVOURER SYSTEM.

THREE GOD-LEVEL ASSASSINS ARE DESCENDING FROM THE HIGHER PLANES. TIME UNTIL ARRIVAL: 7 DAYS.

CURRENT MISSION: RETURN TO THE CITY. CONCEAL YOUR POWER AS A LEVEL 1 TRASH CULTIVATOR. ABSORB 10 HIGH-GRADE SOULS TO STRENGTHEN THE VOID SLIME BEFORE THE ASSASSINS ARRIVE.

Austin’s eyes narrowed into slits as a dark, venomous smile spread across his face. He didn't need to hunt for souls; the city was full of arrogant elders and hypocrites who wanted him dead. They were going to be his slime's next meal.

He suppressed his aura, making himself look bruised, broken, and weak once more, and began walking back toward the city gates.