The Devourer of Gods

The Banquet of the Lambs

Chapter 3:

The grand crystal chandeliers of the Heavenly Treasure Auction House cast a brilliant, blinding glow over hundreds of the city's most powerful elites.

Dressed in a generic, oversized gray servant’s robe, Austin stood silently in the far corner of the VIP balcony, holding a tray of spiritual wine. No one looked at him. To the roaring crowds, he was just another faceless, low-grade worker.

From his vantage point, Austin’s eyes locked onto the front-row velvet seats. There sat Leon, draped in golden Tiger Clan silks, and beside him sat Vivian. Her skin radiated a flawless, ethereal light—a direct result of his stolen Grade-9 Astral Phoenix soul warming her meridians. She smiled elegantly, leaning her head against Leon's shoulder, completely oblivious that the man they had left to freeze to death was standing mere feet behind them.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" the head auctioneer’s voice boomed across the hall, drawing a thunderous round of applause. "For our next centerpiece, courtesy of the rising Tiger Clan, we present the ultimate prize of the fallen Austin lineage: The Thousand-Year Ancestral Spirit Tree!"

Four large, heavily scarred mercenaries wheeled a massive iron cage onto the stage. Inside was a beautiful, weeping bonsai tree glowing with faint, silver starlight.

Austin’s grip tightened on the edge of his tray until the silver metal began to warp under his fingers. He could hear the faint, agonizing cries of his ancestors' souls trapped within the roots, forced into a defensive seal.

"The opening bid for this useless trash-clan relic starts at fifty thousand gold stones!" Leon announced loudly from his seat, turning to face the crowd with an arrogant smirk. "Think of it as a historical artifact. The tree is just like its previous owner, Austin—weak, broken, and meant to be bought and sold by real masters!"

The entire auction house erupted into cruel, mocking laughter. Vivian chuckled softly, swirling her wine, enjoying the public humiliation of her former lover's name.

Deep within Austin's sleeve, the tiny Void Slime vibrated with pure hunger.

TARGET LOGGED: 450 HIGH-GRADE BEAST SOULS DETECTED IN THE AUDIENCE.

SPECIAL TARGET IDENTIFIED: THE ANCESTRAL SPIRIT TREE IS CURRENTLY CHARGED WITH 100,000 UNITS OF PRIMORDIAL YIN ENERGY.

SYSTEM NOTICE: RECONNAISSANCE COMPLETED. THE AUCTION HOUSE'S GRAND ANTI-THEFT FORMATION IS RUNNING ON AN ANCIENT LOGARITHM THAT IS SEVENTY GENERATIONS INFERIOR TO THE DEVOURER SYSTEM.

Austin’s dark eyes flashed with an abyssal light beneath his hood. He didn't need money to win this auction. The entire security infrastructure of the wealthiest building in the city was completely transparent to him. He could rewrite the formation's defensive code with a single thought.

WARNING!

A GOLDEN CORE STAGE 9 SUPREME ELDER IS HIDDEN IN THE CEILING RAFTERS, ACTING AS THE AUCTION'S GUARDIAN.

IF THE ANCESTRAL TREE IS SNATCHED, THE ELDER WILL INITIATE A TOTAL DESTRUCTION REACTION, VAPORIZING THE TREE AND EVERY RELIC INSIDE THE BUILDING TO PREVENT THEFT.

Austin froze. He could easily survive the blast with his new Golden Core Stage 3 cultivation and the Void Slime's protection, but the souls of his ancestors trapped inside the Spirit Tree would be permanently erased from existence. He had to completely neutralize a Stage 9 powerhouse and hijack the tree without the Elder ever realizing a strike was occurring.

"One hundred thousand gold stones! Going once, going twice..." the auctioneer yelled, raising his golden gavel. Leon grinned, already anticipating the massive payout and the final erasure of Austin's legacy.

Austin closed his eyes, communicating with the starlight-flecked pebble on his shoulder. Can you eat a Stage 9 soul from a distance without causing a spiritual explosion?

VOID SLIME RESPONSE: REQUIRING PHYSICAL INTERACTION VIA SHADOWS. TIME REQUIRED TO TUNNEL SHADOW THROUGH THE REINFORCED STAGE DEFENSES: 10 SECONDS.

Austin subtly shifted his foot, letting his own shadow stretch thin across the polished floorboards, creeping like a deadly black snake toward the grand formation pillar. The gavel was halfway down. If the shadow didn't clear the warding arrays in time, the tree would be sold, locked away in Leon’s vault, and his family's souls would be lost forever.

The shadow touched the base of the stage array at the exact millisecond the gavel hit the wood.

Instantly, every single light in the grand auction house died. Total, suffocating darkness swallowed the room. Panicked screams erupted from the wealthy merchants, and defensive qi barriers of various colors began flaring up in the dark like chaotic fireworks.

"An intruder!" the Supreme Elder roared from the ceiling rafters, his massive Stage 9 pressure descending like a crashing mountain, suffocating half the audience. He lunged toward the stage to detonate the tree.

But mid-air, the Elder stopped. A tiny, pitch-black puddle of slime was already waiting on the tree’s branches. The Void Slime expanded its jaws into a microscopic black hole, intercepting the Elder's descending spiritual strike and eating the raw energy wave whole.

SLURP.

DEVOURING COMPLETED. STAGE 9 ENERGY REFINED.

HOST CULTIVATION REALM BOOSTED: GOLDEN CORE STAGE 3 TO GOLDEN CORE STAGE 6!

Before the Elder could even process why his ultimate attack had vanished into thin air, Austin’s shadow wrapped completely around the massive iron cage, pulling the entire Thousand-Year Spirit Tree cleanly into his inner world space.

Three seconds later, the backup spiritual lights flickered back on.

The crowd gasped. The center stage was completely empty. The iron cage, the mercenaries, and the sacred Ancestral Tree had completely vanished without a trace.

Up in the rafters, the Supreme Elder fell to his knees, vomiting blood, his cultivation completely drained down to the foundational level, looking like a hollow husk.

"Who did this?!" Leon screamed, his face turning an ugly, psychotic purple as he drew his sword, slamming it into the VIP table. "Find them! Seal the city! No one leaves this building alive!"

In the chaos, Vivian suddenly froze. She clutched her chest as the Grade-9 Astral Phoenix soul inside her body began violently thrashing, screaming in absolute, primal terror. She looked around the panicked crowd, her face pale. For the first time since the betrayal, a cold sweat broke out on her neck. She could feel a terrifying, familiar gaze locking onto her from the shadows.

Standing near the exit door, Austin adjusted his servant hood, his lips curling into a cold, venomous smile as he slipped out into the night.