Huang Ying turned his head slightly to sweep his gaze over the 23 people that were surrounding him and the black-haired and crimson-eyed Ying Feixu. The world his right eye saw changed drastically as he swept his gaze over them, all colour vanishing as the world turned black and white, everything flickering as though it were made from flames. This was a type of scenery he had only seen once before, but he knew well what it was, it was a clear declaration of what could and what couldn't be eaten.

Everything that flickered white could be devoured freely while everything that flickered black was something he couldn't devour yet. The bodies of the 23 people flickered an enticing white, the crimson pupils floating around within Huang Ying's right eye dancing around happily as they looked at the snacks in front of them.

There was however one point that Huang Ying himself found somewhat strange, the earth around him was flickering the same black as the other inedible materials. According to the explanation he got from Baku, he should be able to devour earth to increase the power of his own law of earth. He knew that normal earth would be of minimal use and only let him increase the strength by a minuscule degree, only special types of earth could greatly enhance the power of his law.

But no matter how minuscule the increase, there was no denying the fact that he should be able to devour the earth around him. So why was it showing up as black? A bit of his devouring power sank into the earth beneath his feet, eating up a small part of it just so he could check that he could actually devour it. And devoured it was, a very faint stream of energy sinking into the mountain standing on the island within his dantian.

And yet, the earth around him remained black, seemingly inedible to him. He was quite curious why it was like this, but as he had no way of learning the truth here, he decided to momentarily chalk it up to either being something with his own mind or the vision simply not being perfect. Huang Ying rolled and cracked his neck after finishing his quick test, flashing the silver-haired and black-eyed Xing Dong a confident grin while using an arm to gesture for them to come at him.

"Well, are you guys going to come or not? Don't tell me you're so sad that you'll not just surround me but also wait for me to come at you? Tell me, Little Dong, did I instil that much fear in you back then? Does your spine shiver from just standing there, do your legs go weak?"

Xing Dong's expression turned gloomy as Huang Ying spoke, but he actually had to do his best to suppress the shiver running down his spine from seeing Huang Ying's cheerful grin. It was with that grin that he had crushed everyone on the stone stage within the academy, it was that grin he wore as he toyed with and then tore out the throat of a person just as strong as him. He didn't feel completely safe even after having brought several of the people working for his mercantile clan, and that fear felt like an intense source of shame to him, one he had to eradicate immediately.

"Kill him! Don't hesitate or show mercy, just kill him! He focuses on rapid and unpredictable techniques so attack from all sides!"

The 22 other men moved into action upon receiving Xing Dong's order, the 17 other people at the 9th Mortal Step taking up positions and gathering their Qi while the five people at the 1st Stair of Ascension charged forward. The five people surrounded Huang Ying and attacked him at the same time, stabbing their swords and spears forward while not giving him any room to escape.

But to their surprise, Huang Ying didn't move to dodge, he only gave his body a few quick twists just as the weapons were about to stab into him. All five attacks pierced straight through him, his left hand brushing past the chest of one of the attackers that had moved half a step too close thanks to Huang Ying's twists. Blood poured forth from Huang Ying's mouth, but the 17 people preparing to launch ranged attacks and the five people who had just stabbed him were overcome by a dreadful sense of foreboding, the ranged attacks halting while the five people rapidly pulled back.

But despite their sense of foreboding, Huang Ying remained standing in place. His hand reached up and traced his wounds, eventually reaching a wound that had pierced clean through his chest. Had he not moved at the last second it would have pierced straight through his heart and ended his life. His finger moved along the edge of the wound, a few words spilling out from his bloody mouth.

"It hurts quite a bit, doesn't it? Your chest feels heavy, your breathing gets stuck in your throat and a horrible dry feeling creeps up all the way from your lungs. Nasty, isn't it? Terrifying, isn't it? That's part 1 of lesson 1, Ying Feixu. When overwhelmed by a superior number of enemies, focus on taking out one after the other, even if you have to be wounded to do so. If there exist any beings in this world that can afford to trade wounds, it is us. Give them your flesh, but take their bones in return."

It wasn't just Ying Feixu who was caught off guard by Huang Ying's words, the people that had just backed away were just as surprised. But then the sound of a dry cough reached their ears, all of them turning to look at the man whose chest Huang Ying's hand had brushed past. There was a very thin yet deep cut on his chest, several drops of blood dripping out slowly.

But it wasn't this cut that caught their attention, it was his bulging throat as his cough got worse and worse, his entire face dyed red as he clawed at his own throat with one hand and hammered his chest with the other. But it didn't help in the slightest, he let out a particularly heavy cough and spat out a bit of thick mud stained with blood. His coughing only grew rougher and rougher, his entire throat rolling and bulging as lumps of mud shot out.

But no matter how much he coughed, he was unable to get rid of it all, his eyes flashing with one last look of despair before his lungs and throat collapsed under the weight of the earth that Huang Ying had deposited straight into them using the small cut he produced on the man's chest. He coughed one last time and then fell forward, bloody mud sliding out of his open mouth.

Simple yet vicious, not an ounce of mercy visible within his moves as he willingly suffered wounds just to kill one person. And not once did that grin leave his face, the shiver running down Xing Dong's spine growing harder and harder to repress. Huang Ying paid no attention to their fear, tottering towards the fresh corpse with unsteady steps. The four people closest to the corpse quickly regained their minds, their pupils narrowing sharply as one of them took the lead and charged forward while calling out.

"Quickly, before he can do whatever he's planning!"

The four people charged forward as one to stop Huang Ying from reaching the corpse, their laws and Qi bursting forth and wreathing their weapons as they threw away all carelessness. But just as they got close to him, Huang Ying stomped the ground and shot to the side, impaling himself on the lightning-covered spear of the person that had taken the lead while swiftly storing away his own spear. Huang Ying's arms stretched out and grabbed onto the sides of the woman's head, his bloody grin causing the knees of the woman to go weak.

"And what if this is exactly what I was planning, what will you do then?"

His words only served to further weaken the woman's knees, but she had already lost her chance, her life was already forfeit. Huang Ying drew his head back and then smashed it forward, his forehead crushing the woman's nose. He drew his head back and smashed it into her face again, repeating the process multiple times before the other three people even had the chance to react. By the fifth headbutt, the woman's skull had been cracked and shattered thanks to Huang Ying's strong body, her mouth only able to utter a single word in a somewhat clear manner.

"...No...No...noo..."

Her words served no purpose, Huang Ying was not one to show mercy to enemies. He pulled back his head one last time and smashed it into her face, sending the shards of her own skull digging into her brain and turning her body completely limp. Huang Ying let go of the woman and allowed her corpse to drop to the ground, his entire face stained with blood as he opened his mouth again.

"And that's part 2 of lesson 1, there's nothing wrong with deceiving your enemy, their carelessness is your ticket to victory. And then there's part 3 of lesson 1..."

Huang Ying's shadow started to expand as his words trailed off, crimson pupils and circular maws filled with sharp teeth covering his shadow as it grew. The two corpses fell into the range of the shadow, the maws giddily eating away at the corpses and rapidly causing them to vanish. And as the corpses vanished, it resulted in Huang Ying's wounds healing so quickly that they were gone within a second. Huang Ying didn't bother with the terrified expressions looking at him, using a hand to wipe away the blood on his face as he finished his words.

"Feast freely. If our wounds don't kill us straight away then they might as well not be there. Get hurt to kill, suffer a few wounds to take out an enemy, none of it matters as long as you feast to heal, that is our privilege."

Huang Ying's right hand flashed forth as he spoke, his two-headed spear appearing in his grasp mid-swing. The person closest to him was still overwhelmed by shock after having seen Huang Ying heal practically instantly, leaving him unable to put up a defence against the unexpected attack.

His throat was cut wide open and gushed forth blood, muddy tendrils rising up from Huang Ying's shadow and latching onto the man's legs. The tendrils moved up his body with unnatural movements, some remaining latched onto him while nibbling away at him while others burrowed into the wound in his throat, his body devoured from both the inside and the outside.

"And that's part 4 of lesson 1, if your enemy is so dumb as to remain unprepared, then you should always take advantage of that. This isn't some honourable sparring match, this is a fight to the death."

Huang Ying kicked the ground and shot to the side while he was talking, instantly arriving in front of the last two remaining people who had reached the 1st Stair of Ascension. He split his spear in half and used the two blades to attack both people at once, slashing directly at their throats and forcing them to raise their weapons to block. But just as his weapon collided with theirs, his foot flashed forward and landed a kick squarely on the crotch of the man to his left.

A bit of wind coated his foot, rising up in the form of a sharp blade that cut deep into the groin of the man and caused him to groan in pain while faltering. Huang Ying took advantage of this faltering to slide his blade up along the sword of the man, quickly reaching the tip and causing the entire weapon to tilt towards the man, who was faltering in pain and was thus unable to hold it steady. His blade crossed over the tip of the sword and cut directly through the man's head, splitting it into two pieces and silencing his groans, his shadow immediately growing more tendrils to feast on the corpse.

Back in the ant hive, Lang Zan told him that he should be capable of defeating someone at the 1st Stair of Ascension, assuming that he would require a tough fight to do so. But Lang Zan and the others didn't know the truth about Huang Ying's law of devouring, they had no idea what it was truly capable of, what sort of fighting style it allowed him to have. As such, they had greatly underestimated his strength, he couldn't just defeat people at the 1st Stair of Ascension, he could murder them.

The last remaining person at the 1st Stair of Ascension lost all her nerves when she saw Huang Ying so easily dispatch the man right next to her. She immediately let go of her weapon and elected to flee, turning around and bolting away at full speed. But there was no escaping from Huang Ying, not after he brought out his law of devouring. All that awaited the people present here was death, merciless and inescapable.

Huang Ying's eyes followed the woman as she fled, the earth beneath her suddenly opening just as her foot was about to land. She didn't notice the hole due to her fear and stepped right into it, small earthen spikes digging into the sole of her foot. Her foot was pierced through by the spikes, the small section of earth around her foot suddenly pulling back and resulting in her balance being thrown off and causing her to fall to the ground.

Huang Ying threw out one of his blades the moment she fell to the ground, a strong gust of wind guiding his weapon and causing it to fall down directly onto her neck. The sharp edge pierced through her spine and neck, her mouth opening in a silent scream of pain before another gust of wind spun the weapon to the side, decapitating her where she laid.

Huang Ying flicked his wrist, another gust of wind launching his blade into the sky and guiding it back to his waiting hand. He assembled his two-headed spear again and turned his gaze onto the remaining people that surrounded him, their numbers already having dwindled to a mere 10. The rest had tried to flee while he was dealing with the others so he had delivered swift judgment to them, a sharp blade of wind slicing over their throats and reaping their lives.

Xing Dong was among the remaining 10, his willpower no longer enough to restrain the shiver down his spine, which had turned into a full-blown trembling. Huang Ying lowered his spear and had one end drag along the earth as he walked over, the wind around him moving slightly as soft cutting sounds rang out, the throats of everyone but Xing Dong quickly getting cut.

His shadow stretched out muddy tendrils covered in eyes and maws to snatch up the corpses, each of the maws joyfully eating away at the snacks they were given, continuously channelling power into Huang Ying. Xing Dong collapsed to the ground when Huang Ying reached him, his face as white as snow and covered in large beads of sweat as a warm liquid ran down his legs. Huang Ying stopped in front of Xing Dong and looked down at him, raising his spear and placing one of the tips against Xing Dong's throat.

"You know, I really do find you pathetic. You talk and act so grandly, but the moment things turn even slightly serious, you become a snivelling coward who does nothing but hide. Even now, at the very end, you're cowering on the ground, and from the look in your eye, I can guess that you plan on begging for mercy. Not long ago, I too was trash, I bent and knelt whenever things went wrong or serious, I accepted my low position. But at the very end, I at least had the will and determination to fight and die on my feet rather than on my knees. If you, here at the very end, could have at least shown that, then I think I could have at least respected you somewhat after your passing. What a shame."

Huang Ying didn't give Xing Dong any chance to utter any more words, his spear moving forward and piercing into his throat. Blood gushed forth and Xing Dong started gasping for air as life started to leave his body, but Huang Ying simply turned around and started to head over to Ying Feixu, dragging Xing Dong who was stuck on the spear with him the entire way.

Ying Feixu was silent as Huang Ying walked over, her pupils already so shrunken that they could barely be seen. She knew that she was weaker than Huang Ying thanks to their previous duel, but she thought that they wouldn't be too far apart if she used her full power and brought out all her laws. But right here, he laid the truth completely bare for her, she wouldn't be his match even if she pulled out everything she had, at least not yet. Huang Ying stopped in front of her and opened his mouth once more, Xing Dong in the midst of his final spasms on the tip of Huang Ying's spear.

"We are beasts of everlasting hunger and gluttony, our greatest asset is our bottomless stomach and our ability to feast on all living beings, never forget that."