History of the Taotie Clan

"Earth-Devouring?" Lu Yang bent down and picked up a clump of mud from the ground. Resisting the urge to eat it, he tossed it back down. The Immortal Fairy gave a hearty "Heh!" and hopped up from the ground. "Yeah! Doesn't Earth-Devouring just mean eating dirt? Is that so hard to understand?" The Immortal Fairy felt that although Lu Yang's intelligence wasn't quite up to hers, figuring out something like this should still be pretty simple, right? Lu Yang: "..." *So by your definition, devouring earth is literal?!* Seeing that Lu Yang still looked utterly bewildered, the Immortal Fairy sighed softly. She reflected that it was truly fortunate she was in his spiritual space to offer him counsel; otherwise, with Lu Yang's brains, he would be so easily swindled out in the world. She explained further, "Although the Taotie are known as one of the ancient Four Perils, that was a reputation they only made for themselves later on. In the very beginning, their whole clan lived rather miserably. They had huge appetites but no real ability. Every day they went hungry, and without enough food they had no strength, which meant they couldn't hunt—creating a vicious cycle." "The Taotie Clan cannot practice fasting. They spend their entire lives eating." "When pushed to extremes by hunger, they'd eat tree bark and leaves and whatever else, but bark and leaves don't last very long either." "Later on, their ancestral graves must have puffed green smoke—a genius was born into the clan. He had a gift for cultivation, and his mind was sharp." "That Taotie thought: food is food, so if tree bark and leaves are edible, why can't the dirt on the ground be eaten?" "He went into secluded cultivation for three days, not having a single drop of water for three full days. Seeing that he was on the verge of starving to death, the events of his life flashed before his eyes. He originally thought he would perish right then and there, but then he remembered his clansmen, his family, those gaunt, scrawny brothers and sisters of his, and their earnest hopes." "He decided he could not simply resign himself to death. He had to resist!" "He found hope amidst death. Driven by the instinct for survival, he fused everything he had learned in his life into one, and finally, grasping life from the jaws of death, he pioneered a grand divine ability—Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring!" "This grand divine ability transformed into a bloodline power, merging into the blood of the Taotie. From then on, every member of the Taotie Clan automatically mastered this divine ability and began competing with one another to eat dirt." "Wait, hold on a second. Didn't I hear that when the Taotie Clan uses Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring, they can even tear space apart? From what you're saying, that doesn't sound like it could tear space apart at all, does it?" Lu Yang asked in bewilderment. That wasn't what the books said. The Immortal Fairy puffed up her cheeks and glared at Lu Yang. "Hey, you! Where's your patience? Keep listening to me!" "Please continue." Smug and pleased with herself, the Immortal Fairy said, "That's more like it," and went on: "In the past, the Taotie Clan had it rough, and their cultivation was generally low because they didn't have the energy to cultivate. Once they were full, they had surplus energy to devote to cultivation." "Their clan's talent for cultivation was enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the top demon beast clans, like the Dragon Clan, the Phoenix Clan, the Kunpeng Clan, the Qiongqi Clan, and so forth." "There was another reason their cultivation progressed so quickly: eating dirt really does make you stronger. Moreover, the higher the quality of the dirt, the faster the cultivation speed. For a time, the price of black soil skyrocketed, driven up by those guys eating it all." "The soil in the Dao Seeking Sect's Herb Garden is quite high-grade. If you're interested, you could give it a try. I guarantee it'll boost your cultivation speed!" "Give me some time to consider it." While Lu Yang pretended to think it over, the Immortal Fairy continued, "As the Taotie Clan's cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds, they began to make a name for themselves among the demon race. In the end, it wasn't just their talent—their overall clan strength could be compared to the top clans." "That was how their reputation as one of the Four Perils was established." "Once the Taotie Clan struck it rich, they figured that they were a prominent clan after all, and spending all day eating dirt looked undignified. So they modified the Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring skill, changing it to devouring all things—which is what you see today." Lu Yang fell silent for a moment, then asked, "Then Fairy, why didn't you teach me that later version of Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring?" The Immortal Fairy looked at Lu Yang strangely, puzzled as to why he would even ask. "Wasn't that what you requested? You wanted the most ancient skill, the kind where anyone can tell at a glance that it's from antiquity!" "This is an authentic, genuine ancient skill. Even to me, this is a very ancient matter. I only learned the whole story after reading about it in ancient texts and then hearing Immortal Kirin embellish it with all the juicy details." "Let me tell you, this move is almost lost to history. Maybe nobody in the Taotie Clan even knows it anymore. If you hadn't begged me, I wouldn't have taught it to you at all!" Lu Yang: "..." *Well, thank you so much.* "Is the only function of this move eating dirt?" Lu Yang asked, clinging to a glimmer of hope. "Of course not!" "There's really more?" Lu Yang was delighted, thinking that the Fairy was reliable after all. "Try taking a bite of dirt. It's bound to be dry and hard to swallow. And if you drink water, it'll turn into mud, which is just as hard to swallow and sticks to your throat." "That's where 'Heaven-Swallowing' comes in. After you eat dirt, Heaven-Swallowing lets you treat spiritual energy as water, swallowing the surrounding spiritual energy to wash the dirt down. With one gulp, down it goes!" "...So you're saying this is actually a combo?" "What kind of talk is that? The founder was a prodigy of the Taotie Clan after all. Isn't it only natural for him to make the technique flawless?" "Of course, Heaven-Swallowing can also be used on its own—to absorb spiritual energy." "Let me try." Lu Yang silently recited the incantation and opened his mouth. Sure enough, a massive torrent of spiritual energy poured into his mouth, surging into his limbs and bones. "Cough, cough!" Feeling as though he were choking and unable to breathe properly, Lu Yang instinctively closed his mouth and started coughing. "You're absorbing spiritual energy too fast! At your current realm, you can't absorb it that quickly." Hearing this, Lu Yang circulated his cultivation method to calm the spiritual energy inside him, opened his mouth, and deliberately slowed down the speed of absorption. The spiritual energy was like sweet nectar, delicious and refreshing. Digested through his stomach, it dispersed throughout his entire body, feeling exceptionally comfortable. "Ah, that feels good~" Lu Yang let out an exclamation of satisfaction. "Wait, now that you mention it, didn't that sensation of absorbing spiritual energy just now feel just like using a Spirit Gathering Formation?" "You guessed right! The very first Spirit Gathering Formations of our human race were created based on this skill." The Immortal Fairy revealed another ancient secret. Talisman crafting, formations, and the hundred arts of cultivation were all originally created by ancient humans imitating nature and demon beasts. And those demon beasts included the Taotie Clan. "No wonder... Wait! Even if I learn this version of Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring, it's useless! Who nowadays still knows about this piece of Taotie Clan history? Even if I start chomping on dirt right in front of them, the Nine Nether Cult won't recognize it as Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring!" Lu Yang suddenly realized. It was true that the skill was ancient, but being *too* ancient was a problem—no one would recognize it! He even suspected that back in the Immortal Fairy's era, barely anyone knew about these things! The Immortal Fairy hesitated. "Then do you want to learn the modern Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring?" Lu Yang nodded vigorously. The Immortal Fairy breathed a sigh of relief. "Then that makes things easy." "What do you mean?" "I don't know it." If she didn't know it, Lu Yang wouldn't have to learn it. A very simple logic.