15 Saint Monster (2)

Hearing that familiar roar and feeling that familiar presence, I couldn't help but pale and tense up. Dying isn't something I'm afraid of, but dying while inside a monsters stomach is something I'd rather not experience. The middle-aged man had gone into a frenzy and was already gathering all the disciples together in a huddle.

I couldn't help but have a slight change of heart in the way I looked at him. I had expected him to be one of those arrogant pricks who abandon others for the sake of survival, but it seems I was wrong. But now is not the time to be thinking this.

I felt it's presence grow heavy by the second, to the point that my instinct was to shiver and run. Even some of the disciples were wobbling on their knees while some females were crying. The seconds went by but there was nothing that appeared. This only added more terror to the silence around us.

Suddenly, the upper and lower jaw of a mouth appeared on both sides of the ship. I realized the horror of what was about to happen. Before I could react, living walls appeared all around us.

From above, it looked like a giant mouth of a crocodile opened it's mouth and swallowed the ship hole. It closed and there was nothing left behind.

Before I realized it, we were swallowed whole. It suddenly felt like we were descending down a slide. The ship violently shook as people fell and screamed. We descended into darkness. Eventually, the ship stabilized and the screaming mostly stopped.

Looking around, I released we were now inside the stomach of the beast. The whole place was like a gigantic lake of yellow acid. A yellow fog encompassed the area as well and had a putrid smell to it that could make one gag. The place was dimly lit with a reddish hue. One can occasionally see floating bodies of dead creatures that are already have broken down. There's a few small islands of bones that had clumped together over a long period of time. They've even melted and molded together, making them look clumpy.

Cores of monsters floated about while some are already about to turn into dust.

Using my divine sense, I quickly found the body of the flood dragon. It has already decomposed into bones that still give out the original shape. It means this place is miles big.

Formations and runes activated and lit up on the ferry. The middl-aged man came out trying to calm everyone down, but you could see the despair and hopelessness in his eyes. I went over to the edge and looked below. I could see the acid attacking the formations and runes that were actively resisting. Even though they are full of energy, I could see them corroding slowly, and subtly.

But seeing all those monster cores, I couldn't help but sweep them out of the water and eat them. As I was enjoying the feeling of my flesh slowly turned crystalline red, the middle-aged man came over with a look of all hope is lost.

"All hope is lost," he said. Yep, just as I said.

Not necessarily. I just have to eat through the stomach walls or inflict enough pain to make him spit us out.

"No," he shook his head, "This creature is in the saint realm. Every bit of their flesh is equivalent to peak heavenly grade weapons."

Can you tell me the grading system of weapons?

"It doesn't matter anymore. But I guess I can tell you. It's earth, spirit, heavenly, and divine with three levels in each called primary, medial, and peak. Earth grade weapons aren't that hard to find. Spirit weapons are rare. Heavenly are extremely rare. Divine are all in the hands of the strongest clans and can be counted on a hand. Our clan has one primary heavenly grade and that's all."

Let me try anyway.

"I don't care anymore," he said indifferently.

I began hovering off the ground and flew into the distance. My body quickly grew from it's 30 meters to 628 meters. I finally approached the stomach wall before sticking to it. Infusing my teeth with as much devour laws as possible, I bit down with all my strength. It felt like I had bitten iron ingot once again. I brought back my teeth that nearly broke apart and were in pain.

I injected half of my Qi into my teeth before trying once again as I refuse to go down like this. This time, a small piece came off the size of a human finger. The entire stomach shook a little before calming down. This insignificant piece entered my huge stomach. The moment it entered, my entire body shook and I coughed up a little blood.

If I had to describe the heaviness and energy contained within that little piece of flesh, it'd be like eating a drop of neutron star material. I activated the devour laws with all my strength in an attempt to suppress. This resulted in a bitter struggle that drained my vitality and energy very quickly. It was only after an hour of constant fighting that the piece lost the battle.

Exhausted, I nearly fell off the side. The fight had consumed all my strength and Qi. I had nearly lost a fight against a finger sized piece of flesh from this creature. It's no wonder that my chances of survival are infinitely zero in a fight. Spending a few hours recovering, I began digesting it which is quite difficult.

Each time a tiny piece of it was digested, enormous amounts of saint Qi was released. I haven't reached the cultivation level where I can properly store and use it. Thus, I controlled the saint Qi to break through the small meridians surroundings my organs, unblocking them. Normally, this is probably an arduous process, without the elixirs or pills of some sorts.

My meridians swelled up from the pain, and each unblocking was sweat breaking, but I went through it. With each organ receiving access to my Qi, they immediately began a slow process of removing impurities and refining themselves. My strength and vitality slowly moved up as well.

Soon, all five organs were cleared, and I finished it off by moving around the body for any leftover meridian paths, occasionally discovering a few hidden ones. I felt a strange, fresh sensation. As if I'm in complete control of my body and can feel everything.

I have skipped the viscera refinement realm. Now I just have to wait for my organs to finish refining before carrying on to the Xiantian realm.

Seeing the slow process of viscera refinement, I couldn't help but frown at the slow speed. Surely if the middle-aged guy heard what I was thinking, he'd vomit blood in anger. But how can I accept such a slow speed? Going back to my stomach, I slowly nipped off another piece of the finger sized flesh.

Another burst of energy entered my body in the form of saint Qi. My meridians swelled and ached horribly but I split the energy into five strands that went to the five organs. Each one entered the organs and swirled around inside. I felt the refinement process speed up drastically. Impurities were expelled through my mouth before sliding down the stomach lining. My vitality and energy soared as well.

I completely burnt through the energy, with all five organs at a 30% percent completion. I bit off another piece of the finger-sized flesh, which was now reduced to half. Saint qi entered once again before being driven to my organs.

This cycle continued two more times with only a rice sized piece of flesh left behind.

Upon reaching completion, I felt an inexplicable change in my body. My vitality is equal or maybe even greater than a human who's completed the same one. Blood furiously pumped through my body like a newborn and my blood essence seemed to be boiling. Each breath from my gills released steam like an engine. My metabolism, digestive, and bodily systems have improved to a whole new realm.

Everything within a hundred meters has become clearly visible when I release my divine sense. Small details are in view with clarity. My divine sense spread out for miles before being stopped by the stomach lining.

My body size has increased from 628 to 712 meters, less than a hundred from the width of the flood dragon.

Feeling vigorous and full of energy, I decided to return back. My foundation, Qi and blood essence have become very unstable at the moment, so I need time to consolidate them all. Quickly returning back, I was welcomed with a scene of a ferry. The people on board freaked out when the saw my massive appearance. I began shrinking down until I was 25 meters in diameter. The middle-aged man had come out with surprise in his despair driven eyes.

I have broken through to the peak of post-xiantian and need time to consolidate my efforts.

"Post-xiantian?! *cough* I had no idea you were at the realm of cultivation. Forgive me for my past attitude," he said with a much more respective tone. I waved it off though.

No problem. I have a plan to escape which we can discuss later.

"Escape?!" he asked with some hope in his eyes, "Yes, please. Rest all you want."

I laid on the deck and entered deep cultivation to consolidate.

One week later...

I unleashed my divine sense, seeing everything was still alright. I sighed. Everything had somewhat stabilized, so there's no danger anymore. But now, I can instinctively feel the tribulation, and know that it's a heavenly tribulation. As long as I feel like it, I can initiate it anytime. But I've just stabilized and somewhat consolidated my realm, so doing it a week later could result in my cultivation and collapsing. Plus, it's a trump card in case my life is on the line.

Moving about, I noticed that the runes and formations on the sides had significantly dimmed and corroded. They may last for a few more days.

Looking around, I noticed that the few people on deck had deteriorated mentally and physically. Vomit stains and feces were everywhere. The formations keeping the yellow acid mist out have already collapsed, causing the deck to be quite corroded. The white jaded surface is now yellowish and dirty with acidic holes.

My divine sense must have startled the middle-aged man, as he came out. Bags were under his dull eyes and his weight seems to have deteriorated as his body seems to be skinnier along with his face. He sent an energy beam towards me that entered my mind.

"Can you hear me?" he asked. I couldn't help but jolt in shock. Energy transmissions! Wait, why didn't he use it in the first place?

"Yes!" I said, a little in excitement. Talking through messages is tiring. He awkwardly looked at me for a second before returning to normal. Why did he look at me like that?

"You said you may have a way out?" he asked, with the last glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"Before that, how long can this ship stay afloat?" I asked.

"Less than a week. Although the white jaded wood is of very high quality, it will only last a few days before leaks start appearing," he said gloomily.

"How long will food and water supplies last?" I asked.

"Our group is 87 members. Usually, we go around the dangerous territory which takes several months longer, but we were forced to go through due to several circumstances. We've got enough to last for two years," he said pointing at his ring which was completely black. I'm assuming it's a space ring.

"When the ship starts sinking, you all can hide in my stomach. It doesn't produce any acid of some sorts and is usually empty except for food. It should'nt be a problem surviving there," I said.

As I mentioned, my stomach doesn't produce acid. Well it used to, but since I've been using devour constantly for digest, my stomach has gained a devour attribute, so my stomach acid went away. As long as I give them protection from the natural devour energy that is produced in my stomach as a form of stomach acid, they should be fine.

"Can I trust you on that?" he asked doubting me.

"You have information and directions I need, so of course you can trust me," I said.

"About that method of saving us," he asked.

"I'm naturally at the peak of post-xiantian realm so I break through any time. But I need to consolidate everything to perfection first, before I can attempt. I'm sure a heavenly tribulation will force the creature to spit us out," I said with confidence.

"W-what?! That's dangerous! Do you know how horrifying tribulations are?! Without necessary preparations, your chances are less than 10%!" he yelled.

"Have you not seen how tough my shingles are? I once took a full hit from a mature flood dragon without no damage to my scales at dantain gathering realm! After so many breakthroughs, it's many times stronger than originally! Trust me, I have confidence." I partially lied about that, but sorry.

"R-really?!" he asked with shock and disbelief on his face.

"Of course! Why would I lie to you?" I said with a gleeful smile on my mischievous side.

Of course, if I was a normal human, then I wouldn't dare say this. But what am I? I'm a sea urchin with shingles embedded with the full laws of devour! I'll tank this tribulation, no problemo!