Belial was bathing in a giant vat made of a green glowing liquid. Well, it was glowing and green when he had first stepped into the fluid. Now it was covered with strings of inky black floating all about and the glow was much weaker. The whole thing looked quite disgusting.

The man seating that waste deep in the stuff was decidedly different. He looked extremely attractive, to the point he would make most models who made a career out of looking good seem drab by comparison. From being stacked with perfectly proportioned lean muscle to a face that had no blemishes or asymmetry. The man was attractive.

However, those who knew the man would be extremely surprised at this revelation.

Why?

Because till about thirty minutes ago, he was affectionately called by his admirers 'Sweet Potato'. Because the man was rotund and had the vague outline of a potato, and his essence was a collective treat for most disciples so that earned him 'sweet'. But in a sea of beautiful men and women who were always at their physical peak, he was an oddity and not a welcome one.

In his youth, the man was often ridiculed for his unique rotund physique that stayed as such no matter how much he trained. It was not natural, this was a side effect of his bloodline destiny. Unlike normal people who could only store trace amounts of pure essence in their bodies, his bloodline allowed Belial to store a large amount of essence as fat instead of actual fat as well as in his cells.

One might think this was very powerful despite the aesthetic loss, and indeed it was quite potent. In fact, compared to the average master, he could store about a hundred times more essence in his body allowing himself to be always flush with essence as long as he had a reliable source that could generate it.

Seeing that the base cultivation technique he used and two separate breakthrough destinies that focused on regeneration added on top of all his pills and artifacts, he was never starved for essence.

But an ability this powerful was not without its drawbacks. Since he was a walking essence bank, people thought it was ok to use him as such. He still had bite marks all over his body from his younger days when he still did not have power or influence.

The mere thought of his past made him clench his fist before letting it go in a calming breath. At least, that had benefits, a large portion of his wealth came from allowing others to use his unique legendary constitution.

The other and by far worse aspect of his power was that the essence acted as a hard barrier from any form of physical mastery. Martial combat among cultivators can be reduced to two things speed or power. Neither of which he could practice.

His body was a mass of essence fat that was far heavier than normal fat and only increased as he ascended in stages.

Power was also impossible because techniques that would normally harden your skin or strengthen your body were ineffective as his bloodline acted as a 'body technique' that overwrote other body techniques.

Essence spells were his only strength as he had the raw essence to outstrip any who tried to match him. Even then one good hit and he was out.

He had seen what the path of 'righteousness' held for him and it was not worth mentioning. At best, he would become the battery of a powerful cultivator or become always hide behind his disciples. Both of which grated on Belial, he practiced and studied twice as hard as any master or disciple and to be rewarded with becoming second fiddle to both was not acceptable.

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So he walked a new path, even if it was a darker one. His abundant essence made him the perfect target for demons and he used it to his advantage. Using forbidden knowledge and demonic spells he summoned creatures from the infernal realm and seduced them into his service.

Like the greedy cultivators they fed on him like a pack of animals but, at least, they were subservient to his cause and were worth their weight in essence stones. With the knowledge gifted to him by his infernal minions, he started a new path, one where he was truly the master of all.

Even that hit a wall. To walk the infernal immortal path, he needed demons and powerful ones. And while he could store an ungodly amount of essence his generation was not so formidable.

Even with his epic and legendary essence regeneration breakthrough destinies all his pills and artifacts, and his demonic base cultivation technique which allowed him to absorb the lifespan of human cultivators who fed on his essence, which gave far more essence than the cultivators took, it was not enough to feed his ever-expanding forces.

Normally, a demonic summoner would be engaging in wide-scale brutality to feed his army something he did not wish for. Cultivators were pieces of shit and deserved the loss in lifespan but mortals were simply innocent souls and while he would not go out of his way to help them the opposite was also true.

But fate had smiled on him, recently he had lost one of his more capricious demons to another master. Lesser Succubi were very useful demons with a very wide skillset but at the same time very hard to control. Since he had made his contract to entice demons instead of forcing them under his command, the relationship was even more strenuous. So it was only a matter of time before something like this happened

The fact that he was yet to be outed as a demonic summoner was a godsend but Belial knew he was on borrowed time. He was getting ready to go on a 'long expedition' from the sect the moment the tournament was over.

He also dispatched the harder-to-control demons on suicide missions with enticing rewards with the intent that they would not succeed. It would not matter either way because he would be long gone with his trusted retinue demons and enthralled cauldrons.

But somehow, this disaster happened to be a blessing in disguise. He was sure that the master was some sort of eccentric hidden powerhouse.

Why would he say so? Because of the gift he had bestowed upon Belial in exchange for just one of his demons.

Belial did not know what the pills he had been given were made of. But they were the stuff of myth.

After decades of failure, using so many resources.

These pills had allowed him to break through into the nascent soul rank and be gifted with another epic breakthrough destiny that focused on regeneration on top of all the other benefits.

That was not all, because the pills were seriously juiced. His bloodline went through a qualitative evolution after bathing in so many.

Gone was all the fat and layers of skin. What replaced it was a fit and muscular body that was the norm for cultivators and should have been the norm for him as well. His essence storage capabilities had not weakened even a tad as a result.

If anything they had become even more refined, he could feel the massive store of essence, but instead of being spread out all across his body, it was concentrated around his essence circuits like a layer of metaphysical fat. He was pretty sure he could practice body-based cultivation now.

He had gone seeking treasure but came home with a phoenix egg.

Elizabeth was a prize his demons wanted and craved and by proxy him. Instead, what he got was a gift beyond his imagination bordering on mythical.

Belial let out a chuckle, unable to believe this windfall. What sort of deity was Samuel that could he solve so many of Belial's problems so passively? He did not know but he really wished to find out. Belial's desire almost demanded he worm his way into Samuel's life and find out just how deep was the man's power.

He was normally feeding others but this one time he wanted to take a bite himself.