With the conclusion of the ship sinking in a Titanic style, I left the area and went towards the stomach lining. Inside my stomach, a commotion was going on. I hadn't explained to them this, so it's natural they'd be confused and scared at their current spot. Thankfully, the middle-aged man is taking his effort to explain it to them.
I finally approached the stomach wall before attaching myself onto it's side near the stomach acid. This also caused a disturbance in my stomach since I just flipped my body onto it's side. Settling down, I viewed my stomach to see the commotion dying down.
"How much food do you have left?" I asked.
"A little less than two years," he replied.
"Okay, just settle down for now. It may take a few months for me to finish," I said.
"Thank you so much for helping us," he said bowing deeply, with sincerity in his eyes.
"Just keep things in order," I said as I quickly left. It'd be much better if it was a pretty woman.
Thanks to that dancing I did for a week, the consolidation had sped up three times, shortening it by several months. But now that I have to accommodate people in my stomach, I can't do this anymore. If I shrink down, I'll most likely crush them. That human that I ate was an exception, as my devour was in full power so he disintegrated quickly before reaching my stomach.
The only choice I have is to patiently wait, and hope for the best. But this did not last long due to the fact that the space inside is barely enough. So unrest quickly became a factor on the first day. In order to lessen the tensions, I had to completely give up on digesting food inside my stomach. I'll have to do this in my esophagus and mouth area. It seems I have to bombard the areas with devour energy so they gain devour attributes.
Seven months later...
The place in the stomach was quiet as usual. On the side in one particular area, a sea urchin laid dormant against the side. Any creatures in the process of digestion that passed by would be pulled in before being absorbed by the shingles on the outside, any impurities being left behind as dust that fell into the acid waters.
This sea urchin is me. It's been the seventh month since I've entered deep cultivation. My size has grew from around 700 to 1008 meters or 0.6 miles, surpassing the width of the flood dragon from before. The result is that my stomach has grown, allowing more room as well. Originally, the residents inside my stomach had occasional unrest and discomfort. It wasn't until they fell into cultivation that the calmed down and got used to the lifestyle.
Eating the abundant monster cores, all of my flesh has completely turned a crystallized red. The energy capacity of my flesh has tripled, allowing for a deeper storage of Qi and larger capacity of blood essence.
My realm is at it's final stages of consolidation, and it will tomorrow before I initiate heavenly tribulation. I'll be able to finally escape this acid wasteland of death.
Eating the rest of the monster cores on my meridians to strengthen them, I fully rested myself in the process. I then viewed my stomach, where some were cultivation while others were napping. Without the day and night cycle, the disciples randomly fall asleep at any part of the day.
The middle-aged man was up, so I took the initiative.
"Hey, can the heavenly tribulation withstand the might of this saint monster?" I asked. Startled, he looked up for a second furrowing his brows.
"Based on what I know, the tribulation must be done by someone on their own. Using formations and runes to assist is okay, but having another person enter and take pressure off will incite heavenly anger. It will attack the intruder with fierce punishment until they leave. If it fails, then it increases in intensity. Unless one surpasses the heavenly laws, which is surpassing the saint realm, then it's impossible to resist," he said.
"Good, then we can get started tomorrow," I said before exiting.
The next day...
The next day came sooner than I thought. But I instinctively knew when for some reason as I felt my cultivation reach completion. I hope this works, because there are two things that can go wrong. The first is I die, which is the most important matter.
The second is that the heavenly tribulation senses the people in my stomach, and fiercely increases the intensity until they are expelled, which would be a worse case scenario. I'd have to bear the weight of the tribulation increasing all the way up to the peak of saint realm, which will definitely kill me with or without devour laws. If I let them out, they'd be killed by the intensity of the tribulation as soon as it starts.
But it shouldn't go like this. The tribulation will be fiercely attacking the saint creature and when it spits us out, I'll immediately cover them in devour shields so they can escape as fast as possible while it's still distracted, hopefully not noticing them.
Although I don't have any preparations, I have some confidence in my devour laws. It should mostly go fine with the worst case scenario me dying or a bunch of the disciples dying.
Plus, the saint creature will have no choice but to spit us out. The intensity will become so intense that it starts taking damage, I'm sure by then it'll notice it's cause is inside it's stomach. If it doesn't want to die, then this is its' only option.
But that's another problem. If I do survive the tribulation, who's to say it won't come back and attack me for revenge? If that happens, we'll be back to square one. Another option then would be to enter it's intestines and hopefully be pooped out, but that'd be a last resort as it's horribly disgusting and no air would be present to allow me to breathe even if I filled my stomach with some.
Having such a horrible ending made me shudder thinking about it. But I have to get out of here, so let's start the heavenly tribulation!