Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 24 - Eighth Level of the Houtian Realm

Given their transcendent status, everyone was puzzled why the Treasure Pill Pavilion would interfere in the conflict between the four big clans.

Each clan needed the supply of pills if they wanted to develop, and the four big clans would make a large number of purchases from the Treasure Pill Pavilion annually. Thus, the Treasure Pill Pavilion had practically monopolized the market share in Azure Billow City, achieving a transcendent status.

Only Liu Wuxie knew the truth—if he died, so would Master Huo. Their fates were intertwined, not because Master Huo saw potential in Liu Wuxie but because he coveted the formula for the Heavenly Spirit Pill. He hoped that Liu Wuxie would die, leaving the formula in his sole possession. But until Liu Wuxie could fix him, Master Huo was compelled to protect him at all costs.

“Master Huo, I need an explanation!” Wan Rongzhe took a deep breath. After all, the feud between him and Liu Wuxie was irreconcilable, especially after Liu Wuxie beheaded twelve members of the Wan Clan, one of which was his nephew.

Wan Rongzhe’s question placed Master Huo in a tough position. He couldn’t reveal that he needed Liu Wuxie to heal him or that he had only three months left to live. But he had no choice but to intervene, putting himself in an awkward position.

“Patriarch Wan, it’s not convenient for me to tell you in detail, but you can’t touch him for a month. A month from now, I won’t care what happens, whether the Xu Clan gets destroyed or the Wan Clan gets slaughtered by Liu Wuxie,” Master Huo said with a cunning light flashing across his eyes. Liu Wuxie swore to slaughter the Wan Clan in a month, and the result would be known when the time came.

This was because Liu Wuxie needed a month to treat his injuries. After that, he naturally wouldn’t care if Liu Wuxie lived or died. In this way, he could avoid offending the Wan Clan while still protecting Liu Wuxie, earning the gratitude of the Xu Clan. It was a masterful move, achieving three goals with a single action.

All he had to do was keep Liu Wuxie safe for a month and try to extract the method for refining the Heavenly Spirit Pill from him during that time. He possessed only the formula, and Liu Wuxie had promised to reveal the refining process in a month’s time.

Wan Rongzhe took a deep breath to suppress the murderous intent in his heart. It wouldn’t do the Wan Clan any good to offend the Treasure Pill Pavilion. If they cut off the Wan Clan’s supply of pills, they would decline within a few years.

“Very well, I’ll grant you this favor today. I’ll personally sever his head a month from now.” Wan Rongzhe was a shrewd man. He was someone who could force himself to hold back and let Liu Wuxie live for another month.

Under countless watchful gazes, Liu Wuxie and Xu Lingxue left the colosseum, disappearing into the streets. When they were ten miles from the colosseum, Xu Lingxue finally calmed down as the anxiety on her face subsided, and her right hand was still on her sword’s hilt.

“How many things are you hiding from me?” Xu Lingxue spoke out in the carriage. That breathtaking attack that Liu Wuxie unleashed was something she couldn’t accomplish, and someone in the eighth level of the Houtian Realm was easily slaughtered like they were nothing in front of him.

“What do you want to know?” Liu Wuxie took out a spirit stone and began absorbing its pure spiritual energy. As he absorbed, his cultivation began to rise and showed signs of making a breakthrough to the seventh level of the Houtian Realm.

“Why did Master Huo help us?” Xu Lingxue didn’t ask about Liu Wuxie’s cultivation. The Treasure Pill Pavilion was a transcendent existence, but they backed Liu Wuxie multiple times, slapping the faces of Wan Butong and Tian Yequan before asking the Wan Clan to let them go for a month. This was too unbelievable for Xu Lingxue.

“That’s a secret.” It wasn’t because Liu Wuxie wanted to keep it from her, but he had to keep it a secret for the moment. Everything would eventually be revealed a month from now.

“What about your cultivation then?” Xu Lingxue had no choice but to change to another topic. A few days ago, Liu Wuxie was still garbage when it came to cultivating. It had just been a few days, and Liu Wuxie had improved so quickly.

“That’s another secret,” Liu Wuxie replied, nearly driving Xu Lingxue insane as she clenched her fist, holding herself from giving Liu Wuxie a beating.

The entire carriage fell into silence during the whole journey. They returned to the Xu Clan safely two hours later, and the Wan Clan did not ambush them along the way. After Liu Wuxie and Xu Lingxue left, Master Huo warned that if anything happened to Liu Wuxie within this month, the Treasure Pill Pavilion would cut their supply of pills to the Wan Clan.

Xu Yilin still hadn’t returned because the Tian Clan carried out a series of plans against the Xu Clan’s weaponry workshops. The other workshops also faced similar situations, like with Scarred Tiger’s mercenary group. But it was fortunate that the Xu Clan was prepared in advance, and Tian Clan’s plot failed. Instead, the Xu Clan successfully retaliated against the Tian Clan, killing dozens of troublemakers.

In just one day, the atmosphere in Azure Billow City became tense.

But Xu Yilin rushed back to the Xu Clan after hearing what had happened in the colosseum, and he immediately asked Liu Wuxie and Xu Lingxue about the situation. When he listened to the Wan Clan and Tian Clan joining hands to kill Liu Wuxie, Xu Yilin furiously slammed his palm on the table.

“What audacity! Did they really think that I’m a pushover?!” Xu Yilin’s murderous intent filled the entire hall. The Xu Clan’s deacons had also rushed back because the situation was dire.

The happenings at the colosseum had already spread out, and everyone in Xu Clan knew about it, especially the breathtaking attack from Liu Wuxie.

“We still have a month and need to make preparations.” Xu Yilin calmed himself down because the Tian Clan and Wan Clan would surely join forces a month from now against the Xu Clan. So he had to strengthen the Xu Clan within this month.

When Liu Wuxie returned to his courtyard at night, he took out all the spirit stones he had won. He gave fifty to Xu Lingxue and fifty to his father-in-law, hoping he could make a breakthrough and reach the Quasi-Marrow Cleansing Realm.

After all, the Xu Clan would be safe if they had a powerhouse in the Marrow Cleansing Realm.

Of the remaining 100 spirit stones, Liu Wuxie used 30 to set up the Spirit Convergence Array. Liu Wuxie was racing against time and had to reach the pinnacle ninth level of the Houtian Realm before refining the Pulse Guarding Pill.

Liu Wuxie spent two hours setting up a simplified version of the Spirit Convergence Array, which was sufficient for now.

As the Spirit Convergence Array was activated, spiritual energy from the surrounding area began to flow into the courtyard. The concentration of spiritual energy was so high that it felt like a liquid, causing the grass to grow at an accelerated rate.

Being nourished by spiritual energy, even ordinary tree leaves were emitting a faint emerald luster, and small trees grew to over a meter tall in just an hour.

There were still a lot of herbs delivered by the Treasure Pill Pavilion, so Liu Wuxie could continue to refine the Body-Refining Elixir. He didn’t dare to rest. The butler delivered his meals, and he ate, slept, and drank in his courtyard.

After refining a basin of Body-Refining Elixir, he poured it into a tub and sat naked in it. As he practiced the Desolate Devouring Art, the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron consumed the surrounding spiritual energy like a ravenous beast. The spiritual energy then entered his body through his pores.

“How comfortable!” As the purity of the spiritual energy he absorbed was higher than before, the production of the mysterious liquid in the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron slowed down instead. But the color of the liquid had changed to dark brown, and the liquid emitted a powerful aura.

All the spiritual energy above the Xu Clan was devoured, and the density of spiritual energy fell. This phenomenon expanded to other areas, while the spiritual energy had formed into a thin fog above Liu Wuxie’s courtyard. Fortunately, this happened at night, or everyone would have been shocked if it was daytime.

“What’s going on? The surrounding spiritual energy seems to have decreased!” A member of the Song Clan opened his eyes with a hint of doubt reflected in his eyes.

The Song Clan wasn’t the only one having such doubt because similar voices also came from other places. The spiritual energy in Azure Billow City seemed to have mysteriously disappeared.

As the Body-Refining Elixir nourished Liu Wuxie’s body, his body was slowly growing stronger. Liu Wuxie even took out a spirit stone and used the energy within to widen his veins. He wasn’t just trying to temper his physique, but he wanted to expand his dantian as well.

No one knew how to cultivate better than him, and his knowledge saved him a lot of trouble. He used the spiritual energy in the spirit stone to strengthen his veins, increasing their resilience.

In just six hours, Liu Wuxie’s veins had expanded, allowing him to hold twice as much true essence. Although his cultivation level remained the same, his combat power had increased significantly. However, Liu Wuxie didn’t stop there. He took out three Heavenly Spirit Pills, determined to reach the seventh level of the Houtian Realm in one attempt.

As the mysterious liquid flowed out of the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, each droplet felt as if it weighed six thousand kilograms. Liu Wuxie was stunned when he saw the liquid and exclaimed, “This liquid actually contains Xiantian Spirit?!”

He wasn’t clear on the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron’s secrets and was still exploring its usage. But there was no question that the stronger one’s Xiantian Spirit, the higher their chances of reaching the Xiantian Realm.

There were only six droplets. But when the mysterious liquid came in contact with his dantian, Liu Wuxie’s body began to tremble like an earthquake. The six droplets went rampant within his body, and Liu Wuxie’s eardrums ached with every impact. This situation lasted for fifteen minutes before the six droplets finally calmed down.

When his consciousness entered his body, Liu Wuxie took a deep breath and was shocked by what he saw.

“The mysterious liquid actually transformed my dantian?! My dantian has become more ancient and now has a desolate trait.” The size of everyone’s dantian was fixed. However, there were also those born with extraordinary talent with a different dantian than others.

There weren’t many ways of expanding the dantian in the world. The only way was to increase their cultivation because the dantian would expand along with cultivation, allowing cultivators to store more true essence.

But Liu Wuxie’s dantian was like a mountain range, and each strand of his true essence was filled with the power of desolation.

My true essence is ten times stronger than ordinary true essence by my initial analysis!

The quality of the desolate true essence far exceeded ordinary true essence. As Liu Wuxie’s aura rose, he threw the three Heavenly Spirit Pills into his mouth, and the pills immediately dissolved into spiritual energy charging through his acupoints. Liu Wuxie was trying to use spiritual energy to aid him in making a breakthrough.

When a violent gale swept in his dantian, the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron reacted and devoured all the spiritual energy in the courtyard.

In just one breath, Liu Wuxie reached the seventh level of the Houtian Realm. But he didn’t stop there because his current physique was comparable to the first level of Xiantian Realm. So he took out three more Heavenly Spirit Pills and swallowed them before taking out two spirit stones, holding one in each hand.

He had already devoured all the spiritual energy in his courtyard and could only rely on spirit stones to maintain his cultivation.

His dantian was still roaring, and it sounded like a dragon roar. The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron had long fused with his dantian, becoming an inseparable part of Liu Wuxie. When his desolate true essence coursed through his meridians, they plated a layer of the desolate traits in his meridians.

Liu Wuxie was already close to the eighth level of the Houtian Realm. He had enough accumulation in his foundation over the past few days, and he was excavating that foundation now. After all, ordinary people could only refine a Heavenly Spirit Pill every few days or even ten days. But Liu Wuxie swallowed three at once, thanks to his understanding of pills and his tempered physique.

“Break!” Without hesitation, Liu Wuxie chose to continue his breakthrough. The six droplets disappeared, dissolving into the desolate energy and fusing with his body, transforming his dantian. His Xiantian Spirit also entered his body, imbuing it with a faint spirituality.

At the same time, Liu Wuxie had successfully reached the eighth level of the Houtian Realm!