Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 36 - Ghost Eye’s Might

The tip of Liu Wuxie’s blade dripped with blood, each drop painting a crimson flower on the ground.

Everyone gasped, their eyes wide with disbelief. Even the weakest of the black-clad attackers were in the Xiantian Realm; the Terrabreak Army accepted only the best, an invincible force of elite warriors who had never met their match.

But now, Liu Wuxie had shown them that even the Xiantian Realm was not invincible. What did it matter if they wielded crossbows? With his Ghost Eye, he could easily track the trajectory of every arrow.

Deacon Qi’s chest heaved, his eyes nearly popping from their sockets. He rubbed them vigorously, wondering if he was seeing things. But the corpses on the ground told him that it was all too real.

The Xu Clan’s guards clutched their weapons tightly, their clothes soaked in sweat. A gentle breeze blew past, making them shiver.

“Good! snarled the black-clothed leader. “I didn’t want to dirty my hands, killing a piece of garbage like you. But now, I’ll make you suffer worse than death, and the Xu Clan will be buried with you!” The loss of ten soldiers was a heavy blow; he would have to answer for their deaths when he returned. Killing Liu Wuxie alone would not be enough to quell his rage; the entire Xu Clan had to pay.

The black-clothed leader’s eyes reflected a crimson radiance, and his murderous intent was suffocating. His aura began to rise to the third level of the Spirit Cleansing Realm. In the Terrabreak Army, someone with his cultivation could attain the position of a 1000-Man Commander.

“Young Master, run! We’ll hold them off!” cried Deacon Qi, determined to keep the black-clothed leader at bay so that Liu Wuxie could escape.

“None of you will leave this place alive!” snarled the leader, ordering his remaining forty soldiers to attack. Their Xiantian Realm aura descended like a massive cage, causing the horses to scream in terror and break free from their ropes, fleeing from the overwhelming murderous intent.

“Deacon Qi, protect the guards! Leave these people to me!” shouted Liu Wuxie, charging into the fray like a comet. His blade moved so fast that no one could follow its path, sending gravel flying through the air with each swing and slamming against the cliffs on both sides.

Deacon Qi was briefly stunned before he released his cultivation and stood with the fifteen guards, ready to fight any moment.

The black-clothed leader didn’t move and merely stood there. But his brows furrowed deeper as he watched the fight between Liu Wuxie and his subordinates.

Blood splashed whenever Liu Wuxie swung his sword, and the black-clothed men began to fall one by one. As the soldiers faced their impending doom, their eyes were filled with a sense of hopelessness and despair.

It seemed as though the soldiers were throwing themselves onto Liu Wuxie’s sword, rather than him killing them. Like moths to a flame, they met their end.

The Xu Clan’s guards trembled as they watched, not in fear of the soldiers, but in awe of Liu Wuxie’s strength. A chill ran down their spines; such power was not that of a mere mortal, but of a god.

As the death toll rose, a powerful suction emanated from the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron within Liu Wuxie’s dantian. With each thrust of his blade, his enemies withered away, their essence drained.

A drop of liquid emerged from the cauldron and flowed into his dantian, unleashing a violent burst of energy.

“Everything in the world can be devoured and refined...it works with human cultivators as well?!” A hint of madness flashed in Liu Wuxie’s eyes. If he killed all these people, he should be able to accumulate enough mysterious liquid to reach the third level of the Xiantian Realm.

This scene left everyone present horrified, including the black-clothed leader. After all, only evil creatures would devour a human’s blood essence.

“I-Is the Young Master a man or a demon?!” cried the Xu Clan’s guards, their faces twisted in horror. Only demons consumed human flesh; what Liu Wuxie had done was no different. In an instant, a living person was reduced to nothing but skin and bones, a sight that filled them with revulsion.

“Bullshit. Deacon Qi slapped the guard who had spoken, scolding him for his foolishness. Liu Wuxie was standing right before them; how could he not be human? The Demon Clan was easily recognizable at a glance.

As the massacre continued, Liu Wuxie spun and vanished from their sight. He moved with the Seven Dipper Steps, his speed pushed to the limit, and three copies of him appeared, attacking from different directions.

In just three breaths’ time, over thirty soldiers had fallen, leaving only a handful remaining. Seeing this, the black-clothed leader finally sprang into action, reaching out to grab Liu Wuxie by the neck. He was fast with his cultivation in the Spirit Cleansing Realm.

“Boy, I’ll turn you into ashes and bury everyone in the Xu Clan with you! I’ll kill all men and send the women to the brothel!” the black-clothed leader said with his teeth gritted.

When he said that, Liu Wuxie suddenly stopped and said indifferently, “You have successfully enraged me, and I will let you know what’s worse than death!”

The black-clothed leader had crossed Liu Wuxie’s bottom line, and as a consequence, Liu Wuxie would kill him. Liu Wuxie had long considered the Xu Clan as his family. Xu Yilin had raised and treated him like a son, and he would never forget the kindness they had shown him.

The black-clothed leader’s words triggered Liu Wuxie’s murderous intent, and he looked like a fiendgod who came from hell. He ignored the other soldiers and turned into an afterimage, dashing at the black-clothed leader. He swung his blade down at the black-clothed leader without any fancy tricks.

The black-clothed leader's expression changed when facing the towering aura from Liu Wuxie. When they were ten meters from each other, they clashed in the next second.

The black-clothed leader’s palm knocked Liu Wuxie’s blade away, and the shockwave released a ripple. It nearly overturned the carriages on both sides. Liu Wuxie was pushed back ten meters from the rebound force, drawing two lines on the ground.

The black-clothed leader narrowed his eyes. He had used 70% of his strength in that attack, but it was more than enough to kill someone in the pinnacle of the Xiantian Realm.

A devilish smile played at the corners of Liu Wuxie’s lips as he shook his hand. An opponent at the third level of the Spirit Cleansing Realm was hardly worth his attention.

Liu Wuxie and the black-clothed leader faced off, their eyes blazing with fighting spirits.

“You have surprised me,” said the leader, taking a deep breath to calm his raging heart. “How can you match the strength of the Spirit Cleansing Realm when you are only at the second level of the Xiantian Realm?” They were already mortal enemies; there was no turning back now.

It wasn’t surprising for one to fight someone with a higher cultivation than them. Someone who practiced a powerful cultivation technique or profound martial techniques could achieve it. But fighting someone with a realm’s difference was utterly different. After all, it was heaven-defying enough if one could fight those who were two levels above. So how did Liu Wuxie manage to do that?

Even the guards of the Xu Clan were taken aback. In their minds, Liu Wuxie was nothing more than a wastrel and a good-for-nothing. But if he was considered as such, then they would be even lower than that.

“How can a frog in the well possibly know how radiant the moon is?” Liu Wuxie sneered as a powerful force erupted from his feet. Propelled by the momentum, his body shot forward like a hurricane, his blade appearing three meters away from the leader in black.

“Bah, it doesn’t matter. I will personally get the answer from your mouth!” The black-clothed leader extended his palms, emanating a chilling aura. This was a formidable palm technique he had mastered.

A thunderous boom echoed when the black-clothed leader and Liu Wuxie clashed. When they separated again, all the rocks on the ground had disappeared, with blood dripping down the leader’s right arm.

“His blade is really fast!” Even his defensive true essence at the Spirit Cleansing Realm was easily torn apart by Liu Wuxie’s attack. Not only was Liu Wuxie’s blade fast, but his techniques were bizarre with unpredictable strength.

Blood also dripped down from Liu Wuxie’s lips. Though he had managed to injure the black-clothed leader, he did not emerge unscathed, having taken a palm strike to his chest that disrupted the flow of his internal energy. It was only due to his formidable physique that he survived; anyone else would have perished.

When Liu Wuxie circulated the Desolate Devouring Art, spiritual energy poured into his body, turning the corpses on the ground into pieces of skins. The essence in their bodies was converted into a mysterious liquid in the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron in his dantian. The disruption settled as the mysterious liquid flowed throughout his body, and the aura Liu Wuxie gave off became even stronger.

This made the black-clothed leader’s face change. What cultivation technique did Liu Wuxie practice to devour spiritual energy at such a terrifying speed?

“You’re a demon!” The black-clothed leader roared as he dashed towards Liu Wuxie. He couldn’t allow him to continue devouring spiritual energy; he knew that if Liu Wuxie persisted, he would surely meet his end.

For someone in the Spirit Cleansing Realm to be forced to this point by someone in the Xiantian Realm was enough to shock the entire Great Yan Dynasty. The remaining soldiers also trembled in fear as they looked at their companions turned into pieces of skin.

They had experienced countless cruel matters in the world throughout the years on the battlefield, but this scene was beyond their comprehension.

Taking a deep breath, Liu Wuxie’s right eye began to change. The depth of his pupil gave off a bizarre luster, and no one could notice it if they didn’t take a closer look. Liu Wuxie executed the Ghost Eye to end the battle immediately to avoid any unexpected issues.

The black-clothed leader’s body trembled as though he was locked on by a mysterious power that immobilized him. He couldn’t help looking at Liu Wuxie because this was too weird. It couldn’t be seen or touched, and he couldn’t sense if the restriction existed.

A powerful wave of soul energy flowed from Liu Wuxie’s soul sea into his right eye through the veins. As Liu Wuxie’s gaze fell on the black-clothed leader, the latter instantly knew that he made a huge mistake and finally figured out where this mysterious power came from.

Seeing that the situation wasn’t right, the black-clothed leader immediately closed his eyes and stepped back, but it was already too late for him.

A blood-curdling scream escaped the black-clothed leader as his eyeballs burst. Clutching his head, he howled in agony. In his thrashing, he struck a nearby soldier, reducing him to shreds.

This turn of events caught everyone off guard, including the guards of the Xu Clan. After all, the black-clothed leader had suddenly let out a scream without any apparent physical contact with Liu Wuxie, and now his eye sockets were empty, a gruesome sight to behold.

Only Liu Wuxie knew that his soul energy attack had pierced through the black-clothed leader’s soul sea, damaging it. He wouldn’t be able to recover from these injuries anytime soon, and he was in a state of chaos.

Seizing this opportunity, Liu Wuxie vanished and stabbed his blade into the black-clothed leader’s dantian. Liu Wuxie still had a lot of information he wanted to get out of this man, and the black-clothed leader couldn’t die yet.