Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 669 - All Dead

Forging a divine artifact associated with the dragon clan was a direct act of defiance against them. If the dragon clan were to discover such an artifact, the person responsible would inevitably face their relentless pursuit. It was no wonder that everyone present was utterly shocked.

The Heavenly Dragon Seal soared to the sky, and the golden dragon became one with the seal, forming a swirling black storm. The storm consumed the surrounding pressure created by the Mountain-River Seal. They were both artifacts, but there was a drastic difference between them.

The Indigo Cloud Gate disciples fell silent as if someone had choked them. The victory seemed assured a moment ago, but how could it all go wrong?

They couldn't believe that Liu Wuxie had forged such a heaven-defying treasure. The sky collapsed, and a swirling black hole appeared.

Some snowmen still lingered in the surroundings, watching and waiting for an opportunity. If Liu Wuxie failed to hold his ground, they wouldn't hesitate to kill him and reclaim the ten-thousand-year Snow Lotus.

But when Liu Wuxie brought out the Heavenly Dragon Seal, all the surrounding snowmen fled. Dragons were sovereigns of all beasts, and the snowmen possessed a hint of the beast clan's bloodline. This was why the dragon aura had a natural dominance over them.

The Mountain-River Seal began to waver until the brilliance had vanished entirely.

The Heavenly Dragon Seal charged with a loud crack and manifested into a golden divine dragon. The Mountain-River Seal exploded into countless fragments, and the Heavenly Dragon Seal devoured its energy.

Deng Yong stood paralyzed, unable to comprehend the destruction of the Mountain-River Seal. Bai Yuan, equally dumbfounded, remained frozen in place, failing to act. By the time he grasped the severity of the situation, it was already too late.

"Senior Brother Deng Yong, dodge quickly!" came the frantic cries of the Indigo Cloud Gate disciples. The Heavenly Dragon Seal, like a bolt of lightning, hurtled down from the sky. Deng Yong, still consumed by disbelief, failed to react in time.

Their frantic screams jolted him back to awareness, but it was already far too late.

The entire Thorn Peak Valley began to shake violently when the Heavenly Dragon Seal descended with blinding speed.

Cracks appeared in the distant mountains, unable to withstand the shockwave. The various sects' disciples stationed kilometers away quickly fled as the shockwave surged toward them.

Only the Demonic Heart Palace disciples were spared, as they had secured a strategic position.

The nearby disciples cried in agony as they were caught in the residual shockwaves. The Divine Sun Palace and Dugu Clan took the most brutal hit as they were weaker in strength and closer to the battlefield than the other sects.

As for the Transcendent Plume Gate disciples, they had retreated far away under Zhou Ge's repeated warnings.

The Heavenly Treasure Pavilion and Misty Sect disciples were nowhere to be seen. The Sky Rift Valley, true to their reputation of keeping a low profile, had maintained a safe distance and avoided the battlefield entirely.

The battlefield was littered with casualties in the blink of an eye. The Heavenly Origin Sect, Indigo Cloud Gate, and Azure Crimson Gate suffered the highest casualties as they were in the center of the battlefield.

Deng Yong could only stare with his eyes wide open as the Heavenly Dragon Seal descended upon him.

"NO! I CAN'T ACCEPT THIS!" Deng Yong roared before losing consciousness. His body crumpled into a lifeless heap of meat, and he was crushed to death even before his primordial soul could escape.

With Deng Yong's death, the entire Thorn Peak Valley fell silent, and everyone looked at Liu Wuxie with lingering fear. The latter was no longer a human in their eyes but a monster.

Many disciples of the Azure Crimson Gate had quietly retreated to the entrance. They couldn't bear any more losses. Over a hundred disciples had entered the barrier, but less than thirty people remained. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

......

Outside the barrier, Xu Yanghui stared at Deng Yong's cracked soul tablet with a broken heart. Deng Yong was the representative among the younger generation in the Indigo Cloud Gate, with the highest hopes of inheriting his position as the sect master.

The other sect masters also shared a sense of collective despair. Bai Jin's eyes were glued to Bai Yuan's soul tablet, and he desperately prayed for his son's safety.

After all, even someone like Deng Yong in the Nascent Transformation Realm had died. Bai Yuan was slightly stronger than Deng Yong, and no one could guarantee his safety when even Deng Yong had died.

"What's going on in there? How could so many people die in just two hours?" Deng Lei roared, his voice trembling with anger. More than twenty disciples from the Divine Sun Palace had died a moment ago.

None of the second-tier sect members dared to speak, fearing they might provoke the wrath of the ten sect masters with a misplaced word.

The leaders of the Heavenly Origin Sect, Indigo Cloud Gate, Azure Crimson Gate, Dugu Clan, and Divine Sun Palace were seething with fury, their tempers volatile like gunpowder awaiting a spark. The immense losses they had suffered during this Ten Grand Ceremony only added fuel to the fire.

"Sect master, do you think this could be Liu Wuxie's doing?" Elder He asked. He was on his guard, prepared for any assaults against them as the situation was unclear, and none of the sects dared to act.

"Most likely!" Mu Tianli frowned. If that were the case, the implications would be far graver than they had imagined. With Liu Wuxie massacring so many people, it would be challenging for the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion to leave the Heavenly Mountain unscathed unless they could find help from the other sects to form a balance.

......

When the massacre ended, Liu Wuxie retrieved the Heavenly Dragon Seal. The effort had drained half of his true essence, prompting him to immediately swallow pills to restore the energy within his desolate world.

High-grade spirit stones began to explode, and their energies fused into the desolate world, replenishing the exhausted true essence. Liu Wuxie also circulated the Desolate Devouring Art to devour all the spiritual energy within a ten-thousand-meter radius.

"He's running low on true essence! Attack now!" yelled the remaining Heavenly Origin Sect disciples, rallying everyone to attack. It would be too late for them to act if they allowed Liu Wuxie to recover his true essence.

However, the morale had already crumbled, and it was nearly impossible to rally everyone, no matter how much they called out.

The Indigo Cloud Gate had scattered following Deng Yong's death. As for the Azure Crimson Gate, they had already lost their elite disciples, and the remaining disciples were quietly retreating to the entrance.

"There's another battle going on there!" When they reached the entrance, the remaining Azure Crimson Gate ran into the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion disciples.

"I knew it! The Heavenly Treasure Pavilion's disciples were nowhere to be seen, and now it makes sense—they blocked the entrance to trap everyone inside," exclaimed the Sky Rift Valley disciples, their voices filled with shock. No one could have imagined Liu Wuxie would go to such lengths, orchestrating a massacre to eliminate all three sects' disciples.

The remaining Azure Crimson Gate disciples were quickly overwhelmed by sheer numbers. With the aid of a pre-arranged spiritual array, the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion and Misty Sect turned the tide of battle into a one-sided slaughter.

"I surrender! Don't kill me!" The remaining Azure Crimson Gate disciples went down on their knees to beg for mercy.

Their cries fell on deaf ears as Lan Ling moved through them like a reaper, cutting them down like wheat before a scythe.

......

Feng Gaoqiu clenched his teeth as he watched the soul tablets shatter one after another. When the final soul tablet broke, he let out a helpless sigh. There was nothing he could do. It was over—they were all dead.

All 156 true disciples from the Azure Crimson Gate had perished, and the expressions of the other nine leaders varied greatly.

At present, the Demonic Heart Palace suffered the least losses, followed by the Transcendent Plume Gate, the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, the Sky Rift Valley, and the Misty Sect.

"The Azure Crimson Gate has been completely wiped out," muttered an elder from the Grand Banner Gate, frozen in disbelief. This outcome was hard to fathom, especially for the Grand Banner Gate, which had been a subsidiary force of the Azure Crimson Gate for nearly a century. They had watched as the Azure Crimson Gate rose to surpass the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, claiming the fifth rank among the ten major sects.

However, everything had changed with Liu Wuxie's arrival.

"Dead... they're all dead!" Feng Gaoqiu let go of the shattered soul tablets.

"Don't worry. We will find the culprit and bring him to justice," said Bai Jin as he came over to pat Feng Gaoqiu on the shoulder.

The two sects had already allied, and the Heavenly Origin Sect naturally wouldn't stand idly by.

Feng Gaoqiu let out a wry smile. He felt this wasn't over—the Azure Crimson Gate was merely the first to fall, and more deaths would come.

After slaying Deng Yong, Liu Wuxie slowly approached Bai Yuan. He only had one enemy left and did not need to personally act against the remaining Indigo Cloud Gate and Heavenly Origin Sect disciples. Once Bai Yuan died, the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion disciples would help him clean up the battlefield.

Liu Wuxie and Bai Yuan locked eyes, their gazes brimming with sparks of animosity and a torrent of murderous intent.

"Liu Wuxie, that golden seal should be your last trump card, right?" Bai Yuan asked, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. Deng Yong's death had clearly shaken him.

"It's more than enough to deal with you," Liu Wuxie replied, offering no further explanation. His strongest trump card wasn't the Heavenly Dragon Seal but the Annihilation Fist.

Judging from Bai Yuan's expression, he most likely had a countermeasure against the Heavenly Dragon Seal, which meant it wouldn't be enough to kill Bai Yuan if he used it again.

A sword appeared in Bai Yuan's hand as he swung it down toward Liu Wuxie. Liu Wuxie countered with a blade aura from the Heretic Blade, the sword and blade colliding like two comets. The figures blurred under the intensity of the clash, making it impossible to discern who was who.

The Indigo Cloud Gate disciples were also quietly moving toward the entrance, planning to escape. Despite the prolonged fighting, there was no sign of Liu Wuxie's true essence being exhausted, and this was beyond their comprehension.

"Fluttering Maple Sword!" Bai Yuan didn't use the Grand Supreme Sword. Liu Wuxie had completely deciphered that sword technique, rendering it ineffective. He resorted to the Fluttering Maple Sword, a sword technique equal to the Grand Supreme Sword.

The Fluttering Maple Sword focused on an unending cascade, one strike followed by another, leaving the opponent with no room to catch his breath. Liu Wuxie was caught off guard by the sword technique and suffered a piercing wound to his arm as blood splashed and rained down.

This sight made Xu Lingxue's heart clench, his face etched with worry.

"Senior Brother Bai, kill him quickly and avenge the deceased disciples!" The Heavenly Origin Sect disciples chose to stay and watch the battle.

Bai Yuan's sword technique grew faster and more relentless, forcing Liu Wuxie to his limit. Relying on his cultivation in the Nascent Transformation Realm, Bai Yuan continuously suppressed Liu Wuxie, leaving him unable to mount an effective counterattack. This disparity underscored the vast gulf between the second and third levels of the Nascent Transformation Realm.

Liu Wuxie unleashed a torrent of blade auras, intercepting the cascading strikes of the Fluttering Maple Sword. Seizing an opening, he broke away from the fray with a flash, a hint of solemnity evident in his gaze.

Fighting spirits erupted when Liu Wuxie and Bai Yuan stood in a head-to-head confrontation. As Bai Yuan's clothes fluttered under the aura he gave off, his lower abdomen began to swell.

"That's...the Heavenly Origin Sect's Divine Toad Art! He succeeded in learning it?!" exclamations came from the crowd. The Divine Toad Art was a legendary technique of the Heavenly Origin Sect, renowned for its power over centuries.

The Divine Toad Art technique was created by an ancestor of the Heavenly Origin Sect, who had dedicated centuries to studying the behavior of toads.