Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1204 - Roar
Chapter 1204 – Roar
On the final day, Liu Wuxie did not venture out with He Yingwu to hunt more jade tokens. Over the course of nine days, he had alone gathered 1,500 tokens. He drew out five hundred and pressed them into He Yingwu’s hand, enough to lock down first and second place between them.
“Wuxie, look over there!” He Yingwu sprang to his feet. Outside the valley, a dust cloud billowed as if an army were pounding toward them.
Liu Wuxie straightened, unsurprised. He had been waiting for this moment.
“About time they came,” he murmured.
If Huang Shan had ordered Qin Ming to kill him, then the War Dragon Institute’s disciples would have surely received similar instructions. He Yingwu shifted into a defensive stance. The oncoming numbers had doubled since their last assault.
In a blink, more than a hundred figures pushed into view, with Mu Heng and Shen Yue at their head. Mu Heng had been nursing a grudge since the assessment. When Liu Wuxie had stolen his glory, he even ordered his men to kill Liu Wuxie in the arena. For their feud to end, only one of them could survive.
“Same as before. You fall back,” Liu Wuxie said. He was ready for a slaughter. Planet lord’s son or not, he would cut down anything that barred his path.
The ring of enemies closed so tightly that even a bird would struggle to escape.
Outside the mountain range, the twelve elders tensed. They had seen what Liu Wuxie could do. Mu Heng and Shen Yue had just broken through to the third level of the Origin Conversion Realm; no one knew if Liu Wuxie could conjure another miracle.
The Dharma Institute and War Dragon Institute elders fretted over hidden trump cards. The Heavenly Martial Institute elders worried, too, but about Liu Wuxie dying under Mu Heng’s blade.
“Liu Wuxie, how have you been?” Mu Heng called, wearing a mocking smile. He had planned ten days for this, a cautious hunter waiting until he stood at the third level of the Origin Conversion Realm.
“Come and fight,” Liu Wuxie answered. He had no patience for posturing. His fighting spirit blazed, swelling into a shockwave that rolled outward.
Transcendent Realm spectators staggered back, unable to withstand the pressure pouring off him.
“Second-level Transcendent Realm… what a terrifying aura!” Disciples gaped. They were also in the Transcendent Realm, but the gulf between them and Liu Wuxie felt immeasurable.
Mu Heng’s eyes narrowed as he tasted that aura. He had underestimated Liu Wuxie, but as long as Wuxie remained in the Transcendent Realm, Mu Heng had ten thousand ways to kill him.
Besides, he possessed countless life-saving means as a planet lord’s son.
The War Dragon Institute’s formation bristled with ten Origin Conversion Realm cultivators—two at the third level, two at the second, and the rest at the first level. The array would make the disciples’ legs go weak.
Liu Wuxie showed no fear, only a bright, dangerous excitement.
“Kill him!” Mu Heng barked. He did not move first. Instead, five cultivators at the first-level Origin Conversion Realm surged forward to probe Liu Wuxie’s limits.
Waves of force ripped stones from the valley floor. The gale howled like a hurricane; nearby disciples squeezed their eyes shut against the grit.
Liu Wuxie stood at the heart of the tempest; at any instant, the tempest threatened to sweep him away. Sword auras braided with Origin Conversion Realm laws hurtled toward him, scything through brush and trees.
He did not even draw the Heretic Blade and simply plunged into them barehanded.
“Dragon Subduing Tiger!” he thundered, and the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms roared to life. Fists multiplied in the air—countless, precise, relentless. Since killing Qin Ming, his execution had grown even more refined.
Every motion came honed by countless times, sealing the space around the five as if a primordial dragon’s pressure caged them. He had not advanced a realm, yet his battle strength had doubled.
In a single exchange, he locked all five, dragon aura pouring down to crush them where they stood.
From a distance, Mu Heng squinted, studying. He, too, had touched the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms in recent days, barely at entry-level, yet it was pale compared to Liu Wuxie’s. What he saw in Liu Wuxie made his murderous intent climb.
He believed that he was the brightest prodigy among the new disciples, the only one who deserved unbroken praise. Hence, he could not allow Liu Wuxie to stand above him.
The five Origin Conversion Realm cultivators tried to shift tactics, but they were already a beat behind. Ghost Eye had mapped every variation in their footwork and strikes.
Five punches landed.
Too fast for Mu Heng, or anyone, to intervene, the five first-level Origin Conversion Realm cultivators fell. The field reeled; comprehension cracked.
“How can this be?” Disciples stared, slack-jawed. Some rubbed their eyes, then cried out again when the scene did not change.
Even Mu Heng struggled to accept it. For him, killing five Origin Conversion Realm opponents would require effort; Liu Wuxie had done it like swatting flies.
“As expected of one of the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s ten supreme arts,” more than a few thought grimly. “When I return, I must begin the missions to exchange for the first form’s method.”
Even that single form demanded a mountain of points.
The remaining Origin Conversion Realm cultivators looked at one another, rattled. Their probe had cost them five lives.
……
“His strength has climbed since yesterday,” one of the four Heavenly Martial Institute elders murmured, eyes glued to the valley.
“What I want to know,” another said, “is how his dantian and physique keep strengthening without limit.”
Liu Wuxie’s physique appears to be strengthening without limit.
“What if I told you he endured the interstellar teleportation array’s pressure back when he was still in the Heaven Profound Realm—would you believe it?” Elder Ding asked, smiling faintly.
Even Origin Conversion Realm cultivators risked death under that transmission pressure. Liu Wuxie had borne it in the Heaven Profound Realm.
“What?!” The three elders swung to stare at Ding Yi, who nodded.
……
Liu Wuxie licked his lips, a harmless smile ghosting across his face, and drifted toward Mu Heng’s line.
“What are you waiting for? Didn’t you come for my head?” he asked, mocking openly. A second-level Transcendent Realm youth mocked them, and a hundred faces tightened.
Eyes slid to Mu Heng. Of everyone present, he carried the most significant weight.
“I underestimated you,” Mu Heng said at last, dragging in a breath. It was the first praise he had given anyone. From childhood, he had walked a smooth path, and none on Sky Cloud Star could surpass him. It all changed on the Indigo Bamboo Star when Liu Wuxie stepped on his head.
“Isn’t it that you’ve overestimated yourself?” Liu Wuxie returned. The barb struck true—on Sky Cloud Star, none dared stand beside Mu Heng. Here on Avatar Star, among the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s ranks, everyone wore the same robe.
He still clung to his identity as a planet lord’s son, and as long as that remained true, he would never reach greatness.
Laughter broke around the ring. Many in the Heavenly Martial Institute had swallowed Mu Heng’s arrogance long enough; they savored watching him suffer public humiliation.
“Liu Wuxie, you have angered me,” Mu Heng roared. “Today, I kill you!”
He drew his longsword and leveled it at Liu Wuxie. Shen Yue mirrored him; their blades belonged to a paired sword art. Three other Origin Conversion Realm cultivators raised their weapons so others wouldn’t outshine them.
“Likewise,” Liu Wuxie said. He sprang like a leopard, vaulted skyward, then knifed down toward the five with blinding speed. Killing the earlier five had been no flourish; he intended to shear the enemy’s strength to the bone.
“Die!” Mu Heng charged. His sword unfurled into a glimmering curtain to envelop Liu Wuxie.
“Divine Solar Sword!” The Sky Cloud Star’s secret art blazed—not the equal of the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms, but deadly in its own right, and a wisp of mythical-art intent dusted it.
“Break!” Liu Wuxie’s hands clawed like dragon talons, rending down through the light.
Gasps erupted when everyone saw how Liu Wuxie dared to meet a sword art with flesh and bone. Yet with a thunderous rip, the curtain tore apart. The feat said enough: his physique rivaled that of high-level Origin Conversion Realm experts.
Further back, disciples’ eyes bulged. Who would try to tear a sword veil with bare hands?
Liu Wuxie punched through the breach and appeared before Mu Heng.
“Annihilation Fist!” The blow detonated with annihilating force. He had not even layered immortal runes upon it, yet the destructive tide rolled out in waves.
Mu Heng’s heart clenched; he snapped his sword into a guard and took the strike.
Impact boomed. A gale blasted outward, flinging nearby disciples through the air. Mu Heng’s chest thudded dully, as if a mountain rammed him. It was not pleasant.
The rebound jarred Liu Wuxie, too. He channeled the Panwu Divine Art to bleed the force from his meridians.
Both men skidded back in an even exchange.
Shen Yue’s sword slid in at that instant, stabbing for Liu Wuxie’s spine, and she aimed the contemptible strike while Liu Wuxie faced Mu Heng head-on.
Cold fury flashed through Liu Wuxie. Ambushes were what he despised most. Ghost Eye flared. He could not deploy the Soul Capturing Art, but he could still deploy the Soul Spear.
“Get lost!” His shout rang out like a dragon’s cry, laced with a tiger’s snarl. The soundwave crashed over Shen Yue, her focus buckling for a heartbeat, and the Soul Spear hurled itself through that perfect opening.
