Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1225 - Reality and Illusion
Chapter 1225 – Reality and Illusion
News of Liu Wuxie’s actions spread swiftly among the elders.
“He’s that monstrous?” the elder on the left asked in disbelief. He couldn’t accept that a mere Transcendent Realm disciple had taken first place in the wilderness training and even slain an inner disciple at the seventh level of the Origin Conversion Realm.
“That’s right,” the middle elder replied. “We have a good show on our hands. Let’s see what miracle he can create in five days.”
“Since that’s the case, activate the spiritual array,” said the elder on the right. “Reroute all eighth- and ninth-level Origin Conversion cultivators over. Open all the beast cages as well!”
He wanted to see whether Liu Wuxie’s talent was truly as monstrous as the rumors had claimed it to be.
Deep in the Dragon Expanse Mountain Range, chains clattered as the array unlatched a colossal cage. Terrifying astral beasts poured out and thundered toward Liu Wuxie’s position.
Elsewhere, several Indigo Bamboo Star cultivators training in the range halted mid-stride.
“That’s strange. There’s no path ahead,” one said as an invisible barrier cut off the road.
The Dragon Expanse Mountain Range was vast. Besides the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s disciples, many Indigo Bamboo Star cultivators also enjoyed training there… The array raised similar blockages in multiple places and rerouted all cultivators who came to train toward Liu Wuxie.
“Let’s increase the difficulty for him again,” the middle elder said with a smile, intent on raising the trial’s difficulty.
“You’re not afraid he’ll die there?” the other two elders asked.
Liu Wuxie had already chosen the Death Gate. If they were to increase the difficulty even further, survival would become impossible for him.
“I recall there’s a Dragon Flame Fruit in the depths of the Dragon Expanse Mountain Range. If he can cross the gorge ahead, he can have it as a reward,” the middle elder said. From the pagoda, they could observe everything within thousands of miles around Liu Wuxie.
The two elders formed hand seals, and sigils flared to life. Several massive spiritual arrays in the range stirred awake and reshaped the terrain itself.
Liu Wuxie pushed through dense woods and stopped at a gorge where a terrifying astral beast watched him.
“A White-Armored Earth Dragon!” Liu Wuxie’s eyes narrowed. The species wasn’t powerful at birth, but it had the potential to evolve. Given enough time, it could even grow into an immortal beast. He had encountered several in the Celestial Realm, each unimaginably powerful.
A roar surged from the beast’s throat, powdering boulders ahead, and a sandstorm boiled across the gorge. Its strength reached the ninth level of the Origin Conversion Realm, and no one needed to say more about its combat power; under equal circumstances, beasts far outstripped humans.
At the sight of the White-Armored Earth Dragon, Liu Wuxie became certain that he had left the Primordial Pagoda. Only the Death Gate teleported a disciple into the real world; the Life Gate pitted disciples against illusions whose training effects were naturally far inferior.
He did not draw the Heretic Blade. He dared not use the Heaven-Severing Strike here, as the real world teemed with variables. If a White-Armored Earth Dragon was present, other humans could be present as well. Instead, he launched skyward, merging the Divine Dragon Phantom with the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms and unleashing a crashing tide of dragon aura from above.
The dragon clan ruled all beasts, and the dragon aura carried excellent suppression over astral beasts.
The White-Armored Earth Dragon towering fifteen meters tall with long, punishing forelimbs, wreathed itself in roiling demonic energy that barred ordinary cultivators from getting close. Naturally, it repelled Liu Wuxie as well.
Coiling like a divine dragon in the heavens, Liu Wuxie loosed a roar that echoed for thousands of miles.
Cultivators across the mountains noticed and rushed toward the sound, while he remained oblivious to the approaching crisis.
“What exquisite Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms!” the three elders exclaimed in the Primordial Pagoda as each face mirrored shock. Many elders had mastered one or two forms, but their attainments could not compare to Liu Wuxie’s.
Fists began to rain from the sky. The White-Armored Earth Dragon didn’t panic. As a ninth-level Origin Conversion astral beast, it possessed high intelligence and fearsome strength. Demonic energy swept out and twisted into a vortex that swallowed the descending punches.
Liu Wuxie’s expression finally changed. He had underestimated its power—any beast capable of reaching the ninth level of the Origin Conversion Realm was never ordinary.
“Dragon Roaming!” he shouted, displaying the third form. The Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms’ greatest strength lay in its looping sequence, each technique flowed to the next, leaving an opponent no time to breathe.
True essence from his desolate world poured out like a torrent, spearing through the clouds as tens of thousands of fists fused into a giant millstone.
The three elders shot to their feet.
“Did he really cultivate the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms? And he’s melding the forms with such precision,” the elder on the right exclaimed. “It’s impossible to achieve without centuries of practice.”
At its pinnacle, the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms would evolve into the Great Heavenly Dragon Art.
Upon unleashing it, ten thousand dragons seemed to press down on everything, creating a terrifying sight. The massive millstone groaned as it descended; the onslaught had already reduced the surrounding gorge to ruin.
It struck the White-Armored Earth Dragon with a thunderous detonation that leveled trees, but the fight was far from over.
Since stepping into the fifth level of the Transcendent Realm, Liu Wuxie’s combat strength had increased several times over. His earlier blow could have killed a seventh-level Origin Conversion cultivator, but when it landed on the Earth Dragon, it left only a dent, far from fatal.
Touching down, he wore a grave look. The beast was brewing something.
Suddenly, its body swelled, doubling in size. It slammed its forelimbs down, and the ground exploded, stone shards fountaining outward.
“What a monstrous body!” Liu Wuxie said, his fighting spirit blazing even brighter as he summoned the Heavenly Dragon Seal.
The moment it appeared, the seal magnified and descended like a colossal mountain. Its internal laws had grown more complete after absorbing the dragon aura.
He noticed something else as well—within the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s vicinity, the dragon vein empowered the seal, constantly infusing it with dragon aura and causing its power to surge.
“Time to finish this game,” Liu Wuxie said. Dealing with a ninth-level Origin Conversion foe was his limit.
He soared again, using the Heavenly Dragon Seal’s suppression to pin the White-Armored Earth Dragon while he unleashed all three forms at once.
The three elders were stunned; even the middle elder had not seen Liu Wuxie perform three forms simultaneously. During the auction, he only witnessed the Heaven-Severing Strike.
As the trio of forms erupted, golden true essence wrapped Liu Wuxie; he became a divine dragon shuttling through the clouds, visible from thousands of miles away.
“A divine dragon has appeared! Quick, let’s hurry over!” the cultivators shouted as they raced toward the battle.
Relying on Ghost Eye, Liu Wuxie spotted a hairline scar along the beast’s neck, an old wound from past battles. Though healed, it still affected the Earth Dragon’s combat strength.
The three forms combined to conjure a colossal fist that descended from the distant horizon, covering hundreds of miles. Dragon aura saturated the proper dragon fist.
……
Back in the Heavenly Dragon Sect, Elder Long sensed the Heavenly Dragon Seal’s aura from his courtyard.
“Isn’t he training in the Primordial Pagoda? Why is the seal’s aura coming from the Dragon Expanse Mountain Range?” he murmured. “Wait—he chose the Death Gate!”
Only that choice would transport a disciple out of the pagoda.
“If you damage the Heavenly Dragon Seal, I won’t let you off easily!” Elder Long snapped, storming from his courtyard toward the Primordial Pagoda and plunging into its depths.
A figure flashed before the three elders in the pagoda before they could react.
“Elder Long, why are you here?” they asked, rising at once.
He nodded in greeting, and then he fixed his gaze on the crystal wall projecting Liu Wuxie’s every movement. On the screen, the Heavenly Dragon Seal fell like a mountain and plunged into the earth. The Dragon Expanse Mountain Range trembled, and fissures appeared all over it, splitting the ground.
The White-Armored Earth Dragon roared. Its demonic energy grew denser as it tried to tear free of the pressure. However, the seal’s crushing force only increased, and the three forms conjured a colossal fist that descended like an ancient sword, locking onto the old wound at the beast’s neck.
The fist kept changing shape—the Heretic Blade, sword, and a divine dragon. Each transformation caused the expressions of all four elders, including Elder Long, to change as they stared at Liu Wuxie being projected on the crystal wall.
“Elder Long, his dragon bloodline is very pure,” the middle elder whispered.
Many disciples had cultivated the True Dragon Physique in the Heavenly Dragon Sect, but none were like Liu Wuxie.
The fist shifted again, this time into an icy divine sword as Liu Wuxie infused it with the Great Frost Mythical Art. The blade pierced space with unstoppable momentum and drove straight into the beast’s old scar.
