Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1238 - Targeted by Everyone (1)
Chapter 1238 – Targeted by Everyone (1)
Liu Wuxie remained unaware of the growing uproar outside. By now, he had descended to the fifth floor. As on the sixth, he swept through texts in rapid succession—his pace so relentless that the Book Collection Pavilion’s elders grew alarmed. Hidden from sight, they began watching him.
“He’s courting death. Kill him the moment he finishes,” one elder muttered coldly.
For the moment, Liu Wuxie remained within his allotted reward period and had technically broken no rule. Once his time expired, however, the situation would change.
On the fifth floor, he spent another half day imprinting every book into his soul sea, then repeated the process on the fourth.
The second day arrived in the blink of an eye. Massive crowds had gathered inside and outside the pavilion. Many disciples spent their contribution points not to read but to witness the spectacle.
By the third day, Liu Wuxie reached the second floor, which meant he had finished every book from the third through the sixth floors.
***
Outrage erupted across the lesser realm.
“This is outrageous! Send someone to investigate! If he broke the Book Collection Pavilion’s rules, execute him on the spot!” roared a Void Realm elder, his face dark with murderous intent as he glared at books scattered across the floor.
Word of the pavilion’s chaos already spread far and wide.
Elder Long, who had not left his residence in days, finally made a move. By rights, the sect ought to have secluded Liu Wuxie to refine the dragon’s blood. Yet the Heavenly Martial Institute’s outer sect remained eerily silent. Could Liu Wuxie really have failed to refine it?
Suspicion gnawed at Elder Long, and driven by curiosity, he left his courtyard and headed for the Heavenly Martial Institute.
On the way, two disciples rushed past, shouting as they ran. “Hurry! I heard a monster appeared in the Book Collection Pavilion—he reads a book in only seconds! Half the sect has gone to watch!”
Elder Long’s Void Realm cultivation granted him extraordinary hearing; even several kilometers away, he caught every word.
“I heard the same. They say someone called Liu Wuxie did it. They say he’s arrogant and even injured a deacon in the pavilion!” shouted the other disciple as they raced ahead and vanished.
Elder Long froze; the name sent a shiver through his heart. “So that’s why he hasn’t refined the dragon’s blood—he went to the pavilion instead.”
To his surprise, a faint smile touched his lips at the thought of Liu Wuxie turning the pavilion upside down. It was already the afternoon of the third day, and Liu Wuxie’s reading period would end soon.
By now, the crowd around the pavilion swelled into the thousands. Crowds packed the interior, and disciples clogged the square outside as they strained for a glimpse.
“Senior Brother Hua, what should we do? If we had known, we should have acted earlier instead of waiting,” one of Hua Haosheng’s followers asked in a low voice. They, too, had heard about Liu Wuxie’s dragon’s blood.
They arrived the day before and saw the crowd choking the pavilion, which made it impossible to strike. Today, they could not even squeeze through the doors; disciples packed the square to bursting.
“No rush,” Hua Haosheng replied, brimming with confidence. “Once he’s dead, we’ll take the dragon’s blood.”
At last, Liu Wuxie finished the final book. He exhaled slowly, rose to his feet, and walked toward the exit. Countless disciples stared at his back, but he ignored them. Without a word, the crowd parted before him like water.
On this last day, he had worked through the first floor, ending just steps from the main gate.
Disciples packed the square outside to capacity; noise rose like a sea of voices.
“Liu Wuxie, stop right there!” A roar cut through the din as several elders strode from the depths of the pavilion.
The disciples instantly fell back, opening a wide circle around them. Liu Wuxie stood in the middle, alone and unbowed.
“How can I help you?” he asked with a faint smile, meeting the elders’ gazes. They came from the War Dragon Institute and held poor opinions of him.
“You violated the pavilion’s rules, and we will carry out the punishment: execution!” the elder in the center declared.
Liu Wuxie recognized him at once—Yu Zhengyang. Yu Zhengyang attended the entrance assessment and tried to pressure him into submitting to Elder Li Chen; only Elder Ding’s intervention ended the matter.
Liu Wuxie had never forgotten his face. He certainly had not expected Yu Zhengyang to run the pavilion; that explained the hostility he felt.
“Oh? What rule did I break?” Liu Wuxie asked lightly, his smile tinged with mockery.
“You know very well!” Yu Zhengyang roared. His Primal Origin Realm aura erupted, bearing down on Liu Wuxie. “You rifled through the books and jammed the spiritual array!”
Over three days, Liu Wuxie flipped through no fewer than a hundred thousand books. His flipping threw the order on the first through sixth floors into chaos, and restoring it would take days.
“If the spiritual array jammed, that would be your problem, not mine. What does that have to do with my reading?” Liu Wuxie shot back with a smile. He was only reading, and if the spiritual array couldn’t keep pace with him, then the fault lay with the spiritual array.
They ought to be thinking of ways to improve it rather than stopping disciples from reading.
“You call that reading? What a joke!” sneered the elder on the right. He and the others had watched Liu Wuxie’s every move in the pavilion. To them, he did not truly read; he merely flipped through books and tossed them aside.
“You deliberately sabotaged the Book Collection Pavilion’s order. I suspect you may even be a spy from another sect. You’re not leaving today—come with us to the Law-Enforcement Hall!” the elder on the left declared, his accusation sharp and venomous.
“What a serious charge,” Liu Wuxie murmured, his expression darkening. If he were to allow them to brand him a spy, clearing his name would become impossible. Worse still, as a suspected spy, the elders could execute him first and report it later.
“Enough nonsense—come with us to the Law-Enforcement Hall!” Yu Zhengyang barked, releasing the full weight of his aura. His Primal Origin Realm pressed down like a mountain, yet to his shock, Liu Wuxie stood unmoved, showing no trace of strain. It seemed as though the oppressive force couldn’t affect him at all.
“You claim I created chaos on purpose, but where is your evidence?” Liu Wuxie scoffed, calmly unfolding the Heavenly Dao Book. At once, the book dispelled the elder’s aura.
After absorbing more than one hundred thousand texts, Liu Wuxie radiated the aura of a scholar. A faint brilliance shimmered around him—the glow of knowledge that countless imprinted memories produced.
“Evidence?” Yu Zhengyang sneered, lips curling in disdain. “You flipped through one hundred thousand books—that is the best evidence!”
Liu Wuxie’s actions forced the Book Collection Pavilion to close for three days while the elders reorganized the six floors he had thrown into chaos.
“Liu Wuxie, kneel and admit your mistake! Don’t waste our time!” disciples jeered, their voices rising in the square. The loudest came from the new disciples who had entered his batch.
Liu Wuxie had made many enemies during the Wisdom Stones auction. Those who bore grudges now seized their chance and clamored for his humiliation.
“That’s right! Kneel and admit your mistake!” More voices joined until the crowd roared as one, making Liu Wuxie the center of their hostility.
If he yielded here and knelt before them all, he would lose every shred of dignity. In the Heavenly Dragon Sect, he would lose his standing beyond repair.
“Senior Brother Hua, this is our chance,” whispered a disciple beside Hua Haosheng. “Once he’s in trouble, we can step forward and plead for him. With your status, the elders will give you face, and then we can demand the dragon’s blood in return.”
From their words, Hua Haosheng’s position proved extraordinary, high enough that even Primal Origin Realm elders had to show him respect.
“No rush,” Hua Haosheng replied smoothly, his voice brimming with confidence. He looked as if everything were unfolding exactly as he had planned.
In the distance, the lesser realm slowly opened, and two elders emerged, flying straight toward the Book Collection Pavilion. They long guarded the spiritual array, ensuring its stability for a million years. But now even that mighty system suffered merciless battering.
What the pavilion did alarmed not only the institutes but also ancient beings within the lesser realm itself.
“Him again?”
“Him?”
“Why is it always him?” Divine senses stirred in midair, all carrying tones of exasperation and disbelief.
“Wait… wasn’t he supposed to be dead?” Some of those divine senses had witnessed the reforging of the Heretic Blade days earlier; they believed the Thunder God’s Spear would have killed Liu Wuxie. Yet here he stood, alive and unscathed.
“What is he trying to accomplish by throwing the sect into chaos again and again?” Even the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s sect master could not fathom his intent. For a month, Liu Wuxie had repeatedly overturned the sect’s order.
Most shocking of all, he remained only an outer disciple. What kind of storm would he bring once he entered the inner sect?
The cries of denunciation grew louder, and no one rose to speak in his defense.
Elder Ding stood in the crowd with a wry smile. He wanted to help Liu Wuxie, but he lacked the means; if he claimed the boy was right, the crowd’s scorn would drown him out.
Elder Long pushed his way forward, his face grim. He, too, felt anger that Liu Wuxie disrupted the pavilion and jammed the spiritual array.
“If I understand correctly,” Liu Wuxie said suddenly, his smile returning as he looked at the three elders, “you don’t believe I can truly read so many books. Do you think I came here only to sabotage the pavilion?”
His eyes gleamed with open mockery.
“What a joke!” Yu Zhengyang burst out laughing. “If you can read one hundred thousand books in three days, I’ll kneel, kowtow, and call you grandfather!” Even Earth Immortal experts could never manage such a feat. How could someone at the sixth-level Transcendent Realm dare claim it?
“Well then,” Liu Wuxie answered coolly, “it looks like I’ll gain a grandson today. If I can prove I’ve truly read one hundred thousand books, what then?”
His words struck the crowd like thunder, igniting an uproar.
“If you can prove it, then we will write everything off!” several figures exclaimed as they descended from the sky.
