Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1261 - Forced to Save
Chapter 1261 – Forced to Save
Liu Wuxie made no promises, leaving himself room to maneuver.
“I’ll borrow him for a night. If he doesn’t return by morning, go collect his body at the eastern city wall,” the black figure said, then vanished.
Silence settled over the main hall. He had come and gone in a breath, shuttling through space, a means only Earth Immortal Realm experts possessed.
“Senior, what do we do now?” He Yingwu rushed in, anxiety sharp in his voice. No one expected the black figure to take Liu Wuxie by force.
“Wait,” Old Blindie said. He had no better plan and could only hope the black figure meant Liu Wuxie no harm. They barred the doors; there would be no more visitors that night. By morning, everything would hinge on Liu Wuxie’s return.
After days together, Old Blindie had grown to trust him. If Liu Wuxie had no solution, then no one on Indigo Bamboo Star could save the black figure’s wife. Even a Quasi–Heaven Gaze Realm expert like the black figure had failed; what chance did anyone else have?
A mighty wind roared past Liu Wuxie’s ears. He couldn’t control his body as the surrounding space crushed him while the black figure clamped him beneath an arm and sped through the void.
A dozen breaths later, the compression eased. They slipped out of darkness.
“Put this on,” the black figure said, producing a special hood. He clearly didn’t want Liu Wuxie to know where he lived.
Liu Wuxie complied. The hood sealed him off from the world, and only the howl of wind reached him as they flew.
Roughly fifteen minutes later, they slowed. Spatial currents shifted around him, oddly familiar.
The hood wasn’t a standard tool; its maker wove it from vast laws that even Void Realm experts couldn’t pierce. Yet Liu Wuxie quietly activated the Ghost Eye. Though the hood blurred his sight, rough outlines leaked through.
“The Book Collection Pavilion?”
“The Primordial Pagoda?” he murmured. The buildings loomed enormous and far apart, unmistakable silhouettes.
“This is the Heavenly Dragon Sect!” He froze, realizing the black figure had abducted him and brought him back to the sect. A bitter smile tugged at his lips as they hovered, suddenly still.
“The lesser realm!” His nerves tightened. The sect’s upper echelons secluded themselves here and rarely interfered with outside affairs.
The black figure patted the air. A corridor opened, and he dragged Liu Wuxie through.
The instant they stepped inside, torrents of pure yang energy, threaded with a faint immortal aura, poured into Liu Wuxie.
Fearful of exposure, the black figure masked himself once he entered the lesser realm. He had already broken sect rules by bringing a stranger here.
Liu Wuxie secretly summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron to swallow the pure yang energy because the precious hint of immortal power within drew him. He dared not absorb too much, wary of alerting the ancients in seclusion, and the black figure moved with equal caution.
Pavilions loomed in outline like a world apart. The lesser realm was vaster than he had imagined. At its heart rose a grand Book Collection Pavilion, repository of the sect’s texts.
Buildings stood scattered irregularly, thatched huts dotted the landscape, and each one exuded a terrifying aura.
After more than ten minutes, the black figure slowed again. A door creaked open; the black figure lifted Liu Wuxie across the threshold. Neither man knew the Radiant Mirror recorded their every step.
The Radiant Mirror was the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s treasure; nothing in the lesser realm escaped it.
“He brought him here?” the sect master murmured, eyes opening for a moment before he shut them again, feigning ignorance.
The black figure dragged Liu Wuxie forward, through a vast courtyard, and into a room where they stopped.
“You can remove the hood now,” he said.
Liu Wuxie pulled it off. His vision cleared to a chamber thick with the stinging scents of peachwood and pungent garlic.
“Where is your wife?” he asked, scanning the room.
“Come with me.” The black figure kept his own hood on, unwilling to show his face. He lifted a hanging curtain and led into another room that contained nothing but a single wooden bed.
A woman lay upon it, seemingly in her thirties, fine-featured and gentle. In her youth, she must have been a great beauty. Now she breathed faintly, pale as if she had sunk into deep slumber.
“You have two hours to examine her. If you can resolve her condition, you won’t be leaving this place,” the black figure said, stepping aside.
“I need a fire basin and a set of silver needles,” Liu Wuxie said with a frown. “Not low grade—at least on par with the Earth Profound Realm.”
At that moment, a grandmaster’s bearing emanated from him, startling even the black figure. Despite being a Quasi–Heaven Gaze Realm expert, he found that he could not read Liu Wuxie at all. It was like an immortal was standing before him rather than someone in the Origin Conversion Realm.
The confidence in Liu Wuxie’s bones was no act.
“Give me fifteen minutes. Begin the examination first.” The black figure vanished to fetch the items.
Before this, he might have doubted. However, Liu Wuxie’s aura had shaken him—hope, thin and long-denied, kindled for a miracle.
After hearing of the Primordial Elder, someone capable of guiding others on their cultivation and hearing ailments, he had gone to Mount Dragon City to test the former. However, he discovered what appeared to be a scam. Yet everyone left with what they sought; as Old Blindie said, they all had their own goal.
When Liu Wuxie named the witchcraft insect, his judgement changed. He chose to believe in him. Left alone with the woman, Liu Wuxie walked to her side and stopped three steps away.
Outside the door, the black figure hadn’t left at first. He watched every move, and only when Liu Wuxie behaved with strict propriety did he turn around to gather the requested tools. Fire basins didn’t exist in the lesser realm, let alone silver needles of a grade on par with the Earth Immortal Realm, but the black figure had said that he could find them, so he definitely had a way to find them.
Liu Wuxie activated the Ghost Eye and probed with his formidable soul force. As his sight penetrated the woman’s body, his eyes narrowed.
“How extravagant,” he murmured, rubbing his chin. “A Nine Yin-Yang Pill to nourish her body, and ten-thousand-year peachwood to suppress the witchcraft insect. This senior isn’t simple.”
The Nine Yin-Yang Pill was a ninth-grade spiritual pill, far beyond the Grand Divine Pill. An Earth Immortal Realm expert who took it could gain a level unconditionally. Without it, the woman would have died instantly.
The bed itself was peachwood, releasing a faint fragrance. They wove pungent garlic into her garments to ward off the insect. Yet, these measures only treated the symptoms; they could not eradicate the witchcraft insect.
He continued his search, wanting to see what creature could render an Earth Immortal Realm expert helpless. The woman was no ordinary person, with her cultivation level standing at a high level in the Earth Immortal Realm. Each of her meridians gleamed like crystal, free of impurity. Although she looked fragile, unimaginable strength lay within her.
With Ghost Eye, Liu Wuxie’s gaze swept across her again, and his brows locked tighter. He could not find the insect.
Time bled away. Soon, an hour passed, and the black figure returned, standing behind him in silence. A fire basin and a special box were in his hands.
Her condition showed every sign of a witchcraft insect… so why couldn’t I find it? Liu Wuxie asked himself. He had scanned her entire body and found nothing. It defied reason, and no quick answer came.
“The brain,” he whispered, eyes narrowing as he focused on her head. If the insect had nested there, the difficulty would have multiplied a hundredfold.
An expert from the Earth Immortal Realm guarded a vast soul sea; entering it proved to be a difficult task. He had to try anyway.
He invoked the Ghost Eye again. Face grave, he threaded his divine sense into her soul sea.
At once, a powerful surge of soul energy rebounded, rejecting any foreign presence. The situation turned thorny. By his speculation, the witchcraft insect lurked in her soul sea, threatening her primordial spirit.
Even immortals suffered grievously or died if their primordial spirit took damage. The primordial spirit governed all soul power and memory; it was the core of a person.
He gathered his soul energy and tried again, but time was running short. Now, he understood why the black figure stood helpless.
From what he had learned, even a Heaven Gaze Realm expert would struggle against such an insect. The black figure made capturing Liu Wuxie his last gamble, and he held little hope.
“Senior,” Liu Wuxie said to the woman, “Believe me, I can drive the witchcraft insect out. But you must release your primordial spirit and allow my soul energy to enter.”
He could only treat her by entering the soul sea to find the insect. If he failed, the consequences would be dire. The witchcraft insect would take the opportunity to enter and corrode the primordial spirit.
