Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1262 - Heavenly Silk Ant
Chapter 1262 – Heavenly Silk Ant
Liu Wuxie had no other options. His soul energy couldn’t compare to that of an Earth Immortal Realm expert, and he couldn’t force his way in.
The woman heard everything outside. She had merely sealed her soul sea from the outside world and couldn’t control her body.
“Brat, what are you trying to do?” the black figure snapped at last. Opening one’s soul sea to another would hasten the witchcraft insect’s corrosion of the primordial spirit. At that point, even an immortal would be helpless.
“Since you asked me for help, follow my instructions. I don’t care who you are or how high your cultivation stands. I’m the doctor here, so follow my decision,” Liu Wuxie said, turning with razor-sharp eyes while emanating the bearing of a descending Immortal Emperor.
A sovereign aura swept out and blanketed the lesser realm, startling many ancient beings to look over.
The pressure emanating from Liu Wuxie stunned the black figure, and he dared not take a step forward. Even he felt dread under that aura and could not fathom how a youth could radiate something like it.
“If anything happens to my wife, I’ll kill everyone around you,” he growled, fists clenched. Humiliation and fury warped the air; space itself buckled. With a single thought, he could have killed Liu Wuxie a hundred times over.
“What a joke. Even without my help, your wife won’t live more than a month. If you want to save her, stop posturing and help,” Liu Wuxie sneered. Unless desperation drove him, why would a Quasi–Heaven Gaze Realm expert trust someone in the Origin Conversion Realm? He had tried everything; even the sect master was at a loss. This was his last resort.
The witchcraft insect had tormented his wife for over a thousand years. Ten-thousand-year peachwood and garlic-woven clothes had held it at bay, but the insect had adapted, and the suppression waned. She had one month left.
Liu Wuxie’s words left him speechless, especially the blunt command to come to his aid. Who dared talk like that to a Quasi–Heaven Gaze Realm expert? Yet today someone did, to his face, without giving him any face at all.
He drew a deep breath and pressed his murderous intent down. At last, he loosened his fists and stepped to the bed, stroking the woman’s forehead.
“Xiu, I’ve brought someone to look at your condition. Relax your soul sea. I won’t let you die, and even if you do, I will accompany you,” he said, tears brimming in the eyes of a Quasi–Heaven Gaze Realm expert. Humans had emotions, and even immortals could feel them.
It was unknown whether she heard him or not, but her soul eased, and two tears slid from the corners of her eyes. She had heard everything outside despite sealing her soul sea.
“What do you need me to do?” he asked, rising and eyeing Liu Wuxie like a cornered beast.
“Ready the silver needles and act the instant I call it. We cannot make a single mistake,” Liu Wuxie said. He still didn’t know the exact species of witchcraft insect and had to seal her primordial spirit first to halt further corrosion.
Opening the soul sea would make the insect bolt for the primordial spirit. Liu Wuxie invoked the Ghost Eye again; after she loosened her soul sea, he slipped in easily.
A needle-sized insect snapped into view and streaked toward her primordial spirit the instant the soul sea opened.
“Insert it in the Heavenly Court Acupoint!” Liu Wuxie roared. The black figure didn’t hesitate. He drove a silver needle into the point, and Earth Immortal Realm laws erupted from him—a type of power Liu Wuxie could not channel with his current cultivation base.
“The Three Flower Acupoint!”
“The Hundred Meeting Acupoint!” Liu Wuxie called out point after point, mainly across the head. Each one could prove fatal. He gambled with his life; if he failed to shield the woman, he would die anyway, so he wagered everything on this one attempt.
When the final silver needle slid into the woman’s left ear, the witchcraft insect halted a hair’s breadth from her primordial spirit. A heartbeat slower, and it would have breached, devoured the spirit, and won. This worm was extraordinary enough to leave an expert from the Earth Immortal Realm at a loss.
Cold sweat drenched the black figure before he realized it had happened.
“The Heavenly Silk Ant! You two went to the Blood Fiend Astral Domain,” Liu Wuxie panted, legs giving out as he sank to the floor. The Ghost Eye had drained his soul energy to the very last drop; he needed time to recover.
The black figure’s eyes narrowed. Liu Wuxie had not only recognized the insect but even inferred their journey to the Blood Fiend Astral Domain. Was this truly a youth at the Origin Conversion Realm, or an old monster in a youthful shell?
“Take this. It will replenish your soul energy,” he said, producing an ink-green pill.
“A seventh-grade Soul Refining Pill—what a treasure,” Liu Wuxie said with a smile. The pill strengthened the soul sea and the primordial spirit. Such pills were so rare that ordinary Primal Origin Realm experts could never lay their hands on one.
Shock struck the black figure again when Liu Wuxie named the pill on sight. Hope sparked; perhaps Liu Wuxie really could save her.
Liu Wuxie didn’t stand on ceremony. He swallowed the pill. The needles only suppressed the insect; the danger hadn’t passed yet. The moment the medicine dissolved, a violent surge of soul energy erupted within him.
His withered soul sea refilled at astonishing speed and even began to expand. If the pill had been a different seventh-grade medicine, he would have pushed his cultivation to the fourth-level Origin Conversion Realm on the spot.
Fifteen minutes later, his soul sea stood whole again, stronger than before, and the Ghost Eye sharpened even further.
“What do we do next?” the black figure asked.
“Expel the Heavenly Silk Ant,” Liu Wuxie said, rising with resolve blazing in his eyes. Now that he knew the species, he could target its weakness.
“And how do we achieve that?” The man pressed. He had tried countless methods; the insect refused to leave. The woman bore no wounds. She lay here because she dared not unseal her soul sea; if she did, the insect would corrode her primordial spirit at once and turn her into a living corpse.
“Set the fire basin at her feet and light it,” Liu Wuxie said. All things had counterforces; the Heavenly Silk Ant feared fire most. He had suspected as much, as few insects could render Earth Immortal Realm experts powerless.
The black figure positioned the basin and stepped aside.
“The fire isn’t enough. We need True Samadhi Fire,” Liu Wuxie said, shaking his head. An ordinary flame wouldn’t drive the insect out.
“Is there no other way?” the man asked. Few in the Heavenly Dragon Sect possessed True Samadhi Fire, and most were in deep seclusion. Moreover, they were peers no weaker than he was. Disturbing them now would cause a storm.
“I’ll try,” Liu Wuxie said. He summoned a demonic flame and fed it into the basin. It wasn’t True Samadhi Fire, but its might was tremendous.
The sight shocked the black figure, and he stared at the terrifying fire a youth commanded.
“It’s all or nothing. Soul Fire,” Liu Wuxie whispered. He met the woman’s eyes, and a flame no larger than a sprout shot from his pupils and speared into her soul sea.
Soul Fire had no fixed shape—pure soul energy burning at a terrifying temperature. A wisp entering a Primal Origin Realm cultivator’s soul sea could kill. Without Soul Fire, this treatment would be far more complex; knowledge alone couldn’t bridge the gap in cultivation.
When the flame entered her soul sea, agony creased the woman’s face as the blaze scorched her inner sea. However, that pain was nothing compared to the Heavenly Silk Ant’s. She could recover in days once it was gone.
The instant the Soul Fire appeared, the insect panicked and fled, streaking for the soul sea’s edge. Soul Fire was its nemesis.
“Anytime now—we can’t let it escape,” Liu Wuxie barked, driving the Soul Fire and herding the insect toward the lower jaw. The process looked smooth, but peril ran under every breath. If the ant burrowed into the black figure, the crisis would explode tenfold.
The man wiped a hand through the air and raised an invisible screen, sealing the space.
Liu Wuxie’s hands flew through seals. Heat roared from the basin and forced the ant back when it tried to retreat into the legs. The heat and seals drove it to the lower abdomen, and it thrashed wildly, tearing at the woman from within.
Witchcraft insects were mysteries that left even many immortals powerless in the Fleeting Cloud Celestial Realm. Rumor said they had existed since the beginning of time and were older than humankind while living on the Ancestral Tree. Over ages, they evolved into today’s witchcraft insects.
Profound runes flared in the air, making the black figure’s eyelids twitch. He recognized a few of them. The characters wove into a vast net and sank into the woman’s body.
“Come out!” Liu Wuxie growled, locking the ant in place. The net cinched tight; the Heavenly Silk Ant burst from the woman’s lower abdomen and shot toward the black figure.
“Die!” he roared. Soul Fire erupted, enveloping the insect and reducing it to ash.
The fact that such a tiny creature could cripple an Earth Immortal Realm expert was simply unbelievable. Truly, everything in the world had its counter; humankind had its nemesis, too. At last, the crisis had ended.
Liu Wuxie sagged to the floor again, having spent his freshly recovered soul energy. This time, the black figure offered no more Soul Refining Pills, as such medicine was rare even for him.
Liu Wuxie circulated the Desolate Devouring Art and drew pure yang energy from the lesser realm. The sight knit the man’s brows in displeasure, but he held his tongue and let Liu Wuxie continue.
