Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1308 - Netherworld
Chapter 1308 – Netherworld
Among the hundreds of thousands, only a handful could refine pills from Netherworld herbs. Liu Wuxie didn’t hurry, as he had a whole month. The Netherworld held eighteen layers, and for now, they remained on the first.
“We’re probably no longer on the Indigo Bamboo Star,” Liu Wuxie judged as the surrounding spatial laws shifted. Even he couldn’t find their location, so he searched his memory for details about the Netherworld.
People seldom saw the nether clan even in the Celestial realm, and their numbers stayed small. Though Liu Wuxie had once been an Immortal Emperor, he wouldn’t claim to know every race under heaven.
From what he recalled, the nether clan originated with Emperor Yellow Spring, who commanded the Yellow Spring and created their kind. Legends claimed that one sip could erase the past and the present, but he couldn’t verify it.
As for spiritual herbs, people were well aware of the Netherhell Flower. The locals found it at the border of hell and treated it as ordinary flowers. Of course, the true treasures grew deeper within and nowhere else.
After sorting his memories, he looked ahead. The Netherworld spread far wider than he’d imagined. The portal scattered everyone, and the Grand Unity Sect would surely share a secret method to regroup and hunt him. Placing well was a goal; killing Liu Wuxie was the priority.
“Young Master Liu!” A pleasant voice echoed. It was Vanya’s bright voice.
He glanced around and was baffled upon seeing no one.
“I’m here,” Vanya said. A slip of paper slid from his collar, revealing a thumb-sized paper figure.
“You…” Liu Wuxie murmured. A faint magic aura was flowing from the golden paper figure.
“This is an elven secret technique; it lets us communicate. I’m in a black forest and I’ve found several strange herbs,” Vanya said. The elves weren’t adept at alchemy and had come here to help Liu Wuxie place well. She still remembered the favor of how he had saved her from the Grand Unity Sect.
“How do I find you?” Liu Wuxie asked. The Netherworld was a labyrinth, and he had no idea how to reach the black forest. He remembered the Indigo Bamboo Star’s layout, but this place was new to him.
“Follow the paper figure,” Vanya said, and fell silent.
The golden paper figure lifted and became a crane that sped ahead. Liu Wuxie followed, crossing jagged terrain and warped ground. The Netherworld resembled nothing on the surface; rolling black fog roofed each wide level instead of a starry sky. The crane flew so fast he had to use footwork to keep up.
After fifteen minutes without a black forest in sight, unease tightened in his chest.
“Vanya, can you hear me?” Liu Wuxie called to the crane, but there was no reply. It wobbled, nearly dropping from the air.
“Did someone attack Vanya?” Liu Wuxie murmured. The magic cocooning the crane frayed; only danger to its owner would cause that.
He didn’t hesitate. Channeling his magic into the crane, he tripled its speed. The golden celestial bird speared forward like a lance of light.
……
Several nether clansmen encircled Vanya in the black forest as she reached for the herbs she’d found. Calling them spiritual herbs was generous, as they looked like eerily shaped flowers.
After running for more than fifteen minutes, Liu Wuxie crossed ten thousand miles with the aid of the Great Spatial Mythical Art, and at last, a black forest rose before him. The golden crane spent its last energy and fell to ash.
He didn’t know when Vanya had tucked the paper figure into his pocket; it had to have happened when he rescued her and tore through the spatial rift.
He had detonated the profound talisman, and they’d crossed space together—he recalled holding her tight to defend her against the crushing pressure.
Stepping into the forest, he drew in dense nether energy that stung his nostrils. A cacophony of noises echoed ahead. Three nether clansmen had layered techniques to choke off elven magic.
Though Liu Wuxie had cultivated the Darkness Dao Art, his comprehension was unfinished. On the road to Eternal Spirit Mountain, he met Hei Kui, who commanded a horde of wraiths.
After converting Hei Kui into a devotee and leaving him with the Heavenly Dao Society, he refined those sinister methods and deepened his own.
“Great Spatial Mythical Art!” Liu Wuxie split space and vanished. Usually, only Earth Immortals traversed space at will; this art let him do it, but it limited his range to about twenty thousand meters per jump at his current mastery.
He stepped from the rift into a tide of dark-attribute energy surging toward him.
“Get lost!” He waved once, blasting the darkness back and flinging several nether clansmen away.
The human appeared from nowhere and caught them off guard, freezing them in place.
He scanned the scene and saw Vanya’s face darken under corrosive dark-attribute energy. As a light-faction elf, she cultivated light magic, which in theory restrained darkness, but the elves had long lost the Great Light Magic, and darkness pressed the advantage.
“Are you alright?” Liu Wuxie asked, ignoring the nether clansmen as he strode to Vanya, concern plain on his face.
“Dark-attribute energy struck me,” Vanya said through clenched teeth. Pain twisted her expression as she crouched, working to expel as much of the invading darkness as she could.
He set his right hand on her shoulder and guided a thread of light-attributed energy into her. He hadn’t grasped the Great Light Mythical Art, but light laws pulsed within him; as his energy entered, it scoured the darkness away.
“Young Master Liu, you’ve grasped light-attributed energy? You’re sure to wield the Great Light Magic one day,” Vanya said. He could already execute Doom Tempest, proof he could use magic, and he stood a real chance of mastering the Great Light Magic in time.
Seeing Vanya steady, Liu Wuxie finally relaxed and turned to the nether clan. They differed significantly from humans—features, height, and build varied widely. They lacked ears; the soft antennae on their heads served for hearing.
These three clansmen weren’t weak, and their dark-attribute energy swept out like a black curtain, enveloping Liu Wuxie. Unhurried, he met their assault; with a single wave, he shattered the darkness and sent them staggering. Only then did he look past them at three eerily shaped flowers.
“The Black Demon Ghostflower!” Liu Wuxie murmured. He instantly understood why Vanya had called him. Only the Netherworld’s depths could grow these rare blossoms, yet three bloomed here. The realm counted them among its famed herbs, and many nether clans fed on them to strengthen their bodies.
“Take your own lives for hurting my friend,” Liu Wuxie said. He had no intention of wasting time and walked toward the Black Demon Ghostflowers to harvest them.
Before entering the Netherworld, he hadn’t chosen a pill to refine, but these flowers had just given him his answer.
“You will all die!” a nether clansman shrieked. The sound stabbed into Liu Wuxie, leaving a sickening discomfort. He gathered boundless dark-attribute energy into a giant palm and slammed it down at Liu Wuxie. They attacked without hesitation.
“What impudence!” Liu Wuxie rose, a tidal aura surging as he executed the Dragon-Grasping Hand from the sky. Since reaching the eighth level of the Origin Conversion Realm, his might had soared—one strike could kill ninth-level Primal Origin Realm experts.
The three nether clansmen burst into black fog. The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron drank the dark-attribute energy from their bodies. Here in the Netherworld, he had a strong chance of grasping the Great Darkness Mythical Art and using it in combat, enveloping an area of ten thousand meters in darkness.
Vanya possessed formidable combat strength, and ordinary ninth-level Primal Origin Realm experts couldn’t touch her. Only dark-attribute energy countered her elementally. Stowing the three Black Demon Ghostflowers, Liu Wuxie set off with Vanya toward the forest’s edge.
“Young Master Liu, don’t you find it strange? In previous years, it was rare to meet the nether clan on the first level,” Vanya asked, puzzled.
“The nether clan must be aware of the Myriad Race Ceremony that occurs every decade,” Liu Wuxie replied. He had sensed it the moment he arrived. The ceremony wasn’t merely for resources; it tested every force in the Astral Domain. Rankings would reset, and those who did well would rise in standing.
They left the black forest and stepped into a black wasteland, where dense, dark grasses carpeted the ground. The blades felt soft underfoot, yet each carried wisps of nether energy. Shapes moved in the distance.
“Young Master Liu, they seem to be heading our way,” Vanya said as two silhouettes angled toward them.
Liu Wuxie said nothing; he had already marked them. Within minutes, the pair stood before him.
“Liu Wuxie, great to see you! Enemies are attacking a few disciples of the Heavenly Dragon Sect. We have to save them!” one of the two said.
Liu Wuxie recognized them as fellow disciples of the Heavenly Dragon Sect. They weren’t close, and they bore no grudges; they had no special connection to him.
