Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1312 - Storm Beast
Chapter 1312 – Storm Beast
Soul Spears cut through the ghost clan like scythes through wheat, mowing them down in a blink. As Liu Wuxie absorbed their ghostly energy into his body, part of that energy streamed into the Ghost Eye.
The Ghost Eye slowly strengthened, widening his field of vision. Rumor had it that all Eight Divine Pupils could see in a full three hundred and sixty degrees with almost no blind spot at all. That was why people feared them. This was also Liu Wuxie’s first real contact with one of the Eight Divine Pupils, and he was still testing what it could do.
“Big Brother Liu, what is the Ghost Pupil?” Vanya asked, curiosity plain in her voice.
“It’s one of the Eight Divine Pupils,” Liu Wuxie answered. He didn’t bother hiding it from her. Vanya wasn’t an outsider anymore, and he trusted she wouldn’t spread the news about it.
“There are really pupils like that in the world? Did the ancestor tell you about it?” Vanya asked. By now, she assumed that Ancestor Vandore had passed down anything Liu Wuxie knew. In her mind, that was the only explanation, because at Liu Wuxie’s age and cultivation, he wouldn’t have access to knowledge like this.
“Yeah,” Liu Wuxie said with a wry smile, casually dumping the credit on Vandore.
……
At that very moment, in an elven manor in the celestial realm, an elderly elf suddenly sneezed.
“Tch. Who’s talking about me behind my back?” Vandore muttered as he sniffed the air and caught a familiar scent.
“Old friend, is that you?” he murmured, sorrow flickering in his eyes. In that ancient battle, by the time he had arrived, Liu Wuxie had already used the Bloodfiend Disintegration Art and dragged thousands of experts to their deaths with him.
Vandore had mourned Liu Wuxie’s death for a long, long time.
……
After killing the nether clan and the ghost clan, Liu Wuxie felt the dark-attributed energy in his body grow even denser, but what rose most sharply was his deathly energy.
“Let’s go to the third level,” Liu Wuxie said. Staying there was no longer an option, not with too many experts heading their way.
They searched for the nearest entrance and headed straight to the Netherworld’s third level without hesitation. The deeper one went, the smaller each region became. The third level didn’t quite match the second; mountains still stood there, but most had worn down to low hills.
“There are so many people over there,” Vanya whispered. As soon as they stepped onto the third level, they spotted a crowd gathered across the hills; many different races all in one place.
“Let’s go take a look,” Liu Wuxie said. He swept his gaze across the slope and saw almost no disciples of the Grand Unity Sect. For the past few days, the Grand Unity Sect had nearly vanished. They had to be planning something against him.
When the two of them pushed through the crowd, they saw a massive black pit with everyone ringed around it. From within came howling wind and bestial growls. The pit looked bottomless, and at times, faint black mist boiled up from below.
“What are you all looking at?” Vanya asked a nearby cultivator.
The cultivator flushed at Vanya’s beauty and quickly replied, “Demonwind Grass covers the edges of the pit. It’s an incredible alchemy ingredient.”
At the mention of Demonwind Grass, Liu Wuxie’s eyes narrowed. That herb was a true treasure, and only places of extreme yin and cold could produce it. Right now, he only has the Netherhell Flower and several auxiliary ingredients. Refining a pill with just that would still be difficult, but if he could obtain Demonwind Grass, his chances of success would rise sharply.
However, the reason no one dared to climb down was apparent. It had to be the pit. There wasn’t even a trace of the nether clan nearby. If the nether clan didn’t dare to approach it at all, that alone said how dangerous it was.
“Big Brother Liu, the Demonwind Grass would be useful to you, right?” Vanya asked, pointing at the black plants around the rim.
Liu Wuxie nodded. Most of the cultivators here were clearly after the Demonwind Grass, too.
A deep buzzing rolled up from the depths as bursts of violent wind blasted out of the pit, forcing everyone nearby to stagger back.
“What a powerful gale!” The blast hurled several of the weaker cultivators into the air. It felt like some ferocious beast was lurking in the black pit, waiting to strike.
Someone tossed a large boulder into the pit to test it. The instant it fell, low rumbles echoed from within like a buried earthquake.
“Quick, move back!” Liu Wuxie shouted as he grabbed Vanya and pulled her away. The moment they retreated, a savage gale blasted up from below and yanked several cultivators standing at the rim straight into the pit.
It happened in an instant. Three cultivators were torn into the darkness before anyone could even react.
“Did anyone see that? There was a giant claw in the middle of that vortex!” someone shouted. He’d caught a glimpse of a massive claw hidden in the raging wind.
“The Storm Beast,” Liu Wuxie murmured. He hadn’t expected a Storm Beast to be hiding in the pit.
“If it’s really a Storm Beast, we should leave immediately,” Vanya said. She understood how dangerous Storm Beasts were. They could command wind and call down rain with abilities no weaker than the dragon clan’s.
Storm Beasts carried the elements of wind and rain within them. Wherever one appeared, violent storms, thunderclouds, and torrential rain followed. Disaster always rode in with them.
Many years had passed since anyone had last seen a Storm Beast, and now someone had discovered one in the Netherworld.
“No need to hurry,” Liu Wuxie replied. “If you can refine it, your Doom Tempest and Wind Erosion Magic will both grow a lot stronger.”
He still needed Vanya’s help in the days to come. The Grand Unity Sect’s disappearance had him on edge, and his instincts made him more restless with each passing moment.
Though Vanya’s raw strength was comparable to the ninth-level Primal Origin Realm, her magic itself was only average and couldn’t match dark magic. Liu Wuxie had also grasped magical force, but his spell force still couldn’t rival that of the elven race.
“But the Storm Beast is too powerful, and we’re not its match,” Vanya said. She knew he was thinking of her, but she didn’t want Liu Wuxie risking his life. A powerful Storm Beast could rival the Void Realm, and staying there might just get them both killed.
“The Storm Beast has a fatal weakness,” Liu Wuxie said with a small smile. He knew he couldn’t overpower a Storm Beast head-on, but if he could find that weakness, he could strike by surprise.
Vanya’s eyes lit with admiration. They weren’t the only ones who had realized a Storm Beast lurked below; the other cultivators had figured it out, too.
What Liu Wuxie didn’t tell Vanya was that wherever a Storm Beast lived, there was always a Wind Spiritual Fruit nearby. If he could get it, he could use it to push himself up to the ninth-level Origin Conversion Realm.
Many experts there had also come for the Wind Spiritual Fruit. The Storm Beast itself wasn’t of much use to them. Based on the two elements it carried, only the elven race could properly comprehend both wind and rain.
The eyes of many cultivators at the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm gleamed. If they obtained the Wind Spiritual Fruit, they could break through to the Void Realm after leaving the Netherworld.
Many experts at the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm had entered the Myriad Race Ceremony with this exact aim of making a breakthrough. In just a few short months, many participants had already advanced to the Void Realm and were now in seclusion aboard their warships. Anyone who broke through to the Void Realm could no longer participate in the Myriad Race Ceremony, to keep things fair.
The Wind Spiritual Fruit wasn’t only valuable to humans. The other races coveted it just as much.
“I believe everyone knows what’s in this black pit. We should find a way to kill the Storm Beast, and whoever grabs the Wind Spiritual Fruit keeps it,” said an expert at the ninth-level Primal Origin Realm. He wasn’t from the Indigo Bamboo Star; he’d come from another planet.
When he swept his gaze across the crowd, everyone nodded in agreement. The treasure would naturally go to whoever was strong enough to take it.
“What he said makes sense. The Storm Beast looms massive, and the pit badly restricts its movement. This is the perfect time to kill it,” said another cultivator at the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm. With cultivation that high, their words carried more weight, and they also had the best odds of seizing the Wind Spiritual Fruit.
Several members of the faceless clan hid in the crowd and locked their gazes onto Liu Wuxie. The cursed energy inside him made them uneasy, as the divine race would feel before the ancestral tree, their natural nemesis.
The faceless clan was a cursed race, carrying powerful, cursed energy in their bodies. If Liu Wuxie wanted to cultivate the Great Curse Mythical Art, he would need to obtain Cursed Stones.
However, as far as anyone knew, no one had ever heard of Cursed Stones in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain. That meant the faceless clan itself had become his best source of cursed energy.
As the faceless clan stared at him, Liu Wuxie stared right back. After a few minutes, several temporary alliances formed. Groups began preparing to enter the black pit and hunt the Storm Beast. They hauled out specially made ropes, anchored them to nearby boulders, and five cultivators began descending. The violent gale still howled, and the five swung hard as they went down.
With the Ghost Eye piercing through the black mist, Liu Wuxie’s gaze reached the bottom. The pit was about a hundred meters deep, and everything below was pitch-black.
Shortly after, a group from the oceanic clans followed them. More cultivators kept descending, including several members of the faceless clan. Their bodies flickered and vanished into the pit without even needing ropes.
It didn’t take long before only a handful of people remained at the rim. The weaker cultivators didn’t dare to go down recklessly.
“Big Brother Liu, are we going down?” Vanya asked, tilting her head.
“Wait,” Liu Wuxie replied. He wasn’t in a hurry. The Storm Beast wasn’t easy to handle, and the underground space was cramped and inconvenient for fighting. Even the nether clan never came near this place, because they feared the Storm Beast.
A series of loud collisions rang out from the black pit as someone attacked it. The pit churned, the gale howled, and the sound of weapons clashing echoed from below, followed by screams. The Storm Beast had already killed someone.
The fighting raged for a few minutes, then cut off all at once.
“We’re going down now,” Liu Wuxie said. He grabbed Vanya and leaped into the pit. He didn’t drop too fast, and along the way, he even took the chance to pluck a few Demongrass Herbs.
Demongrass Herbs grew all along the pit walls. Some had already been stripped by those who had gone first, but there was still plenty left. The drop of just over 100 meters took about 10 seconds.
The moment Liu Wuxie’s feet hit the ground, darkness swallowed him. He activated the Ghost Eye to capture the details of their surroundings while Vanya clung to his clothes, holding tight so she wouldn’t lose him in the dark.
