Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1316 - Purgatory Lotus
Chapter 1316 – Purgatory Lotus
Cultivators all across the island were prying apart large boulders without exception. Vanya approached a race that maintained a decent relationship with the elven race and directed her question to them.
“The Purgatory Lotus. Don’t you know about it?” the cultivator replied warmly to Vanya.
Vanya returned to Liu Wuxie’s side to report what she had heard, and the two of them sat together on A’Lei’s shoulders.
“That’s good stuff. If I can get the Purgatory Lotus and combine it with the Netherhell Flower and Demonwind Grass, I’ll basically have all the main ingredients I need,” Liu Wuxie whispered.
He couldn’t afford any mistakes in the alchemy event. He had to keep getting good results if he wanted the right to negotiate with the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s upper echelons.
“In that case, let’s join the search, too,” Vanya said, anxious for Liu Wuxie. With so many cultivators on the island and only one Purgatory Lotus, finding it would come down to luck.
“No hurry,” Liu Wuxie said, shaking his head. The Purgatory Lotus was a strange herb that could slip underground, leaving almost no trace behind.
He executed Ghost Eye, and his gaze pierced several kilometers in every direction. Even after scanning through layers of stone, he couldn’t find any sign of the Purgatory Lotus.
“A’Lei, head to the west side of the island,” Liu Wuxie said.
A’Lei nodded and walked in the direction Liu Wuxie had indicated. Even though the Netherworld had no natural sense of direction, Liu Wuxie had his own method. Vegetation always grew thickest to the west of every island.
A heavier black miasma shrouded that side, creating ideal conditions for the Netherworld’s vegetation to thrive.
Countless vines tangled together ahead of them, blocking the path. With A’Lei’s size, however, those vines were reduced to shredded roots. Even though this side of the island had denser vegetation, almost no cultivators had come this way.
“Liu Wuxie went over there! Let’s follow him,” someone whispered.
Recently, rumors had spread that wherever Liu Wuxie went, treasure would follow. When Liu Wuxie claimed first place in the first two events, people claimed he carried great fortune. After the Wind Spiritual Fruit incident, everyone treated Liu Wuxie like a walking compass.
Just as Liu Wuxie reached the western side of the island, more than twenty divinekin appeared.
“Hurry up! We have to kill him before the Divine Son finds out,” Shi Luo said, sweeping his gaze over his companions. Everyone nodded and moved in the direction Liu Wuxie had taken.
The island was massive to everyone else, but to the giant clan, it was only a small hill.
“Young Master Liu, it’s a dead end up ahead,” A’Lei said. If they went any farther, they’d leave the forest and reach the shore again.
“Vanya, set up a spiritual array,” Liu Wuxie said. His main goal was to keep the Purgatory Lotus from escaping. The Purgatory Lotus could move freely underground, and the best way to stop it was with a spiritual array.
Vanya had learned spiritual arrays from Liu Wuxie.
She took out a few flags and planted them around the area. In the span of a single breath, a trapping spiritual array unfolded. It didn’t just seal the surface but also extended dozens of meters underground.
The Purgatory Lotus could only burrow about ten meters at most before reaching its limit.
Liu Wuxie activated Ghost Eye again, swept his gaze outward, and then he vanished as he bolted toward a large tree in the distance.
Many cultivators had already gathered in that direction, watching the area closely. They had been searching for a full day and night, but they still couldn’t find the Purgatory Lotus. Someone had spotted it yesterday, but by the time they tried to grab it, it had already slipped underground.
Liu Wuxie struck, and a massive tree flew into the air, ripped out by the roots. The instant the tree lifted, the Purgatory Lotus appeared. It didn’t even look like a plant; it looked like a tiny human. When Liu Wuxie reached for it, the Purgatory Lotus dove underground and fled.
Everyone nearby saw it clearly.
“How did Liu Wuxie know the Purgatory Lotus was under that tree?” the surrounding cultivators muttered in confusion. They had practically turned the island upside down and still couldn’t find it.
Liu Wuxie had been here for less than an hour and had already found it.
“That brat definitely has some secret that lets him detect treasures,” said a cultivator at the Primal Origin Realm, grinding his teeth in fury.
“We’ll wait until he pulls out the Purgatory Lotus. We’ll snatch it out of his hands,” sneered a member of the oceanic clan. The gills at the sides of his neck pulsed, releasing a string of bubbles. The fourth level of the Netherworld practically catered to the oceanic clan. They could draw on the surrounding water to fight.
Liu Wuxie didn’t rush. He walked forward step by step, steady as if he were strolling through a courtyard. Then, he suddenly stopped and unleashed the Dragon-Grasping Hand, conjuring a massive dragon claw that drove into the ground.
The movement caught everyone off guard. No one understood what he was trying to do until the dragon claw tore back out of the ground and the Purgatory Lotus appeared in his hand.
“H-He actually caught the Purgatory Lotus!” the crowd exclaimed. They all knew that even if they extended their divine senses underground, tracking the Purgatory Lotus remained tedious. It was always on the move, and their divine senses couldn’t keep up with its speed.
Liu Wuxie curled his lips and stored the Purgatory Lotus in his interspatial ring.
“Liu Wuxie, hand over the Purgatory Lotus!” members of the oceanic clan shouted as they stepped forward. The dark water around the island began to roar as strange figures surged up from it and charged toward Liu Wuxie from all directions.
Neither the human race nor the abyssal race moved.
Liu Wuxie glanced at the oceanic clan with a cold smirk. His eyes held no emotion. He dismissed them outright; they weren’t a threat to him. Instead, he looked past them into the distance.
“The divine race. You’re finally here,” he said.
When everyone followed Liu Wuxie’s gaze, they saw twenty-four divinekin approaching in unison. The other humans nearby immediately began to retreat the moment they saw the divinekin.
The divine energy of the divine race restrained the true essence humans used, and no human wanted to oppose them. Even the abyssal race feared the divine race. They withdrew as well and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Only the oceanic clan refused to give up. Their combat strength had already surged to more than twice its normal level, and it was thanks to the surrounding water supporting them.
The other races that had withdrawn lingered about a hundred meters away.
“This is weird. Didn’t the divine race give up on killing Liu Wuxie?” someone asked aloud. People began to wonder if the divine race had abandoned their agreement.
Back in the blacksmithing event, Liu Wuxie had relied on the Icebound Expanse Array to kill more than a hundred divinekin. Afterward, the Divine Son and Liu Wuxie agreed to a duel one year from now.
“They probably did it behind the Divine Son’s back. Liu Wuxie’s growing too fast, and the divine race feels threatened,” another cultivator said.
Some of the sharper ones realized these divinekin had come after Liu Wuxie without the Divine Son’s approval.
When the divinekin approached, their eyes locked on Liu Wuxie. No one spoke. Both sides already understood the situation. Only Liu Wuxie and the divine race knew about the Ancestral Tree, and both sides understood they couldn’t coexist.
“You’ve finally come,” Liu Wuxie said.
He had an agreement with the Divine Son, but he never truly believed the divine race would leave him alone for an entire year.
The Divine Son had agreed, but it didn’t mean everyone else in the divine race would agree. The Divine Son held a high status, but he still couldn’t command the entire race.
“Divinekin, leave! This brat is ours,” said a member of the oceanic clan, demanding that the divine race back off.
Shi Luo turned and stared at the oceanic clan’s commander. He released a terrifying surge of divine energy through his eyes. Divine energy wasn’t only the nemesis of human true essence; it also suppressed the oceanic clan.
Shi Luo’s stare immediately shattered the oceanic clan’s confidence and crushed their aura. No race was willing to offend the divine race.
Shi Luo pulled his gaze away from the oceanic clan and turned back to Liu Wuxie.
“Liu Wuxie, there’s nothing else to say. Only one of us will walk away alive today,” he said.
The twenty-four divinekin quickly spread out, forming a ring around Liu Wuxie.
Before they could even get close, A’Lei stepped forward and killed a divinekin with a single punch, relying on sheer brute force. His physical strength was terrifying. Along the way, Liu Wuxie had been teaching him how to temper his physique.
Even though Liu Wuxie didn’t fully understand the giant clan, the Heavenly Dao Book could refine and perfect any race’s cultivation techniques.
The roots of the Ancestral Tree emerged and spread through the air, and a Divine Fruit began to form on one of its branches. The sight enraged the divinekin, who hadn’t expected Liu Wuxie to have companions.
“Giant, you dare stand against us? Do you know what it means to offend the divine race?!” Shi Luo roared. His divine energy surged and swept across the entire island as he glared at A’Lei.
Just then, Vanya attacked. She unleashed the Doom Tempest, which instantly shredded the surrounding trees, and the vortex it formed ripped three divinekin to pieces.
The Ancestral Tree’s branches kept extending, absorbing the lingering energy in the air and condensing it into Divine Fruits. In less than a breath, the divine race had already lost four people.
“All together!” Shi Luo shouted. He summoned a spear into his hand and charged straight at Liu Wuxie.
A’Lei moved to step in, but Liu Wuxie stopped him.
“You handle the small fry,” Liu Wuxie said. He charged forward and threw a punch at Shi Luo. Shi Luo’s cultivation was high, comparable to the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm.
A deafening explosion rang out, and a powerful shockwave swept through the area, blasting spectators hundreds of meters away and knocking them off their feet.
“What terrifying power! He’s only at the ninth-level Origin Conversion Realm, but he just withstood an attack from someone at the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm!”
In that moment, everyone understood the extent of Liu Wuxie’s monstrous combat strength.
“How is he doing this? His laws and true essence are even stronger than those of cultivators at the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm,” a cultivator at the pinnacle of the Primal Origin Realm exclaimed. Shock twisted his face. He couldn’t accept what he was seeing.
That realization hit especially hard for the people in the crowd who had planned to act against Liu Wuxie. Only now did they understand how laughable they had been.
If Liu Wuxie wanted to kill them, they would already be dead. Blood trickled from the corner of Shi Luo’s lips.
Back in the blacksmithing event, Liu Wuxie had only been at the fifth-level Origin Conversion Realm, and he was someone they thought they could crush with a wave of the hand. At that time, he only survived the divine race’s ambush thanks to a spiritual array.
Now, he had grown beyond anything they imagined.
Even without arrays, killing him had become difficult for the divine race.
A’Lei and A’Li attacked the surrounding divinekin and blasted them into the air. The two giants weren’t unscathed, as the divinekin’s attacks left them covered in hundreds of wounds.
