Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1424 - Pinnacle Fight
Chapter 1424 – Pinnacle Fight
The ground shuddered in unison with the Auspicious Cloud Hall, and the Heavenly Dragon Sect disciples standing along the slope scattered in panic, fleeing to avoid being caught by the raging sword aura.
With one glance back, the Asura beholds all living souls, and hell offers no return. This was the Great Asura Sword’s true essence.
When Liu Wuxie’s sword fell, an invisible wave of power rippled out in all directions. The Undying Sword Intent surged like a swirling nebula, coiling tightly around Pei Hong. Metallic clashes rang out one after another, merging into a boundless tide of sound that swept across the sky.
Hua Feiyu lifted his hand and waved, dispersing all of the oncoming shockwaves as if they were nothing.
With a deafening rumble, the turbulent current in the sky exploded outward, and Pei Hong was blasted away from the battlefield, forced to revert to his human form. Blood stained the sky red.
Liu Wuxie clearly held the upper hand in their previous exchange.
When Pei Hong crashed down, he still managed to land steadily, but blood trickled from the corner of his lips. His face was frighteningly pale, but his life was not in immediate danger.
Liu Wuxie’s final sword had nearly shattered his sword-bone; if that bone had broken, he would have become a cripple who could never wield a sword again.
Liu Wuxie stood straight on the ground, and aside from a faint pallor, he appeared unharmed. The Quasi-Immortal Runes had already reforged his internal organs, and his physique had long reached a monstrous level.
Even so, if he had not broken through to the Void Realm beforehand, dealing with Pei Hong would have been far more troublesome.
“Thank you for the match,” Liu Wuxie said, cupping both hands together.
Even after winning, he showed not the slightest hint of arrogance. Pei Hong had only fallen short in his comprehension of the sword, and given more time, his sword dao would certainly advance by leaps and bounds.
Facing such a terrifying opponent was frightening in itself; a single misstep would leave anyone far behind in the dust.
“A loss is a loss. I don’t need your courtesy,” Pei Hong said. His temperament had always been like this.
Moments ago, he had swung his blade with the intent to kill Liu Wuxie. Even if someone granted him another chance, he would still try to take Liu Wuxie’s life without the slightest hesitation.
Liu Wuxie ignored Pei Hong’s cold reply and prepared to return the longsword to his senior brother. Through this duel, Pei Hong’s swordsmanship would certainly improve, but Liu Wuxie’s sword dao would also climb to an even higher level.
It would not be easy for Pei Hong to catch up to him. After today, Pei Hong could probably no longer qualify to stand as his opponent.
“Hold on!” A voice cut in just as Liu Wuxie was about to hand the sword back, and Song Siqi stepped out from the crowd.
“Song Siqi, you want to challenge my junior brother?” Sun Xiao questioned, deliberately stressing the word “challenge” to remind everyone that today was his junior brother’s apprenticeship ceremony. If the Grand Unity Sect continued to stir up trouble, they could not blame the Heavenly Dragon Sect for responding without mercy.
“It’s just a simple spar,” Song Siqi said as he ignored Sun Xiao and walked straight toward Liu Wuxie. His tone allowed no room for refusal, and his sword intent had already spread out, blanketing the arena.
“You’re at the Earth Immortal Realm, and you have the guts to challenge someone at the first-level Void Realm? If you want a fight, I’ll accompany you instead,” Sun Xiao said, stepping in front of Liu Wuxie as he prepared to take this battle upon himself.
After all, Sun Xiao was known as the Sword Immortal, standing at the terrifying fourth-level Earth Immortal Realm.
It was not that his talent was inferior; he had spent several years hunting blood fiends. He had sworn that he would not break through in cultivation until he slew one million blood fiends. Thanks to that oath, he ended up falling behind.
If they truly fought without restraint, Sun Xiao would not necessarily lose to Song Siqi, and given another year, he could catch up and reclaim what he had lost.
“I can suppress my cultivation to the Void Realm,” Song Siqi said. He had no interest in crossing swords with Sun Xiao; his gaze never left Liu Wuxie.
The Grand Unity Sect’s actions naturally drew the displeasure of the Heavenly Dragon Sect. The elders gathered together, glaring coldly at them and ready to strike at any moment if Song Siqi dared to step out of line. If that happened, the three representatives of the Grand Unity Sect could forget about leaving alive.
With the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s strength, it would not be difficult for them to keep the three of them here.
“Liu Wuxie, I admit that the Grand Unity Sect has done things poorly in the past, but I only wish to spar in sword arts with you. This has nothing to do with the feud between our sects,” Song Siqi said.
His obsession with swordsmanship surpassed even Pei Hong’s. When he witnessed the sword intent Liu Wuxie had displayed earlier, his blood boiled with fighting spirit. He had a strong feeling that if he did not cross swords with Liu Wuxie today, it would become the greatest regret of his life.
He even went so far as to acknowledge how poorly the Grand Unity Sect had behaved—using the Heavenly Primal Wheel during the Myriad Race Ceremony and colluding with other forces.
Even Song Siqi himself despised such methods.
However, the Grand Unity Sect did not move according to his will, and there was nothing he could change. At this moment, he was not standing here as a representative of the Grand Unity Sect, but as a swordsman challenging Liu Wuxie.
“Very well. I accept your challenge,” Liu Wuxie replied, and two distinct sword intents instantly clashed in the air between them.
“Junior Brother, you can’t!” Sun Xiao stepped forward to stop him. In his eyes, everyone from the Grand Unity Sect was despicable, and they would seize any chance to take Liu Wuxie’s life.
If anything were to go wrong, it would be too late to save him.
“I know what I’m doing,” Liu Wuxie said. He understood that his senior brother meant well, but he could only hope that Sun Xiao would trust his judgment.
“You…” Sun Xiao could only sigh helplessly, torn between fondness and exasperation whenever it came to this junior brother.
“You have just crossed swords with my junior brother, and I will wait for your true essence to recover before we fight,” Song Siqi said. He did not attack immediately but waited for Liu Wuxie to replenish his strength.
Although unleashing the Great Asura Sword had consumed a great deal of Liu Wuxie’s true essence, the expenditure was not beyond him. He took out an astral crystal and absorbed it on the spot, and the sight stirred greed in countless hearts.
Liu Wuxie had obtained two thousand astral crystals from the Blood Fiend Battlefield, and he had already refined more than three hundred of them.
“I’m ready,” Liu Wuxie said. He had fully recovered his true essence with a single astral crystal, and many onlookers twitched at the corner of their eyes, stunned by his recovery speed.
“Very well,” Song Siqi said, summoning his lifebound artifact, a crimson longsword.
The instant the sword appeared, crimson clouds gathered above him. Unlike Pei Hong’s oppressive aura, Song Siqi’s sword intent felt mild and harmless on the surface, but that only made it more dangerous.
“Please go ahead,” Liu Wuxie said, making an inviting gesture.
“I have already found the flaw in your Great Asura Sword. You’d better use a different sword technique,” Song Siqi said, openly declaring that he had already seen through the weakness in Liu Wuxie’s Great Asura Sword.
If Liu Wuxie continued to rely on that technique, there was a high chance he would lose.
Liu Wuxie paused for a brief moment, surprised that Song Siqi would be so forthright. It also proved that not everyone in the Grand Unity Sect harbored venomous intentions.
Still, Song Siqi alone couldn’t change the nature of an entire sect, unless he could one day stand at the same height as Liu Wuxie, where a single person’s influence could sway a sect’s direction.
Even so, many people knew that Song Siqi was far from simple. In his pursuit of the sword, he had even taken the life of the woman he loved the most.
“Since this is my senior brother’s sword, I’ll use the Divine Nine Suns Sword then,” Liu Wuxie said, switching sword arts without the slightest hesitation.
As soon as he spoke, the longsword in his hand let out a low hum. When Sun Xiao forged this sword, he had infused the Divine Nine Suns Stone into it, making it the perfect vessel for the Divine Nine Suns Sword.
When Sun Xiao heard that his junior brother was about to perform the Divine Nine Suns Sword, his eyes lit up with anticipation. His own comprehension of that sword art had hit a bottleneck, which he hadn’t been able to shatter for a long time now.
He wondered whether Liu Wuxie had already grasped a higher level of its mysteries.
Once the two of them took their positions, a silent confrontation of sword intents began.
“I have used the Sky Soaring Sword four times in my life, and they all took the lives of my opponents without exception. I will restrain my power as much as I can to ensure that I won’t hurt you too badly,” Song Siqi said, raising his sword as he suppressed his cultivation to the pinnacle of the Void Realm.
If he were to unleash the Sky Soaring Sword with his full strength at the fourth-level Earth Immortal Realm, a single strike would be enough to inflict grievous injuries to Liu Wuxie, but he disdained winning in such a way.
Those who walked the sword path possessed a proud heart, and their souls mirrored their blades—upright and unyielding. This was why Pei Hong’s sword dao had gone astray.
“This is the first time I’m using the Divine Nine Suns Sword,” Liu Wuxie replied and raised his sword again.
When everyone heard that this would be Liu Wuxie’s first time executing the Divine Nine Suns Sword, shock flashed across their faces.
Many wondered if he had gone insane, daring to test out a first attempt against a swordsman like Song Siqi.
However, Song Siqi did not dare to underestimate him. If his guess was correct, Liu Wuxie had likely also executed the Great Asura Sword for the first time earlier.
There was no violent eruption of sword aura between them—only a pure and focused contest of swordsmanship. They set aside everything else, turning this into a peak duel between swords.
Compared to this, Liu Wuxie’s earlier fight with Pei Hong had been nothing more than a clash of sword arts.
As the sword intent between them rose higher and higher, it felt like an invisible mountain was pressing down on everyone present.
“What terrifying pressure!” Even those who had retreated ten thousand meters away could feel the crushing weight bearing down on them.
Experts at the Heaven Gaze Realm raised their hands again, expanding the barrier to keep the coming shockwaves from leaking out.
Liu Wuxie and Song Siqi’s robes fluttered wildly as they waited. Their sword momentum was still building up and had yet to reach its peak.
Rumors claimed that when someone unleashed the Sky Soaring Sword, it would tear open the heavens, darken the sun, and sweep across the earth with unstoppable force.
Liu Wuxie’s expression grew solemn. This was the first time he had ever felt such immense pressure. He activated Ghost Eye and immediately noticed that even the surrounding air currents seemed to have slowed down.
He had no intention of using Ghost Eye to peer into the profundity of Song Siqi’s sword art. Instead, he activated it to mobilize his soul energy better. With his three Divine Gates opened, his divine force already rivaled that of cultivators at the pinnacle of the Void Realm.
Two vortexes formed between them, drawing in all of the spiritual energy within the Heavenly Dragon Sect.
When Jian Yiming’s gaze landed on his chief disciple, he nodded with satisfaction. He knew that Song Siqi had spent years searching for an equal opponent, challenging countless swordsmen only to find most of them unworthy of their reputations.
Today, his eyes shone with a different light when he looked at Liu Wuxie—the very same look Song Siqi revealed whenever he faced a true equal.
Their swords moved so slowly that it almost seemed as if they had not moved at all. Then, the next instant, both figures vanished with blinding speed. No one could see how they disappeared. Their movement had transcended ordinary footwork, slipping into a realm akin to space, with their sword arts woven seamlessly into every step.
“So that’s the Sky Soaring Sword?”
Song Siqi’s figure gradually rose into the sky, making him look like a Sword Immortal wrapped in white radiance. It was no wonder he had gained such a title.
Liu Wuxie also vanished from the ground and reappeared high above.
“Divine Nine Suns Slash!”
A powerful sword aura fell from the heavens without any unnecessary flourish, converging the power of nine suns into a single strike. A cultivator could condense the Nine Suns Sword Aura only by fusing nine extreme yang materials.
