Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1437 - Exchange

Chapter 1437 – Exchange

Since Han Feizi said the city was haunted, he clearly had his reasons, and he would never speak so carelessly.

“Brother Liu, this city isn’t simple. We have to be careful,” Han Feizi said, but he left it at that. It was apparent he had discovered something, yet he still wasn’t certain for the time being.

“It’s not just simple,” Liu Wuxie replied with a wry smile. He activated Ghost Eye, letting his gaze pierce through Nightmare City, and what he saw was far more detailed than Han Feizi could perceive.

“Can you two stop being mysterious? What’s so strange about this city?” Qiao Bian demanded, glaring at them. No matter how he looked, the city seemed normal to him.

“The strange thing is that you won’t feel anything strange about this city,” Han Feizi replied. Now that they were fellow martial brothers, they had stayed in touch and maintained their bond.

The city was so quiet it felt unnatural. It didn’t sway or shake in the slightest despite floating in the air. Even cultivators at the pinnacle of the Earth Immortal Realm couldn’t sense anything off, so it was only natural that Qiao Bian, with his cultivation at the Primal Origin Realm, sensed nothing.

“For some reason, this city feels like a giant artifact to me,” Qiao Bian suddenly said.

Liu Wuxie and Han Feizi halted at the same time and turned to stare at Qiao Bian.

“So, you’ve noticed it, too,” Han Feizi responded, his eyes lighting up. He hadn’t expected Qiao Bian to sense it as well.

“My master once told me that the Seven-Fiend was one of the fourteen stars in Emperor Star Astrology…

“The Emperor Star, Heavenly Mechanism, Sun, Martial Star, Heavenly Unity, Wicked Star, Heavenly Treasure, Moon, Greedy Wolf, Giant Gate, Heavenly Phase, Heavenly Beam, Seven-Fiend, and Military Breaker.

“Look at the surroundings—those Seven-Fiendish Netherworld Chains might actually be locking onto fourteen points around the city,” Qiao Bian explained, sharing what he had inferred.

“Carry on,” Liu Wuxie said with a nod.

Ever since Qiao Bian became Elder Long’s disciple, his growth had been rapid. Aside from guiding his cultivation, Elder Long had imparted a great deal of knowledge to him.

“Besides the Seven-Fiend, there’s also the General Star that governs slaughter. Look at the center of the city. Doesn’t it resemble a rising star? That’s why I suspect this city might be a Seven-Fiendish Artifact that someone had sealed here,” Qiao Bian added.

This time, Han Feizi fell silent, still fumbling through the mysteries of the city himself.

The three of them turned their gazes toward the central region and saw a circular building hovering in the sky, surrounded by a massive plaza. That spot was where the trade took place every year, and it was also their current destination.

If Qiao Bian’s speculation proved correct, then Nightmare City was far from simple.

“I share the same thoughts as Brother Qiao’s. No one in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain can trace when Nightmare City first appeared, and the Seven-Fiendish Nightmare Chains have bound it ever since explorers first discovered it. No one knows who it belongs to,” Han Feizi said.

From the earliest records, they only knew that Nightmare City had no owner. Everything else was mere speculation. That alone seemed strange, as people in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain could usually trace even an abandoned planet back to its origins.

The fact that such a powerful city had appeared out of nowhere and existed for millions of years without a single clue was truly bizarre.

“Forget it. Let’s not worry about that for now. Nightmare City has existed here for countless years, and there’s no meaning in wild speculation,” Liu Wuxie interjected when he noticed cultivators around them looking their way.

The three of them had been communicating through divine sense, but their expressions kept shifting between shock, confusion, and deep thought.

They shelved their suspicions for now and walked through several streets until they reached the area Zhuge Ming had designated for them.

“Don’t go into the shops. Those places make it easier for evil spirits to hide. We’ll just stay gathered in the plaza. Firstly, there is safety in numbers, and evil spirits also fear sunlight,” Zhuge Ming said, warning everyone.

As long as sunlight shone down on the plaza, evil spirits wouldn’t dare to appear; the sunlight essentially guaranteed everyone’s safety. Even if a few evil spirits lurked nearby, they wouldn’t pose much threat to human cultivators.

Everyone nodded to show they understood. The plaza was enormous, capable of holding tens of thousands of people at once.

Just as Qiao Bian had mentioned earlier, a strange circular building hovered at the center of the plaza. It floated in the air, unbound. In truth, it resembled a spherical object more than a building, with no windows or doors, almost like a self-contained existence.

The various sects quickly moved to their usual spots. This wasn’t their first time here, and over the years, an unspoken arrangement had formed—the first-tier sects occupied the areas closest to the center, second-tier sects took the next ring, and so on, radiating outward.

The Heavenly Dao Society had no reputation, and this was their first time in Nightmare City, so they had no reserved territory. The organizers placed them on the outer edge of the plaza.

Zhuge Ming, however, felt no concern for Liu Wuxie’s safety. Elder Jian was lurking in the shadows to protect Liu Wuxie and could rush over immediately at any sign of danger.

Once they settled, Bi Gongyu and the others began setting up their booth. They didn’t display any pills, spiritual array runes, artifact runes, or talisman runes just yet. For the first half of the month, the plaza functioned as a free-exchange market between everyone. Only in the second half would each sect formally showcase its products to the public.

“The sandstorm is starting to weaken,” Luo Hai said, sighing as he gazed at the long belt of sandstorm in the distance.

A long belt of sandstorm separated the Indigo Bamboo and Spirit Martial Astral Domains. It wasn’t an ordinary storm but a turbulent zone formed by countless meteorites. Anyone who entered would find those meteorites lethally dangerous.

Most terrifying of all, the storm hid countless erratic currents, and a single misstep could sweep even Earth Immortals away, leaving them no way to escape.

Over the years, countless cultivators had perished within that sandstorm. A rumor claimed that a river of bones flowed within, formed from innumerable skeletons.

As the sandstorm weakened, it signaled that cultivators from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain would soon arrive. The Spirit Martial Astral Domain’s structure differed from that of the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain, and the resources they sought were different as well.

They favored pills containing soul energy more than pills that simply increased cultivation. In particular, they were fond of Soul Stones and Wisdom Stones.

However, if they wanted to trade for such treasures, they also needed to offer goods of equivalent value.

Liu Wuxie owned neither Soul Stones nor Wisdom Stones. Wisdom Stones could only be found on Avatar Star, but their yearly output was minimal.

The Heavenly Dragon Sect had brought many Wisdom Stones this time to trade with cultivators from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain.

Meanwhile, Soul Stones were produced on a planet under the Grand Unity Sect’s control, much like how the Heavenly Dragon Sect controlled the production of Wisdom Stones.

The two types of stones were similar in function, but Wisdom Stones were slightly superior. After all, Wisdom Stones could not only expand the soul sea but also enhance a person’s wisdom.

On the other hand, Soul Stones only increased soul energy and couldn’t expand the soul sea.

Even so, absorbing a single Wisdom Stone or two wouldn’t do much.

Liu Wuxie himself needed to consume over a hundred before he noticed a significant effect.

Of course, if an ordinary person were to absorb that many, their soul sea would explode.

The Heavenly Dragon Sect lacked Soul Stones and Wisdom Stones, but they had Soul Pills.

Upon learning about Nightmare City, Liu Wuxie immediately ordered an investigation into which products cultivators were seeking to purchase recently.

When he learned that Soul Stones, Wisdom Stones, and specific rare stones topped the list, Liu Wuxie developed the Soul Pill. Its value was in no way inferior to those two stones, and its effects were immediately noticeable.

After all, Soul Stones and Wisdom Stones contained impurities that cultivators had to temper away, whereas a Soul Pill let them increase soul energy by consuming it directly.

Soul Pills would serve as the Heavenly Dao Society’s flagship product for this trip, and Bi Gongyu had refined tens of thousands of them. The pills themselves weren’t very high-grade, and their ingredients weren’t scarce. They required only a single Soul Yang Herb.

The Soul Yang Herb’s growth was unimaginably slow, taking one month to mature.

To refine Soul Pills, Liu Wuxie had practically swept up every Soul Yang Herb available in Mount Dragon City.

By the second day, the sandstorm had weakened even further, almost coming to a complete stop. At that point, cultivators could enter Nightmare City without even using an interstellar teleportation array.

If cultivators from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain wanted to enter the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain through an interstellar teleportation array, they had to return to Nightmare City first, which wasted a great deal of time.

Traveling directly to Nightmare City through the sandstorm saved them time and made it easier to return home.

“Someone’s coming,” Luo Hai said excitedly. It was his first time seeing cultivators from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain.

When the first cultivator from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain descended onto the city, Luo Hai couldn’t hide his disappointment.

“So, they look the same as us,” Luo Hai pouted, drawing a burst of laughter from those nearby.

Humans were the dominant race in the four major astral domains, aside from the Blood Fiend Astral Domain.

However, the Spirit Martial Astral Domain was different. Humans weren’t its only rulers; countless other races coexisted with them.

One after another, more cultivators from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain descended. It didn’t take long for Liu Wuxie to spot a man with a pair of black wings on his back, his entire body covered in feathers.

“The Spirit Clan?” Liu Wuxie murmured, but he quickly shook his head. The Spirit Clan’s wings were white, and this birdman clearly had nothing to do with them.

“A minotaur!” Xiao Luo exclaimed, staring at a towering figure with a bull’s head in astonishment. The sight of trolls, kobolds, and many other strange races kept shattering everyone’s understanding.

Aside from the first cultivator, who looked like a normal human, the ones who followed all had bizarre appearances. It was no wonder they didn’t want to use the interstellar teleportation array to travel to the Indigo Bamboo Star.

Just their appearance alone would cause endless trouble. Traveling through the sandstorm was their best option.

At first, everyone felt curious and found the experience novel. But as more and more arrived, they gradually grew accustomed to the newcomers.

The cultivators from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain scanned their surroundings the moment they landed. Some had visited before, while most were here for the first time. In a single day, five thousand cultivators arrived from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain, but the number of newcomers gradually decreased afterward.

Liu Wuxie recognized a few of the races, but many of them were unfamiliar. They were likely native to the Spirit Martial Astral Domain, with no presence even in the Fleeting Cloud Celestial Realm.

“This is interesting. The Spirit Martial Astral Domain’s cultivators actually specialize in soul energy,” Liu Wuxie muttered.

As soon as they appeared, he noticed that each one possessed powerful soul energy, and it wasn’t surprising that they needed Soul Stones and Wisdom Stones. Only those two treasures could further strengthen their soul energy, after all.