Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1439 - Testing Pill

Chapter 1439 – Testing Pill

What had seemed like a brainless provocation from the Divine Alchemy Sect was, in truth, a scheme they had laid out long in advance. Their true objective was to choke off the Heavenly Dao Society’s growth before it could truly begin.

The Grand Unity Sect and the Divine Alchemy Sect had already decided that they would not allow the Heavenly Dao Society to secure a foothold in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.

The Heavenly Dragon Sect could not shield them much, and the Heavenly Dao Society would ultimately have to claw its way up by its own strength.

A moment ago, no one could understand why experts at the pinnacle of the Void Realm would lower themselves to mock Liu Wuxie like clowns, but everyone now realized that the Divine Alchemy Sect had deliberately set up this scene to enrage the Heavenly Dao Society.

Their move instantly forced Liu Wuxie into a dilemma. If he accepted the bet, the Divine Alchemy Sect would merely suffer humiliation if they lost, but if he failed, the Heavenly Dao Society would lose its chance to establish itself in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.

“Are you people so confident that these ‘mud pellets’ can’t be sold?” Liu Wuxie looked at the Divine Alchemy Sect’s party with a leisurely smile. How could he not see through their ulterior motives?

“Liu Wuxie, cut the crap. Just tell us if you dare to take on the bet,” Zhang Li said in an annoyed tone. Since this was a wager, both sides would have to swear an oath, and whoever lacked the courage to accept it would have to shut their mouths.

Refusing would still send Liu Wuxie straight into their trap.

“Since you people are in such a hurry to have your faces slapped, I’ll oblige you. But I’ll add another of my conditions. If these ‘mud pellets’ sell like hotcakes, all three of you will have to kneel and bark like a dog,” Liu Wuxie said as his gaze turned razor-sharp, murderous intent spilling from his eyes.

Feng He stood at the pinnacle of the Earth Immortal Realm, yet his heart still skipped a beat when he met Liu Wuxie’s icy stare.

Even so, they had already gone this far, and there was no longer any path of retreat. If they were to back off now, the Divine Alchemy Sect would become a laughingstock.

Since they were the ones who had provoked Liu Wuxie first, how could they back down? In their eyes, this was the best opportunity to get rid of Liu Wuxie once and for all.

If the Heavenly Dao Society collapsed, Liu Wuxie would once again become just another ordinary disciple of the Heavenly Dragon Sect.

Hua Feiyu would then have no reason to assign powerful experts to watch over him, and the Grand Unity Sect could use that chance to strike directly at the Heavenly Dragon Sect.

Both the Grand Unity Sect and the Divine Alchemy Sect could already see how terrifying the Heavenly Dao Society would become once it matured.

When that time came, they wouldn’t just be dealing with Liu Wuxie alone, but an entire force backing him.

This time, it was Feng He’s turn to hesitate. He stood as a dignified expert at the pinnacle of the Earth Immortal Realm; if anyone forced him to kneel and bark like a dog, the Divine Alchemy Sect would become a laughingstock across the entire Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain overnight.

More experts from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain gathered outside the booth, watching the spectacle with interest. Most of them couldn’t help glancing at the “mud pellets” laid out before Liu Wuxie.

Many pairs of eyes lit up the moment they saw them. Even so, they held themselves back from stepping forward as the argument was still ongoing.

“Elder Feng, what are you afraid of? Just agree to it! These mud pellets look nothing extraordinary without any spiritual energy or soul energy leaking out from them,” many people jeered from the crowd, goading Feng He into accepting the wager.

No one noticed that Qiao Bian and Han Feizi were fanning the flames from within the crowd, and more and more voices joined in to pressure the Divine Alchemy Sect into agreeing.

Feng He continued to wrestle with the decision until a quiet voice reached his ear. Several elders from the Grand Unity Sect had appeared not far away, observing the entire confrontation.

“Very well, but let’s set a time limit to it. If you fail to sell a hundred of them in two hours, it will be considered your loss,” Feng He added. Cunning as a fox, he refused to give the Heavenly Dao Society unlimited time to sell.

“Two hours? Is he insane?” Many faces twisted in shock. The Divine Alchemy Sect had sold just over a hundred pills in an entire day, and expecting the Heavenly Dao Society to move a hundred ‘mud pellets’ in two hours seemed utterly impossible. No matter how they looked at it, the Heavenly Dao Society drew the short straw.

“Liu Wuxie, don’t agree to it!” several disciples from sects friendly with the Heavenly Dragon Sect shouted, hoping he would keep his cool.

Even if the “mud pellets” had outstanding effects, selling a hundred in two hours was an enormous challenge. While two hours sounded long, buyers still needed time to test the pills’ effects, unlike the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s Wisdom Stones, which people could trade directly without testing.

The Divine Alchemy Sect sold many types of pills, and cultivators from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain would test every pill before deciding whether to buy. Under ideal circumstances, testing alone could take at least an hour, leaving Liu Wuxie with barely an hour to complete the sales.

If the cultivators from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain spent another hour hesitating after testing, the Heavenly Dao Society would probably not sell a single pill.

On the surface, Feng He had accepted the bet, but in reality, he had driven Liu Wuxie straight to the edge of a cliff.

Qiao Bian and Han Feizi both wore worried looks. They naturally believed in the pills’ effectiveness, but the time constraint was another matter entirely.

“Let’s begin,” Liu Wuxie said, just as everyone expected him to refuse.

Both sides swore their oaths, and the wager officially took effect.

If Liu Wuxie ended up losing, no one in the alchemy world would ever allow the Heavenly Dao Society to touch the market again. If the Divine Alchemy Sect ended up losing, the three of them would have to kneel and bark like dogs for a full day.

“Liu Wuxie has gone insane!” Many could not even find a suitable word to describe him. Numerous cultivators had already probed the “mud pellets” with their divine senses, yet none discovered anything remarkable.

Then again, that wasn’t strange; no one had ever intended these pills for cultivators of the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain, so it was natural that they couldn’t detect anything special.

The crowd slowly backed away, leaving a vast open space around Liu Wuxie so they wouldn’t interfere with whatever happened next.

Feng He and his companions stood a short distance away, grinning as they watched. The Grand Unity Sect’s elders had set the two-hour time limit.

Ten minutes passed, and still not a single cultivator from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain stepped up.

Bi Gongyu, Lan Yu, and the others grew increasingly anxious, but they could only grit their teeth, as Liu Wuxie had ordered them not to say a word. He insisted that true quality did not require hawking.

Liu Wuxie sat cross-legged, eyes closed, his expression utterly calm.

“Let’s see how long he can keep pretending. When two hours are up, I’ll make sure he begs for death,” Zhang Li sneered. The calmer Liu Wuxie acted, the more furious he became; if Liu Wuxie had been roaring in anger, he would have found it far more pleasing.

An old man clad in a cyan windbreaker finally stepped out. He belonged to the first group of cultivators from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain that had entered Nightmare City.

He walked toward Liu Wuxie’s booth step by step, frowning as he studied the hundreds of “mud pellets” laid out on the table.

As soon as the old man approached, Bi Gongyu instinctively tried to rise and offer a greeting, but Liu Wuxie reached out to stop him.

Liu Wuxie believed that true products spoke for themselves; if someone could not recognize them, even half a day of explanations would be pointless.

The other booths tried their best to promote their products to the cultivators of the Spirit Martial Astral Domain, eager to persuade them to buy.

The Spirit Martial Astral Domain’s cultivation system differed significantly from that of the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain. They cultivated soul energy as their primary strength while treating true essence as secondary.

Liu Wuxie was undoubtedly the first to sell his wares in this manner, and his attitude was seen as arrogant by many.

Even the Grand Unity Sect, with all its prestige, would still make an effort to promote its wares when customers approached.

The old man’s cultivation was extremely high, his soul energy powerful enough to rival the pinnacle of the Earth Immortal Realm. Most importantly, immortal runes had already taken shape within his soul sea.

This alone confirmed that the Spirit Martial Astral Domain was anything but simple, and their overall strength likely did not lose out to the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.

Liu Wuxie had not set a fixed price for the “mud pellets,” which meant anyone who wished to purchase them would have to produce something of equivalent value.

At the Divine Alchemy Sect’s booth, ten pills cost a single astral crystal, which still earned them a respectable profit when compared to their costs.

Many onlookers privately guessed that the entire pile of ‘mud pellets’ in front of Liu Wuxie might be worth a mere hundred astral stones at best.

The old man picked up one of the mud pellets and brought it toward his nose, giving it a light sniff as a strange gleam flashed across his eyes. The moment he inhaled its scent, he felt his soul sea stir restlessly.

The other cultivators from the Spirit Martial Astral Domain noticed it as well, but none of them wanted to be the first to act, so they continued to watch in silence.

“May I try one?” the old man asked, raising his head to look at Liu Wuxie.

“You can, but you’ll need to pay with something of equal value,” Liu Wuxie said, and his answer left countless people speechless.

Every other booth offered free samples for customers to test. If the effects proved satisfactory, then the buyers would decide whether to purchase.

Liu Wuxie, however, refused to hand out free samples. Anyone who wanted to test the pill would have to pay with something of corresponding value.

A chorus of stunned coughs and splutters echoed around them, and even Zhuge Ming could only smile wryly at the sight. No one had any idea what Liu Wuxie was trying to do.

The old man also froze for a heartbeat, clearly not expecting such a reply. Yet Liu Wuxie hadn’t completely backed him into a corner—he had only said that the price would depend on the pill’s effect.

In other words, if the pill turned out to be useless, the old man could toss down a single astral stone and walk away. If he felt it was worth more, they could negotiate a fair price.

The initiative lay entirely in the old man’s hands; Liu Wuxie refused to give away benefits for nothing.

“This Liu Wuxie is a madman. Does he have something wrong with his head? Is he trying to push himself toward ruin?” Even cultivators who supported Liu Wuxie could not help but sigh and shake their heads.

“This brat is arrogant, and he’s finally going to fall today.” More people gloated at Liu Wuxie as a portion of the allotted time slipped by without a single mud pellet sold. Now that someone finally wanted to give it a try, Liu Wuxie actually insisted on charging him.

The old man hesitated briefly, but he tightened his grip around the mud pellet.

“Very well,” he said, giving Liu Wuxie a long look. “I will pay you with something of equal value after I test the effects of this pill.”

“Please, go ahead,” Liu Wuxie said, lifting a hand in a casual gesture for the old man to proceed.

“Senior, you should think twice. That pill might be poisonous,” Zhang Li said, stepping forward with a tone full of false concern.

“That’s right. So many people refused to give it a try, and it’s best if you don’t take the risk,” Wang Lai added, with only one purpose in mind—to stall for time.

One third of the time had already vanished, and if they could drag this out a little longer, there would barely be any time left for Liu Wuxie to sell his pills even if they proved effective.

However, the old man completely ignored them and swallowed the pill in one go. At his level, how could a few words affect his decisions? The moment he picked up the pill, he already knew he had stumbled onto something extraordinary.

The pills he bought from other booths produced only ordinary results, causing barely any stir in his soul sea. When he merely held this mud pellet, his soul sea roared, and he immediately sensed something special within it. Of course, he still needed to test it himself to uncover its true secret.

His reasoning aligned perfectly with Liu Wuxie’s.

If the pill proved valuable, then testing it naturally came with a price. There were no free lunches in this world, after all. Only goods that no one could sell needed free samples and marketing tricks to catch attention.