Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1466 - A Massive Plan
Chapter 1466 – A Massive Plan
Without Liu Wuxie’s interference, their plan would have remained flawless, and they could have destroyed all of the Nine Dragon Palace’s herbal fields in a month.
“Still being so stubborn even when you’re at death’s door. Please hurry up and stop wasting our time. Why did you betray the Nine Dragon Palace?!” Elder Xue roared, his temper flaring as he grabbed Elder Yu by the collar.
“We were never members of the Nine Dragon Palace, to begin with. So how could we even talk about betrayal?” Elder Yu laughed, his chilling laughter sending cold shivers down everyone’s spine and shocking the crowd. They had already abolished his cultivation, leaving him so powerless that he couldn’t even take his own life.
“Search his soul,” Liu Wuxie said as he and the palace lord moved together, their powerful divine senses burrowing into the elders’ minds to scour their memories.
Except for the four elders controlled by Serpent Insects, the pupils of the other five elders gradually lost focus as they triggered some secret technique that took their own lives.
Because Liu Wuxie’s divine sense already rivaled cultivators at the first-level Earth Immortal Realm, he easily pierced into their primordial spirits. With the Heavenly Dao Book’s assistance, he began sifting through the mass of fragmented memories.
The entire process took only two breaths before the five elders exhaled their final breath, and their soul seas withered as their memories vanished. As for the four elders bound by Serpent Insects, they were no different from Chang Wu, whom Elder Yu had controlled through the witchcraft insect. They simply followed Elder Yu’s commands and knew nothing beyond that.
“Palace Lord, did you find any clues?” Elder Xue asked, stepping forward.
“The Profound Azure Gate!” Liu Wuxie said, having pieced together scattered fragments from Elder Yu and the others’ memories. All five elders had initially come from the Profound Azure Gate.
“So, it’s really the Profound Azure Gate. They had already been laying out their plan seven thousand years ago and sent Elder Yu to infiltrate the Nine Dragon Palace, climbing his way up from an ordinary elder,” some elders commented with wry smiles. With that, everything made sense if the Profound Azure Gate had been behind it.
The relationship between the Profound Azure Gate and the Nine Dragon Palace was like that between the Heavenly Dragon Sect and the Grand Unity Sect. At the time of the Nine Dragon Palace’s founding, the Profound Azure Gate had launched a midnight assault, almost annihilating them.
Elder Yu had joined the Nine Dragon Palace seven thousand years ago, yet his loyalty had never changed. All this time, he had been searching for ways to undermine the Nine Dragon Palace from within.
The Profound Azure Gate lay close to the Blood Fiend Battlefield, and although their location wasn’t ideal in many ways, it was perfect for nurturing witchcraft insects.
Many poisonous insects and strange beasts in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain originated from the Profound Azure Gate, and many demonic and poison sects favored buying poisons refined by them.
“The Profound Azure Gate… Good!” Yan Guichou clenched his fists, murderous intent surging out from him.
Though the Nine Dragon Palace and the Profound Azure Gate had always been enemies, the Nine Dragon Palace had never considered sending spies into the Profound Azure Gate. If they wanted to fight, they preferred to do it openly.
However, Liu Wuxie kept his brows tightly knitted, for he was no stranger to the Profound Azure Gate. Back during his apprenticeship ceremony, the final trial had initially fallen to the Profound Azure Gate, but the Lingqiong Clan had appeared at the end instead. That could only mean the Lingqiong Clan had already allied with the Profound Azure Gate.
He still had no idea what the Profound Azure Gate was plotting, even to risk offending Hua Feiyu to help the Lingqiong Clan. But he strongly suspected that both the Heavenly Silk Ant that controlled Zhuge Ming’s wife and the Serpent Insect that controlled Chang Wu had originated from them as well.
Back then, Liu Wuxie had asked Zhuge Ming if he had gone to the Blood Fiend Battlefield, and the answer had been obvious. They must have stepped into the Profound Azure Gate’s territory and ended up struck by the Heavenly Silk Ant.
“We’ll wage a war with the Profound Azure Gate from this moment on,” the palace lord declared, waving his hand. From now on, the two sects would fight to the death.
Everyone’s expressions immediately turned grave as they realized that once war erupted, it would drag them into a conflict without end. It would also place a massive strain on the sect’s resources.
Because this was the Nine Dragon Palace’s internal affair, Liu Wuxie chose not to interfere. A sect with a legacy spanning over a million years would not be easily destroyed, even in a war.
“Palace Lord, it’s getting late, and I’ll take my leave now,” Liu Wuxie said, cupping his hands. With the Nine Dragon Palace’s immediate crisis temporarily resolved, it would be enough as long as the spiritual herbs reached the Heavenly Dao Society within five days.
“Wuxie, I’m truly grateful for your help today. Once I finish making arrangements for the sect, I’ll personally visit you at the Heavenly Dao Society to express my thanks,” the palace lord said. He let Liu Wuxie go, since the Nine Dragon Palace still had many arrangements to make, and it was no longer appropriate for Liu Wuxie to remain.
“Young Master Liu, please forgive me if I offended you in any way earlier,” Elder Xue said, stepping forward to give Liu Wuxie a deep bow. After all, they had been at each other’s throats earlier while putting on an act.
“Elder Xue, you’re too polite. Without your sacrifice, it wouldn’t have been so easy to find the traitors,” Liu Wuxie replied with polite warmth.
Now, all the elders in the main hall regarded Liu Wuxie with friendly expressions, cupping their hands to convey both gratitude and apology for having doubted him earlier.
When the main gate opened, the palace lord personally escorted Liu Wuxie out.
“Wuxie, with your intellect, I believe the Divine Sun-Moon Palace, the Comet Temple, and the White Mist Villa will soon reach an agreement with you. Now that you have cut off the Divine Alchemy Sect’s supply of spiritual herbs, the next step will be to fight for market share with the Grand Unity Sect. I wish you good luck,” the palace lord said. He could already guess Liu Wuxie’s next move, and it was a grand scheme aimed not only at the Divine Alchemy Sect.
“Let’s hope so,” Liu Wuxie said, and his figure streaked away like a comet, vanishing from the Nine Dragon Palace.
The palace lord was right, and Liu Wuxie had to win this first battle. He couldn’t afford to lose, or the Heavenly Dao Society would never be able to rise again. After all, the Grand Unity Sect already occupied a large share of the market in talismans, spiritual arrays, and artifacts.
The Divine Sun-Moon Palace mainly survived by producing talismans, the Comet Temple relied on spiritual arrays, and the White Mist Villa thrived on selling blacksmithing materials.
This time, Liu Wuxie headed for the Divine Sun-Moon Palace to secure a cooperation and monopolize the talisman market. Then he would partner with the Comet Temple, allowing them to use the Heavenly Dao Society’s array runes to save both time and resources when setting up spiritual arrays. Lastly, he planned to visit the White Mist Villa to stop them from supplying blacksmithing materials to the Grand Unity Sect.
The Nine Dragon Palace had been the hardest to win over, and he had already reached an agreement with them. The negotiations with the remaining three sects went remarkably smoothly, and in just five days, Liu Wuxie had laid out his vast plan. All that remained was to wait for the net to close.
By the time Liu Wuxie returned to the Heavenly Dao Society, the Nine Dragon Palace had already delivered the spiritual herbs they had promised. They didn’t just bring 150,000 spiritual herbs; they sent 200,000, adding an extra 50,000 as a token of gratitude for what Liu Wuxie had done for the Nine Dragon Palace.
……
In the Divine Alchemy Sect, an Earth Immortal Realm elder roared, “This is outrageous! The Nine Dragon Palace actually refused to sell us spiritual herbs!”
The Divine Alchemy Sect’s sect master was a middle-aged man who appeared to be in his thirties. His cultivation had also reached the pinnacle of the Heaven Gaze Realm, and his name was Shen Yuan, renowned throughout the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain for his alchemy skills.
Shortly after Liu Wuxie left the Nine Dragon Palace, the Divine Alchemy Sect sent an elder to urge them to deliver the spiritual herbs, but the Nine Dragon Palace informed him that they would no longer supply them. Moreover, the Nine Dragon Palace had even taken the initiative to pay ten million astral stones because of the contract between them.
The Divine Alchemy Sect had researched several new pills and was merely waiting for spiritual herbs to refine them. Learning that the Nine Dragon Palace would no longer sell them any herbs struck them like a thunderbolt.
“Sect Master, say something! The alchemy market is unstable now, and we’ll be greatly affected if we don’t launch our pills soon,” the elders seated below said anxiously as they all turned toward Shen Yuan.
After what had happened in Nightmare City, the various sects had already begun introducing their new pills into the market. That included the Golden Cicada Pills, as the Heavenly Dao Society had already started taking orders for them.
“Why would the Nine Dragon Palace cut our supply of spiritual herbs? If they lost a major client like us, how could they possibly benefit from all the spiritual herbs they produce?” Many elders murmured with furrowed brows, unable to grasp the Nine Dragon Palace’s intentions.
“I also feel that there’s something off about this matter. We’ve been working with the Nine Dragon Palace for thousands of years, and something that we don’t know must’ve happened,” Bai Ran said as he rose to his feet, his fists tightly clenched.
Ever since he learned that Feng He had died at Liu Wuxie’s hands, he had neither eaten nor slept in peace.
“Sect Master, we’ve finished our investigation,” said an old man as he walked into the main hall.
“Speak,” Shen Yuan ordered.
“Liu Wuxie visited the Nine Dragon Palace five days ago, and it seems something has happened to the Nine Dragon Palace’s internal affairs. I don’t know the exact details, and even the ordinary disciples know nothing. The Nine Dragon Palace’s upper echelons issued a gag order regarding it, and it’s not hard to infer that Liu Wuxie struck an agreement with the Nine Dragon Palace. This is why the Nine Dragon Palace tore our cooperation apart,” the old man said, reporting everything he had found.
“Damn it! How did Liu Wuxie persuade the Nine Dragon Palace to give up their cooperation with us?!” Bai Ran roared, brandishing his fist in the air. He couldn’t make sense of it.
The Heavenly Dao Society was merely a newly risen power, and how could it possibly compare to the Divine Alchemy Sect?
“This still doesn’t add up. Even if the Heavenly Dao Society buys herbs from the Nine Dragon Palace, there’s no need for the Nine Dragon Palace to cut our supply. With the Nine Dragon Palace’s foundation, it shouldn’t be a problem for them to supply two sects,” another elder said in confusion. The Nine Dragon Palace was a significant force, and it made no sense for them to offend the Divine Alchemy Sect over the Heavenly Dao Society.
After all, everyone knew that the Grand Unity Sect backed the Divine Alchemy Sect.
“Sect Master, we need to find a solution quickly! Should I make a trip to the Nine Dragon Palace?” an elder asked as everyone turned to the sect master, waiting for his decision.
“I’ll personally make a trip to the Grand Unity Sect and request some spiritual herbs from them to ease our immediate crisis,” Shen Yuan said as he rose to his feet and left the Divine Alchemy Sect.
The Nine Dragon Palace had already terminated the contract, and sending more people there would be pointless. They had to recoup their losses quickly and get their new pills onto the market as soon as possible.
……
In the Heavenly Dao Society, Bi Gongyu threw himself into pill refinement the moment the spiritual herbs arrived.
Every single day, people flocked to Mount Dragon City to discuss collaborations, and everyone worked so hard that they almost went without sleep.
In half a year, the Heavenly Dao Society would surely undergo a drastic transformation, extending its influence throughout the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.
Seeing the Heavenly Dao Society firmly on track, Liu Wuxie decided to break through to the Earth Immortal Realm as soon as possible. There wasn’t much time left until his duel with the divine son, and no one knew how strong the divine son would become.
Both Liu Wuxie and the divine son eagerly anticipated the battle. One was a monstrous prodigy of the human race, and the other was the divine race’s divine son.
Elder Jian had already left, and no one knew where he had gone.
In recent days, Zhuge Ming had frequently visited the Heavenly Dao Society, claiming that he wanted to study their management model. But everyone understood the actual reason: he had taken over Elder Jian’s role in protecting the Heavenly Dao Society, and everything would be fine as long as the Heavenly Dao Society could survive the next six months.
“Junior Brother, the master has called for you!” Just as Liu Wuxie finally found a moment to rest, his Communication Talisman lit up, and his eldest senior brother’s message arrived.
