Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1468 - Parallel World
Chapter 1468 – Parallel World
Once someone stepped into the Outer Astral Spacetime, no rules bound them anymore. After years of plundering, their temperaments twisted without them even realizing it, and robbery hardened into a way of life that had become almost impossible to change.
Sun Xiao no longer worried about his junior brother’s safety and charged at the man on the left with the Divine Nine Yang Sword in hand. After the sword runes enhanced it, the weapon’s power had surged dramatically.
Liu Wuxie summoned the Heretic Blade as boundless blade intent erupted from him, tearing through the surrounding air currents and carving them into long streams that swept toward the depths of the universe.
This was the Outer Astral Spacetime, where the laws of space-time differed entirely from those of the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.
“The two of you dare to resist? You’re courting death!” the cultivator on the left mocked, his voice dripping with contempt. Sun Xiao’s aura was comparable to the fifth-level Earth Immortal Realm, so he could pose a slight threat, but in their eyes, it still wasn’t enough.
Liu Wuxie, however, remained only at the third-level Void Realm, and the two hunters dismissed him outright as insignificant.
“Die!” The Divine Nine Yang Sword slashed down from the sky, ripping apart the rocky ground into countless basin-sized chunks that drifted off into the void.
At the same time, the cultivator on the right struck at Liu Wuxie with a downward palm. All four moved almost simultaneously, wanting to end the fight quickly in case other threats lurked nearby.
A massive palm imprint fell from the sky, engulfing Liu Wuxie like a torrent of steel pillars crashing down on him. The immense pressure it unleashed shook the dead star beneath their feet so violently that it teetered on the brink of destruction.
After all, this was only a small dead star.
Facing an attack from a sixth-level Earth Immortal Realm cultivator, Liu Wuxie’s lips curled into a cold smirk. Ever since he refined the Black Tortoise’s Shell, he hadn’t truly fought anyone with his full strength.
Back in Nightmare City, he had slaughtered so many experts, mainly by relying on martial souls.
“Break!” The Heretic Blade cleaved down from above, unleashing a torrential surge of power that shredded the descending palm and twisted it into a gigantic vortex.
The sight made both hunters’ expressions change on the spot. They had clearly never imagined that Liu Wuxie’s combat strength could rival the Earth Immortal Realm.
When the palm shattered, the cultivator on the right stopped holding back and ramped up his power, unleashing an even more decisive strike. The raging force he released made the entire dead star tremble, while the space around them collapsed inward and twisted into a massive black hole.
Sun Xiao clashed bitterly with his opponent, and he had no strength left to spare to support Liu Wuxie.
Liu Wuxie had already sent a secret message to Gong Gong, telling him to intervene if things went out of control. After all, these hunters were mainly rogue cultivators with no real backing.
“You’re only a mere cultivator at the sixth-level Earth Immortal Realm. Let me show you what true power is,” Liu Wuxie said with a smile. Out here, he didn’t need to hold back at all, and he immediately linked himself to the Divine Purgatory Palace and the Great Darkness Mythical Art.
Boundless darkness surged in from all directions, swallowing the surroundings and robbing the hunter of all sense of Liu Wuxie’s presence.
“What’s going on? Why is it so dark?” The hunter exclaimed.
Ever since Liu Wuxie had awakened the Ghost Pupil, his control over darkness reached its peak. Among all the spells at his disposal, the Great Darkness Mythical Art was the strongest, while the Great Five Elemental Mythical Art came second.
“Divine Purgatory Palace, crush!” A terrifying divine palace manifested above the hunter and descended, its overwhelming pressure making it hard for him even to breathe.
“That’s impossible! You’re only at the Void Realm, and how can you possibly mobilize such overwhelming power of heaven and earth’s laws?” The Divine Purgatory Palace was not a real temple but a manifestation of laws, something even many Earth Immortal Realm cultivators couldn’t achieve.
“Gate of Darkness, harvest!” Wanting to end the battle quickly, Liu Wuxie summoned the Gate of Darkness while the Divine Purgatory Palace pinned his opponent in place.
The instant the Gate of Darkness appeared, the dead star beneath them began to fracture as countless cracks spread across its surface, unable to withstand the gate’s power.
“Damn it! Open!” Trapped in the darkness, the cultivator instantly lost his sense of direction and couldn’t escape, no matter how he thrashed around.
When the Gate of Darkness descended, the hunter felt his head spin before he exploded with his bones shattering into fragments.
Seizing the opening, Liu Wuxie followed up with the Great Five Elemental Mythical Art, determined not to give his opponent any chance to retaliate. With that move, Liu Wuxie decided the battle before the hunter could unleash a single mythical art.
As the Great Five Elemental Mythical Art crashed down from the sky, the hunter’s body burst apart once more. However, he wasn’t completely dead yet, as an Earth Immortal could still regenerate even from a single arm.
“Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, it’s your turn now.” Everything happened in the span of a breath, and the cauldron swallowed the severed arm before the hunter could even scream.
Demonic flames surged within, refining the hunter. Ever since the desolate world devoured the stone rune, it had expanded dramatically, allowing it to store even more laws of heaven and earth.
The other hunter fighting Sun Xiao blanched at the sight of his companion’s fate. He had thought his partner would kill Liu Wuxie with ease and then team up to crush Sun Xiao, but the situation reversed in an instant, and Liu Wuxie ended the fight in less than a minute.
Of course, Liu Wuxie had unleashed all of his trump cards and displayed his full combat strength.
“Run!” The remaining hunter didn’t hesitate and immediately turned to flee for his life.
“Gong Gong, now!” Liu Wuxie couldn’t afford to let this man escape, or he might lure even more hunters over.
Gong Gong appeared in a flash, struck out with his palm, and killed the hunter in a single blow.
The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron also devoured the second hunter’s remains, and a vast amount of Earth Immortal Realm laws poured into the desolate world.
After refining the two hunters, Liu Wuxie felt his cultivation soar, edging ever closer to the fourth-level Void Realm. Once he finished, he casually collected their interspatial rings.
“So many astral crystals!” Liu Wuxie was stunned when he examined the rings and found over ten thousand astral crystals inside. He handed half of them to his senior brother, noticing that the rings also contained a trove of blacksmithing and alchemy materials—spoils these two hunters had plundered from others.
The Heretic Blade was still in the midst of growing, having just reached the level of the Earth Immortal Realm. However, it remained far from the Heaven Gaze Realm, and these resources could shorten that gap.
“This is just the outer region, but we’ve already run into hunters. The Outer Astral Spacetime isn’t safe. We have to reach the Astral Sea as soon as possible,” Sun Xiao said with a frown. He couldn’t help worrying that their third junior brother had also encountered hunters.
The two immediately picked up their pace and sped toward the Astral Sea. The Outer Astral Spacetime was unimaginably vast, and no one knew its true size.
It stretched like the heavens themselves, and no one knew where the edge of the heavens lay.
The Astral Sea lay a few days’ journey away, and aside from brief rests, they spent every moment rushing in that direction. The rest of the journey remained relatively safe, as they didn’t encounter any more hunters.
On the third day, the scenery ahead finally changed as a cluster of seven-colored astral clouds appeared in their field of vision.
“This should be the Astral Sea,” Sun Xiao said. This was also his first time here, and he wasn’t familiar with the Outer Astral Spacetime at all.
Activating Ghost Eye, Liu Wuxie’s gaze pierced the astral clouds and discovered that the Astral Sea was not as simple as it looked—it was actually a parallel world.
A parallel world meant that the land here was flat and stretched endlessly toward the horizon. Most planets were round, and such parallel worlds were rare because they had no cycle of day and night, like a sheet of paper laid flat in the cosmos.
Layers of astral clouds wrapped around this parallel world, limiting their vision. The clouds drifted above it like cotton, making the place resemble a celestial realm. Their forms shifted constantly, taking on countless shapes that looked stunningly beautiful.
“Let’s go in,” Sun Xiao said as he took the lead and stepped into the astral clouds. He watched multicolored gas currents surge toward them from all directions.
Liu Wuxie followed close behind, moving with heightened caution. Many hunters liked to hide within astral clouds and launch ambushes the moment travelers let down their guard.
After passing through the barrier of clouds, the two finally descended onto the Astral Sea.
“What a strange place,” Sun Xiao commented as he looked around. This world was far more bizarre than he had imagined, with strange vine-like plants crawling across the ground. There were no trees or astral beasts anywhere in sight.
“Trees were rare in ancient times, and most plants took the form of vines and shrubs. Only after countless years of evolution did they develop into flowers, grasses, and trees,” Liu Wuxie explained. This parallel world belonged to an ancient era and still preserved the appearance of primordial times.
“Why can’t our divine senses penetrate the astral clouds?” Sun Xiao asked.
These astral clouds had no discernible pattern, drifting left and right at random. Even divine sense couldn’t pass through them.
“The astral clouds contain primeval laws, formed from the energy of heaven and earth. Divine sense will have a hard time piercing them,” Liu Wuxie said.
The primeval laws within the astral clouds couldn’t be absorbed, as they had long entirely fused with the clouds themselves. Liu Wuxie even tried to devour them with the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, but the astral clouds dispersed the moment they approached.
“Let’s split up and search,” Sun Xiao suggested. Although his cultivation surpassed his junior brother’s, he was inferior in pure combat strength. Besides, with Gong Gong at Liu Wuxie’s side, he wasn’t too worried about his safety.
“Alright,” Liu Wuxie replied with a nod. This parallel world was far too vast, and they could only save time by splitting up.
According to Hua Feiyu, their second junior brother had already entered this place and ought to be somewhere in the Astral Sea.
Liu Wuxie flew off to the right while Sun Xiao headed to the left, the two maintaining contact through Communication Talismans.
They chose to remain airborne as much as possible, wary of the strange vines covering the ground. They did not want to get entangled with them. There were no mountains or rivers in this parallel world; all they could see were endless astral clouds at the horizon and a carpet of vines covering the entire land.
“Ghost Vines!” Liu Wuxie suddenly slowed when he spotted a pitch-black Ghost Vine coiling around a cluster of green vines, draining their sap.
“I didn’t expect to see Ghost Vines here. It looks like we have to be careful now,” Liu Wuxie murmured. The hunters were no longer his primary concern, as primeval creatures might also exist in this parallel world.
Ghost Vines gave birth to Ghost Bugs, which were entirely black and no larger than a needle’s eye. They could easily claim a cultivator’s life by ignoring all defenses, burrowing into one’s body before clinging to the flesh like parasites to drain blood.
Once they absorbed enough blood, they would lay eggs and reproduce, repeating the cycle until their host was dead.
At first, people wouldn’t notice anything wrong and would assume they were short on blood and energy. By the time they realized something was amiss, it would already be too late.
Even cutting off one’s own flesh would be useless, as Ghost Bugs laid their eggs directly in the bloodstream. They were primeval creatures rarely seen in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain and only appeared in ancient worlds like this one.
