Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1496 - Death Mountain
Chapter 1496 – Death Mountain
Luo Hai swept his gaze across everyone in the main hall and hesitated, especially when his eyes landed on Xu Lingxue and the other ladies.
“Leave us,” Liu Wuxie said. He could see the difficulty written all over Luo Hai’s face.
After everyone withdrew, only Liu Wuxie and Luo Hai remained in the main hall.
“Death Mountain is a weird place, and I’ve heard it’s hiding countless treasures,” Luo Hai began.
“Carry on,” Liu Wuxie said, his curiosity instantly stirred.
If Death Mountain truly hid that many treasures, cultivators in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain would’ve never left it alone. Their greed would have swallowed it long ago.
“There’s another rumor that Death Mountain holds thirty percent of the wealth in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain, and there’s only one way to acquire that wealth,” Luo Hai said, deliberately leaving the sentence hanging to keep Liu Wuxie in suspense.
Thirty percent of the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain’s wealth meant something obscene. It rivaled the combined wealth of the Heavenly Dragon Sect, the Grand Unity Sect, and the Nine Dragon Palace, and the thought alone could make one’s scalp prickle.
“Stop dilly-dallying and say it already,” Liu Wuxie urged. He had no patience for stories, and he had no time left to indulge Luo Hai’s pacing; if he couldn’t gather enough astral crystals, he would attend the auction as nothing more than a spectator.
At the last auction, a single item had fetched five million astral crystals. Against that figure, a million wouldn’t even cause a ripple.
“Trade one’s life,” Luo Hai finally revealed.
He had kept silent earlier, not wanting Xu Lingxue and the others to worry. He also knew that Liu Wuxie would never back down from this auction, and without sufficient astral crystals, Liu Wuxie could only watch from the sidelines.
The auction came once a century, and if Liu Wuxie missed it now, he would have to wait another century.
“Trade one’s life for wealth, and I doubt many people would agree to it,” Liu Wuxie said. From Luo Hai’s tone, Death Mountain clearly carried something so abnormal that even a powerhouse like the Grand Unity Sect couldn’t touch it.
“There’s another option: borrowing treasures from Death Mountain. However, I don’t know the specifics,” Lou Hai said as he continued. “I only heard it from the senior who mentioned Death Mountain to me. In the past several thousand years, only one person has succeeded.”
Even the expert had never gone in person and had learned of it only through hearsay.
Borrowing and taking weren’t the same thing. If someone wanted to seize treasures from Death Mountain, they had to trade their life; if someone borrowed instead, they had to repay, but no one knew how repayment worked.
“Where is Death Mountain located?” Liu Wuxie asked. He decided to try, because his master had emphasized that he had to enter the auction no matter what, and Liu Wuxie suspected many rare treasures would appear there.
“Wuxie, I only mentioned it casually. Please don’t go there. Death Mountain is a path of no return, and you might lose your life if you’re not careful,” Luo Hai said. Regret crept into his voice because he had blurted it out only after seeing Liu Wuxie worrying about astral crystals.
“I know what I’m doing,” Liu Wuxie said. He signaled Luo Hai not to worry, because he believed no place in the world could trap him, at least not within the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.
“It’s about half a day’s journey from here, and I’ll go with you,” Luo Hai said. He couldn’t relax, letting Liu Wuxie go alone, and if something went wrong, they could at least cover each other’s backs.
They left at once, took the teleportation array, and departed the Indigo Bamboo Star.
Death Mountain wasn’t located on the Indigo Bamboo Star at all. It lay on a distant planet, year-round steeped in deathly energy, a place where the undead race lived.
Half a day later, the two arrived on the planet drenched in deathly energy, and the moment Luo Hai set foot there, discomfort crawled over him.
……
Not long after they left, Liu Wuxie’s three senior brothers arrived at the Heavenly Dao Society to talk about the auction.
The three of them, along with a few others, had gathered a decent amount of astral crystals and hoped to help their junior brother. But when they reached the Heavenly Dao Society, they discovered Liu Wuxie had already left with Luo Hai.
“Leader Mu, do you know where my junior brother went?” Sun Xiao asked anxiously. His anxiety made perfect sense because the Grand Unity Sect had already issued an extermination announcement and vowed to kill Liu Wuxie at all costs, so leaving now looked like walking straight into their grasp.
“I don’t know. Luo Hai only mentioned Death Mountain in front of us before they talked in private,” Mu Tianli said, sharing everything he knew.
“This is bad!” Sun Xiao staggered and nearly fell when he heard of ‘Death Mountain’.
“Senior brother, what happened?” Yin Ying asked, grabbing Sun Xiao’s arm.
Mu Tianli also sensed something terribly wrong, and he immediately wondered if Liu Wuxie had gone somewhere truly dangerous.
“Return at once! We need to see Master immediately!” Sun Xiao said, offering no further explanation. He bid Mu Tianli farewell and departed right away with his two junior brothers.
The trio rushed back to the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s lesser realm at once and went straight to their master’s residence.
“Master, we have bad news! Junior Brother has gone to Death Mountain!” Sun Xiao blurted the moment he entered.
Hua Feiyu narrowed his eyes and shot to his feet at the mere mention of Death Mountain. He always carried himself with composure, yet a trace of fear flickered through his eyes.
“How long has it been since he left?” Hua Feiyu asked, forcing himself to sound calm in the face of the looming emergency.
“It has been four hours,” Sun Xiao said after a brief calculation.
“It’s already too late for us to chase after him now,” Hua Feiyu said. Four hours would barely carry ordinary people between planets, yet for Liu Wuxie and Luo Hai, it was enough to traverse countless worlds.
“Master, we have to find a way to stop him at once!” Sun Xiao said, panic rising.
“Senior Brother, what is Death Mountain?” Tong Shan asked anxiously.
“A place that claims lives, and even a Quasi-Immortal might not survive if they went there,” Hua Feiyu said, giving them the grim truth.
Sun Xiao had only heard the name before, but not the details.
“Why would junior brother go to a place like that?” Tong Shan asked, and Yin Ying’s worry sharpened as well while both of them urged their master to find a solution.
“It’s the only place where one can borrow unlimited wealth, and what Wuxie seeks is enormous wealth. He plans to use this auction to increase his strength as much as possible, and this means that he needs a frightening sum of astral crystals. Only that place can provide that many astral crystals in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain,” Hua Feiyu explained. No one could solve that problem for Liu Wuxie, so Liu Wuxie could only rely on himself.
“Master, can’t the Heavenly Dragon Sect lend him astral crystals?” Yin Ying asked. With the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s deep foundation, lending a few million astral crystals wouldn’t be difficult.
Shaking his head, Hua Feiyu explained, “Even if the sect is willing to lend, Wuxie won’t accept it because he doesn’t want to put us in a difficult position.” He understood Liu Wuxie’s temperament too well.
If the Heavenly Dragon Sect lent out such a large amount, countless complications would follow. Hua Feiyu could mediate them, but Liu Wuxie didn’t want to burden his senior brothers or his master.
“What do we do now then?” Tong Shan asked, frowning hard. They didn’t even know Death Mountain’s location.
“We can only wait for now,” Hua Feiyu said, signaling them to calm down. He believed that with Liu Wuxie’s special identity, he wouldn’t die so easily.
……
After crossing immeasurable distances, Liu Wuxie and Luo Hai finally arrived on a planet wrapped in deathly energy. The saturated air made it hard for Luo Hai to adjust immediately, and his breathing grew heavy under the oppressive miasma.
The planet lay dead, yet a race still lived there. Liu Wuxie had dealt with the undead race before, and back at the Myriad Race Ceremony, he had killed plenty of them.
“Where is Death Mountain?” Liu Wuxie asked as he swept his gaze across the surroundings, staying alert for anything lurking nearby.
“Where the deathly energy is the densest,” Luo Hai said. He had forgotten the precise route. The last time he had been here, he had come in haste and fled before ever reaching his destination.
Liu Wuxie executed Ghost Pupil and pulled the entire planet into his sight.
“Over there!” He soon locked onto a region where the deathly energy surged to an extreme, as though it had swallowed the sky itself.
Following Liu Wuxie’s gaze, Luo Hai scanned the darkness, feeling as though countless eyes were watching them from hidden corners.
Tiny particles drifted through the air, giving off a faint glow that painted a bizarre, unsettling scene.
“These are Undead Worms. After someone dies, the bacteria from their bodies transform into Undead Worms and continue to exist in this world,” Liu Wuxie explained.
Luo Hai shuddered hearing that. He couldn’t imagine how many people had died there to produce so many Undead Worms, and with all life on this planet already extinguished, the number of deaths had to be staggering.
Not long after Liu Wuxie and Luo Hai arrived, countless members of the undead race immediately sensed their presence, because they were sensitive to human aura.
The undead race lived under deathly energy, forming a contract with it. On the other hand, humans released fierce life essence. The moment Liu Wuxie and Luo Hai appeared, the wind shifted, and boundless deathly energy surged toward them like two incompatible forces colliding head-on.
Human vitality rejected deathly energy, and deathly energy hungered to devour that vitality.
“There is movement over there!” Luo Hai said. His senses remained sharp. He pointed toward a withered forest ahead, where flickering figures drifted in and out of his vision.
The undead possessed a strange constitution, carrying not the slightest weight. White robes covered them from head to toe, and the vitality radiating from Liu Wuxie and Luo Hai drew them in like bait.
Liu Wuxie had already spotted more than a dozen undead rushing in their direction.
In the blink of an eye, the undead arrived and blocked their path. They were mostly low-level undead with little combat strength.
“Aren’t you Liu Wuxie? What brings you to the Undead Star?” demanded the leader, instantly recognizing him.
During the Myriad Race Ceremony, Liu Wuxie had slaughtered countless undead, and his name had already spread across the Undead Star.
Every undead had memorized Liu Wuxie’s appearance.
Liu Wuxie felt no surprise at their recognition. The undead race was small, and news of him would’ve spread like wildfire among them across the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.
“I bear no grudges against the undead race. Step aside,” Liu Wuxie said. He had no desire to start a massacre, and with their strongest cultivator only at the Primal Origin Realm, a single palm strike would be enough to wipe out a large group.
“Why have you humans come here?” The leader demanded again and quickly communicated with his companions.
The undead race also had experts, even in the Quasi-Immortal Realm.
