Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1521 - Rift

Chapter 1521 – Rift

The Azure Profound Gate’s sect master froze for a heartbeat, then murderous intent burst from him.

“Zhuang Qiao, are you trying to keep the chant to yourself?” he asked. How could he possibly confuse a chant with an insult?

“Sect Master, I’m not trying to keep it to myself. I have already told you,” Zhuang Qiao said, on the verge of tears, his face full of grievance. He had lived for countless years, yet he had never felt so wronged.

“The Azure Profound Gate has nurtured you for many years, and you dare to keep the chant to yourself? You have broken my trust in you!” the Azure Profound Gate’s sect master reprimanded. At his command, the surrounding elders moved at once, sealing off every route Zhuang Qiao could use to escape.

With the chant in hand, Zhuang Qiao could strike it rich, and he could even establish his own sect.

The Grand Unity Sect remained silent, simply watching, while the other sects stared in complete confusion.

“Sect Master, I was wronged!” Zhuang Qiao yelled in a hoarse voice. He knew he couldn’t explain himself anymore.

“Elder Zhuang, the sect master trusted you, and that was why he sent you to receive the chant from Liu Wuxie. Why do you want to keep it to yourself?” The other Azure Profound Gate elders looked heartbroken. Zhuang Qiao stood as a pillar of the sect, and they couldn’t believe greed had blinded him.

“What chant did Liu Wuxie tell you?” Venerable Grand Unity asked as he stepped forward. The other sects also edged closer, just as desperate to hear the chant.

“You dumbass, I won’t tell you anything,” Zhuang Qiao said, deliberately mimicking Liu Wuxie’s tone. He didn’t hide it at all and spoke it aloud for everyone to hear, and the instant the words landed, an uproar exploded through the crowd.

Venerable Grand Unity had reached the Quasi-Immortal Realm, yet being called a dumbass humiliated him so deeply that murderous intent erupted from him in the next moment.

Everyone from the Nine Dragon Palace froze in shock, Elder Wu Hen stood there blankly, and the Divine Sun-Moon Palace felt their head spin.

They all wanted to understand what had happened and why Zhuang Qiao had suddenly cursed at Venerable Grand Unity.

“I dare you to say it again,” Venerable Grand Unity said, his face terrifyingly grim.

“You dumbass, I won’t tell you anything,” Zhuang Qiao said, repeating it without restraint and even letting out two cold chuckles. When Liu Wuxie had told him the chant, he had worn a sinister face and let out two cold chuckles, and Zhuang Qiao copied that as well.

“Zhuang Qiao, do you know the consequences of keeping the chant to yourself?” Venerable Grand Unity erupted in fury. Even as a Quasi-Immortal, he couldn’t suppress his rage at this moment.

They had lost seven million astral crystals and Cypressia Star’s jurisdiction, and they had even mortgaged a planet to obtain five million astral crystals from the Skybrim Pavilion to buy the chant, only for Zhuang Qiao to curse them instead. No humiliation could compare to what he felt now.

“I’m not trying to keep the chant to myself,” Zhuang Qiao said, completely at a loss for how to explain himself.

“Elder Zhuang, how dare you say that!” Even the other elders of the Azure Profound Gate couldn’t stand it anymore.

“I really am not!” Zhuang Qiao argued, yet countless experts already surrounded him.

“Since you don’t covet it, why won’t you tell us?” A Grand Unity Sect elder questioned. He had insulted them while refusing to share it.

“Why waste time speaking with him? Since he refuses to reveal the chant, we can capture him and search his memories,” the other Grand Unity Sect elders suggested. They had suffered catastrophic losses in this auction; losses they had never endured in the past million years.

Liu Wuxie had toyed with them again and again.

This time, even the Divine Alchemy Sect stepped forward and joined the encirclement with the Grand Unity Sect against Zhuang Qiao. With so many experts pressing down, Zhuang Qiao had no way to resist.

“Are you all really going to do this?” Zhuang Qiao asked, his gaze turning cold. As an expert at the pinnacle of the Heaven Gaze Realm, he carried his own dignity. He had only spoken the truth, yet no one would believe him.

“Enough nonsense. We’ll naturally learn about the chant once we capture you,” said an expert at the pinnacle Heaven Gaze Realm from the Grand Unity Sect, striking at Zhuang Qiao.

The other elders followed, including the Azure Profound Gate elders, all joining to suppress Zhuang Qiao.

A violent shockwave swept outward, sending everyone nearby flying. If they hadn’t been inside the immortal artifact’s internal world, the shockwave from the battle alone would have flattened Vermilion Bird to the ground.

Battles between experts in the Heaven Gaze Realm wreaked devastation. Powerful immortal runes descended from the sky and suppressed everyone’s auras because they fought inside an immortal artifact, and only an immortal could affect it.

“Zhuang Qiao, are you still refusing to reveal the chant?” The Grand Unity Sect elders pressed harder. The immortal runes suppressed the power released by the clash, but they couldn’t stop the fighting.

“You dumbass, I won’t tell you anything,” Zhuang Qiao roared. Under the suppression of so many experts, he suffered heavy injuries, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

The Grand Unity Sect elders roared and struck at Zhuang Qiao again.

The Azure Profound Gate’s attacks clearly slowed because no matter what, Zhuang Qiao still served as their grand elder.

With a loud rumble, the immortal artifact swallowed the shockwave created by their clash. Under the immortal artifact’s suppression, the battle between cultivators at the pinnacle of the Heaven Gaze Realm looked like a brawl between mortals.

“Kill him!” Venerable Grand Unity gave the order. Since extracting the chant from Zhuang Qiao seemed impossible, they might as well kill him.

The moment Zhuang Qiao heard that the Grand Unity Sect wanted him dead, he immediately turned to look at the Azure Profound Gate’s sect master.

“Sect Master, I was framed! This is all because of Liu Wuxie! He deceived us!” Zhuang Qiao yelled, trying to prove his innocence as he begged the sect master to save him.

“You still dare claim that Liu Wuxie deceived you? In my opinion, you covet the chant for yourself. You said that you saw red light when you cut the raw stone and found a strand of Primordial Indigo Aura earlier!” the Azure Profound Gate’s sect master snarled.

Zhuang Qiao couldn’t refute that point because he really had seen a red light when he split a raw stone that contained a strand of Primordial Indigo Aura.

The Grand Unity Sect elders seethed, itching to tear Zhuang Qiao apart. Now, even the Azure Profound Gate dared to trample on their dignity.

The Azure Profound Gate hesitated, unsure whether to help Zhuang Qiao or strike him down.

Zhuang Qiao’s injuries multiplied as he thrashed and found himself unable to break out of the Grand Unity Sect’s encirclement. When he failed to punch through the Grand Unity Sect’s wall, he suddenly turned and charged toward the Azure Profound Gate instead.

Because they belonged to the same sect, the Azure Profound Gate only resisted briefly. He tore open a gap almost at once and darted into the crowd.

Once he mixed into the crowd, the Grand Unity Sect would no longer find it easy to kill him. Seizing the chaos, he fled the auction house without hesitation.

“Huo Demin, why did you let him go?” Venerable Grand Unity demanded, staring at the Azure Profound Gate’s sect master. Liu Wuxie had already left, which meant only Zhuang Qiao knew the chant.

“We’ll give Zhuang Qiao some time. I’m sure he’ll reveal the chant,” Huo Demin said, choosing to believe in Zhuang Qiao. Either the latter faced some difficulty, or he didn’t want the Grand Unity Sect to learn the chant, since they had technically bought it.

All the Azure Profound Gate elders thought the same, so they had deliberately allowed Zhuang Qiao to escape. If they truly wanted to stop him, he would never have gotten away.

“I think your Azure Profound Gate wants the chant for yourself. Did you forget that we gave you five million astral crystals?” An elder stepped out from behind Venerable Grand Unity with a cold smirk.

Without anyone noticing, discord had already taken root between the Grand Unity Sect and the Azure Profound Gate. The trust between them collapsed entirely.

“We’ll return the five million astral crystals to the Grand Unity Sect, and we’ll talk about the chant later,” Huo Demin said, waving his hand in a foul mood. He didn’t want to tangle with the Grand Unity Sect anymore.

“Could it be that Liu Wuxie really told those words to Zhuang Qiao, and the latter didn’t lie?” Someone finally began to piece everything together. They realized Liu Wuxie had fooled them from the very beginning.

At the start of the auction, Liu Wuxie had won ten million astral crystals from the Grand Unity Sect and the Divine Alchemy Sect. That outcome convinced everyone he possessed extraordinary methods.

He had deliberately declared that he’d borrowed astral crystals from Death Mountain, vowing a miserable death if he failed to repay them on time. By framing the chant’s sale as an act of desperation, he had made everything seem logical until everyone unknowingly stepped into his trap.

“If that isn’t a chant, then Liu Wuxie is truly vicious. Not only did he fool the Grand Unity Sect, but he also fooled the Azure Profound Gate and even sowed discord between the two sects.”

The more they revisited it, the more wrong it felt. Zhuang Qiao had a reputation for loyalty to Azure Profound Gate, and no one believed he would covet the chant for himself.

Earlier, excitement had whipped everyone into a frenzy, especially after Liu Wuxie had cut open fifty strands of Primordial Indigo Aura and drowned them in exhilaration. Now that they calmed down, they finally saw the flaw. When people grew excited, their judgment clouded easily.

When the Grand Unity Sect and the Azure Profound Gate listened to the surrounding discussion, cold sweat instantly broke out on them. They had no direct proof that Liu Wuxie had given Zhuang Qiao that exact sentence as a chant, but the unfolding situation made it feel inevitable.

The two sects had been at each other’s throats earlier, and they could only wait until they cooled down before speaking again. Yet once a rift had opened between them, mending it would never be easy.

No one had imagined the auction would end like this. No one continued to buy the remaining raw stones, because the remaining amount of Primordial Indigo Aura looked pitiful compared to what Liu Wuxie had acquired. Moreover, Liu Wuxie had scraped the two sects clean of their astral crystals.

With that, the Grand Unity Sect suffered immense losses in this auction. They lost jurisdiction over two planets and more than ten million astral crystals, and they even ended up in open conflict with the Azure Profound Gate. Liu Wuxie had planned every step with precision.

“It has to be Liu Wuxie! I’ll kill him!” A Grand Unity Sect elder roared, brandishing his hand furiously in the air as if he could tear Liu Wuxie apart.

When Liu Wuxie returned to the Heavenly Dao Society with everyone, he suddenly sneezed several times in a row.

“Wuxie fooled the Divine Alchemy Sect and the Grand Unity Sect badly this time.”

Many people who couldn’t attend the auction wanted to know what had happened, so Mu Tianli recounted the events. Before long, laughter rolled through the main hall.

“It’ll be the appointed date between the divine son and me in ten days, and I plan to go into seclusion. The days ahead will not be peaceful for the Heavenly Dao Society. The Heavenly Dragon Sect will be sending experts to assist us. See that they are treated with proper respect,” Liu Wuxie said.

The Heavenly Dao Society and the Heavenly Dragon Sect now supported each other openly, especially after Liu Wuxie’s actions in the auction house had completely won over the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s upper echelons.

He alone had shaken three major sects, and no one had accomplished that since ancient times. After suffering such immense losses, the Grand Unity Sect would surely refuse to let it go.

The Heavenly Dragon Sect had dispatched a spiritual array expert to set up a teleportation array with Lan Yu, making it possible to travel between the Heavenly Dao Society and the Heavenly Dragon Sect in only a few breaths. If anyone invaded, the Heavenly Dragon Sect could rapidly send reinforcements.

If experts at the Heaven Gaze Realm fought, they might trigger a devastating war that would plunge the entire astral domain into chaos. If that were to happen, Emperor Haoyuan would surely intervene.

For now, it looked like Liu Wuxie could be in danger, but everything remained manageable as long as they guarded themselves well.

Achiel could only remain in the Heavenly Dao Society after Liu Wuxie promised to personally make a trip to the Spirit Martial Astral Domain once he finished his fight with the divine son.

After waiting for so long, Achiel didn’t lack patience, and he genuinely grew fond of the Heavenly Dao Society’s atmosphere.