Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1545 - Sacred Pond

Chapter 1545 – Sacred Pond

Ariel stood completely at a loss as she listened to the chieftain and the grand elders speak. She couldn’t understand a single word of their exchange.

“Chieftain, have you made your decision?” another grand elder asked, because this was no small matter.

“Do we have other choices?” the chieftain asked with a bitter smile. She understood what it meant, yet she couldn’t watch Liu Wuxie die in front of her. The Black God still rampaged through his soul sea, and at best, he could only hold on for another three days.

Without the Heavenly Dao Book’s protection, he would’ve died on the spot and never lasted until now.

At this moment, the Heavenly Dao Book looked like a tiny sprout gripping Liu Wuxie’s primordial spirit, refusing to let it extinguish. Once Liu Wuxie’s primordial spirit dimmed completely, death would claim him.

“Ariel, come here,” the chieftain said, waving at her to come closer and gently caressing her head.

“Mother, what are you talking about?” Ariel asked, tilting her head.

“Ariel, do you want to save him?” the chieftain asked.

“He traveled a long distance to return the Earth-Binding Chains in person; he’s the heir of our ancestor, and he saved our Spirit Clan today. By all reason, we should save him regardless of the cost,” Ariel said.

“You’re right. We must save him at any cost,” the chieftain replied with a nod. Ariel spoke the truth, and the Spirit Clan could not act like ingrates.

“What if saving him requires a sacrifice from you? Will you still be willing?” the chieftain asked, pain flashing across her face.

Ariel was her only child, and no parent would willingly trade their child’s life for a stranger.

Ariel fell into silence. She didn’t refuse, but she had to weigh it carefully.

“I’m willing,” she replied after a full minute of thought. She raised her head and looked at Liu Wuxie, prepared to trade her life for his.

With Liu Wuxie here, she believed he could lead the Spirit Clan back to prosperity. Without him, the clan would collapse the next time the Black Crow Clan came. For the sake of the entire Spirit Clan, Ariel chose to sacrifice herself.

“Good child,” the chieftain said, pain flickering across her face again. The three grand elders wore the same strained expressions.

“Chieftain, is it worth it? Ariel is the strongest prodigy our Spirit Clan has seen in the past tens of thousands of years. With enough time, I believe she can lead our Spirit Clan out of this crisis,” said the grand elder who had remained silent all along.

Liu Wuxie came from outside, and she didn’t think it was worth sacrificing their saintess for him.

“I have already made up my mind. Mother, tell me what I should do,” Ariel said, her expression firm.

“Saintess, you must think this through,” said the grand elder. Once she decided, there would be no turning back.

“The Spirit Clan’s ancestral teachings say that we must uphold righteousness. We must not be ungrateful or go back on our word. He got injured while saving us, so we can’t just stand by. Let’s not speak of it as merely trading my life for his. Even if it meant exchanging the lives of the entire Spirit Clan for him, it would not be excessive,” Ariel declared with righteous resolve.

Everyone was left speechless.

“Forget it. Perhaps this is fate,” the chieftain said, turning her gaze outside the hall. The Black Crow Clan hadn’t retreated far, and it wouldn’t take long for them to launch another wave.

“Mother, let’s begin,” Ariel said, her tone firm. Once she decided on something, no one could sway her.

“No hurry. We need to make preparations,” the chieftain said, mainly to give Ariel one last chance to reconsider.

“Okay,” Ariel agreed, then left. The chieftain and the three grand elders remained behind in the main hall.

“Chieftain, you must consider this carefully! The saintess is our Spirit Clan’s only heir! If she manages to restore the ancestral physique, what would happen to our heir?” the grand elders said more freely now that no outsiders remained.

“This child carries great fortune on him, and perhaps he might be able to change everything,” the chieftain said with a single wave.

As a Quasi-Immortal, she possessed terrifying divination ability and could deduce many things through fate.

For the time being, the Spirit Clan was safe, and they arranged patrols throughout Sky City to guard against a Black Crow Clan ambush.

Liu Wuxie lay on a soft couch, his divine sense sinking deeper and deeper. In front of him, a massive black hole hung in place and continuously devoured his soul energy.

“Am I going to die now?” Liu Wuxie thought to himself, even while trapped in a coma.

His soul energy drained with every moment, and the Heavenly Dao Book could only buy him limited time. He had tried every method he could, yet nothing stopped the loss, and his primordial spirit dimmed further and further.

……

After leaving the main hall, Ariel didn’t return to her own residence. Instead, she went to Achiel’s residence.

“Elder cousin, why have you come?” Achiel asked when he saw Ariel arrive.

“Tell me about his story,” Ariel said.

Achiel sat opposite Ariel and began recounting everything that had happened since he had met Liu Wuxie. During his stay in the Heavenly Dao Society, he had investigated Liu Wuxie thoroughly, especially his feats from Azure Billow City to the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.

Whenever he described how Liu Wuxie fought, Achiel’s voice surged with passion, as though he had witnessed it himself. Whenever he spoke of Liu Wuxie’s boldness and how he had toyed with the Divine Alchemy Sect in the palm of his hand, Ariel listened with a quiet longing in her heart.

Achiel spoke for six hours, stopping only after he reached Liu Wuxie’s arrival in the Spirit Clan. One spoke with earnest intensity, and the other listened without interruption.

“What an extraordinary man,” Ariel said as she rose to her feet. She hadn’t cut Achiel off once, and she could only sum Liu Wuxie up as extraordinary.

From what she understood of the human race, most were treacherous and cunning. Righteous people existed, but they were few.

“Elder cousin, is the Feathered Emperor alright?” Achiel asked, worry tightening his voice. The chieftain had promised treatment, so he believed they would save Liu Wuxie.

“It’s late, and I should be going back now,” Ariel said, avoiding the question. She stood up and left Achiel’s residence, heading back to her own.

Late that night, the chieftain finally walked into Ariel’s room.

“Mother!” Ariel said and rose immediately, bowing toward the chieftain.

“No need for formality. Let’s sit and talk,” the chieftain said with an amicable expression as she sat across from Ariel.

Ariel already understood why her mother had come, and it could only be about Liu Wuxie’s treatment.

“Mother, just say whatever you need. Since I have already made my decision, I won’t change my mind,” Ariel said. If moral duty had driven her earlier, hearing Liu Wuxie’s feats had only hardened her resolve. She couldn’t let a man like him die in the Spirit Clan.

“Do you know what our Spirit Clan initially looked like?” the chieftain asked. She rose and gazed into the universe.

Every race evolved step by step, including humans. Legends said ancient humans resembled apes.

Ariel shook her head because she truly didn’t know.

The chieftain took out a portrait and placed it into Ariel’s hands.

Ariel opened the portrait and saw a pearly white bird with not a single stray plume. Its eyes still glowed brightly, filled with intelligence and wisdom even after countless years.

“This…” Ariel stared at the pearly white bird, doubt on her face.

“This is what our ancestors looked like,” the chieftain said with a nod. The Spirit Clan had evolved for countless years, changing bit by bit until they became what they were now. No matter how much time passed, their wings remained with them through every stage of evolution.

Disbelief filled Ariel’s eyes as she looked at the portrait again.

“Mother, I still don’t understand why you are showing me the portrait of our ancestor,” Ariel said, then put it away.

“Do you know the origin of the Sacred Mountain?” the chieftain asked.

Some secrets passed only from chieftain to chieftain, with the grand elders as the only others who knew. Every September, the Spirit Clan prepared a large amount of offerings and placed them beneath the Sacred Mountain to pray for prosperity. The Sacred Mountain lay north of Sky City, a towering peak that pierced the clouds.

Ariel shook her head again, confusion deepening.

“The Sacred Pond is the reason why we survived to this day. If you want to save him, we must take him into that pond,” the chieftain continued.

“Mother, does that mean that I have to take him into the Sacred Pond?” Ariel asked, finally catching her meaning.

“That’s right,” the chieftain replied with a nod.

“That shouldn’t be difficult. The Sacred Mountain is vast, but it will be easy with my ability,” Ariel said. She couldn’t understand why her mother wore such a grave expression.

“The Sacred Pond is the manifestation of extreme yang energy. If someone puts him in without any preparations, the energy will destroy him. There’s only one way to neutralize the violent energy,” the chieftain said, shaking her head. It was never that simple, or she wouldn’t look like this.

“What’s the method?” Ariel asked, brows knitting as if she had already guessed.

“The Pure Yin Physique,” the chieftain said, looking straight at Ariel.

Only then did Ariel truly understand. She possessed the Pure Yin Physique, the Heavenly Divine Yin Physique.

“Mother, you’re trying to say that I must enter the Sacred Pond and use my heavenly yin energy to neutralize the extreme yang energy in the pond?” Ariel asked after taking a deep breath, hesitation flickering across her face.

“You have one day to consider. If you enter the Sacred Pond and release your heavenly yin energy, your body will return to the ancestral form. As your mother, I hope that you will refuse,” the chieftain said, then left the room and gave her daughter a full day to decide. She spoke the last sentence not as a chieftain, but as a mother.

She hoped Ariel would refuse. She didn’t want to see her daughter revert to their ancestral form.

Ariel sat on her bed and felt cold to the bone as she pulled a quilt around herself. If she returned to the ancestral form, she would live like a bird for the rest of her life.

……

Time ticked by, and no one came to disturb Ariel even after half a day passed. Even the attendants who served her stayed away.

An eerie quiet settled over the entire Spirit Clan. The Black Crow Clan didn’t dare to approach and retreated ten thousand miles after losing two experts at the pinnacle of the Heaven Gaze Realm.

They still didn’t know whether Liu Wuxie had died, and they feared the Heavenly Deity Monument he had summoned at the very end.

One day later, Ariel returned to the main hall.

“Mother, I have decided,” Ariel said. She wore brand new clothes and dressed herself like a fairy from a painting. This might be the last time she appeared in this form.

When the chieftain saw her daughter like this, tears slid down her cheeks.