Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1548 - Spirit Clans Incantation
Chapter 1548 – Spirit Clan’s Incantation
Liu Wuxie paced the room in measured steps, matching his suspicion to the layout until the discrepancy became undeniable. The crystal stone sat three meters left of where it should’ve been.
In theory, a few meters of offset shouldn’t have meant anything, and a minor design error could’ve explained it.
Outside, the Black Crow Clan kept assaulting, while the Spirit Clan still refused to counterattack and allowed them to keep hammering the defensive spiritual array. Sunlight happened to strike the crystal stone at the perfect angle, and the beam spilled into the room like a guided line.
Liu Wuxie followed that light until it landed on the stone tiles, and he narrowed his eyes. The beam covered exactly one tile, too much of a coincidence.
He crouched and rapped his knuckles against the tile, and the sound came back hollow and wrong.
“It’s hollow beneath.”
He drew a dagger at once, wedged it into the seam, and began prying along the edge until the tile slowly lifted free. When he shifted the tile aside, a metal box lay hidden underneath.
Countless years had corroded it, and rust coated the metal in thick, scarring layers. He lifted the box out and placed it on the desk, then cracked it open to reveal an ancient scroll tucked within.
Liu Wuxie raised the scroll with painstaking care, afraid it would crumble if he handled it too roughly. After all, many ancient texts turned to dust the moment someone touched them, having slept underground for far too long.
This scroll, however, was made from a special hide and had endured the ages with shocking integrity. He unrolled it slowly, and dense characters emerged alongside meticulous diagrams.
“The complete version of the Soul Forge Art!”
Liu Wuxie froze where he stood. Only then did he realize the Soul Forge Art he cultivated had always been incomplete. Even the Feathered Emperor clearly hadn’t known this scroll existed, and yet an incomplete version had already allowed him to surpass ordinary people by a vast margin.
If he cultivated the complete version, he couldn’t even imagine what kind of power it might reach. In that instant, he finally understood why cultivators in the Spirit Martial Astral Domain obsessed over seizing the Soul Forge Art.
Liu Wuxie needed only a few minutes to memorize every character and diagram, carving them into the depths of his memory. The diagram mapped the Soul Forge Art’s cultivation path, while the text itself formed the incantation, and when paired together, the Soul Forge Art could achieve twice the power with half the effort.
Suddenly, an earth-shattering explosion rocked Sky City, sending the defensive spiritual array into violent tremors. The Black Crow Clan still couldn’t punch through, but the shockwave slammed into the streets inside the city like a hammer.
Ordinary members of the Spirit Clan couldn’t withstand it, and blood began seeping from their ears. The weakest children suffered the worst, their eardrums rupturing under the impact.
Liu Wuxie didn’t hesitate. He entered the Heavenly Deity Monument immediately, determined to seize every heartbeat of time to cultivate the complete version of the Soul Forge Art.
This time, the chieftain stepped forward and personally took command, preparing to fight the Black Crow Clan to the death.
Inside the eternal world, Liu Wuxie sat cross-legged with his eyes closed. He followed the scroll’s instructions and rebuilt the Soul Forge Art from the ground up. The moment he circulated his soul energy, a piercing pain tore through the depths of his soul sea, and he nearly blacked out on the spot.
Cultivating the complete version of the Soul Forge Art demanded a brutal price. His soul energy threaded through his soul sea like blades, slicing and carving, and he could only grit his teeth and endure as he forced the cultivation to continue. With the Heavenly Dao Book guarding his soul sea, he didn’t fear losing control.
Time slipped by in silence as Liu Wuxie’s soul sea transformed violently. His Soul Spear split again and again until it surpassed a hundred spears, and when they converged, they forged a super Soul Spear that could pierce through everything in heaven and earth.
His Soul Fire grew even more terrifying, compressing into a strange flame that clung to his skin like a living brand. His Soul Shield expanded into a massive barrier that sealed and protected his soul sea, and with that defense, even cultivators at the pinnacle of the Heaven Gaze Realm wouldn’t be able to tear through it. Outside, the battle reached its most frenzied stage.
“Chieftain, we should retaliate,” the elders behind the chieftain said, poised for her command. With Ariel absent, the Spirit Clan’s army lacked its true leader.
“Wait!” the chieftain said, as if she was listening for something no one else could hear. No one understood what she awaited, and no one could tell whether she waited for Ariel or Liu Wuxie.
The Black Crow Clan’s assaults climbed higher and higher, pressing the defensive spiritual array without mercy. The Spirit Clan had already shifted its vulnerable population deep underground.
“Soul Spear!” Liu Wuxie roared, summoning thousands of Soul Spears that rained down from every direction.
In the past, mobilizing so many Soul Spears would have drained his soul sea dry, but with the incantation, he discovered his soul energy depleted far more slowly.
With the complete version of the Soul Forge Art, Liu Wuxie’s soul sea expanded by more than threefold. His soul energy now rivaled that of an expert at the higher levels of the Heaven Gaze Realm, and the leap felt absolutely terrifying.
“Soul Fire!” Liu Wuxie commanded.
A ball of fire formed and immediately spread outward, incinerating everything in its path.
“What terrifying Soul Fire! It’s even more terrifying than the True Samadhi Fire,” he murmured.
True Samadhi Fire took visible shape, while Soul Fire remained formless and unseen. One could spot one with the naked eye, but the other slipped past sight, because Soul Fire could exist anywhere in heaven and on earth without leaving a trace.
“It’s about time!” Liu Wuxie said, rising to his feet. His soul energy surged outward like a tidal wave, roaring in every direction. With a flicker, he returned to the room and stepped out at once.
He looked up at the Black Crow Clan in the sky, and boundless murderous intent rolled off him and spread through the Sky City like a storm.
“Kill!”
Liu Wuxie shot straight into the sky.
When countless members of the Spirit Clan saw him, they began shouting “Feathered Emperor” again and again. After all, they had personally witnessed the Feathered Emperor save the Spirit Clan only days ago.
Liu Wuxie passed through the barrier and appeared in the sky, and the Black Crow Clan’s army immediately swarmed toward him with no intention of letting him escape.
“Chieftain, should we send out troops to reinforce the Feathered Emperor?” the elders asked nervously.
Liu Wuxie stood alone against the Black Crow Clan, and retreating to safety wouldn’t be easy.
“Advance!” the chieftain ordered, and the Spirit Clan surged upward, igniting the next stage of war.
“Liu Wuxie, die!” a warrior of the Black Crow Clan yelled as several experts at the Heaven Gaze Realm lunged toward him.
Liu Wuxie watched their assault with icy indifference. He glanced down and saw Ariel had woken up, standing in his courtyard and staring up at the sky.
Liu Wuxie drew a deep breath, and murderous intent erupted from his eyes. “Black Crow Clan, let me end you all!” “O’ supreme power of the world and the greatest element of existence, I call upon you to awaken the hope in the hearts of warriors. Dispel their fear and let courage be reborn! Grant them strength hidden in their hearts and shatter all evil in the world! Soul Spear!” Liu Wuxie chanted.
His incantation rippled out, spreading throughout heaven and earth. His voice didn’t rise loudly, yet it still carried through the entire Sky City as if the world itself echoed it.
The chieftain narrowed her eyes when she heard Liu Wuxie chant. In that instant, she began to suspect she had just heard the Spirit Clan’s long-lost incantation.
Thousands of Soul Spears manifested in the air, forming a sight that turned the sky into a forest of white intent.
Even when the previous Feathered Emperor pushed the Soul Forge Art to its limit, he could only manifest over a hundred Soul Spears. But that Feathered Emperor had been a Quasi-Immortal, while Liu Wuxie stood only at the fifth-level Earth Immortal Realm.
Liu Wuxie could achieve this only because he cultivated the complete version of the Soul Forge Art. With the incantation reinforcing it, the Soul Spear’s lethality surged far beyond what it had been before.
“No, this is bad! It’s the Spirit Clan’s incantation!” the Black Crow Clan’s experts cried out as they finally realized something had gone horribly wrong. The Spirit Clan’s incantation had vanished for countless years, so how could it possibly reappear now?
The Soul Spears plunged into the Black Crow Clan’s ranks, and no one could stop them.
“ARGH!”
Numerous membersof the Black Crow Clan dropped like flies in the blink of an eye, their soul seas pierced as the Soul Spears poured down like a ruthless torrent.
The Spirit Clan forces rushing up froze in shock. Before they could even reinforce Liu Wuxie, Black Crow Clan corpses began to fall and smash down toward them.
In a single breath, bodies piled up over Sky City, stacking atop the defensive barrier until they formed a grotesque canopy.
The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron appeared and swallowed the fallen Black Crow Clan warriors, dissolving them into laws of darkness that poured into the desolate world. Liu Wuxie had instantly wiped out half of the Black Crow Clan gathered in the surrounding area.
The survivors who escaped the Soul Spears stared blankly, their minds emptied into stunned loss. “How could this be?”
The entire Spirit Clan erupted in cheers, while the chieftain watched with visible relief. She knew she had judged correctly. Liu Wuxie carried an immense fortune, and he truly could drag the Spirit Clan out of disaster.
“Ariel, you were right,” the chieftain said.
Without Ariel’s sacrifice, Liu Wuxie would have died, and the Spirit Clan would have lasted only another day under the Black Crow Clan’s full army.
Heirad stepped forward, fear still clinging to his face. “Liu Wuxie, how could you possibly know the Spirit Clan’s incantation?!”
Though he had reached the pinnacle of the Heaven Gaze Realm, he didn’t dare close the distance between him and Liu Wuxie.
The Soul Forge Art remained the Black Crow Clan’s nemesis. It would produce only ordinary results against humans, but against the Black Crow Clan, it triggered catastrophic effects.
“Let’s fight!” Liu Wuxie said. He refused to waste time speaking, and a layer of fire erupted across the surface of his body.
Heirad sensed the danger instantly and ordered the Black Crow Clan to fall back. “Everyone, retreat!”
Soul Fire carried an even deadlier lethality than Soul Spear, and once Liu Wuxie unleashed it fully, even cultivators at the pinnacle of the Heaven Gaze Realm would struggle to endure.
“Too late!” Liu Wuxie yelled. He recited the incantation again, and boundless flame bloomed across the surroundings, forming a barrier that enclosed over ten thousand members of the Black Crow Clan.
None of them could withstand Soul Fire, no matter how desperately they tried to dodge. Their bodies stayed intact, but their souls suffered endless torment as Soul Fire burrowed into their soul seas and burned without restraint.
Over ten thousand members of the Black Crow Clan roared. They felt their minds tearing apart as their soul seas incinerated into nothingness under Soul Fire, and even the Spirit Clan watched with lingering fear etched across their faces.
Heirad withdrew far enough to avoid being caught by Soul Fire. The ordinary members of the Black Crow Clan weren’t so fortunate, and they fell like wheat beneath a scythe. The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron continued swallowing their souls, and the law of darkness grew stronger with every breath.
At last, the two Quasi-Immortals of the Black Crow Clan made their move. They couldn’t let Liu Wuxie keep slaughtering them, or he would wipe out the Black Crow Clan completely. With the incantation supporting him, Liu Wuxie had effectively become invincible, and extermination would only become a matter of time.
The Spirit Clan’s chieftain finally acted and appeared in the sky. “Black Crow Clan’s chieftains, I’ll be your opponent.”With a tap of Liu Wuxie’s finger, a golden ray entered her soul sea, carrying the Spirit Clan’s incantation. If she fought alone, resisting two Quasi-Immortals wouldn’t be easy, but with the incantation, the Spirit Clan could seize the advantage.
As a powerhouse at the Quasi-Immortal Realm, the chieftain needed only a single breath to grasp the incantation completely.
