Desolate Devouring Art - Chapter 1618 - An Immortals Attack
Chapter 1618 – An Immortal’s Attack
An immortal’s power tore through every layer of Liu Wuxie’s defenses and bored straight into his body.
Inside the desolate world, the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron spun up at once. It tried to devour the invading force and neutralized most of the power that entered Liu Wuxie, yet a stubborn portion still drilled into his heart.
A bizarre voice rang out from within Liu Wuxie, and the black miasma revealed itself as the power of an inner demon.
“Answer my summons, Lord of Inner Demon!”
The inner demon sleeping deep in Liu Wuxie’s heart stirred, awakening at a terrifying speed.
“Shit!”
Liu Wuxie’s heart sank. He had never expected the Immortal Slaughter Palace’s ancestor to have mastered the art of inner demons.
With a single strike, the Immortal Slaughter Palace’s ancestor had awakened the inner demon within him and tried to seize control through it. This was the power of the inner demon, a technique that could control others by manipulating their inner demons. It resembled the faith force Liu Wuxie possessed, yet the methods diverged. Liu Wuxie converted others into devotees through faith force. In contrast, the other side enslaved them through the inner demon.
Once the inner demon awakened, no one could resolve it, not even Liu Wuxie. Only the Primordial Inner Demon Sutra, long rumored to have vanished, could command every inner demon in the world.
Wisps of black miasma seeped out from Liu Wuxie’s heart and condensed into a black head, eerily identical to Liu Wuxie’s own face.
“The power of the inner demon, heed my command and kill him!” the Immortal Slaughter Palace’s ancestor exclaimed thunderously as he tried to force the inner demon to kill Liu Wuxie.
The awakened inner demon let out a sinister laugh and clamped its fangs down on Liu Wuxie’s heart, sending agony ripping through him. Five elements had formed his internal organs, and losing even a single piece nearly tore him apart.
If it continued, the inner demon would eventually devour his entire body. Even though he had reached unity with heaven and earth, the inner demon still counted as part of him. Once the inner demon consumed him, it would seize his consciousness as well, and Liu Wuxie would vanish from the world for eternity.
Liu Wuxie tried method after method to stop it, but none of his mythical arts could suppress the inner demon. Just as the inner demon was about to devour Liu Wuxie’s heart completely, the Heavenly Dao Book burst with dazzling radiance and sealed the inner demon away.
“ARGH!”
The Heavenly Dao Book crushed the will of the Immortal Slaughter Palace’s ancestor, and it also pinned down Liu Wuxie’s inner demon. The black miasma still writhed and tried to burrow into the depths of the Heavenly Dao Book.
“You possessed such a treasure?! Let me see how long you can keep it suppressed,” the Immortal Slaughter Palace’s ancestor said. His voice no longer carried pure fury; shock now threaded through it. He immediately mobilized more of his inner demon power to resist the Heavenly Dao Book, locking the two in a brutal struggle.
The radiance from the Heavenly Dao Book held the inner demon in place, yet the inner demon’s power refused to fade. They grappled back and forth, neither side able to crush the other outright.
Even so, Liu Wuxie knew the Heavenly Dao Book would eventually exhaust itself. He didn’t hesitate and accelerated through space, reaching the border between the Laman Astral Domain and the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain in two hours.
He stepped into the teleportation array and left the Laman Astral Domain without hesitation. The Immortal Slaughter Palace teetered on the brink of destruction, and the butchering of its upper echelons left it as nothing but an empty husk.
Now he had to dissolve the inner demon’s power inside him. The Heavenly Dao Book and the inner demon’s force wrestled violently, and a single lapse would let the inner demon seize his body.
The power of the Immortal Slaughter Palace’s ancestor spread like dense spiderwebs, and black patterns began crawling across the Heavenly Dao Book’s surface. An immortal truly lived up to the title, standing at the pinnacle of the astral domains with terrifying abilities. He could even control someone from billions of miles away.
“Tian Can, why didn’t that immortal appear?” Liu Wuxie asked. He had fled in haste, terrified that the Immortal Slaughter Palace’s immortal might descend in person.
“The immortals of the four astral domains have all entered the Skyfall Realm. It’s easy to enter, but it’s a different story to come out. Only when heaven and earth undergo major changes can they leave the Skyfall Realm,” Tian Can explained, his voice echoing in Liu Wuxie’s ears.
“What kind of place is the Skyfall Realm?” Liu Wuxie asked.
With the world transforming rapidly and even the life-and-death tribulation descending, the return of immortals felt like a matter of time.
“I heard that it’s an independent world capable of shielding heavenly dao. Even if someone breaks through inside, the celestial realm won’t draw them in. If those who reached the Immortal Realm don’t want to enter the celestial realm, the best method would be entering the Skyfall Realm,” Tian Can explained, offering knowledge Liu Wuxie hadn’t known.
When someone broke through to the Immortal Realm, the life-and-death tribulation descended. Along with it came a terrifying suction force that would drag that cultivator into the celestial realm.
One could use powerful artifacts to sever that suction and remain in the astral domains, but they would have to live carefully afterward. They couldn’t afford to leak even the slightest Immortal Realm aura.
Once they entered the Skyfall Realm, they could slip free of the heavenly dao’s constraints. They could cultivate freely inside it, without being dragged into the celestial realm.
“I see!”
Liu Wuxie finally understood why the immortals of the four astral domains couldn’t return for the time being unless the world underwent a great upheaval. Entering the Skyfall Realm was easy, but leaving it was not.
The four astral domains had existed for countless years and produced who knew how many immortals. Most immortals entered the Skyfall Realm to seclude themselves, refusing to emerge unless they achieved their goals.
The weakest immortals were known as Heavenly Immortals, the lowest tier of cultivators in the Fleeting Cloud Celestial Realm. A Heavenly Immortal held no status there, much like cultivators at the Heaven Profound Realm did in the astral domains.
No one knew how many immortals had gathered in the Skyfall Realm since the four astral domains had come into being.
“The four astral domains’ layout is changing rapidly, and soon the immortals will return. It looks like I have to make my breakthrough quickly,” Liu Wuxie murmured as he stepped out of the teleportation array.
Only those at the higher levels of the Heaven Gaze Realm could contend with immortals, and his current strength still fell short. He couldn’t even withstand the will of an immortal.
Liu Wuxie performed his movement technique and returned to the Heavenly Dao Society in two hours. The moment he arrived, the entire Heavenly Dao Society erupted into an uproar.
News of Liu Wuxie slaughtering over a hundred elders from the Immortal Slaughter Palace had already reached them. Reports of him destroying the sect’s camp on the Serene Peace Star and retrieving the Heretic God’s remains had spread as well. However, Chu Zhongtian’s death was still unknown to them, though it wouldn’t be long before the news swept across the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.
“Wuxie, your complexion looks pale. Are you injured?” Mu Tianli asked as soon as they entered the main hall.
“I’m fine for the time being. How is the Heavenly Dao Society doing?” Liu Wuxie asked.
“Everything is developing well,” Mu Tianli reported, summarizing everything in a single sentence.
“Good!” Liu Wuxie said weakly, dragging in deep breaths as he spoke. His heart had turned black, and the inner demon had begun gnawing at the Heavenly Dao Book.
Everyone in the hall noticed the pain carved across Liu Wuxie’s face, and anxiety spread like wildfire.
“Go, bring Sect Master Hua!” Mu Tianli roared, and someone immediately sprinted out to invite Hua Feiyu.
When they heard about Liu Wuxie’s injuries, Xu Lingxue and the other women rushed into the main hall in a panic. Before their eyes, wisps of black miasma started creeping up Liu Wuxie’s face.
Hua Feiyu arrived a few minutes later and burst into the main hall. After the previous incident, they had built a teleportation array between the Heavenly Dragon Sect and the Heavenly Dao Society, allowing rapid travel between the two forces.
Liu Wuxie’s three senior brothers also came, accompanied by a large group of elders from the Heavenly Dragon Sect. The moment they saw Liu Wuxie, their expressions shifted. His face had turned deathly pale, and a layer of black fog spread faster by the breath.
“What have you gone through to experience such a ferocious inner demon?” Hua Feiyu asked the instant he saw Liu Wuxie. He could tell the inner demon had invaded and was trying to seize Liu Wuxie’s body.
“An immortal acted against me,” Liu Wuxie said. He saw no reason to hide anything when everyone present could be trusted.
“What?!” Hua Feiyu staggered as the words hit him. A miracle had kept Liu Wuxie alive after suffering an immortal’s attack.
“What exactly happened?” Hua Feiyu asked, forcing himself to steady his breathing as he demanded the details.
Liu Wuxie could only recount everything from beginning to end. When everyone heard that Liu Wuxie had slain a quasi-immortal, the entire main hall sucked in a sharp breath, and even Hua Feiyu’s eyes trembled with disbelief. He couldn’t believe that his disciple had grown strong enough to kill a quasi-immortal.
Then everyone’s hearts plunged to rock bottom. An immortal had struck Liu Wuxie, and the inner demon inside him had erupted, trying to seize control. If they couldn’t remove it in time, Liu Wuxie would inevitably die.
“The Immortal Slaughter Palace’s ancestor is also called the Inner Demon Elder. His attainment in the inner demon is unrivaled in the four astral domains, and I don’t recall anyone surviving his power of the inner demon,” an elder from the Heavenly Dragon Sect at the pinnacle of the Heaven Gaze Realm said, revealing what he knew about the Immortal Slaughter Palace’s ancestor.
When everyone heard that no one could undo the inner demon, anxiety tightened across everyone’s faces.
“Sect Master Hua, please save him no matter what,” Mu Tianli said, almost collapsing as if he might kneel.
Hua Feiyu stood as the only quasi-immortal present. If he couldn’t handle the inner demon, Liu Wuxie would be doomed.
“Don’t worry about it. I won’t let him die easily,” Hua Feiyu said firmly, rising to his feet.
If no other path remained, he could awaken the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s ancestor and use an immortal’s power to suppress the inner demon.
Silence pressed down over the hall. Xu Lingxue sat beside Liu Wuxie and gently held his hand, forcing herself to stay strong.
“Our Elven Race has a Heart-Calming Mantra that can dissolve the inner demon. But I don’t know if it will work against the inner demon inside our husband,” Vanya said.
Back during the Myriad Race Ceremony, Liu Wuxie had suffered an inner demon backlash, and Vanya had used the Heart-Calming Mantra to help him dissolve that crisis. Yet, she only knew the opening chapter, and only the chieftain had truly mastered the complete Heart-Calming Mantra.
“Let’s not waste time. We have to leave immediately,” Hua Feiyu said, preparing to take Liu Wuxie and Vanya to the Elven Race.
“We’ll come along!” Xu Lingxue and the others said, rising to their feet.
“Time is critical, and you all stay in the Heavenly Dao Society for now. If the Elven Race can’t solve his problem, I’ll take him somewhere else. You all will only slow us down,” Hua Feiyu explained firmly.
He left with Liu Wuxie and Vanya for the Elven Race’s planet without another word.
