Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 763 - Ambush

Liu Wuxie’s remark drew an outburst of laughter from the surroundings. For someone in the eighth level of the Nascent Transformation Realm to be insulted as nothing by someone in the eighth level of the Astral River Realm was the biggest joke of all.

Many people were baffled. Where did someone in the Astral River Realm get the confidence to challenge someone in the Nascent Transformation? Could it be because of the woman beside him? But that didn’t seem to be the case either.

On Liu Lin’s side, there were several cultivators in the Nascent Transformation Realm aside from him.

“Liu Wuxie, you’re finished!” Liu Lin snarled, his voice filled with hatred. Using the pretense of shopping, he had planned to cause trouble for Liu Wuxie. While he had been away training, Liu Wuxie had returned to the clan and caused his grandfather’s status to plummet—a humiliation Liu Lin couldn’t forgive.

This was why he rallied his friends to find and confront Liu Wuxie. Failing to locate him in the clan, they ventured to Astral Glory City for purchases, only to run into him here by chance.

Since he ran into Liu Wuxie, he naturally wouldn’t let the latter go. He was determined to kill Liu Wuxie to avenge his grandfather. Even if he couldn’t kill Liu Wuxie, he had to cripple the latter’s cultivation.

“You want to fight me here?” Liu Wuxie smiled with a hint of mockery in his eyes. After experiencing several battles, his combat strength had been perfected, especially the synergy between his physical body and primordial spirit.

“Enough talk and die!” Liu Lin naturally wouldn’t waste such a rare opportunity and let Liu Wuxie leave this place alive. Without hesitation, he lunged at Liu Wuxie and struck his palm out.

But oddly, Liu Wuxie stood unmoved with no intention of fighting back.

“Get lost! This is the Universal Artifact Pavilion! Take it outside if you want to fight!” An invisible palm appeared in mid-air and struck Liu Lin. The latter’s body drew an arc in the air as he flew out of the pavilion, falling to the ground on his face, leaving it scraped and bloody.

Before coming, Liu Xing had told Liu Wuxie that fighting was strictly prohibited in the Universal Artifact Pavilion. The Universal Artifact Pavilion had a powerful backing that even the Liu Clan didn’t dare to provoke them, and they naturally wouldn’t give Liu Lin any leeway for violating the rules.

Everyone now knew why Liu Wuxie didn’t fight back. So it turns out that the Universal Artifact Pavilion would deal with trash like Liu Lin.

“Let’s go,” Liu Wuxie said calmly, leaving with Liu Xing and Liu Xin’er. They swiftly exited through another hall and vanished without a trace.

When Liu Lin and his cohorts recovered, the trio were long gone. This meant not only did Liu Lin fail to avenge his grandfather, but he also suffered a beating for nothing. The frustration naturally boiled over as he howled in rage, stumbling aimlessly through the streets of the Astral Glory City.

“Wuxie, how do you know the Universal Artifact Pavilion would intervene?” Liu Xin’er asked on the road.

Though the Universal Artifact Pavilion had a clear rule prohibiting fights, the fights were often finished by the time enforcers could intervene.

“That’s a secret,” Liu Wuxie said, shaking his head. They wouldn’t understand even if he told them.

From the moment he stepped into the Universal Artifact Pavilion, he noticed many experts hidden in the pavilion, and there were over a hundred people in the True Profound Realm. There were also several presences in the Spirit Profound Realm and one in the Earth Profound Realm. With such a vast formation, how would they allow someone like Liu Lin to cause a ruckus there?

Liu Wuxie made a rough estimation and concluded that the materials in the Universal Artifact Pavilion on display were valued at trillions of spirit stones. Since they could put the materials on display, they didn’t fear being robbed.

“Where are we going next?” Liu Xing asked. They had a great harvest on their trip out today. Not only had he acquired the materials he needed, but he also had spirit stones to spare.

“Back home,” Liu Wuxie said. His interest waned after encountering Liu Lin, and he lost the mood to explore the city. Not to mention, he had spent most of his spirit stones, and he only had less than a hundred thousand left.

The trio retraced their steps and headed back to the Liu Clan. But when they passed through the woods, Liu Wuxie suddenly came to a stop.

“Come out!” Liu Wuxie roared, and three men emerged from the woods.

While hiding, they emanated a powerful aura, like a fire in the dark, so that even Liu Xing could sense their presence.

The three strangers were unfamiliar; at least, that was the conclusion Liu Wuxie reached judging from Liu Xing and Liu Xin’er’s expressions. But since they weren’t disciples of the Liu Clan, this could only mean they were from One Sword Shakes Mount Spirit.

“Pretty impressive awareness you have there, boy,” said the man in the middle with a sinister expression. He hadn’t expected their ambush to be detected so quickly.

“Speak your purpose,” Liu Wuxie said. He wasn’t interested in idle chatter, and he was ready regardless of whether these people were here to rob, kill them, or simply seek a conversation.

“Stop pretending to be a fool and hand over all your spirit stones! I will consider sparing your lives if you’re obedient,” said the man in the middle. He gave off a powerful aura in the eighth level of the Nascent Transformation Realm.

As Liu Wuxie had suspected, these three had been tailing them since they were in Astral Glory City.

“Three pathetic worms like you dare to rob me? You must’ve grown tired of living!” Liu Wuxie said. He would’ve been cautious if it were Liu Lin, a first-tier disciple of the Liu Clan, groomed from a young age with the best resources.

But these three didn’t have such a foundation. While they weren’t rogue cultivators, they should be disciples from a small clan judging from their fragile foundation. They must’ve gotten to their current cultivation relying on pills.

“Second Brother, this brat is too arrogant to call us worms. Why don’t we kill the men and take the woman?” said the man on the right, rubbing his palms together. He was barely holding back as there would be more uncertainties if the matter dragged out.

The man on the left nodded in agreement. @@novelbin@@

“Hear that? Don’t blame us for being ruthless if you refuse to hand over your spirit stones,” roared the man in the middle. For some reason, he could sense a threatening aura coming from Liu Wuxie. He knew the best outcome was to force Liu Wuxie to hand over his spirit stones without a fight. Then again, that didn’t mean they were afraid of a fight.

After all, they had higher cultivation than Liu Wuxie’s group on average, and only Liu Xin’er might pose a threat to them. As for Liu Wuxie and Liu Xing, they believed they could kill those two with one strike.

“You want to rob us? You’d have to ask my whip for permission first!” Liu Xin’er couldn’t hold back her anger and produced a loud crack with her whip, sending ripples through the air.

“How stubborn! Since that’s the case, you can all die now!” roared the man in the middle as he attacked with his companions. They moved as one and took on a battle formation, the Three Talent Array.

“Liu Xing, you stand back!” Liu Wuxie said, as Liu Xing couldn’t participate in a battle of this level with his current cultivation.

Liu Xing stepped back obediently. He knew he would only hold back Liu Wuxie and Liu Xin’er if he tried to help.

Liu Xin’er’s combat style was ferocious. Her whip was restrained in a confined space in the One Sword Shakes Mount Spirit. But she could unleash her full strength in an open battlefield like this.

The whip cracked loudly as it lashed out, producing howling gusts that shook leaves off the trees nearby, covering the ground with a thick layer in mere moments.

The length of her weapon granted her an overwhelming advantage, and she managed to keep the three attackers at bay, unable to close in on them.

As for Liu Wuxie, he merely stood by the sidelines, observing silently.

“Third brother, go after the two and leave this woman to us!” one of the attackers commanded, planning to hold Liu Xin’er back with his companion while freeing the youngest to pursue Liu Wuxie and Liu Xing. They weren’t confident they could defeat Liu Xin’er, even with a two-on-one advantage, and hoped this strategy would give them an edge.

“Understood!” said the youngest of the attackers as he freed himself from the battle and charged toward Liu Wuxie.

Seeing this, Liu Xin’er’s heart clenched with anxiety. It was too late for her to intervene as she was held back by the other two.

“Don’t lose your focus!” Liu Wuxie’s voice echoed in her mind, reassuring her to concentrate on her fight.

After receiving Liu Wuxie’s assurance, Liu Xin’er threw herself into the battle. Since Liu Wuxie could kill the Butcher with one strike, it shouldn’t be an issue for him to hold his ground against an opponent.

“Boy, you can die now!” the man roared after he got close to Liu Wuxie. He unleashed a fray of sword rays at Liu Wuxie, directed at his limbs.

Meanwhile, Liu Wuxie stood motionless with the Heretic Blade in his hand. With one swift slash, the sky turned dark, the wind howled, and even the sunlight became dim.

Liu Xin’er and her two opponents stopped after sensing the commotion caused by Liu Wuxie. They couldn’t imagine what kind of attack this was to drain all the spiritual energy within a few hundred meters of radius.

All the spiritual energy drained from the surroundings was used to empower Liu Wuxie’s strike, which unleashed invisible pressure that made it hard to breathe.

The man who lunged at Liu Wuxie trembled as Liu Wuxie’s blade aura locked him in place. This was the power of dao techniques. Martial techniques could only be used to kill, but a dao technique could manipulate the surrounding laws to strengthen the attack.

The surrounding space solidified, causing the attacker’s movements to slow down to a crawl.

Liu Wuxie’s strike was unembellished and devoid of flair. It was a simple slash, but it had unleashed an overwhelming aura.

Before the attacker could let out a scream, his body blew into a gory burst of blood and flesh as his body’s spirituality began to vanish. But that didn’t mean he was dead, as his primordial spirit fled from his soul sea, wanting to escape.

However, Liu Wuxie let out a cold snort as a cold ray froze the primordial spirit, trying to flee. As for the energy from his body, it was devoured by Liu Wuxie.

The two men fighting Liu Xin’er trembled and couldn’t comprehend what was happening. They couldn’t believe that their third brother, who was in the eighth level of the Nascent Transformation Realm, had been killed by Liu Wuxie with one strike, and not even his primordial spirit had managed to escape.

They couldn’t believe a mere human could wield such power. They were overwhelmed by fear, with their only thought to flee from this nightmare. They pretended to attack and forced Liu Xin’er to retreat before they burst toward the forest’s edge, wanting to escape. They regretted coming after Liu Wuxie, and it was no different from courting death now that they looked at it again.

But they didn’t get far. Liu Wuxie appeared out of nowhere and stood before them just when they had barely got five meters away.

“Leaving so soon? Aren’t you looking down on us a little too much?” Liu Wuxie smiled as he looked at the two men, his tone laced with chilling mockery.