Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 812 - Auspicious Cloud Cave

Liu Wuxie hadn't expected to run into Hong Du here. Aside from Hong Du, three others were present, whom Liu Wuxie recognized. They were Ning Hai, Ma Tianming, and the Blazing Sun Sect's Liu Jianshu.

To his surprise, all three of them had reached the fifth-level True Profound Realm, and even Hong Du had reached the second level.

All of the five thousand disciples who had joined Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy had made significant progress.

The four of them had secured the top four rankings, earning them time in Auspicious Cloud Cave as a reward.

Unaware that Liu Wuxie had claimed the first place among the seven peaks, Hong Du stood in his way. The disciples from the three courts and five institutions had also arrived with five disciples.

They all had a high cultivation which made Liu Wuxie stand out.

"Hong Du, do you really want to fight me here?" Liu Wuxie asked with a smile. Hong Du was only at the second level of the True Profound Realm, someone Liu Wuxie didn’t even consider worth his attention.

Ever since he had reached the third-level Nascent Transformation Realm, his cultivation had undergone a drastic transformation, and he wouldn't mind killing Hong Du here if he dared to provoke him.

"Liu Wuxie, kneel and be my dog. I might consider sparing your life!" Hong Du sneered, his tone dripping with malice. He didn’t just want to defeat Liu Wuxie—he wanted to humiliate him before everyone, convinced that killing him would be nothing more than a trivial task.

"Get lost!" Liu Wuxie roared, unleashing a powerful shockwave that forced Hong Du to retreat.

Hong Du felt humiliated in the presence of so many elite disciples. After all, everyone here was the top scorer on this year's recruitment test.

Ning Hai narrowed his eyes as Liu Wuxie's aura unsettled him. This wasn't something a mere cultivator at the third-level Nascent Transformation Realm could do.

"Liu Wuxie, you're courting death!" Hong Du was enraged and struck with his palm without hesitation. He had made his move directly without giving Liu Wuxie the chance to speak.

"Come at me!" Liu Wuxie advanced instead of retreating, raising his palm with a hint of destructive force. After his recent breakthrough, he had yet to grasp the full extent of his strength, and Hong Du would serve as a perfect training partner.

The two palms collided as neither attempted to evade. A thunderous explosion followed, and violent gusts of wind swept through the surroundings, tearing apart the nearby trees.

A massive crater had formed from the impact of their collision at the epicenter.

Shortly after, they were sent flying backward by at least a dozen steps.

Hong Du's face turned red. The moment his palm clashed with Liu Wuxie's, he could sense an overwhelming force surging through his meridians, making him feel uncomfortable all around. He shook his arm involuntarily, trying to dispel the lingering force.

On the other hand, Liu Wuxie remained expressionless. He had already assessed Hong Du's strength, which was only slightly superior to Chen Yan's. Had this battle occurred a day earlier, it might have been more challenging for him.

"This brat is interesting to withstand the power of someone at the True Profound Realm despite being at the Nascent Transformation Realm," Ma Tianming said with a hint of intrigue in his eyes. He bore no hostility toward Liu Wuxie—only curiosity.

"The purity of his true essence is on par with the True Profound Realm," Liu Jianshu muttered softly. They had all felt uneasy by the rampaging energy released by Liu Wuxie earlier.

Hong Du's face turned dark when he failed to kill Liu Wuxie in one strike, and he began to approach him again. With each step he took, the murderous intent he gave off increased and enveloped Liu Wuxie like liquid mercury. He roared, "Liu Wuxie, you've truly angered me!"

"Who the hell do you think you are? If you want a fight, then fight!" Liu Wuxie snapped, his patience wearing thin as he unsheathed the Heretic Blade.

Liu Wuxie preferred the rules of the Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy over those of the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, where he had to be cautious about taking another disciple's life. But here, such concerns didn’t exist. Strength reigned supreme, and only the fittest survived.

The tension mounted, and a battle could erupt at any moment.

Hong Du drew his sword, unleashing a razor-sharp sword aura that sliced through the fallen leaves, reducing them to fragments. The disturbance soon caught the attention of the elder from Auspicious Cloud Cave, who stepped out of the building.

Auspicious Cloud Cave is about to close, and your rewards will be forfeited if you do not enter now," said the elder. Auspicious Cloud Cave only remained open for a limited time, and missing this opportunity would mean giving up the rewards entirely.

Hearing this, Ma Tianming, Ning Hai, and the others vanished instantly. They were not interested in the fate of others, as it had nothing to do with them. Their only concern was Auspicious Cloud Cave and the opportunities it held for their future.

Only Liu Wuxie and Hong Du remained with their weapons in hand.

"Liu Wuxie, consider yourself lucky. Once we leave Auspicious Cloud Cave, your life is mine," Hong Du sneered, sheathing his sword before striding toward the building. Missing this rare opportunity was not an option.

"Right back at you," Liu Wuxie replied, putting away the Heretic Blade and entering the building.

"How can trash like you come to Auspicious Cloud Cave!" Hong Du mocked as he entered with Liu Wuxie.

"You're starting to get on my nerves," Liu Wuxie said, his patience wearing thin. With Ning Hai and the others already inside, there was no one to interfere. Now was the perfect time to make his move.

In an instant, Liu Wuxie vanished and reappeared beside Hong Du, delivering a resounding slap across his face. The impact caught Hong Du completely off guard—he hadn't expected Liu Wuxie to attack so suddenly. A red palm mark bloomed on his left cheek.

Hong Du had been slapped by Liu Wuxie back during the assessment, and he was slapped again. This ignited his fury thoroughly. He was determined to kill Liu Wuxie now, even at the cost of forgoing the chance to enter Auspicious Cloud Cave. He swung his sword at Liu Wuxie without any hesitation.

Liu Wuxie wanted to end the battle quickly—there was no time to waste. Without hesitation, he summoned the Earth-Binding Chains, which wrapped tightly around Hong Du, constricting with every struggle.

"Liu Wuxie, release me at this instance!" Hong Du panicked. He didn't expect Liu Wuxie to possess such a heaven-defying artifact.

"Die!" Liu Wuxie couldn't be bothered to chat with Hong Du and struck with his palm, claiming Hong Du's life along with his interspatial ring.

The elder standing nearby had no intention of interfering, as though this had nothing to do with him.

Summoning the Demonic Purgatory Chains, Hong Du's body withered away in mere moments, leaving behind an empty husk of human skin. At this moment, the elder overseeing Auspicious Cloud Cave finally showed a flicker of emotion on his face.

The grandmaster had ordered them to create as much trouble for Liu Wuxie as possible, so the elder had refrained from intervening. However, he hadn’t expected Liu Wuxie to act so decisively, taking Hong Du’s life without hesitation.

Liu Wuxie wouldn’t have made a move if Hong Du hadn’t insulted him upon entering the building. Then again, there were too many like Hong Du—worthless garbage. Killing one hardly made a difference to their sheer number.

"Here are two tokens. Does that mean I can cultivate inside for two days?" Liu Wuxie asked. According to the reward, he was entitled to only one day in the Auspicious Cloud Cave, but with Hong Du’s token in hand, he expected to gain an extra day.

"You can," the elder replied. He recognized only the tokens, not individuals. Each token granted a day's time in the Auspicious Cloud Cave.

After handing over the two tokens, Liu Wuxie strode confidently into the passageway, and the gate closed behind him. This was because Auspicious Cloud Cave would only be open once per day.

Upon stepping into the cave, Liu Wuxie composed himself. He could feel the dense spiritual energy flooding into his body from all directions.

"Perfect! I can reach the fifth-level Nascent Transformation Realm with two spiritual pills!" Liu Wuxie rejoiced as his encounter with Hong Du had ultimately benefited him.

After walking for less than five minutes, the path widened into a vast open space, revealing numerous cultivation chambers arranged in neat rows. Each chamber was directly connected to the spiritual vein beneath, making a single day of cultivation inside equivalent to a month in the outside world.

Liu Wuxie entered an empty chamber, and the door closed behind him.

But before he could begin his cultivation, he frowned and looked around in shock. He exclaimed, "This is strange... there's another aura aside from spiritual energy!"

"Pure yang energy!" It didn't take long for Liu Wuxie to determine the mysterious energy source in the chamber. Before, he had refined a Pure Yang Stone that could only be found in places with high concentrations of pure yang energy.

Unlike ordinary spiritual energy, pure yang energy could transform the body and elevate one's potential. But how much one could absorb depended on one's talent.

"This is a great place!" Liu Wuxie sat cross-legged with excitement and circulated the Desolate Devouring Art.

While Ning Hai and the others only had a day in there, he had two—more than enough time for him to break through to the fifth-level Nascent Transformation Realm.

As pure yang energy began pouring into his body, Liu Wuxie could feel his pores opening up to absorb it.

"Such high purity!" Liu Wuxie was inwardly shocked. If the pure yang energy had been a little purer, it could've even condensed into Pure Yang Pills. Consuming those daily could transform a cultivator's aptitude and significantly boost their cultivation. The effects would be ten times greater than the Azure Yang Pill.

As pure yang energy coursed through his body, he could sense his internal organs pulsing with vitality. Those organs were nearly indestructible, with the Wood and Earth Suppression Steles guarding his spleen and liver.

But his heart, lungs, and kidneys were still lacking. As a result, the balance between the five elements couldn't be achieved among the five organs. This meant he had to locate the remaining three elements, forge them into the remaining suppression steles, and absorb them into his internal organs.

Only then would his physical body reach true completion.

Spiritual rain began to form above the cultivation chamber, and the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron absorbed it without holding back.

Meanwhile, Ning Hai and the others were also in their respective chambers, but their efficiency in absorbing spiritual energy wasn't even a tenth of Liu Wuxie's rate.

The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron could consume anything. Boundless spiritual energy seeped from the spiritual vein and condensed into a liquid state. Even if he couldn't use it for an immediate breakthrough, he could store it for future cultivation once he left.

But Ning Hai and the others didn't have such a divine artifact and could only absorb whatever they could manage.

Liu Wuxie's absorption rate could only be described as plundering. As the pure yang energy tempered his body, his aptitude soared at an unprecedented rate.

The Heavenly Dao Book unfolded again—a sign that Liu Wuxie's talent had reached new heights.

"Spiritual pill, come on!" His cultivation had reached the pinnacle of the third-level Nascent Transformation Realm. He took out the spiritual pill rewarded to him and swallowed it in one gulp.

Even without the pill, breaking through within the Auspicious Cloud Cave would have been effortless. But with it, the breakthrough was instantaneous. His true essence surged like a tidal wave, and his heartbeat resonated like war drums pounding in a furious rhythm. In that moment, he stepped into the fourth-level Nascent Transformation Realm.