Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 788 - Spiritual Pill

Poison essence condensed into a black line, merging seamlessly with Liu Wuxie’s true essence. He was fortunate to be clothed; otherwise, anyone could have seen his veins turning black beneath his arm, stretching down to his palm.

"Frost Ray Seal!" Liu Wuxie raised his left hand, and the surrounding temperature plummeted. He knew the ice dao technique alone couldn't stop Wang Linlong. It was only capable of slowing the latter at best.

"Break!" Wang Linlong roared, swinging his sword and destroying all the ice in his path.

Right then, Liu Wuxie's eyes turned cold, and a faint devilish smile hung on his lips.

"Soul Spear!" Liu Wuxie had too many techniques at his disposal. Since the ice dao technique had failed to trap Wang Linlong, he didn't hesitate to execute a soul technique. The soul spear he manifested was over a meter long and nearly tangible that pierced directly into Wang Linlong's soul sea.

"ARGH!" Wang Linlong let out a painful scream emanating from his primordial spirit.

"Liu Wuxie, damn you!" Wang Linlong bellowed, his face twisted in agony. The pain only lasted for a fraction of a second as his primordial spirit quickly shattered the Soul Spear.

But a fraction of a second was all Liu Wuxie needed. Each of his moves was meticulously calculated, flowing seamlessly.

Once again, Wang Linlong found himself frozen in place, unable to take another step forward. Just as the searing pain surged through his soul sea, the Heretic Blade descended with even more power than before.

Liu Wuxie channeled all his true essence into this strike—it was his decisive chance. If he still couldn’t kill Wang Linlong, he would be forced to resort to the Earth-Binding Chains.

And if that also failed, he could only go with the Heavenly Dragon Seal. As for the Annihilation Fist, it was his trump card, only reserved for critical moments, and he wouldn't use it unless he were out of options, as using it came at a significant cost.

Each time he performed the Annihilation Fist, his physique and primordial spirit suffered severe backlash. The assessment was still going on, and his survival would be uncertain if he sustained severe injuries.

Thus, Liu Wuxie planned to rely on a calculated strategy. He would use the ice dao technique to restrict Wang Linlong’s movements, follow up with a sneak attack using the Soul Spear, and deliver the final blow with the Heretic Blade.

As the blade aura swept forward, Wang Linlong couldn’t dodge in time, his movements hindered by the surrounding ice spikes. A sliver of blade aura tore through his sleeve just as he was about to evade, leaving a deep gash on his arm.

The frustration made Wang Linlong roar as he avoided all the ice spikes and charged at Liu Wuxie.

"Fall!"

Just as Wang Linlong advanced another five meters, he suddenly staggered and collapsed headfirst to the ground without warning. The sight made the ten examiners’ expressions shift drastically. None of them could comprehend why Wang Linlong had fallen so abruptly, and they began to speculate whether Liu Wuxie had used some form of sorcery.

However, if Liu Wuxie had used some sorcery, they would have been able to detect it. Even those at the Spirit Profound Realm couldn't withstand the Devouring Sun Poison, let alone someone at the first-level True Profound Realm.

The poison essence had invaded Wang Linlong’s body, destroying it from within as it rapidly spread to his heart. This was the true reason for his sudden collapse. While death wouldn’t come immediately, his fate was already sealed.

"Liu Wuxie, what have you done to me!" Wang Linlong roared as he lay on the ground. If it had been a fair duel, he was confident he wouldn't lose. He hadn't expected Liu Wuxie to resort to such an underhanded method.

"There's no need to answer the dead," Liu Wuxie said, and Wang Linlong's head rolled when he swung the Heretic Blade. Even the latter's primordial spirit couldn't escape.

With that, Liu Wuxie relied solely on his strength to kill someone at the first-level True Profound Realm. While the process wasn't glorious, it was still a victory, relying on his power.

After all, history only remembered the victor and a fallen prodigy was no prodigy. This meant Wang Linlong's name was nothing more than a fleeting memory after his death.

After retrieving Wang Linlong's interspatial ring, Liu Wuxie absorbed the laws from his body. Then, he used demonic flames to reduce his corpse into ashes.

Once he had wrapped up the battle, he vanished and made his way to the plains. This place was no longer safe from the commotion caused by his fight with Wang Linlong, and he could sense many people approaching from various directions.

He was fortunate that the divine sense could only extend for ten meters, and the dense woods provided ample cover. Thus, no one knew who had been fighting there. By the time they arrived, Liu Wuxie had already vanished.

"A fight between cultivators at the True Profound Realm!" Ning Hai muttered, frowning as he arrived at the scene. The residual laws still lingered in the air, a clear sign of a battle at the True Profound Realm level.

"And someone died here!" another True Profound Realm expert observed as he touched the ground. Although there was no blood, he could sense the presence of death.

"We got here as fast as we could, but we’re still too late. Who was fighting, and who died?" Ning Hai frowned deeper, his frustration mounting. His temper had been on edge ever since his defeat at Liu Wuxie’s hands in the earlier stages.

In the past few days, he had been snatching jade tokens without a rest, and he had gathered over a hundred.

More participants were coming this way, and a shadow loomed over everyone when they learned that someone at the True Profound Realm had died.

In the past recruitment tests, those who had reached the True Profound Realm were guaranteed admission into the academy. But there was no guarantee this year; even someone at the True Profound Realm had died here.

The ten examiners exchanged a look.

Although Qu Su had already predicted Liu Wuxie's victory, they hadn't expected him to kill Wang Linlong without suffering any injury.

They could’ve still accepted it if Liu Wuxie had suffered heavy injuries while defeating Wang Linlong, but that wasn't the case.

"What do you all think Liu Wuxie did to the Wang Clan's participant?" Even Earth Profound Realm experts like them couldn't understand what had happened and how Liu Wuxie had killed Wang Linlong.

After all, it was too bizarre, and Wang Linlong had dropped dead all of a sudden.

Everyone shook their heads, and even Qu Su remained silent, unable to figure out what had happened.

"It should be poison!" an old man said. He had some understanding of poison, and Wang Linlong had shown signs of being poisoned before his death.

"He had also grasped the dao of poison?!" Everyone was shocked upon hearing it. After all, poison arts were the hardest to comprehend, and one misstep could result in a backlash.

Many people had tried to practice poison techniques in recent years, but they had all met tragic ends. After all, even the slightest misstep could be fatal to the cultivator.

"How is it possible for someone so young like him to grasp so many dao techniques?" The examiners still couldn't accept it. They could only focus on one martial technique and fuse their dao technique into it at Liu Wuxie's age.

However, Liu Wuxie had shown remarkable achievement in blade, ice, and poison techniques. He still had the mysterious Earth-Binding Chains that couldn't align with his identity.

"That's enough. There's a reason why he's the chosen one," said another elder, dismissing everyone's doubts.

After all, the chosen ones were favored by destiny, and it wasn't surprising that they obtained precious treasures.

After crossing the vast plains, Liu Wuxie arrived at a mountain range even more ancient and desolate than the one he had just left. He quickly located a hidden cave and entered it, setting up a spiritual array using array flags to guard against any potential sneak attacks.

He sat down and began sorting through Wang Linlong’s interspatial ring. Besides the spirit stones, he emptied its contents, revealing an impressive treasure—five hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones.

"As expected of the Wang Clan's young master!" Liu Wuxie laughed after seeing the mountain of spirit stones.

There was also a pile of jade tokens by the side. They were likely spoils Wang Linlong had collected by hunting other participants, but now, they all belonged to him.

"Number seven!" Liu Wuxie found a number seven jade token in the pile that was identical to his number. In addition to the one from the valley and his own, he now had three number seven jade tokens, equivalent to three hundred points.

There were two more to be found, and many jade tokens shared the same last digit of seven. This instantly brought his accumulated points to over a thousand. This had practically guaranteed his admission into the academy.

With that in mind, he felt no sense of urgency as the ranking didn't matter. Some precious spiritual herbs in Wang Linlong's interspatial ring were likely prepared by his father to aid him after joining the academy.

"Spiritual pills!" Liu Wuxie exclaimed, holding a porcelain bottle that contained a spiritual pill.

"This is a treasure!" The value of spiritual pills was much higher than tenth-grade pills as they contained powerful spirituality. This particular pill had likely been reserved for Wang Linlong to use during a breakthrough, but now, it would serve him instead.

Wang Linlong had initially planned to consume it after joining the academy to make a breakthrough to the second-level True Profound Realm. This was because he didn't have time to consume it during the assessment, as he would require time to temper his cultivation after reaching a breakthrough.

There were many tenth-grade pills. Liu Wuxie indulged himself as he threw a handful of pills into his mouth like candies. After consuming the pills, he could sense a surge of energy coursing through his body and his true essence becoming denser than before.

Liu Wuxie had little use for the various weapons and artifacts, so he threw them into his interspatial ring. He planned to exchange them for spirit stones. After all, spirit stones were the common currency in the cultivation world, and his daily consumption was astronomical.

The merging of his laws made his future breakthroughs more difficult. This meant he would need at least one hundred times more spiritual energy than others, and the downside had become more apparent now.

Even so, he had no regrets. If he hadn't merged the laws, it would’ve been impossible for him to kill Wang Linlong today.

He wasn’t in a hurry to consume the spiritual pill, as he had just recently made his breakthrough to the Nascent Transformation Realm. He still needed more time to consolidate his cultivation, knowing it would be unwise to attempt another breakthrough so soon.

The best course of action was to temper his current cultivation to perfection before using the spiritual pill to push himself to the next level.

This place was dangerous, and Liu Wuxie would be reckless to attempt a breakthrough here. The only reason he had done so back in the valley was because he had the protection of the profound beasts, and at the time, he hadn’t been too concerned about external threats.

When Liu Wuxie circulated the Desolate Devouring Art, the surrounding spiritual energy began pouring into his body. The desolate world became fuller with surging true essence roaring like waves.

The volcano in the desolate world grew taller, the abyssal realm filled with abyssal energy, and the pitch-black world rumbled with poisonous miasma representing poison essence.

The Heretic Blade hovered above, continuously tempered by Liu Wuxie's true essence.

While the battles outside grew fiercer, Liu Wuxie remained calm and undisturbed, peacefully cultivating within the cave.

The fifth day arrived, leaving only two days before the assessment would come to an end. The intensity of the conflicts had reached an entirely new level.