Chapter 1789 - Mysterious Valley
An endless swamp stretched before Liu Wuxie, its turbid waters concealing hordes of venomous insects and ferocious beasts. With immortal beasts occupying every alternative route, only this treacherous expanse could lead him to the mysterious eyeball.
Merely breathing the gases exhaled by the powerful immortal beasts at the Spirit Immortal Realm could leave him injured. Should he confront any of them directly, three moves would be more than enough to end his life.
With every safer path sealed, Liu Wuxie could only brave the swamp. Whatever price awaited him, he had to secure the mysterious eyeball before anyone else did, or the consequences would become unthinkable.
Everything that happened the previous night had reinforced his conviction that an unfathomable connection linked the Eight Divine Pupils.
Once an expert acquired the mysterious eyeball, they could follow that invisible connection and sense Liu Wuxie's location. The likely outcome already stood starkly within his mind. The expert would tear Ghost Pupil from his body before killing him.
For that reason alone, Liu Wuxie had willingly entered the Dragon Burial Mountain Range and put his life on the line. Had he been pursuing any ordinary treasure, he would have turned away long ago, since remaining alive would always bring him other opportunities.
As Ghost Pupil opened, everything concealed within the swamp became clear to Liu Wuxie. Only a handful of places could bear his weight, and identifying them amid the churning mire would have been nearly impossible for anyone else. Under his penetrating gaze, however, each viable landing point revealed itself with perfect clarity.
Drawing a deep breath, Liu Wuxie inhaled the poisonous miasma directly into his body. The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron immediately absorbed and refined it, then channeled the purified poison into the Poison Realm of the desolate world, where the embryonic shape of a seed slowly emerged.
Every realm carried its own distinct characteristics, unlike any of the others.
The smaller poisonous insects posed little danger while Liu Wuxie wielded the Bloodthirst Blade. What truly demanded his vigilance were the enormous Poison Crocodiles concealed beneath the swamp. With their immense bodies and rows of razor-sharp fangs, they could erupt from the mire without warning and kill their prey in a single strike.
Ten meters ahead, several bleached skeletons protruded from the swamp. They most likely belonged to cultivators who had attempted this crossing before Liu Wuxie, only to become food for the Poison Crocodiles.
Preparing for the worst, Liu Wuxie chopped down dozens of trees as thick as bowls and stored the resulting logs inside his interspatial ring. If an emergency left him without a landing point, he could cast the logs onto the swamp and use them as temporary footholds.
Once every precaution was in place, Liu Wuxie launched himself forward, his figure gliding like a dragonfly brushing the water's surface. Every leap carried him over the mire, and every descent placed his feet upon the next foothold with exquisite accuracy.
Fortunately, no one stood nearby to witness this scene. The sight of a mere High Immortal venturing alone into the infamous Blighted Forest of the Dragon Burial Mountain Range would have stunned any observer speechless.
The Blighted Forest swallowed an enormous stretch of land, forcing Liu Wuxie to cross the swamp through a long and unbroken chain of leaps.
Once he had traversed roughly one-third of the distance, countless white insects suddenly surfaced from the murky water. Their wings opened almost simultaneously, and the swarm hurtled toward him without warning.
Deadly venom saturated their bodies, and a single bite could torment the victim with an unbearable itch. Any attempt to scratch the wound would only intensify the agony until the victim lost all control and plunged into the swamp.
More white insects rose with every passing breath, closing around Liu Wuxie from all directions. Their teeming bodies smothered the sky, creating a suffocating spectacle that would have sent anyone else into a blind panic.
"Demonic flame!" Liu Wuxie called out the instant the swarm descended.
Black fire erupted overhead and rolled across the spreading tide of darkness.
Unlike ordinary fire, the demonic flame belonging to the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron could dissolve everything beneath the heavens. Having spent their lives within the damp swamp, the white insects naturally feared flames more than anything else.
A dense chorus of sizzling filled the air. Every white insect caught by the demonic flame turned into a charred husk before falling from the sky like black rain.
The white insects weren't Liu Wuxie's true concern. Leaving the demonic flame to consume them, he sharpened his awareness and watched every movement in the surrounding swamp.
Suddenly, bubbles popped across the surface of the water with wet, spluttering noises, as though some monstrous creature breathed beneath the mire. In the next instant, the entire swamp heaved and churned like boiling water.
A Poison Crocodile exploded from below, spreading its cavernous jaws as it snapped viciously at Liu Wuxie's feet. Its intention could not have been clearer: it meant to sever his legs and drag him into the depths.
Instant Flash erupted from Liu Wuxie as the Bloodthirst Blade fell like a meteor, tearing down from the heavens. One flash of steel passed through the Poison Crocodile and cleaved its body into two halves.
Ordinary High Immortals could never have penetrated the Poison Crocodile's extraordinarily resilient hide. Yet after devouring the crimson mist the previous night, the marking upon the Bloodthirst Blade had deepened considerably, bringing a corresponding surge in the weapon's power.
One Poison Crocodile after another broke through the swamp's surface, their sudden assault leaving Liu Wuxie momentarily overwhelmed. Worse still, the rotten log beneath him would sink if he channeled too much strength through his feet.
That precarious foothold robbed Liu Wuxie of the ability to fight at full power. Whenever he unleashed the Heavenly Crest Divine Blade Art, he had no choice but to restrain thirty percent of his strength.
With a thought, Liu Wuxie sent a log shooting from his interspatial ring. It tore through the air like a battering ram and knocked aside the Poison Crocodiles surging toward him.
Barely touching the rotting wood beneath him, Liu Wuxie used one light tap to launch himself into the air and land upon the flying log. As it carried him onward, the pursuing Poison Crocodiles crashed into the spot he had occupied a heartbeat earlier.
The log sailed roughly twenty meters before dropping firmly on the swamp and stabilizing beneath his feet.
Enraged by their failure, the Poison Crocodiles filled the swamp with furious roars. Still more surfaced from the mire, closing in upon Liu Wuxie from every direction.
Murderous intent blazed through Liu Wuxie's heart. The Bloodthirst Blade flashed repeatedly, butchering the approaching Poison Crocodiles until their corpses carpeted the swamp.
Yet the horde continued advancing toward him, forcing him to launch another log from his interspatial ring. He repeated the same maneuver, springing onto the flying timber and borrowing its momentum to glide briefly through the air.
As soon as the log settled another twenty-odd meters ahead, the relentless Poison Crocodiles lunged after him once more.
What appeared to be a crude method had become flawless in Liu Wuxie's hands. Its outward simplicity concealed the extraordinary control required to execute it.
Every movement demanded absolute precision despite the apparent ease with which Liu Wuxie performed it. If his speed failed to match the flying log, or if his foot landed even slightly off course, that single mistake would cast him into the lethal swamp.
Since High Immortals could not fly, everyone knew what would happen if Liu Wuxie fell into the mire.
Liu Wuxie repeated the maneuver while his stockpile of logs steadily diminished. Fortunately, with every perilous advance, the far bank drew closer.
Swarms of Poison Crocodiles began hurling themselves into the air, forming a living barricade across Liu Wuxie's path. When he launched his next log, one of the beasts appeared to anticipate the pattern. It sprang upward, seized the timber between its jaws, and wrenched it down into the swamp.
With his intended foothold torn away, Liu Wuxie began plunging helplessly toward the mire.
"Damn it!" Liu Wuxie cursed as the swamp rushed up to meet him. The moment to launch another log had already passed, and without anything beneath his feet, even throwing one now could not halt his fall.
His descent accelerated while a nauseating stench assaulted his nostrils. More than a dozen Poison Crocodiles waited directly below, their colossal jaws spread wide in anticipation.
Not a trace of hesitation entered Liu Wuxie's blade as he swung. Countless life-and-death battles had tempered his composure, allowing him to remain unshaken even in the face of death.
The Bloodthirst Blade plunged from above and shattered the head of a Poison Crocodile, spraying blood over the surrounding mire. From the ruined skull, a bone the size of a washbasin flew upward and passed beneath Liu Wuxie's feet.
Liu Wuxie stamped upon the rising bone and converted its rebound force into an upward leap. At that same moment, another log shot from his interspatial ring, and before the Poison Crocodiles could respond, it had already carried him several dozen meters away.
Once he broke free from their encirclement, Liu Wuxie pushed his speed to its limit and released every remaining log in one succession. His feet never touched the swamp as he bounded from one flying foothold to another, finally reaching the opposite bank. Only when solid ground supported him once more did the tension gripping his heart subside.
Furious roars erupted behind him as the Poison Crocodiles watched the prey that had been within their grasp escape at the final moment.
Ignoring them, Liu Wuxie strode away from the Blighted Forest. The farther he advanced, the more urgently Ghost Pupil throbbed within him.
Upon emerging from the forest, Liu Wuxie found the cramped darkness replaced by a vast, unobstructed landscape. Several brilliant streaks swept across the sky above his head.
Several airborne experts exclaimed when Liu Wuxie emerged from the forest, "Look, there's a High Immortal down there!"
"Let's hurry up before someone else gets to the treasure," another expert urged, dismissing Liu Wuxie after a single indifferent glance.
The experts flew precisely where Ghost Pupil directed Liu Wuxie. While they raced through the heavens, he sprinted across the earth beneath them, refusing to let them reach the mysterious eyeball first.
After another day of relentless travel, Liu Wuxie arrived before an immense valley. It hardly resembled a natural valley and looked more like a colossal depression crushed into existence where two mountain ranges pressed together, spanning several thousand meters in radius.
Between seven and eight hundred cultivators occupied the valley, and formidable cultivation radiated from every one of them. Several divine immortals had even stationed themselves proudly in the air, overlooking the earth beneath them.
Because Origin Immortals could not remain airborne for long, they had to search the valley on foot. In such a gathering, even Profound Immortals ranked among the weakest experts present. A few Spirit Immortals had also arrived, though they were merely attendants or juniors brought here by their elders to broaden their horizons.
Liu Wuxie kept himself concealed, knowing that his cultivation as a High Immortal would make him conspicuous amid such a gathering. A pitifully small number of True Immortals stood among the crowd, but even they remained rare exceptions.
Silently crouching behind a towering boulder, Liu Wuxie suppressed every trace of his presence. Ghost Pupil hammered inside his upper dantian as though desperate to tear its way free, but the Heavenly Dao Book held it firmly in place.
Ghost Pupil had long since become one with Liu Wuxie. If it were to forcibly separate from him and escape his body, its departure would also claim his life.
"This valley is peculiar. Its left side rises higher than the right, and their colors differ as well. Could there be a fissure running through the center?" one cultivator speculated after examining the terrain, prompting the others to realize that the valley concealed far more than its appearance suggested.
"A powerful stench of blood filled this place last night. Something unusual must lie beneath us," another cultivator declared. Rich experience guided the gathered experts as they exchanged one theory after another.
Several cultivators removed their digging tools and attempted to break through the ground. Every blow scattered showers of sparks, yet ordinary weapons could not leave so much as a shallow mark upon the surface. Their failure only strengthened the growing conviction that something extraordinary lay hidden underground.
As darkness enveloped the valley, bonfires ignited one after another while cultivators gathered into groups and new arrivals continued streaming in. Liu Wuxie remained behind his boulder, taking only several bites of dried rations when hunger struck and taking only small sips of water to quench his thirst.
"This is the place! We've finally arrived!" A familiar voice drifted into Liu Wuxie's ears, and soon Wei Wenbin and Nangong Shan came into view.
Profound Immortals didn't stand at the summit of this gathering, but they still occupied its middle ranks. Few ordinary cultivators would dare provoke them.
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