Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 1790 - Changes in the Valley

Wei Wenbin led the others into the valley, where they immediately spread their senses and scrutinized the surrounding terrain.

"How strange. There's still no sign of Liu Wuxie anywhere," one of them exclaimed. The students searched every visible corner of the valley, yet they found no trace of him.

"Could Liu Wuxie have died along the way?" someone asked.

The remaining students drew closer together, seeking safety in numbers. With the Azure Flame Dao Hall's reputation protecting them, the surrounding cultivators would not dare act too recklessly against them.

While they exchanged theories, Che Yangrong and Tu Zhengbao entered the valley with their respective students. Like Wei Wenbin, they had also come to search for Liu Wuxie, and by following the other cultivators, they had eventually reached this place.

Darkness thickened as the crimson moon climbed to the zenith. With almost nothing inside the valley to obstruct its light, the bloody radiance flooded the entire basin until it resembled a boundless crimson ocean.

Waves rippled through the crimson mist and rolled steadily outward. Viewed from above, the bizarre phenomenon transformed the valley into an enormous pool filled with surging blood.

From his position overlooking the valley, Liu Wuxie captured everything happening below. Ghost Pupil pulsed with the same violent urgency it had displayed the previous night, confirming that a mysterious connection had already formed between the two divine pupils.

Beastly roars rolled out of the distance as immortal beasts began converging upon the valley. Their numbers rapidly swelled until they formed a tightening encirclement around everyone inside.

Every resting cultivator sprang upright. Those whose cultivation fell below the crowd's average stared into the distance, naked terror spreading across their faces.

The roar had come from an immortal beast comparable to the Divine Immortal Realm. Despite the enormous distance separating it from the valley, its voice still produced visible sound waves that swept toward the cultivators.

Without warning, the earth convulsed as though seized by a violent earthquake. Before the crowd's horrified eyes, countless immortal beasts poured toward the valley like an unstoppable tide.

Exclamations rang through the crowd. "This is bad! The immortal beasts have surrounded all of us!" Weapons flashed into the cultivators' hands as everyone assumed a battle stance.

Amid the rising panic, Liu Wuxie noticed an old man accompanied by two youths. Unlike everyone around them, the three retained perfect composure.

"Mentor, what should we do now?" Wei Wenbin's students cried out in terror as they clung to his arms. The galloping immortal beasts had raised an immense cloud of dust in the distance, and several female students had already begun screaming.

"Calm down! Everything will be fine! The immortal beasts are not after us and likely here for something else," Wei Wenbin reassured them. Although his own legs trembled beneath him, he forced himself to remain composed for his students' sake.

At their current speed, the immortal beasts would reach the valley within fifteen minutes at most.

"Grandfather, doesn't this resemble what happened last night?" the young man asked, frowning as he stood beside the old man.

As a divine immortal, the old man had nothing to fear from the approaching horde. Even if the situation spiraled beyond control, he could carry the young man and woman away through flight.

During the previous crisis, Liu Wuxie had used the Lament of the Nameless to avert disaster. This time, however, the sheer number of approaching immortal beasts was too vast for the music to reach every one of them.

Meanwhile, crimson mist continued billowing from the valley in vast quantities.

Elsewhere, immortal beasts relentlessly pursued Ye Linghan. She fought her way into the valley in search of Liu Wuxie, but when she failed to locate him, the anxiety consuming her only intensified.

With the immortal beasts stampeding toward his position, Liu Wuxie could no longer remain concealed. He sprang from his hiding place and raced into the valley, knowing that staying where he was would result in the horde trampling him into pulp.

The beast horde's assault instantly plunged the entire valley into chaos. Cultivators who had never met hastily banded together, realizing that cooperation was their only hope of survival.

Many individual cultivators had also been hiding outside the valley.

Within moments, more than fifty cultivators rushed into the valley alongside Liu Wuxie.

The thunderous stampede shook the earth until fractures spread across the ground. Then, a massive fissure split open at the valley's center, releasing a terrifying crimson flash that dyed the entire sky blood-red.

An aerial immortal beast plunged into the valley and attacked the humans below, igniting an earth-shattering battle in an instant. The sudden assault caught everyone by surprise. None had imagined that an entire horde of immortal beasts would force them into battle before they could even touch the treasure.

Several cultivators summoned their artifacts and joined forces to kill the aerial immortal beast. The moment it died, however, the blood raining from its corpse seeped directly into the valley's depths.

Keeping himself hidden among the crowd, Liu Wuxie used Ghost Pupil without interruption.

"How strange. Where did all that blood go?" Liu Wuxie murmured, narrowing his eyes. The blood flowing from every dead immortal beast vanished almost immediately, as though some ravenous monster beneath the valley were devouring it.

More immortal beasts flooded the battlefield, and the conflict erupted into a true slaughter. Their overwhelming first charge alone killed several cultivators, whose spilled blood swiftly disappeared into the ground.

Within three breaths, hundreds of immortal beasts had invaded the valley. Aerial beasts circled overhead, crawling beasts swarmed across the ground, while power-oriented and agility-oriented immortal beasts tore through the crowd alongside countless other varieties.

The small skirmish expanded into a massive war with terrifying speed, forcing even the divine immortals to enter the battle. After all, their clansmen had accompanied them here, and they could hardly stand aside while immortal beasts slaughtered their own people.

Roars, shrieks, and agonized screams merged into a deafening chorus, transforming the valley into a living hell. As the sky gradually deepened into crimson, still more fissures tore through the blood-soaked ground.

Liu Wuxie darted left and right through the chaos, weaving between cultivators as he avoided the immortal beasts. An overwhelming sense of danger pressed down upon him, while Ghost Pupil strained as though it might burst from his upper dantian at any instant. Veins bulged across his face as unbearable agony ravaged his body.

Even the Heavenly Dao Book could no longer restrain it completely. Liu Wuxie felt as though raging flames had swallowed his entire upper dantian.

Liu Wuxie nearly roared from the pain, "What's happening? Why does it feel like the Ghost Pupil trying to escape?"

Ghost Pupil had already fused with his upper dantian, so forcibly extracting it would be equivalent to tearing the upper dantian away and reducing him to a mindless fool.

At the center of the valley, a fissure more than a meter wide split apart. Crimson mist gathered above it and continuously shifted through bizarre apparitions, alternating between immortal beasts, humans, soaring clouds, and indistinct mirages.

At that moment, an immortal beast comparable to the Divine Immortal Realm stormed into the valley and sent dozens of Profound Immortals hurtling through the air. Their bodies exploded before reaching the ground, transforming into clouds of crimson mist that sank beneath the earth.

Some unseen force swiftly drained every trace of blood from the ruined corpses, leaving only skeletons and fragments of flesh scattered behind. Screams, sobs, and furious curses accompanied the horrific spectacle as it spread throughout the valley.

Chaos had already consumed everything, and the groups formed moments earlier instantly disintegrated as everyone fled desperately for their lives.

"Run!"

Several cultivators attempted to carve a path through the immortal beast horde and escape the valley.

Yet more immortal beasts kept surging inside. Even those who painstakingly tore openings through the horde found themselves driven back before they could travel far.

As the battle intensified, corpses carpeted the valley. More than a hundred cultivators had already died, while the number of slain immortal beasts had reached several hundred.

Yet not a single drop of blood remained within any of them.

Liu Wuxie was not alone in noticing the valley's horrifying abnormality. The other cultivators had undoubtedly witnessed it as well, but understanding what they saw only deepened their fear. Even the divine immortals now wore grave expressions.

A powerful Heavenly Yin Wingwolf suddenly charged toward Liu Wuxie. The instant it saw him, recognition seemed to flash within its eyes, and it locked firmly onto him.

"Get lost!" Liu Wuxie roared as the Bloodthirst Blade crashed down from above. A mighty blade ray erupted from its edge and hurled the Heavenly Yin Wingwolf backward, though the attack failed to kill it.

After all, even the weakest immortal beast capable of reaching this valley possessed cultivation at the Spirit Immortal Realm.

"It's Liu Wuxie!"

Several students from the Azure Flame Dao Hall spotted him amid the turmoil and immediately charged in his direction.

"Kill Liu Wuxie! Then we'll find a way out!"

The discovery drove the students into a frenzy. Under their mentors' protection, none of them had suffered serious injuries.

In an instant, more than a dozen students at the True Immortal Realm closed in and surrounded Liu Wuxie.

The sight of humans attacking one another amid the beast horde drew strange looks from the nearby cultivators.

Several experts stared at Liu Wuxie in disbelief.

"A High Immortal?"

"Grandfather, he came here as well!" the young woman exclaimed in astonishment. Two days had passed since they had parted ways the other night. Even their own journey had been arduous, leaving her unable to comprehend how Liu Wuxie had reached this place.

Liu Wuxie erupted in fury. "You're courting death!"

At a moment like this, every human present should have united against the immortal beasts.

Liu Wuxie was already in poor condition. Suppressing Ghost Pupil consumed part of his strength and prevented him from displaying his full combat power. Even under those restrictions, however, several true immortals were far from enough to threaten him.

As the students rushed forward, Liu Wuxie brought the Bloodthirst Blade down from the heavens. A crimson blade ray ripped through the surrounding mist, stretching across the sky as though it intended to tear the firmament apart.

Shock seized the nearby cultivators, and many instinctively halted to stare at the attack.

"How is that possible? How could a mere High Immortal unleash such formidable combat strength?" a profound immortal murmured in disbelief.

The advancing True Immortals had no chance to evade. The blade force crushed them against the ground before they could reach Liu Wuxie.

"This is bad!" The students immediately attempted to retreat, but their realization came far too late. Liu Wuxie's blade force descended like a mountain falling from the heavens, rendering every one of them immobile.

"Die!" Liu Wuxie abandoned every trace of mercy. If they survived, he would die instead. Even if he spared them, the surrounding immortal beasts would still force him to fight, leaving him no reason to hold back.

The students exploded into a mist of blood and flesh as Liu Wuxie secretly summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron. He had no intention of refining their energy or laws; he only wanted to discover where the valley was drawing their blood.

Before the cauldron could absorb anything, however, every trace of blood had already disappeared. Whatever lurked beneath the valley devoured it even faster than the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, heightening Liu Wuxie's vigilance further.

Wei Wenbin's roar thundered across the valley. "Liu Wuxie, how dare you kill students of the Azure Flame Dao Hall?!"

Bewilderment immediately spread through the surrounding cultivators. None of them knew who Liu Wuxie was, leaving them to scan the battlefield in confusion.

Under the combined suppression of several Divine Immortals, the immortal beast horde's advance finally stalled. Humans and beasts became locked in a stalemate. As the battle reached an impasse, the mounting death toll finally began to slow.

Ye Linghan was battling an immortal beast when the sound of Liu Wuxie's name sent a violent throb through her heart. Without hesitation, she blasted her opponent away and rushed toward the source of the voice.

"He's still alive!" Tears nearly spilled from her eyes when she heard Liu Wuxie's name.

Seizing what he believed to be the perfect opportunity, Wei Wenbin charged toward Liu Wuxie with the intent to kill. Elsewhere, Wen Qi had entered the valley with the Wen Clan's disciples. Like Wei Wenbin, they had also come to hunt Liu Wuxie, though none of them had expected to find him here.

In the blink of an eye, large numbers of cultivators converged upon Liu Wuxie, leaving the onlookers utterly baffled.

"What has the world come to? Why are so many experts surrounding and attacking a mere High Immortal?" an Origin Immortal asked.