Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 1794 - Merging the Divine Tribulation

Ye Linghan was overjoyed to hear Liu Wuxie's voice, and tears spilled from her eyes uncontrollably. Until that moment, she had feared that the mysterious eyeball had already refined him.

"I'm not leaving! I'll rescue you!" Ye Linghan answered by channeling her voice through soul energy and sending it toward the mysterious eyeball.

"Leave! Wait for me at Mountainstream Vale!" Liu Wuxie responded with even greater urgency, his tone leaving almost no room for refusal.

Relief loosened the tension in Ye Linghan's chest when she heard him reply again. Without further hesitation, she withdrew and began climbing the rope toward the surface.

"Nangong Shan, why do you think Ye Linghan left?" Che Yangrong asked. He had observed her closely from the beginning, and her abrupt departure aroused his suspicions.

"Let's follow her. She must be hiding something," Nangong Shan replied, a sinister glint surfacing in his eyes. He intended to tail Ye Linghan and discover what she planned to do.

Liu Wuxie remained trapped inside the mysterious eyeball, yet Ye Linghan had suddenly abandoned her efforts to rescue him. That decision alone proved that something unusual had occurred.

Several Divine Immortals surrounded the mysterious eyeball, leaving Che Yangrong and Nangong Shan little hope of obtaining anything if they stayed. Thus, the pair quietly slipped away and followed Ye Linghan.

Tu Zhengbao remained behind and continued attacking the mysterious eyeball. After all, no genuine unity existed between the mentors. Beneath their outwardly amicable appearances, each harbored schemes against the others.

Only after watching Ye Linghan depart did Liu Wuxie finally feel reassured. The mysterious eyeball continued merging with him, its size steadily diminishing while immense currents of mental energy poured into his upper dantian.

Just as the divine immortals prepared to seize the mysterious eyeball, a violent eruption of mental energy swept across the cavern.

"ARGH!" Agonized screams burst from every direction as the surrounding cultivators clutched their heads, feeling as though sharp blades had pierced their foreheads.

The Divine Immortals remained unaffected because their upper dantians possessed exceptional strength. Liu Wuxie's mental energy could not penetrate their defenses.

Controlling ordinary Profound Immortals and Spirit Immortals, however, was already sufficient. Liu Wuxie had never intended to manipulate the Origin Immortals or Divine Immortals in the first place.

Illusions invaded the minds of every cultivator affected by the mental energy, driving them to attack those who remained unaffected. In an instant, the cavern was thrown into chaos.

With Liu Wuxie's current cultivation, controlling Profound Immortals was impossible. That overwhelming power belonged to the mysterious eyeball, which had expended the last of its mental energy to help him escape.

The afflicted Spirit Immortals and Profound Immortals threw themselves upon everyone nearby like maddened beasts. Roars and wails filled the cavern as blood splashed across the ground, and dozens of cultivators perished within moments.

Fury erupted among the Divine Immortals. The mysterious eyeball had been almost within their grasp, yet the sudden chaos had shattered their plans at the final moment.

Leave now!

Liu Wuxie recognized that his chance to escape had finally arrived.

The portion of the mysterious eyeball that had yet to disappear transformed into a brilliant streak and shot out of the abyss toward the surface.

Although the Divine Immortals could fly and overtake the mysterious eyeball, the frenzied Profound Immortals obstructed their pursuit. Everyone else could only climb the ropes slowly, and by the time they reached the surface, Liu Wuxie would have vanished long ago.

"Get lost!" shouted a Divine Immortal, sweeping out his hand and releasing an invisible shockwave that killed dozens of Profound Immortals, painting a bloody and horrific scene across the cavern. Even Tu Zhengbao, his eyes bloodshot, charged madly toward an Origin Immortal.

"You're courting death!"

A ferocious sword ray plunged from above and killed Tu Zhengbao in a single strike.

The massacre continued for five breaths before clarity finally returned to everyone's eyes. The mysterious power controlling their minds had vanished.

"What happened?" The cultivators stared blankly at the corpses scattered throughout the cavern, unable to comprehend the carnage surrounding them.

"Mo Shan, you despicable bastard! You killed several of our junior brothers!" A young man lunged forward, seized another man by the neck, and shook him violently in fury.

The man called Mo Shan had killed three of his fellow martial brothers, and fresh blood still dripped from his sword.

"Senior Brother, I don't know what happened!" Mo Shan shook his head frantically and struggled to recover his memories, but no matter how desperately he tried, his mind remained blank.

"It must have been that mysterious eyeball! It controlled all of us and forced us to fight one another!"

Someone finally uncovered the truth by connecting their strange behavior to the immortal beasts' attack.

"After it! The mysterious eyeball must still be somewhere within the Dragon Burial Mountain Range, and we can surely find it!" The surviving cultivators immediately turned back, abandoning the corpses of their companions without hesitation.

Obtaining the mysterious eyeball would grant them the ability to control others, a power so heaven-defying that none could resist its temptation.

Several Divine Immortals soared upward and returned to the surface. By the time they emerged, however, the mysterious eyeball had already disappeared without leaving a trace.

The Dragon Burial Mountain Range covered an immense expanse. If the mysterious eyeball deliberately concealed itself, finding it would be virtually impossible.

"Do you think that brat obtained the mysterious eyeball?" Several Origin Immortals soon returned to the surface as well. They remembered how the eyeball had appeared before Liu Wuxie the previous night and carried him away.

"That's impossible! He's merely a High Immortal, so the mysterious eyeball has probably devoured him already," another Origin Immortal replied, shaking his head.

Speculation spread throughout the surviving crowd. Some believed the mysterious eyeball would never reveal itself again, while others suspected that someone had already claimed it.

As time passed, nearly every cultivator emerged from the abyss, and many immediately departed from the Dragon Burial Mountain Range. None wished to remain after gaining nothing and nearly losing their lives.

Liu Wuxie controlled the Eye of Insight and returned to the surface before transforming into a meteor that vanished into the vast mountain range. With such speed and concealment, not even a Divine Immortal could locate him now.

Once Liu Wuxie found a secure location, the mysterious eyeball entered a cave. Liu Wuxie remained seated cross-legged inside the Eye of Insight because their merger was still incomplete and required more time.

Liu Wuxie felt no urgency. He circulated the Desolate Devouring Art and cultivated while continuing to merge with the Eye of Insight. His breakthrough to the True Immortal Realm had also expanded his upper dantian considerably.

"What powerful fluctuations of mental energy!" When Liu Wuxie sent his consciousness into his upper dantian, he was astonished by the strength of his mental energy.

Unfortunately, Liu Wuxie possessed no technique for cultivating mental energy. The Eye of Insight had condensed everything he currently wielded.

The repeated assaults from the Divine Immortals had greatly weakened the Eye of Insight, reducing its perceptive abilities far below its original level.

Liu Wuxie slowly spread his mental energy outward, causing the surrounding landscape to transform into a vivid picture within his mind. The resulting perception surpassed even divine sense in clarity. Divine sense observed the world like ordinary vision, whereas mental energy perceived it from an entirely different perspective. When examining a tree, for example, Liu Wuxie could observe all 360 degrees around it simultaneously.

Days passed as Ye Linghan traveled through the mountain range toward Mountainstream Vale.

"Where is she going?" Nangong Shan asked impatiently. He and Che Yangrong had followed her for an entire day and night without stopping to rest.

"Don't alert her. We only need to keep following her," Che Yangrong replied confidently, signaling Nangong Shan to remain silent.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye. The Eye of Insight surrounding Liu Wuxie gradually dissolved and transformed into rich mental energy that settled within his upper dantian.

When Liu Wuxie opened his eyes and activated the Eye of Insight, his vision underwent an immediate transformation. Unlike Ghost Pupil, the boulder before him appeared to rotate within his perception, granting him a complete 360-degree view. Divine sense could perceive only the side facing him, revealing its inherent limitation.

After withdrawing his divine sense, Liu Wuxie activated Ghost Pupil and watched the world transform again. Laws flowing through the air became clearly visible, along with every trajectory traced by the surrounding currents. The Eye of Insight did not possess such an ability.

Every one of the Eight Divine Pupils possessed a different power. Through experimentation, Liu Wuxie determined that Ghost Pupil was better suited for combat, while the Eye of Insight excelled at observation.

Each divine pupil possessed its own advantages, making it impossible to consider either superior. Liu Wuxie drew a deep breath and felt exceptionally refreshed, another benefit brought by his formidable mental energy.

A cool current spread from Liu Wuxie's forehead, filling him with an indescribably pleasant sensation. When he casually threw a punch, the force of the movement stirred a powerful current through the air. After the tempering he received within the blood pool, his physique had become even stronger than before.

"It's time to leave. I shouldn't keep Linghan waiting," Liu Wuxie murmured.

Three days had already passed. According to his calculations, Ye Linghan should have reached Mountainstream Vale by now.

To prevent further complications, Liu Wuxie needed to reach her quickly. Once they reunited, they would leave the Dragon Burial Mountain Range and return to the Azure Flame Dao Hall. He sensed that peace would not return to the mountain range anytime soon.

A waterfall cascaded through Mountainstream Vale, carrying mountain lake water downward and forming an enormous pool below.

Ye Linghan sat upon a massive boulder beside the waterfall. She had already waited an entire day, and with Liu Wuxie still nowhere in sight, anxiety gradually consumed her.

Hidden in the distance, Nangong Shan and Che Yangrong silently observed Ye Linghan.

"What is she doing?" Nangong Shan asked, his patience rapidly wearing thin. He could barely restrain himself from stepping out and confronting her.

"She must be waiting for someone!" Che Yangrong replied, certain that Ye Linghan's purpose for remaining here was to meet someone.

"Brother Che, she has reached the Origin Immortal Realm. There's no way we can subdue her through brute strength, so what are you planning?" Nangong Shan asked. As he stared at Ye Linghan's face, an unbearable itch stirred within his heart.

Had their cultivation not been inferior to hers, they would have charged out long ago.

"I only need one more talisman. Once I finish preparing, I'll be able to restrain even an Origin Immortal," Che Yangrong said with a cold smirk as he continued inscribing a talisman.

"Ye Linghan, I've pursued you throughout the past year, yet you've treated me with contempt. Today, I'll capture you alive and make you understand the consequences of rejecting me," Nangong Shan said, a vicious grin spreading across his face.

The talisman between Che Yangrong's hands continued transforming, and whatever he was creating possessed enough power to subdue even an Origin Immortal.

Meanwhile, Liu Wuxie raced through the mountain range and rapidly closed the distance to Mountainstream Vale. At his current speed, reaching his destination would require no more than four hours.

Since refining the Eye of Insight, the burden upon Liu Wuxie's soul energy had diminished considerably. From now on, he no longer needed to fear exhausting his soul energy.

Whenever an immortal beast blocked his route, Liu Wuxie sent it hurtling away with a single punch. Based on his calculations, his combat strength was now comparable to the first-level Spirit Immortal Realm.