Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 466 - Manifestation of the Primordial Spirit

Liu Wuxie was momentarily stunned. Despite barely retaining his last bit of clarity after using the Earth Binding Chains to imprison Li Xiaohai in the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, he had nearly forgotten about him. The humans previously captured by the cauldron had been transformed into the spiritual liquid, making Li Xiaohai's continued presence and threats perplexing.

His divine sense manifested above the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, revealing Li Xiaohai’s distorted, ghostly visage.

"Li Xiaohai, I bet you didn't expect to end up like this, did you?" Liu Wuxie asked coldly.

"Y-You! How did you hide such a demonic cauldron in your body? Can it be that you're someone of the Abyssal Clan? I advise you to let me go obediently, or do you think you can trap me with this demonic cauldron?" Li Xiaohai continued to threaten Liu Wuxie.

The Earth Binding Chains had trapped him but were incapable of killing him. His physical body, strengthened by his Astral River Realm cultivation, was resistant to ordinary flames and elements, making complete destruction impossible.

"Still being so stubborn despite facing death? I'll refine you today and use you to help me reach the second level of the Heavenly Phase Realm." Liu Wuxie sneered. If he could reach the second level of the Heavenly Phase Realm, he could recover his strength and reach a new height, increasing his chances of survival against the pursuit.

Refining a cultivator in the Astral River Realm was unimaginable to Liu Wuxie in the past. After all, cultivators in the Astral River Realm could be considered true disciples of the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion.

The Heavenly Treasure Pavilion was one of the ten major sects but had only about two thousand true disciples. This showed how difficult it was to reach the Astral River Realm.

Although the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion only had two thousand true disciples, many deacons were in the Astral River Realm. Many people who saw no hope in reaching the Nascent Transformation Realm chose to become deacons or elders and live peacefully in the sect.

Li Xiaohai had broken through to the Astral River Realm about fifty years ago, but he had been stuck at the second level ever since. Even so, the astral river laws within his body were terrifying.

"What a joke! You're only in the Heavenly Phase Realm and want to refine me?" Li Xiaohai snickered. He continued, "When I break free from these chains, it will be your death!"

He began circulating his astral river power to refine the Earth Binding Chains.

Controlling the Earth Binding Chains required strong soul energy, and Liu Wuxie's soul energy was limited. This meant he had to kill Li Xiaohai quickly.

After cultivating the Soul Forge Art, even the mighty Feather Emperor had died due to the exhaustion of his soul energy.

"You'll soon know if I'm joking!" Liu Wuxie couldn't be bothered to argue with Li Xiaohai any longer and looked at the bottom of the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, where demonic flames were stirring.

Demonic flames surged from the bottom of the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron with a single thought and enveloped Li Xiaohai like violent waves.

"ARGHH! WHAT FLAME IS THIS?!" Li Xiaohai let out a shrill scream. Ordinary flames couldn’t harm him, but demonic flames could. The demonic flames came from hell and were comparable to the True Samadhi Fire.

The flesh on Li Xiaohai's arm began to dissolve into a pure liquid that flowed into the desolate world, soon bringing Liu Wuxie the opportunity to make a breakthrough in his bottleneck.

Liu Wuxie's divine sense returned to his body, and he scanned the surroundings with Ghost Eye to ensure no danger was nearby. After all, he couldn't afford to be interrupted by anyone in his breakthrough.

He had stripped Li Xiaohai of his interspatial ring and scavenged all the resources.

"This is great! Ten million mid-grade spirit stones, five hundred high-grade spirit stones, and a hundred Blood Abyssal Stones. I've hit the jackpot this time!" Liu Wuxie rejoiced at the resources he found in Li Xiaohai's interspatial ring because there were many pills and materials for spiritual arrays.

After all, Li Xiaohai was a cultivator in the Astral River Realm and had plundered many resources over the years.

"Monarch artifact! There's a monarch artifact!" A monarch artifact was a weapon meant for the Astral River Realm, while the Heretic Blade was still a spiritual treasure. He couldn't upgrade the Heretic Blade if he couldn't find any xiantian spirit, which frustrated him greatly.

After reaching the Heavenly Phase Realm, he could forge a xiantian artifact.

"I can upgrade the Heretic Blade to the level of a monarch artifact once I find a xiantian spirit," Liu Wuxie murmured. Even if he couldn't reach that level, he intended to elevate the Heretic Blade to the pinnacle of xiantian artifacts, making it capable of contending with monarch artifacts.

He soon withdrew the Ghost Eye, noting that this location had long since ceased producing Blood Abyssal Stones and had been abandoned for a century. The ground was covered in filthy water, deterring any visitors.

After ensuring his safety, he took out array flags and inserted them in the surroundings as a precaution.

"Gu Yu, I'm about to attempt to make a breakthrough to the second level. You guard the surroundings for me!" Liu Wuxie said, and Gu Yu immediately stood up and went outside to assume a defensive stance.

The resources Liu Wuxie had plundered were more than sufficient to advance to the fifth level of the Heavenly Phase Realm and beyond, especially with the five hundred high-grade spirit stones at his disposal.

As Li Xiaohai's screams gradually diminished, his body became riddled with holes, leaving only his skeleton behind as his energy was relentlessly drained.

He started by cursing Liu Wuxie, but as exhaustion and powerlessness took hold, his pleas for mercy grew more desperate. He even offered to become Liu Wuxie's subordinate in a last-ditch effort to save himself.

However, Liu Wuxie ignored Li Xiaohai's pleas and sped up the demonic flames to refine him. Thousands of droplets of spiritual liquid flowed into the desolate world, and the Desolate Devouring Art began accelerating.

The Blood Abyssal Stone in Liu Wuxie's hand shrunk in size, with the energy rapidly being drained. He had given up using mid-grade spirit stones and directly extracted energy from the Blood Abyssal Stones.

Mid-grade spirit stones could be used as currency to buy items, while high-grade spirit stones and Blood Abyssal Stones contained pure energy that offered immense benefits the more he absorbed them.

When the spiritual liquid containing astral river power poured into the desolate world and coursed through his limbs, Liu Wuxie's acupoints began to open and absorb the energy.

Liu Wuxie's physical body grew stronger at an astonishing speed, and his injuries healed in minutes.

Moreover, the desolate world became even more complete after absorbing astral river power, and wisps of stars appeared in the sky. The stars seemed tiny, but they had started to take form.

The abundance of astral river power caused a faint ache in Liu Wuxie's body, as he couldn't fully absorb all the energy. He had to store it for future breakthroughs.

"Breakthrough!" Liu Wuxie was prepared to make a breakthrough now that his body had almost recovered. The bottleneck to the second level broke apart like a fragile paper, torn apart by the unstoppable astral river power.

A whirlwind of energy swept through Liu Wuxie's soul sea, rapidly enhancing his soul energy. The Heavenly Dao Book unfolded, recording the sequence for the Astral River Realm and guiding Liu Wuxie through each step.

It had been a day since Liu Wuxie's battle with Li Xiaohai, and there were still no signs of him. Over ninety percent of the cultivators had ventured into the underground world to search for Liu Wuxie, including abyssal devils who had infiltrated quietly.

The abyssal devils were unaffected underground because they lived in the underworld world. They also had a stronger sense of smell, and several batches of abyssal devils had found some clues and were swiftly heading towards Liu Wuxie's location.

Liu Wuxie was deeply immersed in the astral river power, making rapid progress towards the third level of the Heavenly Phase Realm. However, he needed to complete his breakthrough swiftly and leave. With so many people searching the underground mines, it was only a matter of time before they would be discovered.

A thunderous rumble came from Liu Wuxie's body, and he could feel his blood boiling. Despite having his body transformed for so long, his blood was still his weakness.

If he could enhance his blood, his spiritual root would elevate to the level of an immortal root.

Two hours passed, and Li Xiaohai only had his skeletal frame left. There were no longer screams from him because even his primordial spirit had been refined. This was because the power of the demonic flame had far exceeded Liu Wuxie's expectations.

A loud explosion echoed from within Liu Wuxie's soul sea and almost burst his eardrums. A golden spot about the size of a sesame seed appeared in the center of his soul sea, looking very inconspicuous. But the appearance of this golden spot made Liu Wuxie tremble.

Liu Wuxie stared in disbelief. "How is this possible? How could a primordial spirit manifest while I'm still in the Heavenly Phase Realm?" His soul sea, still shrouded in mist, was supposed to only give rise to a primordial spirit's seed after advancing to the Astral River Realm. This seed would then gradually take shape, becoming more defined and humanoid with higher cultivation.

Yet here he was, witnessing an embryonic primordial spirit—a vague, nascent form—already forming within him. As his cultivation progressed, this primordial spirit would evolve into a more distinct, humanoid figure, eventually mirroring himself.

After reaching the Astral River Realm, a powerful primordial spirit could reach the size of a fist, while weaker ones were only the size of a broad bean.

With the appearance of the primordial spirit in Heavenly Phase Realm, Liu Wuxie couldn't imagine what would happen once he reached the Astral River Realm.

When the primordial spirit opened its eyes, it would become an infant, which was where the Nascent Transformation Realm got its name.

After reaching the Nascent Transformation Realm, the primordial spirit could escape even if the physical body was destroyed. The primordial spirit could find a new host and be reborn.

However, Liu Wuxie's primordial spirit had appeared ahead of an entire realm. One could only manifest the primordial spirit's seed after reaching the Astral River Realm, but Liu Wuxie had done so in the Heavenly Phase Realm. If this news spread, it would shock the world.

Soul energy began pouring into the primordial spirit's seed to nourish and help it grow faster.

Even though the primordial spirit's embryo was the size of a sesame seed, it contained unparalleled soul energy. After all, many cultivators in the pinnacle Heavenly Phase Realm struggled to manifest their primordial spirit.

Yet, Liu Wuxie had managed it effortlessly, even without intending to. The benefits of manifesting the primordial spirit's embryo were clear: he would no longer have to worry about exhausting his soul energy when using the Earth Binding Chains in the future.

This meant he would avoid falling unconscious even if he drained ninety percent of his soul energy, only becoming unconscious at most. Falling unconscious during a fight was too risky, and the consequences would have been dire if Gu Yu hadn’t been there.

Liu Wuxie speculated that the manifestation of the primordial spirit's seed might be related to refining Li Xiaohai, who was in the second level of the Astral River Realm. He had long manifested his primordial spirit, and a portion of it had entered Liu Wuxie's soul sea after being refined, which helped him embody the primordial spirit in advance.

However, Liu Wuxie decided not to overthink since it had already happened. There were only benefits and no downsides because the manifestation of his primordial spirit would make his future breakthroughs easy.

Reaching the Astral River Realm at forty was considered young, and reaching the Nascent Transformation Realm at fifty was considered a prodigy.

Elder Tian Xing was considered a monstrous genius, but he had spent forty-five years to reach the Nascent Transformation Realm.