Desolate Devouring Art

The blade technique contained power beyond imagination, condensing the profoundest principles of the blade into a single surge of unstoppable force. Suffocating pressure swept outward like a primordial beast awakening from its slumber.

Driven by the desire to seize Liu Wuxie before the Shen Clan could reach him, the Zhu Clan disciples hurtled ahead at terrifying speed. Whoever captured him first stood the greatest chance of taking the divine metal core. However, none of them had considered that Liu Wuxie might have already refined it, much less imagined that he could accomplish such a feat in so little time.

That reckless hunger handed Liu Wuxie precisely the opening he needed. He only needed to strike before his enemies could react. His blade force scoured the ground, and the Heart Bridge shuddered as everything within a hundred-meter radius trembled beneath its passage.

"Die!" Liu Wuxie roared, driving the blade down with merciless force.

The Bloodthirst Blade plunged from the sky, trailing a crimson rainbow across the heavens, breathtaking in its beauty and lethal in its brilliance.

Death claimed the Spirit Immortals at the front in the same instant, their bodies bursting apart into drifting clouds of blood mist. The crushing blade force struck several Profound Immortals as well, overpowering them and flinging them violently away.

The spectacle chilled every witness. The Spirit Immortals who had ridiculed Liu Wuxie for overestimating himself could only gape in stunned silence. Only then did they understand that they were frogs imprisoned at the bottom of a well, pitiful insects who had never glimpsed the true vastness of the world. With that single attack, Liu Wuxie delivered a brutal slap to every face around him, and humiliation burned across their cheeks.

However, this was merely the opening stroke of the massacre. Concealed within the blade technique, the Divine Mystic Yin Needle had already slipped into the chaos without drawing even a flicker of notice.

Neither Shen Can nor Zhu Li had taken part in the charge. As peak Profound Immortals, they had considered Liu Wuxie beneath their personal intervention, only to discover how catastrophically they had underestimated him.

In less than one-thousandth of an instant, the needles claimed more than a dozen lives, including those of several Profound Immortals.

"Damn you, Liu Wuxie," Shen San roared furiously.

Among the dead lay several Shen Clan disciples.

Shen San launched himself forward at once, diving toward Liu Wuxie with the predatory speed of a falcon. The oppressive aura of the Profound Immortal Realm crashed down with him, bearing upon Liu Wuxie in a ruthless attempt to suppress him.

He had moved one step too late. Had the peak Profound Immortals encircled Liu Wuxie from the outset, they might truly have threatened him. By dismissing his combat strength, however, they had committed a grievous mistake.

That opportunity had already passed. Even a personal assault from Shen Can and Zhu Li could no longer frighten Liu Wuxie. At worst, he could simply flee.

Dozens already lay dead when Liu Wuxie had executed the Divine Ninefold Step. His outline blurred and vanished before reappearing atop the Heart Bridge.

Every step had followed a plan laid in advance. Should Shen Can and Zhu Li attack, Liu Wuxie would escape using his footwork technique, craft the Divine Penta Elemental Bolt, and return to settle the score. For this encounter alone, slaughtering dozens of enemies was already an enormous gain.

"Stop him," Shen San roared as he plunged down, but his attack struck emptiness.

Frustration drove the elders and disciples of both clans into a desperate rush toward the Heart Bridge. They could only watch as Liu Wuxie crossed half its length in a few effortless leaps.

"Cut the bridge," Zhu Li roared, bringing his sword down without the slightest hesitation.

Before the blow could touch the Heart Bridge, another sword flashed into its path. Steel crashed against steel, scattering a storm of sparks through the air.

"Why are you stopping me, Shen Can? Cut the bridge, and Liu Wuxie falls into the abyss," Zhu Li shouted, rage sharpening every word.

"Because if you cut it, we die with him. None of us will leave this place alive," Shen Can answered, fixing Zhu Li with an icy glare.

No one wanted Liu Wuxie dead more than Shen Can. Even so, he understood that this was not the moment to kill him.

"He's right! The Heart Bridge must remain intact," others shouted.

The nearby cultivators surged forward at once. Destroying the Heart Bridge would strand every one of them in this place with nothing left but to wait for death. They refused to gamble their lives on the Zhu Clan's recklessness, and Zhu Li's attempt ignited open outrage as countless curses rained down around him.

"So what, we just stand here and let Liu Wuxie get away?" Zhu Li demanded. Realizing how rashly he had acted, he withdrew his sword.

With the Heart Bridge gone, escape would become impossible. They could not even retreat to the Lung Palace.

"He's nothing but a True Immortal. He'll never make it across the Heart Bridge," Shen San said with a sneer.

They no longer needed to attack. All they had to do was remain where they stood and watch the heartfire consume Liu Wuxie.

Agreement passed through the crowd in a wave of nods. Even when a cultivator at a higher level of the Profound Immortal Realm had failed to cross that bridge, how could a mere True Immortal have any hope?

Everyone watched Liu Wuxie intently. Yet he glided across the Heart Bridge without strain, covering half its length in the blink of an eye.

His decision to step onto the Heart Bridge had rested on a calculated gamble. He knew that Shen Can and the others would not dare destroy their only path. Even if Shen Can defied that calculation and severed it, Liu Wuxie had prepared another way out.

Upon reaching the eighth-level True Immortal Realm, Liu Wuxie had gained mastery over the fourth form of the Divine Ninefold Step. By borrowing spatial laws, he could fly through the air briefly and cover a distance of a hundred meters, which was more than enough to cross the Heart Bridge.

"What is happening? Why does crossing the bridge look so easy for him?"

Not a trace of tension disturbed Liu Wuxie's calm composure. Geng Zhun, by contrast, had tested every step with extreme caution, as though the next might be his last.

Shen Can's face darkened with every passing moment, while Zhu Li snorted at the sight frigidly.

A startled voice came from within the crowd. "He's almost on the other side."

Heartfire burst from the abyss, yet Liu Wuxie slipped past every eruption with flawless precision. His movements made it seem as though he knew where each blast would emerge before the flames themselves did.

Only two breaths had elapsed since he first stepped onto the Heart Bridge, but less than a dozen meters now separated him from the opposite side. Then he accelerated again.

The abyss convulsed with savage eruptions of heartfire. Colossal tongues of flame whipped past Liu Wuxie, missing him each time by the narrowest possible margin.

"How is this possible? Why do the flames keep missing him?"

Bewilderment gripped Profound Immortals and Spirit Immortals alike. Shen Can’s expression darkened as regret began to gnaw at him for holding Zhu Li back.

"He's predicting where they'll erupt before they appear," a peak Profound Immortal explained.

"That makes no sense! How could a mere True Immortal possibly do that?"

More cultivators crowded along the edge of the Heart Bridge, their arguments rising one after another. They eventually realized that Liu Wuxie always moved away just before the heartfire erupted. However, none of them could fathom how he predicted each eruption.

As the opposite side drew nearer, the crimson gate revealed itself in full. Passing through that threshold would allow Liu Wuxie to obtain the Divine Fire Core.

"Young Master, we need to cut down the bridge!" the Shen Clan disciples urged anxiously.

Half the Shen Clan's members had died during the past few days. Grief and fury now clenched the hearts of every disciple who remained.

Chaos exploded across the area. The Shen Clan and Zhu Clan disciples clamored to sever the Heart Bridge, while the unaffiliated cultivators tried to block them. Those cultivators bore Liu Wuxie no grudge, and they refused to let the two clans destroy the bridge and imprison them all.

By pressing the matter, the two clans had effectively declared everyone present an enemy. Even Wei Wenbin and his companions came forward to stop them. They also wanted Liu Wuxie dead, but not at the cost of being buried alongside him.

The confrontation still raged behind him when Liu Wuxie sprang from the Heart Bridge and landed firmly on the opposite side.

"He actually crossed it?!" someone called.

Reality took on the weightless haze of a dream. Many cultivators rubbed their eyes again and again, but the impossible scene before them refused to disappear.

Humiliation flooded Shen San. Only moments ago, he had mocked Liu Wuxie and declared that the Heart Bridge would stop him. Liu Wuxie's effortless crossing now struck him with the merciless weight of reality, so crushing that death seemed easier to endure.

After landing on the solid ground, Liu Wuxie turned around, his empty, emotionless gaze scanning Shen Can, Zhu Li, and the others.

"Liu Wuxie, tell us how you crossed the Heart Bridge!" several cultivators shouted, hoping he would reveal the method.

He did not spare them so much as a glance before turning and advancing toward the crimson gate. Opening the gate to the Heart Palace would cause the Heart Bridge to shrink little by little, eventually allowing everyone else to cross the abyss.

Even those who bore Liu Wuxie no grudge now watched him with murderous intent blazing in their eyes.

"Damn him! He won't tell us!"

Before the crimson gate, Liu Wuxie slashed down with the Bloodthirst Blade and scored a slender fissure into its surface. This gate surpassed even the Lung Palace Gate in durability. He couldn't force it open with his current strength.

At the Lung Palace, the mysterious axe imprint had allowed him to shatter the gate. With every other option exhausted, he reached out to the Ancestral Tree and prepared to summon the mysterious axe imprint once more.

Across the abyss, conversation spread among the waiting cultivators.

"There's nothing to worry about. Liu Wuxie can't possibly open this gate."

Confidence returned to the very people who had cursed him only moments before. Once again, they spoke as though his failure were certain, each convinced that opening the gate to the Heart Palace was beyond his ability.

"Exactly. At the Lung Palace, it took every peak Profound Immortal working together to force its gate open," some people said.

Others nodded in agreement. If they started crossing the Heart Bridge at once, they could still overtake Liu Wuxie and enter the gate before him.

Many cultivators began venturing onto the Heart Bridge, each with a rope knotted around the waist and its other end entrusted to a companion. At the first sign of danger, those who remained behind could pull them back before the heartfire swallowed them.

Their discussion had not yet ended when an enormous fissure ripped across the gate, opening a path for Liu Wuxie to slip through. Silence crashed over the crowd. The sight landed like yet another resounding slap, and this time no one spoke another word. Behind Liu Wuxie, the fissure on the gate closed on its own, blocking him from their sight.

Shen Can drew a long breath, fighting to contain the murderous intent raging inside him.

Now that Liu Wuxie had entered the Heart Palace, the Divine Fire Core would almost certainly fall into his hands. The Shen Clan and the Zhu Clan had not only lost the Divine Fire Core but also many of their disciples.

Frustration consumed the surviving disciples of both clans as they ground their teeth, realizing they were powerless to alter the situation. As expected by the onlookers, the heartfire's ferocity diminished significantly the instant Liu Wuxie entered the gate.

"Go! Cross the bridge now while the opportunity stands! It's possible Liu Wuxie hasn't claimed the Divine Fire Core yet!" cultivators shouted from the crowd.

The moment the intense flames subsided, a massive wave of cultivators rushed onto the Heart Bridge, quickly congesting the narrow walkway. Meanwhile, Liu Wuxie had stepped into an eerie, crimson-drenched world.

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