Desolate Devouring Art

Every man had a line that no one could cross without courting death. For Liu Wuxie, that boundary had always been his family and friends. When the Wen Clan had injured Chen Ping, Liu Wuxie had marched against them alone and destroyed the entire clan.

Zhu Gaoyang's threat struck his bottom line. Murderous intent erupted from Liu Wuxie and flooded the entire venue.

Many cultivators frowned, shaken by the terrifying intensity of Liu Wuxie’s killing intent. Even more regarded Zhu Gaoyang with open contempt. No matter how bitter the feud was, dragging someone's family into it violated all principles.

The struggle between the Celestial Moon Dao Hall and the Azure Flame Dao Hall should never have endangered innocent outsiders. Zhu Gaoyang had unmistakably crossed that line, naturally provoking outrage throughout the crowd.

"The Celestial Moon Dao Hall has thoroughly enraged me. Starting now, I'll wager your lives on every match until the last mentor among you is dead," Liu Wuxie declared after drawing a deep breath and forcing down his fury. He had changed his mind. This competition would become the instrument through which he destroyed the Celestial Moon Dao Hall. Rather than gamble with the students' lives, he would target every mentor present.

Many students were innocent, and Liu Wuxie had no desire to slaughter them. Anyone who insisted on courting death, however, would receive no mercy.

Liu Wuxie's ruthless declaration rolled through every corner of the venue and shook the crowd to its core.

"Liu Wuxie, your arrogance knows no bounds. The Celestial Moon Dao Hall accepts," Zhu Gaoyang declared. By threatening Chen Ping's life, he had already forced himself into a corner. Retreat was no longer possible, leaving him only the path ahead. As long as Liu Wuxie died, the Azure Flame Dao Hall would collapse naturally.

"I'll sign a life-and-death contract with every mentor here. Whenever the Celestial Moon Dao Hall loses a match, one of your mentors will die. But if the Azure Flame Dao Hall suffers even one defeat, I'll take my own life in front of everyone," Liu Wuxie declared, a ferocious light blazing within his eyes. Never in his life had the desire to kill burned this intensely.

The Celestial Moon Dao Hall had pushed him beyond restraint. Since they insisted on taking matters this far, he would answer them with slaughter.

The moment Liu Wuxie announced his wager, an uproar engulfed the entire Ten-Mile Slope. He was playing with fire, and the slightest error would condemn him beyond redemption. The Celestial Moon Dao Hall needed only one victory to force Liu Wuxie to take his own life before the entire audience.

Silence seized every mentor from the Celestial Moon Dao Hall. Their side still had a considerable chance of winning, yet not one of them dared step forward.

"The Celestial Moon Dao Hall truly disgusts me. Are its mentors capable of anything beyond empty boasting? You throw ordinary students into the arena to die while hiding safely behind them," Liu Wuxie sneered.

Anger swiftly spread among the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's students. Judging by the situation, Liu Wuxie's accusation appeared entirely accurate. Their mentors had sent them into the arena as disposable pawns while keeping themselves safely out of the danger. Che Xiao and the others had effectively died for nothing.

Liu Wuxie's words struck the Celestial Moon Dao Hall directly at its heart. Rejecting the wager would prove his accusation true, and the Dao Hall's unity would inevitably crumble. How could its students continue to accept mentors who feared death themselves, while sacrificing their disciples?

If matters continued to deteriorate, the Celestial Moon Dao Hall would stumble toward its own destruction without Liu Wuxie lifting another finger. No one would willingly enter a Dao Hall that treated its students that way.

Liu Wuxie had been with the Azure Flame Dao Hall for several months, yet everyone had assumed he owed his current position entirely to Ye Linghan’s support. Only now did they realize how gravely they had misjudged him. Liu Wuxie had never been harmless. Beneath the calm exterior lurked a ferocious tiger.

The Celestial Moon Dao Hall's mentors swiftly gathered to deliberate. Even the elder beside the hall master rose from his seat and joined the discussion concerning Liu Wuxie's wager.

"Very well. We accept your terms and will sign the soul contract now," Zhu Gaoyang declared on behalf of the Celestial Moon Dao Hall.

From that moment onward, every Celestial Moon Dao Hall's defeat would cost one mentor's life. If the Azure Flame Dao Hall lost even once, Liu Wuxie would kill himself on the spot. On the surface, the wager appeared perfectly fair to both sides.

Resources held no importance for Liu Wuxie. At that moment, he desired nothing more than the death of every Celestial Moon Dao Hall mentor.

Hundreds of mentors served the Celestial Moon Dao Hall, and more than a hundred had come to the venue. Anyone qualified to attend an event of this magnitude naturally held the position of a first-grade mentor within the Dao Hall.

By comparison, the Azure Flame Dao Hall's contingent appeared pitifully small, with only slightly more than fifty mentors present.

"If any of you are unwilling to risk your lives, withdraw now," Liu Wuxie said, sweeping his gaze across Lao Kaiyu and the other mentors. He had no intention of forcing anyone into the wager.

"We'll fight them to the death. I trust Mentor Liu," Yi Zhong declared as he strode forward. Without a moment's hesitation, he extracted a wisp of his soul for the pact.

"I believe in Mentor Liu as well," Lao Kaiyu said. He also drew out a wisp of his soul, resolved to fight the Celestial Moon Dao Hall until the bitter end.

Mentors from both dao halls stepped forward one after another and extracted wisps of their souls. Countless soul wisps gathered above the venue, forming a magnificent spectacle.

"Hall Master Gongye, hasn't this gone too far? Shouldn't we step in before matters become irreversible?" the Kang Clan's patriarch asked, hoping to mediate the escalating conflict.

Both Dao Halls had existed for centuries, but their previous confrontations had always remained relatively restrained. Never before had they wagered their mentors' lives.

Gongye Zhang watched the scene unfold with a grave expression, yet intervention was no longer possible. He had already transferred complete authority over the competition to Liu Wuxie.

Even the Stormcloud Sect's sect master was attempting to defuse the situation on the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's side. He had witnessed enormous wagers before, but never one that placed so many lives at stake.

More than a hundred people swearing their oaths at once created a truly magnificent sight. Meanwhile, Liu Wuxie secretly summoned the Heavenly Dao Book and recorded every soul and oath within its pages. If anyone later attempted to violate the agreement, he could use the Heavenly Dao Book to kill them directly.

Once the Heavenly Dao Oath entered the Heavenly Derivation Codex, it effectively came under Liu Wuxie's control. He now grasped each participant's connection to the Heavenly Dao. Anyone who broke the agreement could be killed through the power of their own oath.

Such was the miraculous might of the Heavenly Derivation Codex, an ability capable of commanding the Heavenly Dao itself.

An incense stick of time passed during the confrontation before the blacksmithing match finally resumed.

"Fanfan, everything we have today is because of Mentor Liu. Even if winning costs us our lives, we cannot lose this match," Diao Jiuzhi told Ren Fanfan.

"I understand exactly what's at stake," Ren Fanfan replied, determination hardening her expression. Despite being a woman, her blacksmithing ability rivaled that of any man.

"Let the team blacksmithing event commence," Qian Yao announced.

All twenty students immediately plunged into forging, filling the arena with an unbroken chorus of ringing metal. Time crawled forward, and the victor would ultimately be determined by both the quality and quantity of the artifacts each side produced.

The Celestial Moon Dao Hall displayed astonishing speed from the onset, with all ten students forging independently, using a different technique. The Azure Flame Dao Hall adopted the opposite approach, dividing its ten students into two teams of five. Diao Jiuzhi led one team and Ren Fanfan the other, with each group working together to forge a single artifact.

Strictly speaking, the Celestial Moon Dao Hall had already strayed from the spirit of the rules. This was a team event, so the competitors were supposed to cooperate rather than compete independently.

The Azure Flame Dao Hall had barely completed its preparations when one Celestial Moon Dao Hall student finished refining a longsword. That astonishing efficiency immediately drew shocked reactions from the spectators.

"Ignite the fire!"

"Bring the hammer!"

"Begin purification!"

"Engrave the runes!"

"Forge!" Diao Jiuzhi delivered each command with precise timing. The five students divided the process among themselves, assigning every stage to a different person before Diao Jiuzhi handled the final step.

Ren Fanfan's group moved with the same rhythm. Each of the five students forged at a designated step, while Ren Fanfan completed the final forging.

"What incredible efficiency. They're far faster than anyone forging alone, and their coordination is practically flawless," people commented.

The Azure Flame Dao Hall had formed only two teams, yet both forged at remarkable speed. In merely fifteen minutes, their output had already surpassed the Celestial Moon Dao Hall.

"Independent forging allows ten weapons to be produced at once, but its weaknesses are equally clear," Xiang Zicheng explained with a faint smile. "Each blacksmith must personally complete every stage, and moving between those stages inevitably wastes time. Dividing the process among a team compresses wasted time to the absolute minimum."

"Exactly. If this pace continues, the Azure Flame Dao Hall will crush the Celestial Moon Dao Hall completely," the Yue Clan's patriarch agreed with a nod.

Diao Jiuzhi and his companions immersed themselves so completely in their work that they seemed oblivious to both time and their surroundings. Weapons emerged from their hands one after another, each displaying nearly identical quality.

"Look at them. The Celestial Moon Dao Hall has already made several mistakes," remarked a clan patriarch from Moonveil City, his eyes fixed on the ten Celestial Moon Dao Hall students.

"Every person possesses different strengths. Some are gifted at purification, while others excel in forging or engraving runes. The longer they forge, the more clearly their individual weaknesses will emerge, eventually making even basic errors," the Qin Clan's patriarch observed while stroking his beard.

In his judgment, the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's greatest mistake had been failing to combine the strengths of its ten students.

"Now look at the Azure Flame Dao Hall. Not one of them appears tired. Every student needs to concentrate on only a single stage without worrying about anything else, dramatically reducing the burden on both stamina and soul energy."

In essence, the Azure Flame Dao Hall had adopted an assembly-line process that reduced the chance of error to an absolute minimum. Every Celestial Moon Dao Hall student, by comparison, had to perform each stage alone and maintain perfect concentration throughout the entire forging process.

After an hour, the Celestial Moon Dao Hall students had already consumed a substantial amount of soul energy and ruined several swords. With only half the allotted time remaining, the Azure Flame Dao Hall had begun overwhelming them in quantity.

"Move faster. Have you forgotten everything I taught you?!" Zhu Gaoyang roared from below the arena, desperately urging his students to pick up the pace.

His pressure only made their burden heavier, leading to even more mistakes. Sword after sword failed during forging, trapping the students in a vicious cycle.

The Azure Flame Dao Hall, in stark contrast, remained silent. Whenever a student entered the arena, Liu Wuxie offered only a reassuring look. He never encouraged them with words, nor did he pressure them to hurry.

A blade shattered into fragments on the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's side. Moments later, another sword failed because the heat used during forging had been insufficient.

Despair had already consumed Zhu Gaoyang, leaving him with no choice but to watch anxiously from beneath the arena.

During the previous three days, Liu Wuxie hadn't taught Diao Jiuzhi or the others any advanced blacksmithing techniques. He had merely shown them how to use their existing techniques more effectively, then forced them to repeat the process until their coordination became flawless.

Another mentor would likely have crammed as much knowledge as possible into the student, hoping to improve their performance. Had Liu Wuxie done that, however, he would merely have forced their growth and damaged their foundations. Far from helping them, such an approach might have produced the opposite result.

Sometimes, the correct strategy mattered more than raw strength.

As the allotted time neared its conclusion, a great pile of weapons had accumulated before Diao Jiuzhi and Ren Fanfan. Every artifact gleamed brilliantly, with not a single defective piece.

"You worthless pieces of garbage," Zhu Gaoyang roared from the edge of the arena, publicly humiliating his own students.

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