Desolate Devouring Art

The four spiritual arrays suddenly reversed course and began to fuse, merging their four distinct elements into a unified whole. A far larger spiritual array swiftly emerged, imprisoning the Celestial Moon Dao Hall student within it.

A thunderous explosion shook the arena as a thunder dragon crashed into the student, hurling him to the ground as blood spewed from his mouth. A water dragon descended from the sky immediately afterward. If it struck, death would be inevitable.

At the decisive moment, Zhang Hua recalled the attack and spared his opponent's life. The individual event ended with his overwhelming victory.

The Celestial Moon Dao Hall student was carried away on the brink of death, with countless bones throughout his body shattered.

Everyone instinctively looked toward the Celestial Moon Dao Hall. Another loss meant another mentor had to surrender their life.

Liu Wuxie's seemingly harmless appearance now sent chills through countless hearts. Everyone finally recognized the demon hidden beneath that tranquil exterior, one capable of devouring lives without leaving even the bones behind. Barely more than a day had passed, yet several Celestial Moon Dao Hall mentors had already died.

Before Liu Wuxie could utter a word, Zhu Gaoyang seized another mentor who had recently defected from the Azure Flame Dao Hall to the Celestial Moon Dao Hall.

"Please spare me, Liu Wuxie. I'll surrender every resource I own," the captive pleaded desperately, even offering all his immortal arts in exchange for survival.

"Just hurry up and die. There's no point wasting your breath," Zhu Gaoyang snapped. Without waiting for Liu Wuxie's response, he broke the mentor's neck on the spot.

After this latest sacrifice, only a handful of mentors who had defected from the Azure Flame Dao Hall remained. One after another, the Celestial Moon Dao Hall had reduced them to sacrificial pawns.

"You inhumane bastard, Zhu Gaoyang. Why don't you sacrifice one of the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's original mentors?!" the remaining defectors roared furiously. Several even began moving toward the Azure Flame Dao Hall in an open attempt to abandon the Celestial Moon Dao Hall.

"Stay where you are and behave yourselves. If we lose another match, you'll be the next sacrifice," Zhu Gaoyang warned coldly.

Li Baoshu and several other mentors immediately advanced, restraining the defectors who had originally come from the Azure Flame Dao Hall.

Internal strife had engulfed the Celestial Moon Dao Hall, exactly as Liu Wuxie had intended. Regardless of how the competition ended, they would never regain their former glory.

With poison art, magic art, soul technique, blacksmithing, and spiritual array competitions concluded, talisman art was the next category. Shi Wa would represent the Azure Flame Dao Hall this time. Like the earlier categories, talisman art contained two events, but surprisingly, Shi Wa wouldn't enter the individual event. Zhuang Fang had received that position instead.

Shi Wa would lead the team event. The Azure Flame Dao Hall remained comparatively weak in talisman arts, and Zhuang Fang couldn't support the entire team alone, making Shi Wa the necessary leader. This arrangement formed yet another part of Liu Wuxie's strategy.

Shi Wa's attainment in talisman arts had already reached an extraordinary level. Assigning him to the individual event would have wasted his abilities.

Roughly twenty Azure Flame Dao Hall students practiced talisman art. Shi Wa led the team onto the arena, leaving only Zhuang Fang behind.

The Celestial Moon Dao Hall also began arranging its representatives, bringing thirty students to the event.

"The Celestial Moon Dao Hall has no shame. They increased their number of participants at the last possible moment," spectators said.

Outrage spread among many spectators as they witnessed the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's conduct.

Shi Wa stood at the head of his team while the other students spread behind him. Their expressions betrayed no emotion, and each carried the composure of a seasoned veteran tempered by countless battles.

After fifteen minutes of discussion, the Celestial Moon Dao Hall finally sent all thirty students into the arena. The moment they arrived, they dispersed into a vast encirclement, trapping Shi Wa's group inside.

"This match has a time limit of one hour," Qian Yao explained. "You may attack with spiritual talismans, dismantle your opponents' talisman runes, or construct a talisman array. Any method that complies with the rules is permitted, but martial cultivation remains strictly forbidden."

Talisman art offered far greater variety than blacksmithing or spiritual arrays, whose competitive methods were comparatively straightforward.

Every student nodded, having memorized the rules long ago.

"Let the match begin!" Qian Yao announced before retreating to the edge of the arena and surrendering the stage entirely to the competitors.

The instant Qian Yao withdrew, the Celestial Moon Dao Hall students launched their assault. Hundreds of spiritual talismans hurtled toward Shi Wa's team simultaneously. Their attack lacked both technique and coordination. They intended to bury their opponents beneath sheer numbers.

Many of those spiritual talismans had been refined by peak Origin Immortals and contained enough power to kill ordinary Origin Immortals.

Even cultivators who had previously favored the Celestial Moon Dao Hall began shifting their support toward the Azure Flame Dao Hall. "How fucking shameless! This isn't a contest of talisman arts. It's a mob of thugs starting a brawl," they shouted. From the beginning, the Azure Flame Dao Hall had competed openly and fairly without relying on underhanded schemes.

The Celestial Moon Dao Hall, by contrast, had discarded every principle and resorted to filthy methods capable of securing victory.

Faced with such an overwhelming barrage, including many spiritual talismans imbued with the power of the Origin Immortal Realm, Shi Wa and his companions appeared to have no means of resistance. The Celestial Moon Dao Hall had clearly staked everything on this match and was willing to distort the rules as long as victory remained possible.

The danger surrounding Shi Wa’s team mounted with every passing moment. Once the talismans detonated, they could reduce the entire arena to ashes and undoubtedly kill all nineteen students.

Only a peak Divine Immortal possessed the strength to blast every talisman away and remain unharmed. However, Xiang Zicheng and the other experts stood too far from the arena. Even if they intervened now, they could at most rescue Shi Wa and his companions without altering the match's outcome.

The Celestial Moon Dao Hall no longer cared whether its own students survived. Victory had become its sole concern.

At that critical instant, Shi Wa summoned a talisman that expanded rapidly in mid-air before transforming into a pitch-black vortex. The power of the Ancestral Talisman surged from within it.

Liu Wuxie had already predicted that the Celestial Moon Dao Hall would employ unscrupulous methods during this match.

"What the hell is that thing?!" the crowd cried. Shi Wa had produced only one talisman, yet it transformed into a black hole. Even the Divine Immortals present couldn't comprehend the phenomenon.

A thunderous rumble erupted as the spiritual talismans overhead detonated one after another, releasing a violent shockwave across the arena. Cracks spread around the black hole until it appeared ready to collapse at any moment.

"Talisman runes of heaven and earth, gather as one! Spiritual runes of all creation, awaken!" Shi Wa roared, forming a seal with one hand. Runes instantly manifested throughout the sky and intertwined into an enormous net that enveloped every talisman overhead without allowing a single one to escape.

Hundreds of spiritual talismans were dragged away in the next instant and vanished without leaving a trace. The black talisman Shi Wa released had devoured them all.

"How could this..." Zhu Gaoyang stammered in disbelief.

They had calculated every conceivable outcome, yet their plans still fell short by a single move. The surrounding spectators were equally dumbfounded. The Azure Flame Dao Hall had stood moments from destruction, only for Shi Wa to overturn the entire situation in an instant.

Countless gazes turned immediately toward Liu Wuxie. Everyone knew he had likely arranged this countermeasure beforehand and wondered what kind of monster could calculate every step with such terrifying precision.

The thirty Celestial Moon Dao Hall students surrounding Shi Wa's team exchanged uncertain looks. Their only instruction had been to throw every spiritual talisman they possessed the instant they entered the arena. No one had told them what to do after that.

The black hole gradually faded from the sky, and the black talisman returned to Shi Wa's hand.

"Will you leave the arena on your own, or do we have to throw you off?" Shi Wa asked, his piercing gaze sweeping over the opposing students. They would be wise not to force his team into action.

Several Celestial Moon Dao Hall students crumbled beneath his stare and immediately leaped from the arena. None wished to die.

"You are not permitted to withdraw! Get back in there and keep fighting," Zhu Gaoyang shouted. He seized the students who had jumped down and hurled them back onto the arena. His actions ignited public fury once again, drawing condemnation from every direction.

"Anyone who dares leave that arena will be executed," he roared after throwing them back, openly threatening them.

His words turned the hearts of the Celestial Moon Dao Hall students in the arena cold. Many had entered the competition determined to fight for their dao hall, but now open resistance was beginning to replace that loyalty. Even more students chose to sever their ties with the Celestial Moon Dao Hall altogether, preferring to leave rather than remain associated with such an institution.

Through his actions alone, Liu Wuxie had shaken the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's foundation.

As elite students continued abandoning the Celestial Moon Dao Hall, the Azure Flame Dao Hall's chances of victory rose even further. This development mattered most in the martial path category, where even Liu Wuxie had never felt completely certain of success. In raw cultivation and strength, the Azure Flame Dao Hall students still couldn't match their Celestial Moon Dao Hall counterparts.

With no other choice, the thirty students began inscribing runes and prepared to confront Shi Wa's group head-on.

"Throw every one of them off the arena," Shi Wa ordered coldly. He offered no mercy and immediately commanded his teammates to attack together.

Countless spiritual talismans erupted across the arena in an instant, forming a violent tempest that swept loose stones from the ground before crashing into all thirty Celestial Moon Dao Hall students.

One student after another flew into the air and tumbled from the stage. In less than half a breath, only the Azure Flame Dao Hall's representatives remained standing in the arena.

The thirty defeated students lay scattered across the ground, completely stripped of their combat strength while miserable cries rose from every direction.

"Useless trash! Every last one of you. You couldn't even survive a single attack," Zhu Gaoyang spat, humiliating his defeated students without restraint.

Several students grew so furious that they coughed up blood. They might have lost the match, but their dignity had remained intact until Zhu Gaoyang's insults stripped even that from them.

"I'm leaving the Celestial Moon Dao Hall. From this moment forward, I have nothing to do with it," one of the thirty students declared while struggling to stand up. Several others immediately raised their voices and announced their departure as well.

"I'm withdrawing too!"

"So am I!"

More voices rapidly joined the declarations. Within only a few breaths, over a hundred students withdrew from the Celestial Moon Dao Hall. Many hadn't even participated in the competition, but the Dao Hall's conduct had thoroughly disappointed them. None wanted any further connection to such an organization.

"We're withdrawing from the Celestial Moon Dao Hall too," several mentors shouted as they attempted to leave. Unlike the students, however, their oath prevented their escape. Li Baoshu and the other mentors immediately stepped forward and brought them under control.

Zhu Gaoyang suddenly seized one of the mentors and brutally ripped off his head.

"Anyone who attempts to withdraw will meet the same end," he declared coldly.

Many students who were intending to leave froze in their seats. Those who had withdrawn earlier were already beyond Zhu Gaoyang's reach, but the students who remained weren't so fortunate.

"Zhu Gaoyang, I never imagined you would stoop so low. From this day onward, the Qin Clan and you are irreconcilable enemies," the Qin Clan's patriarch declared.

The mentor Zhu Gaoyang had just killed was a descendant of the Qin Clan from Moonveil City.

Most Celestial Moon Dao Hall disciples came from prominent clans, prosperous merchant families, or ordinary households.

Zhu Gaoyang wasn't reckless enough to slaughter indiscriminately. He generally targeted only those with little background or status. Although the Qin Clan was powerful, its patriarch stood only at the pinnacle of the Origin Immortal Realm, roughly on par with Zhu Gaoyang. Since the Celestial Moon Dao Hall's hall master had reached the pinnacle of the Divine Immortal Realm, the Dao Hall naturally held the minor Qin Clan in no regard.

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