Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 261 - Spiritual Talismans

“Liu Wuxie, today will be your last day since you’re courting death!” Xue Qiongyu laughed. He was also a Heaven Grade student of the Imperial Academy.

Hearing those words, Liu Wuxie stopped and looked at Xue Qiongyu, “I will make you wish you were dead!”

His sharp gaze stabbed into Xue Qiongyu’s soul sea, frightening him into letting out a shrill scream. This was an attack containing soul energy.

With just a single glance, Liu Wuxie scared someone in the high level of the Marrow Cleansing Realm into screaming. At that moment, everyone realized how strong Liu Wuxie had become in such a short time.

Liu Wuxie ignored Xue Qiongyu and continued walking toward the platform. His first objective was to save Zuo Hong and others before settling the score with the Xue Clan.

He planned to wipe out the Xue Clan before the Battle of the Hundred Nations. Following that, he aimed to obtain a good result in the Battle of the Hundred Nations and enter the cultivation world.

In the future, the Great Yan Dynasty would have nothing to do with him, and he would have no lingering emotions left aside from the Xu Clan. This meant that he would have to resolve all the grudges before leaving.

“Brother Liu, don’t come! This is a trap!” Zuo Hong bit his tongue to clear his mind, with blood dripping down his lips.

Yan Ruyu and others raised their heads with incredible difficulty. Their faces were pale, and their eyes were dull. They were tied to the logs for six days, and they had only managed to endure through sheer willpower.

Liu Wuxie knew this was a trap but still jumped into it. This was his sense of righteousness. Because of him, these people were tied to the logs, and he would lose all his dignity if he escaped.

As he drew closer to the platform, none of the Xue Clan’s disciples stopped him. More people began to gather in the surroundings. The fog would return to the Python King Mountain the next day, so everyone began to come out. When they saw the colossal formation outside, this naturally caught their attention.

“What’s going on?” Those who arrived later stood at a distance and inquired.

In this unprecedented event, more than a hundred people from the Xue Clan were present, meaning their clan had sent more than half of their elites.

Of the five major clans in the Imperial City, the Bai Clan had only a few dozen people, which was about the same as the other clans.

“The Xue Clan captured Liu Wuxie’s friends, imprisoning them here to force him to step into their trap,” someone explained to those who arrived later.

“There’s no way these people from the Xue Clan can stop him. Don’t you all know? Liu Wuxie killed fifty-four people with one move two days ago, including Zhao Chen.” Those who came later weren’t optimistic about the Xue Clan despite the advantage in numbers.

When facing absolute strength, numbers meant nothing except buying time.

“What?! He killed fifty-four people with one blade strike?!” An exclamation came from the surroundings. Many people suspected that it was exaggerated because they couldn’t imagine the strength one had to possess to accomplish it.

Everyone knew that Zhao Chen was strong, given that his cultivation was at the pinnacle of the Marrow Cleansing Realm.

“That’s nothing. I heard he obtained a Golden Fruit, a Blood Flame Devil Blue, and a Golden Marrow. Not to mention that he managed to come out unscathed against a fifth-grade demonic beast. The Xue Clan is merely courting death!” More information on Liu Wuxie was uncovered.

The Xue Clan’s disciple’s faces gradually became ugly when they heard the surrounding discussion. As the spectators chatted, Liu Wuxie had already reached the platform and slowly ascended the stairs.

The hundred-odd Xue Clan’s disciples began to close around the platform, preventing Liu Wuxie from escaping.

As Liu Wuxie approached, he swung the Heretic Blade to sever the ropes, freeing Zuo Hong’s group of seven. But as their true essence was restricted, they couldn’t move and could only sit on the ground to recover.

“Brother Liu, leave!” When Zuo Hong was freed, he shoved Liu Wuxie and urged him to leave quickly.

Yan Ruyu struggled to get back on her feet but staggered as her body was numb.

“Don’t worry about it. I will be fine!” Liu Wuxie assured them as he waved his hand. An invisible force entered their bodies and removed the seals, allowing their true essence to recover.

The Xue Clan’s disciples didn’t do anything to stop because Zuo Hong’s group of seven was no different from mere flies to them. Killing and not killing them didn’t matter to them because they had already achieved their goal by trapping Liu Wuxie there.

The seven would need time to recover their true essence, and they did their best, wanting to join the fight.

After freeing the seven, Liu Wuxie finally turned to look at the Xue Clan’s disciples. He captured everyone’s faces in his eyes before his gaze ultimately fell onto Xue Shichou.

“Use all of your strength!” Liu Wuxie couldn’t be bothered to waste words with these people as the Heretic Blade gave off a terrifying gleam.

Without a word, over a hundred people took out a talisman. But weirdly, Liu Wuxie had no changes on his face. He was terrifyingly calm even when facing over a hundred fourth-grade talismans.

If all the talismans were ignited, even someone in the True Core Realm would die. This was equivalent to over a hundred experts in the pinnacle of the Marrow Cleansing Realm detonating themselves, and the shockwave formed by true essence was ten times stronger than martial techniques.

“S-so many spiritual talismans!” Those standing over a hundred meters away were so terrified that they retreated, fearing they might be implicated.

Spiritual talismans could be found in the Great Yan Dynasty, but there weren’t many, and most were low-graded. This was the first time they saw so many talismans simultaneously.

Zuo Hong already knew that this was a trap. When he saw so many talismans, his facial expression froze before he wore a bitter smile. He gave up trying to recover his true essence because they would still die even if they had recovered all their true essence. He stood up, supporting himself against the log. Since they were doomed to die, he would fight with Liu Wuxie side-by-side.

“Is this all you got? Relying on the talismans Lu Fei gave you? Do you all think you can kill me with those?” Liu Wuxie sneered with disdain, and his mocking tone changed the expressions of the Xue Clan’s elites. Could it be that Liu Wuxie wasn’t afraid of spiritual talismans?

“Liu Wuxie, you’re finished! Even if you have the body of steel, you won’t escape death today!” Xue Qiongyu sneered, and the fourth-grade talisman in his hand began to light up. Spiritual talismans could be ignited by activating it with true essence.

“Kill me?” Liu Wuxie sneered, “You all are too tender.”

Liu Wuxie’s words nearly choked everyone to death because he was merely eighteen years old and the youngest of them all. Everyone there was older than him, and there were also experts in their fifties. Yet, Liu Wuxie said that they were too tender.

Those standing far away had their brows furrowed.

“Shichou, when are we going to make a move?!” Some of Xue Clan’s disciples couldn’t contain themselves any longer as they turned to look at Xue Shichou. The latter was the leader, and everyone had to listen to him.

“Prepare!” Xue Shichou gave the order as over a hundred spiritual talismans were activated with true essence and hovered in the air. With so many spiritual talismans, Liu Wuxie could only die regardless of his ability.

The surrounding atmosphere became tense, with everyone’s breathing becoming heavy. The Xue Clan’s experts were also nervous because they weren’t sure if they could kill Liu Wuxie with all the spiritual talismans.

Typically speaking, even someone in the True Core Realm would be killed under the detonation. But Liu Wuxie had too many secrets on him, and he could turn the tables around each time.

As the fluctuation from the spiritual talismans grew stronger, a terrifying wave of energy was unleashed, causing the surrounding space to tremble.

The platform began to tremble under the intense fluctuation and would shatter at any moment. But Liu Wuxie wasn’t in a hurry as ten black flags appeared in his hand that shot to the surroundings like ten arrows, guarding the entire platform.

When Qin Li had told him the news, he had guessed Xue Clan’s scheme. They knew that it was difficult to kill him through a frontal confrontation, and this meant that they could only rely on spiritual talismans.

With Liu Wuxie’s current physique, he could withstand the power of ordinary spiritual talismans. But he would be killed facing over a hundred spiritual talismans.

After killing so many people and obtaining their treasures, Liu Wuxie had spent some time along the way to refine ten array flags. This spiritual array had no other special functions except for defense.

Xue Shichou narrowed his eyes, sensing something was amiss. He had long heard that Liu Wuxie was proficient in spiritual arrays, but only a few had witnessed it before. Everyone only knew that Liu Wuxie was talented in alchemy. But they weren’t aware that Liu Wuxie’s attainment in spiritual arrays was even higher than alchemy; he had simply avoided their frequent use against the enemies he had faced so far.

“Ignite it!” there was no time left, and Xue Shichou yelled.

Everyone began pouring their true essence into the spiritual talismans, causing spatial rifts to appear in the surrounding space.

A suffocating aura swept out that felt like a typhoon sweeping through.

The platform Liu Wuxie was standing on flew to the sky, and cracks appeared on the ground. Over a hundred spiritual talismans converged, forming a massive spiritual talisman.

This made Liu Wuxie realize how extraordinary Lu Fei was, using spiritual talismans to form another spiritual talisman.

All the spiritual talismans converged to form a net and enveloped downwards. A terrifying aura began to sweep out with cracking sounds coming from the bodies of Zuo Hong and others. Their bodies couldn’t withstand the power and were on the brink of being reduced to ashes.

Then again, this was because their cultivation was in the low levels of the Marrow Cleansing Realm.

Liu Wuxie calmly formed seals and injected the spiritual runes into the flags. Like an overturned pot, an invisible barrier gradually formed, enveloping Liu Wuxie’s group. No matter how the spiritual talismans’ power wreaked havoc, it couldn’t tear apart the defenses.

This scene shocked all the spectators; they couldn’t figure out what spiritual array could withstand an enhanced spiritual talisman attack.

Even if the Imperial Academy’s headmaster stood there, he would be vaporized by the power of the spiritual talismans.

Liu Wuxie continued to form seals because the spiritual talismans hadn’t exploded yet. They were still in the brewing stage, and Liu Wuxie didn’t dare be careless when facing destructive power. He was trying to perfect the spiritual array as much as possible.

With a loud rumble, a few hundred meters of radius began to tremble violently as the power formed by the spiritual talismans swept toward Liu Wuxie; countless spiritual runes manifested into a massive palm.

Liu Wuxie furrowed his brows as Lu Fei had even gone as far as injecting True Core Realm’s law into the spiritual talismans just to kill him. This meant that these talismans might seem to be fourth-grade talismans on the surface, but they contained the intent of the True Core Realm expert.

It wasn’t as powerful as fifth-grade talismans, but the power far surpassed that of fourth-grade talismans.

Cracking sounds could be heard from the defensive array as if it would collapse at any moment.