Desolate Devouring Art

Another five hundred thousand immortal stones left Liu Wuxie's hands, and even he felt a headache coming on. He had worked hard for every last stone.

"The Azure Jade Palace is holding a large recruitment one month from now. All you need to do is reach the destination within one month," the voice replied from behind the window, as cold as ever now that it had received his payment.

A curse nearly escaped Liu Wuxie's lips. He could have obtained some of that information elsewhere. Surely the Mystic Pavilion had more to offer than this.

"The Azure Jade Palace hardly ever recruits outsiders. Why hold a recruitment drive this year?" Liu Wuxie asked, seizing upon something in the answer. For years, the Azure Jade Palace had maintained a low profile, admitting only a small number of disciples each year. Yet the Mystic Pavilion's choice of words implied that the Azure Jade Pavilion planned to open its doors to far more recruits this time.

The pale hand slipped through the tiny window again.

Liu Wuxie tossed another five hundred thousand immortal stones into it. By now, his face had begun to show his displeasure.

"The Heavenly Alliance has started pushing south. The Azure Jade Palace sees that expansion as a threat, so it's planning a large recruitment drive this year to help resist the Heavenly Alliance," the voice explained.

Finally, an answer worth hearing. The Azure Jade Palace evidently wanted nothing to do with the Heavenly Alliance. Had Liu Wuxie entered its ranks only to see it join the alliance afterward, he would have delivered himself straight into a trap.

Liu Wuxie asked nothing more, letting silence fill the room. Five hundred thousand immortal stones for a single inquiry was extortionate. In this short conversation, two million had already slipped through his fingers.

Remaining at the second tier would likely reveal little more. Every answer had been vague, and obtaining precise information would require choosing a higher tier and paying its steeper price.

"Is there anything else you'd like to ask, Young Master?" the voice prompted. Its former chill had vanished, replaced by a distinct warmth.

"That's all," Liu Wuxie replied, getting to his feet. He refused to squander any more immortal stones on questions that led nowhere.

"Take this booklet, free of charge. It may help you get into Azure Jade Palace," the voice offered. A hand reached through the tiny window, deposited a booklet, and retreated. The window slid shut, ending the exchange.

Liu Wuxie took the booklet and opened it. As he read, a gleam entered his eyes.

"Now, this is worth a look!" he said, his lips curving into a smile. Perhaps those two million immortal stones had bought something worthwhile after all. He put the booklet away and left the Mystic Pavilion.

"Perhaps that booklet will earn us some goodwill," the voice murmured in his absence. The window opened once more, and an aged face appeared behind it.

Out on the street, Liu Wuxie considered his next step. He had to reach the Azure Jade Pavilion within a month or risk losing his chance at the recruitment drive. A third-level Profound Immortal could scarcely hope to enter a superpower under ordinary circumstances. This larger recruitment, however, would likely mean less stringent requirements from the Azure Jade Palace. Armed with the booklet's guidance, he still had a reasonable chance.

In past years, superpowers had set their minimum requirement at the pinnacle of the Origin Immortal Realm. Others had refused to consider anyone who had not reached the Divine Immortal Realm.

Within the Celestial Weave Domain, even commoners enjoyed a higher standing than Profound Immortals. Both the waiter at Liu Wuxie's inn and the attendant at the Mystic Pavilion had already reached the high levels of the Profound Immortal Realm. As for High Immortals and True Immortals, their lot differed little from that of slaves.

Liu Wuxie planned to take a teleportation array at daybreak. A vast distance lay between Ancient Providence City and the Azure Jade Palace, enough to demand at least a year and a half of travel on foot. Even with teleportation arrays, the journey would take him twenty days at the very least.

He would teleport to the nearest major city before covering the remaining distance on foot. The Azure Jade Palace rose atop the Jade Lake, well removed from the crowded cities, in a place few people visited.

The ascent to the summit of the Jade Lake would also have to be made on foot. Origin Immortals, at least, could shorten the climb considerably by flying close to the ground.

Upon returning to his room, Liu Wuxie put the Desolate Devouring Art to work. Waves of immortal energy gathered around him, their purity exceeding anything Eastern Emperor City could offer.

Such pure immortal energy allowed him to cultivate without causing more than the faintest disturbance around him. What his room contained would suffice to sustain his cultivation for a long time.

Within him, the Desolate World's laws continued to strengthen, seemingly in response to the laws of the Celestial Weave Domain. Liu Wuxie spent the night cultivating. At daybreak, he left the inn and headed for the teleportation array.

He could not afford to linger and risk forfeiting his chance. Only a handful of superpowers existed in the Celestial Realm, and every recruitment drive attracted countless people yearning to join them. The presence of an Immortal Emperor behind such an organization made others think twice about provoking it.

Despite its rapid expansion, even the Heavenly Alliance found it difficult to infiltrate the major powers.

By the time Liu Wuxie reached the teleportation array, a crowd had already gathered around it. His destination was Mulberry Sea City, roughly three thousand miles from the Azure Jade Palace. Not even in his previous life had he set foot there.

He and Shui Yao had both belonged to the ten Immortal Emperors, but that shared standing had hardly made them acquainted. They had met on only two occasions.

A long wait in line ended when Liu Wuxie paid fifty thousand immortal stones and entered the teleportation array.

As an intermediate spiritual array, it imposed comparatively gentle spatial pressure. Most Origin Immortals could withstand the journey without trouble, although Profound Immortals would still struggle.

Cultivators at the lower levels of the Profound Immortal Realm rarely travelled from one city to another. If they were not careful, they could get captured and sold into slavery.

Light surged through the teleportation array, and the familiar sneers rose around Liu Wuxie. Once again, the other passengers mocked him for attempting something beyond his abilities.

A full hour passed in transit. By noon, the array delivered them safely to Mulberry Sea City.

More than a hundred passengers emerged into a cold far harsher than anything they had experienced in Ancient Providence City. Most promptly took out coats and wrapped themselves tightly against the chill.

The region’s bitter cold likely stemmed from its proximity to the Jade Lake.

Cultivators crowded Mulberry Sea City, with fresh arrivals streaming in from the surrounding regions. Third- and fourth-tier clans were especially eager to send their disciples to the Azure Jade Palace. A single disciple becoming an elder's personal disciple would bring distinction to the entire clan.

Even disciples of smaller sects had entered the city covertly, forsaking their old affiliations for a chance to join the Azure Jade Palace.

Not a single inn had a room to spare. With nowhere to stay, Liu Wuxie had to set out earlier than intended. At the Profound Immortal Realm, the remaining journey would take about twenty days, assuming he encountered no trouble.

Mountain ranges barred the way, and one wrong step among them could prove fatal. Many cultivators were making the same journey to the summit of Jade Lake, but solitary travelers like Liu Wuxie were rare. Most traveled with their parents or kept to groups.

After making certain no one was close by, Liu Wuxie activated his footwork technique and shot forward like a meteor. The spatial laws of the Celestial Weave Domain were ten times stronger than those of Eastern Emperor City, placing severe limits on the Divine Ninefold Step. Nevertheless, even those constraints could not strip it of its superiority as a footwork technique.

Half a day into the journey, daylight began to wane. Liu Wuxie slowed and checked his map against the terrain, careful not to stray off course among the mountains. Unable to fly, he found it difficult to determine his position and had to use the taller peaks to guide him.

Elsewhere, the fourth form of the Divine Ninefold Step would have let him glide through the air for a short time. In the Celestial Weave Domain, he could ascend only three meters before the weight of its spatial laws forced him down again.

He located a cave and lit a bonfire inside. Outside the entrance, he laid out a spiritual array to protect himself from an ambush at night.

Night settled over the mountains. Occasionally, small immortal beasts wandered past the cave. Years of traffic had made the route to the Jade Lake's summit relatively safe, and powerful immortal beasts rarely strayed onto it.

A shrill whistle cut through the air overhead, startling Liu Wuxie awake. He rushed outside and lifted his gaze just in time to catch two black figures disappearing beyond the horizon.

"That's strange. Why dress in black to hide themselves?" Liu Wuxie murmured, furrowing his brows. Anyone traveling to the Azure Jade Palace should have had no reason to conceal themselves that way.

The two figures vanished in an instant. Liu Wuxie dismissed the matter and went back into the cave, only for screams to tear through the night almost as soon as he settled inside. Countless birds burst from their roosts and scattered across the sky.

"Those screams came from the direction the men in black took. Are they trying to interfere with the Azure Jade Palace's recruitment?" Liu Wuxie wondered, a sense of foreboding taking hold. He quickly put out the bonfire and used the Breath Concealing Art to conceal his presence.

According to the Mystic Pavilion, the Heavenly Alliance had once asked the Azure Jade Palace to join its ranks only to be rejected. Its actions in recent years had made the consequences of refusal clear. Every faction that rejected the alliance faced destruction.

For the moment, Liu Wuxie could only suspect a connection. Should that suspicion prove correct, the Azure Jade Palace would surely respond by dispatching people to safeguard those coming for the recruitment.

Others had also heard the screams. Countless travelers got up and looked in their direction, but no one dared to go and see what had happened.

Through the deepening night, screams continued to rise at intervals.

Liu Wuxie remained on watch until dawn, unwilling to risk resting. At daybreak, he emerged from the cave, erased all signs of his stay, and hastened toward the source of the screams.

A little over an hour later, he encountered a large gathering. Quite a few people had arrived before him.

Liu Wuxie overheard them whispering as he got closer. "What a horrific sight..."

Someone had leveled the surrounding trees, opening a wide clearing where more than forty corpses lay scattered. Among the dead was an expert who had reached the Immortal King Realm, the strongest of the victims. Who could have been ruthless enough to slaughter even someone of that caliber? No one could fathom it.

An Immortal King could hold a deacon's position within a superpower, while the same cultivation would be enough to become an elder in a third-tier faction.

Most of the victims were young cultivators, likely traveling to participate in the Azure Jade Pavilion's recruitment. Not one had escaped beheading. Every one of them had been beheaded, their severed heads piled in a corner in a grisly display.

"They're warning us to stay away from the Azure Jade Palace," someone whispered, recognizing the intent of whoever had orchestrated the massacre.