Desolate Devouring Art

Neither Liu Wuxie nor Number 56 bothered restraining their murderous intent. Their hostility collided like a storm of invisible blades.

Enchantress sensed the disturbance outside her bedchamber almost immediately. Yet she neither intervened nor ordered them to stop, choosing instead to let the conflict unfold.

"Men truly are worthless animals," Enchantress muttered before turning away, her interest already fading.

In her eyes, Liu Wuxie and Number 56 were merely rivals fighting for her favor.

"You dared to contradict me in front of the Master. I'll make sure you die today," Number 56 snarled once they were safely beyond Enchantress’s sight, his eyes blazing with murderous fury.

"Do you always waste this much breath on meaningless threats?" Liu Wuxie replied, utterly indifferent. "We've already reached this point. Only one of us is walking away alive."

Number 56 had delivered himself straight to Liu Wuxie's blade. He had only been struggling to find a legitimate opportunity to kill him and advance to the next stage of his plan.

"You've got quite the mouth, brat. Follow me if you have the courage," Number 56 said before streaking toward another part of the palace.

Liu Wuxie followed without hesitation. Before long, the narrow terrain opened into a broad expanse strewn with rocks. Enchantress didn't visit this neglected corner of the palace, which the gardeners used to dispose of the waste produced throughout the grounds.

Number 56 stopped in the center of the rocky clearing and summoned a longsword. The aura of an eighth-level Spirit Immortal erupted from him, its crushing pressure causing the surrounding rocks to crack and groan.

"What are those two doing?" one of the three spectral envoys asked after Number 56's violent aura drew their attention.

"Should we step in?" the envoy standing on the right asked as he watched Liu Wuxie confront Number 56.

"Master enjoys nothing more than watching her subordinates tear each other up. We should stay out of it," Envoy Shen replied, immediately silencing the suggestion.

The other two envoys considered her words before nodding. From everything they knew about Enchantress, she would never interfere in a fight between her subordinates.

"That True Immortal has plenty of nerve to challenge a Spirit Immortal. Unfortunately, his recklessness is about to cost him his life," the two envoys beside Envoy Shen said with disdainful sneers, convinced that Liu Wuxie had vastly overestimated himself.

Envoy Shen remained silent, but concern stirred behind her eyes. Liu Wuxie's plan depended on killing Number 56 and taking his place. Only then could he gain an opportunity to approach the Shadow Divination Gate's sect master.

The entire scheme bordered on madness. Only a madman would have conceived it, let alone attempted to carry it out.

The Bloodthirst Blade appeared in Liu Wuxie's hand, and a formidable blade force exploded from his body. The instant that force swept across the clearing, Number 56 faltered, as did the three envoys.

"What terrifying blade force! Is he truly only at the fifth-level True Immortal Realm?"

Liu Wuxie's true cultivation had already reached the sixth-level True Immortal Realm. He had merely concealed his breakthrough, allowing everyone to see only the fifth level.

A strange light flickered through Envoy Shen's eyes. For the first time, she wondered whether Liu Wuxie could genuinely create a miracle.

"Your blade force is impressive, but your cultivation will drag you to your grave. Die!" Number 56 roared. An unexpected pressure descended upon him, as though an entire mountain were crashing down from above.

Liu Wuxie's blade force carried the terrifying promise of severing anything beneath the heavens. That sensation unsettled Number 56, convincing him that he needed to end the battle before Liu Wuxie could reveal anything more dangerous.

A faint smirk tugged at Liu Wuxie's lips. Cultivation had never represented the whole of a cultivator's strength. Given the right opportunity and enough time to prepare an ambush, Liu Wuxie could even slay a Profound Immortal, much less a spirit immortal.

Without alerting anyone, Liu Wuxie activated the Divine Tribulation Pupil and readied the Divine Mystic Yin Needle. He intended to trap Number 56 inside an illusion before launching the Divine Mystic Yin Needle in a lethal surprise attack.

The Heavenly Crest Divine Blade Art alone could not guarantee Number 56's death. To secure victory, Liu Wuxie needed to employ a method his opponent would never anticipate.

When Liu Wuxie raised the Bloodthirst Blade toward the sky, Number 56 felt the unease in his heart swell for reasons he could not explain.

"Heavenly Crimson Dragon Cry!" he thundered, and a succession of dragon roars erupted from his longsword.

Before Enchantress had captured him, Number 56 had been considered a minor prodigy. After entering the palace, he had relied on his formidable combat strength to suppress his rivals and gradually earn Enchantress' trust.

Liu Wuxie refused to underestimate his opponent, but he also felt no urgency to activate the Divine Tribulation Pupil and cast the illusion.

The Divine Ninefold Step carried Liu Wuxie forward like a blazing meteor. No one saw the exact moment he vanished, and even the three spectral envoys exchanged stunned looks.

"What monstrous speed!" Envoy Shen exclaimed. Even she could not reproduce the movement Liu Wuxie had just displayed.

"That footwork involves more than speed," the envoy on the left side of Envoy Shen whispered. "His entire presence seems to have merged with the surroundings."

No one felt more shocked than Number 56. His longsword sliced through empty air before smashing into a boulder, pulverizing it into fine dust and sending a rippling shockwave through the clearing.

Liu Wuxie had yet to grow fully accustomed to the Divine Ninefold Step because this was his first time using it in a real battle. He intended to turn Number 56 into a whetstone and use the pressure of combat to temper his footwork technique further.

Missing his first attack did not shake Number 56's composure. Instead, he accelerated and unleashed a relentless storm of sword techniques. One strike flowed directly into the next, each thrust and slash hunting Liu Wuxie's vital points.

Liu Wuxie remained vigilant, relying on the Ghost Pupil to trace every strike.

Within the blink of an eye, Number 56 thrust his sword fifteen times. Every strike missed Liu Wuxie by a hair's breadth.

Unease gradually tightened around Number 36's heart. Despite his cultivation at the Spirit Immortal Realm, he couldn't suppress Liu Wuxie.

As an eighth-level Spirit Immortal, he should have been able to crush Liu Wuxie by his aura alone. Reality, however, proved otherwise. Liu Wuxie moved as though the suppression did not exist.

He cycled continuously through the first three forms of the Divine Ninefold Step. With every exchange, his mastery deepened, and each form transitioned into the next with greater harmony. Soon, his movements flowed so smoothly that even the afterimages he left behind became nearly impossible to follow.

"What an extraordinary footwork immortal art," Liu Wuxie marveled inwardly. The Divine Ninefold Step had already surpassed every footwork immortal art he had comprehended before.

"Dragonfish Wandering Sword!" Number 56 roared, abruptly abandoning his previous technique for one far more insidious and vicious.

His sword darted forward like a fish slipping through a narrow current, threading past Liu Wuxie's defenses, pointing at his throat. From the beginning of the battle, Number 56 had been studying Liu Wuxie's rhythm. Believing that he had finally uncovered an opening, he seized it without hesitation and struck with the violence of a thunderbolt.

"Perfect timing," Liu Wuxie declared, refusing to evade for the first time.

The Divine Ninefold Step could easily carry him beyond the sword’s reach. However, Liu Wuxie had only one chance to counterattack. If he failed, Number 56 could retreat and bring the battle to an end.

Liu Wuxie could not allow him that chance. He drove the Bloodthirst Blade forward and executed Instant Flash. Its speed crossed into the inconceivable, transforming the weapon into a crimson blur that tore across the clearing.

The Bloodthirst Blade ripped through the air, whipping up a violent gale. The wind rolled outward in concentric ripples, creating a sight as magnificent as it was terrifying.

The three envoys could no longer put their emotions into words. Each of them had survived countless battles, and ordinarily, a confrontation between a True Immortal and a Spirit Immortal would not have deserved their attention. This battle, however, shattered every expectation they held.

Through his performance, Liu Wuxie forced all three envoys to witness possibilities they had never imagined from a True Immortal.

"His footwork is fast, but that blade is even faster. There is something deeply unsettling about this young man," the envoy on Envoy Shen's right said with a frown. In his eyes, allowing someone like Liu Wuxie to remain by Enchantress's side would eventually invite disaster.

"Which one of you wasn't considered abnormal before entering Master's service?" Envoy Shen countered.

Anyone capable of reaching the Origin Immortal Realm could be called a prodigy. Yet as the years passed, time slowly extinguished the fire that had once burned within them.

The question silenced the other two envoys. They too had once been young, gifted, and arrogant, but time had gradually ground away their edge.

"Die!" Number 56 roared.

He had expected Liu Wuxie to evade again, but the decision to counterattack played directly into his hands. If this strike failed to kill Liu Wuxie, Number 56 would simply retreat and wait for another opportunity.

Taking advantage of Liu Wuxie's counterattack, Number 56 twisted his sword and divided its power into three streams of sword rays, each one locking onto Liu Wuxie.

Mockery flashed in Liu Wuxie's eyes. He had already calculated every variation hidden within the sword technique. He didn't alter his attack, driving the Bloodthirst Blade straight ahead and revealing the purest essence of Instant Flash.

The exchange unfolded within a single blink. Before Number 56's attack could reach its target, the Bloodthirst Blade had already arrived before him. Liu Wuxie's counterattack was three times faster than his own.

"Shit!" Number 56 shouted, finally realizing that he had still underestimated Liu Wuxie's combat strength.

He had assumed Liu Wuxie's only advantage lay in his formidable footwork. Never had he imagined that Liu Wuxie's blade technique would prove even more terrifying, suppressing him outright.

Every martial technique beneath the heavens could be broken by speed taken to its extreme, and Liu Wuxie had driven his speed to the absolute limit.

With no other option, Number 56 swept his longsword sideways to intercept the Bloodthirst Blade. Steel met steel, and a brilliant shower of sparks burst across the clearing like fireworks.

Liu Wuxie mobilized the Desolate World at once. Immortal energy surged from it in a raging torrent, flooding into the Bloodthirst Blade. A blood mark flared across the weapon, releasing an inscrutable power that made the surrounding air tremble.

At the instant of collision, immortal energy erupted in every direction. In terms of purity alone, Liu Wuxie's immortal energy was no weaker than Number 56's. Yet something even more terrifying followed. Liu Wuxie's laws possessed extraordinary density, resembling flood dragons as they coiled around Number 56.

"How is this possible?!" he cried, panic finally breaking through his composure. As the battle unfolded, he discovered that Liu Wuxie surpassed him in every aspect except cultivation, suppressing him completely.

The instant of distraction created the opening Liu Wuxie had been waiting for. The Divine Tribulation Pupil erupted, weaving his mental energy into an illusion that streaked through the air like a slender needle.

The entire world seemed to waver for a fleeting moment, yet no one understood what had occurred. Such was the profundity of mental energy that even divine sense could fail to detect it.

The three envoys watching from afar immediately sensed the battle slipping beyond their control. The other two prepared to intervene, but Envoy Shen stopped them before they could move.

"Let them finish this," Envoy Shen said, shaking her head. If the other envoys entered the battle now, they would ruin Liu Wuxie's plan to eliminate Number 56.

"What if the Master holds us responsible?" the envoy on the left asked.

"If Master demands an explanation, I'll accept every consequence myself," Envoy Shen replied, fixing both envoys with a firm look as she silently urged them not to interfere.

The two envoys offered no further objection. They cared little whether Liu Wuxie or Number 56 died. People died in the Shadow Divination Gate every day, and long-term exposure had numbed them to it. Their only concern was that Enchantress might blame them if someone died under their watch.

Liu Wuxie's mental energy wrapped around Number 56 like liquid mercury before seeping into his upper dantian.

"ARGH!" his bloodcurdling scream carried over the distance, though no one understood what had inflicted such agony upon him.

Before Number 56 could even raise his hands to clutch his head, the Divine Mystic Yin Needle pierced through the air. It slipped effortlessly through his defenses and plunged into his body. Everything ended within the blink of an eye, and even if the other two envoys changed their minds now, it was already too late to intervene.