Desolate Devouring Art

With the four closing in, Ye Linghan had no choice but to meet them head-on. Her gaze locked onto Lu Baoguo's position. After all, his cultivation was the weakest among the four.

When the Frostsword descended from the sky, a piercing sword ray ripped through the air, its resistance twisting into a powerful storm that swept toward Lu Baoguo.

The four already understood where their weakest link lay, and Ye Linghan had successfully broken through Lu Baoguo's side several times before. How could they possibly give her another chance now?

Shen Shan immediately stepped into Lu Baoguo's place, raising his sword to block Ye Linghan's attack and force her back.

"Keep her trapped here until she burns through all her immortal energy," Zhu Chiran said.

The continuous battles had severely drained Ye Linghan's immortal energy. At this point, even if she used the Heaven-Veiling Banner, her odds of winning were slim, not to mention that the immortal energy she had left was no longer enough to activate it.

"Ye Linghan, you should just give up. Serve us well, and we might consider sparing your life," Shen Shan said with a sinister laugh, his gaze fixed shamelessly on Ye Linghan's bosom.

"You shameless bastard!" Ye Linghan swung her sword and forced Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran to retreat.

At that exact moment, Lu Baoguo launched a palm strike toward her back from a tricky angle. Although Ye Linghan reacted in time and leaped into the air to evade it, the force of the palm still struck her.

The palm force slammed into Ye Linghan's left shoulder, sending piercing pain through her and weakening her left arm. The injury left the entire left side of her body somewhat numb.

Ye Linghan had no time to check the wound, but she could feel that the bone in her left arm had fractured.

As the four attacks turned even fiercer, Ye Linghan felt her movements becoming increasingly restricted.

Shen Shan thrust his sword forward and struck Ye Linghan's right leg. Although the attack did not injure her meridian, it greatly limited her mobility. Wen Qu was even more despicable, constantly using his spear to attack her chest with all kinds of vicious moves.

Ye Linghan's consciousness began to blur as the immortal energy in her dantian neared depletion. Perhaps because of excessive blood loss, or perhaps because her injuries were too severe, her mind gradually sank into a haze.

The four men laughed sinisterly, knowing that no one would normally enter this stretch of the Dragon Burial Mountain Range. They began spitting out all kinds of obscene words, even discussing who would go first.

A bitter smile touched Ye Linghan's face as she thought of Liu Wuxie. She had left the Azure Flame Dao Hall in anger, only wanting to clear her mind, yet she had run into these four shameless men pursuing her.

......

Meanwhile, Liu Wuxie continued weaving through the mountain range as the warning from the Divine Tribulation Pupil pulsed with growing intensity. With the help of the Ghost Pupil, his gaze pierced through layers of trees, toward a distant canyon, capturing everything within a radius of ten thousand meters.

"This is bad!" Liu Wuxie had traveled for three days and nights before finally locating Ye Linghan through the Divine Tribulation Pupil.

Without the slightest hesitation, he took out several pills and swallowed them. The journey had already drained a terrifying amount of his immortal energy.

Blood drenched Ye Linghan, and her entire left arm had lost function after Lu Baoguo had struck it. Wen Qu's spear drove straight in and stabbed into her right shoulder, deliberately avoiding her vital points, and Liu Wuxie witnessed the scene perfectly.

A heart-rending pain swept through Liu Wuxie, as though the spear had pierced him instead. This was the effect of human energy, for he had long since formed a mysterious connection with Ye Linghan.

With both arms hanging limply, Ye Linghan could not even commit suicide. Wen Qu had done it on purpose, denying her even the chance to take her own life.

As Ye Linghan looked at the vile faces before her, her expression turned deathly pale.

"Cripple her dantian so she can't resist," Lu Baoguo said viciously.

Once they crippled her dantian, she would be completely at their mercy.

Wen Qu did not dare move too close, afraid she still had another trick up her sleeve. The spear in his hand stabbed toward Ye Linghan's lower abdomen. If that strike landed, her dantian would shatter into pieces.

Watching the spear draw closer, Ye Linghan shut her eyes as regret rose within her heart.

Just as the spear came within half a meter of her lower abdomen, a surge of invisible mental energy rushed into the valley and formed a strange arrow that shot forward.

Ye Linghan's vision had already blurred, but when she saw that strange arrow, a faint smile still rose on her lips.

"ARGH!" When the mental energy burrowed into the upper dantians of Wen Qu and the other three, illusions unfolded before their eyes.

Liu Wuxie wanted to use the Divine Tribulation Pupil's power to create an illusion and open a chance to save Ye Linghan. He never expected the attack to kill the four of them.

The arrow shot from the crossbow and flew toward the four under Liu Wuxie's mental energy. But the four were truly worthy of being Origin Immortals, and it took only half a breath for them to break free from the mental energy's control.

It was already difficult for Liu Wuxie to control a Profound Immortal using his mental energy, let alone Origin Immortals. He had only succeeded because he caught them off guard.

Half a breath was enough for Liu Wuxie to accomplish many things. Seizing the moment while the illusion trapped them, he carried Ye Linghan and plunged into the dense forest with several swift leaps.

"After them! Don't let them get away!" Wen Qu roared the instant he broke free from the illusion.

Just as the four prepared to give chase, a white arrow shot over and forced them back.

Liu Wuxie had used the illusion to trap the four for a moment, then used the arrow to buy time for their escape. He had calculated every step with frightening precision. He did not dare linger and deliberately chose dangerous terrain to flee through.

"Break!" Wen Qu stabbed his spear toward the mysterious arrow.

To their horror, the arrow exploded, splitting into countless tiny arrows, which continued targeting them.

"Damn it! Who saved Ye Linghan?!" The four had no idea who had rescued Ye Linghan because Liu Wuxie had put on a mask to hide his identity. They had been almost successful, only for someone to appear out of nowhere and ruin their good fortune. Naturally, frustration burned through all four of them.

A powerful aura belonging to an Origin Immortal swept outward, sending the tiny arrows flying.

"Chase them!"

Without another glance, the group pursued Liu Wuxie in the direction he had disappeared.

Liu Wuxie traveled several hundred miles, relying on the Divine Tribulation Pupil to erase the aura he left behind along the way. Because of that, finding him would no longer be easy for the four.

Ye Linghan forced her eyes open. When she saw the unfamiliar face before her, a happy smile rose on her lips. No matter how a person disguised himself, his scent would not change, and she buried her head in Liu Wuxie's embrace.

Blood had stained Liu Wuxie's clothes red. Her life would be in danger if he didn't treat her. After crossing a mountain peak, they found a cave, and he carried her inside, set her down, and placed a spiritual array at the entrance.

After that, Liu Wuxie rushed in another direction, leaving a trail of his aura to mislead the pursuers.

Sure enough, Wen Qu and the others chased after him. They ran several hundred miles before losing the trail and circling back through another path.

With that, Liu Wuxie successfully shook them off. If someone else had been in his position, they would have already panicked under such pursuit.

When Liu Wuxie finished setting up the spiritual array and returned to the cave, he found Ye Linghan barely breathing. He realized that her body temperature was rapidly falling, likely because of the immense blood loss. He quickly took out a blanket to cover her.

As his gaze swept across her wounds, murderous intent flashed in his eyes. He took out a dagger and carefully cut open her clothes.

Blood and fabric had stuck together across many of the wounds. If he did not treat them quickly, healing them would become extremely troublesome.

Liu Wuxie could no longer concern himself with propriety. He took out clean water and washed her shoulders, paying special attention to her right shoulder, where the spear had pierced through and nearly shattered her shoulder blade. He then took out several pills, crushed them into powder, and applied them to the wound.

When Liu Wuxie applied the medicine, Ye Linghan grimaced from the pain and fainted.

After cleaning both shoulders, Liu Wuxie moved on to the wound on her back. A foot-long sword gash stretched across like a hideous snake. He used a special spiritual liquid on the wound to ensure it would leave no scar.

As Liu Wuxie tended to her wounds one by one, more of her clothing had to be removed. She also had a deep wound on her chest, and it took him considerable effort to close it.

Once he finished treating her upper body, he pulled the blanket over her before turning to the wounds on her lower body. The most serious was on her thigh, a location that left him in an awkward position.

However, as she continued losing more blood, Liu Wuxie knew he could not delay tending to her wound. He cut open the fabric, his mind free of improper thoughts, and carefully applied medicine to the wound, allowing it to heal at a visible speed.

The wound on her lower leg was relatively minor, requiring only basic treatment.

After finishing everything, Liu Wuxie collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion. It was not physical exhaustion, but mental fatigue. To treat Ye Linghan's injuries, he had practically seen her entire body. Now, all he could do was wait.

Time slowly passed inside the cave as Liu Wuxie built a bonfire to illuminate the space and maintain the temperature within.

After Wen Qu and the others lost Liu Wuxie, they could only roar in frustration while continuing to search through the mountain range.

"Brother Wen, what do we do now?" Shen Shan asked, looking at Wen Qu's terrifyingly dark face.

"They can't have gone far. Ye Linghan is badly injured, so there's no way they can travel too far. The person who saved her must have average cultivation, which means they have to be somewhere nearby," Wen Qu replied.

"Should we split up and search?" Zhu Chiran suggested. This way their chances of finding Ye Linghan would increase.

"Fine. I'll search with Lu Baoguo," Shen Shan said, agreeing with the suggestion.

Wen Qu did not object. If they found anything, they could use Communication Talismans to contact one another and regroup.

The four quickly split up and headed in two different directions.

Deep into the night, Liu Wuxie cultivated inside the cave. However, he did not dare absorb immortal energy recklessly. He only relied on the Ancestral Tree to draw in the surrounding energy.

Ye Linghan felt her entire body turning numb and sore, the sensation coming from her wounds as they healed. Some of the smaller wounds had basically recovered and left no scars behind.

When Ye Linghan slowly regained consciousness, the first thing she saw was a gray-white stone wall. The moment she turned her head, she saw a familiar figure and immediately tried to sit up.

Seeing Ye Linghan wake up, Liu Wuxie finally sighed in relief. He prepared clean water and fed it to her, since it was only natural for her to be thirsty after losing so much blood.

Ye Linghan suddenly threw herself into Liu Wuxie's arms and hugged him tightly as tears slid down her cheeks, soaking his shoulder.

"Don't leave me!" she whispered.

He said nothing and simply let her hold him. Soft sobs echoed through the empty cave. She refused to let go of him, and the two could only remain locked in that embrace.