Chapter 1823 - Talisman
The instant Liu Wuxie spread his arms, heaven and earth grew violent, as though a storm of calamity was about to descend. Dark clouds gathered toward him, and countless people in the streets lifted their heads to stare at the sky.
"What's happening? Why did the sky go dark?"
Those were no ordinary dark clouds. They were thick and ominous, with thunderbolts tearing through them. The powerful elements of heaven and earth surged inside the storm, as though doomsday had arrived over Moon Reverence City.
Ye Linghan froze as well. She stopped fighting Wen Qiong and looked up at the sky.
Wen Qiong's expression darkened until it looked terrifying. He could see countless runes swirling around Liu Wuxie, rapidly joining together. Some of those runes came from the Talisman Tower, while Liu Wuxie himself had inscribed the rest.
Origin Immortals had inscribed many runes inside the Talisman Tower, and Shi Wa had only managed to bring them out by relying on the nonagonal seal. However, he could not refine them or claim them as his own.
Liu Wuxie was different. He had refined the sword runes and made them his. As the runes merged at incredible speed, they formed a talisman of heaven and earth. The talisman expanded suddenly and blotted out the sky above the Peace and Stability Merchant Association, swallowing everyone on the battlefield beneath its shadow.
Wen Qiong stared in disbelief. "What kind of talisman is that?" he muttered. He had seen many talismans in his life, but never one so enormous that it could blot out the sky.
Ye Linghan's eyes shone. Only now did she understand why Liu Wuxie had remained so calm. He had prepared a countermeasure long ago.
How many secrets did Liu Wuxie have? Even Ye Linghan could no longer see through him.
Sword runes fused into the talisman, making it look as though ten thousand swords pointed toward it. Every sword rune resembled a sharpened blade.
The runes contained too many mysteries, so many that even Liu Wuxie himself did not fully understand them, and no one knew how many elements had fused into the talisman. They were the elements of heaven and earth, endlessly arranging themselves into new sequences.
The Heavenly Dao Book stirred, taking control of the talisman. Liu Wuxie was only responsible for inscribing the runes; he could not command the sequences of heaven and earth by himself. But the Heavenly Dao Book could.
"What a terrifying talisman," people exclaimed.
Heaven and earth seemed to sink as darkness swallowed the surroundings, plunging the entire Peace and Stability Merchant Association into pitch-black gloom.
The talisman released a dazzling radiance that descended like a colossal mountain, suffocating everyone beneath it. This was the majestic power of heaven and earth, far beyond what ordinary immortals could resist.
The sword runes gradually grew restless. With a single order from Liu Wuxie, they could fly out and strike their targets at any moment.
Mental energy surged as a white arrow formed on Liu Wuxie's crossbow. He aimed it at the Spirit Immortals while the talisman suppressed everyone's movements.
"Quick, kill Liu Wuxie! Don't let him control that talisman!" Wen Qiong shouted, finally realizing that something was wrong. He could sense the immense trouble that the talisman could cause them. Even if it could not kill them outright, it could still restrict their speed and cultivation.
The cultivation of more than a dozen spirit immortals kept falling. Under the talisman's suppression, their strength dropped until they were only comparable to true immortals. This was the terrifying power of the talisman.
The immortal energy in the Desolate World plummeted at a visible speed. Even so, Liu Wuxie did not stop inscribing runes, which swam out like fish and entered the talisman.
Runes flashed, and heaven and earth split open. A thunderbolt burst from the talisman and struck a spirit immortal. The talisman contained the power of destruction, and Liu Wuxie had poured unimaginable effort into it. Quantity could no longer measure the materials this talisman consumed, but as long as it killed every enemy before him, all of it would be worth it.
Resources existed to raise cultivation and slaughter enemies. Otherwise, what was the point of hoarding them?
In just over a month, Liu Wuxie had slain many experts, but crafting this talisman had consumed about seventy to eighty percent of everything he had taken from his enemies. Even then, only Liu Wuxie could endure such terrifying consumption. An ordinary clan could never afford it.
"Die!" Liu Wuxie spat coldly. His voice rang out, and the murderous intent between heaven and earth grew even denser.
The surroundings began to rupture, and cracks spread through space like spiderwebs, widening without end.
Wen Qiong tightened his grip on his longsword, but he forgot to attack.
With a deafening crack, the power of destruction locked onto a Spirit Immortal. Before the man could react, the thunderbolt ripped through his flesh and turned him into a charred corpse.
The battle erupted instantly, and everyone charged at Liu Wuxie under Wen Qiong's command.
Ye Linghan wanted to save Liu Wuxie, but she was a step too slow. Wen Qiong struck with his sword and intercepted her.
With that, the battle truly began.
"Today, I'll slaughter my way through them until the heavens collapse, the seas run dry, blood flows like rivers, and eternity itself reaches its end!" Liu Wuxie roared.
Ever since ascending to the celestial realm, he had always acted carefully, using his wits to deal with most of his enemies. However, at this moment, he held nothing back. Even if it exposed his identity, he unleashed his talent without restraint.
The arrow fired from the crossbow was thick. The instant it flew out, it split into several arrows that shot toward the Spirit Immortals.
Liu Wuxie remained composed beneath the crushing pressure of the Profound Immortals. The talisman in the sky released dazzling radiance as hundreds of sword runes descended together. Every sword rune carried a powerful aura, and together, they formed a sword array.
Liu Wuxie had to kill everyone before the talisman's energy ran out. He had already consumed seventy percent of his immortal energy, which meant he did not have much time left.
The arrows locked onto the spirit immortals, while the sword runes targeted the eight Profound Immortals and the origin immortal.
Sizzling sounds echoed. The talisman's greatest function was suppression. Aside from the sword runes, its other elemental attacks were only average at best, but the suppressive effect alone was terrifying. Spirit Immortals fell to the level of True Immortals, Profound Immortals dropped to Spirit Immortals, and Origin Immortals weakened to Profound Immortals.
Before the Spirit Immortals could react, the white arrows pierced through their soul seas, killing them before they could even scream.
When the cultivators watching from afar saw the Spirit Immortals die, they all drew in sharp breaths. At some point, a large crowd of experts from the minor clans around Moon Reverence City had gathered around the Peace and Stability Merchant Association.
Several Profound Immortals among them nearly had their eyes pop from their sockets.
"Who is that? Why have I never seen him before?" voices rang out around them.
None of them recognized Liu Wuxie, even though he had stayed in Moon Reverence City for some time previously. Back then, he had spent most of his time inside the Peace and Stability Merchant Association. Even after the Azure Bamboo Gang fell, everyone simply assumed Chen Ping had been the mastermind.
Now, looking at it again, the truly formidable one had always been Liu Wuxie.
"What kind of talisman is that? Have any of you ever seen one like it?" many talisman experts asked one another. Though they weren't as knowledgeable as Liu Wuxie, they were still among the best around Fourfold City.
Yet the talisman Liu Wuxie had brought out was unlike any ordinary talisman. Ordinary talismans usually carried a single attribute, while Liu Wuxie's talisman fused all kinds of elements.
Liu Wuxie had achieved this only by relying on the Heavenly Dao Book, the desolate world, and the accumulation of countless resources; as for whether he could draw another one in the future, even Liu Wuxie himself did not know. After all, finding so many sword runes again would not be easy.
The talisman continued shrinking, like a net closing over the surroundings.
Thunderbolts flashed, and violent winds howled. The runes inside the talisman crisscrossed and stretched across a thousand miles.
Every transformation filled people with terror. Every impact shook heaven and earth. Every wave of suppression struck the hearts of everyone within a thousand miles.
A slaughter began. The white arrows claimed lives one after another, and the number of Spirit Immortals on the battlefield rapidly dwindled. Every Spirit Immortal struck by an arrow withered at once, their energy completely devoured by it.
In the blink of an eye, not a single Spirit Immortal remained on the battlefield. Wen Qiong felt his limbs turn cold, as though he had plunged into an ice cavern.
"What are you standing around for? Kill him now!" Wen Qiong roared, ordering the other Origin Immortal and the profound immortals to attack.
What he did not know was that they had already attacked several times. Each time, they had been blasted back by the pressure from the talisman and couldn't approach Liu Wuxie.
With all the Spirit Immortals dead, the pressure on Liu Wuxie decreased greatly. But that did not mean the danger had passed. The real threat was still the Origin Immortal, and Liu Wuxie would have to borrow Ye Linghan's help to kill him.
"Eightfold Golden Lock Array, rise!" Liu Wuxie said. Reaching out, he gathered all the sword runes and arranged them in eight directions to trap the remaining enemies inside.
This spiritual array's greatest function was imprisonment. The ground split open, and the surrounding buildings collapsed. Even if the Peace and Stability Merchant Association survived this calamity, the entire place would still end up in ruins.
The sword rays released by the sword runes made everyone feel as though silver needles were stabbing into their bodies.
"Linghan, end this quickly!" Liu Wuxie shouted. His immortal energy could not last much longer, and the backlash from the laws of heaven and earth had already begun. If the talisman could hold for another five breaths, it would already be heaven-defying.
Ye Linghan did not hesitate. Under the talisman's suppression, she unleashed the Heaven-Veiling Banner. However, the flag did not sweep toward Wen Qiong. Instead, it struck everyone else trapped inside the spiritual array. Once Liu Wuxie dealt with them, Wen Qiong would no longer be a concern.
Blood dyed the sky red in an instant. Every expert swept by the Heaven-Veiling Banner exploded one after another, turning into streams of blood that poured down from the sky.
Liu Wuxie summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and devoured all the corpses. Those energies could help him perfect the Desolate World.
Who would have imagined that a single talisman could overturn the entire battlefield?
Liu Wuxie had drawn on methods from his previous life, and if someone familiar with him had passed by, they would certainly have recognized him.
The talisman began to crack as all the sword runes surged toward Wen Qiong. By now, Liu Wuxie had only about ten percent of his immortal energy remaining.
Liu Wuxie compressed all the energy inside the talisman to form this devastating attack. Thunderous rumbles echoed as the talisman began turning into a giant sword, hovering quietly in the air.
As the sword locked onto him, he trembled uncontrollably, frightened so badly that his soul nearly left his body.