Desolate Devouring Art

After about fifteen minutes, Wen Qiang returned, looking visibly angry.

"Wen Qian, what did you find?" Wen Ding asked, lowering his bowl.

"There was definitely a fierce battle, but the Heaven-Eclipsing Serpent has already left," Wen Qian reported.

He immediately ordered Liu Wuxie to bring him tea and drained three bowls before finally stopping.

Once Wen Ding confirmed that the road ahead was safe, he finally relaxed.

"Let's move. We need to reach Fourfold City by midnight," Wen Ding said as he stood.

They had already lost nearly half a day and couldn't afford another delay.

The moment Wen Ding rose, the world lurched around him. A violent wave of dizziness crashed into him, sending everything spinning.

"The water's poisoned."

Wen Ding wasn't the only one who noticed. Every Wen Clan expert felt an invisible force restraining the flow of their immortal energy, preventing them from circulating it.

Agony tore through their soul seas, as though countless needles were piercing their primordial spirits. At that same moment, Wang Xing and Li Da staggered to their feet, their faces contorted in pain.

"Who are you? Why did you poison us?" Wang Xing demanded, clutching his head as he slowly approached the Wen Clan experts.

None of them suspected him, thinking that he and Li Da were also victims.

Li Da suddenly unleashed a furious roar. A violent shockwave exploded outward, hurling the surrounding tables and chairs away as the aura of a fifth-level Origin Immortal erupted from his body.

"Impossible! We're all high-level Origin Immortals. Ordinary poison can't affect us," Wen Sheng exclaimed.

The Wen Clan specialized in poison. If Liu Wuxie had tampered with the water, they would have detected it immediately.

Yet the terrifying poison had already invaded their meridians. Even Wen Ding struggled to withstand the agony ravaging his body.

"This is the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent's poison!" Wen Ding declared after drawing a deep breath.

He had never imagined that the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent's poison would find its way into their bodies. Worse still, someone had blended its venom with several other poisons, stripping it of color and scent until even origin immortals couldn't detect it.

As the Wen Clan experts forced themselves upright, Liu Wuxie drifted away from the tea stall and landed in the distance.

"Kill him," Wen Qian roared.

He had only recently consumed the tea, so the poison had yet to take full effect.

Liu Wuxie had previously captured two Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpents. After killing them, he had extracted the venom from their bodies and used it to concoct an entirely new poison.

Liu Wuxie had no reason to concern himself with honor or righteousness against the Wen Clan. The moment they injured Chen Ping, their feud had crossed the point of reconciliation.

The instant the Wen Clan made their move, Wang Xing and Li Da attacked with lightning speed. Wen Qian was focused on Liu Wuxie, never guarding against either man. He and his companions had thought the two elders had fallen victim to the poison as well.

The assault blindsided everyone. Wen Qian realized the danger too late to react.

As fifth-level Origin Immortals, Wang Xing and Li Da overwhelmed him effortlessly and severed his head with a single strike. Everything happened in a flash, leaving Wen Qian dead before anyone else could respond.

"You!" Wen Ding shouted.

Wang Xing, Li Da, and Liu Wuxie had deceived them all. Poison had never afflicted Wang Xing or Li Da, and the two had conspired with Liu Wuxie from the outset.

"Wen Ding, it's been far too long," Wang Xing said, ripping away his disguise and revealing his true appearance.

At the same time, Elder Wu and the other elders emerged. They occupied five different directions, sealing Wen Ding's group within their encirclement.

"So it was all of you," Wen Ding exclaimed.

The sight of Elder Wu and the others laid the entire scheme bare. He had never imagined that the City Lord Mansion would prepare a trap in advance and patiently wait for them to walk straight into it.

Liu Wuxie had previously sent Elder Wu to the stream in case the Wen Clan refused to drink the water he served. Even if they had fetched water themselves, the poison would've still entered their bodies. The others had harvested the surrounding herbs as well, denying the Wen Clan any chance of finding an antidote.

Every part of the scheme connected seamlessly with the next. Without such preparation, Elder Wu and the others wouldn't have stood the slightest chance against Wen Ding in a confrontation.

"Elder Wen Ding, take the item and leave now! I'll hold them back," Wen Sheng roared.

Although the poison had invaded them all, they were still Origin Immortals. It couldn't kill them immediately, and they could at least delay their enemies.

Liu Wuxie had deliberately altered the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent's poison to prevent it from killing its victims at once. Instead, it severely restricted the circulation of their immortal energy.

"Not one of you will leave this place alive today!" Elder Wu declared, driving out each word with lethal force.

Killing these Wen Clan experts would inflict a devastating blow upon the Wen Clan and leave them at a disadvantage against the City Lord Mansion.

Elder Wu drew his weapon and settled into a fighting stance. Liu Wuxie, meanwhile, seated himself on a boulder to watch the battle. He held a piece of roasted meat, its mouthwatering aroma drifting through the air, and began feasting on it.

"Poison or not, we're still beyond what the likes of you can withstand," Wen Ding roared.

Instead of fleeing, he unleashed the full aura of the ninth-level Origin Immortal Realm. Powerful shockwaves surged toward Elder Wu's group.

"Get into the formation," Elder Wu commanded.

He and the others immediately rushed into position. Liu Wuxie hadn't created this formation. It was the Five-Star Tiger Imprisoning Formation that Ye Guhai had taught them.

The battle formation excelled at confining enemies, though its offensive power remained comparatively ordinary.

The poison would continue corroding the Wen Clan experts' meridians. Given enough time, it would kill Wen Ding and the others without requiring Elder Wu's group to strike another blow.

The Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent's poison possessed such incomparable potency that it could kill even Divine Immortals, let alone Origin Immortals.

Explosions thundered across the hillside as the battle erupted. Wen Ding and the others launched a relentless assault, forcing Elder Wu's group to struggle merely to keep their formation intact.

Liu Wuxie tore another bite from the meat in his hand. He would have been lying if he claimed he felt no nervousness. Even he had underestimated the terrifying strength of a ninth-level Origin Immortal.

A deafening explosion suddenly erupted, flinging Elder Wu away and tearing open a gap in the formation. Wen Ding instantly shot through the breach and escaped confinement. Instead of fleeing, however, he charged straight toward Liu Wuxie, determined to uncover his identity and learn how he had slipped poison into their tea.

Wen Ding had already swept his divine sense through the water inside the kettle, yet he had found no trace of poison. Wang Xing and the others had also drunk tea poured from the same kettle.

Even if they had taken antidotes beforehand, no antidote could neutralize the poison so quickly. Yet their movements remained completely unaffected, revealing no symptoms of poisoning.

Although the poison suppressed half of Wen Ding's immortal energy, he still retained combat strength comparable to a fifth- or sixth-level Origin Immortal. One explosive burst carried him across a hundred meters, closing the distance between him and Liu Wuxie.

"Die!" Wen Ding roared, driving his palm forward.

Elder Wu and the others stood too far away to intervene. Even if they rushed over immediately, Wen Ding's palm would crush Liu Wuxie before they arrived.

Confronted by Wen Ding's attack, Liu Wuxie summoned a bow and leveled it directly at him.

"Divine Tribulation Pupil!" Liu Wuxie invoked.

A thick arrow ripped through the air, and a stabbing pain suddenly pierced Wen Ding's upper dantian. The world fractured into overlapping images before his eyes. Trapped inside Liu Wuxie's illusion, he lost sight of him entirely.

The arrow slammed into Wen Ding and sprayed blood through the air. Even so, it carved only a shallow wound and inflicted no serious injury.

At his peak, Wen Ding wouldn't have allowed Liu Wuxie to get close enough to threaten him, much less land a sneak attack. Liu Wuxie had never intended to kill him. He only needed to delay him.

Elder Wu arrived at that crucial moment and blocked Wen Ding's path, allowing Liu Wuxie to retreat even farther. Executing the Divine Tribulation Pupil had completely exhausted Liu Wuxie's mental energy.

In less than three breaths, the shockwaves raging from the battle flattened the entire hill.

Elder Wu and the others understood that they had to finish the battle quickly. If they allowed any news to escape, everything they had done would be exposed.

Wen Ding could still grit his teeth and continue fighting, but the remaining Wen Clan experts fared far worse. Wen Sheng had relatively lower cultivation, and the poison had severely corroded his meridians, drastically weakening him.

A moment of carelessness exposed an opening. Wang Xing seized it and drove his sword into Wen Sheng's lower abdomen, making him scream in agony.

"Damn it!" Wen Sheng roared furiously.

Although the blade had pierced him, the wound didn't kill him immediately.

The balance of the battle began shifting in favor of the City Lord Mansion, flooding Wen Ding with regret. He should have insisted on continuing their journey. If he had, none of this would have happened. They wouldn't have drunk the tea, the poison wouldn't have entered their bodies, and the City Lord Mansion's experts would have been powerless against them.

One wrong decision had dragged them into another. Regret served no purpose now. Their only remaining path was to break through the encirclement, and once they escaped this place, they would be safe.

"Myriad Miles of Riverland!" Wen Ding roared.

An alchemy cauldron appeared in his hand. It resembled a three-legged cauldron and served as an offensive artifact.

The cauldron shot into the air, expanded at a terrifying rate, and descended toward Elder Wu.

Although the cauldron couldn't compare with Liu Wuxie's Heaven-Veiling Banner, no one could afford to underestimate it. Its power rivaled the pinnacle of the Origin Immortal Realm.

The situation turned dire for Elder Wu, while Liu Wuxie lacked the strength to interfere in a battle at this level.

Just as death threatened to claim Elder Wu, the situation shifted without warning. An artifact resembling a segment of vine appeared in his hand.

The vine rapidly expanded, releasing countless tendrils that coiled around the three-legged cauldron and halted its descent. The two artifacts clashed with violent force, neither side willing to yield.

However, the three-legged cauldron clearly surpassed Elder Wu's vine segment in strength. The tendrils that had wrapped around the cauldron exploded one after another, and the artifact would soon tear itself free.

As the vine segment approached collapse, a segment of wood suddenly appeared. Liu Wuxie had summoned the Ancestral Tree and begun channeling wood-attributed energy into Elder Wu's vine artifact to nourish it.

The two sides sank into a stalemate, but the poison inside Wen Ding continued to worsen his condition. Even the speed of his attacks had visibly declined.

Wen Sheng's combat strength plummeted further under the weight of his injuries. Three moves later, Wang Xing seized another opening and split him in half. With one enemy dead, Yuan Jing and the others intensified their assault, leaving the remaining Wen Clan experts powerless to retaliate.

"Damn it! How did Ye Guhai know we would pass through here?" an elder roared, sweeping his spear around him.

His immortal energy had weakened beyond comparison with its former state, and every movement grew slower than the last.

Recognizing the hopelessness of the battle, Wen Ding immediately chose to retreat. He abandoned the three-legged cauldron without hesitation and fled toward Fourfold City.

"Elder Wu, stop him at any cost," Liu Wuxie roared.

Only Elder Wu possessed the strength necessary to deal with Wen Ding.

Yuan Jiang and the others couldn't withdraw from their battles. If they relaxed for even an instant, the remaining Wen Clan experts would escape and spread word of everything that had happened.

"He's not getting away!" Elder Wu declared, licking his lips as ferocity spread across his face.

He had clashed with the Wen Clan many times over the years, yet every confrontation with Wen Ding had ended in defeat. Today, the opportunity to wash away that humiliation had finally arrived.