Desolate Devouring Art

After securing the two Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpents, Liu Wuxie dropped lightly from the towering tree. He swept every bottle and jar into his interspatial ring, certain that no other Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpents were lurking nearby.

"Wuxie, what do we do now?" Ye Linghan asked, anticipation shining in her eyes.

The Wen Clan had once tried to use the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent to poison her father to death. Now, they could finally return that cruelty in the same form.

Liu Wuxie said nothing and answered only with a faint smile. He activated the Divine Tribulation Pupil and began tracing the residual aura still hanging in the area.

"There," he said. He turned and headed back the way they had come after locking onto the aura with the Divine Tribulation Pupil. As they passed through the dense forest, his pace suddenly slowed.

"Are we charging straight in and killing our way through?" Ye Linghan asked when Shen Shan and Lu Baoguo appeared several thousand meters away.

"Follow my lead and draw them over," Liu Wuxie said.

If they attacked head-on, the enemies would immediately raise their guard. The smarter move was to pull them into a trap already laid in wait, and only then could they strike with fatal force.

Ye Linghan still had not fully recovered from her injuries. At her peak, she could have held off two enemies for some time, but Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran were certainly not far away. That meant they had to kill Shen Shan and Lu Baoguo before the other two arrived.

Ye Linghan nodded and carried out Liu Wuxie's plan.

"Brother Shen, we've searched for a full day. Could they have already left the Dragon Burial Mountain Range?" Lu Baoguo asked. He now served as a guest elder of the Shen Clan, and his status was far from low.

Shen Shan shook his head. "Impossible. Ye Linghan was badly wounded, and the one who saved her was only at the True Immortal Realm. There's no way they could've left the Dragon Burial Mountain Range. They must be hiding nearby to recover, so search carefully," he replied with complete certainty.

They had severely injured Ye Linghan, and she would need at least three to five days to recover enough to move again. As the two spoke, they continued drawing closer to Liu Wuxie's position.

Ye Linghan smeared the blood from the jars and bottles across her clothes, making herself look battered and disheveled. She lay low in the grass and waited for Shen Shan and Lu Baoguo to approach, following Liu Wuxie's plan to make them believe her injuries had not yet healed.

"I smell blood!" Lu Baoguo exclaimed, his brow tightening. A heavy stench of blood filled the surrounding air.

Shen Shan had caught the scent as well. Both men drew their weapons at once and advanced slowly toward Ye Linghan's hiding place.

When the two came within roughly fifty meters, Ye Linghan burst out and brought her sword down in a slash at Lu Baoguo. He was only a first-level Origin Immortal Realm cultivator. He had broken through not long ago, so his cultivation naturally could not compare with Shen Shan's, making him an easier target.

"It's Ye Linghan!" Shen Shan had already spotted her the instant the sword ray flashed. He crushed a Communication Talisman immediately to contact Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran.

In that instant, Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran rushed over, but they would still need roughly fifteen minutes to arrive. That was more than enough time for Liu Wuxie to kill both men.

Even from afar, they could hear the sound of Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran racing toward them.

With a sharp explosion, Ye Linghan's sword ray missed as Lu Baoguo dodged it.

"Ye Linghan, so this is where you've been hiding!" Lu Baoguo roared coldly, madness filling his eyes.

Moments earlier, they had still been discussing how they could capture Ye Linghan and use her to force Liu Wuxie to submit. After all, everything Liu Wuxie had done over the past month had made everyone covet the knowledge he carried.

"Run!" Ye Linghan cried, feigning panic as she fled toward the trap Liu Wuxie had prepared.

"Don't let her get away!" Shen Shan roared and immediately gave chase.

As a second-level Origin Immortal, Shen Shan moved far faster than Lu Baoguo. They were only about fifty meters apart, and Ye Linghan had intentionally slowed her pace.

Liu Wuxie remained hidden in ambush, his attention locked firmly on Shen Shan and Lu Baoguo. He had already activated the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and released the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent, needing only the slightest control to make the serpent shoot out.

Once Shen Shan fell, Lu Baoguo would no longer pose any real threat. Ye Linghan alone could deal with him.

As Shen Shan and Lu Baoguo drew nearer, cold sweat covered Liu Wuxie's palms. Killing two Origin Immortals would give him an excellent chance to reach the fourth-level True Immortal Realm. He could take revenge and raise his cultivation at the same time, killing two birds with one stone.

Ye Linghan sprang across a broad patch of thorns.

The moment Shen Shan followed and rose into the air, Liu Wuxie struck.

The Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent moved with astonishing speed, and Shen Shan hovered midair with no way to dodge, his full attention still fixed on Ye Linghan.

"Something's wrong!" Shen Shan sensed a deadly danger rushing at him, but by the time he realized it, the attack had already arrived.

Before Shen Shan could react, a sharp pain pierced his arm like a needle prick. In the next instant, he lost control of his body and dropped from the air.

Ye Guhai was a Divine Immortal, yet he had nearly died after being bitten by the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent. He had only managed to escape back to Fourfold City by relying on his cultivation.

As a mere Origin Immortal, Shen Shan naturally could not compare to a Divine Immortal.

The Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent's poison spread through Shen Shan's body, and his entire body went numb almost instantly as he collapsed to the ground, convulsing.

Lu Baoguo's courage shattered when he saw this. He clearly had not expected an expert to be hiding in the shadows.

Liu Wuxie seized the moment while Lu Baoguo hesitated. He summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and captured him. He chose to imprison him instead of killing him.

"Come!" he said.

There was no time to waste. Liu Wuxie quickly stored both Lu Baoguo and Shen Shan inside the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, intending to refine them once he found a safe place.

Liu Wuxie planned to wait until Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran were dead before breaking through to the fourth-level True Immortal Realm.

The entire battle lasted only three breaths. Watching two Origin Immortals fall just like that made Ye Linghan feel as though she had stepped into a dream.

If word of this spread, it would probably send a shockwave through Eastern Emperor City. At the very least, the Origin Immortal Realm stood near the peak of the pyramid in this region.

Seeing dignified Origin Immortals die so easily, Ye Linghan could not help but look toward Liu Wuxie with amazement, as he had planned every step with precision.

With a sweep of his blade, Liu Wuxie killed the Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent that had bitten Shen Shan, using its death to provoke the male serpent.

Everything unfolded exactly as Liu Wuxie had expected. The instant the female serpent died, the male serpent went berserk and fought to break free from Liu Wuxie's control, desperate to charge out of the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron.

This was precisely the result Liu Wuxie wanted. If the male serpent did not go mad, how could it kill Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran?

"Let's move," Liu Wuxie said.

Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran were nearly upon them.

Liu Wuxie and Ye Linghan crossed the thorny patch and began circling through the Dragon Burial Mountain Range. Ye Linghan deliberately left traces of her aura behind so Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran could track them.

During the process, Liu Wuxie erased his own aura to mislead Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran into thinking Ye Linghan was alone. By the time Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran arrived, the two of them had already fled.

"This is strange. Shen Shan gave us this location, so where are they?"

Although Liu Wuxie and Ye Linghan had killed two Origin Immortals, they had caused almost no commotion because they had taken down Shen Shan and Lu Baoguo in a single exchange. The whole process had lasted only three breaths.

The Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent had bitten Shen Shan, while Ye Linghan had subdued Lu Baoguo with the Heaven-Veiling Banner. As a result, very few signs of battle remained.

"Could they have escaped?" Zhu Chiran asked doubtfully.

Wen Qu took out a Communication Talisman and tried to contact Shen Shan. Strangely, the talisman didn't respond, as Shen Shan was now wrapped in demonic flames and screaming miserably inside the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron.

The Nine-Tailed Heptabane Serpent's poison posed no threat to Liu Wuxie, and the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron directly refined it before the Poison Realm absorbed it. This caused the seed within the Poison Realm to grow even larger, bringing it to the verge of sprouting.

"She should still be nearby. Search!" Wen Qu replied with a frown, displeasure darkening his face.

He believed Shen Shan and Lu Baoguo had captured Ye Linghan and simply refused to share. That was why they had not answered his message.

Ye Linghan's injuries were so severe that even a random peak Profound Immortal could easily control her, let alone Shen Shan and Lu Baoguo, who were both at the Origin Immortal realm.

The two followed the aura Ye Linghan had left behind and chased after it.

"Wuxie, that was incredible! You really killed an Origin Immortal," she applauded.

The two ran for over ten thousand meters before slowing down. Ye Linghan's eyes still shone brightly.

Liu Wuxie had relied on his wits as a True Immortal to slay an Origin Immortal. Even though he had used trickery, who else in his position could have done the same?

The view ahead turned lush and green as they entered a dense forest. Liu Wuxie merely curled his lips and did not respond. After all, his true enemies were Immortal Emperors standing at the very peak of the celestial realm.

"We'll set the trap here," Liu Wuxie said, studying the terrain after entering the forest before hiding himself in a large tree. He also arranged spiritual arrays throughout the surroundings to ensure Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran would walk straight into the trap.

Ye Linghan would still serve as bait to lure the two over. Their first ambush had succeeded only because Shen Shan and Lu Baoguo had been caught off guard. This time would not go as smoothly, as Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran had likely already noticed something amiss.

Time passed slowly. Wen Qu and Zhu Chiran did not reach the area until dusk, but both remained cautious and kept enough distance between them to advance or retreat at any moment, maintaining their vigilance just as Liu Wuxie had predicted.

"Brother Wen, this forest is far too ancient. If Ye Linghan sets an ambush here, we might walk straight into it," Zhu Chiran said, refusing to enter the forest.

Wen Qu nodded in agreement.

"I'll go in first. Follow behind me and keep about a hundred meters between us," Wen Qu said after thinking briefly.

As a second-level Origin Immortal, Wen Qu's cultivation naturally surpassed Zhu Chiran's. After a short discussion, Wen Qu had decided to take the lead.

Once Wen Qu advanced about a hundred meters, Zhu Chiran followed behind him.

As they approached the trap Liu Wuxie had prepared, Ye Linghan sat on the ground, gasping heavily with blood staining her body. The pungent scent of blood made Wen Qu even more cautious, and his steps slowed.

When Wen Qu passed through the dense foliage, he saw Ye Linghan sitting beneath a large tree, nervously tending to her wounds. His eyes lit up, and his nerves finally eased.

He signaled to Zhu Chiran, who quickly understood and began circling in from another direction to cut off Ye Linghan's escape.

Liu Wuxie had hidden himself flawlessly. He was only a step away from entering the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, and ordinary Origin Immortals would not be able to detect him. This was naturally thanks to the Divine Tribulation Pupil, which allowed him to use his mental energy to create an illusory force field.

Wen Qu's divine sense swept across a radius of tens of thousands of meters. Only after confirming that Ye Linghan was alone did he finally relax.