Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 231 - Upgraded Cultivation Technique

Liu Wuxie’s cultivation ascent gradually decelerated, eventually halting at the pinnacle of the second level of the Marrow Cleansing Realm.

His dantian was filled with boundless true essence, brewing like a storm with lightning flashing, flames gushing out, and the towering mysterious tree covering the sky, depicting a complete world!

Liu Wuxie was still in seclusion, stabilizing his cultivation to accumulate more foundation. This breakthrough had exhausted all of his accumulation, which meant his future breakthroughs would be more difficult.

The black words hovering in his mind began to split, startling Liu Wuxie. Shocked, He exclaimed, “The Desolate Devouring Art is upgraded!”

When Liu Wuxie reached the Marrow Cleansing Realm, the words representing the Desolate Devouring Art began to split, and new words began to appear, becoming more profound.

“What a profound cultivation technique. Could it really have been created by someone?” Liu Wuxie questioned whether anyone could devise such a profound cultivation technique. It was on an entirely different level compared to the Primal Heavenly Dao Art.

“Heaven picks saints and devours everything for one’s benefit to reach supremacy!” Each word sounded like celestial music in Liu Wuxie’s ears, making his heart tremble.

Liu Wuxie followed the guidance of the cultivation technique and circulated the Desolate Devouring Art.

In the next second, a powerful suction force devoured all the spiritual energy in the chamber, and the surrounding spiritual energy began to disappear. But that wasn’t all. There was also a change in the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron. Like the Desolate Devouring Art, the cauldron began to transform as well.

The cauldron had transformed from an ordinary one into a purgatory cauldron, with demonic flames erupting from it. The spiritual energy absorbed by Liu Wuxie was refined by the cauldron, purifying the liquid even further.

The liquid was no longer just spiritual liquid. After absorbing a significant amount of spiritual energy, Liu Wuxie could condense over ten thousand droplets of liquid. However, after being tempered by the demonic flames, the quantity of liquid was reduced to a mere ten-odd droplets.

Despite this reduction, the density of these droplets was several hundred times greater than before, leaving Liu Wuxie, who was an Immortal Emperor in his past life, baffled. The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and Desolate Devouring Art were beyond his comprehension.

Black words also appeared on the surface of the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, looking like demonic runes letting out terrifying soundwaves striking Liu Wuxie’s heart.

As all the spiritual energy in the cave was exhausted, Liu Wuxie could only draw spiritual energy from the surroundings. As all the spiritual energy gathered above Liu Wuxie’s cave, the range soon spread to tens of thousands of meters.

This naturally alarmed the entire Heaven Grade region and the academy. Many students came out and looked at the sky, where spiritual energy was gathering in a single direction.

“Could someone be attempting to break into the True Core Realm?” A star teacher emerged from his class, disbelief evident in his eyes. Only a breakthrough to the True Core Realm would necessitate such a vast amount of spiritual energy, as ordinary individuals making a breakthrough to the Marrow Cleansing Realm wouldn’t cause such a formidable phenomenon.

Following the upgrade of the Desolate Devouring Art, its circulation speed amplified significantly, with Liu Wuxie consuming the surrounding spiritual energy at an alarming rate with each breath.

The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron underwent a transformation as well. Its form altered from a square to an oval.

When Liu Wuxie extended his divine sense towards the cauldron, it was nearly scorched by the outburst of demonic flames.

“How terrifying!” The cauldron resembled a bottomless abyss, and Liu Wuxie was unable to see its depths. It gave the impression that the interior of the cauldron was an entirely separate universe.

This further verified his speculation that the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron didn’t belong to the Celestial Realm but a higher realm.

As the cauldron devoured a substantial amount of spiritual energy, it condensed into ten-odd droplets of liquids. Liu Wuxie was curious about the changes after upgrading the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and Desolate Devouring Art.

When twenty-odd liquid droplets poured out from the cauldron, Liu Wuxie began to tremble. It felt as though his muscles were being torn apart as the droplets rampaged within his body.

Intense pain spread throughout Liu Wuxie’s body, prompting him to take a deep breath. He couldn’t improve his current cultivation but could use the spiritual liquid droplets to transform his physique.

The intense pain was like blades coursing through his meridians and bones, cleansing his body of impurities. These impurities were residues from the pills he had consumed over the past few months.

As the adage went, pills contain toxins, a fact that Liu Wuxie was well aware of. While pills could expedite his cultivation progress, the residues would accumulate and corrode his body if he ingested too many.

The Desolate Devouring Art could disregard the impurities in his body, forcing them out of his body in the form of black sludge oozing out of his pores. The spiritual liquid droplets weren’t just transforming his physique but also strengthening his meridians. His meridians became as resilient as dragon tendons, impervious to ordinary weapons.

Liu Wuxie’s internal organs also felt as if they were being sliced by knives, particularly his heart, which throbbed intensely.

The world within his dantian also underwent a significant transformation. Previously blurred and seemingly shrouded in mist, it became clearer when the mysterious tree grew taller after refining the fragment of the spiritual tree. The roots burrowed deep into the world, firmly anchoring the entire world. This meant that no one could shatter his dantian, let alone cripple his cultivation.

Liu Wuxie’s golden soul sea also transformed. After consuming the Soul Refining Pill, it expanded several times. The stronger the soul, the higher the future achievement. The golden threads increased and looked like golden dragons roaring in his soul sea.

The three hundred and sixty-five acupoints were like independent worlds with vast true essence accumulated in them. This allowed him to release his true essence from the acupoint on his soul to levitate without the need to manifest a pair of wings with true essence.

Unbeknownst to Liu Wuxie, he had been in seclusion for eight days. This was his longest seclusion yet, and his cultivation underwent a dramatic transformation.

Upon opening his eyes, Liu Wuxie was met with a violent gust of wind in the cultivation chamber. The mighty gale caused the surrounding walls to creak under the intense pressure.

“It stinks!” Liu Wuxie exclaimed. He had finally stepped into the Marrow Cleansing Realm, a stage of cultivation that involved purifying the marrow.

Liu Wuxie proceeded to clean himself in the washroom, noticing that his skin had become fairer than before. His skin was as soft and pure as that of a newborn baby, even surpassing the fairness of many women.

While his facial structure remained unchanged, his features had become more defined, and his eyes sparkled like two precious gems.

In the past eight days, everyone in the academy was speculating who was making a breakthrough that depleted the surrounding spiritual energy. As a result of this incident, many people couldn’t cultivate.

Naturally, this led to resentment towards Liu Wuxie. Many individuals in the Heaven Grade region even planned to teach Liu Wuxie a lesson once he emerged from seclusion. After all, several Heaven Grade students had failed to make a breakthrough at a critical moment due to the sudden disappearance of spiritual energy, leading to their fury.

However, Liu Wuxie did not leave the cave even after making his breakthrough. With only two months left until the Battle of the Hundred Nations, he needed to focus on his cultivation.

The Great Yan Dynasty couldn’t even compare to an intermediate nation. This implied that the higher nations were even stronger. It wouldn’t be surprising to encounter geniuses in the True Core Realm during the Battle of the Hundred Nations.

He might’ve reached the Marrow Cleansing Realm, but facing experts in the True Core Realm would be challenging. Only those in the True Core Realm could be considered true cultivators.

The Houtian Realm nurtured the physique, the Xiantian Realm strengthened it, the Spirit Cleansing Realm tempered it, and the Marrow Cleansing Realm washed the marrow. Everything was to lay down a good foundation.

But after reaching the True Core Realm, the physique and cultivation would undergo tremendous transformation compared to the four previous realms. This was because one could practice divine arts after reaching the True Core Realm.

An example of divine art was manipulating something ten meters away to fly toward him. In a nutshell, it was telekinesis. Then again, that was the most basic form of divine art. Upon reaching a high level, one could even manipulate a sword to kill enemies from a hundred miles away.

The Marrow Cleansing Realm still required close combat, while someone in the True Core Realm could kill you from ten meters away. How can the two be compared when the two weren’t on the same level, regardless of cultivation or strength? It wasn’t something that could be complemented with true essence.

Liu Wuxie still had a considerable journey ahead. The Xue Clan had an ancestor in the True Core Realm, making the eradication of the Xue Clan a daunting task. While it may seem impossible to others, remember that there was a lack of optimism when he confronted Qin Shi as well.

Then again, plot and schemes were also part of strength, and Liu Wuxie didn’t necessarily have to rely on brute strength to kill someone in the True Core Realm.

“Now that I’ve reached the Marrow Cleansing Realm, I can employ some of the methods of an immortal!” This was Liu Wuxie’s most significant advantage. Although he might not be able to practice martial techniques that belonged to an immortal at that point, he could utilize certain powers that were characteristic of an immortal, such as immortal runes.

He had engraved an immortal rune during his fight with Blood Bat, which had caused him to lose consciousness and nearly die. The immortal runes were his greatest trump card, but he didn’t dare to try again recklessly because the aftermath was still fresh in his mind. He was lucky to obtain an Azure Soul Grass, or the consequences might have been unimaginable.

As Liu Wuxie’s fingers swiped across the air, a strange mark appeared before him, and it was an irregular immortal rune. When the rune was drawn, an intense rumble came from the surroundings, and the cave showed signs of collapsing.

The soul energy in Liu Wuxie’s soul sea was rapidly depleting. Before the immortal rune could be fully inscribed, only one-third of his soul energy remained. When a sudden backlash surged from his chest, Liu Wuxie hastily ceased the inscription of the immortal rune.

Liu Wuxie was shocked and exclaimed, “What’s going on? Why did inscribing the immortal rune cause a backlash?”

He was puzzled because he couldn’t inscribe the immortal rune. However, after a brief contemplation, Liu Wuxie finally grasped the reason. He murmured, “I see now! Immortal runes are forbidden in the mortal world to prevent its destruction.”

Immortal runes could only exist in the Celestial Realm because the laws of the Mortal Realm couldn’t withstand the power of immortal runes. Liu Wuxie had only attempted to draw a small part, and the cave was already on the brink of collapsing. If he were to inscribe the entire rune, the Heaven Grade region might be destroyed.

Liu Wuxie dared not attempt recklessly because the backlash from heaven and earth was terrifying and could destroy his foundation.

“Since I can’t inscribe the entire immortal rune, I can inscribe an incomplete one.” This wasn’t a problem because the immortal rune that Liu Wuxie had inscribed in his fight with Blood Bat was incomplete, and its power was immense.

It was still unclear whether he could use it to kill someone in the True Core Realm because it would require actual combat.