Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 257 - Demon's Head

The hall was spacious and could fit thousands of people. Most people were inside searching for something.

“ARGH!” Suddenly, screams pierced the air, accompanied by a gush of blood flowing into the hall from the hole. The stone gate that had been rising abruptly fell. Everything transpired in the blink of an eye.

The stone gate had closed before Liu Wuxie could even react. Screams still echoed in the hall as the ten people who had entered the exit crawled back out, covered in blood.

“What’s going on? Why are you all back?” everyone asked.

“T-There are many pythons inside! Those who went ahead were all eaten!” Some fifty-odd people had entered the hall, but only ten survived while the others were eaten.

Many pythons were guarding the exit, and trying to leave through it was the same as walking right into the trap and the pythons’ mouths.

“How could this happen?” Fear quickly spread across the faces of everyone in the hall. Over a thousand people had entered, but only two hundred remained alive. The death toll was horrifying, an unprecedented event.

In the past, safety was assured as long as everyone steered clear of the forbidden areas. But now, they found themselves in a dire situation with over two hundred people trapped. Even though cultivators could survive for a year without food and water, being trapped here was a death sentence.

Liu Wuxie stood in a corner of the hall and had calmed down. Pythons guarded the exit while the stone gate blocked the way back. It was clear that the architect of this underground palace had no intention of allowing anyone to enter.

He surmised that the true mystery must lie within this hall. The stone gate’s peculiar behavior—rising upon contact with blood and then abruptly falling—was not part of the designer’s plan.

He devoted an entire day to meticulously exploring every nook and cranny of the hall.

“Behind this stone gate, there could be another world,” Liu Wuxie contemplated. “As for what it’s sealing off, that remains unknown. Two worlds, divided by a gate.”

The underground palace was vast. Although many structures might have collapsed, signs of previous habitation were evident.

The stone gate separated the two worlds with a seal he had never seen before. This meant that the person who sealed this place was no ordinary person.

Upon touching the wall, Liu Wuxie noticed its unusual texture. The walls didn’t resemble common stones that could be found in any market. The blood that had pooled on the ground had vanished, absorbed into the crevices.

“Look at the patterns on the wall! They appear to be shifting,” someone exclaimed from behind Liu Wuxie. Turning his attention to the walls, he observed that the patterns were indeed in motion.

This attracted everyone’s attention as they approached the walls and observed the patterns.

Liu Wuxie had already noticed the changes on the walls but was unsure of their significance or what the patterns symbolized.

The walls suddenly emitted cracking sounds, scaring everyone into retreating to the hall’s center.

“These are demonic runes!” Liu Wuxie exclaimed as he finally recognized the runes. They were demon runes. This baffled Liu Wuxie because the True Martial Continent was a lesser realm, so how could demonic runes be found here?

The Celestial Realm had immortal runes, the Demonic Realm had demonic runes, and the Abyssal Realm had abyssal runes.

Demonic runes were not inferior to immortal runes, and the cultivation requirements among the demonic beast clan were high, often rivaling or even surpassing those of immortals.

Liu Wuxie’s face showed a grave expression. The appearance of demonic runes meant that there must be a great demon nearby, and this situation was more severe than he had initially thought.

As the demonic runes on the walls began to change, they looked like tiny worms tangling together. A worm might not be significant, but millions would look like a small mountain.

The demonic runes on the walls were like worms gathering and forming into a terrifying head of the demon clan.

“This is...” The massive head looked like a python and a worm.

“Kakaka...” An even more terrifying scene occurred as the head let out a burst of sinister laughter with pitch-black pupils seemingly capable of piercing through souls.

Everyone felt uncomfortable when the head stared at them. Some people were so frightened that they lost control of their bowels.

“How many years has it been? Finally, there is someone here!” The head spoke in human language. His voice might not be clear, but it was still understandable.

Over two hundred people were gathered together, and some bold ones stepped forward and drew their weapons, releasing a sword aura at the head.

Liu Wuxie also drew a strange inscription with his right hand and was ready to act at any moment.

“W-Who are you?! Let us out!” Lu Cheng, despite his courage, trembled in fear. Those behind him were paralyzed with fear, with some even wetting themselves.

“A bunch of children have no right to know who I am. Once I consume your blood, I can revive!” A terrifying demonic aura spread throughout the hall.

“My body...” As demonic aura penetrated their bodies, many people began to grow scales on their skin. They were undergoing demonization.

Even those in the ninth-level Marrow Cleansing Realm couldn’t avoid it. When demonic aura penetrated their bodies, it forcibly altered their bloodline, turning them into half-human and half-demon.

Piercing screams could be heard in the entire hall. Some had horns growing on their heads, and the sight was horrifying.

The dense demonic aura also rushed into Liu Wuxie’s body. But when the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron revolved, the demonic aura was devoured and condensed into a dark-purple spiritual liquid. The sight of this spiritual liquid even surprised Liu Wuxie.

The ordinary spiritual liquid was ink-green, while the poisonous spiritual liquid was black. So what was with this dark-purple spiritual liquid?

The demon’s head abruptly swiveled to fix its gaze on Liu Wuxie, sensing a portion of the demonic aura it had released had vanished.

Among the two hundred people present, the weaker ones had already completed their transformation, baring their teeth to bite those nearby. Those with higher cultivation levels were barely resisting, while Liu Wuxie remained unaffected, his body unchanged.

The head opened its mouth, releasing a denser demonic aura that materialized into snakes lunging at Liu Wuxie. This sight shocked everyone. Despite most undergoing transformation, they hadn’t lost their rationality and turned their attention to Liu Wuxie.

Liu Wuxie snorted and unleashed the inscription on his right hand. The inscription was like a golden beam tearing apart the incoming snakes. In an instant, all the snakes vanished, leaving behind the floating head, which let out an enraged roar. The loss of demonic aura had significantly impacted the head.

“Y-You! Who are you? Why do you know spiritual runes?” The rune that Liu Wuxie had inscribed wasn’t an immortal rune, but a type of spiritual rune that was the nemesis of the demon clan. It countered the demon clan and proved effective in this critical moment.

The head’s voice carried a hint of fear, and he attempted to hide in the wall.

Seeing that the spiritual rune was effective, a smirk rose on Liu Wuxie’s lips.

He began to form seals with his hands. Since this head could be sealed, he planned to use the seal to revert it to its original form and eliminate it. Intricate seals were being engraved, intertwining, and weaving into a spider web. The head was like an illusion, impervious to martial techniques. Only spiritual runes could harm it.

“You’re nothing more than a remnant soul, and you dare be so audacious?” Liu Wuxie’s voice didn’t carry a hint of emotions. He wondered if this was the war soul Zuo Hong spoke of.

The War Soul was a mere legend, unseen by anyone. It was believed that when one’s cultivation reached a certain pinnacle, one would leave behind a strand of consciousness after death, seeking opportunities for reincarnation.

That was the same for the demon clan. They would have a strand of soul left after death. If they could absorb enough energy, they could be reborn. Humans were said to have three souls and seven spirits, while demons had one soul and three spirits.

The head’s soul was long destroyed, and the body rotten. He was only left with a strand of soul.

When Liu Wuxie clasped his hands together, he engraved a shield that flew swiftly toward the head. The head wanted to dodge, but it was too late and was struck by the shield.

The head let out a painful scream and heart-wrenching roar. The bodies of those who had transformed began to recover gradually due to the weakening of the demonic aura. This instantly earned Liu Wuxie the respect of everyone present. If not for him, they all would have become food for the demon’s head.

“You damned humans! I won’t let you all off!” The demon’s head gradually faded after being severely injured by the shield. It was heavily injured and turned into countless worms, returning to the walls.

As spiritual runes vanished, the hall was restored, and the head disappeared. Only about ten corpses lay on the ground. The demonic aura had transformed so many people in just a few minutes that they had fought among themselves.

A violent rumble, akin to an earthquake, emanated from the hall. The right wall split open, revealing an exit. But everyone’s hearts tightened because they didn’t know what would happen next.

The stone walls collapsed entirely, and a pungent stench assaulted everyone’s sense of smell. This immediately made everyone, including Liu Wuxie, feel nauseated.

A dark and damp cave filled with thousands of pythons appeared before everyone, causing everyone to take a deep breath.

Attracted by the scent of human blood, the thousands of pythons slithered into the hall.

When Liu Wuxie executed Ghost Eye, he looked at the cave, where he saw the exit. Not only did Liu Wuxie see it, but many people also saw it, relying on the faint light from the passage.

“This is the exit! If we make it through the pythons, we can escape!” Zhao Chen took a deep breath to calm his nervousness. There were so many pythons, and escaping wouldn’t be easy.

“Holy shit, I don’t want to die!” Before the battle began, everyone had already lost their rationale and cried on the ground.

The women’s faces turned pale with fright. Don’t even mention fighting; even walking was a problem for them.

As the pythons approached, a pungent stench made everyone uncomfortable. They were in a sealed underground environment with little spiritual energy, and prolonged combat would put them in an unfavorable position.