Desolate Devouring Art-Chapter 1350 - Mortal Enemies

Chapter 1350 - Mortal Enemies
Liu Wuxie fixed his gaze on the middle-aged man at the rear. Of everyone present, he was the weakest, his foundation unstable. He had to have seized that body not long ago and was still in the adaptation period.
A member of the Lingqiong Clan stepped forward and glared at Liu Wuxie, unleashing an Earth Immortal Realm aura.
"I didn't expect the Lingqiong Clan to be a pack of cowards. What a disappointment," Liu Wuxie said as the Heavenly Dao Book unfolded and negated the Earth Immortal Realm pressure.
At his words, every head turned. It had been years since anyone dared speak to the Lingqiong Clan like this. Even the sect master addressed them with courtesy, yet Liu Wuxie had called them cowards; even the Heaven Gaze Realm cultivators looked shocked.
"Liu Wuxie, you're courting death!" Lingqiong Zhi snarled.
Just as he moved to strike, Lingqiong Gong stopped him. If they attacked Liu Wuxie now, Hua Feiyu would surely intervene. From the moment they entered, the Lingqiong Clan had dismissed Liu Wuxie, refusing even to meet his eyes.
"How domineering. This is the Heavenly Dragon Sect, and the sect master is here. Does your Lingqiong Clan plan to overrule the sect master?" Liu Wuxie mocked, his tongue as sharp as a blade.
The Lingqiong Clan stood among the sect's upper echelons, but everyone remembered what they had done. Long Xiao had even decreed that the Lingqiong Clan's descendants couldn't be allowed to partake in the Heavenly Dragon Sect's affairs.
"What a nimble-tongued brat," Lingqiong Gong said, releasing a Quasi-Immortal Realm aura toward Liu Wuxie. Though not true immortality, that realm stood infinitely close to it.
"Lingqiong Gong, why stoop so low to act against a junior?" Hua Feiyu waved a hand and dispersed the aura. An invisible contest began—power pitted between the sect's upper echelons and the Lingqiong Clan.
"Sect Master Hua, this brat dares to insult my Lingqiong Clan. Do you want to shield him?" Lingqiong Gong demanded, gaze cold, displeased by Hua Feiyu's action.
To him, someone at the Primal Origin Realm was nothing before the Lingqiong Clan; Liu Wuxie was not even an ant. He could sweep away a crowd of Primal Origin Realm cultivators with a flick of the hand.
"Calm down. Since Liu Wuxie dares to speak so, he must have his reasons. Why don't we hear him out first?" Hua Feiyu replied with a light smile.
The barb drew quiet, inward laughter; many had lost ancestors in that ancient battle because of the Lingqiong Clan, and without them, the True Martial Continent wouldn't have vanished.
"If you don't explain yourself today, you won't be walking out of this hall alive today!" Lingqiong Zhi growled, murderous intent brewing.
Zhuge Ming's expression tightened; he could not stop the Lingqiong Clan alone.
"Explain?" Liu Wuxie sneered. "Who the fuck does your Lingqiong Clan think you are? If not for your clan, the True Martial Continent wouldn't have drifted into the depths of the universe, and so many people wouldn't have lost their homes.
'Calling you people cowards is already a compliment. In my eyes, you people are no different from garbage."
Everyone had expected justification, not a volley that stunned even Hua Feiyu. He had poked the hornet's nest, and he felt the satisfaction of finally venting the weight in his chest.
"What insolence!" the Lingqiong Clan snapped. They moved to act, but Lingqiong Gong stopped them again.
He knew Hua Feiyu would shield Liu Wuxie if they were to attack. Many elders covertly raised their thumbs at Liu Wuxie for saying what they dared not.
"Patriarch, I want to kill him! How dare he insult our Lingqiong Clan!" It had been hundreds of thousands—perhaps a million—years since anyone had ever defied them. Today, they suffered not only insults but also a slap in the face.
"Hua Feiyu, this brat has been insulted by the Lingqiong Clan repeatedly, and I will be bringing him along with me. You have no objection, do you?" Lingqiong Gong asked after drawing a deep breath. Someone had provoked a dignified Quasi-Immortal to this point, an outcome that seemed almost unbelievable.
As a Quasi-Immortal, his anger nearly made him seize up. He even dropped titles, addressing Hua Feiyu by name.
"Liu Wuxie is a disciple of the Heavenly Dragon Sect. If he had violated the sect's rules, the sect would punish him. As for what he said earlier, I don't think there's anything wrong with it.
"Patriarch Lingqiong, you wouldn't stoop so low, would you?" Hua Feiyu replied, choosing his words with care.
In a few sentences, he dissolved the crisis. He reaffirmed Liu Wuxie's identity as a sect disciple—if punishment were due, the sect would mete it out, not the Lingqiong Clan. And to take offense at a junior's words would make Lingqiong Gong seem small-minded.
"So, Sect Master Hua is determined to shelter him?" Lingqiong Gong asked, the air tightening toward eruption.
Hua Feiyu's silence served as tacit assent.
"Patriarch Lingqiong, you're stopping me from building the interstellar teleportation array for only one reason—you're afraid that the Lingqiong Clan's status would plummet once the True Martial Continent returns.
"You're also afraid that what your clan had done in the past would come to light," Liu Wuxie said, changing his tone as he regarded Lingqiong Gong with a smile.
Many elders nodded at once. The Lingqiong Clan bore heavy responsibility for the True Martial Continent's fate. Many believed that the fragment of the Dragon Expanse Mountain Range survived and became a planet over hundreds of thousands of years.
If they built an interstellar teleportation array and brought the True Martial Continent back, it would be a resounding slap to the Lingqiong Clan, especially before the cultivators living there, whose hatred would naturally turn on the clan.
Moreover, newer generations in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain knew nothing of the Lingqiong Clan's scandal; exposure would drag their name through the mud. No wonder they would spare no effort to stop the array.
"What a joke! Those on the True Martial Continent are mere ants. It's a waste to spend so much effort establishing an interstellar teleportation array for a bunch of ants. This is the reason why we've decided to stand up," said the middle-aged man at the rear, mocking the True Martial Continent.
"Is it?" Liu Wuxie laughed out loud. "Is this the ugly face of your Lingqiong Clan? Were you all not born with parents? Or were your babies born immortals?"
Many Earth Immortals stepped forward in support. Everyone had parents; everyone climbed from the bottom of the pyramid. With billions of lives on the True Martial Continent—and with the souls and remains of their forebears adrift—they had every reason, and duty, to bring them home.
Liu Wuxie's words left the Lingqiong Clan speechless, and many elders moved to back him. In momentum alone, he did not lose to the Lingqiong Clan.
"Liu Wuxie, you're being unreasonable. How can mere ants in the True Martial Continent possibly compare with our Lingqiong Clan?" the middle-aged man retorted from the rear.
"Your Lingqiong Clan is cold and heartless. They might be mere ants in your eyes, but they're living beings with blood and flesh in my eyes. They're worthy of standing beneath this sky. If anyone dares to stop me from building the interstellar teleportation array today, I vow that they will be my mortal enemy," Liu Wuxie replied.
"Liu Wuxie, you're courting death!" the middle-aged man roared. He knew full well how terrifying Liu Wuxie could be.
"Ling Qiong, I don't care what your current name is. I failed to kill you back on the True Martial Continent, but I will personally snap your head off your neck one day," Liu Wuxie said coldly, exposing the middle-aged man's identity.
At his words, the middle-aged man's body trembled.
"Wuxie, what's going on? Do you have a feud with Lingqiong Yu?" Zhuge Ming asked.
"This person founded the Spirit Jade Pavilion back on the True Martial Continent, raising assassins in secret and doing every vile thing you can think of under the sun.
"He repeatedly tried to stop me from entering the astral domain, and he also practiced a sinister art. I destroyed his body, but he fled back to the astral domain and possessed a new shell to resurrect," Liu Wuxie said, laying everything bare.
"That's impossible! Lingqiong Yu has always lived in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain. Since when did he go to the True Martial Continent?" many elders said, baffled; many were of the same generation as Lingqiong Yu.
"True or not, a test will reveal the answers. The real Lingqiong Yu is dead, and he's merely someone else occupying the shell," Liu Wuxie sneered. He summoned the Soul Fire and sent it shooting toward Lingqiong Yu.
"ARGH!" Lingqiong Yu screamed at the sight of the Soul Fire.
The fusion of flesh and soul was no simple matter. He had occupied Lingqiong Yu's body after returning to the astral domain, but to seize complete control would take at least three to five years.
Only a year had passed; his soul and body were still half-fused.
The scene stunned everyone, including Lingqiong Gong. None had expected Liu Wuxie's soul energy to be so powerful.
"It's really another soul occupying that body! Where's Lingqiong Yu then?" people murmured, more bewildered than ever.
Lingqiong Yu had reached the Earth Immortal Realm long ago with a long lifespan; it made no sense for him to be dead.
"I remember now! Lingqiong Yu went to the Blood Fiend Astral Domain two decades ago and had vanished without a trace!" exclaimed an elder who rose to his feet. He had gone to the Blood Fiend Astral Domain with Lingqiong Yu in the past, but Lingqiong Yu later disappeared without a trace.