Desolate Devouring Art-Chapter 1375 - Thousand-Year-Old Bloodking Bamboo Shoot

Chapter 1375 - Thousand-Year-Old Bloodking Bamboo Shoot
Shangguan Xue snapped, her temper flaring. After all, Xie Tao could've dealt with those three blood fiends himself, yet he had deliberately let them pass to force both her and Liu Wuxie into a desperate situation.
"Lady Shangguan, that's where you're wrong. What do you mean, 'I let them through on purpose'? You saw how I had to face four blood fiends by myself; there was nothing I could have done even if I wanted to help," Xie Tao argued back.
He had indeed fought four blood fiends earlier, but he had allowed three of them to slip past him. A hastily assembled squad like this was bound to have weak cohesion.
No one in their right mind would entrust their back to a stranger, and it was already considered fortunate if their teammates didn't stab them from behind.
Regardless of how fragile their trust toward each other was, traveling alone to face so many blood fiends was just far too dangerous. Even first-level Void Realm cultivators wouldn't dare claim they could retreat unscathed, so forming a squad was still the best option they had.
"Forget about it. Let's keep going," said the man called Wu Zhong, stepping in to smooth things over.
From the very beginning, he had been standing firmly on Xie Tao's side, and he was also one of the two who had objected to Liu Wuxie joining the squad.
The squad pressed onward, and Liu Wuxie remained silent, as if he had quietly accepted what had happened. His silence only emboldened Xie Tao further, who continued to throw mocking remarks his way whenever he had the chance.
"Brother Wu, don't care about him. Someone like him only dares to be arrogant with us. If he were in a different squad, he wouldn't be able to do anything other than keep his tail between his legs," Shangguan Xue said, trying to comfort Liu Wuxie.
While Xie Tao was at the first level of the Void Realm and could count as an expert within their squad, he would be at the bottom of the food chain if he joined any stronger group.
Liu Wuxie said nothing, but it didn't mean he had let the matter go. Once he finished investigating his senior brother's disappearance, he wouldn't hesitate to kill Xie Tao.
"Lady Shangguan, you didn't finish what you said earlier," Liu Wuxie said, changing the topic by reminding her. He still didn't know what she had witnessed that left her so shaken.
"An apocalyptic scene," Shangguan Xue said, drawing in a deep breath.
Just as Liu Wuxie had suspected, the appearance of the three red suns was an omen of a world's destruction, perhaps the destruction of a world that surpassed the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain itself.
No one truly knew how many worlds still existed in the vast universe.
"Tell me in detail," Liu Wuxie pressed. He had only his own speculation so far and needed more concrete information from Shangguan Xue.
"There was a mirage when I arrived, and it's the projection of a world that I've never seen before. The mountains and rivers there looked completely different from ours.
"I can see many destroyed mountains and rivers, the ocean was devoid of water, and I also saw black storms sweeping across everything," Shangguan Xue said, describing everything she had witnessed that day. Even now, a chill would crawl up her spine whenever she recalled that scene.
"That's not a mirage, but the overlap of worlds. The so-called black holes are wormholes that connect the two worlds..." Liu Wuxie murmured.
When two worlds overlapped, wormholes would appear, and one could travel to another world through those wormholes—a strange and terrifying phenomenon. His senior brother and the other humans had to have been dragged into those wormholes, arriving in another world.
As for what kind of world it was, he had no idea. In his past life, as an Immortal Emperor, he had no memories of the True Martial Continent or the four astral domains.
He was born in the Fleeting Cloud Celestial Realm, and he had only learned about the True Martial Continent and the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain's cultivation system after his rebirth.
The appearance of wormholes didn't necessarily mean that some catastrophe had destroyed a world; battles between powerful experts could also trigger them, just like the war in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain three hundred thousand years ago.
That battle had plunged everything into darkness and even shattered an entire continent, which broke apart and drifted into the universe.
"It doesn't matter what it's called. I suggest that you don't look for it. The black holes are too terrifying, and you're as good as dead if you're sucked in," Shangguan Xue said, advising him for his own good.
After all, anyone who entered another world could never find their way back.
There was no reason to throw one's life away so recklessly.
Liu Wuxie didn't reply and simply continued forward in silence. He couldn't turn back now; if he were to return like this, he wouldn't be able to face his master.
Moreover, he understood that Shangguan Xue was genuinely trying to dissuade him out of concern, not wanting him to stake his life on this search.
By dusk, they finally reached the outskirts of the Blood Fiend Valley. The valley was enormous, shaped like the bottom of a great bowl. From a distance, they could see jagged, bizarre stones filling the valley, with many rock pillars rising a thousand meters high and stretching toward the horizon.
Several cultivators had already entered ahead of them, all of them here with the same goal—to search for Bloodking Bamboo Shoots.
"We're going to enter the Blood Fiend Valley now! Everyone, stay sharp! Our squad doesn't have many rules, and I hope that everyone can fight together when facing strong enemies. If anyone finds a treasure, it will belong to the person who found it," Ye Yuwen said.
He wanted to make things clear from the start. Internal strife often erupted within squads over unfair distribution of loot, and some even turned their weapons on their own teammates. He had no intention of letting that happen in his squad.
The higher one's cultivation, the greater their chances of finding treasures, and it was only natural that such people wouldn't want to share their gains with weaker teammates. At the same time, those stronger cultivators would also be the ones expending more effort in the face of enemies.
No one objected to Ye Yuwen's arrangement, as it was the fairest they could hope for. When the squad of ten stepped into the Blood Fiend Valley, the scenery around them shifted; the already large stones turned into towering giants that blocked their line of sight.
The Blood Fiend Valley stretched for tens of thousands of miles, a maze of jagged rocks scattered in every direction. If they were lucky, they wouldn't just find Bloodking Bamboo Shoots—they could even uncover astral crystals.
Some astral crystals lay hidden in the depths of these strange stones, and one could excavate them by digging into the rock. Even so, it wasn't easy to find astral crystals here, as the Blood Fiend Valley's production was quite limited.
Judging by the time, it ought to be late at night, but the Blood Fiend Battlefield had no actual day or night. Everyone rested when they were exhausted, and then they would continue their search.
Several squads were scattered not far away, busily searching through the stones. They had likely already discovered signs of Bloodking Bamboo Shoots.
"I found it first!" yelled a cultivator who was digging, unleashing a powerful shockwave that sent everyone around him flying back.
Not every squad followed a fair distribution system like Liu Wuxie's group, so conflicts were inevitable. Many squads would even fall into chaos and turn their weapons on each other over a single Bloodking Bamboo Shoot.
Ye Yuwen merely glanced at them before leading his squad away, unwilling to linger there for even a moment longer.
"Why don't we split up? We'll have a better chance at finding Bloodking Bamboo Shoots that way," Cang Hua suggested. The odds of finding Bloodking Bamboo Shoots were low if they all stayed together. Splitting up was the most efficient approach.
"What does everyone think?" Ye Yuwen asked, seeking the squad's opinion. As long as the majority agreed, he had no reason to object.
"We can split into two groups and maintain about a hundred meters apart. That way, we can advance and retreat together, and regroup quickly if anything happens," said a cultivator called Yu Shui. They were all here to hunt for treasures and didn't want to waste time just wandering around.
Everyone nodded in agreement, and Liu Wuxie had no objections either. With Ghost Eye, searching for Bloodking Bamboo Shoots was easy for him, and splitting up suited him perfectly, as it gave him greater freedom to act.
"Since that's the case, four cultivators at the Void Realm will split up. The rest of you can choose which team to join," Ye Yuwen said. Each Void Realm cultivator would lead three others.
"Lady Shangguan, let's form a group together," Xie Tao said as he approached with Wu Zhong in tow.
Ye Yuwen, Cang Hua, Ye Feng, and two others had already formed one group. That arrangement left Liu Wuxie to fall into Xie Tao's group by default.
A flicker of disgust passed through Shangguan Xue's eyes, but she couldn't object. The two groups wouldn't stray too far from each other, and Xie Tao wouldn't dare to go too far with everyone nearby.
Once the groups were settled, the two teams spread out. Xie Tao deliberately walked shoulder to shoulder with Shangguan Xue at the front, leaving Liu Wuxie no choice but to trail behind them.
Liu Wuxie activated Ghost Eye, and in his vision, the stone layers faded into translucence.
Bloodking Bamboo Shoots grew deep within the rocks, and they were rare spiritual herbs. The Blood Fiend Astral Domain counted as one of the few places where people could find them. As long as Liu Wuxie could locate three of them, he could use them to break through to the fifth-level Primal Origin Realm.
Bloodking Bamboo Shoots worked best when consumed for the first time, as their effects would diminish drastically afterward. That was unavoidable—most treasures and pills were always the most potent the first time they were consumed.
After making a breakthrough into the fifth-level Primal Origin Realm, his combat strength would undergo another dramatic transformation. At that point, he would be able to slay first-level Void Realm opponents as easily as crushing an ant.
Just then, Liu Wuxie's eyes narrowed as he spotted a massive Bloodking Bamboo Shoot inside a boulder about ten meters in diameter. It was a thousand-year Bloodking Bamboo Shoot. People had already dug out the surrounding Bloodking Bamboo Shoots, and only this boulder remained untouched because of its size.
As a result, most people assumed the boulder was empty. No one could have guessed that a massive Bloodking Bamboo Shoot lay just half a foot beneath the surface. If they kept digging into it, they would eventually uncover the thousand-year Bloodking Bamboo Shoot.
Liu Wuxie walked at the rear while Xie Tao, Wu Zhong, and the others continued ahead. He produced a dagger and struck it against the large boulder. Stone shards flew as he chipped away, but he deliberately kept his pace slow, afraid of damaging the Bloodking Bamboo Shoot hidden inside.
His actions naturally drew everyone's attention, and they stopped to watch him. They had passed by this boulder earlier and never noticed anything unusual about it.
"What's that kid doing?" Wu Zhong asked.
"Let's go take a look," said another teammate.
Shangguan Xue felt curious as well and wondered whether Liu Wuxie had really managed to find a Bloodking Bamboo Shoot so soon after entering the Blood Fiend Valley.
The Bloodking Bamboo Shoot lay only half a foot in, and Liu Wuxie reached it quickly as a rich surge of energy leaked out from within the stone.
"A Bloodking Bamboo Shoot!" Wu Zhong cried out in surprise. He hadn't expected Liu Wuxie to be this lucky.
"A thousand-year Bloodking Bamboo Shoot!" Xie Tao's eyes narrowed, and a torrent of murderous intent erupted from him.
Bloodking Bamboo Shoots at ten years old were nothing special, and cultivators occasionally stumbled upon hundred-year shoots. However, a thousand-year-old Bloodking Bamboo Shoot was a completely different matter, as they were unimaginably precious.
The Bloodking Bamboo Shoot in front of Liu Wuxie stood half a meter tall, radiating a terrifying surge of energy that made everyone's hearts race with greed. Liu Wuxie ignored their heated stares and patiently chipped away the last bits of stone until the Bloodking Bamboo Shoot was fully exposed.
News of Liu Wuxie discovering a thousand-year-old Bloodking Bamboo Shoot quickly reached the other group, and they were just as stunned as everyone else. They had seen cultivators with good fortune before, but none of them had ever witnessed such heaven-defying luck.