Desolate Devouring Art-Chapter 1377 - Discovering Astral Stones

Chapter 1377 - Discovering Astral Stones
Liu Wuxie's sudden move immediately caught everyone's attention, including Xie Tao's.
"Wu Xie, are you so obsessed with Bloodking Bamboo Shoots that you're even digging through rubble now?" Xie Tao sneered, determined to ridicule him no matter what he did.
However, his open mockery only earned derisive looks from Wu Zhong and the others. After all, Liu Wuxie had already harvested four Bloodking Bamboo Shoots along the way, and in their eyes, Xie Tao was the one who looked like a clown.
None of them realized that Liu Wuxie had deliberately excavated empty boulders earlier to confuse their perception. The boulders in the Blood Fiend Valley were strange, with new stones constantly growing from the ground.
Despite years of excavation, their numbers had not decreased in the slightest; if anything, they continued to increase over time.
Stones imbued with spirituality were no longer surprising in a place like this.
"Wu Xie, come and rest. Don't waste your time," the other teammates said, assuming he was just being stubborn.
Liu Wuxie had the lowest cultivation in the squad and was usually the one they picked on when they needed a target for their ridicule.
Liu Wuxie ignored their calls and stood amid the rubble, activating Ghost Eye so his gaze could pierce through the layers of shattered rock.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips as the rubble suddenly began to rise into the air of its own accord.
In the blink of an eye, all the broken stones in front of him vanished, swept aside to reveal a strange pit that someone had clearly dug out before. That person had likely given up halfway, and the hole was buried under loose rocks, making it nearly impossible for others to notice.
He drew his dagger and dug into the ground, widening the pit, which extended only a few feet deep. The moment he pried it open, a surge of energy burst forth, startling everyone nearby.
"Astral crystals!" Wu Zhong exclaimed.
Astral crystals were countless times more valuable than astral stones. They were ink green, utterly different from the transparent astral stones.
Upon hearing "astral crystals," Ye Yuwen sprang to his feet and rushed toward Liu Wuxie. Before anyone could get close, Liu Wuxie quietly unleashed the Dragon-Grasping Hand, reaching down to seize the earth a few feet below.
When the ground shook with a thunderous rumble, he pulled up over a dozen astral crystals, each the size of a fist and radiating powerful energy.
With a single sweeping motion of his hand, he stored all twelve astral crystals into his interspatial ring in an instant. By the time the other members of the squad made it to his location, Liu Wuxie had already put the astral crystals away.
"Wu Xie, hand over the astral stones!" Xie Tao roared, finally dropping all pretense and revealing his true nature.
"What a joke. I was the one who found it, and why should I hand them over?" Liu Wuxie replied coldly. At the same time, he began gathering his strength in secret, fully aware that it was time to make an example out of someone.
If Xie Tao insisted on courting death, Liu Wuxie had no intention of holding back. The man had provoked him again and again along the way, and Liu Wuxie had endured it long enough.
"There are twelve astral crystals in total, and by rights, each of us should get one. The rest can go to you. After all, we're a team, and you wouldn't have gotten into the Blood Fiend Valley without us," Wu Zhong said, clearly eyeing a share of the astral crystals himself.
If it were only a single astral crystal, they would have let it go, as there wouldn't be enough to divide. However, Liu Wuxie had obtained twelve; Wu Zhong felt it perfectly reasonable for Liu Wuxie to hand out nine and keep three for himself.
"One for each person?" Liu Wuxie's gaze turned icy. "We agreed beforehand on the distribution, and you want to go back on your words now?"
No one answered, and they merely stood to the side in silence. Ye Yuwen also said nothing, which left Liu Wuxie faintly displeased, as the man ought to have stepped up as the squad's leader.
"Brother Wu is right. We have an agreement beforehand, and I hope everyone can abide by it," Ye Feng finally spoke up, taking his place at Liu Wuxie's side.
"Wu Xie, don't blame me for what happens next if you don't hand those astral crystals over," Xie Tao growled as he slowly advanced on Liu Wuxie.
He had already torn away his mask, and even if Ye Yuwen wanted to intervene now, Wu Zhong had already stepped in to block him. As for the other first-level Void Realm cultivator, he stood there with an indifferent expression.
"
Oh?
And what exactly are you going to do?" Liu Wuxie asked, a devilish smirk curling beneath his calm smile. Sometimes, the best way to stop killing was to kill decisively.
"Don't blame me since you're courting death!" Xie Tao snarled and struck out with his palm, finally losing all patience in front of so many onlookers.
"Xie Tao, how shameless can you get?!" Shangguan Xue shouted, her whip lashing out toward him.
Although she had yet to step into the Void Realm, her combat strength remained astonishing.
Blood fiends had wiped out their previous squad because of internal discord. After that experience, she understood better than anyone just how crucial unity was.
Since they had agreed on a set of rules beforehand, everyone needed to respect them.
"Shangguan Xue, I've been putting up with you for a long time now. You bitch, I think highly of you, and I want to dual cultivate with you. However, you've rejected me again and again!" Xie Tao roared, spewing his vile intentions for everyone to hear.
He laid his ugly desires bare without shame. Female cultivators were rare on the Blood Fiend Battlefield, and for him, dual cultivation with one would be a blessing.
Unfortunately for him, Shangguan Xue had already seen through his character. In her eyes, he was no different from a wolf wrapped in human skin. In their previous squad, Xie Tao had been the first to flee when danger appeared.
After being humiliated in front of everyone, Shangguan Xue trembled with rage, and her whip strikes grew even faster.
Xie Tao casually knocked the whip aside with a palm strike, living up to his status as a Void Realm cultivator. He forced Shangguan Xue back a step as well. Seizing the opening, he lunged straight at Liu Wuxie.
As long as he killed Liu Wuxie, all of the man's Bloodking Bamboo Shoots and astral crystals would become his spoils. Ye Yuwen finally moved, thrusting out his palm in an attempt to force Xie Tao back.
"Brother Ye, this is between us, and it's best if you don't intervene. When we get our hands on the astral crystals, you'll also receive a share," Wu Zhong said, meeting Ye Yuwen's palm strike with one of his own.
As the squad's leader, Wu Zhong had to show basic respect to Ye Yuwen, but that was as far as it went. Someone at the second-level Void Realm wouldn't easily overpower a first-level Void Realm expert, and Wu Zhong didn't even need to win.
He only had to stall Ye Yuwen long enough for Xie Tao to kill Liu Wuxie.
Xie Tao knocked Shangguan Xue aside and appeared in front of Liu Wuxie in an instant, his palm already crashing down. His speed was frightening, and from the start, he had aimed to kill rather than simply injure.
His palm strike boomed like thunder, and even cultivators at the higher levels of the Primal Origin Realm would fall to such a blow. Someone like Liu Wuxie, who appeared to be only at the fourth-level Primal Origin Realm, had no way to resist an attack of this level.
"Since you're courting death, I'll grant your wish," Liu Wuxie said. The desolate world inside him roared to life, but he refrained from using any mythical arts that could expose his identity. Instead, he secretly executed the Dragon-Grasping Hand.
He released no dragon aura and channeled his true essence from the desolate world to create a terrifying palm imprint. It looked like the Dragon-Grasping Hand, but only those who had personally seen him fight before would recognize it.
No one here had attended the Myriad Race Ceremony. They had only heard stories of Liu Wuxie's name and knew nothing about the mythical arts he had cultivated.
The sudden appearance of the colossal palm made Xie Tao's expression change on the spot. The power Liu Wuxie unleashed was on par with the third-level Void Realm. Even Wu Zhong and Ye Yuwen stopped mid-fight and turned back, stunned by what they were witnessing.
Shangguan Xue tried to rush back into the fray, but a powerful backlash flung her away, preventing her from getting anywhere near the clash.
The palm's power swelled. Back on the True Martial Star, Liu Wuxie had relied on the empowerment of world force to kill third-level Void Realm experts. Here, in the Blood Fiend Battlefield, he couldn't mobilize any world force at all and had to rely entirely on his own strength.
Liu Wuxie had devoured enormous amounts of Void Realm laws back on the True Martial Star, and while his cultivation realm hadn't advanced, the laws imbued in his true essence had become dozens of times stronger than before. Even without access to world force, killing a first-level Void Realm cultivator no longer required much effort from him.
He hadn't outwardly executed any mythical arts, but he wove them into his attack. The palm strike contained the Great Poison Mythical Art, the Great Frost Mythical Art, and the Great Death Mythical Art.
Those mythical arts stacked together, amplifying the palm's destructive power. Even the gusts of wind it stirred up carried lethal poison potent enough to kill Void Realm cultivators.
Facing Liu Wuxie's attack, Xie Tao felt an overwhelming urge to flee. This wasn't the strength of someone at the fourth-level Primal Origin Realm—it was the power of the Void Realm.
"Break!" Xie Tao shouted, knowing he had no room to retreat now that Liu Wuxie's palm had firmly locked onto him.
The Dragon-Grasping Hand's most extraordinary profundity lay in its ability to lock down its target. At his peak, Liu Wuxie could conjure tens of thousands of dragon claws at once; one could only imagine how terrifying the Dragon-Grasping Hand truly was.
With a series of deafening rumblings, the two attacks collided in mid-air. The clash instantly drew the attention of many squads nearby, who turned their heads to watch.
"An internal conflict broke out among that squad!" someone exclaimed, as most squads chose to keep their distance and observe from afar.
In just over a day, Liu Wuxie's squad wasn't the only one torn apart by infighting. Other squads had also clashed internally over the unfair distribution of spoils.
Cracks began to spread across the palm Xie Tao had conjured; it couldn't withstand the overwhelming force of Liu Wuxie's strike.
"What terrifying power! Is Wu Xie really only at the fourth-level Primal Origin Realm?" Cang Hua exclaimed, eyes wide with disbelief.
Ye Feng was equally stunned, his gaze burning with newfound admiration. Among the squad, Shangguan Xue was the happiest of all, thrilled to see Liu Wuxie unleash such frightening power. Her eyes gleamed with excitement, and she could barely restrain her desire to stand shoulder to shoulder with him in battle.
"Wu Xie, who are you really? How can someone merely at the fourth-level Primal Origin Realm possibly be so powerful?" Xie Tao finally panicked as the truth sank in.
He could clearly sense that Liu Wuxie's cultivation remained at the fourth-level Primal Origin Realm, but his true essence roared like a ferocious beast that made the soul itself tremble.
"Does it really matter who I am?" Liu Wuxie snorted, his tone dripping with mockery as the palm he had conjured descended from above.
At the moment of impact, Xie Tao staggered and nearly fell flat on his face. In desperation, he summoned a longsword into his hand and hacked down at Liu Wuxie with all his might.
"Too late," Liu Wuxie snorted. If Xie Tao had used his sword from the start, he would have had a sliver of hope.
A torrent of energy swept out, shredding all of Xie Tao's sword aura into nothing. Even his weapon shattered into countless fragments that scattered and vanished into the air.
Wu Zhong slowly edged backward, no longer daring to stay near the battlefield. He had openly blocked Ye Yuwen's attack earlier and chosen to side with Xie Tao, which meant Liu Wuxie would never let him go once Xie Tao died.
"You can die now," Liu Wuxie said coldly, and his palm crashed down from the sky, triggering a chain of explosions that echoed through the air.