Desolate Devouring Art-Chapter 1387 - Comprehending Soul Runes

Chapter 1387 - Comprehending Soul Runes
Even after the last person stepped onto the staircase, the Grand Unity Sect still failed to find Liu Wuxie.
"Liu Wuxie must've gone up ahead. We have to get ahead of him when entering the third level," Elder Shi snarled as he led everyone up the staircase, afraid it would dissipate and trap them on the first level.
Countless humans and blood fiends poured into the second level through the stairs. The staircase remained for four hours before it slowly faded away, vanishing as though it had never existed in the first place.
After he entered the second level, Liu Wuxie immediately sensed a faint shift in the laws of heaven and earth. They still differed from those of the four astral domains, giving him the feeling that he had stepped into an entirely new world.
The scenery remained bleak and barren, with no trace of greenery anywhere. As soon as they arrived, everyone scattered in all directions to search for martial souls as efficiently as possible.
Liu Wuxie moved alone as usual, while the Heavenly Dao Book continued its work within his soul sea. Countless soul runes wove together like a spiderweb, wrapping around his soul sea. He soon found a hollowed-out tree, laid down spiritual arrays around it, and sat inside with his legs crossed.
The Heavenly Dao Book's analysis was nearing completion. Next, he had to refine the soul runes, and he couldn't afford any interruptions during that process.
As the soul runes began to flow through his soul sea like a luminous stream, Liu Wuxie steadied his mind and focused on comprehending them in earnest.
"What bizarre soul runes!" Liu Wuxie exclaimed in shock when he examined them. Compared to these, the soul runes he had comprehended in the past seemed utterly insignificant.
"Wait, something's off. These soul runes seem to be even capable of controlling a person's soul sea," he murmured, suddenly noticing a crucial clue.
Based on the ancient texts he had read about the art of martial soul, soul runes could only be used to control demonic beasts, astral beasts, divine beasts, and even foreign races. He had never read about soul runes that could also control humans.
Then again, the lack of records didn't mean such things did not exist. Humans had very little interaction with the art of martial souls, and those records merely reflected what their authors knew.
Using soul runes to control souls was utterly different from the Great Conversion Mythical Art. The Great Conversion Mythical Art directly altered a person's faith but didn't seize control of their souls; it simply made its victims obey the user without hesitation.
By contrast, the art of martial souls could extract a human's soul and forge it into a martial soul for battle. Such a method went against heaven itself, and Liu Wuxie would never resort to it unless he had absolutely no other choice.
He spent two whole hours digesting all the soul runes. They sank into him as if etched directly into his memory, and that was the marvel of the Heavenly Dao Book. His cultivation remained at the fifth-level Primal Origin Realm, but his soul energy had undergone a drastic transformation.
Across the second level, powerful martial souls emerged one after another, driving countless cultivators into fierce battles.
When Liu Wuxie stepped out from the hollowed-out tree, he saw five humans fighting over a powerful martial soul.
"I found that martial soul first!" roared the cultivator who discovered it. The martial soul was comparable to the second-level Void Realm, and if he could absorb it, his soul sea would grow stronger by a considerable margin.
The larger one's soul sea, the greater their future potential. The benefits might not be obvious while they remained here, but once they left this place, a stronger soul sea would allow them to comprehend mythical arts and dao far more easily than others.
"What a joke! Martial souls are ownerless, and they belong to whoever can claim them," sneered the other cultivators as they exerted even more force to seize the martial soul.
Liu Wuxie watched from the side. The martial soul they were fighting over was a dragon-rhino martial spirit. Dragon-rhinos belonged to a species of astral beast that had already gone extinct, rumored to carry a trace of the dragon clan's bloodline.
The martial soul carried tremendous power and still struggled violently even under the combined assault of five human cultivators. After stepping into the second level, he found that martial souls here were much stronger than those on the first level.
The battlefield quickly spiraled into chaos as the dragon-rhino martial soul charged left and right before finally finding a slim opening to escape.
Liu Wuxie's gaze sharpened, and he drew a line in the air, sending a powerful soul rune flying out. When he inscribed that soul rune, it carried far more power than any he had engraved in the past.
Even so, that was mainly because Liu Wuxie could peer into the dragon-rhino martial soul with Ghost Eye and see the soul runes that the Loulan race had initially engraved on it.
With the Heavenly Dao Book's analysis assisting him, his attainment in the art of martial soul was now no weaker than that of the loulan race. The dragon-rhino martial soul froze in mid-air and suddenly became as docile as a lamb.
Then, an even stranger scene occurred. Liu Wuxie didn't just suppress the martial soul—he restored it. The instant it recovered, the martial soul released a violent aura and an overwhelming pressure as the dragon-rhino let out a thunderous roar.
The five cultivators, who had been fighting among themselves, immediately stopped and stared at the martial soul. Their faces went stiff with shock, and none of them could understand how the dragon-rhino martial soul had suddenly become so powerful.
"It's that kid! I just saw him inscribe a soul rune earlier!" By now, everyone knew about the art of martial soul and understood that soul runes could control martial souls—but none of them could engrave such runes themselves.
After all, soul runes were entirely different from the runes used in alchemy, blacksmithing, and spiritual arrays. No one could master them overnight.
"Could it be that he has comprehended the art of martial soul? Quick, capture him and force it out of him!" Greed flooded the five cultivators' eyes. If someone grasped the art of martial souls, they could control all the martial souls here. With that, they would be able to move freely through the sevenfold heaven without concern.
As the five men charged toward him, a sinister smirk appeared on Liu Wuxie's lips.
"You people are only at the first-level Void Realm. I'll use you, people, as an offering for my first martial soul," Liu Wuxie said. Strictly speaking, the martial soul he had created in the past was incomplete, unlike the one he now controlled.
The soul runes he had taught Xu Lingxue and the others might be incomplete, but even so, people still regarded them as peak-level within the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.
When another soul rune shot into the dragon-rhino martial soul, its aura surged again, and it charged at the five cultivators with even greater ferocity.
"This is bad!" the five cultivators exclaimed. The dragon-rhino martial soul had fully awakened its energy and now possessed combat strength comparable to the third-level Void Realm. That was the amplification granted by soul runes, allowing the martial soul's power to soar.
They wanted to retreat, but the dragon-rhino martial soul had already arrived.
Every martial soul sealed in this place was a relic of ancient times, existing for over a million years and unleashing an ancient aura that erupted outward.
The earth rumbled loudly as cracks split open across the ground, unable to withstand the dragon-rhino martial soul's rampage.
Liu Wuxie did not stop. He sent yet another soul rune into the martial soul, causing its combat strength to spike again. While its cultivation didn't actually rise, its body swelled to twice its previous size, and it rampaged like a colossal beast that made the ground constantly tremble.
"Attack together!" The five cultivators could only abandon their feud and join forces. If they could kill the dragon-rhino martial soul, they could then capture Liu Wuxie and extract the art of martial soul from him. With that thought in mind, all five unleashed their strongest attacks without hesitation.
With a deafening boom, the dragon-rhino martial soul sent all five of them flying before their attacks could fully take shape. The impact created a massive commotion, and even Liu Wuxie hadn't expected the martial soul's combat strength to be so terrifying.
Then again, every martial soul here had been carefully selected by the loulan clan.
Two cultivators were hurled away at the point of impact, coughing up blood. That single strike from the martial soul was comparable to an all-out attack from a cultivator at the third-level Void Realm.
"You two go kill that kid! We'll hold back the dragon-rhino martial soul!" one of them shouted. As long as they killed Liu Wuxie, the dragon-rhino martial soul would become ownerless again, and its combat strength would fall.
"Okay!" The two cultivators summoned their swords and charged straight at Liu Wuxie.
A suffocating power surged around them, kicking up shattered stones like a brewing storm, displaying power fitting for experts at the first-level Void Realm. Against such opponents, Liu Wuxie didn't even need to rely on his true essence; he could rely purely on his fleshly strength. As long as he didn't leak his aura, he could fight to his heart's content.
He threw out his punches without mobilizing his true essence, relying solely on his physical might. A terrifying surge of dragon power roared inside him, making Liu Wuxie resemble a rampaging dragon in human form.
The two cultivators' faces twisted in horror. They had no idea what Liu Wuxie was doing—did he intend to fight them with physical strength alone?
"Brat, don't blame us since you're courting death!" The two cultivators had expected Liu Wuxie to unleash his strongest techniques, yet he chose to meet them bare-fisted instead.
They soon realized how disastrously wrong they were. Their attacks shattered in mid-air, unable to withstand the force of Liu Wuxie's punches.
The distance between them vanished in an instant. Liu Wuxie easily crushed their laws and then smashed his fists into them, sending both flying. In mid-air, their bodies exploded into a rain of blood.
The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron appeared once again and devoured all of their energy and laws, further strengthening the desolate world.
He needed to keep accumulating for now, and the more he accumulated, the more terrifying the eruption of his cultivation would be in the future.
The faces of the three cultivators still fighting the dragon-rhino martial soul turned deathly pale at this sight, and they instinctively stepped back. They were horrified that Liu Wuxie had killed two experts at the first-level Void Realm while his cultivation remained at the fifth-level Primal Origin Realm.
While the three were still in shock, the dragon-rhino martial soul barreled forward, bared its fangs, and bit down on one cultivator, tearing him into pieces.
The remaining two cultivators trembled so severely that their legs nearly gave out, and they froze on the spot. The killing methods of martial souls were far more terrifying than those of humans, as they could alter their forms at will due to having no fixed body.
The only way to kill a martial soul was through soul energy, but their soul seas were nowhere near strong enough to erase a martial soul like the dragon-rhino—especially after Liu Wuxie had further strengthened it with soul runes.
The battle quickly devolved into a one-sided massacre as the dragon-rhino martial soul attacked again, splitting into two shadows and lunging at the remaining pair simultaneously.
This was the dragon-rhino martial soul's most potent attack. Even if Liu Wuxie continued inscribing soul runes on it, the result wouldn't change much, since its peak strength at its prime had only been comparable to the second-level Void Realm.
Soul runes could only amplify a martial soul's power by one or two levels, and that limit already made it insufficient to raise the dragon-rhino martial soul's strength to the third-level Void Realm.
If Liu Wuxie wanted to push beyond that limit, he would either have to raise his own cultivation or refine his mastery of the art of martial soul to an even more exquisite level.
After the dragon-rhino martial soul killed the last two cultivators, its body shrank when Liu Wuxie waved his hand, turning into a sphere of light and flying back into his palm. Whenever he needed it, he could summon this martial soul to fight.
Liu Wuxie stored the dragon-rhino martial soul rather than absorbing it. For now, it still had great use to him, and he could let it fight in his stead whenever he clashed with other cultivators. That way, the Grand Unity Sect wouldn't be able to track him through his aura.
"Looks like I'll have to collect more martial souls," Liu Wuxie murmured, a bright smile spreading across his face. If he managed to gather a few hundred martial souls, he couldn't even imagine how terrifying the scene would be when he unleashed them all at once.