Desolate Devouring Art-Chapter 1390 - Three Thousand Weakwater

Chapter 1390 - Three Thousand Weakwater
Facing the crushing pressure from the four martial souls, Zi Sha and Xiong Sha staggered backward, desperately trying to tear open a gap in the encirclement. As long as they could force an opening, they believed they could break free from the martial souls and cut down Liu Wuxie to end the battle.
"Get lost!" Zi Sha roared, blasting the flying centipede martial soul away with a vicious strike and forcing the martial soul, which possessed the strength of the sixth-level Void Realm, to stagger several steps backward.
The Twin Fiends truly lived up to their reputation as formidable experts, but the human martial soul trailing behind the flying centipede immediately followed up with a devastating blow.
It condensed an illusory longsword and cleaved down on Zi Sha.
The slash came from a treacherous angle and was nearly impossible to guard against. History had long since buried the mythical arts these martial souls displayed, and even Liu Wuxie didn't recognize many of their names.
The flying centipede lunged over again after hitting the ground, writhing as it brandished its claws at Zi Sha. Martial souls existed only in soul form without any physical body, so they could twist and contort in ways no flesh-and-blood creature could ever do.
They were tough to destroy unless one could crush them completely with soul energy. Zi Sha and Xiong Sha were both at the fifth-level Void Realm, but their soul energy was still inferior to that of the martial souls assailing them.
"Let's end this game," Liu Wuxie said. He had already spotted several figures moving in the distance, and he could feel that the gateway to the fifth level was about to surface. He could still cope with three to five opponents at once, but if a group of experts were to surround him, he would be in real danger.
At his command, the four martial souls attacked together, combining into a roaring tidal wave that swallowed the two men whole. The most terrifying aspect of martial souls wasn't just their soul-based attacks—it was their ability to pierce straight into their opponent's martial soul.
The instant the two men died, Liu Wuxie immediately refined their energy and laws, drawing them into himself. As the power merged with him, his cultivation continued to rise steadily.
Without relying on external treasures, he could only advance one solid step at a time.
During the few short months of the Myriad Race Ceremony, Liu Wuxie had walked a path that would typically take others more than ten years, and now, he needed time to consolidate his realm.
He only had half a year left before his battle with the Divine Son, and he had to do everything within his power to break through to the Void Realm before that day arrived.
......
In the Divine Thunder Valley, the Divine Son had been cultivating in seclusion for nearly a month, and his cultivation surged at a frightening pace. In just one month, he reached the fifth-level Void Realm, nourished by the Divine Thunder Valley, a sacred cultivation ground belonging to the divine race.
The Divine Lord had personally sent him here with the explicit intention of boosting his strength as much as possible so he could crush Liu Wuxie in their upcoming battle.
......
After eliminating the two men, Liu Wuxie left the mountain peak behind and ventured deeper into the fourth level. By his estimation, the gateway to the fifth level would appear in another fifteen minutes.
By now, after half a day, everyone—humans and blood fiends alike—had obtained tremendous benefits. The blood fiends had refined large numbers of martial souls to strengthen their blood seas. A blood fiend's soul sea differed fundamentally from a human's, and their soul energy appeared in a deep crimson hue.
Up to this point, Liu Wuxie hadn't encountered a single blood fiend martial soul, which made him suspect that the loulan race had probably never hunted blood fiends to forge their primordial spirits into martial souls.
Experts from the Grand Unity Sect began to regroup, yet none of them had managed to find Liu Wuxie. Each level was enormous, and if he refused to reveal his aura, tracking him down would be nearly impossible.
They couldn't clear every inch of land, and even if they had wanted to, they didn't have the time.
The Grand Unity Sect's greatest weakness lay in their numbers. They had only about fifty people left, and even if they split up, the area they could cover remained limited.
The entrance to the fifth level manifested as a red curtain, resembling a bloody rainstorm cascading from the heavens. Just looking at it sent a chill down everyone's spine, and they all sensed that the fifth level would not be ordinary.
Even so, they had already come this far and had no way out, so everyone rushed toward the fifth level.
Liu Wuxie did the same, while Grand Unity Sect experts stationed in the surroundings lay in wait, hoping he would walk straight into their net.
It didn't take them long to spot him. Amidst a crowd of Void Realm experts, Liu Wuxie's fifth-level Primal Origin Realm cultivation stood out like a sore thumb.
Just as they were about to make a move on Liu Wuxie, a terrifying martial soul lunged at them. The Grand Unity Sect's experts instantly switched to complete defense, still shaken by the earlier self-detonation of the martial souls.
Seizing the opening, Liu Wuxie stepped calmly into the red curtain.
"Damn it! Damn it!" someone cursed as the charging martial soul abruptly vanished and reappeared in Liu Wuxie's palm.
The Grand Unity Sect's experts behaved like startled birds. Their nerves were stretched taut, especially after losing almost 30 people in the previous clash.
Those who hadn't yet entered the fifth level burst out laughing at the sight. They hadn't expected the Grand Unity Sect to act so timidly, and they could only watch, stomping their feet in frustration, as Liu Wuxie disappeared into the bloody curtain.
"We have to catch up to him!" Elder Shi roared and led all of the Grand Unity Sect experts into the red curtain.
By the time they entered the fifth level, Liu Wuxie had already vanished without a trace.
"That brat is too cunning..." muttered another disciple who stepped into the fifth level.
At this point, it wasn't just the Grand Unity Sect that wanted Liu Wuxie dead—every other force present did as well. They all coveted the Martial Soul Art and wanted to steal it for themselves.
Unfortunately for them, Liu Wuxie was slippery as an eel and never gave anyone a chance to strike.
Moving alone, Liu Wuxie was not only surviving in this dangerous environment, but he was actually even thriving. He gathered more martial souls wherever he went.
On the fifth level, even if he failed to push his soul sea to the ninth-level Void Realm, he was determined to reach the pinnacle of the eighth level at least.
Based on his earlier estimates, the martial souls on the fifth level possessed strength comparable to the seventh-level Void Realm.
The fifth level's environment differed entirely from the fourth. The air here was thick with the stench of blood, and the earth had turned a dark brown. Although many trees had died long ago, they still stood rigid and upright. The terrain mainly consisted of rolling hills and shadowed valleys.
When Liu Wuxie looked ahead, he only saw layer after layer of hills, making it an ideal landscape for him to conceal his presence.
He darted through the ridges, doing everything he could to increase the distance between himself and everyone else.
At the start, close to seven thousand people had entered the sevenfold heaven, but fewer than three thousand remained at this point in time. The moment they arrived, everyone scattered in different directions, and as long as they didn't gather in large numbers, they posed little threat to Liu Wuxie.
If he ended up running into a group of just three to five, he could easily slip away.
The blood fiends had suffered the heaviest casualties. Of the roughly eight thousand blood fiends who had entered the sevenfold heaven, only about two thousand survived. The dead all had their soul seas gnawed clean by martial souls.
The martial souls that seized blood fiend bodies hadn't left either. They lacked true intelligence and couldn't form independent thoughts; they moved purely on instinct.
Liu Wuxie activated Ghost Eye and swept his gaze across an area spanning tens of thousands of kilometers. Unfortunately, he still couldn't locate any astral crystals and had only managed to find one thousand five hundred back on the first level.
Suddenly, his pupils contracted, and a faint tremor ran through him.
"That's blood fiends on march and netherworld troops borrowing the path," Liu Wuxie murmured as he stared at a troop of blood fiends and human martial souls about three thousand miles ahead, all marching in an orderly formation toward an unknown destination.
He realized that the martial souls on the fifth level had changed drastically. They now appeared in large groups and moved with the discipline of a trained army.
With a flicker, he vanished as he moved out. He needed to get a clear understanding of what was happening. It felt as though almost all the martial souls on the fifth level had gathered in that area, and the other cultivators were still oblivious to it due to the distance.
The blood fiends marched on the left and the netherworld troops on the right, separated by a river that still flowed and had yet to dry up. However, the water was not clear—it was pitch-black.
Farther ahead, a black bridge spanned the river, and both the blood fiends and netherworld troops marched in that direction.
Liu Wuxie didn't rush in blindly. Usually, he could cross three thousand miles in a few minutes at full speed, but this time, he took fifteen minutes to get close.
Once he arrived, he confirmed his suspicions. The human martial souls radiated a bone-chilling yin aura, utterly different from ordinary martial souls.
The same held for the blood fiend martial souls. Their formation was neat and disciplined, so precise that it seemed deliberately arranged, something that should have been impossible for instinct-driven martial souls.
Whenever the blood fiend and human martial souls neared the mysterious bridge, they would abruptly turn around. They would march back ten miles, and then they would turn around to approach the bridge again, repeating the cycle over and over again.
The sight left Liu Wuxie completely baffled, and he wondered if there was something unique about that bridge. However, he dared not approach rashly, as these martial souls were too powerful and had strength comparable to the seventh level of the Void Realm.
If he managed to subdue and control them, he could form an army of martial souls. With such a force under his command, he would become unstoppable. Even if every expert from the Grand Unity Sect attacked together, he could annihilate them with that army alone.
Then again, that idea remained only a fantasy. There were too many martial souls, and his soul runes couldn't control that many at once. The more martial souls he bound, the greater the strain on his soul energy, after all.
"The problem has to be on that bridge," Liu Wuxie murmured. He noticed that the black river would disappear once it reached the bridge. Its source remained unknown, and dark water seeped continuously from the ground beneath a withered tree upriver.
Liu Wuxie vanished once more, skirting around the martial souls as he slowly approached the bridge. As for the river's source, he could only speculate that it lay somewhere deep below ground, but he had no way of entering those depths.
With a wave of his hand, he drew a single black droplet of water into his palm and began to examine it with his divine sense.
The droplet rolled across his palm, unexpectedly heavy. Although the water was pitch-black, it carried no hint of malice; instead, it radiated an aura of extreme purity that left him puzzled.
"Three Thousand Weakwater!" Liu Wuxie exclaimed, his eyes widening in disbelief. He hadn't expected to encounter the legendary Three Thousand Weakwater in this place.
Rumors had it that one could only take a single ladle of Three Thousand Weakwater, a warning against greed despite its immense value.
Among mortals, it had become a metaphor—over the course of one's life, countless beautiful things would appear, but one ought to avoid obsessing over them—choosing just one was enough.
In the cultivation world, the saying carried the same message, urging everyone to learn how to let go. According to ancient texts, Three Thousand Weakwater had long disappeared from the universe, yet here it was before his eyes.
Every droplet of Three Thousand Weakwater weighed astonishingly much, and a single drop felt as heavy as a whole bowl of ordinary water.
"This is a treasure!" Liu Wuxie's breathing quickened, and his eyes glowed an intense green. With the Three Thousand Weakwater, he could already foresee his breakthrough to the sixth-level Primal Origin Realm.
Three Thousand Weakwater could not only increase one's cultivation but also purify the heart and remodel the fleshly body of anyone tempered by it.
His desolate world was vast, and if he could channel the Three Thousand Weakwater into it, he would be able to temper his physique with it every single day.
The Ancestral Tree was the first to appear at the dawn of the universe, followed by the Divine Race, the Three-Lives Stone, the Three Thousand Weakwater, the Witcher Clan, and many other primeval existences.
Three Thousand Weakwater was the origin of all water in the world and contained the purest energy of heaven and earth. Yet who would have imagined that the purest power would take on such a black hue?
Although it appeared black, it gleamed with a crystalline luster, and Liu Wuxie could see a strand of law flowing within it. However, the blood fiend and human martial souls guarded it closely, so taking it by force would be nearly impossible. Any reckless attempt would provoke a mass assault from the martial souls.
His only option was to find the true source, and everything pointed back to the mysterious bridge. As long as he could unravel the bridge's secret, he would be able to collect the Three Thousand Weakwater.