Desolate Devouring Art-Chapter 1397 - Encountering the Loulan Race

Chapter 1397 - Encountering the Loulan Race
As they talked and grew familiar with one another, the three men relaxed. They were delighted to finally meet another cultivator from the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain. None of them looked down on Liu Wuxie just because his cultivation was lower than theirs.
"Big Brother Xiao, how long have you three been here? Have any of you run into other human cultivators?" Liu Wuxie asked once the Blackwind Beast fled.
"We've met other humans, but most of them were controlled by the Blackwind Beast and taken straight to the loulan race," Xiao Yuesheng replied honestly.
Liu Wuxie shot to his feet. "The loulan race?!" Liu Wuxie shot to his feet.
He hadn't expected members of the loulan race to be living here, and the realization made him wonder how they had appeared on the Blood Fiend Battlefield in the first place.
There had to have been a similar black hole in the past that dragged the loulan race into the Blood Fiend Battlefield. After a hundred years of change, the world shifted once more, allowing them to return to the sevenfold heaven.
"That's right, the loulan race," Xiao Yuesheng said, and a trace of fear crossed his face at the mention of them.
Though the loulan race appeared almost identical to humans, they seemed to loathe humans by nature. They imprisoned every human they captured without exception.
"Were you three chased here by the Blackwind Beast?" Liu Wuxie asked after a brief pause, concern flickering in his eyes as he wondered whether the loulan race had already captured his senior brother.
"That's right. We only managed to avoid falling under the Blackwind Beast's control thanks to you," Xiao Yuesheng said. They would never forget the life-saving grace, even if they still had no idea how Liu Wuxie had resisted the Blackwind Beast's soul attack.
Through their conversation, Liu Wuxie also learned that over ten thousand human cultivators had arrived in this world, along with many blood fiends.
However, the majority of them had fallen under the control of the Loulan race. At the same time, only a small portion had escaped into the depths of the mountain range. They were left wandering around, unable to find their way back.
The resources here differed significantly from those in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain. The mountain range contained no spiritual fruits, and even the trees here were unlike any found in the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain.
"Big Brother Xiao, have you heard of a cultivator named Sun Xiao?" Liu Wuxie asked.
Sun Xiao was the name of his senior brother, whose fame had spread for many years. In the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain, almost everyone knew of him, whether they belonged to the older generation or were peers.
When Hua Feiyu accepted Sun Xiao as his disciple, many sects had personally come to offer their congratulations. In contrast, when it came to Liu Wuxie, everything had happened too quickly. Hua Feiyu had not even had time to hold a ceremony before returning to the True Martial Star.
For sect masters of various superpowers, they had extremely highir standards when selecting disciples to take in. Once they accepted a disciple, they would usually announce it to the entire world. The sect groomed those disciples to become future sect masters or high-ranking figures, so they naturally attracted immense attention.
"That sounds familiar, but I can't quite recall it," Xiao Yuesheng murmured with a frown. He clearly remembered hearing the name somewhere, but he could not recall it immediately.
"Sun Xiao, could he be the eldest disciple of the Heavenly Dragon Sect's sect master?" Xia Yifan asked.
They had stayed on the Blood Fiend Battlefield for months and had witnessed a battle where Sun Xiao led other disciples of the Heavenly Dragon Sect against the blood fiends.
Xia Yifan recalled someone mentioning that Sun Xiao was the eldest disciple of the Heavenly Dragon Sect's sect master and possessed extremely high cultivation. Though the three of them had also reached the pinnacle of the Void Realm, they were still far inferior when compared to Sun Xiao.
"You know about Big Brother Xiao?" Liu Wuxie asked, eyes lighting up. His senior brother's reputation was indeed impressive.
"I've only seen him once, but..." Xia Yifan replied, trailing off without finishing his sentence.
"But what?" Liu Wuxie pressed, anxiety written all over his face.
Though he had never seen his senior brother in person, his master had told him that all three of his senior brothers were upright men with outstanding talent. If anything were to happen to them, his master would surely be devastated.
Xia Yifan continued, "They were attacked by a large number of Blackwind Beasts a few days ago, and many of their companions were captured by the loulan race. As for Sun Xiao himself, we don't know where he escaped to."
"Brother Wu, why are you so concerned about Sun Xiao?" Wu Chang asked.
Xiao Yuesheng and Xia Yifan also looked over curiously. Rogue cultivators like them typically had no chance to interact with a bigshot like Sun Xiao.
"I'm just curious," Liu Wuxie replied, brushing it off with a casual excuse.
"I heard that Sun Xiao should've already made his breakthrough to the Earth Immortal Realm. When he was young, he vowed to slay a million blood fiends and deliberately suppressed his cultivation at the pinnacle of the Void Realm," Xiao Yuesheng shared.
Liu Wuxie had never heard that story before; his master had never mentioned it. He hadn't expected his senior brother to have such a ruthless vow and wondered if Sun Xiao had some deep personal grudge against the blood fiends.
Sun Xiao had been born on a planet not far from the Blood Fiend Battlefield, and when he was still young, the blood fiends invaded his home, slaughtering all thirteen members of his family. A disciple of the Heavenly Dragon Sect passed by and rescued him, bringing him back to the sect.
Then, by a stroke of fate, Sun Xiao became Hua Feiyu's eldest disciple. From that day on, he swore to slay one million blood fiends. Since cultivators at the Earth Immortal Realm could no longer set foot on the Blood Fiend Battlefield, he had given up on advancing so that he could fulfill that vow.
The sky gradually darkened, and the four of them decided not to leave. They chose to spend the night here instead.
From the trio, Liu Wuxie learned that this world was called the Celestial Jade Star, where the loulan race formed the dominant race. The three had extracted this information from several members of the loulan race they had captured days ago.
The bonfire crackled softly as its light flickered across their faces, casting shifting shadows. Each of them wore a heavy expression—Xiao Yuesheng and his companions worried whether they could ever return to the Indigo Bamboo Astral Domain. In contrast, Liu Wuxie worried about his senior brother's safety.
Suddenly, rustling sounds rose from the surroundings, and they all tensed up at once.
"It's the loulan race!" Xiao Yuesheng whispered.
Liu Wuxie had just repelled a Blackwind Beast that afternoon, and the beast had likely gone back to what happened, drawing the loulan race to them.
The four immediately raised their guard. Xiao Yuesheng's group of three, in particular, harbored deep fear toward the loulan race. Even with their high cultivation, they were helpless against the Blackwind Beasts.
Liu Wuxie activated Ghost Eye and saw over a dozen members of the loulan race advancing toward them, with three Blackwind Beasts prowling at the front.
"Big Brother Xiao, if you three handle the loulan race while I deal with the Blackwind Beasts, how confident are you?" Liu Wuxie asked.
He knew that the actual threat to humans wasn't the loulan race itself, but the Blackwind Beasts. The Blackwind Beasts' soul energy specifically targeted humans and could strip them of their will to resist.
"Brother Wu, you can deal with the Blackwind Beasts?" Xiao Yuesheng asked, his eyes lighting up. If Wu Xie could neutralize the beasts, the loulan race alone posed little threat.
"I can," Liu Wuxie replied firmly.
From their earlier encounter, he had discovered that someone controlled the Blackwind Beasts through soul runes. If he could inscribe more advanced soul runes, he could seize control of the Blackwind Beasts from the loulan race. Ever since he obtained that mysterious soul rune, his mastery of the Martial Soul Art was no weaker than that of the loulan race.
The loulan cultivators who had come were not particularly strong, merely ordinary Void Realm experts. Even though Xiao Yuesheng's group was rogue cultivators, they would count as elites in any major sect.
"That's great! If you can deal with the Blackwind Beasts, leave the loulan race to me," Xiao Yuesheng said.
He assigned Xia Yifan and Wu Chang to help Liu Wuxie so the Blackwind Beasts wouldn't catch him off guard. As for the members of the loulan race, he intended to handle them himself.
The four quickly reached an agreement, and by then, the Blackwind Beasts had already closed in. The loulan race maintained a steady distance behind them, not rushing into the fray.
"Big Brother Xiao, try to catch a few alive," Liu Wuxie said as he shot forward like an arrow.
He lifted his hands and began inscribing soul runes in the air, each rune appearing as though it had been polished countless times. Every rune had been thoroughly analyzed and refined by the Heavenly Dao Book, so their profundity surpassed even the loulan race's techniques, just like how the Nine Heavenly Dragon Forms had become even more exquisite after the Heavenly Dao Book's analysis.
Xia Yifan and Wu Chang stayed close to Liu Wuxie, ensuring that the Blackwind Beasts wouldn't have a chance to swarm him.
The three Blackwind Beasts reached them in an instant, each one lunging at a different target. Their speed was terrifying, more than twice as fast as lightning.
"Go!" Liu Wuxie fired three soul runes that burrowed straight into the soul seas of the Blackwind Beasts. With Ghost Eye, he could clearly see everything happening inside their soul seas.
"They're really being controlled by soul runes," he murmured.
Under normal circumstances, forging a martial soul required extracting the target's primordial spirit. However, the Blackwind Beast differed from other astral beasts; its unique soul sea allowed it to be controlled directly by soul runes.
Other astral beasts couldn't endure such inscribing. If someone forced soul runes into them, their soul seas would explode. The only option was to extract their primordial spirits and inscribe runes on them instead, turning them into martial souls, just like the ones Liu Wuxie had encountered on the first six levels.
As the soul runes sank into the Blackwind Beasts' soul seas, they immediately took effect. The beasts froze mid-charge, trembling as they let out low growls. The loulan race's expressions changed, and they hurriedly began inscribing their own soul runes into the Blackwind Beasts' soul seas.
The moment their runes entered, the Blackwind Beasts lunged forward again, resuming their attack on Liu Wuxie.
After all, Liu Wuxie was still in the experimental stage with these soul runes, feeling his way through each step. Controlling the Blackwind Beasts couldn't be accomplished with a single rune; the process was far more complex.
Without the Blackwind Beasts holding him back, Xiao Yuesheng charged into the ranks of the enemies and started a one-sided slaughter.
Liu Wuxie continued to inscribe soul runes, subtly adjusting their trajectories this time.
As for Xia Yifan and Wu Chang, they stood behind Liu Wuxie with shock written all over their faces. If someone had claimed Liu Wuxie belonged to the loulan race, they'd believe it, but his cultivation technique and aura were unmistakably human.
"This Brother Wu isn't simple," Wu Chang murmured.
Xia Yifan nodded in agreement. If Liu Wuxie could deal with the Blackwind Beasts honestly, humans would gain an immense advantage over the loulan race, especially since humans already far surpassed them in combat talent.
The Celestial Jade Star was a declining planet with few remaining experts, and the loulan race stood on the brink of extinction. The appearance of the three red suns signaled that this planet would soon perish.
As another three soul runes drilled into the Blackwind Beasts' soul seas, they tightened their grip even more. The Blackwind Beasts' eyes gradually turned vacant, as though they no longer knew what they were supposed to do.
"Y-You can also control the Blackwind Beasts?!" one of the loulan tribesmen stammered from afar, speaking in the human tongue, but his pronunciation was awkward.
The loulan race had clearly searched through human memories and learned their language. Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Yuesheng decapitated him, cutting down the loulan race like chopping vegetables.
In the blink of an eye, only two members of the loulan race remained alive.
Meanwhile, Liu Wuxie didn't stop. He continued inscribing soul runes while the Blackwind Beasts struggled beneath the layered bindings.