Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 476 - Third-Level of the Heavenly Phase Realm

After Liu Wuxie put away the coral jades, they quickened their pace because the exit was near.

When they emerged from the cave, bright sunlight shone through the sea's surface and reached them. They exchanged glances and quickly swam towards the surface.

The two finally broke through the sea's surface a few minutes later; strangely enough, a beach was near them. They leaped out of the water and transformed into streaks of light, landing on the beach.

When they finally returned to land, Gu Yu burst into tears, overwhelmed by the long-lost feeling of being on solid ground. They had endured countless hardships over the past few months, narrowly escaping death on multiple occasions.

Liu Wuxie surveyed his surroundings and realized they were on an uninhabited island. The island wasn’t large, with a diameter of only about a thousand meters. They could circle it in just ten minutes. The landscape was barren, covered with bare rocks, and there was no sign of vegetation.

This was a desolate island, and they flew to the sky before looking into the distance. It looked like the sky and sea had merged into one, with no signs of land in sight.

They didn't know where they were even after leaving the ocean, but they could fly freely after reaching the Heavenly Phase Realm. They didn't know where the Southern Province was and didn't dare to fly around aimlessly in the sea. After all, it would become troublesome if they couldn't find a place to land.

To avoid attacks from sea demonic beasts, they settled in the island's center and constructed a stone house. They also set up spiritual arrays around it for added protection. Once everything was secure, Liu Wuxie let out a sigh of relief and finally allowed himself to relax.

"This place isn't bad. Let's focus on making a breakthrough in our cultivation and hope a ship will pass by. Otherwise, we can only try to leave this place by flying a month later," Liu Wuxie quickly decided, which was the worst-case scenario.

However, they had to increase their strength as much as possible to increase their chances of survival.

Gu Yu nodded and agreed with Liu Wuxie's suggestion.

They had reaped many rewards during their time on the Blood Sea Abyssal Island, but they had been holding back on advancing their cultivation. Now that they were alone, they could break through their limits without restraint and fully unleash their potential.

The two sat about five hundred meters apart, a necessary distance due to the Desolate Devouring Art. If they were too close, Gu Yu might have struggled to absorb any spiritual energy.

Liu Wuxie wasn't in a hurry to make a breakthrough in his cultivation. He planned to use the xiantian spirit's water-attribute energy to strengthen his desolate world and use a portion to upgrade the Heretic Blade.

The xiantian spirit hovered before Liu Wuxie as the water-attribute energy began pouring into the desolate world as he circulated the Desolate Devouring Art.

The desolate world suddenly came to life, with rivers pouring down from the sky, coiling in a canyon, and forming waterfalls and lakes.

The world had developed from primordial times, evolving through various stages—the birth of the volcano, the growth of the mysterious tree, the emergence of the abyssal realm, and the infusion of metal-attribute energy. Now, with the addition of waterfalls and rivers, the world was beginning to take shape, but it still lacked the power of the earth to complete the five elements.

Under the impact of water flow, Liu Wuxie's true essence became more complete, and even the quality had improved significantly.

Liu Wuxie's bottleneck began to loosen, and he was about to reach the third level of the Heavenly Phase Realm. The spiritual energy above the sea was much richer than on land, so Liu Wuxie didn't have to worry about running out of spiritual energy.

A spiritual cloud began to form in the sky, gathered from the surroundings. Liu Wuxie absorbed spiritual energy from tens of thousands of miles, and the speed of spiritual energy refinement by the Desolate Devouring Art increased.

Right at this moment, there was a warship sailing on the sea.

"Third lady, the surrounding spiritual energy seems to be converging over there," an old man said to the red-clothed woman as he walked out to the deck.

"Set sail in that direction!" The third lady gave an order, and the warship turned to sail in the direction where the spiritual energy was gathered.

After merging water-attribute energy into the desolate world, Liu Wuxie could sense his power rising rapidly with increased purity.

When spiritual energy was poured in, it was converted into spiritual rain, even without needing to be refined, and it fell into the desolate world.

"Breakthrough!" Liu Wuxie roared and successfully reached the third level of the Heavenly Phase Realm.

After making a breakthrough, Liu Wuxie quickly stabilized his cultivation.

Gu Yu also reaped significant benefits from the spiritual rain, advancing to the second level of the Heavenly Phase Realm. He then spent an entire day stabilizing his newfound cultivation.

Liu Wuxie also stopped cultivating and began preparing to reforge the Heretic Blade.

......

There was a warship sailing at full speed thousands of miles away. They had been sailing for three days but still couldn't find where the spiritual energy was converging, causing them to adjust their course continuously.

The area covered by the spiritual cloud was too vast, seemingly covering the entire ocean. The warship was also slow and couldn't travel a thousand miles daily.

During his time on the Blood Sea Abyssal Island, Liu Wuxie had killed many cultivators and plundered their resources, allowing him to gather all the materials required to forge a xiantian treasure.

He took out a longsword, the monarch artifact he had obtained from Li Xiaohai. This artifact contained the astral river laws, and Liu Wuxie planned to melt the sword down and integrate it into the Heretic Blade.

The ground was piled with materials, and the xiantian spirit was essential.

The desolate world devoured some of the xiantian spirit's energy, but the remaining energy was stronger than the ordinary xiantian spirits on the market.

The water spirit, nurtured deep in the sea for tens of thousands of years, held an astronomical amount of water-attribute energy and was full of spirituality. It hovered in the air, almost as if it wanted to return to the sea. Meanwhile, the Heretic Blade floated nearby, glowing with spiritual runes.

Spiritual runes flashed as the Heretic Blade hovered in the air. The materials on the ground began to rise and were swiftly dissolved under the intense demonic flame.

In just one day, tens of thousands of materials, many of which were essential for forging a monarch artifact, were dissolved. However, Liu Wuxie used them all to enhance the Heretic Blade instead.

Even then, Liu Wuxie still wasn't satisfied and took out a section of the divine dragon's bone from the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron. He wanted to forge a Divine Dragon Sword, giving the Heretic Blade some of the divine dragon's abilities.

This was unbelievable; only Liu Wuxie was bold enough to do that. After all, it was only possible to refine the dragon bones by understanding dragon runes, not to mention forging a dragon clan's treasure.

Liu Wuxie didn't hope for the Heretic Blade to reach the level of the six supreme treasures, but it would be enough if it could become the supreme treasure of the humans.

The dragon runes began to flash when Liu Wuxie formed seals, and his action naturally alarmed Gu Yu, who opened his eyes and looked over.

"What is Big Brother Liu doing?" Gu Yu couldn't comprehend what Liu Wuxie was doing. He could recognize that many of the materials were highly precious, and it was even enough for Liu Wuxie to forge five xiantian treasures. Using them all on the Heretic Blade was too extravagant.

Gu Yu grew increasingly shocked as the dragon runes increased. He was baffled because he could only grasp some dragon runes, even though he was the dragon clan's descendant. He murmured, "Big Brother Liu's mastery of the dragon runes is even more proficient than me. Is he also a descendant of the Dragon Clan?"

He remembered that Liu Wuxie was a human who had lived in the mundane world and had only been in the cultivation world for a year. So, how could Liu Wuxie possibly understand dragon runes?

However, Gu Yu's excellent trait was not to gossip. He closed his eyes to continue his cultivation. He held onto the Dragon Clan Scepter with both hands to nurture it with his energy.

The grade of the Heretic Blade increased swiftly as more materials merged into it. Even if it couldn't be elevated to a monarch artifact, Liu Wuxie was determined to refine it into the finest xiantian treasure.

Thunderbolts flashed above the island, thick clouds forming, and this meant Liu Wuxie was about to face a tribulation. However, only someone advancing into the True Profound Realm from the Nascent Transformation Realm would face a tribulation. Could it be because of the Heretic Blade?

Liu Wuxie frowned and quickly changed the original refinement technique. He didn't know if pushing the Heretic Blade beyond this world's limits was good or bad.

"The heavens seek to destroy the Heretic Blade. Could it have violated the laws of heaven and earth?" Liu Wuxie murmured. However, he had already passed the point of no return, resolute in his determination to reforge the Heretic Blade, even if it meant defying the heavens.

During his first encounter with tribulation in the cave, he hadn't been too bothered. This time, however, was different, as a thunder tribulation loomed overhead.

The sudden appearance of the tribulation startled Gu Yu. Only the creation of a heaven-defying treasure could attract such a response. The world operated under its own rules, and breaking them meant inevitable punishment. Even the heavens seemed to feel threatened by the birth of the Heretic Blade.

As more materials merged into the Heretic Blade, lightning flashed in the sky and weaved into a net, flickering with thunderbolts. This scene was terrifying, and anyone with a faint heart would've been paralyzed by fear.

Humans were pathetically weak before the power of heaven and earth.

"Ready to awaken! Xiantian spirit!" The Heretic Blade had already developed spirituality and only lacked the xiantian spirit to awaken the artifact spirit.

The water spirit was transformed into a xiantian spirit and merged with the Heretic Blade. The embryo within the artifact spirit began to expand, devouring all the surging xiantian energy.

An even more terrifying scene occurred as the artifact spirit within the Heretic Blade grew rapidly. It might not have awakened, but it was being strengthened.

This situation was similar to pregnancy, where the child would be born when the time was right. However, in this case, the Heretic Blade was different. The artifact spirit should have awakened after absorbing the xiantian spirit, but it continued to grow at an alarming rate. The Heretic Blade could only endure so much, and if the artifact spirit became too powerful, the blade might not be able to contain it.

It was like a mother carrying a child—if the child grew too large, the mother's body might not be able to withstand it, leading to a tragic outcome before the child could be born. Although the analogy is somewhat forced, the principle is the same.

The Heretic Blade was like the mother, and the artifact spirit was the embryo. If the artifact spirit continued to grow unchecked, the blade might fail before it could fully awaken. Liu Wuxie felt a surge of anxiety, as he had never encountered such a precarious situation before.

"Could it be that the artifact spirit has devoured too many treasures, causing it to be more powerful than ordinary artifact spirit?" Liu Wuxie soon identified the cause: the Heretic Blade had devoured too many spiritual treasures, absorbing the spirituality within and making the artifact spirit's embryo powerful.

The Heretic Blade was still maintained at the level of a xiantian treasure and couldn't advance while the artifact spirit grew.

"Damn it! I’ve been planning to use many treasures to upgrade the Heretic Blade to a monarch artifact. It seems I’ll have to use them to strengthen the blade instead, so it can match the power of the artifact spirit if there’s no other choice." Liu Wuxie realized that if the artifact spirit grew too powerful, it wouldn’t awaken properly. The only solution was to enhance the blade to accommodate the spirit’s strength.

Liu Wuxie's current approach was to strengthen the Heretic Blade, forging it into a xiantian treasure with the method of a monarch artifact, which was already beyond logic. As long as the artifact spirit awakened, it would perfectly merge with the blade, preventing similar issues from occurring.

He abandoned the plan of upgrading the Heretic Blade to a monarch artifact and could only focus on helping the artifact spirit awaken. After all, the xiantian spirit Liu Wuxie had obtained was too powerful. The spirituality it contained was too overwhelming, causing the artifact spirit to surpass other xiantian treasures.

After all, the benefits would be significant if it could advance to a xiantian treasure with power comparable to a monarch artifact.