Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 743 - Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood

A simple Illusion could trap a person in falsehood for eternity, unable to escape. However, true illusions could blur the line between reality and fantasy, and even Liu Wuxie couldn't discern the truth.

The devil chamber was a place where reality and fantasy intermingled seamlessly. The illusions gained offensive abilities as time passed, and he was only in the early stages.

His hand that was reached out was pulled back, and he murmured, "That was close!"

If he had reached out for those hands in the blood sea, he would've failed the trial and been forced out of the chamber. The blood around him began to increase, and Liu Wuxie could feel himself being swallowed deeper into the blood sea.

Blood surged into his nostrils, which felt uncomfortable with a suffocating sensation. The warm blood soon seeped into his pores and five orifices, burrowing into his body.

Hands were also stretched out from the blood sea, reaching for his body. The sensation and smell were indistinguishable from reality, and breathing grew increasingly tricky with a strong urge to escape from this place.

Liu Wuxie's dao heart began to tremble. Even if he had experienced countless battles and had witnessed various atrocities, it wasn't very comforting to see countless hands reaching out for you.

Ultimately, Liu Wuxie was just a human, and fear was human nature. His primordial spirit suddenly trembled to clear all the stray thoughts and isolated them outside; nothing could shake his dao heart.

"It's just a pool of blood!" Liu Wuxie steeled himself with an unwavering resolve. No fiendish entity could corrupt him. He didn't get rid of those hands and used them to temper his dao heart instead.

The more polished his dao heart became, the firmer his cultivation would become, and it would pave the way for his future growth.

He was enveloped by the blood for ten-odd minutes before they finally receded. His clothes were still sticky and wet as his body rose from the pool, leaving him uncertain if what he just experienced was real or a mere illusion.

When Liu Wuxie touched and sniffed his clothes, he murmured in astonishment, "Actual blood?"

He could no longer determine if what he experienced was real or an illusion. But a new challenge loomed before he could delve deeper, and what he had just experienced was just the beginning.

......

At this moment, everyone outside the devil chamber was in disbelief.

"It has been fifteen minutes, and he's still not out?" According to their estimation, Liu Wuxie should've reached his limit after a few breaths.

"What a prodigy! As expected of the patriarch's son. Now that he has been cleansed with the seven-colored radiance, his future is limitless!" Many people expressed their envy, and Liu Wuxie's rise seemed unstoppable.

"The Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy will hold their recruitment in a month. Do you think he can catch their attention?" someone murmured.

To lift one hundred thousand kilograms of power stone, two hundred rolling logs, 700 times the gravitational force, and fifteen minutes in the devil chamber. All of what Liu Wuxie accomplished had far surpassed his peers.

"What a joke! The Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy values cultivation and he's only in the Astral River Realm. How can he possibly catch their attention?" A sneer came from the surroundings as the Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy was known for their strict selection criteria.

In addition to having exceptional talent, one's cultivation has to reach the Nascent Transformation Realm. After all, the Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy gathered geniuses from across the Central Plains, a place capable of nurturing immortals.

The surroundings fell into a short silence. The Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy was a place countless people dreamed of. Every disciple who emerged from the academy could become an overlord of a faction, the heir of a clan.

There were hundreds of first-rate sects in the Central Plains. They still hoped to send their best prodigy to the Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy.

Liu Wuxie was still unaware of that. Having just arrived in the Central Plains, there was so much he had yet to learn.

......

When the blood receded, Liu Wuxie didn't dare to relax and remained on high alert.

Right then, a horn echoed in the distance as the scenery before him changed again, and he found himself on an ancient battlefield.

It was a war between two nations with countless soldiers taking on formations with the air filled with their murderous intent. When he stood at the heart of the battlefield, he could sense the murderous intent from the surroundings piercing into his soul.

A battlefield in the mundane world was more terrifying as everyone would engage in hand-to-hand combat.

"Charge!" As battle flags waved, the battlefield began to tremble with heavy footsteps mingled with the roars of charging beasts.

Liu Wuxie stood at the center of the battlefield, unable to move. He could only watch as the two armies collided. Anguished cries, sickening sounds of blades slicing into flesh, and the crunch from bones breaking filled his ears.

Right then, a severed head struck Liu Wuxie's shoulder and fell onto the ground with two bulging eyes. The slaughter crept closer, and an arm was severed with blood splattering onto his robes.

A robust man wrestled with his bare hands, crushing several soldiers to death and splattering blade matter onto Liu Wuxie's face. The sensation was terrifyingly real. Liu Wuxie wanted to vomit, but he couldn't throw out anything. He could sense his insides churned and his organs aflame.

He couldn't describe his current feelings. This was a real battlefield, and he refused to believe it was an illusion. He watched as soldiers stepped over the corpses and steadily advanced toward Liu Wuxie.

A massive blade swung past his head, scraping his scalps and shaving a patch of his hair. He watched as a soldier who was a few steps away had his head beheaded. Before that soldier's death, he looked at Liu Wuxie with despair.

Liu Wuxie's resolve began to waver. His hands were dyed with blood and had taken many lives before. But it was impactful for him to witness death after death unfold right before his eyes, and it was enough to shatter anyone's nerves.

Those who didn't have a strong will would be driven mad by this scene. This was why soldiers who survived the battlefield often faced issues—the bloodshed and brutality scarred their minds.

Liu Wuxie clenched his fists to convince himself this was an illusion. Yet, the vivid sights and deafening sounds hammed his senses, trying to convince him otherwise.

Then, an even more horrifying scene took place as that burly soldier continued his massacre, killing another soldier before Liu Wuxie's eyes.

He used every brutal method imaginable to kill his enemies, and this made Liu Wuxie ground his teeth together, wanting to go up and kill him with a punch. But he knew he would fail the test by doing so.

"Endure! I must endure!" Liu Wuxie whispered to himself as he looked at the mountain of corpses, wanting to shut his eyes. But even if he did, the images still appeared vividly in his mind, unable to be erased.

Many disciples of the Liu Clan who emerged from the devil house spent days unable to eat, and their cultivation plummeted. This was because their dao heart had been affected, causing them to lose interest in cultivating.

Liu Wuxie was filled with an overwhelming urge to kill everything in the surroundings with his innate bloodlust drawn out. He could only quell the rage in his heart through killing.

As the battlefield's situation cleared up, the drums pounced against Liu Wuxie's primordial spirit, threatening to shatter his heart.

On the other hand, Liu Po wasn't in a good state either. He had faced this trial before and failed to last to the end. It was already a miracle he could last this long, and he had already broken his previous record.

"It has been an hour, and they still haven't come out!" Many disciples didn't know what they would face an hour into the devil chamber, but they knew the difficulty would increase. It was already heaven-defying for someone to last fifteen minutes in the devil chamber.

"We have all underestimated him." After the three trials, the surrounding mockery had vanished. What right do they have to ridicule Liu Wuxie after he lasted an hour inside the devil chamber?

The doors suddenly opened as time passed, and Liu Po stumbled out, disheveled and utterly drained. His clothes were soaked—not with blood, but with his sweat.

Liu Wuxie also felt his body sticky from sweat, but he didn't realize it.

When Liu Po exited the devil chamber, he collapsed onto the ground and gasped for breath. But no one dared to laugh at him—not even the instructors. After all, only a handful of people could last for an hour in the devil chamber, and Liu Po had performed exceptionally well today.

"Is he out yet?" Liu Po asked after he adjusted his breathing.

"Not yet," came a reluctant reply. The truth was hard for them to admit, and Liu Wuxie was still in the devil chamber.

When Liu Po heard the reply, his body swayed and nearly collapsed onto the ground. He knew he had lost to a newcomer only in the Astral River Realm. He had been utterly defeated in physique, adaptability, soul energy, or dao heart.

"I have lost!" Liu Po said, disheartened. He wasn't afraid of losing, but today's defeat was too thorough. If Liu Wuxie had been his student, he wouldn't have been angry about losing and would have taken pride in it.

But the reality was far crueler. Liu Po didn't teach Liu Wuxie anything and tried to oppress him. He wanted to teach Liu Wuxie a harsh lesson on his first day here, which led to this humiliating outcome.

"It's almost two hours. Could he have died inside?" Someone grew impatient from the wait, and the challenge had dragged on for half a day.

"That's impossible. The devil chamber's light is still on and will go out if he's dead." It was rare for disciples to die inside the devil chamber, but there were cases of disciples who went insane from the harrowing trials.

The battle in the devil chamber had ended, and there were thousands of corpses before Liu Wuxie. The blood had converged to form a pool beneath Liu Wuxie, and the corpses all had their eyes wide opened in their death, looking at him.