Desolate Devouring Art-Chapter 1053 - Wits and Strategy

Liu Wuxie took a deep breath, drawing in all the surrounding spiritual energy and channeling it into the desolate world within his dantian.

Back when he had fallen into the Void Realm, he had sensed a faint, almost imperceptible trace of world power hidden within that internal realm. At the time, it was vague and distant, as though it were just a dream.

With this breakthrough, the dormant power stirred at last.

A single wisp of world power had formed. Though thin as silk, it was unimaginably potent. Even that single wisp could obliterate a world. Liu Wuxie knew better than to use it lightly.

Having awakened this sliver of devastating force, he chose to seal it away for now, reserved for the moment he needed it most.

"Come, then," Liu Wuxie called, his voice echoing like a war drum across the battlefield. "Let us have a satisfying battle today!"

He needed this war to consolidate his cultivation.

Across the field, the three clan patriarchs exchanged uneasy glances. The battle had barely begun, yet they had already lost a key expert, and worse, they had inadvertently helped Liu Wuxie advance his cultivation.

"Kill!" Yuan Huaiguang and Wang Yuanhou roared in unison, leading their elite forces in a thunderous charge toward the Heavenly Dao Society.

Only the Liao Clan's patriarch hesitated. Doubt flickered in his eyes. He sensed danger ahead, but he also knew that retreat was impossible now. If they backed down here, the Liao Clan would become a laughingstock across the True Martial Continent.

The sight of over a thousand cultivators charging toward them was terrifying, releasing an overwhelming wave of aura that rolled over the city.

"Wuxie, let us charge out and meet them!" shouted the experts behind him. Their battle intent surged, and the sight of the incoming army had sent their blood boiling.

However, Liu Wuxie merely smirked with a cruel, calculating smile.

"There's no hurry," he replied calmly.

Charging out now would be reckless. It would only result in needless bloodshed and heavy casualties for the Heavenly Dao Society. It was better to wear the enemy down first, to break their momentum and patience before striking the killing blow.

The warriors behind him stomped in frustration, itching to move. They didn't understand what they were waiting for when the enemy was almost upon them.

Despite that, no one questioned Liu Wuxie.

He was the one calling the shots, and they trusted him enough to wait for his command.

"Now!" Liu Wuxie commanded with a flick of his hand.

In that instant, four black-clad figures vanished from the crowd, reappearing like phantoms deep within the ranks of the three clans. They struck with ruthless precision, plunging directly into the heart of the Wang Clan's formation, and chaos erupted.

"Operation Decapitation!" Liu Wuxie declared, folding his arms as he stepped back, watching the battle unfold like a calm spectator.

"Wang Chen, what are you doing?!" Wang Yuanhou roared, his voice filled with disbelief and rage.

However, he had no time to react further. His eyes widened in shock as a sharp dagger pierced into his abdomen and blood gushed from the wound.

Though not fatal, the blow was devastating, weakening his strength

Wang Chen didn't respond as he launched a merciless assault on his former comrades. In the blink of an eye, over thirty elite disciples of the Wang Clan had fallen to his blade.

He wasn't alone.

Several other Wang Clan disciples had joined him, loyalists who Liu Wuxie had planted in advance. Each of them possessed formidable strength, and now, following Wang Chen's lead, they turned on their brethren with terrifying efficiency.

The scene was nightmarish.

Yuan Huaiguang stood frozen, utterly stunned. Even the Liao Clan patriarch, moments ago still hesitant to join the charge, was now locked in place, staring in disbelief.

There were traitors within the Wang Clan, and not just one or two.

However, there was no time to be stunned.

The battlefield was in chaos, and the only option now was to fight. They had to kill Wang Chen first before dealing with Liu Wuxie.

Yet, just as they moved, a second ambush struck.

The four black-clad assassins unleashed hell.

Their blades danced through the air with merciless speed. Each strike was fatal. They carved a path of destruction through the ranks.

One by one, bodies hit the ground.

They were assassins, masters of ambush and silent death.

With the Ancient Breath-Concealing Art enhancing their presence-erasing abilities, their lethality multiplied. By the time they struck, it was already too late.

"They're assassins from the Black Plume Pavilion!" someone finally shouted, and the truth clicked into place for the stunned onlookers.

For years, many had speculated about the terrifying assassins at the Earth Profound Realm. Today, Ruan Ying and his squad delivered the answer in blood.

'Terrifying' was not enough to describe them. These were not mere cultivators but killing machines. Dozens upon dozens of elite fighters from the three clans fell to their blades in the span of a few breaths, their corpses littering the battlefield like scattered leaves.

The ambush struck directly at the heart of the three clans. They hadn't anticipated Wang Chen's betrayal, let alone the assassins hidden in the crowd. While rumors hinted at secret allies of the Heavenly Dao Society, no one had anticipated that Liu Wuxie would orchestrate such a devastating internal collapse, let alone that he commanded assassins from the Black Plume Pavilion.

"Retreat!"

The command finally rang out.

Having lost over a hundred men, the three clans rapidly reformed their scattered forces, retreating and regrouping with impressive discipline.

Just as they began to retreat, Liu Wuxie gave another order.

"Withdraw," he said, and at once, Ruan Ying's assassins and Wang Chen's faction slipped away, vanishing from the frontline like shadows fleeing at dawn. Their work was done.

"Spiritual talismans!"

Liu Wuxie's voice rang out, and in the next moment, thousands of talismans surged forward from behind him, released in synchronized unison.

Another wave of terror unfolded across the battlefield.

Liu Wuxie had meticulously packed the interspatial pouches with spiritual talismans, and now he revealed their true purpose to launch an overwhelming bombardment against the enemy forces.

Even if the talismans didn't kill, they were more than enough to cripple formations, shatter defenses, and weaken combat strength across the board. Moreover, with Earth Profound Realm experts wielding them, their destructive power had increased several times over.

"Damn it! Damn it!" Wang Yuanhou roared, his face twisted with fury.

They had never accounted for this. From the beginning, the three clans hadn't taken the Heavenly Dao Society seriously, nor had anyone else watching from the sidelines. They had expected this to be a swift purge, a clean extermination that would end within two hours.

However, now, spiritual talismans rained from the sky like a divine calamity, detonating with an explosive force that stunned everyone present.

"Spiritual array!" Liu Wuxie commanded again as his voice thundered.

Individual strength had its limits, and the Heavenly Dao Society lacked high-level cultivators, so they couldn't compete in a direct clash.

Instead, Liu Wuxie had turned to external tools, such as talismans and spiritual arrays, to bridge the gap in their strength.

To some, the tactic may have seemed underhanded. But on the True Martial Continent, power was everything. Tools, techniques, and strategy, all of it counted as strength. There was no such thing as a fair fight, only those who lived and those who died.

The street erupted once more in fire and screams.

Another wave of explosions tore through the ranks of the three clans.

Though the elite assassins from the Black Plume Pavilion had withdrawn, their absence didn't bring relief. The three clans now found themselves under relentless, coordinated bombardment.

The crashing spiritual force slaughtered ordinary disciples below the Earth Profound Realm, tearing their bodies apart in a rain of destruction.

The spiritual talismans crafted by the Heavenly Dao Society weren't ordinary tools. They were weapons capable of threatening even cultivators at the Earth Profound Realm.

And Liu Wuxie knew precisely what he was doing.

This wasn't just a battle. It was a demonstration.

Every talisman, every spiritual array, and every explosion served a dual purpose: to decimate their enemies and to showcase the Heavenly Dao Society's product line to the entire Central Plains.

If they survived today, their wares would sell themselves.

As the next stage of the plan unfolded, the Heavenly Dao Society released spiritual array compasses from above. In the blink of an eye, glowing light screens encircled the three clans and cut off all paths of retreat.

Yuan Huaiguang gritted his teeth at this sight. He quickly activated a defensive barrier, his hands flashing through intricate signs as he tried to repel the incoming barrage. But no matter how quickly he tried, it wasn't enough. The deluge of talismans rained down like an unrelenting heavenly judgment.

At that moment, Shi Yuan arrived.

He had rushed to the scene, fully expecting to see the Heavenly Dao Society struggling to survive, clinging to life against the combined might of the three clans.

What he saw instead nearly made him soil himself.

The battlefield had become a massacre.

The Heavenly Dao Society had consumed thousands of spiritual talismans in mere moments. They had spent hundreds of millions of spirit stones' worth in talismans and arrays. Yet the Heavenly Dao Society spared nothing. They had thrown everything into this battle without hesitation.

With the spiritual array compasses activated, the cost soared past five hundred million spirit stones in a single minute.

They had poured nearly everything they had earned over the past year into this battle.

And the result?

Devastating.

Far off in the distance, a lone spectator clutched his head, eyes wide as explosions lit up the horizon.

"Holy shit! Thank god I stayed to watch!" he shouted, leaping with excitement, unable to believe the carnage unfolding before him.

Most didn't care who lived or died.

The onlookers had come for the spectacle, and what they got was beyond anything they had imagined. The chaos, the blood, the shattering of expectation. It was the kind of show that left hearts racing and mouths agape.

"The Heavenly Dao Society isn't just tenacious," someone murmured amid the stunned crowd. "They've shown wits, strategy, and ruthless precision. The three clans... they're in real danger now."

Strangely, some began to feel sympathy for the three clans, although most of the casualties were lower-level disciples. Nevertheless, the sight of over five hundred corpses strewn across the battlefield painted a harrowing picture.

Across the blood-soaked field, the surviving members of the three clans stared at the fallen, their eyes wide, bloodshot with grief and rage.

"Liu Wuxie, I'll tear you apart!" roared Wang Yuanhou, his voice hoarse with fury.

Having barely stabilized his injuries, his hatred had only intensified. Liu Wuxie had turned their own against them, orchestrated betrayal, and reduced their reputation to ashes.

Farther away, the upper echelons of the Scarlet Dragon Cult stood watching, their faces grim.

"We all underestimated the Heavenly Dao Society," one elder said quietly, breaking the silence between them.

For years, the idea of an ant toppling an elephant had been a metaphor, a mere myth.

Today, it was happening before their eyes.

In the eyes of colossal sects like the Scarlet Dragon Cult and the Profound Cloud Sect, the Heavenly Dao Society had always been nothing more than an insignificant bug, something they could crush with ease.

However, today, that bug had bitten back.

The Heavenly Dao Society had taught them a lesson that an ant could topple an elephant so long as it knew how to play the game, and they would always remember it.

"This is too terrifying... If this young man continues to grow, he'll become a real threat to the Scarlet Dragon Cult," commented one elder, his expression darkening.

Liu Wuxie's performance had been monstrous. Just days ago, no one had any hope for the Heavenly Dao Society. Others had written them off as overconfident upstarts marching toward ruin.

And now, in mere minutes, Liu Wuxie had overturned everyone's expectations.

The Profound Cloud Sect, standing in stunned silence at a distance, was no less shaken.

They recalled what had happened at the commerce fair. Looking back now, they should have known. The Heavenly Dao Society had been holding back, saving its true cards for a moment just like this.

Now, they had started playing their hidden cards.

Around the battlefield, murmurs swelled. Heavenly Dao Society's name spread like wildfire, echoing through the watching crowd.

Meanwhile, Wang Yuanhou howled in frustration, his voice raw and unhinged. Yuan Huaiguang's face twisted in rage, veins bulging along his forehead. And Patriarch Liao's gaze turned frigid, sharp as a blade.

They didn't wait to clear the corpses.

With grim expressions and bloodlust in their eyes, they rallied the remaining elite forces. They began to close in on the Heavenly Dao Society, unwilling to give Liu Wuxie even a moment to breathe. The humiliation burned too deeply; they swore not to rest until they buried every last member of the Heavenly Dao Society.

The battle had reached its climax.

At that moment, Wang Chen and the four assassins had regrouped with the Heavenly Dao Society's main force.

Yet, the disparity remained.

This was no longer a battle of numbers. The Heavenly Dao Society still lacked high-level cultivators from the Earth Profound Realm.

And that gap was devastating.

Even a single expert at that level could wipe out hundreds of lower-level opponents. No amount of strategy could fully compensate for raw power.

"Father-in-law, is everyone prepared?" Liu Wuxie asked, his eyes steady as he turned to Xu Yilin.

"Ready!" Xu Yilin replied with a firm nod. They had arranged every thing in detail exactly as Liu Wuxie had instructed, without question.

"Activate it!" Liu Wuxie commanded with a sharp wave of his hand.

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble. A deep rumble surged beneath their feet like an earthquake shaking the very foundations of the battlefield. No one, not even those standing behind Liu Wuxie, knew what was happening.

Even the Heavenly Dao Society's upper echelons found themselves caught off guard.

They had carried out everything in absolute secrecy. No one could have guessed the number of traps Liu Wuxie had set in advance.

Then, without warning, a massive crevice split the battlefield open. The ground groaned as it tore apart.

Fiery burst from the crevice in a streak of flame, roaring skyward. With a violent exhale, it unleashed the True Samadhi Fire.

And then, an endless swarm of profound beasts burst forth from the crevice like a living flood, surging out with unstoppable momentum. They came in waves, a tide of fangs, claws, and fury.

Many of them were high-grade profound beasts, and their roars shook the skies. Some thundered across the ground, while the massive aerial beasts with wings broad enough to blot out the sun circled above, shrieking like birds of prey hunting fresh blood.

The entire battlefield descended into madness.

Yuan Huaiguang, Wang Yuanhou, and Patriarch Liao froze in disbelief. Their faces turned pale as they watched their lines fall into chaos.

No one had expected this.

Who could've imagined Liu Wuxie had hidden a beast horde beneath the battlefield?

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