Desolate Devouring Art-Chapter 1055 - Refine Them

The Ten-Sided Annihilation Array flared outward, sealing every direction and turning the street into an unbreakable prison. Its power promised to erase anything trapped inside.

Apart from the three patriarchs who remained farther back with a small contingent, the array trapped the elders of the three clans inside its glowing barrier.

"What is this spiritual array? It feels powerful!" gasped several onlookers, unable to grasp what they were witnessing.

More knowledgeable observers, however, understood at once.

"What a terrifying formation, It draws boundless power from the very heavens and earth," murmured elders from the Dragon Emperor Academy and the Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy. "As long as its users live, the array will sustain itself until everyone inside is dead."

Their greatest question was how Liu Wuxie had managed to deploy such a marvel.

Three elders accompanying Zhao Chao could only shake their heads in response.

"Young Master, we're too late," they said with bitter smiles. Had they sided with the Heavenly Dao Society sooner, they might have stood within that array instead of outside it.

Zhao Chao returned the look with a wry smile of his own. He had urged his father to ally earlier, but hesitation had cost them the chance. Now, the Jiang, Yu, and Shen clans held that honor. With this one formation, those clans could carve a lasting place in the Central Plains.

"There's still a chance," Zhao Chao whispered, eyes fixed on the shimmering walls.

During the recent commerce fair, the Nine Profound Sect had already extended goodwill to the Heavenly Dao Society at Liu Wuxie's request. By helping the Society, they had secured future partnership in alchemy and talisman trade. Even without a place in the array, their bond would only deepen from this day forward.

An instant later, the array surged to life in full activation. Wind, rain, thunder, lightning, and the raw force of the five elements churned overhead, heralding the destruction about to unfold within the Ten-Sided Annihilation Array.

"Look! The spiritual array contains nine laws! Is Liu Wuxie doing this on purpose?" someone cried out in a trembling voice.

Everyone could see it within the swirling Ten-Sided Annihilation Array. Nine distinct laws emerged, each wielded by one of the nine elders Liu Wuxie had gathered—wind, rain, thunder, lightning, and the five elements weaving together.

The Jiang Clan's grand elder had grasped the metal law, the third elder wielded earth, and the seventh elder had mastered lightning.

The Yu Clan's elders had brought the laws of water, fire, and wind.

The Shen Clan's three elders controlled wood, rain, and thunder.

Though lightning and thunder seemed similar at a glance, they were fundamentally distinct; lightning embodied speed that was piercing and instantaneous. In contrast, thunder carried sound and power, rumbling through the world with devastating weight.

As for Liu Wuxie, he stood apart. He had already comprehended the five elements, as well as the unique dao techniques of the dragon clan and ice. Yet there was one more force no one else knew he possessed, the Death Dao Art.

With a wave of his hand, he summoned a swarm of black runes, each inscribed with twisted, coiling energy. These runes represented his hidden trump card: the Poison Dao Art.

Harnessing the poison essence, Liu Wuxie could kill even Earth Profound Realm cultivators outright. And if he combined it with the terrifying Death Dao Art, then none trapped within the array would leave this place alive.

"Attack!" roared the elders of the three clans from within the spiritual array. Fueled by desperation and fury, they charged toward the glowing boundaries, hoping to tear the formation apart and crush the Heavenly Dao Society.

High above, the ten figures moved in unison. The nine elders encircled Liu Wuxie as their combined laws fell from the heavens in a maelstrom of destruction. Each strike carried the full might of a peak Earth Profound Realm cultivator.

However, when their powers fused, the destructive force went beyond the pinnacle of the Earth Profound Realm. This was no longer a battle of individuals; this was absolute suppression.

Hundreds of violent attacks rained down against the formation's core, but the dozens of trapped elders could find no weakness. The array held fast, impenetrable and flawless.

And that was only the beginning.

Before their eyes, the spiritual array began to shift the scenery within as though the very world inside it was changing.

The surrounding buildings dissolved into thin air, replaced by a vast and desolate wasteland. Even the comrades of the three clans had vanished from view. Nothing remained but the bleak emptiness and the distorted sense of space.

Such was the brilliance of the array, bending space and time, ensnaring its victims in an illusion that felt indistinguishably real.

"Look, the three clans' experts seem to be lost in the spiritual array, and they've begun to attack blindly!" someone cried out.

"They’re lost in the array, and they’re attacking each other!" a spectator shouted in alarm.

The elders from the three clans, once paragons of discipline and coordination, descended into chaos.

"This is too frightening! They're all sixth- to seventh-level Earth Profound Realm experts!" another exclaimed. "Any one of them could be considered an overlord in the Central Plains!"

And yet, here they were, utterly powerless within the Ten-Sided Annihilation Array. freёwebnoѵel.com

"Death Dao Art," Liu Wuxie whispered.

The sky darkened. A chilling aura descended silently, invisible to most and incomprehensible to all. No one saw what he had done, and no one could understand it.

Now that Liu Wuxie had reached the fourth-level Spirit Profound Realm, his strength had soared. With the Ten-Sided Annihilation Array amplifying his power, he could strike down even cultivators at the sixth-level Earth Profound Realm with a single blow. This battle’s outcome no longer held any doubt. It was merely a matter of time.

Suddenly, a cry pierced the air.

"What's happening? My lifespan... It's vanishing!"

A wave of dread swept through the crowd. Even those standing far outside the array felt it: an unnatural force gnawing at their vitality.

"What a horrifying dao technique... It governs life and death itself!" muttered Qu Su. His face paled as he felt the invisible erosion of time upon his own body.

"Has Liu Wuxie mastered a death law dao technique?" an elder from the Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy gasped, horror etched across his features.

Dao techniques based on the law of death were strictly forbidden, as they were never meant for mortals to practice. Such power could annihilate all life in an instant. If someone at the Heaven Profound Realm unleashed it, they could wipe out half the population of the True Martial Continent in a single breath.

The cultivators trapped within the spiritual array flailed about like headless chickens, their composure shattered by disorientation and dread.

Above them, ten figures hovered in the sky, their hands weaving intricate signs in unison. The nine elders channeled their true essence into the array, sustaining its terrifying grip on the battlefield. But only minutes had passed, and already more than half of their energy was depleted.

The Ten-Sided Annihilation Array demanded an enormous amount of spiritual power to sustain. Liu Wuxie knew time was not on their side. If they didn't end the battle swiftly, the array would collapse.

Far away, Wang Yuanhou stared with disbelief, his face pale. Behind him, the surviving elites of the three clans, all injured and drained, clustered together, their will to fight fading with their strength.

"Liu Wuxie, you coward! Fight us one-on-one if you have the guts!" an elder from the Wang Clan roared, his composure breaking. The outburst was almost laughable coming from someone at the seventh-level Earth Profound Realm.

"Talk to me again if you can break through my spiritual array," Liu Wuxie replied coldly, his voice carrying no hint of urgency. He resumed his hand signs, continuing to channel the Death Dao Art.

The moment he did, the atmosphere grew even darker. Spectators on the outskirts instinctively backed away, horror written across their faces. None dared to draw near, terrified that the laws of death might reach them as well.

Inside the array, the effects were immediate.

In mere seconds, the elders caught within began to wither. Their hair turned white, their skin sagged, and their primordial spirits trembled under the corrosion of death.

Even Wang Chen, watching from a distance, felt a chill in his bones. He had once experienced the Death Dao Art firsthand, and he knew exactly how terrifying it could be.

The corruption wasn't just physical. As the Death Dao Art gnawed at their primordial spirit, the elders’ attacks weakened as their power faltered. Their coordination broke down, their strength weakened, and their resistance slowly crumbled.

Liu Wuxie's eyes narrowed coldly.

"Contract!" he commanded.

The ten figures maintaining the spiritual array stepped forward in unison. In an instant, the massive array shrank inward, tightening like a noose. With its area reduced, the consumption of true essence eased, allowing the nine elders to maintain the spiritual array with more stability.

But for the elders trapped within, the situation turned dire. Their space to maneuver vanished. The laws of death surged through the array like a flood, wrapping around them, suffocating them, corroding their spirit and body alike.

"This can't be... So many Earth Profound Realm experts, and they can't even fight back?" someone whispered in disbelief. "That means unless someone inside has reached the pinnacle of the Earth Profound Realm... they're bound to die."

"He's a monster!" gasped another cultivator.

There wasn't a single person who had accomplished what Liu Wuxie had at his age.

Liu Wuxie raised a hand and flipped his palm.

"Poison Dao Art. It's your turn."

The black runes hovering around him suddenly shot downward like a rain of needles, stabbing the trapped elders.

Already struggling to resist the pressure of the spiritual array and the corrosion of the Death Dao Art, the elders lacked the time and strength to defend against the Poison Dao Art.

The effect was immediate.

As the black runes pierced them, the space within the array began to rot. The ground decayed, the air grew toxic, and even spiritual energy dissolved into miasma.

"Holy shit... he has mastered such a venomous dao technique?!" someone cried out, horror-struck.

Only a Healing Dao Art could counter such deadly poison, and none among the trapped possessed that power.

At this point, Liu Wuxie had turned the battle into a one-man show. The nine elders focused solely on sustaining the array. The killing was left entirely to Liu Wuxie.

And that was by design.

No one understood the Ten-Sided Annihilation Array better than Liu Wuxie. The nine elders had only just grasped its basic operation. They couldn't wield their full might.

Liu Wuxie had weakened this version of the array and carefully modified it to avoid collateral damage. But even so, its destructive power was enough to flatten all of Astral Glory City.

"My body...!" A Liao Clan elder screamed as black smoke seeped from his skin, and his flesh began to rot. The Poison Dao Art gnawed at him from the inside, each breath drawing out more of his strength.

He lashed out, but his strikes slowed under the spreading miasma. His head swirled with dark vapor, and his limbs felt as heavy as lead.

"Devour," Liu Wuxie whispered. The Demonic Purgatory Chains slithered forth and bound the elder and the others inside the contracting array. The chains pulsed hungrily, extracting true essence and law fragments to feed Liu Wuxie's cultivation. Earth-Profound laws poured into him, pushing his aura closer to the fifth-level Spirit Profound Realm.

"ARGH! I refuse to die like this!" another trapped elder roared, writhing as the chains siphoned his power.

With every soul drained, Liu Wuxie's presence swelled; he stood only a step away from his next breakthrough. The onlookers felt their scalps prickle.

"He's refining them all!" someone gasped, horror spreading through the crowd.

Shi Yuan stared, his legs trembling, unable to summon the slightest strength. Nearby, the Scarlet Dragon Cult's executives kept their distance, realizing reinforcements would change nothing. Unless a Heaven Profound expert intervened, Liu Wuxie had doomed the three clans.

Inside the array, the captives aged rapidly. Their hair whitened, their faces wrinkled, and their movements slowed to a crawl. Every second bled more life away.

Sensing a new threat approaching, Liu Wuxie raised his blade and thrust it skyward. "Heavenly Dragon Seal!" he shouted, determined to end the struggle before his advantage slipped away.

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