Desolate Devouring Art

Chapter 612 - Annihilation Fist

Chapter 612 - Annihilation Fist

The mysterious blade tip was still resisting, unwilling to merge into the Heretic Blade. It was like a monarch that stood proudly in the air.

As the immortal rune descended, the mysterious blade tip shuddered because ordinary spiritual runes were useless against it, and it could only be subdued with immortal runes.

When the immortal rune was infused into the mysterious blade tip, it ceased resisting and willingly fused into the Heretic Blade, even surprising Liu Wuxie.

The mysterious blade tip likely possessed a tinge of spirituality and could sense the power of the immortal rune. It realized its destiny was best with Liu Wuxie, and this also saved both effort and time for the latter.

After all, engraving immortal runes in a row was a massive exhaustion for Liu Wuxie. When the mysterious blade tip merged with the Heretic Blade, the thunderclouds roared above the cultivation chamber as if they wanted to destroy it.

Right then, a vortex appeared in the sky, and a mysterious hand reached out to shatter the thunderclouds with a single strike. Someone had intervened to help Liu Wuxie secretly.

Without the suppression of the thunderclouds, the mysterious blade tip continued to fuse, and the blade intent seeped into the Heretic Blade. It didn’t take long before a terrifying wave of blade aura erupted from the Heretic Blade.

Liu Wuxie couldn’t react in time, and the blade aura shredded his clothes into pieces.

“What a powerful blade aura!” Liu Wuxie was shocked. He couldn’t imagine how powerful the Heretic Blade had become. He could even hear sizzling sounds from the surrounding air, a sign that the surrounding space couldn’t withstand the Heretic Blade’s overwhelming power.

The surrounding space began to crumble as the blade aura radiated from the Heretic Blade, carving deep grooves into the walls and leaving sharp blade marks on the blue stones beneath.

The blade aura belonged to the Heretic Blade. If Liu Wuxie channeled his true essence into the blade, the blade aura could even cut through mountains ten miles away.

After absorbing the mysterious blade tip, the artifact spirit in the form of a golden dragon had grown twice its size, looking more like a divine dragon. Its intelligence grew alongside it, and now it was capable of perceiving and understanding Liu Wuxie’s intentions.

However, Liu Wuxie’s hands didn’t stop as he continued to engrave spiritual runes. The Heretic Blade had great potential and room to improve. Since he couldn’t ascend it to an origin artifact, he could only make it an undisputed king among monarch artifacts.

Day by day, Liu Wuxie painstakingly engraved spiritual runes into the Heretic Blade for over one month until it was finally complete. The blade had become three inches longer than before, and the edges, especially the tip, became even sharper.

When Liu Wuxie grasped the blade, he could sense a surging power coursing through the blade to his hand, allowing Liu Wuxie to achieve perfect unity with it. It felt as though the Heretic Blade was an extension of his hand.

With a slight swing of his right hand, Liu Wuxie unleashed a blade aura that created a large hole in the cultivation chamber, and he could see the outside world through it.

“What power!” Liu Wuxie didn’t expect to split open the cultivation chamber with a gentle swing. Cultivators in the Astral River Realm were still mortals, and he was confident no one could take this strike from him.

As Liu Wuxie began to cast hand signs, the hole was quickly mended, and he didn’t dare to channel his true essence into the blade for now, opting to familiarize himself with it instead.

After thousands of practice swings, Liu Wuxie finally achieved a state of complete unity with the Heretic Blade. Noticing that he had only three days left until the Ten Grand Ceremony, he still wasn’t in a hurry to exit his seclusion.

He sheathed the Heretic Blade and sat cross-legged. Rather than honing his cultivation with the Desolate Devouring Art, he focused on the Heavenly Dao Book instead.

“It’s time to prepare a trump card!” Liu Wuxie muttered. He was confident no one beneath the Nascent Transformation Realm could go against him, but he could only barely hold his ground against someone in the Nascent Transformation Realm, relying on the treasures on him.

He had more means available with his newfound strength in the Astral River Realm.

“I still can’t practice immortal techniques, but I can alter martial techniques and merge the essences of immortal techniques into them, greatly boosting their power,” Liu Wuxie muttered after briefly pondering.

He could only engrave immortal runes with his current physique, and his primordial spirit wasn’t strong enough to sustain him performing immortal techniques. If he did, his primordial spirit would burst apart, and he would die.

But if he could merge immortal techniques into martial techniques, there might be a viable path forward.

The True Strike wasn’t suitable because he had yet to master it entirely. As for Frost Finger, he was still developing it, and it wouldn’t offer much improvement even if he merged immortal runes into it.

Thus, Liu Wuxie could only focus on the Primordial Astral Fist. He had long reached the pinnacle with this fist technique, and any further progress would be challenging.

It might bring unimaginable changes if he could merge immortal techniques into the Primordial Astral Fist.

Liu Wuxie delved into his memories and recalled a martial technique known as the Annihilation Palm. This technique bore a striking resemblance to the Primordial Astral Fist, both in its overwhelming power and in the circulation route of its true essence.

The Annihilation Palm’s full power was utterly devastating, with its very name, "Annihilation," reflecting the immense and fearsome strength it commanded.

When he began analyzing the two techniques in the Heavenly Dao Book, he used them to simulate how to combine them perfectly. This technique ideally contained the devastation of the Annihilation Palm and the ferocity of the Primordial Astral Fist.

Achieving a balance wasn’t easy, and it was tough even for Liu Wuxie to combine the two techniques. But it was possible for the Heavenly Dao Book.

He could analyze them to find a perfect balance as long as it was recorded in the Heavenly Dao Book.

The golden miniature version of Liu Wuxie began performing the two martial techniques within the Heavenly Dao Book, executing them with precision and focus.

Time passed slowly, and even after an entire month, there were no signs of the two techniques fusing. This left Liu Wuxie increasingly anxious and frustrated. If this continued, he would have no choice but to abandon the attempt and train in a different martial technique.

If Liu Wuxie used too many immortal runes, he could invite a backlash from the heavens, potentially hindering his future cultivation. Thus, merging the power of an immortal technique into an ordinary martial technique was the best solution.

It would possess the power of an immortal technique, and Liu Wuxie didn’t have to fear a backlash.

When Liu Wuxie was about to give up, the golden miniature figure finally stopped. He stood motionless on the Heavenly Dao Book, radiating immense power.

Liu Wuxie froze, and his gaze was locked on the golden figure. Roughly a minute later, the figure finally moved, raising his right hand to the sky.

The posture was unusual, neither resembling the beginning stance of the Primordial Astral Fist or the Annihilation Palm. His fist gave off a devastating aura, the characteristic of the Annihilation Palm.

When the fist descended, it was like a primordial star that descended. This meant that Liu Wuxie had finally found a balance between the Primordial Astral Fist and the Annihilation Palm.

The two techniques had been perfectly fused together, and the sky turned dark, and the earth trembled when the fist descended. It felt as though an earthquake had struck Liu Wuxie’s soul sea, and the Heavenly Dao Book released a buzzing sound.

The book contained more information, and the birth of a new fist technique was recorded in the Heavenly Dao Book, which was unbelievable.

After all, most martial techniques couldn’t be recorded in the Heavenly Dao Book.

An explosion erupted beside Liu Wuxie’s ears, and a chaotic wind ravaged his soul sea. The primordial spirit and Heavenly Dao Book protected the core to prevent his soul sea from suffering fatal injury.

The storm raged for a full five minutes before it finally dissipated. As Liu Wuxie’s divine sense began to reform, his expression changed when he surveyed his primordial spirit.

He quickly took out a few Spirit Consolidating Pills and consumed them. The damage to his soul sea wasn’t severe, but everything was in a mess, and this made him feel dizzy.

When the Spirit Consolidating Pill took effect, Liu Wuxie’s soul sea finally settled. But through this ordeal, Liu Wuxie realized that his primordial spirit had grown stronger.

After his divine sense returned to his body, Liu Wuxie closed his eyes to recall the sensation of the fist technique. When the Heavenly Dao Book unfurled, each movement was deeply imprinted in Liu Wuxie’s soul sea.

He raised his right fist but didn’t dare to channel his true essence lest he destroy the entire cultivation chamber. Even without using true essence, he realized that there was a deep ache through his body when he practiced this fist technique.

An invisible force drained the energy from his body, which was likely the effect of the immortal technique. The immortal technique didn’t belong to the True Martial Continent, and using it recklessly could cause his physique and the surrounding space to collapse.

After a few moments of mustering his strength, Liu Wuxie threw his punch that shattered a meter-thick, blue slab. This was a strike without mustering his true essence, but it was enough to kill anyone in the pinnacle Astral River Realm.

Had Liu Wuxie used his true essence, the power of the fist technique would have been unimaginable.

A wave of intense pain swept through Liu Wuxie’s body. He felt like every joint was on fire, causing a strong discomfort.

“What’s going on? How can the backlash be so serious with just one punch?” Liu Wuxie muttered as he quickly sat down. He took out several pills and swallowed them, hoping to repair the damage to his body.

This shocked Liu Wuxie because he didn’t expect a single punch to bring about such intense backlash. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if he unleashed a complete immortal technique.

With only two days left until the Ten Grand Ceremony, Liu Wuxie still had a month to spend in the cultivation chamber due to the time dilation. He used this time wisely, delving deeper into his realm and honing his techniques—the True Strike, the Annihilation Fist, and the Soul Forge Art.

He had given these combined techniques a new name, and they now possessed the devastation of Annihilation Palm and the ferocity of Primordial Astral Fist.

Everyone in the Heavenly Dao Society was gathered together, eagerly waiting for Liu Wuxie to emerge from seclusion. Fan Zhen had been guarding the cultivation chamber’s gate for some time.

Finally, on the last day, the doors to Liu Wuxie’s cultivation chamber slowly opened. When he stepped out, his aura was entirely concealed, masking his cultivation at the ninth level of the Heavenly Phase Realm. Though it wasn’t unusual to make such progress after extended seclusion, Liu Wuxie deliberately refrained from revealing that he had already reached the Astral River Realm.

“Wuxie, you’re finally out!” Fan Zhen exclaimed as he hurried over, placing a cloak on Liu Wuxie’s shoulders.

“What happened?” Liu Wuxie asked as he looked at Fan Zhen.

Fan Zhen’s expression betrayed a hint of unease, but he quickly replied, “Nothing. Everyone’s just been waiting for you. Let’s head back first!”

He decided to withhold the details from Liu Wuxie for now. After all, everyone was keenly awaiting his return after a long seclusion.